The Life Less Doll

Since I’m starting work on Monday, and I’ve been kan cheong about since I signed the offer yesterday – parking, food, clothes! I’d better do some blogging before my daytime ceases to be called my-time..

Anyhoo, received an email about taking care of the heart and decided to read it and and do a checklist at the same time (Read: kill two birds with one stone)

My comments are in this type font.

A chat with Dr.Devi Shetty, Narayana Hrudayalaya
(Heart Specialist) Bangalore was arranged by WIPRO for its employees .

The transcript of the chat is given below. Useful for everyone.

Qn: What are the thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heart?

Ans:
1. Diet – Less of carbohydrate, more of protein, less oil

I do not like rice, so that’s less carbohydrate there.. and unlike my dad who is a cat that needs fish on the table everyday, I tend to eat fish maybe once/twice a week? OK gotta up that! I think Fillet O’Fish once a week would add up protein a bit

2. Exercise – Half an hour’s walk, at least five days a week; avoid lifts and avoid sitting for a longtime

The amazing thing about IBM employees is that we are great at time management and follow this regiment of EXERCISING every morning by brisk walking in working clothes to the office. 5 days a week. Brilliant, I’m on my way to a good heart already!

3. Quit smoking

I don’t smoke, who doesn’t know that…

4. Control weight

I’m literally weightless, thanks to high metabolism, runs in the family

5. Control blood pressure and sugar

Sugar.. hmmm.. I’m more of a salt person, but I think later in the post this statement is going to kick me in the gut.

Qn: Is eating non-veg food (fish) good for the heart?

Ans: No

Huh? Then where am I going to get the protein man! and I’ve to scratch the additional Fillet O’ Fish for dairy products (aha, Ice Cream! thought it was bad for the heart because the founders of Baskin Robbins have heart problems – from tasting too much ice cream. Watched it in Super Size Me. ), eggs (mum won’t lemme have the egg yolk though, but THAT’s the best part lah!), soya products

Qn: It’s still a grave shock to hear that some apparently healthy person
gets a cardiac arrest. How do we understand it in perspective?

Ans: This is called silent attack; that is why we recommend everyone past the age of 30 to undergo routine health checkups.

Qn: Are heart diseases hereditary?

Ans: Yes

Qn: What are the ways in which the heart is stressed? What practices do you suggest to de-stress?

Ans: Change your attitude towards life. Do not look for perfection in everything in life.

Wah why the font so big suddenly (in the email)

Qn: Is walking better than jogging or is more intensive exercise required to keep a healthy heart?

Ans: Walking is better than jogging since jogging leads to early fatigue and injury to joints

Qn: You have done so much for the poor and needy. What has inspired you to do so?

Ans: Mother Theresa , who was my patient

Qn: Can people with low blood pressure suffer heart diseases?

Ans: Extremely rare

Qn: Does cholesterol accumulates right from an early age
(I’m currently only 22) or do you have to worry about it only after you are above 30 years of age?

Ans: Cholesterol accumulates from childhood.

Yeala, I knew that because.. I have high cholesterol, should get a blood test (if I wasn’t so scared about blood and injections) to see the breakdown of bad and good cholesterol..

Qn: How do irregular eating habits affect the heart ?

Ans: You tend to eat junk food when the habits are irregular and your body’s enzyme release for digestion gets confused.

What is so confusing… :s

Qn: How can I control cholesterol content without using medicines?

Ans: Control diet, walk and eat walnuts.

Dai jo bu!

Qn: Can yoga prevent heart ailments?

Ans: Yoga helps.

Qn: Which is the best and worst food for the heart?

Ans: Fruits and vegetables are the best and the worst is oil.

Oil? Oil makes fried food crispy!

Qn: Which oil is better – groundnut, sunflower, olive?

Ans: All oils are bad .

Qn: What is the routine checkup one should go through? Is there any specific test?

