by Rudy Silva
If you have acid reflux or heartburn, using natural remedies to
rebalance your stomach is what nature intended. Listed are four
natural remedies that you can use to rebalance the acid in your
stomach.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon has many medicinal uses aside from being great for
various pastries. It has an antiseptic effect and has been
historically used for colds and flu’s. It has fighting power
against Candida albicans and has the ability to settle acidic
stomachs.
Here’s how to use cinnamon for an acid stomach or heartburn:
- Toast raisin bread
- Butter the raisin bread
- Sprinkle cinnamon on the bread
- Sprinkle cardamon on the bread
When you eat this toasted bread, chew slowly and completely
before swallowing to allow the digestive juices in your mouth to
start breaking down this food.
Cardamon, which is found in India, has been used successful in
treating Celiac disease, which is an intolerance to gluten found
in most breads.
Grapefruit Skins
Here is a way to settle your acid reflux stomach with grapefruit.
Use only organic grapefruit for this remedy. Here’s what to do:
- Grate the entire outer skin of an organic grapefruit
- Spread them out on a flat dish to dry
- Allow them to get crinkly dry
- Store them in a glass jar or zip lock bag
Whenever you get an upset stomach, acid reflux or heartburn start
chewing and eating these strips of dried grapefruit. These strips
will settle out your stomach. Eat only a few of them and test to
see how many you need.
Romaine Lettuce
Romaine lettuce can be used to eliminate an acid reflux or
heartburn condition. This lettuce is high in minerals and is
highly alkaline.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Buy an organic romaine lettuce head
- Wash in distilled water
- Cut up the leaves and place them in a blender
- Add cold distilled water to make a slurry
- Add a slight amount of honey to give it taste
Drink a 4-8 oz to get relief from your acid reflux or acid stomach.
Mace, Nutmeg, and Slippery Elm
Here is a natural remedy that uses mace and nutmeg, which has a
history of treating indigestion, acid stomach, heartburn, acid
reflux, stomach gas, and vomiting.
Here’s how to use it with half and half and slippery elm root
herb. Slippery elm herb can be purchase in any herb store in
powder.
- 1 teaspoon of slippery elm bark
- a pinch of nutmeg
- a pinch of mace
- add distilled water to make a smooth slurry
- heat a pint of half and half to boil
- pull half and half from stove and add herb slurry
- stir in herb slurry
Allow this mixture to cool. Drink up to ½ cup at a time. Store
the unused portion in the refrigerator. When drinking the next
cup, warm this mixture up.
Acid reflux and heartburn require alkaline nutrients to provide
relief. These 4 natural remedies, when prepared properly, will
give you the relief you need from these conditions. Try them; you
will be surprised on how well they work.
Copyright © 2005 Rudy Silva
About Rudy: Rudy Silva has a degree in Physics and is a Natural
Nutritionist. He is the author of Constipation, Acne, Hemorrhoid,
and Fatty Acid ebooks. He writes a newsletter called
“Natural-Remedies-ThatWork.com” and his information on other
topics can be seen at http://www.acidreflux-relief.info
By Lonny J. Brown, Ph.D.
Not All Germs Are Bad .
Did you know that there are 500 different species of bacteria living in your intestines? Don’t worry, the vast majority of these unseen guests are benign and helpful, and they routinely keep harmful invaders in check. In fact many doctors are now recommending that we take supplements of live bacteria.
Probiotics (from the Greek: for life) are a special breed of edible microorganisms. Also known as neutraceuticals, they aid digestion, destroy disease-causing pathogens, and enhance immune functions.
Not nutrients themselves, probiotics blur the conventional distinctions between live food, dietary supplement, and prescription drugs. They can resist digestive acids, adhere to intestinal walls, and restore balance to the vital ecosystem in your gastrointestinal tract, particularly after taking prescription antibiotics. Probiotics have been used to cure diarrhea, colitis, and vaginal infections, and new research shows encouraging results against inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn’s disease, food allergies, including Lactose intolerance, and skin diseases such as eczema. In one study, improved immunity in infants was obtained through the breast milk of mothers taking probiotics.
“For Life.”
“Probiotics are receiving a lot of attention now with the publication of
positive findings in well designed clinical trials,” says Gary W. Elmer, Ph.D., Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Washington. He calls probiotics “living drugs,” and reports that clinical use is increasing.
