On the Heels of Nature

Superb weather today for a jog to torch my binge on Chinese New Year goodies before the festivities even begun. It’s the Year of the Snake but I’m snacking like a pen full of pigs.

Since my not-so-recent woes with a bad neck that has rendered me ungymmable, the only retaliation I have against my runaway appetite was cardio laps at the pool or any distance my legs would carry me. On this sun-drenched day, a long-haul jog itched my chicken feet so I decided to take on the running terrain of MacRitchie Reservoir.

Macaque monkeys run wild at their waterside sanctuary and give city dwellers like me the thrill of encountering wildlife.

After I did a photoshoot at the reservoir some months back to test-drive the Casio Exilim ZR200 compact camera, my affection for the oldest reservoir in Singapore was rekindled. The waterside oasis is a less than 15-minutes bus ride from home yet I wasn’t visiting it often enough. Jogging here provides a much needed escape from urbanity and really refreshing.

But the bad thing is, I tend to do more photographing than running. A one-hour jog usually get extended beyond two hours with all that camera breaks to snap anything from scenery to flora and fauna. Then again, the beauty at MacRitchie Reservoir is a welcomed distraction and definitely made the run more interesting!

Say cheese? This fella was shy at first but when it saw my handphone pointing at it to snap pics, it promptly moved towards me through the foliage. I think it wanted to snatch my phone so I backed away. After a few rounds of our back-and-forth tango, it stood there and opened its mouth as if to scold me!

Felt great running so close to a body of water with the dusking sun reflected on ripples of gold.

Awesomeness!

My favourite photo from this evening’s jog. I took a new trail and came across this scene just as the sun was dipping behind a low hill. I was so awed by the beauty before me.

The run led me by the waters and into the dense forest. Light was fast failing and being caught in the forest when it’s dark unnerved me. So I ran faster…

… and continued to stop to take photos. I should be running but this bald tree rooted my feet. All around it, every plant was leafy green but this one stood solemnly naked by itself. “Don’t leaf me alone,” I seem to hear it say. I was all alone on the trail with nary an idea of where I was in the forest too.

My heart was racing. Not from jogging but the panic of still being in the thick of the forest while darkness weighed in. I wanted to backtrack my route of the past 1.5 hours but decided to continue forward. Boy am I glad I did! Fifteen minutes later, I saw the glimmer of electric lights. I’m back to the comforts of organised chaos. In life, some people take a long tme to reach their destinations on foot while others get there faster by cars, but ultimately we get there. The speed is vastly different. So are the rewards.

Sweat drenched and following a road that I had no idea where it leads, I was enchanted by this scene that juxtaposed the light from a street lamp with the ample moon. They seem to be of the same size here, but we know the scale and reach of their illumination differ at a level beyond comparison… Kinda like what small minds see, and what big hearts show.

I got more than just a cardio workout with this jog as I exercised my eyes and spirit at the same time with beautiful encounters of landscapes both external and internal.

Much of the paths I’d trodden were new to me and although I didn’t know where I was most of the time, having only one road ahead of me provided a consolation that while I’m clueless, I’m not totally lost. If only life is just as clear-cut!

Will definitely jog here more often from now on. And leave all image recording devices at home!

Day 339 : Numb and Dumb

Been experiencing recurring numbness in the limbs and am dumb to it causes. Had an ECG and the heart’s clear. Could it be pinched nerve?

Day 331 : Body Work in Progress

Been putting in eggstra effort to build up my body the past two weeks and started a 10 egg whites a day routine a few days ago to complement my low-carb diet. I also bought bodybuilding supplements to get that extra boost. And I discovered this. Some bodybuilding products cost more, a lot more, than buying them online.

I bought the Muscletech Nitro Tech protein powder for S$188 at GNC. At nutrifirst.net, the exact same product is only S$110! That’s a whopping S$78 difference! I’m so not gonna buy stuff from GNC again.

Total spent in these 3 supplements : S$308.04. They’ll probably last me slightly over a month if I follow the listed dosage. Bodybuilding is such an expensive and time consuming hobby. So for guys who’ve worked so hard to get a great body, show it off!

