Natural Health & Wellness
The Power of Self-Healing: Unlock Your Natural Healing Potential in 21 Days
The following excerpt is taken from the book The Power of Self-Healing: Unlock Your Natural Healing Potential in 21 Days by Dr. Fabrizio Mancini. It is published by Hay House (January 2012) and is available at all bookstores or online at: www.hayhouse.com.
Food Allergens and Sensitivities
Our clever immune system is designed to differentiate between healthy compounds and potentially harmful substances. When it encounters one of these bad guys, it reacts by making protective antibodies or releasing certain chemicals. For some of us, our body overreacts, responding inappropriately to ordinarily benign substances, like wheat or milk. The body’s protective antibodies attach to perceived invaders, releasing histamine. This triggers inflammatory reaction that can affect the skin, mucous membranes, respiratory system, and/or gastrointestinal tract.
The most common symptoms of an allergic response are rashes, hives, itchy and watery eyes, runny nose, congestion, diarrhea, vomiting, and rapid heart rate, along with less obvious symptoms like fatigue, headache, bloating, and mood swings.
Some foods are allergens. The more common are wheat, milk, eggs, corn, soy, yeast, and chocolate. Certain food additives can provoke an allergic response, too. But no food or additive is exempt from scrutiny.
Healing a Food Allergy
Genevieve, a student at Parker University, told me that she had lived with food allergies her entire life, especially an allergy to nuts. In the last few years, she’d been experiencing mild reactions to even raw fruits and vegetables – the very foods that are supposed to keep us well.
On the advice of her father (who is a chiropractor) and a food allergy expert, Genevieve eliminated foods containing gluten from her diet. Gluten is a combination of complex proteins found in wheat, barley, rye, spelt and some other grains, Normally, it is easy to digest. But, for people with celiac disease, the body perceives gluten as a foreign substance and responds with a full-blown immune response. Immediate symptoms of celiac disease include bloating, diarrhea, abdominal swelling and pain. Longer-term symptoms include gastrointestinal disturbances, skin disorders, weight loss, anemia, muscle pain, fatigue and behavior changes. Over time, untreated celiac disease can substantially increase the risk of serious disease, such as gastrointestinal cancer.
Within two months of eating a gluten-free diet, Genevieve eased raw fruits and vegetables back into her diet. Her face looked less puffy, especially underneath her eyes. Most striking was the diet’s positive effect on her digestion and energy levels. If she cheated and ate something with gluten, her symptoms returned with a vengeance.
“I thought I’d have a difficult time giving up gluten because I craved pasta. I bought rice pasta as a substitute, and it fills the bill. This has definitely been a life-changing diet plan for me. I’m now gluten free not because someone told me I should be, but because my body is literally begging me to be. I’m finally in tune with what my body wants and needs in order to function to its optimal innate health.”
Food allergy pops up in only one to two percent of Americans, whereas food intolerance occurs in up to a whopping 70 percent of the population! Food allergy is an abnormal reaction to certain food proteins, usually triggered by the body’s immune system, that can cause serious illness and, in some cases, death. By contrast, a food intolerance is a delayed, negative reaction to a food, beverage or food additive usually due to insufficient levels of a specific enzyme.
The four primary types of known food intolerance are in response to: lactose, gluten, fructose, and histamine. In lactose intolerance, often misidentified as a food allergy, a deficiency in the enzyme lactase leaves some lactose undigested and allows it to enter the intestines. Bacteria processes the sugar and releases gas. This leads to the bloating, abdominal pain, and diarrhea characteristic of a food intolerance.
Gluten intolerance is the inability to digest or break down gluten. The condition can range from a mild sensitivity to gluten to full-blown celiac disease (which is recognized as a true food allergy). Fructose intolerance is a sensitivity to fructose, a natural sugar found in fruits, nuts, and honey. It’s frequently added to sweetened beverages such as sodas, sports and fruit drinks, bottled tea and coffee drinks, and flavored waters.
This intolerance can be mild or serious. The more serious form is “hereditary fructose intolerance,” a rare genetic disorder. People with this condition lack an enzyme needed to break down fructose during digestion, and this can result in liver and kidney damage. Typically, hereditary fructose intolerance is identified and diagnosed at young age.
The mild form of fructose intolerance is called “fructose malabsorption.” It means you have trouble digesting fructose. Symptoms include bloating, abdominal cramps, gas and diarrhea, but not kidney or liver damage.
Yet one of the most prevalent yet virtually unknown types of food intolerances is histamine intolerance. This means your body can’t degrade the histamine found in many foods due to inadequate activity of the enzyme diamine oxidase (DAO).
Histamine levels are very high in popular “guilty pleasure” foods such as pizza, beer, red wine, cured and smoked meats and fish, and many types of cheeses and nuts. As foods lose their freshness, histamine builds up in them. Unfortunately, millions of Americans have insufficient levels of DAO to process the high levels of histamine in many of the foods they love.
So how can you tell the difference between a food allergy and a food intolerance? Ask yourself: When do symptoms occur? If they are present within five minutes, it’s probably allergy. If they pop up after half an hour or later, it’s probably a food intolerance.
Allergy or Intolerance?
Could you have a food allergy or food intolerance? Ask yourself whether you experience any of these reactions soon after eating certain foods:
● Itching or tingling in and around your mouth
● Swelling in the mouth or in the “narrowing” or “closing” feeling in your throat
● Rashes, blotches or redness on the skin anywhere on your body
● Irritated or crying eyes, or runny nose
● Wheezing or difficulty breathing
● Feeling acutely sick or even ending up vomiting
If you answered even one “yes” to these questions, you may well have a food allergy.
