13 health benefits of virgin coconut oil

What is Virgin coconut oil ?
Virgin coconut oil is derived from fresh coconuts (rather than dried, as in copra). Most oils marketed as "virgin" are produced one of three ways:
1. Quick drying of fresh coconut meat which is then used to press out the oil.
2. Wet-milling (coconut milk). With this method the oil is extracted from fresh coconut meat without drying first. "Coconut milk" is expressed first by pressing. The oil is then further separated from the water. Methods which can be used to separate the oil from the water include boiling, fermentation, refrigeration, enzymes and mechanical centrifuge.
3. Wet-milling (direct micro expelling). In this process, the oil is extracted from fresh coconut meat after the adjustment of the water content, then the pressing of the coconut flesh results in the direct extraction of free-flowing oil.

Benefits of Virgin coconut oil
1 The oil promotes weight loss as well as weight maintenance
2 It provides a source of antimicrobial lipid
3 The oil does not interfere with functioning of the thyroid
4 It protects against heart disease
5 It helps prevent cancer
6 It is easy on the digestion system
7 It empowers the immune system
8 The oil does not contain cholesterol, thereby not increasing the cholesterol
level in the blood
9 Does not cause the stickiness of platelets that causes the formation of blood
clots
10 The oil helps prevent bacterial, viral and fungal infections.
11 Coconut helps to prevent osteoporosis.
12 It helps in keeping diabetes under control
13 It is known to keep the skin soft when used externally

Here is what you should see for an Extra Virgin Coconut Oil :

• Colorless and crystal clear.
• Light, fresh coconut aroma
• Natural Coconut taste
• Quick absorption
• No oily feel
• Very light viscosity

Advantages :

1. High purity: without refining.
2. Used as food oil as well as in high-end formulations.
3. Excellent in body care.
4. Long shelf life.

TO lose weight
Do you consume virgin coconut oil but still don’t lose weight? So what could be the problem?
Many studies and facts have shown that virgin coconut oil is effective in helping to reduce body weight. It contains fewer calories than other fats and also has a group of fats known as Medium-Chain Triglycerides (MCT) that are used by the body as an instant source of energy.

MCTs are easily digested by the body and they don’t produce body fat. Hence, numerous studies and experiences in the past have led us to a conclusion that if virgin coconut oil is added consistently to a balanced diet, it shall show incredible results in weight loss. But, why there are still some people who complain that they just couldn’t lose weight after consuming virgin coconut oil? Well, I say we have several possibilities here. There are some factors that could influence the weight loss results in this case:

1. How long have you consumed virgin coconut oil?
2. How old are you?
3. How are you, really?

The answers to these questions do influence the effectiveness and the performance of virgin coconut oil in your weight loss program. Many people don’t comprehend this fact and they give up consuming virgin coconut oil in a short time, because they don’t see a significant loss in their weights. I say this is a mistake.

The first thing you should consider if you want to see great results with virgin coconut oil is the period of time you have spent consuming this oil. For most people, it takes 3-4 months to lose weight significantly by taking 3 tablespoons of virgin coconut oil daily. For elderly people, it could take longer to gain the same effects as youngsters. That is because as you grow older, your body is used to a certain routine that it refuses any instant change. So, don’t expect a great loss in weight by consuming virgin coconut oil in a term of weeks! It takes longer than that, so be patient…

The problem for most people (including you, perhaps!) is they don't like the taste of the oil. This of course, makes it hard to regularly add the oil to your diet. Actually, if you know some simple virgin coconut oil recipes, it's easy to overcome this problem

OK, back to the factors that influence your weight loss results. The third factor is your condition. Your health condition and the medicines you take could also slow down the effects of virgin coconut oil to your body. Try taking your body temp… is it low? If it is, then there could be a metabolism problem. But, if you continue combining virgin coconut oil with a reasonable eating plan, this metabolism problem shall disappear in time. But, this means it will take longer time for you to lose weight.
That’s why you have to be consistent and patient with virgin coconut oil to see incredible results in weight los

PEPTIC ULCER

Ayurveda has much to offer for treating peptic ulcer. Ayurvedic term for peptic ulcer, “Parinam shool”, is a disorder caused by the Agni bhootha.

