Peacefully Accenting - A Bit About Adaptogens

 

Many times change in our lives is met with difficulty, even when it is a good change.

Herbs which are considered Adaptogens help us to deal with the stress of such changes.

ASTRAGALUS is one such herb

But I think that there is a secret to easily move up the ladder of life, and this could be the financial, social or even spiritual ladder, without the difficulty of dealing with the change. Because let's face it moving up any of those ladders in itself is hard, why should we be having a hard time when we have actually achieved our goal and get to the next level.

I think the idea of a ladder is great because how you land on the next step or rung depends on how you left the one before it.

When we are trying to further ourselves in any field of life we seem to grow unhappy and perhaps even resentful of our current position.

This may just be my experience but I believe that most people go through this at some level.

The fine balance lies in the ability to be able to really appreciate where you are now while staying motivated to work toward a positive change. This is because just being happy about where you are has the chance of leading to stagnation.

But if you leave your current level with a feeling of unhappiness, that unhappiness can follow you to the next stage in the game in the form of stress.

So how can Adaptogens help?

Well in the end you are going to have to find a way to be happy with where you are now to be really happy with where you want to be, that's just the way it is in my humble opinion.

There are no major plants that are going to do that for you.

But herbal Adaptogens help to keep us in the peak state so that we can get the most done and in the best way. 

Here is a link to an article on healthline.com that I felt explained that even better.

https://www.healthline.com/health/adaptogenic-herbs#takeaway

The Citron Fruit Health Benefits And My Random Thoughts

Today is the eve of the sukkot holidays and I actually have time to write and research a bit.

And of course to let my mind do it's own crazy rounds like it always does.

So the Citron Fruit is one of the four species that we Jews have a tradition to shake around.

So what was actually very interesting to read was that the Citron is one of the three original citrus fruits that all the rest of citrus fruits are just a combination of these original three.

And once again it is all about the three.

Ok before I go on with my own random thoughts.

Yes the Citron has lots of vitamin C and tons of bioflavonoids, I bet you are not surprised to hear that it strengthens the immune system not too different from the lemon or the orange just one of the original three.

It's crazy about three.

In Jewish mysticism you have the first three highest spheres that everything comes from.

At least all of creation, there are some even above these three but that is just other worldly stuff.

The Greeks had their three big gods.

Christianity has the holy trilogy.

And although I couldn't find the big three in the Muslim faith I'm sure it's there. Anyway the Muslim faith is the third of the Abrahamic religions.

So I didn't get to finish this before the holiday started, but lucky for me it's a long one, eight days.

The number eight has its own significance, not gonna get into that here though.

The fundamental idea behind monotheism, which is also the foundation of the three Abrahamic religions, is the same as that of holistic philosophy.

This is also the fundamental idea behind holistic medicine.

As a believer I try my best to look at the world as one entity.

The high holidays as well as sukkot are a time when we have a chance to connect with this on an even higher level.

May we all have the good fortune in these trying times to bring this down to our day to day lives on even a higher level than before.

Olive Leaf Extract - Health Benefits

Olive Leaf Extract - Health Benefits

gastroprotective (protects digestive system)

neuroprotective (protects central nervous system)

antimicrobial (inhibits microorganism growth)

anticancer (reduces risk of cancer)

anti-inflammatory (reduces risk of inflammation)

antinociceptive (reduces pain stimuli)

antioxidant (prevents oxidation or cell damage)

I was trying to think of herbal remedies that people don't hear about very often and I came up with the olive leaf. 

Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that it is almost the olive harvest here in the middle east, but I can't say for certain. 

All though the olives on the tree right in front of my house are looking nice and juicy, just about ready to be picked.

Last year was actually the first time that I actually pickled some, they came out pretty good, but this year they are going to be even better because I got some really good tips from friends on how to do it better. 

Yes back to the olive leaf.

A bunch of years ago I made an alcohol extract for my mother to help her with her sugar levels. 

Just for your general knowledge olive leaf extract is made using 90% alcohol. 

The extract that I had made for my mother back then was able to keep her blood sugar balanced for a while and the effects were very noticable in her blood work.

The list of health benefits that I have written at the top of this post is from a post that i read in healthline.com here is the link if you would like to go through it yourself. 

https://www.healthline.com/health/olive-leaf-extract

After reading an additional article I find the research pointing to the effects of olive leaf on heart health, inflammation, blood sugar levels and antimicrobials has the most amount of scientific backing. 

