How I look at illness

Assalamualaikum,

It had been said by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that "87% of illness come from the stomach." I'm not a doctor, but this is how I look at illness.

Diseases comes from everywhere, but in particular it comes from the food and drinks that we eat and drink respectively. The food or drinks may be infested with harmful germs or virus, or may contain harmful chemicals. Food that is infested with harmful germs may lead to the person consuming it to contract a disease. Diseases caused by virus are normally contagious and are contracted from the air that carries the virus. Food that contains harmful chemicals may consist of additives, which are used to make the food lasts longer; colorings, which are used to make the food looks better and flavourings ("perisa"), like monosodium glutamate, to make the food tastes better. Food that contains harmful chemicals may lead to the person consuming it to contract a disease, which is different from a disease caused by germs/virus.

Food and drinks that are infested with germs are normally due to uncleanliness or unhygienic handling of the food. The housefly from the rubbish heap carries with it harmful germs and viruses, which it deposits on the food as it lands on it. The food can also be infested with germs/viruses carried by cockroaches, rats and lizards if it is left exposed and unprotected. A mosquito secretes a fluid containing viruses from its body as it replaces the fluid with human blood. The germs or viruses soon
multiply quickly and if the person's immune system is weak, he soon finds himself suffering from the disease caused by the germs or viruses.

On the other hand a food containing harmful chemicals does not get a quick reaction (symptons) from the body as does the germs or viruses. These chemicals find their way into the body's organs and stay there and if not removed from the body, can cause damages on a long term basis. Suddenly and without warning the particular organs stop functioning or are infected with cancer cells.

Where diseases caused by germs or viruses can be treated fairly quickly if the person goes to see a doctor, diseases caused by chemicals are normally difficult to detect, until it has done some damages, as indicated by the symptons.

Illness is "good" in the sense that it is a "test" of our patience. If we can overcome the illness to become well again, we become a "better" person. A Muslim considers having a disease as a "dugaan" (a test) and if he gets better, he gains a "darjat" (a better Muslim).

An illness is also good in the eyes of a Muslim because it cleans sins from his soul. When he is awaken in the next world ("bangkit di hari kiamat") he carries less sin with him to face Allah SWT on judgement day at "Padang Masyar."

The problem is, how does a Muslim know that he is going to survive the disease? Is he going to die or live? He doesn't know, I'm afraid; only the Almighty knows.

The survival rate for a "normal" disease like cholera, typhoid, malaria and others caused by germs/viruses is high, but for chronic diseases like high blood pressure (which can lead to a stroke or heart attack), leukomia and cancer is considered as 50:50, as I was told by my doctor friends.

The dilemma comes when one is diagnosed with having a cancer. The success rate for treatment of cancer depends on how early one can detect a cancerous growth. If it is detected early, the growth can be removed. If it is detected later, when damage has been done, the chance of survival is very low indeed.

Therefore a Muslim must always think that death is fast approaching and he must prepare himself to face the day when his journey in this world is going to end for him to join another world. It has been advised by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that a Muslim should grab 5 things before 5 things happen to him, namely:-

1. When he's young, before he gets old
2. When he's healthy before he gets sick
3. When he has free time before he gets busy
4. When he's rich before he gets poor
5. When he lives before he dies.

He should "invest" himself as much as possible in the next world when he's still young, healthy, has the free time, is rich and alive. "Investing" in the next world means to carry out good deeds, which include donating money to the poor and avoid bad deeds, as are guided by the Al-Quran and "Sunnah Rasulullah s.a.w." (actions and words of Prophet Muhammad, PBUH). If he has done bad deeds, he should repent ("bertaubat") and ask for forgiveness from Allah SWT and never repeat the same thing.

For a person who has a chronic disease, who has gone through many medical treatment and seen many doctors and spends many thousands of ringgit, and yet the disease remains, I suggest, as a last resort, that he should do following:-

1.If he has not been a true Muslim, he should change his ways and start being one.

2.He should consider that death is unavoidable and therefore he should repent and ask for forgiveness from the Almighty, before it's too late, in the sense that the Almighty takes his life before he has the opportunity to repent.

