Health News and Information

Poor blood circulation can be helped with a hot water bottle or bed warmer if you cannot warm up naturally. Better still, take a foot bath, or alternate hot and cold baths, to warm your feet. A warm shower or bath is recommended when the body has cooled down considerably and just does not get warm. If you do have poor circulation, never go to bed with cold feet because they can keep you awake for hours. In that case it is better to make the effort and have a warm bath.

Sleeping drugs are the worst thing anyone can take because they do not cure insomnia, unless you use natural remedies. A person who does not subject himself to the laws of nature as regards sleep and rest can become a slave of chemical drugs when constantly resorting to sleeping pills.

Salutary sleep means learning to go to bed early. Soft harmonious music, not loud noise, may send you to sleep, and uplifting reading has a calming effect, in contrast to some exciting television entertainment. Quietly meditating on the deeper meaning of life can free us from the sickening happenings of our times and help us find the necessary rest.

So then, salutary sleep is based on many small necessities and requirements. Give due consideration to them before you consult your doctor about insomnia, because the answer to your problem is generally to be found simply by observing them.

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First thing in the morning I would do my breathing exercises, repeating them at noon during my lunch hour and again at night before going to bed. I began to sleep better, as the intensive breathing exercises gave me a feeling of pleasant tiredness and relaxation. Sleep became more restful and worries, sorrows and anxieties were no longer able to wake me up in the middle of the night. What a marvellous thing it is that breathing exercises have such a profound effect, even being able to influence our mind!

From a physical point of view, my abdominal muscles seemed to be the first to benefit. They became stronger, my diaphragm developed and my digestion improved. I no longer felt any trace of pain and the inflammation which had plagued me for weeks disappeared.

No doubt the natural remedies I took also helped, but without the breathing exercises it would have been difficult to achieve such success.

Some time after this experiment I saw a chiropractor, who was a friend of mine. The X-rays he took showed a normal spine, no arthritis, in fact, no signs of degeneration. Happily he assured me that my diaphragm muscles were exceptionally well developed, better than average, which I attributed to the breathing exercises. Slowly, I began to realise that the exercises had contributed to relieving the mental pressures that had bothered me. It only took five, ten or fifteen minutes each time, but eventually I began to feel more cheerful. It was now easier for me to bear the problems that had weighed so heavily on my mind. Light and sunshine entered my life once more. Indeed, in my case, ‘breathing meant life’!

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Generally speaking, coffee has the dilatory and stimulating effect described above; however, I learned an interesting fact with regard to coffee as the Arabs drink it. It surprised me that it can be prepared in a way that is much less harmful than the coffee made in the European or American home. In fact, I was quite astonished to see that the usual stimulating and insomniac effect was barely noticeable when I had coffee in Arab lands.

The Arabs serve it as the Turks do, in little cups together with the grounds. As a rule, they do not keep it roasted and ground but prepare it when the guests arrive. They roast the beans and grind them shortly before use, bring the ground coffee rapidly to the boil, let it bubble briefly, and pour a little cold water over the froth to settle. Then it is served very strong and thick with plenty of sugar.

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Since reports continue to circulate that seek to discredit natural foods and justify the use of denatured, refined products, it is high time that we clarify the question of sugar once and for all, so that the consumer can be sure of what is genuine and wholesome, and what is misleading and false.

The goodness of fruit sugar is not in any doubt, but when you buy dried fruit take care to select only the produce that is not sulphurised, bleached or denatured in any other way. Nothing but natural, pure fruit guarantees the benefits we intend to derive from it in the first place.

So what do we mean by ‘grape sugar’, as referred to in this book? We refer to the genuine sugar made from grapes, the condensed pure grape juice made from vine-ripened grapes. The manufactured grape sugar is artificial, but the genuine article can be described as nutritive grape sugar or grape concentrate. This syrup can also be made from raisins, sultanas and currants. It is by far the best sweetener available, in many ways equal to honey and in other respects even superior to it because some people cannot take honey, whereas practically everyone can tolerate real grape sugar.

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You can use your imagination to create quite a variety of sandwiches. Serve wholegrain (wholewheat) bread or crispbread, lightly spread with butter, then perhaps just a touch of vegetable extract such as Herbaforce or a yeast extract. A variety of fillings can be used, such as curds or cottage cheese mixed with chives or some other culinary herb. If you like garlic, chop some finely or mince it and spread it on the buttered bread. Garlic, chives and watercress go very well together in a tomato sandwich and so does finely chopped onion in place of the garlic. Grated carrot and a little horseradish is also a tasty combination. There is almost no end to the variety of sandwiches that can be prepared according to your taste and preferences. Herbs mixed with soft cheese and a little cream can be spread on bread or eaten with potatoes boiled in their skins. In the spring, radishes are a welcome addition to the sandwich menu, but they should be used sparingly because they are quite strong and too many can overstimulate or even irritate the liver. The resulting upset would be contrary to the objective of a health diet. Small cucumbers, thinly sliced, are delicious in a sandwich, and even white cabbage, also finely sliced, tastes surprisingly good.

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