While I’ve taken protein powders in the past, I’ve not tried Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) and L-Glutamine. Desperate times call for double measures… hopefully the increased gym time coupled with disciplined nutrition will get me a better bod and improved health.

The next few weeks till the end of 2012 will be a test of will power and endurance. No pain, no gain. I MUST PERSIST!

If only I can afford personal training as well to workout more effectively. Or get a serious and committed gym buddy to torture me!

Day 313 : Needle Me

Long hours in front of the computer, lack of quality rest, stress from a myriad responsibilities and the inevitable effects of aging have eroded my health to the point that serious damage control is needed.

Western medication didn’t help much with the headaches and anxiety attacks so I decided to try acupuncture for pain relief. Today is my second session following a first treatment that worked pretty well.

Acupuncture hurts a little but I guess there is some truth to the saying of “fighting fire with fire (以毒攻毒)”… fighting pain with pain. Sometimes I think life can benefit from that principle too. If something hurts, we find something else that hurts worst (in a positive sense) to alleviate that first pain.

I’m not talking about self harm but positive distractions. An example is the pain of being single. I replace that with the pains of exercise and blogging to tire myself out so my mind don’t wander to the scary valley of being lonesome at night. The danger is that I lose the energy to deal with the problems head on.

If only life’s situations also come with a clear meridian map to stick healing needles in.

Day 220 : Getting a Hole on Trypophobia

trypophobia /trai:po-feubia/ n – an irrational fear of a cluster or clusters of holes.

Does looking at this photo of a lotus pod or a honeycomb, barnacles, or open pores on the skin cause an icky feeling in you and makes your stomach churn?

Well, that inkling dread is known as ‘trypophobia‘. It is an unofficial word in dictionaries but is a recognised neuro phenomenon in psychology. Most people may experience a mild feeling of yuck when looking at a lotus pod but for extreme sufferers, physiological discomforts may manifest. So what can you do if trypophobia has gotten a hold on you? Unfortunately, nothing. There is no known cure accept to avoid looking at aggravating imageries.

For me, I just feel like pinching all those ripe nipples of the lotus pod!

Day 202 : Clear and Brilliant Treatment Session 3

Postponed my third Clear + Brilliant treatment a couple of times due to work and finally fulfilled the appointment today.  After the last two sessions, I can see that my complexion is growing visibly clearer and the open pores on my nose look less obvious. Sweet!

With a few more sessions, I may look under the legal age to consume alcohol soon.

My Benjamin Button process takes place at EHA Clinic by Dr Elias Tam. The clinic is located at Shaw Centre, #15-01. Call 6235 3325 for consultations and appointments.

Dr Tam’s certificates and merits are only overtaken by his friendliness and disarming demeanour. His open approach to letting me in on the science behind Clear + Brilliant and other aesthetic procedures have been enlightening and fascinating.

A waiting cum make-up room for female clients who want to freshen themselves after treatment before going back to office or shopping. Great innovations in aesthetic medicine have enabled fast-food style beauty with little or no down time.

Preparing for my treatment with nurse Vicki applying a layer of numbing cream on my face. More than just pretty, the nurses at EHA are very considerate and intuitive to client’s needs. After she applied the cream for me, she offered to put on a blanket for me in case I get cold while waiting the 30 minutes for the cream to take effect. She even dimmed the light so that I can sleep but when she saw I had a camwhore moment, she immediately turned the light back on before switching it down after I’m done.

Hello my skin’s best friend! Clear+Brilliant ultilises nonablative laser frequency to penetrate deeper into the skin’s basal layer to reawaken the ability of mature cells to manufacture collagen, thereby removing fine lines and wrinkles while encouraging the skin to behave younger.

Today’s treatment was much shorter than the previous sessions. Over the course of the treatments, Dr Tam had gradually increased the laser strength of Clear+Brilliant from low, medium to high. Don’t I look like Guang Gong? LOL. After treatment, my face was red for the night but it returned to normal the next day in time for me to attend Singapore Blog Awards 2012.

After any form of aesthetic treatment, sun protection is a must to block out UV radiation during the skin’s healing phase where it is hyper-sensitive and more vulnerable to sun damage.

