Common health problems

Ada apa sakit? Sakit mana? Sini kah? Sini kah? Sini kah? Mana sakit? Bila sakit? Sini ada sakit? Yes, got sakit hati!!! Blinking idiot doctors!! They keep asking you the same routine questions, over and over, as if you are a stupid patient. I will bring my handphone next time and playback readied answers if I go to the doctor. Any better ways for doctors to ask patients? Ask the doctor. That is how I look at doctors. I think they are parrots. Nothing wrong with that. Just that I think doctors are a weird species, and so are professors like me. If you think professors are weirdos, doctors are even weirder than professors. You know, weirdos exist!! We need weirdos - doctors and professors.

I wanted to upload a photo of me at the wax museum in Los Angeles (LA) watching Jerry Lewis working in the lab, but my eldest daughter and my husband say: 'cannot lah, nanti aurat terdedah'. How many of you remember Jerry Lewis, the weird professor? I do. I still like his movies but ASTRO doesn't have this. I haven't checked YouTube. It was from Jerry Lewis movies that I double-majored and one of them was Chemistry. That is how powerful Jerry Lewis movies impact had on me. You can laugh but I became a professor partly because I learned from a weirdo (Jerry Lewis) that experiments are a great way to any discovery. Very true, I think.

I want to bring your attention to a group in Facebook that looks at medicinal plants, everything that grows in the ground and in pots. This group is good because there are experts who help out others with identification of medicinal and beneficial plants. You can even upload your pics and they will help you to identify what you have in your backyard.

This is the link to the medicinal plant interest group:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/100705113390880/192883174173073/?notif_t=group_activity

HEALTH PROBLEM 1: RENAL FAILURE

This is one post that attracted me:

Nik Idris Nik Yusoff Salam Tn Hj student PhD saya dulu ada buat kajian genus tumbuhan ini. Genus Thottea atau Apama family Aristolochiaceae iaitu Thottea corymbosa renik berbanding species T. grandiflora dan T. tomentosa.hati2 dalam mengguna sebab mungkin mengandungi Aristolochic acids yg boleh menyebabkan renal failure yg pernah heboh dulu melibatkan actress Singapore tunang pelakon Phua Chu Kang? Allahu'alam.

I was combing the supermarket shelves for all types of tea and coffee. I tried all. What did I find? I found that a lot of the claims are nonsense. I also found that a lot of the imported teas gave me pain in the kidneys if taken at night. What is my conclusion? The foreign teas are deleterious to my kidney function. In one case, it was extremely painful that it also affected my breathing. I guess this had to do with the bicarbonate and other renal mechanisms in the tubular processes. Because it was so painful, I took dry dates and took a bottle-full of air zamzam. I also took a lot of cooled boiled water for 2 consecutive days and that helped. Because the pain in the kidney also affected my sleep, I also had to rub Tiger Balm on the the skin area near my kidneys, so I could go to sleep. I did that for 2 days. Now the pain is gone from both kidneys. Phew! I almost killed my own kidneys. 

What have I learned about tea? Foreign teas must be thoroughly checked and trialled by our MoH and whoever is in-charge of food safety in Malaysia. The local teas are safe, night and day. Boh tea, Teh Cameron, Sabah tea - these are safe local teas. A wise advise is don't take tea at night as they contain a lot of acidic stuff that do affect kidney function somewhat. Drink lots of water if you do experience kidney pain, whether daytime or night time or can't sleep because of kidney pain.

Another advice is not to take fruit juices, fruit acids and fruitty ice-blends at NIGHT. Apple juice is the worst to take at night before bedtime. The acids are so strong that they practically suffocate your kidneys - boleh mati punyalah sakit. So don't take fruit juices at night, take fruit juices in the morning and in the afternoon, but not at night. Many people suffer from kidney problems, especially diabetic patients. Don't give them orange juice at night.

HEALTH PROBLEM 2: SINUSITIS, SINUS HEADACHE

In the Facebook group too, they are discussing about a cure for sinusitis and headaches arising from sinus problems.

