Mama’s Home Remedies

So many beautiful names

Mother Nature, the biggest in the world manufacturer of natural medications, is winning the competition with creative minds of the pharmaceutical companies. Theophrastus, Greek philosopher and a student of Aristotle and Dioscorides (circa 372-287 B.C.) wrote Medicinal Matters, in which he prescribed the experiences of ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians and the use of 600 plants or herbs. His book was translated into Latin with the name Materia Medica and served as a guide to doctors and pharmacists for fifteen centuries. From that time Latin names of herbs have become well known and used throughout European countries and almost everywhere in the world. Names of herbs, trees and other plants mentioned in Materia Medica are inimitable in its beauty. They don’t confuse people,  sound or look similar, and have different spelling.  What is a problem with names of the drugs produced today by pharmaceutical companies?  Why they are so confusing not only to patients, but to the doctors too?

Recently I spoke with Mary, 84 years old woman,  one of my neighbors. She suffers from arthritis pains, especially during night time. She told me that doctor prescribed her Celebrex.  Suddenly she said, ” I am not sure if I’ll start taking Celexa because it’s a very strong drug.”

“Mary, I am getting confused. Did your doctor prescribed to you Celebrex or Celexa?” I asked her. “I don’t think he gave you prescriptions for both medications.” Mary looked at me and continued, “What is the difference? I think it’s the same medication.”

“Of course, it is not the same medication, dear.”  (more…)

Even a small duck knows...

by Svetlana Konnikova

If you want to keep yourself healthy and protect your body from major sicknesses like heart disease, stroke, and cancer, obesity, early aging, and respiratory problems, eat as many certified organic, fresh vegetables and fruits, as you can. They can be your best non-prescription drugs and natural supplements.

These gifts of Nature are rich in antioxidants, in vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, and contain an amazing mineral, selenium, that protects cell membranes from free radicals. As you know, free radicals are harmful metabolic byproducts that damage irreparably tissues and cells throughout your body.  Some greens like green cabbage and broccoli, are rich in anti-cancer compounds and have medicinal effect, but there are other great greens that you can use and prepare your delicious, healthy meals or squeeze fresh juices.

What are these green superfoods (vegetables) recommended by medical and nutrition experts?

(more…)

Amber Smith, Health and Fitness editor of the Post-Standard newspaper in Syracuse, New York, recently posted an interesting article in her blog. It is called “Fair Food: Step up and Match the Calories to the Fair Food.” She writes that for many of us the State Fair is about food, and gives as an example, the New York State Fair. She also created a quiz to the readers to check what they know about the nutritional difference between the meals they eat at the Fair. I am sure, a lot of people who are concerned with a healthy lifestyle, know the nutritional difference between beef hamburger and  steamed veggies.  Some they will eat hamburger instead of green salad anyway.

I asked one young women at the State Fair in Florida why she did not buy any meals with fruits and vegetables, but instead ordered a big, fat hamburger. She answered, “Because hamburger is  a real food. My body craves to have it! I am not worried if I’ll gain a little weight?! At least I don’t feel hungry.” She not alone, unfortunately. 

Did you see the crowds of people visiting State Fairs around the country?  State Fairs are organized for families and children to have good time, to feel community spirit and eat there well. Who can blame people for that?  Tons of fried, baked, cooked and whipped fat foods are traditionally displayed and offered for your enjoyment.  Do you know how many calories you load into your body when you eat a hot dog, grilled Italian pork or chicken sausage; the cornbeef sandwich or a smoked turkey leg? Some people do calculate these calories. Some don’t bother because they just got tired of crunching these numbers instead of having fun during the weekend. (more…)

Eating every day fresh, organic fruits and vegetables can help you keep yourself healthy and away from time-consuming and expensive visits to your doctor. Research has shown that keeping a healthy, well-balanced diet and eating at least 5-7 fruits and vegetables a day can significantly reduce your health problems, including heart disease, stroke, cancer and other chronic diseases.

