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Legendary, iconic jazz saxophonist John Coltrane gave the world “A Love Supreme,” that classic, incantational piece recorded December 9, 1964, with other jazz greats McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison.  Mr. Coltrane’s masterful offerings also include “Naima,” “Giant Steps,” “All Blues,” “Blue Train,” and his phenomenal and expert rendition of “My Favorite Things” (one of my all-time jazz favorites).

Johncoltrane.com tells us that in 1964, Mr. Coltrane wrote a letter to his listeners.  He said,

“I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music.”

And in 1966, he stated,

“I know that there are bad forces, forces that bring suffering to others and misery to the world.  I want to be the opposite.  I want to be the force which is truly for good.”

Compare Mr. Coltrane’s desire to that of one of his avid fans, Alfredo Bowman, Dr. Sebi, when he said,

“The only interest I have ever had in herbology is healing.  It certainly isn’t money because the money I was making as a steam engineer I could never make with the herbs because the herbs were less popular in 1980 than now.  It definitely was another interest, a greater dictate that drove me to herbology.”

Black History Month memories of two prolific history makers: John Coltrane and Dr. Sebi.

What I admire about Adio Akil, the woman who convinced natural healer Dr. Sebi to open a practice in the United States, is the way she shares her knowledge about food, herbs, natural healing and young entrepreneurs who picked up the baton Dr. Sebi left behind.  She’s mature and articulate and speaks in a no-nonsense manner when she gives generous doses of health and nutrition tips.  On the other hand, when she speaks about sea moss there’s a childlike joy and awe in her demeanor and tone. More about sea moss later.

Without fail, in all our conversations since the first time I met her in 2017, Adio asks if I’m familiar with other herbalists and holistic entrepreneurs making strides in natural health care and food products, namely Tassili Ma’at in Atlanta or Bongo Hu I of St. James, Jamaica. When I pause to recall who they are, Adio jumps in and offers to send me information about them.  No doubt there’s a library at her own business Quintessence Health & Wellness Center in Washington, D.C.

Adio opened the doors to Quintessence events much like those she organized at The Community Warehouse decades ago.  In February 2020, with a celebration and demonstration of “Food as Medicine” at Quintessence, Adio gave away food samples, coached her audience on how to prepare natural foods, and recounted the work of Dr. Sebi.

I interviewed Adio about Food as Medicine but the Barnard College graduate offered so much more that matters just as much today as back then, like how young people and seniors feel about making changes in health and diet.  She mentioned the “now moment,” where “some older people feel that they have lived, have made it up to now, why bother to change.” People of color, Adio observes on her holistic journey, are more likely to feel that way and less likely to make changes in their health than Caucasians.  She said that if you tell Caucasians they need to make changes in their health and diet, and tell them what changes are necessary, they will change in that moment, in the now.

The following is the edited interview with Adio. Pay close attention to what she says about that little known but powerful gem in the sea—sea moss.

Health care insurance issues 

We talked about health care providers and the fact that health insurance does not cover natural healing therapies and products, one of the reasons people of color are less likely to change diet and lifestyle. 

Adio:  Right now, there are so many different types of healing programs that are going on around D.C.  But at the same time, if you don’t have the money to pay for it, aside from your insurance, then you can’t take advantage of it even though there’s a lot out there.  There’s a lot, from different types of massages. There’s reiki.  We’ve reached a milestone in health care and nutrition, and that’s due to COVID.  COVID made people of color realize that they have to eat better.  They have to exercise. They have to take walks. They have to drink more water.  And that’s because it became popular all over mainstream America and in the media, in the major TV shows telling people what they should eat, and talking about good nutrition and things that they could do to help them have a better diet, a better outcome from the choices they made over the years.

Dr. Sebi back in the early 70s and 80s and how natural healing was viewed as weird back then.

Adio: It’s great to be alive and healthy and to have experienced Dr. Sebi and his works and his formulations.  So that’s a great thing.  So, to be alive and tribute Dr. Sebi and Maa and natural healing and to see it come full circle, to see it come from people who thought you were weird or people just thought you were so different because I prioritized food and health and herbs.  And back in the 80s, late 70s, it was not prioritized.  It was prioritized in the early 80s by The Community Warehouse, where I was able to get Dr. Sebi to come to.  But overall, it was still thought of as something weird, wanting to care about what you put in your mouth rather than eating meat or other substances that wouldn’t be good for you.  So, coming full circle and seeing where now, here we are, I’m so thankful to  be alive.  People are embracing natural health and healing.  There are more juice bars all over.  And young people have embraced it and are taking it to another level, where I know more of our people, people of color, and people in general on the planet will be healthier because the young people have embraced the fact that food is a medicine, and that herbs are a medicine.

Adio’s daughter and business partner Makini

Adio: Makini actually helped me.  We started Quintessence Health & Wellness together.  And that has meant so much to both of us.  I have lived it up to now and she grew up seeing me live it—meeting Dr. Sebi and being around him plenty of times over the years.  She didn’t all the way understand or get the message but was just following.  But now, for her to come out as a leader, as a young person who realizes that yes, if I take different herbs and supplements, I can get rid of ailments that I might have, from simple ailments like a cold to something more extreme like the flu.

What is the mission of Quintessence?

Adio: The mission is to empower people of color so that they will know that in our ancestry we have the tools to heal ourselves.

What are those tools?

Adio:  When you talk about Quintessence Health & Wellness, one of the tools is access to our library, which has over 300 books from Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean and the U.S. of Black healers and doctors, health practitioners, raw foodists.  So, the library is there and it’s an in-house library.  You actually have to use the books there.  But you can go through all these books and find any information you need.  We have books by the leading practitioners of color from the U.S. and the Caribbean.

Consultations

Adio:  I’m beginning to get into it.  Because I had six children, that’s why I didn’t try to practice.  I’m in my 60s now, but I didn’t try to practice sooner because I wanted to make sure my children were in the place they needed to be. Now that they’re grown I can, which is why there’s Quintessence Health & Wellness.  I’m doing it anyway because when you’re helping people as far as people who come in and want to use the library, people have all kinds of questions.  That is what the work is.  It’s about helping people.  I’m letting people decide if they want to take the steps to do it. 

Sea moss gel is popular with young people

Adio: The only thing we [Quintessence] supply is gel and dry sea moss to different businesses.  Sea moss gel is big and it’s really big with young people because they’re using it in their smoothies.  They’re using it in their soups.  They’re making dishes from it, food dishes.  As a matter of fact, we do make a sea moss pie, a key lime pie, which is made with sea moss.

Restaurants are onboard with sea moss

Adio: I actually have been going to Tassili’s Raw Reality Café.  That’s one of the biggest, largest raw food places in Atlanta, Georgia.  And I’ve given talks there about sea moss.  The owner is someone who used to work with me and spun off from there.  And she’s doing like a million dollars in business at the restaurant now.  Sea moss has 92 of the trace minerals found in the body.  I know for a fact that sea moss can cure someone of rickets, as long as you drink the sea moss, at least 32 ounces, every day for a year.  Sea moss will clear up your skin.  If you could see my skin right now, my skin is pretty. And one of the reasons is that I’ve been drinking that sea moss every day, and I’m also taking it in a powder form daily.  It promotes the growth of your hair, even if you have a bald spot somewhere.  If you start using it regularly, you’ve got to drink it every day.  You gotta drink at least 32 ounces.  Your hair will come in.  It helps your nails grow.  Sea  moss is also a cell proliferant, which means that it helps cells grow.  Sea moss is just wonderful. You can use it externally if you have a wound or if you cut yourself. And you can also use it internally.  You can use it on your hair, your skin, you can bathe in it.  It’s also good for radiation.  If you’re doing radiation, drink sea moss.  Sea moss is definitely good for that.

Why is sea moss good for that? How does it help?

Adio: It helps based on the nutrients that it’s putting in your body.  It’s putting magnesium, selenium, vitamin A, vitamin C.  It has iron.  It has protein.  It has amino acids.  We’re actually promoting the purple sea moss, which comes from Tanzania, actually the city Zanzibar in Tanzania.  And the thing about the purple that comes from there is that it’s coming from the Red Sea.  And the Red Sea, if you check into it, is mineral rich.  There are so many different types of sea life there, in the Red Sea.  And it’s filled with all types of minerals and nutrients. Even the color, the color lets you know that it’s good for the heart.  It’s good for women as far as female organs and their menses.  And it’s all based on the nutrition that’s in the ocean in that particular area.  Sea life is overflowing.  It’s corpus chrondus, which grows in the Caribbean as well.

 “If you want your bones strong, you have to go to the sea moss, and it will strengthen your calcium cells.” — Dr. Sebi in Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation with Dr. Sebi

Food as medicine

Adio:  There is a way out.  There’s a way out from bad food and wrong choices.  You only need to realize that food is your medicine.  Food is a medicine because it’s all about what’s on your plate, and it’s your own hand that picks up the banana or the apple or the soursop or the kale or the avocado and puts it on your plate.  So, that’s all you have to remember.

