Category: GUEST BLOGGERS

HOW BLACK SEED LOWERS BLOOD PRESSURE

A lot of research has been done about this amazing seed that’s mentioned in the Bible and Koran . In fact there’s this saying that – the only thing it can’t cure is death -I’m not confirming that statements though 😛 . What does research show;
1 . It dilates ( relaxes ) blood vessels like BP MEDS do.

  1. It has a cardiac depressant ability hence it lowers BP and reduces heart rate

  2. It’s acts as a diuretic . What are diuretics ? They increase the volume of urine excreted . Usually the first line meds given for high BP are diuretics . They are also called WATER TABLETS. It does what FUROSEMIDE a popular water tablet does . Sodium levels need to be controlled in lowering blood pressure and that’s why people with high BP are asked to reduce salt intake – salt is SODIUM CHLORIDE
    BLACK SEED increases the excretion of SODIUM, POTASSIUM and UREA. This leads to decrease in electrolytes , water and blood volume . These result in lowering blood pressure.

  3. It acts like a CALCIUM CHANNEL BLOCKER blood pressure drugs ( CCB) . Examples of CCB drugs are AMLODIPINE, FELODIPINE, NIFEDIPINE which are commonly prescribed meds for high BP

  1. Has powerful antioxidant effect on the heart and blood vessels
    However seeds are not that easily digested. They need to extracted in specialised ways to get maximum absorption . The oil too must be properly extracted without damaging sol ents and heat . Must be cold pressed . So to get the best , it’s important that you consume S specialised SEED BASEC NUTRITION SUPPLEMENTS
    If you’d like to know more about the benefits of seed based nutrition and the best supplements , message me . Trust me , I know a lot about vitamins and supplements

By Ope Okulaja

AMERICA REDEFINES… II.. “StandBack and StandBy”

By Ivor Ekpe

IF there is ever a sign of an existential threat, it lays in that phrase above.

DONALD TRUMP had only ONE Strategy, if you can call it that, for the 1st Presidential Debate just ended, DO NOT ANSWER ANY QUESTION as asked.

A raucous debate, and I have staged many, FAILED on many fronts.

  1. Tried as he did, The Moderator came up short. One could probably understand as he was faced with a DONALD TRUMP who had no answers and sought to disrupt as much as he was allowed to.

  2. TRUMP evidently has Limited Vocabulary. The practiced words like ‘Phenomenal’, ‘Tremendously’, ‘Many’, married with ‘a lot of People’ filled the air amidst all the noise.

  3. TRUMP MUST think Americans are STUPID and UNEDUCATED.. I wonder what gives him that impression..

HOWEVER, embarrassing as this was, the most telling moment was when asked to condemn White Supremacist Groups and others, he released THE BOMBSHELL.

Shape it anyway you like, THAT is a glimpse of what Americans should prepare for.

Blame it on how this may be interpreted by any such groups, in a bid to deflect from TRUMP, these groups have had their GASLIGHT.

Like previous statements which have ‘encouraged’ such groups, do not be surprised if the next few weeks throws up MORE of what led to the Social Justice protests we have seen so far.

This begs the question. Is DONALD TRUMP and anyone else the SPONSOR of the increasing and yet-to-come RACE CLASHES?

Alarmist as it may seem to some, I for one would not be surprised.

QUESTION. Let us agree with DONALD TRUMP for a minute. He believes the Electoral Process is FRAUDULENT and RIGGED and FAULTY already, even BEFORE the elections.

THEREFORE, Will DONALD TRUMP accept a WIN, if he wins, facilitated by a FRAUDULENT, RIGGED and FAULTY Electoral process?

OR the SAME Electoral System will NO LONGER be FRAUDULENT, RIGGED and FAULTY as long as he wins?

VERY NIGERIAN. Somebody please check his DNA.

SO, I personally look forward to the VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE on the 8th of OCTOBER between the Sapiosexual’s DREAM GIRL versus DAMIEN’s GRANDAD..

This one was a mess.

“StandBack…StandBy’.. phew!

Such a great time to be in, and come from a Sh%#hole country.

#Goodmorning


Effects And Side Effects Of Statins

STATINS are given to lower high blood cholesterol levels.

They have ANTI-INFLAMMATORY actions. Remember that INFLAMMATION is the root cause of chronic illnesses like diabetes, cancer, arthritis etc. How ? They lower the C-reactive protein that is a marker of systemic inflammation ( how inflamed your body is)

They reduce blood thickness hence easier flow. Statins deplete CoenzymeQ10 and that’s one of the MOST IMPORTANT NUTRIENTS for the HEART!!! Its a vitamin like compound found in all our cells and provide energy to the whole body .

When it’s depleted , the following occur: -MUSCLE PAIN, WEAKNESS and FATIGUE. It’s an indication that your CREATININE KINASE is HIGH!!! This can cause rapid muscle breakdown and then death. Those are dangerous side effects and if you experience that , you immediately contact your doctor and STOP!!

Other side effects include fatigue and weakness of the heart because coQ10 needed is depleted.

The brain needs fats to function well . It needs cholesterol . Cholesterol helps stimulate thinking and memory . This is why statins cause memory loss in a lot of people taking statins and even cognitive decline . It can trigger.

Alzheimer’sCholesterol is needed to produce sex hormones ! So statins affect sexual ability – any man on statins experiencing this should now know why .

Statins interferes with its receptors in the brain . Serotonin is required for mood so can lead to depression . Some have gone into severe depression because of statins
So please if you must take statins , make sure you are taking coQ10 . It’s broken down by the body into ubiquinol which is the active product . Once you are over 40, your body can’t break it down , so you must buy ubiquinol
I’m not on statins but I take ubiquinol to keep my heart healthy . There was a time it was discovered years ago that my cholesterol levels were slightly high . At that time of my life , I was not living healthy at all . I consumed sugar in all forms and that is one major cause of high cholesterol levels . Fortunately I wasn’t placed on drugs . Today my levels are under control by deliberate and intentional dietary changes .
However if your levels are high , don’t panic because it’s ratios that really matter and other options are available
I have a client who was placed on statins and oh boy she almost became an invalid . I told her to stop and she’s ok now . We now went into a session of consultation on dietary and lifestyle changes to bring the levels down. There’s no quick fix at all but a daily conscious effort to eat the right things , the right supplements and exercise.
Always ask your doctors questions.

Article by Opeoluwa Aremu-Okulaja, BSc Pharm; She is also CEO Ola Herbs & greens resources Limited, Nigeria.

The Plight Of Undocumented Young People Caught Up In Britain’s Hostile Environment

I came across this insightful article on another platform and I thought it needed to be shared with my readers – many of which are immigrants also known as “the undocumented” who arrived in the UK several years ago, made new and productive lives for themselves and their families, and contributed to the economy – but are still prevented from accessing many of the same benefits enjoyed by legal and natural citizens. Many of such parents are blissfully unaware or ignorant of the fact that their children sadly have a myriad of problems relating to their citizenship awaiting them in the future.
Please read and enjoy:

The hostile environment is still destroying the lives of approximately 215,000 children in Britain who are caught in a system which denies them citizenship

Clapton Girls’ Academy has a motto to inspire pupils in one of the poorer parts of London: “Arrive with a dream, leave with a future.” And Chrisann Jarrett seemed to embody its vision after coming to this country aged eight from Jamaica and ending up head girl with a place to study law at the prestigious London School of Economics.

“Yes, I was a goody two shoes,” she laughs down the line when we chat. But her dreams were dashed. Despite feeling as British as her classmates, and like them seeing London as her home, this hard-working teenager was told she must pay fees of £17,000 a year since the university saw her as an international student.

