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My daughter fell asleep with her water bottle last night. I ended up getting crowded out because of it. I would love a nap right now. My homepathy teacher graded my essay fast yesterday and I got a 100. My daughter just asked me for chocolate... It's 7:30 in the morning... WOW. I'll work on breakfast in a minute. I have no tinctures to check today but ginger and skullcap may be ready tomorrow. That skullcap has been going almost 2 months now. I still have to see what I have due this week. I have saved the lessons and assignments for 2 classes. I need to go back and watch the lectures and there is a slide show for each module in Homeopathy I need to get saved. I like having all this still on my hard drive because our internet goes out with the weather so I can still access it even if the internet is out. I need to get breakfast cooked for the little ones so I'm keeping this short today. I leave you with the endocrine system. Have a great day!
Hello Class! These next two weeks we will be learning about, perhaps one of the most comprehensive systems in the body, the endocrine system! We could possibly spend the whole semester on this system (sigh…). There are lots of important components of the endocrine system. I would like to challenge you to pick one (thyroid, anterior pituitary, posterior pituitary, pineal, hypothalamus, parathyroid, etc) and write something you enjoyed learning about it. Hope you have fun researching it! I apologize up front. I wanted to do a different topic for this discussion but we had no power for 3 days and I'm running out of time to meet this week's deadlines. Therefore, I'm going to discuss the thyroid. The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland in the anterior of the next that can swell in a condition called goiter which makes a client feel as though there is a lump in their throat. This is the body's largest gland and is vital for metabolism. If this gland is not functioning properly, the body could gain weight or lose weight for seemingly no reason. If the client gains this would be hypothyroidism and loss is hyperthyroidism. There are MANY symptoms related to each condition as we learned in this module's lesson. I think my favorite part was reading the hyperthyroidism part of the lesson, to be honest. I suffer from hypothyroidism and it was rather interesting to see how the other side experiences their thyroid not functioning properly. That was, in fact, what my paper was on last week. Between the two issues, one said eat goiterous foods cooked, the other said raw (respectively). While I understand eating them raw might reduce the hyperactivity of the thyroid, I thought it odd that they would suggest eating foods that disrupt the thyroid while the thyroid was disrupted. I would suggest not eating them at all. I also didn't know those foods impacted the thyroid and I really like to eat raw broccoli so I have been forced, thanks to this lesson, to not eat one of my favorite foods. I got rid of my goiter with iodine and really don't want it returning! Something else I recently discovered, and I'm still trying to find any studies on it (I was hoping to use that as a source for this assignment because I think this is cool), liposomal glutathione helps with the thyroid in some people. I had watched a video of someone who tried it and she felt great after using it so I decided I didn't have much to lose to I ordered a bottle. I chose the small one because I didn't want to spend a lot on something that may not help. After taking the bottle as directed, my prescription went down one notch which has never happened. This highlights that we still have a LOT to learn on what causes thyroid issues because this supplement is used to detox the system. Since I couldn't find any studies on the relationship between glutathione and the thyroid, I looked up goiter to see if I could find anything of interest there. I found this study by Rodrigues et al (2017) disturbing because it says the standard treatment is surgery... I think surgery should be the LAST option. Not the first. I did find a study by Ritchie et al (2014) that said glutothione supplementation does increase glutothione in the system which I think is a bit of a redundant thing but maybe a precursor to what this supplementation can do to help the body heal. This study was on a specific brand. Rodrigues, M. G., Furtado de Araujo Filho, V. J., Luongo de Matos, L., Hojaij, F. C., Simões, C. A., Ramos, D. M., Mahmoud, R. L., Mosca, L. M., Manta, G. B., Volpi, E. M., Brandao, L. G., and Cernea C. R. (2017) Substernal goiter and laryngopharyngeal reflux. Arch. Endocrinol. Metab.Vol.6, no.4. Retrieved from http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2359-39972017005004102&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Richie J.P. Jr, Nichenametla S., Neidig W., Calcagnotto A., Haley J.S., Schell T.D., and Muscat J. E. (2014) Milestone Study Shows Oral Supplement Setria(R) Glutathione Effectively Enhances Body's Most Important Protective Antioxidant: Long-Term Human Clinical Trial Data Now Available. PR Newswire; New York [New York. Retrieved from https://proxy.lirn.net/MuseProxyID=mp01/MuseSessionID=0006ws8/MuseProtocol=https/MuseHost=search.proquest.com/MusePath/abidateline/docview/1531974273/fulltext/C41F69958BAE43D1PQ/1?accountid=158302
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I have an essay due today and this day is RACING by. I have gotten through breakfast, lunch is cooking for the kids, I have strained my California poppy tincture and have laundry going. Today was burdock's turn to be checked but it wasn't ready yet. My son seemed interested in smelling things so I just grabbed a random jar (California poppy) and it was ready. It was almost ready a few days ago so I wasn't surprised. My cat that's been having eating problems has been using my daughter's bed as a litter box and it has really gotten me upset. Apparently the store being out of the litter I normally buy is what caused it since she used it this morning. Glad I got 2 bags of it (it was all they had). I guess I need to stock up on it to keep her using the box instead of the bed. I'm just glad I have that mattress cover on there that keeps liquid from steeping through so the mattress isn't ruined. She is getting very particular in her old age! I also noticed my older cat is starting to lose weight as well. I think when he comes out of hiding tonight, I'll take a look at his teeth. I know he's been eating some of her soft food and that is NOT like him. He normally only eats the hard stuff and thinks "people food" is beneath him. Thankfully my younger cat is still going strong though he looks pregnant... LOL I got all but 2 pages of that one chapter read and I want to read the 5 pages today but I don't know if I'll get to it given how much of the day has already raced by. Oh, I also have my Nat 503 lecture this morning. I don't know if Chemistry is going to do them or not. It does seem kind of boring that the 2 lectures I get each week are with the same teacher. He does have GREAT information though. He sees clients and is teaching at least 2 classes so hats off to him for working so hard! Well, I just served them lunch and should go get my lunch made and eat. Then I need to do a small bit of research and write another essay. This is on apoptosis which is very important. I leave you today with a discussion post on muscles. I didn't get too detailed on this one but I did enjoy the opportunity to look into this information. It looks like I only have 2 more discussion posts to share after today and we will get into herbs again. Have a great day!
In this module you will learn about different muscles in the body, where are they located, and what is their specific function. Many muscles are typically grouped into different muscle groups, depending on where are they located. Therefore, they may have similar functions, however, their specific function may vary slightly. For example, the soleus and gastrocnemius muscles are very similar in their function, but yet they have small differences. Can you discuss the differences between these two muscles? Make sure you include their origin/insertion, and how this may affect their function. You can choose any two muscles that may be a bit similar, just make sure you discuss them in good detail :) For the gastrocnemius and soleus, they are controlled by the same nerve, the tibial nerve. While these muscles are considered a pair, the soleus is deep of the gastrocnemius (calf muscle). The gastrocnemius flexes the foot while the soleus provides the movement of walking, dancing, etc. These muscles have to work together to enable these functions. The gastrocnemius provides flexion at the knee while the soleus provides it at the ankle. The soleus is the primary mover for these functions though. I can attest that “too much running” can make the gastrocnemius bigger. I have a pair of boots that no longer fit! Kocturk et al (2008) (because I was curious about why) explained the gastrocnemius had a high rate of apoptosis in mice measured before and after exercise while the soleus did not. I decided to do a bit more digging on this topic so I went to the library. I found an interesting study that compared the physiological differences in this muscle set between males and females. While the results didn’t really surprise me, it confirmed that gender is more than hormones and genitalia. Chow et al (2000) determined “Males tend to have larger muscles and greater absolute strength than females, even when corrections are made for age.” Chow, R. S., Medri, M. K., Martin, D. C., Leekam, R. N., Agur, A. M., and McKee, N. H. (2000) Sonographic studies of human soleus and gastrocnemius muscle architecture: gender variability. Eur J Appl Physiol (2000) 82: 236±2 Kocturk, S., Kayatekin, B. M., Resmi, H., Acikgoz, O., Kaynak, C., and Ozer, E. (2008) The apoptotic response to strenuous exercise of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscle fibers in rats. Eur J Appl Physiol 102:515–524 I guess my son was really tired last night because he stayed in his bed for the first half of the night and stayed mostly still the rest of the night. In fact, what little he moved, I didn't even wake up. I was very tired. I got NO school work done but I did get a lot done around here yesterday. Both kids ended up taking a nap at the same time. I know, it was a miracle! I went through my closet to see what presents I had for them and took pictures. I bought a second copy of Little Dory Goes Home yesterday but since it was only $4, I'm going to put it in B A Blessing at Christmas and another child can benefit. She can't have it until she's 4 so it will be fine. I'm glad I got pics because there are many toys I want for them and I needed to know which I already bought. I try to buy a birthday present or Christmas present every few paydays so I won't have to find money for those special events. My son has quite a bit in there. I think his birthday in January is set. Today I check my licorice tincture. I need to go get some bleach first. My straining towels are all stained and I'm trying to get the stains out. I'll do that in a little while. I have a lecture at 9am. I got the bulk of my groceries yesterday as well but I wanted to wait until all the bills I was paying cleared so I could get more. I can't get everything on the list but I made a nice dent. I'm looking forward to my lecture. Hoping to learn something awesome. Oh, I just realized you readers probably don't know what B A Blessing is. A few local people put together an organization to help the needy. It is 100% volunteer and no money is exchanged. People post their needs in a Facebook Group and if someone can help them, they arrange to meet and provide those items. Quite often, it's baby clothes and formula but it can also be work clothes, etc. Many of the people have lost everything in fires, leaving an abusive relationship, floods, etc. I have both donated and received help. With my first child, my husband had lost his job. I got a lot of clothes for her through the program and maternity pants. I had also bought a lot of duplicate kitchen items over the years because I had not had a kitchen where I could have everything until I got here so I forgot I had this and that so I felt like I was exchanging things instead of just getting aid. "here's some baking dishes, my baby needs clothes" kind of thing. It worked great and I like to help where I can. Since I no longer go on Facebook, I don't keep track of what's being requested now but I'm broke anyway so it's okay. LOL Today, i leave you with the post on skin I promised yesterday. have a great day!
