Thursday, April 30, 2009

Multi Vitamins and Immune System

An article published in the British Journal of Nutrition summarizes the roles of select vitamins and trace elements in immune function. Adequate intakes of micronutrients are required for the immune system to function efficiently. Micronutrient deficiency suppresses immunity by affecting antibody responses, leading to imbalances in the immune system. This situation increases susceptibility to infections, which increases disease and death risk. In addition, infections aggravate micronutrient deficiencies by reducing nutrient intake, increasing losses, and interfering with utilization by altering metabolic pathways. Inadequate intakes of micronutrients are common in people with eating disorders, smokers (active and passive), individuals with chronic alcohol abuse, certain diseases, during pregnancy and lactation, and in the elderly.Micronutrients contribute to the body's natural defenses on three levels by supporting physical barriers (skin/mucosa), cellular immunity, and antibody production. Vitamins A, C, E, and the mineral zinc assist in enhancing the skin barrier function. Vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, E, and folic acid, and the minerals iron, zinc, copper and selenium work synergistically to support the protective activities of the immune cells. Finally, all these micronutrients, with the exception of vitamin C and iron, are essential for the production of antibodies.Overall, inadequate intake and status of these vitamins and minerals may lead to a suppressed immune system, which increases the risk of infections and aggravates malnutrition. Therefore, supplementation with a multivitamin that includes these micronutrients can support the body's natural defense system by enhancing all three levels of immunity.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Preseverance / Istiqamah(tekad&Sabar)

"One of the commonest mistakes and one of the costliest is thinking that success is due to some genius, some magic - something or other which we do not possess. Success is generally due to holding on, and failure to letting go. You decide to learn a language, study music, take a course of reading, train yourself physically. Will it be success or failure? It depends upon how much pluck and perseverance that word "decide" contains. The decision that nothing can overrule, the grip that nothing can detach will bring success. Remember the Chinese proverb, "With time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes satin." Raymond Hollohan - MMoguls Affilliate

"Salah satu kesilapan besar dan biasa yang dilakukan oleh orang biasa ialah mempunyai pemikiran yang menganggap kejayaan adalah disebabkan oleh magik, atau oleh sesuatu yang mustahil akan ada pada diri kita. Sebenarnya, kejayaan selalunya adalah disebabkan seseorang itu tekad memegang pada matlamat/impian itu sendiri atau kegagalan seseorang itu melepaskan matlamat/impian mereka. Kalau anda telah putuskan untuk belajar sesuatu bahasa, belajar muzik, mengambil kursus pembacaan, melalui latihan fizikal, adakah ia akan berakhir dengan kegagalan atau kejayaan. Semuanya bergantung kepada berapa utuhnya dan tekad keputusan anda itu. Hanya satu keputusan yang utuh dan dengan tekad di mana tiada apa yang akan dapat menghalang anda , tiada yang dapat melembutkan pegangan anda pada hasrat, matlamat dan keputusan anda itu yang akan menghasilkan kejayaan. Seperti pepatah Cina: "Dengan masa dan kesabaran daun malberi bertukar menjadi kain sutera."

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Meetings

Today I had a meeting that started from 9.30am and ended at 5.30pm. I have always felt that meetings should not be more than 2-3 hours. Meetings that last more than that are usually 50% percent effective. This is my opinion. Others might not agree.
How many of us have always feel that meetings are always dragging. Most of the time we felt that we should not be there in the first place. Of all the items in the meeting, there is only one item that effected us and we had to wait for one or two hours just to participate in the meeting. And the item was discussed for 15 minutes.
Management nowadays love meetings. If you call to an office, most of the times the top executives are always in a meeting. Are meetings running our companies or government offices nowadays? Cant we have short discussions instead? Or meetings where everyone is standing so that items can be discussed faster and resolutions or solutions are being thought out or discussed before the meetings. Meetings are to discussed outcomes, solutions and actions to be done. They should be fast and to the points. They should not be brainstorming sessions. Brainstorming sessions should be in small groups. While meetings can be in bigger groups but they should be result oriented. If a solution takes too long to be agreed upon, form a team to have a separate discussion on the item and ask the team to prepare a paper and distribute the notes of the discussion and the options to the other members of the meeting quorum. Next meeting have a vote to decide the action to be taken.
Most of us have a lot of things to do and meetings sometimes make our work more stressful due to the time they take.

That is my two cents worth for today.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

22nd April 2009-Are we slaves?

I am still at the office not due to abundance of work but rather it is easier to work when the office is kind of empty. Two hours work during normal office hours can be cut to one hour or even 45 minutes.
At these times I can reflect what are the issues today, the problems, my wife, my children, my work, politics, business, money issues. Wow lot of issues eh.
Working outstation and being a weekend husband and father has its advantanges and disadvantages as any other things in the world. But being 40+  I think it has taken its toll on me. I looked forward to the weekends and dread the travelling back to work on sunday nite or monday morning. The only thing that have kept me from quiting is that I need the money. Just as millions out there who wanted to do something else, work somewhere else but couldn't because they need the money that they are getting from their present jobs.
Are we being slaves to our work, to money??
Adakah kita kini walaupun dianggap a freeman, tetapi sebenarnya hanyalah hamba kepada kerja kita, gaji kita, pemimpin kita, media kita?? Do we have choices??? Do we want to be told what to do everytime, be it by our bosses, our leaders, our media, our salaries? Hey you cant quit, who else can give you this much money? Hey you need the money, your chidren need the money, your parents need some money? 
So what to do? Just plough through, always try to find opportunities to better yourself, pray to God, Ask to God. Just hope that if we need to work for the money, the work is something that we are excited about, something that we love to do. As some smart people say, You cant be successful(happy, wealthy, etc.) until you do the things that you love.

SO, GO AND FIND THAT WORK THAT YOU LOVE AND EXCITED ABOUT. STOP COMPLAINING!!!