How I Coped Suffering From Bell's Palsy

Bell's Palsy
Image from Wikimedia

What is Bell's Palsy

Bell's palsy is named after the Scottish anatomist, Sir Charles Bell. Bell's palsy is associated with facial paralysis of unknown cause. A neurological disorder on one side of the face. In some rare cases it can occur on both sides of the face. Bell's palsy is a disorder affecting nerves that control muscles in the face that become injured or stop working properly.

Bell's palsy is common in people aged 15 to 40 years and make a spontaneous recovery within 3 to 4 weeks. Symptoms of Bell’s palsy include:

• Paralysis on one side of the face.
• A drooping eyebrow and mouth.
• Drooling from one side of the mouth when talking, eating, or drinking.
• Difficulty closing one eyelid, which makes the eyes dry.

Charles Bell
Image from Wikimedia

What are my experiences dealing with Bell's Palsy?

Since 2024 I have been working as a freelance contributor for a daily job. I worked mostly at night and slept in the morning. Most of my clients are at least 8 to 12 hours in a different timezone from mine. I usually went to bed at 3 or 6 AM in the morning and started to work again at 10 or 12 PM.

Tape
Image from Wikimedia

It was last August 21, 2025, when I felt strange on the right side of my face. I remembered that I ate 3 pieces of a very sweet tape, a traditional fermented cassava. It is not the usual tape that I used to eat. It is very sweet and well cooked. That day I went to bed at 4 AM and woke up at 11 AM. When I woke up from bed, my mouth was drooling so much that it wet my pillow. I washed my face in the bathroom, and the water was entering my right eye because I cannot close it. I asked my wife to take me to the clinic near my home.

Arriving at the emergency room, my blood pressure was checked. The nurse only said that my systolic blood pressure was 160, without mentioning what my diastolic was. The nurse asked me to go to see the doctor. Noticing that my systolic blood pressure was 160, she said to me that I had very high blood pressure. The doctor then asked me what I have been eating, what pain I have suffered, and what medication I have used.

I told her that I just ate tape last night. Since I had been suffering from influenza with a dry cough for weeks, I only took methylprednisolone as medication. The doctor argued, Why have you taken methylprednisolone since it is used only for inflammation? The dry cough had made my throat become inflamed, I answered. OK, then, she replied.

She then examined my face. She asked me to look at her pen and where she pointed her pen. Since your blood pressure is high, I'll prescribe some medication for you. But remember not to take methylprednisolone again. You should come back here to check your health in ten days, she said, ending the conversation.

Guess what? The doctor prescribed me a blood-lowering medication, vitamin B complex, and flu medication. All medications are expected to be consumed within ten days, as most are only 1 dose per day.

The flu medication, which consists of 500 mg of paracetamol, is supposed to be consumed 3 times a day. I stopped taking the flu medication on the next day after having 3 times the day before. I continued taking methylprednisolone with an added dose.

Before I had Bell's palsy, I only consumed methylprednisolone once a day. Now I'm having it 4 times a day and using the lower dose of 4 mg. After my blood-lowering medications were all consumed in 10 days, I didn't visit the doctor again. I continued the medication by taking methylprednisolone 4mg 4 times a day.

Methylprednisolone 4mg by Hexpharm Jaya

Why I haven't followed the doctor's orders?

At home, I asked my wife to check my blood pressure once more using my neighbor's digital tensiometer. When my wife checked my blood pressure twice on both my upper arms, it turned out my left arm was 135/96, while my right arm was 143/103. When at the hospital, the nurse checked my blood pressure on my left arm using a manual tensiometer, which is more accurate than a digital one. But the nurse forgot to mention what my diastolic was. She only told me that my systolic blood pressure was 160. I forgot to mention earlier that the doctor also asked me when the last time I checked my blood was and what the number was. I normally have 110/80 for my blood pressure, and it was 2019 the last time I checked during a medical checkup, I answered.

Later on that day, I studied a lot about Bell's palsy through Pubmed portal, my very reliable resources. What I learned from Pubmed's site became references for this article. What I have written here is what made me to not follow the doctor's orders.

Please don't take this as a medical advise, as this is just my point of view!

Personally, I think the doctor seems like just trying to sell me blood-lowering medications that I should consume for the rest of my life. For my consideration, the doctor from my point of view is just the same as a drug dealer.

