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Ailmemts & Remedies

Pyorrhoea

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Pyorrhoea, or periodontal disease, to give it a proper medical term, is disease of the gums. It is one of the most widely prevalent diseases. It affects the membrane surrounding the roots of the teeth and lead to loosening of the teeth, us formation, and shrinkage of the gum. This disease is the primary cause for tooth loss among adults….click & see

Symptoms:

The gums become tender, and on pressing, pus oozes out along the margin of the teeth. Us from the cavities continually find its way into the stomach. When the disease is far advanced, the gums become swollen, and the stomach being sosed with increasing quantities of pus, does not function properly. A sepsis may appear in various forms, digestion gets disturbed, liver trouble sets in, and the whole system is adversely affected.

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Root cause:
Pyorrhoea is triggered by bacterial activity .A thin layer of harmful bacteria is continuously building up on our teeth. If it is not removed by tooth cleansing, especially after meals, it forms an organized mass on the tooth surface in a short time. This is referred to as bacterial plaque. When accumulated, bacteria in plaque produce many toxins, which irritate the gums, causing them to become inflamed, tender and prone to bleeding easily. The bacterial activity is however, facilitated by the lowered vitality of the system. Other factors contributing to the development of pyorrhea include chemical irritants in the mouth, incorrect brushing, stagnation of food particles, and improper use of tooth picks.

Untreated gingivitis will develop into true periodontal disease. The term pyorrhoea is often used for advanced periodontal disease. There are three easily defined stages of periodontitis:

A) Early periodontitis:- In this stage plaque has been allowed to build up around the gums, and under the edges of the gums. This causes swelling of the edges of the gums and the gum pulls away from the tooth, allowing more harmful bacteria into this “pocket”.

B) Moderate Periodontitis :-At this stage the gum is detaching from the tooth further down the root, and the pockets are difficult to clean with normal methods. The detached gum spreads down beyond the top of the bone which is starting to get eaten away by the bacteria and toxins.This can still be treated non surgically.

C) Advanced Periodontitis :-The gums receed down the tooth –so called long in the tooth appearance. The pockets deepen and fill with pus . The teeth will become loose. You are quite likely to have severe bad breath and blood in your mouth when you eat most firm foods. This stage may need to be treated surgically.

Can antibiotics cure gum disease?
An antibiotic can help if you have a very painful swelling where pus has formed between the teeth, but generally we do not use antibiotics in the treatment of gum disease. We may however recommend localised antibiotic treatments for particular areas of your mouth. For example periochips, elyzol, gengigel, dentomycin. These are not a cure but can help us control an acute phase of gum disease.

Can I prevent gum disease?
In almost all cases the answer is yes. Good oral hygiene, use of dental floss or interdental brushes will prevent plaque building up. Regular dental examinations are also vital to ensure any gum disease is found at an early stage. To check if gum disease is present you will often find we gently probe your gums with a special blunt probe to see if their is any bleeding.

Other Healing Option :
The information of preventing and curing pyorrhea.

1. Improvement of your pseudo-diabetic constitution :-
To prevent pyorrhea you should cure diabetes or improve your pseudo-diabetic constitution by taking exercise.
In other words you can not cure your pyorrhea without improving your pseudo-diabetic constitution.
In Japan almost all dentists do not or can not explain this.

a. Exercise
Exercise is the best way for improving your pseudo-diabetic constitution. Only 30 minutes walk a day will improve your physical constituion.

b. Weight Control
we recommend you to control your weight. To this end Body Fat Calculator is useful.

c. Garlic & Royal jelly
Taking garlic is effective in improving your pseudo-diabetic constitution and pyorrhea.
Also taking royal jelly is effective in improving your pseudo-diabetic constitution and pyorrhea.

2. Brushing your teeth for over 20 minutes a day. :-
Long time brushing of gums will improve the blood circulation of gums. It will improve your pyorrhea.
Brushing of gums with an interdental brush also improve the blood circulation of gums. It improve your pyorrhea.
Brushing of gums with dental floss also improve the blood circulation of gums. It will improve your pyorrhea.

