Be Generous While Still Living

A rich man once asked his priest, "Why does everybody call me stingy when everyone knows that when I die I will leave everything I have to this temple?"

The priest said: "There once was a pig and a cow. The pig was unpopular and the cow was loved by all in the village. This puzzled the pig.

The pig said to the cow: ‘People speak warmly of your good nature and your helpful attitude. They think you are very generous because each day you give them milk, butter and cheese. But how about me? I give them everything I have. I give them the famous sausages, bacon and ham i.e. my entire body. Yet no one likes me. Why is that?’

The priest continued: "Do you know what the cow answered?

The cow said, 'Perhaps it is because I give while I am still living.'

(Courtesy of forwarded mail from Leo Nathan)

Healing Burns With Egg Whites

A young man sprinkling his lawn and bushes with pesticides wanted to check the contents of the barrel to see how much pesticide remained in it. He raised the cover and lit his lighter; the vapors inflamed and engulfed him. He jumped from his truck, screaming.

His neighbor came out of her house with a dozen eggs, yelling: "bring me some eggs!" She broke them, separating the whites from the yolks. The neighbor woman helped her to apply the whites on the young man's face.

When the ambulance arrived and when the EMTs saw the young man, they asked who had done this. Everyone pointed to the lady in charge. They congratulated her and said: "You have saved his face."

By the end of the summer, the young man brought the lady a bouquet of roses to thank her. His face was like a baby's skin.  

Healing Miracle for Burns: Keep in mind this treatment of burns which is included in teaching beginner fireman this method. First aid consists of spraying cold water on the affected area until the heat is reduced and stops burning the layers of skin. Then, spread egg whites on the affected are.

One woman burned a large part of her hand with boiling water. In spite of the pain, she ran cold faucet water on her hand, separated 2 egg whites from the yolks, beat them slightly and dipped her hand in the solution. The whites then dried and formed a protective layer. She later learned that the egg white is a natural collagen and continued during at least one hour to apply layer upon layer of beaten egg white. By afternoon she no longer felt any pain and the next day there was hardly a trace of the burn. 10 days later, no trace was left at all and her skin had regained its normal color. The burned area was totally regenerated thanks to the collagen in the egg whites, a placenta full of vitamins. This information could be helpful to everyone: Please share with everyone.

(Courtesy of forwarded mail from CN Sum)

How to Fight Dementia?

Most of us start worrying about dementia after retirement - and that may be too little, too late. Experts say that if you really want to ward off dementia, you need to start taking care of your brain in your 30s and 40s - or even earlier.

"More and more research is suggesting that lifestyle is very important to your brain's health," says Dr. Paul Nussbaum, a neuro-psychologist and an adjunct associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "If you want to live a long, healthy life, then many of us need to start as early as we can."

So what can you do to beef up your brain - and possibly ward off dementia? Nussbaum, who recently gave a speech on the topic for the Winter Park (Fla.) Health Foundation, offers 20 tips that may help.

1. Join clubs or organizations that need volunteers. If you start volunteering now, you won't feel lost and unneeded after you retire.

2. Develop a hobby or two. Hobbies help you develop a robust brain because you're trying something new and complex.

3. Practise writing with your non-dominant hand several minutes everyday. This will exercise the opposite side of your brain and fire up those neurons.

4. Take dance lessons. In a study of nearly 500 people, dancing was the only regular physical activity associated with a significant decrease in the incidence of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. The people who danced three or four times a week showed 76 percent less incidence of dementia than those who danced only once a week or not at all.

5. Need a hobby? Start gardening. Researchers in New Zealand found that, of 1,000 people, those who gardened regularly were less likely to suffer from dementia! Not only does gardening reduce stress, but gardeners use their brains to plan gardens; they use visual and spatial reasoning to lay out a garden.

6. Walking daily can reduce the risk of dementia because cardiovascular health is important to maintain blood flow to the brain. Or... buy a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps a day.

7. Read and write daily. Reading stimulates a wide variety of brain areas that process and store information. Likewise, writing (not copying) stimulates many areas of the brain as well.

8. Start knitting. Using both hands works both sides of your brain. And it's a stress reducer.

9. Learn a new language. Whether it's a foreign language or sign language, you are working your brain by making it go back and forth between one language and the other. A researcher in England found that being bilingual seemed to delay symptoms of Alzheimer's disease for four years. And some research suggests that the earlier a child learns sign language, the higher his IQ - and people with high IQs are less likely to have dementia. So start them early.

10. Play board games such as Scrabble and Monopoly. Not only are you taxing your brain, you're socializing too. Playing solo games, such as solitaire or online computer brain games can be helpful, but Nussbaum prefers games that encourage you to socialize too.

11. Take classes throughout your lifetime. Learning produces structural and chemical changes in the brain, and education appears to help people live longer. Brain researchers have found that people with advanced degrees live longer - and if they do have Alzheimer's, it often becomes apparent only in the very later stages of the disease.

12. Listen to classical music. A growing volume of research suggests that music may hard wire the brain, building links between the two hemispheres. Any kind of music may work, but there's some research that shows positive effects for classical music, though researchers don't understand why.

13. Learn a musical instrument. It may be harder than it was when you were a kid, but you'll be developing a dormant part of your brain.

14. Travel. When you travel (whether it's to a distant vacation spot or on a different route across town), you're forcing your brain to navigate a new and complex environment. A study of London taxi drivers found experienced drivers had larger brains because they have to store lots of information about locations and how to navigate there.

15. Pray. Daily prayer appears to help your immune system. And people who attend a formal worship service regularly live longer and report happier, healthier lives.

16. Learn to meditate. It's important for your brain that you learn to shut out the stresses of everyday life.

17. Get enough sleep. Studies have shown a link between interrupted sleep and dementia.

18. Eat more foods containing Omega-3 fatty acids: Salmon, sardines, tuna, ocean trout, mackerel or herring, plus walnuts (which are higher in omega 3s than salmon) and flaxseed. Flaxseed oil, cod liver oil and walnut oil are good sources too.

19. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants in fruits and vegetables mop up some of the damage caused by free radicals, one of the leading killers of brain cells.

20. Eat at least one meal a day with family and friends. You'll slow down, socialize, and research shows you'll eat healthier food than if you ate alone or on the go.

 DOING ALL 20 THINGS LISTED ABOVE AND YOU WILL NOT FIND ENOUGH TIME IN YOUR LIFE TO FIT IN DEMENTIA AS WELL: IN OTHER WORDS, "CONTINUE TO DO ALL THE THINGS THAT YOU ALREADY DO AND YOU WILL HAVE COVERED MOST OF THE THINGS LISTED!"

(Courtesy of forwarded mail from Yong Yew Khoon)

Quotable Quotes

Palpitation of the Heart (by Dr JB Lim)

Dear Mr. Sandy Lee (not his real name)

Thank you for seeking my opinion about your relative’s case with palpitation of his heart, and the attachment of his 2-D cardio-echogram which showed nothing of significance.

Sorry for the delay in replying as I have a lot of other things to do.

Causes:

It is quite common to have palpitations of the heart. In normal circumstances the heart maintains a heart rate at about 65 -70 beats per minute at resting stage, slower at resting or sleeping stage, and faster in strenuous exercise when extra oxygen is needed . However, this also depends on the status of the heart's electrical system to conduct electricity through the heart muscles for the heart to pump blood.

Nevertheless, if there are changes in the levels of salts (electrolytes) like potassium, magnesium, and calcium, these too can affect hear rhythm and cause palpitations. A lack of iron that normally cause iron deficiency in women causing anemia or if the thyroid gland is overactive, a condition called hyperthyroidism, these too can cause the heart to pump faster or abnormally, a condition a patient feels it as palpitations.

Exercise, anxiety, fear, excitement, and anticipation can cause the heart to beat abnormally fast. These are the most common causes. The doctor needs to look into all these common causes first instead of suddenly do a 2-D cardio-echogram on the patient. This is far more expensive and totally unnecessary, except if a leaky heart valve is suspected. In that case, there are many other symptoms and signs, such as breathlessness, easily get tired, clubbing of the fingers, central cyanosis (blueness of lips, fingers, toes, tongue, etc).

Other common causes of palpitations may be due to drinking coffee (caffeine), smoking (nicotine), and drinking (alcohol). These substances like the hormone adrenalin is also released during exercise, excitement, fear, fight, anger, threats, etc. These stimuli act on the heart to cause it to beat faster > 100 beats per minute (tachycardia).

Often certain medications taken by the patient, especially pseudoephedrine, or even an herbal heart stimulant (ma huang), or even medications like albuterol inhalers or theophylline for asthma and thyroid replacement medications can all cause heart palpitations.

Other causes:

Of course there are also illegal hard drugs like cocaine, amphetamine, PCP, and marijuana that can also all cause the same pharmacological effect on the heart.

Adrenalin level in the body is increased at times of stress, and this itself can cause rapid heart rates. These, as well as exercise, and emotional factors are physiological responses that all may cause palpitations. These are the most common causes, but the palpitations may not last long, just for half hour or slightly longer depending on how long the stimuli act and last.

Of course there are also specific causes of palpitations due to structural abnormalities in the heart. For instances, if the coronary arteries are narrowed due to cholesterol and plaque deposits or an inflammation, they can cause a decreased in blood supply to the heart muscle. These can irritate the heart muscles, and cause abnormal heart beats like premature ventricular contractions, ventricular tachycardia, or ventricular fibrillation.

