Tag: Guardians

When we go on a walk with Mother Nature in her wondrous healing gardens, we are never in want of remedies for all kinds of ailments. That is one of the lessons taught in those parts of this series on GLAUCOMA and CATARACTS of the eye lens. We set out, for example, on the healing effects of  Magnesium on such ailments as sleep disorders, muscle spasms and pain, brain fog and depression, constipation and indigestion and the likes of them, and we were to end up on the radiance of its healing rays on glaucoma and cataracts of the eye lens before moving on to some other healing remedies which made a positive impression on our health or ideas of health last year. The fact that Magnesium and other herbs or food supplements may help in the natural management of cataracts sparked enquiries about whether it is possible to resolve cataracts of the eye lens without ophthalmic surgery.

Last week, we received two positive contributions. One was by Dr. Edward Kondrot, an ophthalmologist for 20 years, who says he no longer employs surgery to cure these cataracts except, perhaps, in extreme cases. Two incidents persuaded him to drop the knife. One was a growing body of scientific and medical knowledge which shows that more than half of the people who undergo cataract surgery may end up with macular degeneration, a cause of blindness. The second is the discovery from about 1978 that certain nutritional supplements used as eye drops may reverse cataracts.

The second contribution came from a woman with eye problems which took her to many consultants. Medication after medication worsened her eye condition and devastated her health in many ways. But in only one month of being on Magnesium dietary supplementation, her health problems dramatically cleared. In the following feature, these possibilities are explored. Welcome, once again, to the thoughts of Dr. Kondrot, and the ideas of many researchers on this subject…

 

Natural cures for eye cataract

I promised to return to a natural cataract cure, based on the enquires of some challenged readers. There are some products in the Nigerian market. These include Cataract clear and Glutarakt. Listen again to Dr. Edward Kondrot: “The traditional treatment that Western ophthalmologists do is to remove cataract. They do not look at the underlying cause. They insert a plastic lens to take the place of natural human lens. You have been hearing all sorts of things about the danger of plastics. I think it could be a potential problem to plot a plastic device inside your eyes. Although rare, there are complications, infection, loss of vision, corneal swelling, glaucoma and, interestingly, an increased incidence of muscular degeneration. I am not totally against cataract surgery. In some situation, you should have cataract surgery where it is advanced to the point where it is obstructing your vision. In most cases, when the cataract is at the earlier stage, you should consider the alternative treatment I am going to talk about.

“There is a published five-year study looking at the incident of macular degeneration in a group of people who had cataract and cataract surgery. The study demonstrated that there was a three fold increase in macular degeneration after cataract surgery. This statistic is shocking. Most eye doctors, including myself, at one time thought the person is just getting older. They are going to develop macular degeneration, anyway. This is false. You should take the steps to find out what is causing the cataract, and try to reverse it with more natural means. These are the three causes of cataract, and each one of these areas needs to be addressed. The first one is aging. The clock is ticking. There is not much we can do about that, but we can begin to change our lifestyle to help reduce the ill effects of aging.

“A big area I want to talk about is nutrition. There is no question that cataract is linked to nutrition. The bottom one is HEAVY METALS. There is no question cataracts are related to LEAD. If you have elevated LEAD, you need to have this taken care of. These are some of the essentials to treat cataracts: Nutrition, proper hydration and reduced stress.

“Physiologically, in the eyes when you develop a cataract, researchers have found that the ASCORBIC ACID and GLUTATHIONE levels in the AQUEOUS that surrounds the CATARACT becomes decreased. It makes sense if the elements are decreased that we need to replenish them in the body to help slow the progression of the cataract, or in some cases reverse it. GLUTATHIONE-containing foods: Spanish, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Parsley, Avocado, Asparagus, Grapefruit, Strawberries and Milk thistle.

