Finally, Conquering the High Blood Pressure!

Background
After about 10 years of taking high blood pressure medicine, finally, I feel that I will be able to go medicine free. Let us say, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I like to share this information with every one so that you can also try along similar lines (however please consult the doctor before you take anyone's advice). It is indeed a great personal achievement for me.

Ten years back, I used to feel dizzy and doctor warned me categorically that I had to take medicine to lower the blood pressure. He prescribed me Ramipril 5 mg (known as Altace in US and Cardace in India), but in time that did not effect me and it was increased to 10 mg (the maximum dosage). Even with this dose it was important to watch my nutrition, do exercise and sleep well. If I did not have good night sleep, my BP would shoot up in spite that I have take medicine.

Now with this regimen that is mentioned below, my blood pressure has come to normal. I have gradually reduced the dose and for past few days I am not taking the medicine. My last measured BP is 136/71

Regimen that worked!
If I were to highlight the factors that helped me reduce the BP, they are as follows:

• Exercise with perspiration - I jog 2-3 miles (without pause) at least 5 days a week which takes about 30-40 minutes. Then I do light weight (2.5Kg), till I feel tired so that my muscles are relaxed. I mentioned perspiration because if you live in cold countries, you may not see the benefit by running outdoors where you may not perspire.
• Nutritional food - No pizza or juice or restaurant foold. Mostly homemade food which may contain light oily food. It is a real tragedy of our times that we do not get time to cook food from raw ingredients and all the restaurants serve unhealthy food.
• Less food, especially for dinner- Literally my bench mark is: I am always slightly hungry. One should have a balance. If one is too hungry, your work will be impacted and you will tend to get frustrated and have a big meal later.
• Fasting - I fast two times a week. In the fast I eat only fruit and tea (that contains milk), but have normal dinner. I usually also jog during fasting day. Fasting also help in controlling craving for the food for the rest of the week.
• Proper sleep - At least six hours of continuous sleep. However, even when my sleep is less, it did not seem to impact much!

This has been the magic combination that has cracked the puzzle and brought my blood pressure to normal. It may sound excruciating regimen, but it is tolerable. The rewards are great.

At the hindsight, from evolution standpoint, it is closest to imitation of the natural habitat that our bodies are shaped for, through eons of Darwin's selection. Imagine as farmer thousands of years ago - they must have at least worked many hours of day covering at least few miles; had food with low taste, so they ate just what the body desired; When the season was bad, they had to go hungry; and since there was no light or mental work stress, they slept well. Also read my article on ideal nutrition that has reasoning along similar lines.

Doubts
There are always doubts if this is a permanent cure. After all, I had seen in the past that any regimen I adopted, I get the initial benefit. But with time the body gets used to it and I get the high blood pressure again. So one might think this is also a passing phase before my body gets used to this regime.

There are two reasons for doubt:

1. It has been only one month that my BP is in normal range. I should watch for about 8 months before I could be more confident.
2. For past 3 months I am not in any project so I do not have any work stress. Very soon,
   I will be in Australia for my next consulting engagement and I am keeping my finger crossed.

Well, let us see. I will post about my status six months from now.


How this Miracle Happened:
Thought some of you may like to know, how things changed...

My blood pressure was alright with medication for number of years. It was important that I ate nutritional food and did reasonable exercise. However, any time I slept less or had work stress or had nice dinner, my BP will shoot up for next few days. My body was so sensitive.

However, a month back in India, there was an Hindu festival called Shiva Ratri (Lord Shiva's night), where one takes fast for the whole day - (having tea and fruits if you have low will power). Once I had undertaken the fast as a teenager. I decided to do it again partly as as challenge with my past and partly for God. Wow! For next three day my blood pressure went below the normal range! It seemed as if I never had High Blood pressure. That's how I realized fasting is one of the key in my regimen.

Earlier, I always thought exercise and good nutrition are the main factors to reducing BP and I thought it could be gradually achieved (against doctor's belief that some of us are predisposed to High BP that cannot be cured.). I never expected that fasting would suddenly produce the affect I was looking for a long time. I had a feeling that this was the final piece of the puzzle that solved the problem.

I will tell you, India is really incredible place! The extremities of ideas and the tenacity of the environment that one is exposed by being here is truly amazing. I would have never figured this piece of puzzle by reading science, health news or being in any other country.