The most well known probiotics are lactic acid-producing bacteria (LAB), but at least one yeast also fits the definition. One common LAB, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, turns milk into cheese, and is found in fermented dairy foods such as yogurt and kefir. A century ago, the Russian Nobel Laureate and pioneer researcher Elie Metchnikoff credited this class of microbes for the unusually long life spans of Bulgarian peasants.
Normally these “helpful germs” reside in sufficient abundance in the gastrointestinal tract to act as a living barrier to harmful infectious varieties. But this natural balance can be disrupted by our modern lifestyle. Due to improved hygiene, vaccination, and changes in food preparation (from fresh, whole foods, natural fermentation and drying, to sterile processing), our diet now contains several thousand times less bacteria than it used to. Consequently, reports the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “host defense mechanisms in the gut have decreased in Western societies during the past decades”. Even stress can cause probiotic deficiencies. Our vital micro-floral environment is further compromised by the germ-killing effects of modern immunosuppressive therapies, irradiation, and, most of all, the widespread use (some say abuse) of antibiotics.
Not All Medicines Are Completely Good.
Fifty years ago antibiotics were universally hailed as miracle drugs, as they effectively wiped out such dreaded infectious diseases as tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid, and gonorrhea. But today, these same diseases are on the rise, because resistant “super bug” strains have survived and thrived . And because antibiotics indiscriminately destroy the beneficial microbes in our system along with the target pathogens, they bring their own unwanted side effects. The most common, and potentially dangerous is chronic diarrhea. High-risk groups include infants, travelers, the elderly, and hospital patients. Up to 22 percent of hospital patients on antibiotics get diarrhea, which can progress to colitis, toxic colon, and even death.
Good News
Reintroducing natural probiotics can often eliminate these largely man-made problems, along with a range of inflammatory bowel diseases, vaginal and urinary tract infections, and food allergies. Also known as “functional foods,” they work by competing with pathogens for space, suppressing their growth with acidic secretions, enhancing the protective mucosal intestinal barriers , and activating the body’s own germ-fighting antibodies. With these multiple mechanisms of action, probiotic supplements can be therapeutic or prophylactic (preventive).
The probiotic S. boulardii has been used to successfully prevent antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD), and reduce its duration and the length of hospital stays. The most dramatic results of this “biotherapy” approach are with acute infantile diarrhea, caused by the rotavirus. In one trial, “31 percent of infants given a control formula developed diarrhea, while only 7 percent given the formula supplemented with Bifidobacterium bifidum and Streptococcus thermophilus did so.” Since diarrhea is also commonly contracted by travelers, some researchers recommend taking probiotics preventively, before exposure to foreign microorganisms.
Ulcerative Colitis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the rectum and colon, also responds well to probiotics . The condition has no other reliable treatment, can be exacerbated by anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics, and is a high risk factor for colorectal cancer. Researchers now consider the introduction of probiotics the most promising therapeutic approach to mild-to-moderate colitis.”
Like the intestines, the vaginal canal is also an inviting home for microorganisms, both friendly (such as Lactobacilli), and not so friendly (such as Candida). One of the most common causes of vaginal infection, Candida affects ten percent of U.S. women, and recurrence after treatment with antibiotics is common. But a significant reduction in vaginal colonization with Candida species can be achieved with oral administration of L acidophilus, and similar results have resulted with a 7-day course of vaginal suppositories of LGG.” In one study of women with bacterial vaginosis (BV) using vaginal tablets containing L. acidophilus, the cure rate in the treatment group was 77 percent, versus 25 percent in the placebo group. This approach also shows promise for treating urinary tract infections (UTI): In another recent study, the recurrence rate in patients receiving lactobacillus vaginal suppositories was 21 percent, compared to 47 percent in patients receiving placebo.
Promising Future
In addition, LAB probiotics have demonstrated anti-cancer actions in both animal and human studies. They increased natural killer (NK) cell activity in colorectal cancer patients, and limited the recurrence of superficial tumors in bladder cancer patients.
Researchers point out that the intestine is actually the largest immunological organ in the body, and probiotic supplementation enhances secretion of natural antibodies. It particularly counteracts age-related decline of immune functions in the 70+ age groups. In one trail, probiotics mediated the adverse reactions to flu shots in elderly patients . In another, adults treated with Lactobacillus GG had a better antibody response to typhoid vaccine than a placebo group.
Getting Your Friendly Flora
All the positive reports on probiotics notwithstanding, more comprehensive clinical research and trials are needed before live culture biotherapy becomes commonplace. Different microbial strains have different effects, and standards of dosage and timing have not been established, while commercial products vary widely in content and quality.
