Healing Crisis

What’s a Healing Crisis?

I was asked this recently when I remarked that I felt I was having one with regard to my kidneys trying to heal up.

For me, the healing crisis is a rerun of some chronic experience of dis-ease. For instance, I’m prone to my kidneys forming crystals and worse case scenario is they form stones. Haven’t done that in about six years thank goodness. Forming crystals happens for two reasons. I get a substance that causes my ph to shift, which reduces my body’s ability to cope with toxins and it begins to form crystals, else I top the balance in some way, like dehydration and again my body looses its ability to cope with toxins and begins to form crystals. Usually, there will be a fever and high blood pressure. Also fatigue and lots of pain. My brain will build up some toxins in it and I’ll feel less able to remember things and have ADD like symptoms.

It feels pretty yukky. Its painful. Not nearly as painful as forming stones, but you get the drift.

If I am feeling really well, I can get a bit dehydrated without any kidney symptoms. I can get some tomatoes or another high acid food and not form the crystals…but I have to be really well.

I haven’t been really well in some time.

Recently, I attended a sweat lodge. I had a very intense healing experience. My kidneys swelled in response to the toxins in my body rushing to release themselves in response the healing. Yet I had no fever. No crystals. No pain with urinating. No ADD like symptoms. I was tired. I wanted to rest. I had alot of pain from the swollen kidneys pressing on the muscles in my back.

Now I feel more well than I have in a very long time.

Here’s three articles that will expand on this topic:

The Healing Crisis

Basic Healing Principles of Natural Cure

Understanding the Healing Crisis

I thought it might be useful to share the kidney tonic that I use to maintain my health. I use a one quart tea pot to steep the herbs and then transfer to a two gallon iced tea dispenser, adding water and juice once I add the cooled tea to the dispenser:

Kidney Tonic Tea

Steep two to three stalks Artemisia ludoviciana or ‘white buffalo’ sage and four or five leaves of Thuja occidentalis or Northern white cedar leaf;

If it is spring, I also harvest some pine buds to add to the tea. You can add about ten buds for each quart of tea. These are very easy to harvest. You can see little fresh buds between the longer mature pine needles. They are lighter green and if you take a look at this Wiki, you can see an image of a pine bud about half way down the page. Pine is not a poisonous plant and is very easily identified as its has distinctive long needles on its stems.

If it is winter, I use rose hips or hibiscus. Depending on your climate, you can wild gather these and dry them yourself or you can purchase them loose at any natural foods grocer.

Pour boiling water into the tea pot and steep the herbs about an hour.

Pour the cooled tea in to the iced tea dispenser. Add a half gallon of unsweetened 100% juice. The best juices to use are cranberry, pomegranate, and blueberry. If you are having a kidney episode, be sure that your tea has cranberry juice. It is the best juice for clearing a kidney infection up. The other two will serve very well for a tonic and an occasional change from the cranberry. Blue juices are very good for the kidneys, so you could experiment with beet juice and black berry juices also. Getting a juicer and preparing the fresh berries yourself is a terrific idea, but bottled or frozen juice is fine.

Once the tea and the juice is in the dispenser, fill the dispenser full with pure filtered water. Do not sweeten the tonic as the point is to restore your ph to normal. Sugars will prevent this. If you find the tea tart, fill your drinking glass half way with tonic and fill the glass the rest of the way with for pure water. I frequently drink nothing but this tonic for days at a time. It is naturally sweet, especially with the pine buds!

By the way, the reason this tea is prepared to be so watered is to rehydrate the body. Taking very weak tea, gently purifies the body of built up toxins, adding much nutrients as it rehydrates the body.

You will find that summer time can occasionally be a challenge for you to stay hydrated without setting off an attack…especially if you need to use a recharge drink to restore electrolytes and other needed nutrients. Most prepared recharge drinks use a great deal of sugar-more than is necessary or use lemon juice- which can set off a kidney attack if  you have trouble with acidic juices as I do.

Here is a recharge recipe:

Purchase a half gallon of blue berry, cherry or pomenagranate juice and a half gallon of grape juice; all unsweetened. Get your shaker of salt and a one gallon container.

Add one quarter each of the bottles of juice. Fill the gallon container with water and add a teaspoon of salt. Shake well. Drink as needed to recharge. The blue/purple juice is the sweetner, is a source of complex natural sugars without overdoing it with processed sugar, plus these juices are rich in B vitamins which are needed to restore the body when its dehydrated. The grape juice is the source of natural electrolytes which are depeleted when the body over heats. The salt replaces the body salts lost from sweating profusely in the heat.

