The Nation Newspaper

Category: Natural Health

  • Clinic day: Shaking hands and voice, floaters in the eyes

    Clinic day: Shaking hands and voice, floaters in the eyes

    A Country’s health athmosphere is hardly separable from its economy. I was priviledged to be a visitor to THE BERLIN WALL after a portion of it was broken down to allow east Berliners free access to West Berlin when the two Germanies ended their post second world war COLD WAR and reunited. East Berliners were forlon, like humans exhumed from antiquity and could not tell what the future held for them. Their roads were broken and cratered, their houses coated in faded paints. Even Lagosians owned better cars than these Germans. Just across the road in West Berlin were some of the smoothest roads on earth. Mercedes Benz new models were everywhere. Everyone was chattering and smiling. I saw some of the biggest houses I had ever seen with all sorts of architectural wonder. In one I would ever remember, CHARLES ATLAS bore huge weights on the shoulders, to typefy how an elemental being reportedly holds the earth in one hand, rolling it on its axis and carrying it around the sun in 365 or 366 days, one of the buttons of his coat bigger than the earth itself. West Germany was free , prosperous and burstling with life.
    At no time since I grew up to be able to take care of myself have I seen so many people wear forlon looks in Nigeria, talking about the economy and complaining about their health. The truth is that many people have sapped themselves of positive energy, embalmed themselves with negative energy and their experiencing all sorts of health disorders. The enquiries of readers of this column are the primary sources of single health conversations every week. Once in a while, we break the mode to discuss multiple cases. The replies to enquiries in such cases are not as detailed as in single-subject discussions but, nevertheless, provide the stepping stone to larger conversations . We call the small engagements…CLINIC DAY. Welcome, please, to some of them.

    QUESTION 1

    Shaking hands, shaking voice
    My hands and voice are shaking. What is wrong with me and how can I solve these problems? I am 63

    Answer:

    The problem may be simple, or a complex one in infancy. If it is
    simple, it may be a problem such as nerve agitation from ex
    haustion or nutritional deficiencies of, say, magnesium, vitamin B complex, especially vitamin B1 (thiamine). If it is a brewing volcano, it may be Parkinson’s disease in which heavy metals, environmental pollutants and toxins, pesticides, herbicides, free radicals and insufficient nerve nutrition and nerve antioxidants may be causing damage to special cells in the brain. These cells stabilise and control movement of nerves and muscles. Parkinson’s, make semi-voluntary muscle movements uncontrollable. This may involve inability to keep the jaws together, so that the mouth is not ajar, incapacity to prevent saliva from drooling out of the mouth, being unable to freely swing the arms while walking and the inability to control the tongue to produce audible and clear speech. If the tremours are more in the hands, this may be peripheral nerve damage caused by blood sugar challenges.
    Years ago, my hands shook whenever I held a book. Lab technicians could not take my blood sample from any vein to check my fasting blood sugar. The syringe needle could not stabilise on the vein. The veins were trembling. Too much calcium may have been contracting their soft muscles, causing tremours and spasms. My thumb would have to be pricked. The technicians pulled whatever blood they wanted by pricking my thumbs in several places and pressing out the blood. One day, I decided to give the monthly lab check a break and look after myself. I took sublingual Magnesium, the tissue salt called mag phos (Magnesium phosphate), vitamin B complex and Lecithin. The laboratory had been suggesting I take certain tests to rule out certain diseases. When I resurfaced for another blood sugar test and my veins cooperated to their amazement, all they could ask was: ” WHAT HAPPENED”.
    From this experience, I make the following suggestions for minor nerve and muscle agitations.
    Detoxification
    Maria Treben bitters was my prime detoxicant. I also took detoxifying herbs such as aloe vera gel from FLP, corriander vegetable (efo ebolo), asparagus, nettle, chanka piedra etc. They help to eliminate micro organisms from the intestine, the waste products of which may poison the nerves and cells when in large concentration in the blood. Milk Thistle is also good to help the liver to cope with Detoxification. There is a proprietary curry powder blend I discovered later which should do the job as well. It is a powder blend of Corriander (Efo ebolo in Yoruba or Cillantro in english), Turmeric, Fenugreek, Nutmeg, Fennel, Cumin, seed cloves, Garlic and Ginger. When Detoxification has reduced the acid levels in the body, it is good to follow it up with alkalization. The body is relatively healthy when it is slightly alkaline at 7.34 P.h on a 0 to 14 acid /alkaline scale in which values below 7 are acidic and those above 7 are alkaline. The brains of many people are acidic and inflammed, causing all sorts of problems from cognition deficiencies, nerve pain, nerve incoordination, nerve sluggishness to mood swings and depression. One of the best alkalising agents is WHEAT GRASS.
    Blood Glucose metabolism
    Too much blood sugar caused by either excessive dietary intake, insulin resistance or insufficient insulin may poison or damage the nerves, cause kidney damage, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) etc. Blood sugar may be controlled with orange peel, chanka piedra, bitter leaf, Maria bitters, pawpaw leaf, or proprietary products such as Blood Sugar Metabolism, Blood Sugar Balance, Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) etc.
    B-50
    The nervous system is sustained by the B vitamins or Vitamin B complex. The most important among them for nerve health, although they work as a team, is vitamin B1 or thiamine. These are a group of water soluble vitamins. This means the body cannot store them and they must be consumed in the diet everyday. Unfortunately, many people do not consume enough B vitamins in their diet. Overtime, their nerves begin to wither and their bodies show signs of diseases associated with B vitamin deficiencies. One of such symptoms for people who consume too much white flour foods, including white bread and pasta, and white rice, all of which are thiamine deficient, is BERI BERI. The nerves are so weak that they cannot easily transmit energy to the muscles and the muscles, too, become weak and wither. Beri beri is a Japanese word which means I CAN’T, I CAN’T. When doctors visited inmates of a prison where prisoners suffered from this disease and asked them to lift their arms and legs , the outcry always was…BERI BERI, BERI BERI. The cause was unknown to be dietary in nature until chickens outside the prison yard fed with leftover prisoner’s food began to suffer the same symptoms. Today, beri beri and other nerve weakness problems are treated with mega dosages of B-vitamins in combination therapies of thiamine and the entire B -Complex vitamins.

    Read Also: Akpabio: Modular refineries ‘ll create jobs, security

    Neuro Booster
    This is another proprietary nerve formula in powder form which may be added to water, drinks or to food.
    Lion’s mane mushroom: When the nerves are damaged, this is one proprietary product that can be relied upon like gotu kola to revive them. It was discovered during the second World War by a young Italian female doctor who experimented with all sorts of substances that may reverse damage to nerves and revive damaged nerves.
    Brain antioxidants
    The nervous system originates from neurons in the brain. Many people do not eat for their brains. They hardly even remember that they have a brain until they begin to experience certain symptoms which their doctors may say are mental health challenges. The brain is a fatty organ which means it can be easily damaged or oxidised in the absence of adequate protection. If you leave raw fatty meat in a bowl and raw lean meat in another bowl on a table for 3 days, the raw fatty meat will decay faster than the raw lean meat. In the brain, many substances offer protection against decay. Since nerves originate from neurons in the brain, they, too, are protected by these substances which include, but are not limited to…

    • Omega-3 fatty acid
    • Lecithin
    • Magnesium
    • Vitamin E
    • Vitamin C
    • Thiamine, (vitamin B1)
    • selenium
    • zinc
    • Manganese
    • Co enzyme Q 10
      Zinc, selenium and manganese are important for the production by the body of 3 basic antioxidants which it uses to protect all body tissues, including the brain, against free radicals. These basic antioxidants are
    • Glutathione
    • Catalyse
    • Super oxide dismutase (SOD).
      Glutathione, Chief among them, is produced from A) glutamic acid B) glycine and C) Cysteine, all of which are amino acids. As many people deprive their diets of the 20 amino acids found in human bodies, they do not have a full compliment of them to make these important antioxidants. I suggest that spirulina which has the full compliment or aloe lite or a mixture of both be included in the diet. Gotu kola, which plays a significant role in the balancing of the brains, should be included in a brain formula.
      Inflammation/poor blood circulation/diabetes of the brain
      From all sorts of reasons, the brains of many people shrink, are inflamed or do not get enough blood supply due to blockages in blood vessels or weak hearts. There is a new idea in mental health called diabetes of the brain. This means the brain cannot take up enough blood glucose from the blood circulation because of certain factors. Yet, blood glucose is the food of the brain. Deprivation makes the brain hungry, weak and its cells will begin to wither or to die. This process has been linked to diseased symptoms of
    • dementia
    • memory loss
    • Alzheimer’s
    • Parkinson’s disease and even glaucoma.
      Inflammation can be addressed with anti inflammatory foods, herbs and proprietary products. Some of such proprietary products are curcumin 2000X and curcurite etc. Curcumin, the yellow substance in turmeric, is one of the most anti inflammatory substances on earth. In these curcumin proprietary blends, curcumin is formaulated with either Cayenne or black pepper to make them 2000 times more active than normal curcumin. I suspect this is so because Cayenne pepper and black pepper not only help to stimulate the heart, to clear blockages in blood vessels, they also help to promote micro circulation in the tissues. As for poor blood circulatoon, Cayenne, black pepper, ginko biloba, grape seed extract, gotu kola are good for moving blood into the brain and within the brain. Regarding “Diabetes of the brain”, where glucose is not readily available for providing energy, a substance rich in Medium Chain Triglyceride (MCT) is substitutable. The one easiest to find is coconut oil.

    QUESTION 2
    Floaters in the eyes:
    Are there herbs or other natural means of clearing floaters in the eyes? They make it difficult for me to see well or to read easily.
    Answer:

    Although there are are back and forth arguments
    among researchers and doctors, some challenged per
    sons do report improvements or reversals from time to time. If a case appears intransigent, it is probable, as in all cases of ill health, that the Laws of Nature are being infringed when Nature is looked upon for a cure.
    Floaters in the eyes have many causes, for which reason it is important to have an opthalmologist (eye doctor) check the eyes for what is going on. Some floaters are age related, others are caused by either infection, inflammation, bleeding, diabetes, poor nutrition, poor blood circulation and shrinkage of the vitreous humor. The eye has two Chambers, one in the front, the other at the back. The front chamber, called the aqueous humour, maintains balance of pressure in the eye. The back chamber, the vitreous humour, forms about 80 percent of the eye ball, and contains nutrients for the eye. Both Chambers are made of 98 to 99 percent water. In the vitreous humor are such substances as hyaluronic acid (HA) for hydration, glutathione, an antioxidant, zinc, also an antioxidant, mineral salts, proteins, collagen (a special protein for tissue structure), sugar etc. In aging or diseased conditions, the vitreous chamber may shrink and its collagen content may spill, float around, present themselves before the retina and block clear vision as experienced by persons challenged with floaters.
    Excessive brain work imposes a huge strain on the metabolism, that is living processes of the eye. Floaters are metabolic debris not disintegrated or dissolved, absorbed or cleared away from the vitreous chamber. Their existence suggests that the eyes are weak, de energised, and are not receiving enough blood, oxygen and other nutrients while the poor blood flow within it is not moving away metabolic wastes as at when necessary. Secondly, according to medical beliefs in the Eastern world, weakness in the liver, intestines and kidneys impact the eyes because they all lie in the pathway of the same etheric energy meridians. If malfunctioning organs, like broken down vehicles in traffic, block the flow of this energy, the other organs the meridians are to supply with energy will be weakened and may wither and malfunction, the same way as traffic jams affect human geography and well being. This thought is based on the conception that we are not our bodies. Our bodies have no lives of their own. We their owners give them energy, like electricity mains give energy to the deep freezer or the television set. Owners of these earth bodies have seven sockets known as The SevenE Chakras, in eastern medical philosophy and practice. The eye belongs to the SIXTH CHAKRA and is governed by the colour indigo. Drinking water may be solarised using indigo paper filters on glass bottles stood in the sun to attract indigo ethers of sunlight into the water. Regrettably, the paper sun filters are not sold in Nigeria. The first line therapy is to avoid dust falling on the eyes, the eyes absorbing smoke and environmental pollutants, and for the person challenged to learn to work during day hours alone, thus avoiding electric lighting for reading or other mental work which may seriously involve the eyes. There is a reason day and night hours were created. Almost all of us are guilty of this. I, too, am guilty as charged! As the eyes are easily affected and damaged by the BLUE Rays in the spectrum of sunlight, it is advisable when outdoor, to wear QUANTUM energy eye-glasses which block them from reaching the eye. I notice that when I wear one indoor, if some eye drops make the eyes to water, the sensations soon disappear.
    Next, we must avoid denatured food and eat for the eyes, liver, intestine, kidneys and the heart, above all, for healthy blood and circulation. ( For more information, please refer to my articles on floaters in www.olufemikusa.com.)
    Floaters are believed to be a condition in which debris of metabolic waste are not dissolved or absorbed, but float about before the retina, sometimes bonding and getting bigger. Antioxidants for the eyes help to get rid of them. These are many. Some people prefer them in single proprietary products. In this presentation, the dosages are often low. So, some persons prefer a few antioxidants in mega dosages. The first line of these antioxidants are vitamin A, vitamin c, vitamin E and selenium.
    Among the beneficial proprietary blends are:

    • Bilberry
    • grape seed extract
    • lecithin-
    • lysine-
    • zinc-
    • vitamin A
    • vision saver
      Vitamin A is a major eye nutrient. That is why it is now given to babies by mouth almost immediately after they are born and periodically up to an age. Vitamin A needs the presence of zinc to function properly in the eye.
      Bilberry is well known for protecting the retina and the optic nerve, but it also protects other sections of the eye.
      Grape seed extract promotes circulation in the eye and prevents damage to the protein structures through glycation.
      Lecithin is an emulsifier, especially of fats. An emulsifier is a substance which dissolves other substances needed to be dissolved.
      Lysine is an amino acid which prevents glycation and other damage to the collagen structures of the body and in the eye.
      Zinc is an immune booster, healing and repair agent and a factor in the ability of the eye to use vitamin A for its protection.
      Vision saver is a proprietary blend which contains some vision nutrients, especially vitamin B3 (nicotinamide) which is now suggested to be important in glaucoma therapy, maybe because it helps to drive circulation to the eye and away from it.
  • Edmark Nigeria…2023 closing as zero business year… 5% shareholder lock down majority shareholders

    Edmark Nigeria…2023 closing as zero business year… 5% shareholder lock down majority shareholders

    When will I get one of my three favourite natural toothpastes to buy? I learned to not trust many natural toothpastes which are formulated with poisnous substances when some of them tormented my mouth, teeth and gums!  When will one of my two favourite chlorophyll drinks return to the market? By last weekend, I still had no answers to these questions. The economy has pushed prices up, no doubt, and many nutritional supplements and natural products have, also, become scarce or extinct in the Nigerian market. However, the overheated economy and rocketing prices are not the problems of EDMARK SPLINA TOOTHPASTE, made largely from chlorophyll, and SPLINA LIQUID CHLOROPHYLL, the first liquid chlorophyll in the Nigerian market.  Swords of Damocles have been hanging over them and other nutritional supplements of Edmark International Limited sold in Nigeria since boardroom politics erupted into the open in July 2021 and became the subject of court battles which have led to business shut down since then.

    Mr Maurice Etim Anthony, a Nigerian, sued Edmark International Limited, claiming the company forged his signature and supressed his rights as an unpaid five per cent minority shareholder, to keep him in the dark about what was going on in the company.

    From the outside, Edmark appears to be a small company. But within its books, it had grown larger than life from humble beginnings on May 7, 2010 when it registered in Nigeria for business. Hitherto, Nigerian distributors of Edmark’s multilevel marketing nutritional supplements went to Accra, Ghana, to bring them to Nigeria. In those days, Ghana was the choice first port of call for Asian companies coming to English West Africa because it was relatively freer of corruption  and offered an easier environment for doing business.

    This arrangement of Ghana being the first port of call for such businesses made Ghanaians the uplines of Nigerians or, better still, Nigerians the geese which lay the golden eggs and Ghanaians, the farmers of the geese and owners of the golden eggs.

    Edmark began operations in Malaysia in 1984 as ever dynamic marketing which operates in more than 30 countries today.

    I knew of Edmark through the SPLINA CHLOROPHYLL drink. A young woman who was an avid reader of this column asked me how she could rid herself of certain health challenges. I gave her some recipes for blood and tissue cleansing and said I could have added liquid chlorophyll but that it was not available in Nigeria. She said it was. I asked her for the evidence. She called a gentleman named Emeka Ononiwu. He and I spoke. He invited me to lunch the following day with his Ghanaian upline who was in Lagos. This young woman and I went over, and, over lunch, I was shown samples of SPLINA CHLOROPHYLL drink. I asked the young woman to immediately purchase some. Thereafter, she joined the group of Nigerians who travelled to Ghana to bring SPLINA CHLOROPHYLL and some other products of Edmark to Nigeria. She was the person who helped Edmark to secure its first office in Nigeria on Opebi Road, Ikeja, Lagos. From this humble beginning in a duplex, eEdmark Nigeria grew into a Colossus by the time Mr Maurice Etim Anthony went to court.

