INFLAMMATION! What inflammation? Am I a prey? Is it a visitor passing through town, in this case my body? Or by the looks of it, has it already sneaked in to make me its permanent address? A nasty boil ensnarled in puss; a-common-place-incensed   swell   or an incendiary infection chafing the body — sure these are the microbes inflammation must conquer, if left unchecked, embody can turn on itself and self-destruct.

Sit up, take note and agonize about this little-known heating our insides — that labyrinth of cells, organs, membranes, tissues, pipes, passages, nerves, blood vessels — one day or another, on our mortal march. But to the uninitiated, aren’t we all? Inflammation is the grim reaper of all disease, sucking the last ounce out of life and sending us six feet under.

Death. Yes, that’s its other name.

Inflaming the medical agita at last and setting the Time Magazine cover of February on fire finally, inflammation is now officially acknowledged as the grand-daddy of all death-fostering diseases, setting off an amber alert in America where the aged never say die to life.

Call it coincidence or a freaky Friday in December last. Flattering the birthday boy for passing off as a springy 60-year-old on his 78th birthday, I spent the rest of my party hours at his home in Defence, Karachi, hearing from him the A-Z of inflammation (you asked for it! I told myself, making a mental note never to praise unmeasured in future).

And the magic potion that has kept S.K. Rahim young and healthy is alsi ka tail, extracted from flaxseeds also known as linseed oil — the grand-mummy of all cures, claims Rahim.

But linseed is the oil I saw my siblings rub on cricket bats or my art teacher dab on brushes to clean or the painter mix with varnish to polish wood (what’s S.K. talking about?).

Politeness, more than academic interest drove me to this rather bizarre monologue. Rahim, aka Faiyzi, and me happen to be members of the same family circle and having sung ‘happy birthday’ and heartily cheered as he cut his cake, inflammation and alsi along with a tome of well thumbed newspaper clippings three decades old, while heavy to digest, still held a curious fascination over me as the evening wore off.

“It’s heavy-footed,” Faiyzi warned, after I agreed to walk through the dusty road of research and discovery … his labour of love. It was his mother, actually, who would put a poultice of grounded linseed each time he hurt himself playing. That was in the 1930s. Viola!Gopne would be the bump, the swelling, sending the lad on his way to school the next day.

When winter infected him with cold and fever, ‘doctor mom’, with her magic chest of linseed, shoved a piping-hot of the same concoction down the protesting son’s inflamed windpipe to drive away the demons. Soon, the boy’s blocked ENT (ear, nose and throat passages) were as good as new.

“As I passed beyond the hold of my aging mother, these anti-inflammation heating treatments both outside and inside my body stopped in due course. I resorted to normal medicinal treatments and my mother stopped manhandling me, and I forgot all about lin-seed.”

Until one day and half-a-century in between, Faiyzi remembered his ‘doctor mom’ and her magic potion when attacked by vicious rheumatoid arthritis at age 60. The wicked inflammation, while on its savage rout, plagued him with piles, winding up in his prostate glands. Surgery, shouted the doctors, unless he wanted cancer hosted. Angina was the next station, making his heart squirm in pain.

At this milestone of malfeasant diseases parading around Faiyzi, I turn weary, his litany of medical ailments such as dactyltis, proctitis, pro-statitis, angina pectoris begin to tantalize my patience. Still, I can’t help but think of his mother’s ancestors in India, akin to the Red Indians, who, too, must have danced around in joy among the pale blue flowers of flax, pressing their seeds to extract linseed oil that in Urdu we call alsi.

“For outside bumps, she used linseed poultice and for internal inflammation, she forced us to take linseed powder, insisting vociferously that this is what her ancestors did and with good reasons, too!”

Faiyzi’s search for the pure flax extract sent his son Shahid scouting all over Karachi. Ultimately, he did discover an oil merchant in Saddar honest enough to guarantee pure alsi ka tail. Beyond that, the vendor’s curiosity in its medicinal worth was never tickled. Within three months of a two-spoonful-twice-a-day intake on an empty-Stomach, wonders were seized, chasing his arthritis, piles, prostrate and angina away.

“Now, in 2003, it has been seven to eight years since I have been taking a preventive

” dose: one tablespoon daily on an empty stomach, thinking that whatever caused my inflammations might still be lurking and can return any time. But. I have been disease-free.”

Two years short of 80, Faiyzi is fighting fit. In 30 minutes, he covers two miles daily, climbs several storeys without panting and has since been recommending alsi to friends and family, all of whom have hailed him their healer.

Will flaxseed oil be the miracle breakthrough of our age that so far is bereft of a cure for inflammation? With his heuristic approach and impressive body of empirical evidence, Faiyzi feels he has discovered the yellow gold, but he lacks scientific company. Nowhere, not even in the Time Magazine article is flaxseed oil mentioned remotely.

Time admits: “Instead of different treatments for, say heart diseases, Alzheimer’s and colon cancer, there might be a single, inflammation-reducing remedy that would prevent all three.” An anti-inflammatory drug to treat asthma might soon be on the shelves in the US. So far, Aspirin is still touted as the greatest anti-inflammatory source, swallowed faithfully by millions of Americans daily to fend off heart attack.

Billions of dollars are being marshalled into research and development by pharmaceutical companies and while cardiologists, rheumatologists, oncologists, allergists and neurologists are in consonance that inflammation is the root cause of diabetes, heart attacks rumours, gum diseases, multiple sclerosis, asthma, Alzheimer’s, they “can’t recommend specific treatment yet.”

Because these medical men still don’t get it as to how inflammation is caused.

Have we not been told ad nauseum that saturated fats and oils in our food get deposited in our blood to form fat cells that spew out inflammatory toxins? And don’t we all know by now that chemical preservatives in sugar, soft drinks, tinned food and certain snacks contain petrochemical components that are injurious to our health?

Faiyzi also vows that the overuse “in fact misuse of petro-chemical based modern medicines and drugs, which are all toxic, howsoever minimized, damage the body”.

Disappointingly, Time ends its fiery article with a whimper: to “dampen inflammatory fires” its pedestrian advice is: to lose weight (to produce fewer cytokines); exercise 30 minutes daily; floss your teeth and eat fruits, vegetables and fish.

This homily is as old as the hills! Until the US comes up with an anti-inflammatory drug, the killer diseases courtesy inflammation would have sentenced millions to die, marching the majority to their graves. But wait, what have we here? Mayo Clinic, the mother of all clinics, has found flaxseed oil to help pre-vent breast cancer, prostate cancer and endometrial can-cer, declaring that its soluble fibre helps “lower cholesterol and regulate blood sugar”, and insoluble fibre, “may help protect against colon cancer.”

And the Omega-3 fatty acids help “lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.” Mayo Clinic even plays the chef to add a tasty twist to flaxseeds: “The whole seeds have a nutty flavour. Sprinkle them on salads, soups, yogurt or cereal or drizzle a small amount into soups or casseroles at the table.”

Alsi ka tail, anyone? Maybe that’s what the doctor ordered!

By Anjum Niaz

you might also be interested in:

• alsi oil
• what is alsi
• alsi seeds benefits in urdu
• alsi ka oil
• alsioil