Burdock and Red Clover: Your Pimple Problems Are Over

Adults with acne can follow the same herbal advice for teenagers by using burdock root to cleanse the blood. For men or women, red clover (Trifolium pratense) taken internally has been an excellent herb for cleansing the blood and clearing up skin ailments such as acne. You can support the liver (which filters excess hormones from the blood) to get to the source of your problem. Take two to three tablets of either burdock, milk thistle, red clover, or dandelion two to three times daily to help your face clear up.
Red clover has been used for centuries as a key herbal ingredient in fighting cancer because of its effect on cleansing the blood and liver and assisting with protein assimilation.
Both men and women can take supplemental zinc, vitamins A and D, and niacin. All have proven helpful for acne. Zinc helps in skin healing of any kind, vitamins A and D feed the skin, and niacin helps flush builtup wastes from the circulatory system.

Adult Acne: A More Mature Approach

If you are a female adult and you suddenly begin to break out with pimples, my first suggestion would be to get a check-up by your obstetrician or gynecologist. Have the doctor check for any type of reproductive organ problems, growths, or any other problems. If you are on any type of hormonal replacement therapy or any medications that have an effect on your hormones, have your dosage checked. A sudden acne or pimple problem can mean that your hormones are fluctuating—and you need to know why! If your doctor finds no problem, regulating your hormones with the use of herbs can help calm them down or tone them up, whichever may be needed. Note any changes in your diet or facial products that could have caused a temporary break-out. Some adults who pick up coffee drinking as a new habit will quickly be burdened with new blemishes; the oil from the coffee beans may be the cause of a break-out. What? No more afternoon cappuccinos?

How to prevent acne?

Topically, keep your face clean and apply tea tree oil to infected pimples. The tea tree oil is very drying, so use it topically to help dry up infection. Be careful that you don’t apply it so often that it makes your skin dry and flaky, however. A tea tree oil soap is very effective for washing and drying up infection at the same time. Tea tree oil is antiseptic and anti-fungal, prevents infections, and even acts as a local anesthetic to reduce pain. A little sunshine on your face will not only help you get some vitamin D, which helps the skin, but will also help to clear your acne condition. But of course don’t overdo the sunshine!
Finally, stay away from junk food! Excess caffeine, sugar, and oily fats overburdens the liver and defeats your goal. Drink plenty of pure water; adding some lemon to your drinking water will help, too—vitamin C content in the lemon will help cure skin problems, and lemon is a good tonic for the live

Using Burdock Root for Cleaning the Blood

One of the best-known blood cleansers to herbalists is burdock root. Burdock (Arctium lappa) not only cleanses the blood of excess wastes, but it also helps your glands regulate hormonal balance. Burdock seems to be very politically active—it is against everything! Burdock is anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumor. These qualities make it helpful for anti-acne, too.
Burdock seems to work well for cleansing the liver, kidneys, and bowel, and is therefore helpful for clearing up associated symptoms. Soak a cotton ball in a burdock fomentation or tea and apply to your face for a toning effect. Burdock has also been used to ease anger, irritability, cancer, eczema, chicken pox, measles, and mumps. It has been used as a hair rinse for dandruff, and the juice has been drunk to rid the body of mites. Burdock also may serve as a mild aphrodisiac. Females who need a little more help regulating those hormones can add extra herbs that support balance for the glands, such as black cohosh, red raspberry, dong quai, and evening primrose oil. Adolescent males need balance, too, and can take sarsaparilla in addition to burdock root for a glandular balancing act. Sarsaparilla has been referred to as a “cowboy tonic” because cowboys used to order sarsaparilla (root beer) in the late 1800s and believed it to be a cure for syphilis.

