In this Ozempic age, a person may diet themselves down unattractive gauntness. Hip dips, bony shoulders, withered hands; not to mention drooping breasts and flat buttocks: a sad list of body parts needing plumping up to look good again.

“Personal fat banking” is a solution. A person set on losing a lot of weight can have their own fat harvested ahead of time via liposuction and later reinjected into any part of the body that needs a smooth contour. Expensive, but it can be done. Read here about plastic surgery’s environnmental impact.

But what happens when there’s no personal fat left to harvest?

Well, turn to fat harvested from dead people instead. Cadaver fat returns the bounce to the breasts just as efficiently as your own fat. As much as five kilos of fat may be harvested from a corpse. Certified agencies use male and female cadavers from 18-71 years old. The commercial name for processed human fat is Alloclae.

Cosmetic surgeons call it “regenerative medicine. ” Their websites may refer to “donated tissue,” if they mention the fat’s origins at all. To squeamish patients, they soothingly explain that AlloClae is part of a “biologic revolution.” It encourages the patient’s own cells to migrate into the donor matrix, rebuilding tissue.

That sounds so much more scientific, even sort of natural, doesn’t it? It sort of takes the uncomfortable dissonance away, unless you remember that the fat injected into your living body came from a dead person who never consented to its commercial use.

There is no proof that any donor, while living, gave informed consent for companies to make money off their remains; the remains they nobly donated to research and science, not for someone to fill out their bikini.

In fact, it’s not entirely clear if family members who agreed to donate their dear departed’s body are aware that someone may exploit it for sale. The original donors or their families typically do not profit.

Who’s making money from human fat in 2026?

The first parties are companies are known as “body brokers,” officially called non-transplant tissue banks. They acquire, dissect, and sell human bodies and body parts for medical research and education. They are intermediaries between the recently deceased and commercial buyers, such as medical device companies, military researchers, and private surgical training programs.

Tissue banks generate substantial revenue by “parting out” a single body; for instance, a head can fetch roughly $1,000, while a torso might be sold for several thousand dollars. A single corpse can generate up to $10,000 in total sales.

In the United States, no central registry for body brokers exists. Legitimate companies identify themselves as non-transplant tissue banks. If you look it up, you’ll find The American Association of Tissue Banks. They list accredited non-transplant anatomical donation organizations.

Biotech companies buy human fat from body brokers, then process and sterilize it. The finished product, Alloclae, is considered a legal and safe, FDA-compliant human cell and tissue product. It doesn’t technically have to be “approved” or “cleared” by the FDA, per the agency’s web site.

But unlike the organ transplant system, which is strictly regulated by the federal government, this industry operates with significantly less oversight.

Tiger Aesthetics, a subsidiary of the Tiger BioScience company, is the biggest processor of human fat in the USA . They claim that Alloclae, cleansed by detergents, is purified down to DNA residues that may provoke immunogenic response.

And so it may be. The process is still new enough that we don’t have long-term studies on possible secondary effects in patients injected with Alloclae.

The processed human fat is then sold on to specialized clinics and plastic surgeons. Those clinics and surgeons earn big fees for plumping up body parts of the rich and the vain. How much? It depends. Scanning the websites of several clinics, I saw quotes between US$5000 to US$7000 per syringe.

Dr. Sachin M. Shridharani offers the procedure at his Manhattan clinic, Luxurgery. Interviewed by The New York Post, he said that the procedures typically start at $10,000, with costs increase depending on the scope of treatment.

“If you want a full breast augmentation, hip dip and some buttock treatment and you have to use hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cc’s of AlloClae, well, that’s going to cost tens of thousands of dollars.”

What you get for your money

Traditional fillers come in 1cc syringes, while AlloClae is packaged in much larger 12.5cc and 25cc sizes. This makes it a unique middle ground for “micro-augmentations” – fixing hip dips, “scooped-out” breasts, or post-liposuction dents that are too big for standard fillers but not large enough to justify surgery.

But the effects don’t last forever. While some claim that the “donated” fat is a sort of scaffolding for the patient’s own body to build up tissue, more often the lovely rounded effect wears away and dissolves after 18 months at longest.
Now that can’t be bad for business.

It gets darker.

Brokers frequently target low-income families by offering “free cremation” in exchange for the donation. In effect, the family agrees to sell their relative’s fat to pay for funeral costs. Some funeral directors maintain partnerships with body brokers to provide low-cost burials or cremations for poor families.

Investigations have uncovered instances of families being misled about how bodies would be used, as well as cases of improper handling, such as dismemberment with power tools or the sale of remains to gruesome “exhibits.”

Makes you wonder if any low-income cremations were empty coffins, while the deceased’s body was sold to independent body brokers.

