Medicinal Uses Of Sunflower Oil

The Sunflower:  Marigold Of Peru

Other names for the Sunflower are:  Sola indianus,  and  Chrysanthemum peruvianum. The Sunflower has been used for thousands of years as a food and as a medicine in South America.

Sunflower oil has cleansing properties:  It is  both a diuretic and an expectorant, which are both cleansing functions.

Sunflower seeds are very rich in  protein and in essential fatty acids. These nutrients are essential for the good health of the nerves, brain and eyes, and for the general health.  More than half a sunflower seed is made up of the valuable and highly nutritive Sunflower oil.

Other important health-giving substances in Sunflower oil are:  Helianthitanic acid, inulin, levulin, and Vitamin E.  This makes Sunflower oil a valuable ingredient in the diet as well as a useful and nourishing oil to use on the skin.  It is used in many face creams, lotions, soaps,  and as a massage oil base.

In folk medicine, an infusion of  Sunflower seeds has been used as a remedy for whooping cough.  According to Aubrey Hampton, in “What’s In Your Cosmetics?”,  Organica Press, Florida, 1995,  sunflower seeds have  been successfully used in Russia to treat cases of malaria.

The nutritious oil in sunflower seeds has a comforting and soothing effect on the nerves, and this  soothing and relaxing effect gives sunflower seed oil a somewhat mild aphrodisiac effect.  Sunflower seeds are also helpful in increasing fertility.

Sunflower seeds are rich in protein, and calcium, as are sesame seeds.  Calcium, protein and fatty acids are helpful in calming the brain before sleep.  Eat a handful or two at bed-time to ensure a comfortable, easy sleep.  To get the maximum value from the sunflower seed, it is best to grind up a cupful in your blender.  Grind the seeds without water, until they have formed a coarse-to-fine powder.  Take a good tablespoon of this at bed-time as a calcium supplement for the benefit of the brain, the nerves, and a good night’s sleep.

Juices and Minerals for Cancer

Minerals for Cancer.

Green Juices and Calf Liver Juice are used in some alternative cancer therapies.
Iodine,calcium, potassium and phosphorous are important minerals in any diet which is aimed at beating cancer.
Green juices, such as the famous wheat grass juice which is rich in the life-giving chlorophyl, contain high amounts of these minerals.  Green juices help to restore the healthy balance of minerals in the liver.
The liver normally should be potassium rich, but when it is malfunctioning through cancer, it stores too much sodium and impurities. Normally, the tissues are higher in sodium and the liver and other organs higher in potassium.  When this balance gets upset, we get sick. So – one easy but important strategy to help the body get well, is to restore this balance. It is important to leave out salt whilst you are on a programme designed to beat cancer or arthritis or other disease:  This is because salt is sodium.  It upsets the healthy balance of potassium/sodium and depletes potassium in the liver.  Raising those potassium levels is imperative if you want to overcome disease.
Green juice, and calf liver juice, can do so much in helping the body to beat cancer and any other disease. Green juices are antiseptic and disease-repellant. Apart from helping to remove toxins from the liver and neutralize them for their safe exit, green juices are potassium rich and contain important digestive enzymes which also help to counteract cancer and heal the body. They are vitamin rich and mineral rich.
Just about all the nutrients you need to live are contained in fresh wheat grass juice which is prepared from home grown wheat grass. Supplementing this green juice programme with calf liver juice ensures that you have ample supplies of iron, and the important Vitamin B complex such as B 6 and B 12 which are sometimes deficient in vegetarian diets. See my post on how to make calf liver juice:  Basically, it is chopped up, put into a glass jar, and cooked gently in a saucepan of water for several hours.  It is important to put a tea towel or other piece of thick cotton onto the bottom of your saucepan for your glass jar of liver to sit on.  Otherwise it will crack.
However:  Many soils are deficient in iodine, which means that vegetables grown there will be deficient in this mineral. So painting a little iodine onto the soles of the feet, or onto the scalp, is a good idea to prevent iodine deficiency.  This should be done twice a week if you are treating cancer – just a couple of dabs painted onto the skin and left there is all that is necessary.  Alternatively, you could use Lugol’s solution daily – this is a very weak preparation of iodine, designed to be taken orally.
Dr Ann Wigmore, a medical doctor who cured herself of cancer by using mainly wheat grass juice, went on to cure many people in her cancer clinics using her wheat grass method.
After an initial cleansing period of several weeks on wheat grass or other vegetable juices, other foods such as raw egg yolk can be introduced.
Walter Last used two raw egg yolks per day on his almost all raw food, fresh juice regime. His diet was basically wheat free, yeast free, dairy free (except for butter), sugar free and yeast free. It was almost meat free too, except for fresh calf liver juice which was taken in small amounts, a teaspoon or two at a time, through the day. Most food should be taken uncooked, in salads and juices, with only moderate amounts of vegetables being cooked.
One favourite cooked item of Dr Gerson’s diet was a large plate of oatmeal porridge, eaten every morning.  This was introduced after the initial cleansing using juices, raw food and castor oil and enemas.
Dr Gerson believed that having a large bowl of porridge which was ALWAYS accompanied with a grated raw apple, helped the digestion to function normally.  Eating a really good breakfast such as this, combined with raw apple, provided excellent bulk of high fiber which cleansed the intestines.  This regular high fiber breakfast trains the intestines to become efficient in their job of assimilation and elimination.

