August 2010 | Page 6 of 7 | Natural Health with Merrilyn Hope

Uses For Castor Oil

Castor oil Benefits Health in many ways. It can be used as a detoxifying agent; It can be used to clear residue from the liver and gall bladder and eliminate gall stones; It can be used as part of treatment for cancer; It can be used to improve digestion; It helps the nervous system; It can be used as an eye salve to prevent cataracts and to treat cataracts in the early development of this disease; It can be used to improve the skin; and it is an essential ingredient in quality lipsticks.

Castor Oil is now used widely as part of a natural treatment for cancer and other degenerative disease such as multiple sclerosis, parkinson’s disease, alzheimer’s, and other chronic illnesses.

Herbal medicine dates back to the ancient Sumerians. There are written records which herbs such as laurel, caraway and thyme were used by this civilization. Castor oil, coriander, garlic, mint and opium were used by the ancient Egyptians, according to current herbal texts.

Although castor oil, obtained from the castor oil bean, has been used for thousands of years in the healing arts of the Ancient Egyptians, Ayurvedic practitioners and Chinese and Tibetan medicines, it became popular again through the writings of Edgar Cayce and Dr. Max Gerson. These healers reinvented it as an effective treatment for many diseases in the earlier part of the 20th century. Max Gerson is famous for his use of castor oil in his treatment of cancer.

Castor oil is effective, not just in treating cancer and other disease, but in treating candida and poisoning of any kind. One of the best ways to detoxify the body from exposure to chemicals, and to treat candida, is with castor oil and high doses of non-acidic vitamin C. Of course, these two items are not taken together, but are separated from each other in the dosage.
Taking a small amount of castor oil before breakfast can have a beneficial effect on the health. If you take it fairly regularly, then you will absorb some of the oil into your body, which will help the vital organs, help the skin and hair, and help the healing of long-standing conditions.

Conditions which may be helped by taking a few drops of castor oil each morning before breakfast are: colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, eczema, psoriasis, arthitic bone ache, weak eyesight, and falling hair. Of course, adequate diet and exercise and meditation must also be sustained to effect proper healing. Don’t forget the enema when using castor oil internally. Even with a small dose of castor oil, an enema once or twice a week is recommended.
Castor-oil-jelly formula: This mixture is ideal for treating skin conditions and for using as a hair and scalp conditioner. It helps clear up dandruff. It can also be used internally, one tablespoon of chopped jelly before breakfast taken for three consecutive days. This can be used as a treatment to help clear the gall bladder of stale bile. Don’t forget the enema if you use the castor oil jelly internally.

However, it is best to take castor oil in the usual way, one to two tablespoons at a time, if you have a serious disease such as cancer, or require a laxative effect, as castor oil taken in this jelly form is not potent enough to detoxify the bowel as well. Note that this uses gelatine which is an animal product. If you are vegetarian, you will have to find a vegetable gelatine instead. A good option is to use agar agar, which is a sea weed. This is very nutritious and will set just as well as gelatine.

Note: Castor oil jelly made with either gelatine or agar agar will keep no more than about three days in the fridge. If you haven’t used the jelly after three days, then use it only externally, for hair and skin treatments, as suggested below.

Reminder: Most packaged gelatine has sulphur dioxide added as a preservative, which means it should not be taken too often.

Castor Oil Jelly is as a great Skin Treatment and Hair Conditioner: Just apply the warmed, melted castor oil jelly to the hair, and to the skin which needs nourishment or healing. Let it set hard, then wash off in the shower under warm water. The face benefits from the castor oil jelly treatment, as it works to tighten the skin and to cleanse the tissues. This castor oil jelly treatment also works to help cure acne.

Put four tablespoons of fairly hot water into a half pint sized bowl.
Sprinkle on one and a half tablespoons of gelatine or agar agar powder. Let this sink, and then stir it in until it has dissolved.
Let the mixture cool a little. It should be warm, but not cold for the next step.
Now stir in one and a half tablespoons of castor oil. As the mixture cools, you will need to keep mixing so that the castor oil gets emulsified properly into the gelatine mixture.
When it is nice and thick, and just about to set, pour the mixture into a flat small dish about six inches in diameter, so that you can easily cut slices of the castor oil jelly once it has set.