    A boardroom crisis has destabilised the company since 2021 and a Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos, has ordered the business premises of EDMARK INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, marketers of the products, closed. The quarreling minority and majority shareholders of EDMARK Nigeria returned to court last Monday, after my deadline to submit this article to the editor. However, it is doubtful if EDMARK nutritional supplements will see the light of day in Nigeria before 2023 takes its bow. A court case under which its Nigerian head offices in Lagos have been under lock and key since July 2022 was still in progress last Monday.

    Minority shareholder Maurice Etim Anthony requested the closure, claiming that Edmark Marketing Limited was owing him his five per cent unpaid minority shares.

    Arguably, Edmark ranked among the biggest three nutritional medicine providers in Nigeria, rubbing shoulders with Forever Living Products (FLP) and Longrich. Edmark and FLP are neighbours on Aromire Street, a connecting road for Adeniyi Jones Avenue and Obafemi Awolowo Way. FLP, which began business in Awuse Estate, Opebi, Ikeja, Lagos, was the first to arrive on Aromire Avenue, knocked down old buildings which it purchased and built an international-class all-purpose head office. Edmark acquired the next set of property and did exactly the same. That is where their stories ended in July that year.

    When Mr Maurice Etim Anthony said he did not know what was going on in the company, he was probably referring to giant strides which Edmark Nigeria had made.  These strides  encompassed giant companies such as Edmark Direct Marketing Limited, Al Mansour Engineering and Contracting Limited, Edmark Direct Holding Limited and Edmark City Development Limited. Edmark Nigeria became so successful that it even planned to build a multi-billion naira smart city in Lagos, similar to those in Dubai, London and Barcelona. The location was to be on the Lagos-Epe Expressway, starting from the third round about from Lekki Phase One. It was to be called Edmark City, possibly an answer to a proposed Longrich City by competitor Longrich which was striving to migrate from its Opebi Road location to its own smart city where businesses would be wired to accept crypto currency for all transactions. The government of Lagos State supported the Edmark smart city project under its plans to transform Lagos megalopolis into a smart mega city hub. The Edmark Smart City was designed to be Nigeria’s and Africa’s first block-chain fuelled city driven project.

    Read Also: Edmark hosts SMEs at exhibition, talent hunt

    Contracts for the superstructure which included piling and above ground services were awarded on March 15, 2022 to Al Mansour Engineering and Contracting Limited, whose Chief Executive Officer is Mr Wael Mansour and was expected to be delivered in 2024.  The award ceremony took place at the podium International Event Centre, 31B Aromire Avenue, off Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, Lagos.

    This is a great achievement for a nutritional medicine MLM company and suggests that food supplement nutrition has taken deep root in Nigeria.

    Mr Maurice Etim Anthony told the Federal High Court Judge Mr Justice Chukwujekwu J Aneke in Lagos that he did not know how decisions of the Board of Directors of Edmark International Limited (Nigeria) were taken. He said he was kept in the dark through a forgery of his signature which permitted the company without his knowledge to appoint other directors with a view to edging him out of the board.

     On May 24, 2022, Mr Justice Chukwujekwu J Aneke appointed Mr Seyi Akinwunmi as Receiver/Manager of Edmark following a request by Mr Anthony. On the order of the judge, Mr Akinwunmi, from the insolvency chambers of  Akinwunmi and Busari, was to block Edmark Marketing Limited, all Edmark distributors in Nigeria and all agents of the company from importing Edmark products and selling them. The police and the customs service were ordered to give him helping hands. Thus, all Edmark products that were awaiting customs clearance at the ports got stuck there, many of them have expired or are expiring.

    At the receiving end of Mr Maurice Etim Anthony’s suit against Edmark are Mr Lo Ban Chai, chairman and chief executive of Edmark International Limited, holden company of Edmark Nigeria; Edmark Direct Marketing, Edmark Direct Holden Limited, Wapiano Bienviendo, chief operating officer, Edmark Development Company, Nigeria Jordan Noel Noa.

     Mr Justice Aneke reversed the ex parte ruling five months later on October 11, 2022 at the request of Edmark Marketing Limited following agreement on bank guarantee for the payment of Mr Anthony’s five per cent unpaid shares. Meanwhile, the hearing in the substantive suit continued.

    Dissatisfied with the exparte ruling of Mr Justice Aneke, Edmark CEO Lo ban Chai petitioned the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja Mr Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, claiming bias and requesting transfer of the suit to another judge. One of the grounds of the petition was that Mr Justice Aneke ought not to have appointed the receiver/manager for his company since it was not declared bankrupt or insolvent. He said the decision impacted Edmark in several ways. One was  abandonment of the multi-billion naira Edmark smart city project. Another was loss of income by 22,000 independent distributors of Edmark nationwide. Yet another loss for Edmark was the departure to their various countries of many specialist foreign employees whose work contracts were stalled. Besides, he said Edmark lost money from its branded products which were stuck at the ports, expired and attracted  port fines or demurrage.

    Mr Justice Daniel Emeka Osiagor took over the case in May 2023. The hearing continued six months later on May 2, 2023 before Mr Justice Osiagor. He appointed the Anderson Group as forensic auditors to determine the value of Mr Anthony’s five per cent shares, after Edmark and Mr Anthony agreed he could do so.

    There was a mild twist, however, to the arrangement on July 4, 2023 when the hearing resumed before Mr Justice Osiagor. Edmark counsel Mr Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN) objected to Mr Alade making an appearance for Mr Seyi Akinwunmi, the receiver/manager. He said the judge had ruled against Mr Akinwunmi being receiver/manager. For Mr Akinwunmi, the ruling of May 2, 2023 was in respect of a “liquidator” and the “receiver/manager”. As there was no “liquidator” for Edmark, the court corrected itself by substituting the “Receiver/Manager” for the “liquidator” and saying the error was a minor slip which it had the power to correct. Mr Justice Osiagor then ruled that Mr Akinwunmi hand over Edmark offices to the Anderson Group for a forensic audit. Last Monday, the court was expected to receive a report of the forensic audit.

    The Nigerian legal battle between Edmark Marketing Limited and Mr Maurice Etim Anthony has spread to the United States where, it was reported, Edmark tried to open an office for business. Several Nigerian Edmark distributors were reported to have visited the venue to protest that their earnings were unpaid and their work years wasted.  In the prime of Edmark business in Nigeria, some middle level distributors earned between N350,000 and N650,000 every month. Top fliers earned millioms. Some of them were given Jeeps as car gifts, money to build their own houses and sponsored on foreign holidays. Under Edmark business policy, the distributor cannot serve two masters, that is be an independent distributor for Edmark and another nutritional medicine company at the same time. Some beat the order under cover and whoever is found out is downgraded, suspended or stopped from representing the company. Many of them who complied with the policy have been left prostrate in the quarreling of shareholders, with no earnings for about 17 months. Thus, many have found means of livelihood in other pre occupations, dining and wining with Mammon.

    Back home in Nigeria, Mr Justice Osiagor has decided, in  favour of Edmark, Mr Anthony’s claim that his signature was forged to enable the company appoint other directors without his knowledge, a step he said was taken preparatory to getting him out of the board. According to a report by Unini Chioma, quoted by goggle, Mr Justice Osiagor’s ruling is:

    • “A statement that the police’s request to Edmark staff to assist in any investigation activities related to forgery claims is a gross infringement of their fundamental rights and is thus, illegal, unconstitutional, null and void.

    • “A declaration that the forensic investigative report obtained by the police on July 18, 2022, is conclusive and binding on the police in relation to any and all charges of the forging of Mr Etim’s  signature in relation to the operations, control and management of Edmark Direct Marketing Limited.

    • “While a forensic investigative report had already been completed, the police were barred from conducting any further inquiry into any and all charges of forgery of Mr Etim’s signature  in relation to the operations, control, and management of Edmark Direct Marketing Limited.

    • “In regard to charges of the forging of Mr Etim’s signature in relation to the operations, control, management of Edmark Direct Marketing Limited, an order prohibiting the police from compelling Edmark’s staff to attend any meeting, interview or honour any invitation in any way.

    Apart from these reliefs, the court awarded Edmark Management N50,000 in general damages”.

    Another ruling of Mr Justice Osiagor was based on the agreement of Mr Anthony and Edmark to appoint the Anderson Group to comprehensively audit the account of Edmark. This was to help all parties determine the value of Mr Anthony’s unpaid five per cent shares and other claims. The receiver/manager was to vacate Edmark head offices and give the auditors unimpeded access to them, from June 21, 2022.

    The ruling was stalled, however. Mr Anthony appealed it, and the Anderson Group stayed away. Mr Anthony declined to work with the Anderson Group. Mr Anthony took other decisions which till now have foreclosed a resolution of the quarrel of the shareholders. He asked the administrative judge of the Federal High Court to transfer the case from Mr Justice Osiagor, saying he did not trust him. Before this could be done, Mr Anthony filed two more motions. One was for the case to be transferred from Mr Justice Osiagor. The other requested suspension of the rulings of Justice Osiagor.

    On July 4, 2023, Mr Ebun-Ola Adegboruwa (SAN), for Edmark, informed Mr Justice Osiagor, Mr Anthony and his lawyers were deliberately frustrating all efforts to resolve the dispute and that this was causing economic distress to the company and its distributors and laying waste to EDMARK branded products which were expiring in ports warehouses. He said as well that it was unethical for Mr Anthony and his lawyers to attempt to scandalise Mr Justice Osiagor simply because they did not agree with his ruling which, in any case, they had appealed.

    Mr Justice Osiagor reviewed proceedings of May 2, 2023 which showed his order was based on the agreement of the lawyers of Mr Anthony and EDMARK.

    Irrespective of this, Mr Bidemi Ademola-Bello, for Mr Anthony, moved the motion for Mr Justice Osiagor to suspend his ruling, saying he was biased.

    Mr Adegboruwa (SAN) replied that the request was incompetent on two grounds. One was that Mr Anthony was party to Mr Justice Osiagor’s ruling. Besides, Mr Anthony had referred his objection to the administrative judge and good reason required that he wait for the outcome.

    Mr Justice Osiagor dismissed Mr Anthony’s two applications. He declined to do away with an agreement mutually agreed by Mr Anthony and Edmark. Mr Anthony failed to seek the court’s permission for his appeal of the ruling to be permitted, so the request was thrown out, the judge said. In conclusion of the proceedings, Mr Justice Osiagor gave the Anderson Group 60 days to check the accounts of all parties to the dispute and adjourned the hearing to last Monday.

    THE MARKET

    The food medicines market awaits the return of EDMARK. It, too, must have missed the market. I have missed the SPLINA TOOTHPASTE and the SPLINA CHLOROPHYLL in particular. I do not use any TRICLOSAN containing toothpaste, as I stated long ago in a column I titled DANGEROUS POISONS IN YOUR POPULAR TOOTHPASTES. Triclosan is in many toothpastes. The ALOE VERA based toothpaste from FLP, like SPLINA toothpaste, is free of it. The mouth is highly vascularised. Anything placed under the tongue has chances of being rapidly absorbed into the body cells from there. This is why it is not always good to leave some brands of toothpaste too long in the mouth and on the gums. Some of the common poisons in toothpastes are flouride, a neuro poison…artificial sweeteners…Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS)…TRICLOSAN, a carcinogen likely to slough the gums,… MEA, DEA, CEA, a trinity of methylating compounds which may weaken the liver and kidneys and cause cancer…microplastics, which, when accumulated in muscles, may cause systemic inflammation and cancer…propylene glycol, a thickener and carcinogen linked with prostate gland problems. They will be discussed again in future.

    Whenever Edmark returns to the market, it may find the market a stranger. Many products are not selling fast because their prices have gone up with inflation and purchasing power as ebbed. I hope Edmark, whenever it returns, will not be tempted to recoup losses from it’s expired products, abandoned smart city project and employee claims by making sky scrapers of the prices of its products. Some of these products include ginseng coffee, a flagship product in those days until the market found it too sugary and Edmark had to remove the sugar and the product lost some of its wings. There is also SHAKE OFF for curbing abdominal fat and constipation. Cocolagen firm breast vagina is for what the name says. What about Edmark troika cafe? Edmark cafe 73 will also pop its head. Aha! there is also Edmark red bubble tea. We cannot forget Edmark Red Yeast Tea. The same goes for Edmark Capuccino, Edmark Slimming Kit, Edmark MRT Complex, Edmark Bio Elixir, Edmark Mocha, Edmark Spiro, Edmark Bubble C and many more.

  • Coconut oil: Cure hope for glaucoma, dementia, alzheimer’s?

    Coconut oil: Cure hope for glaucoma, dementia, alzheimer’s?

    Coconut Oil is back in the news as a brain miracle worker. This time, medical doctor Mrs. Mary Newport says it is curing her husband’s Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive death of brain cells which causes memory loss and disables other important mental functions. A few years ago, American film maker Joe Loveth whose vision was almost crippled by glaucoma-causing blindness bounced back to 2020 vision, he says, on a coconut oil food supplement and went on to write three books to drive home his point. A report of his experiences was published in this column on  September 21, 2023, as a reprint of the first publication about two years earlier. Both publications were titled: Does Coconut Oil Offer Promise of Glaucoma Cure? and posted in Facebook at John Olufemi Kusa.

    Hitherto, coconut oil had been winning acclaims for brain cancer cures and for arresting opportunistic intestinal diseases in HIV conditions.

    Joe Loveth’s recovery from glaucoma had the hallmarks of a paradigm shift in opthalmology. Hitherto, it was assumed that increases in occular tension cause damage to the optic nerve and may cause glaucoma-related blindness. Joe Loveth says, however, that the reverse is the case, that glaucoma begins with damage to brain cells which control the optic nerve and that optic nerve manifestations of the disease are merely imprints from damaged brain cells. His hypothesis is that these brain cells were damaged and dying because the brain did not produce enough neurotrophic factors to feed and to protect them. The brain can be rescued from this problem, he argues, with the consumption of coconut oil in the daily diet.

    Dr. Mary Newport links Alzheimer’s to the same scenario, but pegs the disease on brain starvation of glucose, and not neurotrophic factors as does Joe Loveth. She and Joe Loveth appear to be walking on the same side of a road, nevertheless. Joe Loveth had said his research of the subject suggested to him that glaucoma patients were likely to later develop Alzheimer’s and dementia, and that Alzheimer’s and dementia-challenged persons were also likely to develop glaucoma. Thus, it would seem the three diseases are interconnected and, as Dr. Newport is suggesting, a “diabetes of the brain” is the string which holds them together. Incidentally, her husband, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, also suffered from vision challenges. Does this validate Joe Loveth’s hypothesis? Dr Mary Newport’s hypothesis is that certain conditions make it difficult, if not impossible, for brain cells to take up blood sugar for their living processes. Yet, glucose is the main food of the brain. It, therefore, sounds logical that hungry and dying brain cells would not be able to maintain acuity in whichever part of the body they control or whatever functions they perform in the body. However, as Dr Newport says, when a person challenged with “diabetes of the brain” consumes coconut oil in the diet, the triglycerides in the oil are converted by the liver to Ketones which the brain cells can easily absorb and use for fuel in place of blood sugar, thereby keeping at Bay glaucoma, Alzheimer’s and dementia. The trouble with that, though, is that ketone fuel, like fuel from other fats, is not clean fuel like glucose fuel. It leaves behind many toxic wastes which must be constantly removed with anti oxidants, lest the sludges and their  toxins create new problems.

    What Dr. Mary Newport is saying is suggesting to me that chromium picolinate may be included in the nutritional therapy of glaucoma, Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. Many persons who suffer from type II diabetes have been found to be deficient not only in minerals such as magnesium and zinc but especially, also, in chromium picolinate. Many of them may have subsisted on chromium-deficient diet for many years. Chromium is what nature placed in carbohydrate foods to make the sugar in them after digestion to easily cross from the blood stream into the cells of every tissue and organ, in the company of Insulin. Insulin on its own cannot get blood sugar into the cell. Insulin can get blood sugar into the cell when Chromium accompanies both of them. When chromium is not present in the company of insulin and blood sugar, the cells are said to develop insulin resistance. This means they shut their doors and windows, literally speaking, against insulin and with this action, insulin and blood sugar stay behind in the blood stream, causing type II diabetes. However, in its clever by half attitude in everything given to him on a platter of gold in the Creation Diet by Nature, mankind through food technology has removed chromium from several carbohydrate foods, thereby predisposing the consumer to blood sugar problems. White rice has lost between 96 to 98 per cent of its chromium content. It is doubtful if white flour foods such as bread, pasta, meat pies, doughnuts, puff puff, buns etc have any chromium left in them. When eating over many years, it may not be surprising if these foods are among the culprits behind diabetes. If their consumption is behind inability of brain cells to absorb blood sugar, because they are resisting insulin and blood sugar in the absence of chromium in their company, only future studies may be able to confirm. Already, however, Dr Mary Newport is suggesting that that is what is happening.

    The story of Dr Mary Newport and her husband is making the rounds all over the world to encourage the consumption of coconut oil in the diet by persons challenged by Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. I received the information from Mr Oluwayemisi John who received it from Mrs Grace Adu. Both are naturalists and live in Abeokuta. Mr John retired as safety manager for Total Oil in Nigeria. Mrs Adu, widow of Mr Jab Adu, of the television series called Village Headmaster used to make Plantain Root Juice (PRT) for prostate gland problems. I can confirm that she also used to make the finest grade of soya bean milk I have ever tasted. The story of Dr Mary Newport and her husband, as forwarded in social media, appears below…

    The Steve Newport’s  story

    In the United States, an estimated 5.4 million people have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. This figure is growing rapidly with the aging population. One of them was Steve Newport. His wife, Mary Newport, was a doctor. Dr. Mary learned that her husband had severe Alzheimer’s disease. When the doctor examined her husband at the hospital, he asked Steve to paint a clock. Instead, he drew a few circles and then drew a few figures without any logic. It was not like a clock at all!. The doctor pulled her aside and said: ‘’Your husband is already on the verge of severe Alzheimer’s disease!”

