Rainy days

Non stop pouring of rain from early morning to evening. Most areas in Caloocan and Quezon City are already flooded. So every one are advised to stay dry and keep warm in the comfort of your Home. Since its raining so hard outside, let us talk about the health issues brought by the rain.

Have you noticed that most of the Filipino are afraid to be wet by rain? Because rain fall will make us sick. But how is that true and why it happen when we get wet by the rain we get sick?

We should expect that when it rains outside we must be protected by either wearing raincoat or umbrella. Naturally if we walk outside when it rains without protective covering we will get wet. Now-a-days if we get wet by the rain, we expect that we will get sick if we dont rinse immediately through warm bath. The reason why people get sick when it rains is because of the pollutants that the raindrops contain. So when it flood, the water will also be contaminated with pollutant such as the urine of animals and rats that will give us illness when we are exposed to the flood.

But in the Old times, when our environment is still fresh and clean there is a belief that when you get wet to the rain, you will get sick. So what is their reason why you will get sick when you get wet by the rain?

The Answer is this, when you walk and do your work your body is warm and when you get wet starting from the head it will break the heat that will make the cold enter your body. So you get sick because of the imbalanced energy of Hot and Cold.

I remember when i was assessing in TESDA, i have assessed a 70 Year Old Man who apply for National Certificate in Hilot and during the Assessment we have talked about the natural ways of taking bath.

So my question to him was this, in taking a bath- which part of the body must get wet first? probably most of you will answer hands or head. But naturally, the first part of our body that need to get wet first is our feet. In the olden time there is no shower or pail and dipper. People go to the river or stream to take a bath and in going there the feet is the first one that get wet.

So from that reasoning, i also observe some old manghihilot in doing their hilot masahe. They start from the feet going upwards. I might disagree on this system but we need to consider their methods and we need to study well about it on why they start from the feet upward.

Mental Disorder and Hilot

I have watched K Brosas which is a Filipina Comedian/Singer/Actress talk about depression on Facebook. I thought i am going to laugh so hard becuase she was a known singer/comedian but instead the laughter that im about to give was replaced by Wow!

I share it here the youtube link that K Brosas Talks about depression. And i agree with her that depressionand anxiety is a mental disorder. She talks about the unreleased childhood anger and fear that she kept inside her for a long time. When she goes to the Hospital all the best doctor can not see any problem when everytime she experience palpitation, tremoring of nerves and emotional down break until she was refered to a Psychiatrist.

There the doctor prescribed her drug to pacify her condition. But what the doctor is treating is just the symptom of the problem and not the main problem it self. As a Traditional Medicine Practitioner, i see that there is no synthetic drug that could bend and heal the mental disorder of a person. The healing must come from the person him/her self and not on drugs. What is in our head is just a physical organ, but our mind comes from outside our physical body.

In Hilot we give importance to the role of Tawas or Spiritual Diagnosis because through this procedure we are touching the persons emotion, mind and spirit that makes the physical body move.

As an individual we react to outside stimulus. And from stimulating our senses i creates bio chemical reaction that affects our being.

In Tawas, we are arranging the persons perception and helping them to have relief and suddenly cure from the situation they have.

Unity in Diversity of Hilot

habi hilot In Promoting Hilot as the Philippine Traditional and Natural Medicine, we must be reminded that our Country is an Archipelago that is composed of 1,107 islands that been inhabited by almost more than 175 ethnolinguistic tribes. From these Tribes, we will find a diverse culture and tradition; at the same time methods of healing that we now call as Hilot. Modern Medicine arrived to our country during the Colonisation of Spain by the 1600’s to 1800’s. Prior to their arrival, the pre-colonial Filipino’s have our own medicine and as per record shows from the 17th to 18th centuries, the state-of-the-art medical and pharmaceutical science was developed by the Spanish Friars based on the system of healthcare provided by the Pre colonial practitioners of Medicine and Health Care which is the Babaylan.

Each tribe has their distinct method of healthcare and ways on curing illness that modern researcher and cultural advocate must preserve. Standardising it into one process will not help preserving it. We must be reminded that what our Country makes unique is that we cant be called Philippines without the existence of the Ethnolinguistic Tribes that are present in our country. The same thing will apply to Hilot, it will not become a National Healing Modality without the others.

