Tag: hot

Nigeria’s weather will be hot this year, according to the weather man. Already, it is so hot that handkerchiefs, like iced water and other iced drinks, are selling like hot cakes. Even the laundries are smiling to the bank. The stench of perspiration would not permit that a dress worn today should be repeated “tomorrow to save laundry costs”. This is the season of heat stroke when infirm old people pass away and fragile plants wither.   I have lost to this hot weather 20 of the 25 pawpaw or papaya seedlings I planted around the house. I planted these many so that, by the time of their fruiting next year, I would be able to save money on food and live healthy to the bargain. Wouldn’t it be a great idea if I eat a whole pawpaw for breakfast and, for dinner, enjoy a glass or two of pawpaw smoothie which contains the powder of my favourable green herbs….Spirulina, Wheat Grass, Kale, Chlorella and aTinge of Liquid Chlorophyll? The greens would provide minerals and vitamins and the great cleanser, chlorophyll. My Vervain seedlings have survived the hot weather. And so has the kindergarten Lemon grass.

I wish that Mrs.Ajoke Ogunwale, of the Meteorology Department, is still around on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Network News to announce forecast of the weather as she did most evenings for about two decades. I would have enjoyed a one-on-one fill-up on the 2016 weather scenario. Since I head of it, I have done something wise. I have bought a second pair of photochromic eye glasses. Many Nigerians do not protect their eyes against the blue Spectrum of Sunlight. Yet it is the blue spectrum which “cooks” the lens of the eye to form cataracts, and damages the light sensitive part of the eye, the retina, to cause blindness or impaired vision.

Twenty-one years ago in 1995, I suddenly saw the “rainbow” in a candle – lit room. I rushed home from the office. The car windscreen was a smear of rainbows from the head lamps of oncoming vehicles. I knew immediately glaucoma had set in. Not only did I acquire my first photochromic eye glasses, I became wise enough to add eye-protecting food supplements to my diet. These included alkaline Vitamin C, Bibery, Lutein and Zeazanthin, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Zinc, Vitamin E (tocopherols and tocotrienols), Omega -3 fatty acids, Vitamin B complex and the likes of them. If you wonder why I often eulogies Kale and Chlorella, it is because, among their other nutrients for the body’s health, they have large amounts of Lutein and Zeazanthin. Lutein and Zeazanthin are two carotenoid antioxidant which Mother Nature factored into the lens of the eye and the retina to protect them against Oxidative damage.

Many Nigerians do not protect their vision in regular weather and in hot weather, and this appears to be a major reason many eye clinics are flourishing nationwide. Almost everyone is guilty of this. I, too, got startled only after the cock crow.

 

HEAT STROKE

ot weather affects water balance in the body, and this may lead to heat stroke and death. The body is about 70 to 75 percent water. This water constitutes what is now known as the “three rivers of live.” About 66 percent of the body’s water content is in cells which number about one trillion in the adult. Imagine the motor vehicle battery and its cells. If water level falls too low in their cells, the battery becomes flat and may not start or run the engine. So is the body. If water runs low in the cells, the body batteries go flat. Potassium, a mineral salt, helps the cells to hold water. About 22 percent of the remainder of the body’s water content is held by sodium outside the cells. Sodium tries to enter the cells, pushing in nutrients and oxygen, while potassium pushes sodium back and, in the process, forces out waste products of the cells activities which would otherwise have poisoned it. The electrical circuit thus created by these forces or movements establish the sodium battery.” Thus, the sodium-potassium pump and the sodium battery are important for the cells health. The remainder of the water content of the body is held in blood vessels. In hot weather, the blood vessels dilate or expand to bring more blood to the surface of the skin for more heat to be lost to the environment. The heat is lost through perspiration. This means the water content of the body in blood vessels may fall. If this happens dangerously, air may replace the water lost and this may result in “air block” which may be fatal.The body may respond to prevent this by narrowing the blood vessels, so that no space is inadvertently left for air to occupy. This my increase tension (hypertension) in the flow of blood against the blood vessels. Alternatively, water may be withdrawn from the cells or from around the cells (interstitial fluid) to kit up shortage in blood vessels. Such water losses in the cells cause them to shrink and this is reflected in general outlook.  When exposure to heat overwhelms the body or is prolonged enough to cause heat stroke, the brain, kidneys and muscles may become damaged and death may occur.

