Category: Natural Health

Raw or partially parboiled, I eat fresh orange peel with food or in sauce and drink, as tea, the water extracts of its rich array of medicinal chemical substances. I am a peels-eating fellow, but I eat orange peel not, as many persons do, for asthma and other respiratory system challenges or for digestive system and infection troubles. The ORANGE colour of the orange peel excites me, rather, for SECOND CHAKRA HEALTH. Orange is the colour of the second chakra. RED is the colour of the first chakra as stated in the second part of this series. In the second chakra region of males and females are such organs as…( kidneys, testes, prostate gland, ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus , adrenals, lower back, hips and the appendix.

Thankfully, my SECOND CHAKRA, like the FIRST CHAKRA, would appear to still bounce in radiant health. Urinary incontinence and urgency are still out of the question. So are dribbling, nocturnal, stones and urinary pain. I catch some night or early morning urine in a clear glass cup to check for sugar, ants and deposits, and have no worries over erectile dysfunction (ED), or male menopause. Aren’t all these worth a New Year Resolution thumbs up for the ORANGE COLOUR again in my diet this year, and why factory-made ORANGE PEEL POWDER or that from my whole orange servings worth a place in my menu list?

I devoted this week to the SECOND CHAKRA to encourage us all to include its health in our New Year Health Resolutions. However, I would detour a little to the FIRST CHAKRA and then re-connect with the SECOND CHAKRA because, in the last column, I left certain things hanging in the air about the FIRST CHAKRA.

Before I continue, I would like to re-affirm:

One: The body and the overself are in a union held together by their uniting energy or radiations. Having been glowed through and made to be alive by the Overself, the body must continue to produce some energy like a motor vehicle fired up by an IGNITION starter. Its chances of meeting its quota of energy in their union is maintained by diet.

Two: The Overself must not shut the door of its energy supply to the union through negative emotions or ROOT CHAKRA blockage of energy to the mud body. This is where colour RED is an important therapy in THE FIRST CHAKRA, as we should soon see. Before then, I would like to recall from the first part of this column my observation that the Ibos of South Eastern Nigeria may be our Nigerian custodians of this natural secret in the preferences for RED COLOURS in their dressing. See how effervescent or boisterous, active and full of life they are.

Many other human populations are like the Ibos when it comes to COLOUR RED. Among native American tribes such as the Navajo Cherokee and the Sioux, COLOUR RED features prominently in clothing and adornments. It connotes life force, energy, strength, courage and connections to its ancestry and tradition. The Chinese symbolise RED with prosperity, good fortune and happiness, especially during weddings and festivals and to exorcise dark entities. For the Indians, RED connotes purity, power and fertility. Thus, brides adorn themselves with RED on a wedding day. Several Africans, too, see red as life, vitality and passion, as we observe in clothing and beaded jewelry, for example.

Intrigued by these commentaries in PSYCHIC and CHAKRA medicine journals, I sought more information from Google and obtained from it the following AI overview:

“In addition to Red Jasper, other red-hued and root chakra-associated stones good for foot treatment include Garnet and Red Carnelian, for grounding, stability, and vital energy flow.

RED JASPER, Known as the “Stone of Endurance” or “Supreme Nurturer,” provides strong grounding, stability, and emotional balance. It helps reduce stress and anxiety, enhances physical strength and stamina, and connects you deeply to the earth’s energy.

GARNET, known as the “Stone of Ultimate Health,” is a highly energising and revitalising stone. It stimulates the flow of energy, helps in emotional healing, and encourages courage, confidence, and passion. It’s excellent for boosting low energy levels and promoting a sense of safety.

RED CARNELIA brings a fiery burst of life, warmth, and vitality, clears energy blockages, boosts willpower, self-confidence, stimulates creativity and motivation. Carnelia helps you feel secure and grounded while encouraging you to take action and overcome procrastination.

BLOODSTONE, a warrior stone with dark green and red flecks, promotes strength, courage, and resilience. It’s an emotional balancer that helps you feel centred and protected from negative influences.

Red Calcite, a gentler red stone, helps in emotional balance and can soothe anger or panic.”

The second chakra

This is a vast Eldorado of health gold mines for lucky fellows, or of health misfortunes for the careless navigator of minefields which the school of power dynamics says may befall some persons. As stated in the first part of this series, we encounter the curriculum of the SCHOOL OF LIFE as it were, between the 8 to 14 age bracket. If the lessons we are to learn in this stage of existence are elusive, they become “carry over courses” for us, sometimes throughout earthly existence.

What are the principal lessons? I always observe three categories…1) POWER DYNAMICS 2) SEXUALITY and 3) CREATIVITY DYNAMICS. The three are multi aceted. I would begin with POWER DYNAMICS, because its shortcomings visibly affect not only individuals but whole populations as well.

It was in adult life, while paying attention to children at play for the spiritual lessons I may learn from their assumed nuances, that I first realised that my generation as children missed a lot of education. Observe a group of children arguing on a moon-lit night about who, among them, the moon is following about. Every boy and girl believes it is he or she. This is an introduction to POWER DYNAMICS. For it is whoever the moon is following who holds the aces…POWER! What is power and how is it meant to be used?

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We did not create ourselves and our world, and so must be subject to the prescriptions for orderly conduct in this orderly world. We need POWER for navigating the world.