Talking about the effects of mucus instead of skimming and delaying action on the topic that’s published in articles and newsletters is half the battle won in breast cancer prevention and the cure. A good springboard for discussion is “Mucus Plays Key Role in Cancer,” published in The Harvard Gazette, April 29, 2004. About mucus it says, “Investigators at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center in Boston became intrigued with the thick, slimy stuff when they learned that breast, lung, colon, and other tumor cells make more than 50 times more of a certain type of it than normal cells.”

The content of the article, simply put, says mucus is wreaking havoc in the body, something the late herbal medicine specialist Dr. Sebi stated for decades.

For instance, he has said, “Asthma says that the body has reached a level of mucus accumulation that is insupportable. When you describe an asthmatic person’s condition, you describe all others because all diseases stem from the accumulation of mucus. What causes prostate cancer? Inflammation. What is inflammation? The accumulation of mucus.”

What or who, pray tell, is the source, a much loved and long-standing source that builds a haven for excessive mucus to exist and destroy? In an interview in 2004, Dr. Sebi said, “There has never been an educator in America that has done research in neuropathology associating the disease with the food that goes in the person’s mouth. That research has never been done.”

Until now.

Dr. Neal Barnard, president of Washington, D.C.-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine practices holistic medicine that addresses symptoms, causes and solutions to diseases like breast cancer. “As a doctor,” he says, “I want people to know that they already wield some of the most powerful tools to help take control over the risk of cancer: the fork and knife.”

Acid-Based, Mucus-Causing Foods

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine occupies a rare space in western medicine, where it educates the public that some foods, including dairy, cause breast cancer. It found that, “research has linked the high fat content and hormones in milk, cheese, and other dairy products to breast cancer.” Other breast cancer-food connection studies referenced by the Committee include the following:

A 2017 study funded by the National Cancer Institute that compared the diets of women diagnosed with breast cancer to those without breast cancer found that those who consumed the most American, cheddar, and cream cheeses had a 53% higher risk for breast cancer.

The Life After Cancer Epidemiology study found that, among women previously diagnosed with breast cancer, those consuming one or more servings of high-fat dairy products (e.g., cheese, ice cream, whole milk) daily had a 49% higher breast cancer mortality, compared with those consuming less than one-half serving daily.

Research funded by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and the World Cancer Research Fund found that women who consumed 1/4 to 1/3 cup of cow’s milk per day had a 30% increased chance for breast cancer. One cup per day increased the risk by 50%, and 2-3 cups were associated with an 80% increased chance of breast cancer.

Health & fitness company and blogger Verv Experts (verv.com) teaches that the reason dairy is at the top of the list of mucus-producing foods is “milk and its derivatives like cheese, cream, butter and yogurt contain casein molecules which stimulate phlegm production. In addition, dairy contains a sugar called lactose which further increases mucus secretion.”

No doubt that osteoporosis comes to mind when talks of reducing or eliminating dairy surface. Your vitamin D and bone builder, where will it come from? What are the best life-saving, cancer prevention alternatives?

Plant-Based Calcium

Oranges and mushrooms are good. And add sea moss (also known as sea weed or algae) to talks of ridding the body of inflammation and strengthening bones. Sea moss gets little mention as an effective health benefit, yet it contains body-supporting calcium, magnesium, potassium, fiber, and vitamins, A, C, E, and B.

Sea moss grows under water. Brought to the surface, it becomes food and health products that when consumed regularly, help prevent diseases like breast cancer. Other foods that contain an ample supply of calcium are leafy green vegetables like Brussels sprout, kale, collards, turnip greens, green beans (also known as string beans, snap beans); asparagus and chickpeas are also rich in calcium as well as nut milks like cashew milk, walnut milk and almond milk.

No doubt that osteoporosis comes to mind when talks of reducing or eliminating dairy surface. Your vitamin D and bone builder, where will it come from? What are the best life-saving, cancer prevention alternatives? Dr. Barnard and Dr. Sebi recommend include a willingness to accept diet adjustments, non-surgical removal of the solid mass of mucus (tumor) with plenty of water, herbal detoxification, and cell repair.

Related links

https://www.sojourntohonduras.com

https://www.sevendaysinushavillage.org

If I can help somebody, as I travel along

If I can help somebody, with a word or song

If I can help somebody from doing wrong

No, my living shall not be in vain

—lyrics by Alma B. Androzzo

If you place Ms. Androzzo’s lyrics in a natural healing context, then you could surely apply them to Dr. Sebi, a man driven to educate people, particularly Black people, about the nature of food and health.  He committed over 30 years of his life traveling down that road, a road his protégé Adio Akil believed he would journey on for many years to come. But his death in August 2016 upended that notion, leaving Adio compelled to continue in the same vein as her mentor.

