The Festival was held for two days on March 21 and 22 at the Grand Millennium Hotel KL. I came to know about the Festival from a write-up in the Star. As usual an event that covers such topics as HEALTH and HAPPINESS will attract my participation. I decided to attend it on the first day of the Event.
2. The main organiser of the Event was Health Sense Sdn Bhd. Its CEO, Myriam Oliveres in the Foreward in the programme book spelled out that the objective of the Festival is to serve as a platform for health practitioners to connect to each other and to promote health, happiness and green living. It was under the patronage of HRH the Sultanah of Pahang, Sultanah Hajjah Kalsom.
3. The Festival was made up of two components - the Exhibition and the Workshops/Seminars. The Exhibition was located on the second floor of the hotel. The first stall I patronise was the Spa Village. I was offered a complimentary neck massage by the masseuse in attendance. It was an invigorating one. Next I was at a stall selling peria tea. Herbal tea preparations have always attracted me for I have been consuming them for quite some time - pegaga tea, misai kuching tea, hempedu bumi tea and now peria. Bought a box containing 30 satchels which I would like to try.
4. The next stall I visited was the Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM). I was given a plastic bag containing leaflets on TCM. Later on inspection of the content of the bag, I discovered an important document 'National Policy of Traditional and Complementary Medicine' published by the Ministry of Health (MOH). MOH recognises the contribution of TCM in the health care of the people. TCM is used by a high percentage of the people. MOH accepts it as an important component of health in the country. The booklet provides the vision, mission and objectives of TCM and elaborated on the strategies on the following areas: Practice, Education and Training, Raw Materials and Products and finally Research. I am heartened to know that TCM is an integral part of our health programme. Many of the stalls exhibited and promoted various areas of TCM - meditation, acupuncture, massages, emotional freedom technique (EFT), hypnotheraapy, tanscendental meditation. It is a learning process for me on TCM.
5. As to the Workshops/Seminars, many topics involving international speakers were invited which covered issues such as heart attack, power of simplicity, happiness, love, sustainable living, feng shui, cancer, transcendental meditation, spa, singing for health, laughter, herbal medicine. I attended two of the lectures - one by Tan Sri Dr. Ismail Merican and Dato' Dr. Rajen. Dr. Ismail in his talk entitled ' Wellness - a Shared Responsibility' indicated that the Malaysian population is not a healthy lot as two-third of them are overweight and obese. To promote healthy lifestyle he suggested healthy eating, healthy mind, healthy emotion, exercises and no smoking. According to Dr. Ismail, the keys to HAPPINESS include physical, emotional, intelligent, social, spiritual wellbeing. He reiterated that MOH adopts TCM - Malay, Chinese and Indian Traditional Medicines, Homeopaty and Complementary Medicines and that four TCM Centres have been established - Kepala Batas Penang, Putra Jaya, Pandan Indah and Johor Bharu. Dr. Rajen in his talk on 'Adding Science to Tradition' focussed on Kacip Fatimah as he feels that this herb has a lot of potential but very little research has been done on it.
6. I must congratulate Ms Myriam Oliveres for having selected this theme which is relevant and current. However, organising it in a hotel with limited parking areas can pose problem to the participants. The topics are too wide in scope with too many speakers involved. Logistics and coordination could be difficult. From the small no. of attendees at the two talks I attended it appeared that the Festival might not get the response it deserved.
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