Buckthorn
Spiritual Energies: Used for protection, wishes and legal matters. Protects a home if placed near doors and windows. Buthorn is used to bring good luck to legal matters. Ruled by Saturn, Buckthorn is a purifying herb and helps with domestic matters. Holistic Properties: A serious real-deal laxative that gets rid of waste lickidy-split.
Burdock:
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by Venus, Burdock is used for protection and healing. Cast around the house to keep away negative energy. Add to protection incenses and sachets. Holistic Properties: Burdock has both antifungal and antibiotic properties. It has been used to help alleviate blood disorders and restore liver and gallbladder function. It is said to help strengthen the immune system has been used in treating respiratory infections. It also helps to clear acne, boils, poison ivy and poison oak.
Calendula:
Spiritual Energies: Used for psychic abilities, prophetic dreams, protection and legal matters. In incense it can be used for divination and the consecration of divination tools. In tea it is used to enhance psychic abilities, intuition, and meditation. It can also be used in love magick. Add to bath water to help win the admiration of everyone you meet. Holistic Properties: Calendula is an excellent herb to help in the treatment of skin disorders. Use a calendula tea to wash over cuts and sores. As a tea, it helps soothe digestion problems. Calendula is also said to have anti-fungal and anti-viral properties.
Catnip:
Spiritual Energies: Add to simmering potpourris to promote peace and happiness. Use in love sachets, especially with rose petals. Feed to your cat for an entertaining show. Holistic Properties: The tea helps to break a fever, soothe an upset stomach and digestive system. Drink catnip tea to help ease tension from nicotine and alcohol withdraw symptoms. It also eases anxiety, calms crying, relieves PMS and helps with restful sleep.
Chamomile:
Spiritual Energies: Used to love, meditation, and prosperity. Add to incenses to bring on restful states for meditation and opening the third eye for psychic powers. Use in prosperity charm bags to draw in money. Chamomile brings the power of the sun to magick work, and can be used in love potions, money spells, and can be sprinkled around the house for protection. Holistic Properties: Chamomile tea has a soothing effect, which is an excellent aid for restful sleep and sore menstruation cramps. It also calms a nervous stomach and cures insomnia and anxiety. When used topically, it soothes skin. Add to an oil to help soothe aches, sore muscles and bruises.
Cinquefoil
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by Jupiter, cinquefoil can be used for wealth, protection, and prophetic dreams. The five points are said to represent love, money, health, power and wisdom- carrying cinquefoil is said to grant these things. Cinquefoil also draws in energies of eloquence, favors granted, and the ability to dream prophetically. It is believed that carrying cinquefoil will make you feel a deep connection with nature. It has a reputation for being a very magickal herb in Medieval folklore. Holistic Properties: Cinquefoil can be used as a gargle, although it has a bitter taste. Topically it makes an excellent astringent for the skin.
Cleaver's Herb:
Spiritual Energies: Cleaver's Herb is associated with the element of water and Venus. Also known as bedstraw, it is used in love spells. Holistic Properties: Cleaver's Herb tea cleanses the skin when topically applied. It is also a diuretic tea and a lymph gland cleanser (which is important for immunity). It can be used as a hair rinse.
Damiana Leaf
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by Mars, Damiana has energies used for love, lust, and visions. Holistic Properties: A natural aphrodisiac, damiana is said to helps both men and women in reproductive matters. For men, it helps fight impotence and sterility. For women, it helps fight infertility, balances hormones, assists in healthy menstruation cycles, and helps ease side effects of menopause. Damiana is also said to be a stimulating nervine tonic which helps to treat depression.
Dandelion Leaf
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by Jupiter, it is used for divination and psychic abilities. Scatter around purple candles, or burn with peppermint oil to enhance intuition. Holistic Properties: Dandelion leaf contains iron, potassium, beta-carotene and vitamin C. It is a great cleansing herb, and in teas can be used as a diuretic and mild laxative. It helps to promote liver and gallbladder function, and can stabilize blood sugar. It is a diuretic that also cleanses the kidneys.
Eucalpytus:
Spiritual Energies: Used for healing, protection and purification. Use in healing or protective sachets, potions, simmering potpourris, and incense blends. Put a small amount in a bath to help energize the mind and heal the body. Holistic Properties: Although not recommended for internal use, its fragrance can help clear congestion.
Galangal:
Spiritual Energies: Use for protection, lust, health, money, and psychic powers. Galangal has been used for a variety of magickal needs. If it is carried it is said to bring good luck, good health, and aid in psychic development. It is sprinkled around the house to promote lust. It is excellent in money sachets and bottles, and said to give extra power to prosperity spells.
Ginger Powder:
Spiritual Energies: Used for love, lust, money, and courage. Put in love and lust sachets, spell bottles, and potions. In simmering potpourri and incense it promotes courage, confidence, abundance and magickal energy. Holistic Properties: Ginger warms the body, which promotes healing and circulation. Add to tea to aid in healing from the cold or flu. Ginger also calms a nauseous stomach, and works well in capsules or in tea if to calm a nervous stomach or travel sickness.
Ginkgo Leaf
Holistic Properties: Ginkgo is said to help improve mood, stimulate brain function, and have strong antioxidant qualities. It can help reduce stress and anxiety, and it has also been used in treatment for ADHD, memory loss, respiratory disease, and disorders related to poor circulation. It is excellent to add to teas when trying to combat allergies and asthma. Drinking a cup of ginkgo tea a day will keep you youthful, fit, and full of awareness.
Honeysuckle
Spiritual Energies: Used for healing, money, protection, psychic awareness and spirituality. The flowers are said to attract money and excellent for prosperity spells. Place in a vase in the home or around green candles to attract money. Place around a purple candle or in a purple sachet to strengthen psychic abilities. Ruled by Jupiter, honeysuckle also enhances spirituality.
Jasmine
Spiritual Energies: Used for love, spirituality, psychic abilities, peace, dreams, gardening, and astral projection. When used in love spells, it attracts spiritual love. Surround Jasmine around a red candle for love spells, or place in love spell bottles and sachets. It is said that burning jasmine before bed can bring prophetic dreams.
Kava Kava
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by Saturn, Kava Kava is used for visions, protection, and luck. Sprinkle around an area or burn for protection. Drinking Kava Kava is said to enhance psychic abilities. Holistic Properties: Kava Kava is a mild sedative that creates a tranquil feeling without loss of concentration. It relieves stress, tension and anxiety. It can also assist in alleviating insomnia, PMS, and feelings of depression. It is also said to have mild aphrodisiac qualities.