3.As a last resort, and if he is still strong and capable, he should make a trip to Mecca to perform Umrah.

4.Whilst in Mecca, apart from performing the Umrah, he should also drink the holy Zam-Zam water, which has been known to have cured many diseases. Before sipping the holy Zam-Zam water, he should request ("berdoa") from Allah SWT to cure his disease because diseases cannot be cured without HIS consent. He should also take the opportunity at Masjidil Haram to prey, repent ("bertaubat") and repeatedly ask for forgiveness from Allah SWT.

Why I say he should be a true Muslim first is because if he wants to ask for a favour from Allah SWT, i.e. to cure his disease, he should first please Allah SWT (mendapat keredhaan Allah SWT). After Allah SWT is pleased with him, either Allah SWT lets him live longer or takes his life. Allah SWT knows best ("Maha Mengetahui") what is good for him and always does good to HIS "makhluk" (living things,
including humans).

Either way is good for him. If he lives, he should continue to remain a true Muslim, if not better. If he dies, he should die a true Muslim and the place for a true Muslim is in the heavens ("syurga"). And that's where we all finally want to go when we finally leave this world. Wallah'ualam.....

How I control my diabetes

Assalamualaikum,

It is quite common nowadays to know that a person has diabetes. The first time I knew I had diabetes was when I had to go to a clinic for a medical check-up for an insurance company 8 years ago. The sample of my blood that was sent to the laboratory for analysis confirmed that I was a diabetic of type II. The glucose (sugar) level in my blood sample was then giving a reading of 15. The normal reading for a healthy person should be from 4 to 6.

Then I understood why suddenly about a year back I was always feeling weak, always felt thirsty and had to pass urine frequently. I found out that they were the symptoms of a diabetic. Worst still, I found out that being a diabetic is the starting point for other diseases, including high blood pressure, kidney failure and blindness.

From Abu Hurairah r.a.,Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. said, " Allah does not bring down a disease unless Allah brings down a cure for it." (Dari Abu Hurairah r.a., Nabi saw bersabda, " Allah tidak menurunkan sesuatu penyakit melainkan Allah menurunkan penyembuh untuknya." Riwayat al-Bukhari)

So for every disease, there is a cure for it. So my attempts to find a cure for diabetes started that day.

I soon found out that the cause of diabetes is either due to the unavailability of insulin from the pancreas or the insulin is incapable of converting the excess sugar in the blood into fat to be stored in the body.

Sugar is used as the source of energy but if it is not utilised or converted into fat, it becomes a toxin (poison) and will start to create havoc to the organs in our body. That's why a diabetic has to urinate very often because his body is trying to get rid of the excess sugar from his blood. That's why he also feels thirsty very often because his body needs water to dilute the sugar in the blood to get rid of the sugar.

The pancreas of a diabetic fails to produce insulin or if it is producing, the insulin fails to handle the sugar in the blood. This is either due to hereditary or the person leads a life of obesity or both. They say if one of our parents has diabetes, chances are that we are also going to have it.

My late mum was a diabetic. At the peak of her diabetic problem, there was a hole on her right foot and it didn't get better until she finally went to the doctor who advised her to control her diet and prescribed a medication for her. Her wound got better after that.

I'd like to think that I got my diabetes not because my mum was a diabetic and my mum was a diabetic not because her mum was a diabetic too..I think my late mum was a diabetic because she was leading a life of obesity. I don't blame her or mums like her because life as a housewife restricted her to the household chores and hardly gave her the chance to go outdoors to stay away from living a life of obesity.

Long time ago, our grandparents and great grandparents didn't have the luxury of doing things as easily as we presently have. Their lifestyles and ours differ tremendously. If we travel from one place to another, we have motorised transportation to take us there, but they had to walk. We "work" by sitting in a cool comfortable air-conditioned office most of the time, but they had to sweat it out in the open padi fields, vegetable/fruit farms or the sea. They ate fresh food, and so do we, except that our "fresh food" are treated with insecticides and preservatives before they are delivered to us in the supermarkets. They had processed foods like soya sauce, keropok, salted fish and fish balls which they produced for their own consumption. We have processed food too, but our processed food are filled with more-often-than-not harmful preservatives, colourings and taste enhancers like monosodium glutimate. The air that they breathe was fresh all the time. The air that we breath is polluted. No wonder they live longer because they exercise a lot, breathed unpolluted air and eat clean food that were rich in vitamins and nutrients. We eat polluted food, breath in polluted air and seldom exercise.

