Its not a Hangover, its montoku flu!

First of all, I would like to wish all my Sabah Friends and readers 

Kotobian Tadau Tagazo Do Kaamatan!

This festival, and every-other one  before it is filled with joy, food, culture and ofcourse, for the natives and locals, alcohol.

Lots, and lots of alcohol, home brewed, import, canned, bottled, anything and everything that ferments into -OH (alcohol) is consumed.

I'm not jugding, its a once a year kind of thing and its their culture for many many years. who am I to advocate them to stop. so long as u are not an alcoholic (alcohol dependent), things will be back to normal by 1st June.

Anyhow, what I would like to share is the understanding of a HANGOVER. whats is a hangover, its the wonderful sensations and joyride you get the morning after your 'party' with Mr Alcohol. everyone leaves a gift after a good party, sex- gives you STD, sometimes a baby, and alcohol gives you hangovers, and sometimes the extra bonus of amnesia to forget the stupid things you did while under its influence.. its how they show their appreciation :P

So ok. we now know its alcohol that gives you hangovers.

Lets look at some of the 'fun' of getting a hangover

• Fatigue and weakness
• Thirst
• Headaches and muscle aches
• Nausea, vomiting or stomach pain
• Poor or decreased sleep
• Increased sensitivity to light and sound
• Dizziness or a sense of the room spinning
• Shakiness
• Decreased ability to concentrate
• Mood disturbances, such as depression, anxiety and irritability
• Rapid heartbeat

Ring a bell? 

Why? why do we get hangovers. simple redundant answer is well... you drank poison, you really think you would come out feeling nothing at all?

ok ok, well, alcohol is nasty when taken in excessive amounts (any amount that gets you drunk). 

some of its effects are...

• Alcohol causes your body to produce more urine. In turn, urinating more than usual can lead to dehydration — often indicated by thirst, dizziness and light-headedness.
• Alcohol triggers an inflammatory response from your immune system. Your immune system may trigger certain agents that commonly produce physical symptoms, such as an inability to concentrate, memory problems, decreased appetite and loss of interest in usual activities.
• Alcohol irritates the lining of your stomach. Alcohol increases the production of stomach acid and delays stomach emptying. Any of these factors can cause abdominal pain, nausea or vomiting.
• Alcohol can cause your blood sugar to fall. If your blood sugar dips too low, you may experience fatigue, weakness, shakiness, mood disturbances and even seizures.
• Alcohol causes your blood vessels to expand, which can lead to headaches.
• Alcohol can make you sleepy, but your quality of sleep will decrease. This may leave you groggy and tired.
• Alcoholic beverages contain ingredients called congeners,which give many types of alcoholic beverages their flavor and can contribute to hangovers. Congeners are found in larger amounts in dark liquors, such as brandy and whiskey, than in clear liquors, such as vodka and gin.

but i think the leading cause and key to the cure for hangover is dehydration.

That being said, the cure is simple. just drink lots and lots of water (ok, when i say lots, i do mean like a litre or so not 3-5 liters. water poisoning is a real and dangerous thing)

I've heard that in sarawak, when the natives consume their home brews, they wash it down with equal amounts of water. so half glass of spirit, with half glass water. they say, it prevents a bad hangover the next day. so yes, hydrate as you go.

or you can hydrate the next morning, so this is more of a cure than a prevention since you will probably be suffering from a hangover.

before you go for bed, drink at least 2-3 glasses of water. when you wake up, drink another 2-4 glasses of water.

other than water, you can go for drinks that replace electrolytes and have a little sugar in them. sport drinks are excellent. but be careful, many sports drinks use the shortcut and add lots of fructose instead of glucose. sorry, but I havent gotten around writing about fructose. its some nasty food minion. 

ok, focus. so among your other healthy choice of fluids are

• mineral water, 
• ORS, (oral rehydration salt, the name is self explanatory)
• sports drink (performance from shaklee is good),
• coconut water (a little hard to find if you are in the city, but if you aramaiti at kampung then no problem), and of course 
• nutritious soups with lots of water (soups have lots of salt, if you dont drink extra water, you can get more dehydrated)
• i think you can go for fruit juices too but they contain lots and lots of additional sugar. not good for the nausea or the waist :P

if you surf the net, there will be thousands if not millions of remedies from people around the world. some even advice to drink more alcohol (tsk tsk). whatever you choose to do, make sure to remember to correct your dehydration first, then you can go for all the egg in a stout or virgin bloody marry and stuff. 

rehydration works! how can i be sure? because i have lots of positive feedbacks from patients who try it out. And please stay away from the paracetamol, or locally known as panadol. you are just poisoning your liver further. drink plenty of fluids and the headache will go away. eating a panadol will only mask the problem.

