"Why Government Policies On Natural Medicine May Find It Difficult To Succeed In Nigeria" - Dr Egbaredon Ehis Humphrey, CEO, Save Soul Natural Clinic

(Being the concluding part of an interview started yesterday between Nigeria Natural Health Online's editor, Dumbiri Frank Eboh, and Dr Egbaredon Ehis Humphrey, the CEO Of Save Soul Natural Clinic, a Lagos based natural health facility).

Accessing Save Soul Natural Clinic services

Accessing our services is very simple. We are leaving in the computer age, in the internet age. It is possible for you to be anywhere in the world and access any product or service anywhere in the world. I have various media platforms through which I could be reached. Besides this, getting the product that I use in the clinic also has its own side to the whole thing. First, if a patient calls me to complain of an ailment, I would ask him/her to go for a laboratory test or to a doctor who will carry out a medical investigation about the ailment. When the result is out, the person sends me the document and I prepare the medicine, package it and send to him/her where he/she is in the world. The person takes it and get well, people have come to put their trust on my medicine because I’m the only one that gives money-back guarantee. I do it because I know the efficacy of my medicine.

Terminal diseases can succumb to natural medicine

Let me take this issue from another dimension, based on my background. I grew up seeing all these ailments being cured with natural medicine. There is no disease that cannot be cured with natural medicine, I have never heard of any such sickness. However, we believe that there are some diseases that can terminate life. But there can be perfectly managed and the ailer can live for a very long time before he dies of that disease. I speak of what I have seen, and what I have been involved with and what I have been practicing for a very long time.

The role of government in promoting natural medicine in Nigeria

Well I think government is playing a role in the sector but it is not a well defined role. Government has not done enough for the natural health industry in Nigeria. We have an office, we have a board, we have a chairman and we have various board members. They are all there. But the sad thing is that, the board is being managed by medical doctors, and not natural health doctors. So how do you expect government role to be visible in the sector? Of course the medical doctor will always think along the line of orthordox medicine and not in the line of natural medicine.

The challenges of providing health care in Nigeria

Of course there are challenges. If you had come on the day that my herbs are delivered, you would have seen one of the challenges and even experience it yourself. You would be here all day but would not be able to interview me. Why? Some of my medicines come from Benin Kingdom, some come from Abeokuta, and some come from Benue, Kogi and other parts of Nigeria. It depends on the particular ailment I want to cure. If it is such that demand that I should go across the sea to get the cure, I go across the sea to get that medicine to cure the patient. That’s why you can never find my medicine in any shop. They are prepared specifically for specific patients, on individual examination. I examine you and find out what is wrong with you and prepared your medicine according Benin tradition. So, there are many challenges but because I’m from Benin Kingdom, they don’t affect me as much as they affect other practitioners in the industry.

Herbal medicine as a course of study in Nigeria universities

Yes, I heard the news when it broke out last year that the government was contemplating putting herbal medicine in the curriculum of Nigerian Universities. It was actually a health editor in one of the national dailies that brought the news to me and I received it with mixed feelings. I was happy because, it was a step in a right direction. But I have my doubt as to it success. Do you know why? Because it is going to be managed by medical doctors and not natural health providers so it will be difficult for that policy to succeed. If they want to develop traditional medicine in Nigeria, they should pick managers from among natural health practitioners so my advice to government is that if they create that department, lecturers should be drawn from natural health practitioners and not from medical doctors.

Integration of orthodox and herbal medicines

It is good. Orthodox and herbal medicines can go a long way if they walk hand in hand. If for instance a patient is brought here with a certain heath condition that can be cured only when the headache is reduced, I can administer an analgesic to bring down the headache while I threat the ailment with herbs. That’s a good integration. I advice my patients, if there’s a need to use orthodox medicine while they are using my medicine, they should please do so as long as the medicines are not such that can interact with each other. So the orthodox needs us as much as we need them.

