After my post about managing mental illness after SHTF, a reader asked for a more detailed look at some of the herbs that could be grown and used by resourceful prepper types.
My post today should not be interpreted as encouragement to break laws. If I was to tell you, that, hypothetically speaking, I grew these plants, I would tell you that they grew really well for me, and were very effective. That is the path I chose, at a specific moment in my life, in a specific place, and everyone should carefully weigh the risks of growing plants that are illegal. Basic OpSec like mailing the seeds to a PO box, can go a long way.
Poppies, for opium. Opium is really great at easing pain. The seeds you want to look for are Papaver somniferum seeds. A google search is sufficient to find a variety of shopping options. They are fairly hardy flowers, and I didn’t find them hard to grow. At one point we let a couple go to seed, and they sprouted up all over the lawn. Harvesting the opium can be tricky, what you’re after is the sap type stuff in the unripe pods. Wait for the petals of the flower to drop off, the pod will grow in size for another 5 or 10, to get the sap, cut a slight incision around the equator of the pod, shallow enough not to punch into the seed pod. A thin metal blade works best, like a razor blade. Immediately after cutting, milky liquid opium will form droplets around the incision. It will coagulate slowly from contact with the air, thickening and turning brown at the same time. Generally, this liquid opium is allowed to dry for ten or twelve hours before it is scraped from the pod. Scraped from the pod and collected in a small container, you’ll be dealing with a sticky darker substance, raw opium will contain from 8 to 15% morphine as well as codeine and related alkaloids. Let me repeat that for those readers that find their eyes glazing over from the details here, MORPHINE and CODEINE. I’m guessing I don’t need to tell you what those are good for. The only way I know to ingest opium, hypothetically speaking, is to get a small amount, in a pipe and smoke it. Small amount, means, for instance for a broken thumb I found a half a pea sized amount sufficient to dull the pain to bearable levels. Care should be used with all opiates, if the patient in question has a nature that’s pre-disposed to addiction, they may find the siren call alluring. I’ve never had that problem, and I don’t know anyone who has, but I know it happens. If smoking isn’t your thing, I think you can make tinctures with it, but I consider myself a novice at such things, and can’t offer advice on it.
Marijuana to bring sleep, ease pain, stimulate appetite, calm anxiety and ease breathing problems. The main things to consider with marijuana is the length of your season, (if you’re growing outside) or the size of your space (if you’re growing inside.) Indoor growing requires a ton of energy, which won’t be available post SHTF, so I’m going to focus on outdoor growing. There are two basic types of marijuana, Indica’s and Sativas. For the shorter summers we work with in Iowa and Maine, you’re going to want more Indica than Sativa. Indica varieties will mature and flower quicker. With the boom in medical marijuana, as well as the growing popularity in countries where it’s totally legal, a quick internet search for seeds will always yield results. If you aren’t really picky about the strain you grow, (I wouldn’t be, unless you have a specific condition you’re looking to treat, and then do your homework to figure out the best strain for your needs) you can find seeds that won’t break the bank. The nickname didn’t come by accident. There are strains of hemp/marijuana that grow wild in the ditches here in Iowa. I’m sure they have a pretty low THC count, but they do illustrate how easy this plant is to grow. It will grow fairly large though, so be prepared for that. You’ll want a few feet of space per plant, and head room of 5-7 feet. Harvesting isn’t tricky, what you’re after is the flower, the bud. Like many other herbs, you can get a bushier plant with more flowers if you cut off the tips of the stalks as growth starts to become rapid. You’ll want to harvest right before the flowers start to dry up, this takes practice, just cut the flower off. Curing will help the flowers to store better, just like your potatoes and onions. 🙂 Cool place out of the sun, with some air movement. After the curing, anything air tight is a good storage place. You can eat it, make tea, smoke it or vaporize it. They all work, they all have different effects, and you can find tons of information to help you with that decision, so I won’t re-invent the wheel. Post SHTF, rolling it in papers to smoke would probably be easiest, as well as making acceptable units for barter.
There are some powerhouse herbs that are totally legal. There’s a lot more information out there about these, so I’ll just briefly touch base on those that I find well suited for short summers and all around care.
Hard neck garlic – Delicious to eat, garlic also has many uses as a medicinal, as it’s known as an anti-bacterial and anti-viral. It contains a weak version of penicillin. Cooking kills most of these properties, so for full effect you’ll need to work with the raw form, and usually in large quantities. I can grow 50 bulbs and that’s enough for my family to eat on for a year. If I want more for medicinal use, I plant at least a couple dozen more. I think another 50 wouldn’t be out of line, especially if you have someone in the family actively treating something. Ointments, teas, poultices, syrups, the list is long for acceptable ways to prepare it. I find that hardnecks grow better than the softnecks in the colder country.
Lobelia – Found growing in moist woods, stream and pond banks. Lobelia is good for encouraging stronger and deeper breathing, making it useful for astham, bronchitis, and pneumonia. It’s also good for inducing vomiting.
Willow – you want White willow, spring and summer are the peak times for bark harvesting. The bark is used mainly for its pain relieving effect and anti-inflammatory properties. Salicylic acid is the most popular chemical content of the bark. It is the main component of aspirin.
Catnip can be calming for some. It’s a mild sedative. It is best made into a tea, and grows really easily in most climates.
Red clover can be very helpful for the prepper ladies. It’s chocked full of phytoestrogens, which can ease the symptoms of PMS. Applied topically it can help skin lesions and small wounds. This grows wild here in my neck of the woods.
