REGULARS
During the 1980s and 90s hedge funds were largely the preserve of the wealthy.
These select groups of investors were in a better position to accept larger losses than the average investor and usually allocated only a small percentage of their wealth to the asset class. This gave hedge fund managers a mandate to pursue large returns, often at a high level of risk. Many investors made huge amounts of money but a handful of traders drew strong public reaction-George Soros shorting the pound and its subsequent withdrawal from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism being a famous example- and led to a slightly warped perception that all hedge fund managers were swashbuckling investors who took huge risky positions that potentially endangered the whole economic system. However times have changed.
Increasingly hedge funds are becoming a mainstream investment and have become popular with institutions. These new investors are far more risk averse and seek stable returns that are uncorrelated with the broader markets, rather than “shoot the lights out” gains. As hedge funds become more institutionalized and disciplined in their investing, it has become apparent that rather than detracting from capital markets, as was previously thought, they are actually benefiting capital markets and, by proxy, the wider economy. One of the major advantages hedge funds provide to capital markets is an increase in liquidity and efficiency. In many ways they behave like theproprietary trading desk of an investment bank, continually ready to buy and sell assets at competitive prices regardless of the prevailing sentiment. In fact, the industry
estimates that hedge funds account for more than half the trading volume in distressed debt, emerging market bonds and credit derivatives and about a third of all US equity trading. For a market to be efficient prices have to reflect all available information at any given time. For this to happen the information around a particular asset needs first to be discovered, and it is often hedge funds that will invest the resources and time to gather information in their attempt to find mispriced or misaligned assets. Their subsequent trading based on this new information will move the market to re-price the
asset to its fair value; consequently ensuring that the asset has been priced efficiently (or at least more efficiently). Simply put hedge funds are one of the main purveyors of price discovery and so assist in the efficient running of financial markets by determining asset prices. In addition to “price discovery” hedge funds will generally be prepared to take on higher amounts of risk-or at least have different risk profiles than the average investor- often fulfilling a more contrarian position in the markets when the price of an asset moves away from its equilibrium. This provides markets with a buyer when everyone else is a seller and in so doing increases the liquidity and stability of the markets. The important point to consider here is that if all investors had similar risk profiles, markets could barely trade. Hedge funds role in improving liquidity and efficiency in capital markets was highlighted by Alan Greenspan, who,
after the collapse of LTCM said at his testimony before the US House of Representatives’ Committee on banking and Financial Services in October of 1998: “If somehow hedge funds were barred worldwide, the American financial system would lose the benefits conveyed by their efforts, including arbitraging price differentials away. The resulting loss in efficiency and contribution to financial value added and the nation’s standard of living would be a high price to pay-to my mind too
high a price” Increasing liquidity is especiallyimportant in nascent, risky or vulnerable markets such as environmental, credit derivatives or emerging markets. Hedge funds are key players in these market and their ability to deploy capital into
them quickly and efficiently has helped them grow significantly. They have also provided investors with a risk-controlled way to gain exposure to these markets without having to expose themselves to the risk of investing directly in them.