Herbal Cure for Teen Zit

As if being a teenager isn’t hard enough, now you have pimples to deal with! No doubt this condition is annoying, but before you cancel your engagements for the rest of your life, read on to see how herbs can help. The liver is instrumental in filtering away excess hormones. In the teen years, our body fluctuates its hormone production—sometimes wildly. Therefore, when our liver (which is responsible for filtering excess hormones from the blood) can’t keep up with this pace, we find the excess hormones in the blood showing up as acne or pimples on the face.
Making up for the insufficient liver-filtering function by cleansing the blood and liver is an effective approach toward clearing up the problem. Additionally, cleansing the bowel helps get rid of toxins through the intestinal system instead of the skin—a nicer way to go!

Acne: Squeezing Out a Cure

Acne is a condition of the skin in which oil produced by your glands just below the skin gets trapped, producing inflammation—and usually infection. Unfortunately, acne commonly occurs on the face, making it an unsightly problem that needs to be cleared up once and for all.
Keeping the face clean is certainly important when suffering from acne, but a dirty face is not usually the core problem. Acne occurs because of overactive glands, usually hormonally induced. In addition, excess toxins usually are present in the blood and are being eliminated through the skin, causing skin conditions such as acne, pimples, and/or rashes.

Herb remedies for Pets

Problem: Dog Breath
Herbal Remedy: Liquid chlorophyll (Also it is a good idea to keep the kitty litter box inaccessible to dogs who take pleasure in dining on kitty ‘treats.’ This habit is definitely a breath destroyer!)
Administration: In water or straight; acts as a deodorizer in the body.

Problem: Fleas
Herbal Remedy: Garlic
Administration: Add to food. Externally, eucalyptus oil sprayed on fur is a natural repellent. You can also drip a few drops directly onto the skin and rub it in. The back of the neck is most effective, and makes it harder for your pet to lick off. Nutritional yeast flakes added to pet food have been helpful. Internally, highpotency garlic or garlic oil is best—this way you are getting a concentrated form over raw garlic, although raw garlic works well, too. Fleas and other pests hate the smell of garlic in the blood and will usually flee—this goes for some humans, too!

Problem: Foul gas
Herbal Remedy: Alfalfa pills or liquid chlorophyll
Administration: Crush and sprinkle on food, or add liquid chlorophyll to water. Has a deodorizing affect and will support digestion. (Hint: Make sure it is your pet and not your roommate that is the culprit. If so, offer some alfalfa or activated charcoal to your roommate!)

Problem: Structural problems
Herbal Remedy: Alfalfa, liquid chlorophyll, and olive oil
Administration: Crush alfalfa tablets, sprinkle on food, and mix with olive oil. Add liquid chlorophyll to drinking water.

Problem: Kidney/urinary tract problems
Herbal Remedy: Parsley
Administration: Chop fresh and add to food, or give in pill form if easier. Parsley helps clean the urinary tract, if stones are present, decreases pets’ protein intake, and supplements them with hydrangea, an herb used as a stone solvent.

Herbs for Pets

Domestic pets need supplements because they are not part of the wild food chain in nature, which would supply them everything they need. Many domestic animals now suffer the same diseases that are suffered by humans, and pets can benefit from herbal supplements to help prevent these problems.

Usually when a pet has an upset stomach, it will try to find some grass to chew on. When your carnivorous pet chews on grass, it is because he is craving the chlorophyll from the green blades. Chlorophyll is rich in nutrients and minerals. You can put some liquid chlorophyll in your pet’s water dish in the winter, when there might not be any grass available to munch on.

I tried an experiment with my own two dogs and chlorophyll: One had definite digestive troubles, and the other was lacking minerals, as recognized by his creaking joints. I set out three bowls of water, one with chlorophyll added, one with aloe vera added, and one just plain. After smelling each one, the dog that had arthritis drank up
the chlorophyll. The one with digestive troubles chose the aloe vera. From then on, I
added these to their water, with good results, including taking away my dogs’ dog breath. The one with stiff joints seemed more limber, and the other was less gaseous—both made my home life much more pleasant.

Of course, liquid herbs are the easiest to administer to pets. You can also coat tablets or capsules in butter or some other food to get your dog to eat them. Most of the time they won’t even know you have slipped them an herb! Cats are pickier eaters, so it may be wise to forget your carefully hidden pill placement and administer their herbs via a liquid or tincture.