However, power is not to be used for selfish or personal ends, but for self-balancing and well being of persons in our orbit. There are several dimensions of this. I would like to mention scenarios in marriage and in work places. In marriage, one party may strive always to strangulate the other with a view to having his or her way on important questions. If the husband, for example, cannot always push his way through and he becomes so emotionally disturbed that he begins to grieve, regretting the marriage but unable to get out of it in his state of powerlessness, his second chakra may become blocked. The blockage may affect important organs in the region. Similarly, a wife who groans under the weight of an uncompromising husband may suffer a second chakra shutdown. Some gynaecological conditions have been linked to this. They may include hormonal imbalances, menstrual cycle difficulties and pain, difficulties with getting pregnant, miscarriages, pre-term births, prolonged birthing process, health weaknesses in offsprings. Many men may not easily link male sexual vitality problems to the second chakra. These may include low sperm count, sperm motility and morphology questions, erectile dysfunction, “watery” sperm, hydrocele, testicular atrophy, premature ejaculation, loss of libido etc.

In an alternative medicine Sex Clinic, these possible second chakra challenges are addressed not only with plant medicines and nutrition but, also, with enquiries about relationship conduct of the spouses as well. The aim of the therapist is to discover if there exists strangulating bottlenecks in relationships which both parties must ease and free by obeying THE LAW OF BALANCE, one of the three basic Laws of Creation. This law teaches us that The Law of Balance upholds equilibrium and peace throughout the universe. Really, isn’t this why we gauge the tyres of our car and run “wheel balancing” checks? Isn’t this why we have pillars and beams in a building? Isn’t it the law of balance which prevents planetary bodies from colliding against one another? We can go on and on. Even between the bosses and their subordinate in offices, do outwardly kingly but inwardly empty bosses not inwardly stand before their subordinates like slaves and consequently suffer emotional pain and blockages when they cannot subdue their subordinates with the authority of their offices? In such cases, the emotional pain they bear when they quiver with fear in the presence of psychically stronger subordinates will eventually block the second chakra. Similarly, the voiceless and powerless subordinate who despises the next day at work under a corrosive boss must lose something in the process. It is his or her second chakra health.

The best way to live is to use power or authority for the benefit of everyone by respecting their humanity and not exceeding the inner boundaries they have set for themselves against intrusion by an outsider. However, this hardly happens as it has become more evident in recent years, with the Monroe Doctrine (1923) appearing to become obsolete in international relations. Even in country politics, have we not witnessed one tribe trying to annihilate another?

Another example I would like to make is of marital or sexual relationships with which many adults are familiar. We are in the realms of healthy expression, respect of oneself and respect of others in intimate relationships. As an expert puts it:

“ Self expression in intimate relationships means being able to communicate your desires, needs, boundaries and feelings openly and honestly with your partner.

Examples of self expression are

1) Sharing what you like in bed

2) Expressing emotional needs or desires

3) Setting boundaries or saying “no” without guilt

4) Being vulnerable and authentic with your partner

Consequences of lack of self expression include

 (RESENTMENT AND FRUSTRATION: Bottling up feelings can lead to anger or disconnection);

(UNMET NEEDS: Not communicating needs can lead to unfulfilling relationships);

(EMOTIONAL DISTANCE: Lack of vulnerability can create distance or mistrust);

(PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS: Stress from supressed emotions can impact physical health. E.g. pelvic pain, low libido)”.

Many Nigerians would consider the foregoing as Euro-American conceptions. Did our grand parents self-express in bed? Their generation knew nothing about THE BEAUTY OF THE NUDE OR NO HOLDS BAR. Lights were off and clothes were on. Yet, infertility and other gynaecological challenges of today were infrequent. Or, was their world more diet protecting?

Spiritually, I agree there ought to be boundaries in outer or psychic spaces for sanity to prevail. Couples may live in separate rooms and no one may be on beck and call of the other. They are in a union and not in a merger. The most challenging test for SECOND CHAKRA health today is when a spouse partially or completely withdraws from a union and the other does not let go. Negative emotions build up. If the departing partner is strong enough, his or her aura disintegrates negative emotions spurn around him or her, while the origin is entombed in misery, grief and pain. In all naturalness, are the misery, grieving and pain right and natural? Does any party in a union create and own the other? Can a union not be dissolved when it has served its usefulness to one party? Shouldn’t the discarded party simply accept the right of the other, right or wrong, to move on and recognise that there are thousands or more stars in the firmament and fish in the ocean, as Nigeria’s theatre pride, HUBERT OGUNDE, once sang! There is no doubt that the forceful tearing apart of relationships nowadays causes debilitating SECOND CHAKRA blockages and premature aging and disorders of reproductive organs.

Neurologist Sigmund Freud, who, arguably, brought psychoanalysis to humanity, helped to sharpen and to popularise some of these notions. He said physical surrender was pleasurable and that conjugating parties ought to be free to express their feelings even to the point of telling their partners what he or she should do with them without inhibitions. To not do this and to hold back the fire could barricade a circulation flow, of etheric energy, he reasoned. I cannot immediately recall now if the logic that human conjugation was an ANIMAL ACT caught up with Freud when he was alive. Animal Act suggests that the pleasures are limited to the physical body, their origin and that, to not soil itself, the soul or spirit who owns that animalistic body can impose immaculateness or a semblance of it in such activity. Some persons believed Sigmund Freud went too far in clinical observations of his psychosexual development stages when he outlined how children experienced “shifts across different body areas” and influenced their personality development. If this suggests that the physical body is, indeed, sexually excitable at any stage in life, there are many persons who still believe that the soul or the spirit, as the animating core of the mud body, must dignify these events, however hilarious they may be to the body.

