Natural healing

Natural healing

I'd like to know -in case the pharmacy shops are unable to supply the regular medicines, for exemple aspirine for flu, antibiotics (peniciline or others) for angina or similar diseases, which herbs or other natural resources can be used instead. And what can serve as a natural painkiller? It should be emphasized that these products have to be easy to obtain in Europe or America, and they should work efficiently and be very practical. If anybody could give me titles of books or any other information I would be very grateful. I read aspirine is made from bark of birch tree, but I`m not sure.

Your servant

Radha Raman Das

[1] The Yoga of Herbs by David Frawley & Vasant Lad, published in India by Motilal, first published in the US (1986, several reprints) by Lotus Press, ISBN (of the Indian edition) 81-208-1172-0

It has a section on herbs known in the West, a section on special Indian and Chinese herbs, and then an appendix that also includes many more herbs with some basic info on each one. All this is preceded by an introduction to the ayurvedic health approach, diagnosis, and treatment. Every herb entry has the following sections: all its names, parts used, energetics, tissues, systems, actions, indications, precautions, preparation, plus general comments in a couple of paragraphs.

[2] The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies by Vasant Lad, published in 1998 by Harmony Books, New York, ISBN 0-517-70405-6 The first part, "The science of life" contains and introduction to Ayurveda diagnosis and sources of illness; the second part, "Putting Ayurveda to work" contains guidelines for prevention and treatment, breathing techniques, dietary guidelines, etc.; the third part, "An encyclopedia of illnesses and remedies" contains and introduction and then an alphabetical list of health problems. The book has four appendixes, one of them (illustrated) devoted to the yoga asanas mentioned in part three. It also has a glossary, a list of resources (in the US, I'm afraid, but one place in England), a reading list, and an index.

Both books, highly recommended.

your servant, Kunti dd

Antibiotic - garlic

Dear Prabhus, PAMHO AGTSP Kaolic Garlic tablets are a very strong antibiotic. The fear of odour on the breath is a consideration but from memory I do not think these tablets emit any odour. They are very powerful. This variety of garlic can be bought in most health stores and the extra potency formula is excellent. I have used them many times with success. It is important to rest when taking tablets -tiredness is a side effect - due to the body eliminating toxins and thus removing the source of infection. Combined with Vitamin C -the estercee variety- this is an all round remedy for infections of many kinds.

your servant

Sri Sudevi

We are growing St John's Wort, which when tinctured can be used as an antiviral, echinacea which is an immune system enhancer (not exactly an antibiotic, but close), ashwaganda as a rejuvenator. Meadowsweet is on the want list.

An alternative to stockpiling antibiotics, consider silver water (not colloidial silver). It was replaced in allopathic medicine when antibiotics pushed it aside. It is available without prescription.

You should find "The Green Pharmacy" by James A. Duke pretty helpful as to which herbs do what. From there at least you'll know what to look for and make your research as to local availability. It's published by Rodale Press, and lists a number of alternative treatments by a variety of herbs, in most effective treatment order. It's well researched and seems quite practical, mostly giving dosage recommendations too.

your servant, Tribhangananda das (Text COM:2075428) -----------------------------------------

Good quality of Prasadam

Dear Prabhu: Pamho, agtSP your question is very nice,

I'm naturist and studied that is better to prevent than to cure.

The best way of prevent a disease is a good quality of Prasadam, as Srila Prabhupada said, Good taste, healthy and wise (I dont know if in english SP said exactly these words, my mother language is spanish). If you have a good quality of prasadam then your body will be strong enough to fight with any virus o bacteria that gets in. So hardly you will get ill, but in case you are ill, first you have to know wich is you disease, but ALOE is the best of the natural remedy. you can eat the inside gel of the leaf, this is good for everything, and also the most of the diseases start with some inflamation, so you can practice some plaster from clay, or some green vegetable leafs... Did you hear about UMEBOSHI? This is a special kind of chinese plum, is good to fight against infection, to make the defenses of the body stronger, you can ask to the chinese people if there are some near your home, this plum you can keep it just in a plastic tapper for years...