We can not omit one healing practices in favour of the other. Filipino Scientific Community must take time in studying each modality to prove its effectiveness in providing a cure. As Hilot provide also the four dimension of Healthcare delivery as well having its own diagnostic procedure in determing the cause of ailment of the patient.

Saving Lives start with the belief that we can

In the Website of Philippine Medical Tourism which can be found by following the link, they defined Alternative Medicine as follows:

Alternative medicine is therapeutic or preventive health care practices, such as homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, and herbal medicine, that do not follow generally accepted medical methods and may not have a scientific explanation for their effectiveness.

Alternative medicine practices are often based in belief systems not derived from modern science. They may therefore incorporate spiritual, metaphysical, or religious underpinnings, untested practices, pre-modern medical traditions, or newly developed approaches to healing. If an alternative medical approach, initially untested, is subsequently shown to be safe and effective, it may then be adopted by conventional practitioners and no longer considered “alternative”.

Here the organisation have mentioned the healing modalities that do not follow generally accepted medical methods and “may” not have a scientific explanation for their effectiveness. On their statement, the organisation is also uncertain with their statement and have not exerted effort on proving the ineffectiveness of the said modality but have declared that the practices are based on belief systems not derived from modern science. But how would this so called Alternative Medicine be proven if the authority themselves do not put their time and effort on proving the modalities to be effective or not? All modern inventions starts with a belief that everything is possible. Even the cure on cancer or certain chronic disease starts with a firm belief that a cure can be made. Philippine Medical Tourism is junking out the ideas of Alternative Medicine because it is based on belief system.

Well for us, the real Alternative Medicine as they defined are the Modern Allophatic Medicine that replace the Traditional and Natural Medicine practised by mankind. In the Philippines, Hilot is our Traditional and Natural Medicine and modern science must take time to prove its effectiveness. Our Ancestors have proven it economically safe and effective. The Use of herbs which we can just gather along our yard and neighbourhood without monetary expenses. The simple skills of massage incorporating herbs would give relief and eventually cure to any ailments.

For the common people like me, let us value what is cost effective and safe. The food that been prepared to us by our lolo and lola are a good medicine for us to sustain our health. The herbs which we can found in our kitchen such as the garlic, ginger, onion, pepper, chili can be a quintessence of wellness that could save us from expensive medication and drugs.

Traditional Filipino Foot Massage

Preventing Illness

What do we do in order not to get ill? I believe that most of you have your own ways of preventing illness. But let us say that you have a gold fish on an aquarium. What will you do to maintain the life of your gold fish?

First ofcouse is you make that fish stay out of the frying pan. Make sure that fish to stay on water to stay alive and healthy. Make its aquarium clean and safe. Feed it with love and care.

As humans then, what do we need in order to stay alive? We often forget that our basic staying alive skills are easy and making it more complicated. As human instead of staying out of the pan we rather engage our self to hazardous activities to challenge our human potentials.

We breath in to the atmosphere of stress and anxiety all day. We live in a polluted world full of trash either literal garbage or psychological, emotional, social and spiritual pollutants.

If we want to stay alive and be well all the time we must get rid our selves from the source of illness. Even if we have a powerful medicine to cure for our illness but if we do not remove our selves from the source that make us sick, we will still get worst.

As Hilot, we dont just heal the body of our patient but we also heal and make a therapeutic environment where humanity can live a better life.

The pollution level in Metro Manila and Quezon City is getting worst. As Hilot we rely our medicine on the products Nature. Our medicine is in Nature. So let us make Nature be present in our Emvironment. Let us heal our land by making it green again. Plant a healing herbs in your frontor backyard. Have a pot and grow a plant. This will not only benefit you but also our environment.

Each Hilot is Unique

Hilot are cultural worker and steward of the Earth. We are ordained by the Law of Nature and Universal law as care taker of its creation.

Most people see that we work on relieving pain of the People, but our work is not limited on relieving human pain and sufferings but we are bringing back the harmony in their lives by balancing the forces of nature that governs it.

Hilot is a Common People Medicine. It is not formulated and designed by a single individual or group of people, but it was passed down to us by our ancestors from generation to generations. As a Common people medicine, Hilot Techniques and methodology are unique from each tribe. Though different and unique from each other, the law of nature applies that we are all connected as magkakaugnay.

Standardization of techniques might violate the universal law of uniqueness as it will implement the superiority of one tribal technique and the other to be inferior.

