Laser Treatment

December 27th, 2007 at 12:01 · Filed Under Blogging, Days in My Life, Health, Medical · 2 Comments 

I went for my scheduled eye examination at my doctor’s clinic in KL yesterday. Everything is fine except the transparent cells covering/holding my artificial lens have begun growing and blurring my vision. I need a laser treatment after 3 months. The treatment is a 5-minute outpatient procedure which uses laser to polish the lens.

Is the growth normal for people who have cataract removed? Can anyone provide some information and experience please?

Tags: , , , , ,

A needle can save the life of a stroke patient

October 28th, 2007 at 10:58 · Filed Under Medical · 1 Comment 

After I posted an entry about new sign of stroke here, I could remember another friend of mine, chongky, sent me an email about emergency first aid for stroke victim. I dug out this over a year old email from my archive.

This method is based on Chinese traditional method, blood letting. The idea is to let the blood out to reduce the blood pressure. There is no western medical study to confirm the effectiveness of this method. If someone could verify this, please let me know.

Warning: This is not a medical advice. It is something someone shared with me and I want to share it here. Seek immediate medical assistance after the blood letting if you have decided to give it a try. Try at your own risk. Do NOT sue me!

Dear All
 
A friend sent me this interesting article. I was told about the same treatment by a tai chi friend a couple of years ago. His father who had a stroke was treated using the same method and recovered (though he was not as agile as before).
 
 

A NEEDLE CAN SAVE THE LIFE OF A STROKE PATIENT-From a Chinese professor

Keep a syringe or needle in your home to do this… It’s amazing and an unconventional way of recovering from stroke, read it through it can help somebody one day.

This is amazing. Please keep this very handy.. Excellent tips. Do take a minute to read this. You’ll never know. One’s life may depend on you.

“My father was paralyzed and later died from the result of a stroke. I wish I knew about this first aid before. When stroke strikes, the capillaries in the brain will gradually burst.”(Irene Liu)

When a stroke occurs, stay calm. No matter where the victim is,do not
Move him/her. Because, if moved, the capillaries will burst. Help the victim to sit up where he is to prevent him from falling over again, and then the bloodletting can begin. If you have in your home an injection syringe that would be the best, otherwise, a sewing needle or a straight pin will do.

  1. Place the needle/pin over fire or clean the tip with cotton wool soaked in spirit to sterilize it, and then use it to prick the tip of all 10 fingers.
  2. There are no specific acupuncture points, just prick about a mm from the fingernail.
  3. Prick till blood comes out.
  4. If blood does not start to drip, then squeeze with your fingers.
  5. When all 10 digits is bleeding, wait a few minutes then the victim will regain consciousness.
  6. If the victim’s mouth is crooked, then pull on his ears until they are red.
  7. Then prick each ear lobe twice until two drops of blood comes from each ear lobe. After a few minutes the victim should regain consciousness.

Wait till the victim regain his normal state without any abnormal symptoms then take him to the hospital, otherwise, if he was taken in the ambulance in a hurry to the hospital, the bumpy trip will cause all the capillaries in his brain to burst. If he could save his life, barely managing to walk, then it is by the grace of his ancestors.

” I learned about letting blood to save life from Chinese traditional doctor Ha Bu-Ting who lives in Sun-Juke. Furthermore, I had practical experience with it. Therefore I can say this method is 100% effective.In 1979, I was teaching in Fung-Gaap College in Tai-Chung. One afternoon I was teaching class when another teacher came running to my class room and said in panting, “Ms. Liu, come quick, our supervisor has had a stroke!”

I immediately went to the 3rd floor. When I saw our supervisor, Mr.Chen Fu-Tien, his color was off, his speech was slurred, his mouth was crooked-all the symptoms of a stroke. I immediately asked one of the practicum students to go to the pharmacy outside the school to buy a syringe, which I used to prick Mr. Chen’s 10 fingers tips. When all 10 fingers were bleeding (each with a pea-sized drop of blood), after a few minutes, Mr. Chen’s face regained its color and his eyes’ spirit returned, too. But his mouth was still crooked. So I pulled on his ears to fill them with blood. When his ears became red, I pricked his right earlobe twice to let out 2 drops of blood. When both earlobes had two drops of blood each, a miracle happened. Within 3-5 minutes the shape of his mouth returned to normal and his speech became clear. We let him rest for a while and have a cup of hot tea, then we helped him go down the stairs, drove him to Wei-Wah Hospital . He rested one night and was released the next day to return to school to teach.

