Today I made a cream to help with soreness and injury. I had been working it up in my head for a week or two, but never got motivated to do it.
Well of course my darling daughter, “cricked” her knee jumping on the trampoline last night so it gave me the perfect reason. She loves making stuff and putting on way to much of whatever she makes. We added juniper oil, arnica and comfrey oil and some clove essential oil especially for her. It turned out a little smelly, but Daddy said it smells “like a mans” cream. I guess that’s good, cuz men too get achy, maybe they won’t be scared to use it.
Achy-Schmaky
What is Health Care in the western culture missing?
What is Health Care in the western culture missing? Why is it failing so many? What can we improve on? Education of health professionals? Licensing? Accountability? No, we’ve tried that. Over the last decade regulation of hospitals doctors, ‘alternative’ health practitioners has changed; becoming more limited and specific.
As with all other issues facing our communities and nation, we need local practical solutions. I feel drawn to be part of the change and part of the solution.
I became interested in practicing herbal medicine, not really because I had a love of nature (which I do) but because the approach that herbalists take to health. It’s individualized, personalized, specific to your body and life. Not specific to the illness or disease. This was such a change of perspective for me—a welcomed and needed one. It immediately struck me as “right’ and ‘normal’. I wanted to help people in this way.
The practice of herbalism and the title of ‘herbalist’ is misleading. We don’t just know herbs, we know the body, the life cycle and the earth cycle. We use the big picture of your life and the cycles of the world around us to understand the presenting imbalance.
So yes, while we love herbs and use herbs to help re balance our systems we also employee all the tools we have at our disposal. This means referring out to other health care practitioners that have specific skills in healing and re-balancing. Doctors and surgery are important and very necessary in certain or extreme cases of imbalance.
Cooperation is my personal goal in the health care community. Understanding and teaching the community is a passion and pursuit of mine as well. I hope to be an accessible and reliable resource for families and the community at large.
Health care is missing a constitutional, individual method of evaluating the body and applying remedies. Western herbalism has evolved to be a method of practice that incorporates live plant medicines, diet and nutrition and education to empower individuals to manage their own health.
Traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda model of care are also brilliant and extremely effective methods of treating imbalance in body. These traditions are also hundreds, if not thousands, of years thriving. It’s only in the last century or so that American medical tradition was thought of as a viable, practicable profession. The American Medical Association was officially formed in 1847. Well I won’t go into the whole history lesson. To read more about this see my next post…
Herbs in Austin – What’s up this Spring
So it’s spring in Central Texas. The pollen has passed (for now), the wildflowers are blooming, and the sun is shining! 
It’s time to start collecting the weeds in our yards to prepare another years medicine chest. Right now our local Primrose (Oenothera speciosa) is out with a vengeance. We probably all remember playing with this as child…”Here smell this! HAHAHA, you have yellow stuff on your nose.”
We called them buttercups. Surprise, surprise we pay lots of money now for the pressed oil of their seeds. It’s a miracle for the skin, a soother of frayed nerves, healer and helper of the reproductive system.
Some common uses of Evening Primrose oil are for migranes, preparing the cervix for labor and PMS symptom relief. The seeds contain a variety of fatty acids and oils including the essential linoliec acid and GLA. It’s largely cultivated in China, therefore China being the largest supplier of EP oil to the world market.
Our O. speciosa is not of the cultivated varieties and can be eaten as a salad vegetable or the seeds can be gathered and sprinkled on food for some of the health benefits widely known. This is safe for nursing mothers and for moderate use during pregnancy.
A few cautions are given with the use of the oil or capsules of oil. People with history of seizures or epilepsy should consult a knowledgable health care professional before using this herb.
Information in this article is in no way meant to diagnose, treat, or prescribe any herb or prescription. PLEASE always consult with an herbalist, midwife or doctor before beginning any new health or herbal program.
Spring Tonics — Cleavers
Well I guess I should say Spring/Winter/Spring tonics. Since it was in the 40s this morning!! Either way, as what Texas calls Spring is underway, it’s time to think about spring cleaning, lots of activities for family and local businesses, and herbal tonics. That’s what I’m thinking about anyway.
We’ve probably all experienced the winter cold or cough and now the change in the weather is stirring up pollen and allergies. One great way to gear up is to take some mild toners for your lymphatic system and lungs. Cleavers, also known as bedstraw or “that dang-ole sticky weed in my yard,” is great as a juice or glycerite for gently moving old residue from our blood and lymph nodes.
To make a juice:
- Gather a big ole handful of these long lanky plants. Usually you can easily pull the plant by walking past it.
- Chop or cut with scissors into about 2-3 inch lengths
- Put this mass in a sturdy, decently powerful blender
- Pulse the blender, because you will need to keep pressing the plant closer to the blades
- If necessary add small amounts of water as you blend
- Pour off the juicy goodness and consume immediately
You can also put it in your juicer if you have one. If you don’t cut it small enough, the fibrous stem could get wrapped around your blade.
As you were gathering, you may notice that the seed pods are tiny round balls at the end of a short shoot…remind you of anything?? Your lymph nodes perhaps? Well this is called the “doctrine of signatures.” The idea tells us that plants resemble in form how they will affect the body. So cleavers forms a spine-like cenral stalk with nodules shooting off along it’s length leads us to is medicinal use for the lymph and blood.
Cleavers is safe for use with children and pregnant mamas. It can be useful if there is swelling and poor circulation due towater retention and inflammation.
As always, please consult with an experienced health care practitioner if you are interested in adding plant medicines to your life.
