Archive for category Natural Cures
EARTH-The biggest pharmacy of them all
Posted by davincicook in Natural Cures on June 23, 2009
earth
In the distant human past, all plants and animals were seen as repositories of secret power that could be used for good or ill. In a sense, the whole world was a pharmacopoeia. Our ancestors’ relationship to the food they ate was very different from ours. They understood nourishment in a different way than we do: food was sacred and our ancestors believed that the plants and animals they ate were gifts from the divine. Plants and animals had spirits, and when you ate a plant or animal, you partook of its spirit as well.
In our day, most people would have trouble explaining where their food was grown or how it came to the table at which they sit. Too few people appreciate the expertise and effort that goes into cultivating and growing food. We have lost the primal connection to the food we put in our bodies and with it, we have lost our connection to the earth. Most of us understand food in terms of flavor and texture, but we don’t understand that food is our connection to the earth and its vital energy.
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Posted by davincicook in Natural Cures on June 19, 2009
medicinal tea
Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM as it is known in the West, is a rising star in the realm of alternative and complementary health care in the West. In the United States, for instance, over half of all the states have legalized the professional practice of acupuncture and Chinese medicine and there are currently over 50 schools teaching acupuncture and Chinese medicine in the US. Likewise in Europe, Chinese medicine is increasingly being practiced by both non-m.d.’s and m.d.’s alike with schools of acupuncture and Chinese medicine springing up in every country in Western Europe.
chinese pharmacy
When most Westerners think of Chinese medicine, they typically think of acupuncture since it was the first modality of Chinese medicine to receive popular exposure in the media. However, in China, acupuncture is actually not the main modality of TCM. In China, Chinese medicine first and mostly means the prescription of Chinese “herbal” remedies. We say herbal in quotes because, in actuality, Chinese medicine makes use of ingredients from all three kingdoms animal, vegetable, and mineral. Thus Chinese herbal medicine is a bit of a misnomer since not all the ingredients a Chinese doctor prescribes are, in fact, herbs in the strict sense of this word.
Chinese Herbal Tea
In any case, when a Chinese doctor prescribes an “herbal” remedy, it is usually in the form of a polypharmacy formula administered as a decoction. Polypharmacy means administering multiple ingredients at the same time. In the overwhelming majority of cases, Chinese doctors administer formulas consisting of from six to 20 ingredients. Most of these ingredients are roots and rhizomes, root barks, and woody twigs, with a lesser number being leaves, flowers, seeds, fruits, and other ingredients. When such polypharmacy formulas are used, they are typically boiled in water for at least 30 minutes and often for more than an hour. The resulting medicinal liquid is then poured off and is called a tang or, literally, a soup. However, when referring to medicinal soups, we usually call these in English a decoction.
Such multiple ingredient soups or decoctions are very strong medicine, and Chinese doctors go to school for from four to six years to learn how to prescribe these without negative or side effects. After all, if something isstrong enough to cure disease in the right person, they must also be strong enough to make someone ill when
they are prescribed erroneously. There is no such thing as a universal panacea among medicinal substances. Thus the prescription of polypharmacy Chinese medicinal decoctions is a professional system of health care requiring lengthy professional training and clinical experience.
SOURCE: Chinese Medicinal Teas : Simple, Proven, Folk Formulas for Common Diseases & Promoting Health author: Zong, Xiao-fan.; Liscum, Gary.
Healing Power of Colours
Posted by davincicook in Natural Cures on June 16, 2009
Color prism
Chromotherapy is a method of treatment of diseases by colour. It is best used as a supportive therapy along with other natural methods of preserving health such as correct diet, adequate rest and relaxation, exercise, yogic asanas and so on.According to practitioners of chromotherapy, the cause of any disease can be traced to the lack of a particular colour in the human system. Colour therapy is a technique of restoring imbalance by means of applying coloured light to the body. It was a popular method of cure even in ancient times. Some 2,500 years ago, Pythagoras applied colour light therapeutically and ‘colour halls’ were used for healing in ancient Egypt, China and India.
The pioneer of modern colour therapy was Niels Finsen of Denmark. Following the discovery, in 1877, of the bactericidal action of solar ultra-violet energy,Finsen studied the possibility of assisting the healing of wounds with visible light. He subse- quently used red light to inhibit the formation of smallpox scars and, in 1896, founded a Light Institute ( now the Finsen Institute of Copenhagen) for the phototreatment of tuberculosis. In 1932, Gerrard and Hessay, two Californian psychologists, scientifically established that blue light had a calming effect and red a stimulating power on human beings. Blue and red colours are considered at the two extremes with yellow representing the midpoint. These are also the three principal colours in a rainbow. A patient is first subjected to an examination to ascertain which colour he lacks. The deficiency is determined by observing the colour of the eyeballs, nails, urine and excrement. In cases of the lack of red the eyes and nails will be bluish, and the urine and excrement white or bluish. If there is a deficiency of the blue colour, the eyes and nails will be reddish and urine and excrement yellowish or red.
Every substance on earth contains colour. Even the rays cast on earth by celestial bodies contain colour in the form of white light. The rays of the sun contain seven different colours -violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. These are natural colours which are highly beneficial to the maintenance of health and for healing diseases.
According to Dr. Babbit, a well-known authority on chromotherapy, “sunlight is the principaln curative agent in nature’s laboratory and where light cannot enter, disease does. Chlorosis, anaemia, leukaemia, emaciation, muscular debility, degeneration of heart and liver, dropsical effusion, softening of bones,nervous excitability, physical deformity, stunted growth and consumption are the result of excluding oneself from the beneficial effects of sunlight. ” Sunlight plays an important role in the recovery from chronic diseases. Judicious use of sunlight can be part of the curing process in almost every affliction. The rays of the sun improve digestion and nutrition, quicken blood and lymph circulation and increase the elimination of impurities through the skin.