“These are some Glutathione-containing foods. Grandmother was right…more important are foods to avoid. White sugar is first on the list. Another is fructose … there is also sucrose and fruit juice concentrate. All are high in sugar, which help the cataract grow. Proper hydration is essential. If you do not drink enough water, these toxins will accumulate and cause adverse changes in your body. One of them is CATARACT…

“There was a study done out of HARVARD UNIVERSITY that links low-level LEAD exposure to the development of CATARACT…there is no question all of us have been exposed to LEAD. When I was growing-up, we had leaded gasoline, leaded paints and leaded pencils. It is in our environment, water and food. I believe this is the biggest contributory factor to the development of CATARACT. We need to be tested for heavy metals. The only accurate way is a six-hour URINE PROVOCATIVE TEST. You could be dying of lead poisoning and your urine would be negative for lead…the lead goes into your bone, brain, eyes, muscles and fat…the best way to remove the lead is CHELATION THERAPY. Dr. Robert Rowen, the Editor of SECOND OPINION, stated that IVEDTA chelation a month can prevent cataract.

“…I am interested in reversing the cataract and actually improving your vision. There are two prescription eye drops that can do this. The first one is OCLUMED. The second is an eye drop developed by Dr. Rowen. It is a mixture of DMSO, ASCORBIC ACID and GLUTATHIONE. Earlier, I commented that the Ascorbic Acids levels and Glutathione levels are reduced when you get a cataract, so it makes sense to have an eye drop like this …The Oclumed has a great combination of key ingredients to help reverse the cataract. One is L-carnosine, which immediately neutralises existing free radicals. N-Acetylene-Carnitine provides a long-term protection because it lasts longer in the cell. This eye drop also has Glutathione, which is one of the most important antioxidants in the lens. It also has CYSTEINE ASCORBATE, which is a water-stable source of Vitamin C and L-Cysteine, which are very important antioxidants. We need to get the Glutathione and Ascorbic acid, or Vitamin C in high concentration to reverse the cataract changes. L-Cysteine is use to regenerate or reduce the oxidised form of L-Glutathione in the eyes.”

(For more information about the impact of glutathione on health, read the post in www.olufemikusa.com entitled CELLGEVITY, SENIOR CITIZENS AND THEIR PECULIAR CHALLENGES).

Dr. Edward Kondrot mentions many more nutrients good for the eyes, and lays out some products he has developed and used to reverse cataracts in 20years of work in this field. Someday, we would return to him, given the high rate of cataract occurrence in Nigeria and the wish of challenged people to resolve their condition naturally.

 

L-carnosine

L-carnosine is “big” news to many people. But to scientists and workers in the medical field, it is not. L-carnosine, also called carnosine, is made by the body from two non-essential amino acids, ALANINE and HISTIDINE. Non-essential amino acids are produced by the body from ingredients in the diet, whereas we have to consume essential amino acids because the body cannot make them through transformation of one amino acid into another. Carnosine is an antioxidant amino acid with many health benefits in the body. The body can make lots of it if the diet provides Alanine and Histidine. As an antioxidant, carnosine helps to neutralise free radicals. These are molecules which damage cell membrane and DNA, the genetic code of the cells. Cells damaged by free radicals become weak or tired, are unable to function properly, may becomed diseased and even die prematurely.

Our eyes are attacked everyday by free radicals, especially by the blue rays in the wavelength of the sunlight we require to see. Mother Nature is not unaware that this may happen and, so, has fortified the eyes with antioxidants to protect the eyes against free radicals. Among these antioxidants are Glutathione, the body’s master antioxidant, Vitamins A, C and E, Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA), Zinc, Magnesium, Selenium and, from the carotenoid family, Lutein, Zeazanthin and Astazanthin. The bioflavonoid family provides arsenal which include Rutin and Quercitin. There are also Ginkgo biloba and Bilberry. All these and more are present in the eyes. But, under stress or over exposure to free radicals or even poor nutrition, poor in the sense of antioxidant deficiency in the diet, the eye may not obtain enough antioxidants from the diet everyday, and gradually, unknown to us, become damaged by free radicals.

Some medical studies have shown that L-carnosine improves nerve function, even in autism, and protects muscles.

 

Cataract types

There are three types of cataracts, generally speaking. Cortical or diabetic cataract begins in the periphery of the lens and grows inwards. Cataract in the middle of the lens is called Nuclear cataract. Sub capsular cataract are often found at the back of the lens and called posterior sub-capsular cataracts. They often affect diabetics, steriod ulcers, people challenged with retinitis pigmentosa and severely short-sighted people, that is people who can see very near objects but may not see beyond their “noses”, literally speaking. Symptoms may vary among the various types and the degree of challenge, but they all tend to exhibit cloudness of vision and sensitivity to light. Retinitis pigmentosa is characterised partly by swelling of blood vessels in the retina which may leak into it and/or growth of new blood vessels in the retina.

 

Carnosine therapy

Carnosine abounds not only in skeletal and nerve tissue but also in the lens of the eyes, where there is still no evidence of its production. Thus, it is still assumed that carnosine is produced elsewhere in the body and transported to the eye lens. This is not the end of the story. In the eye lens, as elsewhere in the body, Carnosine is degraded by an enzyme named Carnosinase into Histidin and Alanine. Carnosinase is resident in the lens. As carnosine is not in the lens for decoration purposes, and as it is being degraded by Carnosinase, and as low levels of Carnosine would appear to be present in cataract of the lens, researchers began to think of ways to pump more to carnosine into the lens. N-Acetyl Carnosine (NAC) provided an answer in NAC eye drops. NAC was found to be a precursor of Carnosine in the eye. When it is dropped into the eye, NAC is protected against Carnosine degradation and safely delivers L-carnosine into the lens to do battle with cataract.

The battle is with an army of chemical substances which, individually, in combinations or as a group can obstruct proper vision in what is known as cataract. Just to name a few, there are Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs), peroxides and Aldehydes among others. ROS are “singlet” oxygen free radicals. We all know that we need oxygen to live. This oxygen has two molecules (O2). When it is used for our living processes, such as the production of energy, it produces a waste know as singlet oxygen (O), or ROS. This waste attacks the membranes of cells to steal electrons from them in other to stabilise itself as O2. The attack put holes in cells through which there contents links out and through which they may become infected and damaged. AGEs are produced when excess blood sugar, as in diabetes, damages fat and protein molecules. Hydrogen Peroxide damages fats in the cell membrane. The damage they cause disperse light rays and inhibit healthy vision.

In 1978, Allen Babizhayeb and his colleagues told the world that L-carnosine could reduce lipid peroxides within the lens. Many studies have confirmed the hypothesis. Indirectly, L-carnosine activity also reduces or blocks conversion of the gelataneous protein fluid in the lens sac to a stony substance, which prevents light travel to the retina.

Many studies have found, also, that in cataract formation, there are depletions of enzymes such as Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) and Catalase. SOD destroys the superoxide, a major poison to the cells, by breaking it down into hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and oxygen (O2). There are about three lines of SOD. These may be formed from with Zinc and Copper or from Manganese or from Iron or from Selenium. Each line protects a different part of the cell. Thus, SOD defence for the cytoplasm is different from SOD defence for the cell nucleus and from SOD defence for the mitochondria, where energy is produced. Thus, again, a deficiency of a particular SOD ingredient may expose to danger the area that ingredient is expected to help protect. SOD, formed from Zinc, inhibit ROS. Catalase inhibits hydrogen peroxide. One molecule of catalase may destroy millions of hydrogen peroxide molecules in one second. Naturally, the nuclear area of the lens depends on the diffusion of Glutathione, the master antioxidant, from the cortical region of the eye. But aging is said to slow the diffusion rate, exposing this region and the nuclear region to harm.

L-carnosine is credited, also, with vanquishing ROS forces as well as neutralising AGEs. In addition, L-carnosine is reported to chelate heavy metals from the eye, thereby preventing them from wreaking damage. As an anti-oxidant, it swallows up excess blood sugar which causes glacation (damage) of fat and protein molecules in the eye. L-carnosine also prevents protein molecules from cross linking and forming that stony material in the lens known as cataract. Interestingly, L-carnosine has been shown to dissolve this formation. Even in laboratory rats induced to develop cataract of the lens, L-carnosine eye drops slowly dissolved the stone, the cataract, in the first eight weeks, followed by a more aggressive action in the next five weeks.