To use, simply cut a slice of the castor oil jelly and take each morning on an empty stomach, before your breakfast. I think one or two tablespoonsful of the jelly is a good amount to use, but you can decide on the dose yourself. Just cut up a slice into small pieces, just big enough to swallow down in chunks with your cup of herbal tea, or ceylon tea, or coffee.

Cut up the rest into slices and put in a screw top jar. Keep the remainder in the fridge. Take every morning until finished.

Castor Oil And Ginger For Weight Loss

Pendulum Dowsing

Pendulum Dowsing is a fascinating thing. A simple pendulum such as a glass crystal from a Chinese Two Dollar Shop will work, so long as the pendulum can swing unhindered and evenly. Once you get the hang of it, the pendulum can give you a negative or a positive to almost any question. The usual patterns are: clockwise for a positive, and anti clockwise for a negative. It is possible to use the pendulum for almost any question: you can swing the pendulum over an item of food to let you know whether or not that food is suitable for you or not. You can find lost items such as jewellery, or library books, with the use of pendulum dowsing. The most valuable use of the pendulum is in the Divine purpose of spiritual healing.

Water Diviners use dowsing methods for finding water underground, except that a ‘divining rod’ is used instead. The use of a rod works better in this case, because the rod can point downwards at the exact point where the water is to be found, whereas a pendulum cannot be so decisive in pin-pointing locations.

Whilst you are still learning how to use the pendulum, you may not get correct answers. The pendulum may swing about willy nilly and not tell you much at all, in the beginning. But after a time, when you get some skill into it, you will find that your results are correct, or near the mark, 90-100% of the time.

So where does this information come from? How does the pendulum know what an outcome will be to a certain situation, whether something will be beneficial for you or not. Or with two people you have just met – how can the pendulum tell you whether these two people are related, or if their parents are still alive, how old they are, or what their condition of ill health is, without your knowing anything about their history?

The answer is hidden intelligence. Whether you believe the Angels are responsible, or whether these Angels are known to you or not, or whether it is an unknown ‘Guide’, makes no difference really. However, it has become apparent to me over many years of using the pendulum, that often the presence behind the power of the pendulum is actually someone I know. These people have all passed over and are ‘on the other side’, except for one person who visits me from time to time. I thought he had left the physical world and thought that he was sending me messages from there, so you can imagine how surprised I was to find out that he is still alive.

My friend, we shall call him Gottlieb, is a spiritual healer. He has always had an amazing gift of healing, dowsing for a diagnosis, and then applying his spiritual healing. He has always been capable of astral travel, of putting himself in another place or country just by an effort of will: so it is not surprising, really, that he was coming to visit me from as far afield as Queensland, Australia, and not from Heaven, where I expected him to be. I live in New Zealand.

You can read about more of the details of this very unusual happening in my post entitled “Spiritual Healing and the Pendulum’.

Pendulum Dowsing can be used in diagnosis to help healing.

My friend Gottlieb used a slightly different method, more like the method of the water diviner, which he has taught me how to use. This is done with a fine pen held in the hand over an anatomical chart.

Gottlieb uses this method to perform the most unusual but most effective type of healing. The pen is the tool which the guiding spirits use to indicate on the chart what acupressure points are to be used in order to help a person who needs healing. The advantage of using a pen, instead of a pendulum, is that you can pin-point the acupressure points needed to facilitate a healing with accuracy.

Divine healers in the Heavenly realms are capable of guiding us to the specific acupressure points, for individual requirements, so that acupressure can then be performed on these specified points to aid healing. My friend Gottlieb has gifted healers who help him with this Divine diagnosis from their place in Heaven.

The pen diagnosis can be for the person who is sitting with you, or it can be for some absent person.

