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Tag: pain

  • Chronic Back and Neck Pain Natural Cure Is Here!

    Chronic Back and Neck Pain Natural Cure Is Here!

    Chronic Back and Neck Pain Natural Cure Is Here!

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    Back and Neck Pain.

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    In fact, my back pain caused me to feel uncomfortable all the time. As time went on, it only got worse and started negatively affecting every area of my life.

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  • Recession: Beyond the tragedy and pain

    In the 1960s, thinkers coined the word “Knowledge Economy” to announce a radical shift from traditional economies. It was an extraordinary gift by intellectuals of that era to a world that some people thought had become sluggish, uncreative and desperately in need of ideas.

    Today, more than 50 years after that intellectual uprising, many countries still drive their economic policies with huge emphasis on the power of knowledge and human imagination.  For these countries, there is a strong belief that any system of production and consumption that is not based on intellectual capital will fail.

    I decided to present this background because Nigeria at present reminds one of the pre 1960s knowledge revolution and the deficit of awareness.

    Nothing captures our nation’s knowledge paucity of ideas today like the controversial debate on the sale of our nation’s physical assets. But the question is: what exactly are we really selling? Where is the place of fixed and physical assets in today’s changing world that is governed by ideas and brainpower? And why would the sale of physical assets that are here today and gone tomorrow determine our economic direction? And if we sell now and recession continues, what happens?

    What I enjoyed most about the debate was the cacophony of voices that argued endlessly. Again, the arguments reinforced the benefits of public discourse which everybody agrees is missing in our country today.

    But this piece is not about public dialogue and its benefits. It is essentially about wealth from knowledge and intellectual property, which to my mind is the ultimate asset. There is no doubt that the world is undergoing tremendous change. And we are already witnesses to the transformation affecting production, distribution, trade, employment and life generally.

    Once upon a time, that was during the agricultural economy, land was everything. Also, during the industrial era, natural resource like coal and labour were the main issues. Today, all that has changed because in a knowledge economy, knowledge is the resource and not oil or solid minerals. But I hasten to add that from time immemorial, knowledge has always played a part, no matter how small in every economic activity. What is new today however is that there is now a phenomenal dose of knowledge and information that is fused into economic activity by individuals and governments.

    So when we make sale of national assets a talking point in a recession, we highlight our confusion, pain and misery. It also shows that not much of good thinking is going on at the right places. But we must not despair or even give a thought to the falsehood that the sale of national assets essentially brings about boom. Nigerians must look inwards and face squarely, this demon called recession.

    Anytime I remember Steve Jobs, Apple Computer’s famous co-founder, I also remember the hundred hopeless Nigerian versions of this great American inventor roaming our streets. The difference between Jobs and these hapless Nigerians is essentially environment.

    Therefore in this season of economic decline, everything must be deployed into saving our country and its future. And for me, young people should be the starting point. In line with our case for a knowledge economy, Nigeria must urgently take steps towards revamping education. Our schools must return to centres of excellence in learning and research. Technical and vocational studies should be reintroduced and strengthened for optimum results. And we must encourage and remind the youth once more on the virtues of hard work, fair play, principles and patriotism.

    I think it is imperative for Nigeria as a country to learn from the tragedies of other nations. But as I said earlier, there is hope. Recently, I watched with keen interest in Lagos, an event on October 1 as speaker after speaker, spoke on the colossal waste recurrent in running government. The optimism for me is that young people were enjoined at that event driven by a non-government organisation to be active and to question the actions of their political leaders. I agree with the speakers because the future belongs to the young and they must take the moment.

    For politicians, I am afraid that they may not have anything more to say in 2019 if living conditions today do not improve. Things must just get better or we will all have ourselves to blame. I am in agreement with those who insist that infrastructural decay must be urgently addressed. I also want the government of the day to create jobs and provide the enablement that would encourage entrepreneurship. In another breath, I support those who speak against the prevailing atmosphere of fear which naturally encourages capital flight and discourages investment.

    As citizens, we must continually be conscious of the fact that knowledge must be used for economic benefits. And for us to achieve the needed results, we must align with knowledge and technology because both are friends for growth and development. If we do nothing and pretend, then we will be deceiving ourselves because economy is already globalised. This is already evident as we have all seen that even our cottage industry is currently at the mercy of the dollar. This is the way to go and we must brace up and face the reality.

     

    • Lawani, former Deputy Governor of Benue State is an industrialist and philanthropist.

  • Pain, gain and change

    When I remember the fact that Nigeria is now officially in a recession, the shamelessness of officially-licensed larceny going on in the National Assembly with the Abdulmumin Jibrin’s ‘confessions’ and the crying poverty biting the common and the not-so-common citizenry, I can’t help but revisit this piece published in January 2. No doubt, it is going to be a long way to economic recovery for this country if the authorities continue playing the ostrich…

    In this period of good tidings, it is generally assumed that the beginning of another year should ignite the feeling of hope across the world. Unfortunately, you rarely see the jollity or good feelings of the season on the face of the average Nigerian. Instead, he bears a melancholic, plastic smile on the face; in spite of everything around him, he wants to feel and seem happy. But repressed concerns and emotions surface into the consciousness now and then. For him, the rude joke of belt-tightening has gone beyond ‘be careful’ as they say in the suburb. Ironically, in this period of joyful bloom elsewhere, all that surrounds him is a pall of gloom. It becomes manifestly clear when he realises that the 2014 celebration, though low-keyed with the crumbs he could muster for the family, was far better than the no-budget reality that gnawed at him last year. The people on our streets are not smiling even when the government has not officially declared any austerity crisis. The pain and anguish of a deflated economy are already biting without anyone knowing when its reality would be officially made public. Yes, it is an era of change with a promise of a brighter tomorrow. What confounds the citizen is the possibility of not seeing that tomorrow if nothing urgent is done now, to save him from becoming a casualty of the present economic strangulation. Crudely put, this country is wobbling on its legs!

    As I write this, I can only imagine the number of families that celebrated Christmas in 2015 with the mood of a horde mourning the death, not the birth, of Jesus Christ. It is not just about those who could excuse the tragedy on a curious ‘presidential order’ that civil servants be paid salaries on the eve of a 5-day long public holidays. It is more about that commoner on the street who forages for fate daily in a society that has lost its humanity due to the raw greed of the privileged few. It is not just about the pain that aggravates the heart of the one who was used to drawing infectious laughter out of the harsh faces of few beneficiaries from his generosity both far and wide.  This year, he just could not do anything while being rendered useless by the asphyxiating economic conundrum in which the country has found itself. It is more about the unmitigated gloom that most families have been thrown into, in a season of imprisoned hope.

    And so, when President Muhammadu Buhari drew applause with his inspirational canticles on the floor of the National Assembly during the presentation of the 2016 Budget the other day, many had thought that the three-volume documents would be spared the perennial repetitive streak that has turned the annual ritual into a waste of precious time by all. But if feelers are anything to go by, then President Buhari would need more than elevated language to convince anyone that The Presidency is not about to shift into higher gear towards exceeding the benumbing profligacy of the immediate past tenants. Yes, Buhari may not have watched idly like Jonathan did when he stamped his presidential imprimatur on the illegal sharing of billions of Naira to apologists, hangers-on and unscrupulous aides by the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki. Maybe he wouldn’t have tolerated the callous rape of the treasury by all manner of characters hanging around the corridors of power in the guise of protecting a weakling whose main interest was returning to office by all means possible. Well, those who participated in the heist are facing the odd music being played by the orchestra of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

    Having said this, some seven months into the life of the Buhari government (now more that 14 months), we are not exactly sure if anything significantly different has changed in the way Abuja is doing things. It is one thing for Buhari to wax poetic about how deeply sorry he was to see the anguish on Nigerian faces as they eke for a slice of porridge in a challenging economic terrain. It is definitely another bitter pill to swallow when we were treated to the shocking reality that the details of the 2016 national budget reflect nothing more than a continuation of the wasteful allocations of the past 16 years. Simply put, there is something unnerving about a budget that seems to appropriate more money for The Presidency to service the luxurious tastes of a few individuals in an era of recession. Unless Buhari convinces Knuckle-headed me that he never saw the breakdown of what Aso Rock would gulp before rushing to the National Assembly to wow us with his “I feel your pain” lyrics, then I align with those who have refused to be overoptimistic about that three-tome disaster called a budget!

    In case none of his aides has been bold enough to tell him, there is a world of difference between saying the right things and doing what ought to be done to instill sanity into a system that is corrosively corrupt. How can a Buhari, an epitome of frugal living, justify the allocation of a whopping N3.6bn for the purchase of posh BMW cars for his office in the 2016 budget? Why must the State House change cutleries in a yearly ritual that gulps millions of Naira of taxpayers’ sweat? We thought that era of sickening madness had gone with the Jonathan mistake. What we did not bargain for is the report that the present change agents, whose Aso Rock residence was refurbished shortly before moving in in May last year, would be needing N387m to renovate a guest house; N47m to furnish the guest house; N27m to buy computers and N764m to provide recreational facilities. If we labelled Jonathan reckless for cornering N944m for his foreign and local junkets in 2015, why shouldn’t we cry daylight murder if Buhari now plans to hug the skies in 2016 with N1.4bn only? And what’s that thing we hear about the appropriation of N189m to purchase tyres for vehicles?

