Changing Lifestyle to Live Longer

There are all sorts of diseases and illness in the world, do we live to suffer?

Recently, I have gained much interest into this common medical condition called Hypertension, or better known as High Blood Pressure.

"Blood pressure" is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps out blood. If this pressure rises and stays high over time, it can damage the body in many ways. - Source

As many of you may have known, the blood pressure of a person used to be measured using a stethoscope and a manual sphygmomanometer (blood pressure meter). Nowadays, the automated sphygmomanometers are more commonly used and convenient as stethoscope is not required.

Automated sphygmomanometer

Measurement of blood pressure comes in 2 numbers, separated by a slash. The first number is called systolic blood pressure - this is the peak blood pressure when your heart is squeezing out blood; the second number is the diastolic blood pressure - the pressure when your heart is filling with blood (when relaxing between beats).

A normal pressure for adults would be 120/80. 140/90 or higher is considered High Blood Pressure.

High blood pressure damages your blood vessels. In long run, it will lead to high chances of stroke, kidney failure, heart disease and heart attack.



One can depend on medications to keep the blood pressure normal, but most importantly, changes of his/her lifestyle must be made. Exercise more, eat lots of vegetables and fruits, limit sodium, alchohol and caffaine intake, don't smoke and learn some relaxation techniques. One needs a strong determination to be able to do all these and make changes to how he/she live.

We always have to compromise to live longer. Is it all worth it? Perhaps...

Anyway, I have to change my lifestyle. Billy, out.

References:
High Blood Pressure, Things You Can Do to Lower Yours
Hypertension - Wikipedia

Trekking in Chiang Mai - A Night in the Dark

12 June 2008 @ Chiang Mai, Thailand

After the exciting elephant ride, the guys walked for 30 minutes to reach the next Karen Village while MinBee got a free ride from a local.


This time around, the houses here were much more advanced that I thought. We saw a huge satellite at the side of one of the houses!


We then put our stuffs in our room. The rooms were better and the four of us get to stay together in one.


Well, after putting our stuffs, we went exploring around the village.


The thing that caught our attention was the river nearby. We went on to take a dip in the water but we didn't stay for long as the current was quite strong. There were also buffaloes and other ang mohs bathing in the river.


The water aint very clean either. Kuan, MinBee and I quickly wash ourselves up (at the toilets) and rest at our room while LeongKee went to play soccer with the local kids and other ang mohs. Yes, this village has proper washrooms, unlike the one before.


We took photos, played Nintendo DS, chatted and very soon dinner is served.


One down side of this place we're staying is, there's no electricity at all. No electricity means no light, no fans and no aircond. That's when our torchlight comes in handy.

And thus, we had a very romantic candlelight dinner, with everyone sitting on the floor surrounding the food.

Red Curry - taste really good

Fried Bamboo Shoots

Fried Long Beans - planted locally and very fresh

Deep Fried Wan Tan Skin - quite tasteless without the filling

The night continues with beer and drinks even though we were all in the dark. I talked to Terrence and Veronika and we shared our experience. It was very nice knowing the couple.

We even saw fireflies from the balcony of the house. Oh, we were indeed excited. Too bad we can't take photo of them as they're merely visible in the photo.

There's nothing much we could do besides talking. We went back to our respective rooms at 10.30pm to get some rest as tomorrow will be the final day of this expedition, and the most anticipated activity - bamboo rafting on the river. Billy, out.

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Trekking in Chiang Mai - Elephant Ride

12 June 2008 @ Chiang Mai, Thailand

It was the second day of trekking in Chiang Mai. We woke up very early for breakfast and get ready for another round of hiking.

Breakfast - Scrambled Eggs, Toast & Pineapples

Before we depart, couple of kids came over to our place to try to sell some of their handicrafts and their traditional clothing & accessories. Later on, our guide also brought us around the village to explain the living lifestyle of the Karen villagers.


The gang finally started the trekking journey once again at around 10am.


Up, up, up we go and green is the only colour we saw.

Kuan, MinBee, Me, LeongKee

We stopped and rest after 1 hour plus of hiking. We quickly take this opportunity to SS.


We have to walk across the paddy field. One wrong step and you'll drop into the mud.


After trekking through the woods and shits of elephants for more than 3 hours, we finally reach the elephant camp. And we saw ELEPHANTS!! *duh*


We had to wait for some of the elephants to come back because there weren't enough elephants to carry us all. While waiting, we sat down at the shade and watch the people bathe the elephants.


There was a huge one standing near our resting hut. Wanted to take photo with it but it was kinda hairy and geli, no one dared to stand near it. Haha!


We also had our lunch at the elephant camp - maggie mee. The reason they serve instant noodles is because we have to eat something light and it's easier to bring these in and cook for us. I don't mind but I heard that they have received complaints on serving unhealthy food.


Not to forget, fresh, juicy, cooling watermelon as dessert. Yummy..


While we were having lunch, the bufalloes also came near the hut for food. I can see them munching away their green stuffs.


Well well, we finally get to ride the elephant after lunch, at around 3pm. MinBee and Kuan sat on one while LeongKee and I shared another one.


The ride was SCARY! It crosses the river streams, up the slopes, down the slopes and they walk on narrow path despite being so BIG! It was like riding a roller coaster without proper safety belt on us.


My left hand was gripping on the metal bar so hard and my other hand was holding my camera tightly so it wouldn't fall off.


Along the way, some of the elephants got very naughty and tried to overtake each other. Overtaking isn't a problem, the problem is TWO elephants trying to overtake MY elephant on a "single-lane" path! *faint*

I was so scared that one of the elephants will actually roll down the hill or what. Luckily it didn't happen.


Before reaching the destination, I saw the elephant in front of me pooped and my elephant blew his nose so hard all the mud went flying to my legs and bags. Yucks!

The one-hour ride seems like forever. Nevertheless, we reached our destination after the thrilling ride. We had to walk for another 30 minutes to reach the next village. Billy, out.

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