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.

Hawthorn Berries

The Hawthorn Tree, a Rosaceae.

Crataegus Monogyna and Crataegus Oxycanthoides are two common types of Hawthorn which grow in many parts of the Middle East, Europe, India, Africa and Asia. Its Chinese pharmaceutical name is fructus crataegi, commonly called shan zha in Chinese medicine.

The Hawthorn tree has special significance  as a healing herb in the West, because, in the Christian tradition,  it was supposed to have formed the Crown of Christ. It is known as ‘the Mother of the heart’ , perhaps with reference to the Virgin Mary, in traditional Western  herbal medicine.

Hawthorn trees can be anything from the size of a bush to the size of a large tree, depending on where they are grown, and what the genus is.

Hawthorn berries, with their  hard texture, and attractive,  rich,  robust, cherry-like appearance,  are great to use  for decorative purposes.  However,  all the parts of the plant can be used medicinally,  the flowers, leaves and the berries. Note:  Hawthorn should be used  as an  herbal medicine only under the guidance of a professional herbalist, or other health practitioner, especially if you are already taking other medications.

Valuable Nutrients in Hawthorn: Hawthorn berries are rich in sugar and Vitamin C.  They also contain malic acid, citric acid, iron, calcium, carotene, riboflavin and traces of niacin.

Are Hawthorn berries poisonous? Apparently not, if you can believe that  Hawthorn berries were ground and added to British bread in the first world war, which had the effect of ‘keeping down the blood pressure of the population as a whole’, according to Jade Britton, Tamara Kircher, and Edward Linkner M.D., who co-wrote ‘The Complete Book of Home Herbal Remedies’ published by Universal International Pty. Ltd, NSW, Australia, 1998.

These authors also state that ‘there are no adverse effects from long-term use’. Even if you should stop taking hawthorn, after having used it for a while,  there are no side effects according to these experts.

Hawthorn berries, and other parts of the plant have been widely used for their therapeutic action on the cardiovascular system.  It has the effect of normalizing blood pressure, whether it be too low or too high. It is a good medicine to take to help treat varicose veins because it improves the circulation, whilst having a normalizing effect on the blood pressure.

In Chinese medicine, Hawthorn is sometimes used to aid the digestive system, especially where digestion of meats and fats is poor.

Hawthorn is slow in its therapeutic and tonic effect, and generally, it is taken over a period of time to help the cardiovascular system and things like varicose veins and poor circulation.

According to The Complete Book of Home Herbal Remedies, it can be used as a heart medicine for angina, irregular heartbeat, congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy. But of course, under expert supervision, especially if you are already taking other medications.

Alternative Therapies for Cancer

Natural Therapies versus Chemotherapy and Radiation:

Are there any  Alternative Therapies for Cancer that really work?

I think that Dr Max Gerson’s book  is still one of the best books around on the subject of healing cancer naturally. In this book, he gives the results of 50 cases which he treated using his methods of detoxifying the body whilst providing maximum nourishment, mainly in the way of raw food and juices.

I have personally found the Gerson therapy to be of great value over the years in treating instances of severe ill health:  I used a combination of treatments which I took from the work of Gerson, Dr Ann Wigmore, Walter Last, Dr Eva Hill and others.  I was never diagnosed as having a definite cancer growth in the breast:  the doctor who wanted to get a biopsy done, more or less on the spot, frightened me into taking charge, finding all these wonderful books, and getting on with detoxification. Actually, this was my only option at the time- Walter Last, who could have helped me, had moved to Australia, and there was nobody to compare with Walter in Auckland.  All the naturopaths that I went to in Auckland were terrified of treating me in case I died, and they got sued.  This is a terrible situation, really – people die all the time under the supervision of doctors, but somehow things are made worse for the naturopath should this happen.

I certainly didn’t want to die of cancer.  I had young children to rear.  I thought that it  was possible that the lump was cancer, as I had been exposed to 245T and other chemicals within four or five years prior to getting sick  this time round.  If it wasn’t cancer, then it wouldn’t matter, as it should heal anyway,  if I followed the ideas in these books.

All these books were written so convincingly, and with such authority, that there was no doubt in my mind that the methods  would work if I persevered.

About five years  after my  miraculous recovery, on Waiheke Island, New Zealand, there was a spate of breast cancer and ovarian cancer which struck at least six women which I knew.  Most of these women were in their 40’s, and one of these women, alas, was only in her 30’s, with two very young children to care for.

There was quite a bit of herbicide spraying going on at the time, and the vineyards, which had suddenly arrived on the scene, were spraying about chemicals quite close to where people were living. You could smell it on the wind most days in the early spring, at the house where I was living in Shelley Beach.

These cancers happened all within a couple of years.  Except for one cancer ‘victim’, they all underwent orthodox chemotherapy and radiation, and except for the one who rejected any medical intervention, they all died within about six months of undergoing treatment.

My friend who opted for a natural death survived for five years after the last of our other friends had died.

