I’m Not Crazy, I’m Just A Little Unwell

What do you do when you get sick?
a) See a doctor
b) Get plenty of rest
c) Draw an image of a snot monster!

Laughter is the Best Medicine
But What Exactly Does It Cure?

I live in an impacted environment.
My neighbour’s pushy, my life’s a drill.
I wonder what I can extract from this experience.
There is a void that needs to be filled.

PS: This wisdom is hurting me.

Itching for Relief - Living with Eczema

This morning, I took my mother to see the doctor — the third time this month and the 6th doctor we talked to regarding her condition.

For the past two months, she’s been itching day and night and covered from head to toes in hives. It’s quite debilitating — affecting her sleep and limiting the time she spends outdoors. The docs had ruled out other possibilities and concluded that she’s suffering from severe eczema (common with asthma sufferers like herself). The treatment prescribed: cortisone creams, injections and anti-inflammatory pills that zonk her out of scratching.

Why now after all these years? According to the doctors, her age is a big factor because as people age, their skin gets thinner and more prone to drying and flaking. My aunts (my mum’s sisters) have the same problem and so did my late grandma so this is something I’ve unwillingly inherited – eczema-prone skin (guess I’d better start liberally slathering myself with moisturiser now).

We’ve made a number of adjustments — we’ve changed the soaps that she’s been using to one recommended by the doc, she’s forbidden from touching the cats and she’s stopped eating cheese, milk, meat and seafood. In fact, she’s only been eating wholemeal bread (plain) in the morning and vegetables and tofu at night for a week now to rule out foods that may cause the flare ups.

The creams and pills provide temporary relief but there hasn’t been much improvement otherwise so if you guys have some valuable suggestions or personal experiences to share, please leave a comment! I’d love to hear them. Thank you!

Escalating Hiccup
Stretching and Other Tried and Tested Ways to Stop Hiccups

I’ve never been excited about getting hiccups before but after receiving so many responses for The Best Cure for Hiccups, I actually look forward to getting one so that I can try some of the reader-suggested methods for stopping this common problem! I I’ve got hiccups three times since.

First Time Lucky

The first one struck about a month ago, while I was on an escalator at a shopping mall. As I didn’t have a glass of warm water handy, I decided to try one of the “mind over matter” techniques — hiccuping on command. Interestingly, right the hiccups stopped by the time I reached the next floor. It could be one of those short hiccups so I thought I’d wait for another one before blogging about it.

I Bet You Can’t Hiccup When I Tell You To

The second incident happened last week while I was on an escalator at another shopping centre. I practiced the same thing I did a month ago but this time, it didn’t work.

B, who was with me at that time, tried the “fright tactic”, which did nothing to stop the spasming (but I did get a good scare). He then tried the betting as suggested by David (a variant of hiccup on command technique):

“The best cure for hiccups I’ve ever found was introduced to me by my boss. I was hiccuping and he pulled $20 out of his wallet and said, “If you can hiccup again you can have this money.” As soon as I started to concentrate on being able to hiccup they stopped. I now pull this trick on all of my friends, and I’ve never lost the bet!”

Unfortunately, he lost the bet. :P

I am Human, Therefore I Shouldn’t Hiccup?

7 minutes later, it became obvious that it wasn’t going to be a brief episode. I remembered reading the remnants of evolution theory for hiccups. In this hypothesis, it is suggested that these involuntary spasms of the diaphragm are triggered by electric signals generated in the brain stem we inherited from our amphibian ancestors. The proposed cure is to remind ourselves that we’re human. Right… I’m not too sure about the deep-sea culture 500 million years ago, but escalator-riding seems like a very human activity to me, which was what I was doing when I got my hiccup. Still, I had ran out of options so it was worth a shot.

I started thinking about all the things that made me human — surfing the internet, going to the supermarket, cycling at the beach, dining on a seafood buffet…mmm…fish.

Apparently, reminding myself that “I am NOT an amphibian…” was about as helpful as asking people to not think of pink elephants. I had more thoughts about salamanders in that two minutes than in all my school years combined. Needless to say, it didn’t do much to solve my problem (the hiccups only stopped when I was about to get myself a cup of hot tea a few minutes later).

Temporarily Not Human Again

The third time happened five days ago while I was going down an escalator at the convention centre. Okay, I wasn’t really riding the escalator, I was descending a flight of temporary stairs but what are the odds of getting another one while being on an escalator!

Once again I tried a few of the suggested tips:

1. Holding my breath for as long as possible
2. Pressing on my eyes while hitting my back
3. Gasping a few times in between hiccups
4. Swallowing a couple of times before hiccuping
5. Twisting my earlobes

Yes, I looked very silly doing all the above, and no, none of them worked.

Stretching It A Little

I was wondering whether there was such a thing as an escalator allergy when the idea of stopping hiccups by stretching came to mind. Some muscle cramps are relieved by stretching so this suggestion seemed like a very valid one.