 

COLD DRINK RESCUE

Many people who sweat excessively in hot weather instinctively drink cold water or some other cold stuff to regain their balance. But, often times, the drink is only a “coolant”. It doesn’t return to the body all that the heat has taken away from it. And so, it does not address a biochemical imbalance which hot weather impacts and which may lead to a state of disease.

Many people who overcome their thirst with cold water or cold drink may not be well advised about the composition of the sweat they are trying to balance out.

It is estimated that sweat contains water, mineral salts and trace elements; lactic acid water and sodium may account for about 0.9 grammes, potassium (0.2 grammes) litre. Calcium is protected at 0.015 grammes, litre. Magnesium (0.0013 grammes) litre. Water excreted by some adults through sweating may amount to about 2.4 litres per hour or 10.14 litres daily.

In pre-puberty children, sweating may sap the body of about 10 to 15 grammes. These mineral salts lost through sweating, especially in hot weather, are not easily replaced through the cooling drinks many people take. I like to start my day with a breakfast of banana and Avocado smoothie into which is whipped pinches of Spirulina, wheatgrass, Kale and Chlorella. Banana and Avocado will produce lots of Potassium while Minerals and some vitamins will come from the greens which, to the bargain, will also provide protein and trace elements and Chlorophy.

Anyone who doubts the power of fruit and vegetable juices, should listen to Dr. Bernard Jensen, one of Europes leading fruit and vegetable juice therapy doctors who, with them, healed all 13 leg ulcers of a female patients that had appeared incurable. Dr. Jenson says in the preface to his book, JUICING THERAPY, subtitled NATURES WAY TO BETTER HEALTH AND A LONGER LIFE (ISBN 0658002791, which I recommend for your health library…

“I was introduced to the healing power of juices early in my career when a thirty-year-old woman came to my office with thirteen leg ulcers, several the size of silver dollars and open with running pus. Three years of treatments by several doctors had not helped her.

She had been examined and treated at two of the top medical clinics in the United States. At one of them, she was treated for hypocalcaemia, a shortage of calcium, which her doctor believed to be part of her problem. He prescribed pharmaceutical calcium, which she could not assimilate. This young women was getting very discouraged until someone told her about my work as a clinical nutritionist.

As I listened to her story, I couldn’t help but wonder how I was going to assist a person who so many other doctors had tried to help but failed. Then I thought of the elderly in Pakistan’s Hunza Valley who still had every tooth in their heads, strong bones, and healthy skin at ages over a hundred years. Where did they get their calcium? Why did they have such good calcium control? It most certainly was partly due to the fresh greens they ate.

Fresh greens are high in the vitamin A precursor, carotene, which helps control calcium in the body. Greens also contain a significant amount of calcium. I thought if I could get her to drink juice from several different kinds of green vegetables, maybe it would speed up the healing of the leg ulcers. She would be getting an easily assimilated natural form of calcium in the juice, and she would also be getting enough vitamin A to control the distribution in the body.

I believe in putting my patients to work so that they are involved in their own healing process. Day after day, I had the woman chop up green leafy vegetables-spinach, dandelion greens, Kale, and I don’t know how many others. We soaked them in water until the good green juice had “bled” into the water, then strained it through cheesecloth. She drank a glass of this green vegetable juice diluted in water every hour, all day.

It was hard work, but it paid off. In three weeks, the thirteen leg ulcers were completely healed. The secret was in the juice! What prescription remedies from drugstores failed to cure, Mother Nature completed healed.

I want to bring attention to the chlorophyll in the green leafy vegetable because I am certain that it played an important role in the healing process, too. Chlorophyll is the lifeblood of plants and one of the most wonderful blood cleaners I have ever used with patients. It cleans the blood by cleansing the bowel of those toxins most commonly assimilated into the bloodstream. “When you‘re green inside, you’re clean inside,” I always told my patients. Experience has demonstrated to me the value of keeping the bowel clean by means of chlorophyll-rich drinks. A clean bowel helps prevent disease.

The success of this case and hundreds like it eventually established my reputation and increase my confidence in what I was bringing into my patients’ live and bodies. I enjoy seeing people improve their health, and juices are a wonderful source of nutrients that I believe we all need to take advantage of to reach for the highest level of health and well-being we can get.