About 20 years ago, I wrote a column titled…THE MAN WHO PUT HIS MOUTH IN THE WRONG PLACE. Self protecting human antibodies in “THE WRONG PLACE” made a nasty mince meat of his gums, tongue and teeth. Prolonged use of Grape seed extract (GSE) and Bee propolis gave him relief. Such persons as this man know the values of setting boundaries for vulturous partners, and, also, of having the off limits respected on the other side. It is a GIVE and TAKE exchange in which a loser may bottle up ruinous emotions. Build ups of such negative emotions are what may grow into blockages of the SECOND CHAKRA which another counsellor describes as follows…

“Self-expression in intimate relationships means being able to communicate your desires, needs, boundaries, and feelings openly and honestly with your partner. Examples of self expression include, but are not limited to,

Sharing what you like or dislike in bed,

Expressing emotional needs or desires,

Setting boundaries or saying “no” without guilt and being vulnerable and authentic with your partner.

Absence of self expression has consequences. These may include Resentment and frustration, Bottled feelings, anger or disconnection, Unmet needs, uncommunicated needs, Emotional distance, and mistrust.

Stress from suppressed emotions can impact physical health ( pelvic pain, low libido).

Creativity

Beyond power dynamics, creativity is another pillar of health balance in the second chakra. We are meant to be creative. That is why the talents of anyone reveal themselves very early in life. Some persons are not lucky. Their talents are repressed or go undiscovered. A singer may be diverted to study law, engineering or medicine. This is a diversion from a natural course of events which may even have karmaic consequences, such as the need to repeat a wasted earth life. From second chakra creativity literature, we learn:

“Creativity and the second chakra go hand-in-hand. Blockages and the challenges are often caused by:

Emotional suppression: Bottled feelings can stifle creativity. So can

Fear of expression, judgment or rejection which can block self-expression. So do lack of inspiration, disconnection from passions or desires, unhealthy relationships, toxic dynamics which drain creative energy

Self-doubt or criticism and Negative self-talk which hinder creative flow.

Some of the signs of blockage include feeling stuck or uninspired, difficulty expressing emotions or desires, struggling with intimacy or relationships, and lack of joy or pleasure in activities.

Herbs and precious stones

Orange is the colour of the second chakra. I said at the outset that I enjoy eating orange peel. I do so for the orange in the colour and for other nutrients. I also sometimes take solarised water. I also drink solarised water infused with yellow ethers of sunlight. (Please see solarisation of water online). There are some herbs and precious metals which may help to boost the yellow wavelength of second chakra energy vortex. For these therapies, I derive inspiration always from the psychic garden of Mellie Uyldert and the creation of health of co authors surgeon Norman Shealy and journalist-cum spiritualist Carolyn Myss. Yellow plants are abundant in nature for second chakra health.

Calendula ( Marigold) supports creativity and intimacy

Hibiscus is anti stress and balances emotions

Damiana supports sensuality and relaxation. In the 1990s, a product named Damiana-Ginseng was my favourite suggestion for frigidity in women.

Ginger rouses creative energy As for precious stones, an expert advises:

“ Carnelia stimulates creativity or motivation.

Orange calcite dissolves emotional blockages and brings joy

Amber cleanses and purifies sacral chakra

Moonstone balances feminine energies and emotional fluidity

Tangerine quartz uplifts energy and enhances creativity.

I concluded this column on Saturday 10 January during the visit of Moriamo Yisa, an acquaintance at Ilupeju Model Market in Lagos. She does not visit empty handed. One of the items in her gifts pack were oranges. The peels of these oranges ended their cycle in a pot of rice which was eaten by my household with other health enablers, including THORNTINA 74 of which I shall soon write.

I have been re viewing my biological systems to decide which one needs what attention this year. I encourage you to do likewise. In Nigeria, we hardly take care of our bodies until they begin to ache, sometimes when it has become too late to help them. Last month, I told a septugenarian he was running his car to the mechanic’s probably every month and had only just thought of himself when he received from his doctor a shattering diagnosis. Do not imagine this is about the prostate gland or the colon. Ailments of these organs , like erectile dysfunction (ED), do not make much news these days. I am touching on something far more serious that I do not as yet have permission to discuss for the benefit of other aging men.

The chakras

So, what are the chakras that I ask their health be included in our 2026 Resolutions? They should be better understood from the outset if I state that there are TWO SCHOOLS OF HEALTH in the practice of Medicine and that chakra medicine is not well known in Nigeria. The basic schools are THE MECHANIST and VITALIST. The mechanists believe that man is his body, and nothing else. For them, the body comprises various tissues, organs and systems of all sorts , works synergically like a machine, and is controlled by the brain. To the MECHANISTS, everything is over when the system fails for whatever reason, and the body falls apart in what we call death. This is the foundation of Orthodox or Western medicine which doctors practice in our hospitals. The trend has been changing gradually though, with acknowledgements of MIND OVER MATTER in some cases.

