June 2010

Summer healing with herbal vinegar and cleansing

Levender & lemon balm infusion steeping in the garden During the heat this morning I decided to cut back a wild blackberry bramble that was spreading in a corner of my garden. As I was cutting it back I was reminded that in America blackberry in an invasive weed. One herbalist there explained how nutritious the blackberry leaf is and being so common it is free as well. In our country Raspberry leaf is beloved by herbalists for coughs and colds, loose bowels, Iron deficiency, and female conditions. It is often used as a tea.
However both Blackberry and Raspberry leaves can be used in vinegar tinctures and enjoyed as salad dressings. You can use them when the leaves first start to bud, and then through early summer as baby leaves.
I carefully avoided the large thorns on my chopped bramble and found young leaves. I left the centre rib of each leaf, which felt a little sharp and tore the soft sides of the leaves ready to make a vinegar tincture. This time I used White wine vinegar, but I usually prefer organic apple cider vinegar, and know some herbalists like balsamic.

My vinegar - St johns wort in the background I could just have used my bramble leaves, which would have made very nutritious vinegar, but I decided to add other herbs as well. I found some lemon balm (Melissa) and decided to play with my new plant from Preston Bisset Garden Nurseries – Sweet cicely. This herb had been on my list to buy and play with for some time –so I was very pleased to find that Jacky had some. It is said to be brilliant for providing a sweet taste without unbalancing the blood sugar levels. Sugar, and many alternatives such as low calorie sweeteners and my beloved Agave nectar and honey have been found to upset this delicate balance.
Blood sugar imbalances often show as lows and highs in energy and mood, cravings, sweats and shaking and migraines and headaches. I shared with my clients and at a recent talk at Preston Bisset Nurseries (With Sue Jamieson 01280 816397) a recipe that I use to sweeten my food that keeps me balanced. But Sweet Cicely is another. I am told that it is the seeds that are usually used, but for my vinegar I used the leaves, which are sweet smelling with a hint of aniseed.

The very simple method I used was to pour a small amount of vinegar out of the top of the bottle, and then push my torn and crushed leaves into the vinegar. There were no exact measurements as this is classed as healing food and should be fun and intuitive. Because my vinegar bottle had a metal lid, I did cut a circle of plastic from a plastic food bag to place between the metal cap and the vinegar as metal lids and vinegar tinctures can produce a reaction.

Rosemary Gladstar one of my herbal heroines suggests that vinegar tinctures are great for tonic tinctures, those tinctures that are to be used over a long period of time to strengthen and build the system. She also suggests adding a drop of honey to the vinegar, which makes it totally delicious! In fact Dr Christopher whose system of herbal medicine I trained in, suggested vinegar and honey in warm water as a daily drink.

You need to ensure the herbs are completely covered in vinegar and add more vinegar if the herbs swell and rise above the liquid. Some herbalists suggest you need to shake the bottle daily. The bottle should be kept warm and dark to macerate for up to 2 weeks. Again different herbalists suggest different lengths of time. Once strained the vinegar should last for up to 6 months, possibly longer. If moist herbs or water is used you could spoil the vinegar.

Back to Sweet cicely known as ‘sweet cis’ in years gone by according to herbal historian Christina Stapley. This herb is recommended for diabetics, but please ensure any diabetic’s have an herbalist or naturopath as part of their healing team as safe practice. The main use of the leaves is to sweeten stewed fruit as it is cooking, the leaves fresh or dried, can be removed before eating. Both the roots and green seedpods were used in salad dressings, pickles, marmalades and jams. Culpeper said of Sweet Cicely ‘It is so harmless, you cannot use it amiss’ after hundreds of years of use. Yes I can see myself having some fun with this herb!

Sweet cicely and raspberry are available from Preston Bisset garden nurseries.

I’ll share with my client’s how I get on with these over the coming months.

Master cleanses and Detoxification

One of my Clients’s asked me what my thoughts were on Master Cleanses and Detoxification this week. Good question. My original training as a master Herbalist with the Dr Christopher School of herbal medicine was actually all about cleansing the organs.
Dr Christopher and his main pupil Dr Richard Schulze both cured thousands of patients with incurable disease – often when they had only weeks and months left to live. Radical cleansing was a huge part of both of their healing systems, and clearly worked.
The truth is that modern diets leave us toxic, and to create health we need to remove and reduce this toxic build up.
Still new to Natural healing myself when I was ill, I did various cleanses and found some of them intense – I was single and young and fairly stress-free. Now as a busy mum and therapist running a home and business I do not perform these cleanses.

This is not because I think I am toxin-free or even that now I have regained my health there is no need to worry about my health. But as my abilities and therapies have developed in clinic I see more and more stress in our lives and less free time. Often an hour with myself once a month or so is the only ‘me-time’ many people give themselves.

Luckily for me, even outside my clinic hours, I am passionate about exploring and experimenting with natural healing and on balance while not 100% perfect; I am often actively improving my health on one level or another.

If you add a major cleanse which is by its very nature also a major stress to the body, you need the time, space and resources to allow the body to work very hard. This means no racing around after your children, trying to keep on top of a stressful job and run a home – which describes most people.

Major addictions such as sugar and caffeine need to be removed well before you start a cleanse as sudden withdrawal symptoms can make you very ill. All the elimination channels such as colon, liver, kidneys and skin need support BEFORE you start a cleanse, no point stirring the toxins up if they can’t leave the body quickly and smoothly. Many detox programmes require special help for the colon such as home enemas, which without fibre in the diet shuts down.

That’s before we even get to the emotional aspects of cleaning up the body. Yes, as you release those toxins you also release and uncover negative emotions and beliefs that also surface to be healed, and they can be intense.

Then of course if you are on medications or have been on strong medications these are often still stuck in the liver and start to re-surface in the blood stream. We also need to be prepared for the headaches and flu-like symptoms, fatigue and skin eruptions, which are all ‘normal’ aspects of releasing toxins.

It is not my intention to put anyone off doing a major health cleanse. But in my experience these should be done under the guidance of a professional. Yes the results are often worth the intense experience.

In my clinic with my own clients they soon start to notice that at each treatment I gently increase the intensity, by including another simple change for them to add to their programme. Sometimes we go back a stage or deal with the emotions or just allow ourselves to ‘be’. This slow approach allows us to clean the body slowly, and gently while we continue with our busy lives.

Many times I have seen clients who move too fast into their healing feel as though they hit a patch where they go backwards, creating a yo-yo effect in their healing.

‘Cleanse a little, build a little’ was a phrase I learned, but now I change it to ‘Build, nurture and support a lot, cleanse a little but consistently’.

All of my work either builds you a lot and/or cleanses you a little – a winning combination in my book.

Hope you have enjoyed this post. This is a sample taster of the kind of support I provide for my clients on a weekly basis, and another insight into how I work.

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June 2010