Juices (and other liquids) are the fastest method I know for getting nutrients- in easily digested and assimilated form-into the blood and lymph systems that feed the cells and maintain the body’s health. We find that fruit juices tend to supply more vitamins, while vegetable juices tend to supply more minerals, all and each contains nutrients. (Juice should be use soon after being made because some vitamins and minerals are oxidized soon after extraction from their source. Also, live enzymes don’t last long in juice.) Freshness and ripeness are factors that influence the nutritional value of the fruits and vegetables we run through our juicers, but soil is by far the most important influence. If the soil is depleted of important minerals, the fruit and vegetables grown from that soil will be depleted of those same minerals. The label “organic” on a fruit or vegetable doesn’t guarantee that it has been grown on mineral-rich soil, so we need to do a certain research and investigation to find out where fruits and vegetables we purchase are grown and what the quality of the soil is in that place.

I want to make clear that I don’t believe we can make a life on juices –we need fibre foods for bowel tone and proper elimination, including whole grains, raw nuts, and seeds, and sources of protein such as eggs, cheese, and yogurt. A juice diet is not a balanced diet, but there may be times when a juice fast is appropriate for certain physical ailments and conditions, as discussed in chapter 2.

n my own nutritional regimen, I use juices much of same as I use supplements-to get specific nutrients into the body fast so that they can get to the cells and restore proper function and balance. The vitamins, minerals, and enzymes present in juices are assimilated and launched into the blood-stream or lymph system much faster than if solid food had been eaten.

I believe in juices. I believe we can easily include a juice snack in our diets twice a day for better health and well-being and for an extra measure of protection from disease. I want to emphasize the need for variety in the kinds of juices we use because variety is the only way we can be sure of getting all the different nutrients we need daily.

If you want to feel better and live longer, juicing and juices are for you.

This little book can bring you knew life after reading and if you become “doers of the word, and not hearers only”! It may save you from aging before your time and may greatly reduce the amount of money you invest in your family physician.

We must learn the simple truth, that we don’t (and can’t) heal a disease. It is the patient we should be taking care of, not the disease, and we take a giant step forward in our own understanding and perspective when we recognise that juices are great health builders, but they are not “medications” prescribed to alleviate or suppress disease symptoms.

Your health and life can be changed if you act on what is in this book.

Nutrition is the foundational healing art, absolutely necessary before any kind of healing can take place in the body. How can I say this? Because only the chemical elements from foods can rebuild cells or correct defects in cells, and because our ultimate source of chemical element is foods; the success of all other healing arts depends on this one healing art.”

Thanks, Dr. Jenson. My friends should now understand why I advise them to take a combination of the pinches of Kale, wheat grass, Spirulina, chlorella and one teaspoonful of liquid chlorophy in a glass of water on empty stomach first thing in the morning and last thing at night. It has helped cases such as high prolactin levels and breast discharge in women, retrograde menstrual blood flow, distended abdomen, uterine fibroids and many more. You should appreciate why I wish to have a pawpaw farm in the backyard, to enjoy a smoothie of the leaf, seeds fruit and peel in a background of these greens with them, one should be well kited for the hot weather which not only leaches water to reduce body temperature, but robs our bodies also of valuable salt such as potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium, among others.

 

Today is Christmas 2014. Happy Christmas! With this wish, I pray the day is well spent, not in the typical revelry which has come to characterise the way many people observe the anniversary of this memorable event, but in quiet, sober reflection of how its message has been well understood and applied in daily life by every Christian. I may address this later.

Meanwhile, the thought which came over me last week as another Christmas approached was delay of the harmathan season this year. Long before I was born, the harmattan interfaced in Nigeria between the rain season and the dry and hot spell, when it can be so hot that old people may die of sunstroke. With cold, dry and foggy African wind, the harmattan visits the continent at about the same time winter is upon Europe. Some hammatan authorities believe the name of this continental trade wind blowing over west Africa between the end of November and the middle of March came either from a Ghanaian word or the Arabic, Harram. In North Africa, the harmattan is reported to be so active that it may disturb social life and temperament, making thought and decisions erratic or wrong. Even a Christian Christmas hymn invites us to come to “the house of the Lord, who had provided for our needs before arrival of winter”.

