I used to hate politicians. Now, I no longer do, although I keep a safe distance from them. Through inner struggles in the 1970s and 1980s to understand why I existed and was what I was, I realised that dislike was just one or a few steps from hate and that hatred was a wrong principle that may impel one to physical or psychic murder. Love, rather, is life. Life gave rise to everything which exists, everyone for a purpose, and love, like purity and justice,are life’s attributes. Coming from out of Life,we humans bear resonations of these attributes which, like seed germs, lie slumbering within us and  all creatures must bring to flowering and fruiting  within them.

Many people cannot relate with the politician, rotten, smelly and fiendish, however, disguised the fickleness or foibles, without disliking or hating him or her. For the average politicians is slippery, deceitful,wicked, selfish … think of any of the foibles of man, and you would find an abundance of them in his character. Many of them acquired these traits for self defence, like the venom of the snake or the spit of the cat in the eyes, or the killer poison of the chamelion or the brutal teeth and claws of the lion. We are in the season  of  electioneering politics, the deadliest in Nigeria season of politics, and should be careful, all of us the followers of politics and politicians, about how we protect our health against the backlashes of this tempestous time. Politicians look after themselves … so, look after yourself as you journey with them in thought and mind. The Sparks of the fire of politics are flying everywhere and may be  impacting your health without you realising that the politicians and the political temptest may be tossing  your health up and down. We kept the vigil for result of the the party primaries without compensetting the body for Adrenaline build-up, which would have shot  up blood sugar  level at night, when we least needed it, a potential culprit in diabetic. The virgil also shot up the brain level of Serotonin, that chemical substance which builds up in the brain from sunrise to keep us awake all day.

Semilarly, any virgil, political or not, will shoot down blood level of Melatonin, the chemical substance which shut down the brain from night fall to give us restful sleep. In a vigil, therefore, we are acting against MOTHER NATURE, bombarding the brain with Serotonin at night when we should be swamping it with Melatonin for restful sleep. We no we cannot sheath nature.That is why your health care provider gives you melatonin tablets, capsules or tincture, depending on the gravity of your condition, when you suffer from insomnia or sleepleness. So, what do we do the day after to clean up the excess amount of free radicals or toxin substances which are produce by the over work brain? How often does the diet provide us brain specific anti-oxidants for this job? An over worked brain bombarded all time by shocking or annoying political news may become easily tired, affected by emotional desturbances, become inflammed and age rapidly. Political stressors may be the underlying cause of remote health challenges such as headaches, migraines, insomnia, stomach and other digestive  and blood pressure problems, to mention just a few outcomes of the stress.

I went through many of these scourges of politics in 1979. Remember that was the year of the general election in which Chief Obafemi Awolowo was pitched against Alhaji Shehu Shagari. I was 29, fresh from national youth service and a spiritual encounter I had always longed for to understand why we exist and what the great Universe was all about. At 24 just before I set for the university,I had begun to experience the phenomenon of out of Body Experience (OBE). You may imagine you are dreaming and, suddenly, find yourself in the middle of your bedroom looking at your sleeping and “dreaming” body on the bed, or you may find yourself floating near the ceiling and, looking down,observe your body, fast asleep and snoring.

No one satisfactorily explained these experiences to me in those days until in my youth service year in Uyo and Calabar. Now, I understand what my foster daughter, 15, is saying when she says that, as she sometimes try to open the door for a guest, her hand passes through the handle.  From her character, I sense she is an old soul in a young body whose spiritual helpers (most people erroneously call them guardian angels)are trying to connect her with her past existence. She no longer fears going to bed, believing that a fiery woman would come all over her, asking for  THE BOOK OF RICHES.

Some people will call her condition hallucination. She sees the woman, sometimes in the middle of the night. She screamed out of bed. I rush down stairs. She points at the woman. Although I do not see her, I understand what is going on, for I had gone through such experiences. I tell the unseen woman to leave the little girl alone and go away. For months, we have not had any incident. I walk with her into her past as much as I can understand it. For there is none of us who, on his or her  own, can understand all the interconnectedness of existence. We have over millennia woven tapestry of our fate like a Fisher man’s net with many knots, and we are here  now to disentangle them, free of the knots, before we can ascend homewards.

My grandfather was a notable traditional medicine man who consulted for the Awujale of Ijebu land of  his days. When he passed, one of his cousins “stole”his ACCOUNT BOOK, we were informed. The Account Book of the traditional medicine man is a compendium or “website”of the secrets of his art. It was the most prized possession of these men and their families in Yoruba land of those days. With this Account Book in the possession of my family, I probably would be a different person. I probably would still have gone to university and been a journalist. These would be parts of the tapspestry of fate I would have woven to tread on to my existential goal this time around. It is possible that, with the recipes in this Account Book, I would have set up medicinal plant plantations and pharmaceutical factory to commercially produce them. But someone “stole”the Account Book. It may very well be in the right hand. But it may, also, very well be in the wrong hand. What if it was in the wrong hand and my grandfather, rather than move on homeward, decided to pursue petty earthly objectives and began to torment the man who stole his Account Book and did not make his child inherit it? There are many possibilities. Something always drives something. We were informed in the news last week that a 40-year-old man took his 18-month-old son to a village bush  and, beside a palm tree, took off the boy’s head with a carpenter’s saw and buried it there while he threw the lifeless body elsewhere. Such stories as this, or of a boy forcing his mother to bed or of a 60-year-old man raping a 10-year-old girl abound in our society. Do we care to think deeper than just raining curses about what may be going on?

MY OBEs forced me to think: WHERE AM I? WHY AM I here? Where did I come from? Where will I go after here? How did I come to be?

Why am I an Ijebu man and not an Nsukka man or a Calabar man? Why did I have to attend university in Nsukka? How would I look like if my father and mother married different spouses? Would I come to this earth through one of them, or I would not come? Where, then, would I be, or I would not exist? Where do I go when I pass? Is there a hell fire or is it a figurative expression in a terrible sphere of existence? Who are angels? Are they servants of men or as we try to delude ourselves? Anyone who has been privileged to be clairvoyant or to have experienced extra sensory perception (ESP) or to have read Raymond Moody’s book, Life After Life, a copy of which I was privileged to give Chief Obafemi Awolowo after he asked for it at his last birthday party, would realise there is a lot more to existence than just being born, attending school, graduating from university and getting a job, getting married and  having our babies,  fighting religious battles, becoming the president of a nation, passing some day, and being giving a “beffiting” expensive State feneral!.

In 1979, I had what, today, I may call elementary ideas about some of these existential events. I saw the stars, the sun and the moon standing in the service of man, never going on strike. I saw the earth always bringing forth to feed billions of mouths every day. I saw the seas and oceans standing in service as well without fail. Man has  ever fished from them and fish had never disappeared in them. Since my teeth would no longer allow me to eat cow meat, and thank them for it  because that protect me against consuming the poison in red meat, I have turn to fish and Periwinkle. They have helped me to not stupidly patronise  the man who runs his cows over farmlands, killing and maiming, only to bring the same cow meat to my table, since I am not an idiot who would sell my land, my birthright,for a pot of pottage. Since my finances cannot afford Titus Fish, I have opted for Periwinkle and Crayfish as sources of my animal protein. In my household even my corn pap comes with a generous serving of Periwinkle.

Ladies and gentlemen, where I am really going is that, I bow in generation before the eternal and immeasurable Grace of the Almighty Creator and Ruler of All The World’s when I wonder why cray fish and periwinkle have not disappeared from the streams and rivers despite their heavy havesting for food by an ever multiplying an ungrateful human population. Just as many of us no longer remember to say THE GRACE at table as we learned in kindergarten school, we do not also see the lesson in this, for us: everywhere we turn, mother nature is standing under the command of the Almighty Creator, IN THE SERVICE of even the UNGRATEFUL MAN. But everywhere we turn in Nigeria, we hardly find man standing in the service of man.  The politician is worse in this crime. He believes a man must chop where he works and has turned the nation into his “workchop”.

In 1979, I was a dreamy young man as a senior sub-editor on the Daily Times Newspaper of Nigeria, the most prestigious and biggest daily sale newspaper in Africa. Almost everyone knew Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the better candidate. He was a meticulous planner. He made the Western Region of Nigeria the leader of all regions in the country on every count.  He was not a wasteful spender. He put the right people in the right places. He was an unapologetic believer in REGIONALISM for peace in a plural federation such as Nigeria. But military Head of State  General Olusegun Obasanjo, who presided over the nation, supecting that Chief Awolowo would probe Nigeria’s financing under the military, told us “the better candidate does not always win” an election. While that may be true, the 1979  Presidential election was grossly manipulated and the sanctity of the Supreme Court was tampered with. Why would that court decide the election in favour of Alhaji Shehu Shagari  and  say that its ruling should never be cited in Nigeria’s judicial system.

In 1979, all northerners  Chief Awolowo asked to be his running mate boycotted him. So,  frustrated, Chief Awolowo chose Igbo man  Chief Philip Umeadi. That was a Westeast or Southsouth ticket while Shagari chose Chief Alex Ekwueme from the East, from a Northsouth-ticket which allegedly won. What Chief Awolowo suffered then in northern denial is what Rivers Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike and former Anambra Governor Peter Obi are experiencing now, 43 years after. Wike lost the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket under ethnic northern manipulation. Fourteen of 17 party men asked by the winner, Atiku Abubakar, to find  a suitable vice presidential running-mate picked  Wike. But Atiku ditched him.  Peter Obi with Yoruba man Dr. Doyin Okupe as running mate will fly nowhere, like the Awolowo-Umeadi ticket.

In 1979, I was a NIGHT STOPPER for the Daily Times  sub editor’s desk who is authorised to stop ongoing printing of the newspaper, remove some copies and introduce newer ones with better news impact. Election results were running copies in those days. Any newspaper that did not update would be stale on arrival at the news stand. We received reports that Chief Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) won two of the three senetoral seats in Kaduna State, and updated the paper accordingly. Later, Dr. Walter Ofonagoro reportedly stormed the SITUATION ROOM as Senator Abaribe almost did in 2019, to upturn the results in favour of Shagari’s National Party of Nigeria (NPN)…UPN sympathisers in anger voted in the governership election  for People’s Redemption Party candidate, Balarabe Musa. This was a misnormer because,  while NPN almost wholly controlled the House of Assembly, the PRP, UPN Alliance produced the governor. It was not surprising, therefore, that the NPN- dominated Assembly would later impeach Balarabe Musa. It was, therefore, also not surprising that politicians would destroy the Daily Times, Africa’s newspaper of pride. When Alhaji Shagari became president, the board of directors of DAILY TIMES was injected with NPN politicians. Thus, the editorial independence of this giant newpaper was again threatened. Earlier, the military regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo had dealt it a savage blow by illegally and compulsorily and acquiring 60 per cent of the private shares.  One of the line editors, OyinladeE Bonuola, known as LADBONE for his English Grammer column, CAUGHT OUT by LADBONE, took the newspaper and, I believe the government to court over illegality.  That was after the heinous board, believing he was a UPN card-carrying member, had removed him from main stream editorial work on the mother daily title to SPEAR MAGAZINE, a less-influential monthly. Martin Iroabuchi, a daily visitor to Chief M.K.O Abiola, an NPN big wig, became entrenched as editor of the Daily Times. Felix Odiari, the News Editor, regularly visited Umaru Dikko, President Shagari’s point man and transport minister (1979-1983), who was unsuccessfully abducted in London and was to be crated to Nigeria by Brigader Benjamin Adekunle (rtd) on the instructions of the Federal Military Government of General Muhammadu Buhari and General Tunde Idiagbon. A third NPN in road to the news room was the Chief Reporter who was a point man for Bamanga Tukur, former general manager of Nigeria Port Authority ( NPA) and at that time Governor of  Gongola State (today’s Adamawa and Taraba states).

Journalists are often brutalised by the political season and by politicans. Many journalists in the Daily Times news room were professionally ridiculed, stagnated in their careers or demoted simply because they did not attend NPN inner caucus meetings with politicans. I had my fair share of this baptism. So did my colleague Bonuola. Emergence of The Guardian newspaper gave us a free passage way to professional freedom. I no longer felt sad going to work. Again, I became a dreamy young man, helped by my understanding of the conception of DUTY and LOYALTY, knew joy working  round the clock with a major goal of not only contributing my widow’s mite to the production of Nigeria’s finest newspaper, but also of teaching Daily Times and its handlers a bitter professional lesson… overtaking the now soulless  newspaper in pagination size, advertisement volume and circulation coverage. The day we did that, we celebrated the conquest of  Daily Times in THE GUARDIAN newsroom.

Nigeria is suffering in many ramitifications because of its politics and politicians. If you have the privilege of visiting any Nigerian psychiatrist hospital today, you will find all of them over flowing with patients and the doctors overstressed. I found in some cases there were female patients than male. There are no jobs in town. University graduates are paid an average of N30,000 a month. In their mid 30s, some men still leave with their parents. They are no ready husband for marriageable women. Business is slow. Income is down. Health is tottering because many people have no money for health insurance or hospital bills. The social environment is cool, cloudy and foggy. So, GUARD YOUR HEALTH…. Political storms are raging and colliding.

Guess who is back in town, and circulating in business circles about 20 years after his wife was electrocuted in a Lagos flat while trying to save one of their children from electrocution? He is Major Ordia (rtd) aka Mr. Matol!

Before Major Ordia literally fled Nigeria for a sanctuary in Canada with other members of his grief-striken family. Matol had become a household name in Nigeria and the nutritional or food supplements market nicknamed him “Mr. Matol”. This Canadian product was one of the “inner caucus” food supplements in my plant medicine chest in those days for several (reasons), especially its high potassium content.

The hypothesis of Dr. Max Gerson that a low tissue potassium content may cause tumours, especially cancers, to form and to grow was making the rounds at high velocity. Dr. Gerson, a German, had successfully treated many degenerate and terminal cancers using organic coffee enemas and fruit and vegetable juices with high potassium yields. A few clinical reports had also associated Matol intake with rising immune system output of Natural Killer Cells. These are mobile cells of the immune defence systems which, as military police contains and arrests irreverent soldier and the mobile police fixes misbehaving regular policemen, are mandated by mother nature to destroy malignant and dangerous cells

Canadian researcher Jurag experimented with 18 herb combinations and permutations until he arrived at a consistency which he named Matol and thought was most helpful for improving many health derangements.

According to a 2012 post in www.pr web.com, :” Matol KM is essentially a herbal/potassium supplement. However, reports from customers say the formula can improve well being, eliminate toxins, balance the body’s acid-base levels, and supplement potassium and magnesium, two important minerals which are supplied in a colloidal form for easy absorbtion”.

Major Ordia sold Matol in Nigeria under this health banners and more until the electrocution of his wife forced him out of the country. Last week, he recalled:

“It was on a wet  Saturday  when we woke up to discover that the whole place was wet from the leaking roof at our 3-bedroom bungalow at Matol Jesus House at Number 3, Ugo Nwoke Close,  Off Adisa Sowemimo Bus Stop, Ojo Igbede Road near Alaba  Electronics International  Markets, Ojo Local  Government Area, Lagos State, Nigeria.”

Saturday the 21/06/2003

“My dearest wife Princess Mercy Idugiemwanye Amen- Ordia (nee Eweka) just 42 years old and we are both blessed with three very happy handsome boys, Osaheni 14, Idukpaye 10 and Karl Eseosa 4!

“We had invited  two roof maintenance workers all the way from Benin City, Edo State, Osarieme and his friend Imariabe, who had begun to work on the roof on the fateful day!

“All our workers came to work and would work half day and close at 13:30 hours because it was a Saturday; Monday to Friday working hours – 07:30 to 17:00!

While the carpenters were still working on the roof and the rains still dropping, my wife was at the kitchen preparing our evening meals for the whole house at about 18:30 evening when tragedy struck as soon as NEPA light was switched on in our Ndigbo Community and you could hear a chorus “UP NEPA” pounding our ears in ecstatic joy and jubilation!

“I instructed my sister-in-law Blessing Osakpamwan Eweka to visit the generator house and fuel the generator and start the generator and I then switched on the change over from generator to electricity and Osaheni  my 14 years old son told me to change to the phase where light was much more full and brighter and  that was it!

“He then went to switch on the giant standing Electric Fan and marched on a live wire and instantly got shocked and shouted and I dashed to him and grabbed him so tightly and I got so shocked but quickly stopped breathing myself and electric shock had no effect on my body while I placed my right finger in his mouth, in between his teeth and shouted give  me Matol, give me Matol, open the bottle and while he had almost bitten my right finger in his mouth we poured 30ml of Matol in his mouth and he sneezed and opened his eyes and started shouting life spiritual affirmation in his spirit soul and body and he responded with his eyes now fully awake, and I now dashed to repeat what the Holy Spirit inspired me to do for my son on my wife but i only held her lifeless body with Matol all over her body and rushed to two hospitals at Okokomaiko opposite LASU Gate where she was pronounced dead at 23:00 that  Saturday, the 21st of June, 2003.”

Major Ordia bounced back into Matol business in Canada through the help of an American peaditrician who later became his wife and whose father, a businessman, gave him the financial muscle for an African vide exclusive affiliate marketing licence.

The herbal content of Matol remains unchanged, although the product has been renamed… The ingredients include Chamomile, Sarsaparilla, Ddandelion, Hore Hound, Licorice, Senega, Passion Flower, Thyme, Gentian, Saw Palmetto, Alfalfa, Angelica, Celery seed and Cascara Sagrada.

Some of the health benefits of these herbs are summarised in Andrew  Chevallier’s “Herbal First Aid, a guide for home use”. This was one of the earliest books in my alternative medicine library in the 1990s. I recommend it for every home library. In the book, the author describes the herbs as follows…

Chamomile

“Tea, tincture, compress, poultice, cream, essential oil, allergies, asthma, children’s ailments, colic, constipation, teething, diarrhoea, hay fever, hiccup, indigestion acidity and vomitting, itchiness, period pains, poor sleep, sore breast, sore eyes, shock, stomach aches and pains, sunburn, wind.

“Chamomile is extremely useful in many digestive ailments. e.g acid indigestion, while it’s simple relaxing properties make it helpful in shock, tension and anxiety”.

He prescribed it for “bedwetting, irritability and overtiredness”. It also works, he says, for nightmares and night terrors apart from encouraging a ” sound night sleep”. The list is incomplete without “itchy and allergic skin conditions, including eczema”.

Dandelion

This is a great diuretic herb which comes with a lot of potassium. Alternative medicine practitioners prescribe it because, unlike diuretic drugs which send potassium out of the body through the urine, dandelion exports excess water without disturbing the SODIUM-POTASSIUM balance. By depleting the body’s potassium levels, diuretic drugs may worsen hypertension which they are meant to address, cause nerve problems, weaken the muscles and the heart (a bundle of muscles) and cause elevation of sodium levels at the cellular level. As Dr. Max Gerson and his disciples would argue (pls check GERSON THERAPY online), this may be the source of tumours (benign as in uterine fibroids, or malignant as in breast, colon or prostate cancer). The assumption is based on the hypothesis that potassium helps in the extraction of oxygen in the blood plasma into the cell, and that potassium deficiency causes sodium influx into the cell, an aftermath of which is that, unable to obtain enough oxygen for its oxidative processes, the cell plunges into fermentative (non oxygen using) lifestyle for its survival.

