herbal medicine Archives | Natural Health with Merrilyn Hope

List Of Herbal Teas And Their Uses

Herbal Health: Herbs For Enjoymehnt And As Herbal Medicine.

Herbal Teas are a great alternative to drinking all that regular tea and coffee. Coffee and tea definitely have their uses, and are very enjoyable to take, but when we overuse coffee and tea we can harm our health.

Here is a list of some of the more popular herbal teas to try. You can grow many of them yourself in your herb garden, which will help nature along by providing flowers for the bees, which in turn helps bees to thrive and do their job of pollinating our food crops for us when the time is right. Angelica, Borage, Catnip, Chamomile, Dandelions, Marigolds, Nettles, Feverfew, Lemon Balm, Peppermint, Spearmint and Yarrow are all easy-to-grow herbs which will grace your garden and attract the bees too.

Alfalfa Tea: This is very good as a digestive, as a tonic, a cleanser, and to make the body alkaline.

Angelica Tea: This herb has a soothing effect on the digestive system and is very pleasant to take.

Aniseed Tea: A very good digestive aid. Helps alleviate flatulence.

Blackcurrant Tea: A digestive. Provides some Vitamin C, Iron, and Flavanoids. Very pleasant to drink.

Blueberry Tea: Similar qualities to Blackcurrant Tea.

Borage Flower Tea: Helps lift the spirits and alleviate depression. Rich in silica which is good for nails, teeth and hair. Do not use if you are pregnant.

Catnip Tea: Very soothing and good for the digestion. Helps remove flatulence.

Chamomile Tea: Has a soothing effect on the digestion and on the nerves. Great to give in teaspoon doses to teething babies.

Chicory Tea: Useful as a substitute for coffee. Good for the liver.

Cornsilk Tea: Useful in increasing the flow of urine. Good as a kidney cleanser and blood cleanser. All herbs which benefit the kidneys have a helpful effect on hair growth and shine. Cornsilk tea can be used as a hair rinse.

Dandelion Tea: Made from the flowers or the roasted root, this is a very palatable tea. The leaves can be used too, but they do not taste so good. All parts of the dandelion help the liver and increase bile production. Also good for the kidneys.

Fennel Tea: Good for the taste buds. Helpful to the pancreas. A digestive aid. Good for flatulence. Teaspoon doses of a weak tea can be given to babies to relieve colic.

Fenugreek Tea: A nutrient-rich tea which is very alkaline in its effect. Used in alternative programmes sometimes to treat cancer, arthritis, and other conditions. Helps with prevention of cancer.

Ginger Tea: Made from fresh ginger root is best, but dried powdered ginger can also be used if you do not have fresh ginger on hand. Add a slice of lemon and a little honey. A wonderful aid to the digestion and helpful in driving away melancholy.

Hibiscus Flower Tea: The Hibiscus flowers are very refreshing to take. They can be added to other flowers such as rose petals, or chamomile, to make a soothing tea.

Hollyhock Tea: This is a demulcent. Two or three flowers can be combined with chamomile or rosepetals or another herb of your choice to make a palatable tea. Hollyhock is soothing to the nerves and to the mucous membranes. Useful in cases of persistent cough or sinus trouble.

Nettle Tea: Nettles are great to grow in the garden. Make sure they are away from the play area though, as they do sting. Rich in silica which is good for hair, teeth, nails and bone health. Nettle tea can be used as a hair rinse to nourish the scalp and create shiny hair.

Rose Petal Tea: This is a lovely tea when it is made from old-fashioned sweet scented petals. You can use the petals dried or fresh. A slice of orange can be added to make a delectable, refreshing, soothing tea.

A reprint of Merrilyn’s 1980’s Health Book entitled: NO CANCER NOTEBOOK is available for purchase.

The cost is $60 New Zealand currency. This includes postage.

Send an email to [email protected] to order.

Self Heal Herb

Herbal Medicine

The Benefits of Prunella Vulgaris

This is a beautiful, wee medicinal plant which is often dismissed as a weed.

