Ayurvedic Cure & Prevention by Herbal Medicines: Guggulu

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Medo - Vridhi / Sthaulya, which is also called as motapa in Hindi and Obesity or Over weight in English is one of the most found disease in human beings.

It is caused by accumulation of extra fat in different parts of body. Hips, belly, thighs and breasts are more prone to it. Medo-Vridhi itself is a deisease and it causes many other diseases in the body like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases, arthitis among main ones.

This is mainly due to bad eating habits and people are getting mor and more conciuous about this now a days. But in most cases, they do not follow the best practices but take the easier routes like going to gymnasiums, exercising a lot or dieting which leads to nutritional deficiencies in body. Wrinkles and dark circles start appearing on the skin due to improper diet intake. Moreover, they again gain weight after they stop dieting. Another myth in this is that start taking juices. We need to know that juices contain more sugar content and no roughage. Roughage is extremely important in digestion and prevents constipation. We all know that extra sugar leads to obesity. Taking frutis instead of juices is much better option as it fills the stomach and sugar consumed is also much less.

Yes, exercising is an effective way to reduce weight but we need to know that males amd females have diferent metabolism. While males can burn fat doing high intensity exercises, females burn more fat by doing low intensity long duration exercises.

I will not go into what to eat, when to eat and what exercises are more helpful in reduction of weight but will touch upon certain foods or home remedies that can help us reduce weight and get rid of obesity. Some of them are: