Too much water can be harmful

It's been a while since I last posted. I've been very busy with both office and freelance work. So here's a little shot at redemption of my blogging career. It's an article on health, specifically about the dangers of drinking too much water. It's been shamelessly copy pasted from Dr. Ben Kim's health site. You can check it out for more health-related news.

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Why Drinking Too Much Water Is Dangerous
Posted By Dr. Ben Kim on Mar 31, 2009

* Health Warnings

Updated on March 31, 2009

On January 12, 2007, a 28-year old Californian wife and mother of three children died from drinking too much water. Her body was found in her home shortly after she took part in a water-drinking contest that was sponsored by a local radio show. Entitled "Hold Your Wee For A Wii," the contest promoters promised a free Wii video game machine to the contestant who drank the most water without urinating.

It is estimated that the woman who died drank approximately 2 gallons of water during the contest. When she and other contestants complained of discomfort and showed visible signs of distress, they were laughed at by the promoters and even heckled.

This tragic news story highlights the importance of understanding why drinking too much water can be dangerous to your health.

Whenever you disregard your sense of thirst and strive to ingest several glasses of water a day just because you have been told that doing so is good for your health, you actually put unnecessary strain on your body in two major ways:

1. Ingesting more water than you need can increase your total blood volume. And since your blood volume exists within a closed system - your blood circulatory system - needlessly increasing your blood volume on a regular basis puts unnecessary burden on your heart and blood vessels.
2. Your kidneys must work overtime to filter excess water out of your blood circulatory system. Your kidneys are not the equivalent of a pair of plumbing pipes whereby the more water you flush through your kidneys, the cleaner they become; rather, the filtration system that exists in your kidneys is composed in part by a series of specialized capillary beds called glomeruli. Your glomeruli can get damaged by unnecessary wear and tear over time, and drowning your system with large amounts of water is one of many potential causes of said damage.

Putting unnecessary burden on your cardiovascular system and your kidneys by ingesting unnecessary water is a subtle process. For the average person, it is virtually impossible to know that this burden exists, as there are usually no obvious symptoms on a moment-to-moment basis. But make no mistake about it: this burden is real and can hurt your health over the long term.

Forcing your body to accept a large amount of water within a short period of time - say, an hour or two - as several contestants did during the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest can be fatally dangerous to your health. Here's why:

If you force large amounts of water into your system over a short period of time, your kidneys will struggle to eliminate enough water from your system to keep the overall amount at a safe level.

As your blood circulatory system becomes diluted with excess water, the concentration of electrolytes in your blood will drop relative to the concentration of electrolytes in your cells. In an effort to maintain an equal balance of electrolytes between your blood and your cells, water will seep into your cells from your blood, causing your cells to swell.

If this swelling occurs in your brain, the bones that make up your skull hardly budge. The result is an increase in intracranial pressure i.e. your brain gets squeezed. Depending on how much water your drink in a short period of time, you could experience a wide variety of symptoms, ranging from a mild headache to impaired breathing. And as occurred recently in the tragic water-drinking contest, it is quite possible to die if you drink enough water in a short enough period of time.

This information is particularly important for parents to pass on to their children. Foolish water-drinking contests are not uncommon among high school and university students, especially while playing cards.

So how much water should you drink to best support your health?

The answer to this question depends on your unique circumstances, including your diet, exercise habits, and environment.

If you eat plenty of foods that are naturally rich in water, such as vegetables, fruits, and cooked legumes and whole grains, you may not need to drink very much water at all. If you do not use much or any salt and other seasonings, your need for drinking water goes down even further.

Conversely, if you do not eat a lot of plant foods and/or you add substantial salt and spices to your meals, you may need to drink several glasses of water every day.

Regardless of what your diet looks like, if you sweat on a regular basis because of exercise or a warm climate, you will need to supply your body with more water (through food and/or liquids) than someone who does not sweat regularly.

