mstevens

In that case, you might like to take a look at Rhodiola Extract. It's another adaptogen like Ashwagandha but it also tends to boost energy, stamina and mental clarity. It is typically taken in the morning. It's worth Googling "Rhodiola Extract" and doing your own research to see if it is for you. I have not actually tried it. I do have an unopened bottle in my cupboard but have never used it as Ashwagandha and Tulsi work well for me.

Getting the blood test you mentioned and having thyroid checked is a great idea. Assuming the test comes back ok, there are some herbal supplements that can assist those suffering from anxiety and panic attacks. Ashwagandha is popular. Google it and see if it's for you. I took it for a few months a year or so back and found it to have a very soothing effect. There are other herbs that are similar such as Rhodiola, Tulsi and others. They have similar effects but can vary a little i.e. Tulsi is good to take in the evening as it can help (a little) with sleep. But for sure, if anxiety is an issue, Ashwagandha is a decent starting point.

It could be sugar as not everything affects everyone the same. Sugar might have zero effect on you but on someone else it might have a terrible effect. Whenever someone has an undiagnosed medical condition, reducing sugar and cleaning up one's diet isn't a bad starting point.

My gut issues are massively improved, but not completely resolved. The issue I had is that I am not in the USA which is where you can get tested for many things and get appropriate treatment. Pretty much everywhere else it becomes a bit of a lottery. I strongly suspect I had SIBO and I almost definitely had SIFO. I very likely had a leaky gut as well as motility issues. I cleaned up my diet, although it was pretty clean to begin with, implemented intermittent fasting and went low-carb - but not full-blown keto. I eliminated snacks entirely, reduced sugar intake including fresh fruit and cut out coffee, although I still do have a little caffeine from dark chocolate and one cup daily of green tea. I take digestive enzymes with each of lunch and dinner. All of this helped. To heal leaky gut, I take 5 grams of L Glutamine powder twice per day. I have bone broth most evenings, after dinner. I also take zinc l carnosine. Healing leaky gut is essential. Due to malabsorption issues I take a good multivitamin and a bioactive B complex formula. I also take fish oil and supplementary vitamin D. There are a few other supplements I take including choline, milk thistle, turmeric and one or two others not necessarily every day. Some of these are for liver support because if you have gut issues, you can also have liver issues. I also make FRESH ginger tea and have at least two cups per day. This is a game-changer and I cannot stress enough to anyone with gut issues to get on the ginger tea regimen. It's enormously helpful for so many gut issues! And in Thailand, fresh ginger is cheap as chips! I have reached a point where my stools are well-formed and I am regular, 3 times most days. I most likely have SIBO and the hard part is not so much treating it, but determining the root cause. It's pointless treating SIBO until you know the root cause, lest you treat it, resolve it, but it comes back because the root cause has never been addressed. The most likely root cause(s) in my case are low stomach acid (easily addressed with lemons or apple cider vinegar), stress (under control), sluggish gallbladder meaning inadequate bile (being addressed with choline) or possible mould toxicity. I have a mould inspector coming to check the house in the next couple of days. (Mould exposure can become mould toxicity and is a big contributor to long-stabnding, difficult-to-treat gut issues.) Once I am sure of the root cause of SIBO, I will deal with that and then target the SIBO with antimicrobials, starting with oil of oregano and berberine. It's been a long road but I have made massive progress. I hope this is helpful. Any questions at all, feel free to ask!

This is not a recommendation for an endocrinologist but rather a suggestion for something else to consider. I had issues last year where my electrolytes were out of sync and I was eventually referred to an endocrinologist and tested for diabetes insipidis (which tends to come about from issues with the pituatary gland), but tested negative. The endocrinologist knew something wasn't right but couldn't determine what it was. In the end, the issue was my gut which was so messed up that it in turn was causing problems with hormones. So my message here is to ask yourself how your gut health is. Of course, you should still see an endocrinologist, but if you have no luck there and / or you have gut issues, you might want to get those sorted.