Lavender:
Spiritual Intent: Ruled by Mercury, lavender is used for love, longevity, happiness, and protection. Use in purification incense, soak in a lavender bath for good health, or use in sachets to attract love. Holistic Properties: Lavender is soothing and calming herb that can be used to assist in alleviating headaches, sleeping problems, stress and anxiety. In studies, lavender has shown to lower blood pressure and promote antibacterial activity. In baths, it promotes relaxation and relief from headaches and joint diseases.
Lemon Balm
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by the moon, it is used to bring in energies of love, success and healing. It can be used in a love charm to bring love and romance into your life. Holistic Properties: When ill, lemon balm tea helps you “sweat out” toxins and bacteria in the body. Iced lemon balm tea relieves tension and aids in respiratory function. It can also help in digestion and relieving nervousness. The fragrance is said to lift spirits and ease tension.
Marshmallow Root
Holistic Properties: Marshmallow root makes a wonderful tea that soothes sore throats and coughs, upset stomachs, colitis, and urinary tract infections. It contains a vitamin A, which helps to boost healing abilities.
Mugwort
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by Venus, Mugwort is used for psychic powers, protection, prophetic dreams, love, healing, and astral projection. A tea or pillow of it helps with psychic visions and reams, and helps one to contact the astral realm. It can be used to help with scrying, and as an incense can cleanse magick mirrors and crystal balls. Carry mugwort to increase lust and fertility. Holistic Properties: Mugwort has been used in treating colds and can be used in a bath soak to relieve cold and flu symptoms. As a tonic and tea, mugwort can be used to help regulate periods and any severe pain that comes with them.
Mullein
Spiritual Energies: Mullein is used as a protective herb and is worn in safety amulets. It is associated with the element of fire and can be burned in incense to bring the magickal energies of fire to you. Carry to instill courage and line doors and windows in your home for a protective barrier. Holistic Properties: Mullein is an excellent addition to a tea for relieving respiratory problems. Mullein tea is also a great hair rinse. Off the Record: People come in and buy this stuff by the pound to smoke?!
Patchouli
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by Saturn, it is used for love, lust, fertility, and prosperity. It can be used to attract people and promote lust. Use in incenses, simmering potpourris, green sachets, or scattered around green candles to bring in energies of abundance and wealth. Holistic Properties: In Asia, the fragrance of patchouli is said to be a stimulant and anti-depressant.
Pau D’Arco
Holistic Properties: Pau D’Arco has been used to help assist in the treatment of infections, candida, yeast infections, liver disease, and cancer. It has many anti-bacterial and anti-viral qualities. It has iron in it, which helps to build red blood cells. It is an excellent candida cleanser and helps to fortify immunity. It also clears mucous infections, which makes it a great herb to have on hand during colds and flus.
Peppermint Leaves or Peppermint Powder
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by Mercury, peppermint is used for purification, sleep, healing, love, and psychic abilities. Use in a dream pillow to help bring on peaceful sleep and dreams. Use in a tea or a small amount in a bath soak for healing. Scatter around red candles to bring in energies of love. Holistic Properties: Peppermint helps soothe the stomach and intestines, therefore is excellent in tea to help fight indigestion. Peppermint tea is said to help ward off colds and flu, soothe sore thoats, and ease stomach aches. The fragrance of peppermint is said to help ease headaches and anxiety. The herb also helps to freshen breath.
Red Raspberry Leaf
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by Venus, raspberry leaf is used to bring in energies of protection and love. The leaves are carried by pregnant women to alleviate pregnancy and childbirth pains. Holistic Properties: Red raspberry can be used to help with menstrual irregularities, nausea, and female complaints. Although only mild dosage is recommended during pregnancy, red raspberry leaf can help with morning sickness, lactation, and childbirth. It can help to promote tissue healing and healthy skin as well.
Red Sandalwood
Spiritual Energies: Used for spirituality, healing, protection, purification, and astral projection. Its bold red color has the glow of creativity, and as an incense it raises a highly spiritual vibration. Burn alone, or add to a spiritual incense blend.
Rose Petals & Buds
Spiritual Energies: Used for love, luck, protection, and psychic powers. Burn in love incense or place in a love sachet. Wonderful in a loving bath soak and for scattering to draw in energies of love. In the home, rose brings high spiritual vibrations, love, and calmness.
Rosehips
Spiritual Energies: Rosehips are used to bring in energies of love and health. Put into a red sachet or carry to attract love to your life. Holistic Properties: Rosehips tea has an incredible number of nutrients that help fight aging, assist the immune system and help general well-being. It is an excellent tonic for energy and helps to fight illness. They fight infection, help digestion and help keep your skin hydrated. It has an incredible amount of vitamin C in it and can help to shorten the duration of a cold. New studies suggest it may help fight wrinkles.
Rosemary:
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by the sun, rosemary is used for healing, love, lust, purification, energy, creativity and concentration. Add to purification bath soaks, love sachets, and protection incenses. When hung up, it is said to ward off thieves. Drink rosemary tea before an exam since it promotes powerful mind function. Rosemary stimulates creativity, and is an one-herb incense for protection, healing, purification, exorcism, and to induce sleep. Holistic Properties: Rosemary helps to ease nervousness, stimulate memory, and soothe aches and pains. When taken as a warm tea, it helps ease headaches and nervousness It is also a circulatory stimulant and aids in warming the body.
Scullcap
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by Saturn, Scullcap is used for love, fidelity, and peace. Carry with you to bring a feeling of relaxation and peace. It is often an herb used in marriage and hand fasting ceremonies. Holistic Properties: Scullcap is a natural sedative which assists in alleviating insomnia and nerves. It has also been used help with drug or alcohol withdraw, relieve headaches, insomnia and menstrual cramps.
Slippery Elm
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by Saturn, Slippery Elm is used to stop gossip. According to Scott Cunningham you can “Burn slippery elm and throw into the fire a knotted yellow cord or thread. Any gossip against you will stop.” Holistic Properties: Slippery Elm is very helpful in treating diarrhea, colon disorders, sore throats, and intestinal ulcers. It is great in a tea for soothing sore throats and calming coughs. It is also helpful in relieving heart burn and ulcers.
Thyme
Spiritual Energies: Thyme thyme is used for purification, healing, psychic abilities, love, courage, energy, health, and clairvoyance. Thyme in a dream pillow eases nightmares and is said to bring restful sleep. It is is burned or simmered to attract good health, and can be put into sachets for relieving depressing and healing. As an incense, thyme is said to have protective properties. It is also to assist in seeing Otherworldly creatures, such as faeries. Carry or add in incense for clairvoyant rituals, or to purify magickal space. Holistic Properties: As a tea, thyme is used to help digestive complaints and respiratory issues. It is also suggested that thyme tea is helpful for urinary health, relieving menstrual cramps, and relieving headaches. Thyme also has antiseptic properties, and is often an ingredient in toothpastes and mouthwashes. In essential oil form, thyme can be applied to the skin to soothe and relax, as well as help alleviate coughing.
Uva Ursi
Spiritual Energies: Add to sachets to increase psychic abilities. This was a religious herb to Native Americans, who included it in Shamanic smoking mixtures to assist in skills of divination and prophecy. Holistic Properties: Uva Ursi is a diuretic which can help to balance the pH of urine and work as a tonic in the kidneys and bladder. It is often used to help treat urinary tract infections.
Vervain
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by Venus, Vervain is used for love, purification, healing, money and protection. It is said to bring love a protection to those who carry it. It is used in ritual baths or scattered to bring peace. It can be added to personal safety amulets and to attract wealth. Carry in a red sachet to bring love into your life, or in a green sachet to bring prosperity into your life. It is an herb of poets, bards, and singers, and has energies of inspiration. Holistic Properties: Vervain has aphrodisiac properties. It can also calm irritability. Vervain tea can also be used as a mouthwash, and is excellent for soothing fevers and easing phlegm-based coughing.
White Oak Bark
Spiritual Energies: Used for protection, health, money, healing, potency, fertility and luck. Oak brings fertility to ideas, projects and harvest magick. Oak has powerful protective powers and is sacred to Brigid and Dagda. Carrying oak in sachet or spell bottles is said to bring good luck and healing. Surround white oak around a blue candle for healing. Holistic Properties: A small dose of white oak bark can be added to teas to help combat yeast infections and other reproductive tract infections.
White Sage
Spiritual Energies: Commonly used in a smudge stick, white sage is an one-herb incense used for purification and spirituality. White Sage is commonly burned to clear spaces of stagnant energy and creates a sacred space. It can also be used for spirituality, promoting healing, meditation, animal magick, Shamanic work, and manifesting wishes.
Wormwood
Spiritual Energies: Having a reputation for its power, wormwood is not to be used by the beginner herbalist. It is not be be ingested or inhaled. It is used for clairvoyant and psychic abilities. Wormwood is associated with Samhain and can adorn black candles. Combine with mugwort and amethyst in a sachet for strong psychic abilities.
Yarrow
Spiritual Energies: Ruled by Venus, yarrow is used for love, courage, and psychic powers. It is an all-purpose botanical and a common ingredient in love spells. Yarrow can also be used to attract friendship. It is useful in divination incenses and sachets. Infused in tea, yarrow is said to improve psychic powers. When held in the hand, yarrow is said to help stop fear and heighten courage. Holistic Properties: Yarrow is a blood-purifier and can clean toxins out of the blood. It fights infections in the stomach and intestines, and can help soothe digestion problems. Use yarrow tea while fighting fevers and colds, as it breaks fevers and coughs, and fights infection. Soak a bandage in cool yarrow tea and wrap it around a wound for fast healing.
Also!!! HERBAL BLENDS!! These are combined with oils and can be used in sachets, spell bottles, charms, incenses and simmering potpourris.
Written by Kiki Dombrowski
Showing posts with label nashvile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nashvile. Show all posts
Saturday, December 11, 2010
#1 Anti-Cancer Beverage.. GREEN TEA!
Check out this article about Green Tea... the Anti-Cancer Beverage...
http://www.healthy.net/scr/Column.aspx?Id=656
BREAST HEALTH TIP #2: Green Tea Drinking 8-10 cups of green tea a day or taking a daily green tea supplement significantly lowers the risk of breast cancer, and if you have breast cancer, it improves your prognosis. Research shows that green tea inhibits the growth of breast cancer and lowers the risk of breast tumors metastasizing or recurring. Green tea has also been shown to enhance the effectiveness of chemotherapy, while protecting against its dangerous side effects.
Over 4,000 years ago the Chinese began brewing the leaves of a plant and drinking it as a hot beverage. They called the infusion tea. More tea is now consumed everyday by people all over the world than any other liquid -- except water. Research shows drinking tea, especially green tea, is a wise choice because green tea has been found to have many potent health benefits.
THE #1 ANTI-CANCER BEVERAGE
Research shows green tea is very effective in hampering the growth of at least 11 different types of cancer: cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colon, bladder, prostate, skin, ovaries, and breast. It also reduces the risk of leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and lung cancer in smokers. That’s why green tea is considered the #1 anti-cancer beverage. You may think the impact of drinking a few cups of tea each day on lowering the risk of these cancers is small. It’s not. Cancers of the digestive tract are as much as 68% lower in tea drinkers.
Part of the reason why green tea reduces the risk of so many cancers, is because it contains an exceptional blend of powerful anti-inflammatories and antioxidants. It also holds within it, the remarkable ability to amplify the power of enzymes in our liver that detoxify toxins and carcinogens. Researchers believe most of the health benefits of tea come from substances in it called "polyphenols." There are 3 polyphenols that are considered most important: gallocatechin (GC), epigallocatechin (EGC), and epigallocatechin gallate (ECGC). Of the three, ECGC is the most potent.
LOW LOWERING THE RISK OF BREAST CANCER
Japanese researchers found that women who drink green tea have a lower risk of breast cancer, and women with breast cancer, live much longer than women who don’t drink this miraculous health tonic. For instance, women with stage 1 or 2 breast cancer, who were green tea drinkers before they were diagnosed, were found to have a much better prognosis. A 1998 study found drinking green tea lowers the risk of breast tumors metastasizing, and stops them from recurring, or coming back, after they have been treated. Several studies show the polyphenol in green tea, ECGC, inhibits the growth of breast cancer, and decreases the incidence of the cancer metastasizing to the lungs. A Japanese study of rats with mammary tumors found that 93.8% of the rats given green tea survived, compared to only 33% of the rats who weren’t given green tea. The rats that were given green tea also had smaller tumors than the other rats.
Scientists have mapped out 7 different ways that green tea combats breast cancer. This stellar brew increases the number of protein binders in the blood so that less estrogen is available to attach to receptors in the breast. It also lowers estradiol levels, and increases the number of estrogen and progesterone sensitive receptors in breast cancers found in post-menopausal women. This is important, because tumors with receptors sensitive to these hormones respond better to treatment and have a better prognosis. This extraordinary elixir also helps to block the growth of new blood vessels into the tumor -- a quality that is technically referred to as “anti-angiogenic.” If you are on chemotherapy, green tea is able to enhance the effectiveness of your chemotherapy while at the same time protecting against many of its dangerous side effects. Japanese researchers, Sugiyama and Saduka, published several studies between 1998 and 2003, showing that green tea and some of the individual components in green tea, increase the concentration of chemotherapeutic agents like doxorubicin and Adriamycin in tumors 2.1 -2.9 times, while decreasing their levels in normal tissue. The results are that when green tea in consumed while taking these chemotherapy drugs, tumors have been found to shrink more than they usual do when these pharmaceutical chemicals are given alone. In addition, the organs that are commonly damaged by these anti-cancer drugs, like the heart and liver, are protected from injury by drinking this dynamic green decoction.
MAJOR HEALTH BENEFITS
Hundreds of studies show this verdant beverage has many other impressive health benefits. Green tea decreases your risk of heart attacks and strokes by decreasing cholesterol, blood pressure, and atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. It is also superb at killing certain bacteria, especially in the bladder. It’s flair for stopping the propagation of these bladder bugs is revealed by this statistic: tea drinkers have a 40% lower incidence of urinary tract infections. Green tea is a thermogenic. Thermogenics speed up your metabolism and help you lose weight. If you’re concerned about osteoporosis, drink this healthy brew often. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in April 2000 found that women ages 65-75, who drank at least one cup of tea a day, had significantly higher bone densities than women who didn't drink tea. Green tea also aids digestion by increasing the beneficial bacteria in our intestines and decreasing the harmful ones.
MAKING GREEN TEA
Green tea comes from the tea plant, or Camellia sinensis of the family Theacea, for you biologists. It is processed by steaming the leaves at high temperatures. When the leaves are prepared in this way, the important health-promoting substances in the tea, called polyphenols, are preserved. Remember, polyphenols are thought to be responsible for most of green tea's health benefits. Some of these polyphenols are destroyed during the processing of black tea. This is the most probable reason why green tea has been found to have more potent medicinal properties than black tea. To create the best tasting and highest medicinal quality cup of tea, it is recommended to steep your tea bag or loose tea in hot water for about 3-5 minutes.
HOW MUCH TO DRINK
For the maximum protection, it’s recommended to drink 8-10 cups of green tea a day. If you were wondering, green tea does have some caffeine. But there are substances in the tea that seem to modify the effects of the caffeine. Most people don't experience the side effects of caffeine when drinking green tea. The caffeine also appears to be an important component in enhancing green tea's anti-tumor effects. If you don’t think you can drink this much green tea each day, you can take a green tea supplement. Two 250 mg tablets a day are recommended.
THERE'S A GOOD REASON TO BUY ORGANIC
When you are selecting a green tea, it's important to buy "organically grown" tea. As you may recall, organically grown, means that the plant was raised without synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. It also has not had its DNA genetically modified. There is a good reason to be concerned and to favor organic. A recent analysis of several brands of green tea found that they contained traces of the banned estrogenic pesticide, DDT. Although DDT has been banned in this country for over 30 years, other countries still use it. You don’t want to drink something to reduce your risk of cancer, if it contains something that may increase your risk of cancer! Be safe and favor organically grown foods.
http://www.healthy.net/scr/Column.aspx?Id=656
And we have it! Tea for two, organic and locally produced GREEN TEA. NOW at Symmetry, in Nashville, off West end, next to cafe coco!
Dragon Well #4 ~ Most famous Green Tea in China. with a clear yellow infusion & a mellow flavor with a slightly sweet aftertaste.
Medley Green ~ Contains milk and nut products. Green tea, almonds, chocolate bits, macadamia nuts,Roman chamomile flowers, pistachios, cracknel bits, cocoa kernels.
Minted Green ~ Spearmint, Peppermint, and Green Tea.
Orange Green ~ Green Tea, Orange Peel, Marigold Petals and Natural Orange Flavor.
Paradise Green ~ Green Tea, Blue Mallow Blossoms, Rhubarb bits and Red Currants
Sweet Lemon Green ~ Green Tea , Lemongrass and Lemon Peel
Tropical Green Storm ~ Green Sencha and green Assam with heavenly mango, passion fruit,pineapple flavor,
blended with hibiscus, rose petals, blue mallow blossoms, sunflower petals,cornflower blossoms and English
Chamomile
Yun Wu Green "Cloud Mist" ~A classic green tea with a pleasant flavor with slight astringent finish.
Tea for two is a local Nashville producer of tea's.. for more information on Miss Bonnie and her mobile tea bar, see http://teafortwoandmore.com
http://www.healthy.net/scr/Column.aspx?Id=656
BREAST HEALTH TIP #2: Green Tea Drinking 8-10 cups of green tea a day or taking a daily green tea supplement significantly lowers the risk of breast cancer, and if you have breast cancer, it improves your prognosis. Research shows that green tea inhibits the growth of breast cancer and lowers the risk of breast tumors metastasizing or recurring. Green tea has also been shown to enhance the effectiveness of chemotherapy, while protecting against its dangerous side effects.
Over 4,000 years ago the Chinese began brewing the leaves of a plant and drinking it as a hot beverage. They called the infusion tea. More tea is now consumed everyday by people all over the world than any other liquid -- except water. Research shows drinking tea, especially green tea, is a wise choice because green tea has been found to have many potent health benefits.
THE #1 ANTI-CANCER BEVERAGE
Research shows green tea is very effective in hampering the growth of at least 11 different types of cancer: cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colon, bladder, prostate, skin, ovaries, and breast. It also reduces the risk of leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and lung cancer in smokers. That’s why green tea is considered the #1 anti-cancer beverage. You may think the impact of drinking a few cups of tea each day on lowering the risk of these cancers is small. It’s not. Cancers of the digestive tract are as much as 68% lower in tea drinkers.
Part of the reason why green tea reduces the risk of so many cancers, is because it contains an exceptional blend of powerful anti-inflammatories and antioxidants. It also holds within it, the remarkable ability to amplify the power of enzymes in our liver that detoxify toxins and carcinogens. Researchers believe most of the health benefits of tea come from substances in it called "polyphenols." There are 3 polyphenols that are considered most important: gallocatechin (GC), epigallocatechin (EGC), and epigallocatechin gallate (ECGC). Of the three, ECGC is the most potent.