Next, ask yourself whether you experience any of these reactions a while after eating certain foods:
● Bloating or pain in your stomach or abdomen
● A rumbling abdomen – perhaps accompanies by gas
● Constipation or diarrhea
● Tiredness and lethargy
● Headache or migraine
One or more “yeses” may – but only may – indicate food intolerance. However, understand that occasional reactions to your diet are natural, if only because you may have eaten too much (which may lead to indigestion, which is often confused with food intolerance) or if something simply hasn’t agreed with you. This is unlikely to be a food intolerance. But obviously, if you’re in great discomfort or are very worried about your health, see your doctor at once.
Your doctor may refer you to an allergist. If so, you’ll be asked to keep a food diary, in which you write down everything you eat and how you respond to it. You have to be very specific. Saying “Caesar Salad” is not good enough. You have to write down what’s in the Caesar Salad, croutons and all.
Next, you’ll probably undergo an allergy test. If you have sensitivities, you’ll have to eliminate the offenders, and add in certain self-healing foods and supplements. You cannot be cured of a food allergy. If you have a true food allergy, you must avoid that food.
Every so often, take time to look at your diet – what’ve you’ve added, what you’ve subtracted. You’re learning where you need to make self-healing changes in your life. Feel great about it!
Philippo Franchini – The Musical Alchemist
Philippo Franchini
The Musical Alchemist
Blog: Between the Notes
http://philippomusic.ning.com/
I believe that every major shift in social consciousness has been accompanied by a change in music — and this is happening again now! Music from all parts of the world has been blending together powerfully for over two decades. On any radio dial or online music source, one can hear African, South American, Asian, Arabic, Native American music, and more. Our current pop music is being infused with many elements borrowed from a variety of other cultures. And now that social media has exploded all over the globe, our choices — along with our newfound connection to each other — will allow for a more profound global impact.
One of the new currents of music sweeping the globe is a yogic, meditative blend called “Kirtan.” Kirtan, originally from India, utilizes Sanskrit mantras and chants to heighten awareness and open the mind to meditative states, just as shamanic rituals from many ancient cultures do. And with these kind of creative rebirths, I see music reclaiming its original place not only as entertainment, but as a transformative and healing force that can help to balance us, nourish our spirits and communities, and serve as a unique doorway into sublime realms!
We are all vibrational beings, and we live in a vibrational Universe (or Uni-verse, if you will). We are all literally “composed” of multidimensional vibratory patterns, meaning our breathing, circulation, brainwaves and internal organs all have rhythms, pulses, and tones! Our thoughts and emotions can also be understood as frequencies. And the more self-aware we become, the more we have the ability to regulate and tune our individual frequencies to enjoy the kinds of experiences we choose — and we can do this by using sonic self-attunement and choosing music that nurtures and supports our most-essential vibrational make up. I like to call this process “Musical Alchemy.”
Please join me, Philippo, the Musical Alchemist, once a month, for the lighter side of enlightenment as we romp around the mystical space I’ve come to call “Between the Notes.” I am a composer, musician, and yogi, which means I study, investigate, and apply the natural laws of vibration to integrate and transform discordant, heavy vibrations into more harmonious and joyful ones.
I will be introducing you to some of the amazing properties of sound and cosmic vibration, including the ancient wisdom of Nada Yoga, as well as some intriguing, recent scientific research. Did you know that we can actually use music and sound every day to change our moods, give us energy, calm us down, or tune out things we don’t like? In this blog and the accompanying videos, I’ll explain how to do this more creatively and with a better understanding of the natural laws involved.
This will be our own mystical journey, so please tune in every month here on The Edge for “Between the Notes.”
Copyright © 2011 Philippo Franchini. All Rights Reserved.
Now Remember Rosemary – Susun S. Weed
Now Remember Rosemary
Susun S. Weed
Mad Ophelia tells us: “There’s Rosemary, that’s for remembrance”. In Shakespeare’s day it was common knowledge that rosemary helped one remember. Today, as then, herbalists agree: “For weyknesse of ye brayne, sethe rosemaria in wyne and keep ye heed warme”. The leaves of this tough, evergreen shrub, are valued for both medicinal and culinary uses. And, the powerful antioxidant vitamins found therein do help the brain work better.
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is an especially aromatic member of the mint family. When grown in dry, poor soils in hot areas, a little protected, but touched by the winds, rosemary rewards us with minerals, vitamins, and antiseptic, antibacterial volatile oils which extract easily into water, vinegar, alcohol, and fat. While evergreen, and thus usable at any time of the year, rosemary is considered most medicinal when flowering. A large pinch of dried rosemary in food acts as a preservative. A strong brew of the fresh or dried leaves makes a particularly effective wound wash.
Old herbals hint that rosemary exerts its influence magically as well as physically. Burned as an incense, twined into a wreath, or grown in a pot, rosemary protects the house and those who live in it, especially the women. Added to the wedding bouquet, it insures fidelity. Tied with silk ribbons and given to the wedding guests, it spreads loving kindness.
“As for Rosmarine, I let it runne all over my garden walls, not onlie because my bees love it, but because it is the herb sacred to remembrance, and, therefore, to friendship …” said Sir Thomas More several hundred years ago, with a smile.
Juliette de Bairacli Levy repeats an old, old story about rosemary: When Mary and Joseph were fleeing with the infant Jesus, Mary placed her damp blue cloak on the rosemary bush to dry it. The rosemary, thus blessed, forever more has had blue flowers, and the absolute power to protect against evil. A sprig of rosemary hung by the door banishes all thieves; a bush of rosemary growing by the door allows only love to enter.
Rosemary is a traditional Christmas decoration – partly because it smells good, and partly because pruning rosemary back mid-winter makes it stronger and healthier. So don’t hesitate to cut bunches of it for beauty. If you take your decorative rosemary down before it gets too dry, it can be used for cooking or as a smudge.
