A few days ago, my old friend Dr Chakri Negara checked my blood pressure which, I was pleasantly surprised to find, was 120/70. Since I am 86 years old, I consider myself qualified to write this piece.
My mother inherited a blood disease called hypercholesterolaemia and she died at the age of 38. All my siblings who inherited the disorder also died before they were 60 years old.
The bodies of the people with hypercholesterolaemia will produce a lot more cholesterol than those of ordinary people.
I, too, inherited hypercholesterolaemia. I had heart bypass surgery when I was 50 years old, in 1983 in London. At that time, Mayor Clinic, US, had just invented the heart/lung machine and only Mayor Clinic and Harley Street Clinic London could carry out heart bypass surgery. Now, heart bypass surgery can be done at almost every hospital.
After my surgery, my cardiologist told me that my life expectancy would be very short due to my inherited blood disease. Soon, my heart would be blocked again and I would die – unless I changed my lifestyle to prolong my life. Now, this is what I do:
My diet
When I wake up in the morning, I drink two glasses of water and eat about half a pineapple. I do not eat anything until lunchtime. My diet consists of vegetables, fish, chicken, very little red meat and very small amounts of rice. I do not take sugar. I drink more water than I require. As a result, I have no constipation and I urinate quite often.
Physical exercise
At my age, I cannot do vigorous exercise. I just walk about for about 10 minutes, swing my hands and do deep breathing exercise. I do this routine frequently throughout the day.
Mental exercise
I watch the stock market during trading hours. Besides this, I wrote articles to criticise the Barisan Nasional government. Since Pakatan Haprapan won control of the government, I write more on share investments and useful pieces to benefit all my readers. This piece which I am writing is a good example.
Mental attitude
So far, I have covered diet, physical and mental exercise to improve my health. Even if I had good health and a lot of money and anxiously want to make more and more money every day, I would not be happy. I must have the right mental attitude. I must not forget that when I die, I cannot take any money along with me. So, I must use my money to help poor people, especially poor students.
To date, I have given more than 300 scholarships to help poor students complete their tertiary education. None of my scholarship recipients are required to return the money I spent on them. But they must remember that when they were poor, I helped them, and when they have spare money, they should help other poor students. This way, I believe I am creating more and more charity workers as the years go by.
Every morning when I wake up, I should feel happy because I did not die the night before. I am lucky to be alive to do good things and enjoy my life.
I must forget all my difficulties in the past, I must enjoy the present and look forward to enjoying my remaining days. After all, studies have shown that happiness can prolong life.
Koon Yew Yin is a retired chartered civil engineer and one of the founders of IJM Corporation Bhd and Gamuda Bhd.
The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
Source : FMT by Koon Yew Yin
Indie Borneo 