With all of these, you have to remember, you’re not dealing with a tablet of advil. You’re dealing with a natural plant, which has varying levels of beneficial chemicals, depending on variables as diverse as moon phase, moisture levels, harvesting technique, age and variety. Adjust dosing accordingly, taking also into account the age/size and wellness of the patient. Remember if you’re harvesting from the wild, if you leave no plants to flower and set seed, you’ll have no plants next year.
53 comments
Can anyone let me know of where I can find white willow seedlings? I’ve searched the internet high and low, all of them seem to be from Engalnd. Thanks1
Willow will usually root quite readily from branches taken from a healthy tree, so there’s always that option if you can find a willow and harvest a limb. Less invasive would be to harvest some seed from a local white willow, again assuming you can locate one. Willows like water, so you could pick a half dozen likely locations and just do some weekend wandering, perhaps with a full load in a backpack, just to multitask. 😀 Not as immediate with the payback as a google search, but sometimes you just have to go hunt for the plant you’re looking for.
You might also try your local gardening/nursery store, talk to the manager and ask about the possibility of ordering one through them. Sometimes they have contacts with larger distributors that could easily get their hands on something specific like this.
Good luck!
CJ you make me want to take an apothecary class! Matter of fact l even found one on the web for 35 dollars. I have a great source here for already dried herbs at my local flea market. Not to mention l have several herbs growing here already. Seems to me this can be a great knowledge to have PSHTF. Thank you for giving us info on the plant life. I think most people (except the women folk) tend to forget there is other things besides water and ammo that can be important too.
I hear what your saying as far as good things to have post SHTF . However , I think its also good to point out that things are illegal for a reason . Pot is a gateway drug , always has been , always will be . it also has bad side affects like laziness , short term memory loss , paranoia , etc . Depends on the person . Opium is extremely powerful and extremely addicting . Yes you may need that strong a pain killer post SHTF , but you must remember , there also wont be any drug rehab / addiction clinics to get the monkey off your back , or hospitals to pull you out of an accidental overdose either ! Im sure the cocaine plant leaves have some good affects but they dont really outweigh the down side of that either . Just 2 cents worth from a very anti drug use kinda guy . Seen it mess up too many lives .
The no hospitals part is kinda the point of today’s post. Of course there are dangers. But if I needed some morphine, I’d rather get it from a plant I grew than from some sketchy black market vendor. People get addicted to all sorts of legal opiates right now. Legal or illegal, if a person isn’t interested in living life, they’ll find ways to escape, be it paint thinner or alcohol or poppy juice. Just because it’s illegal doesn’t mean I’m going to avoid a beneficial and helpful plant. I was only sharing my own experience with the beneficial sides of these plants. Everyone should absolutely take their own situation into consideration, and if that means not placing the temptation of opium in your path, then don’t do it.
Recent research out of Britain points out the discrepancies between illegal and legal and the actual harm a substance can do. I’m not trying to change your position, I understand watching people self destruct can be upsetting. But, if you’re interested in some of the findings,
http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/drugs-alcohol/drug-ranking.htm#_blank
Oh I hear ya and believe your intentions are good , just saying is not all rosy and casual . Needs to also be advised that a large percentage of the population are allergic to opiates . What you dont know may kill you if you have never taken them . There are functional addicts out there , functional , but addicts none the less . Just sayin , getting a little red eye from pot is one thing , the other is a different animal .
It is illegal to grow opium poppies with the intent of harvesting them for use as you suggest.
It is unlikely that these “herbs” will do much for any real illness mental or physical. Most of the hype around hrbs and natural cures is pure BS and superstition. If I had an illness that required medication I would look for someway to stock up on the medication in preference to following superstition based books.
I beg to disagree with you about herbs being supperstition based.
I have used herbal medicine for years .
There are all kinds of relaxant herbs and herbs to treat mental illness. Saint Johns Wort and Kava Kava come to mind.
Lavender, Lemon Balm, Cat Nip as mentioned and many others.
And as mentioned it is illegal to grow poppies with the intent of harvesting them, but not illegal to own the seeds last I heard.
Wild Lettuce is know as the poor mans poppy and it grows wild everywhere. People have been know to smoke it.
So how much Saint Johns Wort, exactly, is the right amount to treat someone with a mental illness? Is the amount the same if the plant is picked in the spring, summer or fall?? What happens if you overdose?
Kava kava can kill you it causes serious liver toxicity.
You are playing with fire. The best you can hope for with your herb superstition is that you don’t cause harm. There are no herbs that can “cure” anything they generally are touted to treat fuzzy problems and the expected results vary as in do absolutely no good to make you think they are working.
Here is a test. If you think a herb will cure something or alleviate someone’s symptoms then go public. Advertise it and prescribe it to all comers. If you are correct we will all benifit from your wisdom. However if you cannot prove that the herbs work the FDA will put you in jail. So how confident are you???
Too much driving can kill you. Too much advil can blow out your liver – my sister died from that. It is a long & well known fact that the pharmacutical companies run things after all, there are Billions of dollars in profit at stake.
Here is a couple of interesting parallel stories to illustrate this point – please understand these are parallel stories & not points to be argued.
Point 1 – A friend of mine many years ago found a perfect set of rechargable batteries & a charger. It seems this little offbeat manufacturer found out the technology to making a battery last forever. My friend had them for over 10 years in regular use & said the battery memory never diminished & the cost for the set up was very fair. It seemed the charger completely drained the battry & made it raw & become new again. Pretty good eh? Great for the environment, great for consumers etc.