Human Remains, The Newest Cosmetic

Science has given us many medical uses for bits and pieces of the human body. Lives are saved by heart, kidney, liver donations; parts of eyes, of skin, and more. These procedures come from a place of value for human life and dignity.

And maybe you know someone who’s had cosmetic surgery, or had it yourself. Why not; if surgery enhances a person’s appearance, makes them feel more confident and secure, and they can afford it, more power to them.

But would you get yourself injected with Alloclae?

The post The Next New Cosmetic: Human Fat Known as Alloclae appeared first on Green Prophet.

Across Western countries and large parts of the Middle East, health systems are approaching a structural turning point.

Rising costs, chronic disease, demographic change, and environmental stress are exposing the limits of existing healthcare models.

What is becoming visible is not a crisis of medicine, but a crisis of system design.

Policymakers are increasingly recognizing that the future of health prevention and healthcare cannot be secured through medical expansion alone. Long-term stability will depend on how foundational systems—water, food, energy, and living environments—are designed and integrated.

In this article, I point out why health must be understood as the outcome of coherent system architectures. The question is no longer whether health systems will need to change, but whether they will be redesigned deliberately—or forced to change under pressure.

From System Loss to System Design – Why Health Begins Long Before Hospitals

In many countries, healthcare costs are rising faster than economic growth. At the same time, chronic disease is placing lasting pressure on public budgets. This situation is often described as a medical crisis. In reality, it is a structural one.

Health is not a medical sector.

It is the outcome of systems.

Modern health policy focuses primarily on hospitals, pharmaceuticals, and clinical care. These are necessary, but they intervene late—after imbalances have already emerged.

Health begins earlier: with water quality, food systems, living environments, and the ecological conditions of daily life. When these systems are unstable or poorly regulated, disease rates rise and healthcare systems enter a permanent repair mode.

This is not a failure of medicine.
It is a failure of system design.

Historically, this understanding of health was self-evident. Medical traditions across the Levant and the wider region viewed health as balance between human beings and their environment. Water, food, climate, and lifestyle were central medical factors. These systems were preventive and sustainable over time.

Today, it is becoming clear that intervention-based health systems—however effective in acute care—face economic limits. Even the countries that developed them struggle with rising costs and structural overload.

A different path is possible.

Where water systems are stable, nutrition improves. Where nutrition is stable, human physiology stabilizes. Where living environments support biological needs, long-term health costs decline. Health does not emerge as a service delivered, but as the result of good design.

This also changes how medicine itself is understood. Originally, the physician was a system thinker. In this sense, many professions shape health—from water and agricultural experts to urban planners and infrastructure operators.

This systemic relationship is illustrated in the accompanying graphic.

What Comes Next?

If health is a system outcome, reform cannot begin with isolated projects. It must take place at the level where systems are designed: states and ministries.

The next step lies in developing national health architectures that integrate water, food, living environments, and infrastructure as a coherent foundation. The goal is no longer intervention, but prevention—and long-term stability.

::Bonn Climate Project

___

Heinz J. Sturm is a system architect and analyst working at the intersection of energy, water, health, and societal resilience. He is the initiator of the Bonn Climate Project, where he develops integrated system frameworks linking climate action with public health and long-term stability. Sturm is also the developer of Ars Medica Nova, a conceptual platform exploring new models of preventive health that draw on systems thinking, biology, and infrastructure design. His work focuses on translating complex system architectures into practical narratives for policymakers, researchers, and civil society.

The post Why Health Systems Are Reaching a Turning Point appeared first on Green Prophet.

Stick to commonsense advice. Eat a balanced diet. Exercise regularly. Don’t smoke. And consume dark chocolate.

A study led by geneticist Dr. Ramy Saad at King’s College, London (KCL), found that higher blood levels of theobromine, an alkaloid found in cocoa beans, matched slower biological aging. Dr. Saad’s research focuses on how molecules influence DNA aging markers in human blood.

Related: Dr. Bronner sends us dark chocolate to review

“This is a very exciting finding, and the next important questions are what is behind this association,” he says.

“Our study finds links between a key component of dark chocolate and staying younger for longer,” adds Professor Jordana Bell, a professor of epigenomics at KCL. We wonder if chocolate camel milk will ever appear in these studies.

Researchers are exploring the possibility that theobromine works together with cocoa flavanols, compounds thought to improve cardiovascular health. Polyphenols, health-boosting compounds that exist in fruit and vegetables, are found in cocoa too, and may be part of the molecular action working to slow aging.

“This study identifies another molecular mechanism through which naturally occurring compounds in cocoa may support health,” said Dr. Ricardo Costeira, a postdoctoral researcher working at KCL.

An additional PubMed study from 2022 on cardiovascular risk factors on humans and animals suggested that theobromine favorably influences inflammation, high blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.

