RayOday

Much of Chinese crime flows through Laos. Some have been arrested yet there are always more to carry on.

I risk cultural and personal blowback from this post yet I would like to share my personal experience. My advice is only a suggestion and is not intended to influence your own judgement. Your own care is between you and your chosen medical professional. I am over 65. I exploded 2 lumbar disks in 1996 doing deadlifts. As I have aged my lumbar discs have been affected by spinal stenosis and arthritis. I have avoided surgery by choice after consulting with many doctors and feeling comfortable with a sports orthopedist at Stanford University Dr. Jeffrey Saal, SOAR Redwood City, CA. I learned over the years to manage pain through movement and medicine. The medicines were Celoxicib NSAID (genetic sold as Zobrex in TH), Tolperisone (CNS muscle relaxant), and if necessary, Prednisone. I am currently taking no medicine and occasionally I am a bit stiff yet no need for meds. How have I gone the last 5 years without any medication? I tried a new approach to health and it appears to be effective for me. 1. Extreme limitation on carbohydrates. Carbohydrates covert to sugar and adds to insulin resistance and later, if predisposed, to type 2 diabetes and inflammation. I strive for almost zero since most foods contain carbs. That means no bread or wheat products. If I eat wheat, it is without gluten. I used to eat a lot of carbs for marathon training yet I no longer feel the need. 2. Zero processed foods 3.Maintain a healthy gut biome. Meds adversely affect the gut biome. Eat and drink a fair amount of fermented foods. Beer is fermented yet the beneficial bacteria is destroyed. Think yogurt, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi, Yakult The fermented foods must come from the refrigerated section. If not refrigerated the good bacteria is destroyed. 4. No seed oils which promote inflammation. Olive oil, avocado oil, lard, tallow is ok. Beware of the last 2 if you have lipid issues. 6. All protein is good. I eat eggs often for breakfast and switch off to fried tofu in place of eggs 2-3x per week. Grass fed beef is better than grain fed beef and no farm raised salmon only wild fish. Sardines are excellent sources of Omega 3 which supports inflammation reduction. All vegetables are good. Make sure that many are colorful. Dark green vegetables like kale, broccoli, and spinach are particularly good. Potatoes are a starch hence convert to sugar and hence inflammation. 7. Drink sufficient water daily 8. No sugar except in good whole fruit. Beware of fruit juices. Orange juice contains more sugar than a coke. Both are bad. No artificial sweeteners as recent research has shown a negative effect in the gut. Insulin resistance, gut biome, and inflammation are related. 9. I drink coffee, tea, Yerba Mate but not after 1600 to maintain quality sleep. 10. I strictly limit alcohol but don't stress the occasional drink. I smoke strong weed within reason. 11. Try to get 8 hours of sleep that matches your circadian rhythm. In the morning within 30 minutes of waking look at the sky for a few minutes. It helps to reset your circadian clock. Same at sundown. (research the neuro science) 12. Since I am retired and have time, I walk at least 10k steps per day on a weekly average and do resistance training at least a half hour per day with strict form and tempo. 13. I take supplements and I am hesitant to recommend any except 2. Supplements are unregulated and there are many brands with poorly sourced ingredients, inaccurate percentages or volumes. Many supplements come in different formulations. Some are more bioavailable than others. I encourage you to do your own research. As an example research the bioavailability of the different formulations of Magnesium. I only use supplements which are independently assayed brands. They cost a lot more yet are cheaper than medicine and illness. Available in Thailand at Lazada & Shoppe. Multivitamin - Pure Encapsulations 1 Multi. Omega 3 - Carlson's (Beat all competing brands in freshness and purity. Rancid oils and heavy metals promote inflammation.) Thorne Research is a good brand as well yet even more expensive. This is a brief overview of my discipline and I no longer need any medicines for pain, inflammation, or arthritis except in rare instances. The idea is to eliminate sources of chronic inflammation, support a healthy gut biome, and promote efficient metabolism. I have science backed peer reviewed research papers which helps my understanding. Here are a few practitioners I find value in learning from: -Dr. Brian Stanfield - NZ YouTube and https://drstanfield.com/ - Dr. Andrew Huberman U.S. Stanford University, https://hubermanlab.com/, YouTube, Podcast -Dr. Rhonda Patrick U.S. Salk Institute https://www.foundmyfitness.com/ Podcasts - Dr Sten Ekberg U. S. YouTube and many more. I don't stress any of these protocols. I follow them daily and make choices without sweating whether the choice is good or bad. I prefer good choices. I occasionally drink. I smoke quality weed. I sometimes break the rules because I know what works for me. My inflammation markers are very low and they were once off the charts. I now believe the adage, better to eat your food like medicine rather than eating medicine as food. I realize my advise may be viewed as radical. I have always challenged accepted beliefs, and in this case, it has enhanced my well being. My weight per BMI and waist to hip ratio is optimal, my lipid profiles are very good without meds (I was on statins for 20 years due to a family predisposition to atherosclerosis). YMMV p.s. If you review this with your M.D. realize many have varying degrees of training in nutrition, neurobiology, and gerontology. I would be shocked if they would disagree with most of what I have written. Best of luck This mornings breakfast.