The main point based on what I have learned from the PubMed website:

• The exact cause of Bell’s palsy is unknown.
• 85% of people found improvement within 3 weeks and 3 to 5 months in the remaining 15%.
• The inability to close the eyelid could lead to potential eye injury. You may find it hard to close your eyes while taking a shower.
• Possible triggers of Bell's palsy may include:
  • Viral infections, such as herpes or chickenpox. Herpes simplex virus (HSV)-1 has been detected in up to 50% of cases by some researchers.
  • Low immunity due to stress, sleep deprivation, physical trauma, minor illness, or autoimmune syndromes.
  • Infection or damage to a facial nerve that causes inflammation.
• Not all patients with facial paralysis who enter the health care system have been diagnosed as having Bell's palsy.
• Laboratory or imaging studies are not necessary.
• Physicians should not prescribe oral antiviral therapy alone for patients with new-onset Bell's palsy.
• Physicians may offer electrodiagnostic testing to Bell's palsy patients with complete facial paralysis or both sides of the face.
• Surgery and electrical stimulation to treat facial paralysis are still being studied by scientists.
• Corticosteroids, including methylprednisolone, a drug that can reduce inflammation and suppress the immune system, alone could improve the rate of recovery.

Warning!!!
Please don't take this as a medical advise! The first week was the hardest time for me. I'm still in my recovery for better improvement when I posted this article.

References:

• Bell's Palsy
  https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/bells-palsy?search-term=disorders%20bells%20palsy.
• Axelsson S et al. 2011
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20027713/.
• Baugh RF et al. 2013
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24189771/.
• Holland NJ et al. 2014
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3980711/.

Health Benefits of Honey

Honey

Nutritional Healthy

Honey, a nutritional healthy product, is produced mainly by two types of bees: honey bee and stingless bee, has been recognized for its medicinal properties for thousands of years. Meanwhile, An essential pollinator of our food crops is the honey bee. Honey bee pollination contributes either directly or indirectly to nearly one-third of our food supply.

Nutritional value per 1 tablespoon (21 g)

Nutrients	Amount	Nutrients	Amount
Water	3.59 g	Calories	64 kcal
Energy	267 kJ	Protein	0.06 g
Ash	0.04 g	Carbohydrate	17.30 g
Sugars	17.25 g	Sucrose	0.19 g
Glucose	7.51 g	Fructose	8.60 g
Maltose	0.30 g	Galactose	0.65 g
Calcium, Ca	1 mg	Iron, Fe	0.09 mg
Phosphorus, P	1 mg	Potassium, K	11 mg
Sodium, Na	1 mg	Zinc, Zn	0.05 mg
Copper, Cu	0.008 mg	Manganese, Mn	0.017 mg
Selenium, Se	0.2 µg	Fluoride, F	1.5 µg
Vitamin C	0.1 mg	Riboflavin	0.008 mg
Niacin	0.025 mg	Pantothenic acid	0.014 mg
Vitamin B6	0.005 mg	Choline	0.5 mg
Betaine	0.4 mg

USDA

Products from honeybees, like honey, propolis, and royal jelly, are not only food but also provide significant health advantages against a variety of illnesses. Honey's possible health advantages are discussed, including its effects on other diseases, wound healing, and microbial suppression.

Numerous health advantages associated with gastrointestinal illnesses, allergies, and issues linked to gynecology, oral health, and dermatology have been described for propolis. The preventive properties of royal jelly on wound healing, aging, neurological diseases, and reproductive health are widely recognized.

The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Chinese all utilized honey to treat gastric ulcers and other intestinal lesions. Additionally, it has been used to treat earaches, sore throats, and coughs. Lotus honey has been used traditionally to heal eye infections and other ailments since ancient India.

Honey is utilized both externally and internally as a functional food to support the body's vital organs by supplying energy and nutrients. The quality of honey is significantly influenced by its active ingredients, which include organic acids, glucose, fructose, flavonoids, and polyphenols.

Biological Activities of Honey

Honey has long been used to heal burns, wounds, insect bites, skin conditions, boils, and ulcers. Honey's effectiveness as an antibacterial and wound-healing agent is confirmed by scientific evidence of its wound-healing properties. The proteolytic enzyme is dynamically expressed when honey stimulates the wound matrix's latent plasminogen to become active. Plasmin destroys fibrin and causes blood clots to retreat. This enzyme breaks down fibrin clumps in the wound bed that have dead tissues adhering to them.

Clinical data demonstrating honey's efficacy, specificity, and sensitivity in wound treatment shows that honey works better than both traditional and contemporary wound care dressings. Fast healing, wound cleansing, infection removal, tissue regeneration, reduced inflammation, and improved dressing comfort because of less tissue adhesion are among the therapeutic benefits seen following honey administration.

365 by Whole Foods Market, Organic Light Amber Wildflower Honey.

Honey also improves the epithelialization of the affected skin surface, which helps to reduce skin deterioration around stomas like ileostomy and colostomy. Honey helps with psoriasis, eczema, and pediatric dermatitis brought on by overuse of diapers and napkins. Researchers looked into how honey combined with beeswax and olive oil affected those who had atopic dermatitis or psoriasis.

