Over the past hundred years people have witnessed a great advancement in medical technology. Diseases that were incurable just a few decades ago can be easily remedied with just one visit to the local pharmacy. It would seem as if all of humanity was taking one step forward and even the possibilities of evading death are in our grasp, but there still persists one problem that prevents such a beneficial future, greed.
Although modern science has done quite a lot research, and has made some remarkable discoveries towards the advancement of medical technology, many people consider this just one side of what appears to be a double-edge sword. Pharmaceutical companies are making big profits by pushing drugs on the present generation. “If you can sleep at night, we have a pill of you!” Western medicine even promotes the idea that emotional distress can be cured by a prescription pill. It’s like the famous comedian Chris Rock once said: “The American government doesn’t want you to use your drugs. They want you to take their drugs!” This ideology hasn’t gone unnoticed by the world’s population.
There is a growing population who sees wisdom in both the medical practices of the Western world, but has included the philosophy and practices, treatments of how their ancestors dealt with health issues. Many have associated this approach with Eastern medicine. Medical ideologies of the East take a more preventive approach and emphasis the need to avoid certain practices that create problems emotionally, mentally, and physically. It is a path of wisdom. Younger people are now more fluent in their knowledge of clinical terms, and amazingly, even psychiatric terminology has entered the “slang” of the streets. It is not uncommon to hear clinical terms like “dysfunctional” mentioned in conversations by people who do not possess a high school diploma. The code of the streets is not only “self-awareness,” but awareness of what we are taking into our bodies. It is important for us to understand how our actions affect our health and our day-to-day experience. This is the hallmark of any true form of spirituality. It is not what you believe in, but what you practice that is important.
Interestingly, I came across some information that I thought our readers would enjoy, dealing primarily with, Black Seed Oil. Nigella sativa, as it is known among herbologists, was discovered in Tutankhamen’s tomb, implying that it played an important role in ancient Egyptian practices. Although its exact role in Egyptian culture is not known, we do know that items entombed with a king were carefully selected to assist him in the afterlife.
The earliest written reference to black seed is found in the Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. Isaiah contrasts the reaping of black cumin with wheat: For the black cumin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over the cumin, but the black cumin is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod. (Isaiah 28:25,27 NKJV). Easton’s Bible Dictionary clarifies that the Hebrew word for black cumin, “ketsah,” refers to “without doubt the Nigella sativa, a small annual of the order Ranunculaceae which grows wild in the Mediterranean countries, and is cultivated in Egypt and Syria for its seed.”
Dioscoredes, a Greek physician of the 1st century, recorded that black seeds were taken to treat headaches, nasal congestion, toothache, and intestinal worms. They were also used, he reported, as a diuretic to promote menstruation and increase milk production.
The Muslim scholar Al-Biruni (973-1048), who composed a treatise on the early origins of Indian and Chinese drugs, mentions that the black seed is a kind of grain called alwanak in the Sigzi dialect. Later, this was confirmed by Suhar Bakht who explained it to be habb-i-Sajzi (viz. Sigzi grains). This reference to black seed as “grains” points to the seed’s possible nutritional use during the tenth and eleventh centuries.
In the Greco-Arab/Unani-Tibb system of medicine, which originated from Hippocrates, his contemporary Galen and Ibn Sina, black seed has been regarded as a valuable remedy in hepatic and digestive disorders and has been described as a stimulant in a variety of conditions, ascribed to an imbalance of cold humours.
Ibn Sina (980-1037), most famous for his volumes called “The Canon of Medicine,” regarded by many as the most famous book in the history of medicine, East or West, refers to black seed as the seed “that stimulates the body’s energy and helps recovery from fatigue or disspiritedness.”
Black seed is also included in the list of natural drugs of Al-Tibb al-Nabawi, and, according to tradition, “Hold onto the use of the black seed for it has a remedy for every illness except death.” This prophetic reference in describing black seed as “having a remedy for all illnesses” may not be so exaggerated as it at first appears. Recent research has provided evidence which indicates that black seed contains an ability to significantly boost the human immune system – if taken over time. The prophetic phrase, “hold onto the use of the seed,” also emphasizes consistent usage of the seed.
Black seed has been traditionally and successfully used in the Middle and Far East countries for centuries to treat ailments including bronchial asthma and bronchitis, rheumatism and related inflammatory diseases, to increase milk production in nursing mothers, to treat digestive disturbances, to support the body’s immune system, to promote digestion and elimination, and to fight parasitic infestation. Its oil has been used to treat skin conditions such as eczema and boils and is used topically to treat cold symptoms.
The many uses of black seed has earned for this medicinal herb the Arabic approbation habbatul barakah, meaning “the seed of blessing.”
Reader may also want to note the following information made available at this link: http://www.amazingherbs.com/arblacseedoi.html
“All these functions make the Black Seed oil the ideal candidate for the prevention and treatment of cancer. Scientists are now busy finding the effects of the Black Seed oil in regard to various other human health conditions. Dr.Med.Peter Schleicher, an immunologist, in Munich who in 1986 happened to be nominated the youngest member of the World Academy of Scientists, examined black seed oil in his institute to find new therapies for chronic illness and its effect. His findings are identical to those in previous studies by earlier researchers. Schleicher says, by using Black Seed oil, valuable unsaturated fatty acids, for example Linoleic and Gammalinolen acids, get into the organism. By that it is possible to reach a synthesis of important immune regulating substances derived from Prostaglandin E1. Linoleic acid stabilizes the cell membranes and Prostaglandin has the effect of inhibiting inflamation. By that the immune reactions are stopped which cause the illnesses and which otherwise could be the start of many chronic illnesses like acne and hayfever right up to cancer. In addition, the excessive T-cell function of the person suffering from allergies are stabilized through the substance in black seed oil and the abnormally rising immune reactions through supressed anti-bodies. The excessive immune system is normalized and the large cell degranulation decreased.”
This is interesting stuff! I am constantly amazed at the depth of your knowledge.
And you are so right about how greed prevents certain amazing breakthroughs.
It is this same greed that prevents the poor from being cured of even the simplest ailments.