‘Leaving this earthly world is not a tragedy. Dying without significance, without making a difference, without leaving a legacy of goodness and caring for family, friends, and our fellowmen, is.’
A day before Pope Francis was laid to rest at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, the Filipino-American community lost one of its pre-eminent medical leaders, Daniel Cervantes Fabito, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Bariatric Surgeon, residing in Las Vegas, Nevada, and a dedicated medical missionary, with 46 annual missions to the Philippines to his credit. He was 83.
Danny hailed from Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan, and was the Executive Director of the Society of Philippine Surgeons in America Council of Past President (SPSA-COPP), when he passed away at the Southern Hills Hospital in Las Vegas, surrounded by his wife Melinda, an Internist, and children Daniel Everett, a physician, Daniel Marc, a lawyer, and Melissa, a Registered Nurse, other family members, and friends.
Danny was past president of the Association of Philippine Physicians in America, the Society of Philippine Surgeons in America, the Philippine-American Association of Nevada, the FEU-DNR SM Alumni Foundation, and other organizations. He was a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, the International College of Surgeons, and the Society of Philippine Surgeons in America. He was a recipient of several awards, and his life story is featured on the SPSA website: Today.SPSAtoday.com
Danny is an exemplary human being, down to earth, unpretentious, ebullient, hard-working, an inspiring leader of men, serious and funny, a good person hard not to like. Even my two daughters, Sheillah (Family Physician in Northwest Indiana) and Rachel (OB-Gyne in Lake Charles, Louisiana), who joined our medical mission to Munoz (The Science City), Nueva Ecija, in February 2024, and met Danny for the first time, were captivated by him. They described him as a good and lovable person and grieved upon learning of his passing.
Despite knowing that Danny had lived a long and wonderful life, and that death is a natural part of the cycle of life, none of us is exempt from it, it is nonetheless gravely painful to lose someone very close to you. Losing Danny, my bosom buddy of half a century, leaves a great void in me and in the hearts of countless people, family, friends, and especially the marginalized poor people in the gutter of poverty in the Philippines, strangers who were beneficiaries of his loving heart and caring hands.
Leaving this earthly world is not a tragedy. Dying without significance, without making a difference, without leaving a legacy of goodness and caring for family, friends, and our fellowmen, is.
Danny is certainly leaving behind a great, indelible, and inspiring legacy; his family, his friends, and all those whose lives he had touched could be truly proud of. As an avid golf player, Danny had reached the 18th hole of his life with an enviable record.
Losing Danny blesses us with the privilege of celebrating his wonderful life. And that we shall do, shining light upon him and remembering him, till the day our memory grows dim and fades.
May Danny Cervantes Fabito rest in eternal peace and walk with God.
Diet and depression
At least 18.6 percent of people in the United States have depression as of 2020. Around the world, there are about 305 million individuals (5 percent of adults) with depression, impacting their quality of life. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the incidence by 25 percent, more in women than in men. Diet, exercise, and certain drugs play a role in depression risk.
A study in November 2024 suggested that eating oranges and other citrus fruits daily might help reduce the risk of depression by 20 percent. In February 2025, there was a report that taking a glucagon-like-peptide-1 agonist like Ozempic for diabetes reduced depression risk compared to those taking other drugs for diabetes.
In March that same year, a study among 73,000 adults revealed that regular moderate-to-vigorous exercise could also “help lower the risk for neuropsychiatric disease, including depression,” anxiety, sleep disorder, and stroke, by 14-40 percent.
Foods like berries of all types, salmon, dark chocolates, coffee (black or with cinnamon, no sugar), walnuts, eggs, oranges, bananas, quinoa, oysters, green tea, turmeric, mushrooms, beans, spinach, are food items that induces the secretion of happy hormones in our body and help lower the risk of depression. And, of course, a healthy lifestyle and environment conducive to serenity and calm, and filled with exciting adventures with family and friends, help build a good mood and countenance, all of which boost health and longevity.
Protein: benefits and risks
Increased daily protein uptake and use of collagen peptide supplements are very popular today, together with lower carbohydrate consumption. While protein is essential to our overall health, ingesting more is not necessarily healthier. As a matter of fact, an excessive amount, more than what our body needs, could be detrimental, according to the University of Missouri School of Medicine.
The potential dangers of excessive protein consumption include: digestive issues, kidney strain, cardiovascular risks (elevated blood lipids and heart disease), nutritional deficiency of other food elements, and muscle loss (storing protein as fats).
The official dietary guidelines recommend protein should be 10 percent to 35 percent of total caloric intake, and not more. The keto diet, which is basically protein, a good weight regimen, is a diet not devoid of serious health consequences.
Too much of a good thing, even existential elements like oxygen and water, is dangerous to health.
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus based in Northwest Indiana and Las Vegas, Nevada, is an international medical lecturer/author, Health Advocate, medical missionary, newspaper columnist, and Chairman of the Filipino United Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian foundation in the United States. He is chairman of the Society of Philippine Surgeons in America Council of Past Presidents. He is a decorated recipient of the Indiana Sagamore of the Wabash Award in 1995, presented by then Indiana Governor, US senator, and later presidential candidate Evan Bayh. Other Sagamore past awardees include President Harry S. Truman, President George HW Bush, pugilist Muhammad Ali, David Letterman, Astronaut Gus Grissom, distinguished educators, scientists, etc. (Wikipedia). Websites: FUN8888.com, Today.SPSAtoday.com, and philipSchua.com Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com