    Read Also: Does coconut oil offer promise of glaucoma cure?

    It turned out that it was a test of whether a person had Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Mary was very upset at that time, but as a doctor, she would not just give up. She began to study the disease. She found out Alzheimers disease was associated with glucose deficiency to the brain.

    Her research says: “The dementia of the elderly is like having diabetes in the head! Before one has the symptoms of diabetes or Alzheimer’s disease, the body has already had problems for 10 to 20 years.”

    According to the study of Dr. Mary Newport, Alzheimer’s disease is very similar to Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. The cause is also insulin imbalance.

    It suggests that, because insulin has a problem, it prevents the brain cells from absorbing glucose. Glucose is the nutrition of brain cells. Without glucose, brain cells die.

    As it turns out, these high-quality proteins are the cells that feed our body.But nutrition for our brain cell is glucose. As long as we have mastered the source of these two kinds of food, we are the masters of our own health!

    The next question is, where to find glucose? It can not be the ready-made glucose that we buy from the store. It is not from fruits such as grapes. She started looking for alternatives.

    The alternative nutrients for brain cells are ketones. Ketones are necessary in brain cells. Ketones can not be found in vitamins. Coconut oil contains triglicerides. After the triglycerides in coconut oil are consumed, it is metabolised into ketones in the liver. This is the alternative nutrient for brain cells!

    After this scientific verification, Dr. Mary added coconut oil to her husband’s food. After only two weeks, when he went to the hospital again to do painting and clock tests, the progress was amazing.

    Dr. Mary said: “At that time, I thought, has God heard my prayers? Wouldn’t it be coconut oil that worked? But there is no other way. Anyway, it’s better to continue taking the coconut oil.

    Dr. Mary was now part of the traditional medical practice base. She clearly knew the capabilities of traditional medicine.

    Three weeks later, the third time she took him to do a smart clock test, the performance was better than the last time. This progress was not only intellectual but also emotional and physical.

    Dr. Mary said: “He could not do his running, but now he can run. He could not read for a year and a half, but he can read again now after taking coconut oil for three months.”

    Her husband’s actions had already begun to change. He did not speak in the mornings. Now she noticed a lot of changes: “Now after he gets up, he is spirited, talking and laughing. He drinks water himself and takes utensils for himself on his own.”

    On the surface, these are very simple daily tasks, but only those who have come to the clinic or have demented relatives at home can experience the joy: It is not easy to see such progress!

    After frying the greens & onions in coconut oil, making cakes with coconut, after taking 3 to 4 tablespoons of coconut oil per meal, 2-3 months later, the eyes too can now focus normally.

    Her studies proved that coconut oil can really improve the problem of dementia in the elderly.

    Apply coconut oil to bread. When coconut cream is used, the taste is unexpectedly good. Young people can also use it for maintenance of health and prevention and can improve if they have symptoms of dementia.

    Dementia is caused because nutrients can not be transported to brain cells, and nutrients must be passed from the body to the brain by insulin. “Especially for diabetic patients, it’s not easy to get insulin secretion. Nutrition can not get to the brain. When brain cells are starved to death, they are deprived of intelligence.”Coconut oil contains medium-chain triglyceride, which can supply nutrients to the brain without using insulin.

    So, it can improve Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease

     Ketones

    The stories of Joe Loveth and Mary Newport may trigger interest in coconut oil for dietary therapies of brain challenges such as glaucoma, Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, raise demand and spur price hikes. Unfortunately, Nigeria’s coconut plants are old and, with no notable coconut plantations, Ghana has been providing a substantial stock of Nigeria’s coconut and coconut oil supplies.

    Coconut oil faddists may wish to learn a few things about Ketones, what they do in the body and possible problems, an excess of them may cause. Cleaveland clinic in www.mycleavelandclinic.org informs us…

    “What are ketones?

    Ketones, or ketone bodies, are acids your body makes when it’s using fat instead of glucose for energy. Your body gets most of its energy from glucose, a sugar that mainly comes from carbohydrates in your diet. If you don’t get enough energy from glucose, your body breaks down fats for energy instead. The breakdown releases ketones that travel through your bloodstream. The ketones fuel your body’s tissues and eventually exit in your urine (pee).

    It’s normal (and safe) to have some ketones in your blood because it’s normal for your body to use its backup energy source — fats — when there’s not enough usable glucose.

    But too many ketones can make your blood acidic and toxic. This is called ketoacidosis. If you have diabetes, too many ketones can cause diabetes-related ketoacidosis (DKA). DKA is life-threatening without treatment.

    “What do ketones do in your body?

    Ketones fuel your brain and body in the absence of glucose, your body’s primary energy source. Think of ketones as your backup energy reserve when the main source is depleted, low or unusable.

    Typically, your body breaks down food into glucose. A hormone called insulin helps your cells use glucose as an energy source or store it for when you need it later.

    Your body will switch to ketosis if you’re not getting enough carbohydrates. During ketosis, your body breaks down fats for energy, releasing ketones. The ketones energise cells and tissue so your body can keep working. Ketosis is a normal process. For example, your body can go into ketosis (and make more ketones) when:

    You’re asleep.

    You’re fasting.

    You’re exercising.

     It causes major changes to your body and isn’t for everyone. Also, the keto diet is very restrictive, so it can be difficult to stick to for extended periods of time.

    Anatomy

    Where are ketones located?

    Ketosis occurs in your liver. Your liver releases the ketones into your bloodstream, where they travel throughout your body, providing energy. Once they’ve done their job, you pee them out.

    Conditions and disorders

    What are the common conditions and disorders associated with ketones?

    Understanding what ketones do and keeping track of ketone levels is especially important if you have diabetes — Type 1 diabetes, in particular. Type 1 diabetes is a condition that prevents your body from making insulin. Insulin is the hormone that helps your body use glucose for energy.

    “Problems with insulin cause your blood sugar levels to rise (hyperglycemia) and can cause too many ketones to build up in your blood. This can lead to diabetes-related ketoacidosis (DKA). DKA is more common in people with Type 1 diabetes but can happen with Type 2 diabetes, too

    “What are the symptoms of high ketones?

    Without treatment, DKA can progress fast (within 24 hours or even less). Symptoms include:

    Nausea and vomiting.

    Fatigue (feeling tired and weak even with rest).

    Stomach pain.

    Shortness of breath.

    Confusion.

    Fruity-smelling breath (sometimes called “keto breath”).”

    Conclusion

    Joe Loveth tells us dietary coconut oil helped his brain to produce more neurotrophic factors (NTFs) than he did when he did not take coconut oil and he developed glaucoma in both eyes. NTFs are families of some protein molecules which help the development, growth and survival of neurons in the brain. A neuron is a fundamental unit of brain cells or the nervous system in the brain. Joe Loveth says neurons in a special area of the brain controls the optic nerve which brings light impressions from the eye to the brain. He believes that when the neurons do not have enough NTFs to support their growth, development and protection, and begin to wilt or to die, their travails are reflected throughout the optic nerve and appear as the symptoms called glaucoma.

    Dr. Mary Newport comes from another pathway. She says Alzheimer’s and dementia occur when nutrients, especially blood glucose, cannot be transported into brain cells because of insulin resistance or insulin deficiency, features of both types of diabetes. That is why she termed those conditions “diabetes of the brain”. She says the ketones generated by the liver from coconut oil provided the brain cells with an alternative fuel to blood glucose, and, perhaps, other nutrients.

    The frontiers of medicine, like other frontiers of knowledge are ever expanding.

    So, it should not be out of place to assume that, in the future, opthalmologists and neurologists will recognise these conceptions, properly scrutinise them and probably make out something good from them to the benefit of everyone troubled by mental health problems, including depression.

    Once again, thank you Joe Loveth and grateful thanks, also, to Mary Newport. What I found intriguing about her is that, in her clinical practice, she may have definitively told some of her patients that their health troubles were irreversible. However, when her husband came down, she threw away the rigidity of orthodox medicine and went to mother nature for a cure which she found. We are probably being taught a lesson here that there is no disease without a solution, that if a solution to a disease is still elusive, it must mean that physicians still do not have a full grasp of it to be able to overcome it.

  • Ola Ade-John: Coping with food poisoning (2)

    Ola Ade-John: Coping with food poisoning (2)

    By now, tourism minister Lola Ade John, banker and tech investor, should have ridden over the health challenge which sent her to hospital a few weeks ago. The good cheer, as she has made it known, is that the condition may not have been food poisoning , otherwise this may have raised questions about the quality of catering for top-notch citizens and even tourists.

    The itinerant Dr HCA Vogel, author of the fabulous book, The Nature Doctor, discovered that a busy person may not always be meticulous enough about what he or she puts into the mouth or stomach, or about what may be hanging around him or her which may be quietly impacting his or her health. He fell in love with papaya (pawpaw) and banana in Africa and, through hard experiences, had to learn to first thoroughly wash them and his hands before peeling and eating them. What I learned about the banana is to never cut the fruit with my fingers and then put it into my mouth. Dr Vogel discovered that troublesome organisms such as the amoeba may hang on the peel , even after being well washed, and it may be ingested with the fruit. Where one does not have the right concentration of hydrochloric acid in the stomach  and the right mix of digestive enzymes to kill incoming pathogens as well as to digest proteins in the food, intestinal problems may arise which may take months or even years to resolve. That’s one of the reasons I suggest that pawpaw leaves, well soaked in cider vinegar or saline water for some time and then rinsed in clean water, be eaten as part of the salad in at least one meal every day. It has all the digestive enzymes and is good for aging persons who are not producing enough digestive enzymes. This column often reports cases in which worm eggs escape the weak enzymes and later flood the brain with worms. There was even a case where a baby tape worm was found nestling somewhere in the brain, presenting headache symptoms until a scan spotted what looked like a tumour which, upon the brain being opened up, turned out to be an embryonic tape worm!

    Luckily, coconut oil, yes good old coconut oil, has proven a good intestinal cleanser, even against the germs which cause gastro intestinal opportunistic diseases in HIV- challenged persons. Now, it is being studied in the United States as a possible remedy against Alzheimers, dementia and glaucoma. I shall come to this in future columns.

    I hope I have not digressed too far. I am even now salivating for lettuce, banana and groundnuts. On October 7, 2023, I had my first meal at about 3 pm. As I wrote through lines, Udeme has just returned from church. It was 4.15pm. I  just had garri and groundnuts about an hour earlier. I did not eat raw leaves such as those of pawpaw and oregano with them to mineralise the meal and provide digestive enzymes and antioxidants, among others. Often, you would find one or two decaying nuts in a N100 worth of these nuts. The taste of decaying matter is enough warning to spit out everything in the mouth. For that taste may come from fungi or mold. It is the family member of Microzyma which cause the decomposition and decay of all living things in which have occured the need for the dissolution of their material essence. To this family belongs Candida Albicans. Dr Robert O. Young in his book, P h MiracleI, demonstrates that microzyma is in every living cell, human, plant or animal. It is inactive for as long as the cell remains alkaline in its constitution. Once it begins to become acidic, microzyma will devolve, that is degrade, first to bacteria and, as the acidosis increases, to viruses and, later, to fungi and its various family members including candida, and finally to mold. These are very difficult to eliminate from the body and sometimes involves the use of dangerous strengths of anti fungal drugs. Oral thrush, that white patch on the tongue which is meant to be pinkish red, is candida growth and may be evidence of candida colonisation of the intestines.

    Read Also: Deputy Senate President Barau mourns

    Many of us are fungi infested without realising it, and it may take just a little mis step into the wrong food(s) to cause a health  collapse. I was frightened by a Food And Agriculture (FAO) survey of open food markets in Nigeria which reported that almost every food item is fungi infested. When you buy stock fish, critically examine it. You may discover powdery substance on the skin. What is it? Under the microscope, you may notice mushroom like heads on the skin. Even if you kill off this stuff with plain hot water, saline water or white cider vinegar, what of the roots it had injected deep into the tissue of the stock fish with all the cancer causing aflatoxins? We taste candida in roasted fish, in corn, in infected raw red pepper, onion and in red meat that is not well refrigerated. Nevertheless, we do not pay enough attention to smell and taste, and often wonder why cancer, kidney diseases, liver problems, nervous system challenges as well as uterine fibroids are hitting near epidemic propotions. When a uterine fibroid tissue is cut through and examined in the labouratory, the  probable microscopic culprits often found resident there are bacteria, viruses and fungi! They and their toxins cause irritation, inflammation, unhealthy growths and dysfunctions. It was when I learned that the common affliction among inhabitants of a groundnuts growing zone in the United states was pancreatic cancer and that the reason was that they ate lots of infected groundnuts and aflatoxins that I began to pay more attention to the detoxification of my organs, especially the liver. Sometimes, I am on a course  of Amazon A-F for one month. It is designed against fungi and the rest of them. Another month may see me through the intake of Maria Treben Bitters, which has about 42 uses. When using it, I remember the saying by Ken Saro Wiwa, later hung by Gen Sanni Abacha, that, “To be  a millionaire, Think like a  millionaire”. The Maria Treben bitters formula belonged to a horse riding gentleman who died at the age of 103 during a horse riding accident. From this information, IIanalways tempted to remind myself that” to be 103, act like the man who was 103″. To be frank with you, unless you like the bitter principles in food and know what they really do to give their patrons radiant health, you are unlikely to enjoy this drink…even a teaspoonful in a glass of water is really really bitter  and may leave a bitter taste in the mouth all day! Women don’t like it, yet it is one of the best medicines for rebalancing their sweet tooth habit. I swirl Maria Treben bitters with my tongue around the gums and teeth, sometimes before I go to bed. Yet, another month, I may settle for KYOLIC food supplements. Kyolic is energising, whether designed for blood circulation to prevent strokes or their re-occurences, to keep diabetes away or to keep cholesterol in check. It is about 50 times more powerful than natural garlic. Then, there are recipes such as activated charcoal, diatom (diatomaceous earth) or DE, olive leaf extract, oregano oil or leaf, golden seal, bitter kola etc.

    How they work

    I will mention in brief how some of them will work, beginning with activated charcoal. It is not a magic wand in all sorts of poisoning. Activated charcoal is made by heating charcoal from wood and other substances under high temperatures to enlarge its surface area. Activated charcoal will not stop strong poisons such as those of strong acids and bases from absorbtion into the blood stream. It will also not stop poisoning by an overdose of iron tablets because they will not effectively bind to it. With weaker poisons, activated charcoal may have a field day. A 50 grams powder of activated charcoal is believed to have a surface area as large as 50 football fields. This is a large wrapper big enough to wrap up such poisons and drag them out with stool because charcoal cannot be digested or absorbed, and it leaves the body within about 18 hours of ingestion. Gas, bloating and alcoholic hangovers do succumb also to activated charcoal , but not the very strong poisons for which hospital care by poison experts is required.

    Daiatom

    Long before hospital surgeons stepped on the Medicare scene, diatomaceous earth (DE or Diatom) was called the “homeopathic surgeon”, because it was used for some conditions which required removal of retrograde tissue such as tumours. Ancient Greeks used it as a hardener, in brick and block making, and in Europe later on for industrial uses such as removing heavy metals from water. It is obtained from sediments of fossilised algae in water in several parts of the earth. I guess this is what is called Nzum in some parts of Eastern Nigeria. Popular as Nzum is, it has not being purified and, so, I do not recommend it because of the side effects of consuming the impurities which may come with it. Even in purified form, Diatom comes in two grades …a) the food grade which is edible and b) the pet grade which is used for pest control. When cockroaches are too many in any of my rooms, for example, I spread the pest grade on door passages or on landings on staircases. It is often fun to see an assembly of cockroaches , belly up and dead everywhere, next day! That’s a picture of what the food grade may do to germs in the intestine. Made up of about 80 to 90 percent silica content, Diatom  is believed to kill germs and pests by drying them out. In the body, it strenghtened bones and teeth, dissolves cholesterol and lumps, as well as beautify skin, nail and hair. It is also a stool loosener, a plus for digestion, and an excellent alkalising agent in conditions of acidosis. As in everything, addictive use of Diatom is not encouraged as over-exposure is thought to compounding conditions such as asthma and congestive obstructive pulmonary Disease  (COPD), especially when the dust of powder is inhailed by susceptible persons. The pest grade is dangerous to human health. It should be kept handy somewhere away from the first aid box. The news of a bedbugs outbreak in France and efforts of the Nigerian government to prevent it from spreading to this country, reminds me  of how the pest grade helped me to eradicate bedbugs in my house about 10 years ago. I sprayed it everywhere the bugs could hide and that was the end of them.  Bedbugs, like lice, are endemic in Nigeria, anyway. Pest grade diatom can be sprayed on house hold items where bed bugs are found. I prefer the food grade which is more expensive because it can find its way into clothing, the skin and even food. I recommend it more especially where children always frequent.