Symptoms of Peptic Ulcer

Abdominal pain

Heart burn

Nausea

Causes of Peptic Ulcer

The main cause of the peptic ulcer is hyperacidity, a condition of excess digestive acid in the stomach. Improper life style and diet is another reason. The conditions which prop up increase in hydrochloric acid secretion cause peptic ulcer

Factors that Cause Hyperacidity

Intake of spicy and hot foods

Fasting

Irregular eating

Alcohol consumption

Stress and anxiety

Smoking

Excessive use of pain killers like aspirin, ibuprofen etc

Excessive intake of tea and coffee

Treatment for Peptic Ulcer

Ayurvedic treatment for peptic ulcer is aimed at two things, 1) to reduce the quantity of digestive fluids produced in the stomach 2) To neutralise the digestive acids

Here are some Ayurvedic and herbal remedies for peptic ulcer:

Home Remedies

Eat more banana and plantain

Drink cold milk

Drink more water

Drink juices of raw vegetables like cabbage

Take small meals frequently (do not overeat)

Take barley, papal, paraval prepared with honey

Ayurvedic Remedies

Sukhumara Ghrita is widely prescribed for peptic ulcer

Snehapanam, a medicated ghee, is a treatment used for Peptic Ulcer

Take Avipatrika Churna regularly

Amalpitanthak Loh, Leela Vilas ras and Chanderkala Ras are good medicines for peptic ulcer

Life style and Diet

Do not drink alcohol, tea, coffe, cola or smoke, instead, take barley water regularly

Do not use aspirin and other pain killers

Eat food timely

Relax yourselves

Avoid spicy, hot and fried foods

Avoid garlic, yogurt, ginger etc

Avoid baked food, breads, cakes etc

Avoid pickles and hot sausages

Dandruff Home Remedies

Add six spoonfuls water, two spoonfuls pure vinegar and apply it on the scalp with cotton wool before going to bed. Tie a towel around your head to protect the pillow. Wash your hair next morning. After shampooing, rinse again with vinegar water. Continue this once a week for at least three months.

Mix a spoonful of lemon juice with two spoonfuls of vinegar and massage on the scalp. Wash your hair with an egg shampoo after this.
Soak fenugreek (methi) seeds in yogurt overnight and apply the curd on your scalp for half an hour before washing in the morning.

Hair washed with fenugreek (methi) seed paste prevents dandruff, falling hair, baldness and dandruff keeping the hair long, healthy and black. Just soak the fenugreek seeds overnight in water to soften the seeds and grind in the morning to make paste. Before hairwash, apply this paste on scalp and hair and leave it on for half an hour. Wash off with shampoo later.

Egg Pack for Dandruff: Beat two eggs and add two tablespoons of water to it. Wet the hair and apply the egg mixture over the hair. Now massage your scalp and let the mixture on for ten minutes to fifteen minutes. Then rinse the hair with lukewarm water. This will keep both dandruff and hairfall problem away from you.

Natural Anti-Dandruff Massage:

Massage your scalp with warm coconut or castor oil twice a week.
Massage with the tips of your fingers in a circular movement for at least half an hour.
Leave it on overnight and shampoo the following morning.
This prevents the hair from becoming dry and moreover prevents dandruff and falling hair by improving the circulation and strengthening the hair roots.

Acidity Home Remedies

• The powder of ehiretta taken with an equal quantity of sugar relieves acidity.
  Chew a few holy basil (tulsi ) leaves to get relief from burning, nausea and gas.
  Small pieces of onion taken with half set sweet curds and sugar relieves burning of the throat due to acidity.
  Keep a small piece of jaggery (gur) in your mouth and slowly suck it. Repeat it every hour till acidity subsides.
  The juice of pumpkin in doses of 60 to 120 gm oz taken with sugar relieves acidity.
  Eat a few almonds when your feel heartburn symptoms.
  Drink coconut water 4-5 times a day.
  Drink a glass of cold milk for fast relief of heartburn and acidity.
  Keep a small piece of harad (Terminalia chebula) in your mouth and chew it after every meal.
  A dose of 1.5 to 2.5 gm of the fruit of soapnut taken with water is effective in relieving acidity.
  Take one piece of clove and suck on it slowly.
  Drink fresh mint juice slowly after meals.
  Drink daily a 1 tsp juice of chebulic myroblan mixed with 1 tsp of amla (Indian gooseberry) juice.
  Maintaining an upright posture for some time after food will help in preventing reflex.
  Sleep with your head and shoulder on a high pillow for elevation.
  Intake of raw garlic is very beneficial.

