A few days ago, my old friend Dr Chakri Negara checked my blood pressure and I was pleasantly surprised to know that my blood pressure 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 38 years old. All my siblings who had inherited the same blood disease also died before they were 60 years old.

The bodies of the people with hypercholesterolaemia will produce a lot more cholesterol than ordinary people.   

I have also inherited hypercholesterolaemia and I had a heart by-pass surgery when I was 50 years old in 1983 in London. At that time, Mayor Clinic, USA had just invented the heart/lung machine and only Mayor Clinic and Harley Street Clinic London could carry out heart by-pass surgery.  Currently, heart by-pass surgery can be done in almost every hospital. 

After my heart by-pass surgery, my cardiologist told me that my life expectancy would be very short due to my inherited blood disease and soon my heart would be blocked again and I would die. Unless I change my life style to prolong my life, I would soon die.  This is why I did as follows:  

My diet:

When I wake up in the morning, I drink 2 glasses of water and eat about half a pineapple. I do not eat anything until lunch time. My diet consists of vegetables, fish, chickens, very little red meat and very small amount 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 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 write articles to criticise the corrupted BN Government. Since Pakatan Haprapan (PH) has won control of the government, I write more on share investment and useful pieces to benefit all my readers. This piece which I am writing is a good example.    

Mental Attitude:

Now I have covered diet, physical and mental exercise to improve my health. Even if I have good health and a lot of money and anxiously wanting to make more and more money every day, I will 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.

Up to date I have given more than 300 scholarships to help poor students to complete their tertiary education. All my scholarships recipients do not require 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. By 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 enjoy my remaining days.

Studies have shown that happiness can prolong life.