Watermelon Frost

Remember the watermelon frost? It is applied on canker sores. Nope, we don't use any Ibuprofen or modern medicine. Instead, we would dab a little of the powder on the canker sore and go to sleep. It is usually much better the next morning. Ping gets canker sores quite often, especially on the bottom left of the inner cheek...for some reason, Ping's cheek is a little too fat there and Ping always bites on it..ouch! So Ping brought some of the watermelon frost here. Don't apply it during the day though because Ping would look like a vampire who just had a lovely meal. Kekekeke...

Anyway, just finished reading an article on Mercury in power plant emission and Ping thought of an old news where mercury was found in watermelon frost...remember that? It happened probably about 10 years ago? Agak-agak lah. So Ping decides to slack and start surfing for mercury and watermelon powder/frost.

The first thing that came up was today's news from the Taiwan government.

Lawmaker seeks stricter rules on Chinese-made medicines

So this is actually prohibited in Taiwan eh...but all brands or just some of em? Hmmm....wonder what is the mercury source in the watermelon frost? Is it while the watermelon is sitting in the Earthern bowl that the mercury is being absorbed into the watermelon? But only HgCl and CH3Hg are the reactive form...and it seems like it is more likely for the watermelon frost to accumulate elemental Hg right? But when you google around more, you'll find companies 三金 saying that their products are safe to be consumed. Unfortunately, Ping brought the watermelon powder in a 'eok uan' container rather than in its proper container since Ping only took a little of ahmah's stock...so Ping could not look to see what company was it produced from and what is the ingredient. On the other hand, the entire generation or two before us (mum/dad and ahmah/ahkong's) were using it all their childhood life...so does that mean that we should be tested for mercury to see if it is at a toxic level? Haha...where got so kua cheong hor...

But of course still have to be careful lah...don't want to end up like this case here.

Mercury intoxication presenting with tics

Wanna look at the article but Ping is currently at home (yah lor, slacking lor....haha..I wish ar!) so could not get access to the article. Maybe will check it out later...

Ping definitely still prefer the traditional medicine...hate pills! In fact, whenever Ping falls sick at home, Ping would get the appropriate 'eok uan' from ahmah rather than going to the doctor. Here, no choice lah...when cannot tahan have to go to the doctor..but even then, Ping usually gets the injection rather than eating pills. Yup, still do the injection. Ok ok, it is a psychological 'I can't do it' but why must Ping try when injection is so much less painful, faster effect and less hassle? *grins widely*