The dense smoke (smudge) produced by burning dried rosemary is equally favored in religious, mystical, and medicinal settings. When frankincense and myrrh – expensive and foreign resins – are in short supply, rosemary stands in for them in the church’s – or the pagans – censors. During the plague years, and thereafter in many hospitals, the burning of rosemary reliably cleared the air and countered airborne infections. By extension, rosemary was given to mourners to protect them from contagion. It was laid in the coffin to preserve the body. And it was cast into the grave at the end of the funeral.
In England, a branch of rosemary was placed in the dock of the courts of justice as a preventative against jail-fever. To ward off moths, lay it in your woolen chest.
European ladies, princesses, and even queens used rosemary in many ways to enhance their beauty. They tied it into a cloth to keep fleas away; they smelled it to “keep youngly”; they soaked it in wine and used it to wash their faces so they would be “light and lovely”; they added it to their bath water so they would “wax shiny and be merrie”; and they stopped bad dreams by placing rosemary under the bed.
Modern ladies praise rosemary’s ability to make their scalp healthy and dander free, and their hair lush, thick, and dark. To make a rosemary hair rinse, brew a full ounce of dried rosemary in a quart of boiling water overnight. After you’ve washed your hair, pour the dark, sweet-smelling rosemary liquid over your head, rubbing well into the scalp. Leave it be; no need to rinse it out. If you have very bad dandruff, add a tablespoon of borax per half cup of rosemary hair rinse just before use. Lavaggio, a hair tonic made from an Italian folk recipe that is 99% rosemary, is available for sale for those who don’t want to do it themselves.
Recent research has found that the heart has memory cells just like the brain. No wonder rosemary is renowned as a heart tonic, too! The oldest recipes call for soaking several handfuls of fresh rosemary in a large glass of white wine for several days, then sipping the wine to ease palpitations, strengthen weak hearts, and heal broken hearts. Rosemary in capsules, or rosemary tincture in large doses, can raise blood pressure however, so I stick to tea or external applications.
Rosemary infused oil or ointment (not the essential oil, which can cause poisoning) eases the pain of arthritis, improves flexibility of the joints, counters and sometimes cures eczema, and hastens wound healing. If you don’t have the oil, rosemary tea can be used instead.
Rosemary tea has a beneficial effect on the lungs and breathing. If you have a cold, rosemary tea is happy to help you feel better. Too tired and sick to do anything? Just throw a big handful of rosemary in canned chicken soup and heat. For best effect, let steep for an hour, then eat it. Ahhh. When imbibing rosemary tea, feel free to add honey*, especially if your throat is scratchy and sore.
Rosemary, like all its mint sisters, is antispasmodic, mildly so as a tea, more strongly in vinegar, and powerfully as a tincture. Not only does it relieve nervous pains and headaches, rosemary eases all digestive woes, from gas to gall bladder problems. A tablespoon or two of the vinegar on salad is an easy way to take this remedy. Because of the danger of kidney damage, I use small (1-5 drop) doses of rosemary tincture, and only occasionally.
As a seasoning, rosemary feeds the brain and helps prevent cancer. As a medicine, rosemary restores memory and improves digestion.
No wonder boxes made of rosemary wood are considered magical. As rosemary is only happy when commanded by a woman, its magic is most suited to the needs of women. Perhaps Pandora’s box was made of rosemary wood. For sure, your life will be more magical when you remember rosemary.
*Note: Do not give honey to babies under 12 months old.
Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081
Sexy Herbs
Sexy Herbs
By Susun Weed
Digestive Distress – Susun S. Weed
Digestive Distress
Susun S. Weed
Step 1: Collect Information
As the mix of hormones in your blood changes during your premenopausal years, you may notice the effects on your gastrointestinal tract both directly – estrogen is a gastrointestinal stimulant and varying levels may swing you from loose stools to dry ones – and indirectly, as the hormonal load places ever heavier demands on the liver.
Hormones have a strong effect on the motility of the intestinal tract. When your levels of estrogen and progesterone change (as they do throughout menopause, during pregnancy, and before menstruation and birth), your bowel patterns change, too.
Your liver is, among other things, a recycling center. It breaks down hormones circulating in the blood when they are no longer needed and makes their “parts” available for the production of more hormones. During the menopausal years some hormones (such as LH and FSH) are produced in such enormous quantities that your liver may struggle to keep up with its recycling work, and have little energy left over for digestive duties. Help yourself with these Wise Woman Ways.
Step 2: Engage the Energy
- Bless your food out loud before you eat; say grace; thank the plants and animals who nourish you; breathe in and feel grateful.
- My mother’s favorite way of preventing digestive distress and ensuring regularity is to eat at regular times and go to the toilet at regular times. You’d be surprised how effective this is.
- First thing in the morning, get yourself a cup of hot water (or herbal tea) and bring it back to bed. Sip it slowly, and gnaw gently on your bottom lip. Then lie on your back and bring your knees up, feet flat on the bed; place your palms on your belly and breathe deeply. Gently begin to rub your belly (in spirals): up on the right, across the middle, and down on the left. Soon you will feel the movement gathering momentum. Sit up slowly and head for the toilet.
Step 3: Nourish & Tonify
- Yellow dock root vinegar or tincture is a wonderful ally for menopausal women with digestive distress. Daily doses of 1 teaspoon/5 ml vinegar or 5-10 drops of tincture eliminate constipation, indigestion, and gas. Yellow dock is especially recommended for the woman whose menopausal menses are getting heavier.
- Dandelion is everyone’s favorite ally for a happy digestive system and a strong liver. It relieves indigestion, constipation, gas, even gallstone pain. How to use it? Have a glass of dandelion blossom wine. Eat the omega-3-rich leaves in salads. Enjoy the phytoestrogenic roots as a vinegar or tincture (a dose is 1-2 teaspoons/5-10 ml vinegar or 10-20 drops tincture taken with meals) or as a coffee substitute.
- Any rhythmical exercise, especially walking, relieves digestive gas and improves intestinal peristalsis (the movement of feces). Oriental wisdom says the liver loves movement.
- Motherwort, fenugreek, vitex, or black cohosh tinctures, taken daily, strengthen digestion and ease menopausal digestive woes. Or try a cup of garden sage tea.
- If constipation occurs due to a lessening of the moistening, lubricating cells in the colon, slippery foods such as slippery elm bark powder, oats, seaweed, flax seed, and seeds from wild Plantago (or cultivated psyllium) are wonderful allies. Adding a teaspoon/5 ml of any, or better yet, all of them to a cup/250 ml of rolled oats and cooking until thick in 3 cups/750 ml of water is a delicious way to prepare this remedy.
- My favorite remedy to relieve digestive and gas pain is plain yogurt. Sometimes even a tiny mouthful will bring instant relief. Acidophilus capsules work, too. I use both when dealing with chronic constipation or severe diarrhea.
Step 4: Stimulate/Sedate
- White flour products slow the digestive tract; so does too much grain-fed meat. Whole grain products, well-cooked beans, wild meats, and cooked greens speed it up.
- Add more liquids and soft foods to your diet – applesauce, yogurt, nourishing soups, herbal infusions – to help relieve constipation. Chew your food slowly and savor it. Drink lavishly between meals.
- Menopausal women will want to avoid the use of bran as a laxative, as it interferes with calcium absorption. Instead try prunes, prune juice, rhubarb with maple syrup, or figs.
- Ginger tea with honey is a warming, easing drink when your tummy is upset. Ahhh. Try the fresh root grated and steeped in boiling water, or put a tablespoon of the powdered stuff from your spice cupboard in a cup of hot water and enjoy.
- Crushed hemp seed (Cannabis sativa) tea – rich in essential fatty acids – is a specific against menopausal constipation.
- Herbal laxatives such as aloes, cascara sagrada, rhubarb root, and senna are addictive and destructive to normal peristalsis. Except in rare cases (such as relief of constipation for a ninety-year-old woman confined to a bed), I do not advise their use.
Step 5a: Use Supplements
Constipation and digestive distress are common side effects from taking iron supplements. A spoonful of molasses with 10-25 drops of yellow dock root tincture in a glass of warm water is a better way to increase iron, and improve elimination.
Step 6: Break & Enter
Enemas and colonics are last-resort techniques. They do not promote health and may strip the guts of important flora. Regular use of enemas is highly habit-forming. For the sake of your health, avoid them.
If you liked this excerpt by Susun S. Weed, you will want
New Menopausal Years The Wise Woman Way available from www.ashtreepublishing.com.
Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081
Mysterious Mushrooms – Susun S Weed
Mysterious Mushrooms
Susun S Weed
As summer nights lengthen into autumn, the forests of the Catskill mountains in upstate New York fill with magical, mystical, medicinal mushrooms. “Toadstool” is a quaint name for the many mushrooms that spring forth between rains, while “fungi” is the more technical term. Fungi are plants, but plants without flowers or roots or chlorophyll (which makes plants green). Strange shapes (some quite sexually suggestive), the ability to grow (and glow) in the dark, and psychedelic colors make mushrooms an obvious addition to any witch’s stew. But you will want some other reasons to make mushrooms a steady part of your diet. Is outwitting cancer a good enough reason?
It’s true. All edible fungi – including those ordinary white button mushrooms sold in supermarkets – are capable of preventing and reversing cancerous cellular changes. We aren’t exactly sure why. Perhaps it’s because fungi search out, concentrate, and share with us the trace minerals we need to build powerful, healthy immune systems. Or perhaps it’s because of their wealth of polysaccharides – interesting complex sugars that appear to be all round health-promoters. It could be because mushrooms are excellent sources of protein and B vitamins with few calories and no sodium. Or we could single out the anti-cancer, anti-tumor, and anti-bacterial compounds found in the stalk, caps, gills, and even the underground structures (mycelia) of every edible mushroom.
Be sure to cook your mushrooms though; avoid eating them raw. Scientists at the University of Nebraska Medical School found that mice who ate unlimited amounts of raw mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) developed, over the course of their lifetimes, significantly more malignant tumors than a control group.
Everywhere I go in August and September – whether walking barefoot on vibrant green mosses or stepping lightly across the deeply-scented fallen pine and hemlock needles; whether climbing rocky outcrops festooned with ferny whiskers or skirting swamps humming with mosquitoes; whether following the muddy bank of a meandering stream or balancing on old stone walls inhaling the scent of righteous rot – I am on the lookout for my fungi friends.
My woods are especially generous to me with chanterelles, beautiful cornucopia-shaped mushrooms with a delectable taste. I find both the delicious little black ones – jokingly known as “trumpet of death” due to their eerie coloration – and the very tasty and much bigger orange ones. Sometimes we return home naked from our mushrooms walks – if we find more ‘shrooms than we have bags for, we have to use our shirts and pants as carriers to help haul dinner home.
The bright orange tops and sulfur yellow undersides of sulphur shelf mushrooms (Polyporus sulphuroides) are easy to spot in the late summer forest. Growing only on recently-dead oaks, these overlapping shelves make a great-tasting immune-enhancing addition to dinner. I have harvested the “chicken of the woods” in oak forests around the world. In the Czech Republic, I saw a particularly large example as we drove a country lane. Stopping, I found a portion of it had been harvested. I took only a share, being careful to leave lots for other mushroom lovers who might come down the lane after me.
