Yes. Hormonal imbalances, sweats, hot flashes, irritability. Herbalist Dr. Sebi knew these symptoms, not by direct experience, of course, but by counseling and treating women who sought release from these discomforts, discomforts that today, affect all who exist in a womanâs world: family, friends, co-workers.
In a menopause webinar, Dr. Wen Shen of Johns Hopkins University Menopause Clinic said that in 2020, 75 million women in the United States, ranging from ages 40 to 58, experienced the effects of menopause. The average age when it starts, 51. She also mentioned a little-known fact that females with premature ovarian failure begin menopause as early as their teenage years; 15-, 16-, and 17-year-olds with this condition face the same hot flashes and night sweats as 50-year-old women.
[Premature Ovarian Failure (POF), now commonly known as Primary Ovarian Insufficiency (POI), occurs when the ovaries stop functioning normally before age 40. It causes irregular periods, early infertility, and estrogen deficiency, which increases long-term risks for osteoporosis and heart disease.]
By contrast, Dr. Shen has patients approaching the age of 60 who are still having a period, a normal menstrual cycle, and often express anxiety about having continued monthly flows of blood beyond middle age.
To his senior clients stressed about their period, Dr. Sebi offered advice and herbs aligned with the natural flow of life. In the new book Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation With Dr. Sebi 20 Years Later, he says, âYou should welcome the period. When the period is present it means that the body is in sync. It is balanced and all of the irritability should not be experienced. The longer you keep your period the more in harmony you will be.â
Dr. Sebiâs take on going through the changes?
For women who endure their private summers of menopause, Dr. Sebi recommended a change many women found equally as stressful as middle-aged menstruation: diet.
âWhat they should know,â he says in the book, âis that whenever your endocrine system is out of balance, then you have nerve problems also. Thatâs why you have the sweats and are very irritable. . . Evidence of the fact that the diet has influenced menopause is that on more than one occasion we removed a sister from her usual diet and gave her compounds that afforded cleansing to the reproductive system and the entire body.â* What happened next might surprise you.
And for men in the throes of prostate cancer, Dr. Sebi recommended that same cleansing strategy. Read his full prescriptions, including his herbal therapy the African Bio Mineral Balance (tested and validated by Lancaster Laboratories), in Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation With Dr. Sebi 20 Years Later, specifically the chapter titled âDr. Sebi Shared More That Week in Honduras: His Methodology.â
And bear in mind, âAfricanâ in the title of Dr. Sebiâs therapy pays homage to what he considered uncelebrated African medicinal practices that have healed all races for hundreds of years. As a matter of fact, some of Dr. Sebiâs first clients were Caucasian and Asian.
The African Bio Mineral Balance, Dr. Sebiâs Usha Herbal Research Institute, and menopause therapy explained in Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation With Dr. Sebi 20 Years Later.
Test them, assess them, stack them side by side with conventional wisdom. What is the outcome? Dr. Sebi wouldnât call the following passages philosophy or sage wisdom. From what I know about him, heâd call them his observations, his knowledge, his experiences with what works in the human body and what wreaks havoc in it. If youâre at witsâ end with conventional wisdom, consider what Dr. Sebi has to say.
Here now, snippets of Dr. Sebiâs prognosis, found in the newly released, updated book Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation With Dr. Sebi 20 Years Later in the chapter titled âDr. Sebi Shared More That Week in Honduras: His Methodology.â
âThe intracellular chelation and the African Bio-Mineral Balance Therapy are designed to replenish the cells that have suffered more than others.â page 146
âAccording to medical science and its research, there are 1.5 million new diabetic patients each year. If we are going to properly address diabetes, we should go to its cause and identify why it occurs. In other words, we should treat the cause and not the symptoms.â page 147
âVibration is electrical and iron is electrical, and it is the only magnetic mineral. Being deprived of such a necessary substance makes the system go out of balance, causing sickle cell anemia in some of us, while in others it causes leukemia, hypoglycemia, and general anemia. All of these blood conditions are directly related to iron deficiency.â page 151
âThe reproductive organs begin to show signs of deterioration at age sixteen and sometimes earlier. We find that when our young women first find themselves on their period, they experience excruciating pain. This occurs because the same mucus that causes all other diseases is now invading the reproductive organ and sendingthe message that it is present.â page 152
âThe male doesnât have an ovary. He has a prostate gland. That is what becomes inflamed. By the time the physician detects the condition, the gland may already be cancerous. The male individual was unaware that the food that he was eating was undermining not only his reproductive organs, but also one of the most important systems in the bodyâthe central nervous system.â page 153
Paperback available at bookstores, including book sellers with online catalogs
ebook available at Smashwords.com, Apple, Fable and other ebook sellers
On November 26, indie author Beverly Oliver released Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation With Dr. Sebi 20 Years Later, a biographical book focused on the culture, observations and healing methods of renowned herbalist Dr. Sebi.
âNovember 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of my visit to Honduras, Central America, to interview Dr. Sebi, a man I feel is one of the greatest natural healers weâve ever known. Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation With Dr. Sebi 20 Years Later is a book that commemorates that journey and offers an in-depth view of Dr. Sebiâs method of treating diseases like leukemia, sickle cell anemia and diabetes,â says Oliver.
Dr. Sebi, who died at age 82 in August 2016, called his method of healing the African Bio Mineral Balance Therapy, a natural healing process he used for more than 40 years, beginning with his own life, and on clients of all races. Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation With Dr. Sebi 20 Years Later keeps front of mind that practice and Dr. Sebiâs quest to share his knowledge of highly effective herbal medicine (a common term used to describe natural plant-based, chemical-less health treatments).
About the book, Reedsy Discovery book interviewer Kennedy Odindo writes, âFor readers unaware of Dr. Sebi or aware but only a little, this book is indeed an eye-opener. With regards to what we eat and how best to protect ourselves against disease, he doesnât fall short of advice and anecdotes that help reinforce his vision. Thereâs a lot to admire and borrow from this simple man; a lot of inspiration to draw from this book.â The paperback book is available at Barnes & Noble and other retailers. The ebook is available directly through the authorâs website, https://www.sevendaysinushavillage.org/shop
âPeople come to me with leukemia. They say, âDr. Sebi, the doctor said that my child will die with leukemia. What can you offer that the physician did not offer?â I tell them that all I have to offer is a nutritional approach to disease. We begin by cleansing away the toxins that are invading the whole biology.â
âDr. Sebi, November 2005
Thereâs more about how Dr. Sebi cures diseases considered incurable in this celebration of my interview with him in La Ceiba, Honduras, twenty years ago and this new edition of Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation With Dr. Sebi. In the new chapter, âDr. Sebi Shared More That Week in Honduras: His Methodology,â youâll read, among other things, why sickle cell anemia, primarily found in Black people, is essentially leukemia and anemia in other races. Iron deficiency is the culprit.
The Prologue and end of the book have changed, with a full circle tribute to Dr. Sebi by the person who helped launch his career in the U.S., Adio Kuumba Akil. She met him for the first time at the Garden Holistic Institute in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, while learning natural healing and food therapy.
Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation With Dr. Sebi: 20 Years Later continues to shine a light on Dr. Sebiâs natural healing methodology, his raison dâĂŞtre, his thinking-outside-the-box prescription for optimal healthâat any age. It also celebrates his more than forty-year quest to share with the world alternative medicine that healed him (widely known as well as unfamiliar plants) and that same method he used to heal others.
Paperback Book Available November 2025.
Ask for it at your favorite bookstore. IngramSpark is the distributor.
Audiobook. eBook. Print. Whatever can be done to spread his legacy, his lifeâs story, the therapeutic healing procedure he crafted, Dr. Sebiâs protĂŠgĂŠsâhis got-your-back advocates and awestruck healed clients who named him Dr. Sebiâclearly stand front and center in that quest; and for almost 20 years, Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation With Dr. Sebi has played its role in propelling Dr. Sebi and his African Bio Mineral Balance system into the future.
When November 2025 arrives, 20 years will have passed since a week-long visit to La Ceiba, Honduras. That seven-day fireside chat. A crash course in botany, natural botany. A deep delve into Dr. Sebiâs metamorphic upbringing from Alfredo to Fred to Mama Hay.
A new, extended edition of Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation With Dr. Sebi will mark and celebrate the bookâs 20-year milestone.
Below, Dr. Sebi on his book and foreigners in Honduras
Milky way and partner purple-pink aurora borealis dance a galactic two-step across the Cosmos
âI remember in my dreams I dream that I fly every day. At night I fly. And when I come back on the ground, boy what a relief it is when I fly. And my life reflects that flying. Because I see things from the top and it becomes easy. . . . By the top I mean that I see things from the top where I can grasp the whole spectrum. I have a larger platform.â
â Dr. Sebi, Herbalist and fan of Weather Reportâs âMysterious Travellerâ
But what of the body after the two-step, after flying high in a dream? Where might energy replenishments, reinforcements be? Deep dive healing in the sea, the seaweed, the Irish sea moss (Chondrus crispus). And from the depths of the sea, it risesâdinner table, skin care, immune system-boosting medicinal, as jellies, puddings, smoothies. One of the best breakthroughs in healing since penicillin. Yet, today, seaweed, also called sea moss, algae and kelp, ranks as a lesser-known but growing-in-stature body helper.
Purple seaweed (from the red algae family)
In his April 2014 article in Mother Earth News magazine, Christopher Nyerges writes, âSeaweed seems to be nothing more than gooey, smelly, fly-infested garbage; however, as unpalatable as they might seem, seaweeds are in fact extremely important plantsânutritious eaten as is or lightly cooked.â
Nyerges mentions nutritionist and naturopathic physician Paavo Airola who says, in his book, Are You Confused?, âKelp is one of the ten plants that helps the bodyâs glands reach their peak of healthy activity. Many seaweedsâmost commonly kelpâwhen powdered yield potassium chloride, a salt substitute. This is a godsend for those who must restrict the amount of sodium chloride in their diet.â
And consider these facts about an all-time favorite seaweed of natural healer Dr. Sebiâbladderwrackâan ocean-grown brown seaweed found in northern coasts on the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the United States. The amount of iodine bladderwrack contains is sufficient to treat thyroid disorder, diabetes and food addictions. Iodine, according to Nyergesâ research, is necessary for âthe proper functioning of the thyroid gland and has been used for the treatment of goiter for over 5,000 years.â
Goiter is an enlarged thyroid gland and can grow to a swelling or bulge on the neck. People who have this condition are iodine-deficient, and since the body doesnât produce iodine, and itâs an important nutrient for thyroid health, itâs crucial to get it from foods or iodine-rich seaweeds like bladderwrack.
Edible Seaweeds
More than likely, youâve seen themâbrown, red, green algae found at beaches and in marine waters. Irish moss grows in cooler waters in Europe, North America, Canada and Peru, while St. Lucia sea moss grows in warmer waters in the Caribbean, Southern Asia and Africa.
According to National Geographic, âSeaweed is a superfood you can forage. . . The newest seaside trend is searching for seaweedâa fun and sustainable way to explore the worldâs coastal areas.â
Seaweed is a win for you, the ocean and the planet. â World Wildlife Fund
As the number of seaweed producers increases, youâll find their products in herbal compounds; in seasonings due to seaweedâs natural salt and minerals; in dried seaweed snacks like nori; in jars of sea moss mixed with fruit due to its thickening and jelling activity, an activity also used in the production of sea moss skin care products.
What Seaweed Advocates Have to Say
Wild Irish Seaweed Ltd. Did you know that seaweed has more vitamin C than oranges? Carrageen, sugar kelp, bladderwrack and nori have great amounts of vitamin C. Vitamin C produces collagen so it is essential for the repair of tissue. . . . All our seaweed comes from the pristine nutrient-rich waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
Herban-Oasis/Original Thought. Chondrus Crispus (Irish sea moss) adds strength, resilience and elasticity to all connective tissues, joints and muscles. Great for strong bones.
