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Post by nana on Aug 21, 2016 15:43:54 GMT -5
Number one on the list is dried any kind of herb that grows in my garden. It is so easy and quick to dry them in the oven (yes I have a safety pilot). I used to hang them in my attic, which gets hot enough in summer to do the job, but somehow, maybe because it took a few days, they never seemed to be that flavorful. In the Chambers, it takes less than a day, and they keep good color and the flavor is so much more intense! Plus it perfumes the house. Right now I have a tray of spearmint and a tray of lemon balm and my entire house smells minty fresh. I really love my stove!
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Post by nana on Nov 9, 2017 18:09:23 GMT -5
I had some time tonight to go through old threads... Thought I'd add that some herbs come out GREAT in the oven with a pilot, others not so much . I've been going to an herbal medicine discussion group, and there are some that require a COOL drying, rather than warm. The mints I described perfumed the house like nobody's business, but once dry they had no more flavor than hay. Drying in a shady, cool place, they retain their flavor and presumably their medicinal value too. Culinary herbs seem to do well with heat, like basil, oregano, parsley, rosemary, etc. It's either trial and error, or pay attention when reading up about different herbs. Just want to make it easy for others, that's all!
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Post by chipperhiker on Nov 10, 2017 16:54:09 GMT -5
Thank you for the update, nana! I dried lemon balm in a heated dehydrator this summer. It smelled nice while drying, but the final dried herb STANK. I wondered what I did wrong. Now I know it was the heat.
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Post by mach12 on Nov 10, 2017 17:47:40 GMT -5
We have lemon balm growing like weeds around here but I've only used it fresh. I make extracts a lot and wonder whether that would work with lemon balm. I grow a lot of mint and it's one of my favorite to extract. I just take some pint jars, wash and then remove the mint leaves from the stems and crush the leaves a bit by hand, put them in the the jars and pour the cheapest vodka I can find over them, then put lids on the jars and wait at least a couple of months. I prefer about 6 months, then I pour off the liquid and toss the leaves. I tried a non-alcoholic version that used glycerin but it took way longer to get a decent extract but it worked fine too. Put a scoop of instant hot chocolate in a cup, pour coffee in, and add about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of mint extract and it's like a liquid Girl Scout cookie!
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Post by nana on Nov 10, 2017 19:29:49 GMT -5
An alcohol based extract is a tincture, with glycerin it is called(surprise, surprise) a glycerite. I've been learning about herbs as medicine. So far it seems like they can be supportive of different systems in your body, or good for specific ailments, but generally not an instant cure-all. Peppermint is good for stomach ailments and nausea, besides being a good breath freshener and general pick-me-up. Lemon balm can be used culinarily but it also has antiviral properties, is good for digestion and is thought to be a good stress reliever. Some herbs can be quite strong and you need to be careful with dosages and drug interactions, but pretty much anything that is used for flavoring and cooking is safe to use at will as far as teas and tinctures go. I know some people are skeptical, but I figure...it may help, and for the most part, it does no harm.
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Post by Chuckie on Nov 10, 2017 20:16:07 GMT -5
Some herbs can be quite strong and you need to be careful with dosages and drug interactions, but pretty much anything that is used for flavoring and cooking is safe to use at will as far as teas and tinctures go. I know some people are skeptical, but I figure...it may help, and for the most part, it does no harm. I started taking a milk thistle tablet twice a day W-A-A-A-Y back before it was kewl in the mid '80's when I read it in Men's Health it was good for liver function (surprise- SURPRISE, that's why I started taking it! ) It was also because my arthritis doctor had/has me on all these drugs that like DESTROY your liver! She is also a lifelong friend, and my Da was Godfather for her & all her siblings. Anyway, when I go to see her, she'll USUALLY ask "have you quit drinking?" And I USUALLY respond, "yes, about TWO this MORNING!" (which is a LIE nowadays!) Anyhow, she goes on to say "your liver enzymes are OFF THE CHART PERFECT, it has to be the milk thistle!" Monkey swims with an older gal that has liver probs-- NOT related to lifestyle or drinking. Her doctor told her they were "starting to worry", because she was running so high. Monkey told her my tale, and the gal says "you know what, I JUST came back from the doctor, I'm going to try them until my next appt." (don't remember the time frame). She had to go back, the nurse drew her blood, and came back in QUICK to "ask what you've been doing?!" Scared the SHIT outta the woman, to say the least! She told her the scenario above, and the nurse says "yes, we ARE familiar with the talk of milk thistle for the liver, and it is evidently working for YOU, as your enzymes have improved DRAMATICALLY!" NO, she is NOT off the "endangered list", but it DID seem to help her. And like nana said, herbs/herbal therapy works differently for different peeps. I have a fellow beer drinker that took it like TWICE, and had a reaction, as he has hay fever HORRIBLY, and it set that off, so proceed w/caution... CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by mach12 on Nov 10, 2017 20:59:33 GMT -5
I've never heard it referred to as a tincture and always thought that was a topical, but I am totally out of an area that I know anything about. I guess it could be both a tincture and an extract, proof being the tincture my mother used on my cuts and scrapes would extract some hollering.