“Many over-the-counter probiotics available in health food stores are neither reliable nor effective as remedies,” reports the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Independent laboratory analysis revealed that many of the cultures used in dairy products lack the appropriate species designation, do not contain a listed species, contain extra species, or vary in concentration of microorganisms. Owing to improper manufacturing or storage, some “natural” probiotic products have been shown to contain only dead bacteria.
“The best studied probiotic products available in the USA,” says Dr. Elmer, “are Florastor (Saccharomyces boulardii yeast in capsules from Biocodex, Inc), Culturelle (Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, from CAG Functional Foods, Omaha, NE) and Probiotica
(Lactobacillus reuteri, from McNeil Consumer Healthcare). These have been found to be beneficial in controlled studies.” Look for them in health food stores.
If you want to include probiotics in your nutritional program, here are some guidelines from the experts:
* Of the thousands of subjects studied using probiotics in clinical trials, no apparent adverse effects were noted, but they should probably be avoided in patients at high risk for septicemia (blood poisoning).
* “Generally it is better to use a multistrain preparation i.e. one that contains several different species of microorganisms,” says probiotic research director Dr. Gabriela Perdigon. “Of those currently available, Protexin (Probiotics International Ltd., UK) is one that has seven different bacteria..”
* Products that specify live, active microorganisms are better than freeze-dried, although they have a shorter shelf life.
* If you are buying tablets or capsules, get those that are individually sealed in blister packs. Protect probiotics from heat, light, and humidity.
* Follow instructions on the labels. Some probiotics need to be refrigerated, while others store at room temperature.
* The well-known holistic MD, Dr. Andrew Weil recommends taking probiotics with meals, to buffer the stomach acids that otherwise might kill some of the organisms.
* Healthful microbes exist in such traditional fermented foods as live yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, unpasturized cheese, and soy miso and tempeh. The specific actions of all the varieties is not known, but eating such cultured foods generally benefits intestinal micro-ecology.
Old/New Health Food
Over two thousand years ago, Hippocrates wrote “Death sits in the bowels; bad digestion is the root of all evil.” Today, probiotics represent a safe, non-invasive, inexpensive, well tolerated dietary intervention for restoring gastrointestinal health. Some medical scientists are encouraged enough to predict that probiotics may serve as prototypes for better antibiotics, new vaccines, and more disease-specific “living drugs.”
One research team concludes: “The probiotic approach is attractive because it is a reconstitution of the natural condition; it is a means of repairing a deficiency rather than the addition of foreign chemicals to the body which may have toxic consequences or, as in the case of antibiotics, induce resistance and compromise subsequent therapy.”
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Lonny J. Brown is the author of “Self-Actuated Healing” (Naturegraph, Publ.), and “Enlightenment In Our Time,” (BookLocker.com/LonnyBrown). His writings on holistic health have appeared on AOL’s Alternative Medicine Forum and in Alternative Health Practitioner, Yoga Journal, and many other progressive publications. Brown teaches holistic health, mind/body healing, and stress reduction courses at hospitals, schools and businesses throughout the US. His Web site also features essays, tapes, books, and links to a variety of integrative health sources. www.holistic.com/lonnylonny@holistic.comlonnybrown@aol.com
Lonny J. Brown, Ph.D.
ENLIGHTENMENT PROJECTS
121-F Old Town Farm Road
Peterborough, NH, USA 03458
ph/fax 603-924-0425
lonny@holistic.com
www.holistic.com/lonny
By Jim Huffman
Everyone jokes about constipation, but it’ s no joke if you’ re the one suffering from it. And suffering is the right word for it! It’ s a miserable feeling. You may feel bloated, sluggish, and often you’ ll have a low-grade headache. But perhaps we can make that feeling no more than a memory.
Constipation is, simply put, an inability to move your bowels. The body is designed so that waste products will move quickly through the system, and out of the body. Although several things can be the cause of it, the root cause is a lack of moisture in your digestive system, and water is the primary cure for that.
The best way to deal with constipation is to prevent it. And a regular system of getting water into your body is the best way to practice prevention.
Most conventional medical advice is that there is no normal routine for the human body to have bowel movements. Some will tell you with a straight face that for some people it’ s normal to have a bowel movement every 3 or 4 days.
And while I agree that our systems will vary widely in their normality it is not normal to go for days without a bowel movement. Your body is taking in food several times a day. It just makes sense that your body will also need to get rid of waste products at least once a day.
There’ s no need to become greatly concerned if you go a day without a bowel movement. But if skipping days becomes a routine, you might want to step up your prevention program — especially if you start feeling lousy.