Dogs featured in some of the controlled experiments. In one such study, 30 dogs of various breed challenged with lens cataracts were treated with a combination proprietary product, as L-carnosine is said to work better when combined with other antioxidants. The proprietary combination administered in this experiment comprised two percent NAC, Glutathione, Vitamin C, Cysteine, L-Taurine and Vitamin B1 (thiamine). The blend came from OCLUVET of Arizona. The eyes of the 30 dogs were checked. Some had mature cataracts, some immature cataracts, some cataracts and eye inflammation and nuclear sclerosis. Improvement were significant in the immature cataracts and nuclear sclerosis groups. About 80 percent of the dogs recorded improvements.

In a human study involving 49 subjects challenged with senile cataracts, 76 eyes were affected. Of the 76 eyes, 41 eye were administered one percent NAC eye drops two times a day. Eighteen patients (21 eyes) formed one control group. They received eye drops of all ingredients except NAC. There was an untreated group of 10 patients (14 eyes) who received no eye drops.

Six months after, 90 percent of patients in the treated group were seeing better than before the experiment. About 89 percent improved on glare sensitivity. At 24 months, no members of this group suffered any vision decline. Generally, there was a decline in the control groups. In other human trials, there were significant statistical improvements. These were attributed to the attributes of NAC as an antioxidant, anti-glare agent, heavy metals chelator, Aldehyde scavenger, Carbonyl scavenger, producer of Nutric Oxide (NO) etc. I would like to suggest that, while NAC may be given a try, everyone challenged with one vision disorder or another should not forget to fill the medicine cabinet with some, if not all and even more of the following.. ‘.. .Zinc, Vitamin A, Vitamin B-complex, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Selenium, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Bilberry, Magnesium, Taurine, Lutein and Zeazanthin, DTA, Cellegevity, Noni, Grape Seed Extract, Lion’s Mane Mushroom, CoQ10, tissue or cell salts, and greens such as liquid chlorophyll, Spirulina, Kale, Chlorella for chelating heavy metals, Asparagus, Red Kidney Bean pod tea (for lowering blood sugar). Spirulina and Kale provide alk the amino acids, including HISTIDINE and ALANINE from which the body manufactures Carnosine.

The year just gone by, 2017, was an exciting one. By exciting I mean that many readers of this column in need of help for their health received many opportunities to do so. Thanks to all those researchers and doctors worldwide who kept sharing with us the knowledge of natural healing foods and medicines which the Almighty Creator permitted them to learn from Mother Nature. This column is, therefore, an expression of gratitude to the Creator and to these fine human spirits through brief reminders of some of those healing herbs and foods we were privileged to learn about last year.

 

Apple Cider Vinegar

I give the first slot to this wonderful herbal medicine not because, in nursery rhyme, A stands for Apple. A woman I have known for about 25 years died last Saturday from bleeding after surgery. I wondered if she could not have lived if she took Apple Cider Vinegar for four or six weeks before the surgery. Immediately I heard the story, many cases of bleeding helped by ACV, as Apple Cider Vinegar is also called, flooded my thoughts. One was a dutiful reporter in The Guardian newspaper newsroom of the 1980s. She returned late to the newsroom one day, well beyond the deadline for her report. Deadline breaches are grave sins in the newsroom. A breach may delay the printing time and cause such print-run shortages as may cost the company millions of Naira on the news-stands. I gave her a typical dress-down of an angry editor. She cried and cried. At about 9p.m, she came to my office to apologise with explanations which made me feel small inwardly. She had been bleeding vaginally for one week and had only managed to be coming to work. That day, she fainted in the taxi she boarded to the office and had to be revived in hospital. As she was still bleeding, I asked her to go next day to Pa JOHNSON’S Health shop on Olonode Street in Yaba, Lagos, and purchase ACV. Another health shop which sold it in Lagos at that time was at 118 Ogunlana Drive, Surelere. Within one week, the bleeding stopped for all time. For ACV miraculously stops bleeding.

