When consuming any herb, do not take capsules for best results. They are not easily absorbed in this form and often burned in the powdering process.
This is not true. A small amount of heat is generated during the grinding process, but not enough to "burn" the herbs. And capsules are readily dissolved in the stomach.
Take them in the form of herbal tinctures. The alcohol in the tinctures release much more of the healing phytochemicals that cure and prevent disease and so more is extracted from the plant than in a tea and certainly a capsule.
I rarely touch tinctures for a few reasons. One the tinctures DO NOT extract all the beneficial compounds in plants such as the fibers. Alcohol can also neutralize the active components of some plants. Then there is the higher cost of tinctures as well as having to deal with the alcohol. Yes, the amount of alcohol is generally low, but some people prefer to avoid alcohol altogether for various reasons. Certain plants though such as resins and yerba mansa require very strong concentrations of alcohol for th extraction.
Due to the various drawbacks with tinctures I rarely ever recommend them and prefer powders. One of the few exceptions is when a quick response is needed, such as to stop an asthma attack. Otherwise the higher cost of the tinctures is not worth the few minutes difference in absorption compared to taking powders on an empty stomach. For example, I can buy a bottle of nettle leaf tincture for $11.00, which will last me maybe a month, and I will again lose certain beneficial compounds like the silica rich fiber. For the same cost I can buy several pounds of nettle leaf powder that will last about 8 months and I will not lose any of the benefits of the herb from extraction.
With a tincture it goes directly into the bloodstream bypassing digestion, which is especially important for those with poor digestion.
They go directly in to the bloodstream IF and only IF they are taken sublingually and the molecule size is small enough for absorption. Certain plant compounds such as saponins and resins are not made to absorb in to the bloodstream and are very dangerous if they are. But since most of the beneficial compounds in plants such as alkaloids and glycosides are water soluble they will extract just fine in the stomach even if someone has poor digestion. Poor digestion is normally from the lack of stomach acid, which affects protein breakdown, not the soluble extraction of compounds.
2nd best would be a tea.
Teas also have their drawbacks. The biggest drawback is that many of the nutrients and beneficial alkaloids in plants are heat sensitive. By making a tea out of many plants you are actually destroying or volatilizing many of the beneficial properties. Echinacea, yohimbe and high essential oil herbs are examples. There are a few herbs that have heat stable compounds though such as pau d' arco. As a general rule though I use teas for flavor and powdered herbs for medicine. The other problem is that all the active compounds in plants are not water soluble. For example chaparral and myrrh cannot be properly extracted in tea since both are resinous and resins and water do not mix.
Also excellent for the heart is cayenne, the hotter the better.
Cayenne is way over rated. Cayenne primarily dilates the superficial blood vessels, not the deeper primary blood vessels. And it is short in duration. Prickly ash bark is a much better choice. Prickly ash bark does a better job of dilating the deeper primary blood vessels than cayenne and the effects are much longer lasting.
Cayenne's advantage is that it is rich in natural aspirin, which can help thin the blood. Although this is also a problem for people with salicylate sensitivities.
Organic or wildcrafted herbs should always be used over conventional herbs as they contain 7-10 times more of the valuable plant chemicals (phytochemicals/nutrients)
This is true of wildcrafted herbs, but not organic herbs. The higher phytochemical/nutrient levels of wildcrafted herbs comes from the stresses the plants experience in the wild. They generate these higher levels of phytochemicals as a protective response. Farm raised herbs whether conventionally or organically grown are not subjected to the stresses that wild herbs are and therefore they do nto produce the higher levels of phytochemicals/nutrients.
well this is info I got from Dr Schulze and people I trust.
In my opinion Schulz and Christopher are very old school. We have come a long way in herbal research and there are often better choices than the herbs they generally recommend. For example they frequently use the berberine herbs (goldenseal, Oregon grape root and barberry), which kill the intestinal flora, damage the intestinal lining and raise blood pressure through potassium depletion. I can think of dozens of different herbs that are safer and more effective than the berberine herbs. They also like the high anthraquinone stimulant laxatives such as senna, cascara sagrada and rhubarb root that cause a laxative dependence after a short time of use. Again there are safer ways of dealing with constipation and cleansing the intestines. If we wanted to continue to rely on old knowledge then we would still be using the telegraph instead of cell phones. At some point these guys really need to catch up to modern herbology.