Study results skew positive for chocolate as a health and life booster, although research is ongoing: laboratory experiments, detailed dietary records, and long-term trials are still ahead to understand how theobromine interacts with human aging.

We simple folk know that lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption and enough sleep naturally affect how a person ages. Others include stress, and home and work satisfaction. And always, genetic factors.

So we can’t control everything that affects how long we live, but we can work on our quality of life. Science gives conditional approval to chocolate – in moderation – as part of a health-boosting diet. And we don’t need research to identify that pop of sensation we get from chocolate as pleasure.

Avoid chocolates heavy in sugar and added fat; they subvert the health benefits you’re looking for. Instead, go with fair-trade, organic chocolate with a high cocoa percentage.

Following is an easy recipe for making hot chocolate at home. Because why pay for commercial chocolate powder when you can save money making your own?

Here’s to your health!

The post Dark chocolate benefits means slowing aging: make Italian hot chocolate with this recipe appeared first on Green Prophet.

Menopause isn’t a disease.

That was the first thing I thought when I saw questions women asked Google about menopause. One asked “how to prevent the horrors of menopause.” Another asked “what are the worst symptoms of menopause.” As if menopause were a disease.

Menopause is part of the human condition, like adolescence. We regard bodily changes and mood swings as normal in a teenage girl adjusting to womanhood. Books and articles discussing the female adolescent body and psyche abound. But an adult woman’s menopausal challenges often go unsupported, regarded as a lot of complaints that the busy doctor has heard a thousand times before, and quickly dismisses with a prescription for hormone or estrogen replacement therapy (HRT/ERT).

With 1.3 million American women entering menopause every year, it’s clear that medical support has to advance. And it is, slowly, becoming the issue of the moment, as an article published by the Yale School of Medicine discusses.

Still, modern medicine’s blanket remedy for the discomfort and stress of menopausal hot flashes is HRT or ERT. Here we offer alternative suggestions that can help a woman suffering  menopausal lightning strikes to go through her day and night more comfortably.

Disclaimer: the following does not address deep health issues related to menopause and does not replace medical advice.

Clothes. Wear layers you can quickly remove and put back on as needed. Many women feel freezing when the hot flash passes and leaves them sweaty. Avoid cotton and petroleum-based fabrics, which either soak sweat up and stay damp, or trap sweat on the body. Search for clothes made from breathable fabrics like hemp. Or scour thrift shops for vintage silk clothing. (This company turns body heat into electricity)

Modify your environment. Place an electric fan near or on your desk to turn on the second a hot flash starts. Keep the room temperature on the cool side. Keep an old-fashioned paper fan in your bag to relieve the heat when you’re in the bus, or the subway, or waiting in line somewhere.

Eat and drink well to treat yourself best. Don’t stress yourself with dieting (unless your health requires it). Eat small, frequent meals to stay energetic without loading your digestion and bringing on hot flashes. There are foods to avoid, and foods that help.

You might notice that a cup of coffee or a cocktail will drive hot flashes. A spicy curry might do the same. Do you get a hot flash after smoking? Decide if stopping  caffeine, booze, strong spices and nicotine is worth the deprivation if it reduces those hot flashes. (Maybe date coffee instead?) Some women find that eating foods high in sugar or fats, and especially mass-produced salty snacks, make them flash for hours afterward. Pay attention to your body’s signals.

You hardly need reminding that fresh, hopefully organic foods contribute to all-over health. Go for whole grains, fresh leafy greens and colorful root vegetables, and fresh fruit. Unless there are issues like lactose intolerance, eat yogurt for its important calcium content. Look for yogurts that have “bio” on the label. If you choose to eat meat and poultry, avoid  “enhanced” water-plumped products that likely contain salt you’re not counting on.

Sweating through hot flashes depletes minerals. This can make a woman dizzy, cause a big mood swing, or leave her shaky. Seek mineral-rich foods to support your liver and kidneys and reduce hot flashes. A menopausal woman does well consuming at least a cup daily, if not two, of cooked calcium- and iron-rich leafy greens such as broccoli, kale, chard and beet greens.

Wild greens are especially rich in minerals. Cook fresh or dry nettles. Spend a pleasant half hour outdoors on a spring day to forage them, or buy dry nettles at the health food store.

Other wild favorites are fresh chickweed in late winter or spring. It’s delicious as the main salad ingredient, or tucked into a sandwich instead of lettuce. Fresh chickweed is an especially soothing and cooling food for a menopausal woman. It’s easy to grow at home in a planter.

Summertime purslane is a treat in salads too, and contains a high amount of essential fatty acids. It tends to spring up where it shouldn’t – in flower planters and lawns, for example,. But that makes it easy to find.

