Heard of Helicobacter Pylori?

She is only 22 but she has been suffering from stomach pain for the last 7 years. She works as a supermarket cashier and quite often she misses her meals on time and this has only served to make her condition worse.

She is cachexic (extremely thin with hardly any body fat), her BMI is only 13.7 (normal for this part of the world is 23-25), her appetite is poor though she was not anaemic (lack of haemoglobin). Now, one treatable cause of frequent stomach pain is the presence of a germ called Helicobacter Pylori in the stomach and in our set-up, the test for the presence of this bug is performed at the Endoscopic Unit of the hospital.

The young lady was promptly referred to the unit and her actual status will be known in two weeks. Should it be H. pylori, she would be treated and her quality of life will be much improved.

Capital Protected Fund.. portfolio diversification

I just recalled parting with my 50k in January this year, after being sweet-talked by a lady at CIMB. She had advised me not to buy the mutual fund offered at around the same time as she said the price would fluctuate and I might lose in the short term. This reminded me of my negatively fluctuating unit trusts at HSBC... really frustrating to say the least, sorry Rob :)

She then offered me this product which, under good market conditions, has been calculated to give a return of over 15% PA. Even if the market did not perform I would not lose my capital! The catch is, you have to put in a minimum of 50k for a period of 3 years....sounds like a fixed deposit game to me..luckily I stopped short of adding another 50k.

Be careful of sweet-talking agent, I reminded myself, when she started on about putting my money in the money market, as a way of re parking my fund from the current depressed stock market. I see this capital-protected product as a portfolio diversification.

Evening Primrose Oil.....My Experience

I remember many years ago I used to suffer badly from acne and my friend who has a degree in nutrition from prestigious Cornelle University USA, recommended that I take evening primrose oil capsules as she said she had benefited a lot in terms of better skin and painless menstruation. It so happened that she was an agent for the oil imported from New Zealand. At 85 per bottle, it was not cheap.

I began taking the "miracle Oil" and sure enough after about three months of diligent intake, I found my skin was baby smooth, gone were the hated acnes and I was very happy ordering, three bottles at a time, to last for the next nine months. Then on the 5th month or so I noticed my leg veins were showing up and I immediately attributed the condition to the oil. I would rather have acnes than varicose veins!

I stopped taking the oil and told my friend of its effect on the veins, of course she would not listen and continued taking. It took months for my condition to recover. And yes, I observed that my friend was using tight supportive stockings whenever she walked...

On a different note, the effects of Evening Primrose Oil may be different for different people but if you see those leg veins coming up, we are likely to share the same effects!

Effects of Antibiotics on your Gut

Antibiotics are best taken on doctor's prescription to ensure that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Be that as it may, it has been speculated that the use of antibiotics have resulted in the increase of allergic conditions such as asthma and eczema.

There are several classes of antibiotics and most are not selective in their action on germs. There are many "good germs" in our gut and these are also destroyed by the antibiotics. So it is advisable after a course of antibiotics we try to repopulate our gut with these "good germs" by taking probiotics, yogurt, fruits and vegetables.

I am going to take yogurt (with live culture) for the next five days ....

Chicken Soup... my Very Own

When you are not feeling well or when the weather is cold or even when you are hungry... a good chicken soup would make your day. Yes there are ready made soup packets(with food stabilizers and conditioners to boot!) in the market but I like mine freshly made and one which can be prepared fast. Here is my recipe:

Ingredients

4-6 bite size (500g)chicken pieces
6 small onions (sweeter than large onion)-slice
3 pips garlic -slice
4 cloves
2.5 cm cinnamon stick
3 tablespoon cooking oil
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
3 cm ginger -sliced
600ml freshly boiled water
1 chili- slice (if preferred hot)
salt to taste

Method

1.Heat oil in the pot and fry star anise, clove and cinnamon stick and add in sliced onions, garlic and ginger. Fry till fragrant.
2.Add chicken pieces and sprinkle in the turmeric and fry and keep tossing the chicken so that evenly cooked under slow fire for about 3-4 minutes.
3.Add the freshly boiled water and adjust fire at simmering temperature and leave it for 15 minutes till chicken is tender, then add chili slices and salt to taste. Serve hot with rice (or boiled potatoes) for a balanced meal.

(You can spoon the soup out into a smaller pot and add in veges like broccoli, cabbage, mushroom or tomatoes and boil for 1 minute). Soup can be refrigerated for at least 3 days and reboil with selected veges.

