Health Blog by YinTeing

Posted By Yin Teing on July 3, 2009

If I am not mistaken, the tool as shown in the picture below is used for massage. But I find it very useful as an acupressure tool. I bought the sturdy wooden tool from a small stall in the remote area of Thailand. Can’t comfirm if it is really used for acupressure- but I find it useful for self-applied acupressure, especially dealing with areas like the stomach for wind in the stomach.

It costs me about 20baht (RM2), which I easily carry around in a handbag or small bag. Of the four different points, I find the sharpest point is the most useful point. The sharp point made it easier to press at a particular acupressure point- it is more effective than using the thumb (in my opinion) because area point of contact is lesser. Less strength is required as well.  Well, I tend to modify the function of items like using the guadsa board as a portable muscle ache reliever- also because it requires less strength compared to massaging with the hands.

The item above can be bought in the tourist shops selling wooden products in Thailand. But if you do not travel to that part of the world, I hope the picture above give you an idea and perhaps you can get a carpenter to make one for you.

For similar posts on acupressure, you can perform a search via the search options of this blog using the keyword ‘acupressure‘ or view the past articles below:

• Relieve Running Nose/ Sinus with Acupressure
• Treat ‘Wind in the Stomach’ with Simple Acupressure
• Portable Muscle Ache Reliever- Guadsa Board
• Stomach Pain/Spasms- Due to excessive wind element

Category: Traditional Practices | Write a comment »
Tags:

Posted By Yin Teing on June 28, 2009

 How Do You know If You Are a Hostile Person?

According to the book Mind-Body Diabetes Revolution, the term “hostility syndrome” describes a group of risky thoughts and behaviour that includes cynicism, anger and aggression:

Cynicsm-  Hostily starts with the way you think. If you’re hostile, you don’t trust others and think that most people are selfish and out to get you. You might say things like, “I can never trust others to do the right thing. If I need something done right, I have to do it myself. ” Such thoughts often lead to anger, the next element of the hostile personality type.

Anger- Because of your cynical thoughts, you have a short fuse for your anger. As soon as someone confirms your cynical suspicions- for example by taking the parking space you were already backing into- the lid for your anger pops off, and you feel irritated, annoyed, and frustrated. This leads to the last element of the hostile personality: agression.

Aggression- Your near-constant anger causes you to lash out. You may yell at people, hit them, or shove them. You might displace your anger by kicking the dog or screaming at your kids. You might punch a hole in the wall, tallgate other drivers, or throw objects.

~~ Mind-Body Diabetes Revolution

Why Being Hostile is Bad for You

1. You make others miserable and they make you miserable too

If you were to examine arguments that you have with other people objectively, you will find most often that it is due to miscommuncation. Perhaps you’ve had a bad day at work- and you go back and snap at your wife when she talks to you. She either snaps back at you - this is followed by a shouting match. Or she keeps quiet but unconsciously hold a grudge- and in another situation, she may say something unpleasant over a seemingly innocent event. And you wonder why she does not seems to be supportive of you- if you were to examine the root cause and one party is willing to communicate using gentle and kind speech, the other party will respond the same after a while.

If you feel that the whole world seemed to be against you, take an honest look at how you communicate with others. We have nothing to gain but rejection, heartache and unhappiness if we were to insist to be self righteous and have a quick temper.

2. Increase susceptibility to heart attacks

One of my friend’s father suffered a heart attack not long ago despite being a very healthy person- always eating right and exercising. As the author mentioned the role of hostility in heart attacks, I can now understand why he got an heart attack- he is by nature a self righteous man who often lost his temper and bully his wife.

Hostile people finds it easier to be stressed up and to manage it. This is magnified many times over especially if one happens to be addicted to caffeine. As we know, each time we are stress, we trigger the fight-or-flight syndrome releasing all the stress hormones and elevating our blood pressure. When triggered, your liver coverts fat to cholesterol or blood lipids because the fight-or-flight syndrome signals to your body that it needs fuel. And because you are already having chronically elevated blood pressure which damages the artery linings, it makes it easier for the lipids to be stuck or deposited alongside your artery linings. Eventually, with stress eating, the excess calories easily converts to atherosclerosis or clogged arteries. That eventually leads to a heart attack.

Autopsies performed on patients who died from heart attacks shows that a person who has a hostile nature has many more blocked arteries compared to someone who is not. That means people who are not so hostile will stand a better chance of surviving a heart attack than a very hostile person.

3. The tendency to turn to substance abuse and overeating

To deal with stress and unhappiness, hostile people tend to self medicate with alcohol, cigarettes and food instead of seeking professional help. A study done showed that hostile type consume a shocking 600 extra calories a day than non hostile type. When the weight gain goes out of control, the negative self image makes us hate ourselves even more and thus the vicious cycle never ends. The solution is to seek professional help or therapy to deal with any issue or hostility. And to consciously learn the various methods to relax the mind, let go and unwind.

Endnote:

I always find that I learn a lot from reading good health books. Thankfully, I do not suffer from diabetes but a number of people I cared about do. The Mind-Body Diabetes Revolution was written primary for diabetics but the author also shared a lot of insight on the subject of hostility- and how it is linked to heart diseases.