According to a clinical trial, a honey-based mixture produced notable gains and was incredibly well tolerated. Numerous nitric oxide metabolites found in honey lower the risk of skin infections in people with psoriasis.

Enzymes that aid in the absorption of substances like sugars and starches make up natural honey. Honey contains sugar molecules that are easily absorbed by the body. Honey contains minerals, phytochemicals, and flavonoids that promote digestion.

Honey is utilized in wound management and is useful for patients with locally infected wounds, diabetic foot ulcers, Charcot foot ulcerations, and complex comorbid disorders that have failed hospital treatment. Additionally, the presence of honey results in low damage to the wound bed and great tolerability.

MANUKA DOCTOR - Raw Manuka Honey MGO 30+ SQUEEZY, 100% Pure New Zealand Honey.

Honey can be used to treat a variety of oral disorders, including periodontal disease, stomatitis, and halitosis. Furthermore, it has been used to prevent periodontitis, gingivitis, mouth ulcers, and dental plaque. Honey's antibacterial and anti-inflammatory qualities can promote granulation tissue formation, which will help damaged cells heal.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
A mucosal infection caused by aberrant stomach reflux into the esophagus or lungs. Acid regurgitation, irritation, and heartburn are signs of GERD. Honey helps with this illness by covering the lining of the stomach and esophagus, which stops food and gastric juice from flowing upward. In order to aid in the regeneration of the sphincter's tissues and ultimately lessen the likelihood of acid reflux, honey might further stimulate them.

Dyspepsia
A chronic condition in which the gastrointestinal organs, primarily the stomach and first part of the small intestine, function improperly. It is a condition that manifests as nausea, bloating, heartburn, and epigastric pain.

According to clinical studies, honey enhanced the healing effect and reduced the production of stomach acid. Because of its antimicrobial qualities and preventive effects, honey is therefore consumed as a nutritional supplement.

Gastroenteritis
Often known as stomach or gastric flu, is characterized by inflammation of the digestive tract. Foodborne, waterborne, and person-to-person transmission of infectious pathogens could be the cause of this illness. Gastric pains, bloating, watery diarrhea, dehydration, and nausea are all signs of gastroenteritis.

According to a clinical trial, honey can be used to treat infantile gastroenteritis. Because honey's high sugar content promotes electrolyte and water reabsorption in the gut, the study discovered that substituting honey for the glucose in the usual electrolyte oral rehydration solution shortened the recovery period for gastroenteritis patients.

Nate's 100% Pure, Raw & Unfiltered Honey.

Chronic constipation
A frequent and multifaceted disorder marked by painful defecation (irregular stools and difficult stool passage). Symptoms of difficult stool passage include lumpy or hard stools, a feeling of incomplete evacuation, straining, and a prolonged time to pass stool. A excessive number of bowel movements with watery stool is called diarrhea. Compared to traditional antiviral treatment, honey has reduced the pathophysiology and duration of viral diarrhea.

Honey can relieve pain, normalize hepatic processes, and eliminate poisons. The cause of hepatic system complications is oxidative damage. Honey may help heal damaged livers since it has antioxidant properties. Heart problems and vasomotor dysfunctions brought on by adrenaline can be prevented and treated with natural wild honey.

The use of honey was found to significantly lower the risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. Vasoprotective benefits of honey include vasodilation, vascular homeostasis balance, and lipid profile improvements. Honey's flavonoids boost high-density lipoproteins (HDL), inhibit oxidation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL), improve endothelial activities, diminish platelets' capacity to form clots, and promote coronary vasodilation. (Pasupuleti VR et al. 2017)

100% Pure New Zealand Manuka Honey.

Coconut Water to Prevent Acid Reflux

Vita Coco Organic Coconut Water

Coconut as Folk Medicine

It’s been a while since my last blog post. What drives me to write this post is because in my home in Sukodono District, every 100 meters I go, all I can see is a coffee shop and a wholesale coconut shop.

Coconut is considered to be number two as the miracle trees, because its whole trees are useable, providing food, home, shelter, medicine, utilities, and etc., for millions of people in the world.

Since ancient time, tropical people have used every parts of coconut tree for folk remedies, such as: abscesses, alopecia, amenorrhea, asthma, blenorrhagia, bronchitis, bruises, burns, cachexia, calculus, colds, constipation, cough, debility, dropsy, dysentery, dysmenorrhea, earache, erysipelas, fever, flu, gingivitis, gonorrhea, hematemesis, hemoptysis, jaundice, menorrhagia, nausea, phthisis, pregnancy, rash, scabies, scurvy, sorethroat, stomach, swelling, syphylis, toothache, tuberculosis, tumors, typhoid, venereal diseases, and wounds.