So please, party responsibly, consume moderately, hydrate as much as possible and be safe.

Best way to prevent a hangover is.... DONT DRINK ALCOHOL! period.

signing off for now, long weekend ahead. time to relax in the jungle among my garden, ducks and a good book.

Dirt Poor

Have you heard of the expression 'dirt poor' - roughly means extremely poor.

We are not here today to rant on about money, but rather the poverty of nutrients plaguing humanity today.

Everything is on the rise,including diseases like heart disease, cancer, obesity, malnutrition and many other diseases despite us moving forward in our medical advancements. Have you ever wondered why? what is the root to all of this evil?

Health is influenced by numerous factors, thus termed multi-factorial. This means its not just about the one thing, its about the bigger picture. your pedigree, where you live, your job, what you eat, what you do daily all have a big impact on your end result.

eg, causes of acne

You are what you eat, and this is true in so many profound ways.  we are merely biological machines that need a constant uptake of nutrients for conversion into biochemical energy. energy to live and change the world. but unlike a car that uses fuel to propel it ahead, we assimilate some of our food to make new cells, for repair, and thus it becomes part of us.

But what we all fail to ask is whether or not the quality of our food is preserved over the years. when we shop at the market or the grocery store we tend to pick the biggest and prettiest fruit or veg thinking that its the best of the lot.... is it really?

I was reading a book by Dr Ross Walker - Highway to health ,antioxidants and you.I was fascinated to come across the fact that out soil today is depleted of nutrients and hence so is the fruits and veg that grow on them.

OUR SOIL TODAY!

There is an estimated over 7 billion people around the world today, and all of them, including you and me need to eat. so we cannot grow our crops the traditional slow and steady, small patches of tender love and care style.

In this modern age, crops are mostly genetically modified so they become bigger, stronger and more resistance to disease and plague. but we forget to focus on the effort to make them more nutritious. crops grow faster, and have bigger yield. rice used to take a year to grow and harvest, now we see crops that can be grown n harvested 3x per year. but all these practices are coming at a price. they are depleting our soils... and hence what we eat is just an empty fiber pod with little to trace nutrients.

Table 1. Average Yields of Major Crops in the United States, 1950-92 (Tisdale et al., 1999)
Year	Corn (bu/acre)	Wheat (bu/acre)	Soybean (bu/acre)	Alfalfa (ton/acre)
1950	37.6	14.3	21.7	2.1
1964	62.1	26.2	22.8	2.4
1972	96.9	32.7	28.0	2.9
1982	113.2	35.5	31.5	3.4
1992	128.7	41.4	37.0	3.6

A landmark study on the topic by Donald Davis and his team of researchers from the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry was published in December 2004 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. They studied U.S. Department of Agriculture nutritional data from both 1950 and 1999 for 43 different vegetables and fruits, finding “reliable declines” in the amount of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin (vitamin B2) and vitamin C over the past half century. Davis and his colleagues chalk up this declining nutritional content to the preponderance of agricultural practices designed to improve traits (size, growth rate, pest resistance) other than nutrition. - taken from Scientificamerican.com

Every delicious looking carrot you eat today is less nutritious than the one you ate before it.

taken From a study by 

Dept of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin - Madison

And this is a worrying situation. because much of our health depends on what we eat. I am not even talking about the amount of pollution and junk that gets in your food like pesticides and stuff which definitely makes us more sick.

So what now?

well, we still need to eat our fruits and veg. in fact, we need to eat more. It is said that to achieve the same amount of vit c that your grandfather had in one orange, we, my friends need 8 now!!!

are you willing to go that extra mile to keep yourself properly nourished? eat 8 oranges a day, few kilos of veg, oh my, i cant imagine.

Well, luckily humans are smart and they invented this thing called vitamins and supplements. In his book, Dr Ross Walker - a cardiologist, advocated the use of supplements as a mean of prevention. He said that 50% of cardiologist take supplements but only a hand full will advice their patients to take. Why is that? Alot of Drs are evidence based and they wait and wait for research to be done and it takes years, sometimes until indefinitely. Its hard to do trials regarding the long term effects of supplements and antioxidants and thus we have little evidence despite it being around for so long.

