Health News Blog provides coverage of current health news.

Herbs contain all the essentials of their flavour and aroma right from the tiny seedling stage, and if you forget to label them or the label has washed off, bruise one of the tiny leaves and taste and smell it, and you should be able to identify the plant.

Never leave the plastic covering over the seed boxes all the time, for fungus and mould may grow in the damp soil. The purists will want to sterilize the seed-box soil first by putting it in a baking dish in a warm oven for about 20 minutes, or running hot water through the soil to kill the spores: but with ordinary care this should not be necessary. Watering with camomile tea (See Camomile) will stop “damping off.

Always buy your herb seeds from a reputable source. Most seed merchants are now carrying stocks, but beware of those dusty sun-bleached packets on the back shelf in the hardware store. Your nursery is the best bet. Their turnover is high, ensuring that the seed is always the freshest available, their suppliers are reliable, and their reputation is at stake.

*17\181\8*

The name comes from the Greek tanacetum, immortality, and it was the legendary herb given by Mercury, on Jupiter’s orders, to Ganymede to make him the gods’ immortal cupbearer. The “everlasting” qualities of tansy are attributable not only to the long life of its dried blooms, but also perhaps to its poisonous qualities if it is taken to excess. So use it only sparingly.

Culpeper had an abstruse comment to make about tansy; “Let those women that desire children love this herb; it is their best companion, their husbands excepted.” Just how it was to be made use of, sadly he did not explain.

The leaves of tansy were often steeped in white wine and used as a regular face-wash to whiten the skin.

On Easter Sunday be the pudding seen To which the tansy lends her sober green.

A tradition dating from Jewish rituals at Passover spread in England to become a country habit at Easter. Tansy, one of the first herbs to spring into growth after the winter snows, was used to flavour the Easter pudding, symbolizing the return of life and warmth to the soil. On a more mundane level, its use is ascribed to helping to rid the body of the wind-producing foods of Lent.

*140\181\8*

Grow marjoram in a sunny spot in light soil, with a good deal of water during the heat of the summer. It will withstand dryness, but like most herbs grows even more contentedly with water to keep its rather soft leaves in good condition. It is evergreen, and a hardy perennial, but its flavour may deteriorate after several years, so it is best to strike cuttings or layer it to ensure a continuing supply of young plants with which to replace the older ones every 3 or 4 years. My own favourite marjoram plant is now 4 years old, and showing no signs of senility; but to be on the safe side I have several young plants waiting in the wings in other parts of the garden. Cuttings will root readily if taken in early spring before any flowering stems are formed, or in early autumn when the stalks are strong and more woody, and less likely to wilt. Take slips with some old wood attached.

*110\181\8*

Taraxacum officinale COMPOSITAE

The common “dandelion is probably the most underestimated and maligned “weed” ever to be consigned to the rubbish-heap. For generations, gardeners have complained about the plant’s encroachment into the flower and vegetable domain, and the difficulty in completely eradicating the tenacious roots and prolific seed heads. Dandelions, in spite of them, keep coming up smiling and, for the good of our health, it is just as well they do! Just listen to a record of their virtues: They contain potassium and calcium salts, manganese, sodium, sulphur, vitamins A, B, C and D, and that necessary liver-regulating substance, choline. The plants will grow and prosper only near human habitation, and are found all over the world wherever man has pushed back indigenous trees, shrubs and grasses. In comes the “stirrer” (its botanical name comes from the Greek taraxis—to stir up), insistently reminding gardeners of its often unrecognized value.

Star-disked dandelions, just as we see them lying in the grass like sparks that have leaped from the kindling sun of summer.

Oliver Wendell Holmes followed the lead of the ancient philosophers who placed dandelions under the dominion of the Sun. The leaves of the plants were used as a general spring tonic and blood purifier as soon as the first warm weather brought them into full growth. Their potency is greatest in spring and summer. During these seasons, the milky juice from the stems and leaves can be dropped carefully on to any warts on the skin. With repeated applications, the warts will soon blacken, shrivel, and drop off altogether.

*79\181\8*

Recipes using basil are legion. It can flavour almost any Mediterranean or Asian dish to advantage, particularly when ingredients from the warm sunny areas are used. It should always be used fresh, or added at the last minute if cooking, for the flavour becomes very bitter if it is heated for long periods. Basil is, by legend, a “herb of Mars”, a very powerful “masculine” one. Use it sparingly. One or two leaves of the sweet variety will flavour a whole dish. Try steeping a small handful of the herb in hock or chablis at room temperature for 24 hours, then chill again before serving. Try it in a salad bowl, one or two leaves chopped over fresh tomatoes, or egg dishes.

Omelette Sauce

Here is a Basque recipe.