LOW LOWERING THE RISK OF BREAST CANCER
Japanese researchers found that women who drink green tea have a lower risk of breast cancer, and women with breast cancer, live much longer than women who don’t drink this miraculous health tonic. For instance, women with stage 1 or 2 breast cancer, who were green tea drinkers before they were diagnosed, were found to have a much better prognosis. A 1998 study found drinking green tea lowers the risk of breast tumors metastasizing, and stops them from recurring, or coming back, after they have been treated. Several studies show the polyphenol in green tea, ECGC, inhibits the growth of breast cancer, and decreases the incidence of the cancer metastasizing to the lungs. A Japanese study of rats with mammary tumors found that 93.8% of the rats given green tea survived, compared to only 33% of the rats who weren’t given green tea. The rats that were given green tea also had smaller tumors than the other rats.
Scientists have mapped out 7 different ways that green tea combats breast cancer. This stellar brew increases the number of protein binders in the blood so that less estrogen is available to attach to receptors in the breast. It also lowers estradiol levels, and increases the number of estrogen and progesterone sensitive receptors in breast cancers found in post-menopausal women. This is important, because tumors with receptors sensitive to these hormones respond better to treatment and have a better prognosis. This extraordinary elixir also helps to block the growth of new blood vessels into the tumor -- a quality that is technically referred to as “anti-angiogenic.” If you are on chemotherapy, green tea is able to enhance the effectiveness of your chemotherapy while at the same time protecting against many of its dangerous side effects. Japanese researchers, Sugiyama and Saduka, published several studies between 1998 and 2003, showing that green tea and some of the individual components in green tea, increase the concentration of chemotherapeutic agents like doxorubicin and Adriamycin in tumors 2.1 -2.9 times, while decreasing their levels in normal tissue. The results are that when green tea in consumed while taking these chemotherapy drugs, tumors have been found to shrink more than they usual do when these pharmaceutical chemicals are given alone. In addition, the organs that are commonly damaged by these anti-cancer drugs, like the heart and liver, are protected from injury by drinking this dynamic green decoction.
MAJOR HEALTH BENEFITS
Hundreds of studies show this verdant beverage has many other impressive health benefits. Green tea decreases your risk of heart attacks and strokes by decreasing cholesterol, blood pressure, and atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. It is also superb at killing certain bacteria, especially in the bladder. It’s flair for stopping the propagation of these bladder bugs is revealed by this statistic: tea drinkers have a 40% lower incidence of urinary tract infections. Green tea is a thermogenic. Thermogenics speed up your metabolism and help you lose weight. If you’re concerned about osteoporosis, drink this healthy brew often. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in April 2000 found that women ages 65-75, who drank at least one cup of tea a day, had significantly higher bone densities than women who didn't drink tea. Green tea also aids digestion by increasing the beneficial bacteria in our intestines and decreasing the harmful ones.
MAKING GREEN TEA
Green tea comes from the tea plant, or Camellia sinensis of the family Theacea, for you biologists. It is processed by steaming the leaves at high temperatures. When the leaves are prepared in this way, the important health-promoting substances in the tea, called polyphenols, are preserved. Remember, polyphenols are thought to be responsible for most of green tea's health benefits. Some of these polyphenols are destroyed during the processing of black tea. This is the most probable reason why green tea has been found to have more potent medicinal properties than black tea. To create the best tasting and highest medicinal quality cup of tea, it is recommended to steep your tea bag or loose tea in hot water for about 3-5 minutes.
HOW MUCH TO DRINK
For the maximum protection, it’s recommended to drink 8-10 cups of green tea a day. If you were wondering, green tea does have some caffeine. But there are substances in the tea that seem to modify the effects of the caffeine. Most people don't experience the side effects of caffeine when drinking green tea. The caffeine also appears to be an important component in enhancing green tea's anti-tumor effects. If you don’t think you can drink this much green tea each day, you can take a green tea supplement. Two 250 mg tablets a day are recommended.
THERE'S A GOOD REASON TO BUY ORGANIC
When you are selecting a green tea, it's important to buy "organically grown" tea. As you may recall, organically grown, means that the plant was raised without synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. It also has not had its DNA genetically modified. There is a good reason to be concerned and to favor organic. A recent analysis of several brands of green tea found that they contained traces of the banned estrogenic pesticide, DDT. Although DDT has been banned in this country for over 30 years, other countries still use it. You don’t want to drink something to reduce your risk of cancer, if it contains something that may increase your risk of cancer! Be safe and favor organically grown foods.
http://www.healthy.net/scr/Column.aspx?Id=656
And we have it! Tea for two, organic and locally produced GREEN TEA. NOW at Symmetry, in Nashville, off West end, next to cafe coco!
Dragon Well #4 ~ Most famous Green Tea in China. with a clear yellow infusion & a mellow flavor with a slightly sweet aftertaste.
Medley Green ~ Contains milk and nut products. Green tea, almonds, chocolate bits, macadamia nuts,Roman chamomile flowers, pistachios, cracknel bits, cocoa kernels.
Minted Green ~ Spearmint, Peppermint, and Green Tea.
Orange Green ~ Green Tea, Orange Peel, Marigold Petals and Natural Orange Flavor.
Paradise Green ~ Green Tea, Blue Mallow Blossoms, Rhubarb bits and Red Currants
Sweet Lemon Green ~ Green Tea , Lemongrass and Lemon Peel
Tropical Green Storm ~ Green Sencha and green Assam with heavenly mango, passion fruit,pineapple flavor,
blended with hibiscus, rose petals, blue mallow blossoms, sunflower petals,cornflower blossoms and English
Chamomile
Yun Wu Green "Cloud Mist" ~A classic green tea with a pleasant flavor with slight astringent finish.
Tea for two is a local Nashville producer of tea's.. for more information on Miss Bonnie and her mobile tea bar, see http://teafortwoandmore.com
Herbal Medicine vs. Allopathic Medicine
Written by Anita Burns
I want to start out by first stating that I am not anti-modern medicine. I have great faith in our modern medical system for most things. If I were to break a bone, or require emergency surgery, I wouldn’t want to stick strictly to herbal medicine. I believe that both systems have a right and good place in healing.
For centuries Europeans and Asians viewed disease as a dysfunction of the whole body, or a whole system. Cures were aimed at bringing the body back into balance so that it could heal itself.
Although traditional thought on disease also included superstition, ignorance of anatomy, and in some places unhealthy beliefs about hygiene, much that was useful about medicine was known and practiced.
