arthritis Archives | Page 3 of 6 | Natural Health with Merrilyn Hope

Boron For Arthritis and Creaky Joints In Cattle and Goats

Natural Remedy For Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Soft Bones

Boron Is Essential For Health

It is a fact that diseases can result from deficiencies of certain minerals and vitamins in the diet.

Disease can result, too, from exposure to herbicides, pesticides, and other harmful chemicals. Agents in these poisons can cause sudden depletion of certain minerals in our bodies, as well as having a harmful, residual effect.

So, let us not use any harmful chemicals, and concentrate on improving the quality of our pastures, animal health, and vegetables by supplementing essential organic elements, so that we all stay healthy.

We need only small amounts of certain trace elements, but if these essential trace elements are lacking in our food, then we get sick.

Take a look at how cattle can develop arthritic symptoms, osteoporosis and soft bones when they do not have enough Boron in their diets See how well they recover when given the correct treatment – a boost of Boron to their feed, and some of it applied to the soil.

It stands to reason, then, that the same goes for people – disease can often be cured by taking supplements of the minerals which are lacking in our diets.

Pat Coleby’s book, entitled ‘Healthy Cattle Naturally’, which was published in 2002 by ‘Landlinks Press’, Collingwood, Vic., Australia, gives valuable insights into mineral and vitamin deficiencies of animals. You can still purchase the book, hopefully, by emailing [email protected]

This is a very technical book which would be of interest to all farmers and orchardists interested in improving their soil and the health of their animals through natural, organic means.

But for the lay-man, we can glean so much useful information from this book, as the nutritional science which works for the soil and animals is the same one which works for us.

For many years, Pat has kept a heard of milking-goats which he has kept healthy by adding borax and other minerals to their feed, and sea-weed to the soil on which they graze.

In ‘Healthy Cattle Naturally’, Pat Coleby describes how cattle also become sick when their diets consist of too little Boron. He says that around Bendigo, in Victoria, Australia, where the soil has low readings for Boron, all stock suffer arthritis unless the deficiency is addressed.

Because his soils were so deficient in Boron, causing his goats’ joints to creak badly, Pat found it necessary to dose his goats with a little Borax each week to correct the deficiency. He says on page 90, ‘I had to add 1 teaspoon a week of Borox per 30 head of goats.’ I think he may mean that he used 1 teaspoon per goat per week, as a little further on, he says that dairy cattle, although needing less Boron than goats, sometimes needed to have a boost of ‘about 5g (a teaspoon) per head’, which was added to the feed just once each week ‘with beneficial results’.

Sea-weed and Borax, the Sources of Boron:

Sea-weed: The easiest remedy for a Boron deficiency in the soil is sea-weed. Sea-weed is rich in Boron, Cobalt, Zinc, Iodine, and Selenium, which are all trace elements necessary for the health of soil, farm animals, plants, and people.

Benefits of Kelp in the Diet: You can see how valuable the daily addition of Boron-rich kelp to our diets will be, for helping to prevent such conditions as arthritis, osteoporosis and other bone troubles.

Borax as a Supplement: The other method of curing a Boron deficiency in animals and soil is to use Borax, sodium borate. Sometimes it is necessary to supplement this as well as sea-weed, when the soil is extremely depleted of Boron.

One has to question the quality of the soil on which our supermarket vegetables have been grown. If our vegetables are low in Boron, and other essential trace elements, then, over time, we are likely to develop arthritis and other maladies, just like the cattle and goats around Bendigo.

Pat says that soils which are low in Boron are hard to grow good food on. The ears of wheat do not fill out properly, leaving the lower part of the wheat ear undeveloped. Fruit and nut trees do not thrive. Legumes and lucerne, or alfalfa, will not grow in Boron deficient soil, or soil which is low in Magnesium or Calcium.

Dolomite powder is the remedy for low Magnesium and Calcium.