Category: Heart Diseases, Inner Peace, Losing Weight | Write a comment »
Tags:

Posted By Yin Teing on June 23, 2009

Due to occupational hazards, some people are developing a hunched back prematurely.  When we think of a hunched back, or a gradual forward bending body, we normally think of seniors at the age of 60 or above. But I am beginning to observe younger and younger people having a hunched back due to:

• occupational hazards
• wrong ergonomics- spending hours in a day hunched in front of a PC

You may find this to be true if you were to observe people around you. For instance, I know a lady who operates a home based dobby being very hunched- since she was in her early forties. Reason being is she spent hours and hours everyday ironing clothes.

Recently I’ve visited my regular hairsylist. I remembered the first time I know her, she was pregnant with her first child. Her girl is now schooling. Over the years, I’ve seen her back going more and more hunched- and she is only about 30 years old.

Causes of Hunched Back- Muscle Imbalance

Why our backs hunch forward? It is because of muscle imbalance. The chest (pectorial) muscles are stronger and used more often than the back muscles (trapezious).  Medically it is also known as kyphosis lordosis. Sometimes you can observe this phenomenon on men who are very into body building- they focus too much to develop muscular chest muscles and less emphasize on the back muscles- therefore, they may walk around in a slightly hunched posture.

I also noticed that tall people tend to have hunched back- especially amongst Asians when it is not common to be too tall. Tall people tend to have to lower themselves to talk most of the time to their families and loved ones. Especially for a tall girl, who would usually have shorter friends and if she is taller than most guys, she will also subconsiously try to ’shorten’ herself by hunching her back.   

Dangers of Hunched Back

When the back is hunched, the backbone does not remain in a neutral “S” shaped position. In fact, the thoracic spine (upper spine) curves outward. This imbalance will cause overcompensation, ie some muscles working harder than it had to. Not only that, it also causes additional stress to our backbone. One can imagine years of chronically stressing the backbone will result lower back pain, muscular aches, osteoporosis, and possibly arthritis.

We may not be conscious of it, but it is better to stand and sit as what nature intends to be without hunching our backs. We will look much nicer and more confident no matter what clothes we wear if our backs are not hunched.

Exercises to Reduce Hunched Back Syndrome

Parents will tell their kids to ’sit straight’ if they see their kids hunched over something. While being conscious of our posture by checking ourselves over the mirror helps, we also need to do some stretching exercises to loosen tight muscles and strengthen the back muscles.

1. Using the exercise band to stretch the front and back muscles

Pic taken from: http://exercise.about.com/library/blbandstretch.htm

(more…)

Category: Posture | Write a comment »
Tags:

Posted By Yin Teing on June 19, 2009

In the book called The Mind-Body Diabetes Revolution writen by Dr Richard S. Surwit with Alisa Bauman, carries a short tagline:

The proven way to control your blood sugar by managing stress, depression, anger and other emotions.

Dr Richard had spent about 20 years studying the relationship between blood sugar levels and the emotional state of a person having diabetes. If you read the book, you will find that the advise are all based on clinical studies being done either by himself or other researchers- not on assumptions or gut feeling.

Standard Treatment Protocol for Diabetes

When a person has diabetes, the standard treatments prescribed by doctors are:

1. Diet and weight loss

Patients are told to stay away from a diet high protein and high fat diet. Actually many people had the perception that diabetics should never take anything sweet but more findings is ponting towards a high fat diet as the cause of blood sugar control problems. He did a study whereby 50 women were fed with the Rice Diet (consists of high glycemic index food but little fat) and he found that these women lost weight and have their blood under better control. This differs from what that is commonly thought- that high glycemic food- ie food like fruit juice, sweets, white rice and white bread that converts rapidly raises the blood sugar is a no no for diabetics. 

Losing weight even though a little can dramatically improve blood sugar control by making your cells more sensitive to insulin.

2. Exercise

Aerobic exercises and strength training are beneficial for diabetic control. Aerobic activity improves your blood circulation and oxygen usage capacity of your muscles/organs. It burn calories, strengthens the heart which lowers the risk of heart disease (one of the complications of diabetes). Strength training helps you build more muscles and so increase your metabolic rate. It is indispensable if you want to live optimally. However, diabetics are considered to be under special population- therefore, before you begin any exercise program, you must consult a physician and obtain the clerance- but please don’t use this as an excuse not to exercise.

(more…)

Category: Diabetes | Write a comment »
Tags:

Posted By Yin Teing on June 15, 2009

When we are very busy, it is often easy to neglect our workouts. It takes a lot of motivation for one to start and remain in a fitness program- either by exercising on your own or going to the gym. 

I will not talk about the obvious here- that is weight gain. Let’s deal with the less obvious thing that unknowing to us, will eat into the quality of our lives.

