For The Love of Hair

Annie Edison wrote an article on hair loss, that I would like to share: For the Love of Hair There comes a time in every man's life when one has to face up to the inevitable. Dealing with a few more wrinkles and a bit of sagging around the chin is one thing, but facing up to the thought of losing your hair is something else altogether. I've always been secretly proud of my hair, but I have to admit that these days when I look in the mirror I can't help but notice that the tide is a little further back from the shore than it once was. Whilst this leaves me with what I proudly assume is a distinguished looking forehead, there have been times recently when I've been given over to pondering the mysteries of male ageing as a part of my regular musings. This seems to be something with which the Bible has very few comments. Although 2 Corinthians 4:16 has the encouraging statement that "though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day", the process of ageing seems to be far less straightforward. More troubling, Proverbs 20:29 tell us that "the glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their grey hair". Quite true. But what if the old man doesn't have grey hair? What if he has no hair at all? A Question of Health People really do hate to lose their hair. Psychologists state that in today's world a person's hair is a part of their identity, rather like the clothes that they wear. Losing your hair can mean losing a vital part of how you present yourself to the world. At the same time, there is the inevitable awkward issue about age. Looking in the mirror and seeing your father's face staring back at you is quite humbling, but it's also quite spooky. Nobody wants to feel that they are getting older. If you are a woman, most of these changes happen on the inside so that they are hidden from the world. If you are a man who is going to lose his hair, everyone is going to see. In some cases, as the Hairloss Center experts explain, hair loss is related to health issues such as insulin resistance resulting from too much body weight. Heart disease is another common factor that can increase the risk. For some, it is simply a matter of genetics. Inspirational Figures This made me think about some inspirational people who have no hair, and to look into the stories of their lives. The first names that spring to mind are movie stars. Bruce Willis is a particular inspiration. He grew up as the son of an American soldier father and a German mother, a thoroughly blue collar family background that Bruce has always been proud to affiliate himself with. After the army, his father worked in a factory and as a welder, meaning that Bruce's upbringing in Carney's Point New Jersey was a very normal experience. Bruce himself had a serious stutter, which caused his high school contemporaries to nickname him 'buck-buck' because of his habit of repeating words and sounds twice. Before becoming a famous actor, Bruce Willis worked as a private investigator. Bruce has been a great ambassador for the hairless look. Another actor who has embraced baldness is Patrick Stewart, of Star Trek fame. His portrayal of Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation has become the stuff of television legend. Despite being voted television's sexiest man in 1992, Stewart has achieved his highest acclaim for his stage work, particularly Shakespeare. Like Willis, Stewart was born to an army father and a blue collar mother. Unlike Willis, however, Stewart's home life was far from pleasant. His father was a domestically violent man who suffered from shell shock, and who Stewart has described as being a "very potent individual". In recent years, Patrick Stewart has shown that he can resonate with much younger generations by taking a character voice role in the anarchic cartoon American Dad and by embracing the social media networking portal Twitter. Patrick Stewart seems to be an icon for being not letting age get in the way of your life. Unsung Heroes Perhaps the most inspirational of all, however, are those people who aren't famous because of their ability to play an action hero or guide a fictional spacecraft through space. The summer of 2012 saw the Olympics come to London, and one participant really stood out for me. Joanna Rowsell competed in the Olympics as a cyclist at the tender age of 24. Rowsell had won the cycling world cup when she was only 23, and had stunned TV audiences by climbing onto the podium, taking off her helmet, and revealing a completely bald head. Rowsell suffers from alopecia, a condition where the body's immune system attacks the hair follicles, causing the hair to fall out. Joanna Rowsell lost her long auburn hair when she was only ten years old. Despite enduring teasing and taunting at school, Rowsell focused on making herself be the best that she could be physically. In 2012 this paid off when she again climbed onto a podium, this time with the whole world looking on, in order to accept an Olympic gold medal. For me, I don't know how I would cope with going bald. I'd like to think that it would suit me in the way that it does Bruce Willis, or that it would make me look distinguished in the way that it does Patrick Stewart. However, thinking about this whole thing has made me realize that worrying about how we look is so much less important than trying to be the best that we always can be. In a world where people face a daily struggle just to survive, fretting about the hairs on your head is nothing short of a waste of energy. We hold influence through our actions, not by how we look.

Atorvastatin

Atorvastatin rings a bell for those with high cholesterol.
I have been told that this is one of the medicines the prices of which will be sliced to as much as fifty percent.
This is a result of the cheap medicines law.
Atorvastatin calcium is the generic name.
In the market, it is commonly known as Lipitor.
In the Philippines, Lipitor costs P60 to P70 per 20mg.
This is quite an expensive medicine.
Thus, its good to hear that atorvastatin is among the medicines whose prices will have to be reduced.

Where to buy Miracle Tea?

There is a spur of interest in the Miracle Tea of Dr. Tam Mateo.
According to my wife, the interest rose perhaps upon Dr. Tam's appearance at Kris Aquino t.v. show.
The latest is a query by email by Grace.

Hi Jay

Im here in Dumaguete City I was browsing the net to see and look for infos about Dr. Tam Mateo's miracle tea...
I need Your help pls where could I possibly get and buy?
I have no idea where to purchase it since I am here in Dumaguete right now....
Or do You know any stores there in Manila that sells that product, a friend of mine will be there to take her NCLEX exams this 26th of Jan but she'll be staying at the Makati vicinity only since She's not sanay sa Manila...
Any stores na that are selling sa may Makati na pwede palitan sa Miracle Tea of Dr, Tam Mateo?
Your response is highly appreciated.
God bless.

Ms Grace Guanzon, RN


I responded to Grace Guanzon that the Miracle Tea of Dr. Tam can be purchased at his main headquarters in Pasig.
But we usually buy Miracle Tea at a nearer outlet, at Tiendessitas along C-5 in Pasig City.

Tanglad a remedy vs. high blood pressure also?

Not long ago I wrote about the madicinal values Tanglad (lemon grass) as a cure for cancer.
I recall that this view became prevalent in Israel.
I was intrigued because in the Philppines, Tanglad is merely used when roasting pigs.
It is that grass placed insde the lechon, so it would have that pleasurable aroma, preparatory for accumulating cholesterol.
I am not an avid lechon eater, but for me, the best part is that chewy, meaty portion found in the lowest part of the lechon's tummy. Unfortunately, tt is there that all the bad elements settle, the salt, the pig oil, the rekados, msg, etc... That is why that portion is so irresistably tasty.
Anyway,someone just emailed me to say that Tanglad is an anti-dote for high blood pressure.
Here is the email:

..I started drinking lemon grass a year ago now and I believed it helps. My blood pressure became so normal everyday. when I was on vacation in the Philippines, you won't believed it I guit taking my medicine like high blood pressure etc. You can get lots of lemon grass at Stater Bros.stores. 8 glasses a day will help you.

Cory has colon cancer

The news today that former President Corazon Aquino has colon cancer came as a shock.
Immediately, what came to my mind was the battle that our family faced when our late grandfather Zoilo D. Dejaresco was struck by the Big C more than five years ago.
It is a stressful, agonizing exercise because cancer is a very serious ailment.
With my grandfather, I learned at very close range, how a person and a family cope with cancer.
I learned what chemotherapy is, and how it mauls both the flesh and the spirit of the patient.
That is why I offer prayers for the former President, and all those who are similarly facing such difficult trial.
I pray for full recovery.
I pray for the surrounding loved ones, that they may have strength in their times of suffering.
As an icon of Philippine democracy, Cory's place in Philppine history has long been secured.
It was so dramatic to witness a plain houswife Cory, fight the politically skilled dictator not long ago.
But as she faces her latest battle, we join in prayers that she would achieve yet another victory.
She will overcome.

Dr. Tam Mateo

I thought his family name was Tam, but I learned it was his first name.
Mateo is his surname and this Bulakeno has come a long way.
Dr. Tam Mateo, said to the the first Filipino Naturopathic Doctor is touted by some as Mr. Miracle Man who developed the product called "Miracle Tea."
My wife, son and I spent our Sunday afternoon in a seminar of Dr. Tam Mateo in Pasig.
My wife who prodded me to attend the seminar of Dr. Tam because she heard Dr. Tam on television about alternative treatment to certain ailments.
So at around 2:30 p.m. last Sunday we motored to Dr. Tam's headquarters in No. 433 F. Legaspi St., Maybunga Pasig City.
Upon arrival at the said address, we were surprised to see so many vehicles parked along the road.
We were not expecting this large number of people flocking to to Dr. Tam's seminar.
We were ushered to the second floor in a huge building which was actually a basketball court converted into a seminar hall.
Just imagine the basketball court filled with people.
That was how big the crowd was that attended the seminar.
First it was a lecture by a lady, who sounded like an assistant of Dr. Tam. I didn't get her name.
She discussed extensively the reasons why people today are getting sick, many at a much younger age.
Basically the reason is that people are eating the wrong food.
The way to a healthier life is to eat healthy food.
That is the general reception I had with her discussion.
Then there were a couple of testimonies of certain patients of Dr. Tam who testified how they were "healed" by undergoing the so-called "daily protocol" prescribed by Dr. Tam Mateo.
Here is my observation about the seminar.
Although there was extensive lecture about healthy living, at the end of the seminar, I observed many people really did not know what they had to do to live healthier.
Downstairs, many people were asking what they have to do.
While they were lectured about healthy living, many of them appeared to be in the dark on the first specific steps to take in following Dr. Tam Mateo's "protocol."
As for us, we had to ask our way around from people who had come before us.
Well, here it is.
Dr. Tam Mateo has developed or invented products to healthier living.
From what I learned by attending his seminar, Dr. Tam sells two main products.
These are what he calls "Miracle Tea" and "Live Green."