The Saga of the Cold ...Finally Ending

The dinner last night was wonderful, having made some new friends and renewed acquaintances with old ones. We returned just before midnight and I was very careful not to have the night shower on account of my cold, instead I just sponged myself. I had the room air-cond on and a fan as well, as drier air would help to dry my sinuses, I reckoned.

This morning I woke up quite early, 5.30am on a Saturday morning! And felt my nose still a bit blocked and my cough still irritatingly productive. I figured I must have some exercise by doing some laundry. After hanging out the washings, I had a cup of warm chocolate and took my antibiotics (4th day today). Initially I had wanted to go for my regular 45-minute brisk walk but later decided against it and went back to bed instead! I was out for 3 hours with a fan on... and when I woke up, I felt so refreshed and my nose was clear and dry!

My cold saga started on 1st July, became better on 3rd then it recurred on the 5th,(loved one admitted to hospital on the 4th), took the first course of antibiotics on the 7th, coughs and congestion turned out somewhat better only to worsen again, I noticed every time following night showers. Started the second course of antibiotics on the 16th and on the 17th I surrendered, flat-out and was given a sick leave for 2 days!

And this very instance, my nose is clear and throat a lot better and coughing a lot less, no more annoying nasal discharge, such is the power of a good rest! Thanks God, I am healthy again!!

You need to be sick sometimes in order to celebrate health and feel grateful.

Charity Dinner and Charitable Mood

One of the best way to collect as much money as possible for a non-governmental organization (NGO) is through a charity dinner. In this instance, the organization happens to have a wealthy patron who has resources at his fingertip. Then invite an influential guest of honor, arrange for a reasonably good entertainment outfit and hold an arts auction of paintings from reasonably well-known artists and cap it with a favorite master of ceremony and there you have it, a packed five-star hotel grand ballroom.

The NGO has supportive programs for the terminally ill people and this itself would bring out the caring element and the generosity thread of human nature. I went to one last night. It was a black tie event with gentlemen smartly dressed and ladies glamorously attired and bejeweled. Some tables cost 5000 and 10000 each. I would have just donated some money without attending but since we received a special invitation, I decided to attend despite my nose being blocked and throat sore.

The food was delicious, though my sense of smell was a bit impaired, the overseas entertainment made up of four people pretending to be a famous group in the 70s belting out recognizable hits with the audience singing and dancing with them.I virtually got up with the others and had a bit of a swing myself ;)

But before that you should have seen the paintings' auction... from 1000 became 5000 in less than a few minutes and the icing of the cake was a painting donated by the benevolent guest of honor with the starting bid of 10000. I was asking my friends jokingly whether I should bid higher as I was sure it would go up further especially when people were in an amazingly charitable mood. I needn't have bothered, as a quick succession of raised hands had finally brought the price to 50000! Dizzying...

That is charity dinner for you.. for me it was good food and good company and thank you EO for inviting us, you are such a superb philanthropist!

The Cold That Didn't Get Away

I "boasted" in my previous post that I hardly suffered from a cold as I had a method of stopping it. Last week I did just that but unfortunately the stress of caring for a sick "loved-one" in the hospital had bogged me down and before long I found my cold had refused to go away.... it got worse as the phlegm became brownish indicating minor bleeding of some parts of the sinus.

The last time I took an antibiotic was in 2004! Last Saturday I took a three-day course of an expensive broad spectrum antibiotics. I was better for a couple of days then I made a big mistake of showering at 1 am, it was a warm shower mind you, and washed my hair then the very next day, my nose was almost as good as blocked and my throat was sore and I was croaking! Gallantly' I still went to work, coughing away. Somehow I recovered and feeling a bit better and only sponged in the evening in place of a full shower.

Then after work yesterday I noticed my phlegm had turned yellowish-green and my cough had worsened. I then decided to take another course of antibiotics (despite my abhorrence of medicine), this time, the not so expensive one (5-day course). Being a creature of habit, I once again had a midnight warm shower and this morning my nose is really so congested and my coughs are so bad that I finally have to take time off work :(

I will try not to take those night showers whenever I have a cold...and now I remember my mother used to warn against showering at nights. Strange indeed how our body reacts to temperature change when it is not in a normal state. Normally, the warm night shower is so calming to the body and soul.

Child Endowment Fund- Did I Make the Right Decision?

Like any other insurance products, the financial gain is calculated on risks. On many occasions, the purchaser of this kind of "forced saving scheme" base the decision to buy on the strength of trust on the agent. I took out mine because the agent was my ex-staff. Dutifully I paid the premium through a bank standing instruction and have forgotten about it for years till it matured recently.