    To be fair to Buhari, he has drastically cut down on the gluttonous allocation for food in the last ten years or more. But The Presidency budget is not just about bread and butter alone. There is little or less to cheer in a budget that projects to spend N29bn, about N5bn more than what Jonathan spent last year, on certain fussy sub-heads. It is not just about the bloated figure but also about the list of spend. Besides the questions hanging over the planned purchase of exotic vehicles to mostly political appointees, it beggars belief and logical reasoning that Mr. Buhari’s palatial residence would be needing N326m for wildlife conservation and the purchase of exotic animals. Pray, wouldn’t Jonathan be laughing his head off especially when we took him to the cleaners for daring to spend common N24.6m on the same subhead last year? Like I wrote in a piece last year, I still cannot fathom any cogent reason why they keep on changing ‘canteen material and kitchen equipment’ every year in Aso Rock. Now, we are being told that N89m would be needed in 2016 to change cutleries; about five million naira more would be added to the N11m spent last year in the Vice President’s office to buy foodstuff and catering services; N12m for recreational materials and N30m to purchase tool boxes, car jacks and diagnostic machines for Buhari’s bulletproof cars! If care is not taken, I may abandon this thankless job and take up appointment as an apprentice motor mechanic in Aso Rock!

    I’m personally pained that the mistakes of the past have crept into this latest experiment at budgeting, thereby exposing the government to ridicule. It is either someone had failed to do his job with the seriousness it required or the government has refused to take the feelings of the common person seriously. You can only attract condemnation when you come out with a budget that ingloriously assumes that it is perfectly cool to spend a whopping N27m on buying C-caution sign triangles, fire extinguishers and cables. Do they think something better couldn’t have been done with N114m instead of wasting it on the upgrade of internet infrastructure in the State House?

    I perfectly understand that the State House needs to be heavily protected especially with the state of general insecurity in the land. Yet, one wouldn’t mind if the drafters of this bogus budget can explain why they need N100m for ‘Active Devices for State House Network’ and another N35m for security appliances, licenses and computer anti-virus software. How much of these gadgets were purchased last year and why should they crop up in the 2016 budget again? Now, what kind of ‘All-eye” surveillance project would be costing the Office of the National Security Adviser to install at N8.7bn with another N9bn going into what this paper tagged an esoterically-named “Stravinsky Project” in this budget of humongous figures?

    We may go on and on about the fundamental errors in the Buhari budget. In fact, some persons may even justify the appropriations. However, what is not in doubt is that The Presidency has failed to lead by example in its campaign of change by failing to cut down on its excesses and needless longing for impudent prodigality. In his budget summation at the National Assembly, Buhari said: “I know the state of our economy is a source of concern for many, worsened by the unbridled corruption and security challenges we have faced in the last few years. Fellow Nigerians, the confidence of many might be shaken. However, I stand before you today promising that we will secure our country, rebuild our economy, and make the Federal Republic of Nigeria stronger than it has even been”.

    Quite a number of persons would naturally doubt how these lofty ideals can be achieved if this unproductive tradition of profligate spending is yet to be nipped in the bud right under the nose of a President with a knack for simple if not rustic living. There is nothing reflective of Buhari’s hyped love for Spartan life and moderation in this budget! Nothing at all to show that we have changed for the better. Should the rot persist, then that would be the greatest pain, the deepest disappointment for the masses in this experimental journey of change. Will Buhari call for a re-jig of The Presidency’s appropriations for 2016 to reflect the pain he claims to feel for the suffering masses? Now that’s a tall order.

    You know what? Now that we are officially in the red, can we have a new figure on The Presidency’s spend reflecting all the cuts from the initial humongous figures that were hastily yanked off the official site of the Budget Office? Can we know if this recession bites them too?

  • Coping with pain of break-up in relationship

    DEAR Harriet, Do women feel the pain of break-ups more than men? When my ex- husband ended our eight years of marriage, friends considered me a brave and dignified person because I chose not to lose my mind and shut down on life.  Today with God’s strength, I have moved on a better person.

    Name withheld, Lagos.

     

    Over the past few months, I have received calls and messages from people whose partners or spouses walked out on them after long relationships or marriages. One break-up was after four years of dating, one was twelve months and another was nine weeks. One thing in common is that each of these relationships was still heartbroken. They were consumed by the moments of bitterness and the fear for the unknown.  All thought it is impossible to get over such shocking life change. Two were women and one was a man, but they expressed themselves in very similar ways. That was no surprise to me because my years as a counsellor have taught me that heartache has no gender.

    However, some people have the opinion that when a relationship ends, women suffer more emotional pain than men. Others have the view that because people are different in their ways, we do not experience pain, mentally or physically in the same way whether male or female. As a matter of fact, the difference between them is not down to their gender, but their personality type. Some will move on, telling themselves they must. While others will choose to harbor unhappy feelings for years which is regarded as self destructive. It really doesn’t help anyone (male or female) to cling to misery.

    In some cases, men don’t express a clear “I am over that” sentiment as clearly as women. It doesn’t mean that some men are not emotional. Trust me, they are. It’s just that their method of expression is totally different. Inevitably, we all make comparisons, for example comparing the pain of broken arm with that of a twisted ankle, but rating emotional pain is totally a different issue. In addition, some people also believe that women although are very emotional, they recover more quickly after a split. May be because women discuss their feelings, could be to a friend or family member, especially when they are going through matters of the heart. I had a business meeting with a lady for the first time, never met her before but by her initial statement, I have learnt that she is juggling a very demanding job and a home life that is nearly killing her. Who could tell that behind her sharp dressing were worries. Our discussion mostly was now on her personal issues and all I did then was to listen to her out pouring of pain and made a few remarks. When finally the meeting was over, she said I made her feel much better. I really did not do anything. From a male perspective, a man would never discuss about his feelings under such condition.  Men and women are different in dealing with heart break, if again most people recover if they find another partner, but if they don’t it takes longer as well. The truth of the matter is that individual deals with break-up in different ways in respective of the gender. The way out here is for people to understand the situation, accept it and deal with it, bearing in mind that the pain will go away with time. In every break-up, there is a lesson to learn, and in most cases, it helps some people to be better in their next relationships, although for some, they take it as a way to be mean and nasty in the relationships they find themselves, forgetting that such reactions might chase away their potential life partners. Let’s face it, everybody in one way or the other will experience disappointment could be in form of relationship or otherwise so the question: is it the end of the world? The answer is no. Life goes on. Out of my life, they say, is not out of the world.  Therefore, think less, occupy your mind with things that will make you happy. Seize the opportunity to improve yourself, go chase your dreams instead of allowing yourself to be consumed by self-pity and regrets. Always remember the person in question here has moved on. He or she is living his or her life without you in the picture. I know it is tough, especially when it has to do with marriage, but the truth is that you alone has the key to your healing and happiness.  Nobody has the right to make you feel unhappy, except you permit the person, so your happiness is in your hands.  In addition, learn to put your health into consideration because if break-up is not handled properly, it can lead to health hazard.

    A problem shared is a problem half solved!

     

    Harriet Ogbobine is a counsellor and a motivational speaker. Send your questions and suggestions to her on bineharriet@gmail.com or txt message only 08054682598. You can also follow her on twitter: @bineharrietj

  • ‘Dasugate’ brings Falae’s past to pain

    Olu Falae, Secretary to the Federal Government (1986-1990) during the baleful years of  Babangida’s  ‘transition without end’ might have served as a Minister of Finance for a brief period in 1990 without collecting salary,  managed to keep the exchange rate at N7.50k to one dollar until his exit in 1990 when it went down to N70 to a dollar.  He was jailed as a NADECO chieftain by Abacha for standing by MKO Abiola during his failed battle to reclaim the victory freely and overwhelmingly given to him by Nigerians. Unfortunately these personal sacrifices and resourcefulness are not what will determine his legacies as a bureaucrat, banker and politician/elder statesman. Nigerians are likely going to remember him more as the intellectual pillar for Babangida disastrous Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) and a leader who partook of ‘Dasukigate’ slush fund to the tune of N100m ostensibly on behalf of his little known Social Democratic Party, (SDP), many believed, was sponsored by President Jonathan during the convocation of a self-serving  Confab by a drowning government  to undermine Bola Tinubu and his new Yoruba political leaders and in the process whittle down the influence of APC in the South- west.

    But as it is often said, truth is immanent. Like water, it will find its way to torment and deride its enemies. ‘Dasukigate’ has now provided an opportunity to critically examine not only the motive of sponsors of a fringe party like Social Democratic Party with little or no electoral value, the despicable and unpatriotic objectives of its promoters but also to examine how Chief Olu Falae’s intervention at a critical period in our history contributed to the frustration of young Nigerian professionals who fled the country to work as second class citizens in Europe and America. Despite Margret Thatcher’s introduction of VISA following Olu Falae and Kalu Idika Kalu’s SAP, we today have up to two million well-trained Nigerians in Britain. The effect of SAP has been more devastating at home. Today there are millions of frustrated well-educated Nigerians youths in their late twenties and early thirties, regarded by many as a lost generation, who are still tied to the aprons of their parents at an age their peers during the pre and post independent years had already assumed leadership.

