Nervous Debility and Migraine

Nervous debility may manifest itself in headaches (including migraine), vertigo or weakened memory. Normally restricting the diet to those substances which do not vitiate your dominant dosha is, again the foremost preventing regimen. But there are factors other than diet too. Some of these are indicated below. Prudence suggests avoidance of these causes:

1. Overwork of mental nature
2. Prolonged grief, anger or other emotional disturbance
3. Chronic alcoholism
4. Late night activities i.e. keeping awake till late night.
5. Suppressing the calls of nature
6. Anxiety, stress
7. Eating stale, very dry foods
8. Eating chemically processed foods or adulterated foods

Some of the very simple, home based remedies for effective treatment of nervous debility are given below

1. Soak about 6 to 8 seeds of almond in water in the evening. Next morning, take out the almonds and peel off their skin. Drop the peeled off almonds into 250 ml. of milk and boil it. Under intense heat, allow the milk to boil thoroughly such that the surface overflows. Lower down the heat and after a while again simmer it to make the surface overflow. Repeat this a third time. Thereafter remove the heat and allow the milk to cool, but before allowing it to cool, dissolve a teaspoonful of ‘ghee’ and two teaspoonfuls of sugar in the milk. When lukewarm, the milk should be drunk. This is to be done for 3 to 5 weeks. This is an excellent remedy for weak memory.
2. Marmalade of Amla (Indian gooseberry) – Take about 500 grams of fresh, green Amla. Grate these Amla pieces and put the grated stuff into a glass pot. Now pour honey over the grated stuff till the latter is completely dipped. The pot may be properly sealed and be kept in bright sun for about 4 hours. This exposure to sun may be repeated over a week. After another two days, the marmalade is ready for consumption. This marmalade is invaluable remedy for removing nervous debility. More than that it removes nervous headaches and improves memory. The important point to remember is that it should be taken first thing in the morning and thereafter for one hour; one should abstain from eating anything. These days, a very common habit among youngsters and elderly is that of bed-tea. Bed tea acts as a stimulant and a depressant and also as a diuretic. The caffeine in the tea and not to talk of the white sugar that goes in its preparation has deleterious effects on the body. Tea does not tone up the nervous system; it only acts to provide temporary stimulation. If instead of that cup of bed tea, people took a little amount of the Amla marmalades, they could rid themselves of that nagging nervous headache, that forgetfulness because of poor memory and also that uneasy feeling of constipated bowels. The suggested remedy has a very beneficial action on the bowels and also tones up the digestive processes.
3. Dried Amla without its seed and dried seeds of coriander may be taken in equal quantities by weight. The mixture should be put in about 250 ml of water contained in an earthen pot. This is to be done at evening time. Next morning the pulp may be thoroughly beaten in the water and then the water may be filtered. In the filtered water, two teaspoonful of ‘mishri’ (thick crystal sugar) may be dissolved. The resulting water solution should be orally consumed. The dose can be repeated for from three days upto ten days or so.
4. Eat rice with plain curd early in the morning before sunrise for relief of migraine headache.
5. Putting one or two drops of pure mustard oil in the nostril corresponding to the aching portion of the head, followed by deep inhalation also relieves migraine pain.
6. Drink a mixture of juices of carrots and lettuce (about 100 ml each) for relief in migraine.
7. Drop some ghee prepared from cow’s milk in the nostrils for relief in migraine. Do it twice daily.
8. Eating one fresh apple first thing early morning for two weeks cures migraine.
9. Drink fresh juice of green grapes empty stomach in the morning for about ten or fifteen days. This cures migraine.