You don’t have to live in the woods and find your own mushrooms to enjoy their health-giving benefits. You can buy them: fresh or dried for use in cooking and medicine; and tinctured or powdered as well. Look for chanterelles, cepes, enoki, oyster mushrooms, portobellos, maitake, reishii, shiitake, chaga, and many other exotic and medicinal mushrooms in health food stores, supermarkets, specialty stores, and Oriental markets.
Maitake (Grifolia frondosa) is more effective than any other fungi ever tested at inhibiting tumor growth. It is very effective when taken orally, whether by lab rats or humans dealing with cancer. The fruiting body of the maitake resembles the tail feathers of a small brown chicken, hence its popular name: “Hen of the Woods”. If you buy maitake in pill form, be sure to get the fruiting body, not the mycelium.
Reishii (Ganoderma lucidum) is one of the most respected immune tonics in the world. Reishii is adaptogenic, revitalizing, and regenerative, especially to the liver. Even occasional use builds powerful immunity and reduces the risk of cancer. In clinical studies, use of reishii increased T-cell and alpha interferon production, shrank and eliminated tumors, and improved the quality of life for terminal patients. Reishii and shiitake are great partners, the effects of one enhancing the effects of the other. Reishii is best taken as a tincture, 20-40 drops, 3 times daily.
Shiitake (Lentinus edodes) is highly medicinal and tastes good enough to eat in quantity. I go to an oriental market and buy the big, big, big bag of dried shiitake mushrooms for a fraction of what I would pay for them in a health food store. To use, I just rehydrate them by pouring boiling water over them or by dropping pieces into soups. Those who make shiitake a regular part of their diets increase their production of cancer-fighting alpha interferon, reduce inflammation throughout their bodies, prolong their lives, and improve their ability to produce and utilize vitamin D.
Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) is a rather ugly and intensely hard fungi found on birch trees. Baba Yaga and other Russian herbalists favor it as an immune nourisher, cancer preventive, and an aid to those dealing with melanomas.
Mushrooms are not just for food and medicine; they are renowned for their ability to alter our perceptions of reality. Psychoactive psilocybin mushrooms were used by the famous shaman/healer Maria Sabina in Mexico. The red-capped mushroom with white dots usually drawn next to the witch’s house is the mind-altering Amanita muscaria, sometimes called manna, and widely used in Siberian shamanic rites.
Whether you use fungi to make a mushroom soup or as a remedy for someone dealing with cancer, whether you stir them up in a witch’s cauldron of spiraling power or sew them into a spirit bag, mushrooms offer magic and mystery, good health and good cheer.
Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081
Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com
For permission to reprint this article, contact us at: susunweed@herbshealing.com
Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine. Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging and often profoundly provocative.
Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at www.susunweed.com
Be Your Own Herbal Expert – Part 1
Be Your Own Herbal Expert
Part 1
©Susun S Weed
Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is simple, safe, effective, and free. Our ancestors knew how to use an enormous variety of plants for health and well-being. Our neighbors around the world continue to use local plants for healing and health maintenance. You can too.
Learning About Herbs
Information on herbs and their uses has been passed down to us in many ways: through stories, in books, set to music, and incorporated into our everyday speech. Learning about herbs is fun, fascinating, and easy to do no matter where you live or what your circumstances. It is an adventure that makes use of all of your senses. Reading about herbal medicine is fascinating, and a great way to learn how others have used plants. But the real authorities are the plants themselves. They speak to us through their smells, tastes, forms, and colors.
Anyone who is willing to take the time to get to know the plants around them will discover a wealth of health-promoting green allies. What stops us? Fear. We fear that we will use the wrong plant. We fear poisoning ourselves. We fear the plants themselves.
These fears are wise. But they need not keep us from using the abundant remedies of nature. A few simple guidelines can protect you and help you make sense of herbal medicine. This series of short articles will offer you easy-to-remember rules for using herbs simply and safely. When you have completed all eight parts of this series, you will be using herbs confidently and successfully to keep yourself and your loved ones whole/healthy/holy.
Survival is a Matter of Taste
Virtually all plants contain poisons. After all, they don’t want to be eaten! Because we have evolved eating plants, we have the capacity to neutralize or remove (through preparation or digestion) their poisons. Not all poisons kill, and even poisons that are deadly often need to be taken in quantities far larger than can easily be obtained from foods. (Apple seeds contain a lethal poison but it takes a quart of them to cause death.)
Our senses of taste and smell are registered in the part of the brain that maintains respiration and circulation – in other words, the survival center. Plants (but not mushrooms) advertise their poisons by tasting bad or smelling foul. Of the four primary kinds of poisons found in plants – alkaloids, glycosides, resins, and essential oils – the first two always taste bitter or cause a variety of noxious reactions on the oral tissues, and the last two usually do, especially when removed from the plant or concentrated.
Sometimes the taste of the poison in a plant is hidden by large amounts of sweet-tasting starch. Fortunately, human saliva contains an enzyme that breaks down these carbohydrates, exposing the nasty taste of the poison. Since even tiny amounts of some poisons can have large effects, for safety sake, take your time when tasting.
Safety First
Because our sense of taste protects us against poisonous plants, it is always best to take herbs in a form that allows one to taste them. Consuming just one plant at a time, with as little preparation as possible, gives us the greatest opportunity to taste poisons and is therefore the safest way to use herbs.
One herb at a time is a “simple.” When we ingest a simple herb – raw, cooked as a vegetable, brewed fresh or dried in water as a tea or infusion, steeped in vinegar or honey, dried and used as a condiment – we bring into play several million years of plant wisdom collected in our genes. When we ingest many plants together, or concentrate their natural poisons by tincturing, distilling, or standardizing, we increase the possibility of harm. Powdering herbs and putting them in capsules is one of the most dangerous ways to use them, especially those containing poisons. For ultimate risk, play with essential oils; they are far removed from the plant, very concentrated, and as little as one-quarter ounce can kill.
