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

by Svetlana Konnikova

  ^ coniferous trees—to increase energy and lung capacity

  ^ rose and lavender—to calm the nervous system

  ^ jasmine—to stimulate the brain

  ^ rosemary—to combat chronic respiratory diseases

  The area Mama visited most was lush with rosemary. That hot summer we spent many hours in this memorable old park with deep shadows, cool shade, and incredible fresh air thick with the scents of herbs and flowers. So what is bronchial asthma that Mama suffered from? It is a chronic disease of the respiratory system. Its symptoms include periodic asthmatic’s fits of various intensity and duration. An episode can last from several hours to several days. An attack is characterized by bronchi spasms, swelling of the mucous membranes, and an accumulation of mucus, which begins to exude. Usually asthma attacks appear suddenly at night, when we sleep peacefully. We experience difficulty in breathing, swelling of the chest cavity, and a feeling of stifled breath. There may be a whistling to the breath, the face may become blue, and the blood vessels in the neck may swell. At the end of an asthmatic attack, the volume of mucus increases and is easily expelled. 214 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

  In some cases those affected by asthma experience “prolonged asthma.” In this condition it can take days and hours to stop an asthmatic fit, but this can happen only if the sickness was not diagnosed initial y and treated properly. What to do externally to ease a sudden asthmatic attack?

  r11. Open windows to alow fresh air into

  the room. Place both hands and feet

  Caution:

  in a tub of hot water to which a

  pinch of mustard powder has been

  People with pulmonary

  added. Rub your chest with a towel

  diseases cannot use this

  or other soft fabric, which has been

  method. Consult your

  soaked in cold water to which vinegar

  physician.

  and iodized salt have been added.

  r 12. Massage the upper part of your body from your head down to the top of your chest and back, using a nutritious crème, talc, or rice powder.

  If an unexpected, sudden attack occurs:

  r 13. Inhale an ammonia capsule, typicaly used for fainting. r 14. Apply mustard plasters to the calves.

  r15. Suck on ice chips.

  r 16. Drink warm finely-ground barley coffee.

  r 17. Inhale the aroma of fresh pine to increase lung capacity and promote energy. Trips to the Fairyland @ 215

  r 18. Inhale the aroma of laurel leaves to help diminish spasms. r 19. Near your bed, perhaps on a nightstand, place a smal bowl fil ed with liquid ammonia to cleanse the air. This is particularly helpful if you live in a hot, tropical climate and cannot open the windows.

  r 20. Keep a geranium plant in your house to cleanse the air of dust and bacteria.

  r 21. Burn the dry leaves of coltsfoot and breathe in its healing smoke. It is a soothing expectorant.

  r 22. Mix ¼ cup dry wine (Riesling, Chardonnay) with a pinch of baking soda. Drink it to promote mucus dilution during an asthmatic fit.

  r 23. Place two to three hot, boiled potatoes in a bowl. Cover your head with a thick towel and inhale the medicinal steam to soothe spasms and ease breathing.

  r 24. Prepare hot red bilberry tea, using one tablespoon fresh or dried berries and leaves in one cup boiling water. Steep 15 minutes and drink during an asthmatic fit. Lie down in bed and cover yourself with a blanket to preserve the warmth of the red bilberry tea in your system. Use this simple remedy in combination with potato medicinal steam (#23). These two methods are effective natural healers in your defense against asthmatic attacks. After at least one month of treatments in this manner, the attacks are likely to occur with less frequency.

  For less intense asthmatic episodes, treatment can be limited to drinking hot red bilberry tea only.

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  r 25. Take a pine bath. Place two cups pine needles, cones, and twigs in a pot with two quarts cold water. Boil 30 minutes. Cover pot and infuse for 10–12 hours. A pine bath rejuvenates and increases the supply of energy not only in bronchial asthma, but in other respiratory il nesses.

  r 26. Pine steam, saturated with essential oil, heals mucous membranes. Add 25–30 drops of essential pine oil (made from pine needles only) in two cups hot water and inhale pine steam. r 27. Honey inhalation. Mix one tablespoon honey with two cups hot distil ed water. Pour one tablespoon honey water into an inhaler and breathe in for 15–20 minutes. Use this only if you are not al ergic to honey.