Structural wiring abnormalities can cause paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardias or Wolfe-Parkinson-White syndrome. But these are much rarer, and can easily be detected by a simple and much cheaper ECG instead of doing a 2-D cardio-echogram which actually detects structural abnormalities of the heart rather than abnormalities on the electrical conduction within the heart muscles. They may not be the cause of palpitation.

Heart valves incompetence:

Heart valve incompetence can also cause irregular heart beat in about 40% of people especially those with mitral valve prolapse. But these are much rarer. Heart valve prolapses and incompetence can easily, easily be detected by simply listening to the heart with a stethoscope, so why use 2-D echogram for this?

The doctor needs to take history of all these causes first, and then use his clinical judgment to find out exactly why he has temporary palpitations of his heart. Sometimes it is due to an overactive thyroid gland, and there is excessive thyroid hormone.

However, sometimes palpitation may be due to a condition in which the thyroid gland is over active, a clinical condition we call hyperthyroidism.

Auscultation of heart for murmurs:

But the easiest of all signs is the murmurs of the heart which can easily be heard with a stethoscope without costing a single cent to the patient. All these should have been done first as they are the easiest to detect, most common causes of palpitation, and it does not cost a single cent to the patient to listen to the heart for murmurs using a simple stethoscope. So why must that doctor ask him to straight away do a 2-D echogram of his heart which is really a great waste of money and totally unnecessary?

ECG is best for electrical conduction anomalies:

I just cannot understand the justifications of doing this at great cost to the patient who merely has palpitations for only a short period of time. To do an echogram instead of a much cheaper ECG is really beyond belief. An ECG to look if there was any abnormality in the electrical conduction (heart block) that will show up as irregularities in the PQRST waves in the ECG would have been far more useful. As far as I am concerned, he has been cheated of his money by his doctor who did the unnecessary echogram on the patient.

Electrical anomaly:

An ECG would have brought up blocks within the sinoatrial (SA nodes), antrioventrcular node (AV node), below the AV node (infra-Hisian block; named after the bundle of His), within the left or right bundle branch or within its fascicles (hemiblocks).

These would have identified either first, second degree AV block (Mobitz I, II or Wenckebach block), or a total heart block (third degree block).

Clinically speaking, most of the important heart blocks are AV nodal blocks and infra-Hisian block. Even these may not necessary be the causes of common palpitations as I have already explained.

Take medical history first:

The first step in the ethical practice of good medicine is to ask the patient what is his complaints, how long has been his condition, under what circumstance does he have the symptoms, etc. This is the first step if he is a good diagnostician with very good clinical acumen and clinical judgment, and not all those scans and blood tests. A well-trained and experienced clinician can make a minimum of 80 % accuracy by just taking the history and just by asking and listening to what the patient has to say. That is the first step in good medical practice.

Only if…:

It is only when the doctor comes to a date-end with the history-taking and the basic clinical examination, or the need to differential diagnose from other conditions that mimic the symptoms, would he request for laboratory examinations. No good and well-trained and experienced medical doctor will jump the gun from using basic examination first.

The doctor needs to take history of all these causes first, and then use his clinical judgment to find out exactly why he has temporary palpitations of his heart. Sometimes it is due to an overactive thyroid gland, and there is excessive thyroid hormone.

Sometimes palpitation may be due to a condition in which the thyroid gland is over active, a clinical condition we call hyperthyroidism.

Hormone evaluation later:

If we suspect his heart palpitation was due to an overproduction of thyroid hormones T4 (thyroxine) and T3 (triiodothyronine) or hyperthyroidism causing thyrotoxicosis, or certain conditions like Graves Disease (example), then there is justifications of doing a blood test, else, a big NO. A very competent clinician (medical doctor) uses his ears, ears, fingers and good judgment, not all those scans and blood tests first.

More clinical signs and symptoms:

If he suspects the patient’s palpitation is due to an overactive thyroid gland, the main clinical signs he should look for would be:

1. Weight loss (often accompanied by an increased appetite)

2. Anxiety
3. Intolerance to heat
4. Hair loss
5. Muscle aches, weakness and fatigue
6. Hyperactivity
7. Irritability
8. Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar levels)
9. Apathy
10. Polyuria (increased urine volume), and Polydipsia (excessive thirst)
11. Delirium
12. Tremor
13. Pretibial myxedema (PTM) or thyroid dermopathy
14. Sweating
15. Palpitations and arrhythmias especially atrial fibrillation
16. Dyspnea (shortness of breath)
17. Loss of libido
18. Amenorrhea (in women)
19. Nausea
20. Vomiting
21. Diarrhoea
22. Gynaecomastia (breast enlargement in males and feminization)
23. Osteoporosis (if untreated)
24. Ocular (eye) signs such as eyelid retraction ("stare")
25. Lid-lag (von Graefe's sign)
26. Extra-ocular muscle weakness

If these signs are present, all the doctor needs to do is to confirm them by a simple blood test on the levels of his thyroid hormones. A blood test for thyroid hormones is much simpler, and far cheaper. That’s all that is needed.

