Another Natural Remedy for the Entire Family

I discovered last year a natural remedy that can ease body pains, alleviate sinus problems, and even cure the flu. They call it the nuero-muscular therapy at the AANI Herbal Center at the Quezon City Circle. It is a form of massage that uses the fingers, with the therapists going through the entire stretch of your body with their gentle, yet firm, strumming of their fingers. These therapists are not the same masseuses you get in spas. They have ample knowledge of the different muscles in your body and they can tell by the mere touch whether it is an ailing muscle.

My bouts with the flu last year were cured through this therapy, and a host of other herbs like oregano, Lagutangi, and salabat (ginger tea). I knew immediately that the therapy worked because right after my massage, I sweated profusely replacing the chills I were experiencing prior to the therapy. I have also seen it worked for my children. I have brought Isabelle once when she had a slight fever and colds. I was expecting her fever to rise the next day but was surprised that not only it did not but her colds and the stuffiness in her nose were completely gone. I have since been bringing my children regularly for therapy. Even Mio has had this therapy but considering that he's barely 2 years old, I would hold him in my lap in a sitting position so the therapist can strumm away at his back. Andrew tries to get a massage from them every chance he gets.

Don't expect first-class accommodations for this therapy. The place is small and only holds 4 beds. A fan is used whenever it is hot. There is no divider since there is no need to undress, which means that the bed beside you can be occupied by someone of the opposite sex. They have a clean restroom for those moments. But, if you can prepare yourself and do what has to be done in the house or somewhere else, the better it would be since there is no flowing water in the toilet. They charge Php300.00 for an hour of massage but I can assure you that you'll be blown away, just as I was and the rest of my brood, by the kind of strumming they will do on you.

I consider this discovery a blessing, as I have with the other natural cures I have found. I just pray that I will remain open to the infinite possibilities that our universe offers and that I will be able to discern those that are best for my children.

We've Gone Raw

[oldredbarnco.com]



It has been a while. The last post I had was in December 2009. So many things have happened since then. I became emboldened to write again because just before going to bed this evening, Isabelle asked me to write again. She complained of reading my old posts again and again.

While I might have stopped writing here, I have continued exploring ways and means to improve the health and well-being of my children. One of the recent changes I have made in the diet of my children is to give them raw milk instead of pasteurized milk.

Although I have already known of the benefits of taking raw milk, the other end of the pole which enumerates the undesirable consequences of taking raw milk have made me hesitant to take that dive until a few months ago when I came across a gem of a book entitled “Raw Vegetable Jucies” by N.W. Walker, with a copyright date of 1970.

The author expounded on the ill effects of taking cow’s milk which he said is probably the most mucus-forming food used by human beings resulting in colds, running noses, tonsil, adenoid, and bronchial troubles. He said that when milk is needed, there is one kind of milk that is compatible with human digestion, and that is Raw Goat’s Milk.

Even Kevin Trudeau, author of Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You To Know About recommends ingesting only raw, unpasteurized and unhomogenized milk, cheese, and dairy products. While he didn’t limit his choice of milk to only goat’s milk, I would stick to raw goat’s milk because I have seen for myself the effect of cow’s milk in my children – bloated tummies, rhinitis, and a host of other allergic reactions.

Before I met Jackie, who supplies our raw goat’s milk, I was giving my children pasteurized goat’s milk from Milk Star. When I got hold of the book by Dr. Walker who recommended keeping 2 or 3 milk goats for ones daily raw milk consumption, I seriously thought about getting goats to keep in the backyard and even broached the idea to Andrew. However, considering the difficulty of keeping and even raising goats, I found it truly a blessing to have met Jackie one Sunday morning while we were going through organically-raised fish being sold at the Centris Market.

A Grateful Heart

My heart is filled with gratitude for the year that was, the year that gave me sorrow dampened by unexpected joys, tears uncovered with smiles, and despair amidst hope. It was indeed a year of miracles and I start 2010 with a list of five of the things, people, and events I am thankful for.

2009 started with me all giddy with excitement at the thought of having another baby to hold and care for but finding that dream cut short in a couple of weeks. It was a painful time. However, just as I was wiping my tears dry, I find myself rejoicing again by middle of 2009. He is now almost 7 months old and is healthily growing in me. Isabelle and Ilysse, and, of course, Andrew, can't wait to meet him. I give Him thanks from whom all blessings flow!