I didn’t remember exactly how the stretch should be done so I just pulled my left arm at an angle over my head (like this). Only half expecting it to work, I kept that position for about 10 seconds. Nothing happened.

I tried it again with my right arm, this time a little longer and stretching as far as I could. Surprisingly, the hiccups did stop!

So there you have it, some warm waterless tips tried and tested. It would be too early to say that the stretching method is the cure for hiccups (it’s only been successful with me once) but if it were, it won’t only be the best, it will be the simplest one as well! I am looking forward to my next hiccup to verify whether the result is repeatable.

Escalators, here I come!

Reboiling Points
Boiling Water Multiple Times Not As Harmful to Health As Thought

There was an elderly tea lady (let’s call her Mrs D) at the place I used to work. She wasn’t a tea lady in the traditional sense who’d wheel her trolley of goodies at teatime — she prepared refreshments for our weekly meetings — but she loved observing me while I brew a cuppa in the office pantry, which made me slightly nervous at times.

I was about to make myself a cup of instant coffee one day when I found the electric kettle filled with enough water to make a warm cup of coffee. Because of the ridiculous subarctic temperature of the office, I preferred my coffee tongue-scalding hot so I did what I thought was the obvious thing to do — I turned the kettle back on.

Already anxious by her mere presence, I was startled silly when Mrs D boomed, “What on earth are you doing?! Why are you boiling the water again? You’re not supposed to do that!”

I told her about my coffee temperature preference but she continued disapprovingly, “but you’re not supposed to reheat water that’s already been boiled!!!” When I tried asking her the reason why she kept saying that I wasn’t supposed to. I asked another colleague who happened to be there and she said the same thing, “you’re not supposed to boil water multiple times because it’s not good for you!!!”

Outnumbered with no desire to argue, I left the scene with a less-than-hot cup of coffee.

Being the naturally curious person that I am, I decided to ask the rest of my colleagues about this. The consensus was nearly unanimous(a few had never heard of it) — you shouldn’t boil water more than once — the reasons were similar – reboiled water is not good. Why exactly? They didn’t have an answer.

I wasn’t convinced and brushed it all aside as old wives’ tales. However, despite my numerous make-coffee-while-no-one-is-around attempts later, I kept forgetting to research the reasons and origins for this theory.

5 years later

I was at a coffee house while waiting for my camera to be serviced the other day when out of boredom, I decided to read all their coffee and tea leaflets. There was a section devoted to the importance of using fresh water for brewing coffee and tea. I didn’t think much about it until much later when I was making meyself a cup of coffee at home.

Remembering the Water Mystery from half a decade ago, I consulted my friend Google: Reboiled water causes cancer? – not true unless your water is already toxic to begin with. Reboiling causes water to harden? – not true either. Then I found this:

10 Tips for A Better Cup of Tea

The more oxygen that is dissolved in water, the better it tastes. So, to make sure you use water with the maximum amount of oxygen, don’t re-boil any leftover water in your kettle. Water that is boiled too much becomes poorly aerated because oxygen atoms escape in the form of steam. By always filling your kettle up afresh, you are ensured fully aerated and tasty water.”

Ten Tips for a Betta Cuppa-Fresh Water, Best water MSN Encarta

Mystery solved.

Edit: Thanks to the comment by Mihai, I suddenly remembered learning about water aeration in school. Here’s a bit more on that:

“Aerated water is, correctly speaking, distilled water to which purified air is added to improve its flavor. Wikipedia”

Running Can Be Fun
Psyching Myself Into Running Regularly

I started running last week. I couldn’t sleep the night after the first run because my knees were in terrible pain. I need better shoes. I need to do this more than twice a week. I want to achieve a healthy, toned body worthy of a Nike ad.

No I do not enjoy running. I love strolling, yes, but not running. When I run, I don’t have time to take in the scenery, smell a flower, or notice a ladybird, nope, no time for that, I have to run. But running is free and an activity I can jump into without much planning – I don’t have to book a tennis court, check whether its a good time to drop by the public pool or find someone to play with. It’s also something I can do without worrying too much about how my bum would look like to the person behind me in aerobics class or accidentally letting out a loud one in the middle of a halasana.

I will not wait for my muscles to atrophy to realise the importance of regular exercise. I do not need an unpleasant wake-up call to shake me into a healthy routine. I do not want to be in a position where I’d say “I should have exercised regularly then”. Until I find a more enjoyable way to keep fit, I will stick to running. No excuses. Health is not something I’d take for granted. It’s something I have to constantly work on because I am solely responsible for my body. I will not run away from my responsibility. Because of that I will simply RUN.

I just checked out The Fit Shack and coincidentally, my latest post is an exercise of the suggestions in JoLynn’s latest post. ;)