Thursday 8 September 2022

Why Should not We Take Aspirin Daily? - Part 1- Healthy Life 24

As you know that there are a lot of non-prescription drugs sold through Over the Counter (OTC).



Image 1- Aspirin sold as an OTC drug in Walmart

We might be familiar with OTC drug called as “aspirin,” since its commonly used for medication of:

- reduce fever
- relieve pain.

Then, Aspirin may relieve from light to medium pains such as:

- common cold, headaches
- muscle aches, toothaches
- arthritis



Image 2- Abandoned bike tied to the fence



Image 3- Over the Counter medicines at pharmacy store

Another use of Aspirin is to prevent blood clot in the artery. The clot obstructs the flow of blood which may cause:

- heart attacks
- strokes (due to disturbance of blood flow in the brain)

The facts, based on reported from Annals of Internal Medicine (2019) that millions of people in the USA take Aspirin daily, strangely even they don’t have heart diseases.

Then, why do they take Aspirin every day?

# To be continued to Part 2

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Tuesday 6 September 2022

A Simple Steamed Layer Cake – Food 22

This cake is popular in many Southeast Asian countries, they call its as a “kue lapis,” usually consumed as a snack.



Image 1- Steamed Layer Cake

The countries that you may find this snack as a traditional dish are following:

- Singapore
- Vietnam
- Indonesia
- and Malaysia

We may be lucky to see its at here in America sold in ethnic groceries such as Vietnam shops or Asian market.



Image 2- Ten layers of cake

Since the “Steamed Layer Cake” is not always available in groceries, we try to make its by ourselves.

Sure, we may adjust sweetness, colors and thicness of layers based on what we desire.



Image 3- Ready to consume

We collect the following important ingredients:

- rice flour
- tapioca flour
- coconut milk
- granulated sugar
- and other ingredients

Then, we just follow instruction from internet. After a while done. The result could be seen at Images 1, 2 and 3.

Have you tasted “Steamed Layer Cake”? What do you think?

# Previous postings?

Sunday 4 September 2022

Is America a Wine Exporting Country? - Part 2

You may read previous post (Part 1):

- The Rainbow Before Evening : Is America Wine Exporting Country? - Part 1



Image 1- Imported wines from France

I went to a grocery a few days ago, surprising me more that a lot of imported wines come from the countries I never knew as wine exporters such as:

- Israel
- United Kingdom
- Austria
- Spain
- Portugal
- Argentina
- New Zealand



Image 2- Polka dots plant, just for illustration

Why does America Import as well as Export Wine?

First, the simple answer that American demands more wines than supplies it.



Image 3- Wine glasses, just for illustration

Second, some countries love American’s wine due to several factors, include:

- price
- taste
- familiar with some brands of American wines.

Just to let know, the countries which import American wines most are:

- Canada
- United Kingdom, Denmark
- Japan and Hong Kong

Finally, did your country wines exporter or importer or both?

# Previous postings:

Thursday 1 September 2022

Learning a New Language Against Alzheimer's Disease – Part 1 - Alzheimer's 9

Can you speak more than one language?

Here, in my community, one of activities of churches and libraries is to facilitate communities to learn new languages.



Image 1- CD to learn several foreign languages, illustration only

This service is free, and everybody can join them. A chapel on campus serves not only English (English Second Language) but also:

- Spanish
- and Chinese.

How fun!

For children, many of them grow up exposed to two different languages from an early age.



Image 2 – Customers at a vendor



Image 3- A book cover, illustration

It does not hard for them to learn more than one language at the same time, even they tend to borrow one word from another.

We still remember the concepts in the past about bilingual. It said that bilingual was bad for brain.

By then, many scientists have conducted research about bilingual and multilingual.

The research had been done for bilinguals in all levels of ages, from bilingual in baby to bilingual in elderly. Many amazing findings about them.

# To be continued to Part 2

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Monday 29 August 2022

Purple Gallinule Visited Our Neighborhood – Nature 38

We are lucky, our neighborhood and even yard have been visited regularly by many wild critters such as foxes, turtles, squirrels, raccoon and birds.



Image 1- A Purple Gallinule bird visited our neighborhood

We have posted some of those critters:



Image 2- Hiding Purple Gallinule

Our neighborhood just saw Purple Gallinule, a kind of beautiful bird, many of us include me never seen before.



Image 3- Clear picture of Purple Gallinule from Google

A rare species seen in rural areas said some of my neighbors when they were childhood.

However, Purple Gallinule is not list as endangered species yet, but its population is decreasing from time to time.

The birds can be seen in the states or region or foreign country such as:

- South Carolina
- Texas
- Southeastern of USA and Argentina

Have you seen Purple Gallinule in nature?

# Previous postings:

Saturday 27 August 2022

What does Hypertension Mean? - Part 2 – Cardiovascular 3

You may read previous post (Part 1):

- What does Hypertension Mean? - Part 1 – Cardiovascular 3



Image 1- A plant, just for illustration

It can be in pulmonary artery (pulmonary hypertension) or in aorta (arterial/systemic hypertension).

We will discuss in the next coming articles.

In term of level, we call hypertension when blood pressure reaches 140/90 mmHg or even higher.

Quite surprising fact that there is 1 of 3 person gets high blood pressure worldwide.




Image 2- Accessories, illustration.

The hypertension leads to many diseases include kidney diseases, stroke and heart attacks.



Image 3- A factory outlet, illustration

On the other hand, the lower blood pressure the lower risk to get these diseases.

At figure of previous post (part 1): What does Hypertension Mean? - Part 1 – Cardiovascular 3, there are simple ways to prevent hypertension without medication:

+ 1. Healthy diet such as low-fat products, fruit, vegetable and grains
+ 2. Physical activity (doing exercise regularly)
+ 3. Avoiding smoke (cigarette could increase blood pressure immediately)
+ 4. Avoid drinking alcohol; and 5. Managing stress (enjoy and relax).

# Previous postings:

Thursday 25 August 2022

Flooding after Raining in Our Neighborhood – Nature 37

Our neighborhood, always get flood in the last few years. Unbelievable, even the rains in just few hours.



Image 1- Flood in our neighborhood

What make neighborhood frustrated and even angry that flooding is then followed by these terrible things:

- blackout of electricity
- no internet connections
- stuck of cars in the middle of flood.

We wonder what does cause the flood in our neighborhood and city (Baton Rouge, LA?)



Image 2- A car in the middle of flooding



Image 3- Flood in front of houses



Image 4- A car crashes water



Image 5- Water in the yard



Image 6- Flooding in almost part of housing



Image 7- Disturbing in the middle of street



Image 8- Wandering pet after flooding

Based on flood risk assessment by “riskfactorcom” (2022) that our city, Baton Rouge has lower risk (26%) of flood until next 30 years.

So, why we get flood easily with little rain?

Some of our neighbors have interesting arguments that our neighborhood has faced with in-natural floods.

Flooding might relate to human activities such as:

- growing housing rapidly (uncontrollable) and lack of drainage system
- and less trees

What do you think?

# Previous postings:

Peggy Martin Roses - Nature 133

Born from resilience, the 'Peggy Martin' rose, also nicknamed the "Katrina rose," boasts an inspiring story, survived the ...