Red clover, a common perennial herb that grows wild in meadows through much of the world, is in the legume family, just as beans, peas and peanuts are. Its Latin name, Trifolium pretense, means “three leaves, found in the meadow”. Red clover is well-known by organic farmers as a cover crop, ideal for fixing [...]
I have raised my children, now young women, with herbs and nutritious organic foods. We have grown, prepared and used herbal preparations for most of our health and wellness needs with terrific results. Few herbs have served our needs more frequently than the golden orange calendula flower.
Calendula Officianalis, or simply calendula (pronounced kə’-lend’-ju-lə), is a [...]
Commonly referred to as the ‘village pharmacy’, various parts of the neem tree have provided a wide range of valuable remedies for more than 5,000 years, supporting the health of people, pets, livestock, gardens, the environment and our planet. The majestic neem tree, a deciduous evergreen native to the Indian subcontinent, is one of the [...]
People have practiced simple, gentle cleansing of the body’s internal organs, tissues and cells throughout the world for all of recorded history. In the last 115 years, with the developments in western allopathic medicine, our culture has moved away from using foods, herbs, breath/prayer and other natural practices to maintain good health and a sense [...]
Nearly everyone who has reached or passed puberty has experienced acne. For some, however, acne on the face or body clutches its agonizing grip on us for months and sometimes several years. Medical treatments can be dangerous, causing side effects and leaving us with auto-immune disorders for the rest of our lives. Luckily, there are [...]
Years ago, mosquitoes were just annoying little creatures that left itchy red bumps all over our exposed skin after we played outside. Now they’re more like scary, disease carrying little monsters. In recent years, our fear driven society has become obsessed with spraying numerous chemicals around our homes, parks, neighborhoods and on our bodies in [...]
When my younger daughter, Mollie, was small, we fondly referred to her as the rash queen. Gratefully, she never seemed to mind these endearing names that came to her. She got a total of 14 different kinds of rashes, some of them two or three times. Her strep throat turned to scarlet fever twice.
She [...]
Posted in skin conditions on March 19th, 2007 1 Comment »
A few weeks ago, I got a call from my dear friend, Clarissa. She had been burned on the back of the knee two weeks before and the pain had been nearly unbearable every day and night since. Now, it seemed to be getting more inflamed and feeling worse. Clarissa didn’t have insurance, so she [...]
For more than thirty years, I experienced itchy, oozing, rough, red, blotchy, scaly, irritated, cracked skin. Early in adulthood, I was diagnosed with both eczema and psoriasis, probably linked to food sensitivities. I also experienced other auto-immune conditions during that time, including multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) and sporadically chronic fatigue (CF).
My shins and calves would [...]