Tag Archives: tea

Ziziphora: A Medicinal Jewel of Western Asia

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Did You Know…

…that an extract of an herb most people have never heard of—a “Medicinal Jewel” of traditional Western Asia—may effectively treat gastric cancer?

     An extract of the plant Ziziphora has shown promise as an herbal remedy against gastric cancer, according to a new study published in Food and Agricultural Immunology.  Continue reading →

Boneset

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Did You Know…

… that Boneset was one of most widely used medicinal plants of early America and has been used well into the 21st century to treat a variety of ailments…particularly influenza and fever? Continue reading →

Eight Ways to Fight Colds with Food

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Eight Ways to Fight Colds with Food

Cold season is still here, and many of you may be looking for a better way to fight off this pest than just popping some vitamins every day. Well, here’s a list of the top eight foods to keep those nasty cold bugs away — and we’re not talking about just the usual bowl of chicken noodle soup!

 1) Carotenoid-rich foods: Carotenoids are potent antioxidants that Continue reading →

Extremely Important: Fluoride Treatment – 5 Ways to Detox Fluoride

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It should be outrageous to think that the very water we drink is poisoned—but the water actually is. Although calcium fluoride is found naturally in underground and ocean water, the sodium fluoride added to the public water supply is virtually toxic, a wolf in the sheep’s garb of improved dental health. Continue reading →

Put the Brakes on Oxidative Damage with This

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Researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences have discovered one healing food that could be a natural remedy against oxidative damage. What’s more, this food grows in just about everyone’s front yard or backyard. It makes a delicious tea that’s full of antioxidants and it’s easy to cultivate and use right in your own kitchen. Continue reading →

7 Herbal Remedies for Spring Allergies

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Spring means different things to all of us, but for more millions of Americans, it means watery eyes, scratchy throats and runny noses. If you suffer from seasonal allergies every spring, fear not! Mother Nature offers a number of herbal remedies to help ease our sniffles and sneezes.

Chamomile’s Continue reading →

New Lavender Oil Clinically Proven to Relieve Occasional Anxiety

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Lavender essential oils have been used in European hospitals, mainly France, for treating burns. But that is not the only application of lavender that has proven itself. Insomnia and anxiety relief are the most common uses aside from burns.

The herb’s Latin title is Lavandula angustifolia, more commonly known as English or garden lavender. It grows abundantly in fields along the Mediterranean shores of Europe, mostly France. You may have noticed those fields as visual subjects from some famous artists.

It’s commonly sold and used as an essential oil for aromatherapy or made into a tea from the lavender leaves. The oil can be applied to the skin for transdermal absorption. Continue reading →

Ginger Root Eases Nausea and Vomiting

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Ginger root is a favorite among herbalists, used in a variety of situations. The spicy root, or rhizome, of the ginger plant can either be eaten raw, powdered, made into tea, juiced, tinctured, or even candied. One of the most common uses for ginger root is for nausea and vomiting. Placebo-controlled, double-blind studies have proven that ginger root effectively reduces nausea and vomiting caused by motion sickness, surgery, and morning sickness during pregnancy. Because organic ginger root is completely safe to use during pregnancy, the herb is especially treasured by pregnant women around the world.

Ginger root is an effective antidote for motion sickness while at sea

A Danish study published in 1988 tested the effects of ginger root powder on 80 new Naval cadets who were out on the high seas in stormy weather for the first time. The sea-sick cadets were either given a placebo or 1 gram of ginger root powder, then measured every hour for symptoms of motion sickness for four hours. Continue reading →

Surprisingly Healthy Foods

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Although the best diets contain a large amount of vegetarian, raw foods, several commonly eaten foods have remarkably robust health benefits. Even if your busy life makes it hard to eat right, simply adding chocolate, coffee and orange juice to your menus can offer a distinct boost to your well-being.

Chocolaty Health

I’ve heard and laughed at the health claims for chocolate over the years. The chocolate you buy and eat has been processed and formulated with refined sugar. However, even though many of the potent antioxidant flavonoids in raw cacao (the original source of chocolate) are depleted, the processed chocolate you buy still shows clear health benefits.

The August 2011 British Medical Journal includes a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials and observational studies with a total of 114,009 participants that demonstrated a 37 percent reduction in cardiovascular disease and a 29 percent reduction in stroke for people who consumed the highest levels of chocolate compared to those who consumed the least.1 Continue reading →

7 Ingredients to Ban from Your Bathroom

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The following ingredients usually appear in the products we use daily — shampoo, sunscreen and the like — and general scientific consensus concludes that they’re best avoided:

Parabens are a synthetic preservative and antimicrobial agent commonly found in personal-care products with high water content: shampoo, conditioner, lotion, cleansers and body wash. They also turn up in solid products like deodorant. They appear as methyl-, ethyl-, butyl- or propylparaben. Studies have found that parabens mimic estrogen in the body and disrupt normal hormone function, and they have been found in breast-tumor biopsies.

Growing awareness about parabens has inspired a number of manufacturers to banish them in favor of safer preservatives, while some have simply accepted a shorter shelf life as the price of doing healthy business. You can often find personal-care products labeled “paraben free,” which will save you a little squinting in the product aisle. Signers of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics have committed to avoiding their use; you can find the list of these companies at www.safecosmetics.org. Continue reading →

Greeks Knew All About Rosemary Benefits…Now Making a Comeback

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Rosemary a fragrant herb native to the Mediterranean region has many benefits it can reduce stress and anxiety, improve memory, mental performance, concentration–and even have a significant effect on your test-taking ability?

It appears that the ancient Greeks knew something about rosemary herbs that the rest of the world didn’t. Grecian scholars traditionally wore sprigs of rosemary when taking tests because they believed the herb would improve their performance.

Two recent studies prove that the Greeks’ use of rosemary didn’t just stem from a herbal folklore or superstition, but actually has scientific merit.

Both studies–one from the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing in Boca Raton, and the other from the Department of Nursing at Nambu University in Korea–found that rosemary benefits has a significant and measurable positive effect on test takers! That same benefit carries over to any high-stress situation that requires concentration, memory, and cognition. Continue reading →

Holy Basil an Alternative to Medical Marijuana

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Did You Know…that there’s an aromatic plant which offers an alternative that rival those of medical marijuana treatment—without the side effects or the necessity for a prescription? This same medicinal plant also protects against inflammation, stress, and even radiation poisoning.

In Asia, holy basil(Ocimum sanctum, O. tenuiflorum) has been cultivated for medicinal use for over 5,000 years.

Today, Western scientists have caught on to the herb’s natural anti-inflammatory properties. Chemically speaking, basil (in numerous tested varieties) contains compounds similar to those found in cannabis (also known as marijuana) and oregano.

This has led some doctors to suggest Continue reading →

Kombucha Tea Could Fight Cell Death

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Kombucha tea is a little different from regular tea. It’s a special concoction made from tea, sugar, bacteria and yeast. This drink is sometimes called kombucha mushroom tea. Kombucha isn’t actually a mushroom though — it’s a colony of bacteria and yeast. Kombucha tea is made by adding this colony of bacteria and yeast to sugar and tea, and allowing the mix to ferment. The tea contains vinegar, B vitamins and a host of other chemical compounds.

There have been many health benefits attributed to Kombucha tea, but little scientific evidence to back up these claims. It might be worthwhile, therefore, to take a look at the results of a new clinical trial that verifies at least one health benefit associated with the fermented drink: improved liver health.

Researchers at the Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology in Jadavpur University, India, investigated the antioxidant property of kombucha tea. Specifically, the researchers wanted to know how kombucha tea would perform when pitted against cytotoxicity induced by tertiary butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) in mice liver cells. TBPH is organic peroxide that causes oxidative stress resulting in organ disease.

The researchers found that exposure to TBHP  Continue reading →

How to Harvest and Prepare Rose Hips for Maximum Health Benefits

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Rose hips are the small, colorful bulbs that stay behind when a rose dies. They are roughly the same size as berries and vary in color from orange to red. Oftentimes overlooked because gardeners trim the dead flowers before the rose hips can form, rose hips are a great source of Vitamin C and can be harvested and prepared as a natural way to boost intake of this important vitamin.

With a sweet tartness, rose hips are part of the apple and crabapple families. Almost all roses create rose hips, as they are the natural product of a dead flower, but the ones that are said by many to be the best tasting are rugosa roses. In addition to tasting the best; these roses also produce the largest and most numerous hips.

Harvesting rose hips is very straightforward. Continue reading →

2 Popular Fasts From Chinese Medicine

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Traditional Chinese Medicine, steeped in 5,000-plus years of wisdom, is brimming with herbal remedies, food cures, acupuncture, and meditative exercises such as tai chi. In keeping with its strong reliance on food, Chinese medicine uses many fasts to enhance health, lift moods, cleanse the body, build strength, eliminate acid and mucus, and take the burden off of certain organs. Here are the first two of five fasts we’ll present, used in Asia for specific purposes.

It may take a visit to a Chinese medicine practitioner to fully understand your particular symptoms. Everyone would do well to get themselves checked out according to this style of medicine.

1. Raw Produce & Liquids
Nobody with symptoms of coldness or deficiency should attempt this diet. Symptoms of these include chills, white complexion, thin/watery mucus, hardened joints, difficulty bending and moving, weakness, shallow breathing, and overall frailty. Continue reading →