My friend moved & lost his batteries & charger. He tried to find the kit again but it was nowhere to be found (incindently, this is a totally true story). He made it a mission to find out what happened to this great idea. He is a researcher so he’s better than the average Joe or Jane 🙂
After considerable research he found that the manufacturer was purchased along with their patent for a large sum – more than the company value by far. You guessed it, the parent company of Everyready Batteries was the purchaser.
Point 2 – lead additive to gasoline was competing with I think ethenol or some other far less hramful ingredient. The man who pushed the lead agenda through made a huge fortune & knew, full well, that lead was toxic.
Bottom line – many times what’s good for people without profit is bad for business therefore, much resistance is created. My dad once told me “The golden rule in business is, those who have the gold make the rules.”
Gone with the wind, pull your head out and start smelling the Kava Kava in life and by means, avoid the pharmacuticals. Typical American thinking – western medicine has been around for 200+ years & the counter part for thousands of years but of course, western medicine is right … yea, right.
Nice article Jane!
I forgot to mention that that battery charger system was permentally shelved by EverReady.
But the point is the exact amount of active ingredient in an advil is known to you and the exact recommended dosage is known to you and the effect that dosage will have on your body is known to you. With the herbs you have no idea how much “active ingredient” is in the dose, you have no idea what the appropriate dose is and you have no idea what it will do to your body. There is no science in it it is all voodoo, hocus pocus, superstition based fraud.
If you truely believe that because humans have been using herbs for 2000 years proves it is a good idea then there is no helping you.
Western medicine is based on science, alternatives are based on superstition and hope.
I have never understood the bias against business. I assume you work, I assume you get paid. Thank business!
Fact: over 300,000 people die per year in the US due to medical malpractice (wrong prescriptions, misdiagnosis, incorrect or botched surgeries etc.).
Western medicine is based upon trial & error, which is a science I guess. BTW, how do you think things get to the FDA? It is years of trial and error on humans and the drugs ALL have side effects, some deadly.
If you have a well balanced diet – that does not mean an egg McMuffin & OJ or any other processed food, then combine it with exercise, you can kiss western medicine good-bye.
Read The China Study for starters – the author was totally convinced that a high protein diet with “reasonable” fat – the Great American Diet, was the right way to go. He discovered something vastly different & the massive resistance he got from some very powerful political lobbies.
His quick bio for you:
http://www.thechinastudy.com/authors.html
The human body is very complicated and, believe it or not, doctors make educated guesses as to the problem unless it is straightforward like a broken leg.
You don’t know what you don’t know so, before you talk out of your ass again, be smart & do a little homework without the blinders on – you may be surprised what you’ll find.
Why people constantly believe that the world rotates around the USA is beyond me.
Lastly, one of my friends climbed up Machu Picchu & was given cocoa leaves to suck on (the unrefined base for cocaine) by the local indians, which is the only know cure for altitude sickness & sold right on the street. My buddy confirmed that finding.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu
GoneWTW,
I don’t think an “herb will cure something.” Anyone trying to tell or sell you such a thing is probably selling you a bottle of woo.
Herbs CAN calm and soothe. Yes, popping an Advil is a known quantity, but humans have been scraping bark to help headaches for much longer than they’ve been popping Advil. There are pluses and minuses to both routes, it doesn’t make one better than the other, just different. How do you make Advil? What goes in it? Could you make more if you run out? Willow bark is more of a known quantity in those respects.
As for your dosing questions, forgive the impertinence, but I’ll answer with another question. How do you know when you’ve had enough beer to cure your bad day? How do you know how many carrots you need to eat every year to get the proper dose of Vit A? Answer: practice, knowing the signs your body gives you; plus, our bodies are pretty good at working with what we give them.
It may not be an exact science, but it’s cheaper and more readily available than the exact science, and if survival is on the line, having the flexibility to work with what’s available could make a huge difference.
One minor addition – herbs exit the body cleanly, man-made drugs do not as a general rule.
Here is another little known fact about cholesterol reducing drugs. They say excessive cholesterol is bad for health & studies concluded the same but is giving Lipitor the answer?
What Lipitor does is fool the liver into NOT producing cholesterol (the organ’s natural function) to bring the numbers into a safe zone. If you simply change your diet you can get the same effect AND have a much healthier diet.
I personally went from a cholesterol level of 220 to 150 by diet alone & my MD insisted on Lipitor because he didn’t diet could do it. Silly uneducated doctor, I guess that’s one pharmaceutical kick-back he won’t be getting.
Drugs & western medicine address is what we westerners have come to accept as life – “I don’t care how you fix my problem, just do it fast – I’ve got things to do!”
Pop a Lipitor & eat a donut – one balances out the other right?
Just like our economy – keeping on masking the problem & pretty soon that snowball rolling down the mountain is the size of Texas and then we panic & say “if only I had ….”
BTW Jane, what’s a good herb to help combat high cholesterol? I read where cinnamon was helpful …
I have to agree with you when it comes to some types . Asian ” witch doctory ” is the worst . Half are legit half are clearly superstition . Another problem is that some herbals contain only trace elements of an ingredient that is claimed to heal an ailment because that ingredient is actually toxic in higher amounts . Anything with animal parts as a cure is poo poo ! you see that in a lot of Asian holistic medicine as well . Dried Zebra tongue isn’t going to do anything except get an animal killed for no good reason .
TJ,
Don’t you know anything? You are supposed to smoke dried Zebra tongue to ge thet benefits. Sheesh, you all are so dumb when it comes to holistic cures …
That was supposed to be funny Mr. Isolationist.
Oooh, here’s another timely post by the druid dude. Touching on this very topic. Love it.
