Colon Cleansing

by Nelson, Dr. Christopher's Herb Shop

There are a lot of natural remedies out there. Its good to have so many options, but it is certainly necessary to be discerning about when you will use them. There are natural therapies out there that can and do save lives regularly, but can do harm if used improperly. Let us use the Lower Bowel formula and colonics as an example.

Dr. Christopher taught that you will do more good for the whole body by working on the bowel than you would on any other single system. There is a good reason he said this and why a lot of other people would do the same. I'm sure people would forgive us for being stunned at first when a diabetics blood sugar began to significantly stabilize just after doing a colon cleanse. Or the shock that came when someone reported that the pain in there tooth was helped more with an enema than with handfuls of infection herbs.

So you've probably noticed that we've been pretty zealous in suggesting colon cleansing, but I would like to take a moment to dispel some of the romanticism. I'm sorry to report that you can have a very healthy colon and still be sick. You do want your colon to be in top shape, but it is important not to subject it to excessive purging. Herbs and colonics can be very safe, but they can also be harmful if not used with wisdom and skill. So how do you keep it balanced?

Lets use an extreme example. Earlier in the week we got a call for help from someone with chronic bowel strictures. Her case was a lot like others we've gotten in the past. Images of her colon showed that parts of it were pencil thin, while others were excessively bloated. It was contorted and in great disrepair. It goes without saying that she was incredibly constipated. Fortunately, I've been blessed to know other people who have had her problem, and are now very well off.

In instances like these, herbs will take a long time to get anything done if they are used alone. This is an excellent time to employ enemas or colonics. We usually suggest that enemas not be used unless in emergencies, because they can leave the bowel weak over time and you may end up dependent on them. But they can also be a powerful way to cleanse and nourish.

Sometimes they are better than herbs. Initially, in extreme cases it can take a lot of herbs to do anything. The bowel can be cleansed with cathartic herbs or the lower bowel formula. The woman we worked with earlier was depressed because she was taking 6 caps of an herbal formula without any results. This isn't at all surprising. Sometimes people have had to slowly build up to 12 capsules, sometimes as often as three times a day just to begin to cleanse! Dr. Christopher once had a woman who needed to take 40 capsules before she was able to cleanse. You never start out with doses this high, but gradually build up until you are able to cleanse without harming yourself. This means you discontinue immediately if there is blood in the stools.

In these instances, you are inducing a healing crisis by purging. No more herbs are to be taken for 1-3 days after the initial cleansing. When you are this constipated, you will feel very sick and weak as you cleanse, and you will need to be close to a bathroom during the day. But the good news is after this, you will be able to cleanse using much lower doses of the colon herbs from then on.

You can see that this can be pretty rough on an individual. This is when enemas really shine. They are able to do a lot of cleansing without taxing the individual. They are not able to clean the intestines like the herbs will, but they certainly have advantages in emergencies.

It is not enough to cleanse the bowel when it is that out of shape.

After that, this is where you able to really get some healing done by doing injections. An injection can be done by making a small amount of medicinal tea (such as 8 oz- 16 oz), implanting it like an enema, and retaining it in the bowel for an extended period of time- hours if possible. The individual can go about their normal activities while retaining the implant. If it is not able to be retained, less liquid may be used.

We have used the Yellowdock combination (a.k.a the Iron assimilation formula) or the Complete Tissue and Bone formula as implants when the bowel is misshapen. It may also be used as a douche. I have been impressed with the yellowdock combination when there is a prolapsed uterus, bladder or other organ when properly used.

What we are doing is toning the bowel, promoting the healing of the tissue and healing of any wounds. The colon does have the capacity to return to its original shape. But it will call for reasonable cleansing and nourishing. We caution people not to be too zealous cleansing the colon. Excessive purging over a period of months will end up causing a prolapse, one of the very problems you are trying to avoid. When someone's vitality is greatly lowered from excessive cleansing, you stop all of it and focus on nourishing.

It goes without saying that the pills and potions are no substitute for a healthy lifestyle. Don't eat any constipating foods when you are ill, such as meat or dairy products (especially cheese). Even if you are able to maintain regularity by taking laxatives, you will still eventually have a sagging bowel from an aggravating diet and long term purging.

Find Dr. Christopher’s Herbal Formulas, single herbs, essential oils, books and more at Dr. Christopher’s Original Herb Shop: www.drchristophersherbshop.com.