Master Herbalist and Healer Dr Richard Schulze said this about the burning of the herbs and I relayed it.
And there are people claiming that Elvis is still alive, but this does not make true. If the herbs were being burnt they would not be green or brown, but rather black. And many of the herbs would not have their characteristic smell since their oils would have been burnt off. All it takes is a little common sense to see that his claim is bogus.
The amount of alcohol is tinctures is EXTREMELY negligible
Which is what I said already.
If one is worried they can put a teaspoon/tbs or so of boiling water over it and the alcohol will dissipate.
Most, not all. And again the heat can damage many herbs. For example echinacea and yohimbe are both extremely sensitive to heat. And the boiling water will also volatilize the essential oils in the plants along with the alcohol as I also already pointed out.
One only needs the 100 proof vodka for very resinous herbs.
One of the herbs I mentioned is yerba mansa, which requires 190 proof alcohol to be extracted. The point I was making though is that the higher the proof the higher the concentration of alcohol and thus the more alcohol you are going to get in each dose. So the old same amount of alcohol as in a banana claim does not always apply.
And again the reaction of alcohol with certain plant compounds can alter their chemistry and even render the herb worthless. Again this is why herbalists need to keep up on the chemistry of herbs and their interactions rather than rely on old outdated information.
Who could take several pounds of herb within 8 months. Powdered herbs lose potency after about a year.
LOL!!!! Where do you get this stuff?!!!! Herbs vary in their stability. Some herbs such as echinacea are extremely unstable. But others such as pau d' arco are extremely stable. I have used pau d' arco that was in the cupboard for over 10 years and it still worked like a charm. It all depends on the chemistry of the herb and how it is stored.
By the way the shelf life of most herbs stored properly is around 3 to 5 years.
Tinctures last a minimum of 5 years and Schulze said he has tasted ones over a 100 years.
The shelf life of tinctures is considered 4 to 6 years on average, but the stability depends a lot on the alcohol concentration.
By the way, just because Schulze tasted a tincture over 100 years old this doe not mean it was potent. Just like I can taste an herbal powder over 100 years old but this does not mean it has all its effects still. You are not going to stop oxidative destruction of the herbs whether you store them in glass jars as powders or as a tincture. Even alcohol oxidizes. Every time you open that bottle you are allowing harmful oxygen in. And the rubber dropper caps on the top of most tincture bottles are also permeable to oxygen. So unless you are storing your tinctures in outer space then you are losing potency on your tinctures by the day just like powdered herbs.
this is a great way to preserve the properties of one's herbs
And again, what about the herbs that are neutralized by alcohol, or their chemistry is altered by the presence of alcohol? And we still have to keep in mind that all the beneficial properties of herbs ARE NOT extracted by tincturing or by making teas. In other words you are losing benefits of the herbs no matter how you want to look at it.
In fact, tinctures are primarily what he sels as he feel they are the best form to take herbs
Which is why he is outright lying about herbal powders. If he is telling the truth then explain to all of us how it is these "burnt herbs" still retain their original color and smell. It does not take a rocket scientist to see the herbs are not burnt as he claims.
and his are some of the best formulas on the planet in my view and that of many others.
And in my opinion and many others who really understand the chemistry and the side effects of the herbs he uses view the formulas to be some of the crappiest on the planet. I see formulas like his all over the market and I just shake my head in disbelief. You would think that someone claiming to be a master herbalist would keep up with modern herbology. Again we have come a long way in understanding the chemistry and effects of herbs over the last hundred years. The old traditional herbs are rarely the safest or most effective treatments. They use to use cocaine as a cure all. So do you also advocate still using cocaine to cure things since it is an old traditional herb? I hope not because again we have learned since then that there are safer and better herbs.
