Author Mridula Sharma likes to keep things simple including health by looking for easy cures within the realms of home. Her book Wow! No Side Effects! instantly connects with readers tuned into healthy living. Without getting too technical, it is an interesting read filled with real life stories.
Mridula, who self-publishes all her books has been surrounded with these easy cures by her mother since childhood. Her mother has left behind several manuscripts on the subject.
Mridula practices easy remedy at home and all these find mention in the book Wow! No Side Effects! Her husband, who has suffered a stroke, recovered within a short span with indigenous medicines, food, physiotherapy and lifestyle changes. She says her book is not a literary masterpiece and hence the language has been kept lucid and easy. Even a 10-year-old will find it interesting. It’s a useful handibook one can turn to at any time.
The 60 something Mridula’s accent is on proper lifestyle without which health cannot be achieved. Digestion is also very crucial in solving most health problems. Yoga, she believes, is not only an exercise form but can also be a form of therapy.
Her next book is Raising a Vegetarian Champ in which she talks about her own son who was a tennis champion and a pure vegetarian. One chapter is devoted to nutrition and eating habits.
She says, “A major cause of illnesses is over-eating. They face flatulence, wind or gas, heaviness in stomach, bloated feeling, acidity and constipation. The cure is simple, eat less and chew well; not just the proverbial 32 times, it takes much more than that to grind the food really fine. That is when it also becomes tastier and becomes easily digestible,” says Mridula.
Eat less means less than full. When you get up after a meal you should still feel light and you should still be able to think about food. Normally after a good meal we cannot even hear a word about food. We do not want to get up from the table because of the heavy feeling in the stomach. In reality, we should be able to feel like getting up from our place or be able to take a walk. Food consumed like this doesn’t sit heavy on us.
Mridula suggests another tip—eat in a happy frame of mind. Avoid eating when you are stressed. A proverbial saying of her mother was food at such times makes it poisonous. Haven’t we heard that meal times should be happy?
If you are at a party, you may see so many good things laid out to be eaten. Don’t eat more than 75 per cent of your capacity, even if it is free or even if you have paid an exorbitant amount for it. Don’t burden your stomach with extra food or face the consequences later, which sometimes become fatal. Again eating before sunset has its own benefits that mostly aids digestion.
Mridula adds, “We keep cribbing about illness, but never do we think why it happened, either it is due to over eating or eating the wrong foods. We will go to the doctor, take digestive medicines but will not rectify our eating habits.”
Children love unhealthy stuff like chocolate, potato wafers, French fries and sweets. On top of that they do not wash their hands before eating nor chew properly. With proper guidance all this can be avoided.
Mridula is also a strong believer in homeopathy. “Vested interests say that homeopathy has steroids, but the fact is that homeopathy medicines are so cheap that there is no way steroids can be added to them. Homeopathy works so well that some people simply cannot believe it,” says Mridula.
Acupressure is another alternative therapy she suggests. She says that any illness can be nipped in the beginning by this method. It is diagnostic as well as curative.
Mridula runs a Facebook group on home remedies called Ah! No Side Effects. She also gives lectures on natural remedies and good health and is a popular speaker in Bangalore.
She advocates that simple things go a long way to heal the body.
REMEDIES & CURES
■ Warm salt water is effective in curing coughs instantly
■ Prostate problems can be cured by corn silk tea (boil the silky threads on top of the corncob and have that water, if not, then even the outer covering of the corn will do).
■ Take Arjunarisht for heart issues and black tea for kidney problems
■ Kumariasav (aloevera) helps in liver issues.
■ Papaya juice increases blood platelets level.
■ Pumpkin seeds are effective in dealing with prostrate probelms and watermelon seeds help lower blood pressure.
■ Some tasty remedies include jalebis fried in ghee with milk for migraine; figs to increase haemoglobin, Rasgullas increases the potassium content which also helps to tackle kidney problems.