home remedies Archives

December 8, 2020 By Neha Sharma Leave a Comment

12 Amazing Home Remedies To Reduce Acidity

Acidity can literally be a pain to deal with but before we move on to home remedies to reduce acidity, it’s important to know its origin, symptoms and causes. Hydrochloric Acid (HCL) is produced in the stomach to digest food and it plays an important role in digestion but sometimes, HCL is produced when there is no food inside the stomach and it leads to the eruption of the lining of the stomach, giving rise to acidity.

Sometimes, the acid finds its way to the esophagus and you experience inflammation and a burning sensation in the food pipe. This needs to be treated as soon as possible as it may lead to ulcers. Meal timings, physical activity, proper sleep, no stress, less consumption of tea or coffee, moderate intake of alcohol and modification in cooking are some of the key points which help keep acid under permissible limits.

Simple and Effective Home Remedies to Reduce Acidity

Let’s look at some simple but amazing home remedies to reduce acidity which can be easily included in your daily routine:

Basil Leaves: are easily available. One can chew a few leaves of basil or can have basil tea as its calming and soothing properties help reduce acidity.
Fennel Seeds: can be chewed after meals to increase the rate of digestion and they help in reducing acidity. Fennel tea can be taken 1-2 times a day or it can be infused with water and taken on an empty stomach to curb acidity from morning itself.
Buttermilk and Curd: are always considered important for digestion and lactic acid present in them normalizes the acidity in the stomach. You can also add roasted cumin powder, a pinch of black pepper and a few leaves of mint & coriander to ease digestion.
Ginger: Grated Ginger can be boiled with water and that water can be taken the whole day or before and after meals to increase the rate of digestion. Ginger tea with honey can be taken without milk to reduce acidity.
Banana: gives instant relief from acidity. It can be taken during morning or mid morning and can also be combined with curd.
Ajwain: Ajwain water can be taken on an empty stomach (1 tsp of ajwain can be soaked in a glass of water overnight) or ½ tsp of ajwain with a pinch of black salt can be taken after meals to ease digestion.
Cumin Seeds: 1 tsp of cumin seeds can be soaked overnight in a glass of water or can be boiled in water and its water can be taken after meals to increase the rate of digestion.
Cold Milk: gives instant relief from acidity and one can have a cup of cold milk to neutralize gastric acids in the stomach. For those who are lactose intolerant, other options should be taken into consideration.
Cardamom: Chewing 1 cardamom pod after meals prevents acidity, flatulence and aids in digestion.
Coconut Water: turns the pH of the stomach alkaline and thereby prevents acidity and the lining of the stomach from getting ruptured.
Aloe Vera: Always go for fresh aloe vera! Mix the pulp with some water and have it 2-3 times a day. Otherwise, you have to go for organic aloe vera juice.
Lemon Juice: Have some lemon juice in lukewarm water on an empty stomach the first thing in the morning. It helps a lot in reducing acidity.

These are a few home remedies which you can use to reduce acidity. Last but not the least, positive lifestyle modifications also go a long way. Before you switch to any of these foods, consult your doctor, coach, nutritionist or dietitian.

We hope this article helps you. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. For more on acidity, digestion, nutrition and other lifestyle issues, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play.

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January 21, 2020 By Saba Mirza Leave a Comment

Effective Home Remedies For Sinus Congestion

If you’ve suffered from sinus congestion at any point in your life, you’re well aware of how painful an experience it can be. Let’s deep dive into what it exactly is as well as learn some home remedies for sinus congestion.

What is Sinus Congestion?

Sinus congestion is a condition in which the cavities around your nasal passage get inflamed and congested. Symptoms appear in the form of a stuffy nose, pain around the nose, cheeks, jaw or forehead. One may even experience swollen or watery eyes and a sore throat.

There’s a surge in sinus congestion cases during winters primarily due to the dry, cold weather accompanied by an increase in pollutants and allergens in the environment. If there are no obstructive pathologies for the sinus blockage like polyps or deviated nasal septum, then a few home remedies for sinus congestion can help us soothe the inflamed nasal passage and reduce the intensity of the symptoms.

