Help Yourself & Help Others

Aging has its moments of good and bad.

You feel good when someone offers you a seat in the bus or train. Ah, that person is well-brought up and respects the elderly......you think as you sink gratefully onto the vacated seat.

You feel bad when you look at the delicious variety of alluring desserts and drool. No, you can't have any because you are diabetic, or your cholesterol level is too high. Looking at the youngsters wolving down the fragant french fries sends your spirits diving to a new low.

Gone are the days when you were just like them, eating anything and everything that took your fancy. These days, when someone sends you an email sharing a morsel of what's good for you, you hasten to forward it to others who may be in similar need.

So here are a couple of morsels that came my way.

Dengue fever is much feared in places where the weather is hot and plenty of mosquitoes buzz, feeding off your blood surreptiously. Authorities have warned of dire penalties for breeding mosquitoes in your home or garden. The dreaded Aedes mosquito which gives you dengue fever is the enemy to be exterminated. What if someone you know has become a victim?

The fever can be fatal and the lucky ones who escape death, take a while to recover. However there is a natural cure which came through the email and which I would like to share now.

All you need do is to boil a couple of papaya leaves and drink this papaya leaf tea throughout the day. It is bitter but it will pull you through. As simple as that. It was reported that the fever was gone within three days after taking this papaya leaf tea.

The other recommended remedy is for lowering high cholesterol. This is to be taken over a period of time and it is recommended that you do a blood test to check the levels before you begin taking the herbal concoction.

You have to use the following ingredients: a handful of black fungus ( Mok Yee ), twenty wolfberries ( kei chee ), ten red dates ( Hoong Choa ) and two to three slices of ginger.

Soak the fungus for about an hour and clean it properly as it is quite dirty. Cut into small pieces. Put your red dates and wolfberries together with the fungus into either a crock pot or a clay pot. Add 5 bowls of water. Boil until the water has reduced to 1 bowl. If you use a crockpot, you can leave it to cook overnight. If you use a clay pot, it must be boiled over a very low fire. This could take up to 3 hours.

Drink it on an empty stomach in the morning. It actually tastes quite nice. The red dates & ginger give it a nice aroma. You can have your breakfast only after two hours have elapsed.

I have tried this for the past 2 weeks and am still on it. Will update in another month after I have taken my blood test to see if it works. No harm trying it out.