She decided to follow what she thought was a ‘natural’ cure, with the addition of a salad with raw carrot added to her midday meal each day.  She was adamant that no castor oil, or enemas, were needed.

I am quite sure that if she had done the whole thing properly, in the way that Dr Gerson would have prescribed, and that of many another healer, I think she may have been alive today.

Still – there is a Divine Plan for all of us, I’m sure, and sometimes even the best of treatments, followed to the letter, have no impact.

It was the same thing with the son of another friend:  Only so much of a ‘natural’ cure were adopted.  All the hard bits, like taking castor oil, and enemas, were left off the list.  Castor oil and enemas were undertaken only during the last few months of life, when it was obvious, after a whole year of  eating extra salad material with no real change to the diet, that eating a bit more salad in the diet was not going to be the cure.  Mind you, this poor lad had an extremely virulent type of cancer which did not have a great prognosis, even by orthodox standards, so it is possible that even the most strict dietary and detoxification regime may not have helped in the long run.  It is also possible that by rejecting the amputation of the affected limb, that he avoided the stress of amputation and actually prolonged his life anyway.

Not everybody who undertakes natural treatment, which generally means raw food, detoxification with enemas and colonics,  or  other alternative therapies for cancer will necessarily survive.

The most important thing  is that you have to really want the cure to work.  You have to want to live.  Some people only do a  ;cure’   half heartedly, I am sure, becuase they are not a hundred per cent sure that they want to live.  Emotional causes get the better of them, and they never really put their heart and soul into it.

Many people have given up, or give up when they hear that they have cancer.  The emotional shock of hearing that you have cancer is just about enough to finish most people off, let alone going in for the arduous, strength sapping,  soul-destroying and demoralizing  sessions of chemotherapy and radiation.  And there again – if you have had chemotherapy and radiation, then your chances of recovering on a natural, alternative therapy are reduced dramatically.  But some people HAVE managed to do this, Jacqui Davison being one of them.

To beat cancer, you have to be very determined and courageous, no matter what treatment you use.

Some people actually do recover from  cancer using orthodox chemotherapy and radiation treatments, of course, although the cases I know of are few and far between.  Three relatives of mine who suffered breast cancer, who all come from agricultural communities, have all undergone orthodox treatment and are still alive five years later to tell the tale.  Another relative has had leukemia and survived because his dear brother donated bone marrow so that he could live.  That was ten years ago.  Recently, he has had colon cancer which he has had operated on.  These are the successes, the people  amongst my family who have survived with orthodox treatments for cancer.  It is not very many.

But the amount of people I know who have accepted orthodox treatment for cancer and have died?  Uncountable.  Some of these people have been elderly, but it makes one wonder – was the whole onslaught of bizarre and distressing treatments justified in being  given  to these elderly people, when they obviously did not have the strength to withstand such violation to the body?

This is not to dissuade you from taking the orthodox approach, though. You just never know what may really be the best thing to work.  One should get the opinions of several different specialists, in different fields of health before making a decision.

One dear cousin who refused orthodox treatment died after a couple of years, from breast and ovarian cancer.  She, like my friend from Waiheke, and others, believed that she was eating a healthy diet, and did not follow any definite plan to recover health, such as the use of enemas and castor oil to detoxify quickly.  She  had the idea that eating salads with her regular meals would do it, with the aid of prayer, of course. This dear cousin, though, had lost her husband two years beforehand.  He had died at round the age of 40 of a heart attack.  She was left on her own, a young woman, utterly grieved, and having to fight the insurance company for the life insurance which her husband had paid into.  The two years of legal battle, I think, was too much, on top of the untimely death and devastating death of her husband:  I don’t think that she really had her heart into recovery.  Incidentally, her husband was driving trucks for a carrying firm in a rural area, and had just finished loading up his truck at the time of death.  The chances are high that he would have been carting agricultural chemicals for part of the week. which would have caused damage to his heart, apart from that caused by lugging the weight of heavy sacks about.

The most important ingredient for recovering from cancer through doing the hard work on an alternative therapy is emotional support.  It is imperative that you have someone close who will encourage you and keep you motivated.  The other essential is that you need a  period of time spent entirely on your own recovery, without having to work.  This means that you need money, or someone who will support you through the healing process.

So – there is no guarantee that you will recover if you follow a ‘natural’ cure. Some people, I believe, just do not understand what is required to prompt the body into reversing the process of cancer.  It takes an enormous amount of effort, in most cases, with special detoxification methods.  But even then, it is not necessarily a given that you will recover and beat the cancer.

However, many, many people HAVE recovered from the disease using alternative therapies for cancer. You really need to think carefully before deciding on what course of action you are going to take, and whether it will be orthodox, or alternative.

Some books to read which can inform you better about different methods  for treating cancer and other degenerative disease are the books  by Dr Max Gerson, Dr Ann Wigmore, Dr Eva Hill, and Jacqui Davison.

More to follow this up later today or tomorrow.