Here is a mineral combination given by Pat as a general base lick to keep animals healthy. He advises keeping it around for stock to partake of. He also keeps rock salt available for stock to lick. They apparently take just the right amount needed of the lick and the salt.

Dolomite 25 kilograms

Copper Sulphate 4 kilograms

Yellow dusting sulphur 4 kilograms

Seaweed meal which is urea free 4 kilograms

He insists that the lick must not be allowed to get wet, as the copper content is lost very quickly if it gets rained on.

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Asthma Sinus Hay Fever Not Pollen But Herbicides, Snail Bait Etc

Agriculture Pollution Causing Breathing Difficulties and Other Problems?

Pollution, Not Pollen.

NZ has one of the highest rates for asthma, hay-fever and sinus trouble in the world. Yet people still do not make the connection between the heavy use of herbicides such as RoundUp, and insecticides such as common old snail bait and ant killers, as being the trigger for their miserable conditions.

Of course, pollen can cause hay fever and other maladies – but pollen is a short-lived trigger which is not going to damage your immune system for the long-term, unlike the chemical poisons being distributed around the environment, which can cause long-term harm.

Flu Vaccines and Antibiotics: We can now be fairly sure that vaccination antibiotics have a weakening effect on the immune system, making one prone to sinus and breathing difficulties, as well as eczema – a lady in my town had to be hospitalized after getting her flu injection. She has had asthma ever since, with very debilitating effects. This lady had never had asthma before this bad reaction to a flu injection.

Flu injections are optional in NZ, and I believe that people’s health is generally better off, overall, without them. They can make one more vulnerable to such life-threatening diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis, as well as breathing difficulties, rheumatism and arthitis.

However, in many cases, we do not have any control over some allergies and breathing difficulties, because their cause is out of our control. Farmers, householders, and council people can willy nilly spray any number and amount of very toxic poisons around our environment, and this affects the air we breathe, and, consequently, our health.

It is common in New Zealand for people, and their doctors, generally, to blame ‘the pollen’ for their asthma, hay-fever and sinus trouble.

I wonder when and how this fallacy was first promoted as an indisputable fact. Was it a ploy cleverly devised by the makers of agricultural chemicals, so that their products would remain on sale unchallenged? The ‘pollen’ myth seems to have been happily latched onto by farmers and house-holders all over the country, so they need not question the often harmful products which are so conveniently used to kill their garden pests and weeds.

In the town where I have been living for two years, ‘the pollen’ is a common daily topic of discussion right now. It is spring-time, and so ‘the pollen is flying’ – the reason for their breathing difficulties and snotty noses, they think.

But there are many reasons the air here is polluted in the spring-time, and these, I think, are the reasons so many people here are sick with asthma, hay fever, and sinus troubles. The excessive pollution in this town is also the reason, I believe, that so many people here get cancer, arthritis, shingles and other skin troubles, and other degenerative conditions.

Topdressing with super-phosphate is done on the farmlands surrounding the town, and so we cannot help breathing in super=phosphate-nitrate dust. This increases breathing difficulties and other health problems.

Herbicides on crops is done aerially and by tractor on the outskirts of town, and these chemicals permeate the air we breathe – another addition to the toxins in the air here, which cause a myriad of health problems.

Around November last year, I almost drove into a helicopter spraying chemicals on crops just on the outskirt of the town. It was crossing the road above my vehicle, spraying out poisonous chemicals as it zoomed overhead.

RoundUp herbicide, and other unknown herbicides, are poured by council on all our grass verges around the town, including around our housing complex. From around Sepember onwards, this spraying project is stepped up from around once a month to around every two weeks. Herbicides such as RoundUp have a deleterious effect on the health, commonly causing breathing difficulties such as asthma and digestive upsets. It can also affect blood pressure and excacerbate heart ailments. And I find it causes a shingle-like rash on the legs for people who do a lot of walking on sprayed pavements about the town.

