Tag: fever and ague

Apple Tree Bark Remedy For Gall Stones Kidneys and Fever

Natural Remedies

Apples are a wonderful cleansing food.  Three days on the raw apple diet is an easy method to rid the body of toxins and freshen up the blood. Drinking apple juice at meal-times can remove acidity and be a help to digestion.  But what about Apple Tree Bark as a medicine?

Jethro Kloss, the famous Seventh Day Adventist herbalist who wrote ‘Back To Eden’ in 1939, apparently used the apple tree bark remedy to cure many people of different ailments.

This book was reprinted in 1981 by Loma Linda, CA: Back To Eden Publishing.

Tree barks have been commonly used in healing by native American Indians, in Australia by aboriginal people, and in New Zealand by the Maori.  In European herbal medicine, tree barks such as white willow bark, slippery elm, and silver birch  have been used as a remedies  for certain ailments.

see my older post on silver birch leaves as medicine http://merrilynhope.com/birch-tree-leaves-for-kidney-stones/

However, not much is written about using Apple Tree Bark as a remedy.  The apple is well known for its therapeutic qualities, as is its cider vinegar, but no mention is made of using apple tree bark in any of the herbals I have so far read.

I have just encountered it in John Heinerman’s ‘Miracle Healing Herbs’, which a friend has just lent to me.  This book gives an account of how Jethro Kloss used this medicine, and how it was one of the most commonly prescribed medicines of his repertoire.

The success which Jethro Kloss had with Apple Tree Bark, and the endorsement of its use by John Heinerman, make it well worthwhile to record it here.

This is how it is used:

Bring one litre of water to a boil with two or three tablespoons of grated Apple Tree fruit bark added to it.

Once it is boiling, reduce the heat and simmer gently for twelve minutes.  Take off the heat after twelve minutes and let stand for a further 38 minutes.

Strain the liquid off into a jar and keep in the fridge.

It is taken one cupful at a time, either warm or cold, depending on what condition you are treating – I presume, one cup per day – John Heinerman does not say how frequently it is to be taken.

It is taken warm for:

abdominal cramps (warm or cold), dysentery, delayed menstruation, fever, gall bladder attacks, indigestion, kidney problems (warm or cold), toothache.

It is taken cool for:

abdominal cramps, boils, insect bites and stings, kidney problems, liver and spleen problems, nausea and vomitting, rabies.

Poultices

For skin problems such as boils, eczema, and insect bites, a poultice of the apple liquid can be used on the skin as well as the drink taken internally.

To make a poultice, soak a piece of clean white linen or cotton in the apple liquid.  Wring out and place over the area to be treated.

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Cider Vinegar Socks And Onion Pack For Coughs Fever And Flu

Natural Remedies For Fever And Coughs

Apple Cider Vinegar Socks Applied to the Feet To Reduce Fever

Of course you should see your doctor or natural health practitioner in the case of a fever, especially with a child.  But here is a simple remedy you can try in conjunction with their advice.

The idea of  reducing a fever by soaking socks with cider vinegar is taken from International Masters Publishers ‘Nature’s Medicine Chest’ – sorry, no date on this publication here.

I have not personally tried this remedy, but it sounds like a good one to me.  ‘Nature’s Medicine Chest’ say that it works well for children who have a fever.

Note: I think that the onion water idea, which I have outlined below, could also be used as a treatment for fever by applying to the feet.

Mineral And Vitamin Content Of  Apples:  Apples are a wonderful food.  They are rich in phtytochemicals which help prevent cancer and other diseases.  They are high in potassium and pectin, both of which help heart function and keep the immune system strong.

Apples also contain reasonable amounts of magnesium, calcium and sodium, phosphorous, choline, and Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C, E.

Apple cider vinegar contains all of the apple’s therapeutic value.  Cider vinegar is strongly anti-bacterial and has a cleansing and tonic effect on the whole body.  Drinking small amounts of diluted apple cider vinegar on a daily basis can help prevent candida overgrowth in the intestines.

Apple Cider Vinegar Sock Treatment:  The cleansing quality of the vinegar, plus the  inherent nutrients which are absorbed through the soles of the feet, aid the healing process and somehow help to bring a fever down.

It could be a very good remedy to use in conjunction with other therapies, such as homeopathy, for bringing down the fever which accompanies measles, mumps, or chicken pox.

