Spirulina - So Is It Really Good For You?

With my last order of dry herbs from my supplier I received a complimentary bottle of Spirulina capsules.

Be then I never took the stuff on a regular basis.

But after taking it for a while I did feel an overall effect of better health.

So was it all in my head? 

After reading up on the research it seems not. 

There is some good proof that Spirulina helps with allergies and heart disease, as will as a number of other things. 

Also it is safe to take and is a good source of vitamins and other goodies for the body, so why not? 

Here is a link to a great article that sums up the research. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136577/

Digestive Tonic Syrup

So after years of success with my winter herbal formulas for colds and couphs I really wanted to create a new formula for some thing different. 

So after a few tims of my kids complaning about stomach aiches I decided that it was time for a syrup for digestional discomforts. 

The formula I put together was actually really simple.

It consisted of four herbs. 

• Pepper mint 

• Spiramint

• Sage

• Ginger

In order for the syrup to be tasty I only used a small amount of the sage in comparison to the other three herbs. 

I started off by boiling 30 grams of fresh Ginger in one liter of water for about 15 minutes, then I added 30 grams of dry spiramint, 30 grams of dry pepper mint and ten grams of sage and let it steep for about an hour.

After straining and pressing the concenrated extract and filtering it through a cheese cloth I added 1.5 grams of sugar for every ml of liquid and heated over a low flam until all the sugar was disolved. 

It came out good, the tast is good and also the effect. What is really nice about it is that the strong mint has a fast cooling efect on the stomach as soon as you take it.   

Fast Tincture Making Using 98% Alcohol

How to make a tincture in a day.

Its is always best to make your tinctures by letting the herbs sit in the alcohol for at least a week, but what to do when you need to make a tincture now, like today. 

I have been making a winter cold syrup for many years now using a great formula that really works well. It is a really simple one also. I know that Ihave written about it in the past but I'll write it out here as well. 

It is made by adding equal parts of the six plants listed below.

• Elder flowers
• Elderberries
• Chamomile
• Linden
• Yarrow
• Catnip

About a year ago I started to offer it in tincture form as well. 

The problem is the time it takes to make and well I guess that is also my problem of not preparing enough in advance.

So at the beginning of the winter when someone asked for the tincture form and I had not been prepared I used 98% alcohol mixed with a high concentrated water base extract to make a quick fix tincture that worked out pretty well. 

This is how I did it and the out come worked well.

But still I would suggest being better prepared and not having to go this route. 

I blended 25 grams of the mixed dry herbs until it was a fine powder.

Then I added 200 ml of boiling water and left it to steep for about an hour. 

After pressing and filtering I had about 100 ml of a very dark water based extract that I added an equivalent amount of the 98% alcohol to. 

There was some sort of congeling that happened as a reaction to the alcohol so I needed to run it through a cheesecloth again, but still the resulting 49% alcohol herbal extract that I had as a finished product was perfect for what I needed. 

I had a bottle for myself that I used and it worked great.

Why Doesn't Black Cohosh Work?

If you have been taking Black Cohosh for hot flashes or PMS and it is not working, here are a few of the possible reasons. 

Maybe it's not right for you:

studies show that Black Cohosh is shown to help 20-50% of women by decreasing the unwanted symptoms of PMS.

This means that it doesn't help 50-80% of them 

You have not been taking it for long enough:

The endocrine system is not easily manipulated. 

Hot flashes and PMS are hormonal issues. The system that controls all the release and reuptake of hormones is called the endocrine system.  

The endocrine system is very well balanced and well protected.

Trust me you don't want to drastically alter this one, any changes made should be slow and gradual so that all of the important parts have time to adjust. 

This means that anything that is going to make a positive change needs to be taken regularly for an appropriate amount of time. 

You are not taking enough:

proper dosage is a huge factor in taking any herbal medicine, even more so when you are trying to affect something as complicated as the endocrine system. 

Other reasons:

Truth be told, any other reasons would fall under the first thing that I said. 

It may just be that black cohosh is not the herb your body needs to help balance it out. 

other herbal options can be vetex and cramp bark.

Peppermint Leaf - Uses In Chinese Medicine

Latin Name - Mentha x piperita

pharmaceutical name : folium menthae piperitae 

Parts Used - Leaf

Functions And Indications

Promotes sweating, dispels wind cold and opens the sinuses, relieves pain and congestion.