Safety Second, Too
In the next installments we will continue to learn how to use herbs simply and safely. We will explore nourishing and tonifying herbs, the difference between fixing disease and promoting health, how to apply the three traditions of healing, and how to take charge of your own health care with the six steps of healing.
Experiment Number One
You will need the following plants, all of which contain poisons that you can taste: a head of lettuce (taste the leaves and the core separately), some black or green tea (unbrewed), a fresh dandelion leaf, strong chamomile tea (steep it overnight), a can of asparagus, some fresh mint, a spoonful of mustard seeds, and a bottle of vanilla extract.
Approach tasting a plant as you would tasting a wine. Begin by inhaling the aroma. Release the bouquet by squeezing the plant until your fingers are moist (or chew briefly and spit into your hand). Do you feel enticed, repelled, or neutral? Does your mouth water? Does your throat clench? Observe how you react to the smell. Does it sting your eyes? Irritate your nasal tissues? Do you want to taste it?
We do not gulp our wine, nor do we merely wet our tongues; for best effect, taste and smell a reasonably large piece, but don’t stuff your mouth. As you chew, move the plant material around in your mouth. Roll it around with your tongue. Make contact with it for a full minute but DO NOT SWALLOW. No, no, spit it upon the ground, or into your hand, or the sink, or wherever you can, but do not swallow. SPIT IT OUT.
What do you feel now? In your stomach? Your throat? Your head and nose? What is your gut feeling? What sensations accompany the taste of this plant?
It is best to wait until the previous taste is completely gone before going on to the next plant. If you are doing advanced work with wild plants, wait at least a day before you use or consume the plant in case you have a delayed reaction to some component.
Experiment Number Two
Taste as in experiment one, but use these inedible (poisonous) parts of common foods: lemon inner rind, apple seeds, rhubarb leaves, lettuce root, the inner soft pit of a peach.
Experiment Number Three
Taste as in experiment one, these poisonous plants (fresh or dried): wormwood leaf, goldenseal root, yellow dock root, Echinacea root, eucalyptus leaf, motherwort leaf.
Experiment Number Four
Aromatic plants are rich in essential oils. We often use them to season and preserve food. In small quantity, these oils are not harmful, but concentrated, they threaten the liver, kidneys, and life itself. Smell and taste, as in experiment one, as many aromatic plants as you can: thyme, rosemary, oregano, lavender, sage, orange peel, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg. Brew strong teas (steep overnight) of these plants and taste. Can you see, smell, or taste more essential oils? Smell or taste one drop of the extracted essential oil of any of these plants.
Further study
1. What is an alkaloid? Medicinal plants often contain groups of alkaloids. Name seven plants rich in alkaloids (specify the part); then name at least three of the alkaloids in each plant.
2. What are glycosides? Name at least four glycosides and describe the effect each has. Name seven plants rich in glycosides; specify the part of the plant and the kind of glycoside.
3. What are resins? Name four or more plants (specify part) rich in resins.
4. What are essential oils? Name a dozen or more plants rich in essential oils (specify part).
5. What is the difference between a poison and a medicine? Are all drugs poisons?
Advanced work
² Give the botanical name (genus and species) for each plant you named in the further study section.
² Taste a variety of plants that grow around you. Warning: It is possible to experience uncomfortable or harmful effects from this experiment. A book on poisonous plants can reassure you that the plants you taste will not kill you. It is best not to put plants such as poison ivy or poison oak in your mouth. DO NOT TASTE HOUSEPLANTS.
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Ease Those Bug Bites with Easy Herbs
Ease Those Bug Bites
with Easy Herbs
Susun S Weed
Summertime means insect bites and stings. Ouch! Take a leaf from Susun S. Weed’s storehouse of natural remedies: Soothe, heal, and prevent bites with safe herbal remedies that grow right where you live: north or south, east or west, city or country. The best natural remedies for insect bites are right underfoot.
Plantain, also called ribwort, pig’s ear, and the band-aid plant, is a common weed of lawns, driveways, parks and playgrounds. Identify it by the five parallel veins running the length of each leaf. (Most leaves have a central vein with smaller ones branching out from it.) You may find broad leaf plantain (Plantago majus), with wide leaves and a tall seed head, or narrow leaf plantain (Plantago lanceolata), with long thin leaves and a small flower head that looks like a flying saucer. Many Plantago species have seeds and leaves that can be used as food or medicine. A South American variety (Plantago psyllium) is used to make Metamucil.
How to use plantain? Make a fresh leaf poultice. Pick a leaf, chew it well and put it on the bite. “Like magic” the pain, heat, and swelling – even allergic reactions – disappear, fast! (Yes, you can dry plantain leaves and carry them in your first aid kit. Chew like you would fresh leaves.)
Poultices ease pain, reduce swelling, and help heal. No wonder they’re the number one natural choice for treating insect bites, bee and wasp stings.
- Mud is the oldest and simplest poultice. Powdered white clay, which should be mixed with a little water or herb tea, can be applied directly to the sting as soon as possible. Clay can be kept on hand at all times and is less likely to contain fungal spores than the real thing. Finely ground grains such as rice or oatmeal, or bland starchy substances like mallow root, grated potato, or arrowroot powder are also used as soothing poultices to ease itching and pain from insect bites.