  Just a reminder. As you know, the main task in treating bronchial asthma is “to liberate” or to cleanse bronchi of mucus, which promotes asthmatic attacks. Help yourself with pleasant treatments, such as:

  r 28. Walking in the pine woods.

  r 29. Drinking warm mineral water. It contains alkali, which helps to cleanse phlegm from the bronchi.

  r 30. Getting proper exercise to cleanse lungs and bronchi. The above three treatments can be used for those with cardiovascular diseases. What can we do internally to treat asthma in a natural way?

  r 31. Grate 3½ ounces horseradish root, add juice of two lemons, and mix wel to create a thick syrup. Take ½ teaspoon twice daily for one month. Refrigerate for no more than 7–10 days.

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  r 32. Take two tablespoons honey twice daily if you are not al ergic to it.

  r 33. Make Juicy Honey remedy. Mix one cup fresh carrot juice, one cup horseradish juice, and the juice of one lemon. Add one cup honey, mix wel , and pour into a glass jar. Take one teaspoon one hour before meals three times a day. Refrigerate the remaining mixture. The course of treatment is two months.

  r 34. Drink a glass of fresh grape juice daily to treat bronchial asthma and respiratory problems.

  r 35. Place one tablespoon anise seeds into a pot with one cup boiling water. Cook seeds 15 minutes. Take ¼ cup four times a day before meals.

  r 36. To two tablespoons of diced turnip roots, add two cups of boiling water. Boil 15 minutes. Strain and drink ¼ cup four times a day or one cup before bed.

  r 37. Boil two to three turnips in one quart of water for five minutes. Drink ⅓ cup three times a day.

  r 38. Infuse two tablespoons of wild marjoram in two cups of boiling water for 15 minutes. Strain and divide the infusion into three portions. Take three times a day 30 minutes before meals as an expectorant.

  r 39. Add three tablespoons of hawthorn berries to one cup of boiling water. Infuse for 30 minutes and drink one cup three times a day for asthma attacks.

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  r 40. Add two tablespoons of fresh or dried wild strawberry leaves to two cups of boiling water. Infuse for 15 minutes. Drink one cup daily for asthma attacks as a cleansing diuretic.

  r 41. Add one tablespoon of dry or fresh plantain leaves to one cup of boiling water. Infuse for 15 minutes. Strain and take one tablespoon four times a day as a cough suppressant. r 42. Mix together one tablespoon each elder, plantain, heartsease, and sundew ( Drosera rotundifolia) dry or fresh flowers. Place one tablespoon of the mixture and one cup of cold water into a pot. Infuse for two hours, then bring to a boil for five minutes. Cool, strain, and take ⅓ cup three times a day for one month.

  r 43. Folowing the above method (#42), mix together one tablespoon each of elder and young wil ow bark and two tablespoons each of anise seeds and rose hips.

  r 44. Mix three tablespoons raspberry root with one pint water and cook slowly for 15 minutes. Cool and take two to three tablespoons four times a day. r 45. Mix together one tablespoon each of thyme, pine buds, anise seeds, and fennel. Place one tablespoon of this mixture into a pot. Add one cup spring water. Place the pot inside a bigger one fil ed with hot water and warm up for 15 minutes in a “steaming bath.” Take ¼ cup three to four times a day.

  r 46. Mix one tablespoon each of fennel, licorice root, pine buds, thyme, and anise seeds. Place two tablespoons of herbal mixture into
one cup of water. Warm up in “a steaming bath” (as in #44) for 15 minutes. Infuse for 30 minutes, strain. You should have one-half of the liquid remaining. Add boiled water to make one cup. Take ⅓ cup three to four times a day.

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  r 47. Mix one tablespoon each of calendula flowers, diced wild marjoram root, diced licorice root, plantain, anise seeds, and heartsease leaves. The method of preparation is the same as in #45.

  r 48. Make “Mashed Onions.” Peel and dice 20 smal “baby” onions, add one pint boiling water, and infuse for 10 minutes until onions are soft. Add one cup olive oil and mix wel to make a puree. Take one tablespoon of “Mashed Onions” before breakfast.

  r 49. Make garlic butter. Grate five to seven large garlic cloves and mix wel with three ounces salted, organic butter. Spread on a slice of rye bread or add to pasta or mashed potatoes. It is an effective bactericidal and soothing natural healer for bronchial asthma and respiratory diseases.

  r 50. Make “Drunk Aloe” balsam. Mix ½ pound fresh aloe leaves and one pint Cahors (Port) wine with 12 ounces honey. You

  can purchase an aloe plant in a nursery or purchase the leaves in some specialty supermarkets. Place an aloe plant on a windowsill in your house or on a porch. Do not water aloe for two weeks. Aloe can live

