Helpful Hints

Don't be looking over your shoulder all the time to see whether something you are trying out is working. What I ultimately grasped is that the basis for improving the condition of any chronic illness is to understand the rationale behind what you are doing and to do it "willy nilly"and let go of outcomes. Know that if something is good for you, it will automatically be pushing you towards wellness.

Don't keep measuring it. It's like slimming. If you are constantly on the scales checking up on your weight loss, then the minute you gain a little bit, you lose confidence and it gives you the excuse to drop the diet. Then back you are at square one. With M.E. the same thing happens. If you are constantly measuring results in your mind, the moment you dip you stop doing whatever you were trying and back you are on the bottom feeling very sorry for yourself. I became that kind of victim many, many times before I understood how I was holding myself back.

Cinnamon

There has been a lot of research done about the use of cinnamon as a blood sugar balancer. It has also been shown to restore insulin levels where they are depleted. Those with M.E. often have blood sugar disturbances and this spice is useful. Sprinkle it on your porridge for example. It also has quite a sweet taste and if you are not taking sugar it makes unsweetened food more palatable. If you are finding that you have symptoms of coldness like cold hands and feet then the chances are that you are a slow metaboliser. Cinnamon is a warming herb and will help to increase the metabolic rate. Drink cinnamon tea. Use a cinnamon stick for this.

Stevia

Are you not able to have sugar and you have a sweet tooth? Try this herb. It is excellent. Thirty times more sweet than sugar, weight for weight it can be used in drinks and in food or mixed with liquid in baking. In the US it has recently been recommended for diebetics and can be bought over the counter in health stores. Of course it is also brilliant for candida problems. The UK in its recent "wisdom" as far as herbal supplements are concerned, has recently withdrawn it from general circulation along with all sorts of other herbs, and now it can only be bought from a registered herbalist. If you want to access some of this please see the following information. You can obtain it from:-

Bridget Hogge
8 Aber Cottages
Y Felinheli
Gwynedd
LL56 4JY
Tel: 01248 671312

If you want:
25gms send stamps to app £2.00 + stamped self addressed envelope.
(7 x 1 st class or 10 x 2nd class)
50gms send £3.00 per pack plus £1 p & p (£4.00 )
or send send a sturdy A5 envelope with sufficient postage for 1OOgms
- currently 41 p (1st) & 37p (2nd) and cheque or stamps to approx. value £3.00

Bridget is an expert on cleanses and has all manner of herbs for the liver, kidneys, colon etc., all of which tend to be compromised during a chronic illness. She is prepared to work with you and advise you over the telehone and her rates and herbs are very reasonable.

Below is one of her recipes for eliminating toxic metals.

Coriander Chelation Pesto
4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup brazil nuts (selenium)
1/3 sunflower seeds (cysteine)
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds (zinc, magnesium)
2 cups packed fresh coriander (cilantro,/Chinese parsley) (vitamin A)
2/3 cup flaxseed oil or Udo's Choice 4 tablespoons lemon juice (vit C)
2 tsp dulse powder (or shredded dulse) Japanese miso or tamari

Process the coriander and oil in a blender until the coriander is chopped. Add the garlic nuts and seeds, dulse and lemon juices and mix until the mixture is finely blended into a paste. Add a squirt of miso or tamari to taste and blend again. Store in dark glass jars if possible. It freezes well so get hold of coriander in season and fill enough jars to last through the year.

Coriander has been shown to chelate toxic metals from the body in a relatively short time. Combined with the benefits of the other ingredients, this recipe is a powerful tissue cleanser. Two teaspoons of this pesto daily for three weeks is purportedly enough to increase the urinary excretion of mercury, lead and aluminium thus effectively removing these toxic metals from our bodies. This cleanse could be done at least annually. The paste is delicious on toast, baked potatoes, pasta, etc.

If you are too tired to make this then simply take two tbspns of fresh coriander leaf each day. This will bind with mercury and carry it out of the system. There has been a lot of research done on this herb, proving that it is a very powerful detoxifier. In the summer time coriander can be grown easily. Just plant the seeds (buy an ounce from the health store or supermarket) just under the surface of the ground or in a pot and it will grow and you will have a ready supply. Keep nipping out the flowers as they arrive.

Olive Tapenade

Have you ever noticed that when you travel on the continent in countries like Spain and Portugal, at the beginning of the meal you are brought a dish of olives? There is a reason for this. Bitter foods like olives open up the bile ducts and cause the bile to flow more freely. Bile is very important for the digestion of fats and this is often a problem for chronically ill people. Taking something bitter at the beginning of a meal can be very helpful. If you like the taste of olives or even if you find them a bit too strong, try this recipe of Bridget's. It's delicious. I didn't like olives too much but this spread is addictive. It also cuts out the desire for sweet foods.

Take a jar or can of pitted olives and put into a blender with some garlic, cider vinegar, fresh herbs and olive oil to mix to a spreadable paste. Keep in the fridge and use instead of butter or margarine on bread, oatcakes, rice cakes or in baked jacket potatoes.