This was impossible for the daughter of a single mother, working as a carer with three children. They could not afford holidays, so had never bothered applying for passports, while the Home Office had lost their papers and, discovering they were technically undocumented as a consequence, was trying to formalise their status.

I watched as everyone else went off to university and felt so low,” said Chrisann, who had hit the buffer of harsh reforms to reduce migration introduced by David Cameron’s coalition government. “I even went to the introductory lecture for my course and then realised I was being hopelessly naive. I felt different and ended up wondering if I was to blame, since I thought I had done everything right but was not being accepted as British.” Eventually she won a scholarship and completed her degree.

But while waiting, Chrisann volunteered at a legal charity for children and found she was not alone. “I saw there were so many other kids like me who had lived here and then suddenly discovered they could not go to university since they were not seen as British.”

She is right: one study this year estimated there are 215,000 children living here without immigration status, half of them born in the country.

So this determined woman set up a charity to fight for their cause – and now We Belong has published a damning indictment of systemic failure that is blighting young lives.

“Normality is a Luxury” is based on interviews with 14 young adults under 25 that have between them spent 198 years in Britain. It shows how lives are “distorted and damaged” by a callous bureaucratic system that sows division, hurts mental health and condemns families to more than a decade of massive financial strain.

Talk to these young adults and you hear tales of life on the edge as they are pitched into a Kafkaesque process that is complex, intrusive, often incompetent, demands huge and constantly rising fees – yet make one mistake and, like a dystopian game of snakes and ladders, applicants slide back down to start the torturous 11-year process to citizenship again.

Ijeoma Moore was born in Nigeria but brought up in Britain since she was two. She knows no other home. But she discovered she was different to her classmates when officials turned up at her home one morning and carted her family off to a detention centre, unlawfully trying to deport them. Then she saw teenage school friends go off to university, but could not join them.

The fragility of her situation, the need to keep winning fresh consent to stay every 30 months, the costs running into thousands of pounds each time, have harmed her mental health – as well as sparking an ambition to become a child psychologist to help others put through this migration mincer.

It puts you in a very bad place with anxiety and depression,” she said. “Even though I’m a legal resident, it feels like they can take it away any time.”

It is horribly cruel for the state to play with young lives in this way, labelling them “temporary migrants” despite strong bonds with Britain.

It is also unjust when the only people forced to spend more than a decade rather than the standard five years on the road to citizenship are those on this kind of Limited Leave to Remain.

And it perpetuates inequality to demand people from struggling backgrounds pay at least £11,727 in fees before permitting them to become fully-fledged members of their own society.

Some of these fees have more than doubled over the past five years – while families often end up also paying lawyers to help navigate the legal mazes.

These energetic people could not be further from phoney stereotypes of migrants milking the system. Yet they are exposing not just their own plight, grim as that is, but something even more disturbing. Their stories show how the evils of the hostile environment, unleashed by Theresa May during her awful stint in the Home Office, still devastate many lives despite such such furore over the Windrush Scandal.

This is underlined by Welcome to Britain, a book by barrister Colin Yeo, that dissects with forensic precision how self-serving politicians deliberately created a costly and complicated system to deter people coming to our country by making their lives as miserable as possible.

No doubt Yeo would be dismissed as an “activist lawyer” by Priti Patel since May’s successor aims to stop others following the path taken by her parents.

Yet no one should be fooled: the horrors of the hostile environment have not faded, despite the Government being caught deporting elderly folk in its flawed, discriminatory system.

The scandal drags on today – and among its more depressing effects is the impact on many decent young people who find themselves trapped in limbo amid a terror of being ejected from their land. “No matter how much good work we put in, it feels like they are not listening,” said Ijeoma. Sadly, to our collective shame she is right.