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2011/08/salvaging-health.html
Thanks for the link – that was well written & I am in much agreement. Most American doctors treat the symptom with drugs or surgery but rarely treat the cause.
Ten years ago my life was literally saved thru bypass surgery. Three months after surgery I met a head researcher at the Jonas Salk institute (he was selling a car I was interested in & test drove) and told him about my bypass. He smiled and said simply my problem was created by years of the great American diet & nothing else.
Western medicine has its place but unfortunately it is after we abuse our bodies for years. A great book to get is The China Study by Dr Colin Campbell – it is well researched a real eye opener especially, Dr Campbell’s predisposition prior his study.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1932100660/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=3231309857&ref=pd_sl_1701bj4oon_b
Waaaah, my last post to Gone With The Wind never posted. I avoided the obvious – Frankly Scarlet, I don’t give a damn. I hope it comes up.
I found it. 🙂
You forgot to mention Aloe Vera….. great plant lots of uses!
🙂 I didn’t forget it, I was trying to focus on plants that I knew grow easily in zones 4 and 5. Aloe is wonderful, and if you have a sunny south window that isn’t in use for seedlings or catnaps, they can be a valuable addition to your houseplants. For those of you who live in places wher Aloe grows, well, maybe I’ll trade some rhubarb for your aloe. 😀
x
Jason; I believe the number of people who die per year from misuse or mistakes with drugs is closer to 100,000 and not 300,000. Yes it’s true!! If you consume a bottle of aspirin it will kill you. It is equally as dangerous to take the wrong medicine. What was your point?
Trial and error?? OK! I’ll buy that. Science is trail and error and intelligence and theory, etc. The very same things that put man on the moon have created the modern medicines that have allowed us to live longer and survive childhood diseases. You and I are here today arguing over modern medicine vs superstition ONLY because of modern medicine. Prior to the 20th century 9 out of 10 people would die before age 21 as a result of the simple common diseases that modern medicine has cured/prevented. It is SO common to avoid these diseases now that people like you are totally unaware they were so bad. It is important to point out that NONE of these diseases were cured or prevented with willow bark or voodoo.
Most of us are healthy enough that we can indeed kiss Western medicine good-bye until we get old. I am betting when you are in your 60’s your naïve view of modern medicine will be gone and you will gladly accept the lifesaving medicines our scientists and doctors have created.
You are also correct that doctors make educated guesses, well, except when their “modern medicine” equipment actually shows them what is wrong with you. But except for those 2 or 3 million lives saved every year in the U.S. thanks to MRI’s and other advanced Western medicine doctors do indeed make educated guesses.
Machu Picchu is 10,800 feet, not particularly high. Altitude sickness is more about bad luck or genetics then altitude. If you are not predisposed to get altitude sickness then 10800 feet won’t cause it. I am going to climb a 10,358 ft mountain in a week or two and I have no intention on chewing any cocoa leaves or even willow bark. Thanks to modern Western medicine I am alive today after open chest surgery to remove cancer and I’m just not sure there is enough willow bark or cocoa leaves in the world that could have cured that.
Gone With Western Medicine Wind,
I can respect your point of view – even though it is stupid! Ha, ha – I’m so funny.
My underlying point is my lack of trust with western medicine and was & is based upon many disappointing personal experiences & ultimately looking at other possibilities.
At 15 years of age I received a full ride basketball scholarship to USF. I was obviously a good athlete & was thrilled to death at the opportunity because USF has a great medical school and that was my goal – to become a surgeon (pretty funny in retrospect). I had the aptitude and the interest so I felt great about it.
Then tragedy (or blessing?) strikes at age 16 – major injury to my knee. Recommended to what I thought was a good L.A. orthopedic surgeon & he did his voodoo. After the surgery he says “oh by the way, you have a torn ACL but don’t think it’ll give you much trouble”. My faith & scholarship in his hands.
Needless to say the following year I was plagued with many more injuries & damage to my knee & the scholarship evaporated along with any other potentials. He drained my knee probably 25 times before games & tournaments trying to keep me in the game. I was a starter, team leader, driven & playing for a fairly well known high school team.
Dr. Quack decides to repair the problem when I’m 19 but said too much damage was done to allow me to be normal again – isn’t that rich, he was draining my knee every time and was wowed when there was blood in the fluid he extracted.
After the 3rd surgery, I took matters into my own hands after he said that I’ll never be able to walk normally let alone run again. Two years later I was a triathlete, changed my diet and had very few problems with the knee, like today. I gave up the idea of being a physician because of the limited scope of their education & quite frankly, thought they were a bunch of money hungry, blind fools.
Next, at the ripe old age of 46, I had emergency bypass surgery – imagine that. Here I was in very good condition, swimming 2 miles 5 days a week & other aerobic exercises like Jiu Jitsu 3 days a week. Low body fat & looked in great health. In the ER, they were puzzled why I was in there because I did not have the classic signs of heart problems. They did the tests & though my heart was skipping 4-6 beats, they thought it was some sort of fluke.
They were about to release me several hours later & cardiologist decided to keep me for some unknown reason. The next day he put me on the treadmill & I damn near died – literally. He rushed me in for a angiogram & discovered the problem – blocked LAD.
The surgeon (luck was on my side – he was one of the top 100 cardiac surgeons in America) did the surgery, bypassed the problem & said my other arteries looked fine – admittedly a real head scratcher why only one was infected. I was thankful for his skill & saving my life, no question.
Six months later, on Lipitor & a couple of other drugs to keep me running I ran into the head researcher of the Jonas Salk Institute (I have a strange knack for meeting interesting, famous people). I told him of my good fortune & how my other arteries were “normal” and he said “what’s normal? Why do you think the one artery got infected and not the rest?”