    Milk Thistle

    This is one out of several hepaprotectives in natural medicine. An hepaprotective is an agent which protects the liver against damage by poisons. There are many dangerous poisons around us, outdoor and indoor, against which milk thistle, a plant, has proven an effective hepaprotective against Carbon Tetra Chloride.Mild and short term exposure to this chemical cause headaches, nausea, lethargy, vomitting and weakness. Long term and severe exposure may cause liver and kidney damage.

    As liver and kidney damage cases continue to grow in Nigeria, it may become necessary to find out if correlations exist between this event and increasing prevalence of carbon Tetrachhloride in household applications. Household cleaning agents which contain bleaches may release chlorophorm and carbon Tetrachloride. Many of these household cleaning agents have now invaded almost every home. I smell strong odours everywhere around my household when a certain toilet cleaner and a certain laundry soap are used. I show those who believe they must use them how the back of their hands have become wrinkled and why they should wear plastic or cotton hand gloves for self protection.

    But What about the inhalation, where nose guards may not help? Refrigerants and aerosol sprays contain this killer chemical. What appears most reasonable to me to do, therefore, is safeguarding the liver and other critical organs. This is where Milk Thistle and other hepaprotectives come into the picture. In several animal studies, the animals were distributed into several groups. Some had carbon Tetrachloride added to their meals or water to induce oxidative stress in the liver and to damage  it. Some had carbon tetrachloride and Milk Thistle added to their meals or water. Some were used as control, with no carbon tetrachloride and milk thistle.The ones without milk thistle in their meals or water died from liver damage, whereas no damage was evident in the ones induced but simultaneously given milk thistle in their diet and water. This shows milk thistle may (and, in fact, it does) protect the human liver and kidney against carbon Tetrachloride and other chemical poisoning damage. It is therefore, suggested that milk thistle be considered a regular food supplement feature in the diet of everyone, young and old , children in particular, as we all live today in a world where poisons have invaded the water we drink, the air we breathe and the food we eat.

    Milk thistle is a food supplement persons challenged with hepatitis should always have around them. This ailment causes inflammation of the liver and may also cause liver cancer. The active ingredient in milkthistle is Silymarin. It has been used in hepatitis treatment world-wide since the 1970s to provide remedial effects in some types of hepatitis as an hepaprotective, anti inflammatory and regenerative. My first recommendation of milk thistle was made in the 1980s to a member of the Day Tata family who had liver challenges. At that time, settled medical opinion was that liver cells were not regenerable. This case proved that damaged liver cells could regenerate under the right conditions. Dynapharm, a natural medicines network company, was brought to Nigeria from Kenya by a Nigerian who had liver challenges, attended a dynapharm product presentation in that country, tried milk thistle, got better, and brought the company to his own country.

    Another herb we cannot forget for its anti-poison properties is Bitter Kola, which is everywhere but has become increasingly expensive since it has been yielding its secret in this regard. I discovered it in the 1980s. Then, I had something to do every Saturday and Sunday for some months in Agbara, Ogun State, before I went to the office. I would leave home as early as 5 a.m and arrive in Agbara just before seven. Agbara is mid-way between Lagos and Badagry. Once done with my assignment there by about 8:30 am, I would stop over at a canteen near the highway for breakfast. What always took me there was palm wine and “bush meat”. The palmwine had no sacharin, was fresh but always had flies, honey bees and other insects in the froth. I will remove them and empty the palmeine in a plastic keg for home consumption. The “bush meat” was cheap, but sometimes had off taste from inadequate refrigeration. When my tummy ran for some time and bitter kola helped me to quieten it, I learnt to keep some in my pocket whenever I went out. Tiny as this nut is, liver researchers give it due respect. One of their studies with rats shows that phenolic compounds in bitter kola prevented liver cell death. Another study reported by www.sciencedirect.com found that a bioflavonoid of bitterkola  called kolaviron “gives protective action against carcinogen induced liver damage, acting as a protective natural antioxidant and enhancing drug detoxifying enzymes such as microsomal aniline hydroxylase”.

         It is, therefore, beneficial to chew one or two bitterkolas on every outdoor meal, even if the quality of preparation is unquestionable. A stitch in time saves nine, it is said. When I began to write about bitter kola about 20 years ago, some of my friends began to make bitterkola wine by crushing some and infusing them in red wines which they took in dosages of one or two tablespoons alone or in a glass of water or in empty stomach. This should help them detoxify overnight toxin hangovers in the liver and intestine, thereby reducing poison accumulation or overloading.

    This column would like to congratulate tourism minister Lola Ade John for overcoming so soon whatever health challenges stood in her way recently.

  • Chris Ogunbanjo (1923-2023):The struggle continues

    Chris Ogunbanjo (1923-2023):The struggle continues

    About 20 unbroken years separated me from the fabulous Chief Chris Ogunbanjo when he passed on 7 October 2023, two weeks from his 100th birthday. I could have said how time flies when I heard the news if, since about 1977, I had not known that Time does not fly, that Time Stands  Still! We always change during our journey through Time and  sacrilegiously blame the downswings on time. It is the exercise of our freewill which tosses us hither and thither.Thus, standing before the death news, wondering which mountains on my side had blocked my memory of him,  I remembered many persons now live multiple lives in one. I believe that Chief Ogunbanjo, too, believed this. He was a student of existence and of the great universe. Many cycles of events we initiated thousands of years ago, or shall we say the seeds we planted, are ripening for the harvest and harvest them we must. So, in the state of rejoicing with Chief Ogunbanjo that he had separated from the flesh  and pray that he awakens to joyful life wherever he was. I also wished that our separation be not eternal. For it is possible that some of us friends here on earth, even husbands and wives, parents and children, may never meet again, and it would not be a case of one being in Paradise and others living in so-called hell fire.

     Isonyin connection

     Chief Chris Ogunbanjo came from Erunwon, a village about three kilometers from Ijebu ode . I come from Odole -Isonyin, a community about three kilometers from Erunwon. Isonyin lies between Odole and Erunwon. It was founded by Sade, a run away princess from the palace of the Awujale of Ijebu land. The Elerunwon of Erunwon at that time was her maternal  brother.  Prince Lasaoku , who founded Odole, was a paternal brother of Princess Sade. Whenever, respectfully , I teased Chief Ogunbanjo that Odole and Isonyin were greater than Erunwon, it was less because my father came from Odole and my mother from Isonyin, but more from the indelible messages from history.

       Unforgetable history

     The Kusas of Odole are descendants of rince Lasaoku. Reportedly, he left the palace over some differences to found his own  chiefdom. Princess Sade, young, beautiful and vibrant, was closer to him than to the Elerunwon, her maternal brother. She ran into trouble with the Awujale over a love relationship with a commoner that was considered unbefitting to her royal status.  She could be executed by being beheaded or through a sword being plunged into one of the eyes till it came out of the back of the head. Princess Sade fled  to the Elerunwon. He would not grant her cover for fear of a reprisal from the powerful Awujale. From Erunwon, Princess Sade fled to Odole where Lasaoku sheltered her. The Awujale demanded that Prince Lasaoku surrender his crown. Before Awujale’s soldiers arrived, Prince Lasaoku buried the crown where no one else knows till this day.  Prince Lasaoku then offered Princess Sade land in Odole on which to settle. He set the boundary with one tree Ijebus of those days called Ayin, from which the town derived the name Isonyin. Ayin is  African bush mango, the seed of which is cooked to produce Apon(Ogbono) soup.

     The Anglican Church built Emmanuel Church and Emmanuel Primary School in Isonyin. My father and other inhabitants of Odole went to school in Isonyin and went to the church every Sunday. So did Chief Ogunbanjo’s people. When Chief Ogunbanjo built the Church of the Epiphany Erunwon, some observers thought it was over investment among worshippers who may not be able to fill half of the seats with their numbers, let alone financially maintain it. They did not understand the driving motive. He was telling a story to challenge an indelible memory. He could not be world renowned in business and industry  and his people were dependent. But I always teased him, as a grown child may tease his father, that Odole-Isonyin made Erunwon. What would have been written on the pages of history today had Prince Lasaoku not stuck out his neck and staked his crown for Princess Sade? For this, his enemies in the Awujale court ensured he never became Awujale, after all traditional rites had been observed. Days before his coronation, he became stricken with a strange ailment from which he passed!

      The Comet

        It was in this royal garb of a prince from Odole that I met Chief Ogunbanjo about 1999 for the first time, to invite him to be a financial backer of The Comet Newspaper. The day I heard that Chief Ogunbanjo passed, I issued the following( edited) report on social media.

       ” He passed yesterday 7 October 2023, two months from his 100th birthday. A corporate lawyer, he was a leading light and captain of NIGERIA’S business and industry.

     He came from Erunwon, near Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

     He will be remembered by many persons, including those of us co-founders of The Comet newspaper who brought him into Nigerian newspapering ie Oyinlade Bonuola,John Olufemi Kusa, Olajide Ogundele, our senior professional colleauge and mentor Sola Oluwole  all journalists, and Dr Ayo Ojo, a radical medical doctor and younger brother of Chief Michael Ade Ojo of Elizade motors, a prominent backer of the project.

     ” Chief Ogunbanjo was the second chairman of Turning-point  Communications Limited, Publishers of The CometOMET newspaper. He will be remembered by fellow backers of The Comet newspaper who included Dr Christopher Kolade, first chairman of turning- point Communications Limited, former Chairman of Cardbury’s (NIG LTD) and academic staff member of Pan African University, Lagos …Oba Otudeko, CEO of Honeywell… Chief Olufalae, presidential candidate of the Social Democratic party (SDP) in the 1999 presidential election won by Gen Olusegun Obasanjo(rtd), as he then was…Chief Segun Osoba, one time governor of Ogun State…Otunba Gbenga Daniel, another former governor of Ogun State… President Bola Ahmed Tinubu…Afenifere leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo…Dr Bukola Saraki, former governor of Kwara State and President of the Nigerian 8th Senate…Mr Akin Soname, a one time Governorship aspirant in Ogun State…Chief Dayo Sonuga, one-time chairman of the  Chambers of Commerce, Agriculture and Industry, who succeeded Chief Ogunbanjo on the Board of Directors of Turning-Point Communications Limited.

     Chief Ogunbanjo’s passing presents an opportunity of reminisces to these eminent persons to not only remember him for the roles he played in the company but to, also, remember their colleauges who, before their passages, were either members of the board or backers of the project. Among them were Mr Olatunde Olabode Vincent, better known on Nigeria’s paper currency as Ola Vincent, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) between 1977 and 1982…Chief Bola Ige, one-time governor of Oyo State and Attorney General and Minister of Justice  under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration… Chief Abraham Adesanya (SAN)…Pa Onasanya, a NADECO and Afenifere leader…Chief S.K Oluwo, former Managing Director of Bagco Super Sacks (Nig) LTD…Commodore Gbolahan Mudashiru(rtd) , former military governor of Lagos State… Chief Victor Abayomi Oduntan, the last Chairman of Turning Point Communications and a former Secretary to Ogun State Government (SSG)…Chief Nathaniel Idowu, progenitor of The Punch Newspaper, fellow journalist on Tell magazine, among others.

    Read Also: Ogunbanjo: Father of modern corporate law practice

     Chief Ogunbanjo will be remembered as well by Barrister Kieran Enechi, who was Company Secretary in the tenures as chairman of the company, of  Dr Kolade , Chief Ogunbanjo and Chief Sonuga.

     May Chief Ogunbanjo awaken to joyful life wherever he is”.

     I was distant from Chief Ogunbanjo before I had to meet him in respect of The Comet. What was true of my relationship with him was true of my relationship with other business men and leaders of industry, except one…Chief Adeyemi Olusola Lawson. Chief Lawson was the first person, through his activities with The Grail Message- In The Light of Truth by Abdrushin to lead me into the living knowledge of The Structture of Creation and The Purpose of  Existence. Chief Ogunbanjo and chief Lawson, who passed in 1993, were friends. In the search for Truth, Chief Lawson traversed some of the highest orders of Christianity and of the Rosicrucian order (AMORC) before he came to the Grail Message. Chief Ogunbanjo, too, was a well known figure in Christian leadership circles and AMORC. AMORC is self described as:

     ” The rosicrucians are a community of philosophers who study Natural Laws in order to live in harmony with them.

     Our mission is to provide seekers with the spiritual wisdom necessary to experience their connectedness with the miraculous world around us and to develop mastery of life.

      Our studies include:

     The mysteries of birth and death

     The illusory nature of time and space

      Awakening of the psychic consciousness…”

      Some of my roommates at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) were in AMORC. I had nothing against them and AMORC. I knew they were struggling inwardly to understand the universe  albeit from below upwards, but, nevertheless, in a more  practical manner that the blind faith of Christianity devoid of conviction. Conviction comes from objective weighing and examining  impressions on the soul and not blind belief in a teaching merely out of habit. However, irrespective of the beauty in the freedom of investigation, groping from below upwards has its own dangers in many snares on the way, some of which may bewilder or even psychically injure the investigator like a toddler left alone in a virgin forest.

     Intuitively, I sensed that I had travelled on that route  as not been on earth before? Do we know how many mistakes of many past eras in that circumstance that we have to redeem in the remainder of this life, living many earth lives in one earth life, trying to rid our souls of the deficits of many lives gone by in only this one?

     This was why I alluded  that Chief Ogunbanjo as a seeker of The Truth on whichever pathway, would understand which mountain on my side had been blocking my views of the mountain on his.

     Our paths may probably not have met had the exigencies of The Comet not arisen.  The Comet newspaper was to be born because we the co -founders were vacating The Guardian newspaper which had become inhospitable to pure professional existence. We had no money. We had been raised and  encased in the idea that the newspaper was purely a social institution where editors were only to be Heard, like judges, and not Seen, to protect them againat corruptive influences of big business (Please see details in my facebook account @ John Olufemi Kusa). With its editors locked in, The Guardian soon had money challenges. It belonged to the Big Business Family. His capitalisation was bigger than that of some banks, yet it was playing a Touch Me Not game with the big business family.

     With some of my colleauges, notably Jide Ogundele, Paul Okunlola, Abel Oshivere, Raheem Adedoyin, Akin Orebiyi, Harriet Lawrence etc, I was priviledged and honoured to resolve that challenge with editorial compartmentalisation, arguably the first time a Nigerian newspaper would do so. Credit goes, also, to publisher Alex Ibru who liked and backed the project and threw his weight behind it.

     Oyinlade Bonuola, Femi Kusa and Jide Ogundele had to literally flee from The Guardian when ethnic emotions suffocated work environment. It is part of the lessons I have learned that, when you are in an overcharging equation, you would have peace of mind, irrespective of your initial losses , if you remove yourself from the suffocating equation. With no money in our pockets as you would expect, despite 17 years of bone breaking and blood drying Work in which I could sometimes work for 18 hours in one day or even overnight, all three of us had no money to register a company! I approached Barrister  Kierian  Enechi, one of my legal acquaintances, who did it for us on credit and discreetly, too. Mr Alex Ibru must not hear we were  leaving or he could fire us to damage our credibility.(Please see more details in my Facebook account@John Olufemi Kusa).

      Chris Ogunbanjo

     It was in this athmosphere that I had to approach Chris Ogunbanjo to be a shareholder of the company. I had been able to persuade Akin Soname who led me to Chief S.K Oluwo, and Dr Ayo Ojo, who led me to Chief Ade Ojo. Dr Omotosho Oguniyi,  our  consultant, invited by OyinLade Bonuola, led me to  Oba Otudeko, an Olivetian like he and I. I made a presentation to Oba Otudeko in the presence of his friend, Mr Segun Osoba, our boss at the Daily Times and former governor of Ogun State. Mr Osoba recommended us as impeccable journalists. Oba Otudeko waved Honeywell at me. I preferred The CometOMET. Impressed, he would have doubled the investment, but our rules limited participation.

      Success with Oba Otudeko strenghtened me to expect success with Chief Ogunbanjo. Going over to Chief Ogunbanjo, I asked Jide Ogundele to accompany me. He was more acquainted with him. Ogundele was business reporter, business correspondent and editor of financial Guardian. I had no background of big business interfaces to lock horns with a business giant like him and had to fabricate other keys to unlock the doors to his heart. Chief Ogunbanjo warmed up  when I teased him about Odole Isonyin and Erunwon. If he could cane me as a teacher does a schoolboy, he would  cane me. He said I lived in his backyard and he never knew me. I teased him that I was a prince descended from the Prince of the Awujale court in IJEBU ode and that I wasn’t even sure he had Erunwon royal blood. We were all literally rolling on the ground with laughter. Then, I announced  the prince of Odole had the floor. Chief Ogunbanjo always had a boyish disposition. He did not say he was old enough to be my father, or that he graduated in law the year I was born, but was all ears in humility.

     Next, I declined to proceed unless he promised no one outside the meeting, including his wife, would  hear what we were about to discuss. He looked up. I told him my life depended on protection of the information. He looked at me again. I told him Chief Lawson said they were friends and that this encouraged me to feel secure with him. He nodded several times. Then, I drove the nail home when I told him I was not rosicrucian but I knew great rosicrucians such as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin kept promises.

     He gave me his word. Before we left him, we were sure of another cheque and more cheques from some of his friends.

