Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living

by Svetlana Konnikova

  drops twice daily.

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  Vegetables were extremely important as “food therapy” while I was grow- ing up in southeastern Europe. Every evening our family dinner began with a large porcelain bowl brimming with seasonal vegetables from our own garden. In summer, bright red tomatoes and white and green onions would always find their way to the salad bowl to be dressed with olive oil, sunflower oil, or sometimes sour cream. After the salad bowl was placed on the table and just before the family would gather for dinner, Grandma added the freshly harvested dill that I had previously gathered from a large patch in the garden. This simple daily ritual helped to maintain the freshness and aroma of the dill. Grandma’s fresh-baked and fragrant rye bread was always nearby.

  We rarely ate meat. Instead our menu sometimes consisted of stuffed cab- bage (golubtsi), zucchini, green and red bell peppers, mashed potatoes, beans and eggplant, homemade fruit drinks and fresh fruits, herbal teas, or compotes.

  Here are some natural vegetable remedies for headaches.

  r 55. Apply fresh, raw cabbage leaves to the forehead for 10-15 minutes. r 56. Eat a bowl of fresh strawberries.

  r 57. Add boiling water to one tablespoon sweet clover flowers in a mug. Steep for 30 minutes. Filter and drink four ounces three times daily. r 58. In a bowl add one pint of boiling water to one tablespoon oregano. Cover bowl with a plate and thick towel and steep for 30 minutes. Sweeten with honey, filter, and drink 4–16 ounces (depending on the severity of the headache) three times a day. Pregnant women should not use this remedy.

  r 59. In Russia the herb lemon balm is caled melissa, lemon balm, or lemon mint. Place 1½ tablespoons of lemon balm in a mug with boiling water. Cover with a thick towel and steep for 30 minutes. 144 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

  Filter and drink one to two tablespoons five or six times daily. Lemon balm is a natural sedative that treats headache, sleeplessness, stress, heart pains, palpitation (tachycardia), anemia, colic,

  “swimming head,” and inflamed bowels.

  r 60. Juice fresh black currants and drink two ounces three times a day for chronic headaches. Do this for at least one week and the headaches should cease.

  r 61. Prepare calendula tincture. Calendula is not bur marigold,

  which is toxic if taken internally. To one ounce of calendula add three ounces vodka and steep for two weeks. Take 20–30 drops three times a day. Your headaches should disappear, your sleep should improve, and your efficiency should increase. Calendula tincture rapidly quel s inflammation, speeds the regeneration of tissues, and aids in healing wounds.

  r 62. Peppermint oil rubbed on the forehead, temples, and neck and behind the ears eases headaches related to colds and sinus congestion.

  Headaches provoked by colds

  r 63. Rub forehead and temples with the grated rind of a lemon. r 64. Add a pinch of cinnamon to one pint of hot water and steep for 30

  minutes. Add sugar or honey. Take two tablespoons every hour. r 65. Add ½ teaspoon cinnamon to one tablespoon hot water. Steep for 30 minutes. Use as a lotion to rub on the temples.

  r 66. To alter the fragrance of cinnamon, add to it one drop of mint or lavender oil.

  Clever Remedies to Outsmart Headaches @ 145

  r 67. To one quart of boiling water, add eight ounces freshly mashed hawthorn berries. Add sugar or honey and steep for 30 minutes. Drink two mugs before bed to ease headache and provide sound sleep.

  r 68. To one tablespoon thyme (leaves and flowers) add eight ounces boiling water. Steep for 10 minutes. Drink two ounces three times a day.

  r 69. People who suffer from hypertension very often have headaches because of high blood pressure. A simple remedy is to add to 24

  ounces of boiling water the dried peel of two red onions. Leave to infuse for one hour. Drink one glass three times a day one hour before eating.

  r 70. People’s medicine in Russia and other European countries tel us that the best way to treat headaches and pain in the hands is by listening to the gentle, healing tinkling of a bel .

  I suffered with chronic headaches for a period in my life when I was not eating at the right times. I worked many hours and was under a tremendous amount of stress. I got rid of these painful and bothersome headaches for a long time.

  How I believe I got rid of them and how I keep them at bay today may sound a bit unusual, but I believe it is true. I wear Baltic amber around my neck. When I was plagued by those terrible, throbbing headaches, I wore my favorite stone for two weeks 24 hours a day. The recurring headaches disappeared. No kidding!

  Since ancient times in various parts of the world, amber has been called, among other things, tears of the gods, gold of the North, gold of the sea, and stones of the sun. It is said to clean the environment in which it rests. It is believed to be a symbol of renewal in troubled marriages and a generator of new love relationships. It is also said to stimulate the intellect, clear thinking, activate unconditional love in people, and open the crown chakra. 146 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

  Generation after generation searched for the origin of the discovery of amber, and it is said that the first sunny stone was found near the Sunset (Baltic) Sea. Sometime around the fifteenth century amber

  began to make itself known. In the eighteenth cenRemember: tury Swedish scientist C. Linnaeus (1707–1778)

  was the first to indicate that amber has a natural

  Baltic amber has the

  origin. Later in the nineteenth century Michael

  highest healing power

  Lomonosov, a prominent Russian scientist,

  during the first hours

  confirmed his theory. In 1812 a rare amber

  of a new moon.

  stone was found which contained a smal tree

  Amber needs a day off.

  twig. This find proved the theory that amber

  Give your necklace, ring,

  is not just a fossilized resin as many sources

  earrings, or bracelet a

  cite today, but it is the resin that turned into

  rest at the end of each

  amber because of a chemical process going on

  month—preferably

  for centuries, the influence and interaction of

  on the night before

  the air and water on the resin, and then “hida new moon.

  ing” many years under ground until the stone was

  Here’s how:

  found in the thick, green forest.

  Soak the amber overnight

  These forests stretched widely around the

  in a crystal bowl filled

  Baltic Sea many centuries ago. Some believe that

  with water and a pinch of

  these forests started near the small town of Nida in

  sea salt. The next morning

  Lithuania and then reached the Bornholm Island in

  remove the stones from

  Denmark in the west and came to Tallinn (Estonia)

  the bowl, wrap in a flax

  and Stockholm (Sweden) in the north.

  napkin, and dry outside

  Many times while traveling in the Baltic States,

  in the sun.

  I saw these huge trees, resinous and aromatic near

  crystal-clear blue rivers that carried amber stones

  to other rivers, lakes, and seas through the centuries. This natural waterway brought amber to England and Ukraine, but amber’s favorite destination seemed to be the Kaliningrad region in Russia. The small town of Yantarny (amber is yantar in Russian) once held the title of the biggest amber field in the world.

  In ancient times, amber was worth its weight in gold. The demand for it spread throughout many countries. Caravans carried it from the Baltic region to Rome. Stone Age people wore amber for adornment and as a talisman to fend off evil spirits and disease. Long ago Native Americans discovered amber’s magic and it became a sacred stone for them. They used it in rituals to manifest d
esires into reality.

  Clever Remedies to Outsmart Headaches @ 147

  Many stories, myths, and legends about amber are still told by people in the Baltic States, Poland, Romania, Scandinavian countries, Czechoslovakia, and other countries where the sunny gold stone is found.

  I feel that it is important for me to wear amber from the Baltic Sea. I also have amber necklaces from India and Israel, but my Baltic amber resonates with me above all and is my personal healer. I feel comfortable with this stone. It provides me with solar and healing energy to combat my headaches. Baltic amber is the fossilized resin or sap of various ancient trees, specifically the pine tree ( Pinus succinifera), and was formed during the Eocene period about 50 million years ago. It is found in many locations in the world. Baltic amber takes a higher polish than other ambers and is generally considered the finest in the world. It ranges in color from yellow to light brown and the clarity varies from transparent to opaque. While not the oldest fossilized resin, Baltic amber has the longest historical record of use over many centuries. For ages amber has been considered folk medicine—a healing stone—able to draw disease out from the human body and ease emotional torment. The medicinal and magnetic influence of honey, red, and brown amber increases if insects and other foreign matter are trapped inside the stone. Some years ago a guide in Kaliningrad’s

  Amber Museum told me the following story.

