Nasty coughs that refuse to go away.....

Looks like the season for the dreaded coughs is here, especially when extreme hot afternoons are followed by storms in the evenings, here in KL.

I wish to share two potent home remedies for the coughs that seems to linger on for weeks. These recipes are courtesy of my dear mum. (She has plenty of these nifty recipes - my wonderful source for future sharing!)

Numero uno:

Ingredients:
- 1 medium size peeled Onion,
- 5 to 8 pieces of peeled small onions,
- 5 to 8 stalks of Lemon Grass (the root part),
- an inch of Ginger (about the size of an average sized thumb) - crushed, with or without skin is fine (remember to wash thoroughly if with skin),
- dried mandarin peel ('chan pei' in Cantonese, can be purchased from any Chinese Medicine Hall, or home made too, like my mum's),
- 1 lou han kuo (arhat fruit, some call it the magic fruit, a brown and round dried fruit that can be purchased from any Chinese Medicine Halls) - break open the fruit to reveal it's seeds and sweet pulp within, use together with the hard brown shell.
- if you like to, you can also add a 1 to 2 cloves of garlic (but be warned that garlic has potent smell, however it's healing properties for the lungs is great)
- 5 to 6 bowls (average sized rice bowl) of water

Put the above ingredients into a pot and cook till the water boils. Let it simmer for approximately 2 hours. Alternatively, boil till you can smell the aroma of the ingredients filling the air, and the lou han kuo taste is brought out. You can also put the ingredients to cook in a slow cooker at night and it is ready to drink by morning. You will ultimately get sweet brown soup much like the mata kuching dessert colour. But with a more potent aroma!

You can drink it hot or cool down to room temperature. If you keep the remainder chilled, for the next day, then do heat it up again. Use gas or electricity heating please, instead of microwave. :)

There is no need to add sugar as the Lou Han Kuo has natural sweetness that also soothes the throat and it is also anti-phlegm. The fruit's natural sweetness is diabetic and hypoglycemic patients friendly. For the weight conscious please note that the fruit's sweetness has no calories too! The ingredients above, all have their own healing properties. I shall share the specifics at a later time. Do look out for it.

Should you find that you are feeling a lot of heat, you might like to exclude the ginger. The concoction works just as well.

Numero Due:

This remedy requires the lotus root (1 small section each time) and some small amount of rock sugar to improve the taste if you are particular... (get rock sugar from chinese medicinal halls, as the rock sugar meant for remedies is soothing and has better healing properties)  - not white sugar -

You will need to clean the skin off the lotus root by scrapping with a knife's sharp side, lightly, to remove the dark layer. Then chop up the lotus root to reveal it's many holes within. Clean them well by running water through the hole to drain of any mud that might have been trapped within.

Next, grate the lotus root.

Put the grated lotus root into a bowl or deep plate, top with a little bit of rock sugar, and then steam it. You can steam it together when you cook rice (save power and fuel) or separately. This takes a minimum of 15 to 20 mnutes. There is no wrong to steam it longer too.

Once steamed the grated lotus root will appear greyish and with a consistency much like glue. Don't be put off by the appearance. I actually find it quite yummy. Of course if you are particular, then you might need some bit of water to consume this with. You can take it while it is warm or leave it to cool slightly.

It is good to make a fresh batch each time.

Many a hard-to-get-rid-of coughs have been banished by a few serving of this. Take it twice a day or three times if necessary. There is no harm in consuming this. You won't get OD-ed! Look at it as sweet lotus dessert! :-D

I have taken this and many of my friends and relatives have tried this too, with success. This remedy is especially good when the cough is phlegm-y.

Try this and share with us your experience please.

May your coughs be gone! :)

to microwave or not to microwave

Many of us rely on this modern technology for ease and time saving purposes. But we have also hear about the many effects of microwave on our food. So I like to thank my friend, Christine for sharing this story.

Please do use your own wisdom in reading and accepting anything shared here. :)

Christine's email goes like this:


MICROWAVE OVEN - Not the usual stories, please read
'Below is a science fair project that my granddaughter did for 2006. In it she took filtered water and divided it into two parts. The first part she heated to boiling in a pan on the stove, and the second part she heated to boiling in a microwave. Then after cooling she used the water to water two identical plants to see if there would be any difference in the growth between the normal boiled water and the water boiled in a microwave. She was thinking that the structure or energy of the water may be compromised by microwave. As it turned out, even she was amazed at the difference..)'