But A Big Thankyou to our local council for considering my request not to spray around my house and garden. I have been allowed to plant an orchard of heritage apple trees, with the promise that the grass verge around the garden will not be sprayed. This is a huge step forward, I feel.

We have a milk-factory right in the town which began making milk-powder around 6 weeks ago. Residue from this process is evident. Overnight, cars only a few hundred yards away from the factory become coated with a white milky powder – yet, astoundingly, my neighbours, born and bred here, say that this white powder is pollen. Some of their family members work in this factory, so I guess they do not want to question whether or not the factory is polluting the area.

Gardeners here just love to stock up on snail-bait and ant-killers. These two commonly used products are very bad for the health. I have had recent experience of just how harmful some brands of snail-bait really are. Last week, my neighbours on both sides of my flat poured around a whole packet each over their little gardens. Overnight, many snails and worms were killed, and I worried about the birds eating these poisoned snails. Ant-killer was also put out onto the deck of my neighbour’s place, which is only around 20 feet from my own door.

The effect of these poisons on my own nervous system was profound. My movements suddenly became jerky and unco-ordinated, my joints very sore and weak, and pains were noticed in the bones. It caused pronounced breathing difficulties, over and beyond the effect of the agricultural chemicals already in the air. I think I would have been diagnosed with asthma, had I gone to a doctor. A visit for a few days, away from the town to Auckland, cleared the problem.

Funny how these days, at certain times of the year when agricultural spraying is done, the city can be a kinder place on the health than the New Zealand countryside. We should be keeping bees on the roof-tops of our city buildings, and growing organic foods there too, as they do in Germany. My sons who live and work in Berlin and Mainz have told me about their flourishing bee-hives and roof-top vege gardens.

Both my neighbouring friends have chronic health problems. One gets asthma and hay-fever regularly at this time of the year. This friend blames the pollen, of course. From trees which are 100’s of metres away. The dairy factory is closer than the trees, but neither the dairy factory nor the air-borne sprays are considered at all as a cause for her current breathing problems.

The other neighbour, who does not use ant-killer, but does use snail-bait from time to time, has digestive problems and mysterious weakness. I think the snail bait, which is right outside his door, is one of the main reasons for his ill health. Recently he was taken to hospital with chronic pain in the gut. I explained how the snail bait affects my own health, and how the stuff, like |RoundUp, kills the healthy bacteria in the gut, which causes stomach problems, gut pain, and cramps. He listened, and said, ‘Maybe that’s the cause of my feeling sick’. He has decided not to continue using snail bait.

Funnily enough, I was down at the shop tonight, where my neighbours buy their gardening products, including snail bait. Someone ahead of me was buying snail bait. The young girl serving her said ‘Oh – snail bait. Gosh – It always gives me stomach pains, even from handling this stuff here’.

I said I had just been very sick from my neighbours’ using it. She understood me, but the lady buying the snail bait did not look so pleased to hear our stories. You could tell she was going to use it anyway, regardless.

Finally, we have a grain factory in our town, perhaps only 200 metres away from our houses. It is often busy, noisily grinding away at night, and I imagine there will be dust escaping into the air from this plant.

Some people are beginning to listen to my arguments about the pollution in the air here, which will be contributing to their health problems. But there is so much educating to be done. This is an agricultural town which supplies farmers with their chemicals and machinery for efficient farming practice, and it might take years, if ever, for environmental and health issues to take precedence over profit and convenience.

NB One last note: Our biggest supermarket, a flash new shop, is situated right next door to the town’s stock-yards, which attract hundreds of flies in the summertime, mainly because of the smell of animal poo. As well, the stock trucks’ dumping site for effluent from the poor animals which are trucked here, is also next door to the supermarket, perhaps only 20 to 50 metres away. You would think this should be considered to be a health risk by anybody with an ounce of common sense. Who approved this?