The skin is the largest organ in the body and has many different functions. After watching the videos and resources on the skin, did you know all of the functions that the skin had? What surprised you the most? Which function is the most important in your opinion? For me, A&P was one of my first 2 classes in my bachelors degree. It was a struggle because I had been out of school for so long and my daughter was born during that class. I also didn’t enjoy the pharmaceutical take on things. I have never found science to be an easy subject but, given how I want to help others, this is the course I have chosen. What I can say is I LOVE these videos! I have learned more from the videos than I have from the reading because he is so energetic in his delivery and it makes you excited to learn! I did know all of the functions of the skin (barely) but melanin was interesting. If I understood correctly, we all have the same amount but the size of the cell changes depending on how much protection from the sun a person needs. To me, that is just cool! In the reading about the different layers of the skin, I now understand more about mesothelioma and basil-cell carcinoma which my father was afflicted with (as in exactly where these cancers live within the skin layers). I decided to give a quick look in my books for these two cancers and did not see anything by their name but I did find melanoma which is a skin cancer caused by too much sun exposure and was not surprised to see Lavender as one of the things used in treatment (Worwood 48). If anyone wants to know the recipe here for an oil to help, let me know. I thought about posting it here but I think it’s outside the scope of this assignment. While I have not finished the reading yet, I think the most important function of the skin is how it’s the body’s first line of defense. It protects against too much sun, disease, viruses, etc. Of course, there is other ways for such things to enter the body but the skin is generally the first thing to be encountered. I did a quick search on Google Scholar, knowing a LOT of articles would come up. While I didn’t look to see of the school has a subscription so I could see the whole article, for the purposes of this assignment I think the article I found in Nature Reviews Immunology did a very concise summation on all the ways the skin helps in this arena. The first key point they highlight is “Human skin and the immune cells that it contains provide essential protection of the human body from injury and infection.” The second key point is “Keratinocytes are a first line of defence and sense danger through alert systems such as the inflammasome and Toll-like receptors. They mediate an inflammatory response by secreting pro-inflammatory cytokines.” which is backed up by what I have read so far in our text book. (I’ll have it all read by the end of the weekend, just difficult reading with a toddler flipping through the pages looking for cartoon animals.) Nestle, F. O., Di Meglio, P., Qin, JZ., Nickoloff, B. J., (2009). Skin immune sentinels in health and disease. Nature Reviews Immunology volume 9, pages 679–691 (2009) Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/nri2622 Marieb, E. N. & Hoehn, K. (2019) Human Anatomy & Physiology 11th Edition. Pearson. Worwood, V. A. (1991). The Complete Book of Essential Oils & Aromatherapy. New World Library. P. 48. I paid bills! LOL sad to be happy about that but these are the people who call you 30 seconds after you miss a payment. I still have a few to take care of but breakfast needs to be had and my daughter has been Katy Kaboom already this morning. They both wanted water so I gave out one cup (there are many cups of water in the living room) but she took his when I gave him one and ... well, you can guess how well that went. I'll be starting breakfast once I'm done with this so it won't be long. I turned in one essay yesterday (and got a 97 on it) and, this will shock you if you read here regularly, I got almost a whole chapter read yesterday for homeopathy! The last essay due is on apoptosis. While I do understand the concept, I'd like to see what the books says before doing my paper if the kids will let me. I have less than 10 pages in the one chapter (I've already gotten through the needed section) and 6 pages, I think, in another book. There is still another chapter in the first book that is required reading but I'm not going to sweat it if I can't get it done. I've done more reading this week than I can remember since starting my bachelors. Pretty awesome! I leave you with a discussion on skin. Have a great day!
Option 1: Scientific Perspectives Skilled herbalists have been practicing their art for millennia without knowledge of botanical classification or herbal constituents. Today, we have added these scientific perspectives to traditional and empirical observations. How is such information helpful or relevant to the contemporary practice of botanical medicine? Over a century ago, someone discovered penicillin, an anti-biotic made from mold. Most of our medicine prior to that was herbal. People still had issues, didn’t respond to those herbal treatments. The adage became “herbs don’t work” as modern medicine continued to advance. An example is a lot of people had great response to plant-based treatments for menopause. Some said this treatments didn’t work so those treatments were abandoned for modern treatments but those don’t always work and are hazardous. Now, people have options, thanks to these studies. We now know that some respond really well to the modern hormone replacement therapy, some respond well to the hormones derived from animals, and still others respond well to plant-based therapies. Without doing these studies, discovering different ways of treating people would be difficult. Yesterday, I did my comment on Moghdam, et al. (2016) for Herb 503. This study is a great example of old and new coming together. We knew valerian would be good for menstrual cramps because we know how that works, thanks to science. What we don’t know is how it helps with the emotional issues of PMS, just that it does. Since the dawn of man, we have always been looking for the one thing that works for everyone. Which herbs works best for this, which medicine works the best for this, etc. While some people are finally coming to the realization that nothing works for everyone, what can be discovered is the HOW and the WHY something works. If we can nail that down, it could become easier to treat people rather than the trial and error that is always done no matter which medicine form you take. References Moghadam, Z, V., Rezaei, E., Gholami, R. S., Kheirkhah, M., and Haghani, H. (2016). The effect of Valerian root extract on the severity of pre menstrual syndrome symptoms. J Tradit Complement Med. 2016 Jul; 6(3): 309–315. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcme.2015.09.001. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4936757/ I got that exam done yesterday and didn't get a 100% but I didn't do too bad. It was all quiet when I started it and half-way through, my daughter threw a tantrum and woke my son so I rushed through the rest of it. All I have left are the 2 essays and I will try some reading after those are done if the kids let me. I do still need to do my lab, which will probably be a tea. I also when through Hoffman and filled out the information on the herbs from last semester in my tincture notebook. I think there were 3 herbs not in there. I'll look through other sources when I can but I have plenty of entries for when I start talking about herbs again. I prefer to talk about them once the tincture is done and I only have a couple and don't know when I can buy the alcohol for the herbs with higher alcohol needs. Maybe I should read ahead and learn more about that since I understand that section is coming soon. Some of the herbs have 4 different percentages and it's hard to know which you should try. I prefer to try the weakest alcohol first (vodka) but that is not always best. The constituents dissolve at different rates with different solvents. That's why a tea is used for one thing but the same herb, the tincture can be used for something else. I know I've said that before but it's quite important to understand what form of the herb to use and when. I will check the next herb on the calendar on Tuesday which is licorice. I think it should be done then because it was almost done when I checked it before. On the home-front, the kids are happily playing. They have eaten their breakfast and been changed and have a nice cup of chocolate milk each. I usually make them share but my daughter wasn't having it this morning so my son got his own cup as well. I prefer to teach her to share but when you think about it, when they get older, they won't be sharing drinks so no big deal. Since I still have a lot to do (when do I not?), I will close here. I leave below a discussion on usnea. I have discussed this topic before but that is gone so this post is really for those who started reading after the deletion (if there are any). Have a great day!