Vitalists

This school of medicine holds the opposite view, separating the physical earth or dust body from MAN, who is said to be an immaterial, yet tangible consistency in a material cloak or garment which the body is said to be for it.

They say the body we are familiar with and literally worship even in the practice of Medicine is lifeless in the womb until the animating immaterial consistency, MAN, enters into it, glows through it and warms it up. According to this conception, the physical earth body falls back in death whenever it’s animating, immaterial core drops it or ceases to animate it, that is to give it existence.

According to an expert opinion: “The Mechanist and Vitalist Schools of medicine represent two distinct approaches to understanding health and disease

The mechanists View the body as a machine, focusing on physical and chemical processes in health and disease, often using reductionist approaches.

– Typically, they rely on conventional medical interventions like pharmaceuticals and surgery

“ On the other hand, vitalists see the body as a dynamic, holistic system with a vital energy or force.

They emphasize the interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit in health and disease and focus on promoting balance, harmony, and self-healing within the individual. Often, they incorporate alternative or complementary therapies like acupuncture, herbalism, or homeopathy.

These two perspectives have shaped medical practices and philosophies, influencing how practitioners approach patient care”.

Nigerians and Asians

While Western European nations propagate the MECHANIST SCHOOL, the Asians and other parts of Eastern Europe look after their health under the VITALIST conception as well.

Being Africans, we cannot ignore the VITALIST view-point. Even our doctors trained in the Euro American MECHANIST SCHOOL cannot deny their roots, when the chips are down for them. The custodians of Nigerian Traditional Medicine (NTM) have a glimpse of the CHAKRAS, but are too moored in superstition and over-rely on the conception that DEMONS and PHANTOMS cause disease and death. I do not deny existence of DEMONS and PHANTOMS and the roles they play and will continue to play in disease and death. The question that has not been well asked and answered, in my view, is…WHERE DO THEY COME FROM? The disciples of VITALIST MEDICINE and CHAKRA MEDICINE point out to MAN that immaterial consistency inhabiting the earth body as the origin of demons, phantoms and the furies. CHAKRA MEDICINE explains, for example, why inferiority complex may cause paralysis in the legs and feet. It explains, also as another example, how the pain of loss of control over a situation may cause prostate gland and erectile dysfunction (ED) questions in men, uterine fibroids and gynaecological problems in women, and fertility questions in both genders. I gave hints of this chakra challenges in the first part of this column. Other problems such as those which worry the liver, intestine or cause diabetes or breast cancer in men and women are also explained, thereby de emphasizing superstition.

The seven chakras

A chakra is an energy vortex, something like a whirlpool or tornado, energy or power center. Asian medical wisdom describes such seven points or centers as points on the astral body ( or shall we say the soul of man ) through which the perishable physical body and the inhabitant within which animate it interface with each other, the inner man passing energy to the inert outer body, thereby giving it warmth and the possibility of existence.

These chakras or vortices are located 1) at the base of the spine, sacral region 2) pubis, region between the navel and the sacral region, 3) solar plexus region ( where the soul or the astral body is attached to the physical body by the SILVER cord, equivalent of the UMBILICAL CORD which connects a foetus in the womb to its mother), 4) The chest or heart region, 5) The throat, 6) The forehead or the third eye, and 7) The hallo of the head.

Tissues and organs in these parts of the body are said to receive etheric energy from the chakras or vortexes which govern them. In that regard, we may imagine a chakra as the Sun which governs our solar system. If the sun weakens or shuts down, all planets in our solar system will weaken or shut down.That is why chakras may also be likened to the neighbourhood ELECTRICITY TRANSFORMERS which connect our homes to the municipal electricity supply. When something goes wrong with the transformer and electricity supply to our home is cut off, no electrical appliance works. The things we keep in the freezer or refrigerator may lose integrity, spoil, be invaded by germs to disintegrate them in accordance with The Laws of Nature, become rotten and decay! That is what happens to our bodies when CHAKRAS or ENERGY VORTEXES shut down, sag or lose content and form. CHAKRA or ENERGY MEDICINE says chakras do so when our ATTITUDES or MIND SET is against natural phenomena and, thus, shuts down the chakra and prevents energy supply from them to the body. Thus, we can ask: What goes on in the mind of a man or of a woman that may impair or SHUT DOWN the SECOND CHAKRA and cause uterine fibroids or infertility questions or PROSTATE GLAND CHALLENGES?

School of life

We may not successfully answer the last question or any other related to other chakras without appreciating THE SCHOOL OF LIFE that earthly existence is said to be. I gave hints of this school of life in the first part of this column. I said we were to develop capabilities as lessons of life or wisdom every seven years from birth, and that each of the seven years represents a chakra class. If we do not learn the lessons in a particular class, we “ carry over the course” into the next or other classes. Thus, we may not be well grounded on earth and suffer, thereby, from inferiority complex from the cradle to the grave. We may also not understand the meaning of power and the concept of power relations which we are to learn from the age of 8 years to 14 years, and this may cause all kinds of emotional disturbances which may affect the uterus and prostrate gland, for example. We did not create ourselves or our world, says chakra teachings. Also, there is a purpose for everything, including man’s existence on earth. This purpose is for development or evolution from a semi-conscious spiritual germ or seed grain to a fully self conscious HUMAN BEING. As in earthly school with a curricular, the spiritual earth school has divided its own into SEVEN CHAKRA PHASES, each of which covers a period of SEVEN YEARS, NUMERAL SEVEN, being the most powerful number in numerology throughout the universe. Thus, there are lessons we are meant to learn and master every seven years of our lives. We move on to the next class, the next seven years in our calendar rating with a CARRY OVER “course” or “courses” if we did not make the mark in some lower classes. That is why, it is said, we may be 50 years old and not grown up, each of our failings causing CHAKRA animation difficulties which leave the respective organs WILTING or DYING, having been left energy- deficient. Had these organs any life of theirs, or was the body created to be independent of its animating core and the CHAKRAS , we would feel no pangs of aging for nutritional supplements alone would be able enough to weather any storms of energy cracks.