Herbs that helps: 1. Guava Leaves 2 Lemon & Lime 3.Spinach juice 4.Wheat

Ayurvedic: 1.Applications Dant Manjan Lal 2.Lavang Tel 3.Iremedadi Taila

Diet :The patient should take only boiled vegetable, fruit juice and fruit at first. Oranges and carrot should be used at

first. After the juice fast patient can take three normal meals per day but he or she has to take properly cooked food. White bread, white sugar, all tinned food, must be given up. Condiments, sauces, alcohol, coffee, and strong tea as well as meat and other flesh foods should be avoided.

Lifestyle: During the juice fast the bowels should be cleaned daily with a warm water enema. Daily dry friction and hipbath as well as breathing and other exercises, should form a part of the morning routine. A hot Epsom salts bath taken twice weekly will also be beneficial.

Homeopathic Treatment for Gum Disease that will prevent Pyorrhoea

Home Remedies for Pyorrhoea:
Pyorrhoea treatment using Guava
Chewing unripe guava is an excellent tonic for the teeth and gums. It stops the bleeding from the gums due to its styptic effect and richness in vitamin C. Chewing the tender leaves of the guava tree also helps in curing bleeding from the gums and keeps the teeth healthy. A decoction of root-bark can also be beneficially used as a mouthwash fur swollen gums

Pyorrhoea treatment using Lemon and Lime:
The regular use of lemon and lime is useful in pyorrhoea due to their high vitamin C content. They strengthen the gums and teeth, and are very effective in preventing and curing acute inflammations of the gum margins

Pyorrhoea treatment using Orange:
The use of orange has also been found beneficial in the treatment of pyorrhoea. This fruit should be eaten regularly and its skin rubbed over the teeth and gums. This will improve the condition

Pyorrhoea treatment using Pomegranate Rind:
Powder of the dry rind of pomegranate, mixed with pepper and common salt, can be applied as a very good dentifrice. Its regular application strengthens the gums, stops bleeding, and prevents pyorrhoea

Pyorrhoea treatment using Spinach Juice:
The juice of raw spinach is another valuable remedy for the prevention and treatment of pyorrhoea because of its beneficial effect on the teeth and gums. This effect is greatly enhanced if spinach juice is taken in combination with carrot juice. Both spinach juice and carrot juice should be taken in quantities of 125 ml each daily. A permanent aid for this affliction has been found in the use of natural raw foods, and in drinking an ample quantity of carrot and spinach juice

Pyorrhoea treatment using Lettuce:
Lettuce has proved useful in preventing pyorrhoea The leaves of this vegetable should be chewed everyday immediately after meals for this purpose

Pyorrhoea treatment using Wheat:
Wheat is especially valuable in the prevention and treatment of pyorrhoea. Wheat chapatis are usually taken with other foods, and hence, the other food also gets chewed properly. This not only provides the needed exercise for the teeth and gum but also aids in digestion

Pyorrhoea diet
Fruit juice and fruit diet
The patient should begin the treatment with a short juice fast for three to five days. Oranges and carrot should be used for juices. After the juice fast, the patient should spend the next three to five days on an exclusive fresh fruit diet, taking three meals a day of juicy fruits

Balanced diet
Thereafter he may gradually embark upon a balanced diet, with emphasis on fresh fruits, green salads, whole-meal bread, properly cooked vegetables, cheese, nuts, and milk

White bread,refined food, condiments, meat etc should be avoided
White bread, white sugar, and all refined and tinned foods must he completely given up. Condiments, sauces, alcohol, coffee, and strong tea, as well as meat and other fresh foods should also be avoided

Other Pyorrhoea treatment
Warm-water enema and a hip bath
During the juice fast, the bowels should be cleansed daily with a warm-water enema. Daily dry friction and a hip bath should be taken

Breathing exercises and hot Epsom salts bath
Breathing and other exercises, should form a part of the morning routine. A hot Epsom salts bath taken twice weekly will also be beneficial.

Disclaimer: This information is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advise or help. It is always best to consult with a Physician about serious health concerns. This information is in no way intended to diagnose or prescribe remedies.

