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When we are overtired, we may experience headaches and
sleeplessness, but also giddiness, or so-called swimming head or dizziness. Dizziness is usually caused by an irregular distribution of blood to different parts of the brain. Dizziness may be associated with a variety of ailments including stress, high blood pressure, constipation, and high acidity in the stomach. It may be accompanied by nausea. If so, it’s important to cleanse the stomach.
r 1. A very good way to cleanse the stomach is with a chamomile enema. See page 70, R59., for instructions. Al ow the enema to aid in elimination of toxins and then lie down on a bed in a darkened room and close your eyes. Place an ice bag on your forehead and relax.
r2. If dizziness is a result of overwork, try the folowing mix: 1½
tablespoons each of hawthorn berries and hawthorn flowers, and three cups boiling water. Steep for two hours in a warm place. Filter. Drink three times daily 30 minutes before any meal or one hour after eating or whenever you feel dizzy.
r3. Mix one tablespoon hawthorn berries and one cup boiling water. Steep two hours in a warm spot, preferably a preheated warm oven. Filter and take one to two tablespoons three to four times daily prior to eating.
r4. Drink one cup of potato juice to neutralize acidity in the stomach.
r5. Make mint drops. This medicine wil have the same effect as potato juice, but in addition it wil disinfect and warm the internal organs. It wil help eliminate heartburn and relieve stomach gas. Mince one tablespoon of mint leaves. Combine in a glass jar with ½ cup 90 percent alcohol (vodka). Cover and steep overnight, shaking it periodical y. Filter and add one tablespoon mint oil. Take five drops of mint tincture twice daily.
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r6. Take three to five drops of mint tincture (see #5) on a sugar cube or dissolve the mint tincture in one tablespoon boiled water. I remember that we always had two vital vials in our domestic pharmacy, one prepared by Grandma or Mama, both of whom
preferred to make the remedies themselves rather than buy them in a drugstore. Mint drops were always “friendly” natural medicines and good aids in healing the diseases I mentioned above. r 7. Try to clean the blood and improve your digestion by paying close attention to the food you eat. Learn to balance a healthy diet of fish, eggs, cheese, and vegetables, especial y radishes, cucumbers, green peas, and walnuts, which contain phosphorus. Phosphorus is a main component of cerebral substance and its quantity decreases with strenuous brain work. We have to replenish our body with this mineral to safeguard against Alzheimer’s disease and strokes.
If you are bothered by excess stomach acidity, try the following people’s medicines. They are simple but reliable and effective natural methods. r 8. Make Aurica Drink to balance stomach acids. Mix two tablespoons minced calendula (pot marigold) flowers and two tablespoons minced blackberry leaves. Add one quart boiling water and let steep in preheated but cooling oven overnight. Filter in the morning. Drink three cups daily. This simple people’s remedy is a favorite of mine and very effective. Aurica Drink is also a tonic for energy in recovery from il ness.
r 9. Mix one tablespoon sage, one tablespoon peppermint, and ½
teaspoon cinnamon. Combine al herbs in a china bowl with 4½ cups boiling water. Steep for 20 minutes. Drink ½ cup of this medicinal drink daily for two weeks to treat stomach acidity. Repeat the same course after six months.
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r 10. Take systematicaly 600 mg to 1,200 mg. calcium daily. Calcium is a necessary addition to the diet not only for healthy bones but also to ensure proper functioning of the liver, pancreas, tonsils, and endocrine and other glands supplying hormones to the blood, tissues, and cel s.
r11. Make a habit of drinking chamomile or peppermint tea on an empty stomach in the mornings. Combine one teaspoon of the herbs in #8 or #9 in a glass jar with one cup boiling water and steep for 15 minutes. Drink once in the morning.
When I was a little girl, Mama would prepare for me before bed a glass of fresh warm milk from our cow. To the milk she would add a teaspoon of honey—nothing more. This simple remedy gave me a sound sleep filled with colorful dreams. I called them “sleepy movies” and they were full of happy events and noble actions.
r 12. Drink a glass of fresh warm milk with one teaspoon of honey before you go to bed and you’l have a sound sleep.
However, if you want to have energy, do what Hippocrates widely advised more than 2,400 years ago: “Let food be thy medicine.” His food therapy principle is incorporated into plant therapy. Through the modern conception and use of this idea, body sicknesses have been miraculously corrected. Dr. Ann Wigmore, founder of the Hippocrates Health Institute, now worldwide in scope, wrote in her book, Be Your Own Doctor (Let Living Food Be Your Medicine): “Through long and careful observation of myself and others, I found that when we give our bodies the rich nourishment they need from living foods, and, when we work in close harmony with Nature’s laws, Nature’s boundless healing power will always be there to assist us.”
r 13. Nourish yourself and make buckwheat kasha with sour cream, plain yogurt, or warm milk in the morning, at lunch, or at 178 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies
dinner, but no later than 6:00 p. m. It’l give you a light living food fil ed with vitamins.
Although not very popular in the United States, buckwheat has been used as a food by Europeans for centuries. It is also grown in northern America but has not yet gained much recognition and popularity among American consumers. Buckwheat becomes a superior salad lettuce when it is grown for seven days.
The Russian word for buckwheat is grechikha. Let’s assume that the ancient Slavs adopted buckwheat from Greeks who lived since olden times on the shores of the Black Sea. This plant was widely cultivated in Russia and other European countries from the fifteenth century, but in the United States it is used primarily as food for cattle and a cereal grain. Buckwheat’s nutritional value is unprecedented. It is rich in iron, calcium, phosphorous, copper, boron, iodine, and other minerals.
The well-respected pharmaceutical industry produces rutin, using buckwheat leaves and flowers. Rutin is the same preparation as vitamin P, which is an irreplaceable treatment for those affected by radiation and sclerosis, hypertension, stoke, bleeding, rheumatism, nephritis, glaucoma, measles, and nervous disorders. As you see, it boasts a wide spectrum of healing properties. I have observed for many years that in the United States elderly people are familiar with this plant and its benefits. My guess is they were taught about it by their European ancestors. But few young people have
been introduced to buckwheat meals by their mothers or
grandmothers.
I purchase buckwheat in a local health-food market and often prepare kasha with sour cream, milk, or yogurt for my family as a nutritious breakfast. They love it.
Buckwheat is one of the most important plants
for maintaining good health. It is a source of high energy and amazing health. And more good news is that
it is low in calories and satisfies the appetite.
Buckwheat whole grains (groats) are used to make
porridge or kasha, as it is called in Russia. In common When Your Head Is Swimming @ 179
parlance it is called grechka. But I want to warn you that not everybody will like the taste of this meal. It is meatless and not everyone will consider it a
“real” food. Even children can turn up their noses at this meal, and they will do it again and again until they acquire a taste for it and begin to understand its superior nutritional value.
Kasha is “the original mother of bread” and it has been known and used widely throughout the world for more than a thousand years. Try it and make a delightful breakfast, lunch, or dinner. You will be giving your body the gift of rich nourishment and the key to energy, health, and longevity. Here are eight delicious recipes:
r 14. Buckwheat friable kasha. Lightly roast one cup of whole grain buc
kwheat in a pan in the oven for about three minutes. Put buckwheat into two cups of boiling water. Add a pinch of salt. Return to a boil, then reduce heat and cook until the water is gone and the buckwheat is soft and ready to eat, approximately 20 minutes. Mix in two teaspoons of butter or olive oil and cover. Serve kasha with sour cream, salsa, or milk. If you decide to use only milk, add a teaspoon of honey. It makes a healthy breakfast, which can be a nutritious part of your diet. You can add friable buckwheat kasha as an easy-to-make, light nutritional side dish, complimenting meat, fish, or chicken for lunch or dinner.
r 15. “Downy” kasha for children. Rinse one cup buckwheat whole grains in a sieve. Mix in a bowl with one egg and place the mixture on the griddle or dry it in an oven on a pan about three minutes at 375°. Boil two cups milk and add one tablespoon of butter, a pinch of salt, and the dried buckwheat. Reduce heat and continue to cook. Kasha wil be ready to eat in 15-20 minutes. Serve it with a sweet milk sauce over it: Dissolve one teaspoon starch in one tablespoon of cold milk or water. Add one cup milk and bring to a boil. Add one teaspoon sugar or honey and bring again to a boil for two to three minutes. Add 1/4 teaspoon vanil a or vanil a sugar. The sweet milk sauce wil bring a tender taste to a “downy” kasha. I can assure you the children wil love it. 180 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies
r 16. Buckwheat kasha with cheese. Wash and pass ½ cup buckwheat whole grains through a sieve. Pour one cup water into a pot. Add a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Then add buckwheat to the boiling water and cook until thickened, approximately 20
minutes. Reduce heat. Add one teaspoon of butter when kasha is almost ready. Mix wel and cover. Place the pot with buckwheat in a bigger pan with hot water and continue to cook in this water bath for 15 minutes more. Loosen kasha with a fork and mound it on a plate. Pour on melted butter. Strew three to four ounces of friable Farmers cheese or any other cheese like an authentic Greek feta cheese, Mozzarel a, or baby cheese on top. Sprinkle with chopped dil or parsley and garnish with ¼ sliced tomato. r 17. Sailor’s kasha. Cook a friable buckwheat kasha (as in #14), using two cups buckwheat whole grains and four cups water. Cut one pound veal in smal pieces, wash it wel , then grind it. Fry two to three shredded onions in a frying pan with olive oil. Boil two eggs. Let them cool, then shred them. Mix ground veal, fried onions, a dash of black pepper, and shredded eggs to the kasha. Then oil a three-quart pan and place prepared mixture inside. Let it stew in a 350° oven until ready, about 25 minutes. Sailor’s kasha is one of the best nutritious meals, served hot for lunch or dinner. r 18. “Shrimp” kasha. Cook friable kasha (as in #14), using two cups buckwheat whole grains and four cups water. Add two tablespoons butter, pinch of salt, two teaspoons minced garlic, one tablespoon dil or parsley, and four ounces cooked popcorn shrimp. This makes a healthy dinner for four to six people. r 19. Kasha Soufflé. Wash two cups buckwheat grains and place into a pot with four cups boiling water. Cook until softened, approximately 15-20 minutes. Then rub kasha through a sieve. Add one teaspoon honey or sugar, a pinch of salt, and ½ cup milk. Cook an additional two to three minutes, mixing constantly. Remove from stove and add ½ teaspoon butter, mixing wel . It is excel ent as a breakfast, lunch, or light dinner.
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Buckwheat has been so well respected in Europe for centuries that Hans Christian Andersen also became interested in this plant. Writing a story about buckwheat, he confessed, “This is the story told me by the sparrows one evening when I begged them to relate some tale to me.”
V
“
ery often after a violent thunderstorm, a field
of buckwheat appears blackened and singed,
as if a flame of fire passed over it. The country people say that this appearance is caused by lightning; but I will tell you what the sparrow says, and the sparrow heard it from an old willow-tree which grew near a field of buckwheat, and is there still. It is a large venerable tree, though a little crippled by age. The trunk has been split, and out of the crevice grass and brambles grow. The tree bends forward slightly, and the branches hang quite down to the ground just like green hair. Corn grows in the surrounding fields, not only rye and barley, but oats—pretty oats that, when ripe, look like a number of little golden canary birds, sitting on a bough. The corn has a smiling look and the heaviest and richest ears bend their heads low as if in pious humility. Once there was also a field of buckwheat, and this field was exactly opposite the old willow-tree. The buckwheat did not bend like the other grain, but erected its head proudly and stiffly on the stem.
“‘I am as valuable as any other corn,’ said he, ‘and I am much handsomer; my flowers are as beautiful as the bloom of the apple blossom, and it is a pleasure to look at us. Do you know of anything prettier than we are, you old willow-tree?’
And the willow-tree nodded his head, as if he would say, ‘Indeed I do.’
