Health Blog by YinTeing

For a long time, I have been very concerned with children taking antibiotics whenever they have fever, cough or flu/cold. Sometimes, it is hard to blame the parents- because a child having fever has to be monitored because fever than goes too high may cause brain damage. And most of the time, both parents are working, there are no one fully reliable to monitor the child- so the antibiotic is used as a quick kill.

But antibiotic, as the word implies, is effective if you want to treat a bacterial infection. Most flu and fevers are virus infection, not bacteria. Previously, I had some colleagues coming to work sick, with the flu, sore throat or are coughing. When I asked them why they fell sick, many told me that they contracted from their kids, who fell sick just a few days before. As some children are placed in day care centers, it is easy for them to contract the virus from their little friends while playing together and sharing food.

During my schooling days, normally we are only down for about 2 to 3 days before we recover from flu, cough or fever.  When I was growing up, my mom made it a point to cook for the family- to provide simple but nutritious food even though it meant that she had to get up every morning at 5.45am (she had to take 2 minibuses to work).  She said that by eating healthy food, the body will be able to built up a better immune system in the long run. When we fall sick (which touch wood were infrequent), mom (who is a qualified staffnurse) did not give us antibiotics- she made us drink lots of water, just take a paracetemol and rest a lot.

But as the virus strain seems to get stronger, now it takes at least a week for most people to recover. Even after a week, when they come to work, you can still hear sneezing, cough or hoarse voice (sore throat) even though the fever’s gone.

In a study conducted on 168 children (from 6 months to 2 years old) who came in with ear infections, 75 children were given antibiotics and 86 children were given placebos as treatment. It is found that 63% of children given antibiotics to treat their ear infections suffered a recurrence within 3 years compared to 43% who were given a placebo.

Below are some websites that discuss on the disadvantages of using antibiotics for treatment of ear infections, fever and flu.

Further Reading:

• Doctors: Skip antibiotics for child ear infections
• Antibiotics s bad solution for ear infections!
• Antibiotics May Boost Risk for Recurrent Ear Infection
• The Danger of Antibiotic Overuse
• Telegraph UK: Stop giving antibiotics for colds, doctors told  

How I came down with the chill

One Thursday, it was raining very heavily as I ran out the car to unlock the gate after meeting up with someone. I thought nothing about it as I was often caught in the rain when I was staying in Thailand- since I am the type who rather make a dash for shelter while raining than to use the umbrella. Still, I had my suspicion because on the same time, I took some antibiotics prescribed by my dentist- he wanted me to take antibiotics before he pulls an infected tooth out. And it was a new antibiotics that he was trying out- it was not the usual one that he had given me. If it is not because of a possible infection prior to tooth extraction, I would have never taken antibiotics- even when I have fever.

By Saturday, I spent about 2 hours in the gym (yes, I rejoined back the gym). On Sunday, I started feeling a bit tired and did cardio for about an hour and skipped the strength training. By Monday, when I woke up, things are not looking good- it started with the sinus like symptoms (not flu coz my body was not aching). My body felt weak. Things got worse by the days that passed. By Wednesday, I had problem sleeping because as soon as lie down, I started coughing.

By Thursday, I tried the herbs steam bath- it seemed to improve the flu like conditions but not the cough. H1N1 is ruled out because I did not develop fever. Then by Friday, when things were not improving, my mom insisted I visit a traditional Chinese medical doctor recommended by a concerned neighbour.

Interesting Discovery and Advise Given by the Chinese doctor

The Chinese doctor is an elderly man with white hair and a rosy complexion. He felt my pulse on both hands, put his palms on mine and touched the edges of my fingers to diagnose my condition. I was amazed by his accuracy. He told me I had caught a slight chill. He also knew I was on medication- at first I told him about taking a panadol. He said it was something more. Then I remembered the antibiotics. He said by feeling the edges of my fingers, he knew I had taken some kind of medication that I was allergic too. He told me to stay away from antibiotics if I can because it is not suited to my body and does it more harm than good. He said that this medication would have made me had chest discomfort or feeling tired- it was very true.