Article by Ian Birrell culled from inews.co.uk Ian is a former deputy editor of the Independent and an award-winning foreign correspondent. He was awarded Health Journalist of the year in the 2018 Press Awards and was highly commended in the feature writing category.
Twitter: ianbirrell


What You Didn’t Know About Breastfeeding

By Guest blogger

Sheila Gatonye
 

 

So I just found out its World Breastfeeding week and couldn’t pass on the opportunity to share the story of my journey😁

There’s this notion that stems from the traditional African belief that wide hips and big boobs are a sign of health and fertility in a woman. Some men even go to the extent of believing that a curvaceous woman means naturally born healthy children.

Well…… I have three children but none were born naturally 🤗 Now for those thinking I was “too posh to push”; my first was an emergency caesarean and my other 2 were elective caesareans on medical grounds. All I can say is that my so called “child-bearing” hips and “Ass-ets” were primarily for Marketing purposes. Or rather more like Product placement to ensure my bride price was upgraded from those Maasai nomads cows to the Scottish Aberdeen Angus 🐄🐂

Having the caesareans meant that I was not initially able to breastfeed the babies as I took longer coming round from the anaesthetic and generally weak. I know most people think new moms produce their “free range organic milk” on tap but trust me, some taps are usually dry for a few hours or even days after birth before the floodgates open just like those gorges of Hells Gate. And when the floodgates open, just pray the baby is not asleep, because when those ducts fill up with the “liquid qold” without a release mechanism, they could easily turn into “heavy artillery” with “projectile missiles” which apparently placing cold cabbage leaves on these “heavy artillery” is the trick to stop the carnage.

Breastfeeding is blissful until their first teeth appear and then you somehow learn how to call Jesus in 12 different languages. And if you have heavy feeders like my two boys, i can tell you those little beautiful suckers can draw everything dry including your bone marrow 😁

I wish I could also say that the milking ducts do “bounce back” after the breastfeeding season is over but let’s just say everyone is different and for some, the wonderbra really does wonders.

#WoesOfaMother
#MotherhoodChronicles #RaisingKingsAndQueen

Sheila is the founder of African Women’s Dinner. She holds a Postgraduate degree in Corporate Brand Management from Brunel University, London.  She is an avid hilarious writer who regularly amuses and educates with her life experience posts on her Facebook wall.
You can connect with her on https://www.facebook.com/sheila.gatonye


#DiamondsInTheSky – the movie. Coming soon to Netflix. Staring Toyin Abraham Femi Adebayo Yvonne Jegede  https://youtu.be/MB8V21C_GDc


Matured Speak: Will You Pass The Clit Test?

Article from British Vogue

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t watched Meg Ryan apparently reaching a climax in a packed diner in When Harry Met Sally, the hit Nora Ephron movie that had everyone talking about faking orgasms back in 1989. Ryan’s infamous performance was for comic effect, but 30 years on, the women behind the Clit Test argue that actual sex scenes are still a long way from a convincing depiction of female pleasure (and what it takes to get there) – which is why they’re hellbent on seeing more realistic portrayals of intercourse on screen.

 

“Our culture still acts like the clitoris is a kind of secret or just something that might occasionally get involved in sex, but in terms of pleasure, the clit is really the equivalent of the penis,” campaign founder Frances Rayner tells British Vogue. “We’d think it ludicrous for a man to have sex without his penis ever getting a look in. But so often the sex we see on screen ignores the clitoris entirely.” Maybe that’s why, in addition to the iconic fashion moments, women (and men) loved HBO’s Sex And The City. The clitoris frequently cropped up in conversation over brunch (thank you, Samantha Jones), and while the show celebrated all of the good things about sex, it didn’t gloss over the bad and the ugly parts in the process. But SATC sadly left our screens over 16 years ago.

In 2020, TV and film’s portrayal of women’s sexual pleasure needs to catch up with reality. “Numerous academics have pointed out that this misleading ‘sexual script’ is one of the main reasons women and girls who have sex with men have alarming rates of disappointing, bad and even painful sex,” explains Rayner.