Help taken from:allayurveda.com,www.home-remedies-for-you.com and

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Herbs & Plants

Burdock

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Botanical Name: Arctium lappa (LINN.)
Family: Asteraceae/N.O. Compositae
Kingdom: Plantae
Order:Asterales
Tribe:Cynareae
Genus:Arctium

Synonyms-:–Lappa. Fox’s Clote. Thorny Burr. Beggar’s Buttons. Cockle Buttons. Love Leaves. Philanthropium. Personata. Happy Major. Clot-Bur.

Parts Used:—Root, herb and seeds (fruits).

Habitat:
Burdock is any of a group of biennial thistles in the genus Arctium, family Asteraceae. Common Burdock (A. minus) grows wild throughout most of North America, Europe and Asia. It grows freely throughout England (though rarely in Scotland) on waste ground and about old buildings, by roadsides and in fairly damp places.
The Burdock, the only British member of its genus, belongs to the Thistle group of the great order, Compositae.

Description:—A stout handsome plant, with large, wavy leaves and round heads of purple flowers. It is enclosed in a globular involucre of long stiff scales with hooked tips, the scales being also often interwoven with a white, cottony substance.
The whole plant is a dull, pale green, the stem about 3 to 4 feet and branched, rising from a biennial root. The lower leaves are very large, on long, solid foot-stalks, furrowed above, frequently more than a foot long heart-shaped and of a grey colour on their under surfaces from the mass of fine down with which they are covered. The upper leaves are much smaller, more egg-shaped in form and not so densely clothed beneath with the grey down.

The plant varies considerably in appearance, and by some botanists various subspecies, or even separate species, have been described, the variations being according to the size of the flower-heads and of the whole plant, the abundance of the whitish cottonlike substance that is sometimes found on the involucres, or the absence of it, the length of the flower-stalks, etc.

click to see the pictures.>……(01).…….(1).…….(2).……...(3)……..(4).……….(5).….

The flower-heads are found expanded during the latter part of the summer and well into the autumn: all the florets are tubular, the stamens dark purple and the styles whitish. The plant owes its dissemination greatly to the little hooked prickles of its involucre, which adhere to everything with which they come in contact, and by attaching themselves to coats of animals are often carried to a distance…..click & see

Plants of the genus Arctium have dark green leaves that can grow up to 18″ (45 cm) long. They are generally large, coarse and ovate, with the lower ones being heart-shaped. They are woolly underneath. The leafstalks are generally hollow. Arctium species generally flower from July through October.

The prickly heads of these Old World plants are noted for easily catching on to fur and clothing, thus providing an excellent mechanism for seed dispersal. Burrs cause local irritation and can possibly cause intestinal hairballs in pets. However, most animals avoid ingesting these plants.

A large number of species have been placed in genus Arctium at one time or another, but most of them are now classified in the related genus Cousinia. The precise limits between Arctium and Cousinia are hard to define; there is an exact correlation between their molecular phylogeny. The burdocks are sometimes confused with the cockleburs (genus Xanthium) and rhubarb (genus Rheum).

The roots of burdock, among other plants, are eaten by the larva of the Ghost Moth (Hepialus humuli). The plant is used as a food plant by other Lepidoptera including Brown-tail, Coleophora paripennella, Coleophora peribenanderi, The Gothic, Lime-speck Pug and Scalloped Hazel.

The green, above-ground portions may cause contact dermatitis in humans due to the lactones the plant produces.

Cultivation:–-As the Burdock grows freely in waste places and hedgerows, it can be collected in the wild state, and is seldom worth cultivating.

It will grow in almost any soil, but the roots are formed best in a light well-drained soil. The seeds germinate readily and may be sown directly in the field, either in autumn or early spring, in drills 18 inches to 3 feet apart, sowing 1 inch deep in autumn, but less in spring. The young plants when well up are thinned out to 6 inches apart in the row.

Yields at the rate of 1,500 to 2,000 lb. of dry roots per acre have been obtained from plantations of Burdock.

