Most of the herbs used by a herbalist are not household herbs. In fact, ’spices’ are herbs that are of quite different quality than the others herbs used to treat illnesses most of the time. So, I know that I talk about herbs that many people don’t have around the house. Of course I always recommend the right herbs for the job and I am not here to give you ‘home remedies’ and tell you to take ginger for a huge list of conditions.

Today, I ran across a recipe that I have for food seasoning. This is no normal herbal seasoning. It is a special blend that contains a great deal of vitamins and minerals that can be used to season food. Since most of the ingredients are found in most households, I thought you guys would love a little change :)!

Here is the recipe:
1part each of
Garlic
Parsley
Watercress
Sweet Basil
Oregano
Marjoram
Thyme
Kelp Powder
Dulse Powder
Nettles
Comfrey
Rose Hips
Capsicum
1/4 Part each of
Dandelion
Burdock

It is best to make a small amount of this concoction and check your taste. Adjust as necessary. You can grind in some Sea Salt and Pepper if you really wanna make an all around seasoning, but those can be added separately anyway.
When you get it down the way you want, make a large powder of the seasoning. Large amounts can be used in making stocks or soups. I use this in kicharee and congee recipes for the vitamin and mineral benefits.
Guess how much I save over those who buy multivitamins? The best part is these are being taken as food, so they are assimilated by the body in a natural way!

Share This

A first degree burn is basically a sun burn or any other irritation of the skin. Skin will appear red and will be sensitive to heat. A second degree burn is more severe and deals with blistering and puss in the area. The body at this point is trying to cool itself by sending liquid to the area (pus) to cool and protect the area. Third degree burns are even more sever and relate to a loss of skin at the area. I would like to touch only briefly on the first two and talk about using herbs and household goods to heal 3rd degree burns.

First degree burns are most commonly had from sunburns or from some hot water. The skin gets red and is very sensitive to heat. At this point the skin is very irritated and either gonna die and peel or make it through. Honestly the best remedy here is Aloe Vera Gel. Nothing magic here that you may not have already known. Aloe is a very soothing and since its a gel you are able to run it over the area and instantly feel a nice cool feeling on the area. Keep the area from heat and exposure and you’ll be fine in no time.

Second degree burns are a furthering of a first degree where the body is trying to cool and pad the area. This leads to blistering and a whitening of the area. Second degree burns are common in fair skinned people and for those of you who are not may never see this type of burn. This can be a much more painful experience and its a little trickier because you have open wounds basically. Our main herb here is going to be calendula. For the absolute quickest and most effective use of calendula simply saute it on low heat with Olive Oil in a 1 part calendula to 4 part Olive Oil. After about an hour just strain out the herb and use the oil. If you have access or want to make a better oil take 2 parts calendula, 2 parts comfrey leaves, 1 part lobelia. If there is pain the area add 1 part Kava Kava. Kava acts as a local anesthetic and will help a great deal. You will want to powder these down and combine with olive oil to make a thick paste. You could also add all of these in 1 part to 4 parts water with a little slippery elm and cook down to a really thick paste. You will want to apply this and cover with gauze very lightly and wash often to avoid infection. These formulas should provide a good deal of relief and quick healing!

