Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Oxidative Stress! Starring the Thief, the Police, the Builder

Oxidative Stress sounds like a big big phrase. Understanding the meaning of it also caused some stress ... ha ha ha.

I have read quite a bit on what is oxidative stress and have come up with a version that is layman enough to explain free radical and anti-oxidant to a 4 year old?

Enjoy the story
=======================================

Starring :
Free Radical as the thief;
Antioxidant as the police;
Vitamins & Minerals as the builders

Crime Scene:
Your body cell as the house.

The Story:
The free radical is the thief that goes around to steal things from your body cells a.k.a the house. What do they steal? They steal molecules from the cells and in the process, the cells are damaged.

The antioxidant is like the police. They will go round to hunt down the thief. When the antioxidant catches the free radical, they will donate a molecule to the free radical so that the free radical stops going round to destroy the cells. But, the police cannot finish catching all the thieves, so there will be some cells which will be damaged.

Now, it is time for the grand entrance of our builder heros a.k.a vitamins & minerals. They will provide the raw materials for the body to repair itself.

Oxidative stress happens when there are more damages than repairs. Over a period of 10 - 20 years, this can potentially lead to faster aging and degenerative diseases (cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart diseases etc).

*** End of Story ***

Food for thought...
We should be getting our vitamins and minerals from our food. But really how much are you consuming of the right type of food? What did you have for your 3 meals today?

Here is a typical menu for a day:

breakfast : bread and coffee
lunch : fishball noodles
dinner : vegetables, meat and rice

Antioxidants, vitamins & minerals come from FRESH fruits and vegetables. So how fresh is our food based on the typical menu for a day?

Hope you enjoyed this story! :)

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Graduated!

My son has graduated!.... errr.... from K2 only lah. But there is graduation gown, motar cap, fanfare, scroll etc. Like the real thing right?

Let me count... still have to wait another 18 years for the real thing leh... never mind, just take it as the preview. :P




















The school had a graduation cum concert. The theme of the Concert is "Wonderfully Made" this year. Really must give credit to his teacher, Tr Iris for putting in so much effort in coming up with this dance item, Adam & Eve. Really not easy. There is choreographing, rehearsing and coaching the kids to come up with such a magnificent performance. I see already very 感动.

No wonder, my Jiaheng a.k.a. Adam kept asking me "Mommy, do you know what is love?" while he was preparing for the concert. Now I know why.



-- posted by Mommy

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

这样的儿子哪里找?

女儿的三岁生日要到了。 回想起刚出世的她, 小脸蛋上印着黑黑的一片瘀青。那时看了又心痛又担心, 害怕那不是瘀青而是胎记。医生一再安慰我说那是接生时用钳子夹她出来留下的。但是还是担心的要死。直到那瘀青散了才安心。

唉。。。做父母的总是为孩子操心这, 操心那的。养儿一百岁,长忧九十九,可能就是这个意思吧。

我们从澳洲回来就开始筹备女儿的party。虽然只是在家里举办,也只是请了immediate family members 但是也不可以太马虎。主要是布置家里和准备goodie bags 和食物。 就这些也够忙的我团团转。

Party 结束后, 我真的好累好累。女儿睡了后, 我告诉家亨说妈妈好累要进房休息, 而且脚板好酸痛, 要他帮我拿一只捶脚的棒来。没想到, 我躺在床上感觉到有人在帮我捶脚。还真舒服, 儿子you are so sweet。 我也真是累了, 加上儿子的superb service, 不知不觉的睡着了。当我忽然间醒来时, 儿子还在帮我捶脚。On top of that, 他还开了风扇吹我, 怕我热。 哎哟, 当下的我好感动啊! 儿子你真孝顺。

过后跟老公说起这件事, 老公说 “这样的儿子哪里找?” And I totally agree, we are so blessed。

--- posted by Mommy

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

sailing...kangaroos... Perth

My wife and I spent 4 wonderful days in Perth, Australia. This is my first time in Perth and the second time for Tse Wern.

It was a fully-packed 4 days, with activities arranged neck-to-neck. We were given the best lodging, the best food, the best treatment, the best experience. 4 days of great learning from inspiring leaders and 4 days of great fun.

Our hotel was next to a beach. The coastline is so long that it seems that it is never going to end. The sand was white and the sea was shades of blue and turquoise. The food is good just that there is no Chinese food for the 4 days in Perth. Yup! No wanton noodles, no chee cheong fun, no nasi lemak. Still, the food is tasty and most of the time grilled or boiled so very healthy.

We got a chance to do a dinner cruise at Swan Lake to admire the skyline along the coast as the boat cruised down the calm waters. And on the last night, we experienced a Gala Dinner. Yes, I know we must be super formal for Gala Dinner but I did not put on a tuxedo, just settled for a suit. But, my dear wife made a great fuss over what she will be wearing. Husbands out there, you will know what I mean. :P

How can a trip to Australia be complete without a visit to the kangaroos? They are very gentle and friendly animals. I was feeding one super active kangaroo and when I turned to leave, it actually reached out to clutch my hand. See how charming I am, even a kangaroo cannot resist me. :P

If you asked me what is one thing I remember most about Perth.... I will say its Sailing!

We were told that people in Perth love sailing. And we got first hand experience in doing that. It was thrilling. Our boat was travelling at about 20 knots and the wind direction kept changing that afternoon and we were like changing sides ever so often! There were a few times when I really thought that someone is going to drop into the water as the boat went like near 150 degree down into the water on one side.

I really marvel at how our boat captain can sail a boat single-handedly. I mean there were like 6 people working together to get our boat moving. When it was time to turn, one person got to release the rope on one side, the other got to tighten the rope on the other. Then one person got to ease the sail in the middle of the boat and one more got to steer. Not to mention, we need someone to tighten the wench when the rope is being tightened. Just so much action going on ALL AT THE SAME TIME! It was chaotic but FUN!

Definitely a good trip.

Afternote: Cheers To Good Gut Health

I mentioned in my earlier blog that taking antibiotics upsets the balance of good bacteria in our gut system.

Quite a few friends told me that they DO NOT take antibiotics as they know that antibiotics do them no good in the long run. But little do they know that everyone is taking antibiotics whether or not they like it or not. How is that so? Cos the meat that we take consume contains antibiotics. Nowadays, it is common practice to inject the live foal and poultry with antibiotics and these will then be passed to us when we consume meat. Scary isn't it?

That is why I am trying to turn vegan now. Will share with you more in my later blogs.

Monday, November 02, 2009

Cheers to Good Gut Health

I have come to understand that good gut health is very important... the hard way.

My wife used to have very bad morning sickness when she was expecting our first child. She will not only throw up in the morning but also throughout the day. We always joked that perhaps it can't be classified as morning sickness but all-day sickness (of course after her 1st trimester when her vomitting ceased, as if she had the mood to joke when she is "merlion-ing")

The anti-nausea pills prescribed by her gyanae didn't help. So, we resorted to alternative medicine. The natural therapist gave her probiotics and from there I learnt that probiotics are beneficial bacteria that keeps your gut healthy. Sounds yucky right, taking BACTERIA! But good ones of course. Yup! that's right. You need GOOD bacteria in your gut to have a healthy you.

When you have a healthy gut, you can digest food, absorb food nutrients and have a better immunity. That was the first time I really understood probiotics and the need for good probiotics to maintain good health. That was a good 7 years ago. And I have been hoping to find a good probiotics in the market.

To begin with, everyone has good bacteria in their gut. Problems start to occur when these good bacteria starts to reduce. Apparently, consumption of antibiotics wipe out all the bacteria in the gut, whether good or bad and that badly upsets the condition in the gut. Also, stress, illness, poor diet, lack of rest, environmental conditions, low water consumption will greatly affect the good bacteria in your gut. I guess the more I know, the more I know I need a good probiotics.

Whenever, I think of probiotics, the image of Felicia Chin holding that bottle of V****** saying how the live prebiotics culture helps in keeping you healthy pops up (not that I am a fan of Felicia, but the fact of how misleading advertisement can be scares me). The fact that V****** has sugar in it already greatly discounts the fact that the bottle is going to help you. Cos sugar is actually food for the bad bacteria! To me, the sugar is more for marketing purposes and to appeal to the public more than having any real functions.

Later, I also learnt that is getting good bacteria to reach our intestines is really not an easy task. When we feed good bacteria through our mouth, it first needs to survive the very acidic conditions in our stomach. Those strains of probiotics that survive this first cut will then make their way down our intestines. Most strains of probiotics will already die while making the long journey down your intestines. When the probiotics reach the intestines, it makes no point for them to just sit around there. They need to multiple themselves to create the balance in our gut system.

Not all probiotics are created equal. And only a handful of strains can actually achieve the feat of surviving the long journey down the gut system. Ha ha, my chance to impress you (*wink wink*) You will need the strains of probiotics under the LGG and BB-12 to really get the good benefits of live probiotics you take. So next time, you consume yogurt or some other probiotics, turn to the ingredients to look out for these star strains.

While we take the probiotics daily to maintain our good gut health and to increase our immunity, sometimes, I wonder if it really helps. I do notice much less burpy, much less bloated feeling after meals, much less gas output (if you know what I mean). But I can't possibly cut myself open to see if the good bacteria is growing or not right!

I guess the ultimate test for me was when my mum-in-law had upset stomach yesterday. She told me that she had already been to the toilet for a couple of times and still having diarrhea and pain in the abdomen. I asked her to take 1 pack of the probiotics that contain the star strains. Half an hour later, viola! She says the pain and the gas in her abdomen is gone. She didn't have to visit the toilet after that the whole day.

It's amazing how the good bacteria works and I am glad I found a good brand of probiotics that work! Will be happy to recommend to you too.
 
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