[Redcap]

I use or have prepared most of what has been listed in here. I also make poke root tincture and we use the berries fresh or frozen for arthritis pain. Motherwort tincture is one of my favorite allies as are chickweed fresh and mugwort cooked with fatty meats. It was very popular with young mothers since the 1960s natural birth movement. Very calming and later in life it prevents hot flashes. I made pitcher plant tincture to have in case of smallpox outbreak. I make the usual salves and tinctures and some unusual ones: curlycup gumweed, creeping charlie, yarrow, and more.

My husband was misdiagnosed with clinical depression for ten years and I finally made him get a real diagnosis and they settled on myalgic encephalomyelitis (chronic fatigue). He could not even get off the couch at that point. I chose eleuthero root infusion, cordyceps powder, ashwagandha powder, lion’s mane capsules, motherwort tincture, dead nettle tincture and infusion, berries for anti-oxidants, and an OTC antihistamine all at certain times of the day. In six months he was off the couch. In one year, he could mow the yard, rake leaves, and on year two, he built me a chicken coop. Now 4 years later, he is chopping wood for our heat, has built a second coop, fixes fences, and is building me a haybox (thermal cooker). Medical science has no treatments for chronic fatigue other than antidepressants, sedatives, and pain pills. No treatments for cause.

I also drink nettle and comfrey infusions regularly. The teas just aren’t very useful.

One thing we used to do for low iron in the 1970s for pregnant women – because blood volume expands 2-4 times and so because the blood is effectively thinned it ALWAYS looks like the woman is anemic – was to have them take 2-3 alfalfa tablets (not capsules of dried plant which are ineffective) along with a high iron food (like a bit of beef, liver, or raisins) and a vitamin C food (like tomato, citrus, or bell pepper – NOT C pills because ascorbic acid is not the same as C) and their iron levels would be back to normal within a week. Works for B12 deficiency also.

I used this on my goddaughter a few years ago and a friend used it for B12 deficiency last year. It works because iron pills just make you poop black because the iron has nowhere to go. Alfalfa is high in chlorophyll which is one carbon atom different from hemoglobin – what iron binds to. If you don’t increase hemoglobin, all that iron in the pills have nowhere to go.

Works like a charm.

I make my own elderberry syrup from dried berries. Take it every day. Elderberry has a protein that prevents viruses from attaching to docking receptors on human cells. The only time I’ve been sick since 2018 was after a back injury last year when I got out of the habit of taking it in the morning and I got strep throat after a face-to-face conversation with a friend I know who had it. I got rid of the strep in a few days and started taking elderberry again. That’s the only time I’ve been sick since March 2017.

Those are some of the things we use or have used or have on hand.

[Redcap]

My son took Cipro at age 25 and was in constant pain and on pain killers for the next 7 years of his life. He’s better from the pain but his brain will never be the same. Cipro is kept around because it’s the treatment for anthrax. But it and one other are only two available of a class of antibiotic that the FDA already banned (and is completely banned in other countries). It is now classified as absolute need only – when a very strong antibiotic is needed and it’s the last resort.

[Redcap]

It’s little late for old stings, but the best immediate remedy is to pack some mud on the bite. Just grab sone dirt, wet it like a face mask clay, and slap it on. After that, dock and plantain are good also. Mud is the best. For bee sting, when the mud dries and you peel it off, it usually also pulls the stinger out with it.

[Redcap]

The FDA has been threatening to regulate herb, plant medicines, herbal preparations, and supplements since the 1980s at least. So far the worst they’ve done is propagate the lie that comfrey shouldn’t be used internally. They’ve done a few other things, but nothing devastating. If you grow your own, it’s not their problem and none of their business. If you can’t grow it, find a source for the plant material you need and appropriate for the type of preparation you will be doing. Just having a stash of dried herbs may do you no good if dried plant material doesn’t make medicine.

[Redcap]

To make tinctures, you need fresh plant material, except for roots which can be used either dried or fresh. There are folks who will tell you that tincturing dried plant material is fine, but the process of drying (or freeze drying) breaks down cell walls which changes means some of the medicinal constituents (terpenes, alkaloids, polyphenols, etc.) may change. Some may oxidize, some go rancid, some simply inactivate when dry.

That said, some plants dry well and do not change enough for some applications. For example, plantain should be used fresh for balms and salves, as should goldenrod. But dried comfrey can be used to make effective salves and balms. But extracts and tinctures require fresh plant materials. The extract (glycerin) or tincture (alcohol) menstruums are solvents. If the medicinal constituents aren’t there or have been inactivated, you aren’t really getting the medicinal qualities of the plant.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by  Redcap.

[Redcap]

That’s the first step in the Wise Woman tradition. Listen to the body. Do nothing. Let it rest. Let it heal itself. Do what is really asking you to do (more heat, less heat, rest, be more active, etc.). Most people run to remedies without even knowing cause. If I have strep and all I do is remedy the sore throat and do nothing to support anti-microbial action in my body, or maybe I use acetaminophen or willow or yarrow to give myself a break from fever and never let the fever do its job, I am not listening first. It’s easy to replace Big Pharma with plants but that doesn’t make it any better if we don’t know anything about how the body works and heals or what the cause is of our ailment.