mstevens

An A1C above 5.7 is pre-diabetic and 6.5 up is diabetic. With your A1C at 6.9, it would definitely be worth making lifestyle changes such as reducing processed carbs, eliminating soft drinks, sweets, alcohol and excess fruits. Consume lots of non-starchy veges and meat. Exercise is very helpful to lower your A1C and intermittent fasting can help too i.e. eating all of your food each day within a 12-hour window, or if you can manage it, an 8-hour window. Try all of this for a while, retest and see where your A1C level is at. If your level has not come down appreciably, it would be an idea to see a diabetes doctor.

The problem might be cracked pipes. My sister in law had this problem at her near-new house. The pump could be heard outside even when no-one was using any water inside the house. It turns out there was a problem with the pipes below ground which had a crack and water was leaking all the time, which caused the pump to continuously pump water up in to the water tank. She got a guy out who diagnosed the problem. A few of his crew come out and after a lot of digging, removal of the cracked pipes, laying new pipes and 2 days / 10,000 baht later, it was fixed.

Yep, subscribe to YouTube Premium. Very cheap and if you watch a lot on YouTube, it's well worth it for the ad-free experience.

It most certainly is possible to drink too much water. I was drinking too much water for a while and felt dehydrated. It turns out I was drinking so much water it was watering down my electrolytes which was causing various issues. An endocrinologist ordered a 24-hour urine collection followed by a water deprivation test to see if I could be suffering from diabetes insipidis. Fortunately, I wasn't - but the endocrinologist was very clear that drinking too much water most certainly can cause health issues.

This is a long shot but could it be a fungal infection that has reached the bladder? I battled Candida in the past and at one point it was widespread, including in the bladder which caused some mildly uncomfortable symptoms and frequent urination - but didn't test positive for bacteria. Antifungals were needed to clear it.

This Potassium Citrate powder is available at iHerb. As it is a powder, you can simply mix in the amount of Potassium Citrate you require in to a glass of water. https://www.nowfoods.com/products/supplements/potassium-citrate-powder

Use Firefox on my Mac, always update it to the latest version and no issues with it whatsoever!

It's great! Keep doing whatever it is you're doing!

Xlear Rescue nasal spray is great. I'm not sure if you can get it in Thailand, but if you can, try it! I think it's available on iHerb. https://xlear.co.nz/shop/xlear/sinus-care/rescue-xylitol-and-saline-nasal-spray-with-essential-oils/

Tinnitus is a really tricky one to get on top of because it's so hard to diagnose the root cause. I had it bad when I gut issues and when I finally got on top of those, tinnitus went away. I would later learn I had chronic inflammation that was most likely the cause.

Try Dr John Krukowski, an American counsellor and hypnotherapist based in Bangkok for about 20 years. Very good for anxiety and depression. Contact him at : 085-0656452 or http://bangkok-counseling.com/

Progressive? Yuck! Two out of three ain't bad.

"might probably"? What is that supposed to mean? Why don't they just be honest for a change and say "will almost certainly"!

Yeah, I was thinking the same. Up your electrolytes - coconut water is an excellent source, and see if that helps.

Omeprazole absolutely should not be taken long-term. Omeprazole simply masks the problem but doesn't deal with the root cause. Agree with the previous comments about changing your diet and not eating for a few hours before going to bed (or simply laying down). While it may sound counterintuitive, one way to deal with GERD is to take Betaine HCL when you eat which increases stomach acid and helps to break down your food. Just don't take Betaine HCL is you have a stomach ulcer.

A lot of blood tests don't give you the full picture, magnesium being the classic example. Also, there is a lot of conjecture of what the optimum level for some minerals and vitamins is. For vitamin D, for example, some doctors want to see a level above 50 ng/mL whereas others say 80 ng/mL. A lot of labs say 30 ng/mL is ok.

Yep, this is the big blind spot for so many doctors, especially older doctors. Their knowledge of nutrition is often very poor.

It used to be good but it changed ownership and, sadly, has gone downhill. The pizza base used to be Napoli style and now it is crispy and nothing like it used to be. A shame.

A balanced diet, an active lifestyle and no underlying disease? The problem is, that probably doesn't describe many retirees in Thailand at all. That's why I think some vitamin supplementation - and at the very least, a high-quality multivitamin - is beneficial to most.

Following the record loss against the Springboks, I think the All Blacks chances of winning the Rugby World Cup are close to zero (and I say that as a New Zealander). In all likelihood, New Zealand will meet South Africa or Ireland in the quarter final and I just cannot see them overcoming either. Those two sides have a suffocating style that the All Blacks just don't know how to overcome. It is looking increasingly like the confidence in New Zealand after the first 4 matches of this year was largely misplaced. We beat Argentina (who aren't great) and Australia twice (who also aren't great and in fairness, we were lucky to win the second match). We did beat South Africa well last month but that was at home. Away from home, we saw what happened in today's match. I really think there are only 3 teams who can win this world cup - Ireland, France and South Africa. I can't see any of the other usual heavyweights like NZ, Australia or England offering much resistance.

An agent saying that would concern me. I always got my condo deposit back without any problem - and every one of my landlords in Bangkok has been Thai. The problem with a landlord from China is what if they happen to be in China when you move out of the condo and are waiting for the return of your deposit?

I used to feel an allegiance and pride towards my home country of New Zealand. Unfortunately, I no longer feel that way and at times, I feel the complete opposite. As my country of birth has changed rapidly, becoming insanely politically correct to the point that my demographic - middle-class white men - has become public enemy number one and blamed for all of the country's ills, I no longer feel any allegiance towards the country. Why should I when my country appears to hate me and "my kind" for no bloody reason?!

Isn't Nana Plaza owned by foreigners? Pretty sure it is.

Precisely!

I can't speak of other countries but in my country, New Zealand, pretty much all tradespeople across all industries (building, plumbing, gas, electrical etc.) happily provide a written quote (fixed price) or an estimate (non-fixed price) of what a job will cost, with details of exactly what the job involves. For any professional, this will not take very long at all. Paying for a quote is almost unheard of here.