Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living (25 page)

The third night, the youngest tsar’s son, Tsarevich Ivan, assumed his post in the garden to watch for the firebird. He sat under the apple tree as his older brothers had done the previous two nights. For the first several hours, nothing happened. All was quiet until suddenly the garden was illuminated by a brilliant golden light.

The firebird soared into the garden, her eyes sparkling like two faceted crystals, her wings streaming golden flames. She lit on a branch of the apple tree and began to tug at and pluck the juicy apples. Tsarevich S chapter

leeping B title

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Ivan stole up quietly and tried to catch her, but the firebird was strong and he wasn’t able to hold on to her, even as he clasped her magnificent tail in both of his hands. The firebird tore herself from his grasp, leaving behind only one incredibly beautiful feather in his hands.

In the morning Ivan met with his father and gave him the firebird’s feather. The tsar was pleased that finally one of his three sons had succeeded if not in catching the firebird, at least in getting one of her feathers. He brought this feather into his royal chamber and instantly the entire palace glowed as though lighted by thousands of radiant candles.

From that time on, the firebird never again returned to the garden, but the tsar had become obsessed by his desire to have her in his palace. To make a long story short, I can tell you briefly that the tsar’s three sons had many adventures in their quest for the firebird. Tsarevich Ivan met a gray wolf which served him as a mighty stead and he fell madly in love with a beautiful princess named Elena. He eventually captured the firebird, put her in a golden cage, and set off with Princess Elena to his father’s palace. But the way to his homeland was a long journey, and the two lovers with the firebird, stopped to rest near the forest and fell asleep. As they slept, Ivan’s jealous brothers killed him, stole the firebird and his magic horse with the golden mane, kidnapped his beautiful bride, and arrived at the tsar’s palace as great heroes. But this would not be a fairy tale if it didn’t have a happy ending.

So here’s what happened next. Tsarevich Ivan lay dead for 30

days until his friend, the gray wolf, found him and sprinkled his body with the water of life. Tsarevich Ivan stood up in a twinkle of an eye.

“I have slept for a long time,” he said.

“Yes,” answered the wolf, “you would have slept forever if I had not brought you back to life.”

Then he told him how his brothers had slain him. In a fairy tale, truth and justice always prevail, so Ivan’s brothers could not believe their eyes when they saw Tsarevich Ivan alive. They lost their peace of mind and became sick with insomnia. They never could fall asleep at night anymore.

Meanwhile Tsarevich Ivan was blessed with a sound

and healthy sleep forevermore. He married the beautiful

Elena … and, of course, they lived happily ever after.

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If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there
and worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep.

—Dale Carnegie (1855–1955),
How to Win Friends and Influence People ƒ

Health is the first muse, and sleep is the condition to produce it.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), American poet and essayist
ƒ

A well-spent day brings happy sleep.

—Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519), Florentine artist and scientist
ƒ

Sleep . . . peace of the soul, who puts test care to flight.

—Ovid (43 B.C.–A.D. 18), Latin poet

ƒ

There is a fullness of all things, even of sleep and of love.

—Homer (700 B.C.), Greek poet, author of
The Iliad and The Odyssey Sleeping Beauty @ 173

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When Your Head Is Swimming

Nature is not a competition. It doesn’t really matter, when you go out,
if you don’t identify anything. What matters is the feeling heart.

—Richard Adams (b.1920), British writer

FACTS

How large is the problem of fatigue? According to a recent Department of Health and Human Services report entitled “Reasons for Visiting Physicians,”

a staggering 14 million Americans go to the doctor complaining of exhaustion. Add to that uncounted millions who seek medical advice for other reasons but also mention significant exhaustion. There are millions more who seek help but are nonetheless tired all the time. It becomes clear that fatigue is one of the major health problems in America. Many years ago in Alameda County, California, only 6 percent of the adult population qualified as energetic and healthy.30

“Generally speaking, the dictionary defines
fatigue
with equally incomplete substitutes such as tiredness, lassitude, exhaustion, ennui, burnout, and/or boredom. Some few larger lexicons go beyond this synonym chanting. When they do, fatigue and energy are somehow related. As energy goes down, fatigue goes up! According to the International Classification of Diseases, fatigue is now recognized as a sovereign syndrome with its own distinctive designation (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), its abbreviation (CFS), and its own number (780.7).”31

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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