Home Remedies Unearthed - Part...2

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Let us take my Home Remedies post series further and we will talk about another spice in Indian Kitchen today that offers lot of healing properties. This spice is Cinnamon.

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Cinnamon, when used to season a high carbohydrate food can help lessen its impact on your blood sugar levels. Cinnamon slows the rate at which the stomach empties after meals, reducing the rise in blood sugar levels after eating. Tests have also proved that adding cinnamon to the rice pudding lowered the gastric emptying rate from 37% to 34.5% and lessened the rise in blood sugar levels after eating.

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The cholesterol lowering qualities of cinnamon are also unearthed some time back and one research actually found that people with type 2 diabetes if take 1 gram cinnamon everyday for 40-45 days, they experienced a significant decrease in their blood sugar levels, Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL) , total cholesterol (HDL+LDL) and triglycerides.

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Cinnamon can be taken in multiple ways like by adding to curries, tea, coffee or deserts. It has a mild sweetness. Make the classic cinnamon toast with a healthy twist - drizzle flax seed oil on a whole wheat toast. Sprinkle with cinnamon and honey and enjoy it.

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Let us also talk about 2 super healers from Ayurveda Repository that are not spices from Indian Kitchen. These are Ashwagandha and Guggulu.

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Ashwagandha stimulates activation of the immune system cells (the lymphocytes), counteracts the effects of stress and generally promotes wellness. It is particularly helpful in stress related disorders like such as arthritis, hypertension, diabetes and premature ageing. It is anti inflammatory and helps treat sciatica pain too.

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Guggulu strengthens our digestive system, reduces fat levels from the body and helps in treating upper respiratory tract infections. It significantly lowers serum triglycerides and LDL and VLDL cholesterol's and raises level of HDL or good cholesterol. It protects against atherosclerosis and reduces the stickiness of platelets. It helps in treating menstrual disturbances too.

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We all should try to make these part of our daily life as they are easy to use and naturally strengthens our body metabolism to fight against diseases and other health conditions. We will talk about the mercurial properties of ginger and garlic in the next post.

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Home Remedies Unearthed - Part..1

Ayurveda is very rich in home remedies and the practitioners have done exhaustive research supported by test results to make sure that the remedies they suggest, actually are useful to human beings in getting rid of certain disease conditions. Herbs have been used for years to alleviate arthritis pain, reduce blood sugar and cholesterol and help with many other conditions. It is also discovered lately that these herbs in Indian Kitchen have the ability to kill cancer cells too. We will discuss some of these super healer herbs in next few posts:

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Turmeric: A curry with turmeric could relieve your pain. Turmeric contains curcumin - a powerful anti inflammatory compound that works similarly to Cox-2 inhibitors, drugs that reduce the Cox-2 enzyme (that causes the pain and swelling of arthritis). The role of Turmeric in treating indigestion, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, toothache, bruises, pre and post surgery health, flatulence, jaundice, menstrual difficulties, hemorrhage, chest pain and colic is already known and established.

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Studies have also indicated that turmeric is also beneficial in treating colon cancer and Alzheimer's disease. The substance curcumin found in it can help shrink pre-cancerous lesions known as colon polyps, when taken with a small amount of quercetin, a powerful anti-oxidant found in onions, apples and cabbage. The average number of polyps was found to be dropped more than 60% and those that remained shrank by more than 50% in one of the lab tests. Turmeric is also proven to be effective in clearing the brain of plaques that are characteristic of the disease.

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How to use it best: Add it to your cooking wherever possible and not only in curries but in salads too like on sauted cauliflower and lentils. To strengthen bones, add turmeric to hot milk and drink before sleeping at night. It reduces the risk of developing osteoporosis and osteoarthritis too specially in age after 35.