After an hour long discussion he explained to me the fallacies of the modern medicine mentality that is based upon trying to cure symptoms not causes. I did a little research & found out this man was a very known world authority about science & diet. BTW, he told me diet is the key to health. I was blown away by this doctor & PhD.
That put me on a quest to find out alternatives, which I dabbled with in my 20’s (I’m 57 as of a week ago) to see if there are answers than what I had been lead to believe & sold on my entire life. The Great American Diet was not what its cracked up to be.
Incidentally, heart disease, high cholesterol & hypertension was pretty much unheard of in Japan prior to the introduction of McDonalds. Must be a coincidence but I digress ….
I got a book called Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease & the title made me believe it was one man’s theory and, quite frankly, I thought it was commercial BS. The author was a well known heart surgeon & got tired of doing repeat & 3-peat surgeries & decided to see if he could cure the problem. He was also a US Olympic Gold Medalist in the 50’s for rowing so, achievement is pretty much inbred in him.
After 20 years study & experimentation with diet alone he >>proved<< heart disease is not hereditary (funny, the same thing the guy from Jonas Salk said). Another stroke of "Jason" luck, I spoke to the author for 2 hours over the phone & was riveted by his research.
Dr. Esselstyn recommended a book to me called The China Study. What is fascinating about that book is the detailed research. The author went into rural China & Taiwan to see why these people lived so long & there were NO reported cases of heart disease or cancer prior to the age of 65 (no data was available after that age). That's right none, zero. What is really great is the author (PhD) was predisposed to the "American/Western" diet & science belief.
Here is what he found in a nutshell – mind you, this is 20 years of study & thousands of people monitored …
Their (Asian) diet was incredible simple & well balanced & naturally took care of their bodies. They pretty much walked everywhere thus giving them daily exercise. Also, being outside the industrialized world (my assertion) helped by eliminating exposure to pollutions & the stresses of the "modern" world. So, here is an entire, huge culture that is drug free & using natural herbs & spices to help wart off any long term issues (another assumption by me).
My list can go on but you probably get my point – an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure ~
Some times these old sayings have a basis in truth.
Unfortunately while I agree that western medicine/pharmaceuticals has its place in the world, I sometimes feel it borders upon a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Glad you're alive & hopefully cancer free my friend.
Calamity Jane: “herbs can calm and soothe”. That could be true. I am 68 and toi my knowledge I have never needed calming and soothing in my life.
When you talk about willow bark for headaches you ignore all the inconvenient parts of that superstition based thinking. Such as people have been using willow bark for all kinds of things that is has zero effect on. That people have been using plants to cure or calm and soothe things that they had zero effect on. In fact 99% of what people have been doing for years was either useless or harmful. So don’t just cite something that was a minor success to prove your point. Here is appoint that illustrates the problem with alternative medicine. Science based medicine has indeed look at many of the alternatives and where there was something good (like willow bark) they made use of it. What that means to you and I is that most of what is left was found to be useless. And that is the sad truth about alternative medicine.
I don’t drink beer or any alcohol, I have never taken illegal drugs, smoked pot or even cigarettes (well a few cigarettes when I was a teenager). I am wondering what the sign is when you body needs vitamin A? I do agree with your statement that “our bodies are pretty good at working with what we give them”.
Your last statement is where there is the most to learn; “It may not be an exact science, but it’s cheaper and more readily available than the exact science”. The problem is it isn’t even science and although it may do you no harm it also does you no good. So as long as you aren’t actually sick alternative medicine works almost as well as doing nothing. But IF you do get sick following alternative medicine will/may kill you.
Jason: I wish it were as easy as diet. But it’s not. More likely the PhD from Jonas Salk Institute is one of those misguided people who even though they have degrees and are intelligent have no common sense. Wouldn’t it be great if there were magic beans? Just eat the right food and no heart attacks or cancer. What a great dream… but a dream it is.
It is pure BS that the Japanese and Chinese never/rarely had cancer or heart attacks. In fact the opposite is true, they have as many as we do but their culture encourages the doctor to not tell the patient. They believe it is better to live the last six months of your life ignorant of your impending death. They believe it is cruel to tell a person who is dying that they are dying. Thankfully modern Western medicine has come to Japan (oddly about the same time McDonalds did) and now suddenly when someone dies of cancer or heart attack in Japan they actully put that on their death certificate. I suppose someone could jump to the conclusion it was McDonalds if it fit their biases.
Heart disease, cancer and strokes are the big three killers of people in the West because these diseases are more common the older you get and thanks to modern medicine we live longer.
“an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is a great statement an undoubtedly true. The problem occurs when you define “prevention”. To you prevention is eating rice and bean sprouts and for someone else it is not eating meat, and still others eat mostly meat and no carbs and then there are those who eat only living food or raw food. There are hundreds of fad diets all with the same goal, i.e. to make you live longer and avoid the serious diseases. There is not one of these fad diets that accomplishes this lofty goal. That hasn’t stopped people from looking for it or stopped “PhD” from providing the answer (for a price of course).
If you are lucky enough to live long enough to collect your SS and Medicare and you avoid dying accidentally then you will most likely die from a heart attack, cancer or a stroke. This used to be called dying of natural causes and in Japan and China it still is.
Thank you, I’m Glad you’re alive & hopefully cancer free my as well.
Someone once said something profound to me – you don’t know what you don’t know. I’m a pretty smart guy & at times think I know it all. Got lots of education & experience & sometimes have things pretty well packaged thus, I get stuck in a position.
When my heart blew out, my mind did too because of my linear thinking. I was in great aerobic condition but my diet relatively sucked which was the only explaination for my condition. I did not think that diet was that important & could really turn the corner on longevity. It seemed like you said, a fad.
All I can tell you is read the aforementioned books & do so in total disbelief, that is fair. One thing I did not mention is Dr. Esselstyn did reverse heart disease & provides the proof. I know it seems far fetched but it’s true.
Also, my wife went to a doctor with a severe gall bladder issue – stones blocking the duct. Removal via surgery was the answer by every doctor. She/we tried a specific diet to remove the gall stones and it worked. We showed the doctor the results – clearly gall stones & the MD said it was fecal matter. Further he said that the diet was foolish & would kill my wife. That was 18 years ago & no worse for wear.
Because of personal experience & all I read & study, I don’t take a physicians word as law, I always get all sides of the solution before I make decision. They are human but severely limited in their scope of understanding besides, it’s my life they are dealing with, I’m just another patient to them.
Someone once said something profound to me – you don’t know what you don’t know. I’m a pretty smart guy & at times think I know it all. Got lots of education & experience & sometimes have things pretty well packaged thus, I get stuck in a position.
When my heart blew out, my mind did too because of my linear thinking. I was in great aerobic condition but my diet relatively sucked which was the only explaination for my condition. I did not think that diet was that important & could really turn the corner on longevity. It seemed like you said, a fad.
All I can tell you is read the aforementioned books & do so in total disbelief, that is fair. One thing I did not mention is Dr. Esselstyn did reverse heart disease & provides the proof. I know it seems far fetched but it’s true.
Also, my wife went to a doctor with a severe gall bladder issue – stones blocking the duct. Removal via surgery was the answer by every doctor. She/we tried a specific diet to remove the gall stones and it worked. We showed the doctor the results – clearly gall stones & the MD said it was fecal matter. Further he said that the diet was foolish & would kill my wife. That was 18 years ago & no worse for wear.
Because of personal experience & all I read & study, I don’t take a physicians word as law, I always get all sides of the solution before I make decision. They are human but severely limited in their scope of understanding besides, it’s my life they are dealing with, I’m just another patient to them.
There are many factors that relate to heart attacks and many are genetic. If your father had a heart attack at age 55 you probably will have one about then too. Some of those factors can be modified or controlled by diet, not all but some. So if your heart condition can be improved by a specific diet then by all means that is what you should do.
Regarding reversing heart disease, again if your heart disease can be helped by diet and/or excercise I see no reason that a specific diet and excercise wouldn’t help you and possibly reverse it to some extent. Where I would disagree with the doctor is that ALL heart disease can be reversed, cured or prevented by either a specific diet or excercise.
I love my doctors, nurses, specialists and all the health care professionals. I can add firemen, police, military and coast guard to the list. You are correct that doctors are not perfect but what/who is. I too listen to their advice, research and make my decision as best I can. But in that process it has become obvious that quacks and snake oil salesmen are everywhere. I also know from experience that there are ordinary people with ordinary abilities, there are extraordinary people with extraodinary abilities and there are real geniuses out there as well. The value of science based medicine is we learn and document what works and test and retest to be sure. What else would you wish to depend on? The frustrating factor is everyone is different. A perfectly ligitimate and effective treatment for one person or most people may not work for another person. I choose not to experiment, that is I will take the best science and the advice of Western trained medical personal over what some author wrote in his book or what some Chinese herbalist has to offer. Will it always work? Probably not 100% but surely it will be more effective then superstions based health advice.
Two of Dr. Esselstyn’s core patients had a family history of no male ever living past the age of 55 – they all died of cardiac issues. Both of those patients were alive & well & in their 70’s when we spoke on the phone.
I respect your point and like I said, read those books – you could probably get them from the library. It’s very logical, won’t hurt you and where these people were coming from prior to doing the research is pretty amazing – they had no idea they’d get these results.
Man made drugs have a far higher probability of killing you than herbs & dietary changes. Most people die from chemotherapy, not the cancer being battled.
Anyway, I’ll agree to sort of disagree.
Your comment “Man made drugs have a far higher probability of killing you than herbs & dietary changes.” is not a fair statement because it requires that you ignore all the good man made drugs do. As I have stated before you and I and most people are alive and well today BECAUSE of man made drugs. Prior to the 20th century 9 out of 10 kids died before age 20 and 5 out of 10 of then died before age 5 from diseases we have conqurede with man made drugs. Today you can be shot, have a serious accident or otherwise be injured so seriously that it would have spelled certain death just 30 years ago but if you can get to the hospital or have the EMT’s reach you in the first hour the odds heavily favor you living. This is almost totally a result of man made drugs.
Your second statement “Most people die from chemotherapy, not the cancer being battled” is true. It is true if they take alternate medicine as well. There are almost no cures for most cancers and if you get one of the bad cancers you will die. What the chemotherapy does for you (hopefully) is give you a few more months or in some cases years. Rarely it cures the cancer. What alternative therapies will do this. It is a tough decision for a cancer patient to make regarding treatment; suffer the treatment and gain a few more months of life but with reduced quality of life or choose no treatment and die months or years sooner but without the 6 weeks of discomfort and loss of hair etc. that go with the treatment. So picking a disease like cancer to criticize Western medicine makes no sense. It is like accusing Western medicine for letting you die of natural causes at age 92. The point is the science and the medicine cannot yet cure everything and may never be able to cure everything. But what it can do is nothing short of miraculous. The problem is that we are so accustomed to it’s miracles that we no longer give credit where credit is due.