Breathing Method To Help Reduce High Blood Pressure

The Yoga Cooling Breath – Sheetali Pranayama

Yoga Technique To Enhance Vitality, Induce Mental Calmness And Normalize Blood Pressure

Sheetali Pranayama is an age-old practice which is included in the teachings of Satyananda.

Sheetali Pranayama will noticeably reduce high blood pressure even after one or two practices of the method. Over time, if you practice it regularly on a daily basis, you will find that your general health will improve, and that your blood pressure will also improve. Of course, attention to the diet and minimizing any activities which cause your blood pressure to rise are also important in achieving a balanced state.

Basically, this is a very easy exercise to perform. There are some added sophisticated yoga techniques which you could add to the exercise if you wish to take your yoga practice seriously.

But here I will give the simple, basic method which is effective in calming the mind and in helping to reduce blood pressure, and which anyone can do easily without any prior knowledge of yoga technique.

First, make yourself comfortable, either in a chair, or in your favourite meditation pose.

Take two or three slow deep breaths to clear your lungs of air and prepare for the Sheetali pranayama cooling breath.

How To Perform The Sheetali pranayama Cooling Breath:

So now you are seated comfortably. Stick out the tongue a little, and make it into a tube shape. You are going to breathe in through this tube made by the folds of the tongue. Note: This is the only one of Satyananda’s yoga breathing techniques whereby the breath is taken inward through the mouth, and outward through the nose. It is the reverse of the usual method.

So – With the eyes closed, we take the breath in through the curl of the tongue, slowly and evenly. Hold the breath in briefly with the mouth closed. Then exhale evenly out through the nose.

Repeat.

Be Cautious – Build Up Slowly:

In the beginning, if your blood pressure is high, it might be best to perform only about three or four breaths using this curled tongue technique. Otherwise if you do too many at once, you might feel awfully light-headed or dizzy as the sudden burst of oxygen into the blood stream takes effect.

As your strength improves with building up your Prana, or nervous energy, you should be able to perform more breaths in the one sitting. In conjunction with regular pranayama practice, nine rounds is suggested by Satyananda.

For people suffering high blood pressure, Satyananda recommends building up the practice slowly for anything up to 60 rounds.

Many Benefits:

I find that the Sheetali pranayama Cooling Breath has many benefits. As well as the obvious effects in calming the mind and normalizing the blood pressure, it also oxygenates the blood, helps the eyesight, enhances the intuitive faculties, improves memory, and helps to improve the digestion. You will notice right away that saliva secretions increase as you perform the exercise. Stimulating the saliva glands in this way greatly helps the digestion. After a few days of practicing the Cooling Breath, you will become aware of other more subtle changes occuring throughout the system.

It can be a helpful technique for people suffering all kinds of degenerative disease, such as cancer and arthritis.

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Remember To Drink Plenty Of Water Daily: This helps keep the blood pressure stable. Take a glass of water immediately after performing the Sheetali pranayama cooling breath exercise.

Jalandhara bandha – The Chin Lock. If you wish, you could perform the Jalandhara bandha as you practice the Sheetali pranayama Cooling Breath.

You need to sit in a meditation pose for this, knees touching the floor if possible, and with the arms straightened out, hands holding the knees. Hunch up the shoulders so that the arms can become perfectly straight.

Close the eyes. You then inhale through the curled tongue, then, close the mouth whilst holding in the breath, and push the head forward so that the chin touches the chest.

Hold this position, with the breath retained inward, for as long as is comfortable. Then, still retaining the breath inside, slowly relax the pose, bringing the head up. Exhale slowly through the nose as you sit with the head erect.

Repeat.

It is important to remember that the head must be properly erect before breathing in or out. No breathing should be done whilst the head is down on the chest in the chin-lock.

Personally, I think that the chin-lock is a bit much for most people who are simply wanting to improve their blood pressure. It is not really necessary in order to achieve results.

But there we have it!!!!!!

