Ladies of Hive Community Contest #201: Staying Healthy the Natural Way

Hello there fellow Hivers...🥰 Have a nice day/night to all...

I gladly accept the challenge from Ladies of Hive Community Contest 201 because I can really relate to the first question that goes...
”When you're sick, what home remedy gets you back on your feet the quickest? Explain how it works.”

It really suits my recent health situation.
Before answering the question, please allow me to tell you my health history as well as my daughter’s past experiences having an illness.

A photo of me taken during one of my family's morning walk

I was born weak and sickly, but I am grateful to have parents that took care of me, most especially my grandparents.

I was in a lot of medications when I was a kid. I had migraine, maxillary sinusitis, enlargement of the heart when I was still young and had undergone some treatments and medications.

Then when I already got married and had a family of my own, I still had my illnesses but I did not suffer much because of the medications and treatment I’ve undergone. It only occurred when I am fatigued and stressed.

I’m also grateful to my parents-in-law who helped me a lot during those days I suffered for my sickness. Six years after my marriage, I was sadly diagnosed of having hypothyroidism/goiter. I was in my late 20's then, but luckily, we had family doctors... yes doctors I had since I was a kid.

The husband or the male doctor treated my migraine, sinusitis and heart enlargement. Then when I got married her wife became my OB-gyn and their son-in-law was my husband’s and daughter's physician.

These doctors were very kind and generous. They treated us as their friends and even family. They heartily helped their patients. And we are one of those who got their help. They also educated us or explained clearly to us how these illnesses are and the proper usage of medications and more so the side effects.

My daughter was born sickly, too. Most of her illnesses were hereditary from both sides of the family. She was asthmatic, convulsive and allergic to seafoods and even to dust. I am allergic to some seafoods too but not as serious as my daughter because I only suffered rashes and redness and itchiness, but my daughter can't breathe properly. That's why we’re very careful in serving food for her.

During her infancy stage she already had an allergy of dust and air pollution. She always had a bath soap prescribed by her pediatrician. She was being hospitalized during her 1st to 5th year of age due to her asthma and convulsion. But later on, with the help of some doctor’s treatment and medications and also their advices to overcome her illnesses, she recovered and became well and was not admitted again to the hospital.

Unfortunately, last 2009 she was hospitalized again and doctors found out that she had gallbladder stones. It was quite serious as she was in a critical situation because there were multiple stones and a big one was blocking a certain tube that she couldn’t take any foods even liquids. Still, we are super grateful for God's loving grace and mercy, my daughter survived that crisis.

So much for the back story…

Ever since then, we learned a lot of lessons and became stronger to whatever illnesses we encounter.

My initial BP upon waking up... and my BP several minutes after exercising.

Like what had happened to me last year. I had high blood pressure of 200/105 mmHg and I panicked then. Thankfully I have a daughter who is a registered nurse who calmed me down and guided me on what to do. That was because during that time the weather was too hot and honestly, we always ate unhealthy foods like fatty meat, sweets, and even had soft drinks and dried fish.

That was really a wake-up call for us.

In that instant, we decided to change our lifestyle because I did not want to go to the doctor for a checkup because I'm already scared of having medications specially at my age right now and with those different medicines I took before. I am afraid of the side effects. Yes, it's true that proper medication is good and can cure but we should also consider the damage they could do to our kidneys and liver alongside other adverse effects.

So, what we did instead was cutting those bad habits and resorted to a much healthier lifestyle.

We stopped eating white rice and changed it to brown rice and red rice sometimes corn. We stopped eating white bread and change it to wheat bread. We also stopped eating other pastries like cakes from the cake shop which we always did before. If we have a craving for some cake, my daughter will make some banana cupcakes sometimes lemon and carrot air fried cakes and adjusted the sugar content.

And for what we did to lower my blood pressure, I ate roasted garlic and my husband always cooked those roasted garlic for me. I always have foods rich in potassium like sweet potato, banana, oranges, watermelon and other fruits.

I'm buying some fruits and vegetables after my family's morning walk.

Combination of lemon and ginger I use to add to my green tea.

More vegetable intake, cutting out some sweets and sodium and flavored drinks specially soda in our diet, drinking green tea with ginger and lemon, drinking more water… these foods and drinks really helped me a lot to lower my blood pressure. And aside from food intake changes, daily exercise and enough sleep are also important factors to have a healthy body.

Low-intensity exercise to lower BP...

This is my daily routine now. Every morning when I wake up and after having my short prayer of gratitude, I did the daily blood pressure monitoring. My daughter searched some indoor exercises that can help lower my blood pressure, and I did the workout exercise every morning for 10 to 15 minutes.

And then in the afternoon, I do my cardiovascular exercise in our stationary bike for 15 to 20 minutes. And in the evening before sleeping, I have my guided meditation to lower my blood pressure.

Honestly, all these things really helped me survive every day without taking any medicine. Having a healthy lifestyle, self-discipline and doing a daily workout and of course with constant prayers, undeniably it works wonders and miracles. I can't really imagine how tough I am now to endure this kind of illness and this happened also because of the full support of my beloved family and faith in God.

I wish I was able to impart all of you some life's lesson in doing some home remedies in getting back quickly without taking some medicines when we are sick.

Planting some vegetables with some neighborhood kids.

It's really been a pleasure sharing my personal experience in doing home remedies when getting sick.

Thank you for this chance.
Stay healthy everyone and God bless us all!