Option 2: Fungi and Fungal Products Which fungi and fungal products are significant to herbalism and natural health care? How are these used? What about pathogenic fungi? Consider yeasts, molds, ergot, and the medicinal mushrooms. I have discussed usnea with our instructor during one of our lectures but I have a story on it that I’d like to share so I decided to do this topic. The story is, a friend has herpes because her baby-daddy cheated on her and she researched and asked me to make a tincture for her of usnea. I had never heard of this herb before and will do a bit more research for this assignment here is a sec. It took 6 weeks to make the tincture though I now know that is one that prefers heat distillation so the next batch will be made in the crock pot. My friend told me her research stated to apply in externally when there is a flare up. She said she wanted to spray it on so I bought 4 oz spray bottles for this purpose. When it was done, I got it to her. She had a flare up and sprayed it on… She sent me a message asking if it was supposed to burn… I’m sorry, y’all but I laughed. I make my tinctures with alcohol and that alcohol hit those sores and she knew it. I actually just finished making one that is vinegar-based but that won’t be much better when used externally on sores. I can’t remember which herb I was looking up or maybe it was a constituent but Hoffman says to treat skin conditions internally anyway. Hoffman is always the first book I go to followed by Ulbrecht. Hoffman doesn’t talk about the herb specifically in a monograph format but he does have it in there a few places as well as calling out usnic acid which is part of what makes usnea amazing. I just realized this is going to be a LONG post. Sorry for the book! LOL A bit of background, this is from Ulbricht (2010), page 720, usnea is a fructose lichen which is a cross between fungus and algae. It grows on trees. I ordered mine in powder form so I don’t have a picture of my own but I’m sure one can be found online. This stuff has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. They use it for lung and upper respiratory infections, externally for infections and ulcers (so maybe the herpes flareups?). Today, the Chinese use it to treat tuberculosis. Also, Ulbricht goes on to say usnic acid has been used to treat HPV and oral hygiene. I always wonder if oral hygiene means teeth, deodorant or all the above. The call-out box suggests mouth wash in this instance. The safety section actually says deodorant sprays with this have caused contact eczema and other allergic reactions… I think I need to get my friend some licorice tincture. And next time I need to read all of the data and advise her that not everything she reads on the internet is a good thing… LOL Hoffman (2003) says usnic acid is in a few lichens and calls out usnea, ramalina, Evernia, paramelia, lecanora, and cladonia (93). I did a quick search on usnea and there are a lot more articles than I expected. I found one that I don’t know how I feel about, so I decided that would be perfect to talk about. Siddiqi et al. (2018) did a study with nanoparticles (I often consider them unethical) while infusing them with extracts from usnea. The thing is, they are using silver nanoparticles. The end product was antibacterial for use in soaps, water purification and medicine. I read through this article and I can’t find anything I disapprove of. Usnea is a safe plant to use internally, anti-microbial, and silver has been used as a water purifier for centuries and used in colloidal silver as an anti-bacterial against many illnesses. I’m truly intrigued by this. This may be cheating a bit but I wanted to answer some of the other questions in the prompt so I turned to the text book for next semester to get me started. I thought my other Pizzorno and Murray (2013) book was thick. This one could break my children’s toes if a certain someone climbs the shelves and pulls this one off in her quest to “read” mommy’s books… There is a chapter in here on Microbial Enzyme Therapy. Luckily the chapters in here are small because this is chapter 106, page 876 and I’m about halfway through the book sitting on this page… Talk about intimidating! For the question about fungal products being used in medicine, can we say long list? The most important things that jump off the page at me are lactose intolerance, maldigestion/malabsorption, inflammatory conditions and food allergies. That is not even half the list but to say these enzymes from fungi play an important role in natural medicine is an understatement! Since lactose intolerance is quite prevalent, I decided to look there for a product. It didn’t take long. b-galactosidases come from many sources, to include fungi and yeast and are used in milk for lactose intolerant people as well as prebiotics according to Saqib et al. They list several fungi that are used as sources and state fungi are used because they are very stable. References Hoffman, David. (2003). Medical Herbalism: The Science and Practice of Herbal Medicine. Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press. Pizzorno, J. E. and Murray, M. T. (2013). Textbook of Natural Medicine. St. Louis, MA: Elsevier. Saqib, S. Akram, A., Halim, S. A., and Tassaduq, R. (2017). Sources of b-galactosidase and its applications in food industry. Biotech, 7:79. Siddiqi, K. S., Rashid, M., Rahman, A., Tajuddin, Husen, A., and Rehman, S. (2018). Biogenic fabrication and characterization of silver nanoparticles using aqueous-ethanolic extract of lichen (Usnea longissima) and their antimicrobial activity. Ulbricht, C. E. (2010). Natural Standard Herb & Supplement Guide: An Evidence-based Guide. Mosby, Inc. Elsevier, Inc. Been a busy day already. I got my son's diapers dried and put away, breakfast done and dishes washed. I have the "easy" assignments done for the week. I have 2 essays and my herbs exam. It looks like there will be an herbs exam every week. It may be open book but the essay questions mean I need to find time to read. Good luck to me! My son took his diaper off while I was cooking breakfast. It was quite the sight. I went to get him to put him in his chair and his diaper COVER was still on his leg but his diaper was nowhere to be found (I found it later). I got him put back together and in his chair. I think it was because he has such big legs and even though it's elastic, it's a tight fit. If I can ever fix the toilet, I think he may also be interested in potty training but I need to get my daughter done. I know there won't be money this paycheck but maybe the next one I can buy a new toilet. I can't just replace the guts because my daughter actually broke the lid to the tank so the whole thing needs replacing. Today I plan to get that exam done because the essays will take a lot of work this week. I have actually read the herbs portion of the one text book, 4 herbs this week. There was required reading in 3 books plus a web site. I'd say I have about half done so my chances on those essays today should be fairly good. The kids are playing chase in the living room. They are quite entertaining! LOL Today, I leave you with my thoughts on wildcrafting. This post sparked a very interesting discussion and I'm glad I chose this topic! Have a great day!