"A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan." MLK Thailand's leadership are cowards. Some may say they are balancing delicate alliances. They equivocate over conflicting self interests and as a result show they will fearfully bend to authoritarians or filthy lucre. I get the concerns about the economy, regional alliances, and self inflicted isolation from commitments by the leading global economies due to Thailand's lack of commitment to human principals of freedom. The tough guys at the top are only strong within their boundaries. On the global stage they beg for military and economic support. To not take a stand against a nuclear threatening madman illustrates that they are uncommitted cowards. I am not saying the government isn't making some internal social progress yet on the global stage they play a weak hand. "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." https://thediplomat.com/2022/10/why-did-thailand-abstain-on-this-weeks-un-vote-on-ukraine/

And how many Thai's are dead because of his Siam Bioscience delay/reliance. This xenophobe who needs tourism and retirees money is a hypocrite. If Thailand is so special why did his daddy pay for his foreign schooling? He might be credible if he wasn't such a corrupt suck up as a politician. Then again it fits his role. Note that I do appreciate his ganja initiatives yet exposes how much he could do it he wasn't so deferential to his class view of human worth. Generally I like the can do efforts of engineers.

The bad and good. Until the Thai police lead then nada.

What you might be missing is that Thailand is in the top 5 countries for the highest road deaths per Capita in the world. They were #2 for years. I have commented too many times on this forum as to why the police, health ministry, and department of land transport are so impotent to affect change. The lack of results speak to their failure. I view this step as another try yet without road enforcement nothing will happen. One caveat is if they institute the Chinese violation capture model. The model captures license plates on camera and OCR software reads every capture to derive the speed between each node. A ticket and point system auto generates the ticket and points. Doesn't make for fun driving in remote areas as the average speed limit even on their best engineered roads is ridiculously low. I have driven across the country and I am aware of how it works. On the other hand there are touts outside the police stations willing to get rid of your points for 600 yuan and return in 20 minutes with the deed done. In the case of Thailand it appears that this may function as a raise for the police. Sorry for the cynicism.

Agreed 100%. No helmets as well. Poor parenting regardless of the parents level of education. The police should also outlaw and enforce more than 2 people per motorbike. I recognize that this is a a socioeconomic issue yet it pains me to see babies on motorbikes with no protection. One accident and they are dead unless there is devine intervention (aka luck). Everytime I see a family on a motorbike I admire the family closeness and get sick of envisioning the consequences of reckless behavior. The parents are irresponsible in this cartoon land. As usual all talk and no action. Life is cheap in Thailand and the value is determined solely on economics. So sad and true. Prove me wrong

