Good for the Barang

Watch two dark-skinned 'Chinamen' discussing every potion except the wonderful little blue pills*

Comedy Court, made up of Allan Perera and Indi Nadarajah, have been performing social and political satire Malaysian style for 15 years now.

The story of how it all began...

Although their names have become synonymous with good comedy, Indi and Allan weren't always involved in theatre.

Allan says: "I was playing music with bands like Made in Malaysia and Pieces."

Indi says: "I was doing amateur drama before joining ICT [Instant Cafe Theatre]".

"We met in '91 when Allan came in to do the music for ICT. We messed around with some ideas and came up with a skit called the Oblong Bar featuring Loga and Singam."

Before long they developed the full length play called Quid Pro Quo, staged in 1996, which established they reputation as comedians.

Comedy Court was set up in 1997 and they have never looked back...

Catch more of Indi and Allan on Youtube and even better see them LIVE

* This show is definitely not sponsored by Pfizer, the manufacturers of Viagra.

Improved Post-Operative Recovery with Fish Oil

Picture credit: http://nigerianhealthjournal.files.wordpress.com

New research shows that dietary fish oil can improve post-operative recovery in porcine.

Fish oil in the diet can improve appetite and reduce weight loss in connection with operations that are complicated by infection. This is the result of a PhD project carried out by veterinarian Sine Nygaard Langerhuus from Aarhus University.

Research in the past 30 years shows that an increased intake of fish oil containing large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids can modify the inflammatory response due to anti-inflammatory properties of the omega-3 fatty acids at the cellular level.

Invasive surgical procedures with large tissue trauma or severe infectious complications can in the more extreme cases lead to organ failure and death. Clinical trials have previously taken place where patients received different types of fatty acids after a major operation, including omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil, and some improvement was noticed in the post-operative period. However, clinical trials in patients that are critically ill can be difficult to perform due to differences in the course of treatments and also due to general differences in patient lifestyle and other factors that are difficult to control. Sine Nygaard Langerhuus therefore chose to conduct her research using pigs as a model for humans.

In the present study, a vascular prosthetic graft was inserted on the lower part of the pig’s aorta. During this procedure the graft was contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus, which is the bacterium that is typically isolated in connection with early aortic graft infections in humans. The S. aureus infection was allowed to develop over 14 days. Three weeks prior to the operation and during the post-operative period the pigs were fed a dietary supplement of either fish oil rich in omega-3 fatty acids, sunflower oil rich in omega-6 fatty acids or animal fat rich in saturated fat.

The study shows that the pigs fed fish oil before their operation had a better appetite and less weight loss after the operation compared to the pigs fed sunflower oil. There was also a difference in the observed immune response in the pigs that were fed the fish oil compared to the pigs that received the sunflower oil, and to a lesser extent also compared to the pigs that received animal fat.

The results pave the way for investigations into whether fish oil in the diet before an operation may also improve the post-operative recovery in humans.

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The above story is adapted by the Zestzfulness Team from the January 29, 2012 news release by the Aarhus University

A Question of Modern Life

So strange ....

RM50.00 looks so big amount when you give to a poor ...............

But looks small when you give it as a tip in a 5-star HOTEL

Praying to God for 3 minutes looks hard................

But 3 hours of movie is okay for us

After whole day of hard work, we have no problem of going to the gym...........

But to do house work and help mom/wife; we feel tired

We wait for 1 full year for valentine’s day, and we know it..........

But when do mother's day come; we never know...............

One couldn't give a piece of bread to the child in the picture above............

But this painting where he looks sad was sold for RM10,000.00

To forward this message we will hesitate.................

but to forward jokes we never think.....

VERY STRANGE…………!!! But it’s True........!!!

God Bless!

Written by Mahinder Vasawa, received via Che Oi Men

The FLU - Pairing Masks and Hand Washing

Parames, pharmacy assistant at our Port Klang pharmacy.

Masks and hand hygiene could cut the spread of flu-like symptoms up to 75 percent.