One such academic is Professor Elisabeth Lloyd, author of The Case of the Female Orgasm, whose research proves the campaign – which she’s backing – is long overdue. “In both Hollywood films and porn, the sex act is portrayed so it represents only about 6-10 per cent of women’s response,” she says. “That’s how many women have an orgasm with plain intercourse, without additional clitoral stimulation. The fact that Hollywood films and porn choose to misrepresent the experience of 90-94 per cent of women needs to change.”

It’s this same frustration that led Rayner (a 34-year-old straight cis woman, who works for a charity in Glasgow), and Irene Tortajada (a 25-year-old cis bi woman, who works for a charity in London), to come together to try to change things. The result is the Clit Test, which celebrates those films and shows that do acknowledge the existence of the clitoris, and its importance.

“We worked together for a few months when she [Tortajada] was living in Glasgow and quickly became friends,” says Rayner. “I took a four-day a week job 18 months ago to give me time to finally make the Clit Test happen, as I think the sex script has a really bad impact on women’s lives, and it’s just some outdated nonsense we can easily fix.

I’ve grown frustrated with sex scenes I see on TV, which always seemed to involve a woman reaching orgasm through penis-in-vagina sex. Very rarely do they feature the sex acts we know most reliably bring women and people with vulvas to climax – like receiving oral sex or having their vulva touched with either hands or a vibrator.”

Tortajada and Rayner

Maybe that’s why the BBC’s TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People was heaped with praise for its realistic sex scenes (the book that inspired it also attempts to destigmatise another taboo: period sex).

However, the clitoris is never actually mentioned in the show. So, which films and shows do pass the Clit Test? “Michaela Cole’s Chewing Gum is one of my favourites,” says Rayner. “It consistently passes throughout and it’s just such a funny, well-written account of a teenage girl who is both horny and in control, and also very confused by the minimal sex education that she is getting from mainstream porn and friends.”

It’s something Rayner relates to. “My awakening came when I was 20 after I read The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study Of Female Sexuality for a gender studies module at university. In her landmark 1976 study, Shere Hite found that only 1.5 per cent of women masturbated through penetration, whereas 86 per cent said they only ever touched the outside of their vulva. The remaining 12 per cent of women who masturbated did both.

I was astonished to learn not only the stats themselves but the fact that this was widely published at the time. It turned out I was entirely normal – the weird thing was that the definition of what sex is in our culture is something that only works for people with penises.”Therein lies the issue: most of the sex we see on screen is through a male lens.

When women are writing the script, we get to see it laid bare. “Another one I really liked was Aisling Bea’s This Way Up,” says Rayner. “When Freddie and Áine have penetrative sex after he comes and they lie back down he asks if he can make her come.

This shouldn’t be revolutionary, but even just acknowledging that a woman won’t have come from penetration is a huge step forward. There are lots of other good examples like BooksmartSuccession and Orange is the New Black.”

Tortajada and Rayner say they have been showered with “amazingly positive” responses to their campaign. “We’ve had support from Professor Elisabeth Lloyd, Dr Laurie Mintz, a lecturer in human sexuality and author of Becoming Cliterate, Golden Globe and Emmy-winner Rachel Bloom, and bestselling author Holly Bourne,” says Rayner. “A lot of women have reached out on Instagram to say thank you for raising something that is long overdue. We’re keen to make it a positive, inclusive campaign that celebrates women and our sexuality – we more often praise the passes than slate the fails. Ultimately, we want to see more clit-friendly sex acts on screen.”

Culled from British Vogue

More from British Vogue:

By Sophie Wilkinson

i-may-destroy-you

Top Seven Habits Of Mentally Strong People

As intelligent beings, all humans dream to properly manage every single situation they encounter in their lives. We are able to grasp what is right. And being mentally strong and able to perform whatever the circumstance is desirable. We all envy an imaginary paragon who simultaneously runs a business, has a stable relationship, is raising four school-age kids, exercises with infuriating regularity and refrains from using profanity while driving at rush hour. Mentally strong people exist. But they are not a miracle. They do not have special insensitivity powers. Or easy lives. Or big budgets. Or extra time. They do not confuse being mentally strong with acting tough.