     The Boardroom

     In the board room, Chief Ogunbanjo was not just an understanding director but also fatherly to us. Nevertheless, he, Mr Ola Vincent, Mr Dayo Sonuga and Otunba Oduntan made us see our smallness  as businessmen. Indeed, how many designer clothes would a young man have that can number  the rags of an old man?  He did not mind throwing our accounts back to us for reworking. We had an accountant who was finance director. But the board did not seem to be pleased with his house keeping. I was not an accountant, but I followed the criticisms with common sense, and knew the grand old men were in the right. Mr Ola Vincent was Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Otunba Oduntan was in charge of the budget in Ogun State and was Head of Service. They all couldn’t be wrong. From their criticisms, I saw a shortcoming in the journalist transforming into a newspaper owner without prior business education or coaching of sorts. Successful business boils down to the knowledge of money.  When we couldn’t do anything about the man who kept an eye on the money, Chief Ogunbanjo announced his exit  and appealed to Chief Dayo Sonuga to succeed him.

     The struggle continues

     Legion are the forces which seek to debar the ascent homeward of a departing soul. Karma, earthly propensities, grieving,  funeral fun fairs, wrong conceptions and beliefs, Indolence of the spirit, immaturity of the spirit kernel are among them. Some souls re enter their bodies and may not become free of it until long after the decay. The kernel of a soul may be immature, like the kernel of a fruit prematurely discharged from the mother tree in a storm. Such a seed kernel may decay, unable to sprout into a plant.

    The same often occurs to human souls in the ethereal, no matter how long or how short they may have been on earth. Sometimes, short lived persons have mature kernels and are not easily overcome by inclement environment in the ethereal world. It is against these and many more forces that we all would have to contend when we leave the earth. We need strength to overcome. Therefore, it is wrong to wish that a departing soul Rest In Peace. It is in this regard that I say to our father and friend Chief  Chris Ogunbanjo…may you awaken to joyful, living activities wherever you are.

  • Lola Ade-John: Coping with food poisoning (1)

    Lola Ade-John: Coping with food poisoning (1)

    What may Tourism Minister Lola Ade-John have eaten which so upset her health that she had to be in hospital, and some persons around her were even guessing she may need to see doctors abroad? This was the news break sometime late last month before memories of President Mohammadu Buhari’s long London hospital spells probably reconfigured the news skyline. It may be wrong, though, to assume pottering of the Minister’s health condition, if a cat was ever let out of the bag. The official position, stated by the minister herself two days after, dismissed speculations of food poisoning. We may never have the right answer to the question, just as, to many citizens, former president Buhari’s health affairs remain securely wrapped up under the carpet. Nevertheless, the newsbreak about Lola Ade-John’s health pulled familiar strings in my memory. For I have had no fewer than three near death experiences with food and prevented many other food troubles from getting out of hand.

    Experiences

    I spoke of having three near death experiences. They were all related to eating banana ripened with carbide. The first  experience occured in the office of Budget Travels at Illupeju Model Market, in Illupeju, Lagos, where I operated a health food store some years ago. I had a meal which I topped with some bananas. Suddenly, I felt something like a storm rise from the pit of my stomach and spiral upwards and sideways. Suddenly, also, my eyes began to roll on their own and everything I looked at began to swirl. I knew I could fall from the chair on which I sat, hit my head on the ground and injure some tissues inside it. So, I quickly lay flat on  my back on the floor, telling the owner of the office, Mrs Bukola Azeez, that I was about to faint and she should get me help. I removed my top dress and singlet. Many persons rushed it, forcing all sorts of things they thought could help me into my mouth. Some kind folks in love came with milk, others with energy drinks, and some more with water. My shop keeper, a young woman, was perplexed, that she did not remember Activated Charcoal, a delivery of which we had just added to the old stock that afternoon. It was after the danger was well over and I asked for a jar of activated charcoal that she remembered one of its major uses was to mop up certain poisons and even some germs in the gastro-intestinal tract and move them out of the body through the stool or feaces.

    Another of those near-death experiences took place at home, like the third. I was alone in the house. I had just returned from the office, decided to snack on bananas which I bought on the way, before I joined my friends for a beer or two at our meeting place in the shopping complex of the housing estate in which we lived. Suddenly, I felt that  spiral motion again from the depths of my stomach. Quickly, I pulled my top dress and the singlet. I recalled this time that, a week or two before, a youth corps member had slumped and died in one of the canteens of the Lagos State secretariat, Alausa, in Ikeja. I rushed to the kitchen for a bottle of palm oil which I thought could help to absorb some of the shocks before I got more help. But, while in the kitchen, I discovered I had lost the sense of smell.I quickly reasoned: What may happen if I mistook the bottle of liquid dish washing soap for that of palm oil ? One of the contents may very well be carbon tetrachloride, a dangerous poison in large doses,which is known to damage the liver and the kidneys.

    I had learned to not ignore my intuition, that silent, non obstrusive familiar inner voice since it saved my life when I lived at 39 Emina Cresent, off Toyin Street, in Ikeja, Lagos. That wonderful day, I cleaned the car and parked it on the street. Then, I had my bath, had breakfast, one that may have been my last about 20 years ago, if I disobeyed that small, silent yet knowing and seeing inner voice, the voice of the spirit. I wore my office dress, came out of the main building and locked the door after me. My dog, which my children named King followed beside me, wagging its tail. That morning, I fed it and my cat in their feeding bowl. I wished in that endeavour to be a unifying factor for all creatures as we humans, as Lords in this wonderful Creation, are meant to be, teaching all creatures  to not be enemies but friends. As I tried to open the foot gate and head for the car outside, that inner voice asked: Have you locked the  house door?

    Read Also: APC to Obi: Nigerians know their President

    My intellect or brain tried to deceive me when it retorted:

    “What a stupid thought? How can you forget what you did about one minute ago”?

    Pictures of how I locked the door rapidly unfolded before my gaze. But the inner voice asked me again:

    “What will  it cost  you if you if you go to check the door? 

    I turned around. But I had hardly taken two steps towards the house door that would require about 30 steps to reach, when I heard cracking sounds and smelled metal in the air. I fled to the back of the house through the side which protected a view of me from the main gate, while my dog fled through the other side. I thought armed robbers were operating in the street. About 30 minutes later, I heard familiar voices on the road. There was nothing exasperating about them. So, I came to the main gate to peep. All I could say was “Oh my goodness”

    In all the six years or so that I lived in that detached house, I did not notice there was a wooden pole near the foot gate over which ran high tension electricity cables. The pole had been eaten through at the bottom by termites. That morning, it finally gave way, crashing on my car and throwing the high tension cables over it. Had I been there, and had I been caught by those wires, it would have been a case of instant electrocution. We all disobey the inner voice with dire consequences we do not link to our carelessness or obtuseness.

    Back to the second near death experience. So, that evening at home, all alone in the house except perhaps with some unseen helpers and some nature beings in the garden who may have come in to help, I abandoned the kitchen and tried to go upstairs for a bottle of activated charcoal. My legs had become weak, meanwhile. But I managed to drag myself to a seat in the part of the sitting room where I hardly sat. To my surprise, there was a bottle of Diatom waiting there for me. Udeme did not return it upstairs after she gave it to someone who was brought to the house in severe condition of stomach ulcer pain. The pain subsided about 10 minutes after he took a tablespoonful in a glass of water, and he slept off for about one hour, waited upon by his friends. That evening, I could not go for a glass of water and a spoon. What were my saliva and tongue for, I asked myself. I popped some into my mouth, moistened it well with saliva and swallowed it. In about 10 minutes, the fire went down, like firewood fire in the rain. Carbonic acid has met its match again!

    After the third experience, I vowed never again to buy ripened or ripening banana and plantain. That was why I began to grow them in my own garden. On this third occasion, Udeme served me banana for snacking before dinner was ready. When I called out for help, she rushed upstairs for Diatom. The economy  has made it difficult to obtain many of these first aid agents, which, lest I forget, include one that I have not mentioned…Acidic Stomach and Alkaline Balance. It is the one I take when indigestion wakes me up in the night with a salt tasting saliva in my throat. That can forment trouble if not promptly treated. I spit out the irregular saliva, clean my mouth and swallow one or two capfuls, then I return to bed!

    I have learned to be a food watcher not only because I used to have a very sensitive digestive system but, also, because of my encounters with food poisoning reports very early in life as a sub Editor on the Daily Times.

    Between 1971 and 1974, some of the stories which passed through my hands for sub editing were either on canoe capsizes and passenger deaths or of whole families dying after mushroom meals in eastern parts of the country. So well reminded of those mushroom deaths was I that I turned down mushroom soup treats in Greek restuarants during my first visit to London in 1979. Last year, Udeme Edet James, our house manager , frightened me when she said she sighted some delicious mushrooms growing on the wood waste on the grounds of the back of my residence. I did not know what expertise she had which equipped her to tell killer mushrooms from edible mushrooms except that she grew up in an Akwa Ibom village where mushrooms were eaten as regularly as water leaf in Lagos where I have been resident since the 1950s. We agreed those mushrooms she discovered were not for cooking in the pots in which my meals were cooked. The stubborn young woman that she can be, especially when she wishes to make a point she is certain of, Udeme asked me about two weeks later if I enjoyed the native Akwa Ibom soup she cooked. When I saluted her cuisine sense, she laughed merrily and asked if I had died or had a stomach disturbance…I had eaten mushrooms!

    We learn throughout our existence, even in the so called beyond or the after life, as the world outside the purview of our physical bodies is also called. The old lesson here for me to re learn is to never argue with a woman or to give her an instruction. The experience reminds me of my fabulous uncle in law now of blessed memory. When only two of us were alone, he would look over his shoulders and whisper in very hush tones as though the walls were listening and will tell on him…”Women Are…” My wife, his niece , I guess, knows the code. In his family were five women and one man! I need no further education. In my family, and there are three boys. To win any argument, I threw the matter at hand on the table for debate and always won on a four to one ballot. Would a university teacher of political science and exponent of democracy abhore democratic principles on the home front? Men can be rascals where women are “…1,2,3,4,5,6”

    Gas, Bloating

    I often tell the story of how I could not control the biochemistry going on in my intestine as a young sub Editor on the Daily Times. Work hours were long and indeterminate. I subsisted on white flour snacks and sugared drinks called “soft drinks”. Back home, to add flesh to my skinny bones, I made a drink formula for this purpose from a popular egg based drink to which I added a tin of evaporated cow’s milk, preferably condensed milk, and to cap it, broke one or two raw eggs, all of which were whisped  into a newer homogenous blend. I bloated, almost died of intestinal gas , and was saved in the village by a herbal recipe I was treated with by a woman who inherited the formula from  being a student of her husband who later passed. Back at Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, I was skinny and went by the nickname…Paperweight. I could not play football during game periods from fears that the bigger boys could break my bones. As a sub editor, I thought I had become a “big boy” and should “pop up” a little for the girls to notice, but I did not realise I could be poisoning my body thereby. Hands up, all old men who, as boys  just seeing the light of day, didn’t wish to walk taller and look larger than they were.

    Zinc Supplements

    I have sensitive nostrils and taste buds. I advise everyone to sharpen the acuities of theirs by taking zinc food supplements. That’s one of the things they do among their 200 or so uses  in the body. A person whose nostrils are not inflamed and whose smell nerves are functioning well can always smell a rat in a meal that should not be taken. As a double fool-proofing, the taste buds at the back of the tongue help to warn us to pull the guards. Nowhere do they work better for me than when I chew groundnuts , also called peanuts. I do not tell lies… I love groundnuts, especially the roasted ones. My mother in law , now of blessed memory, used to tease my wife that another woman may seduce her husband with groundnuts! She, too, likes groundnuts. But, for my sake, she hides every bottle of groundnut in the house. For me, groundnuts could go with anything which could go into the mouth.

    I may munch them with banana and lettuce for dinner or as evening snack. Groundnuts are rich in protein, fats, important minerals and fiber. There is hardly any nutrient that is not present in lettuce, according to the research of Dr William Rodgers, who discovered vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) in 1919 and is presented in his famous book, The Wonderful  World Within You. It was in  his book that I must have first learned in the 1980s that lettuce is good for depression patients. Like banana, which gave me those three near death experiences I referred to earlier, lettuce provides the body with Tryptopan. This is a chemical substance that is first converted by the body to 5-Hydrotryptohan and from it to Serotonin. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter or the brain chemical which keeps us active from sunrise to sunset. It hits its peak from about 7am or 9 a.m. When night falls, serotonin is converted to Melation. This neuro transmitter calms the brain, keeps us yawning and sends us to sleep. People who are going through depression often do not have enough Melatonin,which may be the reason they do not sleep well or have sleep disorders. Pharmaceutical anti-depressants given in hospitals to depression patients help to mobilise serotonin from their bodies for the production of melatonin in their brains. This makes them feel like sleeping all the time, especially at night. Serotonin and melatonin deficiency from tryptophan deficiency may cause short term and long term memory problems, anxiety, mood imbalances, aggressive behaviour, panic attacks, depression, sleep disorders and a lot more of mental health problems. If, during the day when serotonin blood levels do not reach its peak because of excess melatonin, there is a tendency to wish to sleep during day hours as well. Also called the happy juice, melatonin improves mood and invigorates the mind, thereby making us happy. If “sleep attacks” occur during the day without reasonable cause, it may help if the melatonin serum level is checked!

    I hope I have not digressed too far. I will soon be back on the track. I have only been excited to share my passion for eating groundnuts, which may be a dangerous nut to eat, good as nuts are for health, if one eats the wrong ones. These wrong ones are infected ones. They are not easily noticed by many groundnut eaters. In Brazil, for example, about half of the exported groundnuts are infected groundnuts. Fungi are about the worst enemies of groundnuts. They drape them with aflatoxins which can cause poisoning of the blood and even cause some types of cancer. Anyone who likes groundnuts as I do should always check his or her tongue in the mirror. The tongue is supposed to be pinkish red. When a white carpet covers the tongue or interlaces with its natural colour, this is oral thrush or fungal infection and may suggest that the intestine has been colonised by fungi not necessarily from groundnuts alone but from almost every food item sold in the Nigerian market. A food and agriculture organisation (FAO) survey of Nigerian open markets once reported that there is hardly any food item that is fungi free. So, we may all be loading up on poisons which, like time bombs, may explode anytime as food poisoning.

  • Waste not, want not economy: Banana peel, is super food

    Waste not, want not economy: Banana peel, is super food

    Everywhere you go, everywhere you turn, almost everyone is screaming that the economy is hot and scorchy and that they no longer have enough to eat. Even the Alsatian dogs in the house opposite mine are always barking. I guess they, too, want more food. So, I am careful to not be on the road alone, for I still vividly remember the story of five months old  Mariam Muhideen.  Two hungry Alsatian dogs wrenched her from her mother’s back on 23 August 2023 and ferociously devoured her.Her mother screamed for help, but none came.  Baby Mariam and her mother, Nasifat Muhideen, were attacked by the two dogs in unity estate, Hallelujah area of Ido-Osun, Osun State. Mariam had catarrh. Nasifat strapped her on her back and left home to buy a catarrh medicine for her. Meanwhile, two hungry Alsatian dogs had been digging the earth from  a walled property through the underneath of the gate to the street. Nasifat fell when they pounced on her, and Mariam became an easy  target for them.

    Nasifat may bear emotional injuries for life and suffer from their attendant health problems whenever she sees dogs or hear the bark of any, or if her subconscious mind recalls her experience in dreams. Our society can be an unfeeling one. How many of us remember this poor and unsung mother and her baby? Since this case has no political roots, flowers, fragrance and fruits, it has not much follow-up value for the traditional and social media. What has even Governor Ademola Isiaka Jackson Adeleke done about it? Couldn’t this woman and her family have voted for him? Governance is more of empathy for the fallen in society than it is of wriggling bum bum to the sound of music at public and private functions. Where are the women’s societies? Is this not a woman, mother, child and family matter before it is a Nigerian matter?

     In the years before the 1970s, I would have blamed our growing insensitivity on a visitation or pummeling of The Time in Which We Stand. Do we not carelessly and ignorantly say that Time flies?  Since the mid 1970s, however, I have realised that Time Does Not fly, that Time Stands Still, that Time is eternal, that we human beings are the causes of whatever we experience in the bowels of time. At a lower level of expectation, we can imagine that huge hollow space in which numberless material objects conduct themselves. It is the period certain occurrences regularly take place or the opening and closing of cycles we assume to be time, and then time. Thus, we speak of seconds, hours, months, days, weeks and years, seasons, cosmic ages and all of that. If one year on planet Earth is 248 years in planet Pluto( or six days on earth make one day on Pluto), If 12 years on planet Jupiter is one earth year, if 88 days on earth is one year on planet Mercury, If one day in heaven is 1000 years on planet Earth, What is time and Where is time? Certainly, it cannot be our earthly conception of it which is relative, nor can it reside among us for it is universal, untouchable by us and irresponsive to our whims and caprices. Time is Life, God.

