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| Betel leaves at market in Bangalore (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Anyway, past is past, now I am proud to state that I am finally relieved of them. I have tried a lot of medication for them. Like chewing raw betel leaves; having a powder made up of powdered crystallized sugar lumps along with cardamoms; Basil seeds; vitamin B complex tablets; vitamin B complex along with vitamin C; regular health supplement pills; homeopathic treatments; ayurvedic treatments; and of course topical anesthetics like mucopain, zytee, caziq, smyle gel and what not. And yes I also got into the habit of gargling with water which had a disprin dissolved in it!
But except for the ayurvedic treatment, none actually worked in my case. Though the ayurvedic medicines did help in speeding the time taken for the ulcers to cure from a week to 3 days, but still they could not help in their prevention. I got so addicted to them that I would unnecessarily start popping them up before going out for my travels, cause I feared that my journeys would eventually cause an eruption because of altered eating habits which cause altered bowel movements.
But after being addicted to them for a year's time, I felt I had enough of them too. Then I took it as a challenge to eradicate them from my life and get a life in return by searching for a full and final solution for my mouth ulcers.
I kept searching, searching and searching for days in books and the Internet. Finally I found a solution in one of the discussion forums on the Internet and I confirmed the same with a book on Home Remedies from a library.
Firstly I got to understand the entire genesis of the ulcers. I discovered that the mouth ulcers are nothing but a condition of having sores in the mouth, which could be as a sign of infection, which arise either due to body heat or a disturbed gastric condition. Normally they take about a week's time to heal; but a B-complex deficiency causes more time for them to heal. Hence, the solution for them lies in avoiding all the conditions that can be their cause.
Though the reasons seem complicated, but surprisingly the cure turns out to be really simple. Firstly, it asks for keeping one's system clean, which can be done by drinking 1.5 to 2.5 litres of water everyday. Ingestion of water not only exercises the bowels, but also brings down the heat in the body. Both then lead to less occurrence of mouth ulcers. Though keeping one's system clean is more of a prevention step, but for the cure and relief from the pain of existing ulcers one needs to have overnight water soaked whole fenugreek seeds as a first thing in morning. They surprisingly cure the existing ulcers in 2-3 days (the same time my ayurvedic pills took) time. Since fenugreek lowers the LDL (low density lipo protein) or the bad cholesterol, I have stuck to a habit of having it everyday irrespective of being inflamed or not inflamed with ulcers. They seem to form a protective lining on the inflamed sores, hence help in quick healing. Lastly, one needs to keep a good oral hygiene. Since many a times ulcers could be due to some bacterial infection in the teeth or gum, one needs to keep the mouth totally clean. Apart from brushing religiously twice a day; one needs to floss and use a mouth wash too. So now I also use a mouth wash twice a day and floss once a day. Also in humid environments bacteria tend to multiply fast, so the occurrence of mouth ulcers caused due to bacterial infection consequently hastens up. So, during such times I use a mouth wash even before stepping out of my house, apart from using it twice daily.
By just introducing these 3 ridiculously simple changes in my lifestyle I have been freed of the gruesome mouth ulcers that I had for the past 4-5 years. I wish I had known about these everyday miracles earlier, but anyway now since I have put them here, I wish it would be easier for anyone else suffering from the same.
Even if it reaches out to 2 people and they get cured by reading this post, I would be indeed happy.
