Herbal remedies for ulcers

Medical description: An inflammatory brake in the outer layer of the gastrointestinal tract. The symptoms of an ulcer usually include burning and pain; also you could have blood in the stool.
Holistic understanding: Ulcers are for the most part connected to stress and/or the use of alcohol. Also the bacteria known as heliocbacter pylori are known to be connected to the formation of ulcers and higher levels of acidity.
Herbal remedies: There are a lot of herbs that are soothing to the digestive tract such as chamomile, slippery elm, marshmallow, and licorice root. Also herbs that help to heal the open ulcer such as yarrow and lavender can be used. Use calming herbs also like passion flower and hops. When the test results for helicobacter are positive papaya enzymes that can be bought it tablet form are very useful.
Herbal formula: Boil one table spoon of each marshmallow root and licorice root I four cups of water for twenty minutes. Then add a table spoon of chamomile flowers and let steep for another fifteen minutes. Drink one cup three times a day. 
There is also a classic treatment with just chamomile that goes as follows. In the morning on an empty stomach drink a cup of chamomile tea and then spend five minutes lying on your back stomach and either side. 

Four Thieves Vinegar

I am pretty sure that I have written about this killer herbal formula before, but because I just put together a batch I decided to write up another one. 

When I say killer herbal formula, I mean it with full pun intended.

Not only because of its powerful anti-bacterial activities, but also because of the story about how it was discovered.  

As the story goes, these four guys were busted luting houses of the dead during the black plague. Now what surprised every one was that these thieves were not sick with the plague them selves, even though they were working in very contaminated conditions.  

It turned out that they were the sons of an herbalist who had taught them how to make a super anti-bacterial herbal vinegar, which had prevented them from getting sick. 

There are different variations to what was the exact formula, but what I was taught is that it contained four herbs.
•    Rosemary 
•    Sage
•    Thyme 
•    Lavender
Some of the variations also call for garlic.

As I have all ready mentioned I just put together a batch of this super anti microbial vinegar, and I did a bit on the fly because some one needed it to help treat a possible case of strep throat.

It is best to make the vinegar using dry herbs and apple cider vinegar, but I didn’t have those. So I used regular natural vinegar and mostly fresh herbs. 

Fresh picked rosemary and sage from my garden, fresh oregano and garlic from the supermarket, and some dry lavender that I had in the house. 

Also its best to let the herbs soak in the vinegar for a week or two before straining them out and using. 

But because I needed the remedy I put it all together and double boiled it for about a half an hour. 

In the end it came out dark and potent smelling, and I am sure that it will do the trick. 

Some times you just need to be resourceful.   

Cut Your Own Firewood - For Exercise

Cut Your Own Firewood – For Exercise

The biggest problem with getting enough good exercise, in my humble opinion, is finding the time to do it.

But the truth is we just need to figure how to make what we are already doing into an exercise. 

Cutting your own fire wood was just one of the examples that came to my mind, and I felt it would make a good post title.

I have been really fortunate to be able to keep a high level of physical health even though my schedule didn’t give me free time to work out.

I have always found ways to work out while on the job.

For example right now I work in security for my main source of income. While at work I make it a point to do a certain amount of pull ups, dips, and stomach crunches every shift. 

Of course I cant get on my back and start doing a set of sit ups, but when I find anything that I can hang from I do leg lifts.

I work out my abs by hanging and bringing my knees up to my chest.  

Now I am not a trainer but I do know the essential importance of exercise for over all health. 

So I found a couple good things for you to check out and find a way to increase the amount of exercise you are getting in.

The fact is that once you get into the habit of working out every day, even if its just a round of push ups, you will get addicted to it.

And that my friends is what makes a healthy life. 

B-complex Energy Boost

B-complex Vitamins For Boosting Energy 

I have been taking B-complex vitamins to help boost my energy ever since I first learned about them while studying nutrition ten years ago.

I remember I would eat a whole carbohydrate food. Take a B-complex and wait twenty minutes. Then I would have a good strong cup of coffee. 

The reason for all of this process goes as follows.

B-complex vitamins don’t give you energy but they are needed for your body to make energy from carbohydrates. 

So think about the whole carb that I would eat first as the raw materials for creating energy. 

Then I would take the B-complex so that my cells would have everything they need to break down those carbs to make the energy.  

Now caffeine and B vitamins don’t go so good together. The caffeine can prevent proper absorption of the B vitamins into the body. 

This is why it is useless to pack energy drinks with B-complex; also I bet that these synthetic B vitamins don’t have the best absorption anyway.

But back to the way I first started using B-complex to get an energy boost.

So once I had my good carbs and my B vitamins all good and absorbed, then I would give my body the caffeine burst. 

Now if you want to give your self a longer lasting energy boost you could have a protein shake with free amino acids instead of the whole carb. 

But I guess I am going to write another post on protein shakes for that one. 

Chamomile In Depth Review

Chamomile in depth review
 
The first thing one really needs to know about chamomile is that there are two kinds. The most common is German chamomile and the second kind is roman chamomile.

I am not going to talk about roman chamomile here simply because it is much less used. 