NOTICE: All information in this newsletter is given out as information only and is not intended to diagnose or prescribe.

Hemmorrhoids

by Nelson, Dr. Christopher's Herb Shop

A woman from Emmington Wyoming once came to visit Dr. Christopher. She came into his office on 2 canes, because of bad hemorrhoids. She had two hemerrhoidectomies performed on her. Although she was still ill, they wouldn't operate a third time because there wouldn't be 'enough tissue left to crotchet with, let alone sew it back together.'

Her hemorrhoids were hanging out 6 inches. These need to be inserted and held in place. Dr. Christopher took care of this, then told her to take 1 tsp of cayenne three times a day. Every evening she was to use 2 kinds of suppositories before retiring for bed. One was to be a regular garlic clove, inserted as far as possible. The other was a white oak bark suppository.

He told her to mix the white oak bark powder with glycerin, then put into the refrigerator until hardened. It wasn't especially critical to follow a recipe, but to just mix the two until a doughy consistency was achived, then hardened in the refrigerator. These were then to be inserted as well before retiring. She followed through on the program, and within six weeks was healed.

When lecturing, Dr. Christopher often would quote this story:

"The oak bark is astringent. It starts rebuilding the calcium deficiency in that area. As an astringent, it starts pulling it in tighter, and making it up to a firmer area. Within a month to a month in a half, we have had results of these going back up into place, and staying. The garlic moves in and gives healing, because it is a healing herb, but it also kills any infection while the oak bark rebuilds the calcium deficiency." [Dr. Christopher's Herbal Seminars, 1-4]

The cayenne is also a calcium rich herb for promoting healthy arteries. It is not only used to assist the body in rebuilding the arteries, but it also stops the bleeding. Dr. Christopher had another experience while traveling giving his herbal lectures. "I traveled with a man younger than myself several years ago all over the western part of the United States on business. He marveled at the stamina that an older man could have on long drives without displaying the usual fatigue. Each morning I would get up and have my cayenne and my wheat germ oil (I don't pay attention to anyone else, I just take them, regardless). Finally he got curious and said, "What's that stuff?" So I gave him an illustrative lecture, and he responded, "Well, I have hemorrhoids; my mother died of high blood pressure, and I have high blood pressure; and with the hemorrhoids I have to wear a belt, as you probably noticed, to keep my hemorrhoids up in place. Do you think that (meaning cayenne) will help?" "Not unless you take it," I replied. "Well, I will start taking it." Then I added, "I don't think you're man enough; I don't think you are brave enough," and I turned and walked away. Now, he was well-proportioned and a weight lifter, so after I left, he went over and got into my can and started using the cayenne along with the wheat germ oil, and by spring he did not have to wear a belt any longer as his hemorrhoids were cleared. Then he had an amazing surprise when he went to his doctor for a regular check-up; the doctor took his blood pressure three or four times and said, "This is supposed to be progressively worse. I don't know what has happened; your systolic and diastolic are near perfect. You don't need to come back any longer --I don't know what happened!" Well, he did not have to go back, and today this gentleman who lives in the Salt Lake City area has no high blood pressure, for he kept on taking his cayenne." [SNH p.412]

When asked why the cayenne would stop bleeding, Dr Christopher responded "The cayenne equalizes the bloodstream from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet." [Dr. Christopher's Herbal Seminars, 1-4] This prevents the body from increasing the blood pressure in the injured area, which would otherwise result in increased bleeding. If the hemorrhoids are bleeding, it will not be difficult at all to stop it.

To no one's surprise, Dr. Christopher also taught that hemorrhoids could be the result of constipation. In his newsletters he wrote: "Another serious area for leaching (of calcium) is the bowel area, where old fecal matter has accumulated. The body tried to remove the impaction by draining as much fluid from the body as it can. There is generally enough fluid to cause a bowel movement, but the liquid which is left absorbs the sugar. It then feeds into the veins and leaches out the tensile strength of the veins in the lower bowel area. When straining for a bowel movement, the veins have more pressure exerted, and in turn, the weak walls break and result in a varicose condition called piles or hemorrhoids." [NL 2-10]

"In the case of hemorrhoids we suggest the following: Number ONE: eliminate constipation. Use the lower bowel formula along with the mucusless diet and drink plenty of water." [NL 4-2]

There are a lot of different traditional remedies used for hemorrhoids.