'I have known for years that the problem with microwaved anything is not the radiation people used to worry about, It's how it corrupts the DNA in the food so the body can not recognize it. So the body wraps it in fat cells to protect itself from the dead food or it eliminates it fast. Think of all the Mothers heating up milk in these 'Safe' appliances. What about the nurse in Canadathat warmed up blood for a transfusion patient and accidentally killed them when the blood went in dead. But the makers say it's safe. But proof is in the pictures of living plants dying.'

'FORENSIC RESEARCH DOCUMENT
Prepared by: William P. Koop
A.R.E.C. Research Operations
TO61-7R10/10-77F05
RELEASE PRIORITY: CLASS I ROO1a'







I am quite convinced of the experiment shared here but I am not so sure about the source of the experiment tho... anyone to enlighten me? :)
Perhaps someone could repeat the same experiment and share with us again?

copper Vs mozzies

YES! You didn't see wrong! That is a picture of a nasty mozzie! Why mozzie? You thought this blog is all about herbs and stuffs...? Well, why not? If this is about exploring natural solutions to our problems.... :)

Received an email from a childhood friend of mine on the use of copper coins to eliminate mosquito larva. Thanks for sharing Yoke Chun!

Initially I had thought this a good tip to share. On second thought, I decided to do more fact finding (ie goggle-ing) to see if there are any effects that we are unaware of. My rational was, if it kills the larvae of mozzies, it could kill anything too in enough volume and quantity. I did find some not so environmentally friendly facts about copper in the process. As such, I leave it to you, dear readers, to discern for yourself if this works for you. I guess, if one is to to try this, we should keep in mind it's effects on the environment and also potential harm to small animals (pets) and even children. We could do it 'responsibly'? Your call....

Here goes the mail which i received,

"Something useful…..."

"We cannot stop mosquitoes laying eggs in stagnant water e.g. in drains, ponds, water collected in waste pails, tanks, tins, used tyres etc. etc. Of course, if there are fishes inside the tanks/containers then there should not be any problem. Do you know that there is a very simple and economical way to destroy the mosquitoes' eggs thereby not letting them hatch into larvae.  Very, very simple. Just put in a few 1 cent copper coins into the tanks/containers to solve all your problems with breeding mosquitoes. Because in accordance to Japanese Research Scientists, they found the mosquitoes eggs will be destroyed by a kind of mineral discharge from the copper."

"DON'T BELIEVE? Try it yourself and even the small snails also will not visit the containers (with copper coins) collected with stagnant water.  You will observe that the water collected in the containers will be very clean and clear."

I have seen this being shared in some sites before. But, as i said earlier, my curiosity has the better of me. The following is what i dug up on copper. 

The United States Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has some pretty good information on water contamination by copper. Copper is a common mineral found almost anywhere. Our body also require copper but in very minute traces. Naturally too much of anything will bring harm. You can read more at http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water-contamination/copper-contaminants-removal-water.htm.

This site, http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/cu.htm gave a pretty good run down of its effects, quoted here too for your ease of reading,

Effects Long-term exposure to copper can cause irritation of the nose, mouth and eyes and it causes headaches, stomachaches, dizziness, vomiting and diarrhoea. Intentionally high uptakes of copper may cause liver and kidney damage and even death. Whether copper is carcinogenic has not been determined yet. There are scientific articles that indicate a link between long-term exposure to high concentrations of copper and a decline in intelligence with young adolescents. Whether this should be of concern is a topic for further investigation. Industrial exposure to copper fumes, dusts, or mists may result in metal fume fever with atrophic changes in nasal mucous membranes. Chronic copper poisoning results in Wilson’s Disease, characterized by a hepatic cirrhosis, brain damage, demyelination, renal disease, and copper deposition in the cornea.

The US state of Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resource has some good facts too. You can read more at http://dnr.wi.gov/org/water/dwg/copper.htm#health.

Pretty scary, right? But, fear not! Mosquitoes.org (http://www.mosquitoes.org/fpconst.html) - yes there is a site dedicated to these pest-on-wings - has some good recommendation for 'mosquito prevention' as they called it.  