Pak Din Ini orang Melayu panggil Lemuni pantai (Vitex trifolia). Banyak khasiatnya untuk lelaki dan perempuan. 

Pak Din Two interesting things about this plant. 1. Good for those suffering from sinusitis and sinus headache. 2. Good for those who find it difficult to sleep. And very good indeed in putting you to sleep without having any interests in doing anything else. 

Pak Din Pak Engku: the leaves are aromatic. It is the aroma of the leaves that has the value of clearing off the sinuses. We harvest the leaves in the morning dan dry them under the shades preserving most of the essential oils. You can then sniff on the leaves. My crafty wife had made it into tiny pillows for people to carry in the pockets or hand bags. 

Pak Din In the mediterranean region there is another similar plant called the Chaste tree (Vites angus-christi). According to folklore, during the roman times, when the husbands go out to war, the wives would lay the leaves of this plant on their beds and sleep on them. This is suppose to prevent them from being promiscuous. The Roman Catholic monks who are celibates grow this tree in the grounds of their monastaries and consume the fruit (Monk's pepper), which is supposed to suppress their libido. Pak Engku, the leaves of Lemuni pantai has very similar effects. A cautionary note for those who intend to use this. However, this side effect is reversible.

Photos of the plant(s) are in Facebook.

I have a lot of sinus problems when I get up, perform solat and prepare breakfast. I have a stuffy nose and that lasts till about 10 a.m., then I can breathe nicely. I guess the cause can be plenty - dusty bedroom, linen, books lying about, the tissue box next to my pillow, my blanket, my towel that hangs nearby, my sejadah, my telekong, the books nearby my sejadah, my table-fan, my ceiling fan, etc. I also find that I am sensitive to perfumes. You read that right - perfumes. My husband is a perfume addict. He wears all the perfumes in the shops, the perfumes people gave him, and the ones he bought. I am a secondary perfume sniffer. I don't wear any perfume at all. If you came close to me and smelled the perfume on me, that's actually my husband's perfume. I succumb to all the volatiles from all his perfumes - for 30 years, come 25 June 2012. I become practically totally asthmatic that I think the next best thing is to have a separate perfume-free bedroom. Of course that can spell trouble. I can smell his perfume draft through the living-room now as I write this post - it's very strong. It's 10 a.m. now, so I can smell it as my nose is clear.

HEALTH PROBLEM 3: ASTHMA

Many people develop asthma at weird times. I become asthmatic when I take nuts (almonds, hazelnut, pecans, peanuts) mainly. So kuah sate and peanut-butter give me breathing problems. I do take sate & peanut-butter chocolates but in limited amounts.

I have a female colleague who cannot consume cantaloupe or honeydew. I find this strange and I have never known people to be sensitive to such fruits.

I have a male colleague who cannot consume buah nangka. He said he has a lot of problems consuming fruits, such that his menu does not contain fruits. Poor man!

I can consume almost all local fruits but during daytime only. I cannot take them at night or I get terribly asthmatic. I eat a  lot of pineapples, some watermelon, a lot of nangka and durian, some pisang (any pisang, any version), some nona (which I grow), and rarely soursop (if I see a good one). I have not eaten chiku for years now. Nobody sells chiku in Kelantan. I hardly take imported fruits except for the occasional avodaco, passion fruit, pomegranate, persimmon, grapes, oranges, and apples. I take quite a lot of foreign dried fruits - all types of raisins, figs and dates.

I had a male colleague long time ago. He had a large fruit farm which he inherited from his father. One day he took leave and returned to Johor where his fruit farm was. He plucked so much mata kucing and consumed them, I guess throughout the day and into the late night, with story-telling with his kampung folks (long time no see etc). He died one night after consuming a lot of his own mata kucing which he grew on the farm he inherited from his own father. He was 52 when he died. His father too may have died from asthma arising from mata kucing. Now every time I buy mata kucing, this haunt of death from mata kucing scares me, so I buy very little mata kucing for my children and I tell them not to consume any mata kucing at night. I warn them of the danger of asthma which can get out of hand and become fatal.