International Healthcare Exhibition
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 3:02PM
Haris Abdul Rahman in Diary, Exhibition, Open University, PWTC, health supplements

At the MaxFamily exhibition booth, toying around with the staffs. The gent doing the drawing is the very talented Fan.Last Sunday, upon return from Port Dickson, I decided to head out to PWTC as one of the patient support group which I participated opened a booth at the above events. I thought why not. As we only arrived in KL just after 4, I only arrived there after 5. As that was the final day of the exhibit, the vendors were doing their last minute calls and sales as well as some of them already gulung tikar - closing down. Little that I realised that the exhibition were mainly selling health supplements. It was a pleasant surprise as I was always curious as to what these vendors - or at least those who were left - have to say.

Climbing up to the exhibition hallMany choicesTrue to form, there were plenty of health product on offer, some of them misguided than others, such as cure for cancer, complete with patient testimonials. Apparently, the more expensive they were, the more potent they become Some of them were quite interesting, such as special cooking vessels which can reverse diabetes - with a testimonial from a patient who was partially blind due to effect of diabetes to the eye, and after using the product for 6 weeks, she was able to see without glasses. Ah! Bless!

Acupuncture anyone?Another company did a filter-cum-water container which can cure high blood pressure. The testimonials - which featured prominently when you enter these booth - claimed that after drinking water from this vessel, a particular old lady ravaged by stroke unable to move the right side of her body was able to walk after that. It was nothing to do with physiotherapy or control of her other health issues. There were no mention of that. But one thing was really clear. None of the product were claiming - at least in the open - that it can cure cancer. Thank goodness!

Moving on, a chat with a Chinese practitioner was enlightening. He suffers from prostate cancer - limited stage. He had to undergo surgery and radiotherapy, resulting in him being impotent. He had acupuncture and walla! I won’t describe what happen next. Suffice to say that his wife was happy. I also had a test on my foot arch. Failed, and an insole was suggested. I may take them on on that. There were also slimming products and health-related devices - machines for measuring blood pressure, blood sugar, as well as free health screening.

Offering my service at the DiGi counter as one of the DiGi yellow monsterThe healthcare exhibition was not the only exhibition at PWTC that day. Downstairs there was a Careers Fair, ironically while the convocation of The Open University being on in the next hall. I dropped by the careers fair and the gentleman at the door stopped me to ask if I have filled in a questionnaire mainly asking the kind of jobs I was looking for and my qualifications. He also politely asked if I had my CV along. I told him that I was interested in heading towards the DiGi booth to ask if there was an opening for a guy in bright yellow chubby suit. Apparently there was none! Darn!

On my way out, I stumbled across a list of all the graduates during the convocation. There were maybe 5 Indians and 3 Chinese names. The rest were all Malays and almost all were matured students. I spend the rest of the evening figuring out why that was so with Puan Anita? Was it a race thing?  

Article originally appeared on The Daily Dose of Chemo (http://harisrahman.com/).
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