Category: Health

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Saving Connor

Sue and Connor

That’s Sue, Connor’s mom (my cousin-in-law)…

No it’s not about the Terminator series… rather, it’s a personal request.

You see, my cousin Steve has a 5-year-old son, Connor.  He has a rather rare condition called X-linked hyper IGM. This clinical sounding disease is a devastating immuno-deficiency. The 1 in a million diagnosed usually succumb to liver cirrhosis or lung infection at an early age, the lucky few may survive into their mid-20’s.

So he needs a matching bone marrow donor to cure this condition.  So I have started, on their behalf with their permission, a Facebook fan page called Saving Connor in my nephew (technically first cousin, once removed)‘s honor in order to:

  • Help spread awareness of Asians’ lack of registering on the bone marrow donor listing
  • To get people registered, especially Koreans, to help find a matching donor

So please join the bone marrow registry. You can register online at www.aadp.org or www.bethematch.org (use promo code TeamConnor) – it takes 10 minutes to join.

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Soda Tax a Possibility

NPR Article

Why didn’t we think of this before?!  Government is thinking about and planning on taxing soda.  Soda is mostly sugar water.  And it’s one of the leading reasons why the Americans are so dang unhealthy, and the contributor to America’s health insurance cost.

It’s so simple.  Tax soda to let people know that you are paying extra because it’s known to make you unhealthy.  We do it to cigarettes and alcohol.  Why not soda?!  Heck, why stop there?  Tax other stuff like cakes and cookies!!  Ok, ok… some of you are probably freaking out.  But seriously, we are the fattiest country (by far) in the world!  We consume way more food than the rest of the world.  We need to be less selfish and strive for change.

As prices for such unhealthy products go up, perhaps it will wake us up to smell the coffee and strive for healthier lives… and lower the nation-wide healthcare cost.  \

Now my favorite sodas of Coca Cola (none of that Pepsi crap please) and Sweppe’s Ginger Ale will cost me more and will prevent me from drinking so much!  Actually, I have pretty much stopped drinking soda altogether.  I drink perhaps about 1 serving of soda per week or two.  Let’s do it America!

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Please donate time on your PS3 and PC to help find cure!

I have lost my uncles, aunts, and grandparents, not to mention friends, to cancer.  Liver cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer, you name it.  I’ve even lost my cousin to Leukemia.  That’s why I searched for ways to help in whatever I can do.

Enter Stanford University.  A professor there started studying the ways proteins change and become new molecules, also known as “folding”.  By studying and knowing how proteins fold, a cure for cancer can be found.  I have my PS3 and my 2 PCs doing this whenver I am not using them.  So yes, you do pay a bit extra for electricity usage but for a 200W PC, that equates to about $20/month extra!  If you have the new PS3 Slim, it only uses about $10/month of electricity!

By helping and contributing, I feel like Morpheus from Matrix…

“Now consider the alternative. What if I am right? What if the prophecy is true? What if tomorrow the war could be over? Isn’t that worth fighting for? Isn’t that worth dying for?”

Don’t you want to feel like you’ve done all you can?  So as to not have regrets?!  I sure do.  I want to know that I’ve done all I can in help fighting cancer.  Let’s make cancer history…  If you need help setting this up and running it, please ask and I’d be ecstatic to help!

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Zit-popers & Wax-pickers Gross Me Out!

Ok… I don’t remember how we got to this topic but I was talking with my co-workers when we started talking about ear wax.  Soojin loves to pick ear wax.  Going one step further (and this is not for the faint at heart), she loves to pick wax even from the belly button!!  😮  That’s just nasty!

Not only that, but she’s also a zit-popper!  You know who you are!  There are a rather (disturbingly) large number of people out there that cannot leave a zit alone!  WTH?!  People like Soojin will always ask me if they can pop it for me.  Um… no!  Yikes…

Are you a zit-popper or a wax-picker?!  You guys need help!!  😛

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Australia’s Small Town Starts a Trend (Hopefully)

NY Times

Small town in Australia decided to stop the sale of bottled water altogether!  Plastic bottled water has been infamous for at least two major reasons:

  • Making plastic bottles & transporting them has been detrimental to the environment
  • Drinking water from such bottles have been known to be harmful as bottled water is likely to have been stored fairly long time and thus contains plastic in some amount in the water

I hope it’s a worldwide trend to stop it.  On top of that, most of the bottled water comes from your local municipal water treatment centers!  So it’s nothing special.

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Things that make me MAD: Children taken away from illegal immigrants

NY Times Article

Warning!  You may become way too mad after reading the article!  I know I am!!    Illegal immigration is a hot issue.  Yes, I understand that.  And deporting back home is one thing but to take their children away from them while they are in jail?!  Who the hell gave these stupid judges the right?!

As a parent myself, I can NOT imagine anything worse than my kids being taken away from my against my will!  Yet, that’s what some of these judges (you know who you are, Judge David C. Dally and others) doing exactly!  Ok.. so they are put in jail for being here illegally but it does NOT give us the right to take their kids away and place them elsewhere!

The kids are happiest when they are with their parents.  And so are the parents ourselves!  I am really flabbergasted right now!  That judge is sooo lucky that I don’t live in North Carolina ’cause I’d be petitioning for his impeachment!  If we are going to deport them, do it completely and send the kids back with them!  Unless the parents are harming the kids, the right to the caring for the kids lies with the parents!!  I feel soo bad for the parents… My prayers go with them…  Someone with the power PLEASE make this right!!

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I’m a Believer in Neti pot

If you’ve known me for at least a few years, you know that I suffer yearly.  In a major way, I might add.  Twice a year, I am tempted to swear my head off thanks to the pollen allergies.  Each year seemed to get worse and I felt like just putting myself out of my own misery!  🙁  I first learned about the Neti pot last year.

However, I tried it too late when my sinus was already so inflamed that even Burger King wanted to make their flame-broiled burger on it!  >.<  So I let it rest but this year, I wanted to give it one more try.  You see, if you suffer from something for so long (in my case, 21 years) from something, and the pain just only gets worse, you practically will try anything!  I say ‘practically’ ’cause there’s one thing I kept refusing to:  needles.  Gives me the creeps to the nth degree!

This time, it seemed that I should try the Neti pot more than once a day.  So I started using it twice a day.  Let me tell you … that using Neti pot is like drowning yourself.  You fill your sinus cavity with salt water… it flows through one nostril though the sinus, around the eyes, and out the other nostril.  The only way to breathe while this goes on is by breathing through your mouth.  In short, it ain’t pleasant.  And if your nose is stuffed up, it is rather painful!

It was a tough week trying it out but I stuck to it this time around.  My nose and eyes were still inflamed.  However, the difference is that the sinus wasn’t.  Today, after 6 days of Neti pot, other than minor nose irritation, the day actually went fine.  I was rather busy at work even and usually, I am almost hands tied and can’t do anything work-wise.  Not today.  I was coherent and got through the day without much pain.  After 21 freakin’ years!!  Hallelujah!  😀  If the Neti pot holds up, I might even stop taking Allegra!  Let me just tell you, I am a believer.  If you have sinus pains, you need to check it out.