 

Lagos weather

In Lagos, the rains seemed to have stopped abruptly this year. They often did in years past with short and thunderous heavy rains. Since the rains stopped, the Lagos weather has been so hot it would appear the air was burning. Everyone was sweating profusely in-door or out-door. The handkerchiefs market was booming and the Chinese export market was booming. Back home in Nigeria, the cold water industry, too, was thriving, as was the soft drinks industry. Fruit sellers experienced bigger sales. All over Lagos, the wheel barrow has ceased to be a construction site tool for loading and moving, sand, mortar, blocks or cement bags. People from diverse lands, including Chad and Niger Republic, load fruits in them and, irrespective of the law forbidding street trading, display their wares and selling on the highway in the rush-hour traffic of workers returning home for the night. Most of these fruits, unknown to the buyers, are moon fruits, which are good for consumption this season if they are eaten at the right time.

 

Moon plants and sun plants.

The sun, the moon and the stars are not ornaments in the skies. They were all created to make human life possible on earth, and affect every aspect of earth life. The moon broke away from the earth a long time ago. Some plants are known as moon plants because the moon affects their lives more than the sun and the stars. For similar reasons, some plants are known as sun plants. Our health benefits from our eating moon or sun plants at the right time.

efore the rain season comes again, the weather will be hot and we would all be sweating. Back in high school, I learned that “rapid cooling” was bad, and that it may be worse to “cool down”, as we say, with ice-cold drinks. Ice-cold drinks shock the nerves and the system. The kidneys, in particular, are said not to like them. Besides, the body has to work extra hard, utilising hard-earned energy to warm up the cold drink to body temperature. This is extra work, and unnecessary wear and tear. When cold drinks are taken with or over a meal, it slows the digestion of the meal. In the refrigerator, the cold arrest enzyme activity to keep foods almost as fresh as we kept them in there. In the same way, it froze the food in the stomach of a corpse discovered under ice in Europe about 15 years ago. The man was overrun by a river of ice hundreds of years ago during the age of glaciers. When the ice berg which preserved his body melted years ago, the corpse was discovered. The food he had just eaten before he was buried alive did not digest. This is an indication of what may happen, though on a smaller scale, when cold drinks are taken with or over a meal.

Drinking copious amounts of cold or cool water or drinks when excessive perspiration makes us thirsty may suggest ignorance about what sweating means and about how to respond to it. There are many possible causes of sweating or excessive sweating. Sweating is the excretion of excess heat in the body through salt-based fluid. The excess heat may arise from the consumption of spicy food, caffeinated drink (soft drinks, tea, coffee), alcohol, beverages, medications, fever, infections, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) synthetic thyroid hormones etc. Sweat is made of water, electrolytes (sodium and potassium in particular) and fat. When these are replaced with white sugar in soft drinks, a depleted electrolyte stock may be aggravated by the acidosis which sugar and carbonated drinks cause in the body. For electrolytes such as potassium, calcium and magnesium may be required to bring the internal acidic condition to an alkaline status. In time, potassium deficiency may lead to primary or mild hypertension, headache, sore and aching muscles, tiredness and, in worse case scenarios, growths of all kinds. In other extreme conditions, a sunstroke or heatstroke may occur which may lead to death. Doctors save the day when we are electrolyte depleted by giving us drips. In emergencies, one may take Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) salts which can be bought at a patient medicine store. Coconut water may also help. To avert such an emergency which calls for this intervention, one may regularly take green drinks. These drinks are minerals rich. One of them is wheatgrass. Another is spirulina. Yet another is barley grass. There is hardly any mineral, vitamin, and co-factor they do not contain. They help to restock the nutrient lost from excessive sweating which can be complemented with the nutrients from moon plants. Moon plants, as stated earlier, are those plants influenced by the moon than by any other stellar or heavenly body.

 

Moon Plants

It is a pity man no longer seems to do anything right, that is as Mother Nature demands it be done. We plant and harvest without regard to lunar or heavenly guidance, and, for this reason, do not seem to derive the best benefits from foods and herbs. Isaac Newton long ago established the Laws of Gravity. These laws teach us that the tides are affected by the moons gravitational pull. The moon exercises a stronger pull on the earth than the sun does, although it is much, much smaller than the sun, because it is nearer to the earth. The moon has two major phases: the waxing and the waning.The waxing phase takes the moon to full moon. The waning phase takes it to half-moon or quarter moon. The waxing moon “pulls the nearest body of water a little away from the solid mass of the earth beneath it, and at the same time pull the earth a little away from the water on the farthest side. In this manner the moon sets up two tidals bulges on opposite sides of the earth”.