Of Dandelion, Andrew Chevalier says in his herbal first aid:

“Acne, allergies, constipation – adult and children – hangovers, hay fever, water retention, warts”. Chevallier says dandelion also “supports and cleanses the liver” to eliminate waste products. This makes it an “ideal herb for toxic conditions such as hangover”.

Passion Flower

When I think of this herb, I cannot help remembering other herbs such as feverfew, valerian root and skullcap. They are nerve relaxants and also often indicated for headaches and especially migraines. Passion Flower appeals to Chevallier for “anxiety and tension , asthma, ear ache, headache, migraine, period pains, PMT (Pre menstrual tension), poor sleep in children and adults, shock, tooth ache”. It passes as well as a “mild sedative”, helpful in “many types of aches and pains”. Chevallier says Passion flower mixes well with valerian in “overactivity”, which means that children beset with Attention Deficit and hyperactivity (ADDH) may benefit from it. “Together”, he says, ” these two herbs are good for shock and that shaky feeling after an accident.”

Thyme

Anyone who is familiar with garlic and thyme proprietary formulas should easily guess that this is a respiratory herb in the mould of Japanese Knot Weed which, in Nigeria, now presents in the proprietary blend restore lyfe, a combination of this herb, grape seed extract (GSE), antioxidants and phenolic compounds. Chevallier says it overpowers “asthma, athlete’s foot, back pain, bronchitis, catarrh and sinuses, children’s infections, colds and flus, coughs, hay fever, joint pain, muscle aches, sore throat, thrush, warts”.

I need to add that Chevalier does not limit his references to these herbs as they appear in a bottle of MATOL. His references have universal appeal. For these applications may be in teas, tinctures, fluid extracts, creams and lotions. Thus, in respect of thyme, he would suggest for example: “use thyme tea for all kinds of infections of the air passages, from the ear to the lungs. It has a strong antiseptic and calming effect, making it valuable in ear ache, sinusitis, chest infections and the likes. In these ailments, thyme combines well with garlic and echinacea. Use this combination also for thrush and other fungal problems. Thyme syrup is a pleasant remedy for children’s cough or simply sweeten thyme tea with honey. Burn thyme oil over an essential oil burner to cleanse a room and speed the recovery of a patient, especially in chesty conditions.

Inhale thyme tea or a few drops of thyme oil in a basin of hot water for relief of catarrh and sinusitis”. As I said earlier, the healing power of thyme outside the bottle of MATOL is present, also, in that bottle.

Saw Palmetto

These are berries which made health waves in the 1980 onwards to the end of the century as a conqueror of Benign prostate Hyperplasia (BPH). I believe this was largely because of generous amounts of zinc and essential fatty acids (EFAs) in these berries. It would appear we men in particular have forgotten about saw palmetto because we now obtain Zinc and the EFAs in larger proprietary blend doses than are present in the Saw Palmetto berry. Many men are deficient in zinc nowadays from many factors. Yet zinc is seriously important for the health of the prostate gland. It also has about 200 or more other uses in the body, including good vision. While many studies have linked good vision to vitamin A sufficiency, and suggested that vitamin A deficiency may cause night blindness, a condition of poor vision in the dark, it has also been suggested that, no matter how much vitamin A may be present in the eye it may have poor value for good vision in a zinc-deficiency status. In other words, zinc is required for the use of vitamin A in the eye!

In the prostate gland which is the largest store of zinc in the body, this mineral, well known for its support for fertility, immune function and good hair, skin, nail and cause of taste and smell , works wonders. In the prostate gland, it checks the overactivity of a substance called 5-Alpha reductase. When zinc is not enough in the gland, 5-Alpha reductase activity may encourage overconversion of the male hormone testosterone to dyhydro testosterone (DHT) which, like a fertilizer, may overstimulate growth and overgrowth of prostatic tissue, leading to BPH and urinary difficulties. Zinc deficiency may arise from dietary deficiencies, ejaculations in sexual over exposure, acidity and other metabolic demands. This is why it is good news that Matol offers zinc supplies as a dietary supplement to those men whose diets are zinc deficient for their needs or facing health challenges in which zinc deficiency is a culprit.

Angelica

The herbal first aid has no entry on this Chinese herb, also called dang gui. Thus, Frank J Lipp fills the gap. He says of Angelica in his herbalism:

“Dang gui (Angelica sinensis) is used in Chinese medicine to harmonise chi energy, increase coronary circulation and reduce arterial blood pressure. It also has anti inflammatory, pain-reducing and tranquilising effects on the cerebral nerves, and is used in treating irregular or difficult menstruation, PMS, menopausal symptoms and post-partum debility.”

From www.rxlist.com, we learn of this plant:

“The root, seeds and fruits are used to make medicine. Angelica is used for heartburn, intestinal gas, loss of appetite, arthritis, circulation problems, runny nose, nervousness, plague and trouble sleeping. Some women use Angelica to start their menstrual period. Angelica is also used to increase urine production, increase sex drive, stimulate the secretion and production of phlegm and kill germs. People apply Angelica directly to the skin for nerve pain, joint pain and skin disorders.”

Celery

This herb is well known for its friendliness with the digestive system as well as for its alkalising and anti-inflammatory properties and antioxidants. Low in sodium and high in potassium, it is also a rich source of vitamin c, beta carotene and flavonoids. It’s antioxidants protect the digestive tract from oxidative damage. This should make it useful in the treatment of colon cancer and occult blood. The anti-inflammatory properties recommend celery not only for arthritis but colitis, which is the inflammation of the colon, a condition which sometimes degenerates into the excretion of mucus. Vitamin A present in celery is good for the mucus membrane lining, as it is a promoter of the healing process. Vitamin K, also present in this herb, helps to stop internal bleeding by supporting the production of blood platelets which seal broken tissue.

Cascara Sagrada

When constipation is naughty, this herb often helps. It contains a chemical substance known as anthraquinone which slows absorbtion of water in the intestine and increases intestinal fluid load. This creates such intestinal pressure, which, in the colon, stimulates contractions of the muscles and brings about voiding. Cascara belongs to the class of herbal laxatives such as aloe vera and Senna, which I once overdosed on and it gave me intestinal gas. The pains were so intense I had to see a doctor. I was booked by a young one for appendix surgery. But, upon a review of my case, a senior doctor let me home with medications for gas and pain. Ever since, I do not touch Senna.

HORE HOUND

The name of this plant is not an everyday word on the lips of Nigerian health care givers. Yet, it is a wonderful relief for cough and bronchitis which are common ailments in this country. It also helps heartburn, indigestion and sluggish stomach by improving saliva and gastric juice flow. It is good as well for curbing phlegm, stimulating appetite and for tackling menstrual complaints.

Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen, here we are with medicinal materials for a wide range of health challenges in a bottle called MATOL. This column wishes Princess Mercy a joyful existence wherever she is, and is happy for Major Ordia has again found his feet and is moving on. His story imprints afresh on my mind a lesson about the law of thought. Whatever we think exists in a visible form to the clairvoyant. Since last year, I have been thinking of Matol. I have been receiving health enquires which I believe Matol may help to relieve. I suggest always that they find someone in Canada who may help them obtain it. I knew Mrs. Omolara Bello was returning from London. But her arrival caught me unaware. Cordelia Dike, my next bet, has overstayed on her visit home and was due back in New York. While I was waiting for her, my telephone rang and a voice I no longer recognised spoke. “Waow, waow” I kept screaming. He told his story. Matol is back. A whole container of it as a first stock. Welcome back home major;welcome Matol.

The curtain falls today on this series. Menstral health is an important subject for women and men alike. On the lighter side, did it not facilitate the coming of all men to the earth and do we not marvel that the flood could have washed us out of existence? On a serious note, do men not bother about the menstral lives of their wives, daughters and sisters and , sometimes, even their mothers? Often, I see the seriousness with which sons follow their mothers in their person or in spirit from one doctor’s clinic to another over matters of the reproductive system , to which menstral health belongs. As stated earlier, the curtain falls today on this series, beginning with uterine fibroids, an epidemic of which is sweeping through Nigeria.

UTERINE FIBROIDS

There is probably more talk in Nigeria today of uterine fibroids than there is of breast cancer. Many women fear surgery not only because of fear of a regrowth but more because of reports of death in the theatre. Scammers have a field day innundating the uterine fibroid market with all sort of herbal preparations they say can cure uterine fibroid in a matter of days. Many researchers believe there are no fewer than about 20 possible causes of uterine fibroid. These include a heavy uterine microbial load, deoxygenation, venous insufficiency, free radicals, antioxidant deficiency, second chakra problems, obsessive emotional longing for “the fruit of the womb” which subconsciously implants in the uterus, hormonal imbalance etc. I find interesting the hypothesis of Edgar Caycee and Dr Max Gerson. Caycee said there is no proper nerve connection with the uterus from the spinal cord, because of subluxations in the nerve root. He recommended camphorated castor oil massages on the fibroid site using a heating pad to drive home the healing essence. Camphorated castor oil can be made by mixing castor oil and camphor oil or by grinding camphor to fine powder and adding to castor oil till the mixture forms a greasy paste. Caycee also suggested chiropactic manipulations to realign misaligned spinal bones.  I suggest you check THE GERSON THERAPY online to understand it better than it can be presented here. It is about the use of fruit and vegetable juices or about eating potassium rich foods to restore potassium balance in the cell and , through doing this, prevent or reverse benign growths such as uterine fibroids and malignant growths such as cancers. You would also learn about the use of organic coffee enemas to clean up the liver, strengthen it to break down excess estrogens and adding fiber to the diet to safely export these estrogen fractions out of the body through the stool. Failure to do this may cause reabsorbtion in the colon of broken down estrogens and their recongregation in the system to ferment estrogenation, a possible cause of uterine fibroids. some other time, I would mention how unripe plantain may be grated with the peel and cooked like plantain porridge. The peel is richer than the  fruit in all nutrients. But women throw it away and goats pick them up. This meal is a rich source of potassium. Dr GERSON used potassium rich foods to heal many terminal cancers. I have witnessed uterine fibroid regress on diets of banana, avocado pear, water melon and other potassium rich foods.