Regardless of which ones are used, we recommend the following: Get on a supportive diet (one that won't weaken the bowel area). Cleanse the area with any necessary colon cleansing, disinfecting with appropriate herbs, etc. Finally, rebuild the area with supportive nutrition, toning the area up with the appropriate herbs and heal.

Find Dr. Christopher’s Herbal Formulas, single herbs, essential oils, books and more at Dr. Christopher’s Original Herb Shop: www.drchristophersherbshop.com.

NOTICE: All information in this newsletter is given out as information only and is not intended to diagnose or prescribe.

Natural Protocols for Depression

by Nelson, Dr. Christopher's Herb Shop

There are some people who are medicated for depression that would rather do something else. The natural protocols you see employed can vary from using a single herb to manage the symptoms, all the way to massive cleansing and dietary changes. Our next newsletters will discuss both.

Not everyone is either willing or wanting to do a huge program, even if it offers more permanent stability than other protocols. Most people would feel better getting an alternative therapy that does a similar thing compared to what they use now, but without damaging effects. As far as the Christopher formulas go, the Mindtrac formula has the most to offer in these situations.

Doctors will sometimes get upset if you use an herb and drug at the same time. They should. Allopathy and herbalism can be working with completely opposite principles, and taking them together can create a tug o' war on a chemical level.

We have often worked with people who feel sick with their medication, and feel like its so terrible that they want to stop immediately and just take herbs. THIS IS A BAD IDEA! A VERY BAD IDEA! The whole point of getting off of the drugs is to feel healthier, and if you do it unwisely you will cause harm to yourself. These drugs work by supplying a chemical synthetically to the body. When you take them, the body will stop making that chemical, and if you stop taking the drug, you will not have any source of it and will get hurt.

Rather, be loving to yourself. If you have tablets, gradually shave some of it off and take less and less. Some pills can be opened and have little beads that you can take out one at a time. Sure, its work, but you are very much worth it. If the whole point is to be happier, you might as well make it a chemical possibility. During this time, herbs that are safe with the medication may be taken. They should be spaced at least half an hour apart.

If you are wondering which herbs interact with medications, the medical profession states that they all do. It is hard to find out what studies are based off of science and which ones are based off of commercialism or marketing. I find it reasonable that herbs and drugs working to promote mental health may interact with each other, but I can't help wonder whether the concerned drug/herb interaction is mostly how it takes business away from the pharmaceutical industry.

I was really surprised when every single mood herb I looked at seemed to be contraindicated for the situation it seemed best for. But I only experiment when it comes to myself, and it really is gambling. You can either work with your doctor using both therapies, get completely off the drugs and then on an herbal alternative, or you can go about it a different way.

I usually go with the latter. The last few newsletters focused on cleansing to promote good mood, because that is what is considered safe and effective. There are still some other simple things you can do if someone is not willing to do a cleanse. For instance, red raspberry leaves will assist the body in balancing hormones, and has minerals like calcium and iron that are useful when someone is anxious. Catnip contains a B-complex that will calm the nerves, yet catnip is a stimulant. It calms you down and perks you up.

Most of the liver herbs can put you in a good mood right away. I have been very impressed with cramp bark. As you can imagine, it got its name for its traditional usage with female complaints. I remember back to when I was having a really rough week. I got to see how well cramp bark worked by mistake. I was feeling very gloomy and was racking my brains trying to find a way out of it. I was working with some powdered cramp bark at the time. I hadn't ever had it before and wondered what it tasted like. I put about 1/4 of a teaspoon of it in some water and drank it.

And wow! Within seconds I suddenly felt normal and happy again! I got flustered and tried to think of how that could be. Then I remembered that cramp bark was a liver herb and a hormone herb. I then got upset because it worked so quickly after all the mental effort I had been putting in, then got upset that I was upset, etc.

Other effective liver/hormone herbs are squawvine, wild yam and barberry. These herbs may be safely used. In fact, since most of the psychiatric drugs get stored in the liver (Celexa, Haldol, Prozac, etc.) it makes sense to boost your mood this way. I do like to let people know that if they use a liver herb without working on the bowel, that you may go through mood swings while your body balances out. You will be better off when you get through it, but you may spend 30 minute blocks alternating between feeling at peace to depressed and anxious for a few hours.