The Miracle Tea
This product is a red colored liquid placed in a plastic container that looks a lot like a bottle of mineral water.
This product costs P1,495 per bottle.
Perhaps this is called a mircle tea because it does apparently wonders in cleansing our digestive system.
The manifestations are quite dramatic.
This tea will make you go back and forth to the comfort room to discharge.
And you will notice the cleansing because the discharge are not in their usual form.
This Miracle Tea is to be taken in half-cup volume, to be taken three times a week.
Dr. Tam assures some results the cleansing abilities of his Miracle Tea.
We tried it, and I can confirm that there were positive results.
The results were more profound in the case of my wife Ruby.
Her problem is that she does not regularly discharge her waste.
The complication is that many of the things she eats stays a longer time in her body.
And because of this, complications arise.
She has abnormally high cholesterol, so she takes Lipitor.
Just imagine if the food you take stays in your body for a longer time.
Naturally and logically, it is not something good.
It is important to release your body "wastes" in regular fashion.
If you don't, then the solution is Dr. Tam's Miracle Tea.
Just today, after one day of drinking half cup of Dr. Tam's Mircale Tea, my wife went to the comfort room at least four times.
With respect to the cleansing ability of the Miracle Tea, I have no concrete basis to say about the results yet.
But according to a cancer patient we talked to at the seminar, one can really feel the cleansing effests of the body. You feel light, the patient asserted.

Live Green
The other product that is also sold by Dr. Tam is Live Green.
This is a green-colored powdery substance contained in a plastic container similar to those containers for herbal supplements.
The instruction is is put two teaspoons of Live Green powder into a half-filled glass of chilled water.
Stir and then drink.
I haven't tried it yet.
But it is supposed to be a supplement that contains many helpful nutrients that our body needs.
I am not competent even to discuss this so I just decided to scan the brochure of Dr. Tam so that the brochure will be the one to explain.
In my observation, the Live Green prodcut of Dr. Tam is made of a kind of grass.
It does smells like grass.

If you do not have any major ailment, Dr. Tam's protocal is just to sell the Miracle Tea and the Live Green.
But if a person is ill, the patient has to consult with Dr. Tam Mateo in his clinic.
He will prescribe a certain "protocol" or steps and procedure to be followed, depending on the ailment of the patient.
The protocol mainly involves eating green, vegetables and drinking juice, eating fruits, like bananas.
That's the simplest way of explaining the protocol.
The patient will be given a specific schedule of when to eat the kind of green foods prescribed, and the dose or the volume, depending on the condition of the individual.
I am impressed by the kind of living taught by Dr. Tam.
It is going back to the basics of proper food consumtion.
Remember in kindergarten where we are taught to eat leafy vegetables and fruits?
That is basically the advocacy, only it is sophisticated because it is the result of proessional study.
But the essence is to eat green.
There are of course other health products sold by Dr. Tam Mateo.
The idea really is to go back to basics of healthy living.

Airborne

I have received a couple of Airborne tablets from friends from the U.S.
Airborne are those popular tablet "effervescent health formula" which is mainly desgned to ward off possible viral attacks like the common cold, and boost the immune system.
I don't know I could buy them in local drugstores here.
But friends and relatives who ask me what I would like to have from the U.S. I always ask for Airborne.
I was given Airborne recently by cousin Kathlyn and tita Kathy.
Actually, the Airborne I got from my aunt was not actually for me.
Tita Kathy brought it for her own use while in the Philippines, but she gave it out.
The other day, a friend came back from the U.S. for the vacation and brought Airborne.
The Airborne package states that it was invented by a school teacher, named Victoria Knight McDowell.
According to the box or package: Take Airborne to boost your immune system. A healthy immune system helps your body fight germs. Take before entering crowded environments, like airplanes, offices, schools.
For me, I take Airborne when I notice that I could probably catch colds.
Just before I "invite" colds to my body, I take Airborne.
Believe it or not, it has been a very effective deterrent for colds, in my case.
But Airborne won't be effective if you have the colds already.
Airborne comes in many flavors, but my favorites are lemon lime and zesty orange.
You just drop one tablet in a cup of either hot or cold water.
Allow about a minute or two for the tablet to dissolve, and just drink the water thereafter.
I do not take it everyday, just when I feel the common cold is hovering around me.
I am not endorsing this product to anyone.
Better get read some reading about it before taking it.