The same forces affect the soil’s water content. They create more moisture in the soil during the new or full moon. An increased moisture makes seeds sprout and grow. At the North-western University, Dr. Frank brown carried out a 10-year experiment which showed that plants absorbed more water during the full moon even when he carried out the research in-door, away from direct exposure to the moon, he discovered that the results were the same.

Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Anthroposophical Movement, developed a “biodynamic method” of planting “The movement saw a correlation between science, Nature, Universal Laws and spiritual concerns”. He taught that a relationship existed between the earth, air, fire and water which related, also, to specific parts of the plant. Thus, earth corresponded to Roots water to Leaf grown, fire to seed production and Air to flowers. From this, I can assume that when seeds are eaten in a hot weather, one adds fire to fire.

John Jevons, author of How to grow more vegetables, says increasing moonlight during the waxing moon phase stimulates leaf growth. Growth of the plant above the ground slows when the moon begins to wane. At this time, the roots are stimulated. This shows our herbalists were wise and in tune with nature. They know what time of the day to harvest different parts of a plant for food or medicine.

In 1939, Frau Dr. Kolisko and in 1956 Maria thun experimented with root crops and found that germination of their seeds was influenced by lunar phases, with maximum germination on the day before full moon. The experiments of people such as these show we do not need fertilisers to grow robust and health-giving foods which, in any way, fertiser- grown foods cannot oblige.

In Psychic gardening, Mellie Ugldert says: “All water ich plants are true children of the moon, such as the cucumber, pumpkin, melon and those living in and on the water such as the water Lily, Brandy-bottle etc, and on the bank such as the willow and the plants with half moon shaped leaves or oral leaves composed of two half-moons.

“Like a person a plant never, of course, belongs to one heavenly body or sign alone; they are named after the sign or star which clearly predominate in firm and habit. In man, moon plants promote the creation and flow of fluid such as the operation of glands, menstruation, the excretion of urine and sweating. That is why cucumber juice is good for promoting better circulation during woman’s menopause. Climbing moon plants twist to the left (yin) and can be recognised by that. Those that turn to the right are of the sun”.

Millie Uydert says that, in man, moon plants are good for ailments. For example, chickweed may be used against convulsions. For sharp memory, she suggests cashew nuts. Papilionaceae is a good nervous system tonic. As food crops, beans can be used for nutrition. Nos Vomica is good also for the nerves.

When we perspires we lose not only water but chemical substances as well. The composition depends on what has been eaten or drunk, and for how long the perspiration has persisted. Generally, perspiration contains water, minerals, lactate and urea. The minerals may comprise (1) sodium (2) potassium (3) calcium (4) magnesium. The body also excretes trace metals such as (1) Zinc (2) copper (3) iron (4) chromium (5) nickel (6) lead.

Sodium deficiency may affect nerve function. Potassium shortage may cause primary hypertension and muscle aches and pains and palpitation. Calcium and magnesium deficiency may cause spasms and constipation.  Zinc deficiency may cause infertility, slow healing of wounds, immune depletion, eye problems, nail, skin and hair problem Iron deficiency would bring low blood count and anaemia. Water or soft drinks alone do not replenish these loses. Most water brands have no minerals and are acidic LASENA WATER, Nigeria’s first artesian well water from more than 500 meters depth is alkaline and has calcium, magnesium, zinc and other minerals. LASENA is 7.4pH. SUPERIOR ALKALINE WATER, infused with minerals – dense CORAL CALCIUM is 11.5pH and has to be mixed with five bottles of normal water for each bottle to hit 7.4pH. tissue or cell salts, biochemic and homeo pathic, may be dissolved in these water brands or any other to enrich them.

Moon plants are fluid-rich some of them are tomato, water melon, pawpaw lettuce, spinach cabbage, broccoli celery etc. Dr. William Rogers in THE WONDERFUL WORLD WITHIN shows that lettuce is one of the richest vegetables on earth. Adding the juice to say, orange juice or lime or lemon juice, which have lots of potassium, makes a revitalizing drinks.

After a day’s hard work, I take wheatgrass and spirulina drink to which add food grade edible salt (96% silica) and