Cooked dandelion roots and the tender young leaves nourish the liver and kidneys with a wealth of minerals.

Don’t see yourself going out to forage greens? Culinary herbs offer minerals too. Use them generously in your cooking. Scatter a good handful of parsley or cilantro over the stew before serving. Whizz up home-made pesto with fresh basil. Chop lots of chives up to add to a colorful salad.

Staying hydrated is key. Fill a thermos with cold water or iced herbal tea and keep it close by for a quick cooling drink. The simple infusion following offers refreshment for your overheated, perhaps stressed self.

Soothing Herbal Infusion
Per cup of boiling water:
1 teaspoon crumbled dry raspberry leaves
1 teaspoon dry chamomile flowers
1 teaspoon crumbled oat straw

Infuse the herbs in a closed jar for 1/2 hour or up to 2 hours (put a wooden spoon or chopstick in the jar before pouring the boiling water in, to prevent cracking). Strain. Sweeten if desired.

Best is to make 4 cups at a time and have it around to drink freely all day.

Sage Hot Flash Prevention Tea

Culinary sage (Salvia officinalis) has a strong estrogen precursor. For women losing estrogen in the menopausal process, sage tea can help reduce hot flashes and night sweats, also supplying minerals lost through heavy sweating.

Infuse 1 teaspoon dry, crumbled sage or 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage in 1 cup of boiling water, covered. Leave it for 1/2 hour. It’s strong; you may want to sweeten it. Drink 1-2 tablespoons, no more, up to 8 times daily.

Sometimes you can’t control the circumstances. Something triggers anger, grief, or stress. There you go, a hot flash. You may be in a situation where you’re not comfortable reaching for the cold thermos or fanning yourself. Here you just have to close your eyes for a second and make up your mind to see it through. Remind yourself that it’s temporary. Endorse yourself for keeping your cool in a hot moment.

Taking responsibility for your menopausal discomfort requires more time and effort than taking a pill, true. Consider it  an act of self-worth. A thoughtful gift from yourself to your wonderful self.

:: The Yale School of Medicine

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Sea moss became the new super-food when Kim Kardashian started talking about blending it into her smoothies. Fans following the trend claim that sea moss gives skin a new glow, raises energy, helps with weight loss, and keeps digestion, er, moving along. While it’s nice to think that a jar of mango or strawberry-flavored sea moss gel can change your life, it’s worth taking a closer look at the product before you invest your hard-earned bucks.

People living by the sea have gathered seaweeds for thousands of years as free and healthy food. Nowadays you can buy many varieties of seaweeds at the supermarket. Think of sushi, which is rice wrapped in nori seaweed. All good stuff, as long as you can be sure that the seaweed you buy has been sustainably harvested from pollution-free waters. More on that later. We’ve also posted about the benefits of a different superfood, spirulina.

Singer Azealia Banks makes her own sea moss blend, as posted on X.

Commercially manufactured sea moss can come from different kinds of seaweed, although usually it’s the type known as Irish moss, or red algae. It’s soaked until the fronds become soft, then processed into gel, powder, gummies and capsules. It’s easy to blend into soups or smoothies, as gel or in powdered form.

Sea moss offers plenty of life-enhancing minerals and vitamins: calcium, folate, magnesium, vitamin K, and zinc, and iodine, a mineral essential for a healthy thyroid gland. It’s a natural source of carrageenan: a thickening and emulsifying agent in yogurt and ice cream, and non-dairy milks. Sea moss provides fiber too.

Yet too much iodine-rich sea moss can be harmful. Eating seaweeds in time-honored traditional ways is one thing; mixing a couple of tablespoons of gel into something liquid is another; and taking sea moss supplements is another thing yet.

Discussing sea moss supplements, registered dietitian Leah Oldham, at the Henry Ford Health center, Michigan, explains:

“Some types of sea moss contain very high levels of iodine, and you could get more than your daily limit without realizing it. Going above the daily upper limits of iodine can lead to goiter, or an enlarged thyroid. The upper limit for adults is 1,100 mcg, but it’s less for children and teens.”

Seafoods, dairy, and eggs have iodine. Even some fruit and vegetables offer iodine: cranberries, strawberries, beans, spinach, and garlic are some. You could hardly overdose on iodine from eating normal amounts of fresh produce.

“Sea moss supplements seem like an easy way to get the benefits of sea moss without the taste,” continues Oldham. “The problem is that the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate supplements, so you don’t always know what you’re getting.” Here we’re looking at the possibility of fillers and other un-labelled ingredients.

Oldham adds that sea moss growing in waters polluted with industrial runoff, heavy metals, and chemicals will naturally absorb all that garbage. If you if you’re interested in trying sea moss, look for brands that promise organic.