With this method for bringing down a fever, all you do is to soak a pair of cotton socks in a cold solution made with equal quantities of apple cider vinegar and water.

My advice is to make sure you use pure cotton socks, and preferably white ones which will not contain dye.  Synthetic or nylon socks should not be used for this treatment, as the cider vinegar will draw out chemicals from the fabric.  Use white cotton socks.

Dip the socks into the cider vinegar solution, wring out, and put the wet socks onto the patient.  Reserve the apple cider vinegar solution so that you can repeat the process every half hour or as necessary.

Onion Pack On The Chest For Obstinate Coughs Or Pleurisy

In the past, I have used boiled onion water for the treatment for bronchitis and pleurisy.  All you need is a couple of litres of water and a large onion, which you chop and boil up until soft, skin and all.

This treatment. although a bit of an effort to perform, has been a life-saver for myself.  A large cloth or towel is soaked with the onion water, wrung out, and wrapped, while still hot, around the chest and back.  With this treatment, you leave the onion cloth on for several hours.  Wrap a plastic around so the bed-clothes don’t get damp, and then a layer or two of blanket to keep the heat and moisture in.

It is a good idea to drink plenty of hot lemon drinks, or simply hot water, while you sweat it out with the onion pack on.  Try to drink several pints over two or three hours.

This remedy has proved to be effective when nothing else seemed to work.  It broke the cough and reduced the fever after an hour or two.

I think that apple cider vinegar, diluted half and half with water, could be just as effective as the onion water remedy for putting on the chest when fever and cough are present.  But onions are cheap, and cider vinegar is not, unless you make it yourself.  So, seeing you need to have a quantity of liquid for the soaking of the towel, I would stick to the onion remedy for the treatment of choughs with the wet chest wrap.

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Danger Of NZ Sun On Health In Time Of Global Warming

Sunstroke From Sun

Lack of Ozone and Global Warming is causing health problems.

Summers are now hotter than ever, and the sun’s rays more damaging.

For the past three years, at some time during the period from Christmas time to late February, I have suffered serious sun-stroke, several times each season, with debilitating effects.

Gone are the days of lying about near-naked in the sun, or playing tennis in our latest bikini-top, as we were want to do in the days of our youth.

For many of us, swimming attire for the public eye lost its appeal many moons ago.

However, we are not safe from the sun’s radiation just because we do not sunbathe anymore.

Seriously, the New Zealand sun in summer is now very much to be avoided.

Dehydration Fever And Headaches From Sun

I personally have become so sensitive to the summer sun that I cannot garden during the day-time, or undertake any other activity where I am exposed to the sun for longer than about 15 minutes at a time.

Perhaps I am more vulnerable to the negative effects of the sun because I do not have a car and consequently walk everywhere to do my shopping and business.

If I do spend longer time outside, then a pounding headache and fever will plague me for about three days, during which time I am completely incapacitated.

The temperature is very difficult to stabilize after sun exposure of even an hour or two in the early morning, well before the sun has heated everything up.

Homeopathic Arsen alb and Arnica have proven to be the best remedies for the heat stroke and sunstroke I have suffered.  I used these every 15 minutes or so whilst necessary. Keeping a wet towel over the head and forehead was very helpful in producing comfort by reducing the temperature a little.  Sipping cold water at regular internals is essential.  In the worst case scenario, cold water enemas stopped the temperature from soaring to dangerous levels and remedied dehydration.

Because of severely depleted ozone in the atmosphere, which should protect us against harmful energies emitted by the sun and cosmic forces, we are now being zapped by these extremely destructive forces.  These unknown forces are seriously putting our health at risk.

I am not alone in this dilemma.  I know many other people my age who say they are experiencing the same thing.  Even one of the local posties, who is a lot younger than myself, had to take time off recently because of sun-stroke.

Weather Forecast Temperatures Are Not Accurate

Interesting that the temperatures in our town are sometimes up to 10 degrees hotter than what our weather forecasts predict.

Our town is south of Auckland by about an hour and a half’s drive.  Yet our temperatures during summer are far hotter than those forecast for Auckland, and far hotter than what is predicted for our Waikato area.