But whatever it is, the facts are undeniably obvious. our foods are not as nutritious as they were before and they are not likely to change for the better any-time soon. we need to make modification on our health and take up supplements to fill in the gaps. What supplements you choose is equally important because companies these days are geared for profit and that could result in some shady practices like adding fillers, preservatives, dangerous compounds and so on.

Supplements are not substitutes for a healthy lifestyle!

All too often I come across people who just want a magic pill for everything. they say "oh so now i take these slimming set, That means i dont need to exercise?" seriously, this is a joke. please read up on my previous articles touching the benefits of exercise.

The point is, even with supplements, you still need your fruits, your veg, your nuts and legumes. You need to have proper sleep, put in some exercise, have a hobby to reduce stress. I told you in the beginning of this blog, health is a multi-factorial thing, you need to ensure you can change as many of the factors as you can. what you cannot, you leave to fate!

Key message, in case it wasnt already staring in your face,  - live a healthy lifestyle, take your supplements, be happy and hopefully you will die of old (very old) age and not heart disease or cancer..

Air, Air, panas, suam, sejuk, Hai! sedap rasanya!

Hai semua pembaca yang setia dan juga yang baru menaruh minat.!

Harap kamu semua sihat dan Happy hari ini.

Saya ingin berkongsi cerita, ilmu dan tips mengenai Air!

Ya, tidak salah baca, Air adalah topic kita hari ini.
kenapa saya pilih topic air? sebab ramai yang mengabaikan kepentingan air walaupun tidak kekurang an sumber. (yalah.. malaysia ni hujan cukup, kemarau jarang, bukannya gurun)

Ada berita baru baru ini, seorang pelajar mati disyaki kerana dehidrasi, atau kurang air. ada yang menyalahkan supplemen yang dia makan sebagai punca. akhirnya, punca sebenar adalah pendarahan dalam otak. kesimpulannya, kalau makan supplement pun, kalau air tidak cukup dalam tubuh, boleh membawa lebih padah dari kebaikan.

Ramai yang pernah dengar dan sudah tahu bahawa air itu memang bagus untuk tubuh,

tapi.... persoalannya adalah, kenapa ia bagus, berapa banyak itu bagus, bila ia bagus dan banyak lagi soalan soalan yang sering saya ditanya oleh pesakit/client tersayang.

Ok. satu saatu la ya.

Kenapa H2O atau air ni penting untuk manusia?

bukan saja manusia, semua makhluk hidup di dunia ini (dunia alien saya tak pasti lagi sebab belum ada org jumpa) memerlukan air. itu salah satu sebab terpenting kenapa planet kita ada hidupan dan planet lain yang kering kontang tak ada satu cengkerik pun.

so, air adalah asas kehidupan. 65% dari berat lelaki dan 55% dari berat wanita adalah dari air! itu lebih dari separuh. semua proses sel, bergantung kepada hadirnya air.

tak payah la cerita panjang lebar. kalau mau tau apa fungsi air ni... boleh la tanya Mr Google ok.
sepuluh muka surat pun tak habis kalau saya mau cerita.

cuma.. perlu tau.. air sangat penting untuk HIDUP. air harus cukup (bukan berlebihan juga) , air harus selamat (jgn minum air sungai mentah.. ni bukan cerita lord of the rings), dan air mestilah air (air merah ka, sirrap ka, air oren.. tidak termasuk dlm senarai).

barulah air boleh memberi kesan positive kepada tubuh. mengawal suhu, memastikan metabolisma lancar, membuang sisa kumuh dan banyak lagi.

Berapa banyak Air yang patut saya minum?

saya yakin 100 % mesti kamu jawab. 8 gelas la Dr.. atau 2 litre la sekurang kurangnya.

Tidak salah tapi tidak tepat :P

Kita semua pelbagai saiz dan bentuk. yang disarankan itu diambil dari anggaran purata saiz. dan saiz itu pula berdasarkan saiz orang eropah. tentu saja tak sama. lagi satu.. orang yang berada di cuaca panas, sedang berlatih sukan dan lain lain lagi... perlukan lebih banyak air dari kamu yang duduk di office dan baca article ni.

so bagaimana mau anggarkan keperluan air harian?

so ada tips

Ada caranya untuk mengira, tapi kena guna berat dalam pounds dan jumlah air pula dapat dalam ounces. tak payah lah susah susah keluar calculator, rujuk sajalah table diatas.

Faktor lain yang mempengaruhi jumlah air seharian.

