mstevens

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.

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. 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.

IBS and other gut issues frequently manifest themselves with skin issues / rashes etc. In these cases, treating the skin does not address the underlying cause which may well be in the gut.

I am not familiar with this condition and have not had it myself but I see it has been described as "fungal". If that is the case, I highly recommend you try this supplement: https://www.thorne.com/products/dp/formula-sf722-reg I have used it for other fungal conditions and it is amazingly effective. Read reviews online about how effective this product is for any fungal condition. Thorne Research is a high-end American manufacturer of supplements and this product really works. You can order it online from Lazada / Shopee.

Agree 100%. In my country of New Zealand, in most company no-one gives a toss about what sort of phone you use and you'll actually get brownie points for playing things down generally, especially if you do have means. Drive an old (but reliable) car, wear old (but clean) clothes until they're totally worn and NOT playing the big man with money go a long way in this part of the world. My Thai Mrs' sister used to ask her why I used to never buy the newest, fashionable clothes rather than dress down. To her, it was unfathomable that I chose to not to be flashy whereas in my country, that sort of behaviour is considered unseemly, pretentious and showy.

This page is quite useful as it has the latest rates from most Thai banks and many exchange services: http://bankexchangerates.daytodaydata.net/default.aspx

Yep, The Old Man started so well but lost its way badly. Half way through episode 5 I had had enough and stopped watching. Won't bother with the rest.

The best thing he could do is go the the airport and leave the country NOW! If he leaves now, he will be fined 20,000 baht at the airport and banned from returning for a period. Best to leave voluntarily. If he does not leave now, he could face further problems when the hospital or Immigration comes looking for him.

Still quite a few bars on Soi Cowboy have not reopened. Crowds picking up but nothing like they were a few years ago when it was shoulder to shoulder along the soi some nights.

I suffered from anxiety for a while and was recommended Ashwagandha. It's a herb which has properties which can help with anxiety. I did not have the sort of serious anxiety you mention but I have to say that Ashwagandha was really helpful when I was suffering from anxiety. It helped with a better night's sleep which came with vivid dreams and I just felt that little but more positive about life. I doubt it would help "resolve" serious anxiety issues but I imagine it would be helpful nonetheless. It's safe, cheap and easy to come by. You can Google Ashwagandha for more info. A quick search on Lazada and Shopee shows many vendors selling various Ashwagandha supplements.

What a great example of someone with little or no talent becoming famous.

I cannot comment on that article, local Thailand-produced honey or honey imported from other markets, but I do know all about New Zealand Manuka honey. I also know two of the Thai importers of New Zealand Manuka honey very well, having have assisted them in getting set up to import genuine Manuka honey from New Zealand. I mention New Zealand Manuka honey because this is a product I know well and I have worked with companies which import it. It is a premium product priced very high so if anyone was going to produce fake honey, then this would be the likely product to choose. But fake manuka honey in Thailand is not an issue. And in New Zealand, MPI (The New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries) controls the export of Manuka honey very tightly. Did you know, for example, that you cannot export honey from New Zealand without a licence? You cannot send it in the post and no international courier will touch it without the extensive documentation allowing it. I just cannot see any supermarket in Thailand stocking any fake honey. The supermarket operators are VERY fussy about who they source product from and have stringent processed any supplier must go through. It's a lot of work. Pitching a product to local supermarkets and the number of meetings, the paperwork, the checking of references etc is extensive. Believe me, it's very difficult to get any product on to the shelves of a local supermarket, costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time and effort. The system is robust. You can get great genuine honey, both imported and locally produced, in Thai supermarkets. Don't sweat it!

A retailer like Foodland does not test the products it sells in a laboratory. All of that sort of testing is done well before the product makes it to supermarket shelves. If you wish to sell a foreign manufactured food product in Thailand, that product must have approval from the Thailand FDA and will be issued with a Thai FDA number. Food importers (not Foodland, but the companies which import the various foreign food products) submit a huge amount of documentation to get said Thailand FDA number. This number is unique to each product. The FDA approval process is very involved and requires product samples and a lot of documentation from the manufacturer in the country in which the product is manufactured. This all has to be checked, approved and stamped by the department of the relevant government agnecy that deals with food safety / export in the country where the product is made. This paperwork is very extensive and includes all sorts of things including lab tests and results etc. Upon receiving application for a foreign food product to be sold in Thailand, the Thai FDA scrutinises this documentation. The process involves a team sent to inspect the warehouse / premises of the importer (to make sure that the place where the product is stored is suitable etc), check all other relevant paperwork such as company formation documents etc and eventually issue an FDA number for each and every product. It is a very rigorous process. You can go to the local Thailand FDA website and enter an FDA number and it will tell you what that product is. I mention this because the #1 area in which fake products make it to the market involves the use of FDA stickers using the number for a different product. Basically, if the product is sold by a reputable vendor and has a Thailand FDA number that number matches up with the product in the FDA database, then it is unlikely to be a fake.

I am always a bit nervous when it comes to olive oil as there is so much adulteration of olive oils in Italy. As such, I try to find olive oils from Australia, New Zealand where that is not an issue. As far as honey goes, I'm not sure if it's Manuka honey you're after but if it is, the best brands are Comvita and Arataki. Arataki is the better bet as quality-wise they're considered equal but Arataki is much less expensive. Arataki brand Manuka is available on both Lazada and Shopee and I find UMF 10+ to be the sweet spot.

There are no limits per se. If you are buying foreign currency, they might only have so much, especially of it is not one of the major currencies like USD / GBP / EUR etc. If you are exchanging foreign currency in to baht, seems to be no limits.

I love this quote, brilliant! It's nuggets like this that make tuning in to this forum still worthwhile!

This <deleted> is happening all over the world. With Thai Mrs in New Zealand and thought we'd visit Australia for a quick break and change of scenery. Processing time for a tourist visa for a Thai in New Zealand to visit Australia is quoted as 8 months. We were told, "It should be processed in about half that time." No, thanks, we won't bother.

I always found locally grown avocados to be hit and miss, with a lot more misses. The imported avocados from New Zealand and Australia are good but often they have been in the supermarket too long and are already past their prime. The best luck I had with avocados was to get one from the supermarket NZ or Aus that was not yet ripe. Within a day or two it would be good.