What happens when you don’t exercise:

If you always seemed to be suffering from the following symptoms, it could be attributed to lack of exercise or physical movement:

1. Lower back pain/sore back

We sit all the time at work, then we come back and sit even more by turning on the television to ‘destress’. Many people find that life is more interesting by watching on what is happening to the rest of the world, the latest movies, celebrity gossip, etc than to have a simple body workout.

If you have a stiff/sore back, you will be surprised at how a bit of stretching and light cardio exercises can relief the symptoms. For instance, the last couple of days, I felt that my back was getting a bit sore because I had missed out on exercising. I was attending a course and spent a number of hours sitting on the floor- which of course is not making the condition better. So, finally All I did was some sun salutation poses that I’ve learned from yoga and some spinal twists- and the symptoms were gone.

Caution: If the backpain is severe, please check with a physican- do not try any exercises because it could be an indication of a back injury/condition that requires medical attention.

2. Stiff shoulders, joints, legs and other parts of the body

If your body is stiff, it is likely that your body is also very inflexible. But you also have to check if your ergonomics are correct, ie is the position of your workstation like the height of your chair and laptop is not too high or low. Stiffness in the body can be greatly reduced by doing stretching exercises.

First thing in the morning when getting up from the bed, try to stretch like a cat. Find time to do some light cardio like a little running on the spot to warm up your muscles. If you don’t warm up the muscles, especially first thing in the morning, you may end up pulling a muscle when you do stretching.

(more…)

Category: Diabetes, Losing Weight, Staying Motivated | 1 Comment »
Tags:

Posted By Yin Teing on June 11, 2009

When I was a teenager, my mom bought the book “The Body Principal” written by Victoria Principal. Victoria Principal is well known for her role in the soap opera Dallas. This book hit the market during the time when aerobics were popular and mega gyms are probably not around yet. But the emphasis is different- it offers a comprehensive exercise program that is easy to do anywhere and hopefully one that a person can stick to for life.

Victoria's Principal- The Body Principal

The book was on special offer price by Popular bookstore (because it was more than a decade since it was writen).  I remembered the first time when I read the book, I was so motivated that I got on to exercising right away.

In the book, Victoria introduced a series of isometric contraction exercises. She showed how these exercises can be performed anywhere- while waiting in line at the grocery store, sitting at the hairstylist or while driving. No one will even notice when you are tightening your butt or stretching/contracting your calf muscles. Those exercises worked for her because at the time she wrote the book, she led a very busy life- full time career as an actress, run her own home, do her own cooking, led an active social life and regularly volunteer her services. It was something that a lot busy working women could relate to.  Some of the exercises were quite tough… and effective.

There are many exercise books in the market now but very few teaches isometric exercises and blending exercise into our lives. Isometric contraction actually helps to tighten the muscles- but it takes longer for the effect to be shown compared to isotonic exercises like lifting weights. But isometric contraction exercises- can cover areas that are hard to reach by exercise machines. Imagine, if you spend about an hour commuting to work, and do discreetly do these exercises- in the long run, your butt’s much tighter from the tighening exercises you do than the missed sessions at the gym. Other examples:

(more…)

Category: Gymless Workouts, Strength Training | Write a comment »
Tags:

Posted By Yin Teing on June 5, 2009

When a person is diagnosed with cancer, friends and relatives often try to help by offering ‘helpful’ tips. Diagnosis of such illness are often traumatising for both the patient and the family members- after all,  no one is prepared for such news. There is no denying that a lot of these are offered based on good intention, because the person friend’s friend’s auntie’s third sister had tried a particular method and it seemed to work. Some however, take the opportunity to ride on the vulnerability of the situation to sell some products/services.

Example of “tips” offered:

• Going on organic, fasting or other extreme diets with the intention to ’starve the cancer cells’ and detox
• Stop eating meat or certain kinds of “cancer enhancing” food
• Eat certain brand of supplements
• Take herbs
• Buy certain brand of water filter
• Go for detox like coffee enema, liver cleanse, etc

The above needs to be taken with a strong pinch of salt. Sure, reducing red meat and using filtered water can improve health but drastically switching diets or going for extreme detox may not be workable from an already compromised immune system. The Guardian ran a very useful article on 3 June 09 called Harmful Changes writen by Denis Campbell. The article mentioned that resorting to extreme diets such as fasting, vegan, drinking only fruit/vegetable juices, etc may do more harm than good.

“We believe that there is a place for complementary (not alternative) approaches to cancer treatment. By that, we do not mean alternative or complementary medicine, but holistic approaches like tai chi, qi gong, aromatherapy or diet,” he elaborates.
Alternative medicine cannot be accepted, because there have been no randomised, controlled, blinded studies done to prove their efficacy or safety.
“We cannot take anecdotal reports to highlight the benefits of a treatment. Currently, only mainstream medicine is evidence-based.”~ Dr Gurcharan Singh (Malaysian Oncological Society) 

I feel sad that due to ignorance, many had resorted to all types of unproven methods for cures. And many people refuse to opt for conventional treatment because it seems that people die due to chemo/radiotherapy. Well, here’s what my mom and her group of friends who are retired staff nurses have to say about that:

(more…)

Category: Better Safe Than Sorry, Cancer | Write a comment »
Tags: