How To Get Rid Of Pain Naturally (Using Herbs)

In the past few years, the whole "all-natural" movement has been gaining ground as evidenced by aggressive marketing of alternative health products from weight-loss diet pills to cold medications all marked as "derived from nature." Of late, Western medicine is trying its best to join the alternative health bandwagon by researching on ancient herbal remedies that have been in use in more primitive cultures for centuries. This is also the reason for the sudden increase of natural pain relief medications.

Western medical science is still studying the host of ingredients and combinations that make up these natural pain relief, before any major investment is made by pharmaceutical companies, production-wise. There are a few "naturally made" medications already being sold on the market, but most of the traditional natural pain relief remedies have yet to be tested by neutral research laboratories. Most developed countries have employed strict standards regarding medical testing, and, as a consequence, has slowed down the release of herbal or natural pain relief medications.

However, in less developed countries, the natural pain relief remedies are still in frequent use and are, in fact, more popular than western medicine. This is particularly true outside of urban communities, where Western medical procedures and tools are either inaccessible or too expensive for the people. With the herbs and ingredients being readily available, and the people being aware of which plants work for what ailments, the process of using these natural pain relief methods is significantly simpler. While Western medicine recognizes this, there are several concerns that prevent the herbs and ingredients being used from being introduced to the mainstream.

Aside from the aforementioned testing procedures, developed countries have research being conducted to find out what exactly is making the natural healing methods work. This would allow pharmaceutical companies to both present the medication in the traditional capsule or pill form by isolating the key ingredient, but also by allowing them to study the effects and pinpoint other potential applications.

Another difficulty is the prevalent belief that herbal remedies or traditional medicines are somehow "inferior" or are fraudulent, as compared to Western medicines. While this view is archaic, this has been cited as one of the reasons why traditional Chinese medicines not being widely used outside of Chinese communities in the US. Supposedly, the extensive testing and study conducted by pharmaceutical companies on natural "pain killing" also involves the isolation of the working compound, which would allow them to market it as a "modern" drug.

It is also worth noting that some of these remedies may not be easily accessible to outsiders, making procuring samples difficult. With samples to test being so difficult to obtain, companies are rendered incapable of marketing the remedies, even if the chemistry behind the herbs is sound and effective. Another problem stems from the fact that most outsiders are incapable of understanding the cultural subtleties differentiating one herbal treatment from another.

Despite these difficulties, some pharmaceutical companies have managed to successfully field and market effective remedies based on folk treatments and herbs. There is an extant market for such remedies, and with massive advertising and media mileage, the market is expected to boom in no time at all.

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Author: Harry Ayala

Gingko Biloba - Fashionable Right Now

I’ve heard lots about Ginkgo and see it in many products on the supermarket shelves. It comes over and a herb that has many uses from shampoo to memory enhancing properties. Not having tried the nuts which is primarily a Chinese food I’m sure the play on the alternative medicinal benefits will still move up a step more and also on the vegetarian bandwagon.

Ginkgo is also known as the Maidenhair Tree after. It is one of the classic examples of a living fossil. For centuries the tree was thought to extinct in the wild, but it was found to be growing in Eastern China, These ginkgo trees may have been planted and preserved by Chinese monks over a period of about 1000 years.

Ginkgoes are big trees reaching a height of up to 50 metres. They have an angular crown and seemingly random branches. It is deep rooted to resist wind and snow. Autumn brings the leaves to bright yellow then drop within a few days so catching trees at this spectacular point is rare. Amazingly, some specimens are claimed to be more than 3,000 years old.

Ginkgo nuts are produced from the trees and are used and served up on special occasions such as weddings and the Chinese New Year. They are believed bring health benefit including aphrodisiac qualities. The Japanese cook Ginkgo seeds these are often eaten along with other dishes.

The seed can cause poisoning to children if eaten in excess and some people are sensitive to the chemicals on the, the outer fleshy coating. They should handle the seeds with carefully when working with the seeds for food wearing disposable gloves is advisable. Dermatitis or blisters can result otherwise.

Extracts of Ginkgo leaves have been used pharmaceutically and Ginkgo supplements are a popular herb alternative medicine for treating dementia and prevention of Alzheimer's Disease. There is a medical debate on whether this is actually effective or not right now.

To me this is a food and whether the medical benefits are profound or not, it remains a natural source of protein and an addition to the daily intake of a varied and balanced diet. I certainly wouldn’t entertain importing the food from the point of unnecessary transportation. Every country has it’s own source of nut products and they should be eaten locally.

Salad Burnet - Wild, Free and Cucumber Taste

Coming from western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa and southwest Asia. Salad burnet is a common herb that not many people are aware of even though it grows under their noses in many instances. It is great for salads as it's name suggest and can be made into either a useful vinegar or a lovely alcoholic cocktail with a unique taste.

