A review of ‘natural remedies for sound mind and body’

A Life of Passion and Purpose

Femi Kusa promotes healthy living through diet, hydration (drinking enough water to replace losses due to sweating, urination and other bodily functions) and alternative therapies. He emphasizes the importance of: Plant-based diet - fruits, no fewer than fve raw, edible leaves in a meal, semi cooked vegetables under low heat, whole grains, beans, nuts, and potatoes.

He proposes, as key to longevity and well being, the avoidance of processed foods and naked sugars, poultry foods, fried foods, white flour bread, bread from genetically modified wheat, flavourings, artificial sweeteners, among other dietary measures. He suggests hydration with alkaline water and natural salt, inclusion of no fewer than five raw edible leaves in every meal for enzymes, antioxidants, polyphenols, vitamins, minerals, co factors among other nutrients which are grossly missing in today’s diet. In addition to all of these, Femi Kusa suggests periodic detoxification of the organs, especially of heavy metals in the brain, saying some of these metals have been implicated in Alzheimers, Parkinson’s disease, dementia and other cognitive challenges, including mental confusion and depression.

Additionally, he suggests regular physical exercises. Some of these exercises are so simple that they can be carried out in bed or while seated in the sitting-room. An important bed exercise he often mentions is the tortoise neck exercise. In this exercise, one lies flat on the belly, preferrably on an orthopaedic matress bed, hands on the sides, head raised and moved left to right and right to left for as many counts as possible. This helps to move blood to the eyes and to the brain. He said he got wind of it in the 1980s from a Chinese book titled Burn diseases out of your body, written by Stephen T Chang. The tortoise, after which this exercise is named, holds his head up as it moves from place to place and as slowly as anyone can imagine. Stephen Chang suggests that this exercise keeps the tortoise mentally active and healthy throughout the body, making it outlive many persons. In Nigeria recently, a tortoise died in the Palace of a traditional ruler. From oral tradition passed down the ages, it was said to be more than 400 years old! Even if the age is exaggerated, this tortoise may be of the species named Galapagos which is known to live for an average of 150 years. Femi Kusa often explained why the tortoise exercise is important. One of his explanations has to do with posture. We are to hold our heads upright for as long as possible for the right supply of blood to the head, eyes and brain. Different sets of muscles help in the movement of the head forward or backward. When the head is always tilted forward by one set of muscles, they are not only overworked, they stress and strain the back muscles. This may be a cause of neck strain, eye strain, blurry vision, dry eyes and head ache due to altered gaze angle. In his column of natural remedies for sound mind and body, Femi Kusa suggests that the architect’s drawing or design board is better than the writing desks in schools, libraries, offices or homes. The architect’s board is slanted to enable him or her to not tilt the head downward. From primary school, the writing desk is flat and causes the head to be tilted downward when reading or writing. Could this be a cause of the vision and mental challenges of today because stress to the back muscles in particular is reported to cause cognitive nuances. Stephen Chang suggests a natural remedy for vision challenges, including high Intra Occular Pressure (IOP). This is high pressure in the eye caused by drainage problems and back up pressure at the back of the eye. Stephen Chang suggests that the thumb be employed to massage the bottom part of the bone above the eye socket. This defuses tension and gives the eye peace for some time. His turtle exercise is part of five animal exercises, including the deer and crane exercises, which many persons have said help them to release mucus buildup in the brain and sinuses and improve energy flow in the stomach, pancreas, spleen and kidneys.

Another bed exercise which Femi Kusa advocates is the abdomen exercise. You lie Flat on your back in bed, raise your legs up as high as possible to about 90 degrees, raise your head up and try to touch your toes with your fingers. Simultaneously, move your foot forward and backwards as tailors do on the feet driven sewing machine. Movements of the feet exercise involve the calf muscles, which are described as the second heart. Driving them, they help the heart to drive blood round the body, thereby reducing workload on the heart, saving his energy and elongating his life span. This exercise also keeps abdominal muscles at work and supports bowel movement.

A third bedroom exercise Femi Kusa mentioned long ago is spinning. He said he knew about it from a book which Mr Akin Orebiyi former INEC Commissioner in Ondo and Lagos states gave to him as a gift for his 60th birthday, 15 years ago. Children do it a lot, he says. They stand somewhere and start to spin in anti clockwise swoon until they loose balance and fall. In Asian exercise therapies, this exercise is said to promote youthfulness because it aligns body motions at this time with motions in the universe where the moon and other planets in our solar system, for example, are moving in anti-clockwise motion. The hypothesis is that spinning helps to tune molecular activities in the body in line with the motion of not only our planet but also of others in the universe. This unism cannot promote anything other than radiant health. It is said to improve balance and coordination, circulation, reduce stress while boosting mood and energy. In the bedroom, Femi Kusa says he does it away from obstacles as near as possible to the bed on which he may crash for rest and energy. He says it may be more beneficial for sleep when it is done before bed.

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Up for a healthy life

From about the late 1990s up to 2010 in The Comet newspaper, Femi Kusa regularly campaigned for hydration, especially with alkaline water and natural salt. This was the era in which Dr F Batmanghelidj, an Iranian, appeared on the natural medicines scene. He was accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government and detained in a concentration camp. Doctor visits were few, and many detainees became diseased without adequate care and needlessly died. Doctor Batmanghelidj reported in his books which were based on his detention experiences and which Femi Kusa reviewed and sold, that all he always could do was ask sick persons to drink more water than they did. To his surprise, their complaints diminished or disappeared. He concluded that every state of disease was caused by dehydration which led to irritation when solutes became too concentrated and from irritation to inflammation, and damage to tissue. He proposed to the medical community that water was medicine because it was a solvent and carrier for all blood constituents. Dr Batmanghelidj wrote three books...Your body’s many cries for water; 0 you’re not sick, you are only thirsty; dehydration, stress, inflammation and cancer. The last book was barely completed before Dr Batmanghelidj died. In this book, says Femi Kusa, Dr Batmanghelidj tried to establish connections between dehydration, stress, inflammation and cancer. The regular review of these books in The Comet Newspaper popularised the drinking of water by many Nigerians who, hitherto, were not aware of the medical importance of drinking water for youthful and radiant health and recovery from stresses and diseases. There was hardly any disease Dr Batmanghelidj said could not be conquered with proper hydration. According to the internet, here is a list of 12 ailments which may yield to proper hydration.

“Dr. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, a renowned Iranian doctor, believed that chronic dehydration is the root cause of many diseases. Here are 12 diseases he claimed could be alleviated or cured through rehydration:

Asthma: Dehydration can lead to increased histamine levels, triggering asthma attacks

Allergies: Increasing water intake can reduce histamine production and alleviate symptoms

Rheumatoid Arthritis: Dehydration can cause joint pain and inflammation

High Blood Pressure: Proper hydration can help lower blood pressure

Heartburn and Acid Reflux: Drinking water can help neutralize stomach acid

Constipation: Adequate hydration can prevent and relieve constipation

Migraines and Headaches: Dehydration is a common cause of headaches

Depression and Anxiety: Proper hydration can improve mood and reduce stress

Cholesterol Issues: Drinking water can help lower cholesterol levels

Diabetes: Dehydration can disrupt insulin function and glucose regulation

Osteoporosis: Adequate hydration is essential for bone health

Gastritis and Ulcers: Drinking water can help heal stomach ulcers and reduce pain.

Femi Kusa’s column would take hydration one step higher when the news broke globally that the people of Okinawa in Japan were among the longest living persons on earth and disease free to the bargain. Women in their sixties were getting pregnant and having babies without much ado. Men in their 90s were still at work. The secret was that their drinking water was not chlorinated or flouridised. It was alkaline water made alkaline by the skeletons of corals in the coral reefs through which underground water came to top soil for them to drink. When the news got to Nigeria, a natural medicines network based in Ikeja Lagos, according to Femi Kusa’s column, sold coral powder satchets, one of which could be dropped in a 1.5 liter bottle of water. The water could be drunk for as long as one month by refilling it until the powder wore off. The market graduated soon from coral satchets to coral calcium which is the form in which the column suggested coral calcium be taken. Coral calcium comes with no fewer than 50 other natural elements of calcium bound together for effective synergy and biochemical effectiveness, in contrast to plain calcium which may not be well tolerated or absorbed such as calcium carbonate. Incidentally, as the column always warned, calcium carbonate is the cheapest form of calcium in Nigeria and should be avoided if the budget can afford a better one such as coral calcium.

The importance of combining medical treatment with alternative therapies.

Pa S. K. Oye-Igbemo’s story in the column illustrates the potential benefits of combining medical treatment with alternative approaches. Diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and occult blood, Pa Oye-Igbemo opted for alternative therapy supplements, including Liquid Chlorophyll, calamus root and Pau d’Arco. Pa Oye Igbemo’s doctors took him through colonoscopy. This means they probed his colon with a camera mounted on a device which was inserted through the anus. Pa Oye-Igbemo saw on a TV screen several parts of his colon ulcerated and bleeding. The doctors said damaged parts would be surgically removed and the healthy parts would be sutured or sewn together. That meant he would lose the functions of any lost part. This could make him become vegetable, like one of his friends. He did not like. So, he requested that he be given three months to prepare for the surgery. He was warned that the ulceration and the bleeding could degenerate into cancer. In the waiting period, he religiously took his herbal medicines. When he returned to hospital for another round of colonoscopy preparatory to the surgery, all the ulceration and bleeding had healed. He was saved from surgery and vegetable life. Mr Femi Kusa obtained Mr Oye-Igbemo’s permission for his telephone number to be given to anyone who may wish to speak with him on his experience. I was one of those persons Pa Oye-Igbemo spoke with. He is gone, Pa Adeniji (tel no 09028844080) who was a living witness of this event is still around. So is another witness, His driver, Azeez (08069835791).

He once asked me to give a description of my residence to his driver who had his family in the same town where l live.