I hardly looked at the finer points of the documents and only remembered the amount due to me at the end of the maturity period. So when I finally received the cheque I was surprised to discover that had I saved that amount in the bank I would have got the same amount of "interest" and had I invested the same amount in PNB Unit Trusts I would have got double the amount via so called 'dividends". The only factor in the equation was "the risk" that was, should anything have happened to my child during the period, I would be paid the insured amount... Hmmm.. one can always be wise after the event. But then, for the aggressive risk-taker, this is not a good method of wealth creation especially when there are currently so many good financial products offered by banks and Unit Trust Managers.

By the way I received about 9% less than the amount promised and my agent has long migrated to Australia!

Laughter is the Best Medicine

A friend sent me this poem by an anonymous poet. I would like to post it here for a good laugh.. here goes..

A Wife's Poem

He didn't like the curry
And he didn't like my cake.
He said my biscuits were too hard...
Not like his mother used to make.
I didn't prepare the coffee right
He didn't like the stew,
I didn't mend his socks
The way his mother used to do.
I pondered for an answer
I was looking for a clue.
Isn't there anything I could do
To match his mother's shoe
Then I smile as I saw light
One thing I could definitely do
I turned around
and slapped him tight...
Like his mother used to do!!!!!

Exercise Yourself to Better Health

He has been diagnosed as a diabetic just a week ago. It came as a shock to him but somehow he had it coming as his lipid level has been high for a long time and he also has been suffering from hypertension for the last ten years. It is part of what is called a metabolic syndrome.

Apart from the lipid-lowering drugs, the antihypertensive and now the antidiabetic drugs, the best thing for him to do is to walk briskly for about 45 minutes for at least three times a week. Besides losing some unwanted weight, you can tone your heart muscle and make it easier to respond to unnecessary stress.

Through exercising, he has found that his sugar level is much better controlled enabling him to choose his diet carefully in small portions and eating virtually what he wants... no restriction in food variety only in amount of serving and quantity of carbohydrates and fats.

Avoid That Blinking Stomach Pain

Stomach pain, or in medical jargon, is referred to as epigastric pain or dyspepsia can be caused by many factors such as stress either physically or emotionally and by some painkiller tablets. On many occasions, it is due to tablets used to relieve headache, joint pain, muscle pain or even menses pain. It is then advisable for people who suffer from such pain to use paracetamol first and see whether the pain can be relieved. Paracetamol, in stated doses, does not irritate the stomach. In fact studies done have shown that paracetamol is just as effective in relieving joint pain or arthritis in many cases. Paracetamol can be purchased over the counter (OTC) at any pharmacy outlets.

When you see your private practitioner who is most likely to give potent painkiller you should ensure that he/she also prescribes antacid tablets to avoid or ameliorate stomach pain. Some painkillers are enteric-coated to reduce irritation to the stomach lining and these tablets are normally more expensive.

In general, other methods or approaches of pain relief should be tried and one must make efforts to avoid that blinking "drug-induced" stomach pain.Indeed, recurrent stomach pain does affect the quality of life of the sufferer.

The Lady with Stomach Pain

A middle-aged lady has been suffering from recurrent stomach pain for which she takes antacids either over-the-counter (OTC) or on prescription. And today she has come for her regular prescription of antacids. Yet closer questioning revealed that she had been taking "pain-killers" for her "migraine". Sometimes she obtained the pain-killers through prescription and many times it was once again OTC at the pharmacy. The pain-killing drugs, unfortunately, have caused the gastric pain. When her blood pressure was taken, it was 170/110 mm Hg (normal is 120/80 mm Hg) and very likely this has been the cause of her headache, mistakenly termed as "migraine". Had this high blood pressure been detected earlier, she would not have suffered the misery of stomach pain as adequate treatment of her high blood pressure would have taken care of her headache.

Should you have frequent headache, please get your blood pressure checked!
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Low Risk Takers Go for PNB Investment Products

When you no longer have reliable "pointers" as such is the case in a depressed and volatile market, the tendency for most investors is to look for stability, good dividends and capital-protected investments. Let us look at PNB, among the products offered by its investment vehicle, ASNB are ASB, ASN, ASN2, ASN3, ASW, ASM and ASD. Some of these products are exclusively for Bumis while others are open to the public. All of them have been paying good dividends since their individual launching. Some unit trusts like the ASW, ASM and ASD have fixed price (capital-protected) while others like ASN, ASN2 and ASN3 are variable. I am especially attracted to ASN2 which has recently declared a 9.9% dividend and currently its price is very good at RM 0.9712 and likely to slide lower next week. Prior to March this year (2008), it was about RM 1.1200. It does look like it is the time to buy folks! Despite the fact past performance does not guarantee future income.