At the end of the session, Dr Tam introduced his new sunscreen to me which uses a more advanced formula of titanium dioxide that has the ability to switch on and off when exposed to the sun. Sounds interesting. But how does it work?

All sunblocks come with a SPF factor which basically determines how long one you can stay under the sun after one application. A SPF15 sunscreen means you can stay under the sun 15 times longer than if you are not wearing one before sun damage sets in. A unit of SPF roughly translates to 20 minutes, so SPF15 means a protection of 15 X 20mins = 5 hours. The higher the SPF number doesn’t mean a sunscreen is stronger but that it provides longer protection.

With EHA’s Sun Shield 24hr, the formulation allows the protection to be turned on when it detects sun exposure and turns off under shade. And when sun exposure is detected again, it comes back on with a reset of the protection duration thereby providing an all-day shield. That’s kinda cool! So I parted with S$94.00 for a 30ml bottle of it.

Other than Sun Shield 24hr, I’ve also purchased a topical antiseptic lotion (S$22) to be applied after treatment to eradicate any possible infection and a serum containing hyaluronic acid (S$85 for 20 vials) for an extra boost in skin hydration as laser treatments tend to be drying. Well, beauty may not be just skin deep, but it sure requires a deep wallet!

Related Posts :

Clear+Brilliant Treatment Session 1

Clear+Brilliant Treatment Session 2

Day 163 : Clear and Brilliant Treatment Session 2

Fighting the signs of aging has found a new ally in the form of FDA-approved, European Conformity (CE Mark) recognised Clear + Brilliant factional laser treatment. I had my first Clear + Brilliant treatment about 2 weeks ago and am back to EHA Clinic today for session 2.

For best results, it is recommended that the first 3-4 treatments be done 2 weeks apart. Subsequently, a treatment session once every week is all it takes to maintain younger looking skin from the inside out. After the first treatment, I felt that my complexion felt more supple to the touch and lighter in colour. So I’m anticipating the further improvements this second session will do for me!

EHA Clinic has relocated to Shaw Centre, #15-01, since 11 June 2012. I’m one of the first ‘patients’ here for treatments! The clinic’s new, rather obscured home amongst offices provides privacy for clients who prefer discretion.

Reception area of the new clinic at Shaw Centre.

Other than facial treatments, EHA Clinic provides slimming treatments as well. I call this room The Deep Freezer. It is not because it is cold, but the fat-busting treatment housed here – CoolSculpting. The procedure deep freezes fat cells so that they can be metabolised and passed out of the body. Pretty amazing! Hope I’ll get to experience it to get rid of the stubborn lovehandles and lower belly fat that persist no matter how many thousands f sit-ups and crunches I do.

The new EHA Clinic has ample private facial treatment rooms.

I call this room The Laser Chamber because this is where the laser powerhouses are waiting to reveal the YOU in YOUth.

Safety googles for more aggressive laser treatments. Clear + Brilliant is gentler and is flexible enough to be used as a standalone treatment or as a complement to other treatments.

Here is the star – the Clear + Brilliant machine! I expected it to be a monstrous piece of machinery but it turned out to be a compact capsule goosenecked to the laser nozzle.

The laser nozzle is capped with this sterile personal tip that is discarded after each use. It is not shared between clients to eliminate contamination and infection.

Acting cute (?) while waiting for the numbing cream applied on my skin to take effect. One of the nurses tried Clear + Brilliant without the superficial numbing and she ended up ‘dancing’ on the treatment bed. So I decided not to be gungho and 乖乖 wait the 30 minutes it takes for the cream to have effect.

Under the good hands of Dr Elias Tam. He made sure every part of my face was covered and patiently gave extra attention to parts of my complexion showing more signs of sun damage. I think that’s literally my whole face since I was a teenage beach eel.

The Clear + Brilliant treatment was completed in about 15 minutes and it didn’t feel as comfortable as the first time although Dr Tam increased the laser’s strength. After being kissed by the red beam, a layer of antispetic cream was applied (the white stuff on my face).