I am thankful for the turmeric, a rootcrop which belongs to the ginger family. In the Philippines, it is locally known as the luyang dilaw. After four long and excruciating years, Isabelle's eczema has finally cleared. With all the concoctions I tried, only this truly worked in such a short span of time. I just chopped the rhizomes and spread it on her arms and legs.

I am thankful for the oregano, the herb which remains the trusted medicine for my family's cough, colds and flu. It is the one medicine that has made my family antibiotic free for the past 4 years! Unbelievable, but true!

I am thankful for the gift of finding the memoirs of my grandfather that my father entrusted to me, and which, I thought I have lost. He was one of the most influential people in my life and his work is one of my prized possessions.

Finally, I am thankful for people who have made a difference in the lives of countless Filipinos, Filipinos who have brought hope, honor and dignity back to our beleaguered nation-Efren Penaflorida, Cory Aquino, Noynoy Aquino, Tony Meloto, Grace Padaca, Muelmar Magallanes, and a host of others. I have almost given up on this country but their unparalleled devotion to our people led me back to the right but difficult path.

June 18, 2001 and June 18, 2009: A Destiny Fulfilled

I have always believed in destiny and how it strings together lives that are once separated and even broken. That was what happened in June 18, 2001. I got married to my destiny.

Fast forward to an afternoon in June 18, 2009. I was anxiously hurrying to get to church at the EDSA Shrine because I wanted to complete my nine-day novena mass to our Sacred Heart of Jesus. As I entered the church, I saw a couple kneeling in front of the altar. Only a handful were there. It was only as I was taking my seat that I realized that a wedding was taking place. I was enthralled by what was transpiring before me. The bride was beautiful, even radiant. If happiness can be seen, I saw it so clearly that moment. Then, after a few minutes admiring the couple did it dawned on me that on the very same day and time, 8 years ago, I was myself that bride, and Andrew, the groom.

It was a sign, an omen, that afternoon in June 18, 2009, for us and, probably, for the other couple, as well. But, as to what it exactly conveys, I do not know. I remembered that day 8 years ago with an assortment of emotions, pure, unadulterated bliss, unexplained anxiety, even sorrow. As I tried to rationalize those feelings, I recalled the blessing the priest gave us after the ceremony as he recited:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Although I may never see or even meet the couple from June 18, 2009, I give them back the same blessing.

Aspartame in Sipahh Milk Flavoring Straws? Believe It!

Here comes another product in the market fraudulently claiming to be healthy and good for kids. The advertisements shown around Metro Manila pictures a caucasian kid sipping milk with Sipahh, a milk flavoring straw that comes in four flavors, chocolate, strawberry, banana, and cookies and cream.

Sipahh is supposed to encourage and promote drinking milk in kids but a closer look at its ingredients would show that it is not for kids because aside from a host of chemical-sounding components, it has the very controversial aspartame, the sweetener sold under the brand names of Equal and Nutra-Sweet, and usually found in diet sodas.

The safety of aspartame has been questioned for years but it was only recently that those doubts were confirmed by a study conducted by Dr. Morando Soffrite, a cancer researcher in Bologna, Italy. After a 7-year study on aspartame, his team found that the sweetener was associated with unusually high rates of lymphomas, leukemias, and other cancers in rats that have been given doses of it starting at what would be equivalent to four to five 20-ounce bottles of diet soda a day for a 150-pound person. The study, which involved 1,900 laboratory rats and cost $1 million, was conducted at the European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences, a nonprofit organization that studies cancer-causing substances; Dr. Soffritti is its scientific director.(Warner, Melanie. Feb. 12, 2006. The Lowdown on Sweet. The New York Times.Retrieved June 3, 2009 from NYTimes.com)

The study, obviously, is being strongly opposed by the producers of aspartame which if confirmed by the US Food and Drugs Authority would mean a loss of earnings of around US$570 million annually.

Last year, i admit guilt in buying a pack for my kids. It was a good thing when i got home, i checked the ingredients and i saw the word "aspartame" jumping right at me. That really irked me as it again showed the deceit employed by manufacturing companies. How can a product intended for kids contain aspartame? If we allow our kids to use Sipahh, it is as if we allow our children to drink diet sodas. The website of Sipahh claims it is healthy and has no preservatives. What do they think of aspartame? The fraud and deceit the manufacturer of Sipahh employs at the expense of our children is something i can no longer fathom. This company has traded their values for a worthless piece of straw that does nothing than make milk taste like medicine.

To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate

In light of the worldwide fear created by the emergence of the swine flu, the efficacy, safety, and benefit of vaccines to counter such disease, or any other disease,for that matter, are again subject of much debate.