Drinking Hot Water

Drinking hot water regularly is a classical Ayurvedic recommendation for balancing Vata and Kapha dosha, strengthening digestive power, and reducing metabolic waste (Ama) that may have accumulated. Boil a sufficient amount of unchlorinated tap water or (still) mineral water in an open saucepan, for at least ten minutes. Keep this water in a thermos flask and take a few sips (or more, if you are thirsty) every half-hour throughout the day. It is the frequency rather than the quantity that is important here. To increase the positive effect you can add 1-2 slices of fresh ginger (or a pinch of ginger powder) to the water when boiling it.

Exercising for Good Health

Exercise is an important part of DOCTOR PANICKERS Ayurveda but as with many good things in life, there is a limit to the amount of exercise that should be taken, and if one goes beyond this, the results will be negative rather than positive.
Do not strain the body in your daily exercise. Remain within 50% of your capacity When you begin to breathe heavily or perspire a lot, then you should stop or slow down.
Regularity is the key to success. A quarter of an hour each day is better than five hours once a week.

Do your exercise preferably in the mornings between 6 and 10 o'clock.

Follow a healthy diet, and support mind and body with Ayurvedic food supplements.
Observe the important relaxation and regeneration phase after exercise.
Practise Yoga Asanas regularly.


Daily Oil Massage

One of the most enjoyable things you can do for your body and health is to have a full-body oil massage in the morning before your bath or shower. An oil massage has a soothing effect on the nervous system (Vata), strengthens the circulation, and helps to remove toxins from the body. The Ayurvedic texts explain that the use of oil massage brings about a soft, flexible, strong and attractive body. It is extremely beneficial for the skin and should therefore be done regularly.

Guidelines for oil massage

Allow about 15 minutes, in the morning. The massage can be done either standing up or sitting down, in a comfortably warm room. Ideally the oil should be heated beforehand to a little above body temperature. Massage slowly and evenly, using the whole hand. By the end of the massage, a thin film of oil should cover the whole body.

Start by massaging the head region, with small circular movements. Then do the neck, throat, shoulders, arms and hands. Massage the limbs with long straight strokes up and down; for the joints use circular movements. The chest and stomach area should be massaged very gently. Use circular strokes on the chest, straight up-and-down strokes over the breastbone and solar plexus. For the abdomen use a slow, circular, clockwise movement. Massage the back and the base of spine up and down with the flat of the hands - as far as you can comfortably reach. The legs are done in the same manner as the arms: circular movements on the joints, straight strokes on the limbs. Finally, massage the feet and the soles of the feet. Best results are achieved if you leave the oil on for 15 minutes at least, before taking a bath or a shower, so that the body has time to absorb the oil. If you are short of time, then massage only the head, ears and soles of the feet.

Recipes for Lassi


Lassi is an Ayurvedic yoghurt drink, which not only tastes wonderful but also helps digestion and balances all the doshas. Yogurt and lassi are not considered the same thing in Maharishi Ayurveda. Lassi is best taken after lunch or late afternoon rather than evening.

Basic recipe for making lassi: Blend thoroughly one part fresh, set yoghurt with 2-4 parts water, preferably using a mixer or a whisk). The flavours may be varied to suit your taste and the season. Try cooling rose or coconut, and cardamom with a little sugar in summer, and warming almond or salt in winter.