Seriously though, herbal medicine is awesome and it's surprising to see modern medicine adapting so much of it. When I had the skin cancer removed not too long ago they put me on a strong antibiotic and along with that the doctor started me on probiotics and what he called a gut healthy diet since the antibiotics kill beneficial bacteria along with the bad. I figured out a few years ago that yogurt ran circles around antacids but didn't really know about the other benefits. Here I am in the twilight of my life and I'm just learning this stuff? Too little, too late. My life story.
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Post by nana on Nov 11, 2017 7:19:47 GMT -5
It's never too late until you're on the wrong side of the dirt! I got seriously into this type of thing when I had the Lyme disease. Conventional medicine did nothing for me. I ended up going to a naturopathic doctor, who also included herbs and probiotics along with the antibiotics. And, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating: I finally got better.
Right now I'm looking into an herb called Chanca Piedra, which is Spanish for "stone breaker". It grows in the rainforest, and is supposed to have the ability to actually dissolve kidney stones. I have a friend who suffers terribly from them and has spent way too much time in hospitals with blockages and needing surgery. The research on it that I've read is really promising. It is available in Brazilian pharmacies, but since the best way to take it is as a tea made from the whole herb, (meaning big pharma can't make tons of money off of it) it is not widely known here. If you go on Amazon there are tons of preparations available, but another thing I learned is that the supplement business, being largely unregulated, has a lot of charlatans. Very often you are not getting what it says on the bottle. I'm trying to find a reputable source to buy just the herb itself, not capsules that might be filled with sawdust for all I know. But even that could be dicey. I don't know what it looks like or smells like. That's not a problem with mint or lemon balm!
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Post by mach12 on Nov 11, 2017 11:43:03 GMT -5
That's real similar to the marijuana industry since they legalized it here in WA State. First it was legal for medical use only and then they opened it up for recreational use. All the shops are spouting the benefits of CBD oil, especially for pain, and I checked into it since it sounds so promising. Then the state and federal governments both did independent studies of CBD products being sold and couldn't even find a trace of CBD in the majority of them and those that did barely had any at all. There might be some good ones out there but good luck finding some. At best you'll likely get a capsule with a mix of tea and herbs. And then the studies that have been done so far are inconclusive as to whether there is any benefit. I knew a guy in Egypt who had a little shop in Cairo and he sold essential oils and herbal meds and he had years of training and experience. I had a tennis elbow problem while I was there and he talked to me for about half an hour about my health history, immunizations, illnesses and so on before he'd try anything. He gave me a little bottle of oil to rub on my elbow and man did it work. When I'd get a cold or allergies he always had something for it and it really worked. I'm planning to go back over to visit some Egyptian friends and get some dental work done and I'll definitely be seeing him. I'm in so much pain anymore that I really struggle to get anything done and stuff like naproxen doesn't touch it but I'll bet he has something for it.
My oldest granddaughter was in the Air Force for almost 7 years and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia so they discharged her. She really fought to stay in and loved her job as a photojournalist but they said she was non-deployable and that was that, they did finally give her a retirement, so it's not all bad. She and her husband decided to start a family and 14 months ago she had a beautiful little girl. Since she decided to nurse her she couldn't take any of the regular fiber meds so she started researching natural meds that were safe while nursing and even took a couple of college courses on it (they didn't offer anything like that when I was in college, though I did learn to use a slide rule lol). She has really gotten into it and is even selling it. Even though she's no longer nursing she's sticking with the natural option and is really pleased with the results.
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Post by nana on Nov 12, 2017 10:52:40 GMT -5
Modern medicine has its place. If I have appendicitis, I'm probably asking for a surgeon, not an herb tea. But so much of it is treating symptoms, not causes, and ever more powerful drugs carry side effects that they then want to treat with different drugs, and so on ad infinitum. We have been sort of brainwashed that we should be able to cure everything with a pill, but our bodies don't really work like that, do they? Everything is on an interconnected system. You mess around with one part, chances are you will cause problems elsewhere. From what I've learned, and I admit I am a total beginner, natural and herbal medicine has a goal of working with and supporting your body's natural healing ability, which makes it more of a long term process, than an acute symptom reliever.
As far as chronic pain goes, Mach12, I read somewhere that it can sometimes stem from pathways that have kind of "worn a groove", so to speak, into our brains. Something about how even after an injury has healed, the nerves kind of remember, and are ultrasensitive to and magnify any discomfort. I wish I could remember where I read that so I could point you in the right direction to do more research. I have no idea if that is your situation or not, but as long as you are open to alternative treatments, it may bear looking into!
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