Choosing a topic this week was like pulling my hair out because I liked all the options! LOL I decided to discuss wild crafting (Option 3), though because I have strong feelings on it and after a lecture on it last week in Herb 503 and the lesson in this class, I feel more educated in the topic. I even purchased the type of loupe Dr. Stuart suggested though now I think I need one less powerful as well. The one I have is 40x with a light and a UV light. It has a great case too, which is very important when your mini-mes want to help… LOL I had been FULLY against wildcrafting because it depletes the sources of natural plant in the wild but there are arguments for it as well. United Plant Savers is an EXCELLENT source to find plant that should NOT be harvested in the wild. Let them grow, find a way to thrive. Maybe you can even nurture them to help them fight for a healthy life. For those not on the endangered or potentially endangered lists, only take what you NEED. I know the rule we keep hearing is 10% but if everyone takes 10%, it will quickly end up endangered unless it’s something like mint that laughs at getting cut back. Truth be told, my rosemary likes getting cut back as well. The winter she almost died, I cut 80% off her and she’s amazing today! (and I have not had to buy rosemary to cook with in a long time) One of my favorite things Dr. Stuart mentioned was bringing a “gift” for the plant you harvest from. He liked to bring coffee grounds. The gift you provide to the plant should be some form of addition to the soil to help the plant flourish. If you harvest a root, do something to help the partner plants spread. I loved the question on harvesting traditions. There are so many! Dr. Stuart mentioned the one he uses in his lecture but I don’t recall his exact words. I don’t think the exact words are what ‘s important anyway. The intention is. I’m Wiccan and we follow the tradition that you ask the plant first before harvesting (I should say I do because not all Wiccans do). If the plant is okay with it, you will simply know that they are. Like my dear rosemary. It felt like she was begging me to cut her back so she could breathe and return to a flourishing life. I also promised her when we got to a permanent residence, I’d plant her in the ground rather than her big pot. I followed through with that promise too and she is very happy where she is. When you ask for permission you should express to the plant what your intention is. Once you have collected your clippings, you should thank the plant for allowing you the opportunity to turn them into medicine, for example. For the last question, “do these have deliberate or hidden ecological benefits” I think the answer depends on the person, their beliefs and their observations. I know that ALL things have a spirit they just display them in ways that we cannot always comprehend. Plants and animals need each other – animals needing the plants more than the plants needing the animals… An example of them needing us, again I turn to Rosie. She was in the ground in Virginia. That winter was very harsh and killed all the rosemary plants in the area. I think she survived because she was in a pop-up greenhouse. However, there was so much dead on her. I wanted to cry when spring came and I saw her condition. I cut off all the dead and dug her up and put her back in her pot in the house the next winter. That was when I promised she would have a permanent place in the future. The way you treat your plants is a deliberate way of keeping them healthy. Cutting back in specific ways to help the plant flourish is perfect. I forget what plant Dr. Stuart was talking about, I think it was nettle, but he said if you cut it a certain way, 2 more grow back. This is a way to help the plant flourish. There are also hidden benefits which I need to find the articles for. Plants actually do better when you talk to them. The scientists thought that it was an affect of exhaling near the plants which gave them fresh air. Basically, it’s the same affect as us going into nature for clean air. The plants breathe better when we are near. https://unitedplantsavers.org/species-at-risk-list/ The kids were both plagued with bad dreams last night. My son fell and hit his cheek on a metal grate yesterday so he has a bruise on his cheek and couldn't sleep on his tummy so he kept joining me in bed last night. I'm tired... LOL On the bright side, the bruise is smaller than yesterday. Katy Kaboom has been in a bad mood all morning. I think a nap will happen with both of them today. Last night I played (tried) Beauty and the Beast and the beast scared her. I switched to Return of Jafar and Jafar also scared her. She went to sleep in my arms seeking refuge from him. I hadn't even gotten her ready for bed yet. Both movies have been put up. They are probably the cause of the nightmares last night. We can try again when they are older. We have already eaten breakfast and I have checked my California Poppy tincture and it's almost done so I can soak a few more weeks. I also started rose and chamomile yesterday. I'm going to start rosemary once I have a few empty jars. I technically do now but I'm trying to put a case of jars up and I'm trying to empty the one type and put them back in that case. Yes, it sounds OCD but I don't care. I think there will only be a few more days of these discussion posts but the one for today needs to be shared. I have a few tinctures of last semester's herbs done and many in the works - some are not from the kit but plants I have around here. I think next time the rose bush blooms, I'm making some rose water. The recipe I found yesterday is a 1:3 ratio of petals to water. An oil might be good to. I'm off here to go study the effects of diet on aging because that is the discussion for homeopathy this week. This could be good! Have a great day!
Option 3: Source and Quality of Herbal Remedies Many people obtain their herbal remedies from retail outlets. How do you find out the source and quality of materials used by herbal products manufacturers? Consider issues such as certified organic vs. wildcrafted; what do these terms indicate about the plant populations? Which manufacturers grow their own source material; who is willing to divulge and verify their sources? Can they guarantee that their medicinal plants are ecologically wildcrafted or sustainably harvested? This was a hard chose of options for this week because I wanted to answer them all! I chose option 3 this week because I was recently on a post on Facebook where a Young Living seller was bragging that their oils never expired. I physically cringed when I heard that. I don’t use their oils and this is just another reason. I prefer herbal products that are as close to the original thing as possible. I don’t want anything that has preservatives added. It’s part of the drive to become an herbalist. I want to know the products I use are trustworthy. A lot of companies will not reveal the source of their plant material. They call the information “proprietary”. To me, that means they do something a little “extra” and I don’t want that product. I like the sourcing data from this school. When the herb says “organic” it means it came from the greenhouse. I do on occasion see “wild crafted” which means it wasn’t grown in the greenhouse. It was collected from nature somewhere. Personally, in today’s polluted environment, I trust green-house grown plant material more than I trust wild crafted. The toxicity of our soil is terrifying. Also, wild crafting takes more and more from nature and she is suffering enough. To determine where companies get their plant material, some post it on their site, others respond when you call. If they don’t want to provide the information then they don’t want my business. I use Eden’s Garden but there are others that are good in terms of oils. They have this written on their site “Our oils are unadulterated, free of synthetics and entirely pure. EG is an eco-conscious company and we choose sustainable practices whenever possible from soil to bottle. Certificate of analysis, specifications and MSDS are available upon request.” This tells me they are not hiding their practices. I think my favorite thing is this quote “We do GC/MS (gas chromatography mass spectrometry) tests on each of our essential oils and reports are available within each product page. This will give the breakdown of the naturally occurring components found in any given oil.” If something has been sprayed with toxic chemicals, the mass spectrometer will tell you. This company buys their organic material from other companies. They can’t really guarantee anything except they do their best to ensure their growers are using sustainable practices and are not adding any chemicals to their plants. I have not purchased bulk herbs for anyone in a long while but I like what Mountain Rose Herbs has to say about sourcing of their material. “Thankfully, most herbs and spices are not in danger of industrial genetic modification, so organic certification is our go-to for insuring that our herbal goodies are grown without synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, GMO seed stock, or irradiation. Taking this commitment one step further, we also have products verified through the Non-GMO Project! Many of the products on this list have been chosen for this certification because they are produced from plant crops that are known to be at risk of GMO contamination.” I have a huge proponent of the Non-GMO project going so far as to call it the ”seal of approval” for our family. While very few companies grow all of their own source material, there are a lot of ways to check the product before it goes to the market. I’m glad there are companies out there that do. Eden’s Garden. Retrieved from https://www.edensgarden.com/pages/edens-pledge Mountain Rose Herbs. Retrieved from https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/principles/organic-agriculture I'm up this morning before BOTH kids. I don't know what to do! LOL Well, I survived the first week of the semester. I was able to get into the lecture yesterday for homeopathy. The instructor is a busy guy with his own business so he can't set a static day/time for the lectures for the 2 classes but I should be able to get in there since I don't have a set schedule. We have not had a chemistry lecture yet. I did ask him for any advice in choosing a research topic and he had some great advice. He said if we have someone who is sick who is willing to have us write on the, the case study is a great way to go because you learn a lot. It's also more work. He suggests picking a topic and researching that. Since there are several herbs in my kit I want to know about, yesterday I built a spreadsheet of the herbs in my kit and the constituents/actions/indications of them. I'd like to see if I can find 3 herbs that would go together and research those as a topic of what they do. Dandelion and echinacea are 2 I would love to research. I have learned through these classes that we use echinacea WRONG. Dandelion does all kinds of things depending on which part of the plant you use. There are others that are also amazing in here. Reishi mushrooms. AMAZING. In my reading, you make a tincture of the mushrooms THEN you use the mushrooms to make a tea. See! So many amazing things so It's no wonder I'm having trouble! LOL I hope to choose a topic this week since I think we are supposed to start talking about our topic in week 3. I bought some cayenne and echinacea seeds yesterday and plan to put some in when I get a bit of time. What I would LIKE to do is grow the herbs I choose to write about and take pictures of the various stages of their growth as I learn about them scientifically. I prefer to use my own pictures of the plants this way I don't have to cite a different source. My children are now up. They got good sleep and are happy little ones so far today. I do have things to do, however, so I shall quit talking with my fingers and leave you with an interesting post. I found this assignment interesting because so many failed to understand the purpose of the assignment. This discussion topic was about taking a bad survey and making it better. I didn't do too bad on this one and yes, I was proud of me when the teacher was asking further questions of the others but not me because I got it right first try. WOOT! LOL Enjoy and have a great day!
