BORAGE HERB HELPS

BORAGE HERB HELPS

This strapping plant, with bristly and fleshy stems and leaves, sports surprisingly exotic, luminous blue flowers. These are traditionally used in drinks to raise the spirits. They make an attractive garnish to many dishes, especially ice cream and other cold summer desserts. Traditionally associated with courage, borage improves the production of adrenaline and is therefore like licorice, useful during stressful times or after steroid, medication.

This plant is very nutritious, containing calcium potassium and traces of gamma linoleic acid. It also helps in the absorption of iron. Oil from the seeds is a good alternative to evening primrose oil in treating skin disease or rheumatism. It is commercially available in capsules and is sometimes called startflower oil.

In addition to bringing “ courage and good heart” borage increases milk production in nursing mothers and is a useful herb to take during fevers, infections and convalescence.

Parts to be used- leaves, flowers and seeds. The leaves being so fleshy, need to be dried quickly and are best heated very gently in a cool oven until crisp.

Dose – 1 teaspoon dried. 2 teaspoon fresh to a cup of boiling water.

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LICORICE HEALTH HELPS

LICORICE HEALTH HELPS

This is an extremely useful herb which has been cultivated since the Middle. Ages for its sweet, aromatic roots. Among its many actions is its beneficial effect on digestions, it reduces inflammation all along the gut and encourages bowel activity. LICORICE is the basis of most proprietary laxatives. It is often used as a flavoring and will not raise blood sugar levels. If you like it, add a little to sweeten any herb tea, just stand a stick in the cup until you achieve the desired sweetness. Under close supervision, the root can be given to babies to chew and will ease the pain of teething.

Licorice also supports the adrenal glands and is therefore useful in any inflammatory condition such as eczema or arthritis. It will help to restore natural steroid production after a course of steroid medication. Since stress requires the adrenal glands to keep producing adrenaline, it may be that people who love to eat licorice daily are instinctively seeking supports for stressful times or lifestyles..

Licorice heated in honey makes a soothing syrup that helps to relax the chest in conditions such as bronchitis and asthma.

Parts used is the root (licorice sticks) or solidified juice in the form of black bars.

1 Teaspoon to a cup of boiling bars.

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The Help of Skullcap plant

SkullCap Plant

This herb is another nervous tonic. It was traditionally associated with the head, because it produces skull-like seed pods, it is very calming. having the same effect as a gentle hand placed on the head. Skullcap can help the anxiety and restlessness that often accompany an overload of worries or responsibilities. Its bitter taste encourages the liver to remove toxins from the body; this includes excess hormones that are often responsible for premenstrual tension.

you have to used the aerial parts of the plant, harvested after flowering

1 teaspoon dried or 2 teaspoon fresh to a cup of boiling water.

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The Wonder Healer effect of Wood Betony

The Wonder Healer effect of Wood Betony

An attractive plant with purple flowers growing out of a satisfying cushion of leaves, wood betony restores nervous system, especially if headaches and poor memory are a problem. It has the effect of encouraging blood flow to the head.

It has always a very popular remedy through out Europe and is also called bishop's weed, perhaps because it was often planted on holy ground. A wide range of beneficial qualities have been ascribed to wood betony and it is certainly worth trying if you are troubled by headaches or migraines.

Aerial parts to me used

1 Teaspoon dried / 2 teaspoon fresh herb to a cup of boiling water

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LEMON BALM

LEMON BALM

This plant hat so much vitality that it can spread all over the garden. Also called the balm, it is so much enjoyed by bees that it has been suggested that hives rubbed with the plant will keep the bees close and encourage others to join the hives.

in the winter and iced in the summer. This is one of the few herbs which doesn't keep when dry, so if you have a garden you should be well advised to pick it fresh daily. A constructive way to restrain its rampant habit! if you want to use it in the winter, the Best solution is to freeze it. Pick it in early summer when abundant and freeze it in a plastic container.

Lemon balm supports digestion and relaxation, and it helpful for sensitive digestive systems. it is much used for irritable bowels, nervous indigestion, anxiety and depression. Drinking lemon balm tea also encourages a clear head, so it is useful when you are studying. It makes a good bedtime drink, promoting peaceful sleep and relaxation.

Lemon balm combines well with chamomile.

Uses the Leaves and Flowers, 1 Teaspoon to a cup of boiling water, it is advised to drink at most 4 times a day.

Lemon balm helps reduce agitation caused by stress.

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Chamomile

Chamomile

This pretty little daisy is one of the better known herbs, possibly because it is so useful. Its nature is friendly and supportive, both to people and to other plants. It has been called "The plants physician" because other species growing near it seem to thrive. Use the flowerheads alone in a tea or tincture to relax may sometimes disturb you. It makes a very suitable tea to drink late in the day, as it has the opposite effect of coffee, which exacerbates tension and anxiety.