Ayurvedic Treatment for Hair Loss

Professional Ayurvedic Treatment for Hair Loss  is recommended if you have an ongoing problem with hair falling out.  However, there are several good ayurvedic treatments for hair loss which you can use as a preventative, and to help nourish your whole physical being, including your hair, bones, teeth and nails.

Hair loss, in Ayurvedic Medicine, is regarded as a Pitta condition.  This means that  more cooling foods should be eaten, and that heating foods should be restricted.

The Pitta idea is interesting, I think, because, in my experience, radiation from electromagnetic sources such as cell phone towers and the like, have caused hair loss whenever I have lived for a period of three months or so near electromagnetic disturbances. Electromagnetic energy  definitely has a heating influence on the body. This is something you need to examine if you have ongoing bad health, your hair is growing thin, and you cannot fathom what the cause is.

Ayurvedic Diet for Hair Loss:  Hair needs a good supply of calcium, zinc and magnesium for a start, so it is a good idea to eat more foods which supply these minerals if you want to maintain a good head of hair.

One of these such Aurvedic remedies which is high in calcium is Coconut. For  treating hair loss,  Coconut Oil, Coconut Milk, and the flesh of the coconut itself can all be used.   Coconut is a very rich source of calcium, protein and fats, all of which benefit your hair growth. 

Coconuts are  a valued part of the daily diet in the South Pacific Islands, where people have marvellous heads of hair.  Coconut milk is widely used in the Pacifica region as a protein and flavour enhancer for many dishes.  It is also used as a baby food and as an invalid food.  The oil of the coconut is used externally as a skin oil, and as a hair oil, to nourish the hair and the scalp.

Ayurvedic Medicine texts commonly recommend the use of coconut milk and flesh for helping restore hair growth: 

  • One source recommends the inner milk of the young coconut to be drunk each day,  half a cupful each day.  (if you have high cholesterol, you should check with your doctor, or health professional before using cocnut milk in the diet)
  • Make up a coconut milk at home by blending together 1/2  cup grated coconut; 6 soaked almonds; 1 tablespoon sesame seeds; 1 cup warm water.  This milk is good to drink. You can put it on your oatmeal porridge, which is also high in calcium, silica and other goodies which nourish the hair.  You can massage some of this milk into the scalp at night.  Leave the milk on the hair and wash out in the morning. This is a wonderful tonic for the hair:  it helps regrowth and puts a great natural shine to the hair.
  • You can rub coconut oil into the scalp and into the soles of the feet.  Leave on overnight.  You absorb nutrients from the coconut oil through the soles of your feet, and these will find their way, via your bloodstream,  to feed the roots of your hair.  Remember to wear some old cotton or woolen socks to bed when you treat the soles of the feet with coconut oil.
  • Castor Oil is used in Ayurvedic Medicine to treat a variety of conditions, one of which is hair loss.  Castor oil can be massaged into the scalp to help hair regrow.  It is a good remedy to promote hair growth in babies and young children. 
  • Castor oil can be rubbed onto the soles of the feet at night to improve the health of the hair.  Put on those old socks so that your sheets do not get marked.  Wash off the oil in the morning with soap.
  • Castor oil can also be taken internally to improve the condition of the hair. Taking 2 tablespoonsful in the morning on an empty stomach, twice weekly, will help your hair to regrow.  This treatment will also improve your digestion, as taking castor oil internally reduces the toxins in the liver, and helps to flush out the gall bladder and the bowels.