As an example let's take a look at his Kidney Cleanse formula:
Juniper Berries, Parsley, Uva Ursi, Marshmallow Root, Lobelia, Ginger & Golden Seal Root.
He makes the same mistake I see most often, which is adding a high tannin herb to a formula. And the most common herb this is done with is uva ursi. Tannins precipitate the active alkaloids and glycosides from herbs they are taken with. What this means is that when people make the common formulating mistake of adding high tannin herbs to a formulation they are actually DECREASING THE OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS of the formula by locking up many of the active constituents of the other herbs so they cannot be utilized by the body. I can easily spot formulas made by "textbook herbalists" by the basic mistakes they make like this. Textbook herbalists are people who read in a book somewhere or hear somewhere that _____ herb does _______ so they throw it is to the mix without a clue of how it is going to interact with the other ingredients for better or for worse.
Then there is the goldenseal I mentioned earlier, which kills the flora and damages the intestinal lining. At least he has parsley in there, which will help compensate for the potassium excreting effect of the goldenseal, although I doubt if that is why he put it in there. More likely it was for the diuretic effect.
Another big mistake he made was to combine juniper berry with uva ursi. Juniper berry stimulates the excretion of uric acid, which makes the urine more acidic. The problem is that uva ursi will not work in an acidic environment. Uva ursi contains two aglycones. When these aglycones hit the kidneys the glucose molecule is split off releasing the two hydroquinones. It is these hydroquinones that kill the infections in the urinary tract. But they require an alkaline environment to kill the infection. Again a common textbook herbalist mistake. If these herbalists would keep up with the modern research of these herbs then they would not be making such basic mistakes.
I chose to trust these wonderful natural healers who showed us the power of herbs and use the forms they recommended and used.
If you choose to trust their formulating mistakes then that is your problem. I prefer to rely on things I have seen work personally, which among other things include powdered herbs.
Cayenne is NOT overrated.
Yes it is!!!
I saw it stop three heart attacks in progress in my mother when nitro did nothing.
Nitroglycerine is not used to stop heart attacks, it is used to stop angina attacks. And once opened its potency is gone within a month since it also oxidizes. This is why so often people reach for their nitro and it has no effect on their angina. They did not realize that when they last opened that bottle a month or two earlier that they introducing oxygen that was destroying the potency of the drug.
By the way, a little more important trivia for you. It is not the actual heart attack that leads to most of the heart damage, it is the cardiac enzymes released afterward from the injury. So exactly how did the cayenne deal with these cardiac enzymes?
I saw it bring my mother's blood pressure on her deathbed from the 30s to the normal.
LOL!!!! Do you even know why the cayenne raised her blood pressure? It is called PAIN!!!! Pinching her hard would have had the same effect. The pain causes the adrenals to release epinephrine, which constricts the blood vessels raising the blood pressure. It also speeds up the heart and makes it work harder.
Dr Christopher credits cayenne with helping reverse his lifetime hypertension
You have a lot to learn about herbs and medicine. Hypertension can occur from a number of things. Calcium, angiotensin, epinephrine, sodium retention, elevated insulin, etc. Just because cayenne may have helped one case of hypertension does not mean it will work for everyone. That is like saying ephedra increased my energy so everyone should do it for an energy boost. What if the person has low energy from anemia? Do you think ephedra is going to cure their low energy? I hope not!!! Point is that conditions often have multiple causes and there is no one fix for all. And the reason I said "may have" above is I seriously doubt that this was the only thing he was doing. Who is to say that other herbs or a change in diet is not what cured his hypertension?
He also has a case story on his videos about a lady who saved a child's life who was accidentally shot with cayenne when the ambulance was 50 to 75 miles away..the lack of bleeding shocked the doctors doing the surgery as cayenne is so excellent at arresting bleeding.