The roots are dug in July, and should be lifted with a beet-lifter or a deep-running plough. As a rule they are 12 inches or more in length and about 1 inch thick, sometimes, however, they extend 2 to 3 feet, making it necessary to dig by hand. They are fleshy, wrinkled, crowned with a tuft of whitish, soft, hairy leaf-stalks, grey-brown externally, whitish internally, with a somewhat thick bark, about a quarter of the diameter of the root, and soft wood tissues, with a radiate structure.

The seeds (or fruits) are collected when ripe. They are brownish-grey, wrinkled, about 1/4 inch long and 1/16 inch in diameter. They are shaken out of the head and dried by spreading them out on paper in the sun.

Uses:-
The taproot of young burdock plants can be harvested and eaten as a root vegetable. While generally out of favor in modern European cuisine, it remains popular in Asia, particularly in Japan where A. lappa (Greater burdock) is called gobo. Plants are cultivated for their slender roots, which can grow about 1 meter long and 2 cm across. Burdock root is very crisp and has a sweet, mild, and pungent flavor with a little muddy harshness that can be reduced by soaking julienne/shredded roots in water for five to ten minutes. Immature flower stalks may also be harvested in late spring, before flowers appear; the taste resembles that of artichoke, to which the burdock is related. A popular Japanese dish is kinpira gobo, julienned or shredded burdock root and carrot, braised with soy sauce, sugar, mirin and/or sake, and sesame oil; another is burdock makizushi (sushi filled with pickled burdock root rather than fish; the burdock root is often artificially colored orange to resemble a carrot). In the second half of the 20th century, burdock achieved international recognition for its culinary use due to the increasing popularity of the macrobiotic diet, which advocates its consumption. It also contains a fair amount of gobo dietary fiber (GDF, 6g per 100g), calcium, potassium, amino acids,  and is also low calorie. It also contains polyphenols that causes darkened surface and muddy harshness by formation of tannin-iron complexes though the harshness shows excellent harmonization with pork in miso soup (tonjiru) and Japanese-style pilaf (takikomi gohan).

Dandelion and burdock is a soft drink that has long been popular in the United Kingdom, and authentic recipes are sold by health food shops, but it is not clear whether the cheaper supermarket versions actually contain either plant. Burdock is believed to be a galactagogue, a substance that increases lactation.

Parts Used Medicinally-:–The dried root from plants of the first year’s growth forms the official drug, but the leaves and fruits (commonly, though erroneously, called seeds) are also used.

Constituents:-–Inulin, mucilage, sugar, a bitter, crystalline glucoside – Lappin-a little resin, fixed and volatile oils, and some tannic acid.
The roots contain starch, and the ashes of the plant, burnt when green, yield carbonate of potash abundantly, and also some nitre.

Burdock root has a sweetish and mucilaginous taste.

Burdock leaves, which are less used than the root, are collected in July. For drying, follow the drying of Coltsfoot leaves. They have a somewhat bitter taste.

Folk herbalists consider dried burdock to be a diuretic, diaphoretic, and a blood purifying agent. The seeds of A. lappa are used in traditional Chinese medicine,.

Burdock has been a favorite medicinal herb for centuries and is used for many ailments. Burdock root oil extract, also called Bur oil, is popular in Europe as a scalp treatment applied to improve hair strength, shine and body, help reverse scalp conditions, and combat hair loss. It is used as a natural hair oil to help get rid of scalp itching and dandruff, promote healing of skin and scalp conditions. Modern studies indicate that Burdock root oil extract is rich in phytosterols and essential fatty acids (including rare long chain EFAs), the nutrients required to maintain healthy scalp and promote natural hair growth. Regular use of Burdock oil helps restore and maintain healthy scalp and hair. The oil helps combat scalp itching, redness and dandruff, and promotes recovery of scalp irritation. It combines immediate relieving effect with nutritional support of normal functions of sebaceous glands and hair follicles.

For centuries, Burdock oil has been used to produce Burdock herbal medicines. High-quality Burdock oil has a mild attractive aroma which comes from the volatile root ingredients. This unique aroma may be used to identify genuine Burdock oil and avoid adulterated products.

Medicinal Action and Uses:—Alterative, diuretic and diaphoretic. One of the best blood purifiers. In all skin diseases, it is a certain remedy and has effected a cure in many cases of eczema, either taken alone or combined with other remedies, such as Yellow Dock and Sarsaparilla.

The root is principally employed, but the leaves and seeds are equally valuable. Both root and seeds may be taken as a decoction of 1 OZ. to 1 1/2 pint of water, boiled down to a pint, in doses of a wineglassful, three or four times a day.

The anti-scorbutic properties of the root make the decoction very useful for boils, scurvy and rheumatic affections, and by many it is considered superior to Sarsaparilla, on account of its mucilaginous, demulcent nature; it has in addition been recommended for external use as a wash for ulcers and scaly skin disorders.

An infusion of the leaves is useful to impart strength and tone to the stomach, for some forms of long-standing indigestion.

When applied externally as a poultice, the leaves are highly resolvent for tumours and gouty swellings, and relieve bruises and inflamed surfaces generally. The bruised leaves have been applied by the peasantry in many countries as cataplasms to the feet and as a remedy for hysterical disorders.

From the seeds, both a medicinal tincture and a fluid extract are prepared, of benefit in chronic skin diseases. Americans use the seeds only, considering them more efficacious and prompt in their action than the other parts of the plant. They are relaxant and demulcent, with a limited amount of tonic property. Their influence upon the skin is due largely to their being of such an oily nature: they affect both the sebaceous and sudoriferous glands, and probably owing to their oily nature restore that smoothness to the skin which is a sign of normal healthy action.

The infusion or decoction of the seeds is employed in dropsical complaints, more especially in cases where there is co-existing derangement of the nervous system, and is considered by many to be a specific for all affections of the kidneys, for which it may with advantage be taken several times a day, before meals.

Help taken from: en.wikipedia.org and www.botanical.com

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Sip soup to stay fighting fit

: According to a new Pennsylvania State University study, people who fill their stomachs with soup at the start of a meal eat less overall, reducing total calorie intake by over 20 per cent.

According to the study’s authors, who presented their work on May 1 at the Experimental Biology meeting in Washington DC, any form of soup  those with separate broth and vegetables, chunky, chunky-pureed and pureed  will do the trick, proving to be equally filling.

Dr Barbara Rolls, who holds the Guthrie Chair of Nutrition at the University, said: “Consuming a first-course of low-calorie soup, in a variety of forms, can help with managing weight. This strategy allows people to get an extra course at the meal, while eating fewer total calories.”

According to Dr Rolls, who devised the concept of Volumetrics (eating a satisfying volume of food while controlling calories and meeting nutrient requirements) scientists had earlier believed that only chunky soup, with lots of vegetables or meat, may be the most filling type. They also felt that the thickness of the soup or the amount of chewing required affected its ability to make a person feel full.

“This study also proves that consuming lower-calorie soup helps reduce food intake. The purpose of this study was to determine whether different forms of soup might have different effects on food intake,” she added.

Charu Dua, chief dietician of Max Superspeciality Hospital, said, “Soups, thick or puree-based, are both good for health and filling. Vegetables or chicken in soup adds to its fibre content, increasing its satiety value. Several soups like tomato (20-40 calories), clear chicken (40-60 calories) and Talumein (50 calories) have very low calories and yet fill the stomach.”

Dua added: “However, attention must be given that corn flour and milk is not added to the soup which immediately takes the calories to 100-150. Cream of chicken or spinach soup have nearly 200 calories.”

Researchers gave low-calorie soup made of chicken broth, broccoli, potato, cauliflower, carrots and butter to 60 normal-weight men and women once a week for five weeks. Diners were found to eat 20 per cent less when they had both soup and lunch.

Source:The Times Of India

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Yoga

Shoulder Socket Rotation (Yoga Exercise)

 

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This yoga Exercise has two variations. You can practice this as below:

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Variation I:

Remain in comfortable siting position or comfortable cross legged pose.

Keep spinal chord and the neck straight.

Keep your eyes open.

Breathe slow and rhythmic.

