New Straits Times - 27 August 2006

COULD the kitchen cabinet be a medicine chest or even a first aid box? There are many simple yet useful remedies that you could use which could be lying around the house. The amazing thing is that they work (some time to the point of being unbelievable. Not only that, they are also cheap, have no side-effects and cost almost nothing. These are examples of the simple efficiency of Mother Nature. After all, Mother Nature is the ultimate healer. Here are some of them:

Gall stone flush

HERE is a recommendation from the Dulwich Health Society:

• Drink two litres of fresh and pure apple juice daily for five days. This will soften the stones to such an extent that you could squash them with your fingers.

• On the sixth day, skip dinner.

• At 9pm take 1 to 2 tablespoons Epsom salts dissolved in 1-2 tablespoons of warm water.

• Shake half a teacup or four tablespoons of unrefined cold pressed olive oil with two tablespoons of pure lime juice and drink.

• Go to bed immediately and lie on your right side with your knee drawn up as much as possible to the chin. Lie in this position for at least 30 minutes.

• Another dose of Epsom salts may be necessary during the day.

• The next morning, you should pass green stones soft as putty. Even though some of the stones may be as large as your thumb, you will not feel a thing.



Kidney stone flush

KIDNEY stones are a real bother. They mean that you have not been drinking enough water and have a low calcium count. When you are low on calcium, the kidneys absorb as much calcium as they can. This can lead to calcium dense stones.

The common options are surgery or lithoscopy (stone blasting where sound waves are used to crush the stones).

Apart from being risky and costly, surgery can be debilitating for a while. Lithoscopy is expensive and somewhat inconvenient. So you may want to give this simple remedy a try:

• Drink at least two litres of watermelon juice a day. This seems to work with both the yellow and red varieties. The juice seems to help dissolve the stone.

• Take a herbal formula to help the muscle walls of the urinary tract relax. Your pharmacist may be able to recommend you a good formula. This will reduce spasms and pain.

• Drink an infusion of misai kuching — a Malaysian herb that is known to promote diuresis. It has also been shown to help dissolve renal and bladder stones.

• You make a tea from the flowers and leaves. Recently, a capsulated version of Misai Kuching became available. The stones should pass out in two weeks.



Gastritis relief

THIS formula works like a charm.

• Prepare a glass of raw potato juice. The juice must be pure — nothing added. Remove the pulp by straining, which will leave you with a runny liquid.

• Add a teaspoon of pure honey. Honey is very healing. Before the discovery of antibiotics, doctors in Europe used to treat even gunshot wounds with honey!

• Drink the concoction fresh last thing at night. Let it line your stomach walls through the night.

• Repeat this for a few nights.

• If this does not work, try cabbage juice instead. A University of California Los Angeles trial showed this to be as effective as the acid blocking drug cemitidine.

• You should see dramatic improvement in just seven days.



Upset stomach

GINGER tea works very well for this complaint. Here’s how you make it:

• Crush ginger a piece of ginger about the size of your thumb.

• Place this in a glass and pour a glass of boiling water. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

• Squeeze the ginger pulp of all remaining juice.

• Remove the pulp and add a teaspoon of honey and mix thoroughly. Sip slowly.

Note: Ginger tea is also excellent for morning sickness and motion sickness.



Jock itch cure

THE area around the groin, especially the folds of skin near the thighs, is frequently a spot for fungal infections. As it is always closed, there is no proper sunlight and ventilation, especially in our warm and damp climate. Thus, the infection tends to recur. Applying pure honey overnight for three consecutive days can do wonders.

Honey works by "sucking out" moisture from the fungus by osmosis, in the process killing it. Honey also has specific anti-fungal properties. However, make sure your honey is pure. Diluted or sugar-fortified honey can make it worse.



Mouth ulcer cure

VIRUSES cause mouth ulcers. They seem to go on the offensive whenever your immune system is down. Notice that they "ambush" you when you are under stress — mental or physical. There is a simple remedy for this:

• Take any brand of instant coffee powder. Apply it directly to the sores.

• It will sting for 15 to 20 seconds, then it becomes numb. Repeat this at least three times a day for a few days.

• It seems to contain an anti-viral substance that breaks viral replication. Thus, the sore will not recur in another part of your oral cavity as it normally would. Say goodbye to mouth ulcers. Swishing your mouth with coconut juice also helps.



Dandruff

SOAK your scalp with yogurt for about half an hour. It works better if you let the yogurt ferment a little more. This helps make the scalp more acidic and seems to help. It also keeps the fungus at bay. Doing this two to three times a week can be very helpful.

Sore joints

IN the last five years, more than 1,300 scientific studies on the main ingredient in red peppers (chilly), capsicum, have appeared in numerous scientific and medical journals. The results seems to confirm what lay people have known for a long time — red pepper can be a big help for arthritis sufferers. Pharmaceutical chemists call capsicum trans-8-methyl-N- vanillyl-6- nonenamide.

This substance, rubbed into the skin penetrates to arthritic joints, where it appears to halt the destruction of bone cartilage, relieve excruciating pain and increase joint flexibility quite a bit.

A team of doctors in a University of Miami School of Medicine study confirmed this. More than 80 per cent of those studied show remarkable improvement over a three-month period compared to 55 per cent in the placebo group.

However, you may not be able to find chilly or capsicum cream in a pharmacy. You can make your own, though. Here is how:

• Ingredients: 15 tablespoon chillies (finely chopped with seeds intact).

1 quart of palm oil

2 tablespoons melted beeswax

40 drops lavender oil (for aroma — optional.

• Combine the chillies to the palm oil in a pan and being it to slow boil

• Reduce the heat and simmer the contents for about 3 ½ hours

• Let it cool for another 3 ½ hours

• Repeat procedures 2 to 3 times

• Place the mix in a high speed blender and blend for one minute to get a fine paste.

• Strain the mixture through a wire sieve lined with a muslin cloth or pantyhose.

• Put the strained mixture into a ceramic or stainless steel bowl.

• Add the hot melted beeswax and lavender oil.

• Stir thoroughly to make a consistent cream.

• Pour into small ointment jars.

• Cap with tight-fitting lids.

• Store in cool dry place until needed.

Directions: apply the cream twice daily followed by a gentle rubbing massage to the affected area



Aloe for skin

IF you have to have a potted plant in your home, make it aloe. Aloe vera is an unassuming succulent plant whose leaves represent a serrated spear. That is why it is commonly called "mother-in-law’s tongue". Within its fleshy mass is a healing juice that is often the best first aid for minor burns, cold sores, cuts, scrapes, blisters and sunburn. Snip a piece of aloe and squeeze the clear gel out directly into the affected area and you will immediately appreciate the soothing effects.

Exposed to air, aloe juice quickly forms a hermetic seal that keeps out the germs while it does its wonderful work. It is said to be rich in salicylates, the main painkilling and anti-inflammatory compound in aspirin as well as the anti-histamine substance, magnesium lactate.



Ginger "digestive"

GINGER also makes a great digestive. It stimulates digestive and prevents the build up of undigested materials in the stomach and intestines. To prepare a fresh ginger digestive remedy, you could do the following:

• Cut thin slices from a fresh ginger root.

• Chop it fine and add a few drops of lime juice and some salt.

• Eat about half a teaspoon of this mixture by chewing slowly half an hour before your lunch or dinner to stimulate your digestion.