It is a perennial herbaceous plant growing to nearly 1 metre high and can be found mainly in dry grassy meadows with limestone based soil. It is very resistant to drought grows throughout all seasons.

It is used not just in salads, but can be used as an ingredient to dressings. The flavour is essentially of a cucumber. The salad burnet is an excellent substitution for mint leaves in many dishes. If you use the fresh young leaves these will give the best results otherwise you may get a bitter edge to older tougher parts of the herb.

It also has been marked in history for being Francis Bacon's favourite herb and was introduced to the New World from the first English colonists. Salad burnet also has medicinal qualities in fact the same benefits as the medicinal burnet.

The salad burnet or sometime know as the great burnet it distinctive in looks has erect stems with globular red flower heads. These have purplish quality with feather like stigmas and sepals; it has no petals. The leaves are rounded with toothed characteristic mini-leaves.

If the leaves are crushed it will give the smell reminiscent of cucumbers. The herb forms in large colonies and attracts all types of insects. It will seed freely and cover big areas. It is a good plant for a short meadow type land as it can withstand mowing. Because it can tolerate drought it is good resource to have with global warming here and worsening.

Seeds are cheap and freely available in many online gardening sites. It is well worth having a few clumps of salad burnet you can pick all year round once established just before you mow the land.

I have given a recipe that I had made in the UK a few times. It was a great favourite of my grandmother who used to make it and gave me the recipe. She said, "It make hairs grow on your chest," but this is not to be taken seriously of course.

Grandma Charlotte's Burnet Liquor Cocktail

Ingredients:

• Salad Burnet, around 5-6 plants crushed or liquidised
• 700cl white wine medium to sweet
• 500ml sherry
• 1/2 lime or 1 lemon thinly sliced
• 1 litre soda water

Method:
Simply mix all the ingredients except the soda water together really well and leave in the fridge for a few hours or preferably overnight. Just before serving add the soda water and add sugar to add more sweetness if required.

Rapsberry Leaves - With or Without Labour

We all know about raspberries, as I cast my mind back to having many a feast of raspberry vines in the garden. The red stained hands and the seeds used to get stuck in our teeth, and still do. Never for a moment did we ever consider the use for the raspberry leaf herb. These were always left to drop of in the autumn and rot back into the ground. The leaves have a wide range of medicinal benefits and can be used fresh or dried in herbal and medicinal teas and as an alcoholic drink.

The leaves of the raspberry plant have been used as a medicinal herb going back many centuries. It is now known to have many beneficial properties including a tonic for pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. It is believed that if the raspberry leaves tonic is taken daily in the last six to eight weeks of pregnancy it will help to prepare the uterine muscles for labour and thereby make the process of childbirth a little easier.

Other areas of pregnancy reap the benefits of raspberry leaves as it can help ease the symptoms of morning sickness, sooth and reduce the bleeding of gums, a common ailment with pregnant women. It produces a rich source of iron, calcium, manganese and magnesium. The magnesium factor is the key element to helping with pregnancy labour process. Raspberry leaf also possesses vitamins B1, B3 and E which all benefit and aid pregnancy.

Pregnancy aside, raspberry leaves can also bring relief to sore throats and reduce fever. Commercially you can get raspberry leaves in tablet form, loose tea leave and in teabags. There are also commercially produced alcoholic tinctures which contain the raspberry leaf herb

The raspberry plant is generally bought or planted from propagating the suckers. If you want o grow some yo need to put the the plants about two hand spans apart and form rows. You should plant the rows around 1 1/2 to 2 metres apart as if too close the fruit won't be as good.

A good strong loam soil is ideal as raspberries don't like light soil. Cut down all the old wood that has produced fruit in October and shorten the young shoots to about 1/2 metre in height. The between between the rows should be dug up well and a little fertiliser added. No further care is needed other than a little weeding in the summer. Replace plantations every four years to get the best crops.

It is always my view that growing and making your own herbs and tonics is far better than spending gross amounts of money for commercially produced ones. Your own raspberry leaf herbs can easily be dried yourself and turned into a herbal tea. Raspberry tea actually tastes a bit like conventional black tea, not raspberries, but smells fresher. The other advantage is that there is no caffeine.

Try to pick young fresh raspberry leaves and any sprouts that you see appearing. If you leave them in a sunny position for a few days your leaves will have dried and ready for use.

Like any herb tea, the process is the same one teaspoon of dried raspberry leaves in a cup of boiling water for 10 - 15 minutes, strain and add a sweetener can be sugar or honey. Your homemade dried raspberry leaves will keep in fine condition is in an airtight container and should see you through to the next season where you repeat the process - Oh the beauty of nature and the cycle of seasons!

Just a last suggestion is to try experimenting with other dried herbs as a mix with the dried raspberry leaves, you may come up with a unique tea to your own taste. I have tried raspberry and mint and added a touch of lemon to the finished tea - it was a great surprise.

