This is an impromptu report of something I observed today. There are probably several other forums this could be posted to, but it's going here for various reasons.

This involves a male relative in their late 70's who in recent years has been diagnosed by orthodoxy as having come down with age-related diabetes, what some people have also been taught to know as "Type 2", and what I generally characterize as long-term-food-industry-related illness....which can easily be characterized as a person who has been habitually exposed to the common food / water / air / environment for long enough that their body has finally broken down to the point where their inner system can no longer detect and or process the amount of certain nutritive substances floating around in it, like various sugars. This person has also been on an aggressive prescription med regimen for at least the past 10 years. Along the way there have been numerous and different/distinct maladies incurred, to include a long bout of Urinary Tract problems .... stones ..... stents ...... more stones ..... ultrasound..... Prostate infection. They take a wide enough assortment of meds on a daily basis that I gave up trying to keep track quite some time ago. In the past year or two this regimen took on a variety of pills to manage the sugar-related illness, and also took on a once-daily (night time) dosing of insulin.

This morning we went to see some elder members of the family, one who despite having a leg amputated within the last year, is still in good spirits and otherwise in pretty good health for 90 years old. A few days ago our paths crossed. I saw them being pushed out a doorway in a wheelchair as I was just coming in to sit down at a diner. We talked briefly. I found out that there is now concern for the other leg - the good leg. For now the report is that the circulation is doing okay, but it is being monitored, the threat being that it too may need to come off not far down the road. It was during the past year that our paths had crossed previously at the same diner when I found out about their amputation. Prior to that impromptu crossing of paths, it had been probably close to 20 years since the last time I saw this uncle. He's always been a good spirited fellow, and a small time country dirt farmer. I don't know why or how I remember this, but I remember it was about 30 years ago that he told me in passing one day that "spicey foods are good for you, especially good for your innards". That sage advice came at a time when I was figuratively a million miles away from developing interest in herbs, natural healing, natural dieting and other aspects of a more natural lifestyle. When we bumped into each other a week ago, I came away with the desire to try and help, just to maybe do a little something to help this uncle save his other leg from amputation. In the interim I arranged a visit with a relative, with a plan in mind; a mini tea party.

Early this morning I packed up a big sprig of ginger recently purchased just for this occasion, plus a stash of dried cayenne harvested from last season, and a jar of raw honey, plus a full dropper bottle of my own home-made Cayenne tincture. I picked up the relative and we made the country drive to see these other family members. We arrived, sat down, traded greetings and had some conversation about this and that. We then began talking about herbs. We went into the kitchen while I prepared a pot of cayenne/ginger tea while I gave simple instructions on how to prepare. All 4 of us had a cup of fresh brewed cayenne-ginger tea. The conversation on herbs continued. Meanwhile I had not noticed that the male relative had sort of dosed off while sort of half-standing half leaning against the wall. Eventually I noticed how groggy they were. From what I've observed, Type 2's are trained to pattern their days around 3 timely-arranged meals that serve as the staging platform to take their prescription meds. I've also observed in this one relative that if their is much deviation from this daily regimen, for instance, if their meal time is missed by more than a half hour to an hour, they are likely to begin manifesting symptoms said to be caused by fluctuating sugar levels. When I finally became aware of the situation, I asked them if they were ready to go home. In a groggy voice with eyes mostly closed, they mumbled "yeah, pretty soon". We soon left and I noticed that the situation was worse than I had imagined. Given the timing of it all, it is fairly conclusive that they were having some sort of reaction, and this reaction was in some way influenced by the cup of cayenne-ginger tea (with a small dollop of honey). I've given this relative doses of cayenne tincture before, in a plain glass of water, and it has always produced the desired results; perking them up a bit. Today was the first time I'd ever tried giving them ginger. I don't know how or why this may have made a difference. I also realize that in consideration of all the prescription chemicals put into this man's body on a daily basis, I am definitely dealing with a rather broad amount of uncertainty in all of this. Anyway, I'm just reporting the facts as I observed them.

I drove the relative home. They were still groggy, weak, sweating profusely, and vision was blurred. Relative's wife figurred that his sugar was sagging and gave him a small dose of food, followed by a quick sugar test (those little pin-prick computerized gadgets for charting daily sugar level). His sugar measured over 300, which is apparently way way higher than normal. Earlier that morning they tested at 90, which he claims is "good", or within range of where the doc says he should be. Wife immediately assumed that there was something wrong with the gadget, so we restested - 2 more times, and each time the results came in around mid 300s. What I was told was that the really unusual aspect to this is, when his sugar fluctuates, at least the way the pattern has always been so far, it always fluctuates down, like, 20, or 35, and this can usually be remedied quickly by ingesting a small candy or taking a glass of juice or the like. With the sugar spiking in the mid 300s, this was an unexpected situation. Wife decided to take hubby to the emergency room. The short of that long story is, hubby was taken into a staging area and put in a bed until the emergency docs could check him. I'm guessing he had a good hour to 2 hours of lying there waiting. Then they took some tests, including a more accurate blood-sugar test. It was still high, in the high 200s. Then there was some more waiting involved. Somewhere around the 4 hour mark (4 hours from the ingestion of the tea), the situation "broke". The sweating stopped, the woozyness subsided, and basically the situation cleared. Predictably, the docs then came into examine and basically said "uh, we don't see anything, you're fine, you can go home now".

This is pretty much what the situation was as I last heard. The patient is now seemingly back to normal. Meanwhile, I've spent the better part of the day contemplating how or why this happened, or what this situation was about. Undoubtedly, the brewed tea somehow played a major part in this. One thing I'm thinking is that because I've been using cayenne and ginger (separately and together) for a good while now, I tend to brew a strong tea whenever I have some. I tried to factor this in when I brewed a batch for four today ... .but maybe I still overshot .... ? I do not expect there to be a conclusive answer found to this. For one reason, there are just too many variables. Unfortunately for me, there are now a couple 2 or 3 family members who, because they tend to use a more straight-line method of determining cause & effect, are expecting some hard and fast answers from me. For instance, it would not be unexpected for somebody to say "duh, you idiot, giving honey to a diabetic is an obvious no no". Plus or minus the validity of this assertion, the same relative has been using a daily (in the morning) raw honey & raw/live vinegar mixed in a glass of water regimen that I introduced them to last summer.... the last summer that occurred approximately 9 months ago. Prior to today, there has been no ill effects from this regular intake of honey. I don't completely rule out that the extra teaspoon of honey added to the tea may have been enough to tip the scale in this case. With all the prescription meds pumped into this fellow on a daily basis, his "scales" are wrapped around quite the dubious set of uncertainties to begin with, a quantity that would not surprise me if, for sake of argument, it turns out they have been rendered to hair-trigger status at this point that are set over the edge by a teaspoon of honey .... or a dose of ginger .... or a dose of ginger mixed in with a dose of cayenne mixed in with a teaspoon of honey. EDIT: as an afterthought, here is another potential variable to consider; the family members living in the country have well water that comes out a kitchen tap attached to a water filter .... so maybe it was the water coming through that filter that tipped the scales ..... ?

Anyway, if any parts of this anecdote touches on situations that others of you have maybe seen similar glimpses of yourself, or if any of you have any firsthand input that might apply, even if it is of the variety of off the top of your head, I am certainly willing to consider. In the mean time, I thought that at the least, this is an interesting situation to report.