Those who can access Save Soul Clinic products and services

Everybody and anybody can access our product and services; however, you can see that this clinic is not a small one. It takes a lot to manage it but that does not mean that coming here would drill a hole in your pocket. It actually depends on the patient's ability to pay. I’m a very considerate person when it comes to charging my patients. If you talk to me in a way that I can understand, I can give you premium service at a highly reduced fee. So both the rich and poor can have access to me. I have treated Governors, company directors and other big shots in the society. I have also treated petty traders, hawkers and people of low income bracket. People also come from overseas, including United States, Germany, Canada, South Africa and other countries in world.

What differentiate Save Soul Clinic from others

I have told you what it is. It is beyond medicine, it is not just about taken tablets or liquid. It is the ability for you to trace the course of an ailment to it root and cure it from the source. Sometimes when patients come here, I look at the source of the problems, whether spiritual, physical or emotional. If it demands that I go to the spiritual to handle it, I do that. Whether the ailments are physical or spiritual, we cure it from the source. That’s what set us apart from others. In Save Soul Natural Clinic, it is beyond medicine. It is spiritual

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"At Save Soul Natural Clinic, Healing Goes Beyond Medicine" - Dr Egbaredon Ehis Humphrey

Save Soul Natural Clinic, a frontline natural health facility located in Lagos, Nigeria, it one outfit that has carved a niche for itself in the Nigerian natural health industry. the facility, which is founded on the ancient healing powers of the Benin Kingdom, where its chief executive officer, Dr Egbaredon Ehis Humphrey hails from, has continued to provide healing services for people from both in and outside the country.

In this interview with Nigeria Natural Health Online's editor Dumbiri Frank Eboh, the CEO of Save Soul Natural Clinic speaks on the making of the clinic and how it has come to occupy the current position he does in the Nigerian natural health industry. He also speaks on other related issues. Excerpts.
    

On himself

My name is Egbaredon Ehis Humphrey. I am the chief executive officer of Save Soul Natural Clinic, a natural health providing facility located in Lagos. I am also the Rescuer/Supretendent officer United Nobles (UN, Abuja).

On Save Soul Natural Clinic

Save soul natural clinic is a health outfit that is different from others in the country. It is a clinic that treats various forms of ailments with the use of traditional medicine, not just herbal medicine. This is what sets us apart from the crowd. While others heal with just herbal medicine, we go beyond that. And the result is overwhelming. People come here and get cured of their disease on daily basics. Whether the ailment is physical, whether is spiritual, so long as it is diagnosed ailment, Save Soul Natural Clinic will handle it perfectly using the healing powers of the Benin Kingdom.

On his background

I am from a royal family in Benin Kingdom in Nigeria. My mother is the second to the last born of Chief Edohen of Emu, the one in charge of crowning the Oba of Benin. The Onojie of Ohordua is my grandfather. A prince married a princess and they gave birth to me. Before I was born, there was a prophecy that my mother was going to give birth to a great doctor. She mistook this to be a witch doctor and because she was a Christian, did not place much emphasis on it. Even the circumstances surrounding my birth were mysterious because after nine months, my mother could not give birth until she gave her consent that she has accepted the prophecy. Soon after that, she gave birth to me without much ado. That was why I was named Ehibor or Ehis, meaning the "Divine one from God". I eventually went on to study Corporate Management sciences at Nigeria College of Administration. After my youth service, I got chartered and became a chartered administrator managing a business unit, which was an organization involving some companies.

Going into natural medicine

Even though I was a successful business administrator, I was not satisfied because that was not my destiny and not my calling.

Eventually, I met a doctor who advice me to go into medicine but i did not accepts the advice because I was not good at science subjects. I was trained at the Lagos State Board of Traditional Medicine and then went  to Delta. I finally went back to Benin; it was here that i was drilled in the art of natural medicine. It was in Benin that I got my expertise in the field. By that time my mother was still alive and at the end of the training, the crown of practice was given to me. It was given to me at night and this is very significant because it entails that whether the source of the sickness is from the night or from the day, am equal to the task. So whenever or wherever the ailment may come from I have the ability to deal with it.

On the impact of Save Soul Natural Clinic in the Nigeria natural health industry

I don’t like assessing myself, I like it when other people do it. But the testimonies are everywhere. People come here and get cured of their ailments. Most times, when I am on the radio or on the TV people call in to say how they have been affected by Save Soul Clinic, how they or their relatives have been cured of terrible diseases. So I allow the people to rate Save Soul Clinic and so far the rating has been very high. But this is not our limit. We are set to soar higher and higher and take the Nigerian natural health industry to the next level. I always tell people that there is no need taking people overseas for treatment. If the orthodox doctors say they cannot cure it, bring it to Save Soul Clinic and it will be cured with the use of natural medicines. There is no ailment that can not be cure here. The day food can no longer satisfy hunger, that is when natural medicine can no longer cure ailments at Save Soul Clinic.

Decreasing life expectancy in modern societies

The place of natural medicine in the longevity of man can never be over emphasized. Our fore fathers lived to be above 80 or even 100years. Today average life expectancy has dropped very low. Again, our fathers married many wives and sexually satisfied them. But today, what do you find? You see men as young as 30 or even younger coming to complain of weak erection. Why is this so? It is because we have abandon nature. If one can go back in history, back to the traditional means of sustenance, we can bring back the lost glory. I am a traditionalist, not just a herbal doctor. Today as I speak with you, if you got to my village, you will see men as old as l09 still going about in agility. My uncle just died last year at the age of 104 years. He had a workshop where he repaired his own bicycle till death. When my mother died at over 80 years, this uncle was crying and wailing that my mother died too young! That shows you the kind of life they live over there. So it is clear: we have abandoned nature, and nature is punishing us for that. The only way to remedy things is to go back to nature.

Going back to nature in a  modern society

Even though it is not easy to go back to nature in this our modern time, it is possible to do so. And people like us in the practice of natural medicine have taken up the challenge of creating the awareness and educating people on the need to go back to nature. We are on radio, TV and on papers. Even if you live in a city like Lagos, you could carve out a space in your compound where you plant fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, cucumber, onions and the rest of them fresh. That way, you get the nutrients which God has deposited in them. But now, you see people buying processed foods imported from abroad. They don’t know who processed it or how it is processed. That is not good at all. We need to embrace nature in other to live long and quality life.

The difference between A Traditionalist and a herbalist

Yes, I told you I am not just an herbalist, I am traditionalist. A traditionalist is different from an herbalist. An herbalist is somebody that practices with herbs only. If you squeeze bitter-leafs, and add water to it, you are an herbalist. If you cook pumpkin leafs and add onion and pepper to it, you are an herbalist. But a traditionalist is far much greater than that. An traditionalist seats in his house and sees what is going on somewhere else; he seats in his house and sees tomorrow. A traditionalist has three eyes. And that is what set Save Soul apart from the rest. I work all the time. I work when I am awake and when I am asleep. That is why, most times I get tired when I wake up, I have been doing so much work in the spiritual realm. At Save Soul Natural Clinic, healing goes beyond medicine.

The range of ailments that Save Soul Natural Clinic can curve

When you ask about the kinds of ailments I can cure, I choose to answer the question from the other way round: what kind of ailment can I not cure? If I start listing the kind of sicknesses and diseases that I cure, it could take a whole day and yet the list will not be exhausted. Be it heart problems, strokes, epilepsy, or viral diseases I cure them all. When the baby in the womb is too large and the doctor says there is going to be a CS, don’t worry. Just bring it here. I will constrict the baby and it will come out safely. If the pelvic area needs to be expanded, I expand it and the baby comes out smoothly. So whatever sickness that there is, weather spiritual or physical, I cure them all...

(TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW)

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Foods That Help Prevent Cancer

Whether you have a history of cancer in your family, or are currently battling the disease, lifestyle factors, including your diet, can make a huge difference in helping you fight off cancer. Some foods actually increase your risk of cancer, while others support your body and strengthen your immune system. By making smart food choices, you can protect your health, feel better, and boost your ability fight off cancer and other diseases.


Not all health problems are avoidable, but you have more control over your health than you may think. Research shows that a large percentage of cancer-related deaths are directly linked to lifestyle choices such as smoking, drinking, a lack of exercise, and an unhealthy diet. Avoiding cigarettes, limiting alcohol, reaching a healthy weight, and getting regular exercise are a great start to preventing cancer. But to best support your health, you also need to look at your eating habits.

What you eat—and don’t eat—has a powerful effect on your health, including your risk of cancer. Without knowing it, you may be eating many foods that fuel cancer, while neglecting the powerful foods and nutrients that can protect you. For example, a daily serving of red or processed meat increases your risk of colorectal cancer by 21 percent, whereas eating whole soy foods such as tofu or edamame can help reduce your risk of breast cancer. Every 35 grams of dairy protein you consume each day can increase your risk of prostate cancer by 32 percent, while eating more fruits and vegetables can lower your risk for a variety of common cancers. By making small changes to your diet and behaviors, you can lower your risk of disease and possibly even stop cancer in its tracks.

It comes down to this: Fruit and vegetables have less fat, more fiber, and more cancer-fighting nutrients. These three elements work together to support your immune system and help your body fight off cancer.  Currently, most people are falling short of the recommended daily minimum of five servings of fruit and vegetables. In fact, most of us need to double the amount we currently eat to stay healthy and help prevent or fight cancer.

While there’s no single food you can eat to prevent or fight cancer on its own, a balanced plant-based diet filled with a variety of vegetables, fruits, soy, nuts, whole grains, and beans can help lower your risk for many types of cancer. Eating a colorful variety gives you the best protection. Plant-based foods are rich in nutrients that boost your immune system and help protect against cancer cells. Fruits and vegetables are the best sources of antioxidants such as beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium. These powerful vitamins can protect against cancer and help the cells in your body function optimally.
There is also evidence that plant-based foods may be effective at preventing specific cancers. For example:

• Diets high in fruits may lower the risk of stomach and lung cancer.
• Eating vegetables containing carotenoids, such as carrots, Brussels sprouts, and squash, may reduce the risk of lung, mouth, pharynx, and larynx cancers.
• Diets high in non-starchy vegetables, such as broccoli, spinach, and beans, may help protect against stomach and esophageal cancer.
• Eating oranges, berries, peas, bell peppers, dark leafy greens and other foods high in vitamin C may also protect against esophageal cancer.
• Foods high in lycopene, such as tomatoes, guava, and watermelon, may lower the risk of prostate cancer.

The less processed these plant-based foods are—the less they’ve been cooked, peeled, mixed with other ingredients, stripped of their nutrients, or otherwise altered from the way they came out of the ground—the better.

There are many ways to add plant-based foods to your diet. A nice visual reminder is to aim for a plate of food that is filled at least two-thirds with whole grains, vegetables, beans, or fruit. Dairy products, fish, and meat should take up no more than a third of the plate.

Keep in mind that you don’t need to go completely vegetarian. Instead, focus on adding “whole” foods, which are foods close to their original form. Just as important, try to minimize or reduce the amount of processed foods you eat. Eat an apple instead of drinking a glass of apple juice, for example. Or enjoy a bowl of oatmeal with raisins instead of an oatmeal raisin cookie.

• Breakfast: Add fruit and a few seeds or nuts to your whole grain breakfast cereal (such as oatmeal).
• Lunch: Eat a big salad filled with your favorite beans and peas or other combo of veggies. Always order lettuce and tomato (plus any other veggies you can) on your sandwiches, which should be made with whole grain bread. Have a side of veggies like cut up carrots, sauerkraut, or a piece of fruit.
• Snacks: Fresh fruit and vegetables. Grab an apple or banana on your way out the door. Raw veggies such as carrots, celery, cucumbers, jicama, peppers, etc. are great with a low-fat dip such as hummus. Keep trail mix made with nuts, seeds, and a little dried fruit on hand.
• Dinner: Add fresh or frozen veggies to your favorite pasta sauce or rice dish. Top a baked potato with broccoli and yogurt, sautéed veggies, or with salsa. Replace creamy pasta sauces with sautéed vegetables or tomato sauce made with healthy olive oil. Try replacing meat with beans or soy products.
• Dessert: Choose fruit instead of a richer dessert. Or a single square of dark chocolate.

