KOWABUNCHA Dude! (Half a Saturday is better than none at all.)

All day Friday and Friday night I felt like I was starting a headache, but it never really materialized. Late last night I awoke with a MAJOR headache…possibly a migraine. I took some Advil Migraine, which turned it down from a grade 10 to a grade 6 and went back to bed. Now these are a different breed of headache from my sinus variety, which with time will make me feel sick also, but these are far more stubborn and more intense and fast starting. My sinus headaches usually responds to Advil Sinus. These don’t. Anyway, I woke up this am feeling exhausted. I took two more Advil Migraine pills and nothing much happened. I was waiting for it to do what it had done before …..but it didn’t. Jim went to the bank….I put Sophie in her crate and crawled back in to the bed with a pillow over my head. My left eye was tearing so much my pillow was wet. I also had to make several bathroom runs as these sort of headaches tend to “physic me”….a term borrowed from my Gramma Myrtle. I figured I was doomed to spend the day in the bed. Eventually, the pills kicked in but I still had the headache….level 6 out of 10. It leaves me feeling so tired.

When I bought my Neti pot ….a couple weeks ago, I also purchased some Kombuncha tea in the refrigerator section of the local health food store. I had no idea what it was but it was Ginger and I love ginger ale and this stuff had ginger and no added sugar so I thought it sounded good. What the hey… I am bored with water!!! I don’t drink soft drinks at all cuz they just make me feel badly. Well, popped it in the fridg and forgot all about it.

When I got out of bed this noon I came into the kitchen and started snooping around for some coffee or something….thought maybe some caffeine would scare the monster headache away and then I remembered the ginger tea stuff….couldn’t even remember what it was called….got some out and poured a glass. Well, it isn’t all that yummy, but after drinking about four ounces over the course of about 15 minutes my headache nearly alllllllll gone!! I decided to research this stuff on my handy dandy lap top. (I just love having a reference library on my lap!)

What I learned on the net:

A mysterious drink called kombucha has infiltrated supermarkets nationwide. Available in flavors that range from sweet grape to earthy red tea with peach, its labels promise a stunning array of health benefits, including improved digestion, a happier outlook on life and healthier hair, and stop a millimeter short of claiming it fights cancer. Low in sugar and calories and high in hype, kombucha (pronounced kom-BOO-cha) is the latest health-food craze to cross over from bohemian kitchens to the brightly lit shelves of mainstream grocers.
A teenager named G.T. Dave made his first kombucha sale, delivering to a Los Angeles health-food store, via his mother's Land Cruiser, a 12-bottle batch he had brewed in his parents' kitchen.

The Dave family had long been brewing and drinking kombucha, after receiving a culture from friends. Laraine Dave, G.T.'s mother, credited their home-brew for possibly slowing the spread of an aggressive form of breast cancer before her diagnosis, and for keeping up her strength and spirit during chemotherapy. (she is now cancer free). Mr. Dave wanted to spread the drink's benefits by sharing kombucha cultures. "But nine out of 10 people came back and said, 'My kombucha came out weird,'" he recalls. So G.T. Dave decided to bottle raw kombucha and bring it to the world. A few years later, he won his first Whole Foods account.

This is what I ended up with in my frig….GT’s Raw Ginger Kombucha. I also read on the net to drink about 4 ounces per day to maintain health. It is very good for your digestive tract a lot like yogurt. I have read a bunch of testimonials and they claim it will add vitality to your skin and boost your energy. One guy said it got rid of his gray hair…..I am not holding my breath. It is anti yeast infection and gets your gut back into balance….so what do I have to lose? 2.000 years this stuff has been around in China. Can ALL those people through the ages be kooks?

Now I am not 100% sure this stuff made my headache disappear, but it does seem curious. They usually don’t go away until I have served my time….about a day and a half. So I will try it again next time I get a headache and see what happens. Maybe if I start drinking four ounces a few times a week I will not get the headaches…..who knows. Maybe I should try to brew my own….sounds like a Science Fair project. Haha Kinda scary… growing fungus and all.

Because of cysts I am not suppose to drink caffeine and don’t usually unless I have a headache, but this stuff does give you a similar buzz and there is no caffeine! This is what I need every day before school….just something first thing in the morning to give me that boost to get me going. Not having coffee has been extremely tough. I have been drinking it since I was 18. There may be some caffeine in this stuff, but it is probably slight if any. We shall see…..I am off for a bath …..going to salvage the other half of the day!