  An old man strolling along the shore of the Baltic Sea

  found a huge, rare piece of amber and took it to a

  castle in Konigsberg. The stone sparkled with golden light and was distinct because it displayed a shiny silver snake coiled inside. Out of curiosity the monks began to pass it among themselves. When the fourth monk took the stone, he turned it upside down. The fifth monk, who was waiting patiently to touch it, exclaimed, “Look, brothers, the snake is now alive!”

  “This is a miracle!” the sixth monk said.

  “Don’t pass this stone to me,” said the seventh monk. “Perhaps it is touched by evil.”

  They buried the stone in a secret spot and retrieved it only when the French went to war with the monks’ people, the Prussians. The monks 148 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

  showed their treasure to the French knights, who were amused with the amber containing the coiled silver snake. It wasn’t long before news of the miraculous find reached the Pope at the Vatican, who sent messengers to bring the stone to Rome. Meanwhile several French knights wanted to buy the stone, but the monks refused to sell it. They believed the ancient stone was priceless. It could have originated in a primeval forest somewhere in the region of the Baltic (Sunset) Sea and may have lay buried in the ground from the time dinosaurs roamed the earth. But when the French knights persistently offered their glistening gold bars to trade for the stone, the poor monks were lured by the sight of them and sold the amber to the richest French knight before the Pope’s messengers arrived.

  The stone became an object of worship for the knight who purchased it. He placed the amber on a big table, surrounded by kettles and mirrors that reflected multicolored jewels. The knight became obsessed with watching the snake and could not eat or sleep. He just gazed at the magic stone, which had won his heart and soul.

  One evening, as soon as the knight closed his eyes, the amber turned into a slumberous witch. The flames flared under the kettles around the stone. As some mysterious force stoked the fire, the flames grew intense and melted the amber into honey. At once the snake slithered out.

  The knight slept soundly as the snake slid silently down the knight’s neck and struck him fast near his heart. Still the knight dreamt uninterruptedly of his amber. In the morning his fellow crusaders found him dead. Nearby sat the shining amber with the silver snake inside. The horrified monks buried the stone and marked the site with a warning to others.

  The monks mourned the death of the French knight, but

  the Prussian knights engraved the image of a snake on their bronze belt buckles to commemorate the snake that killed

  their enemy. The image became a talisman to protect them on the battlefield.

  Clever Remedies to Outsmart Headaches @ 149

  Words are the Physicians.

  —Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.), Greek dramatist

  ƒ

  You can’t jump over your own head.

  —Russian proverb

  I take a sun bath and listen to the hours, formulating and disintegrating under the pines, and smell the resiny hardihood of the high-noon hours.

  —Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–1948), American writer

  ƒ

  How far that little candle throws his beams!

  So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

  —William Shakespeare (1564–1616), English playwright and poet ƒ

  And that was another gap between us. Between all men and all insects. We humans, saddled for a lifetime with virtually the same body, naturally find it difficult to imagine a life in which you can, at a single stroke, outside a fairy tale, just by splitting your skin and stepping out, change into something utterly different.

  —Colin Fletcher (b.1922), Welsh hiker and writer

  ƒ

  The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.

  —JacquesYves Cousteau (1910–1997), French marine explorer 150 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

  Chapter 8

  Sleeping Beauty

  Life is long, if you know how to use it.