In term of medicine, coconut may also consider as miracle tree, because it reported has many active substances, or bioactive compounds, such as:

• Anthelmintic (a medicine used to destroy parasitic worms).
• Anti-blenorrhagic (an agent used to manage gonorrhoea).
• Anti-inflammatory.
• Antibronchitis (used to treat bronchitis, an inflammation of the airways leading into lungs).
• Antidotal (a medicine taken, or given to counteract a particular poison).
• Antigingivitic (used to treat painful inflammation of the gums).
• Antihypertensives (used to treat hypertension, high blood pressure).
• Antipyretic (used to prevent or reduce fever).
• Antiseptic (an antimicrobial substance or compound that is applied to living tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putrefaction).
• Aperient (used to relieve constipation).
• Aphrodisiac (a substance that increases sexual desire, sexual attraction, sexual pleasure, or sexual behavior).
• Astringent (a chemical that shrinks, or constricts body tissues).
• Antiepileptic (used to treat epilepsy).
• Bactericidal (a substance which kills bacteria).
• Cardioprotective (protect the heart).
• Cytokinins (anti-cancer compounds).
• Depurative (herbs that are considered to have purifying, and detoxifying effects).
• Diuretic (substance that promotes diuresis, the increased production of urine).
• Febrifugal (as medicine to reduce fever).
• Hemostat (preventing the flow of blood from an open blood vessel by compression of the vessel).
• Kinetin (N6-Furfuryladenine, strong anti-ageing effects on human skin cells).
• Pediculicide (an agent that destroys lice). Another way to get rid of lice naturally, just like I’ve already wrote in my previous post.
• Purgative (a medication that encourages bowel movements).
• Refrigerant (a medication for reducing body heat).
• Stomachic (a medicine that serves to tone the stomach, improving its function and increase appetite).
• Styptic (a drug that causes contraction of body tissues and canals).
• Suppurative (undergo the formation of pus).
• Vermifuge (an anthelmintic medicine).

Coconut Water to Prevent Acid Reflux

Coconut water contains 95.5% water, 0.1% protein, 0.1% fat, 0.4% ash, and 4.0% carbohydrate. 100g of coconut water contains 105mg Natrium, 312mg Kalium (Potassium), 29mg Calcium, 30mg Magnesium, 0.1mg Ferrum, 0.04mg Copper, 37mg Phosphorus, 24mg Sulfur, and 183mg choline. Coconut water also contains vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7 and B9.

Research shows that consuming coconut water can help prevent dehydration in children with mild diarrhea. Also that drinking coconut water might lower blood pressure in people with high blood pressure, but taking coconut water along with medications for high blood pressure might cause your blood pressure to go too low.

Due to coconut water contains high levels of kalium or potassium, a person with kidney problems should also watch more carefully when consuming coconut water.

It was my son, Michael’s regular barber who aged about 60 yrs old told me his story why his barbershop was closed for couple of months. The old man said that he was being treated at an island called Bawean Island, about 135km north of Gresik City, due to suffering from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). He often felt a burning sensation in his chest, known as heartburn, and sour taste in back of his mouth. That’s why the doctor diagnosed him as suffering from GERD.

After several visits to the doctor in the hospital and taking the medicine, the symptoms never recovered. The old man also suffered from shortness of breath, like he had asthma, even though he had never had asthma complaints before. So, he quit visiting the doctor and sought alternative treatment.

Then he ended up in Bawean Island, in a traditional hospitals whose owners do not have health certificates, or any medical degrees. The old man stayed there for a month, and everyday, he used one young coconut to drink its water. The practitioner told him, that he should consult his former doctor to perform more medical checkups after consuming coconut water for a month. .

Why should I?, the old man said to me. I feel much better now. I don’t need to go to the hospital anymore. I never felt heartburn anymore., he added.

Like the old man, I also had GERD when I was young. Smoking and drinking coffee are most likely to be the sources of problems. The doctor once said to me that GERD patients often suffer from irritation of the skin if exposed to alcohol compounds. That was when I suffered from boils in my armpits when using deodorant and itching on my chest when I sprayed perfume directly on my chest. Since that moment, I never use any deodorant or perfume anymore.

Based on the old man story, whenever I had symptoms like heartburn or a sour taste in my mouth, I quickly bought coconut water and drank it without adding any sugar.

Bai Coconut Flavored Water	Taste Nirvana Real Premium Coconut Water

References:

• T Alleyne et al. 2005
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15892382/.
• JWH Yong et al. 2009
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6255029/.
• ZA Zakaria et al. 2006
  https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jpt.2006.516.526.
• P Anurag et al. 2003
  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:QUAL.0000040363.64356.05.