By Sarika Rana
Updated: August 31, 2018 17:22 IST
Blood is the most important fuel required by the body as it helps in transporting nutrients to the cells and ensures smooth functioning of the system by supplying oxygen to various organs of the body. However, you may sometimes develop blood clots that can clog the arteries, further blocking the supply of nutrients to the vital organs. Blood clots are simply amalgamation of red blood cells that build up at the site of injury or due to a particular ailment. In some cases it can be healthy as it stops excessive bleeding in the body, however excessive clotting can be a sign of severe health problems like Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). In simpler terms, blood clot is a blockage of a healthy vessel that may lead to various health problems. A mass of red blood cells clump together and stop the blood flow in the vessel. Blood clots may not just form in one part of the body and can occur any where. Here are some amazing home remedies for blood clot.
Blood clot symptoms may depend on where the clot may be located. Here are the various symptoms of blood clots in different areas of the body-
Blood clots may be caused due to plaque formation in the arteries, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart diseases, cholesterol, internal injuries, obesity, liver diseases, smoking or anemia.
According to Nutritionist and Macrobiotic Health Coach Shilpa Arora, you must avoid inflammatory foods like white breads, cakes, pastries, cookies, refined oil and refined flours. All these foods tend to aggravate inflammation in the body, further causing blood clots.
1. Turmeric
The active compound present in turmeric known as curcumin works on the blood platelets to prevent clots. Its medicinal properties can also help in curing the pain caused due to the formation of clots. The bio-active properties of turmeric are said to be attributed to various components isolated from its rhizome. Turmeric acts as an anti-thrombotic or anti-coagulant agent, which involves modulation of numerous factors that aid in the process of clot formation.
(Also Read: 5 Home Remedies to Control High Levels of Uric Acid)
The active compound present in turmeric known as curcumin works on the blood platelets
2. Garlic
According to Nutritionist Shilpa, garlic has sulphur compounds that are known to melt blood clots. Consume one raw garlic clove in the morning for effective results. Garlic works on the smooth muscles of the arteries and causes them to relax and dilate, thereby lowering blood pressure. It also works as a blood thinner, thereby preventing blood clots in patients at risk for clots.
Garlic has sulphur compounds that are known to melt blood clots
3. Cayenne
Cayenne peppers are natural blood thinners and have an effective impact on your body due to the presence of salicylates in them. The compound capsaicin present in cayenne helps promote smooth blood circulation and helps prevent blood clots. The compound helps clear away artery-narrowing lipid deposits, and might help dilate arteries and blood vessels to clear away clots and the pain that comes with them.
(Also Read: 7 Foods To Increase Blood Platelets)
Cayenne peppers are natural blood thinners and have an effective impact on your body
4. Arjun ki Chhaal
According to Nutritionist Dr. Simran Saini from Fortis Hospital, Arjun ki chhaal or Terminalia Arjuna is a very effective natural blood thinner. All you need to do is take Arjun ki chhaal (bark) and soak it in warm water and drink the water every morning. Arjun ki chhaal promotes a stronger contraction of the heart muscle, allowing the heart to function efficiently.
(Also Read: How To Improve Blood Circulation?)
Arjun ki chhaal or Terminalia Arjuna is a very effective natural blood thinner
5. Flax Seeds and Chia Seeds
These tiny seeds are full of healthy omega-3 fatty acids that help in preventing blood clots and improve blood circulation. Flaxseeds are said to make platelets, the blood cells involved in clotting, less sticky. In fact, these seeds may reduce the risk of hardening of the arteries. Chia seeds are known to be natural blood thinners. They come packed with essential nutrients, especially omega-3 fatty acids that are good for the heart.
(Also Read: 6 Summer Foods For Managing Blood Pressure)
Omega-3 fatty acids rich seeds are found in seeds including flax seeds
A good diet can go a long way in keeping you hale and hearty naturally.
Easter Sunday is the most important date in the Christian church.
In the bible, it is the day when Mary Magdalene found that an empty tomb in the cave in which Jesus had been placed following his death by crucifixion on the previous Friday.
It signifies the end of the 40 days of Lent, meaning Christians who gave up something during lent to signify Jesus’ time in the wilderness, can indulge themselves again.
Easter Sunday is also when church bells will be rung again, having been silent during Lent.
The name Easter is derived from ‘Ostara’ or ‘Eostre’, a pagan goddess of fertility, whose feast was celebrated on the Vernal Equinox. The word East is also derived from her names, as is Oestrogen, the female hormone. In Saxon culture, the Hare was sacred to Ostara and the modern tradition of the Easter Bunny is a distant echo of that.
However, In most languages other than English and German, the holiday’s name is derived from Pesach, the Hebrew name of Passover, a Jewish holiday to which the Christian Easter is intimately linked.
Easter depends on Passover not only for much of its symbolic meaning but also for its position in the calendar. Read more about the date of Easter.
The Easter Bunny is now an established part of the Easter traditions. In Europe and America, the Easter Bunny visits the garden of children leaving chocolate eggs and treats for the children to find on Easter Egg hunts.
Rabbits and hares don’t have any direct connection to any Christian tradition and it is interesting to note that the pagan goddess, Ostara was always traditionally accompanied by a hare. The modern tradition derives from a German custom that was first recorded in the 16th century. It may seem strange for a rabbit to be laying eggs, but as eggs were part of the foods banned during Lent, then the reintroduction of eggs would have been a welcome treat, no matter how they arrived in the garden.
It was once thought that hares could give birth without conceiving, which may have made them a way of explaining the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary. It is also said that the sight of Rabbits appearing from their underground burrows is a reminder of Jesus appearing from the tomb after his resurrection on Easter morning.
On Easter Sunday, the traditional meat for dinner is lamb. The lamb was a sacrifice during the Jewish Passover, and it became a symbol for Jesus. It is also seasonal as Spring lamb is particularly tender and noted for its subtle flavour.
Three facts about Easter Sunday
Though the method of calculating the date has changed, Easter first became an official Christian holiday in AD 325 at the first council of Nicaea presided over by Roman Emperor Constantine.
Easter is celebrated at different times by Eastern and Western Christians. It is because the dates for Easter in Eastern Christianity are based on the Julian calendar, while Western Christianity follows the Gregorian calendar.
The idea of the Easter bunny giving candies and eggs is said to have originated in Germany during the middle ages.
Orthodox Easter, also called Greek Easter is the principal festival of the Orthodox Church.
In the bible, it is the day when Mary Magdalene found that an empty tomb in the cave in which Jesus had been placed following his death by crucifixion on the Friday before.
It signifies the end of the 40 days of Lent, meaning Christians who gave up something during lent to signify Jesus’ time in the wilderness, can indulge themselves again.
In Egypt, Coptic Easter Monday is celebrated on the same day as Orthodox Easter Monday. The day forms part of a wider spring festival called ‘Sham El Nessim‘ and is a national holiday.
The date is different from Western Easter as the other Christian Churches base the date of calculating Easter on the Gregorian calendar, but the Eastern Orthodox Church still uses the earlier Julian calendar for calculating the dates of festivals, which also includes Easter.
The name Easter is derived from ‘Ostara’ or ‘Eostre’, a pagan goddess of fertility, whose feast was celebrated on the Vernal Equinox. The word East is also derived from her names, as is Oestrogen, the female hormone.
However, In most languages other than English and German, the holiday’s name is derived from Pesach, the Hebrew name of Passover, a Jewish holiday to which the Christian Easter is intimately linked.
Easter depends on Passover not only for much of its symbolic meaning but also for its position in the calendar. The Orthodox church uses the Julian calendar for the calculation of Easter, whereas the Western churches use the Gregorian calendar. This difference can often mean that Orthodox Easter falls later than Easter observed elsewhere. The earliest date it can fall is 4 April and the latest is 8 May.
Modern Easter celebrations revolve around eggs. They may be painted, rolled down hills or eaten if they are of the chocolate variety. The Christian tradition of egg is aid to represent rebirth and resurrection – new life being born from the egg. It’s also been said that egg recalls the shape of the stone that rolled away on Easter Sunday form the tomb that held Jesus’ body.
This egg tradition is almost certainly a distillation of a much older pagan custom celebrating spring. The ancient Persians celebrated their new year at the time of the vernal equinox by painting eggs.
Its adoption into the Christian traditions would have been quite seamless, as eggs were banned during the period of Lent preceding Easter.
The custom of decorating eggs is perhaps most famous in Ukraine. Known as Pysanky eggs, they are painted when raw as the uncooked eggshell absorbs the colored dye better than when cooked.
Follow these easy instructions to learn how to make shaving cream Easter eggs. You should be able to color Easter eggs with shaving cream in under an hour.
Start this easy Easter craft by preparing a batch of hard-boiled eggs. When the eggs have cooled, place them in a large bowl of vinegar. Let the eggs soak for 20 minutes; this will allow the dye to adhere more permanently to the shells. Fill a shallow glass baking dish (like this Pyrex Oblong Glass Baking Dish, $10.99) with a thick layer of shaving cream; we used a plain drugstore shaving cream. Spray the shaving cream so that it covers the bottom of a pan with a layer that is about an inch thick.