Ultimately, the best guidance I can provide on this issue is to follow your sense of thirst. Some people believe that thirst is not a reliable indicator of how much water you need, since many people suffer with symptoms related to dehydration and don't seem to feel a need to drink water on a regular basis. My experience has been that most people who are chronically dehydrated have learned to ignore a parched mouth. If you ask such people if they are thirsty and would like a piece of fruit or a glass of water, they will almost always realize that they are indeed thirsty.

Some people suggest observing the color of your urine as a way of looking out for dehydration. The idea is that clear urine indicates that you are well hydrated, while yellow urine indicates that you need more water in your system. While this advice is somewhat useful, it is important to remember that some chemicals (like synthetic vitamins) and heavily pigmented foods (like red beets) can add substantial color to your urine. Thumbs down for synthetic vitamins, and thumbs up for red beets and other richly colored vegetables and fruits.

The main idea that I wish to share through this article is to beware of mindlessly drinking several glasses of water per day without considering your diet, exercise habits, climate, and sense of thirst. And when you do find yourself in need of water, remember that you can get it from liquids and/or whole foods.

Please share this article with family and friends, as many people are regularly misinformed on this topic by mainstream media and health practitioners.
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Motorbike for sale!

Hey guys. My brother's bike's up for sale.



It's been barely used and has a bunch of cool modifications and freebies to come with it.

You'll find more cool pictures here. Here are the details:
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FOR SALE: STOCK 2008 Honda Wave 125cc; purchased brand new from Motortrade San Pedro, Laguna. Complete papers, newly registered December 2009 good for 1-yr.

Minor modifications:

1. Headlight bulbs (Yellow all-weather bulb x 2)

2. Neon blue cathodes x 2 (rear)

3. Strobe lights x 6 (2 front, 2 mid, 2 rear)

4. Rearlight casing (clear-type)

Yung cathodes strobes sa isang renowned mc shop dito sa Zapote (along Alabang-Zapote road) ko pina-install. Switch nila is inside the U-box para safe (anti-water, anti-trip).

NO HIDDEN DAMAGES. Honest sellers tayo dito sa MCP so I will not sell my MC w/o the buyer knowing its imperfection(s). The only damage of the unit is at the inside of the front face (support ng headlight unit). One of the two cilps is cracked. Linagyan ko ng buffer to prevent the headlight's bouncing sa mga lubak. Ibawas nalang natin yun sa price. Hindi ko na naasikaso palitan, busy kasi sa office.

See to appreciate the unit; I believe the price is fair. Rarely-used MC ko, no accidents and completely legal.

Freebies: 1 half-face helmet (Index Thailand; bought from Handyman@Robinson's Place, BF Homes) 1L Castrol 4T Motorcycle Oil (stock from my dad's bikeshop).

RFS: Quitting MC.

Location: Las Piñas City

Contact Details (look for Marcus):

YM: mcwbprado22

E-Mail: mcwbprado22@live.com

Cellphone: 0917-8935896 (Globe) 0922-8458764 (Sun)

Bike is available for viewing anyday from 12nn-5pm. Location is near SM Southmall, Las Piñas City. Please text / call for inquiries. Thanks!
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If you're interested, you can reach him at 0917-8935896 (Globe) 0922-8458764 (Sun). Or you could reach me through instant messenger at krprado@yahoo.com. His name's Marcus. Don't be shy now!

Nurses, har har!

Our boys and gals in white should really read this article. It's about how special care nurses are making a killing in the US, so much so that they're actually earning more than primary care doctors. Check it out.

Here's a peek at the copy:

"Despite the growing shortage of family doctors in the United States, medical centers last year offered higher salaries and incentives to specialist nurses than to primary care doctors, according to an annual survey of physicians' salaries."

Improve your writing skills

Here's something to help you smooth out your articles - Paper Rater. It was pointed out to me by my manager. Have yet to try it out but still it sounds good. It might be well worth checking it out.

Evil exists when good men do nothing

As a former gamer, I take pity in my brothers and sisters in the gaming world.