Another case I remembered was that of a boss of mine who had to have surgery for Inguinal hernia. This is a condition in which the intestine enters the scrotal sac through a weakness in abdominal architecture, sometimes causing swelling and pain in the testes. The surgeon had thought my boss would bleed and had readied blood for transfusion. But having been on ACV therapy for six weeks prior to the surgery, he did not.

Yet another case was a mother who had her uterus evacuated because of large growths of uterine fibriods which caused vaginal bleeding. She had become so pale and weak that blood for transfusion was arranged before surgery. But she did not bleed. In my wife’s child-bearing years, she always took ACV in the last month before labour. While other women bled in the labour room, she did not. I learned about ACV from a pocket book of the benefits of this wonderful gift of Nature written by Cyril Scott. ACV, according to him, is good for the hair, scalp, eyes, sinuses, gums and teeth, skin, bones, nail, blood, digestion and flatulence, among other benefits. He says they contain Phosphate salts, the lack of which may cause eye and brain discomfort, among other health slacks. ACV is known to aid weight management, reduce acid reflux, high blood pressure. It reduces high blood sugar and high blood cholesterol levels. ACV fights allergies, balances the blood pH, relieves cold symptoms, helps detoxification et.c. The brand I recommend, which I have away used, is that branded BRAGGS WITH MOTHER.

 

Red Kidney Bean Pod

This remedy was mentioned in this column many times last year. It has a reputation for reducing high blood sugar, weight loss, promoting urination and removing dropsy or edema, whether it be of heart or kidney origins. It is claimed, also, that this pod helps conditions of kidney Stones and Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs).

More about this herb later.

 

Bone Marrow Meal

Some readers were confused about the differences between bone meal and bone marrow meal. Bone meal is high-grade animal bone (preferably grass-fed) crushed to powder for its Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Protein in particular and fed to cows to prevent Mad Cow Disease. Its use as a human food supplement for calcium and other minerals became unpopular because of possible lead contamination. Bone Marrow Meal, on the other hand, is the soft tissue content in the bone hollow, sometimes, with some purified bone meal. This column recommended it to chemotherapy patients with bone marrow damage and other challenges. The experience of  Swedish doctor (Mrs) Astrid Brohult provided the spur for this. In about 1952, she worked in an hospital leukemia (blood cancer) ward for children who suffered from bone marrow cancer. Chemotherapy devastated them all the more. But when Dr. Brohult added bone marrow to their meals, the children dramatically recovered. She and her husband, a biochemist, were to discover two important components in bone marrow meal which may have accounted for such recoveries…Alkylglycerol and Squalene. Modern studies reveal that the bone marrow exhibits large amounts of Vitamin A, Collagen, Iron, Omega-3 fatty acids, minerals and Vitamins, Proteins. Chemotherapy destroys them in addition to damaging the capacity of the bone marrow to produce red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelet cells. This is one of the reasons chemotherapy patients are weak, suffer from excruciating pain with because of their reduced oxygen content, suffer from illnesses and bleed.

There is no doubt that a supply of these ingredients in bone marrow meal can jump start a weakened system back to life. Bone marrow meal has been found to promote digestion, repair damaged body cells, protect the health of the heart and the blood vessels, support joint mobility and protect them, support the production of white blood cells, maintain health of the skeletal system, boost immunity, fight cancer, increase the body’s metabolic rate and detoxification process. Thus, bone marrow meal is good not only for cancer-challenged people but for everyone as well.