The next table lists some common pet problems and some simple remedies you can use to help. Who knows, by feeding your dog herbs, you just might be able to teach an old dog new tricks!

A Childish Look at Herbs for Kids

Children generally respond very well and quickly to herbal remedies. This is because their bodies are small, and they haven’t had years of polluting themselves to compensate for.
Children also usually respond better to single herbs versus herbal combinations; babies respond best to a single herb in a liquid form. The older they are, the better able children are to take a few different combinations. Herb manufacturers make chewable or liquid herbs that are easy to administer to children. Make sure that your child’s chewable herbs or vitamins are not sweetened with artificial flavors and colored with dyes! The same quality that you find in your herbs apply to children’s supplements as well. Artificial and synthetic materials are more likely to cause reactions in a child’s body.

The same herbs that work gently for adults are also appropriate for kids. The following table includes several herbs that are ideal for children and that can be used safely in herbal remedies.
A good rule of thumb for discerning dosages for children is given here by Master Weight of child in pounds = fraction of adult dose to be used

Example: The average weight of an adult is 150 pounds. Divide the weight of the child
by 150.

50 pound child/150 pound adult = 1/3 of the adult recommended dosage

When administering herbs to your children, it is best to start out with small doses and work your way up until results are achieved.

Shaping Up After Pregnancy with Herbs

Although nursing your baby will help you burn up more calories and swing your body back in to shape more quickly, some moms still need a little quicker boost after baby is weaned.
Herbs to help get your body back into shape will include herbs that act as appetite suppressants and fat burners that increase thermogenesis. Thermogenesis is the process of raising body temperature to speed up the body metabolism, which in turn helps your body burn more calories.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to cleanse before you were pregnant and nursing, after you are done nursing is a great time to go on a good cleansing. A weight-loss program following a good cleanse is a way to give your body a jump-start—and you might just lose the extra weight with only a cleanse! Try Ivy’s Colon Cleanse drink recipe earlier in this section.

After cleansing, herbs can be combined and used for weight loss. Some single herbs used for weight loss include chickweed, psyllium hulls, lecithin, and ma huang. Chickweed acts as a mild appetite suppressant and is a natural source of lecithin; lecithin is a fat emulsifier; and psyllium grabs the fat from your foods before your body has a chance to absorb it. This is especially effective if taken 15 to 20 minutes before meals. For information on general weight loss.
Try these herbs to shape up with after nursing:

• Psyllium hulls
• Lecithin
• Chickweed
• Ma huang
• White willow bark
• Licorice root

Ma huang, a Chinese herb that’s also known as Chinese ephedra, is an herb that is best combined with white willow bark, which helps balance its effect for weight loss. Ma huang promotes thermogenesis and should never be taken with caffeine—the intensified “upper” affect can push your body into overdrive.

People with sensitive systems, heart problems, or hypertension can have serious trouble with this mixture. Responsible companies who have a deep understanding of herbology will not combine ma huang and caffeine-containing herbs in their products.

Herbs for Breastfeeding Mom

Breastfeeding your baby is one of the best ways to ensure a strong nutritional foundation for your child.
Babies’ benefits from being nursed include these:

• Helps build a relationship with Mom
• Supports a strong nutritional foundation
• Builds the immune system
• Supplies the healthy intestinal flora in the intestinal tract And for Mom:
• Tones the uterus
• Helps bond with the baby
• Burns excess calories
• Can serve as a relaxing experience A mom can enhance her own breast milk using herbs that also give her baby good nourishment.

Herbs taken during pregnancy should be continued during the nursing period to ensure proper nutrition for baby. Remember that all herbs, medications, and foods you take will be passed to your baby through your breast milk. So continue to eat well, and avoid taking any medications (unless prescribed by your physician), harsh herbs (see the following list of herbs to avoid), or very spicy foods because they can upset your baby’s very small digestive system.