Everything worked normally. There were no ill after-effects. On the other hand, the usual stroke victim usually suffers irreparable bursting of the brain capillaries on the way to the hospital. As a result, these victims never recover.- ” (Irene Liu)

Therefore stroke is the second cause of death. The lucky ones will stay alive but can remain paralyzed for life. It is such a horrible thing to happen in one’s life. If we can all remember this bloodletting method and start the life-saving process immediately, in a short time, the victim will be revived and regain 100% normality.

If possible, please forward this tip to others after reading it. You never know that it may help save a life. This procedure must be done immediately after the stroke strikes the patient, not some hours later. No harm is done if the patient does not recover after applying the procedure on him, but why miss the chance of not doing it?

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Nicotine may ease Parkinson’s symptoms?

October 26th, 2007 at 14:57 · Filed Under Injuries, Karate, Medical, Sports · 1 Comment 

In my previous post, Sparring - The Medical Implication - Part 2, I mention about the potential risk of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) from head injuries. I came across an article about Nicotine may help ease Parkinson’s symptoms. I re-post the full article and the original article can be found here.

Nicotine may ease Parkinson’s symptoms: U.S. study
Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:21am IST
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nicotine may help ease some of the debilitating and uncontrollable tremors and twitches caused by Parkinson’s disease and its treatment, researchers said on Wednesday.

Monkeys given a nicotine-laced drink before drug treatment for Parkinson’s showed a 50 percent reduction in movements associated with the treatment. They showed a 35 percent drop in the movements, known as dyskinesias, when given the drink after treatments.

The finding, to be published in the Annals of Neurology, suggests it may be possible to improve the lives of patients who have very limited options.

“It may be the only drug that is useful for reducing dyskinesias without making Parkinson’s disease worse,” Maryka Quik of the Parkinson’s Institute and Clinical Center in Sunnyvale, California, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

Parkinson’s disease, which affects more than 1 million patients in the United States, is marked by the death of brain cells that produce dopamine.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, or message-carrying chemical, associated with movement. Drugs can delay symptoms for a while but there is no good treatment and no cure.

The main treatment, levodopa or L-dopa, itself causes the abnormal involuntary movements after a time.

For years, researchers had noted that people who smoke and who drink coffee seemed to have a lower risk of Parkinson’s, and some research has suggested that nicotine might protect brain cells and nerves in some way.

Quik said her team’s findings appear to uncover a separate effect of nicotine.

The researchers caused Parkinson’s in rats and then in monkeys by damaging the area of the brain where dopamine is made. They gave them a soft drink with nicotine before and after administering levodopa.

“Not only is nicotine neuroprotective, it protects against L-dopa-induced dyskinesias. The two effects are exclusive,” Quik said. Nicotine did not appear to interfere with the beneficial effects of L-dopa.

Her team is now working with companies that make nicotine-like drugs to work up a trial in people.

The key is probably chemical doorways into brain cells called nicotinic receptors, Quik said. Drugs that work to affect these more precisely than nicotine does might also work better and more safely in people.

Nicotine patches are available over-the-counter for people who want to stop smoking but Quik did not advise that Parkinson’s patients try them.

“It is very important to work out the proper conditions and the proper dose,” she said.

© Reuters2007All rights reserved

This does not mean smoking cigarettes is good for health. The study suggest that, Nicotine, one of the chemical content in tobacco may help to relieve Parkinson’s symptom and the study has yet to confirm its effectiveness. Let’s wait and see. I hope it really can help those who have been suffering from PD.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

New Sign of Stroke

October 23rd, 2007 at 10:31 · Filed Under Medical · 1 Comment 

A friend of mine, her mother suffered a stroke since last year. Her mother was bed ridden since the first stroke (I couldn’t remember exact date) and she passed away last week.

I received an email from Benji a moment ago about observing a possible stroke attack by looking at the victim’s tongue. I don’t know if this is true. Can anyone out there confirm this? This could save lives!

STROKE: Remember The 1st Three Letters…. S.T.R.

Stroke
My nurse friend sent this and encouraged me to post it and spread the word. I agree. If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks. Seriously.. Please read:

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) …..she said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid’s husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 pm Ingrid passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don’t die…. they end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.

It only takes a minute to read this…

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke… totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE
Thank God for the sense to remember the “3″ steps, STR .. Read and Learn!
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

S : Ask the individual to SMILE.
T : Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE(Coherently) ( I.e. It is sunny out today)
R : Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

NOTE: Another ’sign’ of a stroke is this: Ask the person to ’stick’ out his tongue. If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other , that is also an indication of a stroke.

If he or she has trouble with anyone of these tasks, call 911 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.

