Monthly Archives: March 2012

March 28th, 2012

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What Are Your Odds Of Getting Cancer If Exposed To Radiation From The Computer?

Today my insurance agent comprising of a husband and wife team (jet setting high flyers, left school after Form 5, no degree and earning 5 figure income per month!!) came to see me to discuss about consolidating and transferring my insurance policies from another insurance company. We were talking about how much coverage I should take. Well to me, the higher the insured sum the better as you never know when you will be needing it, especially if you are stricken with critical illnesses like cancer or kidney failure where you need dialysis for life. I have seen with my own eyes how one of my former bosses had to exhaust all his life savings totaling over a million on medical expenses to battle a rare form of cancer. But sadly, he lost the battle and died a few years later.

The higher the insurance coverage, the higher your monthly premium is too. In the midst of our discussion, my insurance agent received a call from one of her customers. It was a 29 year old woman who was stricken with 3rd stage throat cancer and when she was informed of the cruel news by her doctor, she was totally devastated. She sobbed uncontrollably while talking to my insurance agent. This woman works in an IT department and uses the computer for more than 10 hours a day. My insurance agent was also trying to tell me subtly to reduce usage of the computer because of the radiation emitted.

Honestly, I am very disturbed after the meeting with my insurance agent. I have been asking myself endlessly for the past few months if it is worth betting my health against earning money from the computer. I work over 10 hours a day on the computer and only God knows how much radiation my body has been exposed to from the computer. On the other hand, I keep wallowing into self consolation and self justification by telling myself that there are millions of people all over the world who have a computer on their desk in the office and work for than 10 hours a day, so are they all going to be inflicted with some kind of deadly disease? Also, even if I do not work from home, I still need to use a computer in the office! So what are your odds of getting cancer if you are exposed to radiation from the computer, mobile phone and other electrical gadgets like microwave oven and TV, I wonder? I need a Google search again!

Radiation

March 25th, 2012

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Decaff Capuccino For Cassandra

Here is Cassandra’s cup of Capuccino and she drinks 1-2 cups a day! It is a decaff Capuccino and suitable for kids. Nah, just kidding. It is only my term of calling her fresh milk with a teaspoon of chocolate flavored formula sprinkled on the milk, just to make it sound and look more flavorful *grins*

My baby girl loves stirring the chocolate powder and watch it dissolve together with the milk. At times she will scoop up the chocolate powder with a spoon and eat it just like that. I guess doing this whets her appetite tee hehe.. If you have a child who is fully breastfed for a few years who refuses other types of milk other than mummy’s boops, you may try this method to entice your child to drink milk from a cup.

Cassandra

March 18th, 2012

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Bilberry – More Than Just For Healthy Eyes!

Upon recommendation of a friend, I got myself a bottle of Bilberry to improve my vision and to reduce the tiredness of my eyes. I chose Blackmores, which is my most trusted brand for supplements. A bottle of 60 tabs cost RM75, or equivalent to RM1.25 per tab! Pretty costly but worth a try and definitely cheaper than going for Lasik! After my visit to the pharmacy to get the Bilberry, I went to the optician to have my eyes checked. It seems my eye sight has not deteriorated but I wouldn’t trust the accuracy of the machine. Alycia and Sherilyn had their eye sight checked too, both by the eye-sight checker machine as well as manually. The results were very contradicting. The machine showed that Alycia had a power of over 100 for short sightedness but the manual check showed that her eye sight is perfect – she could see even the smallest number at the bottom. As for Sherilyn, the machine showed that she had no power but in the manual check, she could not see clearly a few numbers and letters. Anyway, I shall see how effective the Bilberry tabs are before turning to the opthalmologist.

Bilberry Health Benefits:

Some of the main constituents of bilberry are anthocyanins, other flavonoids, iridoids glycosides (asperuloside and monotropein) and phenolic acids as well as catechol tannins and proanthocyanidins.

The most well-known health property of his herb is perhaps how bilberry benefits the eyes. The anthocyanins are thought to be effective in treating a variety of eye-related ailments, and have vision-boosting and vision improving properties.

More information regarding bilberry eye health effects are discussed in another related bilberry article.

The medicinal and healing properties of this herbal medicine include astringent, anti-inflammatory, anti-septic, and anti-oxidant properties.

It reduces the levels of blood lipids and glucose. It is also considered an effective antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-exudative and anti-ulcerous agent. This attributes bilberry with the ability to improve permeability of capillaries and greatly enhances wound healing, and also gives it blood thinning properties.

Due to high anti-oxidant content of bilberries (main antioxidant being anthocyanocides), they are prescribed for disease prevention and immune-boosting supplements to improve overall health and promote longevity. In this regard, the health benefits of bilberry can be quite wide-ranging.

Bilberry health benefits also include combating vascular disorders, where bilberries are found to be effective in treating varicose veins, blood clotting (thrombosis) and angina. Anthocyanocides help prevent heart disease by strengthening capillaries, prevent the blood from clotting and also stimulate release of vasodilators. All this helps in greatly improving heart function and good health.

Also, another bilberry health benefit is its ability to lower blood pressure and improve blood supply to the nerves. This too contributes to overall organ health and improved overall health.

Bilberry contains glucoquinine which is effective in lowering blood sugar. Bilberry leaf tea is high in chromium and this too is said to reduce blood sugar levels. The leaves and berries are often used in homeopathic medicine for the treatment of diabetes.

From the sixteenth century to this day, bilberry is often used as an antidote to digestive problems like nausea, indigestion and diarrhea.

Bilberry has also been used to treat inflammation and ulcers in the mucous membranes of the mouth and throat.