So if I were to try this, i will definitely take great care that the water with copper coins is inaccessible to pets, children and even wild birds who would sometimes stop by for a tete-a-tete in between their hunting or mating ...... I would suggest you be too! 

Further note before I end this entry- I realised all households with water heaters do utilise copper pipes in some manner. Does this mean, we have to be careful of water from these pipes too? Well, i don't know. Perhaps any leaching will be in too small a trace to have any effect. But over time? 

Hmm.... i wonder who can we turn to for better solutions? I can only say, use with care!

I was wondering if man can transport King Kong to New York, perhaps someone will discover how to tame a mozzie in the future? Mozzies for pets anyone?

Cheers!

Wai

p/s - YC - i hope this entry does not discourage you from sharing future tips. hehehe! I look forward to more from you and all my friends out there! Take care!

Essential oil & Lavender

I have been an active user of essential oils for some time now. I am also very choosy of the grade of oil and its source.

An Aromatherapy Certification Intensive Course I attended a few years back by Mikael Zayat, changed my appreciation of essential oils forever. I realised then the great difference between pure therapeutic grade oil and most of the commercial stuffs sold out there. One thing for sure, we owe it to ourselves to  know how pure the essential oil we use are. Find out how was the process of extraction (which can be usually one of the three ways for different raw materials - distillation, expression ie compression, or solvent extraction) and also the source of the raw materials for the oil (ie where the plants are farmed or harvested from).

Some people will ask further, if the plants harvested are genetically modified, or if any genetically modified organisms are used for pest control. We certainly don't want to use oil that has been derived from plants sprayed chemically or fertilised with hazardous stuffs.

The highest grade is referred to as therapeutic grade, which means they can be used to promote health in massages for example, on the skin, pure, diluted or diffused in the air. There are also food grade oil which means the oil from herbs and spice that can be taken or used in cooking or orally. Needless to say, I would advice anyone to choose only the highest grade for obvious health and safety reasons.

An easy way to realise or test the differences between pure and 'adulterated' essential oil is by trusting our own olfactory, the nose. Trust me, one sniff and you will realised the huge difference between pure or otherwise.

I have long since stayed away from anything labelled fragrant oil and scented oil with dilution in various chemically produced addition, trusting only pure therapeutic graded ones. So therefore, we owe it to ourselves to read the labels carefully and ask for information when in doubt.

Having said all the above, my reason for sharing now is to talk about Lavender oil. I find this one of the most handy and easy to use essential oil to aid healing especially. From my own experience, I have used lavender oil in spritzing a room (a few drops mixed into a water spray) to up-lift and chase away musty, moldy smell of stagnant air and carpets (especially in hotel rooms). Great to use in your ironing spray too for that real fresh scent on your clothes, towels and linens.

One of lavender oil's best use is for women, especially for premenstrual and menstrual cramps. I have seen it take effect with my sister who is proned to the cramps from time to time. A few drops pure therapeutic grade lavender oil onto a hot or warm moist towel, then applied to the region below the navel will do wonders.

Another way to apply the oil is in massages. I used a few drops of the pure lavender oil on the hand to rub into troubled areas of cramps and sprain. Headaches and neckaches are soothed just as well. The popular way of long ago was to put a few drops on the oil into hot water, then the vapour is inhaled. Nowadays, we use diffuser or a burner. Lavender oil has soothed many of my migrane days. Great to brew some lavender tea to help along too!

There have been stories of pure lavender oil helping to sooth minor burns, insect bites and even smoothening of scarred skin from lacerated and burn wounds.

A few drops in warm bath water does the trick to calm down a stressful body too. Soothing to babies as well.

There are a variety of lavender flowers available, from True Lavender to Spike Lavender and many more in between. However, there are no noticeable difference in the quality of oil produced from different varieties, though some folks do have their own preferences.

So if you must choose an essential oil for the first aid kit in your home, I would say, go for lavender.

Cheers!

p/s - i have used pure lavender oil by Mikael Zayat and from Young Living and have found them both most agreeable to my needs!

Interesting links -

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_oil

2. http://www.4dshift.com/products/html/articles.html#25

3. http://www.howtouseessentialoils.net/?s=lavender

4. http://www.youngliving.com.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=83:lavender-essential-oil&catid=41:roknewspager-showcase&Itemid=166