Home Herbs for Health

Medicine & Longevity: Has modern science increased the longevity in human being?

The answer is yes and no. There is no doubt that advancement in diagnoses procedures, operations and drugs have increased the average life thro

ughout the world. However that is not to say that individual people did not live long in early civilisation periods. The history witnesses that people all over the world had lived to long life. Every-one of us want to live a healthy long life but the question is do we practice principles of leading a long life. God has created our anatomy to live a long life provided we believe and follow natural principles. Some medicine experts have written books about ‘Food Cures All’ and others have reminded us about daily exercise to keep ourselves fit and healthy. People who lived long in the past applied these two important elements of health maintenance through their routine rather than through understanding. It was social norm to call a person idle if he did not work and they did not earn respect in the community being idle.

Food was grown through manual efforts by digging soil with spades, ploughing fields with horses and bullocks. How much exercise was done to plough once acre of land following horse plough from morning till evening. What used to be our daily breakfast wholemeal bread/Chapattis, bowl of yogurt, fresh butter and buttermilk. Tea /coffee were not used by farm workers. Farmers used natural manure of horse/cow dung or green plants which were ploughed back in the soil to create rich natural manure. We had no motor cars. All journeys to visit relatives, friends and shopping were done on foot. Hunting and fishing were necessities rather than entertainment. Herbs and roots of plants were collected, preserved and were used to treat various ailments. Some individual used herbal teas for prevention and cure for headache, fever, digestion, cold and cough.

I am now 86 years old and it reminds me as to how my mother lived to 95 years old having given birth to 9 children all born at home without the help of a doctor. I am the 8^th child after 5 elder sisters and two brothers. My father was honorary magistrate and member of District Board Jalandhar during British Raj. He was very strict father and died at the age of 72 with heart attack. My mother on the other-hand was a house wife and very gentle, considerate and hardworking lady. There was some help available in the village although she did most of the household work her-self while bringing up the entire family. One remarkable thing that she never went to a Doctor during her life time. She died in 1990 at the age of 95 at home without any suffering. My father always visited Doctors and Hakims (herbalists) although my mother’s doctor was her own chest of kitchen herbs. She used herbal tea for headache, cold and constipation a combination of rose petals, fennel and black cardamom. For nausea and sickness she used ginger and clove tea. And for Stomach ache she used Ajwain. Try Fennel ,ginger and Pepper mint tea twice a day for 3 days for wet and dry cough, you will be amazed with its result.

Fennel Rose petals Ajwain Ginger Cloves

My favourite tea for cough is combination of Fennell, mint, liquorice, ginger and honey.