Dr Kader's Article

“You are what you eat and what you drink!”

Treating your symptoms is just a temporary measure to suppress your pressing health problem — it’s never a resolution in the long run. Let’s explore how you can remarkably improve your health condition by a simple act — eat the right food and drink the right water!

How many times have you subdue those painful pangs of migraine with pain killers? Or how long have you been trying to pacify those itchiness and discomforts of that allergic skin of yours with topical cream, but to no avail? Well, it is very likely that you could have lost count of those times that you try to treat these symptoms but they just never seem to go away. And have you ever wondered why?

Treating Symptoms versus Holistic Healing

More often than not, most of us are so used to treating the symptoms of our sickness such as headache, stomach ache and skin allergies by suppressing our discomforts with conventional medications as we are so eager to get rid of those physical discomforts as quickly as possible. And such eagerness has come with a price, not just in monetary term, but the risk of jeopardising our health further with other side effects.

Yet, we have never pause to think what other approaches can be taken to deal with our health issues apart from using conventional medicine. What’s worse, when someone suggests that we try a more holistic health approach such as natural therapies, we become sceptical about it and push the idea away before we even attempt to understand it.

And to be frank, I’m also one of those people who are sceptical about the so-called natural therapies until I met with Dr. Abdul Kader Hussain. From the interview with Dr. Abdul Kader, I have discovered that actually natural therapies help significantly improve one’s health condition. Let’s explore further on what Dr. Abdul Kader has to share about natural therapies from picking the right types of food to drinking the right choice of water.

From Conventional Medicine to Natural Therapies

“Nowadays, I don’t prescribe conventional medication to my patient anymore,” said Dr. Kader. I couldn’t help but be surprised by his remarks. Indeed, when I glanced around his room, there were shelves packed with natural and organic food supplements such as honey, bee pollen, propolis and flaxseeds, etc., and on top of the table in his treatment room was a portable alkaline water ionizer — an uncommon scene of the doctor’s room that we used to know.

Trained in conventional medicine since 1972, Dr. Abdul Kader Hussain went to the United States to further his studies in the field of paediatrics, specialising in neonatology (medical care of newborn infants) and perinatology (obstetrics dealing with the care of the foetus and complicated, high-risk pregnancies). Apart from practising conventional medicine as a paediatric, he also gave lectures in university for many years. So what makes this profound doctor who has over 40 years of experience change his treatment approach from conventional medicine to natural therapies?

“There’s no need to be so surprised about it. In fact, I’ve been practising natural therapies for many years ever since I realised that there is no resolution to health problems in conventional medicine which merely treats the symptoms and never attempt to deal with the root cause of the health condition itself,” expressed Dr. Kader. He added, “This has driven me to seek alternative ways to deal with my patients’ health conditions, that is, through natural therapies such as making the right choice of food intake and drinking active hydrogen alkaline water.”

Who’s the “Culprit” that put your health at risk?

Generally, we tend to put the blame on chemical food additives and preservatives, the Trans fat on our processed food, the contaminated water due to rusty pipes, and the amount of chlorine used in water treatment, the air pollution and may other factors, that seem to be putting our health at risk. Are all these “culprits” that actually jeopardise your health?

Although we could not exercise much control over the external factors that contaminate our food and water such as environmental pollution, we can actually decide what we want to eat and what we want to drink. Hence, the external factors that affect the quality of our food and water are only part of the “culprit” and we, ourselves, play a vital role as the “real culprit” that put our health at risk!

Whether we like it or not, we are all given various choices in terms of food intake selection and choices of water quality. But most of the times, we are too ignorant or give ourselves plenty of excuses to not change our unhealthy lifestyle such as smoking and heavy alcohol consumption, and unhealthy eating habits such as taking too much processed food, trans fat and drinking low quality water.

“The Right Choice of Food and Water Can Significantly Improve Your Health!”

Misperception of the so-called healthy food and water

According to Dr. Kader, choosing the right diet helps improve one’s health condition remarkably. “From skin problems such as eczema and psoriasis to chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and obesity, such health conditions can be greatly improved through the change of diet and drinking of alkaline water that foster a higher alkalinity environment in our body which is more favourable for our health,” said Dr. Kader.

He further explained that high acidic food such as starchy food (e.g. rice, noodles and crackers), dairy products (e.g. cow’s milk, cheese and butter) as well as cooking oil such as corn oil and canola oil, fosters acidic environment in the body which is unfavourable for our health as they promote the growth of bacteria and also aggravate skin allergies and various health problems. Hence, substituting these foods with the right choice of food can improve your health and even boost your immune system. “For instance, you can replace corn oil or canola oil with palm oil or virgin coconut oil in cooking. Substitute cow’s milk with goat’s milk, and swap white or brown sugar with Stevia (sweetener/ sugar substitute extracted from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana) or palm sugar (Gula Melaka),” suggested Dr. Kader.

“Most people tend to have the misperception that food such as cow’s milk and chicken eggs are good for health. Actually, they aren’t. In fact, goat’s milk is a much better choice as compared to cow’s milk because the compound of goat’s milk is very similar to human breast milk,” explained Dr. Kader. “Chicken eggs often aggravate skin allergies and they are best replaced with duck or turkey eggs which provide good quality protein and beta carotene, and yet they won’t aggravate allergic conditions,” added Dr. Kader.

Apart from the right choice of food, cooking method also plays a crucial role in retaining the food nutrients. “It’s best to eat vegetables raw and cook food in low heat such as steaming instead of deep frying or toasting to retain the nutrients,” recommended Dr. Kader.

Active hydrogen alkaline water complements healthy food

“Changing your food diet alone is not sufficient to improve your health; it must be accompanied with the consumption of quality water such as active hydrogen alkaline water at pH 9.5 as healthy, high alkalinity food and alkaline water complement each other for fostering a favourable environment in our body. There’s no point in taking the right choice of food but countering it with low quality and contaminated water,” emphasised Dr. Kader.

Active hydrogen alkaline water promotes detoxification and anti-oxidation

In addition, Dr. Kader also highlighted that active hydrogen alkaline water can significantly helps in detoxification of toxins from our body. According to Dr. Kader, one of the main culprit that causes the mutation of cells, causing cancer, is free radical. Thus, counter-acting against free radicals is one of the ways to reduce risk of cancer. Dr. Kader explained, “The micro-cluster structure of active hydrogen alkaline water can greatly help remove toxins from our body, while the Oxidation reduction potential (ORP) of active hydrogen alkaline water helps counter free radicals, acting as a powerful anti-oxidant”.

“On top of proposing individual diet plan that suits my patients’ needs and health conditions, I also encourage my patients to consume lots of active hydrogen alkaline water,” said Dr. Kader. “Thus far, I have received many positive feedbacks from my patients about the effectiveness of alkaline water in improving their health conditions,” expressed Dr. Kader with a grin of satisfaction. He also mentioned that alkaline water at pH 10 can be applied (dab with towel soaked in alkaline water) on swollen parts of the body for more immediate anti-swelling and pain reduction effect.

Conclusion

Instead of treating your symptoms with conventional medicine that gives you those unwanted side effects, why don’t you start improving your health conditions with natural therapies?

“In a nutshell, you are what you eat and what you drink! Choose the right types of food and drink a sufficient amount of active hydrogen alkaline water every day, and you should be able to improve your health condition remarkably,” concluded Dr. Abdul Kader Hussain, MBBS (MAL) FAAP (USA) from the Clinic for Integrative Medicine, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur.