Rise and fall of nations and empires (football teams included)

                                                    Where did we go so wrong ??

The agony of defeat

       Brazil's world cup 2014 run till the semifinals ended in the most humiliating way. Leaderless (their captain Thiego Silva was out suspended), firing blanks (their talismatic key striker Neymar) the team succumbed 7 - 1 to a ruthless German team at Belo Horizonte stadium in front of a partisan 70,000 crowd.

      What happened to the record 5 times World Champions which boasted in the past the likes of Pele, Garrincha, Romario, Ronaldo , Ronaldinho, Socrates, Zico and Caesar ?  Many a great team like am empire has to realise that their time is well and truly past them. I am no expert soccer pundit, and this post has been written post mortem so everyone has hindsight as their database.

      This World Cup in 2014 was Brazil's to lose. They had invested US$ 11 billion into building new infrastructure like stadiums, roads at the expense of alleviating the massive social problems of the poor who protested day and night. Why spend money on an U$ 11B advertisement when you could easily feed or provide cheap housing to 1 million marginalised slum dwellers ?? Why indeed ??

     Football (like governing a country or empire) is never stagnant. Once a great ruler or team manager has reached the pinnacle of success (like Julius Caesar in BC 70), it was time to find a successor - for rightly or wrongly. That is called rejuvenation or re-invention.  Many a ruler and football manager has stayed on longer than necessary for love of power, ego or money's sake and to disastrous effect.

    Luis Felipe Scolari must make way for new blood with fresh new ideas and change tactics and strategies for the betterment of Brazil. To stay on to prove a point or rebuild is indeed pointless in my opinion. 

    Brazil is now a has-been, just like Spain's tikki taka football. Hard skillful attacking sides like Germany now rule the day. 

    My prediction for Final ?     Heart says Argentina (for Messi sake) but Head says Germany

   Germany to win by 2 - 1.

   Seize the Day.     

    

Great New Song

The Fifa Website for all the Video Highlights of the World Cup 2014

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/videos/highlights/match=300186478/

Spain 1 The Netherlands 5 World Cup 2014

What a cracker of a goal, the first one scored by Arjen Robben. His second one was equally splendid.

The Usual Suspects ; My Health Supplements

L to R:   Triflex, MegaMen Multivitamins, Proviva G, L-Gluthathione,Ginko Biloba,E 400

      Some readers are wondering what I take as health supplements, for the past 9 years, these are the supplements I take on a daily basis. The latest addition is the Proviva G which is to prevent the inevitable rise in blood sugar and high cholesterol.

     As earlier mentioned, I take health supplements as one of the factors to ward off disease and old age issues as long as possible. There are of course people who disagree with me completely but I have been a convert since the mid 2000s when I had a health scare.

    The bath-tub curve which I will describe in a later post is one which is widely used in the Life Insurance industry as well as in electronics and other industries. In it, it depicts the normal life span and the onset of mortality (death) for people living in developed, developing and underdeveloped countries.

Of course everyone wants to live as long and as healthily as possible. That would be a great blessing from God if one could live to say 90 years if age without encountering any major disease or deterioration of one's mental and physical well being. That is the dream and goal of modern day medicine since its founding some 200 plus years ago.

Doctors, physicians, traditional medicine practitioners and drug manufacturers always aim for the optimal health of the human being with the best quality of life for as long as possible. 

The case of healthy living and health supplements.  

Many people in modern society have known about the ills caused by metabolic syndrome. Many choose to ignore it at their own peril. Many just take a wait and see position. Many die prematurely and many only will do something only when a life changing disease hits them.

If you are living in an urban or even rural community, there will be stress points thrown at us from time to time caused by work, business, family and personal health circumstances not of the person directly but maybe a family member.  

My humble suggestion :  

Eat healthy + Exercise enough (cardiovascular and strength) + Sleep enough (7 hours min) + Health Supplements.

The first 3 everybody knows how to regulate themselves, but I will offer my own regimen.

a) Eat healthy - Less oily and fried foods, more vegetables, brown rice, less meats, no snacks  and no soft drinks. I make it a point to eat at home in the evenings as much as possible, as home cooking is the best way to control the oils and fats. We normally steam, grill and only occasionally stir fry. Plenty of vegetables, fruits, soups and only 1 meat dish (almost no beef) consisting of fresh fish (daily), chicken or a little pork.  

b) Exercise enough - I run 2 - 3 times a week (at least 5km each time for half hour to 45 

    minutes) and do cross training exercise Karate at least 1 and a half hour each week.