Third degree burns are the most serious burns although you don’t have to be a in a ‘burn victim ward’ to have them. You can burn smaller areas or limbs of your body quite easily. Fire is the most direct cause of third degree burns and they are not fun. In reality the worst part of the burn is that it is an open wound with complete burn off of skin. So you have infection to worry about and the scar that will be left there as you body tries to heal this area. If you have a serious burn, I recommend a hospital trip. If you choose not to or whatever, I am not responsible :). What we want to do here is apply a soothing paste to the area that will also help our bodies regenerate skin in the area! Well, there happens to be such an herb and its called comfrey. Here is the recipe you need. 3 parts comfrey root, 1 part lobelia, 1 part calendula, 1/2 part honey, some garlic juice, 1/2 part wheat germ oil, and some olive oil. Notice the similarities to the second degree burn formula, although there are some differences. We are using comfrey root instead of leaves, we are using honey, we aren’t using anything additional for pain, the ratios are a bit different, and you need to make this a certain way.
You need to fine powder the herbs and throw the honey in a stainless steel pot. Heat the honey to where it is liquified. At this point put your wheat germ oil in there and then turn off the heat. Now put all of your herb into the pot and mix up while adding olive oil to get a very thick paste. You can throw your garlic juice in there now and make sure your paste is thick like cake frosting. At this point you will know if you over did the honey cause the paste will harden. If you did this right you are ready to apply. Apply directly and thickly over the wound and bandage over. You will leave this on for 3-4 days and then remove without disturbing anything. Make sure you THUROUGHLY CLEAN THE WOUND prior to applying this!
Now let me explain what we have here. You washed the wound and now you have a clean third degree burn. Calendula is a very soothing herb and treats burn very well. Lobelia helps other work by relaxing the area and helping with pain. Garlic is one of the best disinfectants on the planet and will help with a clean healing process. Comfrey root is a very strong flesh regeneration herb. It also has drawing power and is soothing and anti-inflammatory. Wheat germ is protecting the area and soothing, a very important part of this formula and should not be left out. The olive oil helps with the binder and is much less expensive than wheat germ oil although you can use only wheat germ oil if you want. Finally the honey will act as a barrier on the wound and keep infection out for the 3-4 day period you will have this on.

A few things I would like to point out. You can buy a formula ready to go for burns called Burn Paste from www.dimmakherbs.com. Calendula is a weed and grows abundantly. You should learn to recognize the herb as it could help you tremendously if you were out in the wild. Fresh calendula works the same as dried.

Share This

So I surely don’t condone one not going to the emergency room when needed! I have experience, but you can really see here that some herbs and an egg can go along way. This is intended for informational purposes, but realistically if you were cut badly on a camping trip or elsewhere, this could be quite helpful to you.

I received a very nasty laceration to my pinkie finger when i was handling a glass and it broke in my hand slicing down my pinkie.  First thing is first- always apply immediate pressure and let your body start coagulating the wound. In my case I’m going to take some DIMMAK CLOT by Dimmak Herbs and put some in my free hand and apply it directly to the wound to help it stop bleeding. I will also take 2 CLOT pills to help stop the bleeding and get adequate circulation from the inside. If you don’t buy some of this you can have San Qi also called Tien Qi handy (pretty easy herb to get also called Panax Notoginseng). It is the main herb in the formula. Now you want to wash the area to get it clean. This is the first picture I have because as you can see the CLOT stopped the bleeding so I could wash it and take some pictures now.

Now what you want to do is take more CLOT or San Qi and add a little water to it to make a really thick paste

Now for the ’stitches’. Take an egg, yes egg any egg this is a Grade AA Large :) of any sort and hit the side to just crack it

Bring the shell back and remove the membrane that is inside of it

apply that to the are and in my case around the finger. When it dries it will start to shrink and pull. So in my case it will pull the skin back to the finger to mend. If say the wound was on your stomach you would put it flat and it would bind to your skin and push the wound back with it. Its really quite impressive.

You can blow on it to get it to dry faster and make sure it sits right. The first time i had it too tight and it dried and cut off circulation to the end of my finger. Simply add a little more water to it to loosen it and I readjusted.

You then cover this with some gauze, so its breathable. Believe it or not that membrane is also breathable. Traditionally you leave this on until it falls off or breaks apart. However, It can be washed off when you wish to re-clean and reapply, get to a hospital, or whatever… I chose the traditional route and waited.

The wound will not be 100% at this time and you really don’t want it to be. You now want to take the opportunity and regularly apply something to the wound. I chose Pearl Powder. It is notorious for  helping skin heal scarless. Alternatively be my guest to get some Neosporine or something too.

All better

Did I mention that First-Aid is my forte?

I noticed looking at these photos that they aren’t aren’t letting you see larger photos. Here are links to larger photos:

www.dimmakherbs.com/wounddemo.html

Image1
Image2
Image3
Image4
Image5
Image6
Image7
Image8
Image9
Image10
Image11
Image12

Share This

For those of you that happen to watch TV on Monday nights, there is a show on CBS called ‘The Big Bang Theory’. Basically a couple ‘geeks’ live next door to a ‘hot girl’ and they hang out showing us the differences they two have.