Herbs you can add to enrich breast milk include nettle leaves, spirulina (rich in chlorophyll, amino acids, and enzymes), and alfalfa.
And, as my friend who has borne seven (count them, seven) children of her own and breastfed every one wanted me to let you know that a mom also needs lots of extra water (beyond the normal daily intake) because the requirement for water goes up when breastfeeding.

Using herbs for a Smoother Delivery

The proper use of herbs will assist you through the entire birthing process, for before, during, and after pregnancy. A combination used by many moms in daily small doses, five weeks before the due date is a mixture of black cohosh, squawvine, dong quai, butcher’s broom, and red raspberry. Moms who have tried it attest that the combination supported the uterus to carry to full term, prevented premature births, helped with the pain of childbirth, and decreased blood loss during and after delivery.
Search out this combination or have an herbalist mix you up a batch.

Every mom I know who has used it has reported excellent results. Consult your doctor or midwife before beginning to take this combination. Congratulations! Now that you used herbs to cleanse, build, and prepare your body for conception, nourished your body and growing fetus for nine months, and used herbs to combat pregnancy discomforts and aid in your delivery, you can consider your baby an herbal baby!

Don’t be surprised if you earned the “Earth Mother” reputation with your OB/GYN, especially if you decide to name your baby Herb! With all the efforts you put into your health up to this point, you will still need to continue this regimen during the nursing time for yourself and your child. Let’s take a look at why breastfeeding is such a fantastic and natural part of life, and how to enhance the process with herbs.

Herbs for Pregnant Woman

So, now you’ve done your cleanse and broken those bad habits and are feeling clean, trim, and clear. Next you need to begin to build up your body with nutrients.
Building your nutritional reserves with herbs rich in calcium, iron, and B vitamins will all work to ensure a healthy pregnancy for you and the little one. All these nutrients will be good not only prepare your body for pregnancy, but will carry you through your nine months and will even help nourish you and baby during nursing time.
If you are already pregnant and haven’t had time to build up your reserves, don’t fret! You can begin right now taking your nutrients. A non-synthetic pre-natal vitamin is excellent to cover your bases, and may be prescribed by your doctor. Your herbalist may have a quality source for you also. Compare your options and decide which is best for you. Make sure your prenatal vitamin contains extra folic acid and calcium.
Once a fetus begins to grow, the body will take what it needs from the mother. If you (as the mom) are not getting the right nutrients, your body can rob your body’s reserves to support the growing fetus. This can lead to uncomfortable symptoms and ailments.

Anemia is a common problem during pregnancy. To avoid anemia, you will want to build a good red blood count. Herbs that can help are rich in iron and include dark green drinks, such as liquid chlorophyll or wheat grass juice. Others are not necessarily green but also are rich in organic iron; these include yellow dock, dandelion, and nettle leaves.
We all know that calcium helps build strong bones and teeth, and calcium is a mineral that helps in bone growth during fetal development. Many believe that we need to drink milk to receive calcium. If this is so, then how do you think the cows produce all that excess calcium-rich milk and maintain those strong bones and hoofs without drinking cow’s milk throughout their life?

That’s right—the grass! The green plants provide much usable calcium for the body. Calcium-rich herbs safe for pregnancy include alfalfa, liquid chlorophyll, fennel, parsley, horsetail, and oatstraw. After you have constructed an nutritional herbal program to ensure you are getting enough vitamins and minerals to support a growing fetus, there are some extra herbs you can use to strengthen your body for the actual birthing process and to aid some symptoms that frequently accompany pregnancy. Let’s take a look at some common symptoms and their herbal solutions.
Red raspberry is an herb that strengthens the uterus and reproductive organs and can even enhance fertility. Red raspberry tea can be sipped during pregnancy and has helped many moms to overcome nausea.

