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Monday, August 24, 2015

What Kefir Did For Me

Please read up on Healing Crisis (or Herxheimer Reaction) before you start your kefir journey.

Longtime blog readers may be aware that I have been struggling with hormonal deficiencies for years now. Some people, with the same problems, have approached me to ask how to manage the condition. I have never been able to help. After all, I am not a medical doctor. I told them to see an endocrinologist.

Hopefully, if such people read this, Petunia can finally share something helpful to you. If you are one of those, do leave a comment so I know this post is helpful to you.

Cortisol and thyroid meds are a way of coping but they have not been a perfect way. A healthy body has a self-regulating system for hormones. I needed to assess and predict when to take and how much. Very often, I made mistakes. Once (only once) I overdosed on my thyroid meds and went near a thyroid storm. More often than not, I under-dosed, which meant that I was still prone to sleepiness and would crash out after a more than usually strenuous day.

And what for Petunia is a strenuous day, is just a normal day for everyone else.

Kefir Helped Rebalance My Hormones
I have been on milk kefir and water kefir for 18 days and...
I haven't taken any meds for FIVE days!
Ohhhh... please don't ask me how it works. I really don't know. And errrr... what works for me, may not work for other people with hormone conditions. So, please don't stop your meds until your blood tests come back ok.

Kefir Got Rid of My Bacterial Sore Throat
The Husband passed me a sore throat. His sore throat responded very well to sips of green tea (every 15 minutes). Green tea (like chrysanthemum tea) is a natural antibiotic (see HERE). I can take neither green tea nor chrysanthemum tea because I have gut candidiasis ( a type of yeast infection of the intestines). Anything antibiotic that goes into my stomach aggravates my gut candidiasis.

Anyway, I decided to sip water kefir every 15 minutes. It worked! My sore throat got better. What is most amazing is that it went away within 2 days of sipping water kefir. Normally, it takes ages (and 2 or 3 courses of antibiotics) for me to get well from a sore throat.

Again, please don't ask me how it works.

Kefir Got Rid of My Candidiasis
I think that the root of my health problems (hormonal imbalance and poor immunity) lie in my gut candidiasis. In recent years, as my body weakened, I experience yeast infections in different parts of the body. I applied milk kefir topically and the yeast infection cleared up and out.

I cannot express the relief and joy I feel. These are recurrent infections. It does not matter WHAT the doctor does or what meds I ingest. These infections keep coming back. Do you know how stressful it is to fight these terrorists of the body? They just don't die.

Ok... this one, I pretty much THINK I know how it works. It works by re-introducing beneficial bacteria and yeasts into my gut. Kefir's beneficial bacteria and yeasts kill the harmful ones. See HERE.

Kefir, A Life Changer
If not for my friend, IP, I would never have even known about kefir. If not for my curiosity, I would not have even tried homemade kefir. After all, I make yoghurt, so why not kefir? 

What started as an interesting and curious kitchen/culinary experiment has become a veritable lifeline towards a high energy and more productive lifestyle.

I am amazed because it was not what I expected.

Plenty More Experiments
I have many more things I wanna do with kefir... like maybe get Smelly Boy to use it under his armpits (to control body odour) and to slather it on his face (for acne). Does it help dandruff? What about cuts disinfection? Tomorrow, I am going to make labne with kefir.

I started with half a mug (with 1 teaspoon of milk kefir grains). The milk kefir grains grew quite fast so I can now make 4 whole mugs. Grandma was tentative and sceptical at first, but after 4 days, she said, "I feel a need to take it before bed." When she came over to get her half mug yesterday, I swear that she looked like Milo waiting for a treat. Last night, I blended our milk kefir with mangosteens. It was delicious!

The Husband scrunched up his nose when he first had water kefir. Yesterday, he brought home 3kg of mangosteens and 2 kg of longans. He then requested that I make longan water kefir and mangosteen water kefir.The urn on the right holds coconut water kefir. Coconut water kefir tastes a bit like champagne. I might try grape juice kefir to see if I can make something that tastes like a Moscato or a sweet Riesling.

If you want to buy kefir, go HERE

However, it is said that mass produced kefir in USA does not compare well with artisanal kefir. The mass produced kefir has additives that replicate the kefir taste without the high count of live organisms. Additives also stabilise the product for longer shelf life. Natural kefir is a naturally unstable product. It is fermenting with every minute that passes.










2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi
Very keen to start taking kefir
Where can I get kefir grains locally?
Thanks for sharing your kefir experience!

Petunia Lee said...

I was given my grains so I don't know where to buy them.