Stretch forward your arms to shoulder level.

Keep the palms straight and open towards the ceiling with straight fingers.

Bend both the elbows and stretch the palms face ward.

Try to touch the shoulder with your palms.

At this hour the palm should be shoulder ward.

Keeping the fingers on your shoulder rotate the hand in clockwise and anti-clockwise direction.

Do this exercise ten times.

Now straighten your hand at the elbow.

Repeat this ten times.

Bring back the hands in original position.

Variation II:

Remain in comfortable siting pose with your neck and spine straight.

Out stretch your both hands sideways at shoulder level keeping the palm-ceiling ward.

Bend your elbows and touch the shoulder with your fingers.

Keeping the fingers on the shoulder rotate both the hands in circular and anti-circular motion.

Then place your hands back in the original position.

Repeat this ten times.

Inhale and stretch your arms then exhale and bend your elbows.

Focus on the arms and elbows.

Now get back in the primary position.

Breathing Pattern:

Inhale during the upward movement.

Exhale during the downward movement.

Consciousness:

On the breathing.

Mental counting.

The rotation of hip joints.

Benefits:

Flexibility to the joint.

Removes the muscle strain.

Source:Allayurveda.com

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Herbs & Plants

Betel Leaves (Paan)

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Botanical Name: Piper betel (LINN.)
Family: Piperaceae
Genus: Piper
Species: P. betle
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Piperales


Synonyms–:-Chavica Betel. Artanthe Hixagona

Common Name: Paan
–Part Used-:–The leaves.
–Habitat: The Betel plant originated in Malaysia and now grows in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, Malaya and Java.

Description:–
The plant is evergreen and perennial, with glossy heart-shaped leaves and white catkins, and grows to a height of about 1 metre. . The best Betel leaf is the “Magahi” variety (literally from the Magadha region) grown near Patna in Bihar, India. The plant is known by a series of different names in the regions in which it is consumed – among these are Vetrilai (Tamil).

The Betel plant is indigenous throughout the Indian Malay region and also cultivated in Madagascar, Bourbon and the West Indies. It is a climbing shrub and is trained on poles or trellis in a hot but shady situation. The leaves are pressed together and dried, sometimes being sewn up together in packets for commerce.

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-Constituents–-The chief constituent of the leaves is a volatile oil varying in the leaves from different countries and known as Betel oil. It contains two phenols, betel-phenol (chavibetol) and chavicol. Cadinene has also been found. The best oil is a clear yellow colour obtained from the fresh leaves. The Indians use the leaves as a masticatory (the taste being warm, aromatic and bitter), together with scraped areca nut and lime.

Uses:
Chew as Mouth freshner:In India and parts of Southeast Asia, the leaves are chewed together with the mineral slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) and the areca nut which, by association, is sometimes inaccurately called the “betel nut“. The lime acts to keep the active ingredient in its freebase or alkaline form, thus enabling it to enter the bloodstream via sublingual absorption. The areca nut contains the alkaloid arecoline, which promotes salivation (the saliva is stained red), and is itself a stimulant. This combination, known as a “betel quid”, has been used for several thousand years. Tobacco is sometimes added…...CLICK &  SEE

Paan is the Hindi word (in Hindi: from Sanskrit parna ‘feather) for betel’, which is used for a stimulating and psychoactive preparation combined with areca nut and/or cured tobacco. Paan is chewed and finally spat out or swallowed. Paan has many variations. Slaked lime (chunnam) paste is commonly added to bind the leaves. Some South Asian preparations include katha paste or mukhwas  to freshen the breath.

(Katha is also known as cutch, black cutch, cachou, cashoo, khoyer, terra Japonica, or Japan earth, and also katha in Hindi, kaath in Marathi, khoyer in Assamese and Bengali, and kachu in Malay (hence the Latinized Acacia catechu chosen as the Linnaean taxonomy name of the type-species Acacia plant which provides the extract).

In India, the betel and areca play an important role in Indian culture especially among Hindus. All the traditional ceremonies governing the lives of Hindus use betel and areca. For example to pay money to the priest, they keep money in the betel leaves and place it beside the priest.