The 1980s are now a fading memory, as are the old ways of thinking about hedge funds. As we move further into the 21st century, the benefits of hedge funds-to investors and the economy alike-are even more apparent. Mainstream acceptance may not be around the corner but we can safely say it’s on the horizon. jerry@swissinvestcenter.net
Mag’s Page
May saw the first Christmas catalogue arrive through my letterbox. No doubt before many places in the Land of Smiles have even removed their New Year decorations and, no doubt, the first of many. Strangely though, things like this cease to be a surprise anymore. Not even mildly irritating in fact. Just another unwanted mailing that goes straight in the recycling bin. Well, almost. Must admit to having a quick peek first to see what colour Christmas trees will be in vogue this year. But the volume of junk mail and leaflets seems to increase weekly. Good news for printers. Bad news for trees. Some of the regular stuff is actually quite useful, such as two of the four or five weekly supermarket fliers, from which you can compare special offers and decide where best to stock up on such essentials as Harry Ramsdens beer battered ridge cut chips. (Try saying THAT after a pint or two of batter ingredients!) I actually start to fret now if the Lidl weekly leaflet doesn’t arrive on it’s usual day. How sad is that? This shopping and price comparison fetish is admittedly partly due to indecent increases in the cost of ‘basics’ over the last year, which has hit you readers as well to some extent. Everything ‘dairy’ is up by a hefty percentage, along with bread, meats,
and of course rice. But what really used to puzzle me was why I received leaflets for some supermarkets which are several miles way? Imagine, for instance, living on Soi 102 in HuaHin, and receiving a Robinsons leaflet every week. You are hardly likely to hop on your bike and pop up there for the latest offers are you? Then the inevitable happened. The Sleepy Hollow supermarket closed, to make way for a new Tesco. (What else!) As if that weren’t bad enough, Sleepy Hollow was left bereft of a decent sized supermarket for six weeks. Six whole weeks to re-furb a perfectly sound supermarket building is in itself a mystery, when 7Elevens in Asia can be built from scratch in a week. Anyway, there is only so long a person of sound mind can cope before needing to stock up on the Harry Ramsdens. And so it was that the whole new world of shopping online opened up, at Asda price no less. There are of course pro’s and con’s with virtual shopping. First - you can’t have a good old prod at the fruit and veg, or check that none of the eggs have cracked. So it seemed prudent to avoid the fresh produce. But that still leaves plenty to go at, with all the tinned and heavy stuff carried right to your door, and the frozen stuff arriving still frozen as nature intended. So it’s Asda deliveries for me from now on, and the purchase of a dreaded shopping trolley put on hold for a while longer. 2008 is turning into a busy old year, with the Olympics looming, and Euro 2008 just over and done with. (Do I hear sighs of relief?) But before we consign football to the back of our minds for a while, please cast your minds back ladies to the Euro 2008 opening ceremony in Switzerland. For those of you unfortunate enough to have seen it, what on earth was it all about? There must have been a couple of hundred Swiss folks out there on the pitch dressed up as Andy Pandy meets Primark shell suit on a bad day. As if that weren’t enough, they proceeded to dance around with replicas of what looked like tumble driers made out of plastic bags on their heads. I daren’t even comment on the standard of the choreography, except to say that a pool full of performing seals could have done better. Busby Berkeley would have turned in his grave. With respect to any of our Swiss readers, I’m sure none of you had anything to do with it. Just as none of US had anything to do with this years Eurovision voting. Surely though Switzerland has enough good things to have produced a more meaningful display? Big hills and
cuckoo clocks aside, a huge vat of fondue would have made a stunning centrepiece. They could have gone for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the biggest fondue ever, and handed out bits of cauliflower and bratwurst on sticks to the crowd, (or whatever it is that you dip in fondue.) On second thoughts - maybe they just couldn’t afford that much cheese.
Bricks & Mortar
Adapting to a smaller space means that you need to rethink the volume of your furniture, storage and room sizes - but as they say “big things can come in small packages”. Downsizing is often one of the most difficult processes of moving into a condo, but it is also one of the most freeing, letting us adapt to our new spaces and lifestyles. This means throwing out the boxes of paperwork from 20 years ago, the boxes of lamps t repair that you put away 5 years ago andeverything that doesn’t have importanceand frequent usage. This is also the time to dispose of things that won’t fit or work in your new homes design - such as overstuffed-oversized sofas and chairs.This is the opportunity to live out your dream in your personal style, to create an environment that completely suits you now and who you want to be. Once you have your floor plan and precise measurements in hand - take a pad of graph paper and a bunch of pencils and carefully plot out all the different scenarios for the placement of yourfurniture - remember to leave breathing room around your furniture and if something doesn’t work or is to large – it has to go. Oversized dark furniture that once looked rich and inviting probably isn’t going to work now. What you need to do when shopping for and designing your new condo layout is to always keep the scale and size of your home in mind. That oversized sofa that looks good in the 5000 sq. ft. furniture showroom is going to look like a car in your condo. It looks to scale in that setting but once you get it home it’s a completely different story. The reality of condo dwelling is that most will have somewhere in the region of 600 to 1250 sq. ft. of space. This requires you to make the best of every square inch of space and you should be making rooms multipurpose and your furniture multifunctional. For example - a dining area can be both a dining room and a library, a coffee table can have hidden storage, ottomans can have lift top lids for extra storage and seating; the list is endless. As well, think of your furniture in terms of human scale. When moving into your condo only keep the antique pieces that are the most cherished - by having just a few good pieces you give them breathing room and allow them to be seen more clearly and allow them to function and flow better in your condo space. By mixing some antique and vintage with clean lined modern you will create a dynamic space in which the characteristics of each piece brings out the best in the others.Another important process to do before you move in is to make a list of the ways you want to use each room and the number of pieces you want to put into them - using your floor plans and graph paper for reference. Start plotting out the various components, SEE what gives you the best grouping based on your scale. It’s a quick and efficient way to
see how many things you can fit in from your priority list. ALWAYS avoid sofas with giant oversized rolled arms - the DEATH of most condos. The design of your condo should allow for easy flow of purposes, whether its work, daily living, or entertaining. That means every piece needs to be easily moveable and that as many things as possible can work double duty. Many homeowners find it difficult to understand scale and proportions – if you go oversized on your main pieces - everything else will need to have similar proportions - You can’t have a giant rolled arm sofa with small streamlined teak chairs. BUT you can have sleek scaled down modern furnishings with oversized accessories to create drama and a sense of grandeur - Such as an oversized floor mirror or a massive painting. It is better to have a few larger dramatic pieces then a sea of little collections and knickknacks. And remember not to be afraid of colour! Use it to your advantage by colour blocking walls and accessories - Addsome depth and warmth. Set up yourcondo to who you are now and who you want to be. It’s time for you to start livingyour life the way you envision it.
d'Geek
Mobile phones to open doors? Near Field Communications (NFC) offers shoppers the opportunity to wave a card or a phone near a sensor and beep, a coffee or train fare is paid for. NFC turns a phone into a digital purse that can read the chips and radio tags buried in smart posters from a distance of a few centimetres. In one example application the data tells the phone to add a charge for a ticket to a football match. The phone gets a message that unlocks the turnstile on the day of the match to let its owner onto the terraces. “What we experience, especially in the soccer environment, is that security is an upcoming issue,” says Herbert Pamminger of Skidata, which is behind the football ticket trial. It could also be equipped with biometrics to help kick hooliganism into touch. “Organisers are watching out for people who are not allowed to enter the stadium,” he says. “And this combination of biometrics is one approach.” The ability NFC gives a phone to unlock a turnstile could also be used in other ways. It could mean, for instance, that once a traveller has paid for a hotel room online the key to get in the room can be sent in a text message to them. “In addition to the key itself the guest will also get a welcome receipt specifying the room he is staying at,” says Gard Gabrielsen from electronic lock maker Vingcard Elsafe that has developed a hotel booking system u
sing NFC.
“He will also typically get the GPS coordinates to the hotel he is staying at,” he adds.
“But the key thing is that when the guest is then coming to the hotel he can totally bypass the reception desk and go straight to his room,” he says. “The telephone itself will open the door by just presenting the phone in front of the card reader.” A team from the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg, Austria is looking to use NFC to stop skis being stolen. Skis are a pricey piece of equipment that are frequently stolen when holidaymakers prop them up outside a cafe. But add a tag onto your boots and a reader onto your skis and you can make sure that your boots and your skis are united while on the piste. If someone tries to slalom off with your gear then an alarm sounds. The University of Rome has developed a virtual shopping basket for people to order household staples on their mobile. But more excitingly the same technology could also link to media and information too voluminous or specific, like individual product history, to put on a packet. “You can put indirect information,
which means you can write a URL, a link to some place on a network you can access,” says Stefano Puglia, from the University of Rome. “The idea is that by simply touching the object you can open up a connection to a site and have this information displayed on your phone,” he says. Despite the innovative ideas NFC is stuck in that difficult territory that lies between commercial availability and widespread usethough there are large-scale deployments of NFC in London and Vienna for public transport. The applications will not see ubiquitous use until all phones come fitted with NFC readers. But handset makers are not going to put the technology in their phones until there are enough applications out there to make it worthwhile. Those behind the technology are convinced NFC will enjoy the same success as Bluetooth and eventually it will be hard to find a phone without it, although it should be said that it has rivals, such as the Nokia-developed Wibree and low power extensions to Bluetooth. “All the major handset manufacturers are members of the NFC Forum, and they are all actively involved in working on the
specifications, following the developments and are in most cases working on prototypes,” said Paula Berger of the Near Field Communication Forum. “We would expect them to be rolling outhandsets some time in 2009, at the latest 2010, but probably 2009,”she adds.
