Tag: herbal remedies

Home Made Eucalyptus Rub For Sore Joints

Eucalyptus Soothing Rub

Eucalyptus globulus can be used to make a home-made remedy which can be used externally as a massage oil to soothe aching muscles and joints,  rheumatic aches and pains, or to rub on tired feet. “Herbs For Health And Beauty”, by Margaret Roberts, Lowry Publishers, South Africa, 1986, recommends the use of eucalyptus leaves infused in oil to relieve aches and pains.

Simply take  half a dozen freshly picked eucalyptus leaves, put them in a jar, and cover with cooking oil, such as grape seed oil, or olive oil.  Let steep in a warm place for three days.  Drain, and your massage oil is ready to use.

If you live in Australia, where gum trees are indigenous natives, you will have many varieties of gum to experiment with.  The lemon-scented gum has a beautiful fragrance which is carried through in a home made oil infusion such as is used in this method above.

Eucalyptus Inhalation From Gum Leaves: Eucalyptus leaves, or gum leaves,  can be used fresh off the tree to make a hot inhalation for the relief of colds, flu, and other bronchial complaints.  Simply put a handful of fresh eucalyptus leaves into a bowl, pour hot water over, and your steam inhalation is ready.  I have used this steam inhalation many times to relieve conditions such as croup and other bronchial ailments, in combination with homeopathic remedies.  For young children, it is often a help just make the eucalyptus steam inhalation up, and to leave it in the child’s room at night.  Make sure that your children cannot reach the inhalation, and make sure that it is not too hot, just in case of spillage.

It is a while since I used eucalyptus gum leaves to make an inhalation, or to leave in a bowl in a room to treat an illness.  I often used a branch of leaves and simmered these in a pot of water for about ten minutes.  The pot can be left on the stove with the lid off, and the heat turned off.  The eucalyptus vapours will travel through the house.   This is a lovely technique for cleansing the house of anything negative.

Personally, I find herbs infused in oil to be very potent:  The active ingredients in the herbs are made more potent by soaking them in oils or water.  They will work homeopathically – the more these oils are diluted, the stronger the effect of the active ingredients will become.  So use just a little of your home-made eucalyptus oil at first, to try out its effect.  There is no danger of toxicity, used externally,  if the directions above are followed. If you find you cannot tolerate diluted eucalyptus oil,  made in this way from fresh leaves,  simply wash it off the skin.

Natural Remedies To Help Pre Menstrual Tension

Herbs, Homeopathy and Vitamins  For PMT

Pre-Menstrual Tension: Many women suffer from pre-menstrual tension.  According to Russell Setright, who wrote the “Get Well” book in 1990, 70% of women experience the symptoms which are related to pre-menstrual tension.

What Are The Symptoms of Pre Menstrual Tension? The typical symptoms are headache or migraine, mood swings,  anxiety, depression and fatigue.  Other  symptoms which you might experience before the period are: painful and swollen breasts, pain in the stomach, water retention, and cystitis.

Rule Number One: To prevent PMT, or pre-menstrual tension,  make your diet more alkaline.  This means eating more fresh vegetables and fruit, brown rice instead of bread, and eating less of wheat products, sugar and dairy foods.  Celery and alalfa and mung bean sprouts should form part of your daily diet, as these things are very alkaline.   Often, a gluten-free diet helps people with PMT.  Many people are sensitive to gluten in wheat flour and other products, and they do not realize it.  So experiment – do without bread, cake and pastries for a week, and avoid all products which may contain gluten and preservatives or chemicals of any kind.  This just could do the trick.

Supplements To Help Pre Menstrual Tension: For the emotional and mental symptoms, Vitamin B is helpful, especially B6 and B12. Another very helpful supplement is Evening Primrose Oil, which is  useful in calming the nerves, giving a good night’s sleep,  and in counteracting depression.  Evening Primrose Oil has been scientifically proven to alleviate the symptoms of Pre-Menstrual Tension.

Dandelion:  Blood Purifier and  Diuretic Herb: Most herbs  which encourage urine flow are useful in counteracting pre menstrual tension.  This is because toxins are expelled from the body through the urine.  Dandelion helps to remove  toxins, as well as excess water from your system:  If you get swollen legs, or swollen fingers, or a distended stomach before your period, then dandelion can help to reduce this fluid.  Dandelion is a great blood-purifier, which also has a beneficial effect on the liver:  It helps the liver to de-toxify, and  can help prevent gall-stones.  It is rich in many vitamins and minerals.   Dandelion is the herb which is most used in PMT.  Drink dandelion root coffee instead of that real coffee to help PMT.