See the deep relaxation technique which is also helpful for stabilizing blood pressure and calming the nerves:

Yoga Nidra Deep Relaxation

List Of Herbal Teas And Their Uses

Herbal Health: Herbs For Enjoymehnt And As Herbal Medicine.

Herbal Teas are a great alternative to drinking all that regular tea and coffee. Coffee and tea definitely have their uses, and are very enjoyable to take, but when we overuse coffee and tea we can harm our health.

Here is a list of some of the more popular herbal teas to try. You can grow many of them yourself in your herb garden, which will help nature along by providing flowers for the bees, which in turn helps bees to thrive and do their job of pollinating our food crops for us when the time is right. Angelica, Borage, Catnip, Chamomile, Dandelions, Marigolds, Nettles, Feverfew, Lemon Balm, Peppermint, Spearmint and Yarrow are all easy-to-grow herbs which will grace your garden and attract the bees too.

Alfalfa Tea: This is very good as a digestive, as a tonic, a cleanser, and to make the body alkaline.

Angelica Tea: This herb has a soothing effect on the digestive system and is very pleasant to take.

Aniseed Tea: A very good digestive aid. Helps alleviate flatulence.

Blackcurrant Tea: A digestive. Provides some Vitamin C, Iron, and Flavanoids. Very pleasant to drink.

Blueberry Tea: Similar qualities to Blackcurrant Tea.

Borage Flower Tea: Helps lift the spirits and alleviate depression. Rich in silica which is good for nails, teeth and hair. Do not use if you are pregnant.

Catnip Tea: Very soothing and good for the digestion. Helps remove flatulence.

Chamomile Tea: Has a soothing effect on the digestion and on the nerves. Great to give in teaspoon doses to teething babies.

Chicory Tea: Useful as a substitute for coffee. Good for the liver.

Cornsilk Tea: Useful in increasing the flow of urine. Good as a kidney cleanser and blood cleanser. All herbs which benefit the kidneys have a helpful effect on hair growth and shine. Cornsilk tea can be used as a hair rinse.

Dandelion Tea: Made from the flowers or the roasted root, this is a very palatable tea. The leaves can be used too, but they do not taste so good. All parts of the dandelion help the liver and increase bile production. Also good for the kidneys.

Fennel Tea: Good for the taste buds. Helpful to the pancreas. A digestive aid. Good for flatulence. Teaspoon doses of a weak tea can be given to babies to relieve colic.

Fenugreek Tea: A nutrient-rich tea which is very alkaline in its effect. Used in alternative programmes sometimes to treat cancer, arthritis, and other conditions. Helps with prevention of cancer.

Ginger Tea: Made from fresh ginger root is best, but dried powdered ginger can also be used if you do not have fresh ginger on hand. Add a slice of lemon and a little honey. A wonderful aid to the digestion and helpful in driving away melancholy.

Hibiscus Flower Tea: The Hibiscus flowers are very refreshing to take. They can be added to other flowers such as rose petals, or chamomile, to make a soothing tea.

Hollyhock Tea: This is a demulcent. Two or three flowers can be combined with chamomile or rosepetals or another herb of your choice to make a palatable tea. Hollyhock is soothing to the nerves and to the mucous membranes. Useful in cases of persistent cough or sinus trouble.

Nettle Tea: Nettles are great to grow in the garden. Make sure they are away from the play area though, as they do sting. Rich in silica which is good for hair, teeth, nails and bone health. Nettle tea can be used as a hair rinse to nourish the scalp and create shiny hair.

Rose Petal Tea: This is a lovely tea when it is made from old-fashioned sweet scented petals. You can use the petals dried or fresh. A slice of orange can be added to make a delectable, refreshing, soothing tea.

A reprint of Merrilyn’s 1980’s Health Book entitled: NO CANCER NOTEBOOK is available for purchase.

The cost is $60 New Zealand currency. This includes postage.

Send an email to [email protected] to order.

Black Walnut For Restoring Tooth Enamel

Medicinal Herbs: Thankyou to Charlie, who wrote in asking about Black Walnut as a restorative herb for tooth enamel.

