Archive for the 'Health' Category

I have a friend who has trouble staying asleep. She has no problem falling asleep but she would get up in the middle of the night or wee hours of the morning and have difficulty going back to sleep or if she does go back to sleep she feels that her sleep is light. She does not feel rested in the morning and sometimes feel very sleepy and tired during the day.

I used to have imsomnia too when I was younger. I think it was due to my own unhealthy sleep patterns. Sometimes I could not sleep till about 4-5am in the morning. However, I no longer have sleep problems now. Usually I fall asleep easily and I stay asleep unless the spouse or the children wake me up!

My friend can fall asleep easily but she has trouble staying asleep. I wonder has anyone experienced this type of imsomnia? Apart from going to see the doctor to have a thorough health check and evaluation, I hope to hear from anyone who has trouble sleeping and how they deal with it.

I wonder if anyone knows whether a Sauna can help you to burn calories and lose weight? I remember some years ago I used to go for saunas right after a workout. I am not sure whether it helped me lose weight but it sure felt relaxing and really, really good.

After a workout, the whole body feels tired. However a workout PLUS a sauna makes me feel extremely relaxed. Then a vigorating shower and I feel good all over. I used to go to a fitness centre for this fix of workout, sauna and shower but now I can’t do it anymore because I no longer have the luxury of time. I wish I could do it in my own home.

I think that a sauna can aid in some way in the weight reduction process because you sweat and sweating is good for you. However, I think that if you want to seriously lose weight, you have to work for it. You have to do a combination of dieting, exercising and use saunas as an aid to your weight management process. Just dieting alone is not good, neither is mere exercising or just saunas. You have to make use of all these processes in totality or as a whole. Then and only then will you see serious and long lasting results.

Whatever it is, if you wish to go on a strict diet, start an exercise program or use saunas to help you lose weight, you should always consult your doctor first.

Last night I was stirring a glass of honey and suddenly I was small again, in my mother’s kitchen, drinking the same smelling honey which I had drunk often as a child. Its funny how certain smells can invoke childhood memories almost instantaneously transporting us back through time.

I know many smells remind me of my mother. Smells of peeling or chopping onion reminds me of helping her in the kitchen. Smells of cakes being baked reminds me of mum too. Smells of half boiled eggs reminds me of my dad who took it daily when we were young. Smells of Fish Oil reminds me of, well of Fish Oil taken as a child. Smells of plain white porridge or plain bread dipped in Milo reminds me of being sick as a child etc etc.

Most of my olfactory memories relate to childhood events. So I guess, if I want my children to remember me when they are older, I better go and whip up some good regular cooking of the same foods they love often. A pity, I don’t bake. That would make some good childhood memories.

There is one confirmed case of H1N1 at my child’s school and a class has been closed for a week. Don’t ask me which school. Its in Kuala Lumpur. Last week my nephew’s school was closed for a week. Its in Subang Jaya. A tuition centre in Kuala Lumpur is closed for a week because one of the students has H1N1. Sigh.

Its everywhere now. Here are excerpts of what some parents had to say. Source: Lim Kit Siang blog.

“…….Question now… should i go to GH to let him be tested? What if his flu isn’t H1N1 but he get infected by queueing for hours in the hospital? I wanted to get our usual pediatrician to give him Tamilflu but was informed that the government has all the stock and none others has it…… there aren’t enough to go around. Suppliers of Tamilflu are having a big meeting to discuss this headache…..
Tell me, dear HM (Health Minister) what should i do.

Also, i heard that in Subang, schools like Lick Hung, Chee Wen has H1N1 cases, some up to 15 cases but were not reported….. we are like chasing rumours in the wind.

Please, sir, we should adopt the most conservative measures ie close the all schools for at least a week….. we are taking about many deaths in a day…….. !!!!! Malaccan schools are wise in closing the schools to curb the spread….. students spend so many hours under such hot and hazy condition in schools, naturally their immune system will be weak…. and this will increase the chances of getting H1N1. Already many in Kota Kemuning are coughing but no case has been heard yet…..”

“My children are studying in SM Puchong B where there is already at least 1 confirmed case of H1N1. And as days passes by, I seem to hear of more cases surfacing although unconfirmed. But there are more confirmed cases from other schools in Puchong.

Even some teachers at the school were not going into the class to teach for fear of contracting the flu.

I made numerous calls to the Min of Education to enquire if they should close the school for a couple of days as a precaution. I purposely highlighted that my enquiry was H1N1 related. I was passed from one person to the next and from one dept to the next until I was finally passed to the correct dept only to be told that all the pegawai were in a meeting. No one bothered to take down my contact no.

Feeling frustrated, I called the MOH hotline listed on the front page of one of the Chinese newspaper. Alas, the phone rang and rang and no one picked it up.

As a parent, I am very concerned on the health of my children. All I am seeking is some guidance from the relevant authorities on how I should act. What is the status of the flu pandemic in the Puchong area? Should I continue sending my children to school? What precautions or preventive steps are the teachers taking at schools to check the flu? Or is there any preventive measures at all? ”

I am confused now. I wish I had more information. Which schools? Which areas? How many students? All I get is how many deaths each day and the total number infected. No more details than that. I wish I had more details.

The school term tests are over now. So why not let the children have an earlier time off just to be on the safe side. Why not err on the cautious side?

At my child’s school, every morning the kids temperatures are taken before they enter the class. They will be sent home if they have fever. The teachers are wearing masks now. Its all very worrying.

The school advisory informing us that a class is closed was in Mandarin. The concerned “banana” parents call each other up to check what is in the advisory. “Do I have to keep my child home?” That is on everyone’s mind. And judging from the lesser traffic today, I think some of them did just that.

Sigh. The H1N1 is here to stay and spreading fast. I still send my child to school because the advisory says the rest of the school is to go on as normal including activities. I don’t want to panic but I am still worried. All I can do is teach her and everyone in the house to be ultra concious about hygiene. Like health freaks, we carry a bottle of dettol hand sanitizer around with us. We try to limit going out to crowded places and eating out although we can’t avoid it altogether. Don’t tell me we will stay home like a nomad for a year or more? It is not possible. So we will limit what we can. And when we do go out, we wash our hands like crazy after touching common surfaces like escalator hand rails, supermarket trolleys, the bank’s atm machine, glass doors, etc.

About a month ago, when I was at a private hospital, we had our temperatures checked before going in. Inside the hospital, while I was in the elevator, I heard a person whom I thought is a doctor laughing it off. She grumbled about the inconveniece of having her temperature checked at entrypoint and complained about why there is so much attention being given to this virus when the death rate is so low. I don’t think we can afford to think in this complacent manner. Read this news and you will see why you have to take this seriously now.

I’ve never given my children any supplementation from birth till now (they are now 5 & 7) because I’ve always believed in everything natural preferring to give them nutrition in the form of natural foods instead. However, recently, my husband and I were thinking of giving them some fish oil or cod liver oil supplements because we keep on hearing about its goodness and we remember that we used to take it when we were young.

However, I do not know much about fish oil or cod liver oil supplements. All I know from what I’ve read (rightly or wrongly) are …

• Oil from fish contains EPA & DHA. Both are Omega-3 fatty acids.
• The most beneficial form of Omega 3 can only be found in fish.
• The difference between fish oil and cod liver oil is that you can consider cod liver oil as fish oil plus added Vitamin D & A
• It is important to get Omega Fatty 3 acids that is purified or free from toxins like mercury

Criteria to evaluate Fish Oil Supplements:

• Is the type of fish used naturally high in DHA & EPA Omega 3 especially DHA?
• Is it purified?
• Is the fish used fresh/not rancid?
• Does the product tell you the breakdown between DHA & EPA per serving?
• Look for one that is higher in DHA compared to EPA. This is because 60% of the brain in made up of fats and DHA comprise half of that. In addition, the body can convert EPA into DHA when the body is deficient in DHA but it is not very efficient in converting DHA into EPA

So, armed with this little knowledge, I went to visit the pharmacies for a research. I saw that most supplements come in the form of little capsules or hard chewable candy type for children and most are multivitamins. Eventually I could only find two brands which I remember from my childhood days. They are in liquid form. They are cod liver oils. They are Seven Seas and Scott’s Emulsion.

Scott’s Emulsion does not state the EPA or DHA content. It merely states that it has DHA. So I skipped that even though it had orange flavour. I remember the ones that we used to take was a white coloured liquid which tasted horrible. Apparently, it is more palatable now. The Seven Seas one lists down the EPA and DHA content. EPA was more than DHA and it only comes in original and cherry flavour. I think cherry is yucky. However, left with not many choices, we decided to try the Seven Seas one. The pharmacist did recommend a brand (I can’t remember its name now) which looks like much more serious supplementation so I dare not try it.

When I was shopping for the supplements, I asked one salesperson about fish oil supplements and I was amused when she pointed out to me a few supplements on how to increase children’s brainpower, help them study etc and say “All these are for kiasu parents.” Now, if I was a kiasu parent, I would probably have felt offended and left the shop. lol. Not a very good sales strategy, I am afraid.

Jokes aside, what I would like to know is whether anyone gives their children fish oil supplements? I would like to know what brand etc. Can you tell me more about it?

I just recovered from flu with fever and sore throat. My fever felt quite bad. I immediately went to the clinic to see the doctor. As during any normal doctor visit, the doctor took my temperature. Then he asked me to breath in and out while he listened with a stethoscope. He asked me to open my mouth and say “Ahhhhh” while he had a look at my throat. He typed a few things into his computer and said “Should be ok.” Then he prescribed me with a gargle for my throat, a cough syrup, an antihistamine for my cold, a nose spray, medication for my fever plus antibiotics.

So…… how do I know if I have regular flu or Swine Flu?

I tried to look for answers. I found The Star Online’s Live Chat on Influenza A (H1N1) with Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai on Thursday, July 30. Someone asked this question:

So, how do we know, then, that what we are having is normal flu or H1N1 ?

This was the reply that was given.

To know the difference between normal flu and H1N1 please go to our website, http://h1n1.moh.gov.my

I clicked on the website but I could not see the answer to that question. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough. So I searched further on the internet and found this video on YouTube.

It is by Dr. Joe Bresee, from CDC’s Influenza Division. In it, he describes the symptoms of swine flu and warning signs to look for that indicate the need for urgent medical attention. I’m posting it here because I believe many of you will also be asking the same questions.

What is the difference between normal flu and H1N1? What are the symptoms of swine flu? Since the symptoms are so similar to regular flu, when do I seek urgent medical attention? The video describes the warning signs for both children and adults.

We got ourselves a new digital weighing scales to replace our old worn out and tattered dunno how many years old one. But I think something is wrong with my new scales. You see, it won’t come down. It just keeps going up! Heck! I think there was something wrong with my old tattered and torn old bathroom scales. It keeps going up too!

I remember sometime before Chinese New Year, I was telling myself that I want to lose 5 pounds but then I ended up with an extra 5 pounds instead! Now I’ve got to lose 10 pounds instead of the original 5 I had intended but those horrible scales just won’t budge!

I exercise daily or almost daily (for health’s sake first and beauty second). I cut down my intake of rice. But the scales won’t come down! It just won’t! Although I must admit that during weekends my exercise regime and diet goes flying out the window. Whooooooo! Bye! Bye! And thats when I laze around like a potato on a couch and pig out on everything else that I’ve missed out all week. Hehe.

But can you imagine that. Just 2 days of pigging out versus 5 days of exercise and diet regime and thats enough to tip the scares higher and higher. Its unbelievable. My only conclusion is …… there is something wrong with my new digital bathroom scales. What do you think?

The other day, hubby bought a packet (of 5) healthier type of Maggie Mee (Curry Flavour) to try. It costs RM1 more. It is supposed to be “healthier” because the noodles are air dried and not fried so it is supposed to be less oily. (I think the term used was air dried if I am not mistaken. Sorry hor, the maggie mee all in my stomach adi and the wrapper in the dustbin a few days ago liao so I can’t remember. Oh, I make such a lousy food blogger. No photos because lazy and food enter mouth and stomach faster than camera can flash. And my memory is bad, I can’t remember and get the facts right. Hehe.)

Well, anyway, the maggie mee is supposed to have “No MSG added”. I studied the ingredients and I think there is still some flavour enhancers in there so probably thats why they used the term “No MSG added” and not “MSG free”. Hmm……

So, whats the verdict? Well, the noodles are less oily and drier but the gravy is still salty and tasty and spicy. Whoooaaa! Like eating pepper like that. Makes my mouth and tongue feel so hot. I had to wash it down with some chocolate sweets after that. Very healthy indeed. Hahaha.

Aiyoh. Talk about maggie mee, feel like eating adi. It really is very addictive, this maggie mee.

Are you a fan of instant noodles? Can you share some nice brands you have tried? I am old school, so don’t ask me as my tried and tested brands are limited to maggie mee (curry and laksa) and indomie for mee goreng only.

Have you ever met someone who is passionate in something? Whether its their work or a project of whatever. These people are truly inspiring. I’ve met a paeditrician who is passionate in breastfeeding, a gynae who is passionate in her work and a neurologist who is passionate in his work (Hey. How come they’re all doctors?) It is a joy to watch them at work. No matter how busy they are (and these are very busy people), they always still manage to have a smile, and time for you because they truly believe in their work or project. They believe in what they do and they love what they do and what they do often helps other people.

Speaking about passion for something,  I also had the chance to meet this lovely lady who is passionate in her work to create epilepsy awareness. She used to have a booth at Wisma Atria for almost 4 years promoting epilepsy awareness. She gave me her time and some answers when I was searching for one. One of the best gifts you can give to a person is the gift of time. Time to really listen, understand and help them. This is what she has done for many people in the 4 years that she had her booth.

She has to close her booth now but I believe that she will continue to do valuable work in creating Epilepsy Awareness on her blog and in other ways. Wellsphere.com (a renown health website in USA) had nominated her epilepsy blog to be part of its 1st Annual Health Blogger Awards competition.  The competition had started on 15th December 2008 and will end on 31st January 2009. 

Will you help someone who is compassionate and passionate about creating Epilepsy Awareness to further spread Epilepsy Awareness by voting for her blog? I hope that you will.

You can help to promote epilepsy awareness by voting for epilepsy awareness.  Please visit http://www.epilepsylegacy.blogspot.com/.  You will see on the top right hand corner of the blog a voting badge with her photo in it.  Click on the VOTE NOW below the photo.  You will be asked to fill in a small form to register yourself to be a member of Wellsphere.com.  Fill in your particulars.  Click SUBMIT VOTE.  Your vote has been cast for epilepsy awareness.

Dad had one of his what we refer to as “Awakening” moments on Sunday so we took full advantage of it and took dad everywhere to enjoy old dad.

When dad has his awakening moments he would be very alert and want to do everything, like making up for lost time. I think dad started coming out of his fog on Saturday afternoon. He began talking more and on Saturday evening he sat through the whole “Fearless” show we had put on for him. He loves kungfu movies. After that he even commented on the show.

On Saturday morning, he followed us to the mall to do some grocery shopping. I think he was impressed with the Christmas decorations at the mall too. Dad was tired so we found places for dad to sit and rest while we took turns to run around doing our errands.

We eventually decided to buy a belt for dad because I noticed that the one he was wearing was so old and long. Dad has lost a lot of weight so much so that his clothing no longer fits him. Brother in law has given him some hand me down trousers and we had all bought him lots of shirts but I think we forgot about the belt.

On Sunday morning we took him to the park with the kids. He even sat on the swing for a while. 

After that dad and I walked to the nearby coffee shop for breakfast while hubby stayed on at the park with the kids for a while. Dad had fish slices congee. We bought Yau Char Kuay to go with the Congee because the porridge stall did not have any. Dad really enjoyed it. Then we packed some breakfast home and bought the newspapers for dad to read.

We painted the gate today, something we had wanted to do for a while. Meanwhile, dad sat on the bench and read the papers from cover to cover. He was alert and talked about everything that he read from politics to crime. He even spoke about his 4 digit numbers which he used to buy often.

I had forgotten that it was Donzhi or Tang Yuen Festival or Winter Solstice Festival. Sister had made some and Dad called her to ask her to bring some over. He was really mad because she was late and asked her not to come over anymore. Sis was stalled because she had workers at her house doing renovations.

So we brought dad there to have some tang yuen. It was the kids first time trying. Last year I made some store bought ones but they didn’t like it. Anyway, we thought its a better idea to wait till they are older before getting them to make and consume them since it is a choking risk. In short, the kids didn’t like it, so I ate their portions. 1 bowl plus 2 more bowls makes 3 bowls in all!

We skipped lunch because we were full from the breakfast and the tang yuen so we ended up having tea at a Mamak shop. Dad loves lembu susu and tosai so he enjoyed those.

In the evening after dinner, dad was still very alert, so we took him out to get some last minute Christmas gifts as well as to buy some new shoes for the maid. The kids had accidentally stepped on her shoes and tore it!

This morning the fog returned. Dad left a trail of urine all the way from his bed to the bathroom. After that he didn’t know what to do, because he couldn’t sit down. I finally managed to persuade dad to change his clothes, have breakfast and take his medication but he is sleeping now, like a baby. He will usually sleep all day after his awakening moments.

Sometimes with the awakening moments comes imsomnia where he will not be able to sleep for more than 24 hours and after that he will sleep for 24 hours. Its strange how the brain works.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, dad kept on talking about his diapers. Should he wear it? If he wears it he become lazy and won’t make an effort to go to the toilet to pee, he said so himself. He’s worried about not wearing it because he is too full etc but he managed to go through the entire days without it even though he was worried. He even managed to ask for the toilet at the mamak shop and go there on his own accord. And on Sunday he was delighted when he managed to poo first thing in the morning.

Someone said that alzeimers is almost a blessing in disguise, that losing all one’s memory is perhaps better than awareness but what about this half awareness, this awareness that you are beggining to lose your memory. It must be very frightening indeed. Sigh.