I am... Indonesian's Medical Student

Do you know that it IS NEVER easy for me to be a medical student?

Do you know that it IS THE WORST feeling ever when people asked you that?

Do you know I DREADED the decision made by my parents to send me study in Indonesia? In MEDICINE

I hated it at first. I dreaded it. I felt worst.

Comparing to my friends that are doing their MBBS in Malaysia or UK, in those prestigious, established, well-known universities? Bapak ah aku down gila.

Nobody knows UNPAD when you first mentioned it. Paling, they heard of it because of Fatin Liyana, which is not a full time FK UNPAD student, but twinning program UKM-UNPAD.

Okay sedih! Down! Semuanya!

Why?

People cakap,

'Apa kelas kau belajar kt Indonesia?'  

'Do they even know what medicine is?'

'The worst medical students are from Indonesia.'

'Study kat Indon^ ni budak-budak tak layak ambik medik pun sebenarnya.'

'Untung lah belajar medik kat Indon. Tak pandai pun tak pe. Janji banyak duit.'

and so on and so forth.

Those were the rumors I heard. Even after I stepped into the faculty, those 'stories' kept on circulating. When I got back to Malaysia, same gossips I heard.

I understand. Takde standard pun kan belajar kat Indonesia ni? Budak tak pandai je layak. Yang pandai, stay belajar Medik kat Malaysia. Or flew to better, well-known, established countries macam UK, US, India, Aussie dan lain-lain kan? Even those yang belajar kat Russia, are better than Indonesians' graduates kan?

I'd developed that kind of feeling yang takut nak jawab any medical quizzes on social medias especially I saw the answers from other medical students. Jawapan gila-gila, that I'd to Google half of them*.

Hebat memang hebat.

Okay paham. Kami tak pandai macam korang. Kami punya teori banyak ke laut. Kami memang paling rendah diri among other medical graduates. Kami tak sehebat kalian yang dari universiti negara hebat-hebat. We are just graduates/medical students from a third-world country.

Tak. Hebat. Mana.Pun.

But you know what...

I think I have learnt a lot; both in medicine and real-life. How to deal stuffs ethically. How to deal with bureaucracy.

We learnt that life is not always easy for everyone.
We learnt that there are a lot more unfortunate people that needed medical attention. '
We learnt there are people that are so poor that they couldn't buy the full medical prescription.
We learnt that even the smallest help could bring out the biggest smile.

We learnt to be humble.

We learnt to be a human being. 

Memang teori kami tak berapa kuat. Tak macam kalian. But we got something better. We learnt from the people, from the patients. We learnt doing the smallest tasks but giving you the biggest result. A smallest act of kindness, brings out the happiness from the ill patients.

Seventh semester and counting.

Thank you Allah for this oppurtunity. Thank you for sending me here, in this 3rd world country. Thank you for putting me in Bandung. Thank you for surrounding me with such great people, patients, nurses, doctors,lab technicians, makcik nasi kuning, pakcik bubur ayam, abang Gojek semuanya.

---

Footnote:
^ Aku paling anti orang cakap Indon. Dude, c'mon! It's either Indonesia or Indo. They don't like to be called an Indon. We ought to know that. We have been neighbours!

*Btw, tadi cuba beranikan diri jawab one question. Everyone else said heart-/renal- related diseases and only a handful yang jawab pregnancy-related (well I am one of them! XD) and guess what,I got the right answer! Thank you! At least this restore some of my confidence in learning medicine in Indonesia.

As long as you're willing to learn, belajar kat mana-mana pun boleh jadi.

Yang penting itu bukan tempat belajar, yang penting itu niat nak belajar, dengan attitude yang betul. Belajarlah kat Harvard ke John Hopkins ke UKM ke UM ke mana ke... attitude takde, berlagak gila, ke laut lah nak jadi seorang doktor yang berjaya.

As long as you are willing.

Kangen Water

Kangen Water, bottled.

This IS the WATER!

It can cure anything and everything! From diabetes to cancer to eczema or even 'penyakit bodoh' like acne and such. 

It's good for your health! Drink this miracle, high pH, very alkaline water and dispose of those medications! 

Acidic food and drinks are the reason we got sick! Drink this alkali water to combat it!

Ever heard people selling Kangen Water told you these? 

How far the truth behind their out of the world statements? 