Photo taken at Dunedin Botanical Gardens by Merrilyn on Holly’s camera.

Restorative Diets such as those used for cancer, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other diseases, have proven successful in many cases, for restoring tooth enamel. Often, people have discovered that their teeth have repaired themselves whilst following a strict dietary and cleansing regime to treat eczema, psoriasis, or a life-threatening disease.

However, there are some specifics which are helpful in keeping tooth enamel healthy, and even in repairing tooth enamel. Black Walnut is one of them. Comfrey is another. Prickly Ash is another. Nettles, called ‘Stinging Nettles’ are another.

So what is it about the Black Walnut, the Juglans nigra, which gives it such a great reputation for facilitating healing, including the regrowth of tooth enamel? Louise Tenney who wrote the book ‘Today’s Herbal Health’, 1983, gives a summary of the healing attributes of the Black Walnut, in which she includes its ability to heal tooth enamel.

Valuable Minerals in Black Walnut: For a start, Black Walnut Husks and Leaves are rich in important healing minerals. Some of these, according to Louise Tenney, are organic iodine, magnesium, manganese, Vitamin B15, silica, iron, calcium, potassium and phosphorous.

Iodine, especially, is a natural anti-bacterial, which would make Black Walnut helpful for the teeth. Iodine helps to keep harmful germs in the mouth at bay. So the use of Black Walnut and other herbs which have a high organic iodine content, will help to kill off those germs which eat away at the teeth. In this sense, Black Walnut would be very helpful for the restoration of the tooth enamel.

Silica is another important mineral which helps to keep harmful germs at bay, as well as having an important function in building strong teeth, bones, hair and nails. Silica is found in the Black Walnut husks and leaves, as well as in Comfrey, Stinging Nettles, and Prickly Ash. Comfrey is one of the richest sources of silica, which is a good enough reason to have the plant brought back for the general public to use again: At present, many countries have banned comfrey because the drug companies have convinced governments that it can cause cancer and should be banned. But this is really so that they have the monopoly on all the healing ingredients contained in comfrey. People have been using comfrey as a healing herb TO GOOD EFFECT for thousands of years. Stinging nettles are another rich source of silica, but commercial herbicides and people’s desire to control our road-side verges have almost put this vauluable healing plant into extinction.

Avoid Chemcials including Food Additives: Of course, it is not enough to simply use Black Walnut tincture, or another iodine product, on a daily basis. For Black Walnut tincture to be effective on the teeth, you would need to have a nutritious diet, with plenty of protein, green vegetables, and plenty of raw salad material to keep the teeth clean and the saliva alkaline. The same goes for using Comfrey in the diet, or Nettles, or Prickly Ash rubbed onto the gums and teeth – You need to be following a sound and healthy diet, rich in green vegetables both raw and cooked, with adequate protein, and little or no sugary foods, for the teeth to restore themselves. You also need to avoid any harmful chemicals such as those food additives which are put into all sorts of packaged food these days. Even breads contain preservative, which are very bad for the teeth as well as the general physical, mental and emotional states of well-being.

Cleansing With Castor Oil: Periods of cleansing, where raw foods are eaten for a day, or several days, depending on the advice of your health practitioner, can be helpful in removing toxins from the body. Ridding the body of toxic chemicals, and avoiding contact with chemicals, can help the general health as well as the health of the teeth. Jacqui Davison was following the cancer-cure outlined by Dr Max Gerson, who cured many people of cancer during his life-time. Castor Oil was one of the most important ingredients of his cancer cure. Dr Gerson’s diet for reversing cancer also healed the tooth enamel on Jacqui’s teeth. However, it must be remembered that Jacqui followed this diet with its rigorous cleansing procedures, for almost a year before she realized that her teeth had repaired themselves. Healing of the teeth takes as long as it takes to heal an invasive cancer, and it requires the same amount of vigilant effort.