All Hilot are equally potent and unique. Each methods are allowable as it will produce cure to the illness of mankind. What makes Hilot similar to each technique is that it works out to obtain common goal of bringing cure and restoring wellness to mankind.

The motivation of Hilot as a Healer is to heal which is to Help Enhance Alleviate Life from pain and suffering.

Hilot is a pre Christian Healing Modality

The forum on Hilot intend to preserve the Philippine Healing Arts and Science which is our Traditional and Natural Medicine. It is our Pride as a Filipino to have our very own Healing Modality that we could share to the world.

Hilot as i have said before is the Common people medicine that is not owned by a certain person, tribe and money generating company. In preserving Hilot we must consider each healing modality of the indigenous people of the Philippines.

As a Healing Modality, Hilot has a unique way of diagnosing an illness through tawas and it uses orasyon to make the method of healing used to be potent.

As the only Pagan in the forum, i should remind our Christian brothers and sisters that is present in the forum that Hilot is a Healing Modality that predates the Christianization of the Philippines. In order preserve this wonderful healing modality, we should also consider its Pagan origin where it comes from.

To understand more of this, i would like to give credit to Mr. Jordan Clark of the Aswang Project for taking time to record in understanding the Philippine Mythology which you can follow on this link.Understanding Philippine Mythology

Preserving Hilot for the future Generation

It was year 2002 when i start getting involve in the advocacy of promoting Hilot as Traditional and Natural Medicine in the Philippines. I was nothing before but just a simple practitioner and provider of Hilot.

I brought out my personal practice into public by sharing my knowledge and skills through teaching on 2008 that lead to the creation of Philippine Certified Wellness Therapist Association Inc through Humancare International Inc. with the guidance and suppport of Ms. Grace Sanico which is a TechVoc. expert and fan of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Philippines.

Yesterday July 8, 2018- was our second meet up with fellow Advocates, Practitioner, Trainers and Assessor of Hilot. We have gathered to preserve Hilot so that it may continually exist in our country by teaching it to the public and promoting it through service.

We have discussed and agreed the definition of Hilot as a healing modality that focus in curing the root cause of disease. It is almost the same that we have discussed in the Shrine the purpose of healing, a person wont be healed if s/he will remain intact to the cause of his/her illness.

When a person is suffering from difficulty to breathe we check what is the probable cause of that condition and remove the blockages that make that person to have difficulty in breathing. This is why in Hilot it is important for us to conduct tawas first before applying treatment to our patient. Tawas determines the cause of illness and through hilot we remove that cause and improve the wellbeing of our patient.

Why i do use Banana Leaf in doing Hilot Massage?

banana leaf folded In my recent meet up with our fellow Hilot Advocates in the Philippines, there was a topic that been brought up that the use of banana leaf will be disregarded or will be omitted in the practice of Hilot Massage as it was claimed to be non scientific. But on my stand, i use banana leaf not only to detect the cold part of the body which is a sign of Pilay but use it as a treatment in absorbing toxins in the body. Applying banana leaf over the body surface acts like a Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation or CPR . Since Banana Leaf is rich in chlorophyll, it releases oxygen as it absorbs carbon dioxide on the surface of the skin.

In our research, banana leaves contains large amount of Polyphenols such as Epigallocatechin Gallate or EGCG which has very strong anti oxidant property that is also found in Green Tea. ” EGCG is supposed to be the active compound that is responsible for antioxidant properties of green tea and possibly fat burning properties. In Chinese medicine, EGCG is used to manage hormone levels with treatment for benign prostate hyperplasia to acne. EGCG may prove to be beneficial for many conditions for men and women.”- https://www.livestrong.com/article/282106-the-benefits-of-epigallocatechin-gallate/

“There are many claims about the health benefits of EGCG, mostly due to the potent antioxidant activity. It is believed this protects our cells from oxidative damage from free radicals. Free radicals are produced by the stressors that our modern life puts on our bodies. A number of chronic diseases have been associated with free radical damage, including cancer, arteriosclerosis, heart diseases, and accelerated aging. EGCG can protect the DNA in the human cells from ultraviolet and visible radiation-induced damage and is effective in promoting fat oxidation and lowering body weight. So the banana leaf being packed with EGCG is a very beneficial ingredient in a skin rejuvenation treatment.