Prunella Vulgaris has a longish purple flower. It grows more or less as ground cover, and is often found growing in lawns and on grassy banks. It is found in New Zealand and in the less hot parts of Australia. It was introduced to our parts of the world when the early settlers arrived from Europe in the 18th century.

Self Heal, or Prunella Vulgaris, used to be very common in New Zealand. However: If you find Prunella Vulgaris growing anywhere around your house and garden, then nurture it. It is a valuable herb which is fast disappearing from our lawns and gardens because of the use of commercial grass mixes and pesticides and herbicides which have killed many plants off.

Common names for Prunella Vulgaris are: Self Heal, carpenters herb, sticklewort, touch and heal, all heal, woundwort, Hercules’ woundwort, hock heal.

Prunella vulgaris, or ‘self heal’, belongs to the Lamiaceae family.

This plant has been used in herbal medicine since the days of the ancient Greeks who commonly used self heal to treat sore throats and cases of tonsillitis.

Its purple flower is calming, which gives it some use as a nervine to calm anxiety, lower blood pressure, and to help soothe the heart and lungs.

The famous ‘Doctine of Signatures’, in later medieval times, came up with another theory as to why self heal should be effective in treating several conditions. This is truly interesting, because the idea of ‘the doctrine’ seems very fanciful and romantic, but this magic theory only backs up what the ancient Greeks were already using the herb for, even without a ‘Doctrine of Signatures’.

The ‘Doctrine of Signatures’ recognized ‘Self Heal’ as being important to the medicine of man because of the flower’s likeness to the shape of the throat. This likeness was an indication that the plant was beneficial for the treating of diseases of the throat such as quinsy and diptheria. Part of the flower resembles that of a billhook or sickle, and this indicated its use in treating the wounds, sores and gashes which were common amongst field workers who used these implements.

Homeopathy and Your Child’s Health

Homeopathy For The Home First Aid Kit

How To Avoid Using Harmful Medications:

I used herbal medicine and homeopathic remedies for many years when I was bringing up my children. I found these remedies to be so incredibly successful that the whole family did without standard inoculations, and we all avoided seeing a doctor for many years. There are no harmful side effects in using the common homeopathic remedies, unlike using allopathic prescription medicine, which usually has negative and toxic side effects of some sort.

However, I do not dare to suggest that people should follow my example. Sometimes allopathic medicine is necessary, and doctors and nurses do indeed save many lives: I urge you to see a health professional before following the ideas I out-line in this, and other, articles.

HOMEOPATHY is a wonderful age-old science of medicine which can be used effectively for treating many common conditions and complaints, both physical and emotional.

ARNICA Arnica is the number one remedy. All families with young children would benefit from adding this to their first-aid kits. It is an amazing remedy for shocks, bruises and sprains. Buy some TODAY.

Arnica can help settle the emotions as well as heal the bruise. The trauma which has been endured after an accident can be alleviated by taking arnica. Often we get nervous stabbing pains around an injury which persist long after physical recovery. These, too, are helped by arnica, even when taken years after the injury.

In the old days when I was a girl, before New Zealand country people had knowledge of the wonderful homeopathic remedies available to us today, our mothers used to give us aspirin or pain killers for the after-effects of an injury.

These days even worse alternatives are used by many parents: Drug companies make drug combinations which are sold as safe medecines for calming young children, and even putting them to sleep. This is an extremely sad state of affairs, as the children who are being dosed with these harmful products are

1. Not being allowed to behave and develop as normal healthy children.

2.There is a real danger of these children becoming drug dependent as children, and drug or alcohol dependent in their adulthood. Depression, which affects 1 or 2 out of 5 in our “civilized” culture – the statistics are increasing- will sadly be the result if these commercial sedatives are used on a regular basis. Avoid them like the plague.

Instead, use a dash of ARNICA.

You can’t get addicted to ARNICA and it won’t harm your health or your child’s in any way.

3. There are ALWAYS side effects to any drug or medication, especially when regularly used. The side effects of these sedative products is not widely advertised even when the drug companies KNOW what these side effects will be. There is a liklihood that damage to kidneys, liver, heart, circulaton, nervous system, muscular and bone growth, and brain development will occur. The practice of using such products should be avoided at all cost.