Hope this helps, any thing else you can make contact with me through my private e-mail.

ys Sridhari devi dasi

HARIBOL! \0/ /_\

Sridhari

lanet.com.ar Sridhari.jps

com.bbt.se phone: +54 - 261 - 4221806 Mendoza - Argentina

Yes, I have read in several sources that aspirin is modeled after a substance naturally occuring in the living (inner) layer of birch bark. I think the chemical in birch bark is salacilic acid (sp??).

Here is our source from the "Y2K self-sufficiency libary" posted a couple months back on the Y2K conference:

*The Green Pharmacy* by James A. Duke, Ph.D. St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1997. ISBN 0-312-96648-2. St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010. 617 pp. $6.99.

James Duke, Ph.D., the leading authority on healing herbs, has traveled the world - from the jungles of the Amazon rain forest to the research labs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he worked for thirty years - to amass his invaluable knowledge of herbs and their medicinal properties. Author of over a dozen scientific textbooks, and co-author of *The Peterson's Field guide to Medicinal Plants, Dr. Duke resides in Maryland.

also

.*Secrets of St. John's Wort* by Larry Katzenstein, ISBN 0-312-96574-5, $5.99 Publishers Book and Audio Mailing Service, PO Box 070059, Staten Island NY 10307.

also

*The Modern Herbal* by Mary Grieve, is a wonderful classic. Gives a chemical analysis of all the plants.

also

*The Barefoot Doctor* which I posted a couple days ago -- can't find the reference right now. Low-tech, cheap medical treatments and preventions. An excellent source.

Dear Radha Raman Prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

The bark of birch trees (Betula pendula/pubescens) is diuretic and laxative (it can also be ground into an edible flour in a famine situation). I’ve never heard of it containing salicylic acid. However, many trees contain useful compounds similar to salicylic acid. The bark from most of the willow family (Salix’s) and the leaf buds and bark of many Poplars (Populus) and some of the alders (Alnus rubra/rugosa/tenuifolia) contain salicin, a glycoside that probably decomposes into salicylic acid (aspirin) in the body. The plant Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) has a very long history of herbal use, it was one of the three most sacred herbs of the Druids. The flower head contains salicylic acid, from which the drug aspirin has been synthesized. The leaves of Jessamine (Jasminum officinale) also contains salicylic acid. However, the use of anti-pyretic drugs such as aspirin to reduce fever is not recommended in herbal medicine since a high body temperature is needed to fight off infections. It’s O.K. in small quantities to occasionally relieve pain. There are dozens of alternative trees and plants one can use to relieve pain.

I highly recommend a web site : PLANTS FOR A FUTURE http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/index.html A resource and information centre of over 7000 edible and other useful plants and trees.

We can only store so much bhoga. What happens when it runs out? If we really want to be independent from buying our food from supermarkets and our medicines from pharmacies then a basic knowledge of edible and medicinal plants is essential.

Your servant

Bh Steve (Soho St)

Database: Books In Print Sent from InfoTrac. Library: Bowdoin College Library ____________________________________________________________________________

Title: A Barefoot Doctor's Manual

Edition: Reprint

Publisher: Omnigraphics, Incorporated, Publ. Date: Aug. 1994

Contributor: O'Connor,

ISBN FIELDS- ISBN: 0780800095 Binding: Library Binding Language: English Status: Active Record

PRICE FIELDS- Currency: US Dollars Price: 45.00 Price Type: Retail Price Product Code: Medical Books in Print

Subject(s): MEDICINE - CHINA - 1949-

-- End -- (Text COM:2058690) -----------------------------------------

Hare Krsna dasi writes:

I was wrong about agreeing that aspirin is made from birch bark. My son told me that it comes from willow bark.

Interesting information about birch bark from Mary Grieve's *A Modern Herbal* (1931, 1982):

History: The name is a very ancient one, probably derived from the Sanskrit *bhurga* "a tree whose bark is used for writing upon." From its uses in boat-building and roofing it is also connected with Anglo Saxon *beorgan* "to protect or shelter"...

Constituents: Birch *bark* contains about 3% tannic acid, but is extensively used for tanning, wherever there are large birch forests, throughout Northern Europe. As it gives a pale colour to the skin, it is used for the preliminary and the final stages of tanning. It contains betulin and betuls camphor.

The leaves contain betulorentic acid.