Earth report
Electric motors are comparatively simple devices that do not require much
maintenance at all. But, as you may know, it’s difficult to obtain a commercial electric car today. One option is to buy a used vehicle that somebody else has converted to an electric vehicle. This is possible in the USA and some other developed countries, but in many places this is not an option. So you may wish to take the plunge and do an electric conversion yourself. Basically, electric conversion involves removing the entire internal combustion engine from a vehicle, installing an electric motor in its place, and also adding a large bank of batteries. A conversion will cost you about $6000 in parts, and about $1000-$3000 for batteries and installation, although these costs are likely to be lower in Thailand and higher in Europe. But, for this up-front expense, you’ll get a zeroemissions vehicle that costs only a few
How do you convert your car to an electric vehicle? Gasoline-powered cars are perhaps the most inefficient devices that many of us use daily. The internal combustion engine is inefficient in term of pollution, gas costs and maintenance costs.cents per mile to run. Your electric car will also be more reliable and require much less maintenance that a conventional one. Remember that gas-powered cars cost
the owner about $1800 per year (US) on average for fuel costs alone and rising all
the time, and there is the addition expense of engine maintenance and oil changes. Electric cars have a better resell values, and are more reliable overall because there are fewer parts to fail. Most of the components are solidstate electronics with no moving parts. The engine of an electric car has a virtually infinite lifespan — the components will probably outlast the chassis. The only real expense is the batteries, which will need to be replaced about every 3 to 4 years. You can expect your converted vehicle to have a range of 60-80 miles, a top speed of 50-90 MPH, and good acceleration capabilities. It will take about 6-12 hours to completely recharge the car. All of thesefactors will vary, based on the weight of the car you convert, and the type of engine and batteries you install. So, what type of car is the best candidate
for an electric conversion? A light car (2000-3000 lbs. kerb weight) with a manual transmission is ideal. You want a light vehicle, because heavy ones severely restrict the range of the electric engine. Automatic transmissions use up too much power because they require the engine to be constantly idling. As far as body style, you need something that can hold all the batteries you’ll be installing. Michael Brown, author of Convert It, recommends a car that is light and roomy like a Rabbit, Civic, Sentra, Escort or light pickup truck. The ideal donor car has a good body and interior, sound transmission, but a dead engine. For electric cars, the best type of driving
is an area that is not too hilly and not too cold. Hills obviously put a larger burden on the engine, and thus reduce its range. Cold weather will also reduce performance, but
there are many happy electric car owners who live in Canada and Alaska. There are two types of electric conversions kits available: custom kits that are tailored
to specific vehicle models, and universal kits that can be installed in a variety of vehicles. Universal kits contain all the essential drive-system components but rely
on the builder to create custom parts like battery racks or boxes. Custom kits include the entire drive system and battery racks and boxes, customized to suit a particular model. For example, a company called Canadian Electric Vehicles provides kits
to convert Chevy S10 trucks, Geo Metros and Dodge Neons. Another company, Electro Automotive, provides kits to convert Volkswagen Rabbits and Porsche 914s. Maybe an environmentally friendly business opportunity for someone in Thailand?
