About the Book
To people in the West the name Maori conjures up images of a tribal society. Not quite so widely known, however, is the fact that this race tends to live to a great age by and large unhampered by ill health or the traditional diseases now accepted by us as being an unavoidable consequence of growing old. For even among the Maori elders there is usually no sign of rheumatism or arthritis. Indeed, there is little evidence to suggest that these conditions have ever existed in their culture.
In Life Without Arthritis Jan de Vries shows how the dietary management of the Maori people is the major source of continued good health and that is a diet now widely available in Western society. He shares the treasures of the Maoris and explains how, by following their example, there can be life without arthritis or rheumatism.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
BY APPOINTMENT ONLY SERIES
Arthritis, Rheumatism and Psoriasis
Asthma and Bronchitis
Cancer and Leukaemia
Heart and Blood Circulatory Problems
Migraine and Epilepsy
Do Miracles Exist?
Multiple Sclerosis
Neck and Back Problems
Realistic Weight Control
Skin Diseases
Stress and Nervous Disorders
Traditional Home and Herbal Remedies
Viruses, Allergies and the Immune System
NATURES GIFT SERIES
Air: The Breath of Life
Body Energy
Food
Water: Healer or Poison?
WELL WOMAN SERIES
Female Cancers
Menopause
Menstrual and Pre-Menstrual tension
Pregnancy and Childbirth
Mother and Child
JAN DE VRIES HEALTHCARE SERIES
How to Live a Healthy Life
Questions and Answers on Family Health
The Five Senses
Inner Harmony
Healing in the 21st Century
Hidden Dangers in What We Eat and Drink
My Life With Diabetes
NATURES BEST SERIES
10 Golden Rules for Good Health
New Developments for MS Sufferers
THE JAN DE VRIES PHARMACY GUIDEBOOK SERIES
The Pharmacy Guide to Herbal Remedies
ALSO BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Life Without Arthritis The Maori Way
Whos Next?
A Step at a Time (Autobiography)
LIFE WITHOUT ARTHRITIS
The Maori Way
A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY FOR ARTHRITIS AND RHEUMATISM SUFFERERS
Jan de Vries
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Epub ISBN: 9781780570396
Version 1.0
www.mainstreampublishing.com
This edition 2004
Copyright Jan de Vries, 1998
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has been asserted
First published in Great Britain in 1991 by
MAINSTREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY (EDINBURGH) LTD
7 Albany Street
Edinburgh EH1 3UG
Reprinted 1995, 1999, 2001
ISBN 1 84018 966 5
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for insertion in a magazine, newspaper or broadcast
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Honoe te pito ora ki te pito pate.
(Let the strong end be joined by the weak end)
Maori proverb
The Maoris
ON 1 APRIL 1970 we opened our residential clinic on the west coast of Scotland, called Mokoia. It was housed in a beautiful mansion overlooking the Clyde and the Isle of Arran, beyond which the Irish Sea could be seen. I doubt if anybody could express in words the beauty and full glory of a sunset viewed from Mokoia and do it justice.
When I opened the clinic in Scotland, I was ignorant of the meaning of the name. I asked around and checked with libraries, but I didnt really know where to start. What did the name Mokoia mean? From various sources I was given different interpretations. The explanation I liked the best originated in New Zealand and related to an island in the New Zealand lake district which, according to Maori legend, was often referred to as the Island of Love.
The legend comes to us from the unwritten records of a highly cultured people. The island of Mokoia is surrounded by a lake in Rotorua, an area that is famous for its thermal lakes and is steeped in legend, history and culture. Rotorua is a land of romance. Every hill and valley, every geyser and boiling mud pool, every lake and island and indentation of the shore was known by name and loved by the Maori people. Many of these places were immortalised in fable and story, and this is not surprising. A region of violent thermal activity is an obvious setting for tales of mystery and magic, many of which have been handed down from the distant past.
I kapi i be cangata, the Maoris used to say of the island of Mokoia, which means covered with men. It is only a small island, about one mile square, rising in proud isolation 500 feet above the level of the lake and protected by its waters. It has a history that can be traced back more than a thousand years. The island of Mokoia was originally inhabited by an indigenous tribe who were conquered by the Arawa people. Te arawa means the canoe. About six centuries ago, some of the more adventurous people from Tahiti set out on exploratory journeys: in a fleet of canoes they sailed southwards, where they eventually settled at Maketu in the Bay of Plenty. From there the Arawa people spread inland and eventually conquered the indigenous tribes of the Hot Lakes district the guardians of the fascinating thermal region of New Zealand. It is in this area that the island of Mokoia is to be found.
In their legends we read about Ngatoro the fire-bringer. It is claimed that upon finding dry valleys he stamped his foot so hard that springs of water gushed forth. It was Ngatoro who first visited the mountains and placed on them the mysterious white-skinned fairy people; legend also had it that it was Ngatoro who was the cause of volcanic fire, spouting geysers and boiling mud pools.
The early name of Mokoia was Te Mokotapu-a-Tinirau, meaning the Sacred Isle of Tinirau. Its later name, Mokoia, is a curious example of a native pun. Many years went by before the original inhabitants were finally exterminated or absorbed by the Arawa tribe. One of these aboriginals was Arorangi, a tribal chief, who had killed and eaten a dog belonging to an Arawa chief. As a result, a battle was fought and Arorangi was killed by the Arawa chief. He was struck over the eye with the sharp point of a
