Mid-Autumn Mooncake Festival Celebration 2014

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, it's a joyous festival celebrating the harvest (in the past), family and friendship.

One of the most important part of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival is to buy and give mooncakes to your friends and family.

For me the best part is surely eating slices of a mooncake together....

Yummy Lotus Paste Filling

The mooncake is round, like the moon, and this represents reunion of family and friends. When friends and relatives eat slices of the mooncake together, the moment signifies that they will be reunited in the future. And If you eat mooncakes given to you as a gift by other people, it is a sign that you will meet them again.... all good and happy thoughts! A beautiful tradition.

AMB Value Trust Fund 2014:Unit Split and Income Distribution

For financial year ending on 31 August 2014, AMB VTF has decided to go for a unit split of 1:6 that is one unit free  for every existing six existing units that an investor has on Thursday 28 Aug 2014 when the NAV was 0.5325. Transaction was suspended on Friday 29 Aug.

Spreading Love on MERDEKA day

Hence if you had 500k units then, you would have an additional 83,333.33 free on the following working day Tuesday 02 Sept. when the NAV was down to 0.4564 translated into an income of RM38,033.33 and your accumulated units now stand at 583,333.33.

Basing on the NAV on 28 Aug, your income distribution is at 14.28%. But to calculate your annual return on investment you have to go back to the total capital you have invested at the various NAVs over the period of investment.

I have been investing in this unit trust for just over two years (after holding off for a number of years due to lack of certainty ). When I compare this investment with say AS1M, the same capital over a two year period at a dividend rate of 6.60 sen per annum,  I must say AMB VTF has given me more return on my investment by about 16% over AS1M's return. For me this asset class in my portfolio is doing just fine.

So folk I have decided to let my money stay in AMB VTF for another three years to maximise the returns (barring any risk factors in the financial market of course). Another thing, I always look forward to celebrating Merdeka every year when more love is being spread by AMB VTF.

Polypharmacy - A Question of Ethics or Pure Ignorance

I have come across quite a number of patients coming to my clinic seeking for treatment for the same condition after having attended other private clinics. I have chosen a couple of paediatric cases. Both children, one is a three year-old toddler and another is one and half-year old. They both suffered from intractable diarrhoea and vomiting. The older one had been suffering for more than ten days and the latter for more than a week. They both looked listless and irritable. They had not been feeding well and appeared dry and thin. The little one's bottom was raw due to prolonged purging.

According to both mothers they had been to clinics and were prescribed medications which they kept giving to their children and yet the diarrhoea never seemed to ease let alone cease.

The mother (AR) of the older child was desperate and without being prompted had proceeded to take out from her bag all the medications prescribed by the clinic and altogether with consultation, she said she forked out RM75.00. I noticed that the woman was not really educated and yet had the sense of bringing all the medications which had failed to "cure" her child, to show them to me. I was impressed as not many would bring along their "failed" or ineffective medications and yet expect the next doctor to "cure" them.

The second mother (CP) did not bring the prescribed drugs but I made her go home to get them for me to see. I always tell this kind of patients that since I don't know what drugs have been given to them earlier, I might prescribe the same ineffective drugs and they would still not get better.

What I found was interesting. For simple diarrhoea, an array of drugs: an anti-diarrhoeal preparation, anti-vomiting, anti-fever,vitamin and anti-colic were prescribed between the two kids.

Five different types of drugs prescribed
for childhood diarrhoea (Mother AR)

Three different types of drugs to treat
diarrhoea in a child  (Mother CP)

All the kids needed was an oral rehydration therapy using a pre-packed oral rehydration salts. These should be given to them as directed till the diarrhoea stops  and other soft diet like porridge and milk can be continued.

In this case, the purging should not be prevented by giving an anti-diarrhoeal preparation as the body is throwing out "something" which is not safe for absorption by the body. Use of many drugs for this simple diarrhoea which 85% of the time is due to virus, would only prolong the diarrhoea and discomfort as happened in these two cases.

For most childhood diarrhoea only
oral rehydration salt (ORS) solution is needed

Why are these drugs prescribed? It seems to me either the practitioner is treating the symptoms such as vomiting rather than the root cause of the condition or for pure monetary considerations: the more drugs are prescribed, the more profit is generated (and likely the more side-effects). Either way, the patients suffer. It is an undesirable outcome.

