REMEDIES: Honegar Recipe for Aches, Pains, etc... (HERBS, CRAFTS, RECIPES)

April 10, 2006

Is cider vinegar the cure-all that fans such as Sir Ranulph Fiennes claim?

If you stick the phrase “apple cider vinegar” into a search engine on

the internet, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you had come across a

secret cult where the elixir of life was being discussed by religious

fanatics. This may be the 21st century for modern pharmaceutical

companies, but these true believers write passionately about how apple

cider vinegar (ACV to those in the know) has helped with everything from

rheumatism, arthritis and weight loss to relieving fatigue, headaches,

diarrhoea and insomnia. The testimonies claim to hark back to 400BC,

when Hippocrates was swigging the stuff.

And advocates even have a modern-day messiah in America’s

Bragg, who has written books on the subject, and is owner of her own

branded version of the drink. Dr Bragg claims that the minerals

contained in apple cider vinegar — such as potassium, phosphorus,

calcium, magnesium, natural silicon, pectin, and tartaric acids — are

“important in fighting body toxins, inhibiting unfriendly bacteria...

and helping the body to maintain its vital acidalkaline balance”.

The claims are almost too good to be true for a product that, when a

couple of teaspoons are mixed with water, causes you to suck your teeth

and shake your head from the tartness at the first sip. And yet, mix it

with a little honey and the more you sip, the more appealing it becomes.

Just by drinking a daily dose while researching this article over the

past six weeks I have lost half a stone, and I have no idea why.

Apple cider vinegar seems to have a particular following among older

people, especially those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and

osteoarthritis, both of which can cause excruciating pain. According to

the Arthritis Research Campaign, more than seven million people in the

UK have long-term health problems due to arthritis or a related

condition, of which the over-65s are most affected.

Jackie , 82, who lives in Cheshire, discovered apple cider vinegar

after having both her hips replaced at the relatively young age of 45.

When threatened with yet another operation to help her arthritis, a

neighbour lent her a book called Folk Medicine: Natural Remedies for

Everyday Ills by D. C. Jarvis.

“I could no longer open bottles with my hands, but I couldn’t bear to go

back into hospital for yet more surgery,” says . She asked the

doctor to put the operation on hold, and followed the suggested dose in

the book, taking two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar and two teaspoons

of runny honey in water every day. After 12 months her fingers began to

loosen up. “I don’t get any pain any more,” says , who has

continued with the remedy for 37 years. “I can now use my fingers to

take the lids off jars with no problem whatsoever.”

Leone Cockburn, 64, from East Lothian, discovered the ready-mixed apple

cider vinegar product Honegar when casting around for a cure for swollen

joints in her fingers, caused, she believes, by holding an artist’s

paintbrush while working in her studio. Cockburn found the remedy helped

within weeks. “It certainly becomes worse when I am not taking it,” she

says. “I take a slug in a tumbler in the morning, neat or with half an

inch of cold water, for a lovely cleansing drink.”

However, the medical profession does not embrace this “miracle cure”

and, wherever it is mentioned, often in relation to arthritis, journals

are quick to say that there are no studies to prove that it works. Words

such as “fad” and “cultish” are bandied. And a study in the Journal of

the American Dietetic Association last year warned that some ACV pills

don’t even seem to contain any of the ingredient.

The Arthritis Research Campaign has invested money into researching two

alternative therapies, magnetic bracelets and acupuncture, but says of

apple cider vinegar: “We would like to see it scientifically tested. We

don’t have a closed mind but we are a medical research council and there

are so many anecdotal claims made for remedies that are often just

offering the placebo effect. For example, some people swear by gin and

prunes.” Jane Tadman at the campaign describes sufferers as “sitting

ducks for manufacturers of all products”.

Times nutritionist Jane e, who runs a practice in London, sees many

patients taking the remedy. “I don’t understand why the biochemistry

works in the body, but it does seem to for some people.” e would

never prescribe it, preferring “to achieve results nutritionally”, but

has seen patients who are taking it for gastric problems, irritable

bowel syndrome and rheumatism. Her belief, shared by leading

rheumatologist Professor Dieppe of Bristol University, is that it

works in the mind. “It’s one of those wonderful remedies where there’s a

huge placebo effect,” says e. “I don’t believe that the body

becomes too acidic or alkaline, that’s more traditional Indian thinking.”

For every naysayer in the medical profession, there are equal numbers of

apple cider vinegar evangelists still spreading the word.

, 79, who lives in Kimmel Bay, Wales, goes so far as to describe

apple cider vinegar and honey as “two of my three gods, along with

garlic”. So fervent is her belief that she recently cleaned a leg wound

with the stuff after falling badly outside a supermarket. “I’ve taken it

for 40 years, and I’ve had no rheumatism whatsoever,” she says. Like me,

she lost “around a stone or so”, initially, by taking a couple of

teaspoons before each meal.

Which reminds me. I must take my tipple. Medical studies aside, I like

myself half a stone thinner.

Arthritis Research Campaign can be contacted on 0870 8505000, or visit

www.arc.org.uk

Conquering pain

“Lazy” is how explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes describes all those who have

refused his help with their arthritis over the years. “I don’t

understand why people will suffer and not bother doing something about it.”

His personal cure, is a product called Honegar, a mixture of apple cider

vinegar and honey, which he has been taking for 22 years to relieve his

aching joints. Few can claim to have such an extreme lifestyle as this

62-year-old, who ran seven marathons in seven days on seven different

continents in 2003, just months after having a double heart by-pass

operation. But Sir Ranulph is not offering himself up as an unusual

case, but as someone who has found something that works for his

arthritis and stuck to it. With the same determination, no doubt, that

made him the first man to visit both the North and South poles.

Sir Ranulph came to Honegar via his mother, who developed arthritis at

82. “Desperate” to alleviate the pain, she took the advice of a nurse

who advocated honey and cider vinegar. “It took between eight to twelve

months but the daily dose worked,” he says. His own complaint had dogged

him since his army days in the 1970s, when sleeping rough in the jungle

and canoeing made his fingers and hips sore. After three months of

taking two tablespoons of Honegar in boiling water, Sir Ran found

himself pain-free. He is certain that it was the Honegar because when “I

stopped taking it, the pain returned”. He takes it on all his

expeditions. He has tried making his own concotion with honey and apple

cider vinegar once, but “it didn’t seem to work”.

Honegar (£3.75 for 500ml, £6.95 for a litre bottle) and unprocessed

apple cider vinegar can be bought from Holland & Barratt

www.hollandandbarratt.com/ and other good health food stores.

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REMEDIES: Honegar Recipe for Aches, Pains, etc... (HERBS, CRAFTS, RECIPES)

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