Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Philosophy of Herbs

Herbs are good for different things:
To beautify our homes with their colors, shapes, and scents.
To flavor our foods.
For medicine.


I believe God did not leave the entire human race without help for medical problems until the last century. In fact, I believe that the common idea of modern medicine is clearly evolutionary: “There was no help for any medical problem until modern doctors evolved enough to help us.” “See how much more advanced we are today?”

Truth is God provided help for most ailments through the plants surrounding His people. In fact, many of our current medicines are derived from those very plants (Aspirin, for example, is taken directly from the white willow’s bark. Our ancestors used to just make a tea from the bark to stop pain.) The pharmacies just remove everything but the one ingredient that they believe to be active.

The advantage of herbals is that they still have all the “extra” ingredients. So if you take a regular diuretic, for example, you pee out the extra liquid plus many necessary minerals. Dandelion, however, will cause you to pee also but is also very high in the very minerals diuretics cause you to loose. Herbals work not just buy giving you the active ingredient but also by building up your body so it can heal itself. And they tend to have fewer side effects.

Now, I do believe we should use modern medicine when necessary. When my daughter broke her arm last fall I did not go look for any herbs to help her. I loaded her up in my car and rushed her to the emergency room.

I follow Shonda Parker’s recommendations for dealing with ailments:
Change your diet and/or lifestyle.
If that doesn’t work, than take herbal remedies.
If that doesn’t work than take over the counters.
Then comes prescriptions
Then surgery.

Herbals themselves fall into two categories: food and medicine. For example, dandelion, alfalfa, oat straw, and bilberries are all foods. They are high in vitamins and minerals and you can eat as much as you want without overdosing. They work mostly by giving your body what it needs to heal itself. On the other hand, comfrey, lobelia, and angelica will make you sick or even kill you if you get too much; but in small doses they work as well as or even better than medicinals.

So, unlike medicines at the drug store, you have to do your research and know what you are doing with herbs.

The place I buy most of herbs from is here:
http://www.bulkherbstore.com/

For those that know Michael and Debi Pearl (To Train Up A Child, Created To Be His Help Meet), Debi began this business. It is now owned by their daughter and her husband. These people are very trust worthy and you know you are getting what they say you are getting. Their information is very good.

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