Stroke Warning Signs

The American Stroke Association says these are the warning signs of stroke:

  • Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
  • Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
  • Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
  • Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
  • Sudden, severe headache with no known cause

So, send this link to everyone. If this is confirmed to be true, it will save lives!

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 3

October 20th, 2007 at 10:44 · Filed Under Essay, Karate, Philosophy, Training Journal · 13 Comments 

Let’s put the 1% aside.

My visit to Okinawa improves not only my knowledge and skill in karate-do. It has been an eye opener and it lets me discover the real karate-do, its culture, philosophy and spirit; as an ancient budo art of Okinawa.

The Okinawan system is not as rigid and militarized as the Japanese system. The Okinawan system is more flexible in many ways. The Malaysian karate-do has been following Japanese styles which are very much a militarized training. The influence was from Shotokan, one of the few introduced to Malaysia in the earliest karate era of Malaysia.

Many times people have been asking me, “Is style really matter?” These people are thinking, if any karate that can teach you to fight well, what is so important what style it is. To me, the real essence of karate lies deep in its root of the style which has been forgotten by the new generation of practitioners. Many who know the real budo path of karate-do are not too interested in changing people’s thinking and often choose to be self-contained for self-improvement and self-preservation.

If you Google for “karate”, you will find many funny styles and names across the world. Many new styles are created outside of Okinawa/Japan. Really, can we call these karate? It is very difficult to have a stand on this argument. Call it whatever if you find nothing wrong about it.

My visit to Uechi-Ryu Zankai on Okinawa was absolutely an ultimate experience. Toyama Sensei is one of the very few grand master who really doesn’t care about the outside world. He is very disappointed how polluted karate is today. Of course, he feels very sad if he sees some videos of poor performance. He is entirely into preserving and passing on his knowledge to his high ranking students. My teacher, G. Seizan Breyette Sensei, a hatchi-dan (8th dan) kyoshi to-dan, is one of the very few high ranking students of Toyama Sensei.

The Zankai’s Training Philosophy

Uechi-Ryu Zankai is one of the remaining few old-style traditional karate-do on Okinawa devoting to continue to teach and to preserve the pre-World-War-2 karate-do which Kanbun Uechi Sensei brought back from China. And Toyama Sensei is the only legendary left on the earth who is actively passing on his knowledge which he learned from Kanbun Uechi Sensei.

The training at Zankai is very organic. Unlike most modern styles of karate-do, the Zankai uses training methods derived from organic living mechanisms which largely resembling a living organism in organization or development and profoundly affecting our bodily organs and functions. Many modern karate-do as well as other martial arts introduce free form sparring element to their training for competitive sports purposes with influences from Hong Kong and Hollywood movies. The introduction of free form sparring is also to transform monotonous old-style training to a more dynamic and exciting activity. It is rather hard to have modern people especially the youngsters to involve in a monotonic daily devotion. Martial arts training in the old days (100 years and more ago) was a daily devotion and monotonous with repetitive training. Modern youngsters prefer exciting new stuff such as sparring to display their male machoism.

The organic training of Zankai enhances functions of heart and lung especially. Take Sanchin for instance. Beginners (new students) learn Sanchin as first lesson in Zankai. To perform proper Sanchin, the shoulder must be down and pulled back, tummy tucked in and pulled up so the chest will rise and expand. This increases the capacity of the lung and reduces pressures onto organs such as the heart, the lung and digestive organs. The heart can pump more freely with bigger room. Bad body posture has long-term effect on our internal organs such as our heart. When our body postures collapse, our organs are squashed against each other. This is the reason for an enlarged heart appears in X-ray. Because of restricted space, the heart has to work harder to push against the pressure from the lung and other organs. Gradually, the heart enlarges due to the stress.

The kata system of old-style Uechi-ryu has staggering effect onto one another and they are closely inter-related and enhancing each other in one way or another. There is no basic or advanced kata in old-style Uechi-Ryu. In fact, all the kata complement each other at various stages of the training, enhancing and strengthening the body (skeleton, muscle tissues, organs and vital body functions), motor skills, balance (stability), breathing, mental concentration and ultimately all the senses.

Human is actually animal but with slightly higher intelligence and having civilization after going through many evolution. The human evolution contributes to the lost of animal characteristics both physically and mentally. Invention and innovation reduce our physical activities while we become more dependent on tools and machineries. Comfortable lifestyle has made us a lazy animal and lose all the primitive animal characteristics and instinct. Essentially, the training retrain us (human) to become an animal again. The training is based on 7 animal forms: Dragon, Tiger, Crane, Snake, Cobra, Leopard and Mantis. Dragon, Tiger and Crane are the major animal forms in the training. These animal forms teach us to move like them. After some period of training, you can notice improvement in physical strength, bodily structure and vital functions.