Arts & Culture
Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese (born November 17, 1942) is an American Academy Award-winning film director, writer, producer and film historian, and is widely considered to be one of the most significant and influential American filmmakers of his era. His body of work addresses such themes as Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, machismo, and the violence endemic to American society. The one-time seminary student studied filmmaking at New York University and shot a handful of short films while obtaining his degrees. In 1967, his first feature, “Who’s That Knocking at My Door?” was shown at the Chicago Film Festival and is a semiautobiographical look at an Italian American Catholic (played by Harvey Keitel) who deals with women as either virgins or whores, and opened to critical praise. Roger Corman tapped Scorsese to direct the Depression-era allegory “Boxcar Bertha” (1972), a film that introduced a favourite theme of the director’s: that of the so-called sinner who temporarily falls from grace only to be finally, if ambiguously, redeemed. The following year, Scorsese broke through with “Mean Streets,” his autobiographical tale of a group of young hoods living and dying in NYC. Again Harvey Keitel was the director’s screen alter ego with Robert De Niro as his unstable friend Johnny Boy. A stylish and richly realized character piece, “Mean Streets” marked the beginning of one of the most productive and important star-director pairings in film history. In De Niro, Scorsese found the perfect vehicle to channel rage tempered with humanity. As a follow-up, though, Scorsese attempted the feminist-themed “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” (1974). Lead actress Ellen Burstyn reportedly had asked Francis Ford Coppola for recommendations on directors and he gave her only one name: Scorsese’s. When they met, Burstyn asked the director what he knew about women and he reputedly replied, “Nothing, But I’d like to learn.” “Alice” was a critical and boxoffice success that netted its star a Best Actress Oscar and Scorsese followed that with the testosterone laden “Taxi Driver” (1976). An iconographic street opera penned by Paul Schrader, it not only gave De Niro a tour-de-force role as the unstable Vietnam veteran turned vigilante Travis Bickle, the film also melded the themes of Scorsese’s early works. The two female characters are literally a whore and a golden girl, treated oppositely by Bickle who is the epitome of the sinner in need of redemption. The film garnered its share of controversy at its release mostly because of its bloody finale- -a sustained, hallucinatory, brilliantly staged set piece of carnage built around Jodie Foster’s teenage prostitute. With “New York, New York” (1977), Scorsese set out initially to create a nostalgic lookat the movie musical but during filming shaped the story around the dark relationship between a musician (De Niro) and his deteriorating relationship with a band singer (Liza Minnelli, whose character was deemed to be loosely based on her own mother, Judy Garland). The overall result was an uneven film that audiences, expecting an affectionate musical, found too depressing. The disappointing reception it received drove Scorsese into depression, while he had also developed a serious cocaine addiction. However, he did find the creative drive to make the highly regarded The Last Waltz, documenting the final concert by The Band, but Scorsese’s commitments to other projects delayed the release of the film until 1978. After the box-office failure of “New York, New York,” Scorsese triumphed with whatis considered his masterpiece, “Raging Bull” (1980). Drawnfrom the autobiography of boxer Jake La Motta, the film is a no-holds-barred look at the rise and fall of achampion. The literate script co-written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin afforded Robert De Niro with the role of his career. Shot in black-and-white and expertly edited by long-time collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker, the film earned eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Scorsese continued to examine the effects of fame in the underrated “The King of
Comedy” (1983), which cast De Niro as an obsessed fan and
Jerry Lewis as the talk show host object of his attentions. Scorsese
then made “After Hours” (1985), a relatively small black comedy
set on the mean streets of New York during one night. He moved
on to Chicago for “The Color of Money” (1986), a sequel to
1961’s “The Hustler”, with Paul Newman reprising his role of
pool shark ‘Fast’ Eddie Felsen and Tom Cruise as his protégé.
After several false starts, Scorsese was finally able to realise his
vision and film “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988). It was
the culmination of Scorsese’s filmic theses. Although superbly
shot, using exotic locations and a galvanizing world music score by Peter Gabriel, the film somehow lacked the emotional powerand cohesion of Scorsese’s earlier, smaller-scale productions. “GoodFellas” (1990) marked a return to classic Scorsese form and content. The film captures both the undeniable excitement as well as the tawdry, daily details of life on the fringes of the Mafia, pushing audience manipulation to the extreme by juxtaposing moments of graphic violence with scenes of high humour. The film boasts superb camerawork, including several extended tracking shots, and consummate performances from De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and Lorraine Bracco. Despite the box office success of “Cape Fear” (1991), it was a slick, pretentious and excessive remake of the compact and powerful 1962 original which teamed Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum. The performances, as to be expected, were strong (notably Nick Nolte and Juliette Lewis) and the camerawork and editing were impressive. De Niro’s central performance was showy and overthe- top in contrast to Mitchum in the original. “The Age of Innocence” (1993) seemed an unlikely offering from the director, as it