    General Ibrahim Babangida,  Olu Falae and Kalu Idika Kalu back in 1986 decreed ‘there was no alternative to Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP)’, an IMF economic poison, designed by the developed economies to solve their own social problems by further impoverishing the underdeveloped economies. The late Professor Sam Aluko dismissed such claim as intellectual fraud insisting there was even an alternative to death. Eskor Tuoyo and his group of radical thinkers correctly predicted the fate that finally befell Nigeria- the collapse of our industrial sector and condemnation of Nigeria to net importers of labour of other societies while our own youths roam the streets.

    Falae, as an accessory to ill-conceived and badly implemented privatization and liberalization economic policy that allowed a few families, military men and their fronts to fraudulently corner our national assets is responsible for the disarray and a future of uncertainty of Nigerians in their early thirties who have opted or are eager to become slaves in Europe and America. Our frustrated youths who chose to ‘check out’ in droves through the desert and the sea have little to look up to following the confiscation of our national assets which started during the Babangida regime when for example, 60% of a company like the Ikeja Cocoa Industries Limited (CIL) which rightly belong to the children of poor western Nigeria cocoa farmers was sold to a newly registered  Emerald Packaging Company for a miserable N9m, an amount lower than the cost of land on which the then 24 years old manufacturing company minus its machineries, raw materials and their other assets were located. This trend was completed by Babangida’s laboratory-baked PDP ‘new breed’  politicians who traded off national assets worth about $100b according to El Rufai, one time BPE Director General, for less than  $5b between 1999 and 2014. Chief Olu Falae never took responsibility for his role as an accessory to crime of mortgaging the future of a whole generation of Nigerians.

    Now the past has been brought to pain with the ‘Dasukigate’ which revealed that N260m of the $2.1b earmarked for arms to equip our embattled military found its way into to the account of Tony Anenih, a PDP chieftain. Anenih had said in his defence that the money, only a fraction of over N400m he claimed to have spent on his own for the 2015 battle, was ‘a part refund of the money former President Goodluck Jonathan instructed him to release to some political groups for mobilisation and post-election peace advocacy’. Of the amount, he said Chief Falae, the leader and founder of Social Democratic Party got N100m,Chief Rashidi Ladoja, leader of Accord Party got N100m while the remaining N63m went to a group headed by elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai . All the three elder-statesmen admitted the funds were meant to advance the chances of Jonathan in the 2015 election…

    But Chief Falae like most well-informed Nigerians knew that another four years of Jonathan would have been disastrous for nation, that during his over five years in office, he served none but self and PDP wheelers and dealers and that those desperate for his re-election and who were moving around the country selling lies called ‘transformation agenda’ to our people were led mostly by those indicted by various House probes for pillaging the country resources.  Having undermined the PDP constitution by contesting in 2010 and for reneging on an undertaking to do only one term, Chief Falae knew it was immoral for Jonathan to contest the 2015 election. Chief Falae similarly knew Jonathan’s attempt to exploit our religion and ethnic differences for electoral gain was a threat to national unity.

    At the Chief Falae’s Yoruba home front where leadership is earned and lost when leaders betray the trust of the people, he knew that by openly identifying with the likes of Ayo Fayose, Olusegun Mimiko, Gbenga Daniel, Bode George and Musliu Obanikoro, that he and his half a dozen fellow Afenifere oligarchs who behave like cult members have lost their grip on the Yoruba voters. More than anybody else, Falae knew his Yoruba people who Awo back in 1947 said would not vote for you because you are a Yoruba man if you have no policy that will positively affect his life, would not vote for Jonathan who besides marginalizing Yoruba that fought for his emergence, but also remained a clueless leader all through his presidency. Finally, Falae more than anyone knew that Yoruba, the only group that has remained faithful to the idea of a united Nigeria since independence despite their endless campaign for regional autonomy and workable federalism, would not vote for a divisive candidate who had become a threat to the survival of Nigeria as a nation of many nationalities.

    Why then did a brilliant and respected Falae, a man not known for greed go ahead to dirty his hands with PDP’s N100m bribe even with the full knowledge of the consequences of his action and the fate that awaits Yoruba leaders that swim against the general tide from an unforgiving followers? There are two plausible explanations in my view. He, like other members of Afenifere oligarchy was probably envious of the success of Bola Tinubu who with the support of young Yoruba intellectuals effortlessly retired them from politics after achieving what they had been unable to achieve during a lifelong battle –joining the Nigerian mainstream politics as an equal partner. It is also possible that our respected Falae had expected a repeat of the ‘Ekiti Magic’ and underestimated the resolve of Nigerians and the efficacy of the voters card reader which for the first time allowed votes to count. But either way, I sympathise with Falae. He knows the fate that awaits him. The Yoruba hardly forgive when leaders who they look up to for direction commit error of judgment.

  • Some causes of pain and some solutions …5

    Can we speak of pain without mentioning menstrual pain?

    In today’s poor-diet, simple sugar – overload world where the female hormones hardly balance themselves, menstrual pain may be as common as headaches, neck and muscle pain, nerve pain, joint pain and upper and lower back pain. In the Comet newspaper before it became defunct, one of the female reporters often became a spectacle every month. It was always obvious to almost every one that she was flying the Chinese flag or that her friends, the Reds, were visiting.

    Someone else would have to finish her work while she was taken to the clinic where the doctor or the nurse would give her anti-pain and anti-cramp injections. Meanwhile, her friends would have to mop the floor after clearing her vomit. She loved coffee and soft drinks and enjoyed junks food. It was only about last year that she grudgingly agreed to give up coffee after she developed multiple uterine fibroids. Who wouldn’t, who was still expecting the proverbial “fruit of the womb” at almost forty years of age? Many women are like this woman. But many of them are not as lucky because dominance of the estrogen hormone over the progesterone hormone, which may be a source of this problem, may also predispose them to such breast irritation that may, someday, spring up breast lumps or even breast cancer.

     

    CAUSES OF MENSTRUAL PAIN

    Researchers keep adding to the list of possible causes of menstrual pain. According to www.healthline.com, the check – list may parade 18 possible causes which it ranks in order of severity as:

    (1)        “Heavy….

    • Heavy, prolonged or irregular menstrual periods
    • Endometriosis
    • Fibroids
    • Fertility
    • Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID)
    • Depression
    • Stress and Anxiety
    • Fibromyalgia
    • Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
    • Necrotising vasculition
    • Polycystic kidney disease
    • Hypopara thyrodism”

    Is menstruation natural or a disease?

    Today is not the day to examine this idea which I first picked up in THE NEW RAW ENERGY, written by sisters Deborah and Leslie Kenton in the raw food era in Europe, when the eating of especially salads, fruits and greens generally, was advocated by nutrition  activists, researchers and doctors. Raw food, now endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which suggests that about 80 percent of the daily diet be raw, contains lots of organic Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, other minerals, Vitamins, co-factors and trace elements, among many others.

    Working synergistically like an orchestra, they provide the body with much, if not all it needs, for a healthy and balanced biochemistry. THE NEW RAW ENERGY featured research findings which showed that women who ate lots of raw food during these studies did not menstruate but were nevertheless fertile and some of them actually became pregnant. This was attributed to high levels of Beta carotene in their bloodstream, and the suggestion that women are menstruating today only because they had low levels of Beta carotene in their system. The information enabled me to  explain what it thought was the circumstance of a young mother of three who was banished from her village in Benue State because she was not menstruating but was fertile, getting pregnant and having babies. Her case was presented at a Gothe Institute health seminar in Lagos I attended. We run the risk of throwing up the floor for a debate of this subject today. But I’d rather not. So, I would only suggest today that it may be possible for some cases of menstrual pain, if not all, be avoided by those women who are prone to this disorder if they get more Beta carotene into their diet.

     

    The pain

    rguably, the most well known cause of menstrual pain is caused by cramping of muscles in the uterine (womb) wall. Doctors say these muscles contract to expel the inner lining of the uterus, the endometrium, when no pregnancy occurs, despite preparations by the endometrium to receive a fertilised egg and nurse it. The shedding or expulsion occurs because the levels of estrogen and progesterone in the blood decline. These are two hormones which, like the endometrium, would have supported the growth of a fertilised egg. As these hormones are watered down, literally speaking, the endometrium swells up. It is shed by the muscular contractions in what is sighted as the menstrual flow, to be replaced in preparation for another cycle. Contractions of the muscles narrow or constrict vessels which supply the endometrium with blood. Loss of blood supply means loss of oxygen supply, and loss of oxygen supply means death of the endometrium which breaks up in the process of the muscular spams.When the endometrium breaks up, it releases its blood holding into the uterus for expulsion through the Cervix and the virginal. At this time, certain chemicals in the endometrial blood pour into the uterus as the endometrium breaks up, releasing its blood holding. These chemicals include leukotrienes, which are believed to induce cramping of the uterine muscles, and prostaglandins.