By destructive distillation, the white epidermis of the bark yields an empyreumatic oil, known variously in commerce as oil of birch tar, oleum Rusci, Oleum b etulinum or dagget. This is a thick, bituminous brownish-black liquid, with a pungent, balsamic odour. It contains a high percentage of methylsalicylate, and also creosol and guaiacol. The Rectified Oil (Oleum Rusci Rectificatum) is sometimes substituted for oil of Cade.

Birch Tar oil is almost identical with Wingergreen oil. It is not completely soluble in 95% acetic acid, nor in aniline, but turpentine oil dissolves it completely.

*Medicinal Action and Uses. Various parts of the tree have been applied to medicinal uses. The young shoots and leaves secrete a resinous substance having acid properties, which, combined with alkalies, is said to be a tonic laxative. The leaves have e peculiar, aromatic, agreeable ordour and a bitter taste, and have been employed in the form of infusion (birch tee) in gout, rheumatism and dropsy, and recommended as a reliable solvent of stone in the kidneys. With the bark they resolve and resist putrefaction. A decoction of them is good for bathig skin eruptions, and is serviceable in dropsy.

The oil is astringent, and is mainly employed for its curative effects in skin affections, especially eczema, but is also used for some internal maladies.

The inner bark it bitter and astringent, and has been used in intermittent fevers. {{Prabhu, this must be how we got the idea of an aspirin substitute.}}

The vernal sap is a diuretic.

*******************************************************

WILLOW

This is from the World Book Encyclopedia article on "aspirin":

Aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid, is one of the most commonly used drugs in the world. It helps relieve pain from headaches and arthritis, and reduces fever from infections. It also reduces inflammation due to illness or injury. Aspirin interferes with blood clotting, and thus it is useful in preventing heart attacks, strokes, and other disorders that involve blood clots.

Aspirin is a white, odorless powder with a bitter taste. Its chemical formula is C9H8O4, and it belongs to the group of compounds called salicylates. Aspirin achieves at least some of its effects by blocking the formation of certain prostaglandins (hormonelike chemicals throughout the body...

For centuries, people throughout the world had used willow bark to relieve pain and fever. The bark contains a chemical that is converted by the body to salicylate. But it was not until the 1800's that aspirin was made in a laboratory. Charles Gerhardt, a French chemist, synthecized aspirin in 1853, Its medicinl vallue was not fully recognized until 1899, when Henrich Dreser, a German scientist, wrote about its effectiveness...

**********

Interestingly, Mary Grieve does not mention willow as aspirin, though she does list yellow willow as containing salycilic acid. But here are some excerpts from *The Green Pharmacy* by James A. Duke:

**********

Willow (Salix, various species). Commission E, the group of experts that advises the German government about herbs, endorses willow bark as an effective pain reliever for headach and anything else treated by willo's pharaceutical derivative, aspirin.

When herbalists talk about willow bark as herbal aspirin, they usually mention white willow (S. alba). But this species is rather low in salicin, the aspirin-like chaical in the bark that relieves pain. If you want more headach relief per cup of tea, there are other willow species that are more potent: S. daphnoides, S. fragilis and S. purpurea.

Commission E recommends getting 60 to 120 milligrams of salicin to treat headach, which works out to 1 teaspon of the high-salicin barks or 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of white willow. More than 86 percent of the salicin in willow is absorbed by the digestive tract, providing a good blood level of the chemical for several hours.

If you're allergic to aspirin, you probably shouldn't take aspirin-like herbs, either. And you should be aware that if aspirin upsets your stomach, willow bark may do the same. Then again, it might not. Leon Chaitow, a British naturopath and osteopath, says "Unlike aspirin, which is an isolated, concentrated chemical, willow bark acts gently and without aspirin's potential for irritating the stomach." Also, do no give either aspirin or its natural herbal alternative to children who have headaches with viral infections such as colds or flu, as there's a chance that they might develop Reye's syndrome, a potentially fatal condition that damages the liver and brain.

***************

James Duke's alternative recommendations for headache include:

Bay Laurel

Feverfew

Evening Primrose

Garlic

Ginger

Ginko

Red Pepper

Lemon Balm

Peppermit

Purslane

He says that some of these will work for some people with some types of problems, and others will work under other conditions. They each have a slightly different effect.

A course on herbal remedies should be taught in any varnasrama college which is focussed on local self-sufficiency.

your servant,