    Economy  Woes

    If the economy has overheated to the point that we cannot find the money to buy enough food to fill our stomachs whenever we find food to buy, we must ask ourselves how this problem came about and solve the equations as we do in Algebra, arithmetic and Geometry. Time did not bring about hunger in the land.  We cannot blame it if there is food but we have no money to buy it, or if there is money, but there is no food to buy with it, or, as some people are experiencing, if there is no food and there is no money. The Almighty Creator provided us land on which to exist. The land is among the most arable on earth. Earthquakes, turbulent winds, snow, winter and floods do not disturb us, and we have abundant tropical sun which energises our environment. There are places on this earth with 24 hours of daylight or 24 hours of nightfall most of the time. We have about 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of nightfall  year round. So, what is our problem that we cannot easily feed ourselves? Countries with 24 hours of sunlight  live under “The Midnight Sun”. Those which live under 24 hours of darkness are “The  Polar Night” nations. Among Polar night countries are Norway, Sweden, Finland, parts of Russia. How do they grow their food and do not have to complain about hunger while we , the blessed ones, are complaining? Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and some parts of Canada have a breather in their summer months when the sun stands above the horizon for months, giving them continuous daylight . We are blessed in Nigeria, I say again. Imagine yourself to be living in a country where you have to sleep for one whole month and work without rest for another. How do you go to the farm in the wholly night months to cultivate land or to bring the farm harvests home? I was shocked in 1979 during my first travel outside Nigeria…to London . The sun was  up till about one hour from midnight and came up again at about 3:30am or 4 am. All my “O” level geography disappeared in my head. I could not sleep because the sun was still up, and I had to rise when the sun prematurely rose. Everyone around me who had lived in England for some time had adjusted to what, to me, was a”strange” phenomenon. Suddenly, I remembered the conception of Adaptation to the environment as well as to social events which I had learned from a spiritual work, back in 1977 as a Nigerian youth corps member in Calabar, Cross River State.

    Spiritual  Indolence

     We are an inwardly or innately, that is spiritually, unadaptable and wasteful, lazy people, even, if on the surface, we appear physically active, struggling and religious.

     Even plants and animals struggle and adapt to environmental changes. Which bird or ant or lizard doesn’t fill its stomach everyday? When we plant seeds in the soil, do they not sprout, push the soil and pebbles aside, grow roots to secure themselves and then rise against the forces of gravity, to the top soil to flower and then fruit? Do ants, birds and other animals blame anyone else but themselves if they are hungry? It is because we do not study their lives that we always point accusing fingers at everyone but ourselves whenever things go wrong for us and with us. In the country, we have all the arable land we need, but we are too lazy to cultivate it. We would rather, for example, like to eat the rice grown on foreign land which, devitalised from refining for longer shelf life, is less nutritious than ours. When the government encourages local farmers to grow more rice and bans foreign rice, we smuggle in foreign rice. We do not realise India and Thailand are selling theirs at cheaper prices to deplete our foreign reserves, keep their citizens employed,  keep ours unemployed and make us a dependent people. Many of us are religious but not spiritual christians. The parable of the 10 virgins is about castigation of dependency. Dependent persons are foolish persons. Which stalk of corn in the field depends on the other for its nutrition and survival? Among nations, we are habitual importers, not producers and exporters. That is why our foreign earnings are grossly below our spending and there is a near war-rush for the U.S Dollar and  other European currencies. How would the government and the country not be broke in these circumstances? Who but ourselves can we blame? In June, this column published a series of warnings that no fewer than Six Mafia Wars were coming, beginning with that of petroleum subsidy, foreign exchange equalisation and food.  It is in an effort to help pave some ways for an escape from the hunger in the land that I wish to make one or two comments today.

    A  WastFUL PEOPLE

    We waste food a lot. Yet, we are in a WASTE NOT, WANT NOT economy. Our wedding and funeral banquets are opportunities to throw away large remnants of food, notably rice, cow meat, chicken, turkey and fish, most of them imported with hard earned foreign currency. We cannot start a rabbit farming revolution to reduce or stop importation of cows from  Chad and Niger Republic and stop their herders from grazing foreign cattle on our farm lands, killing, maiming and kidnapping our farmers. Indians do not eat cow meat. We relish it. According to Google, Indian life expectancy in 2020 was 70.15 years, while Nigeria’s was 52.89 years. So, there should be no need for all the cry that many families cannot afford beef and fish protein at this time.  What adaptation is all about is that there are other sources of protein, probably healthier than flesh protein, to which the poor can be guided.

     I AM thinking of Banana Peel and other plant Protein Substitutes which may minimise the roles of fish, egg and cow meat in the diet.

     When my household couldn’t cope with daily budgets of beef and fish, we switched to soups made from peanut( groundnut) and crayfish pastes, assorted edible leaves in the garden with good protein content, all garnished with banana peel. For some years, I have been eating banana with the peel because the peel is more nutritious than the fruit. We do not throw away plantain peel either. We prefer the green plantain. We grate fruit and peel into a mesh , cook as porridge with crayfish and groundnut paste. If tomatoes are cheap, we add. Otherwise we leave out. For the soup, three or four of us will eat about three times, we require no  more than N300 worth of crayfish and the same amount of groundnuts.

    Read Also: Trump’s banana republic

    Nutrient Values

    From www.healthline.com comes this amazing nutritional treasure trove of 100 grams of groundnuts…

    “Total fat 49 grams; cholesterol 0 mg; sodium 18mg; potassium 705mg; total carbohydrate 16g, dietary fiber 9g; sugar 4g; protein 26g, vitamin c (0%), iron (25%), vitamin B6 (15%), magnesium (42%), calcium(9%), vitamin D(0%), cobalamin…B12(0%)

     What about crayfish? According to www.fitnigerian.com, crayfish provides the following food values: ” calcium 3,760mg; iron 28.6mg; magnesium 1,100mg; phosphorus 1,310mg; potassium 1,760mg; sodium 0mg; zinc 0.16mg; copper 0.25mg; manganese 0.275mg

    What about banana peel? Cured, diced and eaten raw with food or perboiled before serving , banana peel is a rich source of antioxidants, digestive aid in constipation and diarrhoea, anti cancer substances and depression fighter, sleep improvers, bacteria killers and immune boosters, among others.

    Here are a few potential health benefits of banana peels:

     Depression Relief

    The high levels of tryptophan in bananas, combined with the B6 in banana peels, can help relieve some symptoms of depression and other mood disorders. Tryptophan turns into serotonin as it breaks down, which can improve your mood. Vitamin B6 can help improve sleep, which has a positive impact on mood over time.

    Fiber-rich banana peels can help regulate the digestive system, easing both constipation and diarrhoea. This can be a particularly important benefit of banana peels for people with Crohn’s disease or irritable bowel syndrome.

    Vitamin A can help keep your eyes strong and healthy. This vitamin is abundant in both bananas and banana peels.

    Banana peels are packed with polyphenols, carotenoids, and other antioxidants that fight cancer-causing free radicals in your body. Eating more banana peels, especially green, unripe peels, can increase your antioxidant levels and help reduce your risk of cancer.”

    What about leaves? We cook a mixed grill of bitter leaf, scent leaf , oregano leaf, dead nettle, young potato leaves and iyana ipaja leaves which also go by the names ewe awolowo, ewe Akintola or, in Akwa Ibom State and Delta state, Hospital too far. Natives of these states believe it saves them the trouble of hospital visits. In Mexico and Guatemala and Cambodia, this leaf is a popular vegetable. Mexicans call it tree spinach or chaya. For centuries, it has been a staple food of the Mayans. It is not eaten raw, but cooked for about 20 minutes to neutralise the hyddrocyanic glycosides. It may be stirred and added to rice, beans or porridge, even corn porridge if powdered. Americans now encapsulate it for the natural health market.

     Michelle Blackwood says in www.healthiersteps.com:

     “Chaya has been used traditionally to treat many ailments such as diabetes, kidney stones, arthritis, obesity, eye problems, and acne.Chaya is a good source of Vitamin A and C, a great source of protein, calcium, iron, phosphorus.”

     According to pdf.usaid.gov:

     “… Chaya is more nutritious than many green leafy vegetables such as spinach, Chinese cabbage and amaranth. The leaves are very high in protein, calcium, iron and vitamins A and C…The following table summarises the range of nutrition values found in a 100g serving of Chaya, and the percentages of recommended daily intakes of key nutrients.

    Protein 6.2 – 7.4 g 12-15% Protein builds muscles. One serving of Chaya has the same amount protein as an egg.

    Calcium 200 – 330 mg 20-33% Calcium builds strong bones. Chaya has more calcium than any other vegetable.

    Iron 9.3 – 11.4 mg 42-52% Iron is good for healthy blood and more energy.

    Chaya has two times the iron as spinach.

    Vitamin A 1,357 IU 27% Vitamin A prevents night blindness and protects the body against infections.

    Vitamin C 165 – 205 mg 275-342% Vitamin C builds strong bones, protects against infections and helps the body absorb iron.

     In general, Chaya leaves are boiled in the same way as spinach

    The leaves have a bland taste so they can be easily added to many foods such as soups, mixed vegetable dishes and omelets without changing the taste of these dishes.

     Stir frying Chaya leaves with onions, garlic and chili peppers is another way to make an easy, nutritious dish.

     Or add chopped, cooked Chaya leaves to rice just before it finishes cooking, to add nutrients to this staple dish.

    Always cook Chaya leaves. Do not eat uncooked leaves. Raw Chaya leaves contain hydrocyanic glucoside, a toxic substance that can make you sick. However, cooked leaves are safe to eat. By cooking the leaves, the toxic substance is released as a harmless gas…

    For many dishes that cook quickly, it is important to pre-cook the Chaya leaves before using them…

    When you boil Chaya leaves, much of the vitamin C ends up in the cooking water. Do not throw this away as it is a good source of nutrients. Add the cooking water to soups. Or, drink it like a tea. Because the leaves have been boiled, the liquid is safe to use or drink.”

    CONCLUSION

    I have not mentioned many leaves, including pride of Barbados and hibiscus flowers. Many Nigerian wives have got hooked on spinach, water leaf and ugwu that they do not know other leaf vegetables exist. When the prices of these three popular vegetables rise or they are scarce, there is commotion everywhere in the social media and the government becomes the whipping boy. When are we going to stop this behaviour and learn to adapt? Can we not grow tree spinach at home? Can the farmers not grow it on the farms? Can the media not redirect our gaze to other food types when one food type is scarce? Do we respond to re-orientation? This column has reported how an agriculture revolution in Nigeria can produce 100 billion rabbits and 100 billion pawpaw fruits in only four years. How many persons have joined the revolution? Iamgrowing about 10 papayas in my house. When they mature, would I cry that I have no money for breakfast or for dinner? We waste banana and plantain peels, more nutritious than the fruits as they are. We waste nutritious vegetables or ignore them and complain that we are hungry and starving. We do not ask ourselves why the animals we do not cage in our homes have a lot to eat everyday and we live in want. We approach everything we do with delimited brain and not the free soaring spirit, ranking below the animal when we are meant to be Lords in this wonderful Creation. The ingredients proposed for soups here are abundant, cheap, nutritious, bulk of the meal and, thereby, reduce quantum of the non-vegetable content and the cost of a meal.

     Finally, we have a serious convenant with the Almighty Creator who permitted us existence on earth…that we would always reap bountiful harvests of whatever we sow. Hunger in the land admit plenty, I say boldly, is the harvest of Spiritual Indolence…seeing we see but comprehendest not!

  • Restore LYF: Dr. Ray strand, grape seed doctor (1)

    Restore LYF: Dr. Ray strand, grape seed doctor (1)

    I am glad that, finally, I am able to write again about RESTORE LYF, one of the “hot-cake” nutritional supplements of 2021 and a potential star plant medicine in 2022. The last time I tried to put my hands on the plough last year, I limited myself to the product literature and a few ideas I gained about 20 years ago from Dr.Ray Strand, author of WHAT YOUR DOCTOR DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT NUTRITIONAL MEDICINE MAY BE KILLING YOU. This is a great book by a humble, forthright doctor who could not help his dying wife but was kind enough to let medical lay friend treat…and heal her, using food supplements. Dr.Strand openly admits that neither he nor many doctor studied nutrition at school, what a doctor did not know about nutrition may be why he/she was not curing diseases…and his/her patients may be dying. 

    Before I proceed to let us hear directly from Dr.Strand himself about the experiences which urged him to become a nutrition inclined doctor, I would like to seriously advise that, this year, you read this book, introduce it to your doctors, friends and family members as one of the health books which deserve a worthy place in their home health library. Our doctors are well-meaning and humble persons who would not mind to learn from us their patients what would help them to save our lives…and the lives of other patients. I said at the beginning I was happy finally, I could now write this column the way I wanted. That was because, when I first attempted to, Dr.Strands book was missing from my library. I had been reading it since 2002. I was interested in one case history helped by one of the constituents of RESTORE LYF, a product of NATURE’S WAY of the United States. I asked MRS OMOLARA BELLO, resident in London, if she could send a copy to me. She tried to but could not before CORDELIA DIKE called from New York to say her sister, IMMACULATE, resident in California, had purchased a copy. The hard cover bore a hole in my pocket. About 2 weeks later, another copy arrived from Mrs Bello.

    Dr strand

    This is the humble story of Dr.Strand:

    “I was not sure how much more frustration I could bear over my wife’s deteriorating health. And I wasn’t just another worried husband, I was a medical doctor. As a physician for more than thirty years, I was accustomed to having answers to medical questions. After graduating from the University of Colorado Medical School and doing postgraduate work at Mercy Hospital in San Diego, I settled into a successful family practice in a small city in western South Dakota. Along the way I met and married Liz. She had some health problems, but Liz honestly thought that if she married a physician her health would improve. Was she ever wrong! Before long our family included three children under the age of four and a busy Liz grew increasingly weary. Every mom with little children is tired, but Liz seemed unusually fatigued. Although she was only thirty years old, she told me she felt sixty.

    “As the years passed she developed more symptoms and health problems that required several medications. By our tenth anniversary Liz was so tired that most of the time she labored to put one foot ahead of the other. She experienced continual, total body pain, overwhelming fatigue, horrible allergies and recurrent sinus and lung infections. Finally, after testing and evaluation, Liz’s doctors diagnosed her problem as fibromyalgia. This medical condition involves an array of symptoms—the worst being chronic pain and fatigue. In years past fibromyalgia was called PSYCHOSOMATIC RHEUMATISM, and doctors believed the disease was all in the patient’s head… Liz was willing to try anything so that she could continue the pursuit of her passion: training and riding dressage horses. But in time her pain and fatigue curtailed all work with her beloved animals. She became so tired that she was unable to stay up much beyond 8:00pm, and she struggled just to keep up with basic domestic chores.

    “Since fibromyalgia has no cure, all I could do to ease Liz’s symptoms was load her up with medications. I had her taking amitriptyline at night for sleep, anti-inflammatories for pain, muscle relaxants, inhalers for her asthma and hay fever, seldane for allergies, and eventually weekly allergy shots. In spite of my efforts and all this medicine, year after year her health gradually worsened. In January of 1995 Liz and I concluded that more exercise would benefit us both… One infection after another left her sick and on antibiotics more often than not. In March she developed a severe pneumonia. She labored to breathe as one lobe of her lungs became completely filled with infection and closed off. The physician caring for her lung was very concerned it might not hear and could possibly even require surgery and removal. We consulted an infectious-disease specialist, and he placed Liz on intravenous antibiotics, steroids, and nebulizer treatments. Fortunately, within two weeks the pneumonia cleared. Her cough, however, persisted, and she continued on heavy medication for months.

    “Of greater concern was her fatigue, which was now worse than ever. Liz was out of bed only about two hours a day. Her asthma and allergies were raging and only with luck could she make the walk to the barn to see her horses. Liz was so sick the children took turns staying home from school to care for her. Constantly in bed, she felt too weak to even go watch TV or read. This went on month after month. Although I maintained my professional exterior, on the inside I was growing desperate. I visited several times with the pulmonologist and the infectious-disease specialist. They assured me that with Liz’s diagnosis they were doing everything possible. When I asked how long it would take for her to recover, the answer was six to nine months—or maybe never. About this time a friend of the family shared with Liz that her husband had also had pneumonia and had experienced significant fatigue during the recovery. He took some nutritional supplements, and they helped him regain his strength. Liz and her friend were aware of my negative attitude toward vitamin supplements, so Liz knew she would need my blessing before trying them. When she asked, even I was surprised at my response: ‘Honey, you can try anything you want. We doctors certainly are not doing you any good’. 

    “Presuppositions to the test

    To be honest, I knew next to nothing about nutrition or nutritional supplementation. In medical school I had not received any significant instruction on the subject. I was not alone. Only approximately 6% of the graduating physicians in the United States have any training in nutrition… As I mentioned in the introduction, the education of most physicians is disease-oriented with a heavy emphasis on pharmaceuticals—we learn about drugs and why and when to use them. Because of the respect people have for doctors, they assume we are experts on all health-related issues, including nutrition and vitamins. Before my conversion experience with nutritional medicines, my patients frequently asked me if I believed their taking vitamins produced any health benefits. They brought their bottles of supplements into the office and let me look at them. I’d wrinkle my brow and, with my most astute professional expression, would carefully examine the labels. Handing the bottles back, I’d say that the stuff was absolutely no use at all.