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We will talk about Cinnamon and its benefits in the next post.
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Arthritis or Joint Pains - A common disease

Joint pains or Arthritis is a common problem these days. Whenever winter comes, it increases. According to Ayurveda mostly pains are caused by the aggravation of vata (air), dosha. Arthritis is a condition which is caused by accumulation of Ama and aggravation of vata. Ama is a toxic by-product of improper digestion. When the food we eat is not digested completely by the digestive fire, it produces a toxic substance called Ama. This Ama circulates in the whole body and deposits or gets collected at the sites which are weaker.

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It causes many diseases in the body depending on the location of deposition. For example, dangerous asthama is one which is caused by deposits in the lungs. If it deposits in the intestines it causes dysentery. When it deposits in the joints and at the same time there is aggravation of vata, that means if biological humor air is also disturbed, it results in a disease called Ama vata. This Ama vata is arthritis. Thus the patient generally has a weak digestion. A history of wind and constipation is usually found in these cases. People who overeat or eat too much fried foods, sweets, meats etc. and have no or very little physical activity can develop this problem.

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Symptoms:

The main symptom of this disease is severe pain in the affected joints. The muscles, ligaments, synovial membrane and cartilage get inflamed and the movement of the joint becomes extremely painful, specially in cold, windy and damp weather. If the condition is not treated properly, the joint becomes immobile and this may ultimately lead to deformity of the joint. Sometimes it is associated with fever. Infact, these days fever has become a regular part of arthritis symptoms and it raises the infection levels in the body shown by allopathic pathological test ESR.

Cure: Ayurvedic herbs are quite successful in curing the arthritic joint pains and there are a lot of herbs that can be used here. Some of them are:

• Ashwagandha - Also called as winter cherry in the west. This is one of the wonder herbs as stated by Ayurveda and curing joint pains is just one of the uses of this one.
• Alflafa - The tea of alfalfa reduces the joint pains considerably specially in the early stages
• Dandelion - Magnesium is something which is required for proper mineralization of the bones and dandelion is rich in magnesium. It's use make the bones stronger and joint pains can be prevented
• Vishwagarbha taila - If the joint pains are due to trauma, then Vishwagarbha taila is prescribed for external application over the region where the joint pain is felt. For internal administration, the patient can take rasnadi guggulu.

Above are few curing herbs for joint pains but as they say prevention is better than cure and it is more than 100% right in case of joint pains. Certain good living habits can make sure that arthritis can be delayed by at least 10 years and hence 10 more years of comfort

Hast Mudra Series - For a disease free life

Often, we take lot of medicines for number of dieseases either for curing it or for preventing it and multiple times it is seen that these medicines backfire at older age when we start seeing their aftereffects in body. Yogasan came as a breather for all those who want an alernative for taking medicines and yet remain free of diseases. Hast mudras are the next generation of yogasan and have multiple benefits.

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Our universe is made up of five tatvas viz. Aakash, Vayu, Agni, Jal and Prithvi. Likewise our body is also madeup of same five tatvas and whenever the proportion or the placement of these tatvas change in our body, it becomes prone to diseases. Right proporation of these tatvas in our body is called as Samsthiti and it becomes Vishamstithti whenever the proportion changes. These 5 tatvas controls the internal secretion of glands and hence proper functioning of internal organs. The five fingers in our hands also represent these 5 tatvas and we can alter the proporation of these tatvas to the right combination by exercising few mudras made with the helps of these fingers. Let us see which finger represent which tatva:

Thumb: Agni

Index Finger: Vayu

Middle Finger: Aakash

Ring Finger: Prithvi

Little Finger: Jal

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Now, we will go through few Hast Mudras below:

• Vayu Mudra - This mudra is beneficial for all the 80 types of vatvyadhis like arthritis, paralysis, cervical, joint pains, gastric troubles etc. It strengthens the backbone and improves blood circulation. This mudra can be exercised by keeping the index finger at the root of thumb and pressing the thumb lightly on the index finger. All other fingers should be kept straight. Given picture shows the correct form of this mudra :