A new report shows the second-year results (2007-2008) of the ground-breaking University of Michigan M-Flu study found up to a 75 percent reduction in flu-like illness over the study period when using hand hygiene and wearing surgical masks in residence halls, said Allison Aiello, associate professor of epidemiology in the U-M School of Public Health. Aiello and Dr. Arnold Monto, SPH professor of epidemiology, are co-principal investigators of the M-Flu study.

While the study also showed a 43 percent reduction in the rate of flu, it wasn't statistically significant. Students were more likely to report influenza-like symptoms than to provide laboratory samples for confirmed cases, Aiello said. "This might have impacted our power for detecting significant differences in confirmed flu," she said.

The results from both years found no significant reduction in symptoms in mask use alone, which suggests masks and hand hygiene should be used together, she said.

At the beginning of a pandemic, vaccines probably won't be available immediately so one of the first lines of defense to stop the spread of illness will be non-pharmaceutical interventions like hand hygiene and face masks. The M-Flu results bode well for these types of non-pharmaceutical interventions in the community setting for pandemic preparedness, Aiello said.

"This means masks and hand hygiene may be a good measure for preventing transmissions in crowded living quarters," said Aiello. "In a pandemic situation where compliance may be significantly higher than in controlled studies, masks and hand hygiene together may have even higher preventative implications."

The M-Flu study was the first of its kind and received international exposure when launched in 2006. The team of M-Flu researchers recruited more than 1,000 students in U-M residence halls. The students were assigned to groups who wore masks, wore masks and practiced hand hygiene, or did neither. They were monitored for the presence of flu symptoms or the flu.

The study was the first to test the effectiveness of these measures for primary prevention before people become sick or exhibited symptoms in the university setting, Monto said.

"Ultimately, this research could help the development of national policies for pandemic preparedness," Monto said.

The goal of M-Flu was to estimate the reduction in rate of flu infection and illness attributed to masks and hand sanitizers, and masks alone during two flu seasons. The results in year two were similar to year one with substantial reductions in flu-like symptoms. Students in both studies were asked to wear masks in the residence halls for six hours per day and clean their hands with an alcohol based hand sanitizer in addition to soap and water hand washing.

The group is planning another study involving campus residence halls, this time to evaluate the effect of voluntary sequestration on the flu in residence halls. Details and a timeline for that study are not available yet.

The M-Flu study was a collaboration among the School of Public Health, University of Michigan Housing and the University Health Service. In addition to Aiello and Monto, authors include current students or graduates of the U-M SPH: Rebecca Coulborn, Brian Davis, and Vanessa Perez; and a colleague at Wayne State University, Monica Uddin.

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The above story is adapted by the Zestzfulness Team from the January 25, 2012 news release by the University of Michigan

The article is featured in PLoS Hub for Clinical Trials: Allison E. Aiello, Vanessa Perez, Rebecca M. Coulborn, Brian M. Davis, Monica Uddin, Arnold S. Monto. Facemasks, Hand Hygiene, and Influenza among Young Adults: A Randomized Intervention Trial. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (1): e29744.

CLICK HERE for the Full Text

Depression

Depression: Mindfulness can revolutionise treatment

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy prevents relapses in recurrent depressions.

New results from Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences place the effects of this psychological treatment on an equal footing with medicinal relapse prophylaxis.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is an effective manner of preventing depressions. This is the conclusion drawn by PhD student Jacob Piet and Professor Esben Hougaard from Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences in the first systematic meta-analysis, which gathers previous research on the effects of mindfulness in recurrent depressions.

An alternative to medicine
Systematic training in mindfulness has proven successful as a measure of prophylaxis for persons suffering from recurrent depressions. For these persons, the mindfulness training reduces the risks of a relapse by 34 per cent. This number increases to 43 per cent for persons who have previously undergone three or more depressive incidents. The results are noticeable, says Jacob Piet.

- The results can change the treatment in the future. Right now, patients who have undergone at least three depressive incidents are advised to continue sustained treatment with antidepressants, which they sometimes have to use for the remainder of their lives. Research indicates that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy can be equally effective in terms of preventing new depressive incidents, says Jacob Piet.