Let's compare the life of our great grandfather and ours. Our great grandfather, who was say, a fisherman, woke up in the morning and walked to the beach where his sampan (boat) was parked. He had a good exercise there. We wake up in the morning and walk to our car that is parked in the garage - hardly any exercise. Our great grandfather went to the sea (his place of work) by rowing his sampan - that's quite a lot of exercise. We go to our office (place of work) by driving a car - minimum exercise, just turn the steering wheel, press the clutch (manual gear) and the brake. Under the hot sun, our great grandfather had to cast his fishing net or fishing hook and maneuver his sampan from one place to another. He sweat from the exercise and also from the sun, where he also obtained Vitamin D. Under the air-conditioned office, we sit at our desk and move only if we have to go for a meeting or go to the toilet. We hardly sweat.We only get Vitamin D from the sun if we walk to the nearby stall during lunch time, provided of course we do not use an umbrella to get there.

When our great grandfather went home after he had caught enough fish for the day he repeated the same exercise that he did when he left his house in the morning - same good exercise. We hardly have any exercise as we go home in our air-conditioned car. After our great grandfather reached home, he had to sort out the fish that was caught for the day, clean the compound, burn the rubbish or do some other chores. When we reach home however, we sit in front of the television set and wait for dinner to be served. After our great grandfather had his dinner, he would go to sleep early because there was no television to watch or mamak stall to go for "teh tarek". Therefore he had enough rest. On the other hand, after we have our dinner, we sit in front of the TV until late at night or spend hours at the mamak restaurant with friends before we go to bed. We therefore don't have enough sleep.

"We eat to live, not live to eat." But it looks like we are exactly doing the opposite. We eat more than we should, more than what our body needs. We have breakfast at home, lunch in the office, tea and cakes during tea break, dinner at home and supper at night and not counting the chocolates and cookies kept in the drawer during office hours. We fill up our stomach with junk food and food that we don't need. We do not exercise enough to get rid of stored food in our body.

The law of balance says "what goes in should go out." Thus, what goes into the body should equal to what goes out from the body. If we eat more we should also exercise more. If we don't exercise more, then the food keeps accumulating and our body grows heavier and heavier each day. That's when all kinds of chronic diseases start to surface - diabetes, high-blood pressure, cancer, etc.

Diabetes is not like a disease where the doctor prescribes to you a medication and you get better a few days later. It is caused by an upset in our body system due to leading a life of obesity for too long. The doctors advise that there is no cure for diabetes. The best you can do is to control the amount of sugar in your blood to ensure that the sugar level does not reach a dangerous level, in the sense that it does not damage your internal organs.

The doctor helps to control the sugar level in the blood of a diabetic patient by prescribing a suitable medication to him. The medication helps to regulate the sugar level in the blood to a safe level. Other than exercise, doctors also advise that we should limit the consumption of sweet food and carbohydrates and take more meat, vegetables and fruits. Carbohydrates turn into sugar after they are consumed, that's why a diabetic should minimise the consumption of carbohydrates. Rice and flour are the most common form of carbohydrates that are consumed by us.

I've known of a few diabetics who don't control the amount of food that they consume when they are on their doctor's medication. This can be very dangerous because certain medications can give serious side effect to the body. I know of a close friend who took a medication wrongly prescribed by his doctor. His sugar level was normal when he was taking the medication. Later on something happened to him and he had to be admitted into a hospital. The hospital doctors later diagnosed him as having kidney failures. Another doctor later told him that the diabetic medication that was prescribed to him was the cause of his kidney failures. Now he is on dialysis twice a week.

All this while, I have been "experimenting" on the best way to control my sugar level without taking any medication and without sacrificing too much on the consumption of carbohydrates and I think I have found the right solution. I wish to share it with you if you are a diabetic. If you are not a diabetic, it may help prevent you from being one. "Prevention is better than cure" and "better to be safe than sorry." My method may not work for you but you have to try it out and change or adjust it until you find the right solution.