Blending two tablespoons of sea moss gel into your morning smoothie may safely fulfill the promise of boosted health and beauty. There are lots of glowing enthusiastic claims made for those benefits. But sea moss isn’t for everyone.

People taking medications for thyroid, high blood pressure, and potassium-sparing diuretics risk unpredictable interactions between sea moss and their meds. Sea moss may have blood-thinning properties, so those taking blood-thinning medication should avoid it.

Too much sea moss in your diet can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Take no more than the standard 2 tablespoons of gel daily. It hasn’t been determined if sea moss supplements are safe for pregnant and breastfeeding people. Talk to your health practitioner before starting to supplement your diet with sea moss.

There isn’t enough research to validate claims that sea moss can slow the progress of Parkinson’s disease. True, there’s research on treating stiff, slow-moving worms with sea moss. No conclusions reached as to the possible effect on stiff, slow-moving humans.

Best, of course, is to eat a normal culinary portion of seaweed when you can. Are you lucky enough to harvest fresh sea moss from an unpolluted beach? Then you can make your own, safe gel. Here’s a recipe from webmd.com:

First, wash the sea moss and then soak it in cold water for a full day, changing the water frequently and removing any dirt you see. You can leave this on your kitchen counter to soak, as you don’t need to refrigerate it.

You’ll know your sea moss is ready to use when it’s doubled in size and has become white and jelly-like.
Once it’s ready, put the sea moss, along with some water, into a blender and blend until smooth. Start with 1 cup of water and add more if the mixture is too thick.Then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, which will thicken it some more.

Once you have your prepared sea moss, you can store it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks and use it in recipes. For instance: smoothies, soups, stews, baked goods.

You can also make sea moss gel from sea moss powder by blending 1/4 cup of powder with 2 cups of hot (not boiling) water in your blender. Cool the mixture and store it in your refrigerator.

Photo of fresh dried sea moss by Plateresca, Getty Images

The post Sea Moss: The New Superfood, Or Just A Trend? appeared first on Green Prophet.

The FDA is recalling certain acne medications for cancer link. Our herbalist takes her decades of experience and creates a guide to natural acne care.

Everyone wants smooth skin with a healthy glow. People are willing to pay plenty to achieve that, and many rely on anti-acne products to clear up those unattractive pimples and inflamed skin. As archeology has discovered, people  used cosmetic creams as far back as in ancient Rome.

Some products may bought over the counter, and some require a doctor’s prescription. But what we confidently regarded as safe allies in the fight against acne turn out not to be so safe after all. Benzoyl peroxide, an antibacterial agent found in some popular anti-acne products, may break down into carcinogenic benzine. Read Karin’s post on the FDA’s recall of anti-acne products.

Think of applying a lotion or cream containing benzoyl peroxide to your face every day. You can’t know if the gel you squeeze out of that tube is in the process of breaking down into benzine, but research suggests that it will.

So what we do to keep our skins free of acne?

Here we have to look at the origins of acne breakouts. Genetics, unfortunately, factor in. If your parents tend towards acne, it’s likely you will too. You’ll probably need to make some lifestyle changes.

Other factors causing acne may be hormonal flare-ups, stress, not enough sleep, not drinking enough plain water, and a diet rich in sugar and processed and fatty foods. Like French fries and industrially-produced hamburgers, and packaged snacks. Cigarette smoke, lots of coffee, and frequent alcoholic drinks also damage your skin.

To maintain healthy skin, we need not only to avoid junk food, but to consume foods and beverages rich in anti-oxidants. Find something that falls into the popular “super-food” category that’s appetizing, and consume it every day. Green tea, very anti-oxidant; drink it instead of Coke.  Fresh produce, either cooked or raw, and preferably home-made…the list is familiar, but no less valid for that. Tons of any ideas for healthy snacks circulate around the Net. Find some that appeal to you. Then eat them, instead of junk food.

If stress is causing your skin to break out, practice yoga. Seriously. The gentle exercise increases blood circulation, bringing that all-important oxygen to every part of you, and in addition, relaxes and makes you feel more alive.

Drink a lot of plain H2O. Water scours your organs and helps eliminate toxins.

Keep your skin clean with herbal infusions that soothe inflammation and exert anti-microbial power over the grime you’re exposed to over the day.

Some suggested herbs to calm acne:

• Chamomile
• Lavender
• Green tea
• Echinacea
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Marigold

How to use the anti-acne herbs: Pour 1/2 cup boiling water over 1 tablespoon of herb, cover, and wait 10 minutes. Strain. Splash your face with the infusion; it feels good when it’s warm, but can be used cold. Pat your face dry with a clean towel; do not rinse the tea away.

Optionally, add a drop of tea tree essential oil – one drop only – to the herbal infusion. If using the essential oil, avoid getting the infusion in your eyes.

