According to estimates by the World Health Organization, almost 300 million people worldwide suffer from asthma, with almost 10% of the world’s population diagnosed with this respiratory disease for life. In the United States, about 70% of asthmatics also have allergies to pollen and certain foods, especially dairy, and the annual economic cost of asthma reaches US$20 billion in medical and indirect costs, and medications Prescription drugs represent the largest single direct medical expense globally. 6 billion US dollars. Every year, nearly 250,000 people die from asthma-related complications.

There is currently no known medical cure for asthma, and asthmatics endure a continuous monitoring regimen of steroids, inhalers, and nebulizers to help reduce their symptoms. But an 11-year-old Australian boy disagrees with medical science and claims a traditional Fijian asthma remedy has cured him, with no relapses in the last 12 months since he underwent an incredibly moving and traditional Fijian ritual. At the age of five, Tanner Blessington, from the north shore of Sydney, Australia, contracted respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) at the beginning of winter and ended up hospitalized and treated with intravenous fluids and breezy immediately. RSV is a leading cause of respiratory illness at all ages and in almost every country, but school-age children are particularly susceptible during the colder months, as colds and flu spread and strain their systems. immune systems under enormous pressure. RSV was first discovered in 1956 and has since been recognized by the medical profession as one of the most common causes of childhood illness.

The Blessington family visit Fiji every year for the holidays, but on one visit they learned from a Fijian working at one of the resorts that their mother claimed to have a gift for curing asthma. Tanner’s mother, Leanne, simply shrugged off the comment as a Fijian myth, but she kept her curiosity for another two years, when in a second-chance encounter, she met the same man. Still curious but well aware that she might just be a money scam, she decided to take the next step and meet this mysterious mother. In pouring rain, the Blessingtons took a taxi to the local town to meet the man’s wife and her three children. Her elderly mother walked right up to Tanner and told him that she had dreamed that he was coming to see her. After a few hours of banter, Leanne and her husband Adrian were asked to leave the room so the old ladies could focus on helping young Tanner. With night approaching and still raining, the men of the family went to climb a nuidamu coconut tree to retrieve an orange-red coconut and a medicinal tree root. Without any safety equipment, one of the men climbed a tall palm tree, carefully pulled out a few coconuts, tied a rope around each bundle and gently lowered them to the ground. Nuidamu coconuts are highly respected in traditional medicine and the utmost care was taken so that they did not fall to the ground.

Returning to the house, the older woman began to shave the skin off the root on newspaper, as if she were peeling cassava root. The chips were then packed inside the fibrous vau bark of the coconut tree to form a bundle, and immersed in the coconut water to let it infuse and absorb. Meanwhile, as the family continued to pray and sing, she ran her finger up Tanner’s hand and up her lower arm and said, “This won’t work if you don’t have love inside of you.” All the negativity and stress from her had to disappear from her mind, as well as from her parents who were sitting near her. This was especially difficult for her parents as they had just learned that their home in Sydney had been burglarized and that most of her jewelery and possessions had been stolen while they were in Fiji. Leanne talks about having a hard time letting go of stress, but she was determined to do all the right things to make it work for her son.

Once the shaved bark and roots had absorbed most of the coconut water, they were hand-squeezed to extract the essential oils and tree sap into a container, leaving only the dried bark and root in a bundle, which he left aside. Tanner took her first drink of the herbal water and said it didn’t taste as bad as Western medicine. After more ceremonies and prayers, Tanner had to perform one last ritual. He had to swim to the deepest point of the sea and throw the bundle of dry barks as far as he could and say “goodbye to my asthma”. He was told that he had to drink the rest of the mixture, with more nuidamu coconut water refills, for the next seven days. He couldn’t drink any other liquid, including water, juice or his favorite curry sauce, only the coconut medicine he had made for himself. This was probably because he may have diluted the potency of the herbal drink, ensuring that traditional medicine could do his job. Leanne was still skeptical, but no money was exchanged and the old lady simply asked them to have faith and put their hearts and minds into believing that the treatment would work. On the eighth day, Tanner worked up the courage to put the treatment to the test. With his inhaler at the ready, he ordered the largest sundae. To everyone’s surprise, there was no reaction. No wheezing, no constricted airways, his asthma had miraculously disappeared. For the next 12 months, Leanne held her breath, constantly monitoring her son’s condition in Australia, not knowing if and when her asthma might return. she didn’t. Upon her return to Fiji recently, Tanner fulfilled one of her biggest dreams that her previous condition had prevented her from doing. He learned to dive. “On the dive application form, he asked me if he had any medical conditions. I checked no. He used to have asthma, but now he’s out at sea,” the younger Tanner said.

In the book, “Secrets of Fijian Medicine,” Dr. Michael Weiner, a professor at the University of California in the US, spent several years in Fiji during the 1980s working with the government and the the United Nations Development Program to document remedies. In it, Tanner’s treatment is documented and is well known to many elderly Fijians. Tree roots used to treat asthma include vesi (intsia bijuga) and vadra (pandanus) aerial roots and both are commonly found in parts of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. The red-orange sacred coconuts are also listed in his book. Native to Asia and Polynesia, the tall niudamu palm tree grows to a height of 100 feet and produces mostly yellow and orange-red coconuts. Belonging to the cocos nucifera L. family, this unique tree is known in Fijian medicine to also cure a number of ailments including fish poisoning, infected sores, scabies and is used as a general antibacterial agent.

Studies of coconut oil around the world reveal that cold-pressed, non-heat-treated, pure virgin coconut oil like that processed in Fijian copra mills is high in antioxidants that are beginning to be recognized around the world to help stop brain degeneration and life-threatening viral and bacterial diseases. MCTs (medium chain triglycerides) are found in high concentration in virgin coconut oils containing 60% of the good antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties of any known oil. Lauric acid is also found naturally in coconut and, like breast milk, acts as an antibacterial and antiviral to kill germs and nourish cells. Our modern diet, especially in Western cultures, is lacking in MCTs, which were always found primarily in coconut oil and will now be found to be missing or non-existent in most of the cooking oils you use today. One of the characteristic health problems of today is high cholesterol, mostly in the form of LDL (low-density lipoprotein), with low HDL (high-density lipoprotein) and high triglycerides. The interesting thing about coconut oil is that it raises HDL, lowers LDL, and lowers triglycerides all at once. MCT oil is also being used in a number of applications in the US for the treatment of a variety of viral diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, asthma, eczema and HIV, as this is believed to Ancient medicine in a coconut is one of nature’s gifts. a highly effective and non-toxic remedy to kill viruses and bacteria in the body.

So does traditional Fijian medicine hold the clues and secrets to cure asthma and other modern ailments? Medical science says no, but for a young Australian, the “Tree of Life” takes on a whole new meaning.