I am still using the pendulum, though, for divining messages from my friends, including Gottlieb, and will continue to do so until I am sure that I have mastered the other method. Gottlieb contacted me last night via thought waves which I received via my pendulum. He really wanted me to talk about this healing method, so that many more people can begin to use it.

This is how I got Gottlieb’s messge with my pendulum: I hold the pendulum over the letters of the alphabet. The person who is wanting to ‘come through’ usually spells out their name to begin with, although this occasionally is skipped. I move my pendulum around over the letters of the alphabet which are drawn in a large circle about the size of a large dinner plate. The pendulum swings over the letters which spell the words which begin to form sentences. Sometimes the sentences are not complete, but usually they are complete phrases. Everybody has their own individual style, and turn of phrase, in life, and this is carried on even unto death, which of course is not death, really. Our friends are now full time in another realm, although they can visit us from time to time. Gottlieb has been spending a lot of time in this other realm, and it is easy for him to manifest anywhere at all, just as the spirits are capable of.

Gottlieb really wishes I would get on and master the pen method, as this would be a lot faster than divining messages with the pendulum. I will get there, Gottlieb.

Take my word for it: Divination and the idea of Heavenly guides is regarded as madness by most people, but many people will be doing the same thing within a few years. In the 1970’s and even in the 80’s, people thought that you were mad if you complained that an herbicide such as 245T, or Roundup, was affecting your health. People said that you were imaging it. Because there were no visible immediate physical effects, people denied that it was happening. Nowadays, information has spread, and many people do accept that toxins in our food and general environment really are causing ill health, as well as wrecking our environment. This is no new thing now. It is accepted as fact.

Well, in about five years time, it will be the same story: Dowsing methods will be the means to contact spirits, living people, and Divine Intelligence. People will be able to talk to the sick, those who cannot speak because of brain damage caused by stroke or paralysis, or alzheimer’s. It will be an accepted thing, and many people will be doing it. Then, when we have all developed a bit more on the psychic level, we won’t even need a pendulum to guide us anymore, as we will be capable of communicating directly with spirit, and understanding what needs to be done.

I think the pen diagnosis will always have a part to play in diagnosing acupuncture and acupressure points for the purposes of Divine Healing.

Home Remedies for Constipation

Cures for Constipation

The key causes of constipation are lack of exercise and lack of fiber in the diet.

There are many natural home remedies for constipation. This post will list a few of the best ones which do not cost the earth, and are easy to apply. Several of these are fairly regular kitchen and fruit items.

Sometimes exposure to chemicals causes candida overgrowth. If this is the cause of constipation, then it is best to use the castor oil laxative. Avoid the tamarind recipe, as yeasts in dried tamarind will disagree with you until you have recovered. The kiwifruit recipe is also best avoided by people with chronic candida, as the high sugar content will cause the candida bacteria to proliferate, that is, until you have improved your immune system

Exercise is Important to Prevent Constipation: We will give you a couple of very effective exercises to do each day as well, so that the problem is less likely to recur.

Prevent Colon Cancer and Varicose Veins: Keeping the intestines clean by eating high fiber foods is the best way to help avoid colon cancer and varicose veins. Constipation is often the cause of these complaints. Eating fiber foods like fruit and vegetables provides the body with calcium enrichment, as the Vitamin C in fresh fruit and vegetables helps you to absorb the calcium from your food: Vitamin C and Calcium are both elemetst which help to prevent colon cancer.

Better Absorption of Nutrients will be the result of curing constipation. When your bowels are clogged up with old effete matter, the walls of your intestines are not in a fit state to absorb the nutrients in your food and supplements. People need more supplementation of nutrients when suffering constipation, because the intestines cannot do their job of processing and absorbing enough food nutrients out of the diet, even if the diet is a good one.

Get your intestines clean, remedy constipation, so that you get the optimum nutrition from your diet. You can still have constipation, that is, clogged bowels, even though you have a bowel motion each day. It is a good idea to clean out those pockets of stored rubbish once in a while, with a remedy such as we have listed below.

