Remedies and Cures

by Hakim Archuletta

Its an old basic that one must grasp the essence and the core of the whole subject and not go by "give this for this" In many texts, descriptions of foods in terms of their hot cold wet and dry qualities, for example, you will find conflicting information . I'm not sure of the origins or reason for this.-sometimes from country to country , honey may, for example, be described as hot and dry and even hot and wet in another text. Everything you find, however, that is not in conflict and that makes sense should be stored as a-possible- and you will find prescriptions that are consistent from across the world and through time -these we need to know for our patients as it indicates something sound.

It is an interesting phenomen the "cure-alls that come and go and sometimes stick. Often this is from something other than the virtues of the remedy itself and maybe more from the social attitude about it, Chamomile is an example. Chemically there is no indication of any calming properties. If you study it from a homeopathic point of view it resembles coffee in its actionon the body and nervous system and contains stomach irritants from a modern scientific point of view. It does have a pleasant taste for some and the commonly accepted idea of it being calming combined with that may be why itis useful at all.. Of the many fads that come and go and the cure-alls CocaCola and Ketchup are the most interesting. Originally presented as medicines they have held their popularity to say the least even though the medicine aspect has mostly been forgotten. This does indicate a powerful personality for them and that points to a healing possibility as well. This was demonstrated by the homeopaths , that anyhing with a strong personalityor that represents a kind of archetypal peak in the spectrum of things in the creation have a strong presence you might say and a potential healing power. This is true of remarkable substances such as gold, sulfur, calcium,carbon, arsenic all with strong personalitites or nafs as it was describedin the old arab texts (ar-Razi).

I use Coca Cola as a GI remedy often withgood results and often to the surprise of many. Noni juice, colloidial silver, tea tree oil, pomegranite juice are some recent things and anmongst the high priced things on the whole fooods market there are some that probably have real benefit and some that are hypes driven by those who sell the products. The green algaes are an example. Pomegranite extract has a history however in the middle east and china and needs consideration.The biggest hype to come along is the 8 by 8(eight glasses of eight ounces aday) idea of drinking water. This has been debunked by the leading expert in hydration in the mainstream and some investigation has shown that many of the supporting studies were funded by the comapanies that sell water inlittle plastic bottles. Almost all of the traditional approaches to medicine recommend to drink little( Hippocrates : "eat little, drink little, or thepopular wisdom in Pakistan: "go to sleep thirsty, wake up healthy"- thereare times of course that water is the great medicine) Sometimes too much water does nothing but overwork the kidney-urine system. I have presentedthis idea to some who actually become insensed and angry in disbelief as if I have offende their belief system itself-and they are Muslims. It must beconsidered that this has another piece in that many of those who choose tocarry around the plastic bottle in the interest of good health also did thasame as infants.The companies who promoted this market are aware of this-you can be sure.

There was a book some time ago called "Are You Confused?" written by a kindof naturopath-supplement-doc. This book sold a lot because in the self help health field there were so many conflicting ideas and info for the anyone wanting to read and take on some responsibility for their own health. Ofcourse his answers to the confusion was his own take as a supplement person.I have tried to find, search out, opinion that has consistancy, building a case for the particular remedy or advice,that has confirmation, for example,in many times and places, according to the Greeks, the Chinese and evenmodern "scientific" medicine as well as from my own personal experience.I have read in many old texts things that I could not possibly agree with or prescribe and the shortcomings this may indicate leaves a big question. Many older texts from Muslims or even in those from non Muslims in this country,recommend, for example, the use of toxic metals, mercury or lead, and not ina way that the homeopaths or the older masters of the lost art of pharmacywould use to render them non toxic.