Effective Home Remedies You Should Try

1. Maintain Humidity:
Dryness in cold weather is amplified when you are using a room heater. Dry air makes the mucus thick. This clogs sinus cavities and causes pain and pressure on the surrounding tissues. Using a humidifier while running a room heater and keeping yourself hydrated can help in reducing the viscosity of the mucus, making it easy to drain it out and open the cavities up.

2. Drink Warm Fluids:
Warming your body with hot soups, curries and teas is an ancient measure, followed traditionally and ritually for ages! This is found to be quite effective in alleviating the symptoms of sinus congestion. Here are a few simple remedies which can be easily prepared at home:

Ginger-Turmeric Tea: Boil one-quarter teaspoon of dry ginger and turmeric in one cup of water and have that tea by adding lemon and pepper. It is very effective in soothing the sore respiratory mucosa and boosting immunity levels.
Immunity Booster: Take 2 black peppers, 2 cloves, 2 cardamoms, a small piece of cinnamon, small piece of ginger, Tulsi leaves, 2 garlic cloves and ½ teaspoon of ajwain. Boil it till the water becomes half in quantity, strain it and then have it hot with honey (preferably organic). Have this immunity booster drink two to three times a day. It will help you fight off various bacterial and viral infections.
Whole Leaves Green Tea: Being rich in antioxidants and polyphenols, green tea is found to be one of the most effective immunity booster and detox drink!

3. Warm Compresses:
Apply warm compresses by covering your face with a clean, warm and wet cloth which will moisten the nasal passages, thin out the mucus plug and help in easing its drain, thus opening the cavities up!

4. Steam Inhalation:
Steam inhalation is found to be quite effective in moistening the air passages and reducing the congestion by loosening the mucus. Use a bowl of hot water, add a few drops of an essential oil like menthol, eucalyptus or lemon juice and cover yourself with a thick towel to trap the steam inside!

5. Nasal Irrigation:
Nasal irrigation simply means flushing out the nasal pathway with a saline solution. It helps remove allergens, irritants and excess mucus! You can use a nasal irrigation system like a Neti Pot, squeeze bottle or bulb syringes filled with saline solution, which you can get at a medical store.

You can also make a saline solution at home by mixing 3 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Use sea salt or pickling salt and not iodized salt or table salt which is added with additives. Store it in airtight container!

How to Do Saline Irrigation: Put the above mixture into a clean Neti Pot or bulb syringe and stand near a sink. Place the spout in the top nostril and pour or gently spray a liberal amount of solution into one nostril, while tilting the head at 45 degrees, so that it flows through the nasal cavity and out of the other nostril! Blow your nose to get rid of any remaining water. Repeat the process on the other nostril.

6. Eliminate the Causative Factors:
Factors which can aggravate the symptoms are allergens like smoke, dust particles, perfumes, hair spray, cleaning products and anything which releases fumes! Try to keep the air around you clean from all these irritants!

While these home remedies for sinus congestion are effective, they only tackle the symptoms. If the issue persists, you should consult your doctor. For more home remedies, you can check out the Healthy Reads section in the app or tune in to experts on GOQii Play.

September 26, 2019 By Harpreet Kaur 2 Comments

6 Natural Painkillers To Relieve Common Ailments

When faced with even a minor headache, muscle tension or other pains, popping a pill seems like the easiest way out. It has almost become a habit to such an extent that we don’t even think twice before gulping down a painkiller or an antibiotic. What we fail to realize is how toxic such dependence can become! “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” said Hippocrates. On that note, I will be listing down some foods that act as natural painkillers. The good news is that they do not have any side effects!

1. Ginger & Turmeric

Ginger and Turmeric have powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. They are far more effective than drugs like ibuprofen for pain relief. Ginger helps block the formation of inflammatory compounds and also has antioxidant effects. Both the herbs can be added in tea, milk, hot water and smoothies.