    There are two types of prostaglandins… the ones which cause inflammation (and pain) and the ones which oppose inflammation and soothe the pain of inflammation. A woman’s diet will determine how much of each she would have in her blood and endometrium. Women who have large amounts of pro-inflammatory prostaglandins are known to suffer almost, if not exactly, the same degree of birthing pain experienced by women who are given pro-inflammatory prostaglandin injection to induce their labour. Thus, for women who suffer severe menstrual pain, the consumption of anti-inflammatory food factors should be the beginning of wisdom. Some of these include Titus fish (the type called original Titus in Nigeria), Sardine. Oily fish contains omega-3 fish oil which is highly anti-inflammatory. Red meat (beef) on the other hand, yield sarachidonic acid which, in turn, fuels inflammation.

    In the plant kingdom, flax seed oil offers omega-3 oils as well so does evening Prime rose oil. Vegetable oils produce omega-6 oils which fuel inflammation. We must never forget The Law of Balance, one of the laws of Nature which requires balance in everything, whether in Estrogen or Progesterone, the two major female hormones, or in Omega-3 and omega -6 oils, to maintain balance between inflammation and anti-inflammation responses. There’s little need, I believe, to emphasis now that too much of cooked food and junk foods such as white flour bread and food beef, fries, sugar etc increases acidity which in turn, fuels inflammation, and pain. On the other hand, the health food industry today offers the health–conscious public powderised or micronised forms of alkaline forming foods such as carrot powder, spinach powder, Spirulina powder, kale powder and many others. These may be added to soups, stews, beans, pap, even cassava flour to mineralise, vitaminise, protenise and alkalise them.

    WOMEN who experienced blood clots in their menstrual discharge may be candidates for menstrual pain. If their periods are pain free, the blood clots may be a signal for something serious they should worry about. If the endometrium breaks up, and there is a large amount of clots in the blood it releases, and the clots find their way to the cervix for expulsion through the vagina, the pressure these clots exert on the tissue of the cervix may be a source of menstrual pain if the cervix outlet is, for example, too narrow and they have to be forced out. When a woman tells me her period comes with heavy or tiny clots, I suggest she add apple cider vinegar and/or cayenne to her diet. They help to break down the clots so the blood flow can be rich red and fresh. Rich, red menstrual flow suggests a well oxygenated uterus and good blood circulation. In many women, the blood circulation to and from the uterus is sluggish and poor, damaging to the health of this organ. Some women have found that serrapeptase helps to breakdown these clots and even some uterine fibroids, another cause of menstrual pain.

    We shouldn’t lose sight of Calcium and Magnesium which should exist in ratio 2:1. Many women are Calcium bound because they do not take enough magnesium in through the diet. Calcium contracts. Magnesium relaxes. Menstrual pain may arise from too much contraction and insufficiency of magnesium to counter balance excess calcium. Thus, magnesium supplements may help troubled women as should the aforementioned greens. In emergencies, I have found magnesium oil and St. John’swort oil helpful. In the cell salt pharmacy, Ferrumphos breaks down clots of all sorts and oxygenates while Mag Phos stamps out cramping, even in palpitations of the heart.

    NOTHER source of irritation for the uterus and source of menstrual pain is Lactic acid which the cramps of muscles produce. If you haven’t cut grass or exercised in a long while, and you suddenly overdo it, the pain you experience in your muscles the day after or so is coursed by lactic acid irritation. Lactic acid is a by-product of energy production in the muscles. You need potassium along with alkaline minerals to reutilise it. While Magnesium oil massage may help, it is always beneficial to take potassium-rich foods such as banana, Avocado pear, water Mellon Juice etc. for potassium. Mrs Florence Fusi told me that in her Vermanda region in the Cameroon, banana skin is eaten. I have learned from a woman in Lagos, also, that the herbalist who helped her get rid of uterine fibroids gave her the powder of plantain fruit peel.

    Both peels are rich in potassium. The peel of orange or Tangerine or that of any citrus fruit is also good and anti-inflammatory. They help me to easily knock bone pain away.

    UTERINE FIBROIDS may be a cause of menstrual pain, especially if they irritate the endometrium and the reproductive cycle. Getting rid of these growths may be easy or complex. Dr. Max Gerson taught the world that oil growth arise from oxygen and potassium deficiency.

    I have had testimonials from women who say their fibroid sizes shrank under a good potassium-rich diet. Add to that the balancing of the female hormones with Vitex, Dong qual, yarrow, maharane and the lusertion vaginally of Guffebao or Happy Woman.  Heavy bleeders may become tired and suffer shortness of breath and pain because of anaemia due to iron loss. The proprietary formula Jobelyn should help. So should iron-rich herbs such as kenp, kalebeet root and Spirulina. If fibroids cause excessive bleeding, herbal astringents should help. Yarrow and Chankapiedra help a lot. The fibroids press on the bowels causing constipation, or the bladder, causing frequent urination, appropriate herbs are available for these conditions.

    Many women visit their doctors with laboratory reports which suggest that their condition is  P.I.D – driven, yet do not know what to make of Pelvic + inflammatory Disease (P.I.D). This is an infection of the female reproductive organs. These organs include the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, Cervix and Vagina. The Pelvis is in the lower abdomen region. P.I.Ds can cause pain in the lower abdomen, pain in the upper abdomen, fever, painful sex, urination, irregular bleeding, increased or foul smelling vaginal discharge, tiredness”, according to Health line as a PID infection may be dangerous if it gets into the blood stream, holistic treatment is often advisable. Golden seal Root is a favorite natural remedy. It may be supported with Grape seed extract, Cranberry tea (if the urinary tract is infected), colloidal silver taken internally and used as a vaginal wash, Walnut husk and proprietary blends. Sometimes, preparations of these herbs are inserted into the vaginal, and after the therapy, a course of probiotic is undertaken orally and through vaginal insertion.

    Finally, today, is the havoc of endometriosis. It arises when endometrial cells from the uterus escapes elsewhere, implants there and begin to grow as if they were still in the uterus. One of the facilitators for this escape is thought to be fat worms which travel from the uterus through the fallopian tubes to the pelvis. Another therapy suggests retrograde menstrual flow, that means that, rather than flow from the uterus through the cervix vagina, menstrual blood flows backwards into the fallopian tubes and the pelvic cavity. In the Pelvis, these cells adhere to tissue, thicken and behave as though they are still resident in the uterus. This may cause scar tissue in disturbed organs such as organs of the bladders, set off inflammation and bleed during the menstrual cycle. Besides, they may cause period pains. As this condition causes blood loss, blood replacement and decomposition important.

    Pain therapy is important. Hormonal balance is important as well. Some doctors prefer to put out the ovaries to prevent them from making excess estrogen. But others prefer to normalise ovarian secretions. Ovarian herbs such as Vitex, Blue colosh, St. John’s Wort are good. So is valerian root or leaves to calm the nerves, prime rose oil as well.

  • Some causes of pain and some solution…4

    This series has explored such pain challenges as headaches, neck pain and upper and lower back pain.

    This section of the series will examine, also, carpal tunnel syndrome, that pain in the wrist which affects people in certain professions, and then examine some healing approaches to managing or resolving them. Incidentally, the exploration, so far, has been limited largely to bone malaise, including bone joint problem. In the second part of the series, nerve and muscle discomfitures as possible causes of the three major types of headache featured.

     

    CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME PAIN

    This subject reminds me of three old friends. One of them is a barrister. For weeks, he could not sleep well or write with his right hand.

    Often, he cried like a baby. My second friend, a seamstress, gave up her lucrative office because pain in her right wrist and pain forbade her to work.

    Tutu Folashade Koyi, who helped me at The Guardian newspaper of the 1980s to pioneer traditional medicine reporting, supported this venture at The Comet newspaper and is now the News Editor of The Sun Newspaper, is the third friend. I remember today, Editorial work at The Comet, now defunct, could keep a reporter at his or her desk for days, mind you not hours, but on end. Being about the only computer literate person on her desk at that time, Tutu had to typeset editorial materials that may fill as many as four or eight pages in addition to her other routine work which involved writing. Soon, the pressure took its toll on the wrist and her shoulders. She suffered serious nerve, hand and shoulder pains. But the harder the pains hammered, she threw herself at her work.

    Sometimes, as in this case, journalism can be a brutal profession, and this explains why journalists make a success of whatever they do outside their profession, where the pressure is much kinder, even in mid-career changes.

    Many people suffer from Carpal tunnel Syndrome. This condition derive its name from the bones on the wrist, the carpals. If you turn your palm up, you would find what looks like a gutter running up to the base of the palm. This is the carpal tunnel. It is like a conduit pipe. The median nerve, which serves the fingers, and some tendons, which make the fingers to move pass, through this tunnel.

    When the wrist joint is moved or used too frequently, metabolic wastes may be produced by this activity which, if not quickly and efficiently removed, may irritate the nerves and tendons. Irritation of tissue is often the cause of inflammation, and inflammation the foundation of pain.

    In inflammation, the connective tissue will be overstretched, and the overstretching may lead to tearing, an injury that micro-organisms such as candida and other yeast may exploit to cause infection and tissue degeneration.

    In the book titled THE DOCTORS BOOK OF HOME REMEDIES, written by the Editors of Prevention Magazine Health Books, we have some graphic descriptions of how this condition may present. Say the editors:

    “Three paragraphs into the letter to your grandson and the aching tingle in your writing makes you put down the pen. You spent weeks finding the right paint for the kitchen, but after a few short strokes bothersome pain in your wrist and hand make you leave the brush in the bucket. At night you wake up with numbness on your hand and wrist for no apparent reason. If incidents like this are happening to you, chances are, you have Carpal tunnel Syndrome.

    The United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health suggest that Carpal tunnel Syndrome may affect such workers as “meat cutters, cashiers, data processors, assembly line workers, pneumatic hammer operators, the kinds of people who absolutely must use their hands on the job.

    The institute says that even people who work at home may be at risk as well.

    “Carpal tunnel Syndrome has been known to attack home makers who spend lots of time wringing wet laundry by hand, sweeping with a broom, dicing with a knife, or even shelling peas. Even weekend Do-It-Yourselfer can do themselves in. Excessive use of a staple gun over the weekend is enough to trigger the disease but diegut have to”.

    The editors produce additional insight from Dr. John Sebright, M.D., head of the hand surgery section and director of microsurgery Laboratory at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michugan, who says:

    “If the wrist is repeatedly flexed and extended, the pressure is increased.” But Dr. Sussan Isernhagen, a physical therapist, believes wrist and hand pain may not always suffer Carpal tunnel Syndrome but, indeed, be a syndrome of osteoarthritis, a degeneration condition of bone joint. “If you get a crackly or crunchy feelings in your wrist when you exercise, that’s not a sign of Carpal tunnel Syndrome; it may be a symptom of osteoarthritis.”

     

    PHYSICAL THERAPIES

    octors advise that cold compresses may do help to reduce the swelling. Hot applications are ruled out. Crepe bandaging is also discouraged, as this may congest circulation traffic and balloon the problem. It is suggested, also, that the hand be always raised above the shoulder to reduce pressure in the Carpal tunnel.

    Being an inflammatory condition, anti-inflammatory natural remedies are prime solution for the condition. They work, also, for many, if not all conditions of pain, caused by inflammation. Fish Oil has become well known for its anti-inflammatory powers. Researchers and doctors keep telling us that it supports the production of anti-inflammatory substances and that it is better than Aspirin which works wonders but impact some dangerous side effects, including lacerations in the stomach and intestine, which cause bleeding and possibly, anemia.

    Since Aspirin is extracted from Small Powered Willow herb, and anti-inflammatory whole herb which supports shrinkage of enlarged prostate gland and comfortable urination, it seems reasonable to assume that the willow herb will do Aspirins Job without the side effects. As for fish oil, if there is only doubt about its purity, because some people suspect contamination from fish caught in polluted sea, chemical and toxin KRILL OIL offers good safety valve. Krill fish resides in unpolluted water, and has become the toast of fish oil lovers. But is a little more expensive than the regular fish oil. Flax seed oil, obtained from flax seed, is a good option, too. But the oil has to be converted in the body before it can be used. Some losses may occur during this process.

    I would like to quickly mention that the Nigerian antioxidant and blood growing proprietary herbal formula, JOBELYN, has shown remarkable anti-inflammatory effects in studies carried out for this activity in Germany and the United States.

    Originally designed to rapidly counter anemia in 24 hours, for which in 1994 it earned from The Guardian newspaper, the accolade of an “alternative to blood transfusion,” it was soon found by researchers at the college of medicine of the University of Lagos to also help diabetes, arthritis and other conditions. Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) has run a study which found Jobelyn improved the wellbeing of people challenged with sickle cell disorder.At the University of Ibadan, it proved helpful in a psychiatry study. A study at the Military Hospital, Ikoyi, Lagos, found that it helps people with HIV.

    VITAMIN B6

    There is hardly any Carpal tunnel Syndrome proprietary remedy worth its name which does not include Vitamin B6 in its contents. It helped my barrister friend. The Doctors Book of Home Remedies says: “Recent Scientist studies are showing that physicians supervised used therapy with Vitamin B6 can help relieve the symptoms of Carpal tunnel Syndrome. In 12-year study conducted at Louserville Kenturky, Morton kar kasdan, M.D., found that 68 percent of his 494 Carpal tunnel Syndrome patients improved while taking Vitamin B6 daily.

    John Ellis, M.D., a surgeon and family practitioner of the institute for Biomedical Research in market pleasant, Taxes, has been using Vitamin B6 for so many years to treat Carpal tunnel Syndrome. Dr. Ellis believes that Carpal tunnel Syndrome is caused by a deficiency pure and simple. In a high percentages of case, the patients are deficient in Vitamin B6.

    “Dr. Ellis says over the past 26 years, he has successfully treated hundreds of patients with large Vitamin B6 dosed daily and they have no side effects, Vitamin B6 treatment does not bring about immediate relief,” he warns. “You have to be patient”, he says, “it often takes about six weeks until the enzyme changes are sufficient enough that the symptoms gradually begin to subside.  From six weeks you will really notice a decided difference in your hands and fingers, he says. The numbness, toughing, stiffness and pain in your hand subside.” Dr. Ellis also says that, “a number of people have a recurrence of Carpal tunnel Syndrome when they stop taking the Vitamin”. Incidentally, Vitamin B6 is present in good dosage in green herbs such as Spirulina and Kelp, often mentioned in this column.

     

    CURCUMIN

    here is a wonderful proprietary product blend on the Nigeria market called CURCUMIN 2000X. It is so called because it is compared to CAYENNE, another anti-inflammatory healer, which, as the name of this product goes, is said to make Curcumin 2000 times more active than it ordinarily is. Curcumin is the yellowish part of Tumeric, which is a component of curry powder. It is widely believed that intestinal problems, such as inflammation and pile, were infrequent in the days Nigeria women cooked with Curry powder and Thyme alone. The situation is said to have drastically reverse in these days of Monosodium Glutamate (NSG) spicing. It is largely for this reason that Tumeric is thundering back to popularity as part of any protocol for healing many of the health challenges of todays, which  are boiled down to preventable inflammation. Mrs.Bukola Aseez, chief executive officer of Budget Travels and Tours, a travel agency, asked me last week for information about Tumeric. She had difficulty moving her bowels, and her friend in England, Mrs. Omolara Bello, had sent her a jar of Tumeric Capsules which she took as advised on the label. Her bowels moved almost immediately to her surprise.

    According to Robert Rester, author of Japanese Herbal Medicine, the healing Art of kampo:

    Tumeric root branches have been used in Kampo at least since the middle of the seventh Century AD. An acrid, bitter and warming herb, it invigorates the blood. The action unblocks delayed menstruation, and relieves swelling and pain caused by traumatic injury. Tumeric root is thought to invigorate the flow of vital energy, or quicken especially through the shoulders. By simulating the flow of energy, this herb quells wind disorders, in which painful symptoms seem to migrates from one side to the other throughout the body.”

    Turmeric rhizome, used in Japanese medicine even longer than the root, is reported to be more fabulous. Together, they not only stimulate energy and blood, they break up congestions, heal chronic sores, supports the heart and the liver, intestine, and joints, it clears phlegm, quells agitation and anxiety, mental derangement and seizures.

    Curcumin is about four percent of Tumeric, but is said to be the most active component for these purposes. In Curcumin 2000X, Curcumin is said to have been concentrated to 96 percent. Lister says of Curcumin in his Japanese herbal medicine book: “Curcumin is a powerful cancer preventative. It inhibits the action of P450 a liver enzyme that causes some environmental toxins to be processed in ways that make them Carcinogenic. Curcumin affects cancers associated with tobacco use by absorbing nitric oxide, a chemical produced in the lungs when they are exposed to tobacco, which prevents reactions associated with cancer and inflammation. It also stops the cellular reaction in both the lungs and the mouth that activate cancer-causing agents in both cigarette smoke and smokeless tobacco. “

    Curcumin helps prevent colorectal cancer. It works in the same manner as do Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs), by suppressing the substances for both the start and spread of cancer. Curcumin suppresses two gene necessary for colorectal cancer development and prevent damage caused by afflatoxin, a poison produced during improper storage of grains and peanuts.

    Tumeric can relieve inflammatory conditions by stopping the relieve of PAF, it stops the reactions that induce an asthmatic attack. Curcumin also relieves the discomfort caused by bursitis and Carpal tunnel Syndrome by deactivating immune system cells that may cause inflammation without harming the body’s ability to defend itself. Clinical studies have confirmed that the volatile oil in turmeric can ease acute pain caused by arthritis, eczema, gastritis, psoriasis or tendonitis. Its effectiveness is equal to that of steroid preparations such as hydrocortisone and phenolybutazone, but without their side effects.

  • Reforming the Nigerian Civil Service: My struggles, my pain, my triumphs (V)

    The first brutal fact I confronted when I joined the civil service was its complex operational frameworks, and unfortunately its pathology. I came in when the Nigerian civil service had already imbibed, to the fullest possible extent, the disenabling bureaucratic culture. The complex operational dynamics of every civil service system all over the world had begun to overwhelm our own system, and like we said in the last part, the system itself was not prepared for the challenge of change. The rule of the officials had commenced, and to borrow the title of Michel Crozier’s book, the Nigerian Civil Service became a ‘bureaucratic phenomenon.’ As it became immediately obvious to me, as the bureaucratic complacency became entrenched, and the official procedures became multiplied, the citizens became more excluded from democratic transaction, and became more disenchanted.

    From the mid-70s, the Nigerian Civil Service had already got a bad name.

    We all have experienced the red tape at one time or the other-the clerk painting her fingers while people wait impatiently on the long queue; the official who complicates a simple matter of getting a license because he wants a bribe; moving from one office to the other trying to track a file; the annoying list is endless. Peter Enahoro, the veteran journalist, considers the civil servants as trapped within their own institution: ‘Civil servants are also a compromise between incivility and servitude. They are inherently uncivil and economically servile. The civil servant is underpaid, which makes his service equivalent to servitude. On the other hand, the civil servant takes a razor-sharp tongue to work with him and will snap like the jaws of a crocodile at the least provocation. Thus, while he is not civil, he is a servant. It is a rare compromise.’

    It took me a while before I would begin to understand that the public service has a deeper professional pedigree than what we today see all around us at federal and state secretariats all over the country. By the time I had embarked on the doctoral programme, it dawned on me that the public service is actually a vocation, a deep spiritual calling that requires a deep service to the public. Of course, this is difficult to accept within the contextual bastardisation which Enahoro referred to as ‘uncivil servitude.’ But the simple question that would bring enlightenment is: where did we derive the concept of ‘public service’ from? And why ‘public or civil service’?

    The civil service, which predates the idea of modern government, derives essentially from a vision of ensuring social order from an administrative coordination of human affairs. Since its beginning in the ancient Egyptian society, the public service has been perennially faced with the urgent need of confronting the complex task of managing public affairs through the ingenuity and creative acumen of a manager who understands the dynamics of management and how it can be directed in a manner that impacts positively on the citizens of a state. Those that were chosen to serve the pharaoh, a demi-god in ancient Egypt, were required to go through a special scribal education that was partly a lesson in administrative responsibility, partly an induction into patriotic enthusiasm, and partly a cultural enlightenment.

    I had to understand Plato and Weber to come to a full realization of what service as spirituality means. The first time I read Plato’s Republic, as a young secondary school boy, it struck me as a fundamental political manifesto. It was a philosophical reflection on how to tame political disorder in a state. But Plato had a higher intention if his Republic would be better than Athens. Plato was convinced that if a state must work to deliver the goods to its citizenry and maintain harmony, it must also be strongly fortified by a cadre of managers and experts who know what they are doing. Plato definitely had more intellectual resources and political complexity than the pharaohs. And, still smarting from the judicial murder of Socrates in the hands of public servants, Plato knew that the depth of philosophical diligence must be reached if the Republic must have a public service that is true to the most fundamental principles of the state. And he deployed educational, psychological, metaphysical and epistemological resources to ensure that.

    But it is to Max Weber that I must give the intellectual credit for the groundwork that reveals the public service as a vocation. With his theory of the modern bureaucracy, Weber outlined the specific relationship that ought to exist between the public servants and the government. His sociological legacy consists in giving us the template for what he called the ‘ideal-type’ bureaucracy which can serve as the rational basis by which ‘actual type’ bureaucracies, public or private, can be assessed for the rational attainment of the goals of the organisation.The idea of bureaucracy, for Weber, is based on the notion of legal-rational authority; an authority which employees recognise as legitimate. The framework of the legal-rational authority privileges written rules and procedures. Each position in the bureaucracy has its duties and rights, which are clearly defined; rules and procedures are laid down to determine how the given authority is to be exercised. Bureaucracy therefore promises a stable organisation, despite the fact that its incumbents come and go. Weber’s ideal-type bureaucracy emerged as neutral, hierarchically organised, precise, continuous, disciplined, strict, efficient, reliable and ultimately inevitable in contemporary society. The bureaucracy was to become technically the most efficient form of organisation. And in Weber’s sociological, Plato’s philosophical and the pharaoh’s cultural vision, the public service was to become a vocation.

    And the first condition for such a vocation is that the public servant must be apolitical in a manner that shields him or her from political patronage that could colour his or her administrative judgment. This is what Joseph Schumpeter meant when he remarked that ‘bureaucracy is not an obstacle to democracy but an inevitable complement to it.’ As history has shown, it is a very short step from administrative service to administrative dominance by officials. As vocation, the public service was to be a spiritual calling, a profession that would consume the affections of those committed to it. A profession becomes a calling or a vocation when it becomes integrated within an ethical framework and is therefore attached to larger vision and purpose beyond itself. It is in this sense that a bureaucrat is ‘called’ to serve the state and a purpose beyond him/herself.

    Beyond the rigid intellectual framework of my doctoral dissertation, I did not need to look to pharaonic Egypt, ancient Rome or 18th century Prussia to encounter those who are public servants par excellence-Nigeria had its own golden era of public service professionalism whose foundation was laid by die-hard public servants: Simeon Adebo, Jerome Udoji, Sule Katagum, S. O. Wey, Ali Akilu, Allison Ayida, Phillip Asiodu,  Ahmed Joda, Ime Ebong, Yetunde Ighodalo, Francesca Emanuel, Tejumade Alakija, Gray Longe, Shehu Musa, to name just a few. All these worked tirelessly to reproduce a functional and ethically responsible civil service in post-independence Nigeria. Chief Simeon Adebo’s service credential is all the more incredible because he had no special original calling into administration; he was a graduate of English! Yet, he came to a deep understanding of his vocation as more than just an employment. Adebo would definitely understand Abraham Maslow’s contention that ‘Duty cannot be contrasted with pleasure, nor work with play when duty is pleasure, when work is play, and the person doing his duty and being virtuous is simultaneously seeking his pleasure and being happy.’

    Unfortunately, these same professional civil servants who laid the foundation of what we now regard as the golden era of public service in Nigeria watched perplexed as the civil service they had built was overwhelmed by incipient bureaucratic pathology. Before their very eyes, their civil service was demoted from being one of the celebrated civil services in the Commonwealth to become an extremely degenerate structure that could no longer transform policies into infrastructural frameworks. It was this civil service that I made the decision to join in the late 80s, and that decision transformed my entire personal and professional lives.

  • Some causes of pain and some solution…3

    Some causes of pain and some solution…3

    When you have a challenge that is a “pain in the neck” for you, it is often a heavy cross to bear. Such is the medical pain in the neck which may warrant the wearing of a neck collar, or even surgery. As a young sub editor in the newsroom of THE DAILY TIMES, I developed such a medical pain in the neck, and had to wear a neck collar for many months. Sub editing in those days was a tasking job. The sub editor was the last bridge between the newspaper and the reader. That is, the quality of the newspaper depended on the quality of its sub editing. We ran up to three or four editions of the Daily Times.

    In those days, Alhaji Babatunde Jose, (Chairman/Managing Director or Mr. Henry Odukomaiya (Editor) could fire you on the spot if a spelling or tense error found in the newspaper was linked to you.

    Our heads were always bent forward on the copy. Mr. Glad Anson Diri often wore a neck collar, and so did our boss Mr. George Okoro. Soon, I developed a tingling pain in the index left finger, and before you could call Jack Robinson, as they say, my arms and neck were, literally speaking, on fire. The doctor was to place me on some drugs, which must be anti-inflamating, and gave me a neck collar.

    The pains subsided, and I soon forgot the experience. But, in later years, at THE GAURDIAN newspaper, they returned. In those formative years of that newspaper, there was hardly time to look after one’s health. But I was soon reminded of the neck collar by the side of Sunmi Smart-Cole, photo editor, and later, editor of Lagos Life, now defunct, who wore a neck collar regularly. An x-ray of my neck bones showed that some of them were wearing. Doctors give this condition a huge and scary name… Cervical spondylosis. They say it is age-related, which means bones must wear, and the pain must come as we grow old. But I was only Twenty something when the x-ray report suggested an onset of this condition. Yet there are many old people who have not experience this condition.

     

    Cervical Spondylosis

    lso called Cervical osteoarthritis or neck arthritis, this condition simply means bone joints in the neck are wearing and are probably pinching on the nerves which jot out from nerve outlets in these bones. The bones are arranged in a well-aligned structure where two bones are separated and are not permitted to touch each other. There are seven cervical bones. Each is covered by a cartilage. The cartilage is one of the structures which prevent bone-and-bone contact to prevent surface wearing and pain. The cartilage is maintained by glucosamine and Chondroitin sulfate among other nutrients. Its surface is lubricated by a fluid called Synovial fluid which is separated from the other by a disc. Each disc is a load bearer. All neck bones are saved from the pressure the weight of the neck impact on the spine. Between Ten and Fifteen Pounds would have impacted directly on them, probably crushing them. When the neck structure is not well maintained with good diet which furnishes the right amounts and quality of Calcium, Magnesium, Manganese, Zinc and other bone-structure minerals, and when the neck structure is not well exercised to prevent the muscles in the joint capsule from becoming still, making the neck less mobile or mobile with pain, these disc may lose tone, become dehydrated or even become herniated, that is break. When they herniates and their contents spill on surrounding tissue, especially the nerves, an infection may arise in the affected region which may give rise to the familiar pain in the neck, arms and fingers.