Cure constipation, and you have less need of vitamin and mineral supplements. Curing constipation will help your immune system to function optimally.

Kiwifruit Home Remedy for Constipation: This is the nicest remedy of all. It is sweet and delicious. (not for people with chronic candida)

Kiwifruit are loaded with Vitamin C and provide excellent soft fiber for the intestines. Anyone who has NOT had constipation but has indulged in the eating of half a dozen kiwifruit in one sitting will have had first hand experience of the result: That is, that the bowels are loosened tremendously, and a good clean- out is effected.

If your condition is not severe, then you would only need to take about two or three kiwifruit every morning, before you eat the rest of your breakfast. This will regulate the bowels, and no harm at all will come from it, even if the motions are a bit loose.

Apple and Potato Cure for Constipation: This home remedy for constipation has cured many people of bowel troubles, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, when an appropriate diet which excludes all problematic foods like dairy products, wheat, and sugar was adopted concurrently.

Grate one whole organic apple, with its skin still on, and one medium sized organic potato. Make sure that there is no green on the potato skin, as this is a toxin which can do harm to the liver. Mix these two together.
Eat the whole lot in one sitting, every bit of the apple and potato mixture. Eat it 20 minutes before breakfast, then repeat the procedure before the evening meal.
This home remedy for constipation is very good for people who have mucous build up in the intestines, with discomfort and distention in the stomach region.
This is a very healing mixture which can be helpful in treating mild cases of colitis and inflammation of the bowel.
Do this remedy for three days at a time, then take a break for three days, or until you need to use it again.
You need the three days on the diet so that the bowel will be cleaned thoroughly.
This home remedy for constipation provides plenty of bulky fiber to help the bowel heal and cure constipation. Taking this quantity of fiber on a regular basis is a good way to jump-start and train the intestines to do their job better.

Note: If you have had pain, discomfort, distended stomach, and/or bleeding in the stools, then you must see a health practitioner right away for a diagnosis and correct treatment.

The Quick-Fix Home Remedy for Constipation: This is an emergency remedy, and is really only suitable for people who have a strong constitution. Do not use this remedy if you have candida, or arthritic or rheumatoid conditions, or osteoporosis, or any other illness.

Tamarind, which is used in Indian cuisine, is an excellent way to relieve constipation if the situation is severe and you wish to take a fast acting remedy before starting your high fiber diet.
Tamarind is a quick-acting laxative.
The Tamarind and Lemon Remedy for Constipation: Simply take a small teaspoon of tamarind paste and stir it into a cup of warm-to-hot water. Add the juice of half a lemon, and drink the lot. Spoon out the tamarind fiber at the bottom, and eat this too.
Tamarind is especially high in Vitamin C.
It works very quickly. However, it is very acid in its effect, and may not suit everyone. Tamarind also has oxalic acid in it, which draws out some calcium from the intestines. Eat a good meal which contains some calcium food right after drinking the tamarind tea.
If you don’t have a meal ready, then you need to take some alkaline food right after drinking the tamarind and lemon tea to restore the body’s pH level to normal. Have ready two cups of milk, or a banana which has a teaspoon of ghee oil or olive oil added to it, and have these foods within about 20 minutes of taking the tamarind tea. Milk is a good food to take after tamarind tea, as it is high in calcium. It can be either dairy milk, sesame seed milk or some other seed or nut milk.

The Castor Oil Laxative: Home Remedy for Constipation. Castor oil has been used for thousands of years as a healing agent, and as a cure for constipation. Castor oil is really a wonderful healing oil, because it has the power to attract and draw poisons out of the liver and gall bladder, as well as having a clearing effect on the bowel.

For this reason, the castor oil treatment is favoured by many for the treatment of cancer and other degenerative disease. The best method in using Castor Oil Treatment for constipation is the following, in my experience.