The wonderful thing about the Clear + Brilliant treatment is that there is no down time. My face was a little red immediately following the treatment but it faded the next day.

Now that my skin cells have been woken up and activated to start regenerating itself to behave younger, let’s wait and see how my complexion will go from my current clear, to bright, to brilliant in the fortnight leading to my third treatment session. Stay tuned for the results!

Day 151 : Clear and Brilliant Laser Skin Treatment

Nine days ago, I turned 38. But that doesn’t mean I’m ready to give up the fight to stay forever 18 and abandon my complexion to look like my mother’s leather handbag. Well, 18 may be stretching it too much. So let’s just say I’m trying to look 19 for as long as possible.

Like most guys who are man enough to work hard at maintaining the health of our skin, I have a daily routine of cleanse, tone, moisturise.

But at 38, the lotions and potions are like Daniel Radcliffe moving from maverick wizard in Harry Porter to frightened attorney in The Woman in Black. The magic was lost. I slap on twice as much products only to have the signs of aging from sun exposure, late nights partying and stress catch up thrice as fast.

So in the attempt to look half my age again, or at least to trick the skin into behaving like a 19-year-old once more calls for reinforcements. And I decided to try out a relatively new laser facial treatment called Clear and Brilliant at EHA Clinic.

EHA Clinic was located at The Hereen, #05-05 but it’ll soon find a new home at Shaw Centre, #15-01 from 11 June 2012 onwards.

The aesthetics market has no lack of designer facials and laser treatments such as the popular Intense Pulse Light (IPL) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Laser. Is there a need for another? Apparently, yes.

Lasers are basically the essence of light. They are the highly concentrated and energised form of a single wavelength in the light spectrum. As such, different lasers have different degree of penetration into the skin, making it necessary to have an array of lasers to treat different skin conditions.

Before treatment. I’ve never had much problems with my skin and am thankful for being blessed with relatively good complexion. But I was told Clear and Brilliant can make good even better. We shall see if it’s really true…

While there are many different types of lasers, they can be classified into two categories – ablative and nonablative. Ablative lasers are used to vaporise the top layer of the skin or used for cutting. Nonablative lasers generally bypasses the top layer of skin to transfer heat to the deeper level to stimulate the rebuilding of collagen.

Clear and Brilliant uses a nonablative laser which means there’s no risk of injury to surface skin while activating collagen renewal in the deeper dermal layer.

Before the treatment began, a layer of numbing cream was applied to my face and I waited about 30 minutes to feel like my face doesn’t belong to me. A thing plastic sheet was placed over my face to keep the cream from drying out.

Alright, so much for the theory part of lasers. Now on with the treatment… How is it done and what does it feel like?

The Clear and Brilliant machine uses a sort of roller-head that rolls over the skin like a mini iron.

Giving me the treatment and lots of laughs was Dr Elias Tam, founder of EHA Clinic. The clinic specialises in aesthetic treatments and procedures. He was a really personal guy and made me feel at ease very quickly with his story about kelong fishing with his family. I’m also very grateful for his patience in explaining and helping me learn more about Clear and Brilliant.

I didn’t feel anything initially but after a while, there’s a sort of heated pricking sensation as the treatment progressed. The session lasted about 10 minutes and I would rate the discomfort as being mild. But you should know that I have a high tolerance for pain. No pain no gain right? Ha.

After the first Clear and Brilliant treatment. Although my face was red in the photo above, my artificial blush subsided quickly. I took this after photo about 15 minutes later and I can hardly notice any redness.

Perhaps it’s the lighting condition but I didn’t notice a very significant difference in my complexion. However, from the above photo, my skin does look clearer and more even in skin tone.

It takes between 3 – 4 treatment sessions to really see a big difference although many people would see a discernable difference in the first session. Maybe I have thick skin. Heh heh. My next appointment is two weeks later. I look forward to the day that my complexion can act as a mirror!

Day 137 : Fever Feeble

I’m hot and I’m cold.

This fever is a cursed foe.

Day 030 : Sick Dollars

First Medical Certificate of the year. May it be the last.

