NIGERIAN’s rainy season is in full swing. It brings good news to farmers. The fields are becoming greener and the good, old orange is selling more. So is garden egg. So is walnunt. The long awaited “new yam” has shown up in the market. Plantain and banana, no friend of heavy rain, are bidding their time. As many people, who know of the health benefits of fruits and vegetables in season, are rejoicing, there are people who literally wobble through this season.
They may be people, who suffer from one Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or the other. Among such complaints are air fever, coughs of all kinds and Asthma, to mention a few. It would appear that such people cannot stand pollen, which are proliferating at this time. Such people have no business with Bee Pollen, a proprietary health products. Pollen is produced by flowering plants. The pollen cling to the bees, which visit the plants to suck the nectar. Bee Pollen is rich in Vitamins and minerals, flavonoids such as Rutin and Quercitin. Rutin strengthens blood vessels. In the 1980s, it was a popular prescription for people who had bleeding or fragile blood vessels in the eyes or elsewhere.
Quercitin was and is still used for inflammatory conditions such as arthritis. In those by-gone years, I enjoyed Bee Pollen for energy purposes. And in later years, when the use of beta-blocker eyes drop for glaucoma was dangerously dropping my blood pressure, I tried Bee Pollen to help me stabilise blood pressure. Nowadays, that I am trying all sorts of diet supplement formulas in a bid to eat less and obtain more nutrients as my calendar years advance, I have found myself returning now and then to Bee Pollen, which I sometimes combine with Liquid Chlorophyll and Spirulina and Gotu Kola for breakfast. I will speak more about this some other day.
Today, my thoughts are more with some readers of this column, who asked last week for, among other recipes, anti – asthma herbs and food supplements.
Question…1
This is all about asthma, as stated above. What was interesting about some of the enquiries was that many of the challenged people did not know which type of asthma they had, or what some of the triggers were. I found a young woman different from the pack. She had learned from some health chat groups to which she belonged that OKARA was good for health. This column, too, had reported that Europeans and Americans were now following the footsteps of our Nigerian forefathers, especially in Southwestern Nigeria, by dehydrating okara and grinding it to powder for use in future as a food component.
In Europe and the United States, Okara powder is rehydrated into, say, a tea for treating stomach and intestinal ulcers. That’s possibly because Okara has mucilage which covers ulcer and permits healing to go on beneath them. The drawing factor is calcium, no doubt, and the white pods are suffused with Vitamin A, a healing agent. But this young woman discovered that every time she ate Okara soup, she coughed more than when she didn’t eat it. The nerves and muscle spasms produced more mucus in addition, and she experienced tightening in the chest. I have not found a study in this area which associated Okara with asthma or bronchitis. So, all l could assume was that, since Okara has a lot of calcium, it was possible she had more free calcium that was good for her system. and was, in addition, magnesium deficient. No laboratory tests have been run to determine this. It is sometimes good to follow gut instinct. I believed her, nevertheless, and trusted my gut instinct as well, because each time I advised her to try lipospheric magnesium, the spasms and the trauma abated in good time. Calcium is responsible for contraction and Magnesium for relaxation. Where magnesium is not enough, calcium may so contract the tissues that stagnation may almost result. An example is indigestion. Contraction and relaxation more food and faeces along the digestive trait. Too much calcium may put the movement on hold.
Anyone who is familiar with PHILIPS MILK of MAGNESIA, and can relate magnesium with this proprietary digestive system product, may have a golden key to the solution of asthma caused by spasms and narrowing of the air passages. Dr. Caroline Dean is making the waves in the United States today with the massage for Americans that they are magnesium deficient. They eat little greens from which magnesium may be derived. Their bodies are acidic, and acidosis mops up whatever little magnesium they have. Asthma and other respiratory diseases are growing in number. The pharmaceutical and alternative medicine neutriceutical industries have come up with all sort of magnesium forms to address this challenge. But it would appear that the answer has just come in the form of Lipospheric Magnesium in ionic form or combined with other ionic minerals. This new generation of minerals go into the blood directly from under the tongue and easily crosses the Brain-Blood barrier. But they are expensive. Dr Dean, who began to practice Medicine about 1970s, said the Lipospheric Magnesium took away her palpitation of the heart of many decades in about eighty months. I believe her since it tends to work for the young woman in reference here. But Dr. Dean suggests it may take about one year or more for a Magnesium- deficient person to be fully saturated with Magnesium on this therapy. So, it is not a magic bullet remedy.
The young woman was an ever- observant person. She was lean and wished to have some flesh to her build. But most of the recipes available for drying her mucus build ups were not agreeable to this, however good they were. Fenugreek dried the mucus and stopped the cough. “The throat would be so dry as if there is no water inside,” she recalled. It also made her feel like fainting.
Apparently, Fenugreek lowers blood sugar, and she was not a heavy eater. Even orange peel, too, lowered her blood sugar, although it was a good anti-histamine recipe, anti- inflammatory, anti-cough and anti- asthma, among many of its other benefits. She also used Garlic oil and coconut oil mixed together. She said “they helped me not to cough, but instead to push out the mucus”. She is to now try Alligator Pepper and Bitter Kola chewed together. In some Nigerians villages, this contribution has been reported to heal cholera epidemic where there was no doctor around. Next she would try fish oil, one of the best anti-inflamatories in Nature. Beyond these and more, we could be following that often ignored 2010 study of MAYO CLINIC in which thousands of patients with throat and other respiratory conditions were investigated for three months and beyond. The fundings were that
- If these infections were within three months, the possibility was high that they were of bacterial origins and
- If the infections were chronic, that is beyond three months, there were likely to be caused by fungi or other yeast forms. This may explain why, for many people, asthma appears to be a life-long challenge. What would emerge from anti- bacterials being deployed against fungi and other yeast forms, including candida?