As the most important part, your daily diet with fruits and vegetables, will give you many other health benefits. It’ll help you to reduce unwanted fat and calories consumption. It will increase your vitamin and fiber intake and support your efforts to maintain your normal, healthy weight. Start eating fresh organic fruits and vegetables and buy them at the farmer’s market. If you don’t have this chance, you can substitute fresh produce with frozen. Don’t think that frozen fruits and vegetables are not good as fresh. Some of them are even better and keep more vitamins because they are frozen as soon after picking from the fields or gardens. Dried fruits are good option, too.

Keeping a healthy, green diet doesn’t mean that you have to give up eating your favorote foods. It’s all about your mindset. To understand what you are going to eat and drink, to decide on variety of the right foods and set up the right portions daily shouldn’t be a difficult task, but only your desire to achieve your goal to prevent sicknesses and  keeping yourself healthy. Make a plan and stick to it.

(more…)

Yesterday I discovered Little Green Blog, a wonderful resource for information relating to the environment, healthy living, and natural remedies.  It describes a UK-based family’s efforts to live a green, safe and natural lifestyle. 

The author, ”Mrs. Green,” was kind enough to post about both this blog and my book.  An excerpt:

Following on from my three natural remedies for burns yesterday, I came across a great blog by Svetlana Konnikova, who is author of a great book ‘Mama’s Home remedies’.

Home remedies and the healing powers contained witin some of nature’s gifts is one of my passions. Did you know that Little Miss Green has never taken any prescribed or over-the-counter medication in her life?  [ Read the rest of her post on the LGB website. ]

Many thanks to Mrs. Green, not just for the kind words about MHR, but also for maintaining such a lively, invaluable blog filled with useful information and delightful anecdotes.

People and Nature

 by Svetlana Konnikova

HealthNewsDigest.com ((North Andover, Massachusetts) recently published an article “Tips for Trading Out Conventional Products for Natural Medicines.” As more and more Americans turn to “greener” options to meet their family needs, the article states, they should not forget to take a closer look in their medicine cabinets. Is it a discovery or just a statement? If you have any minor health problem, don’t you look at first in your medicine cabinets to find some helpful medicine before you rush to your doctor? Of course, you do. It’s important to have there right stuff.

I thought our ancestors have been looking for “greener” options many centuries before that. No doubts, many common natural medicines can replace the older, more conventional versions and provide you with an option of a natural and effective treatment. I am not sure you can find many of them in your medicine cabinet. Do your own research, pre-planning stock there your chosen natural medicines or make them yourself.

Open your medicine cabinet. Take a closer look. What do you have inside? Probably you have many common medicines and a set of the First Aid too. According to the above mentioned article, you should “replace the older more conventional versions with many common medicines.”

It was also suggested that one proven alternative is homeopathy to turn to “greener” options. Is it a safe and affordable method to the relief of common problems without worry of side-effects? Are they organic, 100 % natural? For many years various explanations have been proposed as to how homeopathy might work. However, none of these explanations have been scientifically verified. Do you know what homeopathy is all about and what it can do for you? (more…)

Powerful veggies

The beetroot is really a universal panacea. The French call it lovingly as Bonbon de Nature (Nature’s Candy). The Russians use for the beet a word “svekla,” sounding like a pretty woman’s name. In my previous post, Kitchen Pharmacy: Beets Are Your Buddies, I described many benefits the beets can provide us.
Today I write again about this superfood for people who still don’t want to accept it.
My grandmother (herbalist and healer) introduced me to this veggie when I was two years old. At this age she started giving me in the mornings one teaspoon of freshly squeezed beet juice mixed with carrot juice. I still love organic beets. I mix them with the apples, baby carrots, celery and ginger and create fresh and tasteful homemade juices, salads, appetizers, soups, including the famous Russian borscht.
Discover the best kept secret of red beets; the ancient doctors’ findings, and what scientific studies and research, conducted around the world conclude. Now it’s your time to learn how to make delicious, healthy meals not only with the beetroot, but with other powerful veggies and fruits. It’ll help you to prevent many diseases or to heal naturally.

