mstevens

The short answer is that digestive enzymes help you to digest food and, importantly, absorb the nutrition, minerals and vitamins in that food. People with gut / digestive issues might eat a very healthy diet but not absorb the goodness in the foods leadign to vitamin deficiencies which can cause a cascade of health problems. There are many possible reasons for malabsorbtion but digestive enzymes (and betaine hydrochloride) are a BIG help for many digestive complaints.

Absorption issues can be related to all manner of gut issues such as bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), yeast / candida overgrowth (SIFO), leaky gut, IBS, IBD (Crohn's, ulcerative colitis), pancreatic enzyme insufficiency, gallbladder issues, liver issues, inflammation and a whole host of other conditions. One quick / temporary fix is to take a digestive enzyme with meals. There are many on the market. I favour NOW Foods Digest Ultimate.

There's an interesting Facebook group called The Copper Revolution: Healing With Minerals which I was a member of for a while. Lots of first-hand reports on there on improvements in health when taking copper. One thing I seem to recall from the group was that copper and zinc supplements should not be taken at the same time. I take 15 mg of zinc with lunch and 2 mg of copper with my evening meal.

Have you considered tea tree oil? It is very effective against toe nail fungus. Apply a couple of drops to the nails with fungus twice a day until you start to see improvement. Note, it can take several weeks. There is no quick fix with toenail fungus. Tea tree oil is very inexpensive and useful for various ailments.

Whatever the outcome of this complaint, it's nice to see a foreigner standing up for themselves for a change and actually making an official complaint against a Thai in a case where on the surface it seems that one is warranted. All too often foreigners are walked over in Thailand, treated unfairly and do nothing when an official complaint really is warranted. Of course, in some cases the foreigner may have been partially in the wrong or exacerbated things but in this case it really sounds like the pub staff messed up. It appears the pub owner is keen to settle so perhaps a confidential settlement will take place and the American will return to the States with some extra cash.

Chamomille tea is a good choice, widely available and inexpensive. You might want to try Tulsi tea. It's Indian and is made from holy basil (the same as "gra-pow" in Thailand). Tulsi tea has many benefits, one of which is that it helps you to relax - which is ideal for those with hypertension. I don't know how widely available it is in stores in Thailand but you can definitely get it on Lazada. I favour the Organic India brand but I imagine most brands are fine.

Why not? Private medical facilities in Australia would be very much on a par with private hospitals in Thailand so it would be a like for like comparison.

There was a time when there was no charge to go to the Nana Disco on the ground floor of the Nana Hotel, but for some years before it closed there most certainly was a cover charge. It went from 100 to 200 to 300 baht in fairly quick succession. The owner got a lot of flak about it at the time. Count me amongst those who thought that imposing a cover charge was the beginning of the end for a disco that for a long time was brilliant.

I am currently outside of Thailand but friends who live there tell me that all of the tourist hot spots in Bangkok are over-run with visitors. One friend was in Pattaya recently and said similar, saying it was as busy as he could ever remember it. Photos online at Immigration show crazy queues and a quick check on Booking.com plugging some random dates in shows some hotels are full. The Chinese made up 1/3 of all international visitors before Covid and they are just starting to return. How many Chinese will visit over the course of this year? Next year? The year after? And flights from airlines which stopped flying in to Bangkok during Covid are coming back all the time. I'm sorry, but I don't know how you can possibly say tourism to Thailand won't rebound. Thailand is a fantastic place to visit and the world knows it. I strongly disagree with your comments. Record high tourist numbers are coming very soon!

It's nothing to do with being elitist and I have no idea where that comes from. I mention avocados as they are a food that most people like, are inexpensive and are very high in potassium. The bottom line is that many consume a diet high in sodium and a banana, a potato (or 2) just won't cut it. There's simply not enough potassium there to offset the sodium. If you have an issue with high consumption of sodium, you can offset it with potassium but you need foods that are very high in potassium or a high quantity of foods with moderate potassium. For example, leafy greens are high in potassium but you'd need to eat a lot of them.