Chamomile is the most common of the six herbs in my magic winter formula. A lot of people really like the tea made from the flowers, I am not one of them. If it wasn’t for its therapeutic wonders I would never touch the stuff.

But that is just a matter of taste.

Therapeutic category – anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, carminative, antiseptic.

In addition chamomile is calming, helps to heal wounds, reduce pain and fever, and balance respiratory mucus. 

Dosage – 1 or two teaspoons made into a tea or 1-4 ml of a 1:1 tincture, three times a day. 

Active ingredients – essential oils, flavonoids and coumarins. 

https://www.google.co.il/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050104112140.htm&ved=0ahUKEwjgwK2N7IbRAhVaOlAKHcmWB4sQFghYMAY&usg=AFQjCNEgfIAlUSRnQWKwyMlkxBflrjq5uw&sig2=fKhkjleNYMEqhgJBvFGzkQ

https://www.google.co.il/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995283/&ved=0ahUKEwjgwK2N7IbRAhVaOlAKHcmWB4sQFggYMAA&usg=AFQjCNGgYZAewnvfjUZLj23GJMIBYQWfbw&sig2=-6YBxwCq0nYfjB-_0NsvEw

https://www.google.co.il/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/german-chamomile&ved=0ahUKEwjgwK2N7IbRAhVaOlAKHcmWB4sQFghNMAU&usg=AFQjCNGuJR4pWK1esrJe7K9r8uyBwk_hcw&sig2=Zn9YhzQ9HbGJVKh5Gd920A

Buy chamomile oils and herbal extracts of the best quality.

Chamomile flowers
 http://il.m.iherb.com/Frontier-Natural-Products-Whole-German-Chamomile-Flowers-16-oz-453-g/30735?rcode=VMW970 

Chamomile oil
 http://il.m.iherb.com/Aura-Cacia-Roman-Chamomile-Relaxing-5-fl-oz-15-ml/17832?rcode=VMW970

The Chemistry Of Garlic

Garlic is well known for its culinary and medicinal use.

It has been harvested as a crop for thousands of years. 

But what makes it such a great spice and medicine?

Did you know that if you that if your rub garlic on your feet you can then smell it in your breath?

So there is a long list of uses for garlic and I have mentioned a bunch of them is a post that I wrote on why I eat more garlic in the winter time.

But here for part of our free class on herbal medicine, I want to speak about the chemical make up and clinical studies that have been done about garlic. 

The following are the pharmacological effects that have some clinical proof to them:
•    Cancer prevention 
•    Improvement in circulation
•    Antimicrobial 
The active ingredients in garlic are sulfur containing compounds, alliin, and ajoene. 

These substances are what seems to give garlic its medicinal effects.

They seem to inhibit the aggregation of platelets by which they thin the blood and improve circulation. 

Also they seem to cause the destruction of bacteria and cancer cells.

Other effects of garlic are not yet supported by clinical tests but are known by practical experience of thousands, myself included.

Such as:
•    Treating the common cold
•    Diaphoretic
•    Expectorant
•    Antiviral
•    Antispasmodic
•    Antiseptic

Dosage: the average dose is 4 grams of fresh garlic per day (2-4 cloves). Also garlic is available in a pill and oil form and should be then used as directed on the label. 

I use garlic all the time. I eat about two cloves a day on average and even more then that when I feel that I may be getting sick.

Just this week I made a simple garlic oil for my son who was starting to get an ear infection.

Here is how I used garlic for an ear infection, it very simple and you can use this as well.

All you are going to need is a few cloves of fresh garlic, some olive oil, a few Q tips, and a small frying pan.

Chop up two or three cloves of garlic and then put them in the pan with about 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil. 

Heat the oil and garlic on a very small flame, you don’t want to fry the garlic because that would destroy the active ingredients. 

Heat the oil and garlic for about five minutes and let it cool.

Use the Q tips to put the oil in side of the ears.

Make sure that there is no pieces of garlic on the Q tips.

This may seem very simple but it really works wonders for ear infections.

Rosemary – To Preserve The Body

Rosemary – To Preserve The Body

Back in the day before we had refrigerators and freezers to keep our meats fresh, people would use herbs to try and preserve meats for as long as they could. 

No question, this did not work as well as the freezer, but it helped. 

Rosemary was one of these preservative herbs, and its ability to keep things from spoiling has been proven to be true. 

Rosemary is packed with anti oxidants that protect the cells of our body. 

It has even been found to work almost as well as modern day chemical food preservatives. 

In addition to its anti-ageing capabilities, here is a list of what you can use rosemary for. 

•    Improve digestion and help stomach ache 
•    Help clear respiratory congestion 
•    Help to bring about menstruation 
•    Help to improve memory and concentration 
•    Relieve muscle pain

Most of these uses still don’t have very strong clinical proof.

But one interesting study showed that people who used rosemary regularly suffered les from thrombosis, which from what I understand is just a fancier word for blood clots. 

In laboratory tests rosemary was found to have anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, and even anti-cancer effects. 

Here is a link to a very interesting article showing a direct link between the use of rosemary essential oil and increased mental abilities.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3736918/

This seems to be a very scientific article and shows that the traditional uses for rosemary are holding up to modern day pharmacological scrutiny.