Known as "mother of the gut," chamomile reduces spasms and inflammation in the digestive system as it improves liver function with its bitter action. This makes it an ideal after-dinner drink, especially as it also promotes relaxation. Many people swear by chamomile tea as the ideal bedtime.

Dried Chamomile Flowers

Drink- This gentle plant can also be used to soothe restless babies and children.

Tea bags are convenient but an infusion of loose flowers usually makes a quality tea. Be sure that those you buy are fresh; they should be recognize flower heads, bright yellow and white. Inhaling the steam from irritants ans soothes symptoms of hay fever or rhinitis. Tea bags can also be added to the bath for relaxation.

Part Used: Flowerheads

Dose: 1 Teaspoon dried 2 teaspoon fresh to a cup of boiling water.

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Marjoram Plant

Marjoram Plant

Known also as Origanum Vulgare

There are many species of marjoram, whose botanical name comes from the Greek and means "joy of the mountain" Sweet marjoram is commonly used in potpourri, and as a culinary herb it is popular in Greek and Italian cooking. Wild Marjoram, usually referred to as oregano when used in cooking, has a spicy fragrance, small, rounded leaves and tiny, pink flowers.

Medicinally, marjoram reduces depression and is helpful for nervous headaches. It contains volatile oils that are antispasmodic so it is useful in soothing digestive upsets.

The infused oil can be used in the bath to relieve stiffness or rubbed onto sore and aching joints or muscles.

Application:

Used leaves

1 Teaspoon dried/2 teaspoons fresh to a cup of boiling water, twice a day.

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Garlic Lowers Blood Pressure

Garlic Lowers Blood Pressure

Experts estimate that as many as 20 percent of Americans suffer from hypertensions, or high blood pressure. As a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, it is widely treated with drugs. however, most blood pressure medication causes moderate to severe side effects. These can be avoided by simply including the drugs naturally available in plants like garlic.

garlic has been a hypertension treatment for centuries in China and Japan. It is also widely used today in Germany. In fact, tests were recently performed on a German over-the-counter garlic preparation. A dose equivalent to two daily garlic cloves reduced blood pressure in patients with mild hypertension. the garlic produced a blood pressure reduction over the three-month study, showing that garlic may even have a cumulative effect on the body.

a variety of study involving the animals and humans, conducted over the past seven decades, show that the garlic lowers blood pressure. Studies on people with diagnosed hypertension as far as a field of China and Bulgaria have shown that garlic in varoius form reduces a fall in blood pressure.

Animal studies show garlic relaxes the smooth muscles of blood vessels. Another blood pressure -lowering mechanism was reported in the German scientific journal "Planta Medica". It seems that a small garlic peptide inhibits the production of a blood pressure-raising hormone. Whatever the mechanisms, science and history both provide strong evidence that garlic lowers blood pressure.

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The Natural Power of Antioxidants

The Natural Power of Antioxidants

When a squirt of lemon juice helps food stay fresh, it is working as an antioxidant, protecting against the harmful effects of Oxygen. Oxygen harmful? Well, we've all seen rust and tasted rancid oil. although essential for life, oxygen can also work against it. Unstable oxygen molecules do the damage when their basic paired units, electrons, lose their partners. If an oxygen molecules loses an electron, it stabilizes itself by grabbing another from any body substance or tissue nearby, causing that molecule in turn to become unstable. Every molecule robbed of an electron becomes destabilized itself. and if antioxidants aren't present a chain reaction can take place, creating damage to tissues. This process is called oxidation and is what antioxidants prevent. Unstable oxygen molecules are called free radicals.

Antioxidants work by preventing oxidants from forming, or by putting the brakes on free radical chain reactions. They form part of a well-balanced system that also repairs oxidation damage and neutralizes toxins.

Oxidants are a natural result of the production of energy of our tissues, and they do serve many useful purposes in the bod. However, a normally healthy body is designed to keep free radicals in check or directed only where they are useful, such as attacking invading bacteria. Out-of-Control oxidation is a causative factor in much illness, including heart disease and strokes. today polluted world means our bodies have to cope up with far higher levels of free radicals than ever before. Free radical culprits include smog, cigarette smoke, pesticides and food additives. The Average American doens't eat nearly enough antioxidants-rich fresh fruits and vegetables o counteract these environmental toxins. Our bodies are in double oxidant jeopardy, which makes taking antioxidant supplements an important part of preventing heart disease.

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COLON CANCER

COLON CANCER

Colon cancer is a common type of malignancy (cancer) in which there is uncontrolled growth of the cells that line the inside of the colon or rectum. Colon cancer is also called colorectal cancer.