He told me to stay away from all fried or oily food for the time being until I get well. According to him, by taking fried food, they ‘cover over’ the element imbalance, thus making the body unable to get well. And he said that the medicine will not get through to cure the condition because the layer of fat ‘protects it’.  One thing if you were to take traditional Chinese or Malay medication, you have to follow strict guidelines and have to stay away from certain type of food.  In my case, he told me to stay away from watermelon, pineapple, Ceylonese tea (he said Ceylonese tea or ‘teh tarik’ is very unsuitable for my body).

I also learned got some advise from him that I feel makes sense and I want to share this:

• Chinese medicine that had to be boiled should be taken latest by 5 till 6pm (before the sun sets). This is because when the sun sets, the ‘fire’ in our body slows down in order to get our body ready to retire for the night. If we take the Chinese medicine, we need to move a bit in order for the medicine to circulate and absorb into our cells. Some people have the idea to take it before going to sleep- unless specified, don’t do that.
• If you can, do not ever bathe after the sun sets. This is applicable for all.  I have heard this advice from a number of traditional healers. Bathing after the sun sets or at night will bring on arthritis in later years.

It is long known that conventional antibiotics and tablets will only treat the symptoms of common illnesses. Traditional Chinese medication will zoom in straight to treat the cause so that it has a less chance of reoccuring.

Here's how the prescribed Chinese medicine prescribed by my chill treatment

The picture above shows the medication that he had prescribed to me. All in, together with consultation, I paid only about RM36. The instruction is to boil the medicine with 8 cups of water. Boil until the water is reduced to about one cup of water. Then drink it- the sweet (in the picture) is given for me to take to rid of the bitter taste in my mouth after taking the medicine.

how the medicine looked like after being boiled

Did the Chinese Medicine cure my condition?

After taking the time, my cough disappeared just like that. No more night cough. I also don’t feel tired and could attend a full day seminar on Saturday as well as put in a couple of hours worth of cardio workout.

To think that many of my long suffering friends- eating anything from Fisherman’s Friend, cough mixtures (that normally have sedative effect) and taking antibiotics to relieve their cough. And it never seemed to work- most of the time, the cough will get worse, causing panda eyes because the sufferer couldn’t sleep and lost of productivity away from work. Not to mention feeling awkward when they could not control their cough in public places or meetings and coughing till their chest hurts and tears come out.

Perhaps a simple prescription of Chinese medicine can cure. Or if you do not have access to this, you can try naturalpathy or homeopathy.

But a word of caution: for potentially life theatening conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, etc- please consult conventional doctors and before you try anything, make sure your doctor is aware of this.

Is it just me or do you also notice that a number of people around you seemed to be down with flu, fever, cough or sore throat? Perhaps someone you know had just caught a chill and is down and out for about a week.

You may resort to taking a course of antibiotics or popping some aspirin and getting some good sleep. What happens in this fast paced world where we cannot afford to slow down and to be missing in action? And the quick kills of taking antibiotics and pill popping does not seems to work?

There is a traditional housewife remedy that is known to be especially useful to relieve chills. But first, before you try it, get yourself checked to rule out H1N1 virus, or dengue fever, okie?

Method:

Letting the steam from a pot of  boiled herbs permeates your entire body- with yourself fully covered up in a blanket. The principal behind it is for your to inhale the steam from the ingredients that will help you to clear up your lungs and sinus block. And also to make you sweat to cool down your body and get the toxins out.

How to do it:

1. Boil the following in a pot of water under slow fire for about an hour:

continue reading…

A throbbing and painful tooth is a horrible nightmare for anyone to go through. It is something that most of us have experience in one time of our lives. When the pain gets so bad, everything else in your life will go into a blur except that painful overbearing PAIN that gets so BAD.

But what happens if the pain comes in during a late Saturday nite or a holiday and you cannot find a nearby dentist?

Pop in an aspirin or panadol? It can be a solution except you will keep popping and the bad news is after a while, it may not even work.

Then what happens if you are in the middle of nowhere that you cannot even pull the offending tooth out yourself with a pair of pliers even if you want to. What do you do?

Personally, I have two experiences of being ‘attacked’ by a serious toothache when dental access is not there. The method’s not conventional, but it works…

The First Time

In the year of 2004, I took about 10 days off from work to attend a meditation retreat in Cameron Highlands. I have attended some meditation classes years before during university but like many working adults, life just got too exciting and fast paced that I well, sort of slipped off the practice.