But it is very important to realise that the other health claims for olive leaf are very likely true as well just that there have not been documented clinical research done on them. 

 

Herbs That Help Stop Bleeding

Herbs that help stop bleeding are also known as astringents.

The way that they work is they cause a tightening of the tissue.

Many well known astringents are also referred to as warrior herbs because those wounded in battle knew which herbs that grew wild could help to stop the bleeding.

The four that are mentioned in the picture at the top are just a few of very many herbs that can be used to stop bleeding.

Lavender oil is a great fix for small cuts and burns and is also soothing.

Aloe Vera sap can be used fresh.

And chamomile and yarrow can be made into a poultice, wrapped in a clean cloth and applied directly to the skin.

Cardiotonic Herbs

 

The inspiration for this post came after a friend of mine, a very young guy not even thirty years old, had a minor heart attack.

He is doing fine and the doctors don't have any clear diagnosis of what caused it. 

I really would like to suggest that he take Hawthorn berries, even just for a few months to help strengthen his heart. 

But the truth be told I don't fully understand how these plants help and affect the heart. 

Even after going through the research that has been done on these plants it is hard to understand the mechanism behind their effects on improving cardio health. 

Hawthorn is still at the top of the list of Cardiotonic herbs, while garlic even though I did not add it as one of the three cardiotonic herbs, is by many considered to be a cardiotonic as well. 

The second on the list of cardiotonic herbs is motherwort, the latin name for this plant is Leonurus cardiaca, so even the name implies its use as cardiotonic.

I found some very in depth research into effects of Motherwort that show how it actually helps protect the heart. 

Here is the link to that.

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2019/4303215/

The last on my list of cardiotonics is Convallaria, also known commonly as “Lily of the valley”.

The reason that I put it at the bottom of the list is because it seems to work like foxglove which is a strong heart stimulant and needs to be used with care.  

 

Four Immune Stimulating Herbs And A Bit On How They Work

My first idea for this post was to write about how certain herbs can help to strengthen our natural immune response. 

But then I thought to myself that someone else has already done that, I will just find it and give you all a link.

I could not find anything of the sort.

Ok, I do not think that I went further than the first page of search results, but who does.

Anyway, all I saw was stuff, kind of like this, listing off different herbs or giving recipes.

What is interesting though is there is not a lot of research proving that most of these herbs actually strengthen the immune system.

Let me explain.

For example, a herb such as thyme, is a very strong antimicrobial herb, which is very useful when trying to fight off an infection.

But it does not affect the immune system (as far as I know).

These kinds of plant medicines are very good to help fight disease, but that is not what I am talking about here. 

Also the four herbs that I am going to talk about.

• Garlic

• Elderberry

• Withania

• Astragalus

Are not herbs that strengthen the immune system by simply nourishing the body (those are great to).

But these are herbs that actually strengthen the body's natural immune response.

How do they do it?

Let me try and explain a few of the ways that they work without getting all scientific and boring.

Also because I can't be bothered to go and look up all those fancy names that I can never remember, let alone spell.

Even spell check doesn't know what they are. 

From what I understand there are two ways that they can work.

1 - they cause the body to produce more white blood cells which go around our body killing germ cells that might have found their way in.

2 - this one is a bit hard to understand but there is something beautifully poetic about it, they produce a sort of in check state of inflammation that is ready to go in a sort of controlled state at the first sign of trouble. 

Pretty cool right?

For any of you who would like all the big words and scientific lingo here are the links to each of these herbs research articles. 

Garlic

https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/food-beverages/garlic

Elderberry

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464614002400

Ashwaganda(Withania) 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3252722/

Astragalus

https://cmjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13020-019-0234-0

 

Medical Mushrooms

Personally I don't have any experience with these Mushrooms.

Most of the multivitamins that I purchase do have a combination of a few of them and for me I feel that it's enough.

Their immune system strengthening properties are what sparked the idea for this post while researching immune stimulating herbs.

All of the medicinal mushrooms have more or less the same five health benefits.

This makes a lot of sense being that well in the end they are all mushrooms,right.

The Five Health Benefits Of Mushrooms

• Prevent diabetes

• Anti-aging

• Anti Cancer

• Keep The Heart Healthy

• Strengthen The Immune System

There is a good solid amount of research to back this up but still nothing has been scientifically proven 100%.

Here is the article that brought this all to my attention.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4684115/