Recipe – Turmeric root juice – best medicine ever.

Turmeric root juice changed my life. I started juicing it two years ago and the results were obvious within 21 days.

A note before you start reading, turmeric has many antioxidant properties but it also lowers cholesterol, and helps regulate blood sugar, and has anti-coagulant properties (which helps regulate blood pressure). All that is great if you’re not taking any meds or don’t have any “weird” health issues. But, if you’re reading this, chances are you have one, or both, of those things going on – so, check turmeric out against your issues (and with your doctor) before trying it.

The first half hour of every morning used to be spent crying in pain. I swell when I sleep and when I first got out of bed, which is already hard because of the narcolepsy, it felt like I had been beaten throughout the night. My neck stiff and crunchy and when I turned my head it, felt like it was mounted on a barbed spike instead of my spine, just unbearable. The center of my bicep triggers flared so hard I would drop things, the burning made it feel like someone shoved a hot needle through my arms.

After reading an article about turmeric and being skeptical, I looked at the ways people were taking it – in powder form, made into a tea or golden milk. Having trouble with powders myself, I didn’t want to go that route. So, I decided to juice it.

OMG, what a mess. Truly. This stuff stains everything! My fingers, the white counters, the Vitamix, the strainer. It comes off, with time or, effort, but yeah, treat it with the reverence to staining it deserves. I wore gloves for awhile because when I started, I peeled it. After months of that, I thought, I’m straining it anyway and it tastes like nothing I want lingering in my mouth regardless, so I stopped peeling it and just scrub it good. Sometimes the easiest things take longer to realize, especially when battling brain fog regularly.

The first juice was just turmeric root. 5 pieces with water (just enough to get the blender spinning good), strain and drink an ounce or two in the morning, depending on how I felt. The results were noticeable on a small scale within the first week. Within 21 days I was waking up with 5/6 pain levels, within six months I was down to a very manageable 2/3 (except for during my cycle) and my acne rosacea cleared up. I actually had some days where I actually forgot I had two pain disorders.

Recurring UTI’s can be common with Sjogrens and I was experiencing them. Originally I went to buy some cranberry juice but then I thought, why not just get cranberries? Because, honestly, I want to drink as little of this stuff as possible ;).  So, I added and handful of frozen cranberry to the juice and, surprisingly, it acts as some sort of preservative. Without it, the turmeric juice turns brown after a few days, making it even less palatable (as if that was possible), with it, the juice retains a bright orange color a few days longer. I won’t keep it past five days. I stopped getting UTI’s after adding the cranberry – haven’t had one in the two years since I started.

After reading an article about candida overgrowth, also common with Sjogrens, I did a candida self test at home and it indicated I was abundant.  As I’ve told in my ‘story,’ after I started Xyrem for narcolepsy, my saliva turned to salt. After I got off it, the saltiness went away but the siltiness remained. I looked up how to help reduce candida and discovered raw garlic (and it’s antibiotic effect). So, I added 3 cloves of raw garlic to my daily juice and the candida (and my excessive biofilm) subsided to a degree; enough that I can feel my teeth smooth now and again, it had been years since I could do that – even after just brushing them.

Imagine being nauseas, like you may have eaten something really bad and your stomach is debating if you’re going to hurl or need the toilet. A low level hum of nausea. I used to have that daily, from the time I woke up. For years I didn’t have “hunger pains,” instead of getting hungry, I’d just get nauseas. Who knows which illness I have to blame that on but, it’s very difficult to put anything in your mouth when you’re not sure if you’re going to be barfing soon or not, much less eating “healthy” food. So, I added a chunk of ginger (and I drink mint water). In the years that have followed, the nausea has all but disappeared.

There you have it. Instead of shooting Jaegermeister at the club at night, I’m slamming back a nasty concoction of turmeric root (pain), cranberry (urinary tract), garlic (candida) and ginger (nausea) in the morning. I even use a brightly colored shot glass.

Here’s how I make it:

5 or 6 pieces of turmeric root*

Handful of cranberry (fresh or frozen)

Good size chunk of ginger

3 large cloves of garlic

Find a face…

 

Throw it all in the blender. Cover with enough water to make it spin like mad. If you put too much water, you can always just drink a little more so don’t stress about that but don’t put in too much water because you gotta drink a little more and ewwww.

 

I’m a big food wuss. I only ate iceberg lettuce until my early thirties. I’ve gotten much more adventurous in the years that followed but, I’m not drinking that pulp. Nope. Gonna be like a four year old on this one. You wanna do that? Good on you. I’m sure it’s better for you to have the whole thing but, yeah, no, lol. So, I strain mine.

 

I put that in a container I don’t care about staining and keep it in the fridge. Hubby has bad knees so when he’s aching a lot, I make him take it too. But, he has diatomaceous earth regularly so he’s used to drinking nasty stuff. Don’t let the taste set you off. I drink a nice hot coffee after and just like that one big shudder after Jaegermeister, it goes to work and I forget about it.

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I buy my turmeric root at a local Indian market. My local Sprout’s carries it for $12.99/lb. If you don’t have local access to turmeric root, you can find it on Amazon here :

 

I use Rubbermaid Mixermate bottles to keep my juice in. Mostly because they carry them at my local grocery but, if I plan ahead, I get them on Amazon because they’re less expensive:

I’m sure any blender will do a good job on this simple juice, but hubby already had a Vitamix when I came along so I swear by it. Currently I’m using a substitute blender because I broke the container 🙁 it’s about $70 just to replace the container, fortunately I didn’t damage the blades. So I’m saving up :). If you’re interested in Vitamix, you can save money buying a reconditioned one on Amazon: