Increase Energy-Production Pathways
★★★★★
The most common underlying cause of edema is hypometabolism, or low basal metabolic rate. The reason that it plagues young women more than young men is that young men have a higher metabolic rate. Women have a higher estrogen influence earlier in life, which down-regulates metabolic rate (and raises maximum lifespan). But when men get old, they often have higher estrogen than their post-menopausal wives--and develop edema.
Most of the treatments for edema mentioned here raise metabolic rate, and most things that raise metabolic rate ease edema. Lipoic acid is a mitochondrial nutrient that stimulates metabolic rate inside your body's power plants. So can coQ10, carnitine, B1, B2, B3, NADH, coconut oil, MCT oil, ketosis (fat-burning metabolism), exercise (aerobic only), breathing, and negative ions (from a shower, waterfall or surf). These are bottom-up effects, enhancing metabolism from the ground up.
Your body's metabolic rate is also influenced by top-down mechanisms. Thinking positive thoughts, cultivating happiness, sleeping soundly, having a great sex life, relaxing, escaping traps (toxic jobs or relationships), and looking forward to waking up each morning can also raise metabolic rate. And the specific mechanisms of neuroendocrine regulation include steroids (progesterone and testosterone are up-regulators, and estradiol and estrone are down-regulators), corticosteroids (low cortisol is an edema trigger), and thyroid hormone. Most people with edema will read the symptoms of hypothyroidism and go, "yep, yep, maybe, yep, OMG yes, yep, maybe, yep" as they read them. See the thyroid one-pager on the Steve page at Project Wellbeing (dot com) if you don't want to track them down on one of a hundred pages on the internet.
Since insulin resistance is so common in our society and since it causes low metabolism when eating a carb-replete diet, ketosis can relieve edema in a sustained way. After being in ketosis for many days, the insulin-resistance threshold begins to lower and carb-based energy pathways begin to increase.
Two last things to mention in this brief intro: one is body temperature as a sign of hypometabolism and the other is nutritional deficiencies related to hypometabolism. Most people with hypometabolism have a low body temperature and low pulse rate. This is something you can monitor, and track over time, to see if the remedies that work (and do not work) are associated with subtle increases (or not) in body temperature. Lastly, some of the most prevalent nutritional deficiencies in modern society are directly associated with hypometabolism. Magnesium deficiency, vitamin D deficiency and B-complex vitamin deficiencies are three that first come to mind.
To reliably track your body temperature requires a good thermometer (electronic ones are unreliable), and the right timing. Early morning body temperature just before getting out of bed is the best indicator of basal metabolic rate, because it minimizes muscle contributions, digestive contributions and adrenal contributions. If you are not fortunate enough to still have a mercury thermometer in your possession now that they are illegal to sell retail, use a gallium thermometer or import a mercury thermometer to act as your temperature reference standards. Electronic thermometers can work OK if you know how to interpret their results by periodic comparison to a mercury or gallium thermometer--or a fertility thermometer.
If you do not want to be bothered with verifying the connection between your metabolic rate and your edema, you can simply correlate the easing of your edema symptoms with your subjective feelings of your energy levels, strength, stamina and mental clarity.
Lemon
★★★★★
Lemon
★★★★★
Limiting Carbohydrates
★★★★★
Limiting Carbohydrates
★★★★★
(Kuwait)
03/12/2016
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
02/28/2018
Hello!
I found your remedy to be very interesteng. My edema is a result of having Kaposi Sarcoma. Do you know if this will work in my situation.? My immune system is very weak, it's building back with help of medicines. Thanks for any input on helping me get this fluid out faster. Doctors have only have me try compression garments with physical therapy. It's helped to a certain point. Trying to get further progress.
Very needed advise,
Leander
Low Fat Diet, Avoid Pain Relievers
★★★★★
Multiple Remedies
★★★☆☆
WORKED TEMPORARILY
(Forest Park, Ohio, Usa)
02/27/2010
Have you had your liver checked? Inflammation can cause the water retention so you could check out remedies for that. I use tumeric, aloe gel, and garlic for inflammation as well as fermented foods!
(Regina, Saskchewan, Canada)
03/02/2010
Hi: Regarding edema, have you checked your thyroid for hypothyroidism. Also be careful because blood tests only reveal a glandular problem not a peripheral problem. So if you make the hormones but your body is not accessing them at a cellular level you can still be hypothyroid. Home test for hypothyroidism is a body temperature test. Get a digital thermometer and measure yourself in the mouth 3 times a day and average it out. First measurement is 3 hours after waking then in 3 more hours and lastly 3 hours from that. Should Be 37 or 98.6.
(Boca)
10/16/2020
Try Sam-E
Neck Edema Remedies
(Plano, Tx)
02/03/2015
I am a Licensed Massage Therapist. Sounds like scar tissue may be the problem. Find a WELL QUALIFIED massage therapist to do some Lymphatic Drainage massage, and maybe some Myo Fascial Release around the scars. This should help.
Onion-Milk Remedy
★★★★★
The ancient Egyptians it is said, were forbidden to eat the onion, garlic and leek. According to the priests of Pelusium the onion was barred because it caused a flow of tears, hunger and thirst and hence was manifestly out of place in fasts and during religious ceremonies. It did not seem right to weep on occasions of joy or to be tormented with hunger and thirst on days set aside for fasting.
The Hebrews regarded the onion purely for it's culinary value. The Greeks were fond of both onions and garlic. The former were apparently used when drinking to increase thirst and enhance the pleasures of the cup. But in the palmy days of Rome, the two vegetables had become largely the badge of the rabble.
In the Middle Ages any well-set table contained a plate of red onions. The chief repute of the onion in medicine was as a diuretic and remedy for dropsy. This belief has persisted up to the present time and it is somewhat strange to find that as early as 1853 onions and a milk diet were pronounced the best remedy for dropsy (a term used to describe generalized swelling and was synonymous with heart failure). In 1868, Trastour reported that a case of parenchymatous nephritis (renal lesions in parenchymatous nephritis are confined to the kidney tubules), with edema (swelling caused by too much fluid trapped in the body's tissues) and albuminuria (too much albumin in your urine), cleared up under the onion-milk regimen. In addition to anasarca (a condition characterized by severe generalized edema of the body) of both legs there has been a hydothorax (is a noninflammatory collection of serous fluid within the pleural cavities. The effusion is clear and straw colored. Hydrothorax is unilateral or bilateral. The most common cause of hydrothorax is cardiac failure, but it is also frequently the result of renal failure and cirrhosis of the liver). The treatment had provoked a strong diuresis (increased or excessive production of urine). In 1910 Mongour saw a still more remarkable case of cirrhosis of the liver with ascites (a condition in which fluid collects in spaces within your abdomen) clear-up after three days of onion eating with a critical polyuria (a urine output greater than three liters per day in adults). Cruchet had seen a patient with dropsy recover after a period of onion eating – 15 or 20 daily. In 1912 Dalche published his article on the “onion cure”. He spoke of a case of a three-quart diuresis produced in a dropsical patient by this resource. During the war Leclerc to whom we are indebted for the preceding information (La Presse Medicale, February 25, xxx, 16) frequently witnessed this diuretic action in soldiers, notably in a Senegalese with serous effusions and dropsy due to nephritis. From the book: Medical Record, Volume 101 edited by George Frederick Shrady, Thomas Lathrop Stedman, pages 629-630 April 15,1922.
Note: I edited this article with (notations) of medical terms to make it easier to read.
Onion-Milk Recipe:
Boiled onions in milk
By soaking onions in milk helps dilute their sulfur content, taking away that pungent, raw bite. Use whole milk will work for the recipe. Fats are a natural lubricant for inflamed tissues.
General rule of thumb is: For every liter (34oz) of milk, take four medium onions.
For a single dose, one onion (50-60g = 2oz) is taken per 100 ml (3.52oz) of milk.
Boil the chopped onions in milk for 1-2 minutes - (with subsequent infusion in the pot for about 2 hours).
Milk is brought to a boil on slow heat. After boiling is achieved, add onions to it. During the boiling process, the mixture is constantly stirred, maintaining uniformed consistency. If necessary, the onions can be filtered if preferred. The mixture is then poured into a thermos and drunk throughout the day without the need to reheat it every time. Honey (1 tsp) can be added to improve taste.
Recipe variations: There are many options for how to properly drink milk with onions. For medicinal purposes, the dosage is reduced to a 1:1 ratio.
For an adult, the dosage is half a glass at a time.
For children, it is reduced several times - from 2 to 5 tbsp. At the age of three years and up to the norm of an adult at 12-15 years.
This is very interesting - I wonder if it's the basis of my grandmother's old Irish Cure-all - potato soup - which actually uses equal parts potato and onion and lots of them. She used the potato mashed up in its cooking water as the base, rather than milk, but, of course, it also contains a lot of butter and was topped off with a lot of black pepper, when they had it - brilliant!
Pulmonary Edema Remedies
(Brooklyn, NY)
07/29/2009
Hi - if your neighbor's edema is possibly related to her heart - capsicum/cayenne is always an effective means to strengthen the heart. I found this very interesting article about pulmonary edema from the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMM). They recommend both conventional and alternative therapies. Granted - she should speak w/ her doctor but I would pay special attention to the natural remedies. I will keep her in my prayers....she is lucky to have a concerned neighbor like you.
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/pulmonary-edema-000137.htm
R+ALA
★★★★☆
R+ALA
★★★★★
Be sure to get the one with R+. I'm not sure what the R+ stands for but in previous posts on the old site it was stressed that it was better than just ALA alone.
Raw Food Diet
★★★★★
I ate mostly oranges, fresh-squeezed orange juice, watermelon, and green juice (kale, carrots, dandelion greens, beets).
My ankles and feet were extremely swollen, propping my legs up helped temporarily, but it didn't last. After being 100% raw for 3-4 days the swelling had gone away completely. I eat a healthy diet normally, but eating all fresh foods and mainly fruit was what made the difference.
(Canada)
07/09/2015
Kale should not be eaten raw, but cooked. There is an interesting article on the Weston A. Price Foundation's website concerning goitrogens in crucifers.
Article title: "Bearers of the Cross: Crucifers in the Context of Traditional Diets and Modern Science"
Red Vine Leaf
★★★★★
All edema went within 20 days, even on long haul flights (16 hours). Only side effect (possible but not proven as may be age) is my hands now more prone to bruise blood hematomas, but these disappear quickly.
Reducing Salt, Black Cohosh
★★★★★