Rose lassi: Before mixing, add a few drops of rosewater, and sweeten if desired (rosewater can be obtained in delicatessen and chemist shops).
Almond Energy lassi: Before mixing, add 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of "Almond Energy" powder.
Coconut lassi: Add a dash of coconut milk or coconut puree, and cane sugar if desired. An added refinement could be to add a pinch of vanilla and cardamom.
Digestive lassi (helpful for gas problems): Add some rock salt, ground cumin, and two pinches of cumin, half a tsp of fresh coriander chopped. According to Ayurveda, salt lassi is particularly good for the digestion.
Also try lassi with vanilla, cardamom or cinnamon.
Relaxed Meals for Good Health

The following tips on healthy eating are simple and yet very effective. If your eating and dietary habits are substantially different from these, introduce the Ayurvedic guidelines gradually. These tips are for educational purposes only and should not be used to treat, diagnose or mitigate a disease. If you are under the care of a doctor check with her/him the suitability for you of these suggestions.
Eat only when genuinely hungry and when your last meal is fully digested (about 3-6 hours after a main meal).
Eat in a quiet and relaxed atmosphere. While eating you should not read, work or watch television. Always sit down to eat.

Do not over eat. After eating, the stomach should be only up to 3/4 full.
Sit quietly for 5-10 minutes at the end of each meal
Lunch should be the main meal of the day. Breakfast and evening meals should be light. The evening meal should not be taken too late.

In the evening avoid heavy foods such as meat, fish, yoghurt, cheese, buttermilk and fromage frais.
Try to be regular in your meal times. Eat at the same times each day.
Avoid eating between meals. Instead drink hot water, or if necessary eat ripe sweet fruit.
Food should be freshly prepared; it should be wholesome and should taste good. Avoid reheated or stale food.
Most of one's food should be cooked, as the body can more easily absorb cooked food. Raw food should be eaten only as a side dish (e. g. salad).
Make use of culinary spices. They not only make the food tasty, but support the digestive processes as well.
Include all 6 tastes in each meal: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. The tastes also have their own influence on the subtle inner balance of the physiology.
During meals you may sip liquids such as water, juice or lassi. Do not drink a lot and avoid ice-cold drinks - they dampen down the digestive processes.
Milk should not be drunk with the main meal. It can be taken alone or with a light meal of sweet tasting foods (e.g. toast, cereals etc). Minimise food of other tastes.
Honey should not be heated above body temperature (40 degrees C) and therefore should not be used in cooking or baking.

Take appropriate food supplements as required.

Ghee or Clarified Butter

Ghee has many fine qualities according to ayurveda. Used in cooking it enhances the sattva or pure quality in food. Also it acts as a digestive. It is good for both Vata and Pitta. Take 250g or more unsalted butter and melt slowly in a large pan. Gently simmer for 30-40 minutes. When the frothing has stopped and the ghee is clear and golden brown, remove from the heat and strain through muslin into glass jars. Ghee does not need to be refrigerated.
Cleansing

Profound but gentle cleansing is an important element of Panchakarma treatment. At home Ayurveda recommends a short period of gentle cleansing at the start of each season and especially in springtime. The general advice is to follow a light diet for about ten days, together with regular drinking of hot water and food supplements to support the digestive power. It is best to consult DOCTOR PANICKERS to get a programme tailored for your own needs.

Digestion is the key to good health

When discussing the practice of Ayurveda with friends and colleagues most have expressed an apprehension about the strict rules regarding diet and food intake. “I cannot stick to the pathyam” is what many say. In Ayurveda, food and its digestion is the key to good health. It is not possible to eat whatever you want, whenever you want, in any combination you like and expect to keep good health.

What you eat influences the three doshas. Some foods deplete a specific dosha and others enhance it. If you have aches and pains, the dosha that is probably vitiated is vata. You have to eat foods that lessen vayu and not enhance it.

Being a typical Malayali, I love my sambar made from toor dal (tuvara paruppu). But I’d constantly suffer from vague aches and after-meal burping. Then I realised toor dhal increases vayu. It causes flatulence and gas. Simply avoiding sambar or substituting the toor dal with the less gas producing green-gram without the skin the problem to a large extent.

