Muscles and Bones

Throbbing pain in leg or hand

1. Take betal leaf and lime powder and crush them and apply on the affected part

2. Similarly you can also take the juice out of crushing drumstick leaf and salt

3. Take mustard oil and heat it well and add garlic and camphor and store. When ever there is leg pain, massage at sole and at the place where the pain is felt.

4. If pain in leg, take a tub of warm water and keep your legs in it for about 10 minutes

Body pain

1 Fry and powder dry ginger, pepper, thippili, jeera and dhaniya. Separately add palm candy to water and boil. Stain the water and the above powder to it and drink

2 Take 3 tbsp of powdered Jathikkai / nutmerg
Put in 1 cup of sesame oil
Boil and cool
Apply on the affected parts

3 If pain in knee joint or bone joint
Cut the lemon in small pieces
Tie them in a cotton cloth
Dip this in hot gingelly oil
Foment on the affected parts when bearably hot

For all kinds of muscular pain, apply warm mustard oil and massage
Any pain in the body anywhere, apply ice cubes at the affected part

Arthritis

Arthritis is the disease of the affluent. There are three causes to arthritis.

1 Caused by degeneration/wear and tear of the bone due to constant pressure on weight bearing joints like the spine and knees and the resultant structural changes leading to alteration in the tension of ligaments. This is aggravated by fast depleting resources of calcium in the bones by our various wrongful eating habits

2 Physical and emotional stress cause deficiencies in the immune system which in turn starts inflammatory process in the linings of the joints. This results in swelling, ie. the rheumatoid arthritis in the joints of fingers, writs and feet and ankylosing spondylitis affecting our hip and other tendons of our body

3 Inflamatory or infective arthritis known as gout

Arthritis is said to be caused due to
· asthma,
· diabetes,
· obesity,
· mal functioning thyroids,
· living in pollution,
· behavioral rigidity,
· high emotional state,
· unhealthy food habits such as

food rich in carbohydrates and
poor in proteins and calcium,
fried food etc.

Arthritis is the stage when the joints lose their smooth functioning. The joints lock and making mobility difficult and even impossible. With that the patients can’t even attend to their daily chores. The joints generally get affected are the finger joints, wrists, elbow, shoulder, knees, hip, spine, etc.

The treatments are:

· Changing diet and moving over to fruits and vegetables
o Raw potaoto juice therapy
o Massage of mixture of warm coconut and mustard oil added with camphor
o Drinking warm green gram soup mixed with crushed garlic cloves and 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
· Avoiding constipation
· Reducing weight and helping weight bearing joints and ligaments
· Remaining active
· Making joints relaxed through exercises

Exercise is one of the most effective treatment for arthritis. In fact it can also prevent arthritis. When the joints become stiff, it only means that the same have not been exercised or even optimally used. The result of this inactivity is shrinkage at the joints. Then the joints begin to grate at both the ends and then you develop pains. Especially when you get up after a night of inactivity, the pains are more. Do exercises of the affected parts slowly and gently, increase the mobility and increase its range. Help the joints with good healthy diet so that they get the needed raw materials to oil themselves. It may take time, but don’t don’t give up for that is the only remedy.

This much in general. Now let us move on to specific home medicines. There are two kinds of arthritis. They are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The first one is a degenerative joint disease where structural changes occur in weight bearing joints including in spine. The second one affects joints in fingers, wrists, hips, muscles and tendons.

For the first type,

1 Cut medium sized potatoes into thin slices without peeling off the skin
Place the slices in a glass of water overnight
Drink the water in the morning in empty stomach

2 Extract juice out of potato
Dilute with a cup of water and drink it first in the morning

3 Soak 1 tsp sesame seeds in water overnight
Take the water and the seeds first in the morning

4 Take garlic raw or cooked

5 Be on banana diet and nothing else for four days

6 If pain the limbs is due to arthritis
Mix equal quantities of onion juice and warm mustard oil
Apply on the affected areas

7 Mix camphor in warm coconut or mustard oil and used for massage

8 Prepare green gram soup; mix crushed garlic cloves and 1 tsp
fenugreek seeds. Drink every day

9 put some dry ginger in water and boil. Stain and drink that water warm

10 Take mustard oil and heat it well and add garlic and camphor and store. When ever there is leg pain, massage at the place where the pain is felt.

11 Have regular intake of cucumber fruit

12 Take a betal leaf, smear little castor oil on it, warm it and apply

13 Apply lightly roasted leaves of erukku

14 Extract one cup juice from black manathakkali leafs. Add equal amount of gingelly oil, 2 tsp mustard oil and a whole crushed garlic. Boil the mixture till all moisture is gone. Cool and bottle. Frequently apply on the affected parts after warming. Foment with a salt bag – take a small piece of cloth, tie it with two tsp of common salt. That is the salt bag

15 Include in your daily diet, the leaves of carrot

Rheumatism – the second type

For Rheumatic pains

Morning stiffness for an hour or more is very common

1 Regularly massage with neem oil

2 Take a 3 inch piece of dried ginger and grape sized piece of asafoetida
Grind them in milk and make a paste to apply on affected parts
Expose to sun to get warmth and heat

3 Cut a lime into small pieces and pack them in a cotton cloth and dip in hot
gingelly oil . Foment on the affected joints when bearably hot

4 Boil 3 tbsp powdered nutmerg in one cup sesame oil
Cool and apply on affected parts

5 Fry 3 tsp pepper powder in 2 tsp sesame oil till charred
Apply on affected parts when warm

6 Cut medium sized potatoes into thin slices without peeling off the skin
Place the slices in a glass of water overnight
Drink the water in the morning in empty stomach

7 Take mustard oil and heat it well and add garlic and camphor and store. When ever there is leg pain, massage at the place where the pain is felt.
8 Make a paste with ajwain seeds and atta and apply

9 Dissolve 2 tbsp camphor powder in half cup coconut oil. Warm and massage

10 Apply paste of vasambu

11 Apply the milk of the banyan tree

12 Use poultice of seeds or leaves of castor

13 Extract one cup juice from black manathakkali leafs. Add equal amount of gingelly oil, 2 tsp mustard oil and a whole crushed garlic. Boil the mixture till all moisture is gone. Cool and bottle. Frequently apply on the affected parts after warming. Foment with a salt bag – take a small piece of cloth, tie it with two tsp of common salt. That is the salt bag

Osteoarthritis

1. Crush garlic and take along with little sesame oil. Follow it up with one glass warm water. Also fry garlic and take.

2. Mustard oil massage at the relevant places would give some relief. If mustard oil is not available, take raw mustard, add dry ginger and turmeric and grind. Heat the mixture to paste. Apply warm three times, not to apply when there is no pain.


Osteoporasis

You must have seen old women with bent back bones and curved forward. They suffer from osteoporosis in which one’s bones become thin and fragile. It affects even men. It occurs due to calcium loss in body and inactivity. It affects people who have high intake of protein, cigarette, alcohol etc. Inactivity, bed rest, frequent air flights also cause bone loss. Menopause, absence of menstruation and removal of ovaries increase the bone loss. Diabetes and hypo -thyroidsm also increase the bone loss.

Osteoporasis means porus bones. Osteoporosis, caused by calcium depletion results in reduced bone mass, making them brittle and fragile and prone to fractures. It is difficult to treat such fractures because doctors cannot fix clamps and screws since the bone is like a chalk piece, so brittle. The major areas affected are spine, hip and the wrist. In this condition even slight jerk could land you with a fracture. Older people, especially women lose their height due to osteoporasis. Osteoporosis can be linked to many hip, vertebral and wrist fractures that take place with even small accidents.

The only way to prevent osteoporosis is to increase calcium intake and vitamin D [which is necessary to use calcium] coupled with physical exercises. Therefore make sure your food has enough calcium and vitamin D.

You have a bone bank in to which you deposit calcium in the first thirty years and thereafter you start withdrawing. The bigger your account, the more you can draw. In your teens you need to be consuming 1200 mg of calcium every day but generally we don’t. Hence we always carry a poor bank balance for us to withdraw in later years. When teenagers consume things like soft drinks, it draws out right then leaving them with very little deposit.

Those having high blood pressure are more prone to osteoporosis. These patients should consume less salt. Already, ladies after menopause and after 60 years become victims of osteoporosis due to porous bones. And this is speeded up by those having high blood pressure, because high blood pressure causes high drainage of calcium through urine, which cannot be recouped even by intake of good amount of calcium. This makes one to lose density in their bones.

Take more of non-fat curd and dark green vegetables, which can give you calcium. Sesame seeds are a rich source of calcium and have them sprouted and take them frequently. Exposing yourself to sunlight for getting vitamin D is important since it only helps the needed conversion inside your body. Needless to say you need too avoid protein rich diets, salty items, cigarettes alcohol.

Be active and do regular exercises. Exercise regularly and brisk walk for thirty minutes every day. If the muscles are unused, the bones disassemble themselves. Activities like walking also help.

1 Do exercises.
Avoid sitting when you can stand
Avoid driving when you can walk
Have minimum 20 mts walk every day
Do biceps curl, i.e. hold a bench in front of you, curl it to your chest level
Do back extension exercises

2 Take food rich in calcium, such as
Almonds, sesame, beans, fig, green leafy vegetables like cabbage
If taking spinach, take it in small quantity only as it contains oxalic acid which
Affects calcium absorption
Reduce your salt intake

3 Boil 2 tsp coriander powder in a glass of water
Add sugar and milk to taste; take frequently

Sprain

1 Buy almond oil and garlic oil; mix in equal parts and massage

2 Add ½ cup each of ginger powder and baking soda and 1 tsp
eucalyptus oil. Add to hot water and give a bath to the affected area

3 Take lime leaves and make paste; mix with equal quantity of butter
Apply on the affected areas

4 Make a thick lotion of tamarind, add a little salt and turmeric and heat. Apply at the place when heat is bearable

Back Pain


When you are under mental stress, your muscles tighten up as a part of body’s defence system. Than tension can cause your back ache. So do not be afflicted by bad emotions. Drugs are not going to solve your problem. Incase your doctor suggests, surgery, say a firm NO. Get back to cheerful mood. You would become alright. If necessary, try the following home medicine:

Smear ginger paste on the affected area
Over this apply oil of eucalyptus
Give gentle massage

People with bad back, should ask themselves

whether I am having any prolonged sitting all day
whether I work with hunched back say in front of the computer
whether I wear wrong shoes
whether I try to do too much too fast
whether I smoke – it cuts down blood flow to the back

Our spinal column is our life line. Even though it is a vital structure, we often mistreat our back making that to react adversely. Our mistreatments include

· Watching TV sitting in odd pastures
· Not properly warming up before engaging in any sports
· Not walking in proper posture,
· Negative mental conditions in which live day to day
· The body weight we carry around
· Lack of daily exercises
· The day to day work stress and family stress, etc.

So any treatment we attempt should have a combination of focus on body and mind. With proper treatment to body and mind, we can stay free throughout our lives. Check on

the kind of furniture you use
the kind of seats in which you sit and work or travel
the posture you adopt while sitting or standing or walking, etc.
the kind of cushions you use which make you slouch
the kind of mattress you use for sleeping
the kind of footwear you use
the kind of food you eat
the amount of weight you carry around in your body

A hard bed and a firm chair are more good as they enable you to have an upright posture and avoid spinal discomfort. Avoid soft chairs, sloppy desks, cushioned sofas etc. Walk tall but in a relaxed manner. Use comfortable and low healed foot wear. Have good balanced diet high in calcium and protein and low in fat. Keep your weight in check and avoid adding more weight to your vertebra. While lifting anything, always bend at knees before lifting. When you have something heavy to lift:

· Take your full breath first
· Hold your breath while lifting the item
· You would find the weight of the item half gone

We are aware that our back bone consists of a number of discs and depending upon which disc is affected, the nature of our back ache would differ. Thus the back ache suffered by people are not same, but are different from one another. For one it may be spondylitis, for another it may be lumbago and for the third it may be slipped disc.

Low back pain is very common among ladies because they lose their blood during menstruation. It is also common in women following pregnancies because they lose a lot of blood after pregnancy is terminated. Back pain also comes due to obesity and old age, Those who lead sedentary lives and who spend long hours before typewriters and computers, are also good candidates to back pain, if they suffer from lack of exercise. No exercise means stiffness in joints and muscles and so the pain. Thus low back pain is a symptom and not a disease.