Alfalfa Tea:  Alfalfa is a great detoxifier of the blood.  It is also highly alkaline which is healthful for the body.  A body which is too acidic can result in pre-menstrual tension.  You can drink up to five or six cups per day.  To make alfalfa tea, simply put a teaspoon of alfalfa seeds into a large cup, and pour on boiling water.  Let cool, to warm, then drink.  You can use the ‘grounds’ for a top-up before taking fresh seeds for another cup.  Again – drink less coffee, and more of the herbal teas such  alfalfa and dandelion root coffee to help pre menstrual tension.

Liquorice, or Licorice, is recommended by Russell Setright:  His dosage is 500mg per day, taken 5 days before the period. Liquorice can help soothe the nerves and detoxify the liver and intestines. However, in my experience,, while I just love liquorice, it has a tendency to lower the blood pressure.  If you are like me, and you have LOW blood pressure anyway, then too much liquorice will further lower your blood pressure, and this can make you feel terrible, and your depression worse.  So go easy on the Liquorice.

It is best to begin taking your supplements seven days prior to the period:  These will help stabilize your system, and aid it in its  natural production of  hormones.  Aldosterone is a hormone which is is linked to the menstrual cycle, and this is secreted seven days prior to the period.

It is best to avoid drinking coffee for AT LEAST  three days prior to the period.  Coffee depletes Vitamin B and other nutrients from the body, so it is good to limit your coffee drinking while you are suffering PMT.

Toxins in the body and the blood are usually the reasons that people get PMT.  Some chemicals which are used as preservatives, and herbicides and pesticides – even plastics – get into our blood-streams and cause havoc with our hormones. It is helpful to many sufferers  of PMT to fast on just fruit and vegetables for three days prior to the period.  This helps to reduce toxins in the body:  Being free of these toxins can have a remarkable effect in the curing of  pre menstrual tension.

Homeopathic Remedies which might be useful for pre-mensrual tension are:  Aconite, Bryonia, Chamomilla, Coffea, Nat. mur, Pulsatilla,  Sepia.  Of course, unless you know your remedies well, you should seek some advice from a health professional who understands Homeopathy.

I would recommend Homeopathic Remedy Coffea if you are especially irritable and cannot sleep, or if  you drink too much coffee.  In Homeopathy, the remedy Coffea comes from Coffee, but it actually has the opposite effect to coffee, in that it is a mild sedative.  Homeopathic Coffea can be helpful in reducing the desire to drink coffee.

One Homeopathic remedy which I have found to be useful in helping to dry up excess fluid in the body is Homeopathic Bryonia.  This can help depression and morbid thoughts too.  It is a useful remedy to have in the house for chest infections and phlegmatic illnesses, as it dries up fluid.   Worth a try if you think this might be suitable for you:  I would take the Bryonia a week before the period is due, and take it for only three days, three doses per day of just a few drops.  If you should feel worse, then stop taking the Bryonia.

Pulsatilla is a good one for PMT if you are excessively weepy and sad.  Again, I would take this about a week before the period, but you could try taking it as soon as you have the pre-menstrual symptoms.

Different remedies work for different people:  The professional Homeopath will take all your symptoms, and consider all sorts of things about you, your day, and your life before deciding on a remedy.  But there are some fairly standard remedies for some conditions which will generally work for most people.

Linden Tree Tea To Soothe Nerves

Linden Tree

The Botanical Name of the Linden Tree is  Tilia cordata. The Linden Tree is also known as Tiglio.

The flowers of the Linden Tree  are beautiful – lemon-cream in colour, and highly fragrant.  Many poems and songs have been written about the lovely Linden tree with its alluring fragrance and welcome shade.

Linden Tree flowers contain a valuable  essential oil.  Linden Tree flowers have been used for centuries to make a soothing herbal tea to calm frayed nerves. Linden Tea, and the essential oil,  have a mild sedative effect, and calm the emotions.

The main active ingredient in Linden Tree flower oil is farnesol.  This substance, as well as the flavanoids, gallic and catechnic tannins present in Linden Tree flowers, make the essential oil also very useful in the making of cosmetics.

Aubrey Hampton discusses the use of Linden Flower essential oil in his book called “What’s in Your Cosmetics?” In this book, he discusses both natural and synethetic ingredients, and of course, Linden Flowers are one of the healthful,  non-toxic, natural ingredients which are used in the making of some cosmetics.

