Kitchen Cupboard Remedies

Common Problems with Digestion

Due to a poor diet and not enough exercise constipation and its opposite number diarrhoea are a common problem today and need to be addressed.

Constipation

A glass of hot water poured over a slice of lemon on sleeping and on waking seems to make a big difference to bowel habits. Coupled with an increase in the intake of water - 8 glasses a day - this should soon make a difference.

Another old remedy is to fill a bottle with prunes and top up with gin. Leave for a month to soak. When needed for constipation take one prune morning and evening and Bob's your uncle! If tea or coffee is taken a glass of water should be taken afterwards to correct the diuretic effect of the caffeine, ie.these drinks will cause more urine to be passed than normal. I ask patients to reduce tea and coffee to 2 cups a day or one of each. Most people drink in excess of caffeine whether it be in coca cola tea or coffee. Live or bio yogurts high in acidophyllus cultures should be taken every day to recolonise the gut with healthy bacteria. Where these are not present there will be stagnation of waste material in the gut and constipation. Acidophyllus may be obtained as a powder or capsules from good health food shops and some chemists.

Massaging the stomach in a clockwise movement round the umbilicus helps promote bowel activity - conversely anti clockwise movement slows down diarrhoea. Psyllium husks may be bought in most chemists - these are an Indian product - indigestible fibre which will hoover out the gut taking with it any unhealthy retained products. The crushed husks are usually taken in a glass of water or juice stirred well and easily swallowed. It is usually advised to take a furthur glass of water as they swell up and need more liquid in order to be digested. Meals taken regularly as mentioned above starting with a good breakfast will stimukate the bowels to act. People going without breakfast do not stimulate their metabolism to work and the gut consequently becomes lazy. Engines do not work without petrol -we have to regard the human body in the same way. It needs fuel in the form of good food in order to function properly.

Piles

Old fashioned treatment for piles is to obtain' flowers of sulphur' powder from your local pharmacy. A teaspoon in a small glass of milk before going to bed may well do the trick!

Diarrhoea

In small children grated raw eating apple is a good way to stop diarrhoea -the pectin will help to coagulate the stool and is pleasant for the child to take. Arrowroot from the chemist or grocer can be mixed with water and taken - it is tasteless and easy to swallow. Cornflour may be used instead.
Where there is a chill with the diarrhoea in tropical climates a broad flannel belt should be worn round the abdomen day and night. This will prevent chills and was a common item in soldiers' kits on active service in the tropics in the past.

Gallstones

An old remedy is to fast from fats in the diet for a month. For the next three days only pulped apple juice is taken when the person feels hungry and water when thirsty. On the evening of the 3rd day mix in a small tumbler 1/2 olive oil and 1/2 raw lemon juice, beat well. Every 1/2 hour take a few mouthfuls until finished. If you feel very nauseous do not continue. Go to bed when completed. The following morning the stool will be passed as soft and yellow and any gallstones will pass easily as they will have been softened by the pectin in the apple and evacuated by the stimulant action of the olive oil and lemon juice. I have done this successfully several times in the past and was astonished by the effectiveness of this simple treatment.

Sleep

Healing takes place while a person is asleep. Sleep deprivation is one of the commonest causes of ill health in people today. Think of a stressed busy person unable to sleep at night, a house wife kept awake by restless demanding children, children kept awake by nightmares. All of these prevent us from being happy, healthy human beings.

In the western world today the habit is to go very late to bed. Natural rhythms are to be in bed by 10. An old saying which holds good today is to be in bed by 10 and up at 6am - the eight hours.
Sleep before midnight is said to be worth twice what it is before midnight and is certainly more refreshing. However busy you are, a bed time at 10pm twice a week will get you in the habit and greatly increase relaxation to the whole system. Even a brief nap is of great benefit to the human body - the metabolic rate - the rate at which tissue changes, building up and breaking down, is greatly reduced once the body is at rest. A way of restoring the circulation of the body during the day and returning energy to the heart is to lie against the wall and put one's legs at right angles to the trunk. Within 5 minutes the circulatory system is restored to what it would have been after a full nights rest in bed. Today air hostesses are given this instruction to help avoid DVT or deep vein thrombosis -clots forming in the calf muscle which could cause death by moving through the blood vessels causing blocking of the circulation of blood to the heart muscle. If sleep is broken for any reason, it is better to get up and do something than lie awake fretting because you cannot sleep - this only makes the problem worse.The human body can adapt to catching up later on with short sleeps -nowadays called "power naps".

I used to lie on the kitchen floor when my three children were all toddlers (I had a 2 year old and the twins so many nights were arbitrarily interrupted) and fall asleep with them all safely in the playroom next door for up to 2 hours. I would wake instantly if they needed me. I would find I was often asleep in bed by 7.30 pm straight after the children had been put to bed and could then operate in the night when someone always seemed to wake up - often waking one if not all of the others!
As a nurse on night duty in my late teens and early 20's working very irregular shifts day and night I got into the habit of sleeping wherever and whenever I could. As a normal healthy young woman with a busy London social life this was invaluable.

Children do need regular bed times as well as sleeps in the day -the small babies and children need a morning and afternoon nap. Their habit is to wake early, feed and be back in bed by 9-10 am and again around 12-1pm.I worked throughout my life and the children went to childminders who kept them to the same routine for me. They often cooperate better with carers than their mothers! This regime is also applicable to the elderly who often run out of steam and need naps to restore their energy. It has been said that the healthiest people are those who can catnap when needed.

With Acknowledgements to Dr Ruddocks 'Vade Mecum'

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