Turmeric also improves blood circulation and prevents blood clotting. Turmeric’s active ingredient curcumin is responsible for lowering inflammation in our body, acts as a pain reliever for headache, menstrual cramps and even normal body aches. Gulp down a glass of turmeric milk or ginger + turmeric water before sleeping and say hello to a super relaxed body the next day!

2. Cloves

Cloves have been long used since ancient times to treat toothaches. Cloves may also help ease nausea and treat cold. They may also help relieve the pain associated with headaches, arthritic inflammation and toothaches. A compound called Eugenol is responsible for the pain relieving properties of cloves. Rub a small amount of clove oil on gums for battling gum issues or dip a small pulse size cotton ball in clove oil and keep on aching tooth to get immediate relief.

3. Plain Yoghurt

Plain yoghurt has been long used to ease the symptoms of bloating and inflammation. The healthy bacteria in yoghurt improves digestion and helps in relieving abdominal pain. Try having a bowl of curd with some black salt, asafoetida and roasted cumin powder for long term good gut health. Buttermilk made from low fat milk is also a good way to treat indigestion.

4. Green tea

Green tea is emerging as the new age miracle food. It is packed with polyphenols, antioxidants and helps reduce inflammation and muscle damage. The miracle compound present is an antioxidant called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) which helps blocks pain signals and provides relief in body ache, menstrual cramps, headache and even arthritis.

5. Peppermint

Most of us have heard of and even used a small green mint pill, popularly sold as a capsule to relieve stomach ache! It actually contains extracts of Peppermint which is known for its therapeutic properties. Mint has a cooling nature and can help in relieving indigestion, nausea and headache. Menthol, peppermint’s main active ingredient, is found in the leaves and flowering tops of the plant. So next time before you pop a pill for stomach ache or indigestion, try a cup of mint tea.

6. Asafoetida

Asafoetida, commonly known as ‘Hing’ in Indian households is a common ingredient used in curries and vegetables. It is known to reduce bloating, stomach ache and gastric issues. To effectively relieve abdominal pain, try applying Hing paste on the naval area. A powder consisting of roasted Asafoetida, cumin seeds and carom seeds works wonders for digestion and reducing bloating. It has antioxidant and anti- inflammatory properties which make it a very useful common kitchen ingredient.

Hopefully, this article will help you rely less on pills and more on natural ingredients which can help you relieve common ailments. Do share your thoughts in the comments below!

To know how nutrition can help you fight diseases and common ailments, tune in to live classes on nutrition by expert coaches on GOQii Play within the GOQii App.

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March 14, 2018 By Trishala Chopra Leave a Comment

How to fight against the common illnesses with natural remedies!

home remedies for common illnesses

Common illnesses like cold and cough, fever, headaches can be even more common than we can think! We have no practical solution for these illnesses other than popping over the counter (OTC) pills to suppress the symptoms and waiting for them to reoccur.

If that one pill doesn’t work, they pop up the second one and after the second one doesn’t work they end up in doctor’s cabin asking for some more medicines. Taking these medicines over and over again is simply abusing our bodies. Side effects of the medicines are no less which gives us a chance to try and change our approach.

Remember how our grandmothers resorted to old traditional home remedies for better health? Those remedies are now being used as a part of naturopathy treatment. Before reaching out to these over the counter pills, let’s try and combine our herbs, spices and right diet to fight these illnesses.

Let’s understand each common illnesses one by one:-

Common cold

I am sure each one of us has suffered from common cold and can completely relate to its symptoms. It is perhaps the most common illness in the world. There was a research where data was collated to find out maximum sick leave reason and the data revealed that common cold topped the charts. There is no permanent cure for common cold.

Well, I have seen people taking antibiotics for getting rid of common cold. Antibiotics can do nothing for a common cold. If you are prescribed one then you might as well ask your doctor to give you something else because antibiotics only work against infections caused by bacteria but common cold is caused by a virus.

There is no permanent cure for common cold. There are more than 200 strains of viruses and it is difficult for the body to build up immunity against every strain which is why you see common cold hitting you always!