 

Cellgevity

Already with us for about two years now, this food supplement blossomed last year amid claims that it had helped some people throw off some serious health yokes. It attracted two articles in this column titled CELLGEVITY, SENIOR CITIZENS AND THEIR HEALTH CHALLENGES (1) and (2). The Cellgevity story is all about a landmark food supplement which enables the body to make more energy and an abundance of the body’s master antioxidant, Glutathione, which Nature puts in human, animal and plant tissues to ward off disease. It is made from three amino acids…Glycine, Glutamin and Cysteine. Cysteine is, arguably, the most crucial. Stomach acids transform it and, so, not enough of it gets to the cells for the manufacture of Glutathione. Meanwhile, drugs such as Paracetamol and Panadol deplete the body’s stocks of Glutathione and cause Cysteine to be excreted in the urine. Efforts to load more Cysteine into the system have until now been compromised by stomach acid inhospitality, stress, fatigue, toxins, liver weakness and other factors. Then, after several years of research, CELLGEVITY arrived on the scene in the United States with a technology which protects Cysteine from stomach acid and delivers it safe and sound to the cells to make Glutathione and energy.

More information is available in www.olufemikusa.com.

 

Libido aids

These days, I listen to late night news on radio before I knock off for the night. The news comes on just after or before relationship programmes. One of these is EDUN OKAN (d:d r:d) (HEART PAIN), a raw Yoruba programme by FAAJI FM Radio. It is presented by a harsh, if not brutal, unsparing and sometimes rude man. In one of the last ones I listened to, one man called in on the phone to complain that his wife who was breast feeding a four-month old baby by him was “sleeping” with a youth in their multiple-room residence (face-me-I-face-you) residence who was infected with tuberculosis. The complainant said he appealed to the boy to no avail and gave up. Happily, he said, the chap soon died of his tuberculosis. He wanted the programme to help him appeal to his wife that, now that her lover was dead, she should remain faithful to him. What sort of man is this, I wondered. But before I could call JACK ROBINSON, many calls poured in, either castigating him for being a she-man or advising him to do something about his manliness. The presenter literally dragged him in the mud and asked if his wife was around and listening to the programme. To my surprise, she was right beside him in bed, awake and listening! The presenter literally took her to the cleaners, calling her a disgrace to womanhood and asking her to go on her knees before her husband and plead for forgiveness. She agreed to do so! The comments of other people were not lost on me…this must be why many men today seek sex libido enhancers!

In my days as a young man, PASUMA STRONG was the in-thing among men. It also went by the name PASUMA FORTE. Today we have such male aphrodisiacs as LIBIDO TONIGHT, LIBIDO MAX, STEEL LIBIDO, ROBUST ROOTS, AFRICAN BLACK ANT and EROXYL FOR MEN, to mention a few of the ones which appeared in this column as aids for underactive men last year.

The list was incomplete without such other food supplements as Zinc, L-Arginine, Macca, and CoQ10, to mention a few.

These remedies are either quick-acting, slow working or a combination of both. They aid the production of male hormones, stimulate nerve response, support blood delivery to the penile shaft, and turgidity and staying power. Some men require detoxification in the nerve junction (Frankenhauser’s) in the pubis region which controls erection and all that. Chlorella and Cilantro may help out in such a case. For other men, too much stress has weakened their adrenal glands, causing adrenal burn-out in some cases. The stress need not be physical. It could be oxidative, in which antioxidants are needed, heavy metal toxicity in which case heavy metal chelators are called for. Sometimes, bacteria, viruses, fungi, yeast, even mold, may be at work. This would call for antibacterials such as Amazon C-F, antifungals such as Amazon A-F, antivirals such as Amazon A-V and a broad-spectrum fighter such as GOLDEN SEAL ROOT and MANGO SEED EXTRACT. All of them were mentioned in this column last year either for this condition or others. To cap the stress therapy, it was suggested that nutrition which supports adrenal recovery be adopted. Borage Oil and Licorice and Ginseng and adaptogens were suggested.