- Fresh-herb poultices are a little more complicated, but not by much. Just find a healing leaf, pluck it, chew it, and apply it directly to the sting/bite. If you wish, use a large leaf or an adhesive bandage to hold the poultice in place. Plantain, comfrey (Symphytum uplandica x), yellow dock (Rumex species), wild geranium (Geranium maculatum), wild mallow (Malva neglecta), chickweed (Stellaria media), and yarrow are only a few of the possibilities.
In the woods, you can take a leaf from a tree, chew it and apply that to the bite. Any tree will do in an emergency, but if you have a choice, the best leaves are those from witch hazel, willow, oak or maple. Play it safe: learn to recognize witch hazel (Hamamelis virginia) and willow (Salix species) leaves before you chew on them. Maple (Acer) or oak (Quercus) leaves are easier to recognize and safer to chew – unless you live where poison oak grows. If uncertain, avoid all shrubs and any trees with slick or shiny leaves. If the leaf you are chewing tastes extremely bitter or burns your mouth, spit it out at once.
To repel ticks, mosquitoes, and black flies, try a diluted tincture of yarrow (Alchellia millefolium) flowers directly on all exposed skin. A recent US Army study showed yarrow tincture to be more effective than DEET as an insect repellent.
If you’ve spent the day in an area where lyme disease is common, take a shower right away and scrub yourself with a bodybrush. Have a friend check you out for ticks. Also, it takes the tick some time to make up its mind where to bite, so most are unattached and will wash off.
“If the worst happens and I do get a bite, I help my immune system by taking a daily dose of 2-6 dropperfuls of Echinacea tincture. I avoid Goldenseal as I believe it could have adverse effects. If I have symptoms, I use a dropperful of St. Joan’s wort (Hypericum) tincture three times a day to ensure the lyme’s organism is inactive.”
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A Map to the Inner World
Book Excerpt
Chapter 4
A Map to the Inner World
Through careful observation, we come to the paradoxical conclusion that “each human being lives two lives simultaneously.” Although this statement initially appears contradictory, a careful observation of human nature shows it to be true. One life is our life as a human being, where energy sings the human song. On delving deeper, we find a completely different world inside which seems to sing the “Other Song,” another melody altogether. This other melody is not innately human but is a reflection of a pattern that we have borrowed from nature–be it from a plant, a mineral, or an animal. Therefore, this energy pattern is appropriate to nature, not to us.
The natural world consists of animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms, and the energy of each of these kingdoms is very different. As humans, we borrow an energy pattern from one of these kingdoms that corresponds to our inner way of perceiving and reacting. Depending on which kingdom is the source of the “Other Song” within, human beings can be mapped into one of the following three kingdoms by the basic issues that they face.
- Plant kingdom people have heightened sensitivity.
- Animal kingdom people deal with survival, competition, and victim/aggressor issues.
- Mineral kingdom people feel deficient in their own makeup or structure, or fear losing a part of their structure.
Recognition of the Mineral Song
The fundamental issue in minerals is the formation, maintenance, and loss of structure.
The central features of the mineral kingdom are its structure and organization. These are the features that help scientists understand this kingdom so well. The structure of minerals is ordered and predictable in many ways, allowing an exact classification of all elements into the periodic table.
In persons whose other song is derived from the mineral kingdom, the issues of capacity, strength, resistance, stability, and solidity–which are the innate features of minerals–are reflected in human form as capability, toughness, performance, and security. The core issue for these people is how to maintain the stability of their structure, be it their health, relationships, family, finances, talents, power, or position in an organization.
All the elements in the first column of the periodic table (vertically on the far left side of the table) contain only one electron in their outer shell. These elements are therefore very unstable and react readily with other elements in order to attain the shared stability of eight electrons in their outer shell.
In contrast, the “noble” gases in the last column of the table (vertically on the far right side of the table) all contain eight electrons in their outer shell and are called “noble” because they are nonreactive and inert chemically. They are already stable, in themselves. Thus–moving from left to right–each row in the periodic table represents and maps a journey toward stability of structure.
The Third Row: Development of Identity
The third row represents the progressive development from dependence to independence in the areas of care, nourishment, and choice. If your inner song comes from the third row of the periodic table, you exist as an entity on your own, but you are apt to be unsure of your identity. The question now is “I am, but who am I?”
The elements on the left of the third row (sodium and magnesium) perceive this lack of identity as “living someone else’s life” and being completely dependent on the choices of others. In effect these people have dissolved their own identity into that of another person. In contrast, elements on the right side (phosphorus, sulfur, and chlorine) have a more developed sense of their identity since the ego and sense of self becomes clearer as we move across the row to the right. They have become free of the need for care and nourishment and have a significant degree of self-sufficiency.
Case Study
A twenty-three-year-old girl came to me with a skin problem called lichen planus. She had dark spots all over her lower limbs with much itching. This condition, which is known to be stress related, is quite difficult to treat. However, what was even more of a problem was the girl’s state of mind. She was unmarried and was staying with her parents, and every day there would be intense quarrels between her and her parents in which the patient would become abusive. She was desperate and sometimes even had suicidal thoughts.
I started by asking for her description of the skin problem. She said there were two types of skin spots, with different characteristics, and both of them coexisted at the same time, in the same place. I was intrigued by this description, and asked her to describe this phenomenon more. She said that they were completely opposite and remotely similar, that they were completely opposite like cheese and chalk. At this point the description of her condition was so strange that it had to come from her other song. I asked for more, and she generalized by saying that it is the same situation where she lives with her parents, where each one is completely different from the other. She felt she had to listen to them because, “I am unable to think for myself.”
The essence of her perception is one of her own nondevelopment. Since her own sense of identity and choice are not clearly established, there is a conflict within her whether she should listen to herself or to others. This conflict is so confusing that she is frustrated enough to want to destroy herself. The issue of nondevelopment of self is a mineral-kingdom issue. In this girl it is particularly manifested in the area of development of her identity, which is an issue of the elements of the third row of the periodic table. Along with her own awareness of her problem, arrived at through the interview process, the homeopathic remedy Alumina–from the third row–healed her both in skin and mind.