  Caution:

  without water for a long time—aloe’s

  Do not use aloe in the

  nickname is “a century old.” After two

  presence of uterine

  weeks cut the leaves; clean dust from

  bleeding because it

  them but do not wash them. Dice the

  promotes a rush of blood

  leaves and place in a glass jar. Add wine

  to internal organs.

  and honey, mix well, and infuse for eight

  to nine days in a cool place. Strain and

  take one tablespoon three times a day for the first two days. Then take one teaspoon three times a day until this medicinal balsam is gone. Aloe is an effective healer for bronchial asthma, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.

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  r 51. My mother effectively treated bronchial asthma with the common ginger plant. Here is her nastoyka treatment. Wash ½

  pound ginger, peel, and grate. Place it into a glass jar and add vodka to cover. Infuse it in a warm place indoors or outside in the summer. Shake the jar occasional y and when the liquid turns an amber color, strain and al ow it to settle. Dissolve one teaspoon in ½ cup spring water and take twice daily, after breakfast and after dinner. Continue for three days, stop for three days, and then resume your treatment, fol owing this schedule. Remember: When you take the ginger nastoyka remedy, do not consume meat. Also take a warm foot bath before bed.

  Aromatherapy, the science of inhaling plant extracts as a healing process, is an ancient practice. In this century we have many new ways to enjoy this art. We can bathe in essential oils, add them to pure base oils to create massage lotions, burn them in aroma lamps, or heat them in light bulb rings to scent the room and create a soothing atmosphere. With the wide range of essential oils available to us, we may use various essences to suit our needs and moods. After years of research and experimentation, Swiss scientists have found that the most aromatic compound is found in grapefruit. It is so concentrated that a very small amount added to 250 gallons of water brings about an appreciable fruit scent. For centuries, in ancient Russia, folk medicine practitioners successful y treated patients with aromatherapy. They were guided by practical considerations and their intuition. Seventeenth-century Russian books, careful y archived under seven seals, contain information about special wooden chambers, like mini bath houses cal ed chepuchines, in which medicinal plants were steamed. This method of treatment was known as chepuchine sitting. Those suffering from colds, rheumatism, infections, and other ailments sat in these baths and inhaled the medicinal and aromatic vapors of the steaming plants. People in the Caucasus Mountains (Georgia, Armenia, the republics of the former Soviet Union) traditionally would wear a bulb of garlic around their neck as a talisman to prevent disease. The Caucasus Mountain range is also the famed “longevity belt,” which attracted worldwide notice in the late 1960s. News reporters, scientists, and gerontologists were among those who Trips to the Fairyland @ 221

  trekked up the green, idyllic mountainsides, abundant in apples, potatoes, and flower and vegetable gardens, at an altitude of around a thousand feet above sea level, to research the villagers who lived there. The region was reported to be unusually populated with people who lived long lives, often far beyond 100

  years—some were said to be as old as 110 to 140.

  Shirali Mislimov was one man who lived in Azerbaijan who was reputed to be 168 at the time of his death in 1973! Diet and exercise are believed to be contributing factors to the population’s longevity. I wonder if scientists also considered contributions made by the fragrant aromas of the villagers’ lush mountain gardens, their tea fields, the sea, the fresh mountain air . . . . In other ancient European countries and Russia, people used to burn branches of juniper during epidemics of disease. We can use it in this century during epidemics of flu.

  People in the Ukraine use thyme to disinfect their homes from contagious diseases. For centuries, Ukrainians have filled mattresses with thyme and scattered this herb on their floors to freshen the air in their homes. American Indians burn bundles of sage and juniper to purify their environment. In fact, the ritual is no longer confined to a specific culture and today is a popular purification process in the Western and Southwestern United States. In ancient India and China the aroma of lotus saved thousands of people from infectious diseases and the Black Death plague. In my childhood home, we followed a tradition in the fall of washing all of our woolen rugs with pine soap. Grandma had made the rugs by hand. We rinsed them in salt water and allowed them to dry outside on a windy, sunny day. The air in our house was then refreshed with the aroma of pine until the following autumn. The scent was beneficial to the health of our lungs, throat, and bronchi.

  Please remember that natural, medicinal plants

  have strong disinfectant properties. They are tireless fighters in the bacterial “battlefield.”

  There are 35,000 microbes in one cubic yard of air.