World Wildlife Fund. Americans tend to think of seaweed as the stuff that gets stuck to your legs when you go swimming at the beachânot a food thatâs highly nutritious, easy to grow and beneficial to ocean ecosystems. But seaweed is all of these things.
Sebiâs Daughters. Sea moss is an easy, one-stop way to ensure your body is getting the nutrients it needs. Organic sea moss powder is rich in essential vitamins and minerals, including iodine, calcium, magnesium and potassium; easily incorporate this powder into your favorite natural foods and smoothies for a nutritious boost to your diet.
Dr. Sebi, sea moss and bladderwrackâs greatest cheerleader.If you want your bones strong, you have to go to the sea moss, and it will strengthen your calcium cells.
So go on, dance a two-step beneath the stars. Move, groove in the cosmos, fortified with a purple-pink partner from the seaâalgae, kelp, the seaweed.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, thereâs a takeaway with this book cover. A pensive Dr. Sebi. A teaching Dr. Sebi. A Dr. Sebi who said to me a few years back, and the right bottom photo seems to suggest, âMy relationship with people, whether male or female, Iâm not going to have a relationship with you unless that relationship is based on love and affection.â And that includes children, his most cherished comradesâI was surprised to learnâwho watched his carefree persona and antics that the pursuit of understanding and health ignited. âIt has me laughing now and being happy, doing all kinds of acrobatic stupidness. Thatâs why the children come around here and they donât want to leave, because they found a grownup that is as stupid as they are. And they enjoy that, and I enjoy it too because they accept me as their peer.â Needless to say, the beam in his eyes confirmed that shared love and affection, something heâs more likely to exhibit in private moments.
Dr. Sebi posed for the coverâs photos in 2014 in his Los Angeles office. They capture a patient man, an accommodating man, a man perhaps less known for his childlike awe and love of life.
His hard-lined exterior expressed in public talksâand even in one of the photos on the book coverâmasks that deep-rooted love, and not exclusively love for black people or black culture. You might know from reading other books about his merchant seaman days, Dr. Sebi traveled the world on cargo and passenger boatsâthe sea and a multicultural mix of people his neighbors. That environment helped shape his love and respect for all cultures and ways of life, and it certainly molded his articulate, open-minded and intelligent worldview. But long before those trips, the love trait had already set in. His grandmother, Mama Hay, saw to that. âI was blessed to have Mama Hay, who demanded nothing but integrity of me at all times,â Dr. Sebi shared at his home in Honduras. âShe was uncompromising. She didnât care how big or how small you were. In her eyes you were the same.â The top right photo on the cover hints at a sublime reflection of Mama Hay.
But what of the other photos? Do they help deconstruct Dr. Sebi and, like other book covers, tell a story before any page is turned? Todayâs covers are vivid, art-filled, sensory, far more than covers created a couple of centuries ago, when the only thing that enticed a read of a story was the book title or authorâs name. Less color and flash than 21st century covers, Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembaliâs billboards a double agent: a poised confident thinker, comfortable in the presence of others, and then, in a plot twist, a superhero driven to save the world from itself.
In her article for Publishers Weekly, âJudging a Book by Its Cover,â author Terry Newman wrote, âI canât say that all books would benefit from pictures, but a bookâs cover is the first engagement many have with the author, and whatâs on that cover is crucial. It needs to communicate whatâs inside.â
The story that lies in the cover of Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali is a journey to the gateway of its multilayered main character. âWhy all the emoting when he speaks?â one could ask when taking a quizzical look at the sedate, unassuming photos at the top of the cover. On the other hand, when he drives his point home, as he does in the bottom photos, one wonders, âWhat does he offer that resonates with me? Should I open the book?â
Read on for the answers. Each photo on the cover is matched with quotes from Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali. At the end, decide if the pairings offer value and wisdom and a new interpretation of this gentle giant.