    Other possible courses may include occupational lifestyle and bad posture, writers and hair dressers, for example, may discover through self-education, that their heads are always bent forward. This may put pressure on the muscles at the back of the neck.

    Besides herniation of the disc, spinal subluxations, too, cause problems. Edgar Caycee spoke always about them. He was a Christian seer who went into trances whenever his patients consulted with him. He diagnosed their conditions from his trance state and wrote his prescriptions. He said spinal subluxations caused many diseases. Chiropactors of today also attend to spinal subluxations in addressing many health challenges. We can see a chiropractor as a bone adjuster. He looks at the arrangement of the bones in a sick person, may conclude a misalignment problem and then knock the structure back into fine shape. As chiropractor define spinal subluxation today it is “the altered position of the vertebra and subsequent functional loss, which determines the location for the Spinal manipulation.”

    According to www.healthline.com, subluxation is: “A partial abnormal separation of the articular surface of a joint.” In chiropactic medicine, spinal misalignment is considered a process which makes tissue change and cause symptoms of disease and/or pain. Some of these changes are:

    • Hyperemia
    • Congestion
    • Edema
    • Minute haemorages
    • Fibrosis
    • Local ischemia
    • Atrophy
    • Tissue rigidity

    In Hyperemia, there is “an excess of blood in a particular area of the body.” Obstruction of blood flow sometimes causes it. A joint dysfunction may cause congestion in a muscle, and this may cause toxin accumulations which irritate nerve endings and produce pain. Edema may arise from damaged small blood vessels called capillaries. The damages may cause blood to leak from them into surrounding tissue. In minute haemorages, small amounts of blood leak from blood vessels. In fibrosis, normal tissue is damaged and replaced with scar tissue which limits joint mobility and causes pain when the limit of mobility is to be exceeded. In ischemia, there is restriction to blood flow in the muscles which causes pain. Atrophy of muscles or the wasting away of muscles develops from disuse or inactivity, disease, nutritional deficiencies or other factors.

    Rigidity is often an end-point of these conditions. It occurs not only in the joint capsule but may also affects ligaments and tendons as well. Edgar Caycee spoke often of adhesions. These are foreign bodies growing or perched on strange tissue. When a disc ruptures or herniates, spilling its contents on surrounding tissue, the nerve, for example, is in  pain- pain is a constant feature. A few months ago, doctors misdiagnosed prostate disorder in the case of an 84-year old man who suffered from an almost permanent pain in his penis. It took the Grace of the Most High for one of them to discover an adhesion on the bladder was the source of this problem. Thus, adhesions on muscles, ligaments, tendons or nerves in the neck region may be a cause of neck pain.

     

    Spondylitis and Ankylosing Spondylosis

    Cervical Spondylosis is arthritis of the neck bone. Spondylotis is inflammation of any bone joint. In Ankylosing Spondylitis a fusion of the bones of the back occurs, particularly with pain in the Sacroiliac joint, meeting point of the spine and the pelvis. The pain may be felt, also in the eye, hip joint, the heels, waist joint, ankles or other joints. In some cases, Ankylosing spondylitis affects the rib bones at their junctions with the Spinal bone causing tightness in the chest and breathing difficulty that may be misdiagnosed as a heart or lung condition. The pain of Ankylosing spondylitis responds to exercise, a feature which distinguishes it from spondylosis and spondylitis. If left untreated, it may cause a forward curvature of the spine. Some authorities believe it is called by the failure of calcium to deposit in the bone. Bone spurs may fuse two vertebrate bones, or fuse one bone to ligaments, tendons, muscles or nerve.

    Treatment

    Stiff neck muscles, like strained neck muscles, responds to sensible exercises. In my days at The Guardian Newspaper when 20 hours schedules was common, I learned of the turtle exercise from a book titled BURN DISEASES OUT OF YOUR BODY.

    It requires one to lie on one’s abdomen on a flat surface, place one’s arms by one’s sides, raise head, turn it slowly from side to side for counts which range from, Say, 50 to 100 or multiple of them, take a break by resting the head on the plane surface, and starting all over again for full count.

    Warmth may be felt especially in the back next muscles. This is an indication that blood is flowing through them, and they are receiving oxygen and other nutrients, while their waste are being taken away. This exercise counters the forward lurch of the head in which many people find themselves for several hours in one day, and, in a way, fulfils the law of Balance, one of the Laws of Nature, in the use of front and back muscles of the neck. In another neck exercise, one may sit or stand and rotate the head alternatively in clockwise and anti-clock wise positions. In yet another exercise, one may use a bed or a table. The head droops from a free side or edge of either and then is raise, with muscle action, to the level of the rest of the body, held up there for as long as possible, while rotating the head from side to side. One last suggestion: in an upright position, a bath towel is held at opposite ends, one end in one hand, and placed against the forehead. Then, a backward pressure is applied against it, to which the head responds with counter force resistance.

    A count can be taken for as long as the exercise can be tolerated. Next, the direction of the exercise is reversed, with the towel placed at the back of the neck to impact forward pressure against backward pressure of the head.

  • Some causes of pain and some solution…2

    There’s no doubt that ours is a near-empty civilisation, when it comes to healing simple body ailments with simple provision for them from Mother Nature. When my younger sister was a teenager, she suffered almost every month from severe migraine headache which seemed incurable. She had to be taken to our maternal grandfather in the village who possessed bit of knowledge of healing herbs. He took her to a nearby bush, picked a leaf which he placed on her head, asked her to hold it there with a head scarf, remove the leaf at sunset and bury it in the soil. And, pronto, she hasn’t had migraine headaches ever since. She was 63 last September. Unfortunately, we his grandchildren were too young to appreciate what he did, and he died with this knowledge just as I was about to proceed on national youth service in 1977.

    Today, many people suffer not only from migraine headaches, but from other types of headache as well. But rather than seek to understand the cause(s) and avoid them, or address the symptoms with natural remedies, these headache sufferers gobble pharmaceutical pain killers which may compound the problems.

    To begin with, it is important to know that there is not only one type of headache, but many which may include:

    (1) Migraine headache, (2) Cluster headache and (3) Tension headache

    Tension headache: Believed to be the most common, originates from tensions in the muscles of the head, the shoulders and the neck. But other researchers see muscle contractions in these.

    People say it may be caused by “Heightened sensitivity to stress” or a “sensitised pain system”, whatever the cause, the symptoms are clear. According to MAYO CLINIC, these may include dull, aching head pain, sensation of tightness or pressure across your forehead or on the sides and back of your head, tenderness on your back, neck and shoulder muscle.” If the muscles are tense, in tension headache, the next step towards a healing is how to relax them. There are a thousand and one suggestions. Eno Asam, of Abuja, eulogizes massage with coconut oil or palm kernel oil and speaks well, also, about massage with Guardian Angel, a hand-held acupressure device. Many people find that a Guardian Angel massage relaxes muscles, perhaps by causing tension in them to drain off and, thereafter, promoting blood circulation. Tightening of muscles produces lactic acid which makes them sore unless it is drained off or neutralised by alkaline agents. Today’s lifestyles filled with emotional and work stress cause muscles to tighten. At the work place, especially when we sit behind the computer, we tend to slump, launch, or slouch. When we sit before a desk to read or to write, some of us lean over so badly that our eyes are just about a foot from the print! In this condition, some muscles are over worked and stressed up. One of the solutions to posture problems, especially, in this computer age is the ergonomic (adjustable) chair and table. Back to massage, I find Magnesiumoil soothing and relaxing. Even in severe menstrual cramping and pain, massage with this oil helps to relax muscles and quiten pain. Tension depletes magnesium levels in the blood and tissue. According to www.ancientminerals.com: “Ancient mineral Magnesium Oil is considered the gold standard for rapidly restoring cellular magnesium level through the skin… Magnesium benefit can include reduced symptoms from condition such as chronic pain, fatigue, and insomnia. Magnesium may also provide protection from a number of chronic diseases, especially those associated with aging and stress. Recently, rediscovered as an overlooked key to good health, a number of medical researchers are recommending increases to the RDA for Magnesium sometimes suggesting as much as double the current recommendations to ensure protection from diseases such as osteoporosis, and hypertension. Essential to life, necessary for good health, and a vital component within our cells, Magnesium benefits help our bodies maintain balance, and illness, perform well under stress, and maintain a general state of good health.

    his column speaks always of the need to add Magnesium supplement to the daily diet, suggesting NATURAL CALM for stress, insomnia, pain etc. and OSTEO CALM for serious bone joint disorders. www.ancientminerals.comoffers an insight into the value of this ancient mineral: to good health: “without Magnesium, we could not produce energy, our muscles would be in a permanent state of contraction, and we could not adjust the level of cholesterol produced into the body stream. Magnesium is the central element in chlorophyll and the basis of early life on the planet. Magnesium ions regulate over 300 biochemical reactions in the body through their role as enzyme co-factors. They also play a vital role in the reactions that generate and use ATP, the fundamental unit of energy within the body’s cell.”