I do not even have to know you or your health history to tell you that the reason you lived past 20 year of age is thanks to modern medicine and certainly not thanks to alternative medicine. But being human we are intrigued by the unknown, the occult, the mystery, the lie. Chase it is you must be just be aware that modern Western medicine has already saved your life…
I agree that modern drugs have saved lives. Further, modern docs saved those who suffer from a tramatic accident or whatever else you listed. Hmmmm, they save lives & we now have 6 billion people to feed in the world. Maybe that past attrition was by design … interesting thought.
However, I have a problem with the western medicine docs with their God complex. Many put them on high & worship them as savior. Very few question their methods or examine their treatment recommendations but I do. I require answers & a broad range of information before I am treated. I find it alarming & amusing when they get pissed when someone dares to question them. They are so narrow minded.
Yes, I have found them in error. I once had a staph infection & was perscribed the wrong antibotic which, if I did not catch, stood a real chance of dying. True story, made them do the lab work, asked for the results – that was a bitch, only the “doctor” was privvy to my results. Forced him to read it, compare the script & OMG, it was MRSA. The dope would have never known I was wearing the dirt blanket 2 weeks later.
I was told there was no way to stop staph but I found a natural product, very popular in India called Neem. I scrubbed my body & low & behold, no more staph. Pretty silly eh?
We live in the western culture – complete with it extreme stresses, over indulgent stupidity, several types of pollutants including our chemically laced foods, drink brown sugar water and the rest of the things that have negative effects on our physical & mental well being, so of course we need these webbed feet humans in their white lab coats. Like I said, it is a self fulfilling prophesy.
We created antibactorial cleaning agents which, ultimately, created super resistant bacterias – hospitals have a hell of a time sanitizing the place. Wow, that certainly was a mistake & now “they” say those bacterias are actually good for us. Oh the arrogance …
Are there trade offs, I’d be an idiot to say there is no place for these pinheads but would much prefer spending the time & balance my own chemistry naturally & work from the inside out – in other words address causes not symptoms.
And my last note – don’t kid your self, doctors aren’t really all that intlligent, they simply have specific knowledge. They operate upon probability, guess work (commonly referred to as a process of elimination) & a text book of symptoms & corresponding drugs or cutting proceedures to combat that symptom.
I have far more respect for a good auto mechanic … really.
Ever wonder why their business has always been called a practice? Must be a coincidence ~
I don’t have much interest in “debating” this issue further. I can appreciate your position – truly, but the inflexibility of thought drives me crazy. When I suggest a couple of reading materials & you poo-poo them without giving any credit or reasonable consideration from some fear based thought. I find that is a lack of base intelligence – I apologize for the directness. As I said prior, someone once told me 10 years ago – you don’t know what you don’t know.
As an example – I’m a Bible believing Christian – it’s a personal belief & am no better than anyone else, I understand I’m imperfect.
I considered that Christ was a lunatic, God was either a cosmic meanie, biased against most, a liar or did not exist. Also, I had to view the Bible as a changed document over the years to fit agendas. Once I went down those paths to figure what was true – the answered revealed itself. BTW, I was an agnostic at that time & today I’m far from it with solid evidence not blind obedience.
Once you consider another differing position & I said consider, you begin to more strongly solidify personal beliefs & positions & increase knowledge. You stomp your feet & bash herbs & their ability to poison us – either physically or mentally because you do not believe you can regulate dosages or some other nonsense, that’s just plain idiotic. How in the heck do you think the drug companies figured out dosages? Trial & error but because they are God, they are right – don’t you get that?
What comes with advancing age is a lack of physical flexibility & most times it transfers to the mind. Yesterday we could touch our toes & today we have to settle for just seeing them. The mind is far different, the only limitations are self imposed with obvious exceptions of infermity.
Old dogs can learn many new tricks & are far better at it because they know how to economize movement(s).
I get it, you love doctors & am sure they are pleased while you are there with them for their allotted 4-15 minutes. When they go home at night you are nothing more than a mark in their ledger & that’s the reality of it & you better get that.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just pick some plants and cure all our ills. That is in fact what ancient man believed. But over time man developed skills and knowledge and something called the scientific method. Man developed medicines and treatments that really worked and they used the scientific method to do this. Man als investigated most of the superstition based herbal “cures” and indeed some had some medicinal value but most proved to be of no value or worse harmful. Man flourished and conqured most of the diseases that caused early death and man (Western man of course the third world still uses herbs to treat illness and they die young) became lackadaisical and naive. Some men choose to take advantage of this situation and tell the lackadaisical and naive that they can cure their ills with a recently discovered herb/oil/spell that some guru in India was using to cure the locals. Lackadaisical man believes this superstition because as I said he has become naive and unaware of what science based medicine has done or does. So everyone lives happily ever after. The guru/snake oil salesman makes a couple hundred grand a year, lackadaisical man was probably never sick so suprise, suprise the snake oil seems to work and the doctors continue to save millions of lives every year and scientists continue to discover new science based ways to cure lackadaisical man’s ills. So as long as you have the money to spend on your herbs and you don’t have a real disease I can only wish you continued good luck.
Wow, I had no idea what’s it’s like to live in a world of disenchantment & myopia. Next time try >> comprehending << what I wrote, you may be suprised.
My mother was a fairly unhappy woman in her 60’s & 70’s and used to always say “the golden years? It’s nothing but fool’s gold”.
