| "There cannot be two kinds of medicine - conventional and alternative. There is only medicine that has been adequately tested and medicine that has not, medicine that works and medicine that may or may not work. Once a treatment has been tested rigorously, it no longer matters whether it was considered alternative at the outset. If it is found to be reasonably safe and effective, it will be accepted." - Angell M, Kassirer JP, "Alternative medicine--the risks of untested and unregulated remedies." N Engl J Med 1998;339:839. | |
Lemon Verbena Tea Fresh is best, use about ten leaves to make the tea. Place them in a cup and pour boiling water on 'em 'til the cup's full. I usually insist on honey instead of sugar because it is antibacterial as well as sweet and lovely, and naturally available. Leave it to stand,! It'll be too hot to drink for a while. Put a record on or get ready to get your comfort on. I usually have lemon Verbena with Rose Geranium. It's ...there are no words!! Quite Delicious should point you in the right direction. Remedies: It has a tonic effect on the nerves which implies it should relieve nervous yension, stress, depression, equally lighten overwhelming joy and bliss. My experience: I have frequenlty made Lemon Verbena and Rose geranium tea and provided it cold to my children and their friends who gulped it down and returned to play without gratitude or complaint (a good sign with kids I suppose). Recently, I have tried it again, but on its on both on my myself and my all too willing 12 year old, who said it really made her feel good and made it her drink of choice for about a week. I give it a super high rating, especially for people who are not fans of herbal teas usually |
|
I'm going 'poo free!!! Join me - I dare you!!!!Are you dependant... addicted...to hair shampoo and conditioner?? Despite your knowing their irreplacable value in provinding for 'good hair days' costs our oceans and water sourses miserabley?? And if you didn't know but now do - do you close your eyes and turn away from the idea of giving it up as rediculous, unnecassary - frankly absurd....not do-able?? YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!! I am Vivienne Brown and I am a shampoo and conditioner addict!!! I dare you to come with me - give it up...if not in deed, follow my progress here and let me find out if it's possible!! I've read about it before on the internet - and think about it every time I wash my hair. I have long curly and easily unmanageable hair -so the ritual of combing my hair out with conditioner in it, and 'jones-ing' for that clean hair bounce is one that - just doesn't bring the satifaction I'm used to - my hair is dying and no amount of extra washing is helping. It's time to stop. |
|
Bicard of Soda and Apple Cider Vinegar |
The most recent post I read on going cold turkey sold me on the idea with a really simple approach, have a look for yourself http://simplemom.net/how-to-clean-your-hair-without-shampoo Tsh recommends baking soda and water for shampoo and apple cider vinegar instead of conditioner. There were photo's of her hair 3 months in and it looked great!! I'm in my first week...3 washes down and my hair feels...well, not as good as with my shampoo fix, but I was expecting a period of adjustment. Mainly my end lack the moisture the conditioner pretends to give. I am contemplating the old mayonaise remedy for it until my scalp remembers to produce enough of my own natural oils again. |
On the lighter side, I have to say I feel liberated by the washing my hair routine not ruling my life. My hair doesn't look or feel bad, so I'm not bearing the 'shame' (LOL) of wild and uncontrollable thatch as I had expected (a little), and my hair feels great when it has these magic potions in it - soft and smooth. So I'm amped to carry on - but I'll keep you posted. Mail me if you have any opinion on this or some rehabilitation suggestions - I'll post your comments if you like.
|
Home brewed medicine! Weighing up the risks vs benefitsI find myself stuck sometimes between two trains of thought, heading in different directions. Being a mother of two children, medicine is a highly regarded topic. On the one hand, the idea of feeding the pharmacuetical industry money to use medicines that are made from ingredients I may only find and try to understand by googling them, versus hearing from my grandmother or people from a generation that lived in a time before local pharmacies only a block away or massive 'Dischem's, on how to remedy an ailment, it seems the reliability of the sourse is debatable. I have to say that a big part of me cannot fault nature in it's ample supply of plants in my direct sphere of influence, that must surely have more use than looking pretty while I feed it water and compost and attention. So taking the leap and trying remedies told to me by someone my intuition feels is credible, is an 'on-the-side' effort to qualify them, one way or the the other. Let me say of course that this does not mean I recommend you try it too, but if our grand parents, or great grandparents had cameras, maybe more information would be available to us to guide our decisions. Don't take my experience as anything to go on, suppliment all you read with your own research and gauge your own intuition thoughrally. BPM.co.za or it's people, take no responsability for reactions, results or any thing that may come from what you do after reading this information.
|
|
Cough syrup from the Prickly Pear Cactus.Over the weekend past, my partner's dad came to visit us from the Free State. Jonnie is Portuguese and a butcher by trade. In a discussion about cough syrups, he reminded Tony about the cactus cough syrup that he claims cured a cough his mother could not get rid of as a child. He went so far as to say that he has never since coughed again, as bad, ever since. Of course I take that to mean he believes in it completely, more than taking it as pure fact. Tony remembered having this as a child, so I felt that it was worth a try. Here is our documented account of the process. Which will be followed through with a tested result as soon as one of has a cough to remedy. |
|
This our step by step process: |
|
 |
1: Scrape the surface of the leaf to get rid of the spines - they hurt when they get stuck in your skin and they are so fine and difficult to remove. We actually agree that gloves would be more practical. 2: Slice your leaf down the narrow spine and lay the piecs flat with the wet side up.
|
3: Pour a layer of sugar over the wet surface of the sliced leaf. We were told to really pile it one, but perhaps that part of old school method can be re-evaluated. I will revise this article as I learn more from experience or otherwise. 4:Close the two slices of the cactus and poke toothpicks through the two sides. My understanding of this is that it creates little taps for the liquid to drain from. We used quite a few toothpicks and then tied the leaves closed using some rafia - red! Lol! It was all we had handy, I'll be better prepared for next time. 5: Then hang the cactus from a cup hook or nail in a position that will allow it to drain into a glass jar. The thick syrup will be the cough syrup. This time around I over estimated the amount that would run out, but was amazed at how long it had a continuous stream for.
|
 |
 |
 |
  |
Tony and Elvis tried their cough syrup today. Elvis with a 3 day old cough and Tony with one only developping. They reported that with taking 1 desert spoon each, the slime was much like egg white in texture and was the harder feature to deal with than the taste - which was not bad. I will report on any thing worth mentioning as a result or if anyone had any side effects. I will definately report here if there was any bad result or cautionary warning. I am keeping the syrup in the fridge. Author: Vivienne Brown 3 June 2010
|
