One country in Asia with many tourists visiting it, is India. Mother nature has bestowed its beauty on India, the tropical nation with equatorial climate. Another reason for many tourists visiting this place is the spicy and tangy food, with stimulating spices. Perhaps this is the reason why Indian food across various states intoxicates tourists and gives them a reason to return again in future. Though the culture and dishes across regions may differ, there is a similarity which binds all of them together. Indian Curries , bright colors and mouthwatering aromas are some of the typical characters of Indian delicacies. Natural health experts now further enhance the value of these spices by documenting the therapeutic value of these spices…turmeric being the first and fore most.

Turmeric is also known as ‘Curcuma longa ’ medically. It is a rhizome of the same family as ginger. A rhizome combines the functions of a stem and root. The structure of ginger and turmeric are thus similar as they provide water and nutrients from the underground to the plant and also store it for further use. The typical yellow color of turmeric is due to a flavanoid ‘curcumin’. Chemically curcumin is a group of polyphenol turmerone, atlantone and zingiberone. It is this active flavanoid that prevents and cures many diseases like cancer, arthritis, alzheimer’s disease, inflammation and many others. Perhaps the copious use of this spice protects many Indians from the evils of carcinogens as is shown by higher numbers of cancer patients in America.

Turmeric in Cancer

Cancer is an abnormal division of cells to multiple cells in the body to give rise to abnormal growths. The initiation of the cell division is on account of changes in the nuclear material in the cell in form of DNA. This alteration in the genetic material gives rise to the repetitive cell division and slowly the division of cells progresses to abnormal numbers. Turmeric interferes in all three processes in a cancer patient and hence slows down the deterioration of the condition. Leukemia, melanoma of the skin are a few conditions where the therapeutic properties of curcumin have been documented.

Turmeric in arthritis

Arthritis is an inflammatory condition where the body reacts to an unusual particle or toxin in the body in the form of an unfavorable response in form of swelling, pain and immobility. Histamine is released from the mast cells in the affected body which gives rise to the inflammatory response. Moreover COX 1 and COX 2 are produced which worsen the inflammation. Curcumin stops the release of histamine as well as COX 1 and COX 2 . This improves the condition and reduces the symptoms of arthritis.

Turmeric as an antioxidant

Many degenerative disorders and allergies are caused when free radicals are produced in the body by the invasive environment in form of pollution, toxic substances and radiations. These radicals eat up the cells of the body and fight with the normal body mechanisms. Curcumins act as an antioxidant which make the unstable free radicals stable by sharing the electron in heir valence shell. This prevents damage to the host body. Vitamin C also has similar properties but the efficacy of curcumin in turmeric is much more.

Turmeric in alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease affects the brain of the human body where the signals refuse to be sent from one part of the brain to another. Due to this certain dead parts are formed within the brain which donot get proper blood supply and don’t take part in neuronal transmission. These are called plaques and the curcumin stops the formation of these plaques and improves neuronal transmission.

Turmeric in cardiac diseases

Turmeric has anti cholesterol properties by which the concentration of bad cholesterol or VLDL is drastically reduced. Moreover, the anti aggregation property of the cells help in reducing the viscosity of the blood and prevent coagulation and atherosclerosis.

Turmeric in digestion

The digestive properties of the magical rhizome is also well documented. Turmeric helps in the production of bile and also helps in the clearing off gall bladder and the liver. Hence along with enabling faster digestion, the spice also reduces gall bladder stones.

Turmeric as an antiseptic

The antiseptic properties of turmeric have been used age old over cuts, wounds and injuries to heal them faster. Even throat infections and cough colds can be mitigated as well as cured if gargled with turmeric water. Turmeric water is prepared by boiling a pinch of tea leaves along with half a teaspoon of turmeric along with a pinch of salt in boiling water .

Buying Turmeric as a supplement is easy now.

- Gunjan

Tags: Ayurvedic Medicine, Natural Remedies, Kitchen Tips, Herbal Supplements, Natural Cures

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This morning, I received a question from one of our readers, which is quite common. So, I decided to answer it here. Its about doing something about dark lip colour , or black spots on the upper/bottom lips.

Answer : Well, we should always find the cause of the problem. So let me first discuss the causes of it.
a) Drinking too much tea/coffee would darken the lips for sure.
b) Smoking is another cause for dark lips
c) Harmful chemicals in some lipsticks
d) Sucking lips often, would make them dry and dark.
e) It can be a food allergy, or a bacterial allergy.
f) Past episodes of bleeding can form a blood clot which shows up as a dark spot on the lips .

How to treat and lighten dark lips ?