Dried bilberry fruit and bilberry tea have been used as a treatment for diarrhea and as a relief for nausea and indigestion. Bilberry tea is used to soothe the digestive tract. In combination with honey, a syrupy concoction of bilberry has been used as a soothing remedy for the treatment of diarrhea and other common stomach ailments.

Bilberry is known to have been used as a soothing, remedial treatment for sore throats. Traditionally, one bilberry health benefit is that a gargle or tea made from dried bilberries has provided immediate relief for sore throat.

Bilberry has also been used traditionally in the treatment of diabetes, fibrocystic breast disease, and painful menstruation.

Further, bilberries are used as a food / dietary supplement and used in making preserves, bilberry jams, wines and liqueurs.

Nutritional Information of Fruits

March 10th, 2012

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Need A Trip To The Optician

I have been feeling a tad queasy and dizzy for the past few days, in addition to feeling lethargic and hungry all the time. Nope, it is not what you are thinking about… I hope NOT! Nah, it is NOT! The light headedness and drowsy feeling happens if I am seated in front of the computer. I think my eyes need to be checked for an increase in power for long and short sightedness. To begin with, I have all the vision disorders from long and short sightedness to astigmatism to night blindness! I started to wear glasses when I was 13 years old but only wore them when I needed to read. At my workplace, I only wore them when I was using the computer or had to check loan documents and write reports. I stopped wearing the glasses about 9 years ago, out of vanity. I was tempted to wear contact lenses but chickened out when one of my ertswhile colleagues had a bad bout of eye infection caused by the contact lenses that she wore. Now that I am working in front of the desktop computer for more than 10 hours a day, I can feel the stress and burden on my over-worked eyes. I could even see floating black spots several times in a day. I read that those black spots are caused mostly from major stress of the eyes and lack of sleep.

Now coming back to the light headedness I get, I must make an effort to go to the optician to have my eyes checked during this 1-week long school holiday. At the same time, I could have my girls’ eyes checked too. I am a tad worried that they will inherit my genes. My parents and brother need to wear glasses too. Several of my hubs’ immediate family members wear glasses too. Am also worried that their regular usage of the iPad and laptop could have some adverse reaction to their eyesight.

Black dot in eye vision, Vision Problem

March 6th, 2012

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Shopping Spree at Ikea

We were at Ikea yesterday to claim my monthly cash reward. We had earlier planned to spend a maximum of 2 hours there but ended up spending 4 hours in that giant furniture shop. If I were given a big sum of cash to splurge, I would love to get a new piece of furniture for every section of my house from the bedrooms to the living room, bathrooms and kitchen. I wanted so much to get those colorful cupboards for the girls’ room, a new sofa set for the living room, a book shelf for my girls’ expanding collection of books, some Bellini modern bar stools for the dry kitchen, an office chair for my work area and a side table for my bedroom. If we were to buy all these, we would have spent over RM10k in that store. Though we did not get anything really big, we spent over a thousand Ringgit on a shoe shelf and other accessories. It’s pretty ‘dangerous’ to step into a huge furniture shop for you will surely be tempted to over-spend and buy unnecessarily.

Uncategorized

March 5th, 2012

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My Comfort Food

Not the healthiest of breakfast choice, but the simple and cheap economical fried vermicelli or ‘king jai fun’ is my all-time favourite comfort food since aeons ago up until today! This simple yet comforting staple food served as breakfast and even lunch is ubiquetious in the morning, at road-side stalls, vans and in coffee shops. The usual side-dishes that go well alongside it are chicken curry, fried eggs, sausages, fish cakes, spring rolls fish balls and vegetables curry. Some like it eaten with soy bean sweet sauce (teem ceong), curry gravy and chilli sauce. For me, I like it eaten with chicken curry and fried fish spring rolls. I had sought so much comfort eating it during my 3 pregnancies as it had never failed to help reduce my morning sickness. I could eat it 3x a day and not get fed-up with it!

Me, Snacks

March 2nd, 2012

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Pissed Off By A Sulky Contractor

For the past 3 days, our house, in particular the kitchen has been in a mess because of the repair works on the kitchen wall. The entire wet kitchen was rendered impassable and all the things were moved into the dry kitchen. Everywhere was dust and dirt. The contractor’s equipment like power drills, hammer, leveling feet, tool box and boxes of tiles were scattered in the kitchen. I just cannot stand the sulky looking contractor with dirt covered hands and feet entering my bathroom to use it! I told him to use the toilet at the pool area downstairs but he told me “you want me to go all the way downstairs to use?” OMG, who the heck did he think he was?? We are paying him, oh please, mind your manners Mr! There are still some jobs not finished yet and he still has another 1-2 days with us and yes, he is one slow worker too, who would puff away once every 2 hours, aargh!

Uncategorized

March 1st, 2012

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Jews Mallow To Treat Numbness Of The Hands and Diabetes — PICTURE OF JEWS MALLOW

As requested by some of my friends and blog readers, I managed to buy another bunch of Jews Mallow from the organic veggie seller and have the picture snapped. Here you go:

Notice the tiny little ‘bean’ like hanging on the twig? The taste and texture are similar to that of ladies fingers. Remember to eat only the leaves. The big and tiny twigs are very hard and very difficult to chew. You can either blanch it briefly with any soup of your choice or simply blanch it plain and add in some salad dressing of your choice. I like it eaten both ways 🙂

Since it is not easily available, I am unable to consume it regularly to treat the numbness on my hands. But I have discovered that if I sleep on my back throughout the night, the numbness and tingling sensation on my hands can be kept at bay. However, I can still feel those ‘warm’ and numbing waves coming if I try to sleep on my sides. So I have to sacrifice sleeping on my right, which is my favorite sleeping position and remain in a supine position for 5-7 each night!

Vegetables nutritional informaiton