My company changed to the AIA corporate group medical insurance (under Fullerton healthcare) in the beginning of 2012 and the usual clinic I go to wasn’t one of the participating panel of doctors. I’ve been seeing my doctor whose clinic is just opposite my place for years as he’s with our previous corporate insurer, TM Asia Life.

Under the old plan, there’s a co-payment of S$5.00 each time I see him. So my blood pressure shot up when I saw the bill of S$57.35. I’m getting the same medications when I saw him on all those previous occasions. I have no idea each visit costs so much!

With AIA, I don’t have to pay anything if I consult its listed doctors and for unauthorised clinics, I can claim up to S$40.00. But I heard AIA has a standard prescribed drug list which its doctors need to adhere to when dispensing treatments. TM Asia Life doesn’t have a list so its doctors are free to give according what they think is best for a patient.

Maybe as an experiment, the next time I’m having the same symptoms, I’ll consult an AIA-approved doctor and see what kind of pills I get and if I could request for the same medicines.

That means my wish for this to be the last MC of the year will not stand, and I’ll have to travel further to seek treatment.

Balancing high medical cost, quality of treatment and convenience, falling sick is a science in Singapore. That’s why there’s a saying here that it’s better to be dead than sick!

For now, I’ll ultilise this license to rest for 1 day instead of 2 as I’m expected at a work meeting tomorrow. What is that saying again?

Are You a Positive or Negative Person?

In the context of this entry, the merit is in being negative.

This post is a little late. Had wanted to post it to coincide with World AIDS Day 2011 on 1 December but it’s a hard post to write. After all, getting a HIV test is not something to broadcast considering the stigma that surrounds it. It’s easy to say when you’re negative. But what if the result is positive? What does one do then?

I was asked this question during a pre-test interview. My answer was to carry on living because it’s not the end of the world but now I know I have to be careful not to infect others.

I got tested not because I’m a periwinkle snail (believed to be nature’s sluttiest animal with females having around 19 males fertilising her while the guys will fornicate with just about anything in their path including wrong snail species), but as part of an annual health profiling. Plus it’s sort of a gift of love.

Previously, I had my tests done in Singapore. Not with the annonymous testing services provided by DSC Clinic at Kelantan Lane, but part of a health screen package offered at private clinics. 

However, I came across the Bangkok charter of the Thai Red Cross online not too long ago and decided to check it out. It offers HIV testing for both locals and foreigners. This post will document the experience with directions on how to get there and what to expect.

The Bangkok Thai Red Cross is located pretty close to the downtown district of Silom. It’s about 2 BTS stop from Sala Daeng BTS Station which is at the famous Patpong go-go bars district. Here’s how to get to there :

1. Take BTS to Ratchadamri Station.

2. Take Exit 1, the side with a huge green field of the The Royal Bangkok Sports Club golf course.

3. Walk in the direction of S2 (refer to Area Map above) which is along the golf course for about 10 – 15 minutes.

4. You’ll reach the entrance the Thai Red Cross. It’s along the road and very prominent with a watch tower.

The following photos will highlight key sights leading to Thai Red Cross, Bangkok. 

Look for Exit 1 at Ratchadamri BTS Station.

Take the path behind the Exit 1 stairs and ust follow it.

It's a straight path by the road. Takes about 10 - 15 minutes to reach Thai Red Cross, Bangkok.

You'll pass by the sign of The Royal Bangkok Sports Club. It's all walled up and basically, you're just walking along its perimeters until you come to the end of it.

Iconic watch tower of the Thai Red Cross building visible from the roadside.

Reception and administrative centre next to the watch tower. Go there for registration to get tested or to purchase AIDS antiretroviral drugs.

Nothing CUTE about a HIV test. I opted for HIV profile and testing for STDs such as syphilis. Cost : 260bht. Results : Negative.

At the Bangkok Thai Red Cross, AIDS antiretroviral drugs can also be bought for a fraction of the price they cost in Singapore. AIDS patients can get a prescription filled out at Singapore’s Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) and buy the cocktail medications there in person, via a family member or friend. Basically, they don’t have to be there in person in the event they are too weak to travel.

The staff at the centre were really VERY friendly. I was feeling rather uncomfortable and awkward to do a test, and I’m foreigner, but they are ever ready to help. The whole process took about 2 hours which involved filling out a form, letting them scan my passport (so it’s not annonymous although they say it is), going for pre-test counselling by a doctor, drawing blood, and then meeting the doctor again for the result. I can’t remember the female doctor’s name but she was so really nice!

The result is communicated orally but if you want the doctor to issue a certificate of the outcome, it costs another 20bht (I think). Also, they call out your number for testing in Thai but not to worry, if yo sat there clueless like me, the nurse will come and get you. I had the luck of having an English speaking Thai next to me who told me it’s my number they called. The trick is to flash your queue slip prominently for all to see!

AIDS is not a joking matter. But being HIV positive is not a joking matter. Like any chronic illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, etc, AIDS can be controlled with antiretroviral drugs and patients go on to live productive lives. However, this is not an encouragement for unprotected sex.

I recently heard the news from a friend that an acquaintance contracted HIV. And that bastard acquaintance continues to sleep around, sometimes insisting on unprotected sex.

So be cautioned. Always USE A CONDOM no matter how drunk or in the heat of the moment you are. Play safe. And get tested.

It’s the best love letter to someone you care about.

章鱼痰 Tentacled Throat

Plagued by a hacking cough and a film of phelgm that clings on to my throat. This mucus-octopus refuses to be expelled or swallowed. *Frustrated*

Tissue Clouds All Around

A nasal symphony is blistering my nose,
Tissue clouds soak up my viscous morose.
Saliva turned into a sludge of sand,
Scratching my throat like a rusted fiend.
Then the inner furnace starts to glower,
Turning on a heat that makes me shiver.
Thus the flu symptoms have all arrived,
Pray I’ll make it out alive!

Get Kinky – 7th Singapore AIDS Conference

What’s your attitude towards someone who has AIDS or is HIV positive?

Me? Well, I’m apathetic. In a way, I feel that this is a “you deserve it” kind of disease. You know having promiscuous sex will catch you AIDS, but you choose to sleep around. You know that eating fried, fatty foods will give you heart disease and that a diet high in sugar can cause diabetes, yet you chose to eat them. You know that smoking causes lung cancer, yet you smoke anyway. So if we caught a heart attack, diabetes or cancers due to our lifestyle choices, isn’t it a case of self-inflicted misery? We deserved it.

But there’s still a huge difference in the way we treat AIDS patients and sufferers of the common dread diseases. We are sympathetic if ill health is caused by things we put into our mouths but not okay if it is caused by activities into our other ‘mouths’. Sex is every bit as basal a need as eating and de-stressing. So when something goes wrong in the sack, in the car, in some public toilet, or just about anywhere one is bold enough to try, shouldn’t sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) be treated with the same level of nonchalance?

The 7th Singapore AIDS Conference was held on 4 Dec 2010 at Orchard Hotel's Grand Ballroom.

In Singapore, I think many of us still treats STDs as a ‘dirty’ disease. Then again, which disease is clean? The other fear is also the risk of catching these diseases from sufferers because they are transmittable. So are hepatitis viruses, skin fungus, and influenza. And it is because of the communicable nature of the HIV virus that causes AIDS that we need to accept and treat people living with the disease with equal dignity so that more people will be willing to come forward to get tested.

If we treat AIDS patients as outcast, who would want to come forth to find out their HIV status? The more people don’t know their HIV status, the higher the risk of spreading the infection. Therefore, for our common good, we must treat the infected with normalcy and provide support in the hope that by stamping out new infections, this highly preventable disease can be stopped. It is a war we can all participate in, and we can win this fight. The first step is to remove the stigma of the disease and breakdown discrimination.

One more signature, one more added effort against the discrimination of AIDS patients and people living with HIV.

Against HIV/AIDS Stigma & Discrimination – that’s the call for this edition of the Singapore’s AIDS Conference which hopes to engage a broader spectrum of communities in the prevention, care and advocacy of this disease. The conference is a biannual meeting held on even years and is spearheaded by the local charity, Action for AIDS (AfA). This is my first time at the event.