In any case, the above herbs may be used under medical supervision while weaning off of the drugs, then these other herbs may be used as needed:

St. John's wort- Interacts with SSRI drugs (Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac, Luvox, Paxil, Zoloft)

Kava kava- Interacts with Benzodiazepines (Xanax, Klonopin, Valium, Ativan, Serax)

Valerian- Interacts with anti-depressants, anti-anxiety and sleep medications

Mindtrac- Dr. Christopher formulated this for people who wanted a natural alternative to antidepressants and anxiety medications. It contains Valerian root, scullcap, ginkgo, oregon grape, st. John's wort, mullein, gotu kola, sarsaparilla, dandelion, lobelia, rosemary & jurassic greens. It is lightly cleansing and more nourishing than isolated herbs, while providing the calming effect of the common nervine herbs.

Find Dr. Christopher’s Herbal Formulas, single herbs, essential oils, books and more at Dr. Christopher’s Original Herb Shop: www.drchristophersherbshop.com.

NOTICE: All information in this newsletter is given out as information only and is not intended to diagnose or prescribe.

Psychiatric Drugs Part II

by Nelson, Dr. Christopher's Herb Shop

In the last newsletter we talked about mental health and some of the problems with SSRI drugs. Natural protocols are available to the depressed that will not cause depression as a side effect nor damage the body. In fact, if certain systems of the body are damaged, you will almost be forced into a depression that positive thought alone can’t pull you out of. This isn’t to say that herbs alone are a cure for the harsh feelings that may come from emotional trauma, divorce or other stressful situations, but the stresses will tax the body, and natural therapies may be used to rebuild the system or manage the stress.

If you wanted to stop taking anti-depressants, don’t do it all at once. A chemical is being supplied to the body artificially, so the body stops producing it. It is important to gradually wean off of them so that the body can begin to be self sufficient. Otherwise you will do more harm than good.

Herbs are useful in a natural program when you are dealing with the physical components of depression. When a person feels suicidal, panicky, depressed or anxious you can get quicker and more permanent results with herbs if you use them in a certain way. These are some tips to consider when someone wants to use herbs while suffering from depression, anxiety or mental disorders such as schizophrenia. In such cases it is best to use the safest yet effective herbs.

In your most severe depressive disorders or mental imbalances there will be a blood sugar problem or some degree of adrenal fatigue. Symptoms will vary depending on the severity, but the major ones will be inability to stand any emotional excitement, whether good or bad, inability to handle stress, nervous breakdown, insanity, total exhaustion, feeling doomed to death, inability to digest food, etc. These are very serious situations, and you will see some diversity on how an herbalist would approach it. Kava kava root is often used as an herbal tranquilizer, which is useful when someone is depressive. Someone feeling suicidal can calm down immensely with the use of the nervine herbs, such as kava kava, valerian, skullcap, lobelia, etc. This works, but it doesn’t reach the cause of the problem. They are best used in an emergency situation to quickly calm someone down.

Fortunately, when a mental disorder becomes severe enough, the individual will find out that diet is related to their mental and emotional well being. It is not uncommon for someone with severe schizophrenia to feel like they are walking on eggshells, as far as their diet goes. This is especially true if the pancreas or adrenal glands are worn out. Such individuals may find themselves forced on a mostly plant based diet, with drastic repercussions for any dietary stresses on these glands. Excessive sugar intake of any kind (even fruits) may throw them into a suicidal state. Excessive proteins (such as meat or dairy) can have the same effect. You can feed someone well with vegetables, lentils, grains and seeds. At the same time, it is important to build the system up so that they will no longer be so fragile. Otherwise even these may be too much.

Dr. Christopher always checked the health of the bowel. If his patient was not having a bowel movement every day for every meal they ate, he used the Lower Bowel formula. Believe it or not, we have seen this calm someone down greatly within the first day. We like to use the Lower Bowel formula and Kidney formula before using the hormone herbs, because if the hormone herbs are used when the bowels or kidneys are overwhelmed, you may get rapid mood swings.

As long as the bowels and kidneys are in good shape or being worked on, we then use the hormone herbs. Most of your hormone herbs are actually liver herbs. This makes sense, because the liver breaks down the old hormones. The liver also stores the bodies main source of fuel, glycogen. Toning the liver up will also has a more permanent healing effect on the blood sugar levels. The herbs in the Liver & Gallbladder formula cleanse the liver and are hormone balancers.

Working on these three parts of the body alone can rapidly stabilize someone, provided diet is in good order. For mild to mid severity, this can be enough. If it is more severe, other systems can be worked on so that the state of mind or mood isn’t so fragile. In the next newsletter we will discuss an extended method for balancing these kinds of problems.