was asubtle drama of manners set among the high society of 19th Century New York. Using a careening camera, sumptuous colour and decor to convey the characters’ repression, and his completed film earned respectful reviews and a healthy box office. He was backin typical fashion with “Casino” (1995), set in the 70s and 80s and again focusing on the Mafia, this time transposed to Las Vegas. Again defying categorization, Scorsese turned his attentions to another unlikely subject, the Dalai Lama. “Kundun” (1997) was a biopic as only Scorsese could direct. The story of a proponent of non-violence, it moves the audience into the world of Tibet. Filled with gorgeous saffrons and deep maroons, “Kundun” was a visual and aural feast (the Philip Glass score was among its best components). Scorsese next directed Nicolas Cage in the morbid, psychotropic drama “Bringing Out the Dead” (1999), which yielded little by way of critical acclaim or box office success. He spent the next few years working on a long-awaited opus, “The Gangs of New York”, the story of the New York immigrant riots of the late 19th century. The movie went through a series of setbacks, budget problems and a yearlong release delay as Scorsese reportedly
wrangled with Miramax head Harvey Weinstein over various details before its release. “Gangs” was given its due as a mightyachievement, lavishly staged and photographed and featuring a powerhouse performance from Daniel Day-Lewis, butwhilesome critics and audiences marvelled at the world that thedirector created, there was some dissatisfaction with the story, which was not as urgent and engrossing as Scorsese’s previous top-shelf fare.Defying the hype surrounding the difficulties of bringing“Gangs” to the screen, Scorsese readily re-teamed with Miramax and Leonardo DiCaprio for “The Aviator” (2004), a lavish biopic of the legendarybillionaire Howard Hughes.Scorsese delivered his grandest, most enthralling film since “Casino”-thanks in no small part to the increasingly impressive
DiCaprio-a sumptuous visual feast that captured much of the exotic glamour of old Hollywood and the rest of Hughes’ world while also following Scorsese’s enduring template of watching a character’s inevitable descent from a seemingly glamorous height. “The Aviator” won the Golden Globe award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, but once again the director did not bring home the long-awaited Oscar. In 2006, Scorsese returned to the organized crime thriller with “The Departed,”featuring DiCaprio once again along with Jack Nicholson in his first ever collaboration
with Scorsese and it was hailed by fans and critics alike. This time, however, he chose
to eschew his Italian heritage to explore the Irish-run mob in Boston, a slight departure that gave a fresh spin on old territory. The film grossed over $120 million all told, while earning the director another win at the Golden Globe Awards, setting the stage for an Oscar nomination for Best Director at the 79th Annual Academy Awards. To the delight of everyone in attendance and watching at home, Scorsese finally won the coveted director’s award, an honour made that much sweeter when his long-time friends and peers, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, handed him the award.
Health Issues
Occasionally one of these previously ignored workers start to get a little attention. Such is the case with the Prostate gland. It seems that every time I read the newspapers some celebrity is having a little prostate trouble. I read a recent survey in which it was found that only 13% of the men questioned knew, with some accuracy, where their prostate was located. What was more surprising was that 19% of the women questioned were aware of the location of this organ. It seems rather sad that they seem to know more about our equipment than we do. When the human body was designed it was decided, I believe it was as a cost-saving measure, that the Urethra, the tube that comes out through the Penis, should have two functions. It would allow both Urine from the bladder and sperm from the testes to travel to the outside world. The tubes that carry these two liquids pass through the prostate a small gland the size of a walnut that sits at the base of the bladder. Its main function is to produce nutritionally rich fluids to feed the sperm as they embark on their life’s work, the search for eggs. The gland is unfortunately liable to develop three conditions that can give its owner problems. It can grow, so that it is too big, it can get infected and it can develop cancer.Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy (BPH) As a man ages, the prostate enlarges, benign means that it is not cancerous, hypertrophy means too much growth. So this is a noncancerous overgrowth of the prostate. This can cause several symptoms. The stream of urine that used to be wide and powerful is now thin and weak. There may be difficulty in starting the stream and dribbling at the end. Frequent urination is the most common symptom, having to go every hour and having
to get up several times during the night. There may be urinary urgency, a great need
to urinate right now. The message to the brain that the bladder is full causes an almost
irresistible pain requiring instant attention. This can occur mysteriously when there is
only a small amount of urine in the bladder. It can be particularly troublesome in cold weather, you go out into the cold night air and immediately have to turn back, go inside and get relief. Not such a problem in Thailand, but if you visit other countries in the winter it can really affect you. The enlargement may progress to the point that it is impossible to pass water. Surgery may then be necessary, but before it gets to that point there are a few manoeuvres that may be useful. 1. Try to restrict fluid intake after 8pm. especially coffee, tea and alcohol. 2. When you pass urine, try to empty the bladder completely. 3. Have intercourse frequently to empty out the prostatic fluid. (Excuse me Miss, I’m sorry to bother you but Dr. Mike has suggested that I--------)