Here's the latest bit of information highlighting the failure of Level Up! Games Philippines administration in Philippine Ragnarok Online.

My brother relayed to me this story about how his girlfriend was banned after six years of being loyal to LUG PRO.

All because she got CAUGHT in an in-game BUG obviously brought about by LUG's lack of sense of duty.

If you ask me, loyalty reaps no rewards in the opinion of LUG admins.

Mind you, folks, this is a LEGITIMATE post, but is being repeatedly deleted by Ragnaboards forum moderators in an attempt to cover up their mistakes.

This is an attempt to inform the Filipino community, especially avid fans of Ragnarok Online, of the inability of Level Up Games Philippines to render proper service to their gamers.

Hopefully, Blogger.com admins and moderators will be kind enough to understand the plight of the author of the quoted statement, unlike the moderators in Ragnaboards who are obviously covering up their own mistakes by disobeying THEIR own forum rules on content and decency.

The Ragnaboard thread goes:

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"This is the 12TH attempt to post this LEGITIMATE and LEGAL THREAD TOPIC.
Whoever is deleting this post, please be courteous and DECENT enough to post a proper reason otherwise you are only dignifying this thread as it increases its repost count.
Let me begin by saying that I am not one of those who were banned because of this occurrence in the game. The truth of the matter is that the bug of the Geffen Daily Quest became an obvious glitch for a number of players because the daily cooldown time of 20 hours for every character DID NOT WORK for ALL CHARACTERS in all accounts. Meaning, most players, did have the cooldown restriction of 20 hours while some/few did not. During my encounter with one of these characters, he relayed to me that there is no cooldown time for his character even after finishing the quest. And so, he continued doing it. Can anyone blame him? Think about it, it's like botting. They say that it's evil, but most people who are against it are in fact those who do not know how they work or have no access to do it. It can be resolved but nothing is done. For this situation, they didn't even need any type of 3rd party program, it was just pure "luck" on their part that when they did the quest there was NO COOLDOWN. LU could have done something about this before releasing ithis quest, but they continued with their type of "work" which has plagued this game forevermore. Furthermore, they have gotten used to the system of waiting for something to go wrong before doing something to prevent it, and then they punish and make the players suffer, and even put the blame on them.
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Now, can you answer these questions truthfully?

A. Pag alam mo ba na click lang sa NPC e makakuha ka na ng rare item, hindi mo tuloy tuloy na ikiclick?

B. Noong nagka "bug" ang Church Donation quest, isa ka ba sa mga sumubok pumunta sa gitna ng Prontera para maclick lang yung NPC na nagbibigay exp kahit nagsummon na ng sandamakmak na thorns at sinabihan ka ng huwag?

C. Noong nagsummon ng sandamakmak na thorns sa basagan ng gamit, sinubukan mo na bang mag steel body o todo pneuma o ano pa man para lang makalapit sa NPC at makapag 10 ng items kahit isang beses?

D. Nagbbot ka ba, o ni isang beses man lang sa paglalaro mo ng RO nasubukan mo na to? It is illegal, but everyone is doing it. Will you stick to your idealism of "fairness" when everyone around you is improving their in-game status while you're still stuck with your novice training items?

E. Sa lindol sa Haiti kung saan wala ng pagkain. At dahil sa hindi maayos na sistema ng pamimigay ng pagkain, nagkagulo at nagkalat na ang mga pagkain at libre na halos lahat pumulot. Tatanggihan mo ba ang pagkaing nasa harap mo na para mapakain sa anak mo?

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That's the thing in this game, pag nalamangan ka galit ka. Pag ikaw ang nakakalamang wala kang pakialam. Dahil sa kapabayaan ng iba, nakagawa ng milagro ang iba pa. Hindi mo nagawa kaya galit ka sa kanila. Kung pwede namang solusyunan bago pa mangyari bakit hindi gawan ng paraan?