Dairy, or Soy Milk Tonic

  • Drink 1 cup of your favorite milk which has been blended with 1 tsp ghee, 1 tsp sesame seeds, and 4 almonds.  This is recommended for the health of the hair.  You take this mixture each morning, as soon as you get up, and before you eat anything else.

Aloe Vera Juice

  • Taking a cup of aloe vera juice two or three times a day is another Ayurvedic remedy for hair loss.  This is to be continued for 3 months.
  • Aloe Vera Juice can also be used externally, to massage into the hair and scalp.  Leave on for 30 minutes before rinsing out.

Eat Pumpkin Seeds and Alfalfa Sprouts for Zinc nourishment.  Eat a handful of sesame seeds each morning, unless you prefer to make up one of the above milk recipes with sesame.  A handful of sesame seeds contains about 1200 mg of calcium.  Eat plenty of the brassica family: these are cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale – all these contain high amounts of calcium and magnesium.  Eat carrots daily to provide you with Vitamin A.

You can supplement these home ayurvedic remedies with professionally applied shirobasti, which is an effective remedy for hair loss. See your ayurvedic professional about this.

A qualified ayurvedic professional can also apply nasya, which involves the application of special medicated oils into the nostrils.

Electromagnetic Fields Affect Health

How Electromagnetic Fields Affect You

Today, I am going to write about electromagnetic fields in the city of Auckland which are currently affecting  my health.

Dear Reader: It is interesting to me to note that this is my 100th post. I began writing about the effects of electromagnetic radiation on health when my sons first began this site for me. And here I am, ‘celebrating’ the 100th birthday of the site with a post on electromagnetic fields again. Very appropriate.  Still relevant.  Note:  It is not I who is 100. Just this post.  Regards, Merrilyn.

This is a good time to put up another article on elctromagnetic vibration and radiation. Why?……. Because after spending  six months  at Red Beach, Orewa, where I had remarkable good health, I have recently returned to the city, for the winter, where I now have poor health. Electromagnetic fields and radiation, I believe, are the cause of this sudden decline in health.

One admission – having a television going much of the night for about a month whilst the Fifa World Cup was being played contributed to the magnetic build-up. My room is quite small – too small, even for a small TV, really, as you cannot get enough distance from the television not to be affected by the thing when it is going. Television aerials affect you when they are above you on the roof, whether or not your television is going. Even the smaller, built-in aerial  on a small TV will affect you, whether or not the television is actually going.

The other thing which I realized was affecting my electromagnetic field profoundly was a very large piano keyboard speaker which I had recently brought into my room.  This has very large magnets in it, and draws energy from you if you spend long periods beside it at the keyboard. It is a good idea, if you own amplifiers, electronic keyboards, and such-like, to keep them in another room away from your bed.  Even when they are not going, they interfere with your own electromagnetic field if they are within about two meters from where you are sleeping.  These things are easy to manipulate so that your energy field does not become contaminated:  just remove them to another place, at least three meters from where you are working or sleeping.

But now to talk about the environment. This is not so easy to fix, if you are sensitive to electromagnetic energy. Prevention is better than cure, as they say:  It is important to select your residence very carefully, to ensure that you are not going to be undermining your health through electromagnetic interference.

