The
African Cure That Almost Got Away
Alternatives
for the Health-Conscious Individual
August 2001,
Volume 9, No 2
Dr. David
G. Williams
Traipsing around the world in
search of cures for the last 16 or 17 years hasn’t been without its shares of
failures and disappointments. For every effective remedy I uncover, I would
guess that there are at least a hundred others that prove to be worthless. I
can’t remember how many times I’ve traveled half way around the world to some
desolate, disease-ridden village in search of a highly touted “miracle,” only
to find that it was either an elaborate hoax or something that simply didn’t
exist. It’s frustrating to say the least.
If I focused on all the failures
and dead-end roads I’ve travelled, I would have stopped doing this years ago.
That hasn’t been the case however. Even with a young family at home, I’m still
on the move.
Last week after returning from yet
another trip, I placed my backpack, stuffed with potential new ‘cures’, in the
corner. My understanding wife, Wendy, kindly informed me that I needed to
unpack it. She then pointed to another pile of backpacks and bags that still
hadn’t been unpacked from my last three trips. Lately, I’ve been packing a bag
to leave before I unpack from my last trip. (I unpacked all-well almost all-of
my backpacks and cancelled a trip last week. I spent the weekend camping with
my wife, my nine-year-old daughter, Meagan, and my son, Mason. It was Mason’s
seventh birthday.)
I’m leaving again next week. It’s
not always easy to leave home, but stories like the following one keep me on
the trail of new cures.
Gumshoe, Black Goo, and Voodoo
Several years ago, I received
reports of two natural remedies from Ghana in Africa. One was a foul smelling
black liquid that was supposed to cure impotency. The other was a powder that
reportedly cured asthma and hay fever.
After considerable effort, I did
finally find the so-called impotency cure. I collected samples and also had
samples sent back to my office in Texas. It was a foul-smelling , nasty black
liquid. Unfortunately – or maybe fortunately – before I had a chance to test
it, it turned into a mass of orange and gray mildew. The mailed sample that
made it back to Texas looked even worse when it arrived. It had fermented and
had leaked through all the packaging. I’ve always felt fortunate that I wasn’t
arrested by customs or postal authorities for trying to bring it into the
country.
I was never able to find the
powder that reportedly cured asthma. My sources told me that a lady healer or shaman
was dispensing the cure to locals. The source of the powder was a closely
guarded secret that had been passed down from African shaman to shaman for
generations. I was disappointed at not finding the powder, but as I’ve said, it
happens a lot.
A Cold Trail Heats Up
Then, a couple of months ago, I
got a call from one of my contacts and was told the powder I had been looking
for years ago was now being sold in London. After doing some serious
investigative work, I discovered that the powder is in fact now available
there. The man selling it, Jerry Yamoa, happens to be the grandson of the lady
shaman I was trying to locate years ago in Ghana.
Jerry told me that his grandmother
was a traditional healer who lived near Agogo, in the Ashanti region of Ghana.
Her name was Akua Asirifia. During the 1970s and 1980s, she became quite famous
in the area for curing people’s asthma problems. Although she was approached on
numerous occasions to reveal her secret remedy, she always declined. She was
afraid that once the remedy became commercialized it would become too expensive
for those who needed it.
During this time, Jerry emigrated
to England and got a job working with the post office. He returned to Ghana in
the mid-1990s and, after seeing how helpful the remedy was for asthma
sufferers, he eventually persuaded his grandmother to give him the secrets of
the powder so he could take it ba ck to England. When she reveled her sectret
to her grandson, she was over 100 years old. (Her exact age was unknown, but
when I last spoke with Jerry about the subject, he said she always told that
when World War II started she was 52 years of age. Unfortunately, I’m sure we
lost a wealth of traditional healing knowledge when Akua passed away at the age
of 107.)
Jerry returned with the powder to
London in the mid-1990s and used it successfully on several of his fellow
workers at the post office. He then tried to persuade several companies to help
market the asthma powder, but was unsuccessful in those efforts. It has
probably worked out for the best, however, since he has recently started
selling the product on his won through a company he started. (He just informed
me that he quit his post office job, and is concentrating all his efforts on
getting the word out on the powder.)
Ease a Wheeze or
Sneeze with Trees and Bees
The rare gum tree used to make the
powder is apparently the Funtumia Elastica tree. Unfortunately, there currently
isn’t much information on the tree or its by-products. However, there are
efforts underway to begin clinical trials on the product itself, and when those
results become available I will certainly pass that information along.
I have been testing the product
for a couple of months now and the results I’ve seen have been very positive.
Not only does it seem to work well in treating asthma, it has also been helpful
for individuals with bronchitis and hay fever. Jerry says he has been seeing
the same.
The bitter powder is produced from
the bark of a tree. To make it more palatable, you can ix it with something
sweet (honey, jam, jelly etc.). I personally think that the best results are
achieved when you use a raw honey that has been produced locally. The honey
helps supply small amounts of pollen and other allergens to further “acclimate”
your immune system.
The powder is called Yamoa Powder
and comes in 30-gram containers. This quantity is considered a 30-day supply.
Those I’ve spoken with say one container is usually all that’s needed to
correct asthma and hay fever problems.
The most common method of taking the
powder is as follows. Thoroughly mix the entire 30-gram container
of powder with a one-pound jar of honey. Stir the mixture again before each
subsequent use. Take one teaspoon in the morning with breakfast and a second at
dinnertime. (For children age 2 through 12, use only ½ teaspoon of the mixture
twice a day instead of a full teaspoon. For children under 2 years of age, you
still use ½ teaspoon twice daily, but you shouldn’t mix it with honey. I would
suggest using either a naturally sweetened jam - free of sugar and artificial
sweeteners - or, even better, an unsweetened bottle of baby food fruit.)
Safe, Steady, and Available
I haven’t seen any reports of, or spoken with, anyone who
has experienced any side effects from the powder.
From what I’ve seen, Yamoa doesn’t
stop asthma symptoms immediately. Most people begin to experience an
improvement in their breathing and symptoms within a week to ten days. If it’s
going to work for you, you should see a definite improvement within the first
30 days. But even if your problem and symptoms resolve in the first week or
two, I would suggest that you continue to use the powder mixture until you
consume the whole 30-day supply.
One container seems to do the
trick for most people. On rare occasions, it seems a few individuals have had
to continue on the powder for two or three months to get complete relief.