So, in the meditation hall in the hills of Cameron Highlands, I had problem settling my mind because only the a day before, I had stayed back late at work to finish off some work before the holiday. So the high speed geared mind that was so used to thinking on my feet and working under pressure was not about to show any signs of slowing down. My mind was everywhere except being present to where I was, seated on top of the cushion. It goes everywhere, to my work, my direction in life, the past and the unknown future. When I opened my eyes to peek at others sitting on the hall, everyone seemed to sit still and were deep in concentration. And me…. I tried and forced, but I just could not settle my restless mind.

Then it came…… the toothache.

In the afternoon after lunch, it started as a dull discomfort. By evening, it became a full blown absolutely painful episode. My wondering mind stopped dead on its track and I was completely overwhelmed by the pain. It was only the second day and there was another 7 days to go. Gosh, how am I to live through it?

continue reading…

7Recently Abbott ran an interesting advertisement to bring awareness the Helicobacter pylori in the stomach that can cause the following symptoms:

• feeling tired without an obvious reason
• burning, cramping or hunger like pain in the stomach area, often between meals and in the early morning hours
• black tarry or bloody stools (which means there is a bleeding ulcer)
• nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite.

The company suggested that if you suffer from the signs above, you may want to consider getting a H.pylori Serology test done at participating clinics. 

The ad also mentioned that H. pylori causes discomfort, ulcers and increase the risk of stomach cancer by 6 fold.  Like the connection between HPV virus and uterus cancer, if you show the above signs, you may also want to get a test done as well as adopting healthy eating habits. If you have been found to have the bacteria, at least the bacteria can be controlled by appropriate treatment. 

Just on 10 July 09, The Star paper reported that the Galas state assemblyman aged 45 has been diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer.  Cancer related to the digestive system are getting to be more common by the way largely due to dietary habits and a sedentary lifestyle. A gastric attack or constant stomach spasms and pain are considered normal and a by-product of a hectic and demanding corporate lifestyle- but if the pain is happening too often, it is wise to really consider getting a check-up done, exercising and eating more fiber and less processed/fatty foods. 

Further reading on the web on Helicobacter pylori:

• Helicobacter Foundation- foundation that provides the latest news pertaining to diagnosis, treatment and clinical perspective
• Helicobacter pylori as defined in Wikipedia
• Getting to know H. pylori – previous article in The Star

Recently, Fitness Concepts and The Star Online announced the winners of the “Forever Young Dad” contest. Basically, readers are asked to submit in photos of their dads who have stayed active in order to win the following price. The list of winners were announced and published on 10 July 09. It is well worth to list the various methods adopted by many folks out there:

 By Hooi Wunling: My dad’s recipe of staying young and healthy is working out regularly in his home gym and on the weekends, he also spend quality time with us.

By Lee Poh Chuan: My dad cycles for half an hour everyday whilst watching TV (good idea for those TV addicts- Fitness Concept have been trying to sell home gym equipments by saying that it is good to exercise while watching TV)

Other good ideas:

continue reading…

You are an avid exerciser because you know about the benefits of staying physically active. You visited the gym frequently and even go for tennis and futsall sessions with your pals. You do everything right as prescribed by the professionals: you do your cardio, weight lifting (and have those lean muscles to show) as well as the duly stretching to wrap up the session.

And yet, you seemed to be constantly suffering from pain- the stiff neck, or lower back pain and sometimes, knee pain. You wondered why?

There are a few possible explanation that stems from:

• muscle imbalance, particularly at the core area
• imbalance of chi (Eastern philosophy)
• emotional stress that translates into pain (mind-body medicine)

In this article, I will just address only the first factor- muscle imbalance at the core. The other 2 factors will be covered in more detail in future articles.

Now, many avid exercisers are becoming aware about the concept of ‘core strength’ and ‘core stability’. Let me ask you: is your idea of building a strong core related to doing lots of push-ups, having a flat stomach and using the back-extension or the hyperextension machines?

If that is what you are doing to develop the core stability, what you are doing is only a small part of developing core strength. In her book, Straighter, Stronger, Leaner, Longer, former dancer Renee Daniels talks about what it takes to develop a strong core.

continue reading…

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