Too tired to eat in a morning? Try this...

After not eating for a good number of hours your blood sugar may be very low and you may not feel able to get out of bed and feed yourself. Prepare the following the night before.

Take a thermos beaker, which you can get from camping shops, and put your porridge oats in the bottom and cover in boiling water and stir. Put on the lid tightly. The porridge will be ready the following morning and you can eat straight from the beaker. Add some cinnamon and/or stevia (see above).

If you are allowed, try adding dried fruit and/or a few nuts and seeds.
If you don't have a beaker but have a thermos flask you can do the same, but it is better to use the whole grain rather than the flakes, which tend to mush and stick to the thermos flask when you try to pour the porridge out.

Any whole grains will do, oats, barley, rye, wheat, and if you are gluten sensitive, millet and buckwheat. With barley, if you use a flask and fill it up to the top with boiling water, any excess fluid can be drained off and used as a drink mixed with lemon - home made lemon barley water - an excellent food.

Drink six to eight glasses of water daily. If you feel the cold, drink it hot. Although better taken on its own you can also put a piece of fresh ginger in a pan with the water and make ginger tea, which is both warming and good for nausea.

For more about the importance of drinking water click on the link below:

Your Body's Many Cries for Water

Cold showers

I can hear you shivering before even before you read this but please pay attention to what I am saying. Cold showers are absolutely vital to recovery. I am not talking about a prolonged shower, which would be hopeless for an already cold person. If you have a power shower then 5 to 10 seconds is enough and then switch to hot. If you have a trickly shower then you will need a little longer. This is the rationale behind it.

When the body is toxic and is trying to eliminate those toxins, the largest organ of detoxification is the skin. If you have ever woken up in the night bathed in sweat, sometimes foul smelling, then you can thank your body for ridding you of poisons which would otherwise harm you.

Taking a cold shower rinses those toxins from the body, without the pores being open. Taking a hot shower opens the pores and the toxic vapours are reabsorbed. Taking a cold shower first closes the pores and then the toxins can be washed away.

Then when the hot shower follows there will be no problem. A friend of mine had cold showers put into her therapy rooms and in conversation with the plumber he mentioned that he had just installed cold showers into a chemical works. They were not allowed hot showers on the premises at all because of the problem of ingestion of toxic chemicals into the body.

A newspaper article explained that after Chernobyl, those who lived in the proximity were told to take cold showers, if they had them, or simply to make sure that cold water was poured over the body and allowed to run away. Later research showed that those who did that on a regular basis were much less likely to be affected by the radiation or to develop cancer...Same idea - different situations.

I have a friend who has the gift of seeing the colours around people (the aura). When a cold shower is taken, the aura brightens and lightens and more energy flows through it. It is wonderful also for ridding oneself of negative emotions. If, for example, you feel angry with all the tension that brings, ten seconds under a cold shower will wash it away and you will feel the difference. The clients I have, who take cold showers, will witness to the fact that they feel so much better when they take one at least morning and evening and in between if necessary.

Try it for a month and see how you go on. Don't dismiss it out of hand. The body feels like the air does after a thunderstorm, cleaner and lighter and more relaxed.

Miraculous Messages from Water (Click here)

This is a website that is absolutely amazing to visit and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that water has memory and takes in our thoughts. As our body is at least 70% water the ramifications of this understanding are enormous. It shows that every single thought we have affects the cell structure of our bodies. A sobering thought that dwelling on gloomy thoughts makes a gloomy body.

This is the work of a top scientist and it shows in scientific terms how Love has a very positive effect on the cells as does thankfulness, and hatred, including of course self hatred, has a very negative effect. Be prepared to be amazed at the findings of this Japanese research.

When you have visited the site you will see also how the cold shower will have an effect in carrying away all the negative vibrations we have in and around our bodies.

Magnotherapy

I did not start to wear a wrist magnet until after I recovered, but I found two benefits in particular. One was for sleeping patterns. I found I slept more deeply, woke up less and when I woke up, I went back to sleep more quickly if I was wearing the magnet. I have proved this lots of times, when after a restless night I have found it at the side of the bed instead of on my wrist. The second was to help excitability. When my adrenal glands were still recovering I found I could get quite excitable, if I moved a lot of energy. Wearing a magnet relaxed the nervous system and calmed me down. I have clients who use them for pain relief, and who find them very useful.

I now have a very good source of magnotherapy products, which is "Jdamagno".

The magnet they use in the wriststrap is the most powerful available. The wriststrap magnet is priced at £24.95, which is half the cost of similar brands. It is approved by the medical devices agency, which have given it their seal of approval as a first class medical device. jdamagno also give a 90 day guarantee, during which you can return it if you have felt no benefit. Your money will be refunded, minus a small refurbishment charge (no greater than 15%). This means you can try it out with no more risk than a lay out of less then four pounds for three month's trial. You can't go wrong. Read all about them by visiting their website (Jdamagno).