Exercise - apabila kita melakukan senaman atau aktiviti sewaktu dengannya, perlu kita ingat bahawa tubuh akan kehilangan air dalam bentuk peluh. biasanya perlu ditambah jumlah air dalam 400-600 mls bergantung pada jumlah aktiviti. lebih kurang satu botol mineral yang kecil.

Menyusukan anak - recommendasi adalah sekurang kurangnya 3.5 litre sehari.

cuaca panas, kawasan pergunungan, keadaan sakit/demam - juga meningkatkan keperluan air seharian.

WARNING!

Semua yang bagus itu boleh menjadi bahaya jika diambil secara berlebihan. Begitu juga air, ia boleh menjadi racun kepada tubuh jika diambil secara berlebihan dan secara terlalu cepat.

Kenapa air berlebihan bahaya?

Tubuh manusia bergantung kepada keseimbangan garam dan elektrolit, serta air. apabila terlalu banyak air diminum pada satu satu masa, garam akan menjadi terlalu larut dan ini membahayakan. kenapa dan bagaimana... tanya la Mr Google kalau berminat. Tak cukup space mau cerita biochem sni.

ini bermaksud. kalau dalam jadual diatas.. kamu kena minum 3 litre sehari.. bukan bermaksud macam telan ubat.. semua sekali gus! salah!

itu keperluan air seharian... maksudnya.. kena bahagi bahagi supaya sama rata dalam 24 jam. dan ia juga termasuk air yang kita minum dlm bentuk lain.. contohnya sup!

so pagi dua gelas (500ml), pagi sampai tgh hari satu botol besar (1.5litre), petang dua gelas (500mls) dan malam 2 gelas (500mls).. cukupla 3 litre. Jangan teguk sekali 3 litre tu. konfirm masuk spital!

(apabila minum teh ka.. sirap ka.. atau lain lain, juga termasuk dalam pengiraaan)

Jangan minum air berlebihan tanpa nasihat doktor jika mempunyai masalah buah pinggan atau kencing tidak lancar. 

Jika anda mulakan untuk minum air yang banyak bagi tujuan kesihatan, pastikan mula dalam berperingkat. kalau sebelum ni slalu minim satu botol saja sehari... mualan dengan dua botol.. kemudian selepas beberapa hari.. 3 botol.. dan seterusnya hingga capai jumlah sasaran harian. jangan secara mengejut. takut nanti buah pinggan merajuk.

Tip Tips minum air...

kepada yang biasa minum air, tentunya tiada masalah. Tapi kepada yang biasa minum air manis, kamu mungkin rasa air ini tidak sedap!

tidak apa... mari lihat bersama tips minum air..

1. membuat Infused water- iaitu rendaman kepingan buah atau herba yang boleh memberi perisa kepada air tanpa meningkatkkan nilai kalori.
   
2. minum sports drink apabila melakukan aktiviti lasak dan intensive. apabila kamu berpeluh sangat banyak, kamu kehilangan garam dan electrolit juga. 
3. minum 500 mls air pada awal pagi sebelum mandi, cuci muka, berus gigi atau lain lain aktiviti. buka mata, first skalii minum air. ini akan melancarkan pembuangan toksin dan najis di waktu pagi.
   
4. sediakan bekas dan tandakan target jumlah air yang kamu perlu minum. supaya kamu tahu berapa banyak air kamu sudah minum... bekas yang ada sukatan lebih mudah selain mengingatkan kita jumlah yang masih perlu diminum
   
5. minum lah air .... tak kisah la air alkali ka, air rebus ka, air mineral ka, air tulen ka.. yang penting air yang tidak dicampur dengan gula atau kalori tambahan. minuman manis akan mengakibatkan obesiti, dan kemudian masalah lain seperti kencing manis.

Jadi Ingat, mulakan Hari dengan segelas dua air yang murni untuk kesihatan sepanjang hayat. Bukan saja pada waktu pagi, tetapi sepanjang hari, minumla air mengikut sasaran keperluan harian.

Exercise to Burn Calories??? You have got to be kidding me!

Welcome to another episode of fun filled facts.

This morning I was pleasantly surprised by a facebook friend who brought up the issue of Fructose and why its the mother of all evil in the fight against obesity and Metabolic syndrome.

Another day about fructose, I've only got a few minutes today to rattle down in this blog so I better make it nifty and quick.

Exercise... we all know it, we all heard of it and we know its supposedly good for you. It is.. no doubt, very good for you.

But do you know why exercise is good for you?