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The first chakra

Also called ROOT CHAKRA or MULADHARA, it is located at the base of the spine between the anus and the genital. Its spinning wave of energy is RED, and that is why RED colour (dress, under brief or light) positively affect it. This energy center is corrected with the influences of SAFETY, SECURITY and GROUNDING. In a state of balance, it makes us feel confident, stable and, what’s more, well connected with our bodies and the earth. Remember we are not our bodies and that we may be partially or calamitously disconnected from them. We are meant to be well connected to both body and the earth, full of confidence, in the first seven years of our existence on earth. Watch babies. Early in their lives, they trust only their mothers, then, perhaps father’s and siblings before strangers.

First chakra education suggests that many of us lost groundedness in early life, and that this is why such persons are fearful, unstable, always feeling inferior in adult life, unable to look another person straight in the eye and put their feet down when they should. First chakra therapists say the problem begins when we do not fondly touch babies, cuddle them, massage them, make them to have skin-to-skin contact contact with us. Watch a baby who is sucking the mother’s breast. They fondly touch their mothers and smile at them.

It would sound strange to many persons that letting children walk barefoot during play outdoor contributes to groundedness. It is a part of CONNECTION with nature. What about playing with sand, mud, clay, rain water or chasing lizards and goats, chickens and birds. Gardening is also part of this connection. Does this suggest to us why “village” children outsmart “city” and “get inside” or “ butter” children later in life? As children, my generation dug cricket holes and hunted crabs by the river side. We dug up cocoyam, knew how to plant and could tell maize, mango or papaya was ripe on the vine. Did we not climb trees as well? My children rejected their beautiful cot. They lay on my belly to sleep. If they tried to sleep and I tried to ease them onto the bed beside me, they woke and cried. And guess what? They enjoyed me strapping them to my back. Many parents have no understanding of what information the developmental phases of a child are providing them, so they can help him or her. This is understandable because such information is rooted in the knowledge of re-incarnation which religion has robbed many of them of. There is none of us on earth at this time who is here for the first time. The bodies we have always come and are still in is derived from the highest developed animal. Thus, as babies, we must first live out cycles of animal existence cramped into a few months before we take on characterisation of HOMO ERECTUS, the earth-man, who in the animal bodies, causes it to stand erect. Some children who delay in sitting, crawling or walking may be suggesting a ROOT CHAKRA or foundational energy imbalance. Delays in physical milestones such as these could be expressing feelings of insecurity, fear or instability. From multi talented Barrister Olusola Sowemimo, organic farmer and wife of Mr Seyi Sowemimo (SAN), I learned in the 1990s when she was bringing up a class of children in spiritual education and groundedness in Nature that some children may need extra support to correct their first chakra imbalances. So, when a child delays in crawling at the right age, or declines to crawl on fours but on hands (or paws) and toes, knees suspended, the way a bear crawls, the parents should have quality play time with him or her crawling on all fours. A child with a prolonged birthing process was probably afraid to leave the safe world of the womb for the insecure world outside. We often assume erroneously that babies in the womb have no idea what is going on around their parents, especially their mothers. What a misconception! Thus, it is possible “delaying” babies are seeking “safe” landing”.

As I said earlier, children brought up in the villages tend to be more confident than city children. I was privileged to help to raise one of them as a foster daughter in the concrete jungle that Lagos is. She was 15, and was no match for older girls and boys around when matters had to be sorted out with guts and muscles. What surprised me one day was her response to an adult man who tried to jump the queue ahead of her. When he got in front of her, she squeezed herself past him. He said he would “slap” her. She replied that she, too, would slap him in return. Jeeringly, he asked her how she would do this, and she said she would climb the payment counter and do it. The man kept quiet and let go. This girl was not prococious. She was just courageous, well grounded and abhorred injustice. One other event I would also ever remember took place on the road beside my bedroom. I was writing an article on my bedroom desk and she was helping me with some books. I did not realise she was observing an event in the street through a window, and had sneaked out to partake in it. Her girlfriend was with a boy. Another girlfriend of hers came up and dealt the first one a slap across the face. The boy hit the intruding girl on the face, and she was crying. My foster daughter walked me right across to the boy and slammed her palm right across the face. The message was clear: Why would he hit one for another when he was central to both and roughening their emotions? We may say they were all acting above their ages in events they were physically immature for as teenagers. I took away the lesson of groundedness , that is CONNECTION with one’s body and the earth, and the TIMIDITY… a sign of fear, anxiety and lack of confidence, inferiority complex, or DISCONNECTION.