Raw honey has antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. Use clean q-tips to pat drops of honey on bad acne. Do not put the used q-tip back in the honey; get a fresh one if needed. Leave the honey on the skin for 10 minutes, the gently rinse it off.

Change your pillow case nightly, optimally after having cleaned your face.

Always remove makeup before sleeping.

Safe and natural exfoliating products

Sugar has its cosmetic uses. To exfoliate and cleanse the skin, wet your face with water or herbal infusion. Drop about a tablespoon of white or brown sugar into the palm of your wet hand and gently rub your face with it. Don’t scrub yourself to death. Rinse the sugar off and pat your face dry.

Some get acne on their backs. An effective remedy is a long, wet loofah sponge well saturated with soap, rubbed across the back in the shower. A long-handled brush with soft bristles will do the same.

Miracle meds containing benzoyl peroxide aren’t what you’re looking for anymore. Try a weekly facial mask made by combining an infusion of plantain leaf, chickweed, and marigold flowers with cosmetic-grade white or green clay. Plantain draws infected matter out of skin tissue and soothes inflamed skin. So does chickweed. Marigold flowers have strong anti-bacterial properties.

How to make a herbal mask against acne

Have ready a teapot or clean glass jar. Put 1 tablespoon each plantain, chickweed, and marigold flowers in it and pour a cup of boiling water over the herbs. (If using a glass jar, set it on a kitchen towel to avoid thermal shock, which might crack it.) Stir. Cover the infusion and wait 15 minutes. Strain it.

Dissolve about 3 tablespoons of cosmetic-grade clay with the herbal infusion enough to make a thin paste. Apply the paste to clean, moist skin. Put music on – read a book – drink green tea – hang out for 10-15 minutes. The mask will start to dry; that’s fine. Rinse it off with warm water or herbal infusion. Pat your face dry.

If you can’t source fresh herbs, you can probably find them dried in health food stores. Or find them online. I suggest combining those plantain, chickweed and marigold, but any but any one of those noted above can be used to make a skin-healing infusion.

Note: Chickweed is useful in drawing out pus from inflamed pimples or boils. I have also applied chickweed to styes in the eyes and to clean up pinkeye. A poultice of fresh chickweed is best: crush a handful of clean herb in your clean hands and apply the messy green stuff to the infected area. It will start to feel warm; even hot. At that point, remove the poultice and wash your hands.

However, dried chickweed also works, if infused into boiling water as described above. In that case, use only 1/2 cup water per tablespoon of dried herb. Dip sterile cotton into the strained infusion and apply it to the infection. Discard the cotton after a few minutes and wash your hands.

A cucumber and yoghurt mask against acne

For a skin-soothing facial mask that uses ordinary kitchen ingredients, blend a washed but unpeeled organic cucumber with 1/8 cup yogurt and 1 tablespoon raw honey. Spread the mask on and rinse off after 15 minutes. It won’t be as medicinal as the herb/clay mask, but it will reduce painful redness and leave the skin softer.

Editor’s note: store bought masks are expensive and contain preservatives to stop it from decomposing and going rotten. Like good food, a healthy face mask should be made with the freshest, local and most organic ingredients. Time to start grow

herbalisFor more on natural remedies see:

Za’atar is a natural anti-acne treatment
Some Tips to Consider Before Buying Beauty Products
5 Natural Ways to Keep Your Skin Beautiful
The ABCs of Middle East Spices Medicines, Part IV – Oregano to Rosemary

The post Make safe herbal anti-acne products and masks appeared first on Green Prophet.

? BEER: Did you know that beer can be greenified? Green ingredients such as matcha and spirulina have hit the international market. Spirulina, a blue-green algae superfood packed with protein, copper, and B vitamins, in particular is growing in popularity among international brewers. RedDot Brewhouse, located next to the Singapore Botanical Gardens, offers a spirulina-infused lager.

Japan’s Okhotsk Brewery created the highly popular Okhotsk Blye Ryuhyo Draft with unique local ingredients including spirulina.

? SLÁINTE!  Like so many people across the world, the Irish say “Health” to toast to one another’s well-being. Try this nutrient-packed six-seed soda bread to moderate your libations.

? SHAMROCK:  Four-leaf clovers are believed to occur every one in one thousand. For a shot at finding one of these rare shoots, consider cultivating a clover lawn. Decimated by the herbicide revolution in the mid-twentieth century, clover lawns are making a comeback as a sustainable alternative or addition to turfgrass. They are heat and drought-tolerant, able to thrive in partial shade, and attractive to pollinators.

? LEPRECHAUN:  Leprechauns are often depicted as cobblers. Ireland’s shoe-making traditions are increasingly innovative; Sampla is a sustainable Irish footwear brand pioneering designs made with vegan leather formed from apple waste.