Find Dr. Christopher’s Herbal Formulas, single herbs, essential oils, books and more at Dr. Christopher’s Original Herb Shop: www.drchristophersherbshop.com.

NOTICE: All information in this newsletter is given out as information only and is not intended to diagnose or prescribe.

Psychiatric Drugs Part I

by Nelson, Dr. Christopher's Herb Shop

Today we live in an age of new medicines. Oddly enough, the most dominant forms of health care, the use of synthetic drugs and psychiatry, are both newborns in the field of medicine. Drugs have been around for less than 100 years. The use of psychiatry as it is now practiced is also pretty new.

It wouldn't be fair to say that mental disorders are something new, although many more people seem to be considered mentally impaired than in times past. Depression, anxiety and other diseases are receiving more attention now. The psychiatric drugs used to treat these conditions are what I consider to have some of the more horrifying side effects, yet they are so commonplace.

This is a topic I tend to get more emotional on. Partly because of the hell the patient goes through, partly because it epitomizes the corruption of the medical establishment in my eyes, and partly because the treatments are crippling. But the part that bothers me the most is that much of the disease is caused by the treatment itself, the damage is catastrophic, and worst of all, the natural protocol is quite simple and effective, making all the horror unnecessary in the first place. So we will have a special two part newsletter discussing how we can bring joy into the lives of those suffering from severe mental disturbances, while avoided the chemical rape of their minds.

That might have all sounded a little to harsh. But it isn't much different from what some of the former higher ups in the pharmaceutical industry had to say. I'll be sure to quote them and let you get it from the horse's mouth.

Let us go back to the recent origins of our psychiatric medications. Sigmund Freud is considered the father of modern psychiatry, and his work made Sweden the forerunner in psychiatric care. During his time, there were really only two widely used drugs- amalgamated mercury compounds and the addictive opium tincture. Some other drugs were later developed, but the need for better psychiatric drugs was still apparent.This little fact became very important when Elli Lily and Co. began to develop a revolutionary drug.

From the beginning, this drug was intended to primarily generate massive profits. That's not such a bad thing, but that was the reasoning for what then followed. Most people do not know that this drug, which is now known as Prozac®, was first intended as a weight loss supplement.(1) The market for weight loss is huge in America, and most health stores have enough supplements to prove it. But that was not good enough for Elli Lily and Co, because only fat people would need Prozac®. Then the idea came to use it for mood. Everybody feels sad now and then. If sadness were a disease, then everyone would need it!

Because it would be marketed as a psychiatric drug, if it got approval from Sweden for the treatment of mental disease, it would pass the strictest standards for a psychiatric drug and could be used worldwide with a glowing rating. And rightly so. The Swedish have relentless standards for psychiatric care and earn their place as No. 1 in the world for the approach they take, if that's the route you want to go.

That turned out to be the biggest obstacle though. Prozac® had a major problem. Perfectly happy people would take it and either become incredibly violent or commit suicide in the clinical trials. Sure, a nasty side effect can happen to one in a million people who take a drug, but it was happening much too often. Furthermore, it was causing depression.(2) None of that looks good for an antidepressant. Particularly when stable people with no history of depression violently murder their spouses then hang themselves.(3)

This was when trying to approve Prozac® in Germany in 1984 it was denied (back when it was called Fluoxetine). A German employee of Lilly and Co. provided this synopsis to his bosses:

"The clinical symptoms of depressive disorder used by Lilly were invalid because it did not correspond to any scientific standard. Furthermore, Fluoxetine was completely unsuitable for the treatment of depression, if you looked at the benefits and risks of the active ingredient. The German Federal Health office found almost no use, whatsoever. Instead they found more and more frequent side effects, some of which were particularly serious: among others, that patients without depression obviously became depressive after taking the drug.”

So how was it finally approved? More clinical studies or a change in the way it was made? No. It was up to a now former pharmaceutical representative named John Virapen to get Sweden's approval. In his autobiography documenting his work in the pharmaceutical industry, Side Effects: Death, Mr. Virapen explains how Prozac® was approved as a drug.

