As you all know by now, I had the opportunity to travel to South East Asia (SEA) this past November. The specific countries I was able to travel to include the following: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, and Fiji. I have always been curious about Eastern medicine natural health practices and this was a great opportunity to do so.
Eastern medicine practices often use herbs, plants, foods, massage, stress relief practices, yoga, and acupuncture to treat a variety of health conditions.
In SEA, most countries have socialized medicine whereby the governments pay for health care. In talking to many people in these countries, most people do not access their health care system and then if they do, it is only for serious problems. Most people are very “traditional” with respect to their health practices and treating disease.
For example, in Thailand, massage is a primary treatment remedy for many health issues. The rationale is that massage drains the lymph system, stimulates blood circulation and removes toxins. Yoga is also important for health in Thailand as it is a form of exercise while also a form of relaxation and meditation. Relaxing and meditating it thought to reduce stress hormones and other biochemicals that lead to inflammation and disease.
In all of the SEA countries, health is thought to occur through eating the right foods. I noticed that in all of these countries, that fresh vegetables and fruit were in abundance and most people I talked to believed that they were extremely important for health benefits. I noticed that meat like fish and chicken was readily available, however they did not consume a lot of it. Eggs were abundant and eaten routinely. Interestingly, rice is a staples in these countries and was considered to be the most important component of their diet – for calories needed and also a belief that it was a health food.
I noticed in SEA ,that most people (especially in Thailand, Cambodia and Fiji), appeared to live very simply and were extremely happy. Although their economic standard is nowhere near to what ours is in North America, they appeared to be content in their lives. I observed that religion, meditation and family was extremely important to them. We do know that these factors are an important component of health as they produce biochemicals that are anti-inflammatory.
Many people from SEA believe in(botanicals) herbs and various oils for health. I had the opportunity to drop into a seminar on these botanical products in Bangkok, Thailand. Interestingly, many of these products were local and I was unfamiliar with them. These (botanicals) plants, herbs and oils all had varying healing properties: from pain control to healing various aliments – very similar to ours in North America.
So what is the common theme with these botanical products used for healing (from SEA) and ours from North America? You guess right! These botanicals from SEA, although different than ours in North American, contain polyphenols and other biochemical and anti-oxidants that fight inflammation and disease. They are identical in nature to ours in North America. It is my observation, that many regions/cultures in the world have different botanicals used for disease. They are similar in their healing properties to ours because of their similar biochemical compositions.
It would appear that Diabetes and Obesity is the most common health ailment in SEA after talking with locals and clinicians. Hypertension, high cholesterol and heart disease is high as well. In terms of cancers, it is difficult to determine how true the numbers are as many people do not see physicians for this or refuse treatment.
It is noteworthy that these countries, similar to north American, have plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables available – and yet disease is extremely high. Rice and rice products are a huge staples in the SEA diet and consumed in large amounts. Rice is cheap and is extremely caloric rich as it is a simple carbohydrate. It is quickly assimilated in the body into sugar which spikes insulin and blood sugars. As you can remember, in a previous blog post, we discussed how excess carbohydrates contribute to diabetes and obesity as well as other diseases such as heart disease and cancers.
In SEA countries, there appears to be a plethora of “western foods” such as chips, candy, pop and other processed foods. Soybean oils are used for cooking, which although is a polyunsaturated fat, is highly processed with chemicals and can be inflammatory. I noticed a lot of fried foods and even the “typical street foods” were fried in this inflammatory soybean oil. I noticed many obese younger people in these SEA countries. Indigenous people may have a more difficult time processing many of these new North American foods into their diets.
My journey to SEA was incredible. I learned a lot about the people and the culture. In SEA countries, most people were extremely friendly and did not appear to have the same level of stress that we had in North American in my opinion. They live happily even though they have way less material comforts than we do. They appear to enjoy family and they appear to enjoy “sharing a meal” with family and friends around the dinner table.
It was quite common to see many people sitting outside on shop sidewalks sharing a meal laughing and socializing. Not once did I witness someone grab a bowl of rice or Noodles and rush off eating on the run!
Common take aways: Disease is a man made phenomenon all over the world in my opinion. It is linked to poor diet and nutrition. My observation of people in SEA countries with respect to health, mirrors the health issues we have in North American. Processed foods, excess carbohydrates, seed oils, stress, lack of sleep and toxins are the root cause of all disease no matter which country you live in.
As always, if you need help with your health and wellness plans, please email us at admin@mydrfreeze.com. If you would like to peruse our botanical selection, please go to full scripts and type in botanicals. If you need help selecting botanicals that may assist in your health journey, please contact us.
Dr. Karen Freeze