Some moms get constipated during pregnancy, because the same hormone that maintains the pregnancy also decreases the movement of the bowel. One of the safest herbs you can use for constipation during pregnancy is psyllium hulls, or psyllium husks (pronounced silly-um). Psyllium is a fiber that swells in water and that acts as a intestinal broom, picking up and sweeping away debris from the colon. The colon is a muscle that needs fiber foods that strengthen it by giving it something to resist against during peristaltic action. Peristaltic action is the wavelike movement the bowel makes to move things along. Most foods we eat offer no fibrous content, so our colon winds up getting flaccid and lazy, making constipation and hemorrhoids (because of pressure on the lower organs of the body) more common. Psyllium helps keep you going (so to speak) and is safe for the baby as well.

One of the best herbal remedies for nausea or morning sickness during pregnancy is ginger root. Used as a spice in many Indian dishes, ginger also can be taken in a tea or capsules, and some people even like the taste enough to purchase candied ginger for nibbling. Ginger is a restorative herb, which means that it activates the body to bring it into balance.

Consuming herbs before pregnancy

You can again remember your ABCs to herbs before, during, and after pregnancy. Before pregnancy you will be cleansing. During pregnancy you will be building and after pregnancy, and when nursing you will be activating your body to get it back into shape again.
The three steps to herbally plan for a smoother and healthy pregnancy are:

1. Cleansing with the use of herbs
2. Nourishing (building) the body with herbal nutrients
3. Activating and toning the body and reproductive organs It is wise to begin preparing your body up to a year before conception. First, do some cleansing. An overloaded liver is usually the culprit that causes morning sickness, so a cleansing and building program for the liver and bowel can help prevent illness during those first few months of pregnancy.

You can use a wonderful general cleansing remedy designed by herbalist Ivy Bridge.
This cleanse can be used and should only be used well before conception and then
again after you deliver and have stopped nursing. Here’s the recipe, generously donated
by Ivy for your health:

Ivy Bridge’s Colon Cleanse

• 1/2 glass of apple juice (organic and no sugar is best, but use your favorite brand
• otherwise)
• 2 tablespoons aloe vera juice (if using a whole-leaf aloe vera you’ll only need
• 1 tablespoon)
• 2 tablespoons liquid chlorophyll
• 8 capsules psyllium hulls (or 1 teaspoon loose powder)
• 2 capsules cascara sagrada

Blend aloe vera juice and chlorophyll into apple juice. If you are using powdered psyllium instead of capsules, stir in the psyllium and drink down quickly; psyllium will expand in water. Swallow your cascara sagrada capsules with a full (at least 8 ounces) glass of pure water.
Use this formula mixture first thing in the morning every day for 60 days. Make sure to drink at least 8 to 10 glasses of water each day.

Ivy’s formula has been used by many to cleanse the lower bowel of poisons, strengthen the digestive and intestinal track, lower cholesterol, build blood, soothe acid conditions, aid fat loss, and stimulate bile flow from the liver.
In addition to this cleanse, one to three capsules/tablets of milk thistle (or ½ to 1 teaspoon of tincture) may be taken daily. Milk thistle helps the liver break down and excrete poisons, promotes bile flow, acts as a mild laxative, decongests blood circulation to the liver, and protects the liver cells from damage.

As with any cleansing, you may experience new sensations you didn’t know you could feel! Intestinal rumblings, stomach growls, initial intestinal gas, and many trips to the bathroom can all be part of the cleansing process. Use caution if you get diarrhea and cut back on your cascara capsules if you are too uncomfortable. The initial grumblings and mumblings of your intestines should settle down in a few days. Think of it as a power car wash blasting out years of built-up dirt. The cleaner you get, the less “mud splattering,” until finally you are balanced and internally clean.
The more positive effects you may feel include a lighter feeling, clearer skin, weight loss, loss of cravings for junk food, clean breath, and less body odor. The psyllium hulls swell in water, which makes you feel satisfied and less hungry. This is one of the reasons why many lose excess weight on the program.

After cleansing, you will want to begin a nutritious herbal building program that can be continued from up to a year or any time before conception, through pregnancy, and all during nursing. Let’s talk next about what herbs and nutrients are critical for a healthy pregnancy.