I didn't even read Option 2, so this is on Option 1!
I read these questions and immediately was struck by their vagueness. The first question had me asking “research what”? Medical breakthroughs? Underwater basket weaving? How to crochet mittens for my pet rock Fluffy? If I were to rewrite this question, I'd write it like “Do you read medical research of any kind? Yes (continue to the next question) ________ No (Stop here) _______ For the other 2 questions, they are again vague on the TYPE of research. Yes, I get this is for nurses so it could be implied but nurses do things outside of work. I'd like to think they have hobbies that take them away from the stress of their job. I'd break the third question into 2 questions one on reading and the other on talking to colleagues. The answers listed are way too subjective. The only one that is clear is “Every Day”. I think there should be something like: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Never. I don't fully like this, though, because they could read more than once a month or more than once a month, even more than once a year. I liked how Chen and Tseng pointed out the importance of the method of conducting the survey. So many are online these days and people fill them out with a cursory glance. A survey should engage the respondent and make them feel like their answers are important. Perhaps include a purpose statement at the top so they will understand how their answers will be used and what type of impact this survey may have. Moore highlights the importance of the specific language used in questions because education level is important. I'd argue that just because they have an education certificate, doesn't necessarily mean they have an understanding at the level they should. While I was active duty I got a blank stare quite frequently of my subordinates. They graduated school but still didn't understand. While I think the language is within reason for the above questions, I do think the specificity needs to be added. Mindy Chen, H & Tseng, C. H. (2017) Effects of Applying Multimedia and Dialogue Boxes to Web Survey Design. International Journal of Business and Information. Moore, S. R. (1995) Focus on research questions for research on reading-writing relationships and text structure knowledge. Language Arts. I forgot to say that I made in the Dean's List for the second semester in yesterday's post. I don't think I did that even in my bachelor's program so this is a big deal to me. I woke up yesterday with such a positive feeling that I had to do a few things. Events through the day pulled me down as they normally do but I stayed positive longer than last time so that's a good thing. That's not the best way to describe it but I don't think my reader would understand if I used different terminology. I decided to do my paper for herbs on cayenne. It has so many uses I think it will be very interesting to write about it. I still need a case study for homeopathy. Right now, I'm saving all the lessons for Herbs in my file structure so I can firgure out a few things. I think I can pick a case study from one of the herbs in my class so I'm looking for other options. There is so MUCH to learn this semester. One of the things that has me nervous about grades is the quizzes for herbs are not quizzes but open book exams. The difference is that quizzes can be done as many times as I want to get the best grade. These are one shot. With essay questions. This also means I need a slightly different strategy for this semester. I'll figure it out. My daughter is still asleep, mainly because my son decided to get up an hour early this morning. Yeah, I didn't wake in as much of a good mood as yesterday. There are no tinctures coming ready today but there are 2 tomorrow. Actually, the correct wording is they MAY be ready. I will check them tomorrow and determine if they are and strain them IF they are. I'm running very low on dropper bottles so if I run out before they are all strained, I will have to pause on the whole process. The other thing, once I know which herbs are in which modules, I be able to determine which labs to do each week. I need at least 10 but I'd like to do more since the shells are almost complete. I may even go back and fill out herbarium entries on the other herbs for last semester during the next break. I want to expand them as well to include the physical descriptions from botany. I think that would make the entry more complete. No other site does that from what I can see so they assume the reader knows what each plant looks like and can differentiate with other plants that look like it. I don't think that's true. It will also help me to learn these t0hi0n0gs by putting this information together. For now, I need to get my day started. I leave below a discussion post on search strategy for learning new stuff. Have a great day!