All I know is that the patient has been cheated by his doctor by asking him to do an unnecessary 2-D cardio-echogram for a simple palpitation of his heart that lasted just a few hours. I just cannot believe these types of doctors are roaming in our decent society?

I have explained here far more than what his doctor would have done for him, or told him, and I don’t wish to discuss any further as it is not profitable and unnecessary for me.

jb lim

BSc (Physiol), PG Dip Nutr, MSc, MD, PhD (Med), FRSPH, FRSM

To Live with Mosquitoes or Go to the Moon?

Note: The blogger received the following WITTY comment from Great Sifu Dr J B Lim on the subject of “One Mosquito Coil Equals 100 Cigarettes” as reported in the Times of India as reproduced below:

"Nowadays a lot of people are using the high frequency mosquito repellant device but again in future there will be some more bright people who might say that these devices will cause some other illnesses or ear problems!!"

From: lim juboo

Date: Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 6:54 PM

My Dear Doctor,

I appreciate your thousands of e-mails to me about health.

Look, we all MUST die one day, sooner or later – either from any of the lung diseases - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), malignant tumors, from small cell lung cancer, adenocarcinoma, carcinoid, Kaposi’s

Alternatively, we suffer from acoustic neuroma, and sensorineural hearing loss from the use of ultrasonic mosquito repellent.

If you then chose not to use neither mosquito coils nor ultrasonic mosquito repellants, then suffer sleepless nights, weal, irritation, urticaria, acute myocardial infraction and sleep deprivation from mosquito bites.

If we still do not want these either, then suffer death from malaria, dengue fever, filariasis and elephantiasis, viral encephalitis, chikungunya, and other mosquito-borne diseases.

You choose your own sufferings and mode of death if you don’t want to live with Mother Nature and her mosquitoes around.

But if you still think you do not want any of the above either, but choose to sleep in an air-conditioned room, then you are back to square one once again on lung disease by suffering from Legionnaire's disease.

You choose either this Legionella bacteria from your air-con, or the Plasmodium parasite and other viruses carried by the mosquitoes.
.

But if you are still undecided after what I tell you here which way you want to suffer death, then I suggest you go to the Moon and stay there permanently. There you will find neither mosquito, water, food, air, noise, companion, nor e-mail messages to permanently trouble you any further.

It’s up to you.

Health comment from Jew-B Lim

--------------------------------------------------------

A follow-up email on the same subject from Dr Lim is reproduced below. A good question worth pondering is: Shall we go to the Moon and live there so as to run away from the mosquitoes? Hahaha…….

Saturday, 22 October, 2011 2:11 AM
From: lim juboo
.

I re-echo what I earlier said. The Moon is the best place for these people who do not like mosquitoes around. There on the Moon, they will find a vacuum, no mosquitoes around, no anti-mosquitoes ultra-sonic sound (devices) needed, not even ordinary sound they could hear with no air to transmit it.

They will also not be able to burn anything including mosquito coils, no air or insecticide pollution, no food, no water, no bacteria … nothing, just moon rocks and moon dusts and them alone.

There, they will live forever, and ever in absolute harmony with Moon Nature, because these doctors, scientists, environmentalists, and health fanatics do not like Mother Nature on Earth, or want any disease-carrying mosquitoes around to live in peace and in harmony with them.

These creatures inherited Earth a 100 million years ago, long even before the dinosaurs, let alone human being.

They have every right to be here on Earth, because God planted them here. Yet they want to fight them?

My advice to these doctors, health freaks and fanatics is, just don’t mess around with Mother Nature. Nature will fight back. They will be born losers.

Jb

Warning Against Drinking Beer for Men

Beer contains female hormones.

Last month, Sydney University and CSIRO scientists released the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of female hormones in beer.

Men should take a concerned look at their beer consumption.

The theory is that beer contains female hormones (hops contain Phytoestrogens) and that by drinking enough beer, men turn into women.

To test the theory, 100 men drank 8 pints of beer each within a 1 hour period.

It was then observed that 100% of the test subjects :

1) Argued over nothing.

2) Refused to apologize when obviously wrong.

3) Gained weight.

4) Talked excessively without making sense.

5) Became overly emotional

6) Couldn't drive.

7) Failed to think rationally.

8) Had to sit down while urinating.

No further testing was considered necessary.

Share this with the men you know to warn them about drinking too much beer....

(Courtesy of forwarded mail from Phang Ah Lek)

The blogger's comment:  The above is obviously a JOKE, please don't take it seriously. LOL!