Got inflammation? Maybe you're angry ..

or frustrated, or suffering from a build-up of feelings you just can't face. So you hid that stuff in your belly, where it's gumming up the works. Or your joints. Or just under your skin.

In other words, it might not be your food choices or your gut bugs or your histamine levels being out of whack, or whatever the latest theory on health happens to be. It might be - and please note that I say might be - an emotional issue.

I'm not saying it's all in your head (no, it's not in my head it's in my knees!). I am saying that if you have tried "everything" and nothing works, or it works for a while and then it doesn't, you might want to look into your heart.

wildcucumber - a troll for Mother Nature

I troll in the comment sections of GreenMedInfo and Natural News - you should look for me there and join in sometime! - and today, in the comments below a post on (shocker!) the contamination of commercial supplements, I said this:

"This has been known for decades, yet people still buy supplements instead of eating real food or turning to growing their own, including herbal remedies.

And before you try to tell me that 'not everyone can' do these things, let me assure you that anyone can find sources of clean food, anyone can grow clean food IF and WHEN they wake up to the truth - that consumerism leads to chronic, learned helplessness.

Strike out on your own people, grow some 'nads and free yourself from Big Herb."

And do you know what the mods did? They removed my post, of course.

To read the rest of this post, click on over to my other blog. See you there!

Goldenseal - a misunderstood miracle worker

When I found tiny bags of goldenseal powder (Hydrastis canadensis) at the little health food store in the village of Killaloe, I was delighted.

You don't see goldenseal available that way very often anymore, it's all in capsule or tincture form, adulterated and/or mixed into inappropriate formulae. That's a shame. When I expressed my joy on finding the 'real deal' to the lady who runs the store, saying "I don't use goldenseal more than every few years, but when you need it, you need it!", she nodded deeply. There is nothing quite like it.

All our relations

I'm doing most of my writing over at my other blog these days. Here is the most recent.

Assessing our vulnerability

There's a post over at my other blog about our recent ice & snow storm.

The well rounded herbal practioner

Whether you're drawn to plant medicine for yourself or a desire to help others, there's far more to it than learning to match plant to the person's needs or identifying and preparing plants from the wild.

You have to be able to think.

It's not a matter of memorizing 'facts' and being able to recall them as needed - that's not thinking, it's what one of my teachers used to call mental regurgitation. What we need is the ability to recognize patterns. Sympathies and antipathies, as Culpeper would say.

We have to be able to visualise and imagine. To conjure up images in our minds, let them grow and explore them.

Plantain (the herb, not the banana)

Plantain (plantago spp.) is the one herb everyone needs to know about, especially kids or people who have them. It's one of the first aid plants that grow under right our noses (well, feet) where and when needed for bug bites & stings, splinters, or skinned knees; pretty much anything untoward that our outside surfaces can come up against, plantain can soothe and heal. Infected cut? Blister? Plantain.

It does the same for our insides, too. Abscess in your mouth? (ouch!) Plantain. Raw sore throat? Stomach ulcer? Plantain.

This ever so useful, ever so weedy herb grows no matter where you are in the world, in one form or another, tropical or arctic-al (is that a word? it is now). Don't try to tell me you don't have plantain, because you do.