4. Avoid Anti-histamines, this includes decongestants and cold medications.
5. Try to identify if there is some physical act, such as sitting on a hard chair or riding a bike that may trigger symptoms. 6. Soaking in a warm bath for 20 minutes daily may help to reduce the swelling. 7. There are medications that are useful in preventing this process. Talk to our Doctors. If the situation gets to the point where you cannot pass urine at all, then surgery may be necessary. The favoured procedure is the TURP (Trans Urethral Resection of Prostate) in which part of the gland isremoved in an operation done through the Urethra. Recently this operation has been updated; rather than enlarging the passageway by cutting through the tissue with electro cautery, an energized light source is used. This makes the operation more precise, reduces the blood loss and has a shorter recovery time. If you have an infection in the prostate the pain can be continuous, not just when you are passing water. It is usually like a dull ache rather than an intense pain. Prostate pain can be confusing, you may think that the pain is in your rectum as it is lower and further back than you imagine it will be. The infection may respond very quickly to treatment and you may be free of symptoms in a few days. It is very important that you finish the course of treatment because even though you are feeling better all the bacteria may not have been killed and the symptoms will reappear. Having casual unprotected sex will put you at a risk of getting one of these infections; use a condom.
Prostate Cancer is rather unusual. It is often a very slow growing tumour and slow to
spread. It is said to affect 10% of all males. If the prostate is examined in older men
who have died of quite unrelated problems, traffic deaths for instance, tiny cancers are
found in over 50%. There be may be very few symptoms and if there are, they are very similar to those in Infections and BPH. It is recommended that a prostate examination be performed once a year. Nobody likes this examination it is uncomfortable and undignified. (Would you boys stop whining, compared to a Pap test, it’s like a visit to Starbucks) In addition a Blood Test is available. The ProstateSpecific Antigen (PSA) it isthose with a family history of Prostate Cancer, African and African-American men, have this test done annually from the age of 40. The test is not as specific as we had hoped and can be elevated in some other
inflammatory conditions, but it is a very useful screening test and can indicate which patients need further investigation. If the level of PSA is elevated then a biopsy may be necessary to see if cancer is present. This is a little uncomfortable but is not very painful and can be done as an outpatient Treatment usually involves surgical removal of the gland although more conservative methods including Anti-hormones and radiotherapy are also very effective. At the Bangkok Hospital Medical Centre, we have a Da Vinci Robotic Surgery unit. One of the first operations that has been developed using this machine is the removal of the prostate or Prostatectomy. One of our surgeons skilled in its use operates the machine, it achieves a precision that surpasses that which can be achieved by conventional surgery and ensures that all the tissue is removed. It also reduces blood loss and reduces post-operative problems to a minimum. Women have traditionally been better at having yearly examinations than men. Men tend only to go to the doctor when they have a severe problem. There is an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude to health care. If men only had their bodies serviced with the regularity that they have their cars serviced many diseases could be caught in the early stages. Call our International Medical Services Clinic and have a check up that in addition to examination of your heart and other systems also includea prostate exam and a PSA.If you are having prostate problems contact our Urology department. If you think that given time your symptoms will go away, you are going to be disappointed. For either clinic call our contact centre at 02 310 300.
Useful Telephone Numbers for Hua Hin
Railway station
032-512 770, 032-511 073
Bus station of Hua Hin
032-511 654, 032-512 543
Bus station of Prachuabkirikhan
032-601 901
Bus station of Pranburi
032-621 443
Hua Hin Hospital
032-520 401
Dog Rescue Center
0-1981 4406
Wild life Rescue Center (Tayang)
032-458 135
Department of Land Cha-am office:
032- 430 846-7
Department of Land Hua Hin office:
032-536 164, 032-512 407
Department of Land Prachuabkirikhan:
032-611 211
Department of Land Pranburi
032-622 199
Local Government (Hua Hin)
032-521 340, 532 471
Local water supply
032-511 677
The Power Board of Hua Hin
032-512 215, 032 513 165
Observer office:
032-531 078
Red Cross.
032-512 567
San Paolo Hospital
032-532 576-85
Polyclinic International
032-516 424, 032-516 425
Shell Cooking Gas
032-511 144, 032- 515 620
The Communication Authority of Thailand
(Hua Hin)
032-511 351
Rotary Club of Hua Hin
0-1916 6637
Meeting every Thursday 8.pm
at Hua Hin Grand Hotel & Plaza
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