Vitamin Check

This article was published in the Main Page of the Star newspaper today
(14 July 2007) so I thought I'd put a copy up here before its lost to the archives.

Vitamin check: Ensuring health supplements are what they are claim to be

By AUDREY EDWARDS and PAUL CHOO

newsdesk@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry will conduct an exercise to verify the vitamin and mineral content in health supplements as claimed by manufacturers.

Its minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek told The Star that the assessment would take three months and would be carried out by its food quality and safety, and pharmaceutical services divisions.

“There are plenty of vitamins and minerals as claimed, but nobody knows whether this is true or not. It is a long-term continuous exercise,” he said.

He said that another reason for the study was because vitamins or minerals when consumed excessively can sometimes do “more harm than good.”

“A study indicates that 20% of Malaysians, mostly in urban areas, are fond of taking food supplements,” he said, adding that the ministry was increasingly concerned about food quality and safety.

According to the Malaysian Dietary Supplement Association, Malaysians spend between RM50 and RM100 a month on health supplements.

The association found that vitamins C, E, B complex, multivitamins, folic acid and calcium are among the more popular dietary supplements, while evening primrose oil, Omega 3 fish oil, gingko biloba, royal jelly and cod liver oil make up popular natural supplements.

In a report, the association stated that the health supplement and traditional medicine industry in the country was worth RM4.5bil, with an annual growth rate of 10% to 12%.

Dr Chua also disclosed that the World Health Organisation has selected Malaysia as its Global Service Centre where administrative and financial services for all WHO offices worldwide will be handled.

He said that Kuala Lumpur was chosen from a shortlist which included Chennai, New Delhi and Manila.

Renovations on the office would begin in October with training and competency operations. The initial workforce is expected to be between 15 and 20 WHO officers from Geneva, and 70 to 80 local employees.

Dr Chua said full operations were expected to begin next year while staff intake would be conducted in stages until the end of 2009 when the Global Service Centre should employ about 200 locals.

Being a user of various supplements myself, I really do hope the government will conduct the check and release a list of supplements that are really safe to be used.

What's the use of conducting the check and not letting to public know about it right?

Feeling The Stretch On Knee's Ligament

I started my first yoga class in May under Jazamine, however after 3 classes, I stopped for the whole month of June due to my tight schedule in various activities. I started again last week and train under two different instructors from Fitness First Leisure Mall branch.

Out of the two different instructors, I can't help but to say that I like MC's class. Yes, MC is a guy instructor (I'm straight, I date girls only). I really like the way he conduct his class.

Besides conducting classes like the other 2 instructors, MC has an extra edge for explaining to us anatomical terms. For instance, we were asked to perform Upavistha Konasana (Wide-Angle Seated Forward Bend), and I felt some stretch on my both knee's lateral ligament, and I think it's very common for beginners to do it wrongly and feel the stretch on the knee, which wasn't meant to be. And MC explained to us that we are NOT supposed to feel the stretch on the knee, which previously I thought it was okay. If we feel the stretch on the knee, all we need to do is to reduce the split and bend our knees a little.

Upavistha Konasana (Wide-Angle Seated Forward Bend), infact is the same to my Taekwondo warming up routine, "Split-forward-down",just different command. I'm starting to think weather my ACL Tear has anything to do with wrong guidance on warming up by our Taekwondo instructors ? If it's not totally related, but at least partially? I remember clearly on how we were forced to open up our split as big as possible and straighten legs, while being pushed from our back.

My Tears Rolled After Watching This

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. Compared with Dick Hoyt, I fail.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution'

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain'

"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.'' Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still,
he tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. ``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.''

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''

Watch the video at Youtube

Link: www.teamhoyt.com

Signing Up With ISSA

1 week before I left for Indonesia, I finally got a reply from ISSA USA stating that candidates from South East Asia could still enroll with them directly although Human Principles of Singapore is the representatives of ISSA in SEA.

I enrolled immediately in ISSA's Certified Fitness Trainer programme with my father’s credit card with the total fee of USD495 + USD 60 for shipping (Roughly close to RM2K after exchange rate). My study material was shipped to me within 6 days instead of the estimated 7-14 days for International shipping.

Study material being packed nicely in a box, shipped with FedEX

Being greeted with a welcoming letter from ISSA's Executive Director, Dr Sal Arria

Inside the box, there are 2 textbooks; Fitness: The Complete Guide and Fiscal Fitness, 1 CFT workbook & Study Guide, 1 CD-Rom with workout programmes, and other promotional leaflets.

ISSA's courses are offered as open book courses with the given time frame of 2 years to be completed upon enrollment. Therefore, I can take my own sweet time to study and complete it within 2 years.

I haven't really start reading up yet since I've just settled down from Indonesia's trip, and with tons of college work to catch up after being on study leave for 1 week. My goal is to complete this course within 1 year instead of 2 years.

For those who are interested in enrolling as ISSA's candidate, please do let me know and let me be your reference. For more info on ISSA, click here. ISSA is an affiliate of National Board of Fitness Examiners.