As Vanguard •Aeon™• proudly soaks in all the congratulatory greetings for her Hall of Shame, most players neglect to assess the true situation wherein the disservice for a just game is, now more than ever, apparent. Let's not forget the saying that "When there's smoke, there's fire." The FIRE here is the mediocre work continuously "performed" by the IT staff of LU. The Wall of Shame is just the SMOKE. We have all encountered these "bugs" countless times already - the never-ending EXP from the Church Donation Quest, Swab the Deck mishap, Auction Hall catastrophe, and many more. Yet, they still continue with the type of review they do for these NPCs. Kumabaga, paulit-ulit na! After maintenance may NPC tapos may bug nanaman, unlimited EXP, saka mag aannounce ng Emergency Maintenance, at habang hinahanapan nila ng paraan para maayos ang kabulukang maiiwasan sana, masisisi mo ba ang mga players na susubukang lumapit dito at maulanan man lang ng biyaya? They could have THOROUGHLY reviewed it! Hindi sana eto mangyayari kung maayos ang pag check nyo sa iimplement nyo na game feature. Kung ganyang ang inatasan nyo gumawa nyan halatang palpak siya, kaya palitan nyo na! Once is a mistake, twice is irresponsibility, thrice is just "pissing us off!" = Once is enough, twice is "too many" and Thrice is just too much. And again this did not happen just 3x!

Think about it, who knows, baka after maintenance bukas may NPC na after 1 month na gawin ang quest makaka SGH[1] ka naman. Pero pag click mo wala palang cooldown? Itutuloy mo ba? Pano kung ikaw naman ang naban?

________________________________________________

Four Final Points:

1. The "process of banning" accounts because of this incident should also raise concern. A friend of mine named *joliken* from the New Chaos server who has been with me since the Fenrir days of the P2P servers and has been a loyal player of this game was banned. I can say with all confidence that he has been one of the most noble person I've met in this game. And with his account banned, he will now quit this game after almost 5 years.

Last Friday, a merchant suddenly vended items with shop title "Quitting Sainyo Na" in Juno and he was there. He was selling a lot of stuffs like Combat Knife, Soulless Wing and many others, and so he bought most of the items. He tried to log into his account this afternoon but it has been banned until 2012. Is this the justice that everyone is celebrating under the discussion thread of the Hall of Shame post?

2. Another thing about this is that they do not even take a second. Walang kunsidirasyon kumbaga. Ngayon nga, tumigil ka ng isang minuto man lang. Bigyan mo man lang sila ng 60 segundo. Isipin mo yung mga nag-iiyakan na mga players na yan na na-ban na tila ba pumatay ng isang tao. Yung panahon - TAON, pera - LIBO LIBO, dedikasyon - PAG OONLINE NG MADALING ARAW at iba pang paghihirap para lamang dito at tatanggalin mo ng isang iglap lang? They act like GODS with a click of a button. Talo pa nga e, kung ang Diyos may paraan para magpatawad, kayo wala? Natrace nyo yung mga usernames diba? So hindi rin imposible na pwede nyo namang i-delete nlang yung mga Soulless Wings na yan at bigyan sila ng mas magaang parusa hindi ba? Lalo na yung mga taga New Chaos na halos limang taon na ang ginugol para lamang sa account nilang iyon. Sa isang pindot nyo, tapos na sila.

PINAPARUSAHAN NYO ANG MGA PLAYERS SA KADAHILANAN NG SARILI NYONG KAPABAYAAN. Nagtataka pa kayo bakit kayo nauubusan ng players?

3. Naaawa ako sa:

A. NADAMAY - Mga inosenteng bumili, nabigyan o nalipatan ng nasabing item. Sa mababaw na kadahilanan ng isang item na hindi imposibleng nasa scroll na sa mga darating na araw at nakavend na lamang, wala na ang mga accounts nila. Resulta ng paraan ng pag baban na hindi man lang nagbibigay konsiderasyon sa totoong pangyayari, wala na sila. Maaari nyo naman ituon yung pansin nyo sa mga CHARACTERS na mismong nagclick at kumuha ng item na iyon sa NPC, saka ninyo icheck yung kasama na account noon sa MYLU. Hindi yung kung saan na lang nadaan yung item banned na!