Prevention starts off in the morning. During the night, your body has been fasting — on an involuntary basis! Unless you are in the habit of eating a midnight snack, your body will often have gone without food for 7 or 8 or more hours.
During that time, your digestive system has been resting — like the rest of your body. And you should give it the chance to rest! If you’ ve ever eaten a large meal, and then quickly gone to bed, you know it’ s not a recipe for a good night’ s sleep. Most people sleep poorly and restlessly after a large meal, because the digestive system’ s having to do a lot of work. And digestion is hard work.
When you awaken in the morning, immediately drink 2 to 3 glasses of lukewarm tap water. This is not the time to have ice water. You don’ t want to slow your body down, and that’ s what cold does. If you don’ t like the taste of your tap water first thing in the morning, you might try adding something to perk it up — a twist of lemon is a good water pick-me-up.
After drinking your water, do not sit down. Remain standing. This is the time to read the newspaper, empty the dishwasher, or whatever. Just remain in an upright, standing position. You see, chairs are not the optimal position for the human body. All of your digestive organs get scrunched together. Until a few hundred years ago, chairs were not common, and people traditionally stood or squatted in most situations. Now, I don’ t think I’ m going to get you to give up your chairs, but at least for the first 30 minutes of so of the day, pretend you don’ t have a chair, and give your body a chance to work without being scrunched up.
After 15 minutes, drink another 2 or 3 glasses of water. Your body will be working to get the digestive system kicking back in. A side benefit is that you will find yourself waking up much faster than you have in the past. Part of the grogginess most of us feel is simply a side-effect of dehydration.
For most people, your bowels will move after the second couple of glasses of water. If they haven’t, don’ t worry about it … it will happen later in the day as you continue drinking water. Remember, aim for drinking 20 glasses of water every day. As you get into that regular habit, you will find that constipation will take care of itself.
Jim Huffman, RN specializes in natural and alternative healing therapies. His first book is ‘Dare to Be Free: How to Get Control of Your Time, Your Life, and Your Nursing Career,’ and is aimed at helping other nurses find satisfying, dynamic careers. His website is http://www.NetworkForNurses.com and his health blog is at http://www.shababa.blogspot.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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Using Natural Remedies For Constipation
Alexander Sviridov
There are two basic types of constipation - organic and
functional. Organic constipation is a result of some physical change, obstruction, or distortion in your colon. This type of constipation needs immediate attention from a doctor.
This article only covers Functional Constipation. This type of constipation is a result of not following a proper diet,
drinking enough fluids, having good emotional health and not having a good lifestyle - a lifestyle that promotes good movement of digested foods through the intestines and colon.
Even though there are many definitions for constipation,
constipation is simply a condition where the fecal matter
traveling through your colon remains too long in your colon before traveling out the rectum.
Constipation is a symptom and not a disease. It is a condition that tells you your colon is not working properly or that you have some underlying gastrointestinal disease you are not aware of.
Constipation may be a warning that your diet and lifestyle are causing an imbalance in your body. It is a symptom that many people ignore or that many people try to eliminate by using unnatural and oftentimes dangerous drugstore laxatives.
Drugstore laxatives should be avoided when you have
constipation. They can become habit-forming, damage your colon, and have nasty side effects if used too long. They sometimes have the tendency of creating the problem you are trying relieve - constipation.
To keep your body in chemical balance, it is important to use only natural remedies for constipation. Natural remedies such as herbs and foods bring into the colon those nutrients that can build up your colon and reactivate your natural peristaltic action.
As you use natural remedies, keep in mind that one particular remedy may not work for you. You may have to try a different remedy or increase dosage of the one you are using. If you supply what your body needs by using a specific remedy, then you will get results from using that remedy.
Experimenting is part of finding out what remedy is best for you. There are many different natural remedies you can choose from. Look on the internet for “natural remedies for constipation” and you will find many listings.
Keep in mind that most remedies should be used only for a short time, two to four days and not longer than 2 weeks. They should only be used for the time needed to clear your constipation. This might be just 4 or 5 times or sometimes it may take several weeks.
There are some herbal combinations that can be used for longer duration. These combinations can improve your colon’s health and get your bowels moving again.
If you have constipation, the natural balance and function of your colon has been affected. But, natural remedies can bring you colon back into balance.
About The Author: Constipation And Hemorrhoids, Alexander Sviridov is a practicing proctologist. More information about hemorroids symptoms and ways of treatment you will find here http://www.hemorroids-treatment.net