Ans: Routine blood test to ensure sugar, cholesterol is ok. Check BP, Treadmill test after an echo.

Qn: What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart attack?

Ans: Help the person into a sleeping position , place an aspirin tablet under the tongue with a sorbitrate tablet if available, and rush him to a coronary care unit since the maximum casualty takes place within the first hour.

Qn: How do you differentiate between pain caused by a heart attack and that caused due to gastric trouble?

Ans: Extremely difficult without ECG.

Qn: What is the main cause of a steep increase in heart problems amongst youngsters? I see people of about 30-40 yrs of age having heart attacks and serious heart problems.

Ans: Increased awareness has increased incidents. Also, sedentary lifestyles, smoking, junk food, lack of exercise in a country where people are genetically three times more vulnerable for heart attacks than Europeans and Americans.

Qn: Is it possible for a person to have BP outside the normal range of 120/80 and yet be perfectly healthy?

Ans: Yes.

Qn: Marriages within close relatives can lead to heart problems for the child. Is it true?

Ans : Yes, co-sanguinity leads to congenital abnormalities and you may not have a software engineer as a child

Qn: Many of us have an irregular daily routine and many a times we have to stay late nights in office. Does this affect our heart ? What precautions would you recommend?

Ans : When you are young, nature protects you against all these irregularities. However, as you grow older, respect the biological clock.

Qn: Will taking anti-hypertensive drugs cause some other complications (short / long term)?

Ans : Yes, most drugs have some side effects. However, modern anti-hypertensive drugs are extremely safe.

Qn: Will consuming more coffee/tea lead to heart attacks?

Ans : No.

No, but they give me sleepless nights. Don’t know why but my body fails to get rid of this fast. Caffeine keeps me awake for about 12-16 hours. Ridiculous! and they only kick in 2/3 hours after I’ve had them..

Qn: Are asthma patients more prone to heart disease?

Ans : No.

Qn: How would you define junk food?

Ans : Fried food like Kentucky , McDonalds , samosas, and even masala dosas.

Name all la: keropok lekor, pisang goreng, pappadum, french fries, all my favorite food are doomed!

Qn: Does consuming bananas help reduce hypertension?

Ans : No.

Qn: Can a person help himself during a heart attack (Because we see a lot of forwarded emails on this)?

Ans : Yes. Lie down comfortably and put an aspirin tablet of any description under the tongue and ask someone to take you to the nearest coronary care unit without any delay and do not wait for the ambulance since most of the time, the ambulance does not turn up.

Qn: Do, in any way, low white blood cells and low hemoglobin count lead to heart problems?

Ans : No. But it is ideal to have normal hemoglobin level to increase your exercise capacity.

Qn: Sometimes, due to the hectic schedule we are not able to exercise. So, does walking while doing daily chores at home or climbing the stairs in the house, work as a substitute for exercise?

Ans : Certainly. Avoid sitting continuously for more than half an hour and even the act of getting out of the chair and going to another chair and sitting helps a lot.

Qn: Is there a relation between heart problems and blood sugar?

Ans: Yes. A strong relationship since diabetics are more vulnerable to heart attacks than non-diabetics.

Qn: What are the things one needs to take care of after a heart operation?

Ans : Diet, exercise, drugs on time , Control cholesterol, BP, weight.

Qn: Are people working on night shifts more vulnerable to heart disease when compared to day shift workers?

Ans : No.

Qn: What are the modern anti-hypertensive drugs?

Ans : There are hundreds of drugs and your doctor will chose the right combination for your problem, but my suggestion is to avoid the drugs and go for natural ways of controlling blood pressure by walk, diet to reduce weight and changing attitudes towards lifestyles.

Qn: Does dispirin or similar headache pills increase the risk of heart attacks?

Ans : No.

Qn: Why is the rate of heart attacks more in men than in women?

Ans : Nature protects women till the age of 45.

Wahhhh

Qn: How can one keep the heart in a good condition?