The old-style Uechi-Ryu training, like many old martial arts in the olden days of China, does not include jiyu kumite or free form sparring. Kumite (for short), cause destructive effects and harms more than constructive growth to our body. The ancient Chinese had learned a great deal about injuries many thousand years ago without sophisticated medical equipment. Many Chinese martial artists were practicing for their health and to protect family and country. They rarely flashing their skills. Until today, this culture remains in modern Chinese martial artists. But no doubt, there are some going around (the world) displaying and promoting their strongest arts. Like many other modern martial arts, the wushu introduces San-shou or free form sparring into some of their training for competitive and other reasons mentioned above.

I have written articles about injuries and their potential long-term effects. You can read my articles about injuries here.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Persimmons

October 20th, 2007 at 10:15 · Filed Under Blogging, Food, Medical · 4 Comments 

I love persimmons! When I was a kid, I did not like the fruit and wouldn’t even want to taste it. But now, it is one of my favorite fruits. It’s sweet in taste and seedless. My kids love it too.It comes in variety of shapes according to its species. It may be spherical, acorn- or pumpkin- shaped. Pumpkin-shaped persimmons are most common here.

Persimmons

Do you realize that too much of persimmons is bad for your health?

According to the Merck’s Manual, it can cause epidemic of intestinal bezoars. Persimmons contain tannin shibuol, which polymerized in the stomach, is the cause of bezoar. The bezoar caused by persimmons is called persimmon bezoar. 90% of the bolus that occur from eating too much persimmons require surgery for removal.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Sparring - A medical implication - Part 3

October 18th, 2007 at 22:23 · Filed Under Injuries, Karate, Medical, Sports · 19 Comments 

To continue from previous topic here and here. Now, let us focus on injuries in children. Children suffers greater risk of injuries than adult because they are in their tender growing age. Children and adults share the same risk for injury of the bones. However, child’s bones are subject to a unique injury called growth plate fracture. Growth plate fracture requires immediate medical attention because long-term consequences may include limbs that are crooked or of unequal length.

What is growth plate?

Growth plate or physis is an area of developing bone tissue often near the ends of long bones (such as femur), between the widened part of the shaft of the bone or the metaphysis and the end of the bone or the epiphysis.

The long bones of the body do not grow from center outward, instead, it grows at each end of the bone around the growth plate. The growth plate is the last portion of the bone to ossify or harden, which causes it susceptible to fracture. Because muscles and bones develop a different speeds, a child’s bones are weaker than the surrounding connective tissues or ligaments.

When a child is practicing free sparring or jiyu kumite in sports karate (or Tae Kwon Do) for example, the constant body bouncing introduces stress every each time the child landed on the ground. This may cause or retard the growth of the bones by injuring the growth plate. The child’s bones may become crooked due to the repetitive stress which the bones have to withstand.

Excessive kicking motion will further weaken or injure the already weak connective tissues or ligaments mentioned earlier. Take mawashi-geri or roundhouse kick for example, when the child misses the target, his/her leg will snap in the air. Without hitting a target, the momentum of the kick cannot be transferred and thus snapping of the leg will injure the knee by absorbing the momentum of the kick. All these injuries are long-term.

Children’s bones heal faster than adult’s. This gives two important consequences. First, it is important for a child with injury to see a doctor as quickly as possible to receive proper medical treatment before it starts to heal. Ideally to see an orthopedic particularly if manipulation to align the bone is necessary. Second, the immobilization period required for healing is shorter than adult.

Risk Factors

Who is at risk?

  • Children near the end of their growth period are particularly vulnerable compared to children of other age.
  • Boys’ risks are twice the girls’.
  • More than one third of growth plate injuries occur in competitive sports.
  • About 20% of growth plate fractures occur during recreational activities such as biking or skateboarding.

Are you willing to subject your children to such injuries for participating sparring or kumite and suffer long-term effects for their entire lives?

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Research on Sports Injuries

October 8th, 2007 at 0:40 · Filed Under Blogging, Injuries, Medical, Sports · Comment 

After reading many articles about sports injuries, kinesiology and other sports medicine related articles, it spurs my interest to know more about the medical implication of sparring (or kumite) in competitive martial arts such as karate-do. The injuries in children are most misunderstood amongst parents and martial arts instructors.

A lot of this medical knowledge has been known thousands of years ago by the Chinese martial artist without any sophisticated medical equipment. Today, we have all resources to learn about these injuries but people ignore the facts and the potential harms. Why? Read more about the medical implication on sparring here.

Tags: , , ,