In both East and West, disease was often cured with plants that were either proven or intuited to have an effect on a particular system in the body that was injured or unbalanced. In Europe, the "Five Humors" theory was developed. In the near east, the "Three Dosha Ayurvedic" system was the basis of medicine. In the Far East, the "Five Elements" theory was practiced.
Superstition about demons, curses, and in Europe, lack of basic knowledge of hygiene aside, these systems were mostly effective. In the opinion of some alternative health researchers today, they were as effective as modern allopathic method for many diseases.
Not much is known about medical practices of Africa (except for ancient Egypt), and the ancient Americas, but they too, used herbs and plants, along with surgery and other medical techniques.
In the last two centuries, there has been a rise in the “scientific method,” a way of investigating and “proving,” in the Newtonian sense, whether a substance really works as a medicinal or not and in what way.
In the western world, especially North America, allopathic medicine took root and holistic medicine, viewed as old fashioned and unscientific, was pushed more and more into the background. In Europe and Asia, with centuries more behind them of holistic practices, both schools of though and medicine practices are accepted and sometimes integrated. However, in the United States, allopathic medicine has taken hold and has tried—and is still trying—to stamp out any other form of health care.
Allopathic medicine promotes the belief that most disease is caused by a pathogen invading the body and that an anti-pathogen can destroy the invader to heal the body. Although great strides have been made in the cure of many diseases, often the allopathic medicines create side effects almost as disastrous as the disease itself.
With the possible exception of cancer and aids, we are no longer in a disease crisis in the United States as we were when smallpox, polio, fatal influenza, TB, and more were rampant. However, we are in a health crisis. By ignoring the whole body in favor of allopathic specificity, we have swung the pendulum too far to one side.
Health is not just the absence of disease. It is vitality, energy, clear thought, immunity, and strength. How we treat our minds and bodies has an effect on health. We are ultimately responsible for the health and well being of our bodies. However, somewhere along the way, we seemed to have abandoned that belief.
We have adopted a code that says we put the responsibility for health in the hands of a select few who have legal and actual power over our life and death. Unfortunately, even Medical Doctors (MDs) have been caught in their own trap. For an MD to recommend any form of holistic medicine—acupressure, chiropractic, herbs, homeopathies, and such, is often to risk their reputation and their future as licensed doctors that they worked so long and hard to achieve.
The public has made this worse by relinquishing any responsibility for their own care and well being. If a doctor recommends herbs or another form of card and the patient isn’t cured, he/she can sue the doctor. Doctors live in constant dread of malpractice lawsuits, which is one factor in the high cost of malpractice insurance that runs up the cost of medical care.
Granted, there are tons of MDs who are so incompetent that they deserve the lawsuits but many are simply doing what they can in an atmosphere of a sue-happy public. They trap works both ways. Laws in the United States often take away our right to choose health care and force us into the form of health care that has gained the most power through government lobbying and economic considerations. This led to a massive public outcry in 1993 that resulted in some concessions by the government to allow more freedom of choice where over the counter herbs are concerned. Nevertheless, it really did very little to open the field in an equitable way.
An herbalist in the United States cannot legally diagnose nor prescribe an herb for anything, even as simple as white willow bark for a headache. Nor can an herbalist suggest that you take an aspirin.
Herbalism is a system that takes into account pathogens, whole body balance, body chemistry, tradition, and scientific proof of the herb’s effectiveness in treating disease. In many places in Europe, herbalism is an accepted health care choice, as is naturopathy, homeopathy, and aromatherapy. In the United States, the FDA is gaining more and more power to tell us what we need to do for our well being, and what we can’t do.
Originally, health regulation was intended to protect us from charlatans pushing “snake oil cures” and bogus cancer cures. But, when economics entered the picture, Pandora’s box was opened. In 1993, the spark that flamed the public outcry was a proposed regulation that would require all herbs and vitamins to be dispensed only through prescription by licensed physicians. It would have made it a crime to take vitamin C or by garlic capsules without a prescription from a doctor. The prices for herbs and vitamins would probably have soared and we would have been cut off from one more avenue of health care.
Even with the current trend in insurance companies covering or offering discounted alternative health care services, we must not relax. WE must take back our right to have dominion over our own bodies and have the right to choose our health care. If regulation of herbs comes in the way, the FDA has made it clear it wants it to, herbal companies will be forced to spend millions of dollars in testing for each herb before the FDA would approve their use as a medicinal. Previous testings or centuries of proven efficacy in use would not be accepted.
Herbal companies would then have to recoup their expenditures by increasing their prices. Imagine spending $80 for a bottle of Milk Thistle tincture instead of $5-$12. In addition, many useful herbs would simply disappear because they are too easy to obtain cheaply in the wild (like milk thistle) or can be homegrown. Herbal companies couldn’t risk not recouping their losses and would likely drop them from their inventory.
Herbalism has a long history. We don’t know when humans first decided and discovered that some plants did more than nourish the body by feeding the belly. Perhaps it was by watching what some animals did when feeling ill, or by “divine intervention.” We don’t know.
However, as far back as we have written evidence of medical practices, we have reports of herbs and plants successfully used as medicine. Garlic may be the oldest known medicinal plant. Garlic cloves have been found in caves inhabited 10,000 years ago. A prescription for garlic was found on a Sumerian clay tablet from 3000 B.C. Chinese doctors mentioned Cinnamon as a medicinal as far back as 2700 B.C. Since then, there has been a lot of scientific testing on herbs including testing by the United States government.
Herbalism works closely with the body’s own immune system. You may be surprised to learn that the American Medical Association (AMA) has only recently recognized the body’s immune system at al in relation to health. It has also come as a recent surprise to the AMA that nutrition, exercise, and mental/emotional attitudes affect health.
Preventing ill health and disease has been a longstanding tradition among holistic health practices but has arrived as a new and innovative—if somewhat suspicious—concept to modern U.S. allopathic physicians.
It is finally coming to light (again) that we can only defeat illness by paying more attention to health and less attention to treating disease. However, there is also a trend for some MDs and some lay people to want herbs to act as a lateral substitute for allopathic medicines—to treat pathogens and ignore the rest of health. In other words, they are trying to pound a square peg into a round hole.
With herbs, the whole system must be taken into account and they generally do not work quickly and miraculously to erase symptoms as do many allopathic medicines. Most herbs work more slowly, and in combination with other herbs, to help the body regain health on its own. Sometimes this comes quickly, sometimes slowly, but true health is regained, not just a suppression of symptoms without examining lifestyle and emotional causative factors.
