For information on BPH, Prostatitis, Malaria, and Diabetes Treatments,, and just a little more "enlightened" version of medicine, click here for "Reflections of a Medicine Man", by Peter Singfield. For information on Peter Singfield, aka "Snakeman," and his medicinal practice, click here. For information on alternative medicine in Belize, and Bush Medicine, click here. For information on Cascabel treatments, click here. Four Case Examples of Cascabel Treatments, click here. For information on Coconut oil, and its medicinal properties, click here. In the USA and Canada there is a lot of problem about menopause, but studies around the world have shown those cultures that are vegetarian, the women do not suffer through menopause. It is non-existent. Osteoporosis as you get older can become a problem and taking calcium supplements of little help, because it is passed right through the body without being used. But did you know that the Avocado of Belize is a converter of calcium so it can be absorbed and utilized by the body? If you mix avocado and yogurt, or with cottage cheese, you will get your calcium and be able to use it in your body as well. Black pepper also contains four anti-osteoporosis compounds. Try it with your bean soup. Click here for one great recipe for chaya -- the world ultimate health food that nobody knows about. Also some general information about chaya. Overweight people in Belize should try the plantain. Three grams of plantain in water 30 minutes before meals will make you lose weight. The ingredient is psyllium. Just mix up some plantain with water and take it before a meal. It is the seeds that are important here. Parkinsons Disease can be cured with the Fava bean ( vicia faba ). The bean produces a compound called L-dopa. It corrects the imbalance in the brain between dopamine and acetylcholine. The drug companies regularly prescribe L-dopa for Parkinsons Disease. Beans are a hell of lot cheaper than drugs. Not only that the Fava Bean is richer in L-dopa than the standard commercial drug. You will get gas though and have to work up to where your digestion becomes tolerant. The big drug for Prostrate enlargement is Proscar. Yet herbal treatments have been proven in scientific clinical trials to be far more effective. The herbs are saw palmetto, licorice and pumpkin seeds. Make yourself a kind of herbal butter to use. A doctor in the USA at the FDA bet the organization he could cure prostrate problems better with herbs and won. They still recommend the manufactured drug though. Scabies is a skin itch you can pick up from a microscopic mite. I think my dogs have it right now. Will have to do something about it. There are a variety of cures with herbs, but the easiest in Belize is onions. You boil the onions for a half hour and then use this quart of water to apply it liberally over the body were you have scabies. It kills the mites. The extract that works is called quercetin. Aloe is of course good for lots of skin diseases. Burns and scabies too. Aloe grows well in Belize. I suffered for years from sinus attacks. Until I turned vegetarian. Garlic and echinacea are the herbs for sinus. Oregano and Ginkgo also good. Horseradish and Eucalyptus also excellent. Got a Chinese Restaurant that makes a mean mustard. Just a titch of that, breaks me out in sweat, drink glasses and glasses of water and you can feel it burning it's way through the cavities in your head. I believe they take the standard Chinese mustard and pep it up with horse radish or something. But that sucker really kills sinus in fifteen minutes. Sinus is an inflammation of the surrounding nasal cavities and boney spaces. Usually, the infection is a mucus bacteria, such as haemophilus, pneumococcus, stphylococcus, or streptococcus. Try the herbs man as hot as you can stand. Works fast and all natural herbs. Tiger Balm is available at Augusto Quans in Belize City the port. That sucker works great too, if you stick it up your nose. It is made up of aromatic herbs. That Tiger Balm will also cure burns. One time I had the Quan family out to St. Georges Caye on my old Atoll Queen on a charter and I was flying a spinnaker and the thing went wild in a hard wind and the rope flew through my hands leaving me in five minutes with many swollen blisters, too tender to touch or use my hands. Full of water. Benito Quan, put Tiger Balm on the blisters and in 20 minutes the pain was gone and the blisters were calloused and hard as rock. No problema! Aloe is the all round treatment for almost any skin problems. This plant is available in Belize, but not common for some reason. It has to be cultivated and there is even a market for it. For export. Sties around the eye, are an annoyance and often effect children and teenagers. You know the ordinary potato? Take scrapings of potato from inside, put them on a piece of clean cloth and touch it to the stie. Repeat a few times. The swelling will go down. Never squeeze a stie, the infection spreads. Garlic being an important anti-biotic is also excellent. If you eat a dozen cloves chopped up, you will fix the sties also. Stroke is common. There are two basic types. Those with clots and those that burst blood vessels. The first type is most common and can be treated with herbs easily. Again garlic as it is not only an anti-biotic but is a anti clotting agent. Pineapple also helps as it has bromelain and breaks down proteins. It works as a blood anti-clotting herb. I suspect Tuberculosis is common in the high rain forest