In acute stage, follow the doctor’s advice and take bed rest on a firm mattress, mechanical traction, heat or cold treatment, etc. In addition, you can try the following as well:

Take warm water showers
Sit quietly and deep breath for 15 minutes
Please pick up some hobby and devote sometime on that
Meet your favourite people / friends and chat with them
Laugh as much as possible
Listen to light music and enjoy
Take time to enjoy your meals
Really believe you can’t change other people
Avoid hurrying and do things calmly

On the road to total cure, treat yourself with exercises combined with proper relaxation. Don’t ever do the exercises rapidly but do them gently. If you can undergo a course on Yoga and Meditation, you would do very well. Learn also those techniques which you can do at any place and at any time. Dependence on medicines should be avoided and good postures of sleeping, sitting, standing and walking must be adopted.

As already stated under ‘Osteoporosis’, think of our bones as calcium bank. Between ages upto 30, we build our calcium reserves and there ends the deposits and we start withdrawing from the bank subsequently. The loss of calcium increases after menstruation ceases, in women. So we need to replenish our calcium reserves even after 30 years of age through proper diet.

Here is a very useful article on Back pain and self cure. Please read and benefit yourself.

Self-cure for Backaches:
A new prescription
By S.M. Acharya. M.A., B.Com., HDC, GDCA, CAIIB,
(Ex-Mg Director, Coop. Sugar Mills Fedtn.,1960s)



Frequently and repeated attacks of common backaches
are the single biggest cause of absenteeism from
productive work all over the world. It is estimated
that four out of five persons in the world, more so,
sedentary workers and executives at all levels suffer
from those nagging backaches resulting in loss of
millions of man-hours and billions of dollars worth of
production worldwide annually.

It is more common among the professionals especially
at the middle and upper managerial levels. With the
onset of computerization, Internet, etc., more and
more persons are spending long hours sitting in front
of their machines and screens, straining their backs
against the rule of nature, causing damage to their
spinal columns creating nervous troubles and aches and
pains of varied nature.

If timely precautions and curative measures are not
taken, the occasional troubles slowly degenerate into
lumbago, cervical spondylosis and several such
troubles which, if neglected, may turn into
irreparable degeneration of the ligaments and even
cancer of the spine.

The writer too having worked as an executive most of
his working life, suffered from backaches for forty
long years. He had to absent himself from work quite
often, sometimes for weeks together, on account of his
acute backaches; and was prescribed strong allopathic
medicines, pain-killers ointments, belt, traction,
heat therapy and finally was recommended for spinal
operation after the X-ray image showed extensive
degeneration of the spine with no prospects of
becoming a normal person with a normal back doing
normal work.

The condition was so bad that it was difficult to even
turn sides in bed without suffering excruciating pain.
It required literally crawling around to move in the
house or to go into the toilet or enter or alight from
a car. Driving long distances would cause more
trouble. Climbing stairs, gardening, walking or even
sitting at the dinner table, were all very painful.
This limited my normal activities still further,
resulting in over-weight and ultimately heart attack.

But how was it that animals never suffered backaches?
They could run much faster than men and fly long
distances without any trouble at all. That set me
thinking as to what could be done by human beings to
avoid such troubles.

The great Swami Shivananda of Rishikesh, a great yogi
himself, suffered from backaches. While going up hill
to a temple, he could not climb the stairs due to
acute backache. So he walked on all fours and climbed
up the hill and made it to the temple. It came to him
naturally.

Prevention is better than cure and cheaper to. All
animals and birds follow their natural way of eating,
drinking, sleeping, walking and even indulging in sex.
Man is the only animal, a two-legged one of course,
who goes on breaking all rules of nature and natural
behaviour. If man too could follow nature and all
natural rules, he could certainly avoid various
problems, including backaches. This writer did it and
got cured completely.

While it may not be possible to describe all the do’s
and don’ts in a short article for want of space,
interested persons can visit www.atbsnr.com for
details. Readers of ASCENT are also welcome to seek
more information from the author by email to him at
smacharya@yahoo. co.uk free of charge.

Briefly, the technique is a three to five-minute
toning up regimen. After waking up in the morning or
even after an afternoon nap, lie straight on your back
on a relatively hard bed, diwan or sofa with your
palms placed in place of the pillow under your head
facing upwards. Thus the palms support the spine. Then
try to induce natural stressing as if we are taking
what is called in Hindi an “angdai”. This is good for
even those suffering from cervical spondylosis. Don’t
exert. Just do it like an innocent child when he lies
in the lap of his/her mother. If you are already
suffering from backache, it may take a few days to
induce this stretching

Now remaining in that relaxed position, move one foot
clock-wise and the other anti-clockwise without moving
the heels, in a synchronized manner to complete a full
circle and then relax leaving both the feet in their
original place. When you do it in a relaxed manner,
each time when you take the feet apart and relax, you
will start enjoying it very much. It takes hardly a
couple of seconds to complete one round. That means
you are enjoying every two or three seconds. Repeat
this ten times or more if you have the time.