This really interested podcast just popped up today about nutrient deficiencies and multivitamins. It's a long listen but super interesting if health is important to you. And the bottom line from these two doctors? Multivitamins are highly recommended for all of us. https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/the-doctors-farmacy-with-mark-hyman-m-d/id1382804627?i=1000579375364

Yes, the 250 gram block size is a ripoff here in New Zealand. But the 1 kg Mainland tasty is not so bad. $16.99 for 1 kg is fine. 250 grams currently $5.99, or around 130 baht. Pang!

Hair loss can be a result of thyroid issues so that might be worth checking, especially if there are other symptoms consistent with thyroid issues present. Also, hair loss can be a consequence of fungal overgrowth in the gut. While topical treatments i.e. creams / lotions / potions applied to the scalp will help, if the treatment is effective but the problem returns, that MAY be indicative of a fungal issue elsewhere in the body such as SIFO (small intestine fungal overgrowth). There are various treatments for this, both pharmaceutical and naturopathic - such as oil of oregano capsules.

Thaksin was great for the economy. Everyone was making money. I had friends in investment banking in Thailand at the time who said it was the best period for a long time. And the poorer folks sure liked him because he set up schemes that helped them to make money. I no longer live in Thailand but I was there before, through and after the Thaksin period and economically there were good times.

Indeed, there are many possible issues with the liver where liver enzyme levels come back as normal but in fact there is an issue. I can't remember all the different liver tests but ALT, bilirubin and one other I can't remember are the 3 typically checked in a standard liver test. If you have a fatty liver, for example, nothing might show up. As I understand it, your liver is still working, it just happens to working a whole lot harder because it's fatty. In many cases, you need an ultrasound to test for such things. So to answer your question, yes, absolutely, there are scenarios where there could be an issue but nothing shows up in the standard test.

I really enjoyed this movie, a nice surprise as I knew nothing about it before I watched it.

100 years is the standard when blacklisting someone in Thailand.

The issue I have with many who claim they like Thailand because it's cheap and don't like the West because it's expensive is because they don't actually have a lot of genuine options due to their financial situation. The other issue I have is that many claim the West is boring when really their definition of boring is that they cannot find cheap prostitutes. That's a sad and seemingly growing affliction across this forum. New Zealand has a myriad of problems, about that any of us living in New Zealand will be the first to agree. And, yeah, in some ways it's not the place it used to be. If you want excitement, certainly there are better places to be....but NZ is a pretty good place for many types of lifestyle. It all comes back to what you want from life.

Someone once said that Thailand was a poor man's paradise, and I think they nailed it. My feeling is that trying to claim Thailand is the best place to live because some things are cheap is kind of a lousy argument. I'd rather make good money and be in a position to choose. I chose New Zealand over Thailand but at the same time I don't deny that NZ has all sorts of problems.....but to me it's still a better option than Thailand, at least at this point in time. If Jacinda is re-elected next year and the decline looks to continue for 3 more years, I may well be out of here!

Multivitamins are more definitely not a waste of money and for many people they are necessary. Most people do NOT eat a varied diet and as such, they do not get all the vitamins they need. And the vast majority of people don't have the knowledge of what foods have which vitamins and how much they need etc. Then there are the many people with stomach / digestion issues meaning that even with a good diet, malabsorption means they don't get the full benefits of what they eat. I personally suffered from this whereby my diet was excellent but my digestion system was so messed up that I simply wasn't getting all the benefits of the vitamins of the food I was consuming. Supplementing with a good vitamin, funnily enough the very one the OP mentions, was a great help. I remember a doctor I used to see some years ago arrogantly saying that you don't need to take vitamins. My current doctor is much more pragmatic and says that most people have vitamin deficiencies and that a GOOD-QUALITY multivitamin helps to fill in the gaps and cover those deficiencies.