But the buckwheat spread itself out with pride, and said, ‘Stupid tree; he is so old that grass grows out of his body.”
There arose a very terrible storm. All the field flowers folded their leaves together, or bowed their little heads, while the storm passed over them, but the buckwheat stood erect in its pride. ‘Bend your head as we do,’ said the flowers.
182 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies
“‘I have no occasion to do so,’ replied the buckwheat.
“‘Bend your head as we do,’ cried the ears of corn. ‘The angel of the storm is coming; his wings spread from the sky above the earth beneath. He will stroke you down before you can cry for mercy.’
“‘But I will not bend my head,’ said the buckwheat.
“‘Close your flowers and bend your leaves,’ said the old willow-tree.
‘Do not look at the lightning when the cloud bursts; even men cannot do that. In a flash of lightning heaven opens, and we can look in; but the sight will strike even human beings blind. What then must happen to us, who only grow out of the earth, and are so inferior to them, if we venture to do so?’
“‘Inferior, indeed!’ said the buckwheat. ‘Now I intend to have a peep into heaven.’ Proudly and boldly he looked up, while the lightning flashed across the sky as if the whole world were in flames.
“When the dreadful storm passed, the flowers and the corn
raised their drooping heads in the pure still air, refreshed by the rain, but the buckwheat lay like a weed in the field, burnt to blackness by the lightning. The branches of the old willow-tree rustled in the wind, and large water-drops fell from his green leaves as if the old willow were weeping. Then the sparrows asked why he was weeping, when all around him seemed so cheerful. ‘See,’ they said, ‘how the sun shines, and the clouds float in the blue sky. Do you not smell the sweet perfume from flower or bush? Wherefore do you weep, old willow-tree?’
“Then the willow tree told them of the haughty pride
of the buckwheat, and of the punishment which followed in consequence.”
So you see, the buckwheat can be unreasonable sometimes, but it always brings people its best nutritious values. And you can count on him without reservation, he will not disappoint you.
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Before you trust a man, eat a peck of salt with him.
—Russian proverb
ƒ
One should eat to live—not live to eat.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), American statesman, printer, and inventor ƒ
Unquiet meals make ill digestion.
—Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors
ƒ
The belly will not listen to advice.
—Seneca, Epistulae ad Lucilium
ƒ
Nothing in excess. Nihil nimis.
—Latin saying
184 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies
Chapter 10
Don’t Be Afraid of Good Stress
It is not enough only to wish; you must also act.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), German poet and novelist FACTS:
Stress is both additive and cumulative in its negative effects on individuals, organizations, and societies. Workplace stress continues to grow. In the United States experts at the Centers of Disease Control and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Healthcare are dedicated to studying stress. They found that $300 billion, or $7,500 per employee, is spent annually in the United States on stress-related compensation claims, reduced productivity, absenteeism, health insurance costs, direct medical expenses (nearly 50
percent or higher for workers who report stress), and employee turnover. Stress affects physical and mental health, and is linked to a decreased willingness to take on new and creative endeavors, and job burnout, which is experienced by 25–40 percent of U. S. workers. More than ever before, employee stress is being recognized as a major drain on corporate productivity and competitiveness.
Statistics from a recent global stress research study show that increased stress is felt worldwide, and stress affects women differently than men. Women who work full-time and have children under age 13 report the greatest stress. Nearly one in four mothers who work full-time and have children under age 13 feel stress. Globally 23 percent of women executives and professionals say they feel “super-stressed.”32
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On spring break from Moscow State University I came home
exhausted. I had undergone a grueling winter session of many exams, which would determine my eligibility to remain in classes for the second half of the school year.
When I arrived at the airport, Mama took a look at me and shook her head in disapproval. I couldn’t blame her. I felt as if all my energy was spent, and as I listened to my body, it sometimes seemed to me that my blood had difficulty circulating through my veins and blood vessels.
“Oh, oh!” I thought while grinning at Mama. “Our family doctor (Mama) has found herself a new patient.” Mama always worried about me and she was always overprotective.
Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living Page 19