    Magnesium is plentiful in deep green vegetables, particularly spinach and kale, which in powder form, I enjoy for their vast amounts of LUTEIN and ZEAZAN THIN, two eye antioxidants which protects the lens of the eye against cataract formation, and the retina against free radical damage, a cause of vision loss. To rice, beans, soups or stew or yoghourt, water or juice, I add pinches of the powder of Inash, Kale, Chlorella and Cayenne, the anti-inflammatory, anti-pain and heart health and blood circulation African pepper. Lately, I have shifted to a breakfast of the porridge of ground whole millet and ground whole guinea corn to which I add Spirulina, the blue green algae, and the aforementioned powder of vegetables.

    The bar is inexhaustible. When it comes to massage therapy to chase away tension and their headaches,Aromatherapists often prescribe Lavender, Rosemary or peppermint essential oils. These may be too “hot” for some skin types and may, therefore, not be applied directly on them but diluted with water or Olive oil.

    In www.naturalremedies.com, Dr. Axe says: “In a 1996 study, 41 patients (and 174 headaches attacks) were analyzed in a placebo controlled, double blind cross-over study. The peppermint oil was applied topically 15 and 30 minutes after a headache began. Participants reported headache relief in their health diaries and peppermint oil proved to be a well-tolerated and cost effective alternative to usual headache therapies.

    There were also no adverse side effects reported after peppermint treatment. Another important study was conducted in 1995 and published in the International Journal of Phytotherapy and Phytophamacology.

    Thirty-two healthy participants were evaluated and essential oil treatment was investigated by comparing the baseline and treatment measurements. One effective treatment was a combination of Peppermint Oil, Eucalyptus Oil and Ethanol. Researchers used a small sponge to apply this mixture, which has a muscle soothing and mentally relaxing effects, to the participants’ foreheads and temples. When Peppermint was mixed with just ethanol, researchers found that it reduced sensitivity during a headache.

    In order to improve blood circulation, reduce pain and relieve tension, dilute two to three drugs of Peppermint Oil with Coconut oil and role it into the shoulders, forehead and back of neck.

    As for Lavender essential oil, www.naturalremedies.com says:

    “Lavender essential oil has a variety of therapeutic and curative properties. It induces relaxation and relives tension and stress, working as a sedative, antidepressant, anti-anxiety, anti-convultant  and calming agent.

    There is also growing evidence that Lavender Oil serves as an effective treatment of neurological conditions and disorders. According to researchers, aromatic and topical use of Lavender oil affects the Limbic system because the main constituent Linaline, and Linalyl acetate are rapidly absorbed through the skin, and are thoughts to cause central nervous system (CNS) depression. For this reason, Lavender oil can be used to treat headaches caused by anxiety disorders and related conditions.”

     

    Cluster Headache

    This is a battery or group of headaches which pounds together, or one after the other, making one part of the heads a punche bag. This pain affects more men than women and is likely to go away today only to return the day after. This cycle may run from weeks to months before the sufferer gets a remission. Often, it brings aches and pains in and around one eye. In a remission period, this headache may disappear for months or years, and then suddenly end its holiday, coming on often in the night and following a calendar. Some researchers believe that a cluster headache arises from the activation of the trigeminal nerve, which causes the eye pain associated with this type of headache. This nerve is also believed to stimulate the eye tearing and redness and nasal congestion and discharge of cluster headache attacks.

    The trigeminal nerve is reported to be the fifth cranial nerve located within the brain. Its primary job is to transmit sensations from the face to the brain. It has three main branches. One goes to the eyes, another to the cheeks and the last, the mouth. Years ago, I saw a young woman of about 24 in my housing estate who suffered twisted cheek after a headache. She was too young to be considered a candidate or victim of partial stroke. The trigeminal nerve had probably contracted or become Suboptimal in tone and function. Happily, her face is normal again. She may, therefore, have overcome trigeminal neuralgia. The late Maria Treben, the legendary Austrian herbalist and author of HELP THROUGH GOD’S PHARMACY, recommends St. John’s Worth tea and St. John’s Wort Oil (for massage) to treat this condition.  She says: “A tincture of St. John’s Wort, easily prepared, is described as ‘arnica of the nerves’ and is effectively used for nervous complaints, neuritis, neurosis nervous debility. Speech disorder, fitful sleep, hysterics, sleep walking are remedied with St. John’s Wort, as well as bed wetting and depression.” Trigeminal neuralgia usually occurs when a blood vessel (vein or artery) in the brain expands or enlarges and piles pressure on the nerve. Rarely, it is said, do brain tumour cause this condition. But tumour occurrence cannot be ruled out. One of my “O” Level classmate died a few years ago from multiple tumours in the brain. He hadn’t responded well to headache medication. A brain scan suggested a few tumours which the neurosurgeons at the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan thought they could handle. But when they opened the skull, they found far too many tumours for their competence and facilities, and closed it up. He was then left to die. One of the natural solutions for cluster headache is CAYENNE PEPPER. It blocks pain transmission by nerves. In nutrition facts.org, Dr Micheal Gregar, M.D., reports on a study in which medical student placed pepper cuts in their nostrils. At first, it hurt badly and their noses ran. But they felt no pain and the nose stopped running after a few days. It was determined that a substance in pepper, capsaicin, had blocked a pain transmitting substance in the nerves called substance P. When the experiment was resumed after the break, the pain and runny nose resumed, indicating that the nerves had made new substance P in the interim. Today, Cayenne is used as a dietary supplement for a variety of reasons, which includes anodyne (anti-pain/anti-inflammatory), anti-congestant, anti-fungal, anti-cold and anti-flu, anti-irritant, anti-allergen, digestive aid, saliva production for digestion, dissolution of blood clots, detoxification support, anti-bacterial, possible anti-cancer agent, weight loss support, heart health promotion, remedy for tooth ache e.t.c. Blocking the pain of cluster headache is not enough. What causes blood vessels to inflame and inconvenient the trigeminal nerve is important. If there is too much blood entering the brain, a cold compress may be placed on the nape of the head to constrict the vessels while, simultaneously, the feet may be immersed in hot or warm water to cause dialation of blood vessels there. Less blood flows through constricted muscles while more circulate in dilated vessels. Orthodox medicine believes there is no permanent cure for cluster headache. For this reason, many pharmaceutical drugs are presented only for its management. Among the protocol suggested by MAYO CLINIC which interests me is the inhalation of pure oxygen during acute attacks. It is said to often bring relief in about 15 minutes. May it not help, I wonder, if sufferers regularly take oxygen capsules or oxygen-rich herbs (Spirulina, kale and chlorella for example) in their diet? Additionally, Nature presents powerful anti-inflammation to present blood vessel enlargement. An example is CURCUMIN. In Nigeria now, there is a preparatory blend of Curcumin with Cayenne (Curcumin 2000 X) which is saidto make Curcumin 2000 times more effective.  Also available now is AMAZON CNS SUPPORT. CNS stands for Central Nervous System and may help, although the Trigeminal be longs to the Autonomic Nervous System. The Homeopathic remedy NATRUM MUR has been known to resolve many types of headaches. Magnesium remains a great anti-inflammatory mineral. We cannot ignore Fever few. Both the British Medical Journal and Harvard Medical School Health Letter have mentioned this herb as a migraine reliever. Clinical studies suggest it may work better than some Non-Steroidalanti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin. It inhibits the release of two inflammatory substances, serotonin and prostaglandins which cause headaches and migraine, skullcap, too, is anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic and is widely used in Alternative Medicine to treat all sorts of nervous system conditions. Two more herbs worth mentioning are orange peel, to which about 50 health benefits, including headache remedy, had been ascribed, and Walnut leaf.

     

    Migraine headache

    ll remedies suggest so far are helpful in this condition as well. Migraine headaches usually affect one side of the head, inducing nasal problems, vomiting and sensitivity to light and sound. Dr. Max Gerson (see Gerson therapy on the internet), a German doctor, suffered migraine headache for an average of two weeks in one month until a medical lay person advised him to try vegetable and fruit juice. He did. And his migraine disappeared. Dr. Gerson was to discover these juices contained a lot of potassium and was to successfully employ them to treat some causes of cancer and tuberculosis of the skin. More women and girls than men and boys suffer from migraines. Sometimes, migraine are hormone related, especially when estrogen out strips its level. In a 2011 study published in PHARMACOGNOSY REVIEW, it is reported that Fewer  can prevent and curb migraine. The small-flowered Willow herb, used to reduce prostate enlargement, helps in the treatment of migraine. It is from the bark of the Willowtree that Aspirin, a pain killer, was extracted. Willows has been used since the time of Hippocrates, the father of medicine, in about 400BC to treat conditions such as fever, inflammation, headaches, tendonitis and lower back pain. Other useful tips are Valerian root, Ginger, Peppermint, Lavender oil, rosemary, lime, raw potato, Honeysuckle, Mullein,  and Yarrow.