People always say... "wanna lose weight? go exercise". so does this mean that added activity means added calories burn... well.. yes  of course, but if you ever exercised to burn calories you would know that it takes about an hour to burn the calories of just one cookie!! pretty discouraging isnt it. Imagine how much you need to run to burn a big mac or a full serving of nasi lemak!

here are some examples on how much calories does common exercises burn off...

common food calories

You need to walk for 3 hours just to burn one roti John!

absurd!

But time and time again we still hear exercise is good for you. And especially important if you wanna lose weight. now why is that? if you follow math and the laws of thermodynamics...(what you put in equals what you burn.. and if you you dont burn you gain as fat) then the premise is flawed.

Humans are never as easy as 1+1=2... or 2-1=1... if only.

Its a whole bunch of metabolic issues that get screwed up in the first place. If you have a healthy metabolism, east balanced and live and average lifestyle.. chances are.. you wont be obese.

so lets take a look on how Exercise "fixes" your metabolic glitches and help you get that dream curves you always wanted.

Numero UNO (number one)

1. Exercise leads to improved insulin sensitivity.

Remember i wrote an article back then (why you are not losing weight despite starving). what insulin does to you. how you dont want spikes... but instead a steady ooze.. spikes, big spikes, and many spikes lead to insulin resistance.. when this happens.. you need more insulin to get the same response. it burdens your insulin factory- the pancrease. sugar starts to saturate your blood... so... TADAAA.. you got diabetes. This is what you dont want

but with exercise...you get toned muscles and that leads to better insulin sensitivity

How? dont you worry bout the biochemistry stuff. just trust me that it works. if you really wanna know, google exercise  and GLUT4

This is good news... it means that even if you have fallen down the rabbit hole and got yourself in a metabolic mess.. there is still hope yet for you and everybody. exercise reverses insulin resistance. so sugar gets uptaked and processed into energy.

Numero DOS (number 2)

Exercise leads to stress reduction. 

Exercise reduces the stress hormone cortisol that is the culprit... how... Take a look at this

The following is a typical example of how the stress response operates as its intended survival mechanism:

1. An individual is faced with a stressor.

2. A complex hormonal cascade ensues, and the adrenals secrete cortisol.

3. Cortisol prepares the body for a fight-or-flight response by flooding it with glucose, supplying an immediate energy source to large muscles.

4. Cortisol inhibits insulin production in an attempt to prevent glucose from being stored, favoring its immediate use.

5. Cortisol narrows the arteries while the epinephrine increases heart rate, both of which force blood to pump harder and faster.

6. The individual addresses and resolves the situation.

7. Hormone levels return to normal.

Imagine the tiger is your boss!

The problem is.. we live a life of chronic stress. flight or fight response is constant. We stress out to finish our assignment, then we stress out to present the assignment, then we stress out bout meeting our boss, only later to stress out after work facing the traffic jam. and the list goes on.

as you can see from the description about, flooding of glucose and blocking our insulin is not favourable conditions. its suppose to be temporary..but it isnt.

so chronic stress leads to chronic elevated cortisol levels.. which leads to 

- insulin and sugar imbalance - diabetes, and increased appetite

-weight gain and obesity - mobilising fat from storage to under the muscles and into your abs.

-immune suppression

-gastrointestinal problems

-cardiovascular problems 

-fertility problems

But the good news, exercise can help tackle this problem.

Amazing, this shows that exercise cuts cortisol levels in half!

and last but not least TRES (three)

The one we like alot about exercise is that it increases our metabolism!

If you ever studied physiology or biochemistry, you know we get energy from the krebs cycle or.. known also as the citric acid cycle. 

in our cells we have alot of power plants called mitochondria. They produce ATP. the substance of life.

Mitochondria is a wonderful subject to talk about on its own.. but I will save it for another day.

anyways.. execise make mitochondria more effficient and work faster. so, you can burn off your energy before you need to store them as fat. how awesome is that!

Take Home message:

Exercise. Take the time to do some moderate to high intensity exercise to get this wonderful benefits of exercise.

when you are able to tackle the glitches in your metabolism, your body will sort the rest out. 

if you go on diets after diets, starve yourself, and binge. yo yo your diet. you will do more harm than good. because you are not fixing the problem. Its like when there is a leak in the pipe, stopping the water is temporary measures.. eventually you need to resume the use and when you switch on the water.. it will leak. better is to off the water, fix the pipe.. and life goes on smoothly.

but remember, just like my article - Exercise not key to losing weight by BBC, If you plan to lose weight.. you need to fix your diet! 

Good Luck! 

HOT is just an exercise away :)