• The colon, also known as the large intestine, is the last part of the digestive tract.
• The rectum is the very end of the large intestine that opens at the anus.

Four ways to Prevent Colon Cancer

1. Keeping things moving through your vowels Chow down on vegetables such as broccoli, kale, carrots, onions, cabbage, collards, peas, potatoes and all dark green, yellow and orange vegetables. Why? They are high in fiber, so they keep bowels moving, but that’s not all. Vegetables contain substances that take toxins through your intestines quickly and harmlessly. And don’t forget the wheat bran for more fiber. There is some evidence that fiber may even reverse the growth of precancerous polyps.

2. Cut down on the saturated fat you’re eating. Saturated fat is usually solid at room temperature, examples are butter, the marbled fat in meat, the fat from fried foods, and hydrogenated oils. Your fat calories should be no more than 25 percent of your diet, and of that, 10 percent or less should come from saturated fat.

3. Get your calcium. It is paramount in the prevention of colon cancer. The French eat five to six servings of yogurt daily, and even thought they consume as much fat as most North Americans, the rate of colon cancer is much lower.

4. Say yes to Selenium! Over the past few years a number of studies have linked low selenium level with colon cancer. In a study at the University of Arizona, it was found that people with high levels of selenium in their blood had fewer colon polyps, which are often precancerous.

Selenium is an important part of an antioxidant enzyme called glutathione peroxidase. This enzyme may prevent damage to cells. Some studies show that it plays a role in the repair of DNA and helps activate the immune system.

Onion and garlic are a rich source of selenium. Other great sources of selenium are brown rice, seafood, kidney, liver, wheat germ, bran, tuna fish, tomatoes and broccoli.

You can take 100 to 200 micrograms of selenium daily.

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The Real Cause of Ulcers

The Real Cause of Ulcers

For years mainstream medicine claimed that stress and excess stomach acid caused ulcers. Although stress can contribute to ulcers by either suppressing stomach acid or causing an over secretion of it, we now know that the real culprit is a nasty spiral-shaped bacteria called Helicobacter pylori which lives in the stomach lining. This destructive little stowaway suppresses the production of hydrochloric acid, causes inflammation, reduces the protective mucus coating in the stomach, and creates holes in stomach acid to born it and cause ulcers. It may be that in many people Helicobacter doesn’t create enough damage to cause ulcers, cause chronic indigestion and heartburn.

The standard medical treatment for Helicobacter infection is one or two antibiotics, usually tetracycline and amoxicillin, combined with a bismuth agent such as

Pepto-Bismol, for a weak to ten days. However, if you want to avoid antibiotics, you can try a combination of garlic capsules to kill the bacteria (one or two capsules with meals); licorice root tincture or capsules to aid in healing and protecting the stomach lining, and cabbage juice to speed healing.

Bleeding Stomach Ulcers

Ulcers are also commonly causes bye NSAIDS (nonsteriodal anti-inflammatory drugs) such as aspirin and ibuprofen. I encourage you to avoid them, especially if you’re having stomach pains.

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Exercise can be a simple, effective cure for insomnia

Exercise can be a simple, effective cure for insomnia

Exercise is by far my favorite sleeping pill and cure for the blues. I have seen many people suffering from wild depression or insomnia cute it simply by getting some exercise. Somehow, we resist the simple cure of our problems, but exercise if one of our best bets for a good night’s sleep. A brisk 20- 30 minutes walk daily can be just a sleeping potion we need.

As for maintaining peak energy, anyone who do exercises regularly knows that you use energy or lose it. Working the body keeps its fuel system active, bringing in oxygen used to burn the calories taken in from food, which produces energy. For all we know that Energy is needed in every activity, even sleeping when you have optimum fitness you’ll have optimum energy. The greater the energy the more active you can be in every level, including physical, mental and emotional.

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Staying Healthy with an Active Lifestyle

Staying Healthy with an Active Lifestyle

I like to live my life to its full potential, and to do that I maximize my energy and minimize the impact stress has on my life. I often refer to stress as ‘’crunch times.’’ We all have crunch times, and not always for negative reasons like the positive experience of my annual whistle stop book tours where I’m in eight cities in ten days. The goal of getting through a book tour with my health intact inspires me to pull out all of my anti-stress tricks. I’m happy to tell you that they work. I accomplish a tremendous amount in a very short time, working stay healthy and energetic throughout.

Stress can also come in bad packages. Disease, holidays, anxiety, even moving, can burn you out before you realize it. The problem for many people during crunch times begins when they start to feel overwhelmed by life’s demands and don’t do anything to remedy it. It’s at this point that they start to feel serious stress and suffer the physical and emotional consequences, like inability to sleep, gaining or losing weight, exhaustion,

Irritability, depression and loss of emotional control. Physical symptoms can range from minor aches and pains to considerable chronic and acute conditions.