Next Steps
I am observing myself for next eight months to see if this regimen has really worked. I hope I could write a book as people could learn and feel motivated. However, given the time, currently it is not in my immediate plans. Nevertheless, I plan to write some articles in this blog for motivation and the details that I could not put here.

I would also like research institutions to do study along the similar regimen with controlled groups. I could contribute by reviewing such proposals. I am amenable to critical way of thinking as required for the scientific research (I have doctorate degree in Physics from Rutgers university)

False Friends

Many times in the life, one must have experienced that you come across a person that develops into friendship and then you discover that you friend tells you something that is clearly a selfish proposition in his favor. You feel embarassed and may not find courage to refuse the person that you call as a friend. Such proposition come as a shock and you wonder how a person whom you may have even given a gift or treated him kindly could ask such a thing.

I have encountered such situation many times. My most recent was I had given a recent-acquainteded friend a Jazz CD to introduce him this wonderful music. To my surprise, I got a thank you e-mail and also was a proposition that he could teach me something that I interested me, for some money! I was embarassed and trying to think the right reply. I remembered the following Abraham Lincoln's quote:
Stand with anybody that stands right,
Stand with him while he is right, and
part with him when he goes wrong

This statement provided me with necessary strength to write back that I cannot mix the relationship as a colleague or friendship with money as it will eventually create a negetive environment. And thus we parted our ways.. Later I realized that it was a good decision and made my mind lighter. If a person can have no shame to propose such a thing, then one must be bold to part with him and not feel embarassed replying in kind -- especially when one is right. I am glad that this incident happened, because I feel confident that I could face more such incidents.
**
When I grew up, I have seen many friends who have gone in the wrong direction and ruined their lives, just because of false friends. Not because they were nieve, but because they were afraid to loose the cool company. This is also call peer pressure. I wished .. they had the courage to part with such false friends as it leads to certain ruin.

To the present generation kids, I may further advice to read about the Abraham Lincoln's life stuggle. It will provide a great motivation. During the civil war, there were times when most of the nation was against Abraham Lincoln .. yet he stood firm in his resolve to save the nation and the great system of democracy. His following quote reflect both his resolve and strength to resist the "peer pressure":
"I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, When I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall atleast have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me"

Help in Learning Spanish

I am trying to learn Spanish when I can find time. Spanish language is a beautiful, their food is wonderful and they are nice people to interact with.

I have bought some Spanish books and checked some free resources in Internet. However, one cannot indefinitely learn words and simple sentences. Taking yourself at the next level in learning Spanish, I got the following nice idea.

I looked at the web site with Spanish news, translated in English with Google language tools. Then I put the original and translated article side-by-side. I really liked it. Some of the wrong translation can be easily corrected. I have put the links to documents below for everybody's benefit. (After all I got lot of benefit from the Internet resources). I plan to add more of these article in time.

• Mongolia - Glorious past uncertain future - word format, pdf format
• Mexico - Plan to create jobs - word format, pdf format
  

Some useful Singapore Information

MRT (Mass Rapid Transit)

Map of MRT railway line

Going to Singapore Zoo

• Get down at Choa Chu Kang (red line MRT)
• Go to Bus Interchange next to Choa Chu Kang. Take bus 927. Last stop is at the Zoo
• Tickets are priced at s$15 per adult and s$7.50 per child

Going to Malaysia from Singapore via bus

• Routes: One can go to Malaysia via two routes - Causeway Link and Second Link. Causeway Link will take you to Johor Bahru in Malaysia. Second Link links Tuas in Singapore with Geyland Patah in Malaysia
• Individual travel usually go via Causeway Link. Second Link is not for individual travellers! Only Trucks and Packaged tour Bus ply on this route.
• Getting Visa: Get your visa before going to Malaysia. There is no provision yet for visa on arrival via Causeway Link. I have heard that vai Second Link, one can get visa on arrival.
• For US no visa is needed. For Indians the visa cost about s$33. For Taiwan, visa cost is s$48 as Malaysia does not recognize Taiwan as a country so they have to issue the travel document.
• In Singapore, Malaysia Counsulate has outsourced the visa process to selected Travel Agents. It takes three business days to get visa. I went to Mustafa Air Travel near Farrer Park MRT station to get the visa. The customer service via phone is pretty bad.
• Going to Malaysia: From MRT red line, get down at Kranji station. From there take 170 or 160 (going to Johor Bahru).
• This will take you to Woodland check point in 5-10 minutes. Every one has to get down to get the immigration formalities done in Singapore side. Take 170 or 160 again to Johor Bahru checkpoint. Every one has to get down to get Malaysia immigration formalities done.
• You are in now in Malaysia!