Adio is the owner and operator of the holistic health company Quintessence Health & Wellness in northwest Washington, D.C. She met and trained under Dr. Sebi at the Garden Holistic Institute in St. Croix, Virgin Islands.

Dr. Sebi is the creator of the African Bio Mineral Balance, a therapeutic system with a twofold approach: 1) remove toxins (mucus, plaque, cysts) from the body and 2) rebuild and restore iron and energy to the body’s immune system and cells.

We appreciate your work Dr. Sebi. Your living has not been in vain.

From Bob Marley to Thich Nhat Hanh and Letta Mbulu to Sonia Choquette, the consensus is clear—love heals. So it’s not so surprising that our bodies are endowed with the ability to produce a “love” hormone called oxytocin, one of four feel-good hormones according to Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Health Publishing. Harvard says, “Oxytocin can help us bond with loved ones and can be released through touch, music, and exercise.” No doubt that hugging is therapeutic.

About love, Dr. Sebi once said, “My ancestors afforded me the one thing that the world needs most today, love and compassion.”

This month, Dr. Sebi’s birth month, in the second of four remembrance videos, Adio Akil remembers Dr. Sebi as a healer who loved, and loved deeply.

Dr. Sebi speaks of love, including romantic love, in the following publications:

Sojourn to Honduras Sojourn to Healing

https://www.sojourntohonduras.com/about

Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation with Dr. Sebi

https://www.sevendaysinushavillage.org

Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali

https://www.sojourntohonduras.com/dembali

Talking about the effects of mucus instead of skimming and delaying action on the topic that’s published in articles and newsletters is half the battle won in breast cancer prevention and the cure.  A good springboard for discussion is “Mucus Plays Key Role in Cancer,” published in The Harvard Gazette, April 29, 2004. About mucus it says, “Investigators at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center in Boston became intrigued with the thick, slimy stuff when they learned that breast, lung, colon, and other tumor cells make more than 50 times more of a certain type of it than normal cells.”

The content of the article, simply put, says mucus is wreaking havoc in the body, something the late herbal medicine specialist Dr. Sebi stated for decades.

For instance, he has said, “Asthma says that the body has reached a level of mucus accumulation that is insupportable.  When you describe an asthmatic person’s condition, you describe all others because all diseases stem from the accumulation of mucus. What causes prostate cancer?  Inflammation.  What is inflammation?  The accumulation of mucus.”

What or who, pray tell, is the source, a much loved and long-standing source that builds a haven for excessive mucus to exist and destroy?  In an interview in 2004, Dr. Sebi said, “There has never been an educator in America that has done research in neuropathology associating the disease with the food that goes in the person’s mouth.  That research has never been done.” 

Until now.

Dr. Neal Barnard, president of Washington, D.C.-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine practices holistic medicine that addresses symptoms, causes and solutions to diseases like breast cancer. “As a doctor,” he says, “I want people to know that they already wield some of the most powerful tools to help take control over the risk of cancer: the fork and knife.”

Acid-Based, Mucus-Causing Foods

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine occupies a rare space in western medicine, where it educates the public that some foods, including dairy, cause breast cancer. It found that, “research has linked the high fat content and hormones in milk, cheese, and other dairy products to breast cancer.”  Other breast cancer-food connection studies referenced by the Committee include the following:

A 2017 study funded by the National Cancer Institute that compared the diets of women diagnosed with breast cancer to those without breast cancer found that those who consumed the most American, cheddar, and cream cheeses had a 53% higher risk for breast cancer.

The Life After Cancer Epidemiology study found that, among women previously diagnosed with breast cancer, those consuming one or more servings of high-fat dairy products (e.g., cheese, ice cream, whole milk) daily had a 49% higher breast cancer mortality, compared with those consuming less than one-half serving daily.

Research funded by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and the World Cancer Research Fund, found that women who consumed 1/4 to 1/3 cup of cow’s milk per day had a 30% increased chance for breast cancer. One cup per day increased the risk by 50%, and 2-3 cups were associated with an 80% increased chance of breast cancer.

Health & fitness company and blogger Verv Experts (verv.com) teaches that the reason dairy is at the top of the list of mucus-producing foods is “milk and its derivatives like cheese, cream, butter and yogurt contain casein molecules which stimulate phlegm production. In addition, dairy contains a sugar called lactose which further increases mucus secretion.”

No doubt that osteoporosis comes to mind when talks of reducing or eliminating dairy surface. Your vitamin D and bone builder, where will it come from? What are the best life-saving, cancer prevention alternatives?