He first called the doctors testing it in Sweden and asked them to approve the drug. He said that they started laughing and said that it didn't work. After some digging, Varapen found out who would ultimately make the decision on whether or not it would be approved. He had a meeting with this individual and asked him what it would take to get Prozac® approved. "Moneys is always useful." was the reply. So after bribing this official with a mere $20,000, the drug was approved.(4)

So this is the foundation of the most common form of treatment for mental disorder in our country. My argument against Prozac® isn't so much the 1 in 4 who will feel suicidal, becoming dangerous to themselves or a group of other people, or that it turns people into zombies, that negative press is buried, or even that it isn't as effective as a natural protocol. My opinion is that it shouldn't be used because from the very beginning it was pronounced inneffective by the experts testing it. It is used now because it is cheap to produce, is sold with astronomical markup, and fraudulently approved with bribery and inflated test statistics.

So maybe you might ask yourself whether or not you want your kid, someone you love or even some person you don't even know using this drug or one of its duplicates. If you want to use a drug to 'cure' your depression, it's probably worth your time to get John Virapen's book and thoughtfully read it, and then make an informed choice. If you feel uncomfortable taking the conventional medical route, maybe something in the next newsletter will appeal to you.

1. Side Effects: Death [Pg: 74]

2. arznei-telegramm I/2005

3. (David Healy is a well known psychiatrist and expert on Prozac® who had knowledge of it’s test data. In 1999 he said it would be realistic for 250,000 out of 1,000,000 have tried to commit suicide as a result of taking Prozac.

3. Side Effects: Death [Pg: 93]

Find Dr. Christopher’s Herbal Formulas, single herbs, essential oils, books and more at Dr. Christopher’s Original Herb Shop: www.drchristophersherbshop.com.

NOTICE: All information in this newsletter is given out as information only and is not intended to diagnose or prescribe.

Edema

by Nelson, Dr. Christopher's Herb Shop

This seems to be a common complaint today. Edema (or dropsy) is a condition where fluid is not eliminated but is stored in the soft tissues or cavities of the body. Often the ankles or abdomen will swell. Usually edema is diagnosed along with kidney disfunction. This makes sense, because if the urinary tract becomes compromised it will become difficult to eliminate fluids. Usually a diuretic drug is prescribed in such cases.

Of course we ask ourselves "Why is the body doing this?". Too much salt can aggravate this condition. Wearing out the kidneys with soda also does no good. It can be a side effect of diabetes.

Dr. Christopher taught "Diet is the key to eliminating the cause. Meats, pastries, salt, etc., should be avoided. Eat fruits (grapes and coconut especially), sprouts, leafy and green vegetables, (do not mix fruits and vegetables). Use vapor baths and diaphoretics to open the pores, stimulants to increase and regulate circulation, diuretics for kidneys, and be sure to treat the whole digestive system with tonics. Also rub the body with vinegar and cold water and be sure to keep the bowels cleaned." [SNH p.19]

We have found that working on the kidneys can be very helpful, and sometimes the kidney herbs have offered enough support that nothing else was needed. This has not always been the case, though. Usually we look at three particular areas of the body to make the best use of the herbs.

The first is to tone up the kidneys. Oddly enough, one of herbal medicine's strongest points are its diuretics. I have been surprised, because usually a drug will have a much stronger action than an herb. Yet a mediocre herbal diuretic (such as dandelion) is still more powerful than the drugs on the market now. Maybe that will change, but it still gives you an idea of how well they work.

A diuretic will cause the body to eliminate water through the urinary tract. This especially useful when there is scanty urine. The strongest herbal diuretics we use are juniper and parsley. David Christopher recalls one time when a woman had been diagnosed with kidney failure, and was told that she would die in six hours. She was so swollen with water her entire body was like a balloon. In the hospital, David asked if she had been given a diuretic. The doctors told him 'Of course she has!'. They would not let her have any herbs orally, but had no problem if a fomentation was used. So the herbalists assembled made parsley root fomentations and covered her whole body with them. Soon her pores opened up, and little springs of water came out through the skin. The water was voided and she was saved.

I was surprised when the Kidney formula (which has juniper and parsley in it) wasn't helping at all with some cases of edema while others told me wonderful things like "I can see my ankles again!". I came to learn that if the kidney herbs didn't offer any improvement after 1-2 months, there where two other factors to investigate.

The second is the health of the bowel. Dr. Christopher considered someone regular if they ate three meals a day and had three bowel movements a day. Otherwise the rest of the body had to pick up the slack, and the kidneys are one of the first. The kidneys receive so much focus with this disease while the rest of the digestive system is ignored, yet it can play a critical role. We have had some make better improvement using the Lower Bowel formula when the Kidney formula wasn't enough.