? RAINBOW:  Check out these rainbow-wrapped pencils that are wood and plastic-free, using recycled paper instead. Eco-conscious retailer Friendsheep makes multicolor pom pom coasters out of natural wool.

? GOLD:  E-waste is glittering on the economic horizon after Cornell University researchers developed a non-toxic method for extracting 99.9 percent of gold from recycled electronic waste. As an added bonus, the process catalyzes carboxylation, or converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds.

The post Going green with Saint Patrick’s Day iconography appeared first on Green Prophet.

One hump or two? Feisty camels might have a bad rap, but their milk is low in fat, and full of vitamin C and iron. The next thing to hit Whole Foods?

At the tail end of breastfeeding week, we thought we’d draw attention to another kind of milk widely touted in the Middle East to be the magical elixir of health.

A staple of their diet, along with dates, camel milk has long provided Bedouins with the proteins, carbohydrates, and vitamins necessary to survive a desert-dwelling existence.

And unlike cow’s milk, which creates allergies in many consumers, camel milk is blessedly allergen free. Camelicious bottles this humped concoction in different flavors and sizes that are available at supermarkets throughout Dubai.

1. The healthier choice:

Considered to be the closest substitute for mother’s milk, camel milk is not only low in fat and full of vitamin C, but it doesn’t curdle in the stomach. Therefore, it’s easy for the body to process it.

2. The Bedouins swear by it:

Travel to any Bedouin home, and you’re likely to find a camel nearby. After giving birth, mama camel can easily produce 5 liters of milk a day, though friendly coercion and good diet can stimulate more production. The Bedouins insist on the milk’s holistic properties, as indeed, it was used as a moisturizer and sunscreen as well as food. The Bedouin have plenty of health hacks. Find lots more here.

3. Free range:

The Emirates Industry for Camel Milk And Products (EICMP) Have Diversified Camel Stock, which is relatively free range.

No business in their right profit mind would admit to dodgy conditions for their animals, but the company Camelicious claims that their animals are happy and healthy. In addition, the camels bred for milk are  interbred with camels from Pakistan, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, producing a superior genetic strain.

4. Camel milking is potentially more humane:

Camels are typically milked for 12-16 months after giving birth, before they are encouraged to breed again; the equipment used to milk them is designed to be safe for their udders and to avoid mastitis – a common condition among dairy cows.

5. Camel milk tastes good too!

Free of cow’s allergens, and milder than goat’s milk, camel milk just might be the perfect compromise. It’s not too sweet, and drinking it won’t cause an upset stomach either.

6. No chemicals added:

With 5 times the amount of Vitamin C in camel’s milk, and full of iron, camel’s milk needs no nutritional help. It has a shelf life of 5 days before pasteurization, after which it will survive for up to 3 weeks. Camel’s milk is just as versatile as other milk, used as it is to produce low-fat varieties of cheese, chocolate, and a fermented delicacy that is used in areas that lack refrigeration.

So, put away your carton of steroid-infused cow’s milk and genetically modified soy, and find yourself a liter of choco-camel milk instead. That is, for those who observe Ramadan, after the sun has set.

Fermented camel milk products include chal or shubat in Central Asia and Iran, khoormog in Mongolia, garris in Sudan, suusac in Kenya, leben (lben) in Arab countries, and ititu and dhanaan in Ethiopia

Updated, Feb 2025

More Food and Health News From the Middle East:

Chemicals Colouring Our Food – A Rainbow to Avoid

Organic Farms Growing in Dubai

Interview With Locavore Expert Leda Meredith

The post Six “Green” Reasons To Drink Camel’s Milk appeared first on Green Prophet.

Little is known about faith groups and how they deal privately with health issues. In a new study US researchers wanted to figure out how Muslim communities deal with cancer screenings. The results show that in some areas the rates are significantly lower than the general population and that Muslim women depend more on their faith when it comes to health issues.

The study looked at screening behaviors of Muslims in the Washington, DC, area, highlighting the influence of cultural and religious beliefs on health practices. The study, conducted in collaboration with key faith leaders from four mosques in the region, underscores the need for culturally and religiously sensitive health initiatives to improve cancer screening rates among Muslims, reports the researchers in the Journal of Cancer Education.

The Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, which includes parts of Virginia and Maryland (DMV), is home to one of the largest and most diverse Muslim communities in the United States. Despite this, cancer screening behaviors within this community remain under-researched.

To address this gap, a comprehensive needs assessment was conducted with 203 participants recruited through community outreach and engagement efforts. This collaborative approach ensured that the questions posed were both religiously and culturally sensitive.

