2014

ALOE VERA , THE WONDER HERB

Dr Kunda Silimkhan MḌ

ALOE VERA

The Wonder Herb

Dr Kunda Silimkhan, M.D.

(c)author January 2014 Panaji-Goa

ITRODUCTIO

I was born and brought up in Goa. In the pre and immediate post -liberation period, every house in Goa had a few herbs in their front porch or kitchen garden. Prominently among these was Aloe Vera. Any cut or burn was promptly soothed by an application of its juice. A boil was treated by a poultice of Aloe Vera. The Aloe Vera skin was a great dressing for small ulcers and burns. But slowly the practice died out.

HERBAL HILLOCK:

By the time I was ten my paternal grandparents shifted to their newly constructed home butted against a hillock. My ancestors owned a slice of the Altinho hillock and they wanted to get back to their roots. Interestingly, the hillock behind the house was tended to by a Catholic priest who was also a Naturopath.

He was supposed to have grown every known herb on this piece of land. So, in my childhood, I along with my cousins were treasure- hunting for mythical and magical cures on this slope, now quite precarious in its landscape. Over the years, indiscriminate construction on all sides, caused landslides and probably all the herbs were destroyed. This is just to highlight how foresighted our ancestors were. They knew the value of herbs and Naturopathy.

Getting back to Aloe Vera:

Healing Stories Years passed by .White coats, brightly colored tablets, capsules and injections brained washed our people and all indigenous knowledge was almost lost. I completely forgot about Aloe Vera. Then one day, as I was listening to Acharya Balkrishnaji on Aastha Channel, I heard a strange story. If he was not talking about Aloe Vera , I sure would have switched the channel. Don’t know why but I have found the glistening green natural jelly always attractive. “One elderly lady in our Ashram was having knee pains (osteoarthritis) . I treated her with aloe bandages and in four days, her pains disappeared.” Nonsense! I heard my mind blurting out. Then, a second thought. Your great grandmother and the Naturopath who tended her hillock were also nonsense. I sat up straight at that thought. The scientist in me woke up. It challenged me. Prove it right or wrong. Fortunately, I didn’t need another subject for trial.

A year prior to this episode , I had slipped on the footpath outside the post office. Trying to prevent a face- down fall and protect my papers, the middle finger of my left hand developed some damage. I could not see a doctor immediately because I was travelling the next day. Eventually, I developed arthritis in that finger. I didn’t want any intervention and thought I would leave it alone. This joint of mine proved to be a great help. A few days of Aloe application, and it was snapping away to glory. I was wrong. The Acharya was right. After that, I went on telling all my patients about this story. Whoever believed me and tried out Aloe benefitted. I have saved people thousands of rupees. The others are taking pain killers on a regular basis. (About Sham surgery in osteoarthritis, I have written in another book).

Again, I had still underrated Aloe Vera. Once during a class on mind-body medicine, I had talked of energy mapping using RFI TMand dowsing. This was followed by a demonstration on pendulum dowsing. After the class which was for workers on a trans-shipper, their boss, a senior officer met me in the ante –room where we were discussing topics with other senior staff. He had with him a leaf of Aloe Vera. “ Will you do energy mapping for this piece of Aloe Vera? “ he asked. “I had refrigerated it. I want to know whether the energy decreases on refrigeration”

This officer, with a very intellectual background had a very interesting story to share. I was flabbergasted…. no exaggeration here…

His wife was suffering from ITP, a disorder where the platelet count drops because of auto-immune destruction. The treatment is long term steroids and a splenectomy (removal of spleen) once this fails. Spleen is no longer considered a vestigial organ as previously believed. Now, this person had heard from Ramdevji Maharaj that the platelet count goes up with Aloe Vera. So, he started buying the Aloe Vera juice. Within a month, her platelet count went up from a baseline of 40,000 to 1.5 lakhs. That is some therapy! Later, he decided to use fresh Aloe Vera from his garden for his wife. And he eats one inch of aloe himself as health promotion.

Today, Aloe Vera is well known as an immune-modulant. So, people interesting in health and healing should be taking something from the Patanjali team… ..politics aside.

STILL MORE SURPRISES Some more years passed by. I was typing thousands of pages on my lap top, literally. There were times when I worked 14 hours a day. I had finished eleven books in record time. I used to be so absorbed in my work that I would lose awareness of my body. And suddenly one morning I noticed that my right elbow had a 2 inch swelling on the Olecranon process due to the constant friction. It must have developed over two or three days but I had ignored it, subconsciously. I wondered whether I should see a doctor. On second thoughts, I decided to try Aloe Vera. I just gave myself three applications on three days keeping it on for four hours every time. The swelling decreased to one fourth its size. Then I left it alone to heal and disappear on its own.

Now, you tell me, how can I ignore such a panacea? I don’t want to fill these pages with more stories. I want you, the reader to create your own story on Aloe Vera.

Information on Aloe Vera: Aloe Vera is a short stemmed plant growing up to a meter in length and is propagated by off-sets.not naturally occurring. Its leaves are thick and fleshy, light green in color. The leaves have serrated margins. Aloe Vera leaves are rich in phytochemicals like anthraquinone and is considered an immune modulator. FDA has banned its use in the US for many diseases but tribals in the Himalayan belt are known to use Aloe as a vegetable. Today, trials are under way for its use in skin diseases and cancer.

ALOE LACE: There is one more reason why I love Aloe Vera. This could be the real reason operating covertly. The lace- maker in me always works surreptiously. Aloe yields aloe fiber which is used to make the aloe lace. The Benedictine Nuns of Hvar, Croatia have mastered the art of retrieving the aloe fiber and making aloe lace, basically varied versions of teneriffe. So, with Aloe I intend saving two birds (my version of killing birds in one stone). The first is Health and second, Women’s empowerment, both very dear to my heart.