    Lately I have been swimming 10 to 15 50 m laps for about half hour each time.  

    So 4 times each week minimum totally 4 hours.

c) 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. 

d) Health Supplements : daily dosage

        Joint Flexibility

     x 3 tablets of Glucosomine, Chondroitin, and MSM Sulphate  (hard big capsules)   (GNC)

        Memory and Brain Boost

     x 1 capsules (soft) 120 mg Ginko Biloba                  (GNC)

       Blood Sugar and Cholesterol Control

    x 2 capsules (soft) Proviva G                                       (VivarFresh International)

      Blood Thinner and Coordination

    x 1 Vit E (soft)   ;  x 1 Glutathione (small)                   (GNC)

      General Nutrition

    x  2 tablets Mega Men                                                 (GNC) 

    x 1  1000 mg Vit C                                                      (Various)

 So there it is ; many people are shocked at my looks and health,  when I tell them I'm 52, to be honest. I am boasting a little, so there are definately plus points in looking young and healthy !!  

     

                                                                  Still alive and running !! 

Samurai Soccer Brazil June 2014

Proviva G ; Great new Health Supplement using Pre and Probiotics

Proviva G 

This revolutionary health supplement from Singapore is what I have been taking these past few months with great results.  

I have been taking health supplements for the last 10 years, owing to my rigorous sports training (long distance running and martial arts), as well as as having a health scare almost 10 years ago, when I collapsed due to unknown reasons just before a karate class. 

After having a full brain scan, plus blood tests, the results were inconclusive, except that from that day onwards, I decided to really take care of my health, adequate management of stress (don't take life so seriously),have enough sleep, enough exercise (not extreme, not too little but just right), healthy diet and lastly (not least) health supplements.

So I decided to read up on health supplements, and embarked on taking upwards to 10 health supplements daily. 

We should all take care of our own bodies and health as it is the one and only true 'gifts' we can give to our family, relatives and friends is the presence, love, vision and care as a spouse or partner, parent, colleague, cousin, uncle, aunt, and friend.  We all would love to 'live long and prosper' and see our children grow up, have kids of their own and experience all the joys and struggles each one of us is bestowed in each of our lives.   

An article recently in the BBC news made me sit up and take notice : 

WHO (World Health Organization) recently published an article that said that the amount of sugar intake in people's daily lives  should be halved (cut by 50%).

The outcome if this is not heeded is that given todays' adult calorie and sugar consumption, the bulk of the population will be afflicted with the modern day diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and even cancer. 

We are all in the 'rat race' in this modern world, so  like it or not, we are eating, drinking processed foods like fast foods, hawker foods, restaurant fare,  potato chips, cookies, ice cream, you name it, there is some percentage of hydrogenated fats and oils in practically everything we consume.

Drinking of sports drinks, canned drinks, coffee (instant or brewed), tea, beverages of every kind, wines, beer, spirits, you name it there is something called sugars in  all of these. 

What are we facing in today's fast paced and stressful society ? 

Metabolic syndrome is a common and progressive lifestyle disease which is afflicts almost 2 billion people worldwide, and ultimately leads to chronic diseases such as diabetes (type 2), heart disease, stroke and cancer.  

We know of this, but many of us chose to ignore the elephant in the room - the coming pandemic...  

Anyway to cut a long story short, I did some research and found that there is this revolutionary  health supplement using Prebiotics and Probiotics with plant extracts with known healing properties and I decided to give it a try.  

Proviva -G is a Phytosymbiotic which uses Prebiotics (complex carbohydrate), and Probiotics (Good bacteria) and fermented with traditional foods such as Bitter Gourd and Moringa Olifera. 

Bitter Gourd and Moringa Olifera have traditionally been effective in reducing high blood sugar, but large amounts of both have to be taken daily to be effective. 

Proviva -G has been clinically tested and shown to be effective to balance blood glucose (HbA1C) leadng to diabetes , Low Density Lipoprotein ('bad' chlolesterol), High density

Lipoprotein ('good' cholesterol) leading to heart disease. 

I have been on statins due to high cholesterol (since last year when my total cholesterol level hit 300), so I did a blood test in March to determine my total cholesterol ; it had reduced to 270. 

Still very high.

Since April when I started on the course of Proviva G, I have felt my overall wellness to be much better and chest tightness reduced, I plan to take my complete blood and medical test end of June.

I believe I will be pleasantly surprised by the results.