We are hotter than Auckland because we are inland and do not enjoy those eternal sea breezes which most parts of Auckland experience.  We are also a farming region where many agricultural chemicals are used.  Many of these poisons have ozone-destroying potential.

And we are hotter than predictions for Waikato, because temperatures are taken miles away from our town, at Hamilton airport, which is a windy part of the region.

A few days ago we were told we would have temperatures of around 26 degrees.  We got 37 degrees.  Two days ago it was meant to be 30 degrees.  We were 41 degrees at noon. A ten minute walk to the shops with broad-brimmed hat and umbrella almost suffocated me with heat.. I put my thermometer out on the deck concrete and the needle soared beyond the last reading at 50 degrees within minutes.  Inside, it settled down at 41 degrees.  That evening it was 27

Years ago, when talk of climate change and global warming first hit the headlines, we used to joke about moving from Auckland in the North Island to Dunedin in South Island New Zealand, to escape the effects of climate change. Dunedin gets about two thirds of Auckland’s sunshine hours and has more moderate summer temperatures.

I am considering moving down there.  Winters are a bit bleak, with few sunshine hours and much drizzly weather. But the possibility of enjoying summer outside under a kindly, hopefully more  pallid sun seems very appealing right now.

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Spider’s Web To Treat Asthma, Consumption, Fever, And Ague

My ancient  “Vitalogy Book of Food and Harmless Home Remedies”, written by two doctors in 1904, gives some fascinating information about the use of Spider’s Web, Araneas Tela as, an oral remedy.  It is, apparently, a natural remedy that not only was used in helping to heal cuts and wounds, but was also recommended  for treating asthma, fever and ague.

This Vitalogy Book of Food and Harmless Home Remedies really does seem to have some wonderful recipes in it.  However, I wonder about the safety of some of the given remedies. No different to the questionable use  and safety of some modern-day medicines, I guess.

Whilst I have never ever tried taking a spider’s web orally, I have often snatched down a nice, lengthy cobweb to wrap around a cut on myself or my children. Cobwebs for wounds is a common old folk-lore remedy. Cobwebs have properties which help to stem bleeding, which makes them a great first-aid tool, especially if you do not have plasters or other help at hand.

Merrilyn’s new book is out on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.ca/Cancer-And-Good-Health-Notebook-ebook/dp/B01DHMH6DG

Although I might try putting a spider’s web around a cut or wound, swallowing pilules of spider web as an experiment does not appeal to me.  But, if  for some reason I was suffering a life-threatening asthma attack, stuck out in the country with no reliable medicine, I might even try swallowing a spider’s web, if I could find one,  in the hope that it might avert the attack.

So – for your information, I quote this excerpt which comes from the pens of ‘Vitalogy’ Doctors Wood and Ruddock. Nowadays, I guess we call ‘Vitalogy’ Naturopathy, or Holistic Medicine. Doctors Wood and Ruddock copyrighted their health manual  in 1904. My copy of the book was published by the ‘Vitalogy Association’ of Chicago, Illinois, in 1923.   The Queen Mother, who was a great fan of homeopathic medicine, and my Grandma Edie, would have been just four years old when this book was written, and 23 when my copy was published.

Doctors Wood and Ruddock say, in ‘Vitalogy’, p.582-3:

‘The cobweb of the spider is said to be almost a specific for fever and ague.  When rolled into an ordinary-sized pill, two or three will be generally sufficient to effect a cure, but more may be taken if necessary, and to be used every two or three hours.

Some physicians give it in about five-grain doses.  For consumption, where it has been used, it is said to have produced surprising effects.

It is also very valuable in asthma.

Applied externally, it will check the bleeding of wounds.  The brown or black spider produces for the purposes above indicated the best web, and it is usually found in cellars, dark out-houses and barns.

It is recommended in wakefulness, spasms and nervous excitement, and generally produces the most delightful state of bodily and mental tranquility.  (WARNING – THIS SOUNDS LIKE A SEDATIVE.  REMEMBER THAT NOT ALL SPIDER’S WEBS MAY BE SAFE TO USE AS ORAL MEDICINE.  SOME OF THOSE AUSSIE ONES MIGHT BE LETHAL, SINCE MANY OF THEIR SPIDERS ARE SO POISONOUS)  It is given in doses of four and five grains, in the form of pills, three times a day.