Physicians in general practice have reported that at least 75 percent of their patients have problems with an emotional beginning. High blood pressure, colitis, heart disease, even cancer have been attributed in large part to poorly managed, chronic stress.

I’m not saying avoid stress you can’t. it shows up in all our lives, and, since, there’s often not much we can do to impact the status quo that has us rushing so fast, the best possible strategy is to expect and be prepared for stress and know how our own personal system reacts to it. This book is about maintaining an active lifestyle while you maintain your health. Four of the five most important keys I use to maintain my health are to get plenty of sleep, get plenty of exercise, drink plenty of clean, fresh water, and fill my body with delicious, nutritious food. The fifth key is to follow a sensible program of herbs and supplements to support my body, and especially my immune system.

There are a few don’ts, too. It’s best not to eat a lot of sugar or fats, not to eat just before bedtime, not to drink too much coffee or alcohol and, of course, not to smoke or spend much time breathing polluted air. Finally, don’t expect yourself to be perfect. If a crunch time hits you, one of the worst things you can do is resort to a prescription drug.

There is plenty of well-documented research showing that popular prescribed drugs like valium are extremely addictive and can actually increase depression. Prozac, and other antidepressant drugs in the same family (Paxil and Zoloft, for example), can cause very erratic responses in some people, including increased irritability, withdrawal from loved ones, and even violent or suicidal behavior. The side effects of these drugs are potentially so damaging that using herbal and nutritional methods to reduce anxiety and depression

(which is often how we react to chronic stress) is most often the preferred method of treatment. There are an almost infinite variety of ways that each one of us responds to stress and copes with it. Rather than using this book as a formula approach to maximizing your energy and minimizing stress think of it as a resource with which you can discover your own personal path to an optimal high-energy lifestyle.

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Enzymes

The Wonder of Enzymes

There ins't a cell in the body that functions without the help of enzymes. Enzymes are the magic ingredient that makes all of the other ingredients in the body work together. it is estimated that enzymes in the human rating 30 million biochemical reactions in the different body in every minute. There are thousands of different enzymes at work, each with its own individual assignment.

Without the appropriate enzyme to bind to, vitamins are just so much organic matter, minerals are just so must inorganic and even oxygen itself is just another molecule. Enzymes regulate all living matter, plants and animals alike. take away enzymes and you no longer have something that is living.

We can also look at enzymes as the guide that shows the vitamin or mineral or fat the way into the cell, without the introduction of the enzyme, the cell might never know the identity of the nutrient. Enzymes also speed up process which might take much longer without their help, they build proteins that create tissue, remove toxins, help prevent the aging process within cells and change nutrients into useful energy.

The enzymes that we know about are divided by what their purpose is in the body, they are called oxidoreductases, transferases, hydrolases, lyases, isomerases and ligases. The digetive enzymes are the hydrolases and there are the ones we will examine more closely.

We are born with enzymes already in our bodies and we get some from food. However, enzymes are very sensitive to heat and processing, so they are not found in cooked or processed food. This means you need to get your enzymes from fresh, uncooked food such as raw fruit and vegetables, or from enzyme supplements.

Some enzyme experts believe that factors such as stress, malnutrition, junk food, alcohol and cigarettes destroy and thus deplete enzymes. They theorize that many digestive problems and immune disorders happen when we are deficient in enzymes.

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The Amazing Animo Acids

The Amazing Animo Acids

Protein is made up of animo acids. although there are dozens of animo acids, only one animo acids are produced in the body. all eight of the essential animo acids are made in very small amounts by the bacteria found in the intestines, but they must also be supplied from food intake.

The Essential Animo Acids

Lysine Phnylalanine

Leucine Threonine

Isoleucine Tryptophan

Methionine Valine

The Following Animo acids are essentials for pregnant woman from there developing fetus, and for the infants, histidine, taurine, and crystine. Eric R. Braverman and Carl C. Pfeiffer, in their book "The Healing Nutrients within" state the following animo acids to be conditionally essential, and necessary for anyone under stress, alanine, arginine, aspartic acid, carnitine, cystine, GABA, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, homocysine (toxic in high doses), hydroxyproline, proline and serine.

Animo acids play a variety of important roles in every part of the body, including the immune system, the digestive system, metabolism, detoxification, and glucose balance, in the brain as supplements work every well to combat depression, enhance mood and improve sleep, while others improve memory and cognitive abilities.

When we eat proteins, the are broken down into proteins or peptides, which are proteins made of only a few animo acids, and then absorbed into the body.

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