Another benefit of eating plant-based foods is that it will also increase your fiber intake. Fiber, also called roughage or bulk, is the part of plants (grains, fruits, and vegetables) that your body can’t digest. Fiber plays a key role in keeping your digestive system clean and healthy. It helps keep food moving through your digestive tract, and it also moves cancer-causing compounds out before they can create harm. Eating a diet high in fiber may help prevent colorectal cancer and other common digestive system cancers, including stomach, mouth, and pharynx.
Fiber is found in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. In general, the more natural and unprocessed the food, the higher it is in fiber. There is no fiber in meat, dairy, sugar, or “white” foods like white bread, white rice, and pastries.

• Use brown rice instead of white rice
• Substitute whole-grain bread for white bread
• Choose a bran muffin over a croissant or pastry
• Snack on popcorn instead of potato chips
• Eat fresh fruit such as a pear, a banana, or an apple (with the skin)
• Have a baked potato, including the skin, instead of mashed potatoes
• Enjoy fresh carrots, celery, or bell peppers with a hummus or salsa, instead of chips and a sour cream dip
• Use beans instead of ground meat in chili, casseroles, tacos, and even burgers (bean burgers can taste great)
• Drink plenty of water. Fiber absorbs water so the more fiber you add to your diet, the more fluids you should drink. Water is also essential for fighting cancer. It stimulates the immune system, removes waste and toxins, and transports nutrients to all of your organs.

 

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It Is Sugar, Not Obesity That Causes Ill Health - New Study

Obese children who cut back on their sugar intake see improvements in their blood pressure, cholesterol readings and other markers of health after just 10 days, a rigorous new study found.

The new research may help shed light on a question scientists have long debated: Is sugar itself harming health, or is the weight gain that comes from consuming sugary drinks and foods mainly what contributes to illness over the long term?

In the new study, which was financed by the National Institutes of Health and published last week in the journal Obesity, scientists designed a clinical experiment to attempt to answer this question. They removed foods with added sugar from a group of children’s diets and replaced them with other types of carbohydrates so that the subjects weight and overall calorie intake remained roughly the same.

After 10 days, the children showed dramatic improvements, despite losing little or no weight. The findings add to the argument that all calories are not created equal, and they suggest that those from sugar are especially likely to contribute to Type 2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases, which are on the rise in children, said the study’s lead author, Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Benioff Children’s
Hospital of the University of California, San Francisco, United States.

“This paper says we can turn a child’s metabolic health around in 10 days without changing calories and without changing weight – just by taking the added sugars out of their diet,” he said. “From a clinical standpoint, from a health care standpoint, that’s very important.”

Added sugars — the extra sweeteners food companies put in their products, not the sugar that occurs naturally in foods like fruit – are a topic of growing debate. In February, the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee recommended that Americans limit their intake of added sugars to no more than 10 percent of daily calories.

In 2014, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed that food companies include a line on their nutrition labels listing the amount of added sugars in their products. After the dietary guidelines committee issued its report earlier this year, the agency expanded on its 2014 proposal, saying that companies should also list a “daily percent value” for added sugars on their labels in line with the 10 percent recommendation.

The proposed changes have been strongly opposed by the food industry as unscientific. The Sugar Association, a trade group, said the FDA was “making assertions that lack adequate scientific evidence,” and the Grocery Manufacturers Association criticized the standards the agency used to establish the daily value as being “inadequate.”

The newly released study is timely in part because it lowered sugar intake among children to roughly 10 percent of daily calories, the amount recommended by the dietary guidelines committee.

For their study, the scientists recruited 43 children between the ages of nine and 18 who were considered at particularly high risk of diabetes and related disorders. All the subjects were black or Hispanic and obese, and had at least one or more symptoms of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors that includes hypertension, high blood sugar, abnormal cholesterol and excess body fat around the waist.

The study authors paired the subjects with dietitians. They then replaced the sugary foods in their diets with other foods purchased from local grocery stores. The goal was not to eliminate carbohydrates, but to reduce sugary foods and replace them with starchy foods without lowering body weight or calorie intake.”

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