External wind cold- sneezing, fatigue, headache, chills, possible feverishness and cold and flu onset.

Head damp cold and lung wind cold - sinus congestion and pain, sneezing coughing and watery nasal discharge, chilliness - acute sinusitis, rhinitis, otitis, laryngitis and bronchitis.

Stimulates digestion, promotes secretion, reduces liver congestion and relieves gas, settles the stomach and stops vomiting, reduces infection and clears parasites.

Gallbladder and stomach Qi stagnation - ingestion, growling stomach, gas, appetite loss, biliary, gastric, and pancreatic dyspepsia

Liver Qi stagnation - sever frontal or occipital headache, indigestion, nausea, abdominal and right flank pain and distension, liver congestion and chronic hepatitis.

Nausea and vomiting from stomach Qi reflux.

Viral and bacterial infection.
Peptic ulcer, ulcerative colitis.

Intestinal parasites - scabies, ringworm.

Circulates the Qi, releases constraint and relieves pain.

Intestines Qi constraint - painful and gassy digestion with cramps, worse with stress.

Gallbladder/gallstone colic.

Uterus Qi constraint - painful menses with clots and cramps.

Spasmodic dysmenorrhea.
Migraine, headache.
Neuralgia, sciatica.

Stimulates and balances the nerves,relieves dizziness and benefits vision.

Liver yang rising (liver/endocrine disharmony) - dizziness, headache and tremors.

Dizziness, concentration loss, vertigo, coma.

Hypotension.

Vision imparment.

Stops lactation and reduces breast congestion.

Excessive lactation - for weaning.

Curtailed or congested breast milk.

Reduces inflammation, relieves pain and itching, repels insects.

Skin inflammation and pruritus, burns, scalds, acne, boils and eczema.

Rheumatic pain, fibromialgie, toothache, pruritus.

Mosquito and gnat repellent.

Catnip Leaf - How It Is Used In Chinese Medicine

Catnip is one of the five herbs that I use most.

It is part of the formula used to make my winter herbal syrup.

From a Chinese medicine view point it is one of the herbs used to promote sweating and dispel wind heat.

This would make a lot of sense to all of us who know about Catnip`s ability to lower fever, as well as with runny nose and cough.

The functions and indications which I will get to shortly are the same as those traditional Western Herbalism (like myself) will recognize. But the additional aspects from the treatment prospective of Chinese herbal therapy will be very useful for those who treat using the five element philosophy.

A short introduction for the herb is appropriate.

Botanical Name - Nepeta cataria

Parts Used - leaf of the herb

Functions and Indications

Promotes sweating, dispels wind heat and reduces fever; promotes eruptions opens the sinuses and relieves pain.
external wind heat/cold: headache, sore throat, chills and/or feverishness, sneezing, unrest.

even though I did take two semesters in Chinese medicine I can not remember all the connection but from my experience with the herb this all sounds very logical. It is a very calming herb and I wonder if that would have to do with its ability to help calm a lot of headaches. Calming would also sound like an aspect of dispelling wind heat.

Head damp heat/cold: congested painful head and sinuses, nasal discharge.

The ability  Catnip to help with nasal discharge is one of the more important reasons I add it to my winter formula.

Circulates the Qi releases constraint and promotes rest

Qi constraint with nerve excess: emotional and mental tension, unrest.

intestines Qi constraint: abdominal pains, flatulence, indigestion

This again makes perfect sense because Catnip is known as a stomachtic herb and a carminative herb.

Reduces inflammation and benefits the skin - Catnip is known to be an anti-inflammatory.

Phytotherapy - Properties

How Herbs Work

These are the therapeutic properties of medicinal herbs.

I really thought that I had written a post listing these off but it seems that I was mistaken.

I am actually trying to put together an app that will make it easy to search through an herbal library so I need to have these all listed out well.

Analgesic - pain reliever

Anti-inflammatory

Antiarrhythmic - prevents irregular palpitations of the heart

Antibacterial

Antidepressant

Antifungal

Antiparasitic

Antimigraine

Antineoplasmic - Anti cancer

Antiviral

Cardiotonic

Expectorant, mucolytic

Dermatologic

Diuretic

Gastrointestinal

Muscle relaxant

Stimulant