Oregano – In Chinese Medicine

When I was studying naturopathy we needed to take two semesters of Chinese medicine. 

The fact that the entire way that they view the world is so different from how we see things in the west was amazing to me. I must admit that I am sorry that I haven't done much to preserve that knowledge, and I don't remember it well. 

Just recently I started going through a book called “the energetics of western herbs”. Actually it is a two book series explaining the Chinese way of seeing the medicinal functions of western herbal medicines. 

I am sure that I will find a lot more to share with you from these books but today I feel it appropriate to start with oregano. 

First off, oregano is a great therapeutic herb that most of us already have in our house. 

An important note
I never use dry oregano spice for medicinal purposes, I will always at least use a fresh herb if I am not buying medicinal grade oregano. But with that said even what you have in your spice cabinet can be used medicinally. 

What is very interesting is that oregano is classified in Chinese medicine as a draining herb. 

From what I understood, the idea of a draining is that it causes the movement of Qi. 

More specifically oregano is right to promote the circulation of lung Qi and help to open the chest. This goes in accordance with what we know from Western herbal medicine that oregano, more specifically oregano oil is helpful in the treatment of upper respiratory tract issues. 

In the east, they would say that you can use oregano to treat lung Qi constraint, and cold and dampness (phlegm) in the lungs. 

The way that they see it is, good health is the balanced flow of Qi in the body. Pain, inflammation and infection are caused by a stagnation of the Qi in the body. 

If you don't understand what Qi is then you should just watch stare wars. Qi is the eastern understanding of the FORCE.

At least that's the way that I see it. 

In western herbal medicine oregano oil is very popular for the treatment of intestinal parasites. But because the herb contains a high percentage of essential oils (about 2%) the use of the herb itself could be useful as well. 

Also because of the high level of essential oils oregano should be very effective for helping to clear the lung while working as an expectorant. 

The antimicrobial effects of oregano are one of the reasons it is one of the herbs used in the four thieves vinegar. 

Natural Brain Boosts – That Work Now

Hours of studying can make a person hungry. Add to that a few cups of coffee and a bunch more to study, new we are talking about a need for real motivation. 

But there must be some kind of natural solutions for this problem. 

This is what just happened to me. I was pouring over set theory mathematics for over two hours when I got hungry. 

I ate a full avocado plain with a spoon. Now if you look around the Internet you can find that avocados are a real brain food, but are they going to do the trick for me right now? 

Probably not. 

Allot of the so called brain foods are things that are only going to help you out if you make them part of your diet for some time. 

But what natural medicine can you use to help you get the job done right now? 

That's exactly the question I was asking myself when I swallowed the last spoonful of avocado this evening. 

There are a number of supplements that are made to help boost your brain power right away, but that's not what I was looking for, my thought was what plant can I get my hands on now that will help me finish this up. 

None of this was new to me, it's just that times you need to ask yourself the question in order to get the answer. 

And without getting into details I am just going to give you a list of four plants that you can use to boost your brain power now. 

Teas that can boost brain power right away:

•    Green tea
•    Gotu Kola
•    Rosemary
And then I have one more for you, but because it's expensive and really needs to be cooked, I’ll put it separately. 

•    Panax Ginseng

Now the great thing about all these is they can help you out right away. 

But in the end the best natural medicine for concentration, is motivation.

I really like that one! 

The best natural medicine for concentration is motivation. 

Get Ready For The Winter – Natural Medicine Checklist

I have written about different things that can be used to stay healthy in the winter. 

What I want to try to do here is to create a compilation of all the different ways we can use natural medicine to help avoid and treat common winter illnesses. 

I am not going to try and explain the different causes of increases of specific ailments in the winter months, but just give you a overview of what can be done to treat them. 

Let us start with the basic runny nose. 

It is my belief that if you start to treat at the first signs of a runny nose, you may very well avoid the bigger problems like sinusitis and bronchitis. 