Editor’s Tip: To make whipped cream dyed eggs, simply spread a layer of non-dairy whipped topping in the bottom of your pan about an inch thick. Follow the rest of the instructions to make dyed eggs with shaving cream or whipped cream eggs.
Generously place drops of food coloring on top of the shaving cream; we used a two-color combination for each set of eggs. You can use one color combination for the whole pan or divide the pan of shaving cream into halves or quarters to create more color combinations. When most of the surface is covered with food coloring, drag a bamboo skewer across the top of the shaving cream to swirl and marble the colors.
When the colored shaving cream is ready, put on a pair of gloves to protect your hands from the dye. Pick up a hard-boiled egg and set it gently on the surface of the shaving cream. Slowly roll the egg over the surface, so that the colored shaving cream completely coats the egg’s shell. Place the egg on a paper towel and let dry for 20 minutes—don’t wipe off any of the shaving cream until the egg has completely dried. Repeat this process with as many hard-boiled eggs as you’d like to color, reusing the colored shaving cream mixture.
To clean the dried shaving cream egg, carefully dip each egg into a bowl of water. The water will remove the excess shaving cream while leaving the colored design on the egg’s shell. Pat each egg dry with a paper towel but be careful not to rub or wipe the surface of the egg, as this might smear or remove the dye from the shell. When each egg has been cleaned and dried, add the eggs to a colorful display. To add sheen to the finished shaving cream Easter eggs, rub them with a little vegetable oil. Eggs decorated with shaving cream are not edible, but whipped cream dyed eggs are safe to eat as long as they are stored in the refrigerator.
Asafoetida (Ferula asafoetida) is the dried sap obtained from the roots of Ferula plants (1Trusted Source).
While it’s native to Afghanistan and Iraq, asafoetida is commonly used in Indian cuisine where it’s dried, ground into a spice, and referred to as hing (1Trusted Source).
In addition to flavoring food, asafoetida has also been used for centuries around the world for its perceived health benefits (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source).
This article examines the benefits, downsides, and uses of asafoetida.
Technically a gum-resin, asafoetida is a hard substance that’s extracted from large, carrot-shaped roots of the Ferula plants (1Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source).
Once extracted, it’s commonly dried, ground into a coarse, yellow powder, and used for either culinary or medicinal purposes.
As a spice, asafoetida is known for its strong, pungent odor, which is due to its high concentration of sulfur compounds. In fact, due to its unpleasant smell, this seasoning is sometimes referred to as stinking gum (4Trusted Source).
However, when cooked, its flavor and smell become much more palatable and are often described as being similar to leeks, garlic, and even meat (1Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source).
In addition to adding a distinct flavor to dishes, asafoetida has been used in traditional medicine for centuries.
For example, in Ayurvedic medicine, hing is used to aid digestion and gas, as well as treat bronchitis and kidney stones. While during the Middle Ages, the dried gum was sometimes worn around the neck to help ward off infection and disease (4Trusted Source).
Yet despite being used for thousands of years, many of the traditional uses of asafoetida have not been proven by modern science.
SUMMARY
Asafoetida is sulfurous smelling gum-resin that’s extracted from Furula plants. It’s traditionally ground into a powder and used either for its proposed medicinal qualities or as a spice to add a savory flavor to food.
While research is limited, asafoetida may offer some health benefits.
Asafoetida has been found to be a good source of antioxidants (1Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source,
These plant compounds help protect your cells against potential damage caused by unstable molecules called free radicals. As a result, antioxidants may also help protect against chronic inflammation, heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes (7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source).
Specifically, asafoetida has been shown to contain high amounts of phenolic compounds, such as tannins and flavonoids, which are known for their potent antioxidant effects ( 9Trusted Source).
While test-tube and animal studies have found asafoetida to exhibit anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity, more research needs to be done on its potential antioxidant effects in humans (5Trusted Source, 10Trusted Source).
Additionally, as asafoetida is used in such small amounts when cooking, it’s unclear if culinary use of the spice would still provide these potential benefits to health.
One of the most common uses of asafoetida is helping with indigestion (1Trusted Source).
In one 30-day study in 43 adults with moderate to severe indigestion, those taking 250 mg capsules containing asafoetida twice a day reported significant improvements in bloating, digestion, and overall quality of life compared with the placebo group (11Trusted Source).
This study was funded by the company that produced the supplement, so it may have impacted results.
Asafoetida has also been shown to help boost digestion by increasing the activity of digestive enzymes. Specifically, it may increase the release of bile from the liver, which is needed for the digestion of fat (1Trusted Source, 12Trusted Source).