    “My motives were good: I just didn’t want people wasting their money. I truly believed that these patients did not need supplements and could get all the vitamins they needed from a good diet. After all, that’s what I had learned in medical school… What I did not share with my patients was that I had not spent a minute evaluating the hundreds of scientifically conducted studies that proved the value of supplementation to health. But what was I to do about my sickly wife? I might be able to pull off professional magic at the office, but at home I was just another husband looking on helplessly as his wife wasted away. I really had no choice, so I said to Liz, ‘Go ahead, try the vitamins. What do you have to lose?’ Her friend brought a collection of vitamin supplements to our house the next day—heavy on the antioxidants: nutrients like vitamin E, vitamin C, and beta-carotene that protect the body against the harmful effects of oxidation. Liz eagerly swallowed them and downed two health drinks as well. To my amazement, within three days she obviously felt better. I was happy for her but confused. As subsequent days passed, Liz gained more energy and strength and even stayed up later in the evenings. After three weeks of faithfully swallowing many pills and consuming those strange-looking drinks, Liz felt so good that she stopped taking the steroids and nebulizer treatments.

    “Three months passed, all bringing gradual improvement, and Liz never looked back. She was stronger than she had been in years and exuded a renewed outlook on life. I saw the sparkle in her eyes when she returned from training and caring for her horses. She not only could do the work in the horse barn but also was no longer fearful of suffering from allergic reactions to the hay, mold, and dust. Instead of limping off to bed shortly after dinner, she was staying up until 11:00 and 12:00 at night. I was now the one who headed to bed before my mate. What had happened? If I had not been an eyewitness to this transformation, I would have never believed it. Was it possible that some ‘weird vitamins’ had restored my wife’s health when all the medical expertise and medications could not help? Not only had Liz’s lungs recovered from the pneumonia, the symptoms of her fibromyalgia had improved dramatically. Since there really is no medical treatment for fibromyalgia, what was going on? Was this one of God’s mysterious miracles or was it possible that Liz’s newly recovered health was due to those—HORROR—nutritional supplements? For a person trained in medical science I did what comes naturally: I decided to run my own clinical trial. I culled my records to find five of my worst fibromyalgia patients and asked them to visit my office. (How’s that for a twist—a doctor calling a patient to make an appointment?) I shared Liz’s story with all of them and suggested they consider taking nutritional supplements. I told each patient that I had no idea whether this ‘alternative treatment’ would help… 

    Read Also: NiMet predicts 48-hour heavy rainfall in Bayelsa, Kogi, Anambra, 22 others

    “Typical fibromyalgia sufferers are despondent, so each of my five subjects was very eager. After a period of time ranging from three to six months, without exception each patient reported improvement after taking the vitamin supplements. Not everyone had as dramatic a health rebound as my wife, but all were encouraged and had fresh hope. One of these women’s cases was particularly severe. She had sought answers at the Mayo Clinic and two different pain clinics, but because there really is no effective medical treatment for fibromyalgia, she found no consistent relief. A year earlier pain had so beaten her down that she had attempted suicide. Now, after taking these vitamins, she called and left a message on my home answering machine. Obviously in tears and struggling to speak, she said: ‘Dr.Strand, thank you for giving my life back to me’. Every doctor loves to hear words like that… Since I knew that my preliminary study with five patients was not enough to reach scientific certainty on nutritional supplements, I needed to dig deeper.

    “My research on supplementation

    While browsing through a bookstore a week later, I saw a book by Dr.Kenneth Cooper called THE ANTIOXIDANT REVOLUTION(Thomas Nelson, 1994). Since I had always admired Dr.Cooper for his expertise on aerobic exercise and preventative medicine, I was inquisitive about his opinions on antioxidants. Dr.Cooper explained a process called ‘oxidative stress’, which he indicated was the underlying cause of chronic degenerative diseases—essentially a ‘who’s who’ of the health problems plaguing humanity today… We all know that oxygen is essential for life itself. Yet oxygen is also inherently dangerous to our existence. This is known as the oxygen paradox. Scientific research has established beyond a shadow of doubt that oxidative stress, or cell damage by free radicals, is the root cause of more than seventy chronic degenerative diseases. The same process that causes iron to rust or a cut appple to turn brown is the underlying initiator of diseases like coronary artery disease, cancer, strokes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s dementia, and macular degeneration. That is right: we are actually rusting on the inside. Evey chronic degenerative disease I have mentioned is the direct result of the toxic effects of oxygen. Infact oxidative stress is the leading theory behind the aging process itself. In addition to this, our bodies are under constant attack from an army of pollutants in our air, food and water. Our stress-filled lifestyle also take a toll. If we do not counteract these processes, the result is cell deterioration and ultimately, disease. This is why the truths revealed in this book are so critical to our health.

    “Learning about how unhindered oxidative stress damages the body drastically changed my perspective on chronic degenerative diseases. For example, since oxidative stress can actually cause damage to the DNA nucleus of the cell, it may be the actual villian in cancer. This opens up the tremendous possibility of using antioxidants in cancer prevention. Since oxidative stress also causes arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, macular degeneration, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and Crohn’s disease, nutritional supplements may also combat and control those illnesses. In his book Dr.Copper reported on some studies of patients done at his aerobics center in Dallas concerning the cause of ‘overtraining syndrome’. Surprisingly, Dr.Cooper discovered that some athletes who trained intensely ended up later struggling with serious chronic illness. They all showed signs of having oxidative stress, and the list of the symptoms associated with the syndrome were eerily similar to those of fibromyalgia patients. I began to wonder, could oxidative stress cause fibromyalgia too? Is this why my wife and several of my patients are getting better by taking high-quality antioxidants? This marked the beginning of my investigation into the ‘dark-side’ of oxygen… In the past year alone, I have examined more than thirteen hundred peer-reviewed medical studies involving nutritional supplements and how they affect chronic degenerative diseases. These studies are double-blind, placebo-controlled medical studies show a significant health benefit to those patients who take nutrients at optimal levels, which are significantly higher than the RDA(recommended daily allowance) levels.

    Vitamins and you

    When you understand the tremendous damage that oxidative stress inflicts during normal daily life on the human body, you realize how important it is to optimize your own natural defense system. Your health and life depend on it. Through my research I learned that the strongest defense against these diseases is our bodies’ own natural antioxidants and immune systems. These are far superior to any drugs I can prescribe. I concluded after much study that using nutritional supplementation on patients is not alternative medicine but is instead complementary medicine. Infact it may represent the very best in mainline medicine because it is true preventive medicine. Taking nutritional supplements is not about eradicating disease, it is about promoting vibrant health. After reviewing medical research studies, I have absolutely no doubt that my patients who take high-quality nutritional supplements have a health benefit over those who don’t. Although a patient may have a particular health problem, in recommending supplements I am not necessarily treating that particular disease. I am simply enabling the patient to provide the nutrients to his/her body at the optimal levels that studies have shown to provide a health benefit based on medical research. This approach to health I have labelled CELLULAR NUTRITION, which enables the body to do what God intended. The personal case histories that I present in this book are ones I have documented in my office…

    “… Almost all of these true-stories are about patients who had lost their health too. With much encourage and determination they continued to seek answers, and after testing the principles presented here, they regained their health. Liz is my best case study. By the way, her health remains robust—even though she married a doctor! Instead of spending many hours of everyday on pain and weakness in bed, she now lives the full life of her dreams. She had the energy to fully enjoy being a wife and mother. And her passion for training and showing horses is no longer just wishful thinking but a daily reality”.ent from Yahoo Mail on Android

  • Does coconut oil offer promise of glaucoma cure?

    Does coconut oil offer promise of glaucoma cure?

    This column was first published in April 2022 to signpost the 2022 World Glaucoma Week. It is republished today at the request of many caregivers, challenged persons and readers of this column who read a summary of it in last week’s column ( September 14, 2023) on multiple sclerosis and stroke

     Joe Lovett, a former glaucoma sufferer who says he cured this dangerous eye disease with coconut oil, says it can help other challenged persons as well. Joe Lovett should know what he is saying. His background does not potray him as an irresponsible person. The world’s leading opthalmologists (eye doctors) say glaucoma is incurable, that it runs its course up to the stage of blindness, that that course can only be delayed through early detection and appropriate treatment. That treatment comes in three levels. The first is the use of eye drops to lower intra-occular pressure (IOP). Occular tension is pressure of fluid at the back of the eye pressing against light sensitive optic nerve and damaging or killing it. The second level of treatment is surgery. This is employed to open up blocked drainage channels in the front chamber of the eye so that fluid can move out from the back chamber and stop pressing on the retina and optic nerve and damaging them. Sometimes, if not often, this surgery fails and the “gutter ” it creates in the front chamber gets blocked again, leading the patient to status quo ante. The third intervention, which is the use of eye antioxidants, recognises that the patient may have been suffering from nutritional deficiencies which make the eye unable to stand up against oxidative stress, photochemical reactions and other challenges. That is why, for example, worldwide, children are now given vitamin A as food supplement and adults are going for fermented vitamin A which has a huge arsenal of zinc and other eye friendly nutrients.

    If Joe Lovett emerged from this regimen of treatment for his glaucoma, saying it did not help him, and that it was coconut oil which finally cured his glaucoma, it is either that he is a crank, if he is lying, or that he is a frontier man of medicine , should his statements be true. The new frontier person is that man or woman who tells us we didn’t know all we needed to know about a problem, which was why we are always unable to decisively solve it, and presents us with new information which, to our surprise, easily clears up the dross and leads us into a new world of freedom. Glaucoma is one of those problems. Mankind has not defeated it. Increasingly, more people all over the world are still diagnosed with glaucoma which, after cataracts of the eye lens, remains the second major cause of blindness. If Joe Lovett is now telling us that glaucoma can be cured simply by drinking some tablespoonfuls of it everyday or consuming it with our food, that is great news. And that is why we must quickly check his background to see if he has a reputation he will not wish to damage with careless talk. To prove his point, Joe Lovett has written two books on the cure of glaucoma and other eye diseases, using coconut oil. As a sinking person will cling to any straw for a lifeline, I expect glaucoma challenged persons to try out it’s postulations. Being a journalist myself, I do not believe any veteran of the profession will like to spike a hard-earned golden reputation as his. So, who is Joe Lovett and what are the postulations which may qualify him to be described as a new frontiers man of medicine?

    Read Also: world glaucoma week: Some of my experiences

     Joe Lovett

     This man, according to an article in which his views were presented as an introduction to some books he has written on his glaucoma cure, waves the following testimonial before his claims.

     “Joe was a successful director and film maker living in New York City. In the 1980s, he was the producer for ABC News 20/20 programme with Huge Downs and Barbara Walters. After leaving ABC News in 1989, he founded his own company, Lovett Productions, producing documentary and highlighting social and health issues”.

     Lovett’s hypothesis

     According to the originating article titled “Is There a cure for Glaucoma?” A coconut oil based therapy offers promise:

     “Many researchers now view glaucoma as a neurological disorder that causes nerve cells in the brain to degenerate and die, similar to what occurs in Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s. Chronic inflammation characteristic of all neurodegenerative disorders, is now becoming recognised as an important factor in glaucoma”.

     The article began with a settled idea about how vision occurs when it says: “Elevated pressure may be a symptom rather than the initiating factor…

     “In Parkinson’s disease, the area of the brain called the Substantia Nigra, which controls movement is affected most. In Alzheimer’s, it is the Hippocampus Frontal Lobes, areas which involve memory. In glaucoma, it is the eyes. Damage to, and death of cells in the retina, mimics the same type of degeneration in brain cells. In fact, the same type of plaque that forms in Alzheimer’s brain, also forms in the retina. Studies show that Alzheimer’s patients have an increased risk of developing glaucoma. For example, a German institutional study of Alzheimer’s patients showed a 24.5 per cent increase, increase prevalence of glaucoma compared to only 6.5 per cent of aged matched patients without the disease. A Japanese study showed similar results. Alzheimer’s patients have an increased prevalence of glaucoma of 23.8 per cent compared with control patients of 9.9 per cent. Not only are Alzheimer’s patients more likely to develop glaucoma, but glaucoma patients are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s. A study of 812 glaucoma subjects, 72 years of age and older, found that they were four times more likely to develop dementia”.

     Comments

     These are serious statements which, nevertheless, should not frighten health pursuers. For when the roots of a problem are known and can be decisively uprooted, the chances of a cure are very bright. I have had glaucoma since I was 45 in 1995. That means I have had it for 27 years with serious impact on my vision. But my brain still serves me well for my age, with no visible signs of Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s. My memory is still fairly good. My movements are not wobbly. I still wear my knickers or my pair of trousers, standing. I still write as fast as in the examination halls in my days at the university. I sleep when I wish to and wake up as easily as I fall asleep when I am done with sleep. Years ago,  I relished coconut oil in my meals because it gave support to my digestive system. At that time, I read of how it may be good for cancer and HIV. There was a story of a Caribbean woman whose name I do not remember now. This story made one of my columns. She lived in the United States where she developed cancer of the brain. Chemotherapy did not help her. So she returned home.

    The Caribbeans grew a lot of coconuts. Her father had a large farm. She went through a coconut oil therapy and, in one year, her cancer was gone. There are many such stories. Joe Lovett’s about glaucoma is about the first I will hear of this condition. I do not know if I am relatively healthy upstairs, irrespective of glaucoma, because I load up everyday on antioxidants in my daily nutrition, in particular with those which protect and help the brain as well.

    Ever since I knew of the antioxidant and phenolic compounds in Jobelyn, I have hardly missed it. Dr. Ray Strand taught me about 40 years ago to respect Grape Seed Extract. In www.olufemikusa.com, you would read in four articles I posted early this year of how it helped his wife recover from irksome fibromyalgia and restore life to some of his patients with neurological vision and lower limbs challenges. That series of four articles is titled Dr. Ray Strand, The Grape Seed Doctor. What about Alpha Lipoic Acid, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Essential FattyAcids, Zinc, Magnesium and many more? I have been on and off on coconut oil. I have been witness to how it helps to arrest the “opportunistic diseases” in persons challenged with human immuno virus (HIV) and how it has helped in many cases of cancer. But Joe Lovett’s use of it for glaucoma, and with a reversal success as he says is something I have to grapple with.

     Coconut oil

     Joe Lovett says that when we consume a ketogenic diet, a low carbohydrate diet, high protein and high healthy fat diet (Omega 3 oils) for cancer and diabetes patients, we may increase BDNS to such levels that may beneficially impact the brain.

     BDNFS is a brain derived neuro Trophic Factor

    Joe Lovett’s article says:

     “Another way to raise blood ketones is by drinking coconut oil. When coconut oil is consumed, a portion of the medium fatty acids ( MCFAs) in the oil will automatically be converted into ketones, regardless of blood glucose levels. You can raise blood ketones and subsequently BDNFs, to therapeutic levels by eating coconut oil. Combining coconut oil with a ketogenic diet enhances the production of ketones and BDNFs, improving their therapeutic effects. If a ketogenic coconut oil-based diet is maintained for a period of time, it can allow the time needed to bring about healing and repair within the Central Nervous System. Ketones are proven to be successful in reversing epilepsy, Alzheimer’s , Parkinson’s and other neuro degenerative diseases. The eyes are also part of the Central Nervous System and can be protected with Ketone -induced BDNFs. In animal studies where the retina and optiic nerves  are intentionally injured, BDNFs are proven to lessen the damage and stimulate healing and regrowth of these tissues, preserving eyesight…It seems like, despite what you may have been told, degenerative diseases like glaucoma are not easily reversible.

     Lovett’s  experience

     Eighteen years ago, he was diagnosed with glaucoma. Six years ago, he reversed it on coconut oil diet. That means he suffered glaucoma for 12 years. It all began in his 20s. His doctor then did not think too much of it. He gave eye drops to lower the eye pressure. Joe Lovett was like many glaucoma-challenged persons. He used the eye drops, believing it will bring about a cure. He did not realise that elevated eye pressure was merely a symptom of many damaging biochemical and photochemical activities going on inside his eyes. Many opthalmologists do not sit their patients down to explain the nitty gritty of this problem. They only look at the eyes, hand them new supplies of their eye drops or change the eye drops, if they believe the eyes are not responding to the old ones. This may be because the opthalmologist has too many patients to attend to and too many eyes to examine. They shuttle from consulting to surgery, to teaching, to preparing academic papers for seminars and conferences. They hardly have time for themselves! At 40, another doctor discovered Joe Lovett was going blind and sent him for an eye examination. He was shocked when, during this eye check, he discovered he could only see a subject from the chest up and from the waist down. The mid region of the body was missing in his vision. He went on various eye drops to lower his intra occular pressure, but with no very satisfactory results. The story of how Lovett got his vision back is told in two books he has written on this subject. They are Stop Vision Loss Now and Prevent And Heal Cataracts, Glaucoma, Macular Degeneration and other eye disorders

     Lovett acknowledges the fact that it is better to prevent these diseases than to heal them and, given his personal experience, believes they can be reversed nevertheless, irrespective of iron-cast medical beliefs of our time.

    Is there a cure for glaucoma?

     I recommend that you read his books. Definitely, they will provide details of how he came to the conception that glaucoma begins in the brain and not in the eyes.

     My acknowledgement for the introduction of Joe Lovett’s works goes to a young friend of mine, Hassan Oyekan who is aware I am glaucoma challenged, who, through regularly reading my column, has become a health student. So interested in health he is that, not withstanding the fact that he is an entrepreneurship student of the Nigerian Open University, Hassan Oyekan has taken online courses on health management and become a health coach. He is a member of one of my chat groups on health. This group is called incubating. It is where new comers to product lines of AIM GLOBAL and SHINEWAY health networks are informed about the uses of these products and goings-on in the Nigerian Alternative Medicine Market. He knows I am glaucoma challenged and regularly sends to me information he believes I will cherish. Joe Lovett’s story is the latest of his messages.