Another edict with few teeth. Executive director mentality without a clearly communicated plan and enforcement results in failure. When it comes to roads there is no function of public safety. The police do not inspect what they expect. I see a few technology installations being deployed to capture speeding. No road enforcement by officers except relatively useless road checks. The rural roads are being improved yet there are still car sized potholes and safety markings do not follow international signage standards. It appears that each province has their own interpretation of road signage. The quality of road improvement is corrupt. There are varying standards of repaving the roads. Many of the recently repaired roads have insufficient road beds and poor materials which cannot support agricultural vehicles and the trucks that bring product to processing plants and end use facilities. The roads buckle and quarter meter holes appear within 2 months of completion. If an RTP pickup passes one do they have the power to call it in and have it repaired immediately as a function of public safety? Do they mark the dangers with safety signaling? Not in my experience. The craters last for weeks or until someone gets hurt or a government official visits. The concept of public safety is completely absent. Old school punishment thinking. No root cause correction or inspection. Same, same. Let's see the 2022 road deaths and injuries per capita statistics to evaluate the RTPs effectiveness. In my professional opinion there needs to be a cross ministerial body focused on road measures (road deaths and injuries per capita, road accidents by type, road events by cause, by time of day, etc.) Each measure would have an action plan and would be evaluated monthly by results. The body directing the improvement plan would be comprised of a full time management team of equal rank (Thai hierarchy): RTP general with road safety expertise, director from land transport, preferably a civil engineer with finance skills, a director from the health ministry as this is an urgent public health issue, assigned non-governmental experts from the academic field, and road safety experts from the insurance industry. This working group would report to a panel of ministers who would report to the PM. Does Thailand have a larger public safety issue than road safety right now? Maybe it's dietary practices and the downstream fallout from carbs, sugar, and processed foods but that's a different and more economically/politically complex topic. The RTP is failing public road safety responsibility. The tail is wagging the dog.

That's an innovative approach. I do not like to hurt animals yet in a real conflict I have a new tool. I have gone local but higher tech.

Correct. Additionally Thailand deployed 65,000 troops to support the Korean conflict. 40,000 Thai troops served in the Vietnam conflict fighting alongside U.S. and South Vietnamese troops. 351 Thai troops were killed and 1358 were wounded. Thailand supported the anti communist factions during the Laotian civil war. There were smaller deployments of Thai forces during the conflict in East Timor and non-combatant forces were sent post Iraq invasion to support the rebuilding effort. As might be expected the Thai armed forces have a ratio of generals and admirals of 1 per 212 troops whereas the U.S. has 1 per 1430. Different business I guess. In 2021 Thailand announced a plan to reduce their bloated leadership 25% by 2029. I wonder how they are progressing.

I use the same techniques one would deploy if facing a bear in the backwoods without a chemical repellant. I also carry a large purposed tool from Issan. I am uncertain of the spelling but phonetically it is called a kom faik. Would use it yet the slingshot ploy seems to make them run away quickly.

The topic of Soi dogs has been well covered in the forums. There are compassionate movements to sterilize Soi dogs to reduce the out of control population. Regardless, some Soi dogs are a menace while traveling in rural Thailand. Most Soi dogs are harmless yet alpha males can pose a significant risk. While reading through the forums I found some useful advice. The only advice I have yet to explore is making friends with the dogs with positive routine behavior modification usually centered on feeding. Here is what I have found to be of benefit: 1) show no fear but don't be stupid 2) don't antagonize an alpha by looking directly into his eyes, 3) raise your arms to shoulder height slowly to appear larger than you are, back away facing the dog or circumnavigate the dog(s) in an effort to not violate the dogs perceived turf, 4) if you see the photo I took this past week, I was able to get rid of these nasty alphas by pretending to have a slingshot while aiming and pulling on the imaginary bands in exaggerated manner directly toward the dogs. This has actually worked for me yet I don't fully trust this method yet. I have only tried it a few times successfully so it requires further proof. I don't feel it will work every time yet it may be worth trying. The reasons can be explained through a forum search. If any dog experts can add to this topic it would be appreciated. P. S. Many Soi dogs like to hang out at Wats

Hey RTP, How are your useless road checks working out for you? How many moving violation citations have been written by the "Highway Patrol"? No need to answer. We don't want to disturb you from whatever you are watching on your phone. Carry on.