I am so thankful for Naturally Yours Grocery,
Alvita Tea Company, and
Back To Eden book by Jethro Kloss.
I recently had severe lung problems, possibly caused by toxic black mold in an office building. I had shortness of breath, where I had to force my lungs to pump. It was extremely frightening. So I did what I always do, I reached for my worn and yellowed copy of Back To Eden, looked up "lung problems" and found many different herbs that are good for this ailment.
God has provided all the medicine we'll ever need in nature. I firmly believe this, from practical experience. Only a few times in my life did I require a pharmaceutical product, and even then, there was probably a better cure in the herb kingdom.
So I discovered that the following herbs are useful for breathing problems, asthma, and lung congestion:
mullein, red clover, holy thistle, hyssop, cayenne, lungwort, golden seal, skunk cabbage. There are more, but I can't remember them right now.
Anyway, I went to Naturally Yours and bought hyssop herb and cayenne powder from the bulk container (loose herb), and some Alvita mullein and red clover teas.
Brothers and sisters, I drank a lot of these herbal teas, with honey. My lungs were much better in just one day. Talk about "miracle drugs"! I am continuing to drink these teas. I will put a tablespoon of cayenne powder in some orange juice and slam it down (it's HOT!). I used to use cayenne orange juice as a coffee substitute when I was in college, for late night studying stimulant.
I have been using mullein tea mostly, and I think I can attribute my miraculous cure to this one herb. What's weird is when I found some photos of mullein plant, as shown here, I immediately recognized it. We had a huge mullein plant in our backyard, down by Dry Run Creek, and it was a tough, hardy vegetation.
It was growing all by itself, and I nurtured and protected it, not knowing it was about to become my "doctor" soon.
That weird looking, sturdy, alien-looking plant is what healed my lungs.
Get yourself a good reference book on herbs and natural cures. Naturally Yours has several different books. Then, the next time you have a health problem, please try the natural remedies first. They tend to be far safer, and time-tested by many generations of users.
Golden seal is a bitter, dirt-tasting herbal tea, but it is one of the most powerful germ killers and healing agents in nature.
Each person has to decide: am I going to eat only what pleases my tastebuds and advertising-driven cravings...or am I going to sometimes consume things that are good for my body and mind, even if they may taste icky?
I combine golden seal tea with blueberry tea and orange blossom honey, to try to make it more palatable.
But the main thing is to solve the health problem...naturally, whenever possible.
:^)
Mullein is not native to this country, though it grows wild all over, it was brought here from Eurasia, and the native Americans adapted it.
Quote from
Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants by "Wild Man" Steve Brill.
Mullein grows in old fields, roadsides, and disturbed habitats throughout the United States It does well in dry, sandy conditions, especially in alkaline soil, so it’s especially common near the seashore. Archeologists sometimes look for Indian sites where there’s lots of mullein, because the lime from the Indian shell piles increases soil alkalinity, encouraging this plant to proliferate.
Mullein tea provides vitamins B-2, B-5, B-12, and D, choline, hesperidin, PABA, sulfur, magnesium, mucilage, saponins, and other active substances.
People use the tea as a beverage, but it’s best known as one of the safest, most effective herbal cough remedies.
Mullein is an expectorant, and a tonic for the lungs, mucus membranes, and glands. An infusion is good for colds, emphysema, asthma, hay fever, and whooping cough. Strain the infusion through a cloth, or the hairs may get stuck in your throat and make you cough even more.
Laboratory tests have shown that it’s anti-inflammatory, with antibiotic activity, and that it inhibits the tuberculosis bacillus. The Indians smoked dried mullein and coltsfoot cigarettes for asthma and bronchitis, and indications are that it’s effective: I’ve observed it working for bronchitis.
The tea is also an astringent and demulcent. It’s good for diarrhea, and it’s been used in compresses for hemorrhoids since it was recommended by Dioscorides centuries ago. It’s also supposed to help other herbs get absorbed through the skin. Pliny of ancient Rome, Gerard in sixteenth century England, the Delaware Indians, and country folk in the South used the heated leaves in poultices for arthritis.
A tincture of the flowers is used for migraine headaches. An oil extract of the flowers, which contains a bactericide, is used for ear infections, although you should consult with a competent practitioner first, to avoid the possibility of permanent hearing loss if the herb doesn’t work.
Roman ladies used them to dye their hair blonde. Roman soldiers dipped the flowerstalks in tallow to make torches.
Women who were forbidden to use make-up for religious reasons rubbed the rough leaves of this rubrifacient on their cheeks, to create a beautiful red flush. People who spend time in the woods are attracted to mullein’s large, velvety leaves when they run out of toilet paper, again creating a beautiful red flush on their cheeks.