 I met different people who grew up here, in the U.S.A. They never tried the beetroot, but they are very confident about hating this vegetable. How you can hate something if you even did not try it? Good question. What an “iron” logic I have to say! I don’t know what these veggies did to deserve such a hatred? So I asked Kami McBride, herbalist and founder of the Living Awareness Institute in California (www.livingawareness.com) to share with the readers her experience and knowledge about this powerhouse veggie. Kami has taught herbal medicine since 1988. She has helped thousands of people to learn how to use herbs in their daily lives, and understand that whole foods and herbal medicine are an important aspect of everyone’s preventive health care plan. (more…)

Beets: Your Buddies!

 by Svetlana Konnikova

Red beets have been known as powerful food and medicine for many centuries. Ancient physicians knew them for healing intestinal complaints, anemia, fever, nettle rash and many other ills. Our great-grandmothers, grandmothers knew about health benefits of beets too. Our mothers know about it today.

Modern science has confirmed what the ancients knew–that beets, preferably organic, contain a number of biogenetic acids which increase peristalsis of the intestines, betain, which helps break down protein, and also helps form choline, which improves liver vitality.

Do you want to keep your yourself and your family healthy and prevent illnesses? Make these amazing fresh juices which will purify your blood and detoxify your body better than any heavily advertised “Detox” pills. Use only organic fruits and vegetables.

• Blood Purifier Juice

1 medium size raw beet

1 cup baby carrots

Make at least three times a week 1/2 glass fresh beet juice mixed with 1/2 glass of fresh carrot juice and drink it before breakfast.

• Rejuvenation Juice

1 medium size beet

1/2 cup baby carrots

1 leaf kale

1 leaf collard

1 celery stick

several stems parsley leaves

a small piece ginger root

1 Granny Smith apple

Run all ingredients through a juicer, and voila! You made a delicious fresh juice. Enjoy! Do it during one month and you’ll see how step by step you’ll loose weight and fat will disappear around your waist. Your skin will glow. You will look refreshed, so don’t be afraid to look in a mirror.

There is another benefit for people suffering hypertension. BBC News reported, a  British study found that drinking at least one glass of fresh beet juice may lower your blood pressure within one to four hours after drinking it. The fundings  about this natural treatment were published online in the journal Hypertension.

Beetroot is a universal panacea. It has a very pretty French name, “Bonbon de Nature,” which means “Nature’s Candy” in English. 

• Bonbon de Nature (pure beetroot juice)

Two-three medium size beets (washed, skin removed, cut on cubes)

Four-five green beetroot leaves (washed and cut)

Run the beets and the leaves through a juicer. In 10 minutes you have a delicious  homemade the beetroot juice. Drinking fresh, homemade beetroot juice or consuming other 4-5 vitamin-rich vegetables a day might be a simple way to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system.

• Our family recipe, Red Wheels Salad.

This absolutely fabulous and nutritious salad is so easy to make. You can include it in your lunch or dinner menu. Eating three to five ounces of cooked beets before breakfast, helps with constipation, liver diseases and indigestion.

• Cook two medium organic red beets (skin on) in two cups water until soft. Cool, peel and grate them. In a bowl, combine the beets with two cloves crushed garlic, two tablespoons chopped walnuts and a pinch of sea salt. Add two tablespoons organic nonfat sour cream, vegetable mayonnaise or olive oil. Mix the salad and enjoy! You can use raw beets instead of cooked. It is even healthier.

I spoke with many people about beets and they told me that they don’t like beets . Unfortunately they were never introduced in a proper way to this amazing vegetable. All they remember is a glass jar  with cooked beets which their Mom bought in a grocery store and used as a garnish or an addition to soups. These mass-produced beets are not real beets, but processed ‘dead’ vegetables. If you will try fresh, organic beets, you’ll have a great, new and healthy experience.

• Run them through the juicer and make fresh juice.
• Steam them, let cool and use as a side dish together with other vegetables
• Make a Cool Red Salad. Grind 2 raw beets, add 1 tablespoon olive oil, squeeze a half of lemon. Mix all ingredients and eat. 

It is proven by many European doctors for centuries that the best kept secret of red beets is their ability to prevent and treat tumors, in addition to diuretic, laxative, anti-inflammatory and pain reducing benefits. Thus, get to know these wonderful vegetables, test the benefits they can provide. Beets are our buddies, don’t ignore them!

Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

You can find more healthy recipes in the book, Mama’s Home Remedies, ISBN:978-0-9791758-2-4

If you wish to use copyrighted material or articles from this blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’ or  republish it, please credit as follows: by Svetlana Konnikova, MA, AN

Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

Mama’s Home Remedies has been nominated in Health/Wellness and Multicultural Non-Fiction categories for the 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

Vividly descriptive and nurturing, this ultimate natural home remedies book will help you change the way you live and think about life’s dilemma–how to improve and maintain your health and happiness for many years to come. Colorfully written with all-inclusive artist’s palette, Mama’s Home Remedies presents to the reader a spectacular kaleidoscopic tapestry woven of centuries-old herbal remedies, timeless techniques and concepts, intellectual rigor and joyfully recounted anecdotes and folk tales, women’s wisdom, family values and traditions, artistically rendered illustrations and an abundance of humor–all that we hold sacred in life.

Many years ago Mama would gather “the girls” (medical professionals like she was) for tea each Friday in her fragrant, blossoming garden in Moldova. Under a canopy of trees filled with birdsong they’d strengthen their bond of friendship and share stories of the success they’d achieved using natural remedies to treat and heal their patients and neighbors. As each woman recounted her experience, Mama’s daughter, 12 year-old Svetlana, sat attentively on a bench recording in her journal “recipes” for teas, tinctures, infusions and poultices.

Mama’s Home Remedies is a collection of the abundant knowledge of natural health and healing that the young Svetlana garnered in Mama’s tea garden, interwined with her Grandmother’s fairy tales, family vignettes, legends and herbal lore. Filled with easy-to-make, natural healing recipes for common ailments and illnesses–such as allergies, headaches, stress, fatigue, insomnia, asthma, and respiratory problems–this all-encompassing guide to wellness offers a holistic approach that blends alternative treatments with folklore, psychology, philosophy, and spirituality to foster optimal health and joyful living.

The Indie Book Awards Contest was established to recognize and honor the most exceptional independently published books in 70 different categories for the year and is presented by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group in cooperation with Marilyn Allen of Allen O’Shea Literary Agency in New York.

According to Catherine Goulet, Awards Administrator, along with the other Finalists, author Svetlana Konnikova, MA, AN achievement will be published at www.IndieBookAwards.com

Mama’s Home Remedies is listed as a Finalist in the 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Awards catalog which will be distributed at Book Expo America in Los Angeles later this month.

Contact us at info@aurorapublishers.com for a sample copy or Press Kit. Complete information is available in downloadable Press Kit in the Media Room at www.aurorapublishers.com

 by Svetlana Konnikova

If you life is empty and you have nothing to do in your spare time, you become bored and mislabel your condition as stress. And indeed, being bored can lead to distress. Stimulate yourself intellectually. Maintain a consistent process of self-improvement and you will find your life is full. The remedies for boredom are simple:

• Don’t devote too much of your time to watching TV. Its alarming drama can add to your tension.
• Read an interesting story or an uplifting article and stimulate your imagination.
• Keep a rendezvous with a friend. Meet for lunch every week and communicate.
• Indulge your interests by doing to the theater, a concert or art exhibition.
• Choose what you like and make it part of your relaxation regime.
• Read a good book and satisfy your soul’s starvation.
• Form a book club and meet with other people once a week to read and critique a short story or book.
• Go to conferences and meet other people to boost your intellect.
• Listen to music or discuss the latest news events with your family or friends.
• Exchange your ideas and broaden your scope of interests.
• Every day explore new impressions and acquire new knowledge.
• Plant seeds in your garden and watch them grow.
• Select flowers to fill a beautiful bouquet.
• Keep fresh cut flowers and plants in your house. They will greet you every morning and will bring beauty to your life, along with freshness, fragrance, good feelings and a fine mood.
• Allow yourself to take time off from your responsibilities, relax and have fun!

Don’t have enough time? You are not alone complaining about it. Here is a solution: give yourself a gentle push past your inertia to satisfy your soul’s desires.

Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.