Ans : Eat a healthy diet, avoid junk food, exercise everyday, do not smoke and, go for health checkups if you are past the age of 30 (once in six months recommended) ….

I’ve been logging in and out of my blog’s dashboard, always starting with the intention of leaving a piece of my mind here, but end up closing the tab because I can’t find the time between Restaurant City and my mother’s shouts from downstairs to do something and the thoughts to write down because I lost that “organization” function in the head. Hopefully I’ll get it back soon and I think the first step is to take out my ol’ organizer. It’s been hiding for a month.

updates first,

1. starting work on July 6, yay!!! IBM, Bandar Utama (NOW EVERYONE CAN FIND ME )

2. watched Transformers last night..

3. National Service is probably in January 2010

things I need to do this week,

1. visit the bank to pay my graduation bill

2. haircut – just a trim

3. work clothes! even asked Rubin’s colleague for advice Thanks Linda!

4. shoes!

5. visit cousins

6. go out with girlfriends

now see, I forgot what I wanted to write.. :s

I forgot the joy I get when I watch stuff like National Treasure, The Da Vinci Code and Night at the Museum! not so much Indiana Jones, kinda tired of the song, sorry and the storyline is getting very predictable, if National Treasure doesn’t come up with a great story, they might end up in the same category as Indy..

Anyways love the talking bobble Einstein heads in the movie!
Somebody should do a movie about Einstein!

oh ya, thought of this in the shower, don’t ask me why but I always do my thinking in there even erm.. my interview preparations.. anyhoo, a wordplay!

I would love to have patience but I would have to have patience to love.

Today has been a day of all sorts.
For starters, I’m upbeat today because I had a surprise yesterday night (grandmother helped, hence the tweet on her . And also I’m anxious about a job interview and DRIVING to the job interview. (Since I’m typing this, this means I got there and back, safe and sound just ignore the part that I got lost in the parking lot and in Kota Damansara lalala)

But the pressing issues that are disturbing my concentration at work are space and privacy. I’m very particular about privacy. and I get an average of two WRONG NUMBER calls a week which pisses me off! These people like simply tekan my number then when I answer and tell them wrong number, they CALL ME BACK. wtf! Fucking bollocks!

Worst, I got followed by two ah bengs in One U today. ARGH. I was going down the escalator to put stuff in the car, they were going up. One of them was adjusting his zipper so I turned away and gave this GLASS ICE QUEEN look to wtv I’m staring at, I think it was some car.. before I knew it, the guys ran up their escalator and were at the top of my escalator, coming down! WTH man… So I lingered a bit at the part where there’s lotsa Aunties and near the security guard that looked dodgy. WHY DO SHOPPING COMPLEXES AND the APARTMENT MANAGEMENT hire DODGY people as S E C U R I T Y guards. What happens when we’re scared of security guards? Anyway, after awhile I went to my car. Then, I saw one of the guys following me dammit! Dodging pillars all, I did this quick drop off at my car (my car was near) then ran into One U. They followed me on the escalator but AHA! my skinny legs can travel at top speeds of I-don’t-know-what-but-very-fast! and ran up the next escalator the other side of the concourse and it took me all the way up to Padini. When I looked back, they were gone, thank god! I hid at the back of the store for awhile so that if they peeked, they wouldn’t find me. WTH man… WTH is happening to me.

When I got home all tired, I replied my mail and got this dodgy sms from someone I don’t really know who pulled my number of facebook. He pretended he was from a job agency and started asking me questions about my interviews. DAMN FUCKED UP. Sorry, I don’t think this was any funny.

I think I’m gonna change my number.

p.s. Met Arveen for lunch, was nice to catch up

p.p.s. still pissed about the whole kacau me thing. Just because you don’t have anything to do, that doesn’t mean I will drop everything I’m doing to layan your fucking prank.

my search quest still has not produce results. I’m getting tired. My imagination waning..

stupid girly dreams :s