Pregnancy and Herbs

Herbs can support an easier pregnancy by helping alleviate morning sickness, mood swings, leg cramps, hemorrhoids, constipation, and anemia. They can also be used for nourishing and strengthening the body to support a growing, healthy fetus.
Some herbs are best used to prepare your body before pregnancy. Then there are herbs you can use to support your body and the future health of your child during gestation; many of these herbs will help enrich your breast milk during the nursing period. Finally, thank goodness, other herbs can help your body get back into shape again. And some herbs, of course, should be completely avoided during pregnancy.

How to Choose the Right Herbs Combinations?

How do you know what combinations of herbs to choose? Don’t worry— it will be spelled out for you. Combinations are excellent because you can take just one pill that contains several different herbs for a specific body system. For instance, instead of purchasing fenugreek and thyme separately to help you eliminate mucus and boost the immune (many take these herbs when suffering from bronchitis), you can obtain one combination pill that contains both these herbs. Hey, it saves space and allows you to take some other herbs without having a bottle of every single herb you need filling up your countertops! Taking combinations can save you money also since you only need to buy one bottle and not two or more to get the same synergistic effects one bottle of a combination provides.

When you see a combination of two or more herbs together in future tables, it’s because the combinations are working synergistically and usually serve a few different purposes to help you with an ailment. If you cannot find a combination that I suggest in future tables (hint: I know they are out there) then don’t hesitate to combine your own using singles or bulk herbs. Let’s look at some other combinations that work synergistically.

Lobelia and St. John’s wort is one combination that many smokers use to help them quit. The lobelia is calming and has an effect similar to nicotine in the body. St. John’s wort has been used to fight mild depression sometimes associated with breaking an addictive physical habit.
Capsicum with garlic and parsley is another synergistic combination utilized for its positive effect on the circulatory system. The parsley serves as a deodorizer that helps mask the unpleasantness of garlic breath!
Combinations are excellent; nevertheless, each person is chemically a little bit different, so some will respond better to a few single herbs and others to combinations.
The positive affirmation you made by purchasing and reading this book alone proves you are ready to continue learning and take more responsibility for your health and life. Although the road to total health through natural means is not necessarily a piece of tofu cake, the rewards you earn are vitality, clear thinking, emotional control, vibrancy, and energy—well worth working for, wouldn’t you say? Once you begin using herbs, you instantly become more aware of your body and you will feel how herbs can enhance your life and health. If you are interested in studying herbology, start studying now because it’s a vast and wonderful journey—oh, and don’t forget to take your ginkgo biloba to boost your memory while you learn!

Hot, Cold, Wet, or Dry: Which Do I Apply?

To get the right synergy and energetic combination, consider the nature of your symptoms. You can use four general descriptions—hot, cold, wet, and dry—to categorize your illness, and these can be matched to four general effects that herbs have on the body.

You can determine whether an herb is hot, cold, wet, or dry by its taste, smell, touch, and sometimes just by its appearance. For instance, slippery elm, when tasted, will have a slippery feel on your tongue. This means that the herb has a wet characteristic that can be used for dry conditions in the body. The slippery elm, being mucilaginous, is soothing to the body tissues; I use it if I get a dry, scratchy throat from talking too much! An example of the hot category is the herb capsicum, which is the fruit of the cayenne pepper plant. Capsicum is a very hot herb indeed—and one taste on the tip of your tongue will prove it! Another clue that capsicum is hot is its red color. If you are cold and lacking circulation, capsicum would be a great herb to help you generate some heat.

A dry herb in energetics is an herb that causes your tissues to dry up. Most of these herbs are referred to as astringents or sour herbs. A good example is white oak bark, which is used to tighten and dry up swollen tissues and blisters. An example of a cooling (cold) effect from an herb is aloe vera, which is also a mucilaginous herb. This herb has both a cooling and a moistening effect on the body. If you were hot and dry, drinking a little aloe vera in your water would help you cool down and would moisten your tissues.

Try your own taste test with each of these herbs and see for yourself the effect it has on you. Open a capsule of capsicum and dab some on your tongue. It won’t be long before you’ll be reaching for that cooling sip of aloe vera! You will feel the white oak bark tighten your tongue, and you’ll sense the sliminess of the slippery elm when you moisten it. This experiment will really get you in touch with energetics.