  —Seneca (4 B.C.–A.D. 65), Roman philosopher

  FACTS

  Studies estimate that about one-third of American adults experience some insomnia each year, and between 10 and 20 percent suffer severe sleeplessness. European studies suggest similar rates. A recent survey conducted by the national Sleep Foundation reported even worse statistics on sleeplessness in the United States: 1) only 35 percent of American adults reported sleeping eight hours or more per night during the work week; 2) 56 percent had one or more symptoms of insomnia a few nights a week or more; 3) 60 percent of children, particularly teenagers, complained of being tired during the day; 4) over half of the elderly took an hour’s nap during the work week and nearly half of 18-to 29-year-olds napped.29

  According to statistics, millions of people suffer from sleeplessness. Many of them would be delighted to claim that they occasionally experienced a restful sleep for an adequate length of time. It seems that a sound sleep happens more frequently in fairy tales than in real life. Like nearly everyone, perhaps you too have had trouble sleeping at one time or another. Simply put, if we do not get enough rest, our overall health is at stake. If you suffer from insomnia or toss and turn restlessly in your sleep, Sleeping Beauty @ 151

  your nerves and cells never get the relaxation and rejuvenation they need to function properly. The result may be fatigue, high blood pressure or low blood pressure, and diseases of the nervous system.

  Ruslan and Ludmila

  A great feast was held in the halls of Svietosar,

  the Duke of Kiev. This feast was in honor of

  his daughter, Ludmila. Three suitors were there to vie for her hand: Ruslan the knight; Ratmir the poet; and Farlaf, a warrior. When the festivities were at their height, a huge thunderclap boomed, followed by darkness, during which Ludmila mysteriously disappeared. Svietosar was distraught and promised his daughter’s hand to the suitor who could find her and bring her home.

  Ruslan learned from Finn, a sorcerer, that Ludmila had been abducted by the evil dwarf Chernomor, who had magical powers and soared through the sky with his long white beard flowing around him. Ruslan was also warned about the witch Naina, who was Farlaf’s ally.

  While Ruslan sought advice from Finn, Farlaf went to Naina for help. She told Farlaf to allow Ruslan to go through all the trials necessary to find Ludmila and then to kidnap her from Ruslan.

  Ruslan’s search took him to a battlefield,

  enmeshed in a heavy mist. There he discovered a lance and shield. When the mist began to clear, a giant head app
eared

  and created a mighty storm with its

  breath. Ruslan subdued the head with

  his lance, and under the head he found

  a magic sword, which would enable him

  to overcome all obstacles.

  152 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

  Meanwhile, although Ludmila was held captive in Chernomor’s castle, she was allowed to walk freely in the beautiful garden behind the tall walls which surrounded the castle. Here she found herself in the midst of majestic trees and a profusion of blossoming flowers, plants, and fragrant herbs. Magnificent peacocks and gentle deer walked beside her. Multicolored birds sang sweet songs from their treetop perches. But Ludmila was unhappy and could not be consoled by the beauty around her. She feared that she would never be rescued from the evil dwarf Chernomor and returned to her home.

  Meanwhile Ruslan rode straight to Chernomor’s castle. When he arrived, Chernomor forced Ludmila into a sound sleep and then went to meet the brave knight in battle. With the magic sword Ruslan won the fight with Chernomor. Victorious, he carried Ludmila away even though she was deep into sleep. He despaired because he could not awaken her.

  Ruslan returned to Finn to learn how to awaken Ludmila. Finn gave Ruslan a fine ring with magical properties, and with the aid of this ring, he broke Chernomor’s spell. Ludmila opened her big blue eyes, sighed, and smiled. Stretching her graceful, long legs, she inquired, “Oh, how long have I slept?”

  Just then Farlaf appeared and tried to kidnap Ludmila, but Ruslan vanquished him with his magic sword. That evening Ratmir, the poet, snuck behind Ludmila’s tent and tried to lure her outside with his love poems. However she was so tired from her ordeal that she did not respond.

  The next day the knight returned Ludmila to her father’s