B. SANGKOT - Maaring pagkatapos ng isang linggo limot na sila para sa atin na mga naglalaro pa, samantalang sila naman ay HABANG BUHAY na wala. Paano kung ikaw eto? Dahil lang sa Soulless Wing na yan? Sa kadahilanan ng ISANG pagkakamali, ang lahat ng paghihirap nila para sa account nilang iyon ay naglaho na rin. Investment ang lahat ng account e, pinaggagastusan mo ng tuloy tuloy. Isn't it a bit extreme to permanently ban them for such a silly thing which the management itself caused? You are not robots, if you truly take a while maaawa ka sa mga umiiyak na mga players na to ngayon. Kumbaga sa isang maliit na aso, natapakan mo kaya kinagat ka. Ginawa mo e dinakma mo siya sa leeg at sinakal, at kahit umiiyak at umuungol ungol na siya wala kang pakialam. Pagkatapos ay sinaksak saksak mo pa siya. Sadista kumbaga. Oo na, nahuli nyo na e. Pero bigyan nyo naman ng konsiderasyong makatao para sa kamaliang sinimulan nyo rin. Habang proud na proud na bino-broadcast nyo pa ang pagpatay sa mga taong eto, hindi man lang nadaan sa isip o puso nyo ang nararamdaman ng mga eto. Mag-isip naman kayo kahit kaonti na sana sa pagpindot nyo ng button na yan para magban e ikonsidera nyo ang lahat. BAGO KA MAGPAKADIYOS, MATUTO KA SANA MUNANG MAGPAKATAO. Ang kamalian dito ay hindi lamang sa mga players na eto kundi sainyo rin. MISTAKE MISTAKE = VERY GOOD! Yun na ba ngayon?

C. KUNG SINO MAN ANG DELETE NG DELETE NITONG THREAD - Wala man lang rason, e delete ng delete ka lang. As I said in one of the post I made when someone asked me why I'm defending these people - Pinatatanggol ko sila dahil karapatan ng lahat na madinig ang panig. Sa kadahilanang WALA NA NGA SILA. Why would they continue to participate in a game wherein reason is sillenced, fairness is a dream and you, without due process, is JUST killed? Kung hindi man parte ng Human Rights iyon, respeto na lamang. Gaya na lamang ng pag delete delete mo dito. Ako ang nagdedefend kasi ako yung nandito pa, at naniniwala akong maari pa etong masolusyunan at maayos. At sa kadahilanang natatakot ako hindi lamang para sa sarili ko, kundi para din sa mga maaring susunod ninyong biktima sa inyong kapabayaan.

4. Again, I am not one of those who gained any type of benefits from this quest NPC and I may have been labeled as one of the "reklamadors" of this game. I know that a player or two would again post something like "Kung ayaw mo ng sistema ng laro. E di gumawa ka ng sarili mong game o umalis ka!" like those in some of the the threads I created. I am preempting this now but again, think about this. We can equate this with the statement "Kung may reklamo ka sa Gobyerno ng Pilipinas, e di gumawa ka ng sarili mong bansa o umalis ka!" We pay, I pay, are we not entitled to ask for something that we deserved, worked hard for, paid for? In this case, a JUST and FAIR game.

Can you not give us that? Then the shame is on you Level Up Games Admins."

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This thread is being DELETED repeatedly by Ragnaboards forum admins for NO JUSTIFIABLE REASONS.

Just so you'd know, this isn't the first time Level Up Games Admin made mistakes in the game. But this time, they've gone too far by unrightfully punishing THEIR loyal customers, who pay GOOD money for their supposedly GOOD, albeit TERRIBLE service, to play 24/7.