The ingredients will make four gallons of recharge drink.

Going Paperless

Going Paperless is something I’ve concentrated on a bit in recent years, though its something I can keep improving on. Jennifer asked me to participate in this meme. I have tried to comment on her blog, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to do so. In any case, this is a worthy topic and I’m glad to accept her invitation to share my thoughts.

I need to journal. I have always needed to do that, ever since I was a little girl. I didn’t keep any of those child’s journals, but I did keep those from my early adulthood and frankly, its a pain to have that box of history floating around in a closet. I don’t like it. And when blogging came to my attention, I jumped at it. I still keep some things in a paper journal. Those things are when I am at a ceremony, when a pc is just not the right way to capture an inspirational thought or the words of a teacher that I need to remember. So I’ve not eliminated all paper out of my journal process, but these times are once or twice a year now, so I’m virtuously paper free.

I use cloth napkins.

I pay my bills online.

I use dishes instead of paper plates and cups when I picnic.

I use write emails instead of letters.

Reduce!

Debra Moorhead tagged me for a meme about how I reduce the use of chemicals in my life. I’m to name five ways…

*happy grins* I liked this meme! What a great topic!

•  Soapnuts are one of the latest ways I do that. Here’s a wiki on those and you get soap nuts from a natural foods grocer. They leave no scent on the clothes at all, will even clean blood out of clothing without any other detergents and after two or three loads per 3 or 4 soapnuts, you just take the shells out of the little drawstring bag and toss in some more the next time you do some loads. Its hypoallergenic too!
• I use vinegar instead of things like Windex or bleach. It works nearly as well at cleansing things and though it doesn’t kill as many germs, I am also convinced that I am healthier because of it. I do believe that we need to be exposed to germs to keep building immunity to them. I’m not saying be dirty. I am saying that a sterile environment is too clean for daily living for most people with a healthy constitution. We do not build immunity to things we are never exposed to….and so we don’t stay caught up and when we do get sick, we get really, really sick. My grandmother always used to say, that a little bit of dirt never hurt anybody. She was referring to the carrot with soil on it that she just pulled up and handed me to eat, but that’s beside the point. I think its true in some instances and so I find that vinegar is a wonderful cleaning solution and can be turned into a terrific scrubby solution with some baking soda and it can become pretty antibacterial if I add a few drops of tea tree oil.
• We don’t buy chemical nitrogen for our garden. We pee in it. That’s all the nitrogen that most gardens need….and we know what’s in it. *grins*
• We don’t buy chemical bug repellans for the garden, we make a mix in a five gallon bucket and let it ferment into a yukky mess that is mixed with water through the hose, just like any other chemical fertilizer. Now you can turn your nose up at this, but this is how many chemical fertilizers are made, only they add in chemicals too, then they put in stuff to make it smell different. Yup. This is nasty, but it is biodegradable and its no more nasty than what is in the chemical stuff. Read the ingredients and look up words if you don’t believe me. We fill a five gallon bucket with three or four gallons of water, a couple dozen eggs, grind up the shells and put those in too, scat (preferably from a dog or cat, but both is better and a big dog is even better. Animals can discern lots from scents!), human urine, and a handful of really good compost. Separately from that, we get a pot of water and boil up cayene pepper and garlic powder and when we’ve got the heat to bring out the heat of the pepper, we let it cool and put it in the bucket. That bucket gets peed in whenever someone is in the garden and needs to pee. Fresh scat is added every couple weeks and its stirred weekly or whenever you need to apply it. The mix is applied after each rain storm. We have used this recipe in years when the Japanese beetles were so bad that commercial growers were ready to declare bankruptsy and came up with record harvests. We have never been sick from it and if anyone is going to be sick it is me with the ‘get sick off every thing’ syndrome! It is applied in the ratio of 1 quart per 10 sq feet of garden on a garden hose applicator. It repels slugs…well any bug you don’t want and the ground hogs hate it, even the deer don’t like it especially if they can smell that big dog still in the vicinity….but the butterflies, the plants themselves, and the good bugs love the stuff because its a natural fertilizer too.
• We don’t use commercial pest poison. We have a cat for rats and mice. We use a sound system for squirrels that you just plug into a wall. You can get it at a grain store type place or a hardware store. We use scat to get rid of ground hogs. All you have to do is put it in the hole whenever you find one. They are seriously offended with anything crapping in their hole and they just leave. We have a garbage garage to keep the cats, raccoons and skunks out of our garbage bins and we don’t put the garbage out until morning when it will be picked up. We use borax powder (biodegradable) prinkled all around the house to keep the ants out. And we put up bat houses to keep the mosquitoes and black flies down to a minimum and we also put out frog water dishes as they also eat mosquitoes and black flies. We make up flea dip for the animals out of water, vinegar, garlic and lemon juice. We apply it with a squirt bottle on the animals outside the house. You should see the fleas jumping off! Put it on the face first or the animal will attack you to get away from the assault on their eyes and ears that the fleas put up! These are natural remedies, working with something nature already does for the most part.

