Herbal tobacco supplement

Smoking is bad for your health, no matter what it is that you are smoking.

With that said, I know that a lot of people have a tuff time quitting and for some nicotine free herbal smoking blends are a great help. 

I would never suggest them as a full time smoking solution but as a step towards quitting. 

A good friend of mine changed to one of those new electronic cigarettes, and grew swears by them. He was able to go from two packs a day to nothing more than the electric cigarettes. 

The question if the electric cigarette is really healthier is in my opinion a no brainer, but lots of people don't agree. 

Webmd.com is a reliable source of medical information on the Web and what they say about e-cigarette smoking is supportive to my opinion. 

https://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/features/vape-debate-electronic-cigarettes

I would even say that they are a better choice than a herbal smoking blend. 

But for some people the feel of real fire at you dinner tips is hard to give up. 

So for those of you who want to kick the nicotine habit but can't get away from the real smoke, here is a simple herbal blend that makes a enjoyable nicotine free smoke. 

Simply mix equal parts of sage (Salvia officinalis) and Damiana (Turnera diffusa)

Herbal formula to stop bleeding

Small cuts and scrapes happen all the time. For the must part they don't require any treatment arty all. Just make sure to clean them well and bandage so that they don't get infected, and you should be just fine. 

But if you want to help stop the bleeding and prevent infections from happening, you have a number of natural choices to help with just that. 

The most common choice is lavender oil. You can pick up a bottle at any pharmacy. 

You can put the oil directly on an open cut. 

Another choice you can use is aloe Vera. Aloe is a super easy to grow cactus, and it's sticky juice is great for almost all skin problems. 

Just break off a thick leaf and apply the juice to the cut. 

Here is a great first aid herbal formula to help stop bleeding. 

Grind into a powder equal part of the following herbs: yarrow leaf, calendula petals,  and echinacea leaf. When needed sprinkle the powder directly on the open wound to help stop the bleeding.  Obviously this shouldn’t be your plan for serious bleeding but it’s a great fix for all basic cuts.

Treating dog bites with lavender oil.

Natural remedies for pets.

This is not about treating people who were bit by dogs, but treating dogs who were bit by other dogs. 

So this may be a really good bit of information for all of you dog owners.

Last week I got back to Israel from a short visit to States(it was an amazing trip, thinks for asking). Anyway I had bought a small bottle of lavender oil when I was there to treat some bat cracks on the bottom of my feet.

For those of you who don’t know lavender oil is great for all sorts of skin problems, its just super healing and soothing. 

This past weekend my sister in law was by us with her dog. She took her dog out for a walk on Friday night, and he was attacked by two of our neighbors dogs. 

Now this is never fun when your dog gets but by other dogs, but at least she was able to verify that the other dogs had all of their shots.  

So she runs into our house all upset that her dog got bit on the leg and is bleeding, she wants to know if there is an emergency vet in town, which there is not. 

At first all we see is a small puncture wound on the outside of one of his hind legs. 

So I say “hey no big deal, I will just put some hydrogen peroxide on it”.

So that’s what we do, and we all go to sleep.

In the morning she tells me we didn’t see but he has a deeper bite on the inside of his leg. Now the poor dog is really in pain and limping. So I figure hey lets try some lavender oil, it works great on people, why not on dogs. 

So she puts on his muzzle so he wont take a bite at my leg, and I dump a bunch of lavender oil on the bite. 

No joke, the stuff seemed to work magic. First of all its great, because the dog wont lick it off, and second it really just stopped the pain. He couldn’t tell us this but he started walking with out a limp and everything. 

So hey you should always have lavender oil around, and now you know it is great for your dog also. 

Gotu Kola – Clinical Studies

  Gotu kola is one of the first herbs that I ever tried even before I started to study natural medicine.
 
I even remember buying a tincture of it when I went to visit my in-laws for the first time after me and my wife got engaged.

It felt like it had an immediate effect on my mind and helped me to think clearer. This may have very well been a placebo effect but maybe not.

Anyway I have gone through the two articles that I have linked to at the bottom of this post and it seems to me that the clinical research on Gotu kola is very supportive of its traditional uses.

Even though one of the articles concludes by saying that more research is needed, almost all of the clinical trials that are mentioned prove the herb to be effective for treating what it is traditionally used for.

What is very interesting that I learnt from these research papers is the possible unwanted side effects that can result from excessive use of the herb over an extended period of time. 

Even the use of the herb to protect against radiation is shown to be valid.
Here are the uses that were tested in the second of these two studies.

•    Venous insufficiency 
•    Sedative properties
•    Antidepressant properties
•    Antiepileptic properties
•    Cognitive and antioxidant properties
•    Gastric ulcer
•    Anti-nociceptive and anti-inflammatory properties
•    Radioprotection 
•    Herpes simplex
•    Retards the development of certain tumors 

http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/gotu-kola

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3116297/

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.