 

Wheatgrass

It still holds the prospect of being a great alkalinising agent and healer, long, long after Dr. Anne Wigmore popularised it. For an alkalinising and mineralising agent is crucial in many of today’s degenerative diseases which research suggest have their origins in over-acidity of the body through diet, environmental, negative emotions and stress of all sorts, among others. As a child, Anne watched her grandfather heal the “injuries of World War II soldiers with wheatgrass grass juice”. As an adult, Anne developed gangrene in one lower limb. Doctors advised amputation. Anne objected. Gangrene is dead tissue that spreads. Death of cells and tissue occurs when they do not receive enough oxygen through blood circulation due to one problem or another. Anne watched her condition grow worse. But she remained adamant. No one would remove any part of her body. She would spend the evenings in the wheel chair in her garden. She began to observe sick cats which came to the garden to eat a particular grass. Soon, they would get well. She, too, began to eat this grass. This grass was wheatgrass. Anne regained health and life in her dying limb when she began to eat wheatgrass and take wheatgrass juice, as some accounts have said, fanatically. Dr. Anne Wigmore died at the age of 85, not from gangrene or any other ailment, but from suffocating smoke in a fire which engulfed her clinic. She left behind a legacy of wheatgrass as a supportive herb in health and illness.

 

Lion’s Mane Mushroom

I do not know if Dr. Rita Levi Montalcini is still alive. The last time I followed her work, she was 103, reading, writing and making speeches. As a young Italian doctor during World War II, she sought to discover which herb in the plant kingdom could heal damaging or mangled nerves. Her laboratory was her bedroom. She moved from one house to another during the bombings. Eventually she discovered Lion’s Mane Mushroom to be best suited for the job. And she won a Nobel Prize for it.

Lion’s Mane Mushroom supports the brain to produce Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) or Nerve Growth Hormone (NGH) which not only protects the myelin shealth of the nerves. Picture to yourself the electrical wiring in your house. Electricity is conducted by the thin copper wires that are insulated with a plastic covering. That, too, is the configuration of the nerves. The nerves conduct plant and impulses throughout the body and are protected by a myelin shealth as covering. If anything goes wrong with this shealth, the nerves are exposed and may be endangered. People who have holes in a tooth or more know how it hurts when the nerves in the pulp are exposed and come in contact with food, water or germs. Sometimes, the pain is such that affected people will death. Modern researches have expanded the scope of Dr. Montalcini’s work. Now, it is known that Lion’s Mane Mushroom is helpful not only in all neurological conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, seizures, tremours, Restless Leg Syndrome, premature ejaculation and urinary incontinence, among many nerve-related conditions, but helpful as well for such conditions as digestion difficulties, immune response and even cancer.

Some people do not easily recognise that they have nerve challenges. One of my friends knew of his only when he had to share a hymn book with another worshipper during a church service and he discovered that his hand was shaking. Another could not insert a key into the key hole of a car door or house door without the support of the other hand. There are people, men and women, who let go before they arrive in the urinal. And when the vision begins to blur, it may be time to check if the pressure of glaucoma may not have caused nerve damaged or mangling in the eye. In nerve conditions, Lion’s Mane Mushroom goes well with Vitamin B1 and the B-complex family.

 

Orange peel

As I do not mind bitter principles in my diet, I go for the gentle bitter of Orange peel in almost every home cooked meal. Outdoor, I add the factory-made orange peel powder to meals such as rice, beans or pap or yam porridge. I like bitter principles in food because I learned long ago from the Yoruba proverb that “Ore enu l’ota inu” (friend of the mouth is enemy of health within), referring to the sweet principles whereas “ota enu l’ore inu” (enemy of the mouth is friend of health within). Thus, when I feel like having a meal of eba and egusi (melon) soup, for example, and I do not have Orange peel powder, I parboil Orange peel and turn the garri for eba in the water extract of the peel. I do not throw the peel away. I shred it into the egusi soup. I add Orange peel to rice or beans when it is half boiled. This way, I have been able to curb the tendency of my random blood sugar to shoot to about 150, and bring it down to under 120. For orange peel has anti diabetes principles apart from being anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial, nutritive, anti-asthma and, a lungs cleanser and a cough remedy. In articles posted on www.olufemikusa.com, which features these herbs, I mentioned how orange peel powder brought down by 150 points in one week a woman’s 500 plus blood sugar count and how, eating the peel over meals, resolved some cases of bronchitis.