Many problems

In the lower back, hips, legs, SCIATIC nerves and feet we take for granted may be due to FIRST CHAKRA challenges. The examples include, but are not limited to “ fatigue or feeling ungrounded or difficulty standing feeling stable, anxiety or restlessness created the legs in risk of falls or fractures, circulatory issues in legs or feet, arthritis or joint pains in lower body and, in young persons, frequent falls or clawkiness may suggest “IMBALANCE”.

First (root) chakra nurture

The first chakra is the “SOCKET” in the Overself from which a “PLUG” in the body takes energy to nourish physical structures in the lower parts of the body. This chakra energy is said to physically manifest in RED COLOUR vibration, respond to RED clothes, under briefs, lighting and solarised water. To solarise water with RED ETHERS from the sun’s Rays, water is kept in a clear glass bottle for sunshine to fall upon.The bottle is covered with RED SUN FILTERS . The red sun filter blocks all but red ethers of the sun from entering the water. The ethers blocked are orange, yellow, Green, blue, indigo and violet. Only RED penetrates the water to make it medicinal water for unblocking first chakra blockage and strengthening the chakra.

Nowadays, QUANTUM ENERGY minerals from precious stones are also used in shoring up chakra energy pathway. That is why today in Nigeria we hear of such quantum energy companies as sairu, chymall, shine way and double plus, among others. Talking about colour red, which is the favourite colour of Nigeria’s Ibo population, is it surprising that, behaviourally, they are a well grounded people, effervescent, self confident, fearless and overcoming?

Happy New Year, and welcome to another drawing board for new resolutions. I do not know what your New Year resolutions are. For mine, I am looking at action packed dietary and emotional nutrition. I am sure you, too, will find a great deal of benefits in them. We’ve come a long way with dietary nutrition. We know of proteins, carbohydrates, fats and oil, vitamins and their co-factors, free radicals and antioxidants, their conquerors, phenolic and polyphenolic compounds which prevent damage to cells, anti inflammatories, anti- tumour and apoptic agents which cause cancer cells to commit suicide and offer the hope for cancer conquest. However, many persons are not conversant with emotional nutrition. I will address it as broadly as I can in the second part of this column. I will give a few hints, nevertheless. Every seven years of each person’s existence on earth is meant for the acquisition of certain emotional capacities. These capacities open up the body to receive etheric energy nutrition from the Overself, that in- dwelling consistency which goes by different conceptions and names, one of which, for now, I shall call by its well known name… MIND OVER MATTER. I am not speaking Greek or Latin. When something in us is happy, all muscles in the body are relaxed. The body feels energetic, the skin fresh and the muscles flexible and buoyant. When that consistency is sad or sorrowful, all muscles in the body contract, the body ages rapidly and is de motivated and de energised. I will give some hints, as I suggested. The age groupings are 1-7; 8-14;15- 21; 22-28; 29-35; 36-42; and 43-49. In the Yoruba land of old, men took their 7-year-old sons out of the nests of their mothers to induct them into their own vocations, especially in farming and agriculture. That was after mothers would have enabled their children to achieve, through Love, the first capability which is GROUNDEDNESS on earth or self confidence. Any child who is not self confident in this age category may suffer from inferiority complex and carry this weakness or deformity over to the next agenda (8-15 years) which is about power relationships. Any person who suffers from groundedness deficits is likely, by the conceptions of emotional nutrition, to suffer from certain ailments in the lower spine, legs, feet and sciatic nerves all of which ground the physical body. Power relationships and the emotions they generate are believed to endanger organs in the pubis region, if they are negative emotions. The organs at risk here may include the uterus ( uterine fibroids, for example), fertility problems, prostate gland challenges etc. If the capacities for normal power relations, like groundedness, are not achieved at this age, the deficits would be carried over like “carry over” courses in a university up to the point in life when the deficits can be transformed into assets through the necessary skills acquisition. This is most probably why from the point of view of this class of medicine, pubis region ailments are wide spread today in a country such as Nigeria. I will stop the hints here today and progress to dietary nutrition which we are more conversant with as a reminder of what we did last year and may wish to do better this year.

The brain

When the brain is sagging, de energised or showing signs of depression, even when we are becoming forgetful, losing long term, mid term or short term memory, or when the brain lights up and, literally speaking, fails to go to bed at night, there is a legion of plant medicines we can rely upon to re balance it. Among them are Gingko Biloba, gotu kola, ashwagandah, magnesium, lecithin, melatonin, lemon balm, valerian root, passion flower, stinging nettle, oat straw, maritime pine bark and saffron.

Sinuses

When the sinuses are inflamed, blocking inhalation and exhalation, making us breathe in and out through the mouth, or when the nostrils are running because of bacteria or fungi or pollen or if there is a tendency towards asthma, we know we can support them by eating raw or perboiled orange peel, dropping warm onion juice or saline water into them and sniffing it up. Thanks to researchers, we now know that when such vicissitudes occur for longer than three months, causing inflammation and other damage, the power of anti bacterials may not suffice to subdue them and will have to rev up to anti fungals. Some of the other plant medicines we have found useful include eucalyptus, peppermint, ginger, thyme, turmeric, garlic, curcumin, horseradish, mullein, elecampane, bromelain (from pineapple), elder berry, gentian root and slippery elm. I duff my hat for orange peel because, even in asthma attacks, it brings a wonderful anti histamine armoury to the battle front.