There is a big difference between these two places – the beach, and the city. The most remarkable thing about Red Beach on the peninsula, is that there is virtually no effect from electromagnetic vibrations.  There are absolutely NO high rise buildings there. People still own their own house on their own plot of land where they grow things like lemon trees, and silver beet, and onions, carrots, and apples. If you travel a kilometer down the road to Orewa Beach, you will find just one apartment building about eight stories high. But in Red Beach, so far, high rise buildings have not’ come to pass’, as the local council, shortly to be swallowed up, alas,  by that big fearsome China of councils, Auckland City, has not allowed them.

SoA relatively small population – No high rises – No industry – No pollution Minimal cell phone towers and cell phone usage The sea is so close – only half a kilometer or so away at any point – This is paradise. A Health Haven.

There are, of course, huge health benefits in living close to the sea. Ozone, and the smell of sea salt permeate your whole being. But the lack of electromagnetic fields in Red Beach certainly make it a great place to live, especially if you are sensitive to radiation.

Now I am experiencing the contrast. I have come back to my favorite hotel in the  city for a period,  mainly to get some solid internet writing done. We didn’t have internet at the house where I was staying at the beach. There are not too many distractions right now, as the piano playing work has pretty much dried up, with the recession still affecting many businesses, so it is a good time to be writing.  The other reason is that the rooms here are centrally heated day and night at no extra cost. Great for the winter.

However. After two months of being back here in these beautiful park-like surroundings, my health is suffering. There is no doubt now as to the cause. It is most definitely a range of electromagnetic fields which are affecting my health and my emotional state so badly.

Within a couple of weeks of being back here in the city, I noticed my bones began to soften. The cartilage around the joints  seemed weak. The joints had twinges of arthritic-like pain in them. These symptoms were the first warnings that something was amiss. I had been so healthy and strong up at the beach.

My diet had not changed too  much, although, I must say, I was eating more of a variety of vegetables when I was sharing my friend’s house at the Beach. I bought some vitamin and mineral supplements which have helped a little.

But meanwhile, the pressure in my eyes is building up. My eyes are often bloodshot, and I have been experiencing sudden darting pain in the eyes which I never had during my six months at the beach.

I am experiencing feelings of vertigo. Dizziness. A feeling of distension to the tissues in my limbs. My veins all seem slightly swollen. A feeling of  slight nausea is with me most of the day.

I have a swollen throat, and a feeling in the sinuses that they, too, are swollen and are about to bleed. The tissues about the eyes have  also been swollen, even before the crying bout began. Vision is slightly blurred.  My nose is running.

My scalp is sore, as if it is burning. Little darting pains are experienced from time to time on the scalp.  My skin is deteriorating. I can sense vibrations about my body which are affecting my nervous system.

I have been using cell phone more often here,  since there is no land line to use. I always use my right ear to listen to calls. A very sore patch which bleeds has developed just inside the ear, about where the center of the cell phone sits when you hold the phone up to the ear. This sore patch is extremely painful whenever I use the phone on that ear now. So I have made a rule – no talking on the cell phone. I do not usually carry the phone about with me, and keep it well away from me at night, but still – even with minimal use, this cell phone is having a marked effect on my health.

There are two cell phone towers on the nearby hill of Mount Eden. These are possibly the main root of the electromagnetic troubles I am experiencing. Because there are quite a few people living here, this means that cell phone usage is quite intense. If you are sitting at a computer, chances are that the  people next to you will have cell phones with them, so that you are being zapped by cell phone radiation, even if you have not got a cell phone on you.

The other major source of radiation is our computer room, as this backs onto a very large electricity transformer which feeds the whole establishment. The electricity from this transformer alone would be enough to disturb your own electromagnetic fields, if you are spending several hours a day working near this electricity source. To compound the damage, when you sit at a computer, with your back to the transformer area, you are subjected to more radiation from the numerous thick electricity leads at your feet. Many of these are wound about each other, too, which intensifies the electricity which they are conducting.

Well, now I am certain of the cause: I have been feeling increasingly sad and depressed, especially in the last two weeks, but in the  past two days, I have been unable to stop the tears. Of course, all the sad things in your life get played on that little TV in your head when you get depressed. You begin to wonder if you might simply be suffering the classical depression which apparently more than half of the population in New Zealand and America is now experiencing at some time in their lives.

