Quick fix for daily problems

I have been looking at homeopathy recently and hope to offer some interesting comments regarding its efficacy over the next two weeks.

The golden rule is always drink a glass of water with each cup of coffee- Kathryn Borg

However, I would like to start with everyday problems we all moan about and are never quite sure how to solve. These solutions are provided by a registered naturopath, homeopath and herbalist from Harley Street in London.

Too stressed to relax, or overworked; you’ve been on the go all day and need to relax. To relieve stress and tension, make a mixture of herbs using equal amounts of thyme, lavender and fennel. This will calm the nerves and if you are ‘hyper’ it should help you sleep.

For a more effective tea use fresh herbs and steep one teaspoonful in one cup of very hot water for seven minutes. Alternatively, you could buy a collection of herbal teas and mix them together in a teapot.

Perhaps you have drunk too much coffee. This can occurs when you have been stressed throughout the day.

Coffee dehydrates the body, it is a diuretic. After three cups of coffee, the body’s fluid balance becomes disturbed – it is as if you haven’t taken any fluid for six hours.

Often the consequences of being dried out are a deterioration of your powers of concentration. The golden rule is always drink a glass of water with each cup of coffee.

In certain countries coffee is usually served with a glass of water as it has long been known that coffee causes dehydration. How many people find they have a headache when drinking too much coffee?

While staying on the theme of drinking, what if you have over-indulged in alcohol? Fructose or fruit sugar can help before going to sleep.

Sugar speeds up the resorption of alcohol by one third, according to a study by Merle Diamond, of the US National Headache Foundation. This is because fructose competes for the same metabolic pathway as alcohol. Two tablespoonfuls of honey before bed should be sufficient.

Moving on to food. If you have eaten too much acidic food you will feel an over-acidified stomach.

To help ease this, taking one teaspoonful of baking powder (containing baking soda or bicarbonate) in a glass of water, or swallowing a handful of uncooked oats will provide quick relief.

A common habit in today’s busy world is eating too quickly. The usual result of this is the food sitting like a hard rock in your stomach or upper gut.

Dissolving a calcium tablet in half a glass of water, and drinking, should facilitate the stomach’s smooth working while at the same time soothing the stretched lining of your stomach.

Another habit is ‘pigging out’ on fast food, especially when there is no time to prepare healthy food (no excuse, but it happens).

Drink a glass of tomato juice with added hot pepper. This has a dual effect: the lycopene in the tomato will dispose of the fats in the food and the pepper has certain pungent acid amides that pump up the metabolism. You shouldn’t put on weight with this remedy, I am told.

If that scrumptious meal had too much garlic, then you may have garlic breath the morning after.

Chewing on a cardamom seed provides aromatic oils which bind with the garlic’s allicin (the ingredient responsible for the odour from garlic), making the smell soon disappear. If cardamom is not available, chewing on a stick of celery is also successful.

Moving back to feeling stressed and lacking in sleep. We can wake up to a morning ‘fog’ and feel lethargic if sleep was not instantaneous and we had a restless night. This lethargy can be countered by dipping the hands and wrists into ice cold water. The cold is a stimulant and will momentarily increase the blood pressure so you will feel wide awake instantly.

In today’s busy world we sometimes find ourselves talking too much. This can lead to losing the voice or sounding rather hoarse. People who work in a call centre will find themselves continually talking.

Tincture of balm of gilead (Populus candicans) has been recommended and can be found in all good pharmacies.

However, if it isn’t available, drinking a glass of hot lemon juice, sweetened with two tablespoonfuls of honey, followed by sucking on a sage lozenge every two hours is also recommended. There are essential oils in sage and these help keep the vocal cords intact.

Finally, when preparing food we sometimes find ourselves chopping onions, which can leave an ‘oniony’ smell on our hands that takes a long time to eliminate. The solution is to rub some peanut butter into your hands.

They will feel greasy afterwards (and moisturised) but the smell will be gone and you can then wash the peanut butter off with soap and water.

Alternatively, try parsley, but this can leave a greenish hue on the skin for a while.

kathryn@maltanet.net