âAs I look at this arrangement of life, I find myself being very extremely careful, careful because I have not ever or do I remember wanting to be anything in my life. I want to be me. In the me, in the wanting to be me, I find that a whole lot of things came out of that, such as the healer.â
âUnlike other therapies, the African Bio Mineral Balance specifically benefits the nutritional needs of the African gene structure. But the beauty of the African Bio Mineral Balance is, because of its highly electrical nature, it has ample capacity to accommodate the nutritional needs of the entire human species. Over the years, we have treated people from all walks of life. In our early years, the bulk of our clientele were Mexican and Caucasian.â
âThe African Bio Mineral Balance addresses disease on two levels: one, it cleanses the body, an intracellular cleansing. Not only do we concentrate on cleansing the organs, we concentrate on cleansing the cells that make up the organs. . . Now, we go into the revitalizing of the cells. As we cleanse the body, we now have to replenish the minerals that have been lost by the presence of the acid that caused the diseases in the first place. That means the African Bio Mineral Balance comes into the picture. The African Bio Mineral Balance is the family of 102 minerals. Why? Because we are talking about organic food. We are talking about cell food.â
âYou listen, Beverly. You listen. How did I do my first consultation? I wasnât trained. I let the patient talk.â
âRight. So, you just recommended things for the patient to take?â
âNo. I already knew what to recommend because I make one treatment. I donât make treatment special for AIDS or diabetes. Itâs the same treatment.â
âJust one thing.â
âItâs one thing. Itâs one disease. So, I didnât have to go through psychoanalyzing anyone. No. People came here that were schizophrenic. People came here with delirium tremors. People came here that were paranoid. And people came here with Parkinsonâs, and they all left cured. Well, how did that happen? How did it happen? The African Bio Mineral Electric Cell food.â
âIâve had the negative thrown to me by some of them because they were negative. But Iâve had beautiful things thrown to me because they were beautiful. Just like the old man in the village. The old man is living on the edges of the village. And the traveler came to the village and asked the old man,
âOld Man! What kind of people live here?â
âWhy?â
âThe village I just left, they are cutthroats!â
The old man said, âThe same kind of people live here.â
So he turned back. Another traveler next month came.
âOld man, what kind of people live here?â
The old man said, âWhy?â
âBecause the village I just left? They beautiful. They nice.â
He said, âThe same kind of people live here.â
âI used to get angry. I used to go on stage in D.C. You donât want to see my lectures in D.C. They were volatile! They were explosive. âDr. Sebi, you said we shouldnât drink carrot juice!â I would go off on you. I would go off on you. I would practically insult you. I may cuss you out. Why would I do that? I used to wonder why was I so volatile against the people thatâs in front of me. Why? Because what one gorilla knows, all gorillas know. So I want to know how come I know this and you donât. I didnât like that. I felt insecure. I felt very insecure. I used to get angry at you when you didnât know. They interpret it like I was angry. No, I was very much disturbed because you didnât know, and you are my sister and my brother. The more of us that knows, the safer it is for all of us.â
Pinched by curiosity to delve within Dembali’s pages? IngramSpark has her, as well as Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.
He was more like George Washington Carver than anything else. He absolutely, totally, undeniably loved plants â real, Mother-nature created plants.
âThe blue vervain is a plant that digests potassium phosphate. And she grows right here in the village, and sheâs a pretty plant. If you want your nerves to be treated properly, just think about the blue vervain, the root and the flower,â Dr. Sebi said.
And he felt no shame being a descendant of that region of the world called Africa. He appealed to it and the âcosmic arrangement of lifeâ for tips on how to be an effective alkaline herbal specialist. These are the reasons why I miss Dr. Sebi. This month, August 2021, marks the fifth anniversary of his transition.
The following passage is taken from the Epilogueof Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali.
Occasionally, when Sebi was alive, well, and retired in Honduras, rumors about his death would spread like California wildfires among his supporters. I felt the heat from some of the embers one morning in 2015, when I received a call from Sebiâs former assistant, Annette Thomas. I assured her everything was fine â I suppressed all other thoughts â and to prove it, I volunteered to drive to his office on La Cienega Avenue in Los Angeles, to get confirmation from his staff. About five minutes into the trip, Annette called me back to say a friend had heard from Sebi. Another rumor quashed. And just as I dismissed news of his death then, I did it again on August 6, 2016, when friends and relatives offered me condolences in text messages for the passing of my friend Dr. Sebi.