Eye Exercise for Kids

While parents are very particular about nutrition needs of their kids, there is big oversight for eye exercise. Surprisingly not much importance is given to short-sightedness by doctors or media. After all, a poor eye-sight can be corrected by glasses or contacts.

In this article, I focus on simple 10-minutes eye exercise for kids. Ofcourse every one can do this, but eye exercise is especially important for kids. I also discuss about a product that I incidentally came across in Singapore.

Some Statistics and Facts

• Fifty years ago myopia (or short sightedness) was not very prevalent. Today one in every four people have myopia. It is predicted that by 2020, one in three will be shortsighted. (See Myopia on the rise). This is tantamount to having epidemic!
• The percentate of children with myopia is higher in countries where the children are subjected to heavy school work loads, watch computer games, or TV.
• Any person with glass will tell you, that the short sightedness worsens progresively, till you reach the age of 20-25 years. This is when the body (including the eyes) stops growing.

The above facts indicates two things. One is, eye care should be taken since young age and secondly environment plays a big role in myopia. To counter the environmental effects, one can emphasize on good sitting posture, watch less computer games and TV (especially moving game where intense focus is needed), and some eye exercise. If you are socially vocal, try to introduce eye-exercise in your school curriculum.

Here are some yoga exercise for eyes that I learnt long ago in India. It is definitely soothing for tired eyes. Try it. Only if you feel comfortable, ask your kids to do as an every morning or evening activity.

Eye Exercise Instructions

	Exercise: For half a minute, look into your forehead. Relax: When done, close your eyes for half a minute. Warm your eyes by firstly rubbing your palms and putting it over the closed eyes, gently massaging the eyes.
	Exercise: For half a minute, look into your nose. (People with mongoloid feature can look on their lips) Relax: see above
	Exercise: For half a minute, look into your left shoulder without turning your head. Relax: see above
	Exercise: For half a minute, look into your right shoulder without turning your head. Relax: see above
	Exercise: Start with looking to your nose, gradually move the eyes clockwise till you are back to your nose. Then retrace your eyes in counter-clockwise till you reach your nose again. Do this about 10 times. Relax: see above

Some commonsense rules should be followed such as not to do exercise if there is inflammation or injury to eye. Best consult the doctor, if in doubt.

After writing this article, incidentally, I encountered a Singapore product, EyeRelax, claiming to remove or reduce myopia, lazy eye and even delay presbyopia (long sightedness) that comes to people over forty years of age. I also saw the demo of one of the product and here is the description:

When you peek at the EyeRelax product, as if you are viewing in a microscope, it shows many colored spots stringed together gradually coming-into and going-out of focus at the rate of every five seconds or so (I have both myopia and presbyopia). At any given time it shows only one color, but every cycle that last about 10 seconds, it changes to different color.

The product is quite expensive (about S$600 or US$400). I did not purchase because it is not pressing need for my family and for high price. In my opinion adults could and simulate this with the following exercise described as follows:

Close your one eye and look at letters in a normal book without corrective lens (glasses or contacts). Put the book at right distance so that the letters are in focus. Do not read, just look at the same letters. Gradually move them out of focus till it is very fuzzy. Do this about 25-30 times (should take about 5 minutes). Do the same with other eye. Do once or twice every day. This procedure put pressure on accommodative system of the eye as you move the letters in-focus to out-of-focus.

However, I would recommend purchasing if you have kid with lazy eye or substantially poor eye-sight. If you do not have access to this product. Try to gently convince him/her to do the above exercises mentioned.

