MANILA, Philippines?With dengue on the rise and in epidemic proportions, none of us can be too careful. E-mails and texts have been circulating offering different cures and prevention for the awful disease that attacks the blood and the immune system. One particular email caught my attention as it spoke of kamote tops as being able to raise platelet levels, the component of blood that dengue attacks. Over the holidays I was diagnosed with ITP, meaning that for an unknown cause, my platelets were below the normal level. With this in mind, I feared I would be more susceptible to dengue. After spending thousands in the hospital and weeks of being poked and prodded by needles, I gave the kamote remedy a shot. I had a bunch of kamote tops boiled for five minutes like the e-mail instructed, and drank the soup that it produced. I did this for maybe three days. I?ve been away from my Super Crew for a month down one sickness after another. With a cold and slight fever,I sipped on my kamote soup at lunch yesterday, and went to the hospital today to get my blood checked to rule out dengue. When the results came back, my platelet count had jumped by 50,000 back up into the normal platelet zone, a place my blood hasn?t been for six months. When I asked the emergency room doctor if it could possibly be the kamote tops soup, she rolled her eyes like I was a silly hippie.

According to Wikipedia kamote tops, or sweet potato greens have the following properties:

?Sweet potato tops are excellent sources of antioxidative compounds, mainly polyphenolics, which may protect the human body from oxidative stress that is associated with many diseases including cancer ad cardiovascular diseases. Sweet potato greens have the highest content of total polyphenolics among other commercial vegetables studied. Sweet potatoes contain protein, dietary fiber, lipid, and essential minerals and nutrients such as calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, sodium, potassium, sulfur, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, aluminum and boron. Sweet potatoes are also important sources of vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and ascorbic acid.?

I do believe that the humble kamote brought me back to health, but I am in no way saying that this replaces traditional medicine. It never hurts to try natural remedies, and perhaps if more people who practiced western medicine kept their minds open instead of rolling their eyes, more people could be treated. What ever the mighty kamote has in its leaves, I?m back to being Super!