Your outlook on life is depended solely upon you & not external conditions. I find too many “senior citizens” have just given in to life & have become narrow minded & crabby and shame on them for the pitiful, jaded contribution. I told my kids that if I ever get that way, they have my permission to shoot me.
What you failed to understand is I could give a crap less if you use anything natural or not or want to kiss the ground the MD’s walk upon, it was just another point of view to simply consider.
Obviously, life has dealt its hand to you & you are too “lackadaisical” to see what else may be in the deck that could possibly improve your hand. Best of luck ~
My time will come, everyone will reach old age and die, that is the only choice. But right now I’m planning on taking out the motor home and doing a tour of national parks in the great west. We do this about twice a year. Then when the snow comes we plan on taking the motor home to Sandiego for a few weeks to a month, then Las Vegas for awhile and finally to Arizona to explore some of the neat places that are too hot in the summer to enjoy. In between I keep looking for a good deal for a trip to Hawaii for a week or maybe back to Australia for a couple of weeks. Looking forward to next spring when we will visit Paris again. The only thing I’m sad about going South for the winter is I love the snow, hope to get in some skiing and also enjoy sitting by the wood stove looking out my picture window at my wooded lot and the mountaions beyond. Lackadaisical ?? No! Damned lucky? Yes. I am enjoying the fruits of working for 47 years and saving and being to cheap to spend my money carelessly. One day the grim reaper will take me but for now we are spending our children’s inheritance. Best of luck to you as well.
San Diego is a great & beautiful place. Let me know when you’ll be around & maybe we can meet up – seriously.
Love the zoo and will visit it again. But the best zoo we’ve been to was in Ft Worth. What a great suprise that was. Also loved the Texas barbecue. But San Diego is one of my favorite cities more hectic now then it was 30 years ago but still beautiful with great weather. I love California but cannot handle the tax and bureaucracy so instead of living there I visit. I expect to stop at the Monterey Aquarium too and then the beautiful drive down Big Sur and maybe get to see some seals laying on the beach. I think I hear Death Valley calling my name too. But it will probably be November because in September we are going to Yelloswstone for a week, then Zion, canyon lands and arches Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon (exact itinerary depending on weather)
Do you live in or near San Diego?
Yes, I live in North County San Diego – God’s Country.
Jason I agree there are some nice areas out in your neck of the woods as I was stationed at Camp Pendleton for years and live north up the 5.
My personal incite to all of this is I have had positive and negative with man made prescriptions over herbs. I was given Lipitor and ended up in the hospital after I had cold sweats, weakness and blacked out. I have better success with adding ground cinnamon and turmeric to my diet and the points dropped with no adverse reactions. Prior to that I’d never had an adverse reaction to any prescribed med ever. I also never had an adverse reaction to any herbs or alternative medicines
I am opiate resistant and have found a few stiff shots of liquor and an ice pack work better than pain meds. I suffered from a gun shot wound while in the Marines. Shortly after I was discharged I had to have another surgery due to complications from infection and since opiate pain killers didn’t work I smoked weed for the first time to manage my pain and it worked great until I had the final surgery and never touched it again and that was over 13 years ago.
To those claiming weed is a gateway drug its all on the individual because I haven’t smoked it since and know others who legally smoke it for appetite due to cancer treatment and other reasons with a doctors Rx and many of them never drank a drop of alcohol in their life nor done anything harder.
I wonder if those same people think of Chiropractors, massage therapy and acupuncture to be quack medicine because I have used those methods to avoid pain meds as well with great success saving my liver from harmful prescriptions.
30 years ago I lived in San Bernardino, I can still smell the orange blossoms. I visited a friend in San Berdo a couple of years ago and what a change. It is still a beautiful place and I have a warm spot in my heart for Southern California. Twenty years ago I lived in Monterey and loved it. Great weather, beautiful scenery, loved it. Couldn’t afford to buy a home so I moved to an affordable area, in retrospect I’m happy with that choice. But I do love California. Too bad so many people are so dedicated to destroying it.
“Just because it’s illegal doesn’t mean I’m going to avoid a beneficial and helpful plant.” – Calamity Jane
Your point?
Oops, I must have done something wrong. There was supposed to be a “Are you serious?” quote after that.
Just FYI, cultivating and manufacturing controlled dangerous substances is a felony.
Yes, I get that this “may” have been written as guide for when pharmacies and hospitals are no longer available and the only alternative is the “sketchy black market”, but that’s NOT how it was written. The article explicitly states the author has (present tense) cultivated opium, a Schedule II Controlled Dangerous Substance.
This was an article on how to manufacture drugs. I hate to say this, as I really enjoy this blog and think it’s very high quality, but I lost a lot of respect for this website after reading this.
FYI, I stated that in the post. I was fully aware of the nature of my activities. At the same time, I was not selling to 6th graders, I was not financing arms purchases to terrorize my community. I put some seeds in some dirt, grew some pretty flowers then tried to get some medicine out of them. I helped a couple of friends, learned a lot, and then stopped.
You say manufacture drugs like it’s a bad thing. And you have a right to your opinion, but in my opinion it shouldn’t be illegal for adults to self-medicate. If I told you I grew bread mold for penicillin, would that incur similar wrath? Or is it just because Unkie Sam tells you it’s bad, that makes you so sure my actions were not worthy of respect?
I am looking to start a blog, though I don’t know which is the best way to go about this. Some of my friends recommend buying a domain from iPage, and then using WordPress. However, I feel that this is limiting. My next option is through TypePad as it appears to have the level of control desired, though this is relatively expensive.. . So my question is as follows: Which one is a better idea? Which one would you personally use?. . Thank you..
What about meds for conditions like bipolar? My dr will
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