I began to pay attention to plantain peel about twenty years ago when I was a pig farmer. One woman approached me one day while I was collecting plantain peel waste from a road side roast plantain seller for my pigs. She asked me if I was a herbalist. I asked her why she asked the question. She said a herbalist taught her to use plantain peel to treat and cure her uterine fibroid. How was she doing it?, I asked. She said she would chop it to pieces and roast in an earthen-ware pot untill she obtained a powder from the chops. I did not follow up this lead until I learned that a popular black soap in Nigeria was made largely from Plaintain peels because the peel was a high source of potassium. When I studied the Plaintain, i found that the peel, especially the green peel of the unripe plantain was a richer source of potassium and other nutritional factors than the peel inside it. Thus, I thought to myself, the goat’s and pigs were wiser than human beings who threw the peel away. From then on, I grated the unripe plantain and the peel and cooked them as Plaintain-peel porridge. I found it gives me more energy than many other meals and that one Plaintain peel meal, the first meal of the day at mid-day, may banish hunger from me till the next day. That was how I began to sail towards one major meal a day.

POTASSIUM  

The potassium hypothesis is believable on many counts. But I will mention only two . For I have heard of many women who claim that their pelvic scan results showed encouraging shrinkages of uterine fibroids when they withdraw acid forming foods such as bread, milk, egg and cow meat from their diet and ate more stuff like banana, Avocado pear and melons, all of which are high in potassium. To these women and their kindred folks, and perhaps to everyone in every health seeking community, I would like to break the good news that major Odia is back in town with MATOL, one of the world’s richest potassium source proprietary blend of herbs…almost 30 years after its disappearance from the Alternative Medicine Health Market in Lagos. I remember my high school chemistry formula for remembering the ranking of substances in the ELECTROCHEMICAL SERIES. It is… POPULAR SCIENTIST CAN MAKE A ZOO IN THE LOW HUMID. The p in “popular”stands for potassium. The s in “scientist”is for sodium.The  C in CAN stands for CALCIUM while the M in MAKE is for magnesum. Aluminum, zinc, iron, Tin and Hydrogen fall along in that order. Potassium and sodium, the highest two  in the series are the prime electrolytes in our bodies. They are called electrolytes because they are conductors of electricity. The adult human body comprises about 100 trillion cells. In the spaces around these cells is a fluid called the INTESTITIAL FLUID. Potassium is the chief salt or electrolytes inside the cell. Sodium is the chief salt or electrolytes in the instital fluid. Sodium always tries to get into the cell while potassium always pushes it out of the cell as an unwanted guest. The inward and outward pushing creates an an electrical circuit and “in” and “out” movement of substances. Nutrients and oxygen get into the cell while wastes and poisons get out of the cell for excretion into the blood stream and, from there, into the appropriate eliminative organs. The push-push actions is known as the SODIUM-POTASSIUM pump which is powered by the SODIUM BATTERY. If the right amount of potassium is inside the cells and the right amount of sodium is inside the interstitial fluid, The SODIUM BATTERY  is very active. Imagine the active battery in a motor vehicle and the flat battery in another vehicle. The active battery gives the vehicle a “kick-and-go”potential, while the flat battery goes its own vehicle a “cold” or “flat” engine which requires several turns of the ignition key to roll the engine. The picture should be clearer now why some of us may not have “kick-and-go”bodies when we wake up in the morning from even a long night sleep. Do we have enough potassium in the cells of our muscles? Has sodium not invaded the cells without enough potassium arsenal to force it out? Is the SODIUM-POTASSIUM pump not weak and the SODIUM-BATTERY not weak? Isn’t this why some people have to wear “PACEMAKER”batteries in their hearts to keep them going where Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10)and ubiquinol, the cellular Energizers, would have done the job without side effects. From Dr Max Gerson (see THE GERSON THERAPY ONLINE), we learn that when potassium defficicency in a cell and causes sodium influx into it,  this makes the cells to change its lifestyle and texture. The lifestyle change means it becomes fermentative rather than being oxidative. In oxidative life, the cell uses oxygen for its living processes . In fermentative life, it uses some  other substance. The reason is not far fatched. Potassium is what extracts oxygen from the blood plasma for use in the cell. The difficiency of potassium in the cell means oxygen defficicency. And since the cells does not wish to die, it adopts a Fermentative lifestyle which may be injurious to other cells. For the Fermentative lifestyle may convert it to a TUMOUR. A tumour is a GROWTH. There are two major types of tumours or growths, BENIGN or MALIGNANT. Benign tumour is a friendly tumour which may not kill on its oven unless it grows out of hand. A maligant tumour is a cancerous growth, which, on its own, kills at the end of the day. Uterine fibroids are benign or friendly tumours. But they may not nevertheless, be treated with kidgloves. For there have been reports of post menopausal women whose uterine fibroids failed to disappear after their estrogen levels were known to have depleted. One such women had her uterus so filled up with fibroids which bled everyday that she almost couldn’t walk from her bedroom to the sitting room until the uterus was surgically removed! Such a presentation belies medical hypothesis that some growths in men and women are hormone driven. In prostate cancer, for example, doctors advise that the testes be removed to prevent the tumour from growing. But as many challenged men who succumb to this advice have discovered, the cancer markers may plumet for a while, but they soon resonate with and in high pitches, suggesting that something else other than hormones may be driving these growths as well. That is what has led to the ideas which postulate other possible causes, about 20 of them, of uterine fibroids, all of which this column cannot address today: Accordingly, whenever I have had to speak on this subject, I suggest that women alkalize and oxygenate their bodies through their diet, eat potassium rich foods, rid their bodies of pathogen loads, improve blood circulation to their reproductive system, take herbs which support menstral system and uterus, and balance their emotions.

Uterine fibroids are twisted uterine muscle fibers. They remind me of smooth steel, which is easier to saw than twisted steel. But nature offers several clues to how they may be overcome. As children, my generation enjoyed eating cooked or roasted silkworms. The silkworm lives in a cocoon which is hard to break. If we could not cut it through with knives and matchettes, we used the axe. But the silkworm does not need any of these laborious means to crack the cocoon when it is mature and ready to live in the outside world. It makes a secretion which easily dissolves a passage out of this cage. Scientists replicated this secretion and believes it dissolves the uterine muscles. One alternative medicine marketing network in Nigeria sells this formula as NS FIBRIN. It couples it with another product called fibro clear and, lately, with a newcomer formula called fibroid away.

  ENDOMETRIOSIS

How do endometrial cells get out of the uterus? Some specialists speak of worms dragging them along from the hollow chamber through the tubes and out into the various cavities. Surgery has not proven very successful in preventing or curbing the pain and excessive menstrual season bleeding it causes. The impact may be minimised with the use of phytoestrogens which replace the harsh human estrogens , and anti inflamatory food medicines such as Curcumin 2000x, fish oil, pelvic massage with camphorated castor oil driven in with hot water bottle where heating pads are not available.

SMELLY MENSTRATION

It can be very embarrassing to a woman with high hopes on a date if she pulls up and down and her partner freezes and pulls away. Many challenged women have Unsuccessfully trodden several paths in search for help and freedom. I have seen many women whose odour gives away their secret that their period is on. In the 1990s, I sold a Nigerian herbal soap which helped many women. It was produced by two pharmacists. The father of one, a native doctor, owned the intellectual property rights. He came from a village named APA, near Badagry and his name was OGUN. I am sorry for calling APA a village, although that is what is still is. In the pre colonial days, it was the headquarters of a region which included Badagry,now the chief town. Badagry merely gained visibility over APA because it was the slave trade port. All.of that is another story. The soap from pharmacist OGUN, was called AWEDA (d.d.m in Yoruba). It promised complete  cleansing for skin disease and body odour. I kept cutting in the boot of my car which I gave any woman I met anywhere who was smelling out. I also gave out my telephone number for a call if she found it helpful. The calls kept coming. Along with this soap came a cream from an electronic engineer whose wife had to be moved to a side ward in a hospital following offensive v*ginal odour she was exuding after child birth. When all hospital Medications deployed against the odour appeared unhelpful, her husband went to his village and came back with a preparation which did the job. I had the priviledge of giving this preparation  a trade name, PURE VIRGIN, when, in collaboration  with a retired pilot, engineer Tusin packaged it in a tube. It was an instant hit in the market. But there were women who disliked it because it made them so tight, perhaps more than virgins, that they found friction painful. Tusin passed soon after, and  the product disappeared in the market. Ordinarily, menstration should not smell So strong for the odour  to be picked  by other people. For it Should be no more than unfertilized egg and uterine lining being shed with some germs. Sometimes the smell of iron and bacteria may occur. Good menstral hygiene should take care of this. When the odour becomes very strong, infections may be at play. When this is the case, pelvic pain and v*ginal discharge may be the acompaniments. Some women express fishy odour. This may be sign of vaginosis, caused by bacteria. It may have nothing to do with the menstral flow but with an overgrowth of unfriendly bacteria in the v*gina. Normally, the v*gina is meant to be acidic to keep there germs at Bay. But, sometimes, frequent s3xual intercourse, even with the same partner, may over infuse the organ with too much alkalinity from sperm that these unfriendly bacteria are able to raise their heads in the new pH environment. This situation may also come with pain during urination. Whichever is  the germ that is causing the odour, bacteria, candida, viruses, parasites etc, I have discovered GOLDEN SEAL ROOT able to handle many, if not all, of them. It is taken as tea for seven days and suspended for another Seven or 14 days. This is because it is so powerful it may dry out the muscous membrane lining of the body. Then, in powder form and mixed with egg white, or with Propolis cream, it may  be delivered deep into the v*gina and the paste left there overnight. Mango seed extract, which Indian women use as spemicide before s3x as a valuable contraceptive because it kills on rushing sperm, can also do the job. After the bacteria or offending pathogens have been smoked out, friendly bacteria should be introduced. This is because, in the clearance of unfriendly bacteria, friendly bacteria are also eliminated, and it is necessary to regrow the of population of friendly bacteria so that unfriendly bacteria do not storm back. One of the newest V*ginal care proprietary products currently making the waves in Lagos is SHINEWAY feminine moisturizing gel. Made from six substances, it is said to hold the promise, sterilising, fast acting and “relief” for itching, apart from moisturizing, soothing and eliminating odour. It should appeal to women who in addition to the smell are challenged also, by the Big V D…V*ginal Dryness.