First – a high fiber breakfast. Between seven and eight o’clock: Eat a bowl of oatmeal porridge which has a whole raw apple grated onto it. Add a tablespoon of ghee, butter, or olive oil, and some dates for sweetening. Do not use milk or sugar.
At ten o’clock, take two tablespoons of castor oil with a cup of black coffee in the morning. If you prefer, you can use tea, or chamomile tea. You really can take the castor oil at any time, but by taking it sometime after breakfast, you will gain the most benefit from the castor oil. Castor oil, taken at ten o’clock, is recommended by Dr Gerson in his cancer therapy treatment.
It is recommended that an enema follow this castor oil treatment. It should be taken within five hours after taking the castor oil. This bowel wash is repeated more often when you are treating serious disease like cancer.

Yoga Exercise to Prevent Constipation. Here are a couple of suggestions for some very simple and straightforward exercises to do to prevent constipation.

Churning the Mill. Even if you do nothing else in the way of exercises, if you religiously practice this just a few times as soon as you get up, and just before you go to bed, you will feel the benefit.
Sit on the floor with the legs spread apart as wide as they will go without undue strain.
Clasp your hands together.
Reach forward over the left knee towards the feet with the clasped hands, the arms outstretched as far as they will reach. Breathe out as you do so.
Now, bring those clasped hands from the left leg, slowly over to the right leg, the body bent forward, the hands clenched, the arms stretched out over the leg.
Breathing in, bring the hands back along the leg towards the body, keeping the arms stretched out. You have to then lean backward so that your arms can stay rigid over the top of the thigh.
Move back to the left leg and continue, breathing out as you lean forward, and breathing in as you lean back and bring the arms up the leg.
Repeat. Do five or six round to start, then do the same amount in the other direction.
Build up to between ten to twenty rounds in each direction, so that you do forty altogether, if you can. Do not strain or force yourself to do more than is really comfortable. Check with your doctor or health professional to make sure this is OK for you.

If you stick to the programme, provided you are fit enough to do so, and practice this exercise morning and night every day, your constipation will disappear.

Yoga Leg Raises: This is a more gently exercise. Do this if you think the above Churning the Mill is too much for you. You can do both if you like.

Lie on the floor. Hands at the side of the body.
Breathe a deep breath in and hold the breath.
While you hold the breath, slowly raise both legs up together so that the toes are pointing to the ceiling.
Hold the legs in this perpendicular position while you breathe out.
Take another full breath in and out while you hold the legs up.
Now breath in and hold the breath whilst you slowly bring the legs down in a controlled movement towards the floor.
With the legs on the floor, release the breath. Take another breath in and out and repeat the exercise.
Do just three times to begin with, and no more than five at most.

This is a good exercise for improving circulation, for helping varicose veins and for helping to avoid constipation. Do first thing in thge morning and again at night.

Low Vitamin D Levels

Vitamin D Deficiency:

We are all aware these days that low Vitamin D levels will affect the growth of bone and teeth tissue, hair and nails. If you are young, then you need adequate Vitamin D and Calcium so that your bones will grow properly, and your teeth will be strong. If you are old, then you need Vitamin D, plus Calcium, so that your bones do not become fragile and brittle: Strong bones are less likely to fracture.

Deficiency of Vitamin D is now thought to be a factor in many conditions of ill health and disease. Recent studies, as well as older studies, have related Vitamin D deficiency to specific maladies of the health.

In New Zealand, the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin D is between 200-600IU, and the recommended amount of calcium between 1100 mg amd 2500 mg daily. Many people fall short of even these minimum requirements. Deficiency of Vitamin D and Calcium over a period of time can have serious consequences.

Low Vitamin D levels have been found in people with congestive heart failure. This is not to be confused with an actual heart attack: heart failure is when the heart is simply not doing a good enough job of pumping that blood through the body. Symptoms that your heart may be underactive are slightly swollen legs and difficult breathing, or getting puffed easily when taking light exercise.

Vitamin D supplements, or cholecalciferol, taken with extra calcium, was found to help many people suffering from congestive heart failure. Dr Shaun Holt and Iona MacDonald discuss these results in their book “Natural Remedies that Really Work’. This is published by Craig Cotton Publishing, Nelson, New Zealand, 2008 and 2010.