Instead, they regulate their thoughts, manage their emotions, and behave proactively, choosing to act in a way that will improve their lives, even through struggle or delayed gratification. They face reality without fear. They have unlocked their bliss and commit to developing daily habits that positively build their mental muscle and give up bad habits that hold them back. They appear to be superheroes, but they are just ordinary people determined to live their lives extraordinarily by finding the transformative power of their everyday lives. They just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

The good news is that we can all build our mental strength. Find your own role model for higher motivation and start consciously by emulating these seven significant traits that define them.

  1. They have a proactive approach to life

Proactivity requires to be aware of your own mission and your own time. It means starting each day with purpose by taking control of what you do and when you do it. It means taking ownership of your own life. To behave responsibly. To work for things to happen. To focus on what is essential. To have a manifest destiny and move forward to it.

“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habit. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.” (Lao Tzu)

Mentally strong people adopt a proactive approach to life by defining which path to follow. If there is a will, there is a way. What do you want from your life and what are you doing to make it happen.

2. They move on from things they can not control

“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.” (Steve Maraboli).

Focusing on what we cannot control takes our energy and attention away from what we can actually control. Focusing on what we can not control takes our energy and attention away from what we can. Mentally strong people are not trying to manage it all. They acknowledge their limited power over all those things they cannot control and all those things they should not control. They have developed and exercised the discipline required to stop worrying about what they cannot influence. They know they can affect the outcome, but they cannot control it. They use their energy on their personal input into things instead of worrying about an outcome they cannot control.

We cannot control what people think about us, but we can work hard to create stable and friendly relationships. We cannot ensure we will be selected for a job offer, but we can prepare ourselves thoroughly for it.

3. They embrace the unexpected and make the best of it

Life can be tough. But focusing on the feeling that we don’t deserve this way will not be of any help. Mentally strong people develop a positive thinking strategy to find always the bright side of life. They do not assume the victim role. They do not focus on finding culprits. They do not compare their miseries with those of others. They decide to grow with adversity and challenge by overcoming obstacles and twist them to their advantage. They are flexible enough to adjust to the unexpected and accept it as part of the bigger plan.

4. They look at the past, but they live and enjoy the present while planning for the future.

Mentally strong people look back to learn or to honor what was once. But they do not get stuck in there. Even if old times were great. Because they know that the soul becomes old when the past is heavier than the present or the future. Mentally strong people understand that there is no better moment than the present because now is all we have.

5. They calculate risks

Mentally strong people are prudent. They have a plan. They estimate all the different options and identifiable consequences, and they take intelligent choices. This does not mean they do not dream big or withdraw themselves from difficult worthy stuff. Contrarily, they are usually prepared to reach high and far as they have developed the needed resilience to overcome obstacles and focused on the desired goal. They take risks, but they are not reckless. They know their actions have aftereffects, so they behave consciously.

6. They do not gossip

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people” (Eleanor Roosevelt)

Mentally strong people are focused on the positive side of life. They spend their energy on self-improvement, and that is why they tend to spot those traits from others that they can emulate for the better. Strong people who live with conviction and sincerity see the good in others and learn from others’ mistakes without spreading the dark around. They are busy thinking and planning big.

7. They are kind

Being kind is now scientifically proven to strengthen our relationships and our sense of satisfaction in life. Contrary to what has always been thought, it is not a symptom of naivety or weakness but requires courage and strength. Categorized as main interpersonal skill, mentally strong people develop high standards of it. Confident about themselves and focus on self-improvement, they do not compete with or envy others. Self- awareness, and self-confidence make them more prone to accept others and celebrate goodness. They have open eyes to detect others suffering and enough sense of mission to give of themselves to provide for the rest. They do not just live life through a self-centered approach. They build healthy relationships through warmth and trust. They care about others and this caring is what usually leads them to top management positions and successful interpersonal relations. They find time and energy for people around them.