4 small tomatoes

1 1\2 tablespoons olive oil

Raw sugar

Basil

Lemon juice (1 teaspoon), salt

Chop the tomatoes, simmer in the olive oil, sprinkle lightly with the sugar, add salt. Simmer 5 minutes. Add chopped basil, simmer one minute, add the lemon juice, and blend all together well. Pour over omelette.

Pesto Sauce

From Genoa comes the traditional sauce for all pasta dishes.

4 tablespoons fresh chopped basil

2 tablespoons ground pine nuts (or walnuts)

3 garlic cloves, crushed

3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

5 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons melted butter

Pound basil, nuts and garlic in a mortar with the pestle (hence the name). When quite crushed, add the cheese and pound till a thick puree is formed. Slowly add oil and butter bit by bit, grinding as you go. Blend all well together. The sauce can be gently heated for a few moments before pouring over the pasta.

Greek Meze

Here is another delicacy from the Mediterranean, an appetizer, served on hot toasted bread fingers.

2 oz. black olives (stoned) finely minced

1 hardboiled egg (discard most of the white)

2 tablespoons olive oil

teaspoons lemon juice. Several leaves chopped basil

1 tablespoon fried onion

Blend all well together, and refrigerate till needed. Can be made the day before, but if so add the basil an hour before serving, and bring to room temperature.

A Sauce with Basil for Spaghetti

2 or 3 zucchini 1 green pepper

1 crushed garlic clove

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 large tomatoes

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon anchovy paste

a few capers

several black olives

4 to 6 leaves sweet basil

8 oz. spaghetti

Saute the zucchini, green pepper and garlic lightly in the oil. Then add tomatoes, salt and pepper, and cook slowly for about 10 minutes over low heat. Add the anchovy paste, capers, olives and basil and cook a further 5 minutes. Pour this mixture over the cooked and drained spaghetti, and serve piping hot.

*49\181\8*

You will now be giving yourself silent suggestions. Stay relaxed and realize you are not giving yourself orders. So avoid any intense or compulsive feeling. Just place your awareness on the limb you wish to relax. Silently say the suggested phrases to yourself and create a mental picture of the limb deeply relaxed. You might also try to visualize your limb as made of cotton or strands of wool. In any case, let everything just happen. Don’t try to force or hurry the process. If a daydream intrudes, slide the unwanted thought aside and return to your imagery. Place your awareness on the right shoulder. Slowly repeat the words, “Relax, relax, relax.” Keep repeating this phrase as you let your awareness move steadily down your arm to your elbow and on down to the wrist, hand and fingers. As you mentally relax your arm, visualize it deflating as though you were letting air out of an inner tube. Relax your entire arm from shoulder to fingertips. As you repeat the phrase, “Relax, relax, relax,” visualize your arm becoming heavy, limp and quiet.

Then, muscle by muscle, go over your entire body. Mentally relax the left arm, right leg, left leg, buttocks, abdomen and neck muscles. After your neck is relaxed, keep your awareness moving up over the scalp to the forehead. Tell yourself, “My forehead feels smooth and unwrinkled. My eyes are quiet. My face is soft and relaxed. My tongue is limp: My jaw is slack” Place your awareness on the respective area as you repeat each phrase several times.

As you make a mental picture of each limb totally relaxed, you are also giving a strong suggestion to the limb to relax. As this technique drains away all leftover tension, you will enter a wonderfully satisfying state of relaxed peace and calm.

*215\30\4*

Assuming you do not have a fever, take a long relaxing soak in a hot tub bath. If only a shower is available, run the water as hot as possible over each part of your body but especially the back and shoulders and the back of the neck. Pour a teaspoon of lemon juice into a cup of black tea or, if you prefer, a herb tea such as chamomile or peppermint. Then rest in a warm bed, sip the tea and read a good book. Continue to drink plenty of fluids.

If your infection turns out to be flu you should remain in bed for as long as your temperature stays above normal. Resting in bed allows the body to focus its energy on the healing process while getting up might lead to a complication. You can safely take a sponge bath while in bed. But don’t get up to bathe or shower. After your temperature returns to normal, you should remain at home for an extra day and resume normal activities gradually.

If you feel the need to reduce fever, you can do so by taking an alcohol bath. However, fever is usually part of the healing process.

*191\30\4*

Lozenges can keep the throat moist but so can chewing hard candy. Throat sprays, or lozenges containing pain relievers, can provide temporary relief for the distress of a sore throat. But lozenges containing a mix of pain relievers, decongestants and cough suppressants are seldom effective as the ingredients often nullify each other.

Because sprays and lozenges containing pain relievers may mask a serious throat infection such as strep throat, you are advised to limit their use to a maximum of forty eight hours.

Children should never be given the full adult dosage of any OTC medication. Children aged six to eleven require only half the adult dose while those two to five may be given one-Fourth the recommended adult dose. Infants Under two should be given medication only on a physician’s advice.