Next, do the same in the reverse direction. Doing ten
times hardly takes half-a-minute. Then take the legs
six to ten inches apart, as apart as you feel
comfortable. Then jerk up both feet together, keeping
the heels on the bed only. That will make both the
knees rise up slightly, feet working as lever. Then
strike the knees together, quickly but without force.
Then jerk back the feet effortlessly to their original
position. The knees will automatically fall down where
they were. Repeat this enjoying the relaxation it
gives. Do it playfully as many times as you enjoy.

Then finally, draw both the feet to the middle of the
bed so that the knees would also rise up; just like
when we draw our legs towards us when reading a book
lying on the bed. Now lift up the feet from heels to
toes but keeping the heels stay put in their place.
Then strike the knees together without force. Stay for
a second. Then drop the feet back to their place with
slight thud. This is highly relaxing for leg muscles
and for the mind to unwind from tiredness. Repeat ten
times or more.

The entire relaxing technique described above, takes
two or three minutes. Thereafter, start taking your
feet slowing downwards towards the end of the bed to
make them straight, thinking only that you are
stretching from head to toe in a straight line to grow
taller and taller. When fully stretched, then take a
deep breath, keeping your palms under the head all the
time. After fully inhaling, induce the same “angdai”
effortlessly. Then turn sideways and get up. If you
have neck pain, then put your palms behind the head.
breath in, raise your heels a bit as if you are
standing on the toes just for a second, take ‘angdai’
and start walking straight.

This way you can keep your posture straight throughout
your life without stooping as many aged people do. It
will keep you free from most aches and pains of the
spine and the joints as long as you live. What more a
human being could pray for?

Hence, the new good health slogan for the new
millennium is:
“Three minutes a day?;
Keep the doctor away.”
And,
When ever you are too tired, just lie down and do
this 3-minute stretching to come out
“Fresh-like-a- flower’ each and every time.

Doing this routin daily will find you a rejuvenated
person. There is a short 20-minute video film
demonstrating the exercises and explaining other
details that can also be screened at free demo camps
if Rotarians/Lions/ Senior Citizens’ clubs and other
establishments employing large number of people, could
organize such free backache-cure camps to make their
members and other citizens Backache-free;


Computer diseases

The infotech industry has virtually taken over many towns and villages and use of computer in homes has already become the norm. Now lots of people sit bunched up before their computers and work or play long hours at the computer. With this sustained and prolonged sitting before computers, instances abound of such people developing physical problems as under:

· backache
· neck and shoulder problems
· pain in wrists and hands
· sometimes stiffness and cramps
· severe eye problems

People who use computers should maintain neutral posture free from awkward positions and postures and avoid bending. The precautions to be taken to avoid eye problems are discussed in the chapter on ‘Eye’.

Back ache

1 Smear ginger paste on the affected area
Over this apply oil of eucalyptus
Gentle massage

Pain in the hips

1 Extract coconut milk and cook fenugreek leaves and contents of an egg in it
Eat 3 times a day

2 Mix some heeng powder to water and drink
3 Make rasam out of murungai leaf and take. Make rasam by putting the leaves to water added with tamarind juice and salt to taste and boil. After good boiling, put into it paste of pepper, jeera and chillis and boil once more.

Pain in the joints --- Also for Rheumatic pains

1 Take a 3 inch piece of dried ginger and grape sized piece of asafoetida
Grind them in milk and make a paste to apply on affected parts
Expose to sun to get warmth and heat

2 Cut a lime into small pieces and pack them in a cotton cloth and dip in hot
gingelly oil . Foment on the affected joints when bearably hot

3 If pain in limbs due to arthritis, mix onion juice and warm mustard oil in equal
Quantity and apply on the affected parts

4 Grind dry ginger and apply


Pain in nail corners

Powder alam and put in hot water and keep your finglers in it


Muscular Pain

1 Warm the Papaya leaf over the fire and apply on the affected part

2 Heat ginger paste and turmeric paste [1:1] and apply

3 If pain in leg, apply the relaxant on the sole and rub to create heat