He stresses that there has been found no adverse effects in connection with the mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, but rather that the treatment can have side benefits in the form of fewer depressive residual symptoms and an increased quality of life. For many recovering patients with a substantial risk of relapse, the mindfulness training can prove an attractive alternative to continued medicinal treatment, however, mindfulness does require an active commitment and a continued completion of the exercises.

Conscious attentiveness
Mindfulness is a special type of attentiveness, which is characterised by a conscious observation of what is going on in the present, without judging these events. When one is mindful, the person is consciously attentive to the flow of thoughts, impressions and impulses in the specific moment without judging the content. The thought is merely perceived as a thought, which does not necessarily constitute a valid impression of reality. Mindfulness is a skill, which must be developed and trained intensively in order to suffice as a treatment.

- Mindfulness improves the tolerance of uncomfortable feelings and abates the negative speculations, thus preventing a negative state of emotions from developing to negative patterns of thought, which can eventually escalate to depressions for vulnerable persons, says Jacob Piet.

Piet and Hougaard’s research paper “Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for prevention of relapse in recurrent major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis” has been published in the reputable, international journal “Clinical Psychology Reviews”.

FACTS
Depression is a common illness with a lifetime risk of approximately 20 per cent. It is a very agonising illness, which is also very costly for society.

WHO – the World Health Organization – estimates that the illness will constitute the largest health economical burden in the Western world by 2030. Depressive incidents can be effectively treated either medicinally or by using psychotherapy, however, the risk of a relapse is considerable. For persons, who have previously been depressed, the risk of a relapse is somewhere between 50 and 90 per cent, and the risk increases after each depressive incident. Effective prophylaxis is therefore a top priority.

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The above story is adapted by The Zestzfulness Team from the October 27, 2011 news release by Aarhus University in Denmark.

Other Resources

What is Mindfulness Meditation?

We'll let Cathy Wong from http://www.about.com/ present a brief introduction to this non-religious practice of touching life deeply in every moment of daily life…. to be truly alive and present with ...

Omega-3 Reduces Anxiety and Inflammation in ...

Earlier research suggested that the compounds might play a role in reducing the level of cytokines in the body, compounds that promote inflammation, and perhaps even reduce depression. Psychological stress has ...

Mental Health and Omega-3

Depression is widespread among elderly persons, affecting one in six patients treated in general medical practice and an even higher percentage of those in hospitals and nursing homes. Many medical problems common to ...

Regular Exercise Keeps Dementia and Other ...

In addition, a growing body of evidence suggests that increasing physical activity can also reduce risk of certain types of cancers, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, depression, obesity and hypertension (5,9,13). Rhodes et al. (14) note that regular physical exercise is presently ... (19) found that walking or cycling for at least an hour a day was associated with a 16% reduction in overall cancer incidence. For specific cancer sites the evidence is mixed. For colon cancer in ...

One Care, 1Care

The Federal government has been selling 1Care in the MSM throughout 2011 in glowing terms.

However, not much details are available to the Rakyat about this health insurance scheme save the February 2, 2010 “1Care for1Malaysia: Restructuring the Malaysian Health System” power-point presentation by Dato’ Dr Maimunah bt A Hamid Deputy Director General of Health (Research and Technical Support), Ministry of Health at the 10thMalaysia Health Plan Conference.

According to Dr Ng Swee Choon of the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners' Associations Malaysia, the scheme may compel every household to pay up to 9.4% for basic health care.

A concerned citizens group managed to get hold of some insider information and started a Tak Nak 1Care facebook campaign.

CLICK HERE for updates on 1Care. There are several intelligent posts including long discussions with the Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Health.

Tak Nak 1Care is hoping to prompt Malaysians to air their views online before the proposed scheme goes live nationwide, arguing that health services are a social good, and not a profit-generating commodity.

You can also watch the “The Complete Idiot’s Guide” to 1Care on Youtube.

KLIK DI SINI untuk versi Bahasa Melayu

See also comments by Eye Wide Open.

Other Resources

Official portal of the Malaysian Ministry of Health

Official blogspot of the Malaysian Ministry of Health