While the spice is also frequently used to prevent or reduce gas after eating, there’s currently a lack of research to support this effect.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic gastrointestinal (GI) condition that’s characterized by abdominal pain or discomfort, bloating, gas, and constipation, diarrhea, or both (13Trusted Source).
Due to its potential effects on digestion, asafoetida is thought to help reduce symptoms associated with IBS.
Two small studies in adults with IBS found a significant improvement in reported IBS symptoms after 2 weeks of taking asafoetida supplements. Yet another study found no effect of the supplement on IBS symptoms (14Trusted Source).
Overall, the research on whether asafoetida may be effective for managing IBS symptoms is quite limited.
However, one less direct way that asafoetida may be beneficial for individuals with IBS is as a substitute for onion and garlic in cooking.
Onion and garlic contain high amounts of fructans — indigestible, fermentable carbs that can cause GI distress in some individuals with IBS (15Trusted Source, 16Trusted Source, 17Trusted Source).
As asafoetida provides a flavor similar to onions and garlic, it could be a good option for those who need to avoid or limit their consumption of these high fructan foods.
While studies on asafoetida are quite limited, early research suggests that it may have additional benefits, including:
Overall, while animal and test-tube studies suggest many potential benefits of this pungent spice, there’s currently a lack of evidence in humans to support these claims.
It’s also worth noting that these studies use a concentrated form of asafoetida rather than the amounts typically used when cooking. As a result, culinary use of the spice may have minimal effects.
SUMMARY
Asafoetida is rich in antioxidants and may provide multiple health benefits, particularly for digestive health. However, as research is currently limited, studies in humans are needed to confirm these effects.
While research on the safety of asafoetida in humans is limited, amounts of asafoetida that are typically used in cooking are thought to be generally safe for most individuals.
One study in humans found 250 mg twice per day for 30 days was well tolerated by the participants (11Trusted Source).
However, animal studies suggest large doses of asafoetida may cause swelling of the mouth, gas, diarrhea, anxiety, and headaches. Furthermore, a study in mice suggests possible toxicity at doses greater than 455 mg per pound (1,000 mg per kg) of body weight (1Trusted Source, 28Trusted Source).
Additionally, due to a lack of research, asafoetida isn’t recommended for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, or young children (1Trusted Source).
Because it may lower blood pressure or thin the blood, people on blood pressure medications or blood-thinning drugs should avoid asafoetida supplements (29Trusted Source).
When used as a spice, asafoetida is often mixed with either wheat or rice flour. As a result, asafoetida (or hing) products may not be gluten-free. This can be a particular concern when dining out at a restaurant that uses hing powder in their dishes.
If you have any questions or concerns, it’s important to consult with your healthcare provider before trying asafoetida.
SUMMARY
When used in small amounts for cooking, asafoetida is likely safe for most individuals. However, due to a lack of research, asafoetida may not be safe for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding or when consumed in large doses.
Asafoetida has been used for thousands of years to give flavor to dishes. In fact, ancient Romans used to store it in jars along with pine nuts to be used as a seasoning (4Trusted Source).
Today, ground asafoetida powder, often labeled as hing, can be found online as well as at some Indian grocery stores.
If you follow a gluten-free diet, make sure to look for hing powder that’s blended with rice flour instead of wheat.
For culinary uses of hing powder, it’s recommended to incorporate it into hot oil or another source of fat to help reduce its sulfurous flavor and smell.
In Indian cuisine, hing powder is often paired with other spices like turmeric or cumin to provide a savory, umami flavor to lentil- or vegetable-based dishes. In France, it’s sometimes used to add a boost of flavor to steaks (4Trusted Source).
As a supplement, asafoetida is available in capsule form. While one study found 250 mg twice per day helped reduce indigestion, overall research on what’s a safe and effective dose is lacking (11Trusted Source).
SUMMARY
Asafoetida or hing powder can add a savory, umami quality to cooked dishes. While asafoetida is also sold in capsule form as a supplement, there’s currently insufficient evidence on what’s a safe and effective dose.
Asafoetida is a dried plant sap that’s been used for centuries for its potential health benefits and unique flavor.
It has been shown to be a good source of antioxidants. Still, while limited research suggests multiple benefits, particularly for digestive health, there’s a need for more research especially in humans.
Still, when ground into a powder, hing can be a good addition to your spice cabinet. Just a small pinch can add a savory, umami quality to dishes, such as curries, lentil dal, soups, and stews.
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Written by Kelli McGrane, MS, RD on April 3, 2020
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