Arthritis

Arthritis by Djehuty Ma'at-Ra The first Western disease I was ever familiar with as a little boy was arthritis. My beloved paternal grandmother, Bertha Cooper, suffered from this pathology for many years. She had it very bad in her wrists and joints. I remember her asking me if I would go to the corner liquor store on the corner of 101st Street and Avalon Boulevard in Watts, California, and buy her some Ben Gay, a white pharmaceutical anti-inflammatory rubbing cream. She would rub Ben Gay on her wrists and joints and her tendons as well. As a little boy, I didn't understand disease. I didn't know how my grandmother developed arthritis. All I knew is that she had it (and claimed it too). However, when the Universe bestowed its Akashic Records of health knowledge upon me in the late 1990s, I finally understood why Grandma Sis (Bertha) developed and suffered from arthritis. You see, my grandmother was originally from the South, Mississippi to be exact. The ideal dinner was "soul food." My grandmother was an excellent cook and I never tasted any food back in my deaf, dumb, and blind days and years that tasted better than my paternal grandmother's food/cooking. However, while this so-called food, soul food, tasted good, I now understand that taste is not the criterion or measuring stick for what is healthy or nutritional. It was Grandma's good tasting soul food that did her in with arthritis and tendonitis. Yes, all that cornbread, collard and mustard greens, salt pork, candied yams, fried chicken, liver, catfish, pork chops, rock Cornish hen, neck bones, ham, white rice, etc. eventually did her (and the rest of my family members) in. Not to mention eating all that white, refined Webber's and Wonder bread, flap jacks (pancakes), syrup and biscuits, bacon, sausages, jelly cake, jelly sandwiches, saltine crackers, Vienna sausages, potted meat, Spam, hog's head cheese, liverwurst, etc. And what about all that hot cocoa, coffee (laced with white sugar and dairy cream), butter milk, pet milk, Kool-Aid, and soda pop that she drunk? She didn't smoke cigarettes like her five sons, but she would roll up her own smokes with Prince Albert brand tobacco and Zig Zag paper. My childhood friends thought my grandmother smoked marijuana. It was a little embarrassing until they found out what it was she was really smoking. I mentioned all of the above to let you all know that my grandmother's arthritis was caused by what she ate and drank on a daily basis through ignorance, tradition, and habit. All that meat converted into uric acid in my grandmother's joints and ligaments. The starches broke down into carbonic acid and also made its way into her joints. And so did the lactic acid from the brake down of the dairy products she consumed. The smoking also created an over acid condition in my grandmother as well. She also had bouts with gout, which is nothing but arthritis in the ankle area. You see, arthritis is a condition of inflammation of the joints. That's all it is. The Latin word "Arth" means "joints," and the English suffix, "it is" means "inflammation." What is inflammation? A burning! What causes this burning or inflammation? ACID!!! Plain and simple! Grandma Sis was lucky, eventually dying from degeneracy (that doctors call natural death). However, her sons (and daughter-in-laws, nephews, nieces, and grandchildren) were not so lucky, dying from the insidious cancer, including my father from lung cancer in 1994 and my mother from pancreatic cancer in 1999. My family could not, would not, and to this very day, still will not believe that what they put into their mouths cause their pathologies and eventually kills them. It was easy to write me off when I was a Muslim and member of the Nation of Islam in the early 1990s, simply saying "that boy is mad at white folks and the world!" But today as a Naturist, what's their excuse? Nothing but ignorance and traditional paralysis! Soul food is a tradition, Djehuty! Yes, a tradition that leads to an early grave! One of the greatest contributors of arthritis is collard and mustard greens. Sorry Black folks, Negroes, and soul food lovers! But this is true! Greens are laced with "oxalic" acid and this oxalic acid is greatly produced when you cook the greens. This is true! And for you rat feces-laced chocolate lovers out there, your precious chocolate also contains oxalic acid. Now, I don't want you thinking soul food is the cause of arthritis, because a lot of white folks, Mexicans/Latinos, and Asians also suffer from arthritis. Like soul food, the Standard American Diet will also cause arthritis. Arthritis is an American disease! If you understand arthritis, you should understand tendonitis and gout. They are acidic fluid build up problems in the joints that cause inflammation (pain). Most modern day suffers of arthritis (and tendonitis and gout) are fighting the symptoms of these inflammatory diseases with pharmaceutical grade drugs. Even though God instructed Bible believers to heal themselves with herbs (Revelations 22:2, Ezekiel 47:12, and Pslams 104:14), in their strange obedience to God, they take the enemy's pharmaceutical drugs that prolong the arthritis. Why