So, it just goes to show how deserving they are to be told, SHAME ON YOU Level Up! Games. Admit your mistakes and do what's right for YOUR PAYING CUSTOMERS. Do not deprive them of their right to GOOD SERVICE just because they stepped into your WEB OF BLUNDERS.

Anyway, I hope this knocks on a few doors, especially to my fellow ex-gamers who have connections to Level Up! Games.

Remember, it's only when good men do nothing that evil triumphs.

Rock heals

Thank God for rock music. It helps soothe the pains of daily existence.

A fish in the sea

When it comes to traffic in Metro Manila, we are all fish in the sea.

Who hasn't been screwed by insane vehicular congestion on our streets?

Everyone's a victim, each and every day.

Especially in the morning. !@#$%

Happy Hearts Day

Happy Valentine's, honey. I love you.

God's gift

You're a year older today. That's God's gift to you, and you're God's gift to me.

You're growing more and more beautiful by each passing day, and hopefully more mature.

If you ever need anything, I'm here. I love you and always will.

Happy birthday, honey.

Thrashing up the joint

It's around 12.45pm and I'm famished. I leave my station and grab some chops at the burger joint in front of the office.

Out of the blue, this garbage truck decides to park its shit right in front of us.

Now, if this were any ordinary garbage collection day, I wouldn't have minded. But this guy just decided to stop there gawking like an idiot for no apparent reason, while a strong breeze was blowing straight at us.

Boy, did it stink.

12.51pm and my burgers are served.

I gave the driver a piercing "You inconsiderate asshole" look and miraculously, he drove off.

He must've realized his ton of metro garbage was reeking nuclear fallout over the food stand. Idiot.

It's 12.56pm.

I went back to my burger and realized I was risking getting a you-know-what from my boss. So I wolf down my burger, agonizing over the tobasco, and ordered a Pepsi.

I didn't know I could finish two jumbo burgers in under five minutes.

Arf!

This morning, I was walking from my car to work when I see this fuzzy little golden-mained puppy suddenly strolling out of an establishment's gate.

At that exact moment when it came out I was just passing through the gate when it suddenly started walking beside me as if I was its companion or something.

"What the hell?"

Now, I'm no dog hater, but the thought of rabies, health insurance and applying for my mom's health card suddenly flashed across my mind.

I then thought that even though this pooch was harmless (apparently), it still packed enough teeth to send me to the RITM, a.k.a. the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

That's where they treat and quarantine people with deadly diseases, by the way. It's also where most of the incurable patients die, not to mention, from rabies. Great.

Snapping back to reality, I started kicking in the air to shoo the furry mutt away, but it just wouldn't budge. It didn't even mind my mid-air karate kicks, let alone even look at me. It just kept obediently walking and walking, as if I was its master.

And so I thought, "So you wanna' play dumbass, do ya.. well, you ain't gonna' follow me across the busy road." So I scanned the road for traffic and prepared to cross.

Just then, this big black feline appeared from right behind a lamp post and startled the hell out of my canine stalker. The cat was just standing there, but it made the pooch stop dead in its tracks in sheer terror.

It only managed to let out one pathetic "Arf!" before it turned and dashed off, tail between its legs.

"Nice going, tough guy." What a wimp!

I crossed the road to the office laughing, thinking whether that pup was high on drugs or something. Nah!

No offense to animal lovers.

Back to basics

These pictures tell a lot about the late Ayrton Senna. He, and not Michael Schumacher, is the epitome of the race driver. If the greatest Formula One driver of all time thinks karting is the purest form of driving, then it's good enough foundation for anyone in this day and age of modern cars.

In the end, it's technology that handicaps the driver. And this article from Jalopnik says it all for me. Read it to understand why I, like so many old schoolers, believe technology can be debilitating. It makes you dependent.

Source: Jalopnik

Topless car wash, anyone?

NEVER fall for topless car wash ads like these guys in the video. You've been warned. LOL