Similar caveats apply to almost all OTC medications for dysfunctions with symptoms that may be confused with those of the common cold.

Antihistamines reduce swollen membranes, congestion, running nose, sneezing, postnasal drip and itchy, watery eyes due to allergic rhinitis by blocking the effects of prostaglandins produced by histamine. Antihistamines are available in tablets, capsules or liquid OTC remedies and may be included in anti-sneezing preparations. While antihistamines are effective in relieving hayfever and similar types of allergic rhinitis, they are most effective in single-ingredient medications that contain only antihistamine. Multi-ingredient products can compound side effects while ingredients other than antihistamine have no benefits for allergic rhinitis.

The most common side effect of antihistamines is drowsiness. Some antihistamines, in fact, are used to induce sleep. Worth knowing is that products using brompheniramine maleate or chlorpheniramine maleate seem to cause least drowsiness. Less common side effects include low blood pressure, headaches, loss of coordination, nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, constriction of small blood vessels, anxiety, loss of appetite and dryness of nose, throat and mouth. This dryness may extend to bronchial tissue, making it difficult to raise mucus from the chest without severe coughing.

Since antihistamines dry up secretions which may block airways and increase breathing difficulties, antihistamines should not be used by those with asthma. Nor should antihistamines be used by anyone with glaucoma or an enlarged prostate unless prescribed by a physician; and antihistamines may cause nervousness, restlessness and insomnia in children.

Although antihistamines prevent the discomfort of hayfever, in doing so they may retard the healing process.

Antihistamines used in anti-sneezing preparations may, in the process of inhibiting sneezing, actually thicken mucus and worsen cold symptoms. OTC cold remedies which include antihistamines also carry an unsuspected hazard: they may suppress certain cold or flu symptoms, giving the impression that one has recovered. A person may then decide to get up and return to work, which could increase the risk of complications.

*163\30\4*

But such a massive build-up is possible only when sufficient amounts of zinc and other nutrients are on hand and when immunocompetence is high. The competence of our immune system in destroying invaders is a reflection of our own physical and mental health. When we exercise regularly, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and have a positive, upbeat and hopeful attitude, our immunocompetence is enhanced.

Had human’s lifestyle been built around such factors, his immune system might have conquered the cold in just a day or two. Unfortunately, human had been recently divorced. He seldom exercised any more. He lived largely on hamburgers, coffee and fast foods. And he often experienced bouts of lingering depression. As a result, his immunocompetence was so suppressed that his cold lingered on for twelve misery-filled days before his immune system was finally able to erase it.

Regardless of how competent is one’s immune system, however, the same step-by-step conflict occurs as in human’s case. The only difference is the speed at which the body girds itself and fights back. A person with really high immunocompetence may be able to throw off a cold by the second day.

But no matter how high one’s immunocompetence, in the beginning the immune system is largely unprepared and helpless to stop the tidal wave of beseiging viruses. Millions of rhinoviruses were now in contact with the cells lining human’s nasal passages. Most were able to bind on to receptors in the host cell’s wall.

In response to the pressure on its surface, each cell puckered up around the virus and—possibly believing it to be a nutrient—innocently absorbed the micro-organism into its cytoplasm. In the process, each host cell released enzyme that removed the virus’s protein coat. This left the virus core exposed, a tiny piece of translucent RNA (ribonucleic acid) containing its genetic code for reproduction.

*139\30\4*

Having a digital thermometer or a GSR device enables you to observe subtle increases in temperature or relaxation far smaller than you could unaided. But even without these devices, the fact that your fingers are beginning to tingle is proof positive that you do have mastery over your body. With continued practice, all normal body functions can eventually be brought under your control.

It usually takes 20 minutes to warm your hands on the first attempt. Avoid trying to force anything to happen. Just stay relaxed and continue making the pictures and suggestions.

With continued practice, you can warm your hands in just three or four minutes. After a few weeks, both deep relaxation and biofeedback techniques can be completed in under five minutes. And eventually, many people reach a point at which they can simply close their eyes and imagine that their hands are hot.

If you feel a migraine approaching, lie or sit down, use Technique #13, and continue right on into biofeedback. To assure that the migraine does not return, you may want to repeat it every 30 minutes for two or three hours. Biofeedback is also surprisingly effective in relieving the pain of a migraine that has already begun. And it will enhance the benefits of deep relaxation in relieving and ending muscular contraction headaches.

As a prophylactic against both tension and migraine headaches, biofeedback should be practiced two or three times daily with a gradual reduction to twice and then to only once each day.

Whenever you’re ready to return to normal consciousness, open your eyes and move them around, wrinkle your face, roll your neck, and sit up and move around. Then stand up slowly. Your state of deep relaxation and blood vessel dilation should last for at least several hours. Eventually, this condition should become permanent.

If you prefer, you can continue lying relaxed on the floor and go on without a break into creative imagery.

*115\30\4*