Now, I have been writing here so infrequently of late, that I am not sure who to tag these days, so I’m just going to tag someone who has commented here recently and invite anyone else who happens by to post on this topic also: Delilahgirl and Sorrow.

Wisewoman: Tea for the Blues

My husband recently confronted me about possibly having low grade depression. I thought it likely that he was right, so I complied with his request that I try some herbal remedies. We both know that getting a prescription has never been an ideal solution for me. I just don’t respond well to pharmaceuticals. If there’s no other solution and I’ve explored all other options, I take care of myself and use them, but I like to try other solutions first.

Long term stress from grieving would certainly cause a low grade depression, its true, so I went to the local health food store and got some things…now, I’m all for attending to more than one need while I’m at it if I can with just one tea. I make about 3 quarts at a time and drink it over a period of three or four days:

• Motherwort tincture (this is only the second month I’ve tried it to help with heavy periods. This cycle will be the first that I’ve taken it consistently.) 2-3 droppers
• St Johnswort tincture (herbal antidepressant) 4 droppers
• Sacred Basil tincture (another herbal antidepressant) 4 droppers
• loose Nettle Leaf ( about 4 heaping tablespoons. Rich in all sorts of nutrients.)
• loose Hibiscus Flowers (about 2 heaping tablespoons. Vitamin C and flavor.)
• loose Skullcap Herb (about 2 heaping tablespoons.Herbal antidepressant.)
• loose Red Clover Tops ( about 3 heaping tablespoons. Nutrient rich.)
• loose Oatstraw (About 3 heaping tablespoons. Nutrient rich.)
• loose German Chamomile (About 3 heaping tablespoons. Soothes mood swings and adds gentle flavor)

Now…I’ve used words that the AMA would claim I shouldn’t attribute to an herbal remedy. This is likely true, but I don’t know how else to describe how they effect me…so lets just drop the assumption that these are scientific descriptions of a guaranteed result of the herbs and go to the idea that they are just that; descriptive words that I can use to explain how they effect my system.

I boil the water and then add the herbs and let it sit to cool for four hours before sitting it in the fridge over night. I strain the herbs out and then drink the tea over the course of the next few days.

Now those amounts are just approximate. I just grab the size handful or number of droppersful that feels right on a given day. I go with my intuition when it comes to making this medicine and it is making a difference.

I feel the grief now when it comes up, but I don’t feel a weight on my spirit anymore. Also over all I am feeling better physically. The plants I chose are full of all sorts of good for you nutrients…

This is week three on the medicine. I’m going to continue it for at least another month and I’ll update on its usefulness to me.

As usual, if you decide to try this solution to the blues, you must do so at your own risk and using your own best judgment about what’s right for you. I strongly suggest that you research each of the plants I used and assess if these would be beneficial to you.

Wisewoman: Elderberries

I have started making my winter tinctures. I’ve got the elderberry one started and my husband wants to try making a mullein one this year also. I get the feeling that we’ll prefer it as a tea, but he wants to try, so we are.

The Elder tree makes the most delicious berries. You can make syrups with it for sore throats and to help relieve a cough. You can make tinctures out of them to boost the immune system and cure a virus too. Its a rare antiviral agent. It treats the sorts of viruses which attack the respiratory system, so its a wonderful cold remedy. It speeds recovery significantly, so we try to use this remedy whenever we catch a cold.

Besides these healing remedies, elder berries make yummy jams, pies and sauce for ice cream and shortcake. Its also quite good on meat when mixed with just a bit of jalepeno to spice it up. Yum.

The berries are full of antioxidants and each time I speak of this remedy to anyone familiar with it, I learn some more about it.

To make a tincture of any sort, you must get a sterilized jar or bottle and fill it with 1- 2 cups of dried herbs or in this case dried berries. Make sure the herbs or berries are completely covered with 100 proof alcohol. I prefer vodka as its relatively flavorless on its own. It is very