Birch Tree Leaves for Kidney Stones

Herbal Remedies For Kidney Stones

The common Birch Tree is a very versatile and useful herb.  It has many medicinal uses, as well as being a common additive in various parts of Europe to certain types of beers, wines and ciders and vinegars.  (see ‘Herbal Remedies and Homeopathy’, published by Geddes and Grosset.)

The Birch Family are native to Europe and Canada, but now are common in New Zealand and parts of Australia.

The much renowned herbalist John Lust gives several medicinal uses of various types of birch tree in his little herbal entitled ”The Herb Book’.

There are many different species of birch tree, and they  all possess medicinal and healing properties. The White Birch is the one most used for kidney ailments.  It is an old and well-tried  folk medicine which was formerly much used to dissolve kidney stones.

Of course, you must see your physician or your health professional if you suspect you might have kidney stones. This post is for information only.

The freshly picked, young leaves are commonly used in herbal medicines, but the bark of the paper birch can also be peeled off in strips and used to make an herbal tea or infusion.

Note:  You do not use dried birch leaves in herbal medicine.  The leaves must always be fresh, according to John Lust.

The White Birch, Betula alba:  This is also known as canoe birch, and paper birch.

The White Birch Tree leaves are astringent, diuretic and diaphoretic in their action.

White Birch Leaf Tea: An infusion of white birch leaves is said to eliminate gravel and dissolve kidney stones when it is made into an infusion and taken daily over a period of time.  The dose is 1 to 1 1/2 cups a day, sipped at intervals through the day.

White Birch Leaf Wash For External Use: A strong infusion of birch tree leaves can be used as a skin wash for skin problems such as acne, and eczema. If the skin problem is severe, the outer bark is recommended to make a decoction or ointment to be used on the skin.

For Baldness: A decoction of the leaves is recommended for baldness.  Leaves can be pounded to extract the juice, and this juice can be massaged into the scalp to help hair growth. Birch leaf tea is also good for the hair.

Hair Tonic:  Alternatively, to help hair growth, you could pound up some leaves and add them to apple cider vinegar.  I would infuse them in the vinegar for two weeks, and then strain off the vinegar and bottle it.

Apple cider vinegar is very good for hair growth, as it is rich in nutrients and helps to neutralize the scalp after using soap or shampoo.  Birch tree leaves added to the vinegar would make a very potent hair restorative.  Massage a little into the dried but damp hair after washing.

Insomnia:  Use Birch Tea For Restful Sleep: Birch Tree leaf tea is a mild sedative, which is partly why it is good for skin problems such as eczema, which are often stress related.  A cup of mild tea can be taken at bedtime to help you have a good night’s sleep.

Use as a Bath Additive: Put a handful of fresh leaves into your bath water.  This is good for the skin, and is conducive to a good night’s sleep.

The inner bark contains an oil which is sometimes substituted for wintergreen in liniment.

Standard Recipe for a Medicinal Tea: Infuse 1 tbsp leaves in ½ cup hot water

Decoction for Kidney Stones: This is John Lust’s recipe.   Use 1 tbsp leaves with ½ cup water. Boil briefly, let stand for 2 hours. Then add ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda. Take up to 1 cup a day.

Expressed juice from the leaves can be taken one teaspoon at a time, as required.

Sweet Birch Tree: The botanical name is betula lenta, also known as  black birch, cherry birch, mahogany birch, mountain mahogany, spice birch, and  sweet birch.

Sweet Birch is anthelmintic, astringent, and diuretic in its action.

As in Betula alba, the white birch, the leaves and bark can be used.

For Intestinal Worms and Urinary Problems . Like the White Birch, Sweet Birch has a therapeutic action on the kidneys.  However, sweet  birch  leaf tea is used more for urinary problems and to dispel intestinal worms.

Tea from inner bark makes a good mouthwash.  This tea can also be taken for diarrhea, rheumatism, and boils.

How To Make Birch Leaf Tea:  Use 1 teaspoon of inner bark or leaves.  Pour over a cup of boiling water and let stand for five minutes.  Strain.  Take 1 to 2 cups per day to soothe the nerves and for conditions such as gout, rheumatism and dropsy, or to help prevent kidney stones.

The inner bark of Betula lenta, like betula alba, produces an oil similar to oil of  wintergreen:  This can be distilled from the inner bark and twigs. The oil of the Birch Tree Bark is used externally for treating eczema and other skin diseases.