Sulum Factum Magus

Everyone of us, sooner or later, will face some challenge regarding our health. Whether it is recovering from an illness or accident, or dealing with some chronic disease like arthritis or irritable bowel syndrome, there are some things the wise person can do to accelerate their healing, or better manage their condition. An old Chinese saying is that disease comes in at the mouth, while misfortune comes out of the mouth, meaning to take care what you eat and drink, and what you say. A similar understanding was held by the old herbalists of the physico-medicalist tradition. They held that all disease began in the digestive system. This wisdom has largely been lost to the average person in the modern day, who sees no problem with stuffing themselves with fast food, soft drinks, cakes and sweets, washed down with coffee and alcohol. However this will eventually catch up with one, sooner for those with a weak constitution, later for those with a strong constitution. Recovery from any accident or disease is difficult with such a diet. Nature’s way is to go back to the simple basics. A simple diet based around whole grains and vegetables, with a significant proportion of raw foods provides the optimum nourishment, in my opinion. Supplemented with fruits, herbal beverages, and adequate protein in the form of eggs, tofu, meat, beans or fish, this can be the foundation for recovering health.

Many diseases, especially chronic disease, are associated with inflammation in various tissues of the body. Naturopathy addresses inflammation by ‘alkalising’ the body through a dietary regime that excludes sugar, caffeine, alcohol, pastry, recreational drugs, a diet that de-emphasises meat, processed flour products, and that emphasises whole grains and vegetables. The anti-inflammatory action can be accelerated with juices, such as carrot, celery and especially wheat grass and barley grass. These days, it is no trouble to include wheat or barley grass in the diet, as powdered versions are available. It is a very simple approach, and over time, will improve very many conditions. However many people would rather suffer with their conditions than try an approach that requires them to give up their coffee, beer or wine, or eat a salad each day. They would rather take a pill, and carry on as before.

Eventually, however, one gets to a point of being willing to try anything, when the pills stop working, or start having side effects. The simple approach of nature is often the last port of call. Some are too far gone for help. Others however, find improvements can be obtained.

One needs to develop discipline however, in order to persevere with what in our society is perceived as a strict and puritan dietary regime. One must put up with ridicule, and people’s attempts to lure you from the ’straight and narrow’. If you are like me, there will be many failures, which will lead to a return of symptoms, and all the annoyance they cause. However, eventually one learns to be unconcerned by the opinion of others, and make one’s health one’s only concern.

One should not follow such a diet in a spirit of denial, as this also does its damage to the soul. The way to follow such a diet is in a spirit of generosity – giving your body what it needs to work well in optimum health. The principle of moderation can also come into play. The occasional glass of wine, or cup of coffee, or piece of cake is probably not going to be a problem. But that depends on your condition and your body’s sensitivity.

In my own case, I have lived with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome for almost thirty years. I can’t begin to tell you the amount of frustration and heart ache it has caused me. And while I can’t claim to have cured the condition, I do know how to manage it with diet and exercise in order to minimise its impact on my life. The diet above is the central plank of the way I prevent it getting the upper hand. This is supplemented by use of herbs from time to time that nourish the liver and kidneys, herbs such as licorice root, dandelion root, burdock root, saw palmetto berries, and marshmallow root. You will notice that these are predominantly roots, which to me carries elemental Earth energies into my system. This helps to counteract the over active Air energies I associate with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome – usually, for me, a result of excessive use of fine motor movements in the fingers. Another thing I have found to be helpful is massaging my wrists and forearms with hemp oil, which contains anti-inflammatory essential fatty acids. Avocado, with garlic and lime juice on toast, is also something which seems to help. Turmeric is also a wonderful anti-inflammatory. Put half a teaspoon of dried turmeric per cup of brown rice whenever you cook up rice. My own theory about why my symptoms arise is that my tendons are too tight, and need to be stretched a bit. So I also have some exercises which I do regularly for stretching the connective tissues of the arms. In traditional Chinese Medicine, the liver is said to rule the tendons. Hence the use of liver herbs outlined above. Carpal tunnel syndrome is also associated with poor Kidney function, as it often arises in people on kidney dialysis machines. Hence the use of Kidney herbs.

Putting all these together usually enables me to avoid flare-ups, or recover reasonably quickly when they occur. And also, perhaps most difficult of all, I need to manage the amount of work to be done with the fingers….

I hope that others may find in the ideas above something of help in their own encounters with disease.

Blessed Be,

Robyn.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 3rd, 2010 at 11:19 am and is filed under Healing, Herbs, Just Ordinary Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.