For both children, I just advised their mothers to stop those drugs and offer them oral rehydration salt (ORS) and told them to return in 48 hours if the diarrhoea had not subsided. True enough they both recovered on that treatment alone and at the cost of RM7 (without consultation fee)

I have seen adults also being prescribed an anti-diarrhoeal preparation when all they need is only a replacement fluid therapy till their diarrhoea usually due to gastritis or food poisoning stops. Most diarrhoea except for bloody ones are supposed to be treated this way. Over treatment with several drugs will only worsen or prolong the gastrointestinal condition.

Polypharmacy is unethical and ignorance is unacceptable.

For Just A Moment - David Foster

A beautiful song and a nostalgic one at that for me from one of my best loved versatile artistes of our life time, David Foster, a great musician and a talented Canadian.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri 2014

Maaf Zahir Batin

I would like to wish all my Muslim patients and blog visitors "Selamat Hari Raya AidilFitri, Maaf Zahir Batin" or "Happy Eid Fitr".

After a month of fasting, the Hari Raya, the first day of which falls on Monday 28 July is indeed a celebration of gratitude born out of strict self discipline and rejection of physical and psychological temptations.I salute all of you who have gone through this rigorous mental and spiritual exercise.

During the feast remember the Ministry of Health guideline in its campaign against rising obesity in Malaysia. It is called 55555 guideline. Here they are:

1. Eat 5 food groups a day to get a variety of nutrients
2. Put not more than 5gm or one teaspoon of sugar in your drink
3. Eat not more than 500 calories at each meal
4. Eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day
5. Exercise 5 times a week

Celebrate but keep your discipline developed during the fasting month and stay healthy, avoid obesity.

Obesity leads to shortened and poor quality of Life ;
Don't  contribute to an early statistic

ASN2 - Unit split : Time to invest more.

Last week PNB through ASNB announced on the share split of 1 to 1 for ASN2. This is the first time since the unit's launch in 1999 that such an exercise is undertaken. The split is based on the number of units held on 18 July 2014. So if you have 50k units on that date, you would now have 100k units but the values will remain the same as the unit's price (NAV) from 1.3576 ( the one recorded on 17 July) was adjusted by half to 0.6745 on 21 July.

Encouraging growth performance

PNB stated that as at June 30, ASN2 ( a variably priced equity growth fund), has consistently outperformed its benchmark consisting of Bursa Malaysia Top 100 index and three-month KLIBOR. ASN2 apparently has managed to record 89.72% of cumulative return, higher than the total cumulative return of 66.51% recorded by its benchmark during the five-year period until 30 June.

Moreover, PNB maintained that the annualised returns of ASN2 have shown encouraging growth rates during the three-year, five-year and 10-year period of 10.01%, 13.66% AND 10.86% respectively.

The split offers an opportunity for new investors to invest in the unit trust and for existing investors to buy more units at a lower price. For those eligible to purchase these units, this is the right time to do so. I notice the price since last Monday 21 July is declining as is the case for this product following the dividend distribution on 30 June. It was 1.4135 on 24 June before it was suspended for dividend calculation and distribution at 6.90 per unit; 0.02 sen lower than last year's rate at 7.10.

According to ASNB, the income distribution portion involved  a total payout of RM18.77 million, an increase of 48.9% compared to the RM12.61 million paid out last year.The payment has benefited 9,822 unit holders which currently hold a total of 272.04 million units of ASN 2.

For those of you who are averse to risk-taking at the stock market, products such as ASN2 will give you a good dividend yield along with your capital appreciation as the dividend is automatically reinvested into your account. In another word, make money while you sleep.

Memories of FIFA World Cup Brasil 2014

This YouTube video and the iconic song by Shakira really cement my memories of the exciting FIFA World Cup 2014 from Jun 13 to July 14. From the round of 16 I was rather "addicted" to the games, watching them with my equally football-crazy better-half.

 I was impressed with those teams from Africa and South America especially Costa Rica which came out top of its group and was advancing in the quarter finals.

Names like Naymer of Brazil, James Rodriguez of Colombia, Messi of Argentina, Ronaldo of Portugal and of course that infamous Suarez of Uruguay littered the games with excitement.

 Memorable times like Germany's thrashing of host Brazil 7-1 at their semi-final, Naymer's foul by the Colombian player, Van Persie's goal as well as Suarez's bite of the Italian player come rushing in when I watch and listen to this video.

Thank you indeed to the uploader for cementing  my memories.

 At the final, I was supporting Argentina to win the coveted Cup only to be disappointed by that German, Mario's fantastic goal! Argentina lost 0 to 1.

 Waiting for 2018 when Russia is given the turn to host the Cup.