Hops for Beer, Medicine and Garlands

Back in the UK one of my pastimes was brewing my own beer. This was not done from kits but from gathering all natural ingredients. Many types of beer were made from a black Guinness type to lager and nettle and bran beer to cock ale (where the carcass of a chicken was also used in the brewing stage.)

In all the wonderful beers that I produced, the need for hops was apparent in each case, this is what made a beer taste like a beer.

History shows that the hop herb was used almost extensively in brewing throughout most of Europe. It has properties that give beer its distinctive flavour, it help preserve and clear the beer. This goes back to the 9th Century and was actually documented in the 11th century.

There are many reasons why hops are used in brewing. There is the distinctive bitterness of the hops balances with the sweetness of the malt. Then there is the flavour of the hops that add to the beers' characteristics and is achieved by boiling the hops in the wort for 10-15 minutes.

The aroma of the hops is absorbed into the beer by boiling the hops with the wort or by 'dry hopping', this is basically adding the hops to the secondary fermentation for up to a week. Finally there are the preserving qualities it holds. Hops are a natural preservative needed to insure a beer's aging process.

Traditionally in hop growing areas in the UK, the cultivated hop plant forms a beautiful garland that is ready to harvest at the end of August.

Little know is the fact that hops stems can be steamed and eaten, this is a recipe that came from the Romans..

Hops are the flowers of the plant. It has bitterness that balances out the sweetness of the malt in beer. It is common that hops are added at the end of the boil, know as the finishing hops, which give more flavour and aroma to the beer.

Particular hop varieties pertain to certain beer regions and styles. Pale lagers are usually brewed with European noble hop varieties such as Saaz, Hallertau and Strissel Spalt. British ales use hop varieties such as Fuggle, Golding and Bullion. Across the Atlantic in North American they use Cascade, Columbia, Willamette and Amarillo hops.

Hops are used in herbal medicine not too far removed from the effects of valerian; this is to treat anxiety, restlessness, and insomnia. A folk remedy is to fill a pillow filled with hops for sleeplessness. Although hops are usually be used alone, they combined well with other herbs, such as valerian.

Hops grown in gardens for home brewing use are not that popular today, even though they are easily manage. The reason is that buying in hops from professional producers will always guarantee quality. It you do want to try some out, planting should be made where there is a good drainage and a sunny position. Hops are climbers and will reach up to three metres, so they will need supports or a trellis. It is only in the second season that the flowers will appear. An established hop plant with give scented bloom in mid summer and the hops cones ripen in autumn to be harvested for decoration or home brewing.

Chicory - The Bitter Truth

Chicory is a strange herb; my experiences with it are few as it was never homegrown when I was young. It always reminded me of a bitter tasting vegetable but strangely addictive. Chicory coffee, again always had this bitterness about it and I have never really taken to it, it seemingly is a poor man's coffee alternative although that is changing as it is promoted as a health drink and the crazy price tag that will go alongside that!

Basically chicory is a vegetable salad leaf. it can be grown for its leaves and enjoyed eaten raw as a salad. It has a distinctivewhite bulb of tightly packed overlapping white leaves with the leaf tips pale yellow in colour. We call it chicory here in Europe, but it is called 'witloof' in Belgium and 'Belgian endive' in America.


In England during the Second World War it was used extensively for Camp Coffee, this was a coffee and chicory compound, which has now been marketed commercially since 1885. This coffee made out of chicory roots has been used in prison in the USA as a cost saving supplement to real coffee.

There is a Roman recipe using chicory is an ingredient and fried with garlic and red pepper. It has bitter and spicy taste and goes very well with meat and potatoes dishes.

Chicory root contains oils that are toxic to internal parasites and is now grown and used use as a food supplement to farm animals as a natural form of parasite control.

The Belgian endive has a small cream coloured head of bitter leaves. It is grown underground or indoors without sunlight in order to stop the leaves turning green, France is the largest producer of these types of endives.

Root chicory has been in grown in Europe and this is the part that is used as a coffee substitute. The process involves baking and grinding the roots to produce the coffee substitute. This is made in the Mediterranean region where the plant is native.

In Germany chicory, including the flower was used as a treatment for everyday ailments. It is used as a tonic and appetite stimulant and as a remedy for gallstones, gastro-enteritis, sinus problems as well as treating cuts and bruises.

Chicory is not everyone's favourite herb due to its bitter taste, but again, the use of the plant remains a natural alternative to coffee and spicing up salads. Alongside its qualities as an alternative medicine for many ailments this makes it a worthwhile herb to use and cultivate at home.

If you want to have a go at growing chicory, I would certainly recommend it, there is a very good article giving a growing guide to chicory, which you may want, to refer to: How-to-Grow-Chicory

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