The conference drew quite a huge crowd of overseas delegates, researchers, Action for AIDS (AfA) volunteers and the general public.

This year’s conference was attended by the Minister for Health, Mr Khaw Boon Wan as the Guest-of-Honour, and that’s quite a big deal because his presence shows the government’s support in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS in Singapore.

With a government official around, you would think that the conference would be a ballet of the latest research findings and clinical achievements in the field of HIV prevention and antiretroviral (ART) therapy, but I was pleasantly surprised, even taken aback at some of the criticisms lashed out against governmental policies that seem to inhibit efforts to fight HIV and proliferate discrimination to the extend that it undermines human rights. Do you want to know what are the policies that came under attack?

This is scary! AIDS patients suffer from a whole gamut of infections such as anogenital diseases, tuberculosis, blindness & viral attack on brain tissues.

Do you know that Singapore has one of the most advanced policies in mandatory HIV testing but is also among the least in providing after-diagnosis care? In other words, the government wants to find out our HIV status but offers little to help.

Currently, all National Servicemen and pregnant women are required to undergo testing. Hospital inpatients are also automatically given a HIV test without their knowledge unless they opt out. Quite some years back, I was hospitalised for a while and I was surprised to see a HIV- in my medical docket although I don’t remember ever being told a test was being done on me.

Naturally, anyone who’s HIV+ and later develop AIDS would require a cocktail of drugs to manage their condition but none of the drugs are listed in the standard drugs list. A listed drug would receive government subsidy and becomes cheaper for patients. An AIDS patient pays about S$1,000 per month on medications and that’s not even taking into account the cost of consultations and other specialist treatments.

Social stigma, high cost of treatment and lack of government subsidy… who in their right mind would be motivated to find out their HIV status?!

May the cock tale not be one about the cocktail of drugs needed to manage HIV viral load and CD4 count.

But there is some good news in terms of medical cost for AIDS treatment. I’m not very clear what it is, but apparently, for certain stages of the AIDS ART therapy, the cost has come down from over S$1,000 to about S$200.

Patients can also get the same drugs at a cheaper price in Thailand (why patients can’t get them cheaper in Singapore is a complicated issue of Intellectual Property rights), and the Medifund, a sort of governmental medical charity fund set up to help needy patients who cannot afford to pay even subsidised healthcare, has been opened up to AIDS patients as well.

I had the privilege of being introduced to some AFA volunteers during the conference. I wanted to ask them, "Aren't you afraid of being infected?" But obviously, that's rhetorical because they won't be volunteering for years if they were. This is a constructive kind of fearless.

Another hurdle in the fight against the spread of HIV concerns the community of men who have sex with men (MSM). Under Section 377A of the Singapore Penal Code, homosexual sex is punishable by a jail term. The Singapore gay activists have been fighting to have this law repealed but it continues to stay because local legislators believes that Singapore is a conservative society and that by legalising homosexuality, it’ll turn everybody gay. I wonder… heterosexuality is legalised, but it didn’t seem to turn everyone hetero.

So the argument herein by the MSM against Section 377A with regards to HIV awareness is this – how can you talk about safe sex to a sex that’s been outlawed? And it is vital that gay men get the message drilled into their heads because according to the Ministry of Health statistics on new infections in 2009, of the total 463 new cases, 166 came from homosexual and bisexual modes of transmission. That makes up for about 36% of new cases, which places MSM in the high risk category. So guys, because you swords fight, please put on your sheath. That way, nobody needs to get hurt.

This is Phil Loh, a very active volunteer with AfA who spends time facilitating Anonymous HIV Testing & Counselling at the DSC Clinic at Kelantan Lane, & also the key coordinator for Project HOPE, a subsidy programme offered to defray costs of first-time visit to the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC).

There’re still many more issues and topics I came across that gave me so much more insight into the disease. Being HIV positive is no longer a death sentence with the advent of treatment therapies and patients can lead normal and healthy lives for a long, long time. It is just like any chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure and diabetes where there is no specific cure, but a matter of managing the disease with medications and lifestyle modifications.

I would like to thank all the persons I met during the conference who explained many things to me and helped me understand the challenges that AIDS patients and people living with HIV faced in being made to feel unwelcomed when visiting another country due to immigration policies or to be sacked from their jobs.

For those who are living with the condition or family and friends who are affected by it, you’re not alone as there’s a network of social workers and volunteers to lend a helping hand. Even though AIDS may seem to be a less life-threatening disease now, it is by no means an encouragement to engage in unprotected sex. ALWAYS USE A CONDOM AND KNOW YOUR HIV STATUS! Here’s wishing everyone a kinky good time, for a very, very long time

The best cure for HIV infection is protection.

Yifon Mushrooms Va-Va-Vroom!

Story Concept & Script - Darren Ng; Graphic Styling & Comic Illustrations - Jannah, Orgnix Creatives Pte Ltd

Don’t Salah (Wrong) your Health

Bye bye spinach. There’s a new power food in town that Popeye is bound to huff and puff his pipe over… Yifon Mushrooms. Free from preservatives, artificial colouring, trans fat and with six flavours to choose from, starting a healthy eating habit has just found a great excuse in Yifon.

I’ve always loved eating mushrooms not just for their taste, but for the fact that they are nutritional powerhouses. One of the best-known and most widely recognised health benefit of eating mushrooms is an improved immune system.

Mushrooms contain phytonutrients that keeps our body’s immune cells alert and active while supplying them with ammunition to attack invading pathogens. It is our body’s first line of natural defense against diseases.

But here’s a funny thought. There are as many as 1.5 million fungi species in the world ranging from nasty infectious types that give us ringworms and athlete’s foot, to poisonous toadstools, to gourmet varieties (shitake, portobello, truffles, etc), to the highly-prized medicinal mushroom, reishi. But have you ever wondered if we can use mushrooms to fight fungal infections and poisoning? Sort of like fighting fire with fire?

Well, that may be a cause for future research but currently, countless studies conducted by forerunning universities (such as Purdue University) and laboratories in the field of nutritional science have shown strong evidences that mushrooms may aid in the prevention and even cure of certain cancers such as breast, prostate and colorectal cancers. Mushrooms also contain potent antioxidants that may be key to anti-aging therapies.

Polysaccharides (complex sugars) from mushrooms contains anti-tumour and immunomodulating functions. Immunomodulation means the balancing of the immune system – when it is weak, it gets a boost; when it is too strong, it gets modulated. You can read more about these exciting findings here.

Yifon is BOOMZ!

I hope you’re convinced about the goodness of consuming mushrooms. I’m not claiming that Yifon Mushrooms have curative effects as this would depend on the potency of the polysacchrides in the mushroom used, saturation, and bioavailability, but eating mushrooms is generally considered to be healthful as it contains fibre, protein and a whole lot of vitamins and minerals.

And Yifon’s range of bottled mushroom products makes consuming them so much easier. Did I mention they are ready-to-eat and sealed fresh so there’s no need for preservatives and colouring addictives? Plus the best thing is, they are available in all leading supermarkets such as NTUC Fairprice, Cold Storage, Seng Shiong, Shop ‘N Save, etc at only S$1.95 per bottle.

Yifon is a sister brand under by Yit Hong, the company that brought us the household brands – Maling Luncheon Meat and Narcissus canned food. Yit Hong has been consistently named the No.1 market leader in the Canned Mushrooms and Meat Category so you know it’s quality and food safety you can trust.

Here’re some ways to enjoy the great tasting bottled mushrooms…

Spoilt for choices - Assorted Mushrooms (Po-ku, Golden & Button), Spicy Nameko Mushrooms, Teatree Mushrooms, Spicy Bailing Mushrooms, Bailing Mushrooms, Spicy Golden Mushrooms

Hope you’ve enjoyed the first-ever comic strip posted on this blog and may good health and good food whet your taste buds always!

I would like to specially thank Orgnix Creatives for helping me realise the comic renderings in this post. This entry has been created to participate in the Yifon Bloggers’ Competition. So turn on your va-va-vroom, power up with mushrooms and channel luck my way!