Symptoms of a common cold:

A severe headache
A sore throat
Fever
Congestion
Watery eyes
A cough
Nasal congestion
Sneezing

How to prevent the common cold?

(i) Include antioxidant-rich foods in your diet

It is important to boost your immunity and vitamin c can act as an excellent immune-boosting nutrient.
Include raw fruits and vegetables which has PRANIC energy in your diet.

(ii) Include bioflavonoids rich foods in your diet

Bioflavonoids were once known as Vitamin P.
These compounds help in fighting against the common cold.
Lemon, sweet lime, chillies, green pepper, grapes are good sources of bioflavonoids.

Natural remedies to cure a common cold:

(i) Ingredients:

Lime juice
Cayenne pepper
Manuka or organic honey
Water

Method:

Dilute 2 tbsp of lime juice + Pinch of cayenne pepper + 1 tsp of manuka honey in a ½ cup of warm water.

Dosage:

Have it early morning on empty stomach to prevent cold.
Take this connection 3 times a day before breakfast, lunch and dinner if you are suffering from cold.

(ii) Ingredients:

Fresh ginger juice
Fresh garlic juice
Turmeric powder
Elaichi or Cardamom

Method:

Brew 2 tbsp of fresh ginger juice + 1 tbsp of fresh garlic juice + pinch of turmeric powder + 2 elaichi ( cardamom) pods in 200 ml of water
Boil this decoction and then simmer it for 2 minutes.
Strain the water and add 1 tsp of a mishri or khadi shaker, drink this decoction warm

Dosage :

3 times a day till cold and cough subsides

(2) Fever

In my opinion, fever is the most misunderstood common issue. Everybody has a different definition of fever. Whenever your body temperature crosses 98.6 F, chances of getting fever becomes high. Medically, temperature above 100.4 F is termed as fever.

What causes fever?

It is important for everyone to know what causes fever. Fever is actually a response to your body against foreign invaders.

What are these foreign invaders?

Virus

Bacteria

Fungi

Toxins

Drugs

These foreign invaders are considered to be pyrogens or fever-producing substances. These pyrogens trigger the brain to raise the body temperature so that the body can fight these foreign invaders.

I have seen people popping up pills with a slight rise in body temperature. I have given this explanation above so that people understand that what is this fever and why does it happen?. Your immune system is very smart, it will manage things on its own for a while. Taking fever-reducing medicines means that you are interfering with your immune system’s work.

Usually, fever reduces in a day or two. If it doesn’t then please visit your healthcare practitioner before popping any pills. Fever can be a symptom of any disease.

Staying with fever is not a good idea, I understand. But, taking medicine for the same is a very bad idea. Try these natural remedies to reduce your fever, it will not interfere with your immune system and will give you some relief as well.

Ingredients:

Dill seeds (Suva seeds)
Peppercorns (Kali Mirch )
Kalonji
Cinnamon powder
Water

Method:

Boil 1 tbsp of roasted dill seeds + 1 tsp of peppercorns powder + 1 tsp of Kalonji in 150 ml of water for about 6 mins. Let it stay warm for about 15 mins.
Strain this mixture and add a pinch of cinnamon powder.
Drink this mixture warm
Repeat it till the body temperature reduces.

(3) A headache

This topic can be an article in itself. Discussing headache is a huge thing but to cut it short headaches have numerous causes and headaches are divided into 3 categories:

Primary
Secondary
Other

Primary headaches include a migraine, stress, cold and cough induced headaches. Secondary headaches include headaches caused by structural problems in the body especially head and neck.

Here are some natural remedies to manage a headache:

Eat 5 black raisins + 1 tsp of sesame seeds twice a day. Keep chewing it and then drink lukewarm water
1 glass of fresh tomato juice once a day
Soak your feet in Epsom salt and relax for a while. A headache will be drastically reduced.

Hope these tips help you in dealing with common illnesses!

Note: If your symptoms do not get better then please see your healthcare practitioner.