  Our immune system must work hard to neutralize them.

  We should practice a regular exercise regime incorporating such aerobic activities as walking and jogging. Our use of essential plant oils with their bactericidal shields can then do a better job for our well-being.

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  Other valuable essential oils are derived from valerian, mint, fennel, anise, rose, lavender, and sage—most of which are also common culinary herbs. Please remember that essential oils are just that—the pure essence of the plant from which they are extracted. So-called blended oils which contain synthetic additives or synthetic oils should not be used for healing or to promote good health.

  Essential oils can be expensive, as it often takes an vast amount of plants to produce a small amount of oil. For example, it takes 10,000 pounds of jasmine flowers to produce one pound of oil. Please insist on pure essential oils for your health.

  Turn your house into a Fairyland every season of the year. Create your own health resort to heal your mind, body, and spirit. In winter, when the skin is especially dry, it is helpful to take warm, relaxing, and healing baths. Fill your bathtub with warm water. Pour ½ cup of vinegar and 25-30 drops of lavender oil and enjoy your way to relaxation.

  Winter was never one of my favorite seasons, but one slow-moving, cold evening during a long winter I was determined to find something good in the bad. The snowflakes sparkled like diamonds and whirled slowly to earth in the cold air. They covered the ground with a fluffy and splendid blanket, knit with millions of beautiful radiant sequins. I was walking home from school. The brilliant, glistening white snow crunched under my feet. The air was fresh and crisp. A powerful north wind roared feroc
iously and brutally pounded the glass windows and wooden shutters of the houses. Our house stood up strong against the furious windy winter attack, thanks to the tall giant pines, oaks, and huge walnuts that buffered it. The trees squealed pitifully but stood strong and proud, fighting the cold demon bravely like the most courageous soldiers in the snowy battlefield.

  I ran the last 10 steps until I was finally inside the house. There it was warm and cozy. Inside was the aroma of lilac and lavender and Papa played Peter Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons” on the piano in our gostinaya (a family room). The aroma of lilac flowed from a slick, purple candle, homemade in Grandma’s “laboratory.” As it slowly burned down, it cried fragrant lilac tears, drop by drop, falling onto a shiny silver plate in rhythm to the magnificent Tchaikovsky’s summer part of “The Seasons”—“Barcarolle.” I knew that Papa missed summer too.

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  Birch logs snapped and crackled in the fireplace, throwing sparks of the golden amber tongues of fire. The flames danced and curled wildly, but their show wasn’t contained to the fireplace. They threw their shadows on the far side of the room, where their pale yellow and tangerine reflections trembled on the dark wall.

  I felt peaceful and comfortable there. The warm atmosphere always made me feel cozy. I loved to read a good book there or daydream about mysterious places. I imagined flights on a magic carpet. I dreamed about an adventurous voyage on a “flying vessel” set to explore far away countries and discover new lands. It was my winter “Dream Garden” filled with books instead of plants. This memory is often brought back to me by the aromas of lilac, lavender, and burning birch and the sounds of Tchaikovsky’s unforgettable music. We had thousands of books in our home library. Reading was one of my favorite pastimes, especial y in winter. We didn’t have computers and computer games when I was growing up. We didn’t have television broadcasts with boring, upsetting news and undelivered promises by politicians. It could never have substituted or competed anyway with the world of classic literature and music. I savored the time I had to read masterpieces of literature, created by talented people throughout the world through the centuries. I convinced myself that the books would substitute successfully in the wintertime for all the fine, soft-petaled spring flowers; the bounty of sweet-smelling summer blossoms and herbs, their scents made stronger by the heat of the summer sun. I imagined that the books I held in my hands were paper flowers, blooming with brilliant human thoughts, so I developed a “strange” habit. It amazes me now how dedicated I was to reading and how I read each book voraciously as if I were a starving peasant with an insatiable appetite, gobbling down each word as if it were my last bit of bread, my last drop of honey. I read volume after volume of Jules Vern’s science fiction, Alexander Dumas’ novels, and James Fennimore Cooper’s colorful adventures. I devoured the works of Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Honore de Balzak, Gustave Flaubert, Theodore Dreiser’s dramas, Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare’s tragedies, and Walt Whitman’s poems. It was a feeding frenzy. I never stopped reading an author’s collection. I read volume after volume until I finished all of them. It was my passion. Reading was what I most hungered for in my life. I read all of their works, including the epistle genre: the letters they wrote to loved ones, friends, and other writers.