Because bananas have potassium. But actually, bananas aren't that high in potassium (about 300 mg for an "average" sized banana). If you have an issue with sodium and are struggling to reduce your sodium intake, increasing your potassium intake will be very helpful. Avocados are a great source of potassium. Alternatively, potassium citrate powder is very cheap and effective.

We all need sodium and one has to be careful not to go too low on sodium as that can cause a whole set of new problems. The problem of consuming too much sodium is often not in salt added to meals, but in processed foods which can be very high in sodium. Thai food can be high on sodium too with fish sauce, soy sauce and other popular flavouring sauces very high in sodium and added in considerable amounts to many Thai dishes. If you're worried you might have too much sodium in your diet, you can balance it out to some extent by increasing your potassium intake. The ratio of potassium to sodium should be 2 : 1. Leafy greens and avocados are a good place to start to increase your potassium. I eat one avocado per day which is around 900 mg of potassium. You can also take a potassium supplement but note that potassium capsules are limited to 99 mg which is very little when you consider that the RDA for potassium is 4,600 mg! I personally take potassium citrate powder in a glass of water. About 500 mg in the morning and 500 mg before bed.

FWIW, here in New Zealand where Mainland cheese is produced, prices for quality cheese has exploded. The Mainland Vintage cheese 500 gram block used to cost $NZ 8 (about 170 baht) but now cannot be found for $NZ 13. Tasty, Edam and other varieties have also jumped in price. I used to pay $5.99 for 200 gram block of Mainland Parmesan cheese and yesterday it was $8.49. Big price jumps are happening everywhere and it's not just Thailand.

Probably a Swede working in Sweden doesn't need a work permit.....

The state of pollution in Bangkok this past week you might want to up that recommendation to Glutathione. Not sure if a good B complex would suffiice!

Bleaching your nails is brave. I'd suggest tea tree oil might be a much less harmful but very effective treatment.

I bite the bullet and buy the large bottles of Aura brand water. It's a little dearer than other brands but we're only talking a few baht which is worth it. Second choice is Minere brand. These are both mineral water which is worth consumuing in a hot country like Thailand. If you spend much time outside and sweat a lot you lose minerals and electrolytes. Mineral water helps to replenish lost minerals and electrolytes.

As you seem willing to try something different - which is to be applauded - why not try broccoli sprouts which are essentially the baby broccoli plants. They contain extremely high amounts of sulforaphane, 10 - 100 x more than a mature broccoli plant. I don't know where you'd find them in Bangkok but it should not be too hard them somewhere. They'll be cheap and are worth a go. Google broccoli sprouts sulforaphane for more details!

That's VERY harsh. You do know that LADA Diabetes is *not* related to diet but is an autoimmune disease like diabetes type 1, right? LADA Diabetes is NOT the same as diabetes type 2 which is often due to lifestyle. LADA Diabetes relates to issues with the pancreas / pancreatic insufficiency.

Arrest the power pole. It's killed 3 poor souls.

He's not that bad and actually strikes me as being quite competent. The problem he has is that he is possibly the best of a very mediocre bunch.

BULLSEYE !!!

Yes, Jacinda Ardern was respected internationally. I imagine this is because people around the world listened to her words and liked what she said, but being outside of New Zealand they did not see the results of her actions in her homeland. This is why her popularity has plummeted in New Zealand and is certainly at least part of the reason she announced she would resign.

For fungal issues, this product is very effective: Thorne Undecylenic Acid I used it for ringworm and other ongoing fungal issues and it did the trick where other more common anti-fungals were not effective. You can get it on iHerb, Amazon and on Lazada - but will pay more for it in Thailand than if you buy it online from the USA.

Jeremy Clarkson was a breath of fresh air and I found him hilarious at times, often saying things many others were thinking, but doing so in an amusing way that most of us could not come up with. I not infrequently hear people talking negatively about groups I am associated with, including my ethnicity. It doesn't bother me. If that's how they feel then so be it - they should be allowed to voice their opinion. It's not like they're saying to kill me and my ilk! All of this censorship and wokeness has gone way too far, in my opinion. Do we really wish to live in a world where you cannot say what you think?