I know of no numerological indicator which suggests that 22 June 2020 is a unique date in the cosmic calendar. But what do I know? All I can say is 22 June 2022 is the date Ash Mufareh has chosen to close the register of O founders of ONPASSIVE. Ash Mufareh is the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of onpassive which he has been building up since 2018 to offer the latest global technological advancement in artificial intelligence (AI). The closure of this register on which about two million subscribers worldwide from about 200 countries are listed is programmed to trigger other business activities which will end in the launch of Onpassive, an internet digital solutions company with about 50 product departments designed since 2018 to be the largest single company worldwide in its class of business.

Response to Onpassive subtle marketing efforts in Nigeria has been that of doubting Thomases waiting to see the end of the script. The script began to unfold in 2018 when Ash Mufareh, an American multilevel business and digital solutions marketer, began to put together an international O founders group who would help to bring to fruition his dream of establishing the biggest internet digital solutions company on earth. He wanted that company to not only provide the most-effective digital products at the cheapest prices but to also be owned by not only himself or a small group of investors, but by millions of persons in every country. It was a new dream in business with an in-built guarantee for success from the launch date. This is because those  millions of O founders in all countries would abinitio be part of a new ecosystem of customers and products. Whereas the void world companies struggled to build the customer base after launch, dissipating energy and money in ceaseless and needless competition, Onpassive would already before it’s launch have standing by millions of “ready made” customers who, as it’s co-founders, are, if you like, also it’s shareholders.

Every o founder was asked to express interest in the dream with the payment of 95 USD. In reality, the payment could go up to between 105 USD or 120 USD in Nigeria, because of the cost of “handling” or “service” charges. After the launch, there would be an additional payment of between 250 USD and 300 USD per account. But this has not been decided. Such decisions are usually made after global webinars where opinions are sampled and together with a small group of associates, Ash Mufareh takes a decision which is later communicated to o founders at webinars and in the back offices of their onpassive internet accounts.

On 2nd June 2022, Ash Mufareh personally announced the register of co-founders now known as O founders which would be officially closed at midnight on 22 June 2022.

CLOSURE EFFECTS

Closure of the register will usher in many activities, perhaps in quick succession before the launch, including

1) No new o founder would be admitted to the project.

2) Existing o founders would add between 250 USD and 300 USD to their original payment of 95 USD.

3) All O founders would belong to the inner caucus of the company and earn, everyday, something from the profit it will be making globally.

4) The o founders would not pay for using Onpassive internet services and products. These products are the onpassive’s version of Google, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, play store, zoom and many more. There are to be 50 departments of these digital products, each department furnishing various products.

5) O founders will not pay for using these products because their bills will be financed exclusively from their earnings. For every account they paid for, they would have two wallets. One wallet would be for their earnings. The other would be fed by the main wallets to finance their use of the various products. Thus, they would not need to bring money from out of their dress pockets or borrow money from the bank or the service provider to purchase “recharge cards” or “credit”. Their income or bonus credit would be fed from their daily earnings.

6) While business is going on in the “inner caucus” o founders club, Onpassive will also open its doors for business to non-o founders. But these would enjoy only customer benefit, including rock-bottom prices, and their activities would yield additional income to the o founders group. The customer group would earn no income from Onpassive. But it would enjoy efficient and effective products at prices far cheaper than they now do. Besides, every customer will enjoy free use of Onpassive products for seven days trial.

7) O founders who are unable to pay up the 250-300 USD after the onpassive launch would not earn an income from the company until this has been done. But Onpassive makes it easy for such o founders. Their bonuses would pile up in their wallets but they would not be able to make a draw on them until the wallet has made the mark or has enough money in them to finance the budget.

8) An e book in the back offices of o founders in the onpassive website which explains how Onpassive has been working and would work in the future, subject to policy updates. Onpassive is not a multi-level marketing (MLM) company. Thus, the company does not pay referral bonuses to o founders whose efforts, such as this article, to introduce it to potential o founders. What I am saying is that (A) I am an o founder. (B) I have written this article to introduce you to Onpassive and to encourage you to be an o founder like me. (C) Onpassive will not reward me with a referral bonus if you accept my invitation and become an o founder like me. The e book explains that Ash Mufareh had done marketing for MLM companies, For several years, I observed the deception of many of them, witnessed crashes and personal loss of huge chains of downlines, upline insincerity and how uplines often stole the downlines of their downlines. The question arises: Of what benefit to an O founder is an effort such as this one to share the onpassive opportunity with other people before the register of o founder is closed on 22nd June 2022? A simple answer is: Through the documentation of registrations, artificial intelligence (AI) will recognise the effort of every o founder and reward them with daily bonuses from transactions. This is because o founders are classified into groups or teams on the basis of the sources of their invitation to the company. Thus, for bonus payments, the different groups will be wait differently with more money flowing to the heavier groups then the leaner groups. An o founder who invited 100 o founders will, thereby, earn four times  more than the one who invited 25. A greater benefit is that Onpassive marketing campaign will help every o founder through artificial intelligence AI to populate his or her team .

This, however, is a small picture of the reward system. A larger picture will be how much money traffic o founders in one country help to attract to their own country from what will be the biggest internet business on earth. What I mean is this: right now, NIGERIA’S economy is drained abroad whenever Nigerians use Facebook, Instagram, Zoom or Twitter. No Nigerian earns anything for spending his or her hard-earned money on these digital products. All the money they put into them will go abroad, save for the one retained by the service provider which, in any case, is foreign owned and pays only token tax in Nigeria. When Onpassive begins operations and Nigerians patronise it, the money drain will continue unless there are many Nigerian o founders who will not only earn from the income from the Nigerian market but earn also from the income in, say, far away Bangladesh, Canada or India. This is a way to attract foreign currency influx into the economy and depend less on petroleum. It is a way to create wealth for the individuals and the country and discourage quarreling on ethnic or religious grounds over the blessings of Mother Nature beneath the soil. This was what Alex Okonkwo, a security expert, beautifully advocated on Jordan fm radio station in Lagos this week with host Babalola Fage.

LEGITIMATE FEARS

In the Nigerian personal finance market, e-commerce and digital businesses are distrusted. Behind many of them are gold diggers. They fall upon the nation like a whirlwind, conscripting willing radio and television stations for their wild business campaigns. The economy is down. The banks are not encouraging savings with interest on deposits. They invest deposits, make money from the investments, pay depositors no interest but even charge them all sorts of fees for bringing their monies for safekeeping and lending to other people which brings profits to the banks. Thus, it is tempting to put money to productive use for passive income rather than keeping it idle in the banks where it depreciates. It is this longing that has been grossly abused by crooked purveyors of digital marketing businesses in Nigeria, especially those in forex trading and Bitcoin ventures. Not so long after they open shop for business, their websites like their operating platforms, disappear from the air waves without a trace and humongous sums of investment from hard-earned money go down the drain with them. Soon after, these crooked businesses surface under new names and new operating platforms, change their tactics, and it is business all over again. Unfortunately, the law against financial and internet fraud is not strong and smart enough to catch up with them. So, like armed robbery and banditry, Nigerian internet fraudsters and their collaborators from America, Europe and Asia rule the waves.

Who in this horrible jungle of a market and environment would not be skeptical when invited to a business that has been on the drawing board for four years since 2018 (2018-2022)? In this environment, many Nigerians want quick fixes for all investments. They are hardly futuristic. They have been so psychically badly hurt by financial losses that they hardly appreciate that only thoroughness breeds dependability and that, in dependability, resides continuity and the investment peace of mind that they are longing for. They hardly realise it took Mark Zuckerberg no fewer than three years from his days at Harvard to build Facebook, an idea he had been toying with since the age of 11. It probably hasn’t registered well with them that while Elom Musk has just bought Twitter for 44 billion USD, Onpassive o founders have already put together more than one trillion U SD with two or three times more of that due to fall in when the register closes. In other words, even at the present value of one trillion USD, Onpassive, which has not begun business, can buy more than 20 Twitters at 44 billion USD per Twitter. There is a lot to say about a company which has not begun business but has this huge liquidity which Ash Mufareh regularly transparently discusses in the open. There is a lot to say also about Onpassive, which is not owing anyone a Kobo despite the huge business eco system it has cultivated.  There are no more than five such companies in the United States, we are told. Ash Mufareh discusses the finances and capacities of onpassive in the public. A man and his company intent on defrauding will not do this, in my humble opinion. It is legitimate and rational in the Nigerian emasculating business environment for a traumatised investor to become paranoid about the next investment news or offer. I consider it even a duty for such an investor to adequately protect himself or herself. But for how long in that environment can one survive by closing one’s eyes and stuffing one’s ears? Do we not sometimes or always carry rationalism too far? Do we not see clearly through our tears even when we cry our hearts out? Does a baby learning to walk not cry when he or she falls but gets up soon after, a smile on the face and tries all over again, laughter in the heart after the first few sure steps? Was there no Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah? Was there no Noah on this Earth when, reportedly, water effaced a civilization?

