My Longkang

“Bengbeng, that is enough. Remember your high blood pressure. Remember we don’t want Benghui to have a father who has a heart attack.” It has got to the stage I don’t bother to drink at all unless society obliges me to imbibe a glass or two.

Anyway, I am used to that. “ Bengbeng,not so fast..maybe accidentlah. Don’t sleep late…your heart u know  Eat more vegetablelah …your body needs more fibre.. I sometimes long for the time when I was free and did what I wanted.

On the other hand, I have a house with everything in good working condition. After work, I come back with the assurance, there will be no domestic emergencies waiting for me at home. A small trade-off I suppose.

Anyway, I have good news for men with high blood pressure. There was little research done on the relationship between drinking and heart disease among high blood pressure patients until recently. Joline Beulens of University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and her colleagues analyzed data from 11,711 health professionals who participated in a survey between 1986 and 2002.

Their findings?
Heavy alcohol consumption is bad and increases the risk for hypertension but a moderate drinker should incur no extra heart attack risk. In fact it is even good for the heart. Two drinks is the recommended amount in the article although one might be more in tune with our local scene. It is not known if the findings apply to women, or to men in other occupations.

Now, I wonder if I should print out this article, highlight certain sections, bring back a bottle of wine, especially red wine to enjoy tonight….on the other hand, the sofa doesn’t seem so inviting. I don’t like a locked bedroom door. Statistics and research or whatever, perhaps it is what Miss Calm and Collected thinks that is more important  :)