The product information can be accessed from www.eyecollege.com . For concerned parents the advertisement of EyeRelax is as follows:

• For low myopia, 0-300 degrees, high chance to regain perfect eyesight
• For moderate myopia, 300-600, improved eyesight and prevent worsening of myopia
• For High myopia, >600, use immediately to prevent worsening. Avoid blindness disease
• For adult Long Sightedness, delay presbyopia

Singapore in Pictures

Twin tower in Chinese Garden	Interior of a mall in Orchard Street
Merlion (half-fish half lion), a symbol of Singapore. On the left is Swissôtel The Stamford, tallest Hotel in Southeast Asia	Singaporeans did not compromise on spaces in spite high population density. Above is front of Marina Square leading to Esplanade
MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) is the backbone of transportation. The service is comfortable and precise	Most Malls in Singapore are spacious making the shopping a pleasant experience
White Bengal tiger in Singapore zoo. The experience is quite realistic!	Perhaps Singapore Zoo is one of the best in the world
Kranji War Cemetery & Memorial shows how the British Crown respect their fallen soldiers irrespective of race and religion	Indian National Army memorial near Esplanade. Here the Indian freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose laid the foundation for Indian National Army

Singapore - a beautiful little country

Singapore is a little country near the equator, wonderfully managed, clean, nice people, good diverse inexpensive food, very safe for kids and women, timely transportation, footpath on every road. In short - it caters to great standard of living.

Inside a MRT station	Chinese vegetarian stall

I found very few people (including Singaporeans) who have praiseworthy words for Singapore. Most of the Singaporeans are of Chinese ethnicity and they seem to identify with China, Indian Singaporeans (mostly tamils) build their own cocoon and are happy in their world, foreigners who come here think more from opportunity angle and want to move on to Western country or go back to home country after having some savings. Nothing wrong, of course, but there are quite a few, who make negative comments about Singapore. This bothers me.

People often compare one-to-one with their own culture. Such comparison is flawed, because in most of the cases they are blind to the negative aspects of their culture. Singapore has it own set of unique features that makes a memorable living experience.

Beside Singapore, I have lived in India, USA and short visit to few more countries. I find Singapore lovely place to live for this phase of my life, where I have kids. Some of them are as follows:

Enriching the Habit of Reading - Being in computer/Internet age. Much of my time at home goes with computers, kids or doing errands. Reading in home is just not the activity I am psychologically prepared for. However, I have taken up reading during my 30 minutes commute to work, which is by bus or train (MRT). I actually look forward to the commuting time! In last six months, I have finished some good books - biograpy of Abraham Lincoln, The Plague Race, and The best American Science Writing. I never had this wonderful reading time in my life. In USA, you drive for work and in India, it is difficult and barely managible.

Inexpensive Food - In Singapore, usually there are food courts in the shopping complex or business center. They sell food that is inexpensive (about US$2.50) and it makes no sense to bring food from home. The food is quite diverse - differnt variety of chinese dishes, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean. If you are less inclined to eat ethnic food, fast food resturants like Mc Donald, Subway and Burger King is also there.

Ethnic food is relatively healthy and less fried. In a sense, it is real homely food. The chinese resturants in USA tend to be highly fried and unhealthy (although more tasty).

Vegeratian Food - In countries other than India, vegetarian food is not easy to come by. Strangely singapore food courts always have one Chinese vegetarian shop. The food is made up of vegetables and tofu. For some dishes, they try to immitate tofu with the taste and looks of chicken, beef, pork. The dish cost like US$1.50! Sometimes I feed bad for them for charging so little. I try to avoid the Indian resturant for health reasons (they use lot of oil)

Having Maid - In Singapore one can hire maids on live-in or scheduled basis. Maids are available for US$300 and are usually from poor coutries like India, Indonesia, Phillipines. Government takes 2/3 of the share and maid gets the rest. Live-in maid take care of all the chores - walking kids to school, preparing food and cleaning the house. Hiring of maids are handled by agents and there is minimum risk.

In India, one cannot trust maid to handle children and one needs to have their grandparents or guardian supervising the maid activities. In USA, one cannot afford the maids. I greatly respect the single parents of USA, usually women, who have to work and rush to pickup their children and take care of the house. I hope their employers are kinder to them as a part of social responsibility.

Exercise - Singapore government has provided sports complex, stadium, water playground, swimming pools. All residential complex has little play area for kids and adults. The swimming cost about US$0.75 per entry, which is quite inexpensive compared to even India. Since the weather is warm throughout the year, I get most of the excercise from jogging on the footpath beside the road and some exercise on the play area. In US, it is necessary to have membership with a gym to get exercise, especially during cold weather.