If we fear internet business because we cannot verify the brains behind them and the addresses of their operations, Onpassive is not one of such businesses. Ash Mufareh is well known in the business circles of the United States. As for the veracity of the operational offices of the company, pls listen to the Onpassive e-book:

ONPASSIVE is an American Company. Our IT Hub is located in Hyderabad, India but we are headquartered in Orlando, Florida. An impressive fact: We are 100% debt-free!

Think about that for a moment. How many new, globally-operating companies are completely debt-free?

The foregoing are my counsel for people who, bitten several times, have become despondent and immobile in the personal finance market. I, too, like Mufareh, have gone up and down the waves, but I have refused to knock out or give up. I have found, in the midst of these financial calamities, honest businesses which work. They are not noisy or flamboyant with rewards, the Hallmark of the tricksters, and they took some time to diligently plan their platforms which are unique to them, not operating platforms that can be purchased two for a Kobo or naira and slammed on the market.

POST-22 JUNE

“By their works ye shall know them” We are told. After the closure of o founders register on 22 June 2022, Onpassive will embark on a number of activities that would build up to it’s launch .

1) Early this year, it unveiled 21 applications, a major activity since it’s drawing board days in 2018. About 80,000 engineers and support staff had been domiciled in India for their design, research and development. From the company’s information available online, the venues and these activities can be verified. So can update information from the webinars from country to country.

2) After the o founders register closes on 22 June 2022, Onpassive will embark on a massive business campaign to promote it’s digital products from one country to another.

3) To prevent hackings and system collapses which are some of the reasons behind the failure of some organisations which are not self reliant on security matters, Onpassive is hosting its own platform. Accordingly, it is migrating it’s present website and the special website of “o founders” from the present host to its own data hosting system.

 FINALLY…

I have written this report not in respect of the launch date or of the activities which will herald it, but in respect of the impending closure of the register of “founders” to invite attention to the fact that the rare opportunity of becoming something like a “shareholder” in what is promising to be the biggest internet company on earth is only a few days away. Only the lion heart, only the ones who are not afraid of risk taking, those who believe that “something good can come out of Israel” will summon the courage, clear aside all the dross which scammers have strewn on their way and all around them, and see the light shinning bright afar off, yet so nearby, at the end of the dark tunnel. My prayer is that many Nigerians will avail themselves of this rare opportunity to become o founders before 22nd June 2022, so that our country will not suffer another haemorrhage and drain to other countries when Onpassive finally blasts off. I am available for further discussion on this subject on 08034004247(Telephone, and WhatsApp),.

• Pls follow me for related reports on Facebook (at John Olufemi Kusa), and omoobalasaokufemikusa@gmail.com(medium).

Many young Nigerian women and teenage girls are still dirty downstairs, more than 20 years of intensive sex education in secondary schools. They do not know how to calculate their periods, rely on signs and early warning signals which sometimes fail to come, embarrassingly discover at school or in other public places that they are dripping and their clothes are stained, having laundered pants in the toilet or outdoor to dry, buy and wear second hand pants previously worn by euro American women, do not clean up after menstration and wear one pant for several days even in the scorching tropical sun. Hands up, young women and teenage girls who are not guilty as charged, even if not in all matters particular. Hands up, you mothers of my generation who did not have a running battle over these matters with your daughters and, perhaps even now with your grand daughters. Where is that father who did not learn to mind his business and leave the women  to run their own show? I have no daughter, and take my cue from my wife and the young women who come to discuss their menstrual health challenges with me, from some teenage girls who are brought to me by their mothers. If these young girls would not listen to their mothers, I put the picture of my wife in the bath room before them. On her arrival from work everyday, she went straight to the bath room, pulled her clothes, tops and all, and soaked them overnight. Before she got into the tub next day, she washed them all, and soaked the ones she wore overnight. We men have had a habit of piling up boxers and singlets, or to wear two or three sets in one week, and then pass over the mountain to our women to launder. I learned that washing them up in bits every day over about 10 minutes before the morning bath is one of the easiest of laundry chores to perform.

 

The date

Women of yore had a diary culture. Everything about the, including their period onset and all that, was an entry in the dictionary. I was not a diary person and I still am not. I file everything in the Brian and build daily work orders from them on the cell phone and elsewhere. But I learned to mark on the bedroom all calendar birth dates and other anniversaries as well as the likely date for the arrival of a new baby in the family. Today’s young girl keeps no diary. Her life hovers around the android phone, and the social media. She hardly has time for her studies. Let alone

May educate her on  her menstrual cycle, a monthly and regular event in herself with it’s up and downs. At 18, I read Every Woman. This book offers the young girl information about her body and what may happen to it through out her earth life. It talks about how to calculate the due dates  of the different cycle tenures and the safe periods which makes the use of dangerous contraceptives  unnecessary. Ask the young woman  next to you if she had read the book Every Woman. She will very likely ask in return: likely ask in return: Which one is that one?  A 15 year old who was experiencing

One day to discard dispose kitchen waste into the wast bin outdoor. A young man walked up to her right before the  pedestrian gate, and asked for direction to a nearby street. The one offer the right turn” she told him. He thanked her and explained that was not what he wanted to tell her. He pointed to her right leg. Blood was dripping down from her knickers. She looked up with a smile and thanked him!  Many girls her age and older are this careless. As several teachers in a all girls secondary school will confirm.

 

The laundry

Pants are hung in toilet rooms or out door to dry. In the toilet room, Every flush of the water closet displaces air which comes up with some germs which may settle on the exposed pants. This may be second jeopardy if the paint had been washed with harsh clothes the chemical molecules of which may not have been completely writing off with clean water. Out potten or spores from  plants blown by wind or mite bearing dust may settle on the under. Shaking or beating the under against hard objects may not get rid all unwanted “guests”. Ironing the pant with very hot iron may help. But being largely polyurethane (nylon), this is not always possible. Thus, this may cause vaginal infections such as vaginosis or candidiasis.

 

Second hands

I do not understand why women will not feel irritated by the thought of wearing another pant or brassaire. I am told the bottom line is money. A new pant may cost about #1,000 or more but a good GRADE ONE (used or damage)pant may go for about #500. I am told, also, the colours of new pants wash on the outer clothing during exposure to rain water and that the elastic band skiekers easily. I try to imagine if it is thought that the first wearer may have made some deposit unkind to  the vagina on this pant. That is how throughtless daughters and nieces can be when they turn to their mothers or anties briefs box. Often,they are too lazy and too dirty to clean theirs, and recycle dirty pant. One of the young women who sold pants and brassaires to pay her way through the federal technical college (FCT) in Yaba, Lagos, said many of the girls hardly washed their undies. In preparation for visits to their boyfriends at the weekends, they purchased about half a dozen pants and brassaires, pretending cleanliness to these men who, in any case, picked the bills. How would such women bring up clean daughters?

The challenges to psychic health which like in one person wearing the personal effects of another is a subject for another day!

 

Clean up

When the period is over , life begins as usual for many women… Some of them cohabit in the week after because it may be a safe period, whereas it is probably a time to expel the dress still hanging here and there. The moon plants, cucumber and water melon in particular, have been shown to help flush back ups and hang outs while Jobelyn, the Nigerian proprietary blood formula helps to restore blood Loss. It is a time some women  try CLEAN WOMAN therapy (discussed elsewhere in this series) and wear panty liners over their pants. Who knows what chicken may still be coming home roost?

 

How long

For how many days should a woman wear one pants, is the function of her personal hygiene. It is like asking about ideal number of menstrual pads a woman should wear in one day. If I am a light bleeder, I would not wish to put the stuff back  on my body once I have shifted it to wee or to poop. For me it is like going to pooped not cleaning up, or cleaning up and sticking the paper back. In my days at the University about 45 years ago, I learned something about the cleans. If we went for morning lecture, they came in with a dress that would be different from the ones they would wear afternoon lecture. Their dresses for the evening lectures as the prep would be different as well. Out of curiosity, I often wondered if the under clothing were changed as well. I guessed they where because brassaires which may be carelessly or deliberately exposed were always changing, sometimes tune with the colours of the outside dressing. Please do not wonder if I was a prying into privacy. I was merely searching for and I got one!

LAST WEEK

I discussed PAINFUL MENSTRUATION as one of the commonest menstrual health challenges in Nigeria, after listing some of them …

• Painful menstration
• Absence of menstration
• Heavy bleeding
• irregular menstration
• scanty menstration
• Dark , blood clots in menstration
• ovarian cysts and polycystic ovarian syndrome
• uterine fibroids
• endometriosis
• smelly menstration
• Hormonal imbalance

 

Heavy bleeding

bleeding, silica or plants which supply it such as horsetail, may, like diatomaceous earth (Diatom), it’s natural  source, strengthen the collagen matrix and reduce blood outflow from the blood vessels. Shepherd’s purse, known for reducing or stopping internal bleeding, helps as well. So does rutin, a carotenoid used especially for strenghtening blood vessels in the eyes that are leaking and causing a condition known as Retinitis pigmentosa .So does Nimosa pudica which yorubas call PATANMO. This words means “put your thighs together”. The plant is also called SENSITIVE PLANT. Its leaves are arranged almost opposite one another. When the hand touches it, both sides come together. This led its observers to believe that, in uterine or other bleeding, Nimosa pudica can act on the nerves to shrink and constrict apertures for blood outflow pawpaw (papaya)leaves may act likewise because it stimulates the production of blood platelets which clump  to prevent excessive bleeding  at the sites of injury. In Asia, it is used to stop the bleeding of Dengue fever about anywhere the eyes, nostrils, ears,mouth, anus, urinary tract etc. Heavy bleeders may also wish to try potato leaves either as a juice cooked vegetable. Their rich store of vitamin K should position them to reduce bleeding.