Discussion Topic: Search Strategy Using your own research topic, complete the following:
I did a search for “gut microbiome development child” in PubMeb, Biology Database and Health Reference Center Academic. In PubMed, I got over 300 results. On PubMed, I found a great article discussing the link between breastmilk and nurturing gut health. I found another that discussed whether there is a link between the gut and jaundice in newborns (very interesting article!). In the Biology Database under ProQuest, I found a comparison on gut biomes between Finnish and Indian children as well as a study that looks at many factors in the development of the early gut. I looked under Health Reference Center Academic and didn’t find anything related to my search. I loved this assignment as it showed me that, though PubMed kicks out a bunch of articles, few are what I’m looking for. Also, most of PubMed is just a summary and I have to request the actual study where Biology Database had all the studies readily available to me. I had been using PubMed exclusively and getting frustrated so this exercise helped me realize there are better databases geared toward what I’m looking for. So much has been happening and I don't talk about most of it here. I'm trying to keep this about family and my education. For now, it will stay that way. I'm almost done reading the brain book. It's a wonderful book with tips that look like they will really help. I have not tried any yet but I will. While my daughter napped yesterday (yes, she actually took a nap!), I cleaned up the office a bit. I pulled all her toys out and put them in her closet. I added a bunch of stuff to her art bucket. I now have everything I had put up in one place which is great. It's all accounted for. I made room in the closet in there so you can actually see the floor. I even brought out one of the dining room chairs to see if I can teach my daughter NOT to use it to climb. It would be nice to be able to eat meals at the table for a change. She DID eat her breakfast as the table this morning. I praised her for being such a good girl. I also dug out the Tinkerbell that goes with her music box and gave her that and a Minnie Mouse tea set. I had them on the coffee table for when she woke up so she could see them immediately and she got right up and started playing. She wanted to sleep with her Tinkerbell last night... I refused but she asked for it first thing this morning. My son woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning so we are dealing with the grumpies. He also keeps eating her crayon that she seems to have trouble remembering to put up. I do want to buy a few more boxes of these big fat crayons because they are worth it for these small hands but it's also more for a child to eat... I have already done breakfast, dishes and I have a load of laundry in the washer and the dryer. I have also strained my cramp bark tincture. That is such a GREAT herb for females so I'm looking forward to talking about that in the near future. For now, I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to discuss as research topics. The first week is almost up and I still have no clue! For now, I will leave you with a discussiom on Diabetes. Have a great day!
I chose “Nutritional intervention in patients with type 2 diabetes who are hyperglycaemic despite optimised drug treatment—Lifestyle Over and Above Drugs in Diabetes (LOADD) study: randomised controlled trial”. The purpose of the study was to determine if a better diet would reduce the dependency on diabetic drugs. The overall question was “Objective To determine the extent to which intensive dietary intervention can influence glycaemic control and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes who are hyperglycaemic despite optmised drug treatment.” First off, the study was done in New Zealand (Aoterra) so some of the spellings throughout the study are different than the spellings we use here. The article is organized: Abstract, Introduction, Methods (Participants, Randomization, Intervention, Study Outcomes, and Statistical Analysis) Results, Discussion (Comparison with other studies, Strengths and limitations of study, Implications). This is a very logical layout as it flows through the process. As questions arose in my mind, the next section answered them. The theoretical rationale makes perfect sense. I chose this topic because I already had some experience of sorts in this arena. When I was early in my military career, I had the symptoms of hypoglycemia but my numbers never showed that I had it. I convinced my doctor to send me to the Diet for Diabetics class and it changed my life. The symptoms went away. I now know that not everything they told me to eat was actually food but it was a good lesson in determining what should be eaten. I think my favorite aspect of this study is the dietician followed up with the participants. I think this helped the study stay on track because the dietician could help the participant flex if need be based on changes in the participants life. An example of that is one participant had to drop out do to increased and unexpected travel. I think a good dietician could have helped this participant if the travel was within our country but not so much with travel outside the country. Another reason the rationale makes sense to me is, if you think about it, what your body doesn’t use gets stored in fat cells or excreted. If all you eat is junk food, then junk food is what gets stored in your fat cells. While doctors like to say EXERCISE, what they fail to realize is when you burn those fat cells, you are just releasing those junk food toxins back into your body. While exercise is good for you, health must start with a good diet. I think the justification doesn’t need any further explanation than what is listed in the article itself. “No studies to date have approached the clinical question considered here, which is increasingly relevant as patients with type 2 diabetes are prescribed an increasing number of drugs and, like populations of non-diabetic people worldwide, are becoming increasingly overweight and obese (Coppell et al).” Coppell, K. J., Kataoka, M., Williams, S. M., Chisholm, A. W., Vorgers, S. M., & Mann, J. I. “Nutritional intervention in patients with type 2 diabetes who are hyperglycaemic despite optimised drug treatment—Lifestyle Over and Above Drugs in Diabetes (LOADD) study: randomised controlled trial”. Edgar National Centre for Diabetes and Obesity Research, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Otago, PO Box 913, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand. Department of Human Nutrition, University of Otago. Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago. BMJ 2010;341:c3337 doi:10.1136/bmj.c3337 |
Mindy
I am currently a student at American College of Healthcare Sciences earning my Masters of Science degree in Herbal Medicine. This blog is my journey of juggling mom-life with student life. My husband is a truck driver so I'm essentially a single mom all but 3 days a month. It's a challenge but we will get through this. I complete this degree on 18 December 2019 and will take one additional semester and then be done for a while. My children need more attention from their mommy but I can't wait on getting this education done. I will do what I must for now. ArchivesCategories |
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