      Okubena

     Where is Otunba Olajuwon Okubena, producer of Jobelyn, Nigeria’s leading herbal medicine formula. He deserves an honour on a day such as this. Okubena has been canvassing the use of coconut oil-based eye drops to treat glaucoma. I am asking after him because this subject should be of interest to him. Mention of Otunba Olajuwon Okubena reminds me not only of Jobelyn, but also a coconut oil-based eye drop for glaucoma management, if not a cure. Where a challenged person requires two or three drops of a pharmaceutical drug to hold down destructive glaucoma pressure in one day or a combination of drugs to do the job, Otunba Okubena says one drop of a coconut oil and some natural ingredients-based formula can hold the pressure down for five days and even reverse it. I know of persons who used coconut oil eye drops. I do not have scientific proof of its efficacy but I learned from www.healthline.com that it acts against dry eyes for which there is a pharmaceutical preparation. Dry eyes are often caused by some nutritional deficiencies including vitamin A deficiency, and long use of glaucoma eye drops. Anyone who has the nerves to try coconut oil eye drops may report his or her observations to www.healthline.com, which is researching it. Recently, I injured my navel when I tried to bring out some small stony materials lodged in it. The skin peeled deep inside and whenever I touched it, I smelt unpleasant odour on my finger. Two drops of coconut oil in two days cleared it off.

    Conclusion

     The idea that we need to address brain health along with eye health in glaucoma treatment should not surprise us. In glaucoma, we are dealing with damage to the optic nerve. The nervous system originates in the brain from the neurons. We observe damage to them in strokes when the affected parts cause loss of sensitivity or action in the limbs they control or in the organs they control such as the tongue, the urinary or digestive systems. In wisdom, we should not throw ideas away with waves of the hand. Lion’s mane Mushroom is known to help the repair of damaged nerves.

     Gotu Kola has been shown to improve micro and macro blood circulation in the brain, like gingko biloba. The fatty substances in the brain need protection from Free Radicals Two great ones for these purposes are Grape Seed Extract  and Alpha Lipoic Acid. GSE, (As Grape seed extract) is also called, easily crosses the brain-blood barrier to suffuse the brain. In experiments to determine it’s therapeutic effects, it is often used at 350mg daily. But dosages of 1000mg and more are also known. GSE is about 50 times more powerful than vitamin c or vitamin E as antioxidants. Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) is active in both fat and fluid media and, is, therefore, good for the brain. We cannot forget CBD oil which fuels the body’s master system, the endocannabidiol system, the system which normalises other systems. There are more brain antioxidants than can be mentioned here. The brain sleeps not at night or during the day. Like burning coal or wood which must produce sparks, smoke and ash and other waste materials, constant activities of the brain produce free radicals or dangerous substances which are removed by the body’s derived antioxidants. What Joe Lovett has challenged us to do  in the treatment of glaucoma is to not treat the eye in isolation but to clean up its origin, the brain, as well.

  • Mutiple sclerosis: Beyond friendly immune system fires

    Mutiple sclerosis: Beyond friendly immune system fires

    I heard a man in his mid thirties speak last week. The pitchand tone of his voice were septuagenarian or older, ailing , drawn, tired and bore more testimonies of chronic fatigue, fear and, perhaps, depression. He had been married only a few months during which he suffered a stroke, lost motion in hands and legs  and was struggling to pick his way out of of this health abyss. His conditions are multiple sclerosis and stroke.

       Why these diagnoses bowl  challenged persons into  swoons is because many health authorities say it is a life long cul de sac from which there is no escape. There are others, though, who believe  this assumption is too definitive in a world where knowledge is constantly expanding and health challenges previously considered too mountaineous to surmount are  giving way. I hope I would be able to engage Mr Olajuwon Okubena, 81, producer of Jobelyn, for  comments on  Phytoalexin, a plant substance which may become in a few years the mightiest anti-inflammatory remedy of our time. Currently, researchers are rating it higher than antioxidants and phenolic compounds of plants which protect them against all sorts of environmental attacks and hoping that it will play significant roles in re balancing unbalanced human health. One of the component plant substances of Jobelyn, reported in several research journals, is a large concentration of phytoalexin. For now, researchers still cannot commercially extract it without compromising the healing potential. Mr Okubena, too, would like to bring it out of Jobelyn, concentrate it in a new formula of this leading Nigerian plant medicine which would, thereafter, be presented as a super herbal anti inflammatory. It is possible that, then,  inflammation as a cause of symptoms of multiple sclerosis would be overcome. But the battle to conquer this disease would need, also , to  uproot as well about 20 other possible causes of it.

    Multiple Sclerosis(MS)

    In this condition, some sections of the central nervous system (CNS) are degenerating, forming lesions, plaques and scars. The degeneration is called sclerosis. When the sclerosis are many, the condition is called multiple sclerosis. This condition may also affect nerves in the brain(causing shrinkage of the outermost layer), the optic nerve( causing vision problems), and the  spinal cord(producing a series of problems in muscles and organs). The presentation is like a part of the body , as in breast or colon cancer,instamentally dying when one is still alive.

    The CNS is a system of nerves which originate from neurons in the brain and are functionally connected to them. The nerves are like a wiring system through which the brain sends messages to all parts of the body and receives feedback information from them. Damage to any section, therefore , means communication impairment, break down or collapse. Many persons experience communication gaps from time to time but ignore them. Even when they see their doctors, the diagnosis may be missed. MS affects different persons in diverse ways, depending on the severity. Some experience temporary relief occasionally, only for the condition to again flare up mildly or violently, depending on how the fire is stoked. Some others may experience life-long or near life long remissions. Rarely, except under complications, is MS life threatening.

    Symptoms

    They  sometimes resemble symptoms of other problems and cause diagnostic mistakes. Some of them are

    A) Blurry vision: This may be passed off as onset of macular degeneration, cataract of the eye lens or even glaucoma or dry eyes, especially if  these conditions are, also, presenting symptoms and the physician does not go the extra diagnostic journey.

    B) Vertigo:The environment may swirl or turn around once in a while or often. Low blood sugar and low blood count , like pernicious and megaloblastic anaemia, may also account for this. Incidentally, vitamin B 12 deficiency, which may cause megaloblastic anaemia,  may  be a culprit behind MS.

    C) Chronic Fatigue: This may also be associated with chronic stress, depletion of stress hormones, fatigued or burnt out adrenal glands, mitochondrial challenges, malabsorption of nutrients. They are all linked to MS.

    D) Dizziness:When we are dizzy, we swallow choice blood tonics  without exploring the root cause.

    E) Impaired Speech: The tone or pitch of the sound of words may alter. This may be put down to such things as stress, infection at the back of the throat, inflamed tongue, misalignment of the jaws or dentiture challenges. So, while these may be addressed, the impaired nerve signals which may be causing them may be ignored.

    F) Numbness:  Many persons complain of numbness in hands and legs.The tendency is to assume poor blood circulation and ignore the CNS. A CNS investigation may be expensive. Many persons do not have the money for it, and they have no health insurance covers.

    G) Facial Paralysis:  MS usually strikes the 20 to 40  age bracket, especially women, but it may also strike older persons. Almost 10 years ago, I saw a young woman whose face twisted on one side. She was in her 20s. While older persons knew this could be a sign of partial stroke, they ruled it out believing that only old persons have strokes. In a few weeks, the facial paralysis and her slurry speech disappeared. Now,I wonder: Could this be MS in remission? If it is, this could be an early signal of MS which had been missed. The young woman soon came over it. This could be a remission for years before an exercebation. Happily, for some persons, a remission may be life long.

    H) Paralysis: In extreme cases, there may be paralysis in any part of the body. One side of the body may be partially immovable. Sometimes, complete immobility may occur. The MS may go into remission or a holiday, flaring up once in a while, but causing no serious problem if it is well managed with nutrition, plant medicines and lifestyle changes

    I) Constipation: It is often taken for granted. The standard charcoal test in Alternative Medicine educates us that the waste products of whatever we eat should be defeacated in about 18 hours, to prevent in the intestine a sludge of decaying or putrefying content on which all sorts of germs would feel, pumping out their waste matter, thereby damaging tissue. The net effect of a sluggish intestine and evacuation delays is that a leaking intestine may develop which may cause the often orchestrated auto immune factor in MS and other auto immune diseases such as diabetes, asthma, fibromyalgia and systemic lupus erytomatosus(SLE).

    J) Incontinence: This is an inability to “hold back” discharges. Bowel and urinary incontinence are well known. Some adults wear diapers. Some women wear pantie liners to absorb urine which drops before they reach the rest room. While these conditions may be caused by muscle weakness, especially the “gate-keeper” sphincter muscles of the anus, the urinary bladder and those in the lower esophagus and duodenum, it is better to check them further as the nerves which control these muscles may be giving way. When I speak of the lower esophagus sphincter muscle, I remember heart burn sufferers who consume antacids rather than check on the health of this “gate-keeper” between the lower oesophagus and the stomach.This muscle is designed to never allow stomach content to easily flow back to the esophagus which we call the throat. Even when we stand on our heads after a meal, this muscle should “lock up”. Where it does not, the acidified food may come up,burning the oesophagus. It is this burning we call heartburn or Gastro Esophagal Reflux Disease (GERD). After many years, heart burn may cause esophagal cancer which may be preceeded by esophagitis (inflammation of the esophagus). The same event may occur in Duodenitis and Duodenal Cancer when acidic food from the stomach empties prematurely into the duodenum, an alkaline tissue.

    K) Tremours: When we hold hymn books in church to share with someone and the book begins to shake, a nerve tremour may be going on which may be forerunners of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, both of which are caused by nerve damage. In the labouratory, the blood of some persons cannot be easily taken with a syringe because blood vessels are shaking. Even in premature ejaculation (PE), the nerves may be telling a story or complaining. Magnesium, vitamin B1 (thiamine) at high dosages,balanced with vitamin B complex at slightly lower dosages, may resolve this affront. Evidence abound, also , that their chronic deficiencies  may precipitate MS

    L) Balance: When we begin to lose the sense of balance and experience falls, we may need to see an ENT (Ear,Nose and Throat ) doctor. MS may be at play or at work.

    M) Staggering Gait: Some persons cannot walk straight but in zig zag manner. Some even stagger. As MS affects young persons more than old persons,and women more than men, parents, friends, guardians and acquintances should be on the look out for some of these symptoms.

    N) Vision Loss: The eye is a complex organ in which the nerves play a crucial role in transporting electrical impulses from the environment to the brain and bringing back their interpretations and meanings. Currently, there is an assumption that glaucoma, one of the degenerative conditions  which may cause blindness, is not all about deterioration and demise of the optic nerve and the retina from oxidative stress and high intra occular pressure (IOP) against which eye specific antioxidants and pressure lowering eye drops are often deployed. It is now being assumed that changes in the neurons in the brain which controls the optic nerve may be responsible. These changes are said to be caused by deficiencies of neurotrophic factors in the brain which dispose some persons to Alzheimer’s and others to Parkinson’s. On  April 28, 2022, I published in The Nation newspaper the story of Joe Lovett, an American film maker who had become half blind from glaucoma for about 12 years. After his complete recovery on coconut oil dietary supplement, Joe Lovett wrote two books in which he detailed his experiences as a glaucoma sufferer and a free man. The books are titled: Stop Vision Loss Now and Prevent And  Heal Cataracts, Glaucoma.

    I believe my article on Joe Lovett was also published in www.olufemikusa.com and/or in MEDIUM, a writer’s online forum.

    What is MS?

    When I explain multiple sclerosis, I use the domestic electrical wiring cable as an example. Inside it are copper wires which conduct electricity from electricity source to an appliance. It is encased in a plastic covering.The plastic protects the copper wires from damage and from causing electrocution accidents.

     The nerve, almost like that, is a collection of nerve strands bungled together and wrapped up by certain materials which are themselves enwrapped. Finally, the entire bundle is wrapped by a fatty tissue called the Myelin Sheath. If the Myelin Sheath is damaged, the nerve fibres within its encasement may become damaged, partially impaired from transmitting signals or completely stopped from doing so. The various stages of this impairment or complete blockage are what manifest in the various symptoms of MS.

     Cause of MS

    Many authorities on this subject avoid being definitive. So, we can rely only on reasonable conjectures such as the following which, sometimes, respond to therapeutic management, anyway…

    A) Chronic infections such as those caused by bacteria, viruses and candida. When the skin of the arm is broken, germs may infect the tissue within. When the myelin sheath is broken, these germs can attack the nerve materials within.

    B) Free radical damage and a deficiency of antioxidants

    C) Auto immune attack. The intestine, said by many authorities to be “The Second Brain”, is often linked to auto immune diseases.The immune system is known to attack the brain and the nerves instead of protecting them. This may result from not chewing food properly and from eating foods which damage the intestine. Saliva in the mouth contains an enzyme called Ptyalin which breaks Polysaccharides or complex carbohydrates down into disaccharides. Many persons swallow their food and do not mix them well with saliva. Thus, polysaccharides do not get properly broken down. The intestine cannot easily digest polysaccharides. That is why polysaccharides must first be broken down into disaccharides by thiamine in the saliva of the mouth. The intestine is designed to break down Disaccharides into monosaccharides or glucose. Again, the intestine is designed to pass glucose, not polysaccharides or disaccharides into the blood stream. where it passes polysaccharides or Disaccharides, trouble will erupt in the organs which harbour them. Polysaccharides or Disaccharides are unknown to the immune system in the organs. Thus, wherever they migrate to in the organs, the immune system will recognise them as strangers or enemies and attack them and their hosts. It is, therefore, important to properly chew food, thoroughly mix it with saliva to aid digestion in the mouth. It is also important to aid digestion in the stomach and intestine with digestive enzymes from raw food and food supplements. In the immune system attacks, immune modulating herbs and adaptogens may help.

    D) Vitamin D is well noted in persons challenged with M.S. They should stay more under the sun and take vitamin D food supplements.

    E) Leaky Gut: The barrier against infiltration of larger molecules into the blood stream is broken by various other factors, including alcohol, white sugar, micro organism nibbling, free radicals, food allergies, especially from cow’s milk, wheat and soy intolerance, microplastics and heavy metal toxicity, pharmaceutical drugs, environmental toxins, food preservatives etc. I have a niece who cannot taste fish sauce without vomitting. There are persons who cannot tolerate honey or garlic. These are better eliminated from the diet. Nowadays, laundry, dish washing and bath soaps are loaded with chemicals. When not completely washed off cookware and service plates, they are eaten with food. Women who do not wear laundry gloves experience wrinkles in skin on the back of the hand, evidence of chemical attack from the soap.To cleanse the body, I always suggest Detoxification. My first choice is Maria Treben’s swedish bitters because it has no preservatives and is not alcohol extracted. Organic enema coffee may also help.

    F)Heavy metal toxicity is another possible cause of MS. Chelated minerals help out in this. Chlorella and cilantro do help, too.

    G) Inflammation:There are many anti inflammatory herbs in the Nigerian market. I will suggest some of them in Brain Care below.

    Brain Care

    The brain and the nerves belong together. Some of the remedies of their various challenges are essential fatty acids, GLA as in evening primerose oil, lecithin , thiamine,(vitamin B1), Neuro booster, a proprietary formula, gotu kola, ginkgo Biloba, magnesium( especially magnesium thraonate), grape seed extract, coconut oil, fermented vitamin A (a proprietary product), Lion’s mane mushroom. This mushroom was discovered during the second world war by a young, female Italian doctor. She was researching the healing process in damaged embryo nerves. She used several plant extracts without much healing success. Lion’s main mushroom extract brought resounding success. Today, Lion’s mane mushroom as a healing agent is recognised beyond nerve health therapies and employed even in cancer prevention and treatment.

     Antioxidant oils

    Antioxidants are crucial for the elimination of free radicals which are said to be the culprits behind more than 200 degenerative diseases including MS and stroke,both of which are forebears of paralysis. I have mentioned some antioxidants above. Antioxidant oils are also important because they are fats and intended for the protection and rebuilding of damaged fatty tissue as in MS.  Three important antioxidant oils are vitamin A, Vitamin E and Alpha Lipoic acid (ALA). Vitamins A and E are active only in fatty media. ALA is active in fatty and non fatty media.

     Jobelyn

    I promised to obtain from Mr Okubena comments on how this Nigerian herbal product may  feature in MS therapy. His words:

     “Jobelyn, derived from soghurm bicolor leaf, shows promise in supporting multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. According to the drug dictionary of the National Institute, Jobelyn contains high levels of polyphenols and three deoxyanthocyanidins, which have been scientifically studied for their antioxidant, anti inflammatory , immunomodulatory and chemopreventive properties.

        “In MS, the immune system mistakenly targets and attacks the myelin sheath in the nervous system. Jobelyn’s immunomodulatory effects, as mentioned in the definition, have the potential to regulate the immune response by increasing the activity of Natural killer (NK) cells and activating macrophages. The modulation could help reduce the immune system’s attack on the myelin SHEATH, potentially slowing down the progression of the disease.

       Furthermore, Jobelyn’s antioxidant properties may play a role in protecting against oxidative stress, which is believed to contribute to the development and progression of MS by scavenging free radicals and preventing tissue damage.

        While the potential benefits of Jobelyn for MS patients are promising, it is important to note that further research, including clinical trials specifically focused on MS , is necessary to determine its effectiveness and safety”.