Read Also: New Year: First Lady urges Nigerians to choose peace, empathy, unity

The eyes

When vision is dimming, the alarm bells begin to ring non stop. There may be a thousand and one causes for failing vision. Enough blood may not be reaching the eyes. Along the way, some blood vessels may have become tender and leaky, leaking blood into the eye structure. Oxidative stress may be at play with lots of free radicals and not enough eye specific anti oxidants to quench them. The muscles may be growing weak from lack of exercise or adequate nurture. The collagen structure of the drainage system may be inflamed or breaking down or overgrowing and blocking fluid flow which may cause fluid back up at the back of the eye and impact the light sensitive retina. We are mindful that opinion is growing about whether this is caused by the eye itself or a new factor called type III diabetes. In this type of diabetes, insulin resistance by the cells at the back of the brain which control the eyes make it impossible for them to take up glucose for energy to work. So, they begin to wilt and age, and this begins to affect the eye in the socket. We are being informed that coconut oil in the diet may successfully confront this development by providing these cells with KETONES from fats which they prefer to moribund glucose. We are aware of several plant medicines which help vision health. One of the leaders is Marigold flower which perboiled and eaten with meals as salad and provides the eyes with wonderful antioxidants such as lutein, zeazanthin and asthazanthin. A long list of the others often include omega 3 fats, vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin A, zinc, turmeric, castor oil, bilberry, Gingko Biloba, rutin, eyebright, aloe vera. Rutin strengthens blood vessels, thereby preventing leakages. Zinc is crucial because, without it, the eye cannot successfully use vitamin A, however plentiful the supply to it. Omega-3 is the natural form. Omega H-3 is man made. This differentiation is important also when going for vitamin E. This vitamin is known as tocopherol. The natural form, which is a lot more expensive, is D-ALPHA TOCOPHEROL. About 400 iu dosage daily is often adequate. DL-Alpha tocopherol is petroleum derived and is very cheap and requires about 1000iu dosage daily. Even then, the tocopherol should be mixed tocopherols, that is combining alpha, beta, gamma, delta, etc tocopherols and not just alpha tocopherol. This is a secret in vitamin E business which this column has been revealing for years to help users who prefer cheap plant medicines. You know what? there are also tocotrienols and it is better that they come mixed. What can be better than taking mixed tocopherols and mixed tocotrienols in one mixed action packed remedy? Guess what? You will find them are plenty in PALMFRUIT! We obtain them all when we perboil a handful of palm fruits in saline water and chew the flesh on a meal! It helped me a great deal recover at home during COVID 19 scourge!

Gums and teeth

When cavities develop with roaring pain and gum boils and inflammation pop up with roaring pain and make chewing impossible, living may seem dreadful. Many persons learnt too late that they were short on calcium. Even when they grudgingly take calcium , their choice which is CALCIUM CARBONATE, which is about the cheapest calcium brand and is not well absorbed in the intestine, forming a plastering on tissue wall like cement, that it is on the brick setting of the house, office or factory wall, for example. We may soon learn that much of the calcium has been deployed to alkalanising the blood as it tends towards acidosis through wrong diet and negative emotions, heavy on cooked food, animal meat and empty sugar . Even when the calcium re-inforcements come, we soon learn that we need one part of magnesium to one of it and one part of phosphorus as well. However, not many persons know of VITAMIN K2, which guides calcium to the bones and teeth, preventing depositing in soft tissues such as joints as in arthritis and spondylitis, or in the muscles, lens of the eyes or brain. The calcium family is a big one. We may soon learn it cannot work optimally without VITAMIN D3, which we may obtain from early morning and late afternoon sunshine falling on cholesterol deposits under the skin.

Throat and stomach

When the tide changes and stomach contents climb up the throat towards the mouth, rather than on a downward journey to the intestine, we realise we may have been food greedy. Prophet Mohammed ( May the Peace of Allah upon him, whenever he is), taught that only one third of the stomach be filled with food, another one third with fluid (ostensibly, digestive juices made in the stomach and the last third) with air. Air space is to make room for the gruel to fill in when the stomach hydrolises its contents. Greedy persons fill the stomach to its elastic limit and stop eating to avoid a burst. Thus, food may not digest well, stays longer in the bag and begins to ferment or decay, creating acids which damage the mucus lining and burn the skin beneath it. This is GASTRITIS. Ulcers may present with or without gastritis, and on ulcer sites may appear the notorious ulcer friendly bacteria, HELICOBACTER PYLORI. If the stomach acid touches the lower end of the throat ( oesophagus), the muscle gateway which prevents regurgitation, the lower oesophagal sphincter muscle, may be damaged, and the damage may cause oesophagistis ( inflammation), heartburn or even oesophagal cancer!. I’ve seen some persons with this type of cancer. Some cannot swallow even a drop of water, but surprisingly, saliva passes!. A hole is often made in the abdomen to the stomach and a plastic tube is run in through which they are fed liquified food. The throat may be surgically removed and replaced with a suitable part of the intestine. This means they would be denied the effective role in the digestive process of the lost portion of the intestine.This could mean serious nutritional deficiencies which may be ameliorated with sublingual nutrition. The problems are not done, as HALITOSIS may join with odour from the stomach finding its way to the mouth. Worse could it be if tooth decay or gum infections add their own odour.