• Stop taking too much coffee and tea. 1 or 2 cups every day are not harmful.
• Avoid excessive smoking. Or try herbal cigarettes or nicotine patches.
• Apply a mixture of lemon juice, glycerine, and fresh cream to the lips every night. Try leaving them overnight and wash in the morning. Pat Dry.
• Avoid Chewing gum. Try chewing on dessicated coconut, fennel seeds, or herbal mouth freshners.
• Do not use expired lipsticks or makeup. Bad quality lipsticks can cause damage.
• In addition to lipsticks, a skin allergy can be caused by harmful chemicals in soaps also. Try using natural, glycerine-based soaps fortified with herbs, and minerals.
• Applying Vaseline or Carrot Seed oil can also help.
• After you apply Glycerine to your lips, you can try scrubbing the lips gently with sliced lemon. In addition to this, drink ten glasses of water every day to detoxify your system. Lemon is a natural bleach.
• A mixture of Sweet Almond Oil, Lemon and clarified butter (ghee) also helps when applied.

We have a list of 100% natural herb-based cosmetics to help your skin and complexion. You can find them here.

Good Health to all….

- Puneet

Tags: Ayurvedic Medicine, Kitchen Tips, Natural Cures, Herbal Supplements, Natural Remedies

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Diabetes doesn’t stop you from eating….it wants you to eat right!

Jim at a friend’s party-
"No, I don’t take soft drinks or juices. I would prefer to have plain water instead.
I would  have a wheat base pizza without cheese along with green salad. Please don’t ask me for desserts."

Jim is habitual to explanations of avoiding certain, in fact many food items when in a group.  Infact his non-indulgence in many gastronomic delights has made him conscious enough that he avoids partying and drinking to such an extent that his social circle is now diminishing at an enormous rate. Yes , you guessed right, he is a diabetic.

It seems that the number of diabetic specialists are rising with the disease to such an extent that each and every person that Jim seems to know has given him some advice on eating habits in this condition . This has influenced him to such an extent that Jim now seems to hide the fact that he is a diabetic when talking to others. If we look around us, there would be many Jims near us. Moreover diabetes is not a disease; it is a condition where the glucose metabolism is affected. Hence as long as we can control the glucose level in the blood, all foods are right for the patient. What is more important is that we need to eat at regular intervals so that the food ingested is metabolized well before the next meal is taken. This calls for divided meals, atleast five in a day .  A diabetic cannot survive with a lunch and dinner.

Diabetes can be type 1 or type 2. However, type 2 diabetes is more common where the receptors excepting insulin hormone loose sensitivity for the same and the sugar metabolism goes on a toss. This is because the glucose formed after the digestion of sugars and carbohydrates now cant be consumed by the cells as the transporter is unavailable. Hence, as a broadline sugars and starch are to be avoided for all diabetics to avoid sugar load in the blood and to ease the metabolism.

Whether to eat fruits and consume fruit juices is a question with variable answers. I would mention the most scientific and rationale which has nothing against consuming fresh fruits as long as you don’t gorge on them. Fresh fruits have fructose which is a natural sugar easily metabolized by the body. Moreover the fibre content in natural fruits helps in metabolism. However, the sugar content in some fruits like bananas, grapes and mangos is so much that they can give rise to peaks in blood sugar level, hence they can be had occasionally by a moderately diabetic patient. However, a banana is much better than a scoop of icecream. On the other hand , citrus fruits are very favourable in this condition and could be consumed liberally. What happens in practical life is that a patient zeroes down on sugars of all kind and then after a week or so craves for sugar as his tongue goes sour. He then gives up the meal plan and gorges on ice cream and pies which raise the blood sugar levels enormously. Instead if the patient consumes a fruit everyday, the sugar control would be much better.

There are a few food items which are specially suited for diabetics like ginseng, jamun, bitter gourd, cinnamon,  aloe vera gel and magnesium. As a rule, where ever possible the entire fruit or vegetable should be consumed to take in fibre in addition to the nutrients. However, due to less palatability, juices may be consumed.

Eat Well , and take care…

Have you read about Gourdin, which has helped hundreds of diabetics to manage their diabetes ?

- Gunjan

Tags: Natural Cures, Ayurvedic Medicine, Kitchen Tips, Herbal Supplements, Natural Remedies

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If there is a definition for the precursor of diseases, blood pressure would typically fall into it. This disease is very notorious to give rise to a number of other diseases like kidney failure, heart disease, stroke, hemorrhage and many more. That’s not all! There are many other conditions like diabetes , high cholesterol which increase the susceptibility of blood pressure.

Blood pressure is the pressure exerted on the walls of the blood vessels and it increases as the heart pushes blood from its chambers. There are two types of blood pressure, systolic and diastolic. The higher pressure with which the heart pushes out blood to the blood vessels is systolic blood pressure and the lower pressure with which the heart fills in blood within itself is diastolic blood pressure. There is no specific value of normal blood pressure as it varies with age. Infants have a diastolic pressure of 50 whereas the normal levels of an adult are 80/120, where 80 is diastolic and 120 is systolic. As the age advances, after 45 years, the blood pressure increases as the blood vessels lose the elasticity and hence offer more resistance to the flow of blood. Hence after 5 years, 85/145 is the normal range.

There are various factors which influence the body and its blood pressure. The production of rennin is one of them. Renin is a hormone which is produced by the body when the blood pressure increases. This affects the functioning of the kidney and lots of water and excess fluid passes out of the excretory organ which lowers the blood volume and hence reduces blood pressure. Thus, rennin acts as a diuretic and helps in body homeostasis.