Closer to home, the safety of vaccines has been hot topic in our household ever since we had Isabelle and Ilysse. Prior to my so-called "enlightenment", Isabelle had the complete set of vaccinations, from DTP to MMR to Chickenpox to Hepatitis B, to all its booster shots. Even though Andrew was strongly against it, I even had Isabelle vaccinated against the flu at age 3. I totally regret what I did since shortly after her flu shot, her allergies to everything around her started to appear. We partly attribute Isabelle's allergies and eczema to these vaccinations and our theory has been supported by growing research and data on the detrimental effects of vaccination (particularly, the chemicals, like mercury, that go with the vaccines) on children. A very informative site on the ill effects of vaccination can be found at Generation Rescue (www.generationrescue.org) which was put up by Jenny McCarthy whose son was diagnosed with autism shortly after he was vaccinated.

With Ilysse, I knew better. I was more confident in not having Ilysse vaccinated because I breastfed her for 3 1/2 years. She had vaccinations only for DTP and she does not have allergies and rarely gets sick.

Thankfully, Andrew never got tired of reminding me of the dangers of vaccination at such an early age. He would even assuage my fears of not having our children vaccinated by correctly pointing out that our generation never had those vaccinations, but here we are, still alive and kicking. We got our share of measles, chickenpox, mumps, even hepatitis A, but, as far as we were concerned, they were simply childhood irritants.

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate obviously remains to be every parent's decision but I encourage parents to research and continue reading up on the latest on these vaccines. Do not make it routinary simply because everybody else is doing it. If you really want to have your children vaccinated, delay it until they are bigger and stronger to take on not only the germ that will be introduced in their system but also the multitude of toxic chemicals that come with the vaccine.

The Amazing Cure

Isabelle's eczema took a turn for the worse after Christmas. I am attributing it to the sudden cold,cold weather around January (which is the exact opposite to the very, very hot summer weather in the Philippines right now). The eczema that was limited to her arms, at the back of her elbows particularly, now spread to her face, her neck, the back of her news, even her stomach and legs.

My daughter was in pain and we could not doing anything about it. The scratching never stopped, at home, in school, at daytime, and even at nighttime. I would fetch her in school and see her face and arms all red, swollen, and bloodied with all the scratching. There were nights that Andrew and I tried not to sleep because that was the only way to stop her from scratching. I would wrap her arms with layers of cloth and put socks on top but these would all be gone in the morning.

We have tried several dermalogists, even pediatric ones, but all their topical steroids proved to be ineffective. I tried putting those steroids on Isabelle twice but that was the most I could allow my daughter to be administered such medication.(Isabelle's condition started when she was around 4.) I have tried homeopathy, too, which I usually and normally adhere to when it comes to my children's health and well-being but even this proved futile. We have tried so many things, explored all kinds of alternative methods but again Isabelle's condition did not improve; if it did, it was not substantial.

I was mad at myself, mad for being a naive mother, mad for not doing more research, mad for letting Isabelle drink formula during the first few weeks of her life. The nurses, Filipino nurses at that, insisted on giving formula, claiming that my milk was not enough since Isabelle was diagnosed with newborn jaundice. I can't exactly remember who gave the free set of bottles of enfamil but I vividly remember the nurses giving them. I was mad at myself for breastfeeding Isabelle for only a year and a half.

It was at the height of my frustration that we packed our bags one Sunday in February and brought Isabelle and Ilysse to Laiya, Batangas, to try the supposed therapeutic benefits of seawater. I have read a lot about these benefits. In fact, Andrew's friend, Diday, swore by the efficacy of seawater on her skin condition when I talked to her in 2007.

The moment Isabelle dipped in the sea, the cure was almost instant. The redness went away. She stopped itching. At the start, there was a little discomfort on Isabelle since she said the water stings. But, this did not even last for 10 minutes. It was simply amazing to even think that we only stayed for a couple of hours at Balai Laiya. Since then, we have returned 2 more times, stayed overnight, with Isabelle and Ilysse soaking in seawater for hours. I regretted not heeding Diday's word as early as 2007.

Isabelle's skin is almost back to normal. Her face is clear, the rashes at the back of her knees are totally gone, her stomach is smooth again. Hopefully, we probably would just need one or two more visits to the beach this summer to completely remove the stubborn rashes in Isabelle's arms and neck.

I thank God for those months no matter how frustrating and painful it was for Isabelle because again He showed His immeasurable love and mercy to my daughter.