Key findings from the study include an overall lower rate of screening among the Muslim population surveyed than in the DMV:

• Colorectal Cancer Screenings: 35% of both men and women reported receiving a screening for colorectal cancer with colonoscopy, a much lower rate than overall in the DMV area (DC: 82%; Virginia: 67.6%; and Maryland: 72.5%);
• Mammogram Screenings: 56% of women surveyed reported receiving a mammogram screening, a much lower rate than overall in the DMV (D.C.: 80%; Virginia: 76.2%; and Maryland: 81.2%);
• Prostate Cancer Screenings: 45% of men reported receiving a prostate cancer antigen test (a higher rate than overall in DC, but lower than in Virginia and Maryland); and
• Cervical Cancer Screenings: 83% of women reported receiving screening for cervical cancer (comparable to the overall rate in the DMV).

The study also revealed that many participants relied on their faith to guide their cancer screening decisions. Women were more likely than men to rely on their faith when dealing with health concerns.

“Findings from our study highlight that religious and cultural beliefs may play a role in influencing health behaviors; however, to better understand those roles, we need to continue to engage with the Muslim community in the DMV area in order to create an avenue for providing health education in a religiously and culturally sensitive way,” said Aisha Choudhri, a community health educator at the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Prevention at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington.

Participants expressed a strong interest in having health initiatives related to cancer education, screening and survivorship integrated within mosques. This preference suggests that mosques could serve as vital centers for health education and intervention, leveraging the trust and influence of faith leaders to promote better health outcomes.

The post Muslims less likely screened for cancer in this American city appeared first on Green Prophet.

Once you’re down with flu, all the standard advice applies: rest, stay warm, drink lots of warm fluids, take something to relieve the symptoms. And have patience. With care and about a week, the bug will fade away.

Before you reach for the usual pain-killers and fever reducers, inspect your spice cupboard. I’ll bet at least a few natural helpers are lurking there. Read more about medicinal spices in our Middle-Eastern Spices and Medicine Guide. Bay leafs, peppercorns and sage will come to the rescue.

Chills. If you’re shivering with chills, try bay leaf tea to warm the body and encourage sweating. Break up a couple of leaves and steep them in hot water for 10 minutes, covered. Stir in a teaspoon of honey and drink. The taste is mild and pleasantly spicy, and the effect warming and comforting. My mother use to make this tea for me when I was a teenager suffering menstrual cramps. It helped, because bay leaf tea encourages blood circulation.

Hoarseness. Losing your voice? Grind 6 or 7 black peppercorns up – you can crush them in a metal or plastic bowl, with the bottom of a bottle. Cover the crushed peppercorns with honey and swallow it all down. The mixture opens up the throat and chest.

Mouth sores and sore throat. Sage infusion is a reliable germ-killer that has an affinity for the mucus membranes. Make a healing gargle with the silvery-green leaves. Steep a teaspoon of finely chopped sage leaves in boiling water, covered. Cool the infusion and gargle with it twice; then repeat twice more over the next 12 hours.

Mucus dripping into the throat while you’re sick is often the cause of infection. Blow your nose often, and gargle with sage the minute you feel that scratch in your throat.

Warning:
Sage has mild hormonal and drying properties. Pregnant and nursing women shouldn’t drink sage tea, nor eat food cooked with large amounts of it. Children, especially girls, should gargle with it, but not attempt to drink it. They won’t want to anyway; sage tea is bitter.

Headache. A cup or two of rosemary tea soothes the tired, achey head, due to its high calcium content. Make an infusion the same way as with bay leaves; steeped in hot water for 10 minutes. Sweeten to taste. Rosemary also clears brain fog for a while.

Pregnant women should avoid rosemary, as it tends to “clean out” the body. But nursing women can benefit from its high calcium content: one-half cup twice daily for no longer than three days.

Keep the vitamin C up with lovely mint tea. My Moroccan friends give their kids mint tea year round, and claim their kids never get runny noses. Drink it hot or cool, made with fresh leaves or dried. Sweeten to taste.

Loss of appetite. Sometimes a sick person just can’t face food. In that case, it’s crucial to stay hydrated with warm teas. Chamomile, being anti-inflammatory and especially soothing, is a great choice. Sweeten to taste and drink freely.

And remember the mystical healing properties of good soup. Chicken or miso soup are light and nutritious. If you’re not up to making your own, ask a friend to fix it.

A winter salad for flu-ey people: Peel an orange and slice it thinly. Layer the slices with fresh mint leaves and if available, sliced tomatoes. Drizzle olive oil and lemon juice over the dish, sprinkling a little salt over all. Or use your favorite salad dressing. The orange, green, and red colors are a delight to the eyes and wake up even a waning appetite. Your body will enjoy a huge hit of vitamin C.

This post doesn’t replace professional medical advice. Consult a doctor if the symptoms are unusually strong or prolonged, or if there’s high fever.

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