Nitric oxide is another substance which controls the blood pressure by lowering it. It is present in the red pigment of the blood called hemoglobin and it increases as and when the person performs physical exercise.However, this doesn’t refer to heavy exertion.

Blood pressure and heart disease

As the blood exerts more pressure on the walls and erodes them, the vessels loose their elasticity and become very thick. Moreover the heart is loaded with more blood to pump and hence under stress it becomes enlarged. This is a dangerous condition where in the heart may stop its functions and become nearly latent.

Sometimes, the VLDL or very low density lipoprotein concentration in the blood may go up and this forms a layer of fatty deposit in the inner lining of blood vessels. This leads to atherosclerosis and offers more resistance to blood flow thereby deteriorating the blood pressure.

Blood pressure and stroke

When the pressure increases to an extent where the blood vessels in the brain are damaged and ooze out blood, the life is at threat and the condition is referred to as stroke.

Blood pressure and kidney disease

When the kidney gets an extra load of blod to be filtered, its glomerulus become thickened and their permeability is lowered. This diminishes the kidneys to filter the blood effectively and slowly causes kidney failure.

To help us manage your Blood Pressure, Click here

Tags: Herbal Supplements, Natural Remedies, Ayurvedic Medicine, Natural Cures, Kitchen Tips

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What is a fast? The connotation of a fast would vary with the culture, native place and even age of a person. For an American, avoiding non vegetarian food would imply a fast, whereas in India many people are vegetarians throughout their lives. Does this mean they are fasting lifelong? The deviation and contradiction in the connotation is not restricted to countries alone.

In India, within the same religion, a few people consider themselves to fast when they have only fruits and liquids, some others take the liberty of consuming semi solids to if they are without onions and garlic, some other devotees are rigid enough to consume only water when they are fasting. How do we comprehend a single word in different connotations?

Medically, a person is fasting when he consumes only water and nothing else, not even salt for at least 24 hours. Perhaps, this is what is expected when you go for a sugar test, though instead of a days fast you take a 12 hours fast. It is during this time that the bodies metabolic activities undergo a change and the fats and carbohydrates stored within the body are utilized to release energy. It is because of this that many youngsters fast as a fad to lose weight and gain their dream figure. But incomplete knowledge is very dangerous. When the fast is prolonged to such an extent that the fats and carbohydrate stores are exhausted, the proteins are reduced to liberate energy. This is an unfavorable situation as the proteins are obtained from the muscles of the body and the resultant weak musculature would be a heavy penalty to be paid for the dream waist line. A weak musculature could result in poor stamina, poor performance and many other symptoms in the body. Hence the benefits of fasting turn into the drawbacks when the proteins are utilized. It is then that fasting turns into starving!!

A typical strategy to lose weight today is to starve and not to fast though both terms are wrongly used colloquially. Sacrificing meals in form of a balanced diet and never do good for the body, specially not for more than a day. However, there have been some studies which encourage fasting for a day to boost immunity , promoting protein synthesis, reducing metabolic rate, energizing and revitalizing the mind and so on. On the other hand some other reports propagate the idea “ The body needs fuel to work. So why run it empty and add stress to it?”

These researchers believe that the efficiency and overall performance of a body including his mind reduces drastically when fasting as the body s under stress.

So there are two sides of the “fast coin” too! Both the points of view are now before you. Whatever suits you, convinces you. That’s why some prefer to eat right at the right time, whereas some others go on long fasts after gorging on cakes, pastries, ice creams and biryanis! However, don’t eat wrong on the pretext of fasting. This is a ridiculous trend in India. During Navratras (A Hindu Festival) and many more festivities, the balanced diet comprising of rotis, vegetables and pulses is sacrificed for the deity and "prashad" (The ceremonial sweet or food, after blessings of the god, and consumed after ceremonial service/prayers) in form of fats, milk, bananas, dry fruits and sweets along with sabudana and potatoes are consumed. To top it all, the mode of preparation of most dishes is frying to add the fatty content and calorific value. While a balanced diet would typically liberate 500 calories, this special "prashad" liberates not less than 1200 calories. This is no fast, but a treat!

Whatever be ones beliefs and values, it is important to be true to oneself and understand the consequences of what one is doing. Fasting on fatty items and fasting continuously for more than a day are both wrong for the body. What is more important is to have balanced diets in divided portions throughout the day. That’s why it is taught right from schools to eat right at the right time.

So eat healthy, and if you desire to reduce weight, remove fats from your diet and retain some carbohydrates. Add much more fibre to the diet in form of salads, whole grains etc. Consume as many fruits as possible, try replacing fast food and mid meals munches with fruits, specially citrus ones like oranges. Drink loads of water and start your day with fresh lime juice. Monitor your daily calorie intake instead of fasting!!

- Gunjan.

Tags: Ayurvedic Medicine, Herbal Supplements, Natural Cures, Kitchen Tips, Natural Remedies

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