Health and beauty tips
In my next life I want to learn all this again, but at age 20 and in one sitting.
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Drink full-cream milk
A lot of people are down on drinking milk. One doctor told me it causes flatulence. It doesn’t. Sitting in your seat all day produces flatulence, doctor.
In my 30s I started drinking one, sometimes two, glasses of full-cream milk daily. The benefits kicked in almost immediately. First of all I got a feeling of well-being. Then I stopped having muscle cramps (thanks to the magnesium) and my muscles got stronger, giving me more physical strength, especially in my arms. My gums became healthier and stopped receding. I also stopped getting gum infections, which I had been prone to. My teeth were no longer sensitive to cold, and my bite got stronger. I also stopped biting the inside of my cheek when eating. My fine, straight hair started to look better. And finally, I stopped waking up in the early hours with a ticklish cough. That cough was caused by a lack of calcium. I also remember reading that a lack of calcium causes premature greying.
You need the fat in full-cream milk to absorb all the minerals properly.
Mouth ulcers, dry lips
Sores in the mouth are caused by a lack of Vitamin C. Taking Vitamin C cures the problem immediately. Do you have dry lips? That’s a lack of minerals. Start eating mixed nuts.
Cranberry juice
Drinking cranberry juice cures a urinary track infection (a UTI), in my own experience.
Eating fish
Your lungs are healthy, but you have a problem: You can’t absorb air when you breathe. Do you never eat fish? Start eating fish twice a week, and your problem will be solved. Me, I never ate fish and had no breathing problem until early middle age. But then I got the breathing problem, and it was bad. Coincidentally I started eating sushi around that time — simply because it was all the rage — and the problem went away immediately. I realised, after a little while, that eating fish had cured the problem.
Date syrup
Take a spoonful of date syrup every day. It cures spring sleepiness (Frühjahrsmüdigkeit), which is very common in Austria, and it’s probably good for you in other ways. You can buy it in Middle Eastern shops.
Hiccups
Sugar stops hiccups.
Don’t re-freeze frozen vegetables
If your veggies thaw and you re-freeze them and then eat them later — you’ll get very sick. A warning is printed on the packet, but not everyone reads the packet.
Put brandy in jam
It stops mould from forming. Also wipe the inside of the jam jar cap with brandy. This is a well-known tip, yet not everyone knows it.
The benefit of Underberg
Underberg is a digestive bitter. Sometimes you have a problem digesting a good meal — and there was nothing wrong with the meal, but you know you won’t be able to keep it down — then drink some Underberg. Within minutes you’ll be all better. I always kept some Underberg at work, because sometimes colleagues felt sick (for some unknown reason, maybe stress combined with eating), and it cured them immediately.
Rennies or Quick-Eze antacid tablets
Sometimes you get an acidic stomach, especially from work stress. Or you get a bad pain, usually in the leg, from having too much alcohol. Take antacid tablets to cure that problem.
Wake up with fresh breath
Drink a glass of warm water first thing in the morning, as soon as you get up. It’s said to clean the system, and it probably does — I started to wake up in the mornings with fresh breath. It took a while for this good effect to kick in. (It goes without saying that you have to clean your teeth before going to bed.)
Use a cover-up cream
This is an upsetting personal problem. Some people have blackheads on their nose. They’re hereditary. There are plenty of tips on the Internet for deep cleansing, but deep cleansing doesn’t help. Blackheads can indeed be removed by cleansing, but what’s the point? They come back ten minutes later.
Here’s the solution: Use a cover-up cream, like Crème Camphréa from Guerlain. The cream is very effective at covering up. It lasts all day, doesn’t clog the pores and isn’t visible — no-one will realise you’re wearing cream.
This tip is just as critical for men as it is for women.
Brush your hair backwards
Put your head down and brush your hair up and over your head — this gives your hair more body.
Freshen up with talcum powder
Put the powder on your clothes, not on you.
How to stay warm in bed
Lie with a pillow next to you. One pillow on one side is enough.
Wear a towel around your waist
Getting back to that bad pain you can get if you drink too much alcohol (because of too much acid, I suppose) — wear a big towel around your middle. The pain goes away after 20 minutes. Many years ago a doctor recommended this to an elderly person we knew, and she slept every night with a large towel wrapped around her middle. I was too young to ask her what her problem was (in her case it wasn’t alcohol).
Don’t use anything elasticated. You need a cushion of air between you and the towel, and an elasticated garment won’t allow for a cushion of air.
Cold wet rag on hot days
Wear it around your neck. It’ll keep you cool. This is helpful if you don’t have air-conditioning or a fan.
Hair falling out
Have you started losing hair? Single hairs are falling out, and you find them everywhere? This can be a symptom of cancer.
Colonoscopy
From age 50 onwards, it’s essential to have colonoscopies. Repeat them every 10 years, or more frequently. Many people develop benign polyps in their colon in middle age; they’re very common. They’re symptomless for many years, but when symptoms do come, they’re puzzling and inconvenient. The polyps have to be removed — quickly and cleanly in a colonoscopy — otherwise they can become cancerous.
Sore spots
As we grow older, it happens that sometimes we discover a really sore spot somewhere. Press strongly with your thumb or finger on the spot. Do this repeatedly over a few days. The sore spot will go away.
Lumbago
In my mid-60s I got a case of lumbago, lower-back pain. I could hardly walk. I went to an orthopaedic surgeon, who said it was caused by getting older. He offered cortisone injections, although he himself thought they wouldn’t help. I gladly accepted them, but he was right, they didn’t help.
Coming home from the orthopaedic surgeon, I sat in my reclining chair. It occurred to me to put my legs up, something I’d never done before. Recliners always come with footstools. Some are built in, some are sold separately. For the first time, I put my legs up. The next day I got the idea to lie down in bed with my legs up. I did that. I lay with my legs up on the bedstead, not bent but straight, for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, I got up and could walk without pain. I repeated this over the next few days.
It cured the lumbago.
I also realized what had brought on the lumbago. It wasn’t caused by getting older. Every day I had been getting out of my high bathtub very heavily, landing heavily on the same leg. I started to get out of the high tub very slowly and carefully.
The lumbago has never come back.
The benefit of massage
When I see an elderly person hobbling across the road, I wonder – would they be able to walk properly if they would have massages? I’ve started having chair massages, and they’ve made me more nimble. I’m able to walk fast again, to lope, as I did when young. I think especially the massage that treats the fascias is effective for this.
My Mum had a Thai massage once a month in her old age. She was surprisingly nimble.