What I am doing to control the sugar level in my blood is as follows:-

1. Eating habits - I only eat twice a day. I never miss a good breakfast. It can be the full-of-carbohydrates type like nasi lemak, roti canai, nasi goreng or mihun goreng. These carbohydrates provide me with energy until about 4.00 pm when I also have a meal. Thus, between breakfast and 4.00 pm I don't take anything else except plain water or green tea. Green tea is an anti-oxidant and it's good for our immune system. After I have my 4.00 pm meal, I don't take anymore meal for the day, except maybe an apple for dinner.

If I realy feel hungry during lunch time. I'll go down to the stall in front of my office to buy a slice of papaya or pineapple. Or I go and buy a packet of groundnuts at the Petronas station nearby.

2. I fast twice a week, every Monday and Thursday. Fasting helps to detoxify the body from accumulated toxins from the food that we eat and the polluted air that we breath. It also gives the organs in our body the time to rest, recuperate and recover. Who knows, your damaged organs may heal and function as normal.

3. I exercise regularly. This I do by taking the train and lrt (light rapid transit) to and from work. It takes about half an hour of walking from my home to the nearest lrt station. After the lrt stops at a station, I walk for about 5 minutes to a train station. After taking the train I walk for another 15 minutes from the train station to my office. So I receive about 50 minutes of walking exercise in one way and 100 minutes of exercise both ways.

I always monitor my blood sugar level in the morning prior to breakfast by using a blood measurement meter, which I purchase from the local pharmacy.So far the meter has been giving me an average reading of 7 to 8. On days when I eat less carbohydrates and more fruits and capatis (made from wheat flour), the reading is about 6 to 7.

I am still experimenting with my lifestyle to reduce the reading to 4 to 6, the so-called normal level. Maybe I should fast 3 days a week or reduce my food intake to once a day instead of the present two meals a day. I'll let you know through this blog soon if I manage to reduce my sugar reading to that level consistently after I adjust my lifestyle or eating habits as proposed above.

Watch that Price Display

The next time you go for shopping at one of the big supermarkets, I advise you to watch for the price of each of the items on the display as the cashier at the paying counter scans each item.

My family and I went to Carrefour Ampang this afternoon to purchase our weekly stock of food and household goods. Among the items that we were going to purchase was a 10-kg bag of rice and a notebook bag. The price for the rice was displayed as RM20.00 (on offer) and the price for the notebook bag was shown as RM89.90.

When these two (2) items were scanned at the counter, the price for the rice was displayed as RM40.00 (instead of RM20.00) and the bag as RM93.50 (instead of RM89.90). We immediately told the cashier that they were incorrect. The cashier immediately called someone to go and check the price for the bag. The staff checked and came back to confirm that the correct price was RM89.90 and not RM93.50.

My wife did not wait for the Carrefour staff. She personally went to check the price of the rice. She came back with another 10-kg bag of rice of another brand which cost RM25.00. She told me that the bag of rice on promotion at RM20.00 was no longer available, it has been sold out.She told me that the bag of rice that she took earlier was placed where the sign showed the price as RM20.00. She therefore assumed that the bags of rice placed under the RM20 price tag would cost RM20.00. Furthermore it was of the same brand.

I was told to go to the Customer Service to claim back the difference between RM93.50 and RM89.90, which was RM3.60, which I got back in cash.

The point I am trying to make is that one should always know how much one is going to pay for an item and make sure that the same price is shown on the display when the cashier scans the item. Let's not divert your concentration, like sms or call someone over the phone, while the cashier is scanning the items because you will not know whether you are paying for the right prices as indicated.

As for the bag of rice on offer at RM20.00., why still displayed the price tag at RM20.00 when the rice had been sold out? Why not just remove the price tag instead?

I'm not saying that the supermarket is deliberately trying to cheat the customers this way.Most likely it's an oversight or one of the staffs forgot to remove the price tag or place the correct one. Just imagine if we didn't observe the scanned price properly or didn't check the receipt after that - we would be paying more than we should.