damp communities of the Toledo District. Echinacea, garlic, licorice, eucalyptus and onion, all fight TB. In fact there is on record a sanitorium where the patients cured TB by eating raw onions. The Mayan farmers do not plant any of these things as far as I know, so it would be a worthwhile project for an Agricultural extension officer to introduce these herbs to the Mayan remote villages. Doctors cannot cure viral infections. They have to be left to run their course. But you can build your immune system as Peter says. Again, garlic, eucalyptus which contains hyperoside, quercitrin and tannic acid all which have virus killing properties. Ginger also works and the Mexican herbal peddlars sell that. For information on cacao, and how it was used by the Maya, click here for more by Peter, the medicine man....If you really want a source for herbal medicine, including tropical medicine from Belize, Panama and Costa Rica and around the world. Try this web site from a doctor who worked on various projects and did many herbal collections during his life. http://www.ars-grin.gov/~ngrlsb/. Books of interest are The CRC Handbook of Alternative Cash Crops for the Tropics, also the Amazonian Ethnobotanical Dictionary, The Green Pharmacy by James A. Duke, Ph.d. The National Library Service will probably have them, and also the Agricultural College and if not they can get them free through a request to USAID, Washington, 25, D.C., USA. Papaya is noted as one of the best all round fruits for indigestion and ulcers. It produces the enzyme papain when it is green and the latex is collected and shipped abroad for meat tenderizers and making beer among many uses. The ripe papaya in Belize is great with crushed ice, and mashed with a fork to a pulpy consistency, then a liberal dose of Condensed Milk from Europe poured over the bowl makes a delicious desert and you do something for your general health at the same time. Camomile Tea is also good for an upset stomach. There is a tincture in it tested by the Germans in clinical trials that attests to that. Also peppermint tea is good too. Commission E the equivalent in Germany of the Food and Drug Administration in the USA is very open to herbal medicines and have scientifically tested in clinical trials most of the known worlds herbal remedies. They have an extensive library on it. Licorice for instance is recommended by Commission E of Germany for ulcer treatments. It has several anti-ulcer compounds including glycyrrhizic acid. They are also safe for use in normal amounts. But longer than six weeks can have side effects. Nothing serious. Banana is also a recommended anti-ulcer fruit found more widely in Miami than in Belize where it is produced. Garlic of course is well known for a variety of cures. Here is one I bet you never heard of. You can cure Vaginitis with garlic, superior to any antibiotic or over the counter treatment sold in Drug Stores in the USA. Which for the most part are ineffectual and harm the immune system making you susceptible to new recurring infections. You peel a clove of garlic, so it has no nicks and wrap in a gauze bandage with a clean string attached and insert in the vagina like a tampon. Put a fresh garlic clove in your vagina for six nights in a row. Most times this will cure any yeast infection. Vaginitus is a doctors get rich scheme. It accounts for more than 50% of all visits for gynecological problems. Most of which reoccur if you continue to use drugstore and prescription medicines. Garlic is also great against funguses. In fact, for athletes foot, or jock itch, just rub with a cut garlic clove. Superior to the powders you buy for $5 a pop at the drugstore. Another treatment for vaginitus is Teatree oil ( Melaleuca ) there are different species. Not sure what the Belize name is for this tree. You do not take this stuff in the mouth. Just make a cream or douche or tampon with 2 or 3 drops in a tablespoon of yogurt and soak a tampon in it. Insert this as normal. Teatree oil is poisonous if ingested through the mouth. Used widely in Australia. Naturopathic physicians recommend pure bromelain to reduce inflammation and swelling. But did you know that pineapple contains bromelain an enzyme that helps break down protein. And we have pineapple in Belize. Drinking pineapple juice will help. Bromelain is most effective injected into swollen tissue. Caribbean Rum and Barcadies is famous for giving you Goma, the headache. Especially again when the next day's sun hits you. Guatemalans use juices or teas of red roselle. Though the fruit of the tamarind will work just as well for hangover. What you need is a high fructose honey. A vegetable fruit cocktail with hot pepper sauce ( which contains the pain killer capsaicin) is great for hangover. Even onion soup is high in fructose. This is just a sugar. The Koreans use ginseng root, a herb they have. Just plain honey in your morning tea will work almost as good as anything for a hangover from Caribbean Rum. Course you could switch to Travellers One Barrel and skip the whole hangover syndrome. For heart problems, vegetable soup made of garlic, onions, ginger and hot red pepper works to reduce blood clotting. The garlic and onion also reduce cholesterol and blood pressure. Stick any other seasonal vegetables in there and skip meat and you will be the healthier for it. For more Home Remedies of the Past, click here! For Bush Medicine of Belize and Central America, click here! 
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