JUST TO SHARE (Lau Tai Onn): Prelude to Dr JB Lim’s Upcoming Health Talk

The blogger's note: There will be an Evening Talk organized by the Malaysian lnvention & Design Society (MINDS) on 24 October 2012 (Wednesday) 6.00 pm - 8.00 pm at Hotel Singgahsana (Tiara Delima Mezzanine Floor), Persiaran Barat, Off Jalan Sultan, 46760 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan. Admission is free and light refreshments will be served.

The speaker is the blogger’s most-learned e-buddy Dr JB Lim and he will expound on the topic of “The Meaning and Measurement of Health”.

A brief introduction of the speaker is provided by MINDS as follows:

Dr Lim Ju Boo is a strong advocator and believer that the best discipline of medicine today is preventive medicine. He feels it is in vain trying to look for a "cure" for a major medical or existing chronic condition if we refuse to change the way we eat and life.

Dr JB Lim received his Bachelor's, and Master's, and PhD degrees, a Post-grad. Dip in Nutrition, and an MD from a number of lndian and British universities. He earned them spanning over 15 years from his student days, to his research and professional career. He specializes in a wide variety of scientific and bio-medical fields.

He was also admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, both are Royal Chartered professional societies in London.

He worked as a medical researcher at the Massachusetts lnstitute of Technology and at the lnstitute for Medical Research from 1968 -1994.

He is currently a Special Medical and Science Advisor, and is Head of the Technical Advisory Board to an international group of pharmaceutical companies.

His hobbies include astronomy, mathematics, nature study, microscopy, reading, playing the violin and flute, writing scientific and health articles in his blog, attending public lectures, among many others.

This would be a great opportunity to hear from someone who had such varied interests.

The blogger received the above information forwarded by Dr Lim and initially chose to decline due to the talk being held on a working day. After Dr Lim personally asked about the participation in an email, the blogger decided to register for the talk and also invited 3 other friends to join. This will be the first time the blogger is listening to Dr Lim’s talk and the second time meeting this Great Sifu in person.

Below are 2 interesting emails sent by Dr JB Lim to his e-buddies in connection with his upcoming Talk.

Thursday, 18 October, 2012 11:43 PM

Thank you, thank you to all of you whether or not you wish to come, listen and learn.

Social interaction is part of a very important part of good health and complete sense of well-being as defined by the World Health Organization and I shall explain this in my talk. Good health is not just the absence of disease.

How we interact with others psychologically and socially tells a lot about our health and about ourselves. Good health is NOT about testing whether or not we have high or low blood cholesterol, sugar levels, go for annual blood tests, scans, or take our blood pressure as almost everybody, including doctors think. They are all way, way out from WHO definition of what health s all about.

I shall try to explain as best as I possibly can with slides given the time constraint. I wish I can have 6 months of explanation and interaction with the participants. It took me 15 years of university training, plus 25 years of medical research to learn about health, an investment that cost me nearly RM 3 million.

And it is completely FREE with even a pre-talk cocktail thrown in, thanks to MINDS and Academician Tan Sri Professor Datuk Dr Augustine SH Ong who organized and financed the event.

jb lim

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Mad race now for me to satisfy supporters

Thursday, 18 October, 2012 5:41 AM

Thank you very much.

Initially I thought it was going to be very simple talk with just 15 slides out of over 400 slides I have for this health talk.

Now with more and more 'supporters' coming to watch 'the game' I am now being pushed from a simple hotel lecture room into an Olympic arena instead where fans and supporters are 'cheering and jeering' at me to make a spectacle out of me.

Looks like it has become an Olympic race for me to run as fast as I can to satisfy all my jeering (not cheering) supporters. I feel like a circus clown now. It was originally meant to be just a simple talk, but now I get caught in a race.

In fact originally I never bother to tell you I shall be giving a talk. I merely forward Academician Tan Sri Professor Datuk Dr Augustine SH Ong invitation letter to me without me adding a word to it to invite you to come. I never did that. I just forward his letter and notice. That's all I did.

But there are many 'kay-po-chees' in our e-buddies lists that it has blown up like a volcano. I did not expect this.

Now that it has become some kind of Olympic race for me to satisfy buddies, I shall do my best by increasing the no of slides from 15 to 40 now to cover as much ground as possible within the short time given to me.

I promise to do my best. But don't be disappointed.

I thank you all.

Kind regards

Jb lim

(Don't include me as a bogus speaker if I cannot satisfy you. Thanks!)

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Reproduced below is the exchange of emails between Dr JB Lim and the blogger in connection with the above posting:

Friday, 19 October, 2012 6:55 PM

From: lim juboo

Dearest Sifu,

I never expect all this kindness and publicity from you. This is getting crazy now. Tan Sri Professor Datuk Dr Augustine Ong Secretary phoned me less than 20 minutes ago that there are now a list of some 40 people mainly from the Malaysian Senior Scientists Association (MASSA) who have registered to come.

I was also told they may have to start early by bringing in food into the room instead of socializing in the foyer first with cocktail.

This is to give me more time as I have now nearly 50 slides to explain. Originally I have over 400 slides on this subject alone, but I have to cut them down to just 15. But since many come afar from other States, I have increased it to near 50.

Also I was also told by the Secretariat that they may have to shift the function room into another bigger hall now in view of the numbers who have registered. There are a number of medical specialists, surgeons, psychiatrist, professors of surgery, paediatricians and physicians who are also members of MASSA who may be coming. Some of them sit in the Council of MASSA. I am a member of MASSA too.

So I am wondering how I am going to present myself now in the presence of all these experts in the audience. I hope I can infuse new ideas to them also. They may be surprised.

Thanks a lot for your 'advertisement' into your blog. But I wonder how many people read blogs, Wordpress, twitters and Facebook, and even if they do they may not be staying in Kuala Lumpur, or may be too busy with other things to bother to come.

Being caught up with so many other things in life is part of bad psychological and social health. Health is our greatest asset in life which cannot remain with us forever. How do we measure and avoid ill-health and tame disease is extremely crucial in our life.

kindest regards

jb lim

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Friday, 19 October, 2012 8:25 PM

From: Tai Onn Lau

To: lim juboo

My Dear Great Sifu,

The pleasure is mine to ‘advertise’ your upcoming Health Talk in my blog. From the overwhelming response of registration, it is crystal clear now that your Talk will be attended by not only members and friends of MINDS, your e-buddies and their friends, but also council and ordinary members (all senior scientists of Malaysia) of MASSA. What a challenging task you are going to undertake to satisfy your audience!

But we all know this is just a piece of cake to you. And we really look forward to a highly informative, educational, enlightening as well as ‘entertaining’ Talk by you. Rest assured, Great Sifu, that there will only be cheering supporters, but not ‘jeering’ supporters, that evening.

I am not bothered about the quantum of readership of my blog and the ensuing responses if any. My posting of this ‘advertisement’ serves as a prelude to your very interesting Talk, the content of which I hope to be able to post later to share with readers who cannot attend in person but still can benefit, so that your knowledge, experience and wisdom can reach a wider range of people across this country and beyond. After all, it is blessed to share, isn’t it?