âThis is nothing new. Itâs not true,â I replied. But this time, I was wrong. Look on Instagram, they said. Sebiâs 21-year-old daughter, Saama, had announced his death there. She was posting from Honduras, where Sebi died.
A few days after the devastation hit me, I drove to Sebiâs office, placed my flowers among others under his portrait and sat for a while. I watched what I presumed were customers and mourners flow in and out of the building, the same building I entered for the first time in 2005.
What I gleaned from my relationship with Dr. Sebi is his courageous support for and homage to African resonance: his muse, his guide, his blueprint for existence, his culling from the past to drive his healing journey. And it seems that on the path, dembali is the lens through which he viewed the human experience. He coined the term to help fill a void not only in black communities â his message speaks volumes for all â but for communities where races and cultures intersect, commingle, and interrelate in matters of health, race, family, and culture. Yet he felt dembali helps black folks most, keeping us grounded, balanced, healthy, and true to Self in the intersection and in our relationship with others. Dembali reminds us to draw from ancestral examples of resiliency and appeals to the cosmos for direction in crossing over back to a state of ease. More often than not, Dr. Sebi said with a roar, âWhat one gorilla knows, all gorillas know.â And when he roared that message, Iâm sure Earth nodded, smiled, and rumbled right along with him.
Now that Covid-19 lockdowns in the US have easedâcruise ships and air travel up from a 97% drop last yearâvacationers are on the road again, with books and tablets in tow. Summertime 2021 is a good time for post-pandemic discounts. Maybe not for airfares or hotels, but definitely for eBooks.
Thanks to eBook distributor Smashwords and its annual summertime sale, eBooks are discounted 25%, 50%, 75% and even free. Authors applaud the opportunity to pass these summertime savings to readers. From July 1-31, Smashwordsâ annual summer sale includes hundreds of eBooks, such as nonfiction narratives about the late natural healer Dr. Sebi: Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation with Dr. Sebi, Sojourn to Honduras Sojourn to Healing and Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali. According to Smashwords, the catalog gives readers access to âtop-recommended books across different themes,â like bestsellers. A summertime win-win opportunity for authors, readers and publishers. Â Summer sale on eBooks. 25%, 50%, 75%, Free. https://www.smashwords.com
Deficit, says natural healer and alkaline herbal medicine specialist Dr. Sebi. His reasons cover two pages in the new book Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali. An excerpt from Chapter Five: On Matters of Food and Health.
When I open the wooden screened door of Sebiâs cabin, I grin and watch a surprising scene:Â Dr. Sebiâcurer of diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer; herbalist to celebrities; advocate of alkaline foodâeating cookies with Matun. I sit down and join them. Every now and then Sebi falls off the wagon. I couldnât help thinking that the renowned healer was cheating on his die-hard alkaline diet. Sebi sees it another way.
âWe call it cheating instead of a conditioning,â he says. âItâs not a cheating. That doesnât exist, because the gorilla never cheats. The gorilla eats exactly what he was designed to eat throughout his lifetime. So why is it that the gorilla, when he finds himself in a zoo, he too begins to cheat? Because they feed him bananas. Gorilla does not eat bananas in the forest. But in a zoo he eats bananas. When we were in the forest, we didnât eat rice and beans. Goats and cows, that represent poison, because there isnât any nutritionist or biochemist that could show scientifically the benefits of animal blood in the human body. Blood represents disease. Blood is the carrier of disease. And the liver is the filter. So how could ingesting the blood of an animal be useful in my nutrition? So cheating is a conditioning. Itâs not a conscious, deliberate act.â
âWhat weâre doing now, weâre eating cookies,â I say, chewing what tastes like a gingersnap.
âWell, we are what you would call cheating.â
âWe are cheating then?â
âNo, but remember, we are only submitting to that part of us that has been so conditioned throughout the years,â he clarifies.
The story continues in Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali.
JBDavid Communications 