Ayurvedic vaidyars are seemingly obsessed with the digestive process. Agni or the digestive fire has to be maintained just right. If the agni burns too fiercely, the food is burnt; too low, it is not properly cooked or digested. If the agni burns steadily the food is cooked or digested just right. Only properly digested food contributes to good health. Often, vaidyars will ask you embarrassing questions about the texture and colour of your faeces and the colour of your urine. This helps in understanding the root cause of the problem.

Vaidyars will repeatedly admonish you not to eat anything before your previous meal has digested properly. It means that you give at least a three-hour gap between one meal and the next. The notion that you should frequently eat small meals, sometimes advocated for diabetics, is wrong. Once the digestive process starts, it does not make sense to interrupt it by adding some more food into the stomach. The newly added food will prevent full digestion of the earlier consumed food. The products of incomplete digestion create toxins or ama, vitiates the doshas and is a primary cause of diseases.

If you had a meal that causes you acute digestive discomfort, the best thing to do is to induce vomiting and throw it up. If you feel a little queasy about doing so you can take half to one teaspoon of ashta chooranam with diluted buttermilk or lukewarm water. A little bit of ashta chooranam can be had with rice or idlis on a regular basis and is a good digestive aid. It is part of my travel kit.

Ashta chooranam is also readily available in most ayurvedic pharmacies. It has been in use for over a thousand years. Hence, it’s unlikely to be withdrawn from the market like Lomotil, a popular yesteryear allopathic drug for treating diarrhoea!

Ashta Chooranam

It can be easily prepared at home. Take equal parts of dried ginger (chukku), black pepper (milagu), long pepper (thippili), ajowan seeds (omam), rock salt (kalluppu), cumin seeds (jeeragam), nigella seeds (karum jeeragam) and asafoetida (perungayam). Gently fry separately the dried ginger (after pounding it a bit), the long pepper, the cumin seeds and the nigella seeds. Powder the

ingredients separately, sieve and mix.

Ashta chooranam is available in most ayurvedic shops.

H1N1: Exploring desi treatment options

The swine flu panic is spreading even more faster than the flu itself. But the alternative medicines too are keeping pace with the two, considering the side effects of Tamiflu.

This is not just restricted to India, even the countries across the globe are exploring the same.

Wonder herb Tulsi can not only keep the dreaded swine flu at bay but also help in fast recovery of an afflicted person, Ayurvedic practitioners claim.

"The anti-flu property of Tulsi has been discovered by medical experts across the world quite recently. Tulsi improves the body's overall defence mechanism including its ability to fight viral diseases. It was successfully used in combating Japanese Encephalitis and the same theory applies to swine flu," 

Apart from acting as a preventive medicine in case of swine flu, Tulsi can help the patient recover faster.

"Even when a person has already contracted swine flu, Tulsi can help in speeding up the recovery process and also help in strengthening the immune system of the body," 

"Tulsi can control swine flu and it should be taken in fresh form. Juice or paste of at least 20-25 medium sized leaves should be consumed twice a day on an empty stomach."

This increases the resistance of the body and, thereby, reduces the chances of inviting swine flu.

Mashed garlic, boiled ginger, coconut oil, cow urine and cow dung all these might not be related, but they are looked upon for as a solution to the dreaded ‘swine flu,’ which has taken the lives of over 20 people in the Country.

Panchagavya, a formulation comprising cow milk, cow urine, cow dung as well as ghee and curd made from cow milk can prevent flu-like infections including swine flu by acting as an immuno-modulator.

Various Ayurvedic medicines, particularly those prepared from cow products, have for centuries proved potent to build resistance against infectious diseases like flu. We would advise people to take the same along with modern medicines prescribed by experts.

Cow urine concentrate, called ‘Ark’, could be extremely useful in protecting people against the virus and "probably" also in providing relief to those who have already caught the infection. 

Garlic as the best preventive medicine. “By tying a cloth containing mashed garlic around your neck, you can keep the virus at the bay, it has been an effective medicine".

Ginger- Peper Kashaya’ added with jaggery too is an effective medicine which can build in immunity in the body. Another doctor said consuming hot water along with lemon will increase the immunity among people.

If you maintain your body's immunity, you will not fall prey to viruses. Ayurveda offers simple and effective remedies to boost immunity