Tubercolosis

TB.
That is what tubercolosis is popularly known.
We were having dinner last night with aunts and uncles.
My conversation last night wth my Tital Mamel veered to her work.
She is a physician on infectious diseases, working with D.O.T.S.
I forgot what it means but her work is now focused on a world project aimed at stopping the spread of what is called Multi-Drug Resistant TB or MDR-TB.
I only knew last night that this is such a dreaded and deadly disease, more dangerous than ordinary TB.
Multi Drug Resistant TB speaks for what it is.
It is that kind of TB that resists many a drug treatment.
MDR-TB, she said affects around 30,000 Filipinos, living in urban poor areas.
She laments that their treatment rate is so low in numbers, only about 800 patients.
The reason is that treating MDR-TB is very expensive. It costs, she said US$3,500 to treat an MDR-TB patient.
Where do they get the money to treat these patients here?
She said there is a global fund, mostly coming from industrialized, developed countries that provides these funding to control the spread of MDR-TB worldwide.
Other industrial nations provide funds because they fear that with increasing migration, the threat of MDR-TB penetrating their countries, also increases.
Tita Mamel, Dr. Ma. Imelda D. Quelapio, said that is why a global fund is made available for developing countries like the Philippines.
Here is a fact that Tita Mamel told me last night.
She said the Philippines is the 2nd largest contributor of tubercolosis (not the MDR-TB, but ordinary TB) in the United States, next only to Mexico.
She said that is why visa requirements become all the more stringent due to strict medical checks to ensure that no person with TB enters the U.S.
There is a program in Saint Lukes Hospital for these medical checks for U.S. visa applicants.
Let's go back to MDR-TB.
There are two types of MDR-TB. It is either primary or secondary.
It is primary if MDR-TB is pread from one carrier to another.
It is secondary if TB patient does not follow strictly the six-month treatment.
As a consequence of not completing the six months treatement period, a patient develops secondary MDR-TB.
Ordinary TB then becomes the deadly MDR-TB because a patient will then become drug resistant, and thus could no longer be easily treated with ordinary drugs.
She said the Philippines is already advanced in terms of treating MDR-TB, sans the needed funding, as they began the treatment project in 1999.
That is why she is invited to many countries to help start off similar treatment programs for MDR-TB.
While in terms of the rate of patients treated is so low due to accutely deficient funding in the Philippines, the impact of the program is very effective.
That is why other countries look to the Philippine program as sort of a model for starting MDR-TB treatement prjects.

Is Tanglad a cure for cancer?

"Tanglad" is a Cebuano term for lemon grass. It is said to produce an inviting aroma that is why Tanglad is the main spice you see inside the hallow stomach of lechon. That long green grass that is folder and placed inside roasted pig? That's Tanglad.
There is a claim that Tanglad can cure cancer. This has been reportedly tested with positive results in Israel. The following article I picked up from my inbox tells about the curative effects of Tanglad.
I supposed Elln Tordesillas, a columnist of the Malaya, a cancer patient herself, wrote about this.
By the way, despite Ellen's condition, she was not spared by the First Gentleman from his libel suits agasint journalist. Ellen is a respondent in one of the first gentleman's libel suits.
Here is that article about Tanglad:

Fresh lemon grass
While I was undergoing chemotherapy for ovarian cancer, my oncologist, Dr. Cecilia Llave, suggestedthat I try tanglad (lemon grass) for a drink, a tip she got from one of her patients.
That’s what I have been doing the past three years. I don’t know if tanglad has something to do with it butso far I’m okay.
A few weeks ago, an article on the medicinal powers of tanglad went the rounds of internet.
There’s no harm trying this. A bunch of tanglad is ten centavos. Or you can plant it in your backyard for a steady supply.= = =
The article is by Allison Kaplan Sommer:
"At first, Benny Zabidov, an Israeli agriculturalist who grows greenhouses full of lush spices on apastoral farm in Kfar Yedidya in the Sharon region, couldn’t understand why so many cancer patients fromaround the country were showing up on his doorstep asking for fresh lemon grass."
It turned out that their doctors had sent them."
‘They had been told to drink eight glasses of hot water with fresh lemongrass steeped in it on the daysthat they went for their radiation and chemotherapy treatments," Zabidov told ISRAEL21c.
"And this is theplace you go to in Israel for fresh lemon grass.’
"It all began when researchers at Ben Gurion University of the Negev discovered last year that thelemon aroma in herbs like lemon grass kills cancer cells in vitro, while leaving healthy cells unharmed."
The research team was led by Dr. Rivka Ofir and Prof Yakov Weinstein, incumbent of the Albert Katz Chair in Cell-Differentiatio n and Malignant Diseases, from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at BGU.
"Citral is the key component that gives the lemony aroma and taste in several herbal plants such as lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus), melissa (Melissa officinalis) and verbena (Verbena officinalis. )"
According to Ofir, the study found that citral causes cancer cells to ‘commit suicide: using apoptosis, amechanism called programmed cell death."A drink with as little as one gram of lemon grass contains enough citral to prompt the cancer cells tocommit suicide in the test tube."
The BGU investigators checked the influence of the citral on cancerous cells by adding them to bothcancerous cells and normal cells that were grown in a petri dish.
The quantity added in the concentrate was equivalent to the amount contained in a cup of regular tea using one gram of lemon herbs in hot water.
While the citral killed the cancerous cells, the normal cells remained unharmed.
"The findings were published in the scientific journal Planta Medica, which highlights research onalternative and herbal remedies. Shortly afterwards, the discovery was featured in the popular Israeli press.
"Why does it work? Nobody knows for certain, but the BGU scientists have a theory."
‘In each cell in our body, there is a genetic program which causes programmed cell death. When something does wrong, the cells divide with no control and become cancer cells. In normal cells, when the cell discovers that the control system is not operating correctly - for example, when it recognizes that acell contains faulty genetic material following cell division - it triggers cell death," explains Weinstein.
"This research may explain the medical benefit of these herbs.’"The success of their research led them to the conclusion that herbs containing citral may beconsumed as a preventative measure against certain cancerous cells."
As they learned of the BGU findings in the press, many physicians in Israel began to believe that whilethe research certainly needed to be explored further, in the meantime it would be advisable for theirpatients, who were looking for any possible tool to fight their condition, to try to harness the cancer-destroying properties of citral.
"That’s why Zabidov’s farm - the only major grower of fresh lemon grass in Israel - has become a pilgrimage destination for these patients. Luckily, they found themselves in sympathetic hands. Zabidov greets visitors with a large kettle of aromatic lemon grass tea, a plate of cookies, and a supportive attitude."
‘My father died of cancer, and my wife’s sister died young because of cancer," said Zabidov.
"So Iunderstand what they are dealing with. And I may not know anything about medicine, but I’m a good listener. And so they tell me about their expensive painful treatments and what they’ve been through. I would never tell them to stop being treated, but it’s great that they are exploring alternatives and drinking the lemon grass tea as well."
"Zabidov knew from a young age that agriculture was his calling.
At age 14, he enrolled in the KfarHayarok Agricultural high school. After his army service, he joined an idealistic group which headedsouth, in the Arava desert region, to found a new moshav (agricultural settlement) called Tsofar."
‘We were very successful; we raised fruits and vegetables, and," he notes with a smile, "We raisedsome very nice children."
"On a trip to Europe in the mid-80s, he began to become interested in herbs.Israel, at the time, was nothing like the trend-conscious cuisine-oriented country it is today,and the only spices being grown commercially were basics like parsley, dill, and coriander.
"Wandering in the Paris market, looking at the variety of herbs and spices, Zabidov realized that there was a great export potential in this niche. He brought samples back home with him, "which was technicallyillegal," he says with a guilty smile, to see how they would grow in his desert greenhouses.
Soon, he was growing basil, oregano, tarragon, chives, sage, marjoram and melissa, and mint just to name a few."
His business began to outgrow his desert facilities, and so he decided to move north, settling in themoshav of Kfar Yedidya, an hour and a half north of Tel Aviv.
He is now selling "several hundred kilos" oflemon grass per week, and has signed with a distributor to package and put it in health food stores."Zabidov has taken it upon himself to learn more about the properties of citral, and help his customers learn more, and has invited medical experts to his farm to give lectures about how the citral works and why."
He also felt a responsibility to know what to tell his customers about its use. ‘When I realized what washappening, I picked up the phone and called Dr. Weinstein at Ben-Gurion University, because thesepeople were asking me exactly the best way to consume the citral.
He said to put the loose grass in hotwater, and drink about eight glasses each day.’
"Zabidov is pleased by the findings, not simply because it means business for his farm, but because itmight influence his own health.
"Even before the news of its benefits were demonstrated, he and his family had been drinking lemon grass in hot water for years, ‘just because it tastes good.