In a “natural supplement” retail where I once worked, we had customers who made the same mistake. They would come in and ask me “What do you have for energy?” They may work 14 hours a day, take care of a family and spouse, sleep four hours a night, eat mostly caffeine, fat, and sugar but they wan the magical pill that will eliminate fatigue. A suggestion of seeing a physician for a check up, proper diet, and rest as a possible relief from fatigue would be rejected and they would buy a bottle of Guarana. Guarana a natural source for strong caffeine. It can be useful for a burst of energy but if proper rest and nutrition are ignored, the body can be depleted even further possibly resulting in more serious health problems.
Herbs are not drugs. However, by their complex structures, medicinal foods (herbs) create many of the same benefits as drugs—mostly without unpleasant side effects.
For example, in a Nutrilite press release dated January 7, 2000, researchers conducted a six-month study of lutein. In the study, “blood levels of lutein increased by 28% in 21 participants, closely matching levels found in individuals who consume lutein-rich diets incorporating yellow and green fruits and vegetables. The rise was small but still significant. Researchers believe this may lower the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition that affects roughly 1.7 million people over the age of 65.”
There have been numerous studies on garlic’s power to lower cholesterol in contrast to prescription drugs such as cholestyramine. Garlic has been proven to lower cholesterol and any herbalist worth his/her salt would combine garlic with other supporting herbs for a cholesterol lowering formula. But because cholestyramine is economically a money maker and garlic is not, pharmaceutical companies are not going to recommend that doctors prescribe garlic. Doctors who do—assuming they are aware of garlic’s ability in that area—risk ridicule and expulsion from membership in professional organizations such as the AMA.
How to get proof that herbs work as they are reputed to work and how to separate unfounded folklore and placebo from actual medicinal uses of plants is a problem. However, it is less so thanks to the open mindedness of many new researchers in the world. Studies done in France, Germany, China, England, and more abound. Much folklore about herbs has proven true, but much as also been discovered to be false. For example, boneset—eupatorium perfolatum—may sound like an herb to heal bones and some folklore prescribes it for that but it’s name comes from a traditional use as a cure for breakbone fever. It has proven to be useful in treating minor viral and bacterial infections by stimulating the white blood cells into action.
Folklore prescribes juniper for sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea. However, scientific testing shows it to be ineffective. Juniper does act as a diuretic and is included in an over-the-counter PMS medicine. It is effective as a part of an overall treatment for high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. High doses, over a long period of time can irritate the kidneys.
Be cautious of herbal books that do not take modern findings about the nature and action of herbs into account. Some recommended authors are Michael Castleman, Daniel B. Bowrey, Leslie & Michael Tierra, and David Hoffman.
Keep in mind that you are ultimately responsible for your health. No herb will make you healthy as long as you engage in unhealthy lifestyle habits such as eating a diet containing mostly foods devoid of proper nutrition, smoking, lack of exercise, and emotional stress. Herbs counteract pathogens and help your body heal itself but are not an excuse to engage in a disastrous, indulgent lifestyle.
http://www.metastudies.com/store/product.php?xProd=182
I want to start out by first stating that I am not anti-modern medicine. I have great faith in our modern medical system for most things. If I were to break a bone, or require emergency surgery, I wouldn’t want to stick strictly to herbal medicine. I believe that both systems have a right and good place in healing.
For centuries Europeans and Asians viewed disease as a dysfunction of the whole body, or a whole system. Cures were aimed at bringing the body back into balance so that it could heal itself.
Although traditional thought on disease also included superstition, ignorance of anatomy, and in some places unhealthy beliefs about hygiene, much that was useful about medicine was known and practiced.
In both East and West, disease was often cured with plants that were either proven or intuited to have an effect on a particular system in the body that was injured or unbalanced. In Europe, the "Five Humors" theory was developed. In the near east, the "Three Dosha Ayurvedic" system was the basis of medicine. In the Far East, the "Five Elements" theory was practiced.
Superstition about demons, curses, and in Europe, lack of basic knowledge of hygiene aside, these systems were mostly effective. In the opinion of some alternative health researchers today, they were as effective as modern allopathic method for many diseases.
Not much is known about medical practices of Africa (except for ancient Egypt), and the ancient Americas, but they too, used herbs and plants, along with surgery and other medical techniques.
In the last two centuries, there has been a rise in the “scientific method,” a way of investigating and “proving,” in the Newtonian sense, whether a substance really works as a medicinal or not and in what way.
In the western world, especially North America, allopathic medicine took root and holistic medicine, viewed as old fashioned and unscientific, was pushed more and more into the background. In Europe and Asia, with centuries more behind them of holistic practices, both schools of though and medicine practices are accepted and sometimes integrated. However, in the United States, allopathic medicine has taken hold and has tried—and is still trying—to stamp out any other form of health care.
Allopathic medicine promotes the belief that most disease is caused by a pathogen invading the body and that an anti-pathogen can destroy the invader to heal the body. Although great strides have been made in the cure of many diseases, often the allopathic medicines create side effects almost as disastrous as the disease itself.
With the possible exception of cancer and aids, we are no longer in a disease crisis in the United States as we were when smallpox, polio, fatal influenza, TB, and more were rampant. However, we are in a health crisis. By ignoring the whole body in favor of allopathic specificity, we have swung the pendulum too far to one side.
Health is not just the absence of disease. It is vitality, energy, clear thought, immunity, and strength. How we treat our minds and bodies has an effect on health. We are ultimately responsible for the health and well being of our bodies. However, somewhere along the way, we seemed to have abandoned that belief.
We have adopted a code that says we put the responsibility for health in the hands of a select few who have legal and actual power over our life and death. Unfortunately, even Medical Doctors (MDs) have been caught in their own trap. For an MD to recommend any form of holistic medicine—acupressure, chiropractic, herbs, homeopathies, and such, is often to risk their reputation and their future as licensed doctors that they worked so long and hard to achieve.
The public has made this worse by relinquishing any responsibility for their own care and well being. If a doctor recommends herbs or another form of card and the patient isn’t cured, he/she can sue the doctor. Doctors live in constant dread of malpractice lawsuits, which is one factor in the high cost of malpractice insurance that runs up the cost of medical care.
Granted, there are tons of MDs who are so incompetent that they deserve the lawsuits but many are simply doing what they can in an atmosphere of a sue-happy public. They trap works both ways. Laws in the United States often take away our right to choose health care and force us into the form of health care that has gained the most power through government lobbying and economic considerations. This led to a massive public outcry in 1993 that resulted in some concessions by the government to allow more freedom of choice where over the counter herbs are concerned. Nevertheless, it really did very little to open the field in an equitable way.
An herbalist in the United States cannot legally diagnose nor prescribe an herb for anything, even as simple as white willow bark for a headache. Nor can an herbalist suggest that you take an aspirin.
Herbalism is a system that takes into account pathogens, whole body balance, body chemistry, tradition, and scientific proof of the herb’s effectiveness in treating disease. In many places in Europe, herbalism is an accepted health care choice, as is naturopathy, homeopathy, and aromatherapy. In the United States, the FDA is gaining more and more power to tell us what we need to do for our well being, and what we can’t do.
Originally, health regulation was intended to protect us from charlatans pushing “snake oil cures” and bogus cancer cures. But, when economics entered the picture, Pandora’s box was opened. In 1993, the spark that flamed the public outcry was a proposed regulation that would require all herbs and vitamins to be dispensed only through prescription by licensed physicians. It would have made it a crime to take vitamin C or by garlic capsules without a prescription from a doctor. The prices for herbs and vitamins would probably have soared and we would have been cut off from one more avenue of health care.
Even with the current trend in insurance companies covering or offering discounted alternative health care services, we must not relax. WE must take back our right to have dominion over our own bodies and have the right to choose our health care. If regulation of herbs comes in the way, the FDA has made it clear it wants it to, herbal companies will be forced to spend millions of dollars in testing for each herb before the FDA would approve their use as a medicinal. Previous testings or centuries of proven efficacy in use would not be accepted.
Herbal companies would then have to recoup their expenditures by increasing their prices. Imagine spending $80 for a bottle of Milk Thistle tincture instead of $5-$12. In addition, many useful herbs would simply disappear because they are too easy to obtain cheaply in the wild (like milk thistle) or can be homegrown. Herbal companies couldn’t risk not recouping their losses and would likely drop them from their inventory.
Herbalism has a long history. We don’t know when humans first decided and discovered that some plants did more than nourish the body by feeding the belly. Perhaps it was by watching what some animals did when feeling ill, or by “divine intervention.” We don’t know.
However, as far back as we have written evidence of medical practices, we have reports of herbs and plants successfully used as medicine. Garlic may be the oldest known medicinal plant. Garlic cloves have been found in caves inhabited 10,000 years ago. A prescription for garlic was found on a Sumerian clay tablet from 3000 B.C. Chinese doctors mentioned Cinnamon as a medicinal as far back as 2700 B.C. Since then, there has been a lot of scientific testing on herbs including testing by the United States government.
Herbalism works closely with the body’s own immune system. You may be surprised to learn that the American Medical Association (AMA) has only recently recognized the body’s immune system at al in relation to health. It has also come as a recent surprise to the AMA that nutrition, exercise, and mental/emotional attitudes affect health.
Preventing ill health and disease has been a longstanding tradition among holistic health practices but has arrived as a new and innovative—if somewhat suspicious—concept to modern U.S. allopathic physicians.
It is finally coming to light (again) that we can only defeat illness by paying more attention to health and less attention to treating disease. However, there is also a trend for some MDs and some lay people to want herbs to act as a lateral substitute for allopathic medicines—to treat pathogens and ignore the rest of health. In other words, they are trying to pound a square peg into a round hole.
With herbs, the whole system must be taken into account and they generally do not work quickly and miraculously to erase symptoms as do many allopathic medicines. Most herbs work more slowly, and in combination with other herbs, to help the body regain health on its own. Sometimes this comes quickly, sometimes slowly, but true health is regained, not just a suppression of symptoms without examining lifestyle and emotional causative factors.
In a “natural supplement” retail where I once worked, we had customers who made the same mistake. They would come in and ask me “What do you have for energy?” They may work 14 hours a day, take care of a family and spouse, sleep four hours a night, eat mostly caffeine, fat, and sugar but they wan the magical pill that will eliminate fatigue. A suggestion of seeing a physician for a check up, proper diet, and rest as a possible relief from fatigue would be rejected and they would buy a bottle of Guarana. Guarana a natural source for strong caffeine. It can be useful for a burst of energy but if proper rest and nutrition are ignored, the body can be depleted even further possibly resulting in more serious health problems.
Herbs are not drugs. However, by their complex structures, medicinal foods (herbs) create many of the same benefits as drugs—mostly without unpleasant side effects.
For example, in a Nutrilite press release dated January 7, 2000, researchers conducted a six-month study of lutein. In the study, “blood levels of lutein increased by 28% in 21 participants, closely matching levels found in individuals who consume lutein-rich diets incorporating yellow and green fruits and vegetables. The rise was small but still significant. Researchers believe this may lower the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition that affects roughly 1.7 million people over the age of 65.”
There have been numerous studies on garlic’s power to lower cholesterol in contrast to prescription drugs such as cholestyramine. Garlic has been proven to lower cholesterol and any herbalist worth his/her salt would combine garlic with other supporting herbs for a cholesterol lowering formula. But because cholestyramine is economically a money maker and garlic is not, pharmaceutical companies are not going to recommend that doctors prescribe garlic. Doctors who do—assuming they are aware of garlic’s ability in that area—risk ridicule and expulsion from membership in professional organizations such as the AMA.
How to get proof that herbs work as they are reputed to work and how to separate unfounded folklore and placebo from actual medicinal uses of plants is a problem. However, it is less so thanks to the open mindedness of many new researchers in the world. Studies done in France, Germany, China, England, and more abound. Much folklore about herbs has proven true, but much as also been discovered to be false. For example, boneset—eupatorium perfolatum—may sound like an herb to heal bones and some folklore prescribes it for that but it’s name comes from a traditional use as a cure for breakbone fever. It has proven to be useful in treating minor viral and bacterial infections by stimulating the white blood cells into action.
Folklore prescribes juniper for sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea. However, scientific testing shows it to be ineffective. Juniper does act as a diuretic and is included in an over-the-counter PMS medicine. It is effective as a part of an overall treatment for high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. High doses, over a long period of time can irritate the kidneys.
Be cautious of herbal books that do not take modern findings about the nature and action of herbs into account. Some recommended authors are Michael Castleman, Daniel B. Bowrey, Leslie & Michael Tierra, and David Hoffman.
Keep in mind that you are ultimately responsible for your health. No herb will make you healthy as long as you engage in unhealthy lifestyle habits such as eating a diet containing mostly foods devoid of proper nutrition, smoking, lack of exercise, and emotional stress. Herbs counteract pathogens and help your body heal itself but are not an excuse to engage in a disastrous, indulgent lifestyle.
http://www.metastudies.com/store/product.php?xProd=182
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