But wait – There IS an explanation.

As I took off a thick woolen jersey yesterday, having just gone for a walk, the jersey crackled and sparked,  and latched itself onto my body. I guessed the ‘wool’ jersey must have some synthetic fiber in it, to behave like that. Sure enough – made in China 50% wool 50% synthetic, the label says. I took out some other items of clothing which I knew would have some synthetic in them. Same thing happened, even though I had not worn these items recently. They all clasped themselves onto my body, where they would have stayed had I not pulled them away.

I noticed a few days ago when I got into a friend’s car, that I got an electric shock from touching the car. This made me wonder about the build-up of electromagnetic radiation in my body.

Even though I had already taken a shower in the morning, I decided to restore my own elctromagnetic field to its normal state  by taking an excessively long shower of 10-20 minutes.  Note- Normally, I am conservative with water usage, but this really was an emergency, as I felt I would pass out from the pressure of the exces electricity in my body. Since the first shower in the morning, I had spent several hours over in the computer room, which had built up the electricity in my body to an unusually high and dangerous level. Sure enough – The hydrotherapy treatment was effective in reducing the build up of electromagnetic energy, although the radiation damage to cells and nerves will take a few days to repair.

There is a time limit on my stay here. After a few weeks, or months, I experience these same symptoms whenever I come back here to live. Although I have warmth and all the home comforts and can write on line to my heart’s content, I might have to move out of this range of electromagnetic fields fairly soon, or at least reduce the time spent near the electricity transformer  in the computer room, if I want to keep my health, my sanity, and continue to lead a productive life.  I think I am headed back to the beach.

See merrilyn’s post entitled  ‘Ridding the Body of Electromagnetic Energies’.

Best Calcium Supplement

Home Made Calcium/Magnesium Tonic is a rich source of natural calcium and magnesium.

Two teaspoons a day of our natural home made calcium supplement will provide you with the equivalent amount of calcioum in a glass of milk, or a handful of sesame seeds.

A handful of sesame seeds has about 1200mg of calcium and magnesium. whichis thought to be a reasonable dose for healthy people.  If you have celiac disease, then you really need twice this amount.

This is where an extra dose of something like the home made calcium tonic comes in useful, as you can easily obtain the rest of your calcium requirements from taking a teaspoon or two of this each day.  A teaspoon of dolomite powder gives you double the quantity of calcium and magnesium.

Calcium Protects against Cancer: Calcium is an essential component in the diet. Deficiencies of calcium can lead to cancers developing. Research has shown that diets rich in calcium foods help protect against cancers, especially cancer of the colon, which is an extremely common type of cancer.

Calcium Builds Stong Bones and Teeth, Hair and Nails. Calcium is, of course, essential for the building of strong bones and teeth, hair and nails, and is important for the  functioning of the central nervous system. Good calcium absorption in the body helps build a strong immune system, which protects you against disease and sickness.

Home Made Calcium/Magnesium Tonic: The best calcium/magnesium  supplement is one which you can make yourself, at home, with the most basic of ingredients. These ingredients are:

  • Apple cider vinegar
  • Egg shells from organic, free-range eggs.

All you do is take your egg shells, after your family have eaten that great egg omelette, and put them into a screw top jar. Crumble them up a bit, so that they break down more easily.

Cover the crumbled egg shells with pure, organic apple cider vinegar. Put the lid on the jar, and wait for your home-made calcium/magnesium tonic to mature.

You can begin to use the mixture after a day or so, when the apple cider vinegar will have dissolved much of the calcium and magnesium from the egg shells.

Take a couple of teaspoons night and morning, or more if you have a condition such as osteoporosis, where calcium has already begun to leach out of the bones.

The egg shell calcium tonic with cider vinegar is the best liquid calcium supplement. It is the perfect way to take extra calcium, as it is  easily assimilated, and is rich also in magnesium, which helps your body to assimilate calcium properly. It also contains traces of zinc and other trace elements which are essential for good health.

Keep the mixture in the fridge for up to a week, and then make up some fresh calcium/magnesium tonic.