The betel and areca also play an important role in Vietnamese culture. In Vietnamese there is a saying that “the betel begins the conversation”, referring to the practice of people chewing betel in formal occasions or “to break the ice” in awkward situational conversations. The betel leaves and areca nuts are used ceremonially in traditional Vietnamese weddings. Based on a folk tale about the origins of these plants, the groom traditionally offer the bride’s parents betel leaves and areca nuts (among other things) in exchange for the bride. The betel and areca are such important symbols of love and marriage such that in Vietnamese the phrase “matters of betel and areca” (chuyện trầu cau) is synonymous with marriage.

 

—-Medicinal Action and Uses:

Betel leaves are chiefly used as a gently stimulant, apparently inducing a mild sensation of well-being.  They also affect the digestive system, stimulating salivary secretions, relieving gas, and preventing worm infestation.  In many Asian traditions, including Ayurvedic medicine, betel leaves are thought to have aphrodisiac and nerve tonic properties.  In Chinese herbal medicine, betel root, leaves, and fruit are sometimes used as a mild tonic and stomach-settling herb.  The root has been used with black pepper or jequirity to produce sterility in women.

-The Betel (Piper betle) is a spice whose leaves have medicinal properties.The leaves are stimulant antiseptic and sialogogue; the oil is an active local stimulant used in the treatment of respiratory catarrhs as a local application or gargle, also as an inhalant in diphtheria. In India the leaves are used as a counter-irritant to suppress the secretion of milk in mammary abscesses. The juice of 4 leaves is equivalent in power to one drop of the oil.

In India, they use betel to cast out (cure) worms.

Betel leaves are used as a stimulant, an antiseptic and a breath-freshener Paan. In Ayurvedic medicine, they are used as an aphrodisiac. In Malaysia they are used to treat headaches, arthritis and joint pain. In Thailand and China they are used to relieve toothache. In Indonesia they are drunk as an infusion and used as an antibiotic. They are also used in an infusion to cure indigestion, as a topical cure for constipation, as a decongestant and as an aid to lactation.

In Papua New Guinea, betel is prepared with a mustard stick dipped in lime powder and acts as a stimulant to suppress hunger, reduce stress and heighten the senses.

Known Hazards: In an extensive scientific research monograph, the World Health Organization expert group for research on cancer reported in 2004 that the percentage of oral cancer among all cancers diagnosed in hospitals in Asia has always been much higher than that usually found in western countries, where the habit of chewing betel quid, with or without tobacco, is virtually unknown. In many descriptive studies, investigators have obtained histories of chewing betel quid with tobacco from series of patients with oral cancer; and in all these studies the percentage of patients who practice betel leaf chewing was found to be extremely large. Researchers also noted that the cancer generally develops at the place where the betel quid is kept. ……....CLICK & READ

The high rate of oral cancer in South Asia is thought to be due to the chewing of betel preparations; the inclusion of tobacco may worsen the risk, but there is also evidence that the areca nut, alone or as part of a betel quid, may cause cancer even without tobacco.[23] See its article for more discussion of this point.   ...CLICK & SEE

Effects of chewing paan during pregnancy:   Scientific teams from Taiwan, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea have reported that women who chew areca nut formulations, such as paan, during pregnancy significantly increase adverse outcomes for the baby. The effects were similar to those reported for women who consume alcohol or tobacco during pregnancy. Lower birth weights, reduced birth length and early term were found to be significantly higher

Some reports may suggest that betel leaf by itself has adverse health effects, in part because of tannins delivered by the leaf and for reasons currently not fully understood.   For example, one research paper studied chromosome damaging effect of betel leaf in human leukocyte cultures. These researchers report an increase in the frequency of chromatid aberrations when the leaf extract was added to cultures. Another scientific study from Japan    indicates that the lab rats who ate a mixture of betel leaf and areca nuts all had severe thickening of the upper digestive tract whereas after undergoing a diet of betel leaves alone, only one laboratory rat ended up having a forestomach papilloma.

Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplement, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Help taken from:en.wikipedia.org and botanical.com

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