Why Cider Vinegar Should Be In Your Medicine/Kitchen Cabinet

If you only ever use vinegar on your chips, or open the balsamic bottle to make a salad dressing, then you are missing a trick. Diabetes, bad breath, constipation or weight loss are all on the list of conditions that have been helped by using this simple kitchen. As economy is the watchword for all of us at the moment it makes sense to go back to tried and trusted – and well established- folk remedies and this one goes as far back as Hippocrates, Father of Medicine, in ancient Greece. He was the first to discover and record that natural apple cider vinegar is a powerful cleansing and healing substance that can promote health, vigour and a longer life.

He used it to treat coughs and colds as well as a variety of illnesses as did the Babylonians, the Egyptians and the Chinese for its ability to eliminate germs and as a medicinal and cleaning agent. Students of the Bible will probably remember that it was used to flavour foods, and as medicine and, like tea tree oil, it has been much favoured by armies including that of Julius Caesar and soldiers in the American Civil War.

The very best kind to use is natural, organic, raw vinegar which is made from fresh, crushed apples which are then allowed to mature naturally in wooden barrels as wood seems to boost the natural fermentation. This type of organic, apple cider vinegar contains 30 important nutrients, 12 minerals (including potassium), over six vitamins, essential acids, and enzymes. As a folk remedy it has been used for insect bites, sunburn, digestion and bowel functions, headaches, arthritic pain, weight loss, urinary tract infections, itching and other skin conditions.

Certainly it has been extremely popular as a weight loss aid, being mentioned even in Georgette Heyer novels as remedy for obesity. If you want to try it, then dilute 2 spoons of apple cider and 1 spoon honey in a big glass of warm water and drink it after breakfast. That might seem odd, but skipping breakfast is never a good idea and an empty stomach is not best equipped to handle the acidity of the vinegar.

If you have been buying expensive, chemical, mouthwashes to combat bad breath then try adding 1/2 tablespoon vinegar to a cup of water and gargle the mixture in your mouth for 10 seconds at a time until the cup is empty.

For diabetics, cider vinegar is said to help control the rise in blood sugar levels that occur when you eat a meal. To counteract this, mix 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with a pinch of salt in it and mix it in a glass of water and drink it before you have a meal.

Constipation is a regular feature in many people’s lives and the cause can often be found in our Western diet. Apple cider vinegar contains significant amounts of pectin, which is a water soluble fiber that helps to improve digestion by normalizing the acid levels in the stomach and so helps restore natural bowel movements. A simple remedy is add 2 tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar to a glass of water, and drink three times a day. If you don’t like the taste, though I find this particular type of vinegar quite palatable, you can add it to Apple or grape juice and some additional sweetness.

Reflux drugs can increase hip fracture risk

If you suffer from stomach upsets and are taking reflux drugs on a regular basis, you might want to rethink your options. A very large Canadian study has confirmed that taking such drugs for several years will enormously increase your chances of having a hip fracture – by nearly five times – and can lead directly to osteoporosis.

Why are these drugs having such an effect? The problem is that you need acid to absorb calcium and if you reduce the amount of available stomach acid after you’ve eaten by taking reflux drugs then the calcium you can’t absorb, but need, has to be taken directly out of your bones. The study shows that over just a few years this can more than double your risk of fracture, and the odds keep climbing steeply the longer you take them. Some patients have been taking them for many, many years and ironically one of the results of a lack of calcium is acid reflux – for which the drugs were prescribed in the first place.

Calcium is essential for many functions in the body, one of which is to increase gut mobility, and that’s important because medical researchers say that reflux is primarily a motor disorder. This means that if you aren’t absorbing much calcium due to the reflux drugs you’re taking, and don’t have calcium to spare, you’re back to reflux and that means you take more of the drug, or a stronger dose. That may be fine for the drug company, but it isn’t doing much for your bones. Even after you stop the drugs, it may be years before your body can restore a proper calcium balance so that your reflux vanishes on its own.

There are natural alternative treatments for reflux such as Apple Cider Vinegar, having a diet with plenty of greens and vegetables, and supplements such as spirulina and calcium and for me, a cup of peppermint tea after a meal can settle the stomach, rather than the more usual coffee, which is in itself acid.

What is probably even more important is to get your ‘body clock’ working properly. One of the most common symptoms of jet lag is reflux, because flying half-way around the world upsets your biological clock, just as staying up until the early hours and ‘fooling’ your body with artificial electric light does.

SIMPLE SOLUTIONS:

** Have a fixed time for going to bed as often as you can and is possible for you.

** Make sure your bedroom is totally dark, with no lights left on or even natural moonlight through the curtains.

** If you get up during the night to go to the bathroom, have a low watt red light bulb to show you the way.

** Try to increase your period of total darkness to an ideal nine or ten hours a night.

** A nightcap is often favoured before bed, but it won’t help you sleep, or your acid reflux, so drink earlier in the day, and if you smoke that will also increase your reflux symptoms so reduce or stop that habit if you can.

Natural aid for cuts and bruises

If you haven’t got a natural first aid kit that contains a homoeopathic ointment for cuts, or any arnica for bruises, then don’t despair. Look in the kitchen cupboard and if you have vinegar – apple cider for preference – then you have a remedy at hand. Just soak a clean, damp, cloth in vinegar, and apply to the affected area every 15 minutes until the pain goes away. It will act as a compress and also draws the discoloration out of bruises.