In yesterdays episode Sheldon, the double doctorate and masters degree holder having a job in theoretical physics, goes shopping with the girl next door. At the market Sheldon interrupts her buying a multi-vitamin. He tells her that a multi-vitamin does have some benefits but your body  can only take in so much. Sheldon says ‘usually all you end up with is some really expensive urine.’

What a laugh. I have discussed this before in a previous post. Your body simply only takes what it needs. Many energy drinks on the market are full of Vitamin Bs and of course caffeine. since Caffeine makes you urinate, you go to the bathroom quickly after drinking an energy drink. You now see that your pee is an ultraviolet yellow. This is how quickly your body has removed all these excess vitamins from your body.

Vitamins need only be supplemented when you are deficient in them! There has NEVER been a gain documented (that i have read) that has come from someone taking more vitamins than needed. Well, this also goes for proteins and many other things, but people still feel the need to supplement there too. Most vitamins are made by our bodies already. Guess what we need in order to make these vitamins? In most cases MINERALS! Basically eating the right food will get you all the vitamins your need which your body doesn’t make and everything you need to make these vitamins. Now, make sure you do a little research here because you need Sunlight on your skin to make Vitamin D.

So lets talk about a popular Vitamin that your body can’t make, Vitamin C. Now lets look at a small problem we may have if we are taking a supplement or multi-vitamin. People seem to think that Vitamin C prevents and cures colds and they love to take when they are sick. I will add here that there is no real proof here that Vitamin C can be used for preventative maintenance and that Vitamin C has never shortened the duration of a cold. It has only ever reduced cold occurrences in really active people in cold climates. Now, the daily recommended dosage of Vitamin C is about 100mg, which is very easy to get. Having some type of fruit and/or vegetable for lunch and dinner will almost always satisfy this. I have seen tests that show that about 300mg a day is an optimal dosage and shows gains in the human body. Again, this is not a difficult feat to obtain. Just look up what you ate yesterday and look up all the Vitamin C content.

Now, I know that Vitamin C has a history of debate over dosage, but this may be the first time you have read such information.

Lets look up a couple popular products with Vitamin C to look at this. First is Airborne a dissolvable tablet that is supposed be taken at first symptoms of a cold and taken to really knock down the length of a cold. Airborne has 1,000mg of vitamin C per tablet. Next I chose the ONE A DAY ‘ACTIVE’ multi-vitamin which has 120mg of Vitamin C. Emergen-C which also has 1,000mg of Vitamin C (I’ve seen numerous commercials on this lately so i wanted to include it). And lastly I am going to use a generic name vitamin C supplement by itself. These range from 350-1000mg, so I will pick the popular 500mg one. Now the Tolerable Upper Intake of Vitamin C is 2,000mg which is set by the government based on testing. Now the generic vitamin and the ONE A DAY are both just single supplements. Since I picked the generic 500mg, you are probably in little harm here. So even with a normal day of meals and you end up taking in 100-300mg of Vitamin C on your own, you are in the safe zone here. However the 2 marketed at ‘colds’ and ‘energy’ not only give you a single dose of 1,000mg that combined with a healthy diet puts you border-lined to much, but they both recommend taking 2-4 of these daily or ‘as desired’. Are you kidding me? Vitamin C is TOXIC in large doses. just following the instructions on Airborne could lead you to taking in 4,000mg of Vitamin C, double the recommended max! Vitamin C is an antioxidant as it sits. However, in high levels it turns into possibly making free radicals in your system. It makes you over urinate which is not good, can lead to kidney stones, birth defects, and can stop the assimilation of B12. Well there goes your ‘energy’.

Supplements are exactly what they are called, supplements. They should be there to supplement your need for vitamins at certain times when you are not getting the vitamins you need. As discussed before, minerals would qualify as more important than vitamins anyway. Assess what you need and take those vitamins. If your body could actually assimilate synthetics as it could food, then there would be food replacement pills! But there isn’t, and there wont be any time soon! Buy supplements as needed and make sure you keep in the ranges you are supposed to get.

Share This