Heavy bleeders run the risk of anaemia caused by iron loss. They become easily fatigued and weak due to the loss of blood water volume and iron to make haemoglobin for the production of red blood cells. A shortage of red blood cells means that less oxygen will be transported round the body. This would cause oxygen starvation and many problems which accompany it. Intake of vitamin c in foods or as food supplements should help iron absorbtion. Iron may also be supplied to the body through the consumption of deep leafy vegetables and their juices, beetroot and fruits such as water cress. The fastest way to get iron into the body and rapidly improve the blood hematocrit within 24 hours, has proven in clinical and research studies, is by supplementing the diet with Jobelyn blood formula capsules. This Nigerian herbal blood formula is now sold worldwide for all anaemia related conditions including the treatment of cancers,  and doctor-prescribed.

Heavy bleeders are girls and women who menstruate for up to 7 days and have to change their pads several times in one day. Apart from iron loss, they may also lose blood water volume and electrolytes for which it may be advisable that they regularly hydrate with pinches of sea salt to help them keep the water and , if need be, be on an oral rehydration therapy.

Irregular menstruation

Stress

And hormonal imbalance are some of the disposing triggers. Peace of mind and good nutrition are among the solutions. Where the hormones (Estrogen), progesterone and  prolactin, among others, are out of balance, it may be restored using herbs such as vitex, Dong Quai, Peruvian Macca, Ashwaganda and black cohosh. To any of these or their combinations may be added marigold flowers in any form, zinc, the fertility mineral, essential fatty acids a proprietary formula , PHTOESTROGEN which helps the body replace harsh human estrogen fraction (Estriol and estradiol) with more friendly plant estrogens. These plant estrogens may be as weak as estrone (E1), the first human estrogene which is produced by young girls just coming to puberty and by menopausal women.

North American Indians bequeath black cohosh to humanity. They use it for anything from irregular menstruation to absence of menstruation. Modern researchers believe black cohosh raises the blood levels of estrogen, progesterone, luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and help to balance them. I know of a woman who was not happy in the neighbourhood where she lived. She was happy at work, and always did not wish to return home. She lost three pregnancies in a row due to hormonal imbalances. She stabilised after she relocated from that neighbourhood and supplemented her diet with these ovarian herbs.

 

Hypomenorrhoea

Many women are alarmed when their periods Become scanty. They assume they are on the way “out of circulation”. In many women, the period starts with spotting on the first day which dovetails into normal flow over two or three days before patering out. Spotting occurs in menarchy, the first periods and in premenopausal time. It may, also, arise  as an early sign of pregnancy, weight gain or loss and the corresponding body metabolic rate, (especially in cases of overactive thyroid glands), stress, hormone based contracptives, problems in the ovaries called polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), cervical stenosis (weak cervix), early menopause, blood loss, thin endometrium lining of the uterus or scar tissue(s) in the uterus. Each of these possible causes is an interesting subject for which a concerned woman may seek detailed explanations from her gynaecologist. Some explanations may be found in the book EVERY WOMAN by DEREK LLEWELLYN JONES, which I read at 18 in 1968 and gave out as birthday gifts in those days, and WOMEN’S BODY, WOMEN’S WISDOM, by CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP, a gift from my wife about 20 years ago.

Women respond to blood clots in their periods in different ways. The clots mean nothing to some but means a lot to others .

These clots may be red in colour, brownish or black. They may be natural or a warning signal of possible oncoming menstrual trouble. They may cause no harm if they are sealants produced by the plasma and blood platelets to block unnecessary bleeding of tiny or fragile blood vessels during menstruation. They may suggest the need for action if they are from previous incomplete menstrual discharge. When not completely discharged, left over menstrual blood backs up in the uterus to become a breeding ground for bacteria, viruses and fungi, all of which are found in uterine fibroid tissue, suggesting that this retrograde blood may be one of about 20 or more possible causes of uterine fibroids. The dark blood clots suggest a state of deoxygenation in the uterus which may cause some of the muscle fibers to die or to grow differently from normal cells in an adaptive process. Apple cider vinegar, taken orally, clears these clots. So does Cayenne pepper and proprietary blood formulas such as cardiotonic pills , vidamax and ISK clear which target blood clots for dissolution. Deoxygenated condition of the uterus may suggest the weakness of it’s muscles which may cause prolapse of the uterus. In this condition, the weakened uterus literally collapses, sometimes blocking passage way from the cervix to the uterus. Ladies mantle may help, being useful in promoting ovulation and boosting progesterone production to prepare the uterus for conception.

 

Ovarian cyst

Cysts may occur in any organ. They are fluid filled sacs which may cause health complications if they are not promptly addressed. They arise on the surface of the ovary and may disappear on their own. Where they do not, they may cause infections and disturb ovulation. It is suggested in some studies that they proliferate when the female hormones are out of balance and the male hormones predominate. Sometimes, the cysts are many and the condition is called POLYCYSTIC OVARIAN SYNDROME(PCOS). PCOS may be unilateral, that is affecting only one ovary, or bilateral, affecting both.

Myoplasma plant medicines such as the proprietary myomin also helps. So do the female-balancing herbs. CLEAN WOMAN is also in the picture. It is inserted into the vagina the second day after menstruation and left on for between three to five days. The contents enter the cervix and, from there, the vagina from where , it is claimed, they may move up to the fallopian tubes, cleansing all the way and resolving health disturbances, before they finally arrive in the ovaries . PCOS may be painful, inhibit fertility and warrant surgical removal of the ovaries in extreme conditions .

Sometimes, the shape of an organ may signal what may be used to treat it. The ovaries are shaped like the almond. Can this be a secret code? Will eating almonds or drinking almond milk help? We know red kidney beans pod tea like The Golden Six , heals the kidneys. The golden six has also been suggested for the ovaries and fertility like the red clover which is said to dry out the cysts and support ovarian function.

 

• To be continued

 

 

May 28 was the Day of the “Red Indians” or, if you like, of “The Chinese Army”. If the headline did not give me out, “the Red Indians” or “the Chinese Army” was the coded language for describing menstruation in the circles of the male teenagers and young men of my growing up years. In those days, about 50 years ago, girls and women talked about menstration in hush tones, father’s left everything about the menstruation of their daughters to the mothers or to some other women, mothers only warned their daughters against being “touched” by boys and men, and the young girls gathered most of the information they needed to understand this monthly bleeding condition from their peers who, before them, had learned to ride over the storm. Today, menstruation and menstrual health talk have become more open…thanks to a day such as May 28, the World Menstrual Health Day, when almost everything about menstruation is brought out from under the bushel to the table top for display in the manner of a fair.

On May 17, 2022, the Spanish Government became the first European country to propose to parliament a bill which made government finance three to five days menstrual vacation for work-class women who suffered from painful menstruation, if their doctors certified them unfit for work. Equality Minister Irene Monero said: “The law will recognise a health problem that has been largely swept under the carpet for long. Periods will no longer be a taboo…we would be the first country in Europe to introduce a temporary sick leave that is fully financed by the state for painful and incapacitating periods. No more going to work with pain, no more taking pills before arriving at work and having to hide the fact we are in pain that makes us unable to work.”

The bill is not 100 per cent popular among women and politicians. Some women say it would stigmatise women in offices and encourage employers to prefer male workers to them. The draft bill is not surprising. Since the government came to power in 2018, more women featured in the cabinet, taking powerful positions such as economy, defence and finance. This probably explains why the draft bill on menstrual health even crosses the boundary to reproductive health, seeking to offer girls aged 16 and 17 the right to not obtain the permission of their parents before having abortions which may be free in public hospitals. Not only that, contraceptions and menstrual hygiene products will be distributed free in high schools, while sex education will be expanded and “strengthened” .

Pauline Keden Tallen

The Spanish women’s offensive in the public space may have been giving Pauline Tallen, Nigeria’s Women Affairs minister  nightmares. Where do we start from, one can almost hear her asking herself. But before she gets cracking and roaring, I would like to say the Spanish model is not much of a good idea to copy. It is like chasing shadows, sparing leprosy to wage war on ring worm. Wouldn’t it have been better to get to the root of what causes menstrual health problems, that is the diet, and dietarily resolve them? In any case, what time has Pauline Tallen got left in the Buhari-led administration to begin to talk about menstration and, on top of that, railroad President Buhari to pay for menstrual cramps or heavy bleeding from lean government resources? Wouldn’t the men say that is dirty blood talk for which they never wanted women in government? Right now, the men have gone into the trenches to fight for their political lives. Atiku Abubakar has just picked the PDP, opposition party ticket for the 2023 presidential election. He is not a political mince meat. His victory in the PDP has put Southeastern and Middle Belt politicians in confusion, if not in disarray. Southwestern politicians now have the candidature of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in the APC to contend with. His coming is like that of a thief in the night to disrupt a banquet when the tables are almost all well set. In the core North, there is rejoicing that another Fulani president and a Moslem is again on the way. But it cannot be Uhuru until the insulted Southwest has been boxed up for the next eight years.

Away from politics

Who even says women  may have been biologically designed to menstruate? This question was posed to humanity in the 1980s by two sisters, Leslie and Barbara Kenton, in two books, Raw Energy and The New Raw Energy. They led us to the wild where some female animals were not menstruating but  reproductive. Leslie and Barbara followed for years researchers who found that these animals ate a lot of food very rich in Beta carotene. Could Betacarotene be the secret of their reproductive health wonder, the researchers wondered. So, they set up studies with some women. Some were fed Betacarotene rich foods, others foods deficient in Betacarotene. Those who ate Betacarotene deficient food menstruated regularly or irregularly while those who are in abundance of Betacarotene in the diet failed to menstruate. In Nigeria, and perhaps in other parts of the world, reproductive age women panic if they suddenly fail to menstruate. The researchers, too, wondered… would the stoppage of menstruation make the volunteers for their human studies become infertile? They were surprised that, in the study duration, many women who had high blood levels of Betacarotene became pregnant! I saw an example of such women about 10 years later, during a conference of Traditional medicine at the Gothe Institute in Lagos. She came with two  children. They had been expelled from her home by the townfolks somewhere in Benue or Plateau State for not menstruating but fertile and having babies! Her situation reminded me of the fate of twins in Calabar before the advent of the missionary Mary Slessor. Calabar people hitherto considered twins bad omen and killed them. Can we today not wonder if menstruation is a disease and menstrual mishaps co-travellers of this disease?

The researchers found that women who did not menstrate but were, nevertheless, reproductive did not shed the lining of their wombs every month if they were not pregnant. Pregnancy means one or more eggs from one or both ovaries have been fertilised by sperm in the fallopian tube. The fertilised egg descends into the womb and embeds itself in the lining of the womb which, thereafter, grows to become the placenta. If no fertilisation takes place, the egg and the lining, known as the endometrium,  disintegrate and are expelled from the womb in the blood flow known as menstration. The researchers found that in women who had an abundance of Betacarotene, no such disintegration and blood outflow took place. This let them to conclude that women are menstrating today probably because they do not have enough Betacarotene in their systems, and menstration may be a symptom of Betacarotene deficiency. Gynaecologists may wish to examine this assumption. One of the facts known about Betacarotene today is that it is a pro vitamin or a precursor of vitamin A. Secondly, it is also known that vitamin A is a nutritional friend of the inner lining of all hollow tubes in the human body, including the uterus.

Nigeria  Outlook

The way Nigerian women celebrated  May 28, 2022 World  Menstrual Health Day was “normal normal” as we say. There were talk shows on radio and television and speeches were made here and there. The bottom line was that talk of menstruation between girls and their mothers or among grown up males and females in society was still done hush hush. Maybe this has still to do with the awe in which the human blood is held or with the mystery of the blood. Understandably, many women still  find it unwomanly to discuss their personal experiences where men are. Girls and women said the prices of sanitary products have more than doubled in one year. There was little or no mention of how many Nigerian women are confronted by uterine fibroids every year, although this condition would appear to have gained epidemic status and, very soon, like menstruation, may be considered a natural biological feature of women. Similarly, we did not learn about maternal health. I thought this should be of interest to women, even if it is not related to menstrual health. My mother died in 1959 after having her fifth baby at what is now Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos (Then a general hospital, because she could not expel the placenta and she bled to death. How I wish she or my father knew about Ewe Abiwere, a Yoruba herb which facilitates easy birthing. Between then and now, many more women do not return home from the labour room. Nigeria is now said to be the country on earth where the most women die of pregnancy-related matters. This should be more of concern to women’s empowerment advocates. Of what use is getting a girl through university if she would die in the labour room some day? Our women do not face menstruation questions in the work place as do European women. Most male bosses show understanding and respect for the menstral woman. They have wives, daughters and sisters. Any woman can get round a naughty male boss with a doctor’s “sick leave” certificate in Nigeria!

Nigeria’s menstrual health issues

Among the commonest menstrual health questions in Nigeria are:

• Painful menstruation
• Absence of menstruation
• Heavy bleeding
• Irregular menstruation
• Scanty menstruation
• Dark blood clots in menstruation
• Ovarian cysts and polycystic ovarian syndrome
• Uterine fibroids
• Endometriosis
• Smelly menstruation
• Hormonal imbalance

Painful Menstruation

My sister was a spectacle to behold in her teens. Heavy migraines accompanied her periods which also came with heavy, painful cramping of the uterine muscles. She would cry, scream and sprawl on the floor. One day, our mother’s father in the village sent for her. He took her to a nearby bush, picked a certain leaf, placed it on her head and asked her to tie her scarf on it. At sunset, she was to remove the leaf without letting it fall and bury it in the soil anywhere. That process ended her nightmares. Unfortunately, that generation is gone with priceless medical knowledge. The popular belief about pain is that it comes from irritation which begets inflamation. There are many irritants in the uterus. These may range from heavy metals, microbes and elevated levels of arachidonic acid and excess levels of estrogen, the female hormone and the pro-inflamatory prostaglandins, hormone like substances. Where heavy metals are suspected, chelated minerals, such as chelated zinc, may be used. Chlorella is a good chelating herb. It works well with cilantro. Elsewhere, I will mention the use of Clean Woman and specially medicated panty liners.

Estrogenated women are known to experience painful periods. Estrogenation means they have more estrogen in their bodies than they ought to have in relation to other female hormones, especially progesterone. Sometimes, estrogen levels are not over the bar. It may be progesterone levels that are below the mark, thereby artifificially creating an estrogen surfeit. In that situation, zinc, a fertility mineral, and lady’s mantle, a uterine herb, may be taken to increase progesterone levels. Where estrogen levels are very high, sometimes dragging prolactin levels up as well, the diet may be the first port of call. Many women enjoy drinking milk. They do not know that, for a female cow to produce milk almost everyday of her life, and in commercial quantity for that matter, estrogen is fed into her diet to stimulate her milk-producing glands. The residues of the estrogen mix gets into the milk product and enters the body of a human milk drinker. With this exposure, and the retreat from dairy milk by many persons, the dairy milk industry is powerfully fighting back to protect and expand its market.

This year, it has proclaimed June 1, that is yesterday, as World Dairy Milk Day. The celebrations were preceded with Enjoy Dairy activities from May 29 to 31. The programmes were aimed at educating populations around the world that dairy milk was good for their health. Estrogenated women will also have to do away with poultry chicken and poultry egg. The hen in the poultry is given estrogen in the feed to produce egg almost every day. Residues of the estrogen in the eggs and bodies of hens are consumed by some women almost everyday, stimulating their own bodies unknown to them. Some studies have shown that young girls exposed to dairy and poultry products come to puberty too early in life, with all the attendant problems, and that some men so exposed may bear estrogen loads higher than those of their wives, causing reproductive challenges. Even where estrogenated women abstain from dairy and poultry products, they will still have the products stored in soft plastics to abstain from. In Nigeria, one of these products is “pure water”. When sun heat or other heat impact this satchet water brand, Zeno estrogens migrate from the plastic to the water.

One way to address estrogenation is to empower the liver to adequately break down excess estrogen complexes into fragments, wrap them up with bile salt produced in the liver and concentrated in the gall bladder from where they are released into the intestine for evacuation of estrogen fragments in the intestine out of the body through the stool. The liver requires bitter principles to make bile salts but, unfortunately, many Nigerian women hate to take bitter food or herbs. Even where they do, they will still need fiber in the diet to wholesomely evacuate the estrogen fragments through the stool. Unfortunately, again, women tend to have specialised in quick fix non- fibre foods, especially white flour foods, over processed cereals and fries. The result is that when estrogen fragments arrive in the colon without dietary fiber to “imprison” them, they may be easily absorbed into the bloodstream, thereby increasing the estrogen load and continuing the vicious cycle. There are many forms of dietary fibre in the Nigerian market. Some of them are slippery elm, psyllium seed husk, chia seeds, diatom and milla which is my favourite.

Some studies point out to magnesium deficiency and an excess calcium load as causes of painful periods. Free calcium may cause wild contractions which rapidly produce lactic acid and sore muscles easily quietened with potassium. In this conception of painful menstruation, magnesium may be given orally before or at the onset of the period or, in liquid form, massaged deep into the pain site. This may be pure magnesium oil or a mixture of it and pure aloe vera juice, the anthroquinones of which ease pain . Omega 3 fatty acids help out as an anti-inflammatory and is, in fact, preferred to ibruprofen by some care givers. Vitamin E cannot be left out.

It is the vitamin of muscles. On the Nigerian shelf today are proprietary formulas such as Choleduz (Omega 3 fish oil and vitamin E), Abeta care (Vitamin A), Betacarotene, vitamin C  and vitamin E and singlet blends such as evening primerose oil, a good friend of the female body and zinc, the fertility mineral. Many women do not eat well and, so, have too little potassium in their muscles, especially the uterine muscles. Potassium helps to neutralise lactic acid which is formed in the muscles when they are active. Lactic acid causes soreness and pain in the muscles. Potassium neutralises it. If you have not done muscular work for a long time such as hoeing, exercising, lifting heavy objects etc, you are likely to feel muscle pains the following day or after. This is because when the muscles burn blood sugar to produce energy for the work, the process releases lactic acid as a waste product. It is the lactic acid which torments the muscles until enough potassium may be mobilised to neutralise it.

The uterus is a bundle of muscles and needs plenty of potassium, especially during the menstrual cycle. I do not recommend proprietary potassium supplements because the kidneys of some people may not be able to handle them. Potassium is better obtained from foods and potassium rich herbal supplements. A herb very rich in potassium is dandelion. A proprietary herbal formulas rich in potassium is the Canadian-made Matol. Fruits and vegetables are rich in potassium. Banana and avocado pear are good sources of it. Watermelon, orange are also fairly good sources. They may obtain lots of potassium from green leafy vegetables, water, golden melons etc. In my household, we strive to eat well. My wife never experienced painful menstruation and she has always been uterine fibroids free.