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The power of Ginger
This is a story of Caron Smith, 53 holds Ph.D. in Chinese art and archeology, is creator of Asian art at the San Diego Museum of Art.
"Ten years ago, in 1988, I think, I began to feel a certain stiffness in my hands, especially in the morning. I experienced no limitation of motion, just stiffness and achiness, which was really annoying. My mother's sisters all had osteoarthritis, so that was at the back of my mind. When I heard from you about the anti-inflammatory effect of ginger, I decided to give it a try. I began taking three capsules of powdered ginger(550 milligrams each) in the morning. After two to three months, I noticed a remission of the feeling in my hands.
I had also been having gastric distress at this time,which I think was due mostly to my irregular eating habits and maybe also to drinking a lot of coffee. As I begantaking ginger regularly, this symptom also abated. And if I stopped the ginger, after three to four days I would notice a return of both the stiffness in my hands and the distress in my stomach. At one point I ran out of ginger, and because I was very busy, I did not buy any more for a month. There was a big difference, so I resolved to make it part of my daily regimen. I really began to look at it a source of relief.
It's the easiest remedy in the world to use, with no side effects. It's pungent; flower is intoxicating. If I had a daughter, I think I would have named her Ginger."
Selected Elements of the Program
Eleanor EngelHardt, a licensed massage therapist from Youngstown, Ohio, tells me she has used parts of the program:
"I have olive or canola oil, fresh broccoli, collards or other greens every day. I put flaxseeds over my cereal and eat flaxseed/sunflowerseed bread. I take vitamin C with each meal, as well as the other antioxidants. I eat whole grains and vegetables and drink filteredwater. I follow a vegan diet.
The walking each day is so important to mental and spiritual health. I also do yoga and ride a bike. I keep a diary to weed out negative thinking patterns. I take time in parks, where I read,walk,anddo Breath Observation. I also do daily light-and-sound meditations.
I recommend all of this to clients and students, along with a reading list of spiritual books".
'8 WEEKS TO OPTIMUM HEALTH' By Andrew Weil, M.D.
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Seeing better with carrots
Nardia Boyer, a professional musician from Mountain View, California writes:
I was startled by an improvement in vision after following the Eight-Week Program. In Week 2 you suggested a carotene supplement. I peeled and juiced fresh carrots instead. Within one week a vision problem that had been plaguing me for three or four years cleared up. I was so astonished that I shared the good news with my opthalmologist, who has since read your book.
This was the problem: I am a performing harpist, and I was seeing double strings after a short time playing, especially if the light was moderate. My first glasses were prescribed four years ago, when I was forty-six. This summer, as I played music for a wedding, I took off the glasses to see the minister and watch for cues. I glanced back at my music-it was perfectly clear! I was started to be rid of this sight problem. I played the rest of the day and that evening, in moderate light, with no glasses. And have ever since.
Better breathing
In 1990, Rachel H., a lawyer from San Francisco, consulted me about her diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. She told me that, five years before, her left knee had begun to buckle under her on walks, and she had developed progressive stiffness of her left arm and leg, After visits to orghtpedists and eventual knee surgery, she was thought to have multiple sclerosis, but finally the neurologists agreed that the problem was an unusual form of Parkinson's disease. Subsequently, she wrote about her experiences with conventional and alternative medicine for management of her illness. Recently she wrote me:
I have continued the regimen of alternative/Eastern efforts I described in my recent article. They include acupuncture, yoga, massage, meditation, and other stress-reduction work.
The biggest challenge since my diagnosis was the onset, in about 1990, of occasional (once every few weeks or so) seizures during sleep. I responded by searching for alternatives to seizure medication and eventually found respiratory biofeedback, which identified a pattern of "chronic hyperventilation" (shallow, too-frequent breathing). This appeared to be part of a long-standing syndrome, including an absence of lower-abdominal breating, poor posture, constriction around the diaphragm area, cold hands and feet. I entirely changed this pattern (over time) by combining the biofeedback sessions with work with my yoga instructor, bodyworker, and counselor. I changed posture and other things that were affecting my body structure and breathing and presumably skewing the oxygen/carbon-dioxide mix. As I began to change my breathing system, the seizures diminished in frequency and severity, finally--two years after the first one--stopping altogether. I have had none since May 1993.
Effects of breating exercises
Mrs . F.E. of Ann Arbor, Michigan, writes:
I am a forty-three-year-old physical therapist who followed your 8 week program. My objectives were to feel generally more healthy. I have struggled with chronic pain in my back and leg, as well as with minor depression. I have had various alternative treatments and was attracted to your plan because it integrated nutrition and mental/spiritual components nicely. (I had already begun several mental/spititual interventions, which made following your plan easier.)
I think the breathing exercises were the most effective thing I added to my life. ( have since learned additional exercises from my reading.) I found deep relaxation as well as an increased ability to sort out issues in my life much more quickly. This is enhanced by getting together regularly with friends who also write daily. These people have become my spiritual-growth friends.
It has been about ten months now since I started your plan, and I feel that the changes I've made are a permanent part of my life. I continue to integrate other strategies as well, and as a result of all the changes, I have to say that my health has improved even more. This fall was the first fall in fourteenyears that I was free of an allergy to ragweed. My pain is much less, my energy is more even and I have able to be hopeful about complete health.
8 WEEKS TO OPTIMUM HEALTH --by Andrew Weil, M.D.
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The magic of Aloe Vera
John Luja of St. Louis says he doesn't go to doctors and he has always used home remedies, probably because he grew up in Lithuania in a culture that was much more self-reliant than ours in matters of health.
In 1980 John developed an unusual problem: the skin on the front of both his lowers legs became red and itchy. After four weeks it turned "kind of yellow and dead looking," and he did go to a doctor, who told him the problem looked llike scleroderma, a potentially serious autoimmune disease. | 