In Nature’s treasure troves are many other useful recipes.. Flax seed oil, Chia seed, Vitamin C, Bioflavonoids, mullein, Slippery elm, Astragalus and proprietary blends such as Amazon lung support.
Some observations
Whoever is asthma challenged should know the peculiar type he or she has to grapple with. Important to know, also, is why two persons are exposed to the same environment, which triggers asthma in one but the other is unscathed. In the scenario, it has been suggested that the unaffected person may be producing more basic antioxidants, especially GLUTATHIONE, than the other. These antioxidants neutralise free medical factors, which predispose our bodies to degenerative diseases, including asthma. This scenario suggests as well that the asthmatic may have issues in the lungs or suffer from certain nutritional deficiencies, as already explained according to many authorities. Some of the symptoms of asthma include breathing difficulties, wheezing, tightness in the chest region, blockages in the air passages, higher heart rate, contracted bronchial muscles, inflammation of the mucus membranes higher mucus output. With more children becoming asthmatic world-wide, the root causes of this often fatal disease have been extended beyond environmental allergens to food addictive, poor digestion, hormonal imbalance, emotional stress, mucus forming foods such as bread, milk, sugar, trans fatty acids (margarine etc), poultry flesh and egg and excessive in intake of vegetables oils (Omega 6 and Omega 9) above Omega 3, the anti-inflammatory oil or (fish oil or flaxseed oil.)
Some other solutions
As in all degenerative diseases, detoxification is the first step adopted by therapies. Many may come in the form of organic coffee, which clears the liver and intestine of toxin build up. This, in turn, should result in smaller amount of toxins made in the blood stream and organs, including the respiratory system.
This is usually followed up with vegetable juice fasting and generous infusion of the diet with super green foods such as chlorella, spirulina, wheat grass, Barley grass and Kale among others. Tumeric is good for the health of the intestine as it is for digestion. A healthy digestive system minimises the risks of those allergens building up and causing offensive responses in the respiratory system. Anti-oxidants ara chief warriors against the development or the arrest of asthma because they fight inflammation. I have mentioned Astragalus, an immune boosting herbs, which strengthens the lung tissue as well.
In some people, exercise induce asthma . Exercise increases metabolic rate which may produce more waste products, some of them toxic and irritating to the respiratory system. Lycopene, an antioxidant, has been shown to reduce risk of developing this type of asthma. A good dietary sources of Lycopene is tomatoes. But the tomatoes have to be parboiled or boils for its cells to release their lycopene content. Some Vitamin C may be lost in this process, though Vitamin C, which is also anti-inflammatory, may be obtained from the food supplements or from such antioxidant herbs and fruits as Amala (Amalalci), also known as Indian Goose Berry.
Another helpful antioxidant is N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC), which helps the formation of Glutathion along with Glycine and Glutanic acid helps in the lungs to liquiefy mucus as it does in the sinuses. Nowadays, cell levity is preferred by some Nigerians for boosting Glutathione levels.. We must not forget that hospital studies abroad reveal that anti biotics and even panadol wipe out Glutathione levels in the body. I would like to mention as well the value of Vitamin B6 Asthmatics observed to have low blood levels of Vitamin B6, which is further depreciated by some asthma medications.
As for Vitamin B12, it helps to offset reactions to sulfite in the diet, which may cause or aggravate asthma. As a rule, I do not take wines in which sulfites are present (check food supplement and wine label for sulfites).
Essentials oils
There is hardly any living form on earth which does not have an oil content. We only need to remember that the crude oil, which gives us petroleum and its derivative comes from plant buried deep in the earth a long time ago. Today, there is hardly any of the plants used in Alternative medicine therapies, which do not also come in the form of its essential oil. Thus, if I need Amala and Marigold flower for healthy vision, I may re-inforce the values of these herbs with those of their oils. In an earlier column on SAD, I mentioned how Oregano oil caused massive discharges of yellow mucus from the sinuses of a gentleman, who suffered from real blockages for many years, and of how the cell or tissue salt specific for yellow mucus discharge, sign of a cell salt deficiency, was employed to correct the disorders. Asthmatic have a wide range of essential oils to choose from.
Time and space do not permit a comprehensive listing here. But I would mention a few…
Ajwain oil “eases flatulence and indigestion ( has) anti- bacterial and anti-fungal properties, clears up congestion, provides relief for arthritis pain, reduces inflammation, (gives) instantly relief from earache, improves heart health, cures hiccupe, effective relief from acidity, provides relief from migraines.
Anise seed oil
“cures nausea and vomiting, eases indigestion and flatulence, cures respiratory infections, provide relief from arthritis pain and other joint disorders, eases cramps.
Bitter almond oil..
“reduces inflammation ” inhibits bacterial growth, helps in treating intestinal parasites, good expectorant.. ”
Green tea oil…
“anti-oxidant and anti inflammatory properties, protects against cancer lower bad cholesterol levels, Moisturises and hydrates the skin , improves hair health, Anti- bacterial, reduces appearance of cellulite.
So, ladies and gentlemen, as the rain season swings on, let us all rejoice in the knowledge that Mother Nature has provided for even this season’s Affective Disorders all that we need.