This author also relates low Vitamin D levels, with low calcium, to the occurence of type 2 diabetes. He quotes the research which suggests that people with glucose intolerance are less likely to develop diabetes type 2 if their Vitamin D and Calcium levels are increased.

Dr Holt recommends more exposure to natural sunlight and increasing the intake of Vitamin D rich foods, which include the oily fish such as mackerel, sardines, and salmon, and fish liver, egg yolk and meat.

In a study of children who had Type 1 diabetes mellitus, it was found that 76% had inadequate levels of Vitamin D. Adequate Vitamin D is important for growing children, not just because it helps to build strong bones and teeth hair and nails, but because it strengthens the immune system so that there is more resistance to diseases like type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Dr Holt suggests 400IU of Vitamin D be given to at risk children, unless their intake is adequate through diet and plenty of sunlight. Note: Of course this must be done under the guidance of a health professional. Too much Vitamin D can cause toxicity in the body, which can damage the liver and other organs, so one must be careful with the dose.

Low Vitamin D levels have also been associated with osteoarthritis, rheumatic disorders, hyperesthesia, SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder, migraines and some sleeping disorders.

How To Make Ghee

Making Ghee

You need to learn How to Make Ghee if you want your Indian curries, and other Indian dishes to have that authentic ethnic flavour.

Medicinal Properties of Ghee:

Ghee is also commonly used as a medicinal agent in Ayurvedic medicine. Ghee has healing properties of its own which we will discuss here briefly, and it is also of great value in the making of medicated ghee oils, and in acting as a carrying agent in the body for the transporting of specific therapeutics in herbal remedies.

It Is Easy To Make Ghee

The Method:

All you need is a quantity of unsalted butter. It must be real butter, and it must be unsalted. Softened types of butter are no good, and nor is margerine.

Take a nice heavy saucepan and place your unsalted butter into it.
On a medium heat, melt the butter. Take care not to burn it. Keep that heat moderate, and watch it while it melts.
Once the butter has melted, turn up the heat a little, briefly, so that the butter just comes to the boil.
Turn down the heat immediately to the lowest point where the butter will just simmer gently.
About 15 minutes to 20 minutes of cooking is enough. You can tell when the ghee is done, as the ghee will smell nice and roasty, like popcorn. At this point, all the liquid in the butter will have evaporated, and so you must take the ghee off immediately so that it does not burn.
Let the ghee cool a little, then strain the liquid ghee off from the remaining curds at the bottom of the saucepan.
Store the ghee in a bottle with a fitting lid. Make sure the ghee has cooled to room temperature completely before putting on the lid.

Ghee will keep indefinately if it has been made properly, and it is stored in dry conditions with its lid on. Its medicinal properties are supposed to improve with age, so you don’t need to be in a hurry to use it up.

Make sure you tip out the required amount of ghee, rather than dip spoons into the ghee, as this will contaminate it, and it may not keep if you do that. Never tip any unused ghee, or ghee off your measuring spoon, back into the bottle. If your ghee has solidified, due to cold temperatures, then use a dry, clean spoon in the ghee jar.

Health Benefits of Ghee:

Ghee oil is nourishing to the body and helps keep the bones and ligaments well lubricated.
Ghee included in a healthy vegetarian diet is good for the skin, and the hair.
Generally speaking, ghee oil is a very healthy oil to use for cooking.
Ghee oil should be used in moderation if you have high cholesterol or high blood pressure. Get some professional advice to see if ghee is ok for you to use in moderation if you have either of these ailments.
Ghee oil has an effect a little like castor oil.
A drop of ghee oil, or castor oil, can be put into each eye at night to help reduce irritation, and help prevent cataracts. Cataracts which have only just begun to form can sometimes be treated successfully with ghee or castor oil treatment.
Ghee oil can be used in some cases to help people lose weight.
An Ayurvedic recipe to avert hunger pains consists of: one mashed banana with a teaspoon of ghee and a 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom stirred into it. Eat this when hungry instead of going for a slice of bread or a cookie.