Plant-Based Calcium

Oranges and mushrooms are good. And add sea moss (also known as sea weed or algae) to talks of ridding the body of inflammation and strengthening bones. Sea moss gets little mention as an effective health benefit, yet it contains body-supporting calcium, magnesium, potassium, fiber, and vitamins, A, C, E, and B.

Sea moss grows under water. Brought to the surface, it becomes food and health products that when consumed regularly, help prevent diseases like breast cancer. Other foods that contain an ample supply of calcium are leafy green vegetables like Brussels sprout, kale, collards, turnip greens, green beans (also known as string beans, snap beans); asparagus and chickpeas are also rich in calcium as well as nut milks like cashew milk, walnut milk and almond milk.

Kellie Bowman is a nurse who encourages eating more plant-based meals. She knows firsthand the benefits of doing so. Kellie is the daughter of nutritionist and herbal medicine specialist Dr. Sebi, and like her father, a vocal and focused advocate of alkaline (natural) food.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sebi's Daughters, LLC (@sebisdaughtersllc)

Detected in early stages, breast cancer is not a death sentence or a cue to cut the body, especially if next-step conversations and actions happen soon after the diagnosis. Immediate strategies practitioners like Dr. Barnard and Dr. Sebi recommend include a willingness to accept diet change, non-surgical removal of the solid mass of mucus (tumor) with plenty of water, herbal detoxification, and cell repair.

When Dr. Sebi transitioned on August 6, 2016, he left a legacy of herbal healing known to thousands yet unknown globally compared to pharmaceutical giants GlaxoKline, Merck, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson. If you are one of the fortunate healed by the African Bio Mineral Balance therapy, you would probably say that if Dr. Sebi cured only one person, it would be enough to show his expertise.

Today, the focus on plant-based medicine and research, such as the late Olivia Newton-John’s Research Foundation Fund, is a step in the direction Dr. Sebi advocated for more than 40 years. And after several experiments with natural plants, including taking on the role of his own guinea pig, he used his African Bio Mineral Balance herbs to cure himself and countless others. Research, research, experiment, cure. His legacy is one of tried, true, and effective results.

Maybe you’re thinking,

“You’re biased. He gave you permission to write his book. Sure, you praise him.”

I praise the tried and true; the useful, the impactful; results that speak for themselves. I am a recipient of the results, results worthy to be praised, evidenced by the photos of containers I’ve held onto for many years now.

Perhaps, if breast cancer patients had known about the tried and true African Bio Mineral Balance plant-based therapy, they’d be alive today—provided they committed to the nutritional guidance required. And nutrition is key. It works hand in hand with Dr. Sebi’s plant/herb-based therapy to heal the body and keep cells working the way they should.

On the sixth anniversary of his transition, I encourage you, if you haven’t already, to spread the word about Dr. Sebi’s humble beginnings and his quest to be useful, to create something that benefits humanity. Here is my part in that effort.

Dr. Sebi was a genius when it came to herbal research and practice. The following statements he shared with me are evidence of that.

“This perspective of the passionate, untrained seeker allowed my experience at MLK Hospital to be a neutral one, more like a research opportunity than a job. As a steam engineer, it was required of me to measure and record the pH or hydro-ion level of the water in the boiler. The pH in the water should have been 6.9. If the pH in the boiler water was to climb to 7.1, that water would be of an alkaline base and immediately life or algae would begin to invade the tube of the boilers and set up shop, creating a wall between the radiant heat and the water that is supposed to be boiled.

The result is that you get less heat transferred to the water because of the shield set up by life forms in the tubes of the boiler. This observation made it clear to me that life expresses itself in an environment of pH 7+, which is alkaline. Life is not found in an acid environment that is -7.

So one night, when I went to work, I decided to take herbs with me. I wanted to test them because it was clear to me that if life manifests at pH 7.1, then it means that the herbs that are for healing should be of a pH of 7+ as well. So, the first herb that I gave the litmus test was comfrey, and I found that comfrey has a pH of 6. Then garlic. I found that garlic has a pH of 4 or 3.3. These are only two of many, many substances that are frequently used that are -7 pH. Their base is of an acid content. When I read many of your better-known herbal and nutritional books and manuals, I found that garlic, comfrey, aloe vera, golden seal and many other hybrid herbs are recommended. It was then that I began to see that the manuals that are being used today are manuals that oppose life instead of complementing life. So, I began to put together compounds that were made of herbs whose pH is found in the area of 8+, ensuring that the hydrogen ion concentration would be of 7 or 8+. When the hydrogen ion or pH measurement is at this level, the electrical impulses are most active and offer energy necessary to restore balance to the human body.”