New Zealand is pricey with some things - housing being a great example - ridiculously over-priced. The weather is a bit average in much of the country but there are some pockets with generally pleasant weather such as Central Otago, Marlborough, Hawkes Bay. The current government has a lot to answer for with regards to rampant crime and a lousy justice system which really seems to perpetuate things. There are positives though with lots of open space, clean air, high-quality local produce (but not cheap). If you're looking for a quiet lifestyle in a clean, pretty country with high-quality food and MOST IMPORTANTLY, you have the money to afford it, then life in New Zealand is pleasant. If you're looking for excitement and / or don't have a lot of $$$, then it might not be such a good choice.

Have bought a couple of Nature's Answer products from iHerb. No problems at all.

I found Melatonin helpful when I had sleep issues. Life Extension brand has a slow release 1.5 mg version which I found good. With sleep problems, it is helpful if you can isolate the root cause – there are many possible causes. Taking supplements or pharmaceuticals to get to sleep is useful in the short-term but you really don’t want to be doing it long-term, if possible. There are many possible reasons why someone may struggle to get to sleep, or wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep. If you can identify the root cause and deal with that then sleep should – hopefully – not continue to be an issue.

Looking at that list, there are a few items which are widely available supplements without any major downsides if used at the appropriate dose short or medium-term. Vitamin D, Omega 3 fatty acids and Curcumin should all be widely available. Get some time in the sun and you'll get plenty of vitamin D that way. I'd take all three of these at the recommended dosage. Resveratrol is helpful, as is Melatonin which in addition to helping you sleep is a very powerful antioxidant. No idea how widely available they are - but cannot imagine they'd be hard to find. Just keep an eye on the dosage. Intermittent fasting is good - consume all your food in an 8-hour window each day such as between 10 AM and 6 PM. The first three items in the list as well as Aspirin are pharmaceuticals. I'm sure someone can given some thoughts on those....personally, I prefer supplements to pharmaceuticals wherever possible. If you can find Quercetin, that is supposed to be very helpful for those suffering from Covid. 1000 - 2000 mg / day is well-tolerated. I take it during allergy season and it works really well.

With hard-coded Korean subtitles i.e. that cannot be turned off. Officially released next week without the subtitles.

Part of the problem is the Western diet (increasingly consumed by Thais). Another part of the problem is the increased consumption of processed food and all the additives. Add to that the crazy overuse of antibiotics in Thailand. All of this damages the microbiome which in turn can trigger stomach (and other health) problems. Focus on stomach / digestion health and the microbiome are probably the next big thing in the health world. You only need to look at TV / video footage pre the early ‘90s at the body shape of everyday people and compare it with today – it’s massively changed. So many these days - even Thais - people have a belly, are pear-shaped etc. It was not always this way! That the OP knows many Thais with stomach and digestive problems doesn’t surprise me at all. I’ve been through issues of serious stomach troubles myself and one of the many things I learned is that it's widespread. Fatty liver is a massive problem these days in developed countries where it’s estimated that 25 – 30% of adults have a fatty liver. Where once a fatty liver was caused by alcohol, now the major cause is sugar and processed foods. And when you have a fatty liver, the downstream effects are stomach and digestion issues. Not saying that is the case with the Thais the OP refers to, but it might be part of it. Undiagnosed stomach and digestion issues is a serious growing problem in the West. I expect it will follow in Thailand and what the OP is seeing is just the beginning. Everyone knows how big a problem diabetes type 2 is today. Just watch, before long there will be similar awareness of fatty liver and subsequent to that, the related stomach and digestion issues.

Sugar in fruit is fine - but there are limits. Plenty of people these days are developing a fatty liver - and some get a fatty liver from, of all things, too much fruit consumption! The fructose in fruit is not good for your liver at all.

Saw Palmetto supplements are helpful if your BPH is not too bad. They're cheap and can be found on iHerb, Lazada, Shopee etc.

He left because he was broke and ended up sleeping on his mother's sofa. What a loser.

For me, the issue was fungal so I avoided anything with much sugar in it (which can feed yeast / fungus etc.) for a few weeks and consumed the bottle of Thorne Research Undecylenic Acid, which took a bit over a couple of weeks. That was it. It worked perfectly for me but, like I say, I did not have Balantis but other fungal issues. If your Balantis is fungal, I'd bet the farm this will work for you.