These challenges teach us to enrich our diets with anti-inflammatories and digestives such as Ginger, Turmeric, Curcumin, Basil, Fiber, anti-microbials such as Aloe Vera, Oregano, Pawpaw leaves, seeds and sap for their papain, demulcents such as slippery elm. Anti microbials such as liquid chlorophyll, Aloe vera , Grape Seed Extract and Golden Seal Root kill Helicobater Pylori. While it helps the mucus shield to regrow.

The liver

When the eyes, nails or skin are yellowing, we suspect troubles are brewing in the liver. Bigger the trouble may be if the problem is FATTY LIVER. The gall bladder must be looked after and freed of blockages in its outlet ducts. Hepaprotectives must adorn the liver to shield it from all toxins which must pass through it to be defused. Chief among them are MILK THISTLE, Jerusalem Artichoke, Dandelion Root, Golden seal root, carqueja, bitter leaf, bitter kola and proprietary blends, such as formulas as the Golden Six and Diatonic. Liquid Chlorophyll is a cleanser and strengthener. Lecithin is lithotropic and emulsifies cholesterol.

The breasts

When a man learns he has breast cancer, he thinks he is dreaming because many do not know men can develop cancer in their dimunitive breasts. Some women are more prone to it from the easy oxidation of fat content of the female breasts when there are anti oxidants shortfalls in these tissues. We are conversant with Omega 3 fatty acid defence, Vitamin C therapy, Alpha lipoic Acid protection, balancing of estrogen and progesterone hormones, balancing of Estradiol and estrone, the two most dangerous estrogens, against Estriol, the friendliest. We know of useful herbs like yarrow, lady’s mantle, chasteberry (Vitex), squaw vine, shepherd’s purse etc and , in Nigeria, prominent proprietaries like PHYTOESTROGENS, FEMALE FORMULA and GYNOMIL. The arsenal would be incomplete without zinc, Royal Jelly, Vitamin E and Vitamin A. Nowadays, women have learned to massage their breasts with nutritive oils such as those of frankincense (olibanum), olive oil and to eat for their breasts, which means avoidance of artificial sugars, poultry egg, poultry chicken, milk, margarine, butter, sun heated satchets and bottle water and monosodium glutamate, for example. Those eggs, chicken and cow’s milk and water, come with heavy loads of estrogen in animal feed and zeno-estrogens in the case of soft plastic water. What is the point in getting the liver to break estrogens down and in getting the intestine to not absorb them while the diet continues to stoke the fire, thus making a susceptible woman become or remain a heavy estrogens storage tank as it were. Beyond these factors, as we shall see in the second part of this article, emotional disturbances which makes a woman develop and sustain pathological hatred for a man is often the root cause of some breast cancer. The second article should also show how COLOUR GREEN may help as may energy gadgets.

The intestine

When some British doctors said more than 40 years ago that DEATH BEGINS SLOWLY BUT SURELY IN THE COLON, many persons thought they over spoke. Now, camera probes in colonoscopy display on screens for the patient to see how his or her colon has degenerated. Happily, too, the ever advancing knowledge of plant medicines now offer possibilities of reversals. A gentleman who gave me the nickname PAU D’ARCO was a beneficiary of this plant medicine. I must state, though, that Pau D’ARCO was one of the herb combinations which reversed his “occult” blood and saved his colon from cuts and sutures. Before he departed, pa S.K Oyeigbemo permitted that I cite his case in this column. He was a former General Manager of the then POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANK. He shared his experiences with persons who read this column and telephoned him. One of them is his friend, Pa Adeniji of Shagamu in his eighties, his son and Pa Oye Igbemo’s driver, who also lives in Shagamu. Several colonoscopies showed actively bleeding colon tissue which regular tests failed to pick because the blood came from far away in the colon and had changed form, for which reason it is called OCCULT BLOOD. Pa Oye Igbemo said one of his friends who had colon surgery for it did not “gather himself” until he passed, and he did not wish similar fate for himself. As will be shown in the second part of this article, the energy of yellow spectrum of the sun’s Ray’s may cure intestinal challenges such as this.

Uterine fibroids, prostate

When men and women turn up at their doctors nowadays, the talk of the day may no longer be hypertension, heart and circulation matters or of a stroke or the possibility, but of UTERINE FIBROIDS or of PROSTATE GLAND questions such as Benign prostate Hyperplasia(BPH or inflammation), prostate enlargement or prostate cancer.

Like the breasts, uterine fibroids may clear up with a plant medicine war on a woman’s fiery estrogens which may have been harvests of dietary seeds long sown. These seeds may not be only estrogen and zeno estrogen fuel. Too much calcium and too little magnesium are being implicated nowadays. There is also the growing conception of obsessive longing to become a mother which a gross deficit of marriageable men does not support. If the emotional gap between longing and reality impacts uncushionable impact on the ego which is unresolved, the body may compensate the deep wish for pregnancy with a benign growth, fibroids, in the uterus, it is said.

As for the prostate gland, the various outstanding causes of trouble are better understood today, although, as in the history of civilisation, there must still be a lot more to learn and to know. The possibility of COLOUR YELLOW and quantum energy helping out should be discussed in the next part of this column. Meanwhile, many men continue to enjoy reprieve from their urinary headaches, including the wearing on their bodies of the urine bag, such plant medicines as Omega 3 fats, zinc, saw palmetto berries, pygeum Africanum, small flowered willow herb, stinging nettle root , curcumin, bee pollen, ashwagandah and Black Peruvian macca.