Yes, along with dozens of other herbs such as horsetail grass, puffballs, Mormon tea leaves, bamboo, etc. This is because they coagulate the blood when applied directly to a wound. This is likely due to the cellulose in the plants that the blood is reacting with. But taken internally the cayenne is a blood thinner due to the high salicylate content.
I heard it is the only thing that can help save shock victims when they cannot get medical attention as well.
You know how shock is best treated when the hospital is a ways away? You elevate the patients legs about 6 inches so the blood flows back up to the chest cavity and brain. Passing out is a form of shock. Why do you think we fall down when this happens? it is to help get blood flow back to the critical organs including the brain!!!
The true bottom line is that herbs are amazing creations for the use of man and beast.
I totally agree when taken as Nature made them for our bodies. We don't find herbal tinctures in Nature. If we did then we would find that the herbs could have different effects or no effect on the body since they alcohol can alter the chemistry of the herbs sometimes even rendering them useless. I love herbs. I even teach classes on them and take people on herb walks several times a year to show them the medicinal and edible properties of the herbs. But I still prefer the herbs as they were intended for us to take by Nature.
3. For Uric Acid and Gout: Lemon juice 1 glass every day (I hear that Cherry juice will also help this condition)
Tart cherry juice, not sweet cherry. Raw apple juice from green apples will also work It is the malic acid in the tart cherries and green apples that dissolves the uric acid. You can also buy straight malic acid from wine making supply companies. Another benefit of malic acid is that it raises ATP levels, which helps the cells to function and function properly.
6. For Problems Breathing and Heart palpitaions: Hawthorn Berries - 4 Capsules of 500 mg or 2 capsules 1000 mg when needed.
Look for a combination of the flowers, leaves and berries since they work synergistically. The flowers are actually the strongest part of the plant, but it is not sold by itself. You can find the combination though.
There are better options though such as magnesium malate, which not only dilates the coronary artery to prevent the ectopic pacemakers that cause the palpitations, but it also dilates the bronchioles that help with breathing. I also like coleus forskohlii, which also dilates the blood vessels and bronchioles. Forskohlii also slows the heart contractions while strengthening the heart contractions making it a great choice for congestive heart failure. Taking it with nettle leaf will prolong the effects. Nettle leaf also strengthens the kidneys and reduces uric acid.
When I first came out of the hospital - whenever I had too much potassium - I had pain for days - which is why I finally settled for the things I posted.
With elevated potassium you need to be really careful with many of the kidney cleanses. They generally contain high potassium sources such as parsley they add as a diuretic.
thanks,Hveragerthi, for the info on reducing uric acid. I suffer from gout and becoming a vegan did not affect my getting it.
A person can get gout just as easily being a vegan as they can a full blown meat eater. Diet only plays a partial role in gout formation. There are other contributing factors such as hemolytic anemia, dehydration or the use of diuretics, alcohol, hypothyroidism, etc. And some foods that people don't realize that can contribute to gout include algaes/seaweeds and yeasts.
I heard of cherry juice but not the other things.
Also,aMn, Dr Jensen in his bowel cleansing book talks about when the toxins cannot comer out the bowel (and I would assume the bladder due to kidney malfunction) then they will try to come out the skin.
While this may not be what you had, here are some pictures (1-7) on a case history in pictures and what bowel cleansing did to heal.
http://curezone.com/image_gallery/skin/default.asp?i=0&n=11
Those photos look like cellulitis from an infection.
Looking at the nails and nail beds I would also say the man has a chronic oxygen deficiency as well.
I do suspect I have hypothyroidism as was recently told I have a multinodular goiter and all the symptoms but the t3/t4 test shows normal.
Lab tests frequently miss cases of hypothyroidism. Part of this is due to the temporary rise in thyroid hormones from the stress of going to the doctor. Another factor is elevation of rT3, which interferes with the body's use of T3. So a person can have normal TSH, T3 and T4 and still be hypothyroid. A more accurate way to determine thyroid function is through basal body temperature:
http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1446516#i
and they confirmed what my family doctor said that the thyroid will enlarge if you are not producing enough thyroid hormone.