and how? Because pharmaceutical grade drugs, though made from alkaloids, eventually break down into ACID (especially ascetic acid, which eats your red blood cells up) in the body, and acid produces inflammation, so how intelligent is it to take something to target the symptom which eventually lengthens and worsen the initial condition? Mother Nature has provided healing for arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. To heal from arthritis, all one needs to consume is certain herbs. Herbs that are anti-inflammatory in nature are the best to heal from arthritis. These herbs include Meadowsweet, Peppermint, Wintergreen, Birch, White and Black Willow Bark and Balm of Gilead. However, other certain herbs work synergistically with the herbs supra. Personally, no healing from arthritis can take place efficiently without the following herbs: Devil's Claw, Boswellia (Frankincense), Uva Ursi, Mullein leaves, Saffron, Cayenne pepper, Feverfew, and Guaiac wood. Devil's Claw, Boswellia, Uva Ursi, and Mullein are the paramount arthritis herbs. They greatly counteract mucus, which is the byproduct of acid, which causes inflammation. Organic sulfur, commonly called MSM Sulfur, is also great in healing arthritis. So is Noni juice! You can make your own healing salve as well from a base butter or oil such as shea or cocoa butter, coconut, olive, or almond oil (or any other good oil) and add in a few drops (10-15 drops) of the following essential oils: Peppermint, Clove, Wintergreen, Eucalyptus, Birch, and/or Spearmint. You can rub this salve directly on your joints or other problems area. It is very soothing and healing. And of course, as an herbalist, I have formulated my own Joint Formula that consists of all the herbs mentioned above that is a powerful little formula that works wonders for me when my wrists start to hurt from excessive typing (typing up all that legal pleading). I can't forget about magnet therapy as well for arthritis. Magnets make a problem or injured area alkaline and also enhances circulation to the problem area so that healing can begin. My good friend and brother, Mark Lomax, a musician, healed himself from serious bouts of gout, another acid condition. It's been a few years now since he had gout. What did he do? First, he detoxified his body on our Full Body Detox. Then, he did a daily regimen of our Electric Greens Cell Food (pure alkalinity), Joints Formula and Black Cherry Juice Concentrate. You wouldn't recognize this brother if you knew him 3 years ago. He also lost more than 70 lbs on these herbs. This man is a walking example of healing! I should also mention the importance of pineapple enzymes called Bromelain for the healing of arthritis and other acid conditions. Bromelain or pineapple enzymes are anti-inflammatory in nature and effect and therefore provide healing for arthritis. They taste just like candy and are chewable and you can chew as much as you like, although 3-6 tablets after dinner ought to get the job done. You can find Bromelain at most good health food stores. Soaking inflamed body parts in hot water and essential oils of Peppermint and Eucalyptus is also beneficial for arthritis. But most importantly in fighting arthritis is modified diet. Cut out or cut down on meat and dairy products. These are two of the biggest culprits in causing arthritis. A vegetable cocktail consisting of celery, parsley, apple and/or carrot (for sweetness and base) 3-4 times weekly will greatly remove acid buildup in the joints. By all means, avoid all acidic beverages (beer, soda pop, milk, orange juice, wine, coffee, etc.). Man, life is so wonderful when you know how to heal and prevent disease. The understanding of diseases is just as important. Sometimes I'm full of grief and sorrow from my knowledge and knowing that people suffer from a lack of knowledge (and insanity too). See Ecclesiastes 1:18 and Hosea 4:6 However, the children of the future, including my son, Asim, and daughter, Layla, and other Conscious Minds offspring - Nadya, Najee, Elijah, Asar, Sunshine and the newest edition from Melia and Obea, and the others (out here on the West Coast in Los Angeles) will all benefit from this profound knowledge of proper diet as well as from my suffering and grief, as well as their parents. I'm also quite sure that many children around the nation will also benefit from their parents' reading and applying this health information and knowledge that is freely distributed. As much as I loved soul food and my relative's cooking back in my death (Negro) days, you couldn't put a gun to my head and compel me to eat a piece of chicken or pork today, and I mean that! I love myself too much to harm my temple of God. My children are beautiful (and highly astute and precocious) because of what their parents ate before and while conceiving them. You can do it too! Make the change people! Taste is not the criterion for what is healthy. Nutritional content is! Peace and love, readership! This article was compliments of www.DHERBS.com and Djehuty Ma'at-Ra, the People's Herbalist! MSM Sulfur- http://www.dherbs.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=38&products_ id=73