About the author:
Dr. Rajan Sankaran is an internationally renowned homeopath who has been in practice since 1981. The creator of the Sensation Method of homeopathy, he gives lectures and seminars throughout the world. The author of several books, including The Spirit of Homeopathy, The Substance of Homeopathy, and The Sensation in Homeopathy, he lives in Mumbai, India.
Primal Body, Primal Mind – Book Excerpt
Chapter 25 - Our Primordial Past
Understanding Mother Nature’s Plan and Where We Fit In
What Do All the Longest-living Individuals Have in Common?
“If there is a known single marker for long life, as found in the centenarian and animal studies, it is low insulin levels.”
–Ron Rosedale, M.D., 1998
Research across the board has shown that long-lived individuals (animals and humans) share the following characteristics:
Low fasting insulin levels
Low fasting glucose
Optimally low leptin
Low triglycerides
Low percentage of visceral body fat
Lower body temperature
One single longevity marker stands out among all long-lived animals and persons above the rest, however, and that’s low insulin levels.
In July of 2009 the eagerly awaited results of a twenty-year study on the effects of caloric restriction on primates were finally published in the journal Science. Two groups of Rhesus monkeys (selected for their strong similarity to us) were studied: one group of monkeys was allowed to eat as much as they wanted, and the other group was given a sufficiently nutrient-dense diet with 30 percent fewer calories than they would normally consume. Twenty years later only 63 percent of the monkeys that ate as much as they wanted were still alive. Thirty-seven percent of them had died due to age-related causes. And the caloric restriction group? Eighty-seven percent were still alive and only 13 percent had died of age-related causes. Throughout their lives the calorically restricted group maintained superior health and aging-related biomarkers in every area: brain health, metabolic health and rate, insulin sensitivity, and cardiovascular vitality. The caloric restriction group enjoyed a threefold reduction in age-related disease! Also, they lost fat weight but maintained healthy levels of lean tissue mass. They also retained greater brain volume, which normally shrinks with age and glycation, but more than that they retained superior cognitive function. The cardiovascular disease rate of the caloric-restricted group was fully half the rate of the control group. Forty percent of the control group developed diabetes (or pre-diabetes). Not ONE single monkey in the calorically restricted group developed either. Remarkable. The available photos from the study showing examples of age-matched individuals from the two groups, which I was not able to include here, are visually striking. Stunning, even. The caloric-restricted monkeys looked almost literally half the age of the controls.
Among the most common misconceptions about monkeys and apes, incidentally, is that they are vegan animals. Though they are better adapted to making use of plant foods in some ways than we are, they also readily eat the same things we eat. ALL monkeys and apes are known to eat meat, and many even hunt for meat. The one notable exception is the mountain gorilla, and even they get some insects in their diet. Monkeys and apes are omnivores and, like us, will eat whatever might be available to them in their environment. Some even catch and eat fish! One of the reasons Rhesus monkeys were selected for this particular study, in fact, is because of their pronounced similarity to us, even in terms of diet.
There are actually several more recent studies showing significant health benefit where caloric restriction in humans is concerned. A newly released study in the Journal of Applied Research, “Clinical Experience of a Diet Designed to Reduce Aging” demonstrated that, in the context of an outpatient medical clinic, a diet high in fat (unlimited quantity), adequate in protein (50-80 grams per day), and very low in carbohydrate, with some added multivitamin and mineral supplementation, led to significant improvement in recognized serum factors related to the aging process. Patients were told to eat when they were hungry. The results also included a significant loss of body weight, a significant reduction in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and a reduction in levels of leptin, insulin, fasting glucose, and free T3. Despite the predominance of fat in the diet, serum triglycerides were also greatly reduced.
Of course, it’s easy to restrict overall calories with lab animals, as they have no choice in the matter. It is quite another matter to try and restrict overall caloric intake when you’re driving past fifteen fast food joints on your way home, are surrounded by constant advertisement, and have a refrigerator and cupboards full of food at your ravenous fingertips. Unless, of course, you apply the caloric restriction model in a way that does not leave you hungry–which is exactly what this book tells you how to do. Just follow the simple, most basic dietary guidelines outlined here to eat optimally well while feeling fully satisfied and living healthier, longer–and even save some real money along the way! Even while buying the best-quality grass-fed meats, produce, and wild-caught fish you can find yourself saving considerable money on groceries. The basic guideline to remember is this: greatly restrict or eliminate sugar and starch (preferably eliminating gluten completely), keep your protein intake adequate amounting to approximately 6-7 ounces of organic grass-fed and/or wild-caught meat or seafood total per day, eat as many fibrous “above ground,” nonstarchy vegetables and greens as you like, and eat as much fat (from fattier cuts of meat or fish, nuts, seeds, avocados, coconut, butter/ghee, olives, olive oil, and the like) as you need to satisfy your appetite. The bottom line here is that natural dietary fat is not at all our enemy and that, in the absence of dietary carbohydrate and with adequate protein, it can result in a far more satisfying, longer, and healthier life overall. Simple, delicious, and satisfying. No hunger or feelings of deprivation needed, and all the benefits of supporting a longer and healthier life while saving you money. It’s better for the planet, too.
Bio:
Nora T. Gedgaudas, CNS, CNT, is a certified nutritional therapist and neurofeedback specialist with a private practice. A member of the Nutritional Therapy Association, the National Association of Nutritional Professionals, the Nutrition and Metabolism Society, and the Weston A. Price Foundation, she lives in Portland, Oregon.
Available at: www.innertraditions.com
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