Yes, it is called a goiter. The thyroid enlarges to compensate for the low thyroid hormone levels.
I do not want to take their ppi drugs.
Good, the PPIs will just give you more problems. Here are a few of my posts on GERD and the benefits of stomach acid:
http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1480855#i
http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1581539#i
I do not know what might make the lower esophagus valve tighter. Anyone?
It is not necessarily a matter of tightness. The LES is a muscle, and it tires out from all the pressure from the gas produced by fermentation. It is when the LES tires out that the LES relaxes allowing the reflux to occur. Stay away from anything with mints in it as well as mints relax the LES.
I never associated the intense coughing of clear phlegm and 6 hours coughing fits where I could scarcely breath when I trying to sleep with reflux as was told I had a number of things--chronic bronchitis, allergies, rhinitis and post nasal drip..(never tested just what doctors said) all this time never dreaming it was an esophagus/stomach problems but thinking the lungs were causing the problems so that is a long time to get one of the missing puzzle piece. I feel on my own..doctors do nothing but disappoint.
Silica, vitamin C sources and gotu kola can all help with the chronic bronchitis. The rhinitis and post nasal drip are likely associated with the allergies. You can get rid of allergies by building up the adrenal glands:
http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1494113#i
http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1527351#i
They said it always means you have too much stomach acid. I think they may be wrong
Yes, they are wrong. Excessive stomach acid (hyperchlorhydria) is extremely rare, and even more rare in adults as stomach acid levels decline with age.
This makes me very reluctant to take their drugs (ppi) plus I never take nay except for the occasional cochicine.
Colchicine does not get rid of the uric acid. It is an anti-inflammatory and it is very damaging to the liver. It is great for causing tetraploidy in plants though, which make for some great science fair experiments. For example making a giant geranium.
If anyone knows what might help any of the conditions I mentioned (sleep apnea, periodic limb movement disorder, delayed sleep phase syndrome (tried melatonin), silent reflux, gout, depression, thyroid (I also have other things but this is enough for now). I would be so grateful to know as I have suffered for so long (35 years of depression for instance) and fatigue for about 40 years... I am particular interested in knowing what might help my sleep disorders since I trace the sleep deprivations to so many things.
All of this can be addressed. It may take some detective work though to find out the cause of some of the issues. For example hypothyroidism and gout both have numerous causes. On the other hand some of this going to be interrelated. Hypothyroidism for example can cause sleep issues and depression.
It is best to focus on a few things at a time since they can be interrelated and how you respond or don't respond are clues to underlying disorders.
A few suggestions to start with are magnesium malate with extra malic acid for the gout, breathing and the periodic limb movement. Magnesium is also important for blood sugar regulation. Recommended dose is 300mg 2 to 3 times daily. Do not take it with calcium since many of its actions are as a calcium channel blocker. Nettle leaf will help lower uric acid and also supports the thyroid. Juniper berry stimulates uric acid secretion and also lowers blood sugar and increases stomach acidity and enzymes.
Keep a log of what you take and how you respond. Again this will provide clues to underlying issues.
Here are some articles that explain how lemons help people with gout.
Lemon juice contains malic acid as well, which is what dissolves the uric acid. But the malic acid content is very low compared to green apples or tart cherries.
That's good to know. I have never really liked to eat green aapples - I have a hard time with green apples - but the tart cherries will be fine. It is mainly a taste preference thing. Lol!
You can buy pure malic acid from wine making supply companies for about $4.50 a pound. I add a little to my water with some flavored stevia.
I have been having problms with my eyes lately - is that due to my liver - you think? That is what I am feeling - That is has nothing to do with my kidneys - but it's problems with my liver.
Eye problems can be a number of things. Astigmatism, optic nerve damage, glaucoma, macular degeneration, low pigment levels, globe distortion from stress, detached retina, changes in the vitreous humor.............
What do you know about vitreous detachment...sudden onset of floaters and flashers?What is the cause and treatment?Thanks.
Posted an answer here:
http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1657707#i