Adjusting Herbal Remedies to Your Needs

If you aren’t working with an herbalist, or someone educated in herbology, you will need to experiment somewhat on how much or how many herbs your body needs to get results. Larger people sometimes need larger doses, and smaller people need smaller doses. Children usually need very little amounts and respond quickly to herbal remedies.
If you are especially sensitive to medications or foods it is best to start out with smaller doses than what is recommended on a label. It’s always best to get little or no results and work your way up than to bombard yourself with too much, which can bring on an uncomfortable cleansing.
Sometimes it takes a couple days to feel the effects of an herb. This is especially true with the cleansing-type herbs, so it’s a good idea to take the recommended dosage for a few days and wait for any changes. If you are not seeing a change, in-crease what you are taking daily until you start seeing changes in your body.

Synergistical Approach on Herbs

Why is it that one herb doesn’t seem to help change how you feel, but three or four in combination can change your life? This is called synergy. Synergy is the effect you get when everything is working complementary with one another. You may require the benefits of the synergist effects of more than one herb to help your body get back into shape.

Many herbs work synergistically with each other just like a nice wine goes with a certain meal. On the contrary, some herbs can actually cancel each other out because they have opposite effects on each other. (Kind of like onions and ice cream!) Unfortunately, there is no such thing as the magic herb, although sometimes an herb added to a few other herbs can serve as a catalyst that helps boost the effects of the others. Some herbs just make good teams together; for instance, capsicum is an activating herb that works synergistically with many herbs to enhance the effect of the other. Herbal companies who know this will add a pinch of capsicum to their herbal formulas for this synergistic and enhancing effect.

Many herbalists and nutritionists believe that what can prevent a sickness also can cure it. If your disease was caused by a lack of nutrients in the first place, then it makes sense that feeding that nutrient back to your body will return you to your normal functions. Take scurvy, for example. It is caused by a lack of vitamin C.
We not only use foods rich in vitamin C to prevent scurvy, but it is also the remedy for this disease.

An Energetic Approach on Herbs

Energetics is an interesting and complex approach to herbology, but once you get the hang of it, it can be fun and very effective in choosing the right herbal remedy for your body. Used in this context, energetics is considered the energy, the nature, or the personality of an herb and the effect it has on you when you take it. When you assess the nature of your illness, you can choose a herb with a more balancing or complementary energy.

For instance, if you don’t take into account the energetics of a cough, then you might assume that a cherry bark cough syrup is what you need. After all, cherry bark has been used successfully by many to tame coughing. However, if you have a dry cough and you take cherry bark, your cough will worsen because cherry bark has a very drying effect on the tissues. It works great for those with a loose, phelgmy cough, but you are better off with a different remedy for a dry cough—you might try slippery elm or licorice root, which soothe dry, irritated tissues.
Energetics is a very deep subject that’s just briefly introduced so that you can understand why not just one herb works for everyone’s cough. Where appropriate throughout this book, I have provided suggestions for each ailment to help you choose the best remedy for your needs.

This quote, by Leonardo da Vinci, explains quite eloquently the holistic view of an energetic approach to healing:
“You know that medicines when well used restore health to the sick: they will be well used when the doctor together with his understanding of their nature shall understand also what man is, what life is, and what constitution and health are. Know these well and you will know their opposites; and when this is the case you will know well how to devise a remedy.”

An Energetic and Synergistic Look at Herbs

Sometimes you will hear about an herb’s energetic effect on the body, or you will hear an herbalist say that a combination of herbs works synergistically together. What’s all this about?
Energetics describes the personality, energy, and general characteristics of herbs. It’s also used to categorize how an herb or a food reacts to our body when we taste, smell, and ingest it. Synergy is a term used to describe how herbs work together. We can have a synergistic relationship with our friends, but not our enemies! Working synergistically together is basically working in harmony to enhance the effects of each other.