Some of us, especially our grandparents, easily believe this. Why would someone sell you anything that's dangerous or not good for you? Right?

While some of us, mainly people that I can call Abang and Kakak, mostly don't believe those statements (albeit some does!) 

But how far is the truth behind all these statements? Or are they false testimonies that the machines sellers produce just to make sure people buy the machine? *it's Leveluk SD501, cost about RM 12,000 a pop, by the way*. 

Well, there are some facts and lies in those statements. 

However, before we go through that, I'm going to tell you a story here about this Kangen Water. I actually went to a so-called Kangen Water conference a few days back, courtesy of my mini-thesis supervisor. She called me to join her for that Kangen Water conference (she's also the machine and Kangen Water seller, not to mention a medical doctor, at the Department of Pharmacological and Therapy. 

Yes. A licensed MEDICAL DOCTOR, that believe in Kangen Water.

the Video showing about Kangen

Anyways, back to the conference. You've to be invited by someone that's already in the 'Kangen Group' -of some sort; they called this person a sponsor. Not to mention everyone that comes to it has to pay IDR 50,000.00 (about RM15) per person. It's like a bit of exclusive and such to go into this conference. I kept an open mind but a bit on the skeptical and negative side during the whole night it lasted. 

I wanted to know what the MC, presenter and also the audiences would be like. I had an idea based on postings I read on an FB page, Pseudoscience Watch. And I was actually quite right. 

It began with everyone getting a 600ml bottle of Kangen water (free of course) and a video showing the general idea of where Kangen Water is developed. The video did emphasized that Kangen is originated in Japan, the machine, its development and researches are conducted in Japan. 

the Presenter

Live Blood Analysis

Then, the MC started to ask questions whether you want to be healthy-lah, rich-lah and be like those people that had sold more than 100s Kangen Water machines lah. Not that I have anything against those kind of questions but they made me felt... weird. The audiences, on the other hand, responded so lively and enthusiastically. The whole medium-sized ballroom was actually vibrated with their roars and yeses. The presenter was a doctor. They said he had not been a 'doctor' ever since he found of bout Kangen water. Four years, if I'm mistaken. So the conference began with this Maher Zain's doppelganger's speech about water being the 70% make-up of our body (this is a fact!) and hydration. Water and hydration really do correlate but the photo he showed, Live Blood Analysis is something that doesn't make sense. 

I have never heard of Live Blood Analysis before. Never. Not in my four years of medical school nor in the 22 years living in this world. And the picture, the 'dehydrated' red blood cells look a lot like coin-stacked peripheral blood smear/rouleaux  (when the smear is too thick).

Now I'm skeptical level 2

 

Hypertonic, too much water lost from RBC. Dehydration station

Rouleaux or stacks of coins. When blood smear is too thick (2nd Year Meds)

If he's A medical doctor, he should at least know about the basic on blood smear. 

Then, he kept on blabbering and showing photos on blood, endoscopy and testimonies, in which huge, blockish words such as  'BETUL KE NI!?' 'WHAAA-?' kept on blinking in my mind.

Most of that this so-called 'doctor' said, I could never associated them with those basic sciences I learnt in medical school.  They were full of bull!

*Serious lah, aku tak boleh nak compute pun apa 'dokter' ni cakap dengan apa yang aku belajar!*

There was also a demonstration of the Kangen water with pH indicator drop. He did that on various of drinks such as carbonated water, isotonic drinks, bottled juices, mineral water, RO water and of course, the Kangen water. As expected, and known, most of drinks available at the stores are on the acidic side of the indicators. Yes, they are definitely not good for us to consume daily (gula weih gula tinggi!).

Kangen water exhibit a high alkaline level (more towards base than our daily mineral water) and it has the 'power' to neutralise some of the acidic drinks. Remember high school chemistry experiments on acid and alkali? The demo was just like that.

Okay yang ni memang betul lah.

Also, Kangen water has high Oxidation Reduction Potential, something that I'm not familiar with but I'm pretty sure it's called the 'Redox Potential'. Redox potential means that it has the energy to become an antioxidant, removing excess radicals from surrounding. The lower the number, the better it is in being antioxidant. Kangen water has a redox potential somewhere around -600mV and this is like blending three-four types of fruits together and drink the whole thing.

After the demo on the water, the guy started preaching about selling the machine, in which I didn't have a speck of interest. Told my doctor that I wanted to go back and I left. Bits and pieces that I caught during the 'Sale of Machine' (okay, ni aku namakan sendiri) were that you sell to people, you get a certain amount on money from Enagic (the one and only Kangen Water machine maker) and after selling certain amount of machine, the amount of money is increased. Something that looks like pyramid/MLM scheme - which my doctor said IT'S NOT.

the Leveluk SD501

You decide whether it's or not. I myself didn't bother to get the full info about it. 

Alright. So that was what happened during the entire evening I was forced to attend the seminar. 

Betul ke air ni boleh buat semua tu? Is this all hoax? 

Weih aku tak percaya! Mana boleh minum air baik semua! 

I think these are all penipu je. 

Let me get this straight. My answers are based on journals that have been published under respectable, reputable publishers such as Elsevier (yang buat buku Pathologic Basic of Diseases, Abbas and Kumar tuu). I read those journals as a requirement to write my mini-thesis proposal as part as being a medical student (wajib leerr ><). The journals are available through Google Scholars. 

These are the answers for any of you that doubt this water.

ps: I'm not Kangen water seller/preacher etc. I just happen to read these correct information and have the responsibility to educate others.

• Anti-cancer - Surprisingly YES! In 2001 a study on human lung adenocarcinoma and cervical carcinoma. Changes in morphology of the cells from cancer cells to normal cells because the water somehow stopped the 'immortality' of cancer cells so only the normal ones multiply.
• Anti-diabetic - Yes! In 1997, a study showed it did reduce blood glucose and also lipid peroxide. The study is continued in 2002, on hamsters and this also showed same result.
• Anti-oxidant - Yes! The biggest property of Kangen water is because of its antioxidan effect due to low redox potential. Also in 1997, Japanese conducted a study and it showed how Kangen water not only did the job like our endogenous antioxidant but it also worked far better with removing radicals that cannot be removed by our naturally occurring antioxidant.
• Anti-cholesterol - Yes. My friend did her thesis on this and the result is impressive! Comparing Kangen water to Simvastatin (the usual drug prescribed for high cholesterolemia, Kangen water shows better result!)
• Dialysis - Showing good signs in people that do dialysis. The machine is equipped with Kangen water and the patients were less tired, felt a lot better and the oxidative stress is reduced in various parameters.
• Effect in guts - Despite having such high pH, the water does not disturb the normal floras (the good bacterias) in our guts. Kangen water (or ERW, if I may) actually helps in people that have chronic diarrhea, constipation and hypercholia (extra secretion of bile)

These are the benefits of drinking Kangen Water/Electrolyzed Reduced Water, among others. LOADS of BENEFITS, I'm not kidding!

So, jadinya, betullah apa those sellers said. BUT! It doesn't mean you can simply throw away your medications, especially those who are suffering from diabetes and other chronic diseases. Kangen water may one day be cure but until this very second, it's only an adjuvant treatment. 

ADJUVANT. 

SUPPLEMENT. 

PENOLONG. 

MEMBANTU. 

It helps you provided you drink your meds. Jangan pergi buang pulak ubat mahal-mahal tuuuu. Lain jadi kang!

You can read further on journals and such from Google Scholars. It's not the same with normal Google.com. Enter these keywords: Electrolyzed Reduced Water (the scientific name of Kangen Water), antioxidants, anti-diabetic etc.

Sebenarnya, air ni banyak potensi nak jadi a part of our treatment one day. But please, yang jual air-air kangen ni, jangan kasi dakyah. Educate the people, educate yourself before nak jual or suruh patients stop with their meds. Ingat. Nyawa orang.

Till later. Salam.

sources:

images.google.com

scholar.google.com under Elsevier's journals and papers posted in scholar.

Intro

Salam all.

This is my... secon- no. I think this is my 20th blog or so throughout the years I've been active using the internet. Too many blogs and I rarely maintained them more than few months.

I've deleted MOST of them.
.
.
. well, those that I remembered making them, the emails and password associated together.

I'm not much a writer nor a student nor anything. Most of the time, I'm less than your typical college student and the least medical student that people expected.

Why?

I rather be playing with technologies or my pots and pants OR just lazying on my bed, reading or watching movies.

So bear with me on this one. I'm thinking 'bout writing my experiences in writing mini-thesis, going into labs and clinical rotations for the next two years of my life!

by the way, 178 days left in theoretical-years!