So what can the leaves be used for? Banana leaves can treat minor skin wounds and other skin disorders such as dandruff, eczema, and sunburn. Use juice of fresh banana leaf as it will gradually heal from the root disturbance. You can also soak the leaves with cold water and apply on skin sunburn. Banana leaves also have medicinal properties that can relieve poisonous insect bites, bee stings, spider bites, rashes, skin irritation. The leaves are popularly known as a natural eraser.”- http://aromasparetreat.com/healing-qualities-of-banana-leaf/

Here are some of the benefits of banana leaves for the skin:

Natural herbs can treat minor skin wounds and other skin disorders such as dandruff, eczema, and sunburn. Use juice of fresh banana leaf juice will gradually heal from the root disturbance. You can also soak the leaves with cold water and apply on skin sunburn.
Banana leaves have medicinal properties that can relieve poisonous insect bites, bee stings, spider bites, rashes, skin irritation. The leaves are popularly known as a natural eraser.
Cosmetic creams and lotions contain active ingredients are expensive so-called Allantoin found in plant leaves. Allantoin helps faster healing, kills germs and stimulates new skin cell growth.- https://amazetify.com/facts/health-benefits-of-banana-leaves/

Aside from the leaves, the fruits, the flowers and stems has its medicinal benefits for us.

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► The high content of iron in bananas increases the production of hemoglobin in the blood -therefore they are very good for anemia.

► They regulate bowel movement – whether it is constipation or diarrhea. Our elders believed that eating a banana after every meal improved digestion significantly.

► When you suffer from a hangover – a banana milkshake with honey can give you immense relief. Cold milk soothes the stomach lining and bananas with honey build up depleted blood sugar levels.

► Bananas are exceedingly good for students as the rich source of potassium can make a person very alert; the fruit is often called a brain tonic

► Bananas work well as a snack for people who have high blood pressure as they are wholesome with low salt levels.

► For those suffering from depression, bananas are good as they contain a protein called serotonin – which is also called the ‘happy hormone’ as it makes one feel happy and relaxed.

► Bananas can be eaten frequently to treat ulcers as they neutralize acidity in the stomach. This soft and smooth fruit cannot irritate the stomach walls.

► For pregnant women suffering from morning sickness, eating bananas in between meals helps immensely in settling the queasiness in the stomach.

► Eating bananas helps people give up smoking as this fruit is rich in vitamin C, A, B6 and B12. Bananas contain potassium and magnesium as well, which help the body recover from nicotine withdrawal.

► Bananas have an antacid effect, so people who experience heartburn find relief on eating a banana.

► Potassium is a vital mineral which normalizes heartbeat while regulating the body’s water balance. As banana is a rich source of potassium, it re-balances disturbances of fluids in the body.

► For weight watchers, banana is an excellent snack in place of crisps and chocolates. Research found that food craving during high pressure work could be assuaged safely and in a healthy manner by eating a banana every 2-3 hourly as it is a high carbohydrate food that controls blood sugar levels.

► Topically, the peel of a banana – with the yellow side on top can be taped to a warts. It will shrivel and fall off.

► The peel of a banana fruit can be rubbed on a mosquito bite with good effect, the stinging sensation stops and the swelling also reduces.

► A ripe banana mashed and applied on the face is great at moisturizing and nourishing tired and dry skin.

banana stem When a bunch of bananas is harvested, the stem/tree is cut away. The tender inner stem is used as food and has many medicinal properties as well.

Layers of hard outer stem are peeled away and only the tender inner stem is used. It is very fibrous, so the thread fiber has to be cleaned. The stem is chopped into small bits and soaked in buttermilk or diluted yogurt for half hour. In Southern parts of India, it is cooked as a vegetable and eaten along with rice.

banana-64420_960_720 The banana flower grows at the end of a bunch of bananas. It is a leafy maroon colored cone with cream colored florets layered inside. These florets need to be cleaned well before they are cooked as a vegetable. The banana flower is rich in vitamins, flavonoids and proteins. The flower has been used in traditional medicine to treat bronchitis, constipation and ulcer problems. It eases menstrual cramps. The extracts of banana flower have antioxidant properties that prevent free radicals and control cell and tissue damage.

Since our country is rich in Banana, let us all enjoy the bountiful blessings of Nature’s healing plants and herbs that surround us. And with this may our own Traditional and NAtural Healing Arts and Science be known in our land so as across the Seas.