The third would be the health of the endochrine system. This would include the pineal gland, pituitary gland, thyroid, thymus, pancreas and adrenal glands. We have found that if someone has adrenal failure or a chronic problem with one of these glands, that they may plateau in their progress, sometimes not making any with the kidney herbs. Naturally a protocol would have to be followed for the endocrine problem before a permanent improvement could be expected.

Some may wonder if water should be drunk when dealing with this problem. We feel that the kidneys need water to function and a reasonable amount should be used. Other people I have consulted with have shared cases where the edema was reversed by gradually drinking more water. Half ones body weight in fluid ounces is a good rule of thumb to go by.

Find Dr. Christopher’s Herbal Formulas, single herbs, essential oils, books and more at Dr. Christopher’s Original Herb Shop: www.drchristophersherbshop.com.

NOTICE: All information in this newsletter is given out as information only and is not intended to diagnose or prescribe.

Smoking

by Nelson, Dr. Christopher's Herb Shop

Smoking

One common property of medicinal herbs is that they have multiple healing properties. So you can find yourself using one herb for many different ailments. But occasionally you’ll find one single herb that provides support for all the major aspects of a particular problem. I can think of no greater example than the herb lobelia as an aid to smokers.

Last week we had a fellow call us. He was about to leave his house, and saw six capsules on his countertop that he believed be goldenseal. He took them and left. After a while, he realized he forgot something and started back. He then felt nauseas, and like he wanted to die. Shortly after, he felt he was surely going to die. He then coughed, hacked, and began expectorating ‘a pile of black mucus.’. He said he was breathing like he was a kid again. He then learned that they were lobelia capsules. He figured this happened because he had been a smoker when he was younger.

This kind of situation happens when lobelia is taken in large doses when the lungs are in an extremely congested state. For a while lobelia was considered a poisonous herb by the FDA because it acted as an emetic. In that time (much like what we’ve seen with the herbs sassafras and comfrey) one chemical was taken out of lobelia (lobeline) and injected into animals until it killed them. Since lobelia is not just one chemical, it was eventually allowed back on the market. It would take several pounds of the herb injected into the blood to cause the toxic reaction these animals received. Furthermore, since someone vomits after eating a tablespoon of the stuff, it seems to have an excellent safety mechanism built in place.

Fortunately this only happens when lobelia is used in large doses, and someone wanting to clean the lungs gently can do so with lobelia. 1-2 capsules or ¼ - ½ a teaspoon of the herb would be a regular adult dose. People vary in sensitivity to this herb, but most should have no problem with these amounts. Lobelia is an expectorant herb, so it will push waste matter out of the lungs. It contains a chemical that resembles nicotine, but is not addictive. This can help satisfy the craving in a nicotine addiction. Further, many people use cigarettes to help calm down. Lobelia is one of the best nervine herbs there is. It will quite the nerves effectively and even help rebuild them! It is potent enough to use as a mild painkiller, massaged over cuts or scrapes or taken internally. It seems to me to be so well fitted to a smoking problem that there is little else that would be needed herbally.

In a small dosage, lobelia prevents vomiting. In large doses, it acts as an emetic. Dr. Christopher both saw and taught that asthma could be cleared overnight, provided lobelia was used during an asthma attack. This was the point at which the body was trying hardest to clear the lungs and would be most responsive. He would give them a cup of peppermint tea (mostly to settle the stomach so there wouldn’t be pains in the upcoming cleansing) and ½ a teaspoon of lobelia tincture. Every half hour he would give another dose. He said he never went over three ½ teaspoons. Then the person would vomit, and then cough up cups of tar and mucus from the lungs for 2-4 hours. This kind of dramatic healing crisis will only happen when there is an asthma attack or a respiratory emergency. Otherwise what could be done in a day will take a few months with smaller doses.

Cayenne pepper is also useful for cutting the mucus in the lungs. So would fenugreek, though I consider it less effective. Vitamin C supplements are also commonly used to help. Dr. Christopher used a formula containing wild oats, lobelia, cayenne and rose hips. The rose hips contain vitamin C. This formula is still made today, and is called the Smoke Out formula. In any case, lobelia works well by itself.

Find Dr. Christopher’s Herbal Formulas, single herbs, essential oils, books and more at Dr. Christopher’s Original Herb Shop: www.drchristophersherbshop.com.

NOTICE: All information in this newsletter is given out as information only and is not intended to diagnose or prescribe.