The first things we want to concentrate on are:

•    Strengthening the immune system
•    Regulation of mucus secretion

When we speak about strengthening the immune system we need to be a bit more specific and point out that what we want to do is regulate the immune system just in case the runny nose is being caused by allergies, which is an over stimulation of the immune system. 

Instead of getting all technical let me just tell you the things I do. 

To strengthen the immune system, this is what I do. 

•    I eat lots of fresh garlic
•    I drink lots of fresh squeezed lemon juice
•    Make sure I am drinking lots of water (this is important because a lot of us tend to drink less water in the winter time)
•    Eat fresh onions
•    Take a good solid multi vitamin that has lots of vitamin C
•    Immune Strengthening Herbs Such As: Elder, chamomile, ginger, sage, cinnamon
•    Avoid over eating
•    Avoid dairy foods

Eating garlic is one of my favorites because it also helps to regulate mucus secretion. 

I want to mention again the importance of treating symptoms as early on as possible. If you wait until you need antibiotics, then it will be difficult to treat with natural medicine. 

So start using these things as soon as you stay getting a runny nose or start feeling nasal congestion. 

Oh and I almost forgot about essential oils. 

Lavender and eucalyptus oils are great for helping treat nasal congestion and also coughs. 

Simply put a few drops in your hands, rub then together and inhale the oils through your nose. 

If you can do steam inhalation even better. 

All you need is a bowl of streaming water, a towel, and the oils. 

Put a few drops of oil in the water, put your face over the bowl, cover your head and the bowl with the towel and inhale deeply. 

Be careful though eucalyptus oil is very strong. 

If you are already congested to the point where you can't breath through your nose, try using horseradish along with everything else to try and open things up. 

I have had great success using Wasabi, just because I can't always get fresh horseradish in the supermarket. 

As I said this is also good for treating coughs, so let's get right into coughs while we are on the topic. 

First of start with everything I mentioned for strengthening the immune system. 

Now we need to get into what kind of cough you have and see how we go about treating it. 

Dry hacking coughs need to be treated with anti spasmodic herbs like sage, linden, chamomile, yarrow, catnip, lavender. 

Also you want to take herbs that with increase mucus so that the lungs can clean themselves out. 

Here are just a bunch of herbs that can be great for treating dry coughs:

•    Elder
•    Slippery elm
•    Plantago
•    Flaxseed
•    Catnip
•    Chamomile
•    Ginger
•    Lavender
•    Cinnamon
•    Lemon balm
•    Sage
Also make sure you are drinking enough water and that you are not breathing dry air all the time. 

Sleeping with a humidifier is also great when treating dry coughs. 

Very wet coughs should be treated with expectorant herbs like garlic, cinnamon and eucalyptus. 

Elder is said to be a lung tonic herb and is great for all kinds of coughs. 

The last thing I would put on my list would be ear infections. 

I feel like only kids get ear infections but I know that that's not true. 

The bottom line is that ear infections are just another outcome of an infection of the upper respiratory tract. 

But most of the time from what I have seen ear infections are the result of not treating other symptoms earlier on.

Here is a simple but very effective formula for treating all of the above winter ailments including ear infections. 

Use equal parts of the following herbs:
•    Chamomile
•    Elder flower
•    Elder berries
•    Yarrow
•    Linden herb
•    Catnip

Make a strong tea and drink five times a day. 

For ear infections you can also use garlic oil, and apply it typically to the inside of the ear. 

To make a garlic oil simply heat up some fresh crushed garlic in olive oil, but make sure not to fry it.

Let it cool and use a q tip to apply to the inside of the ear. 

I almost forgot about strep throat. 

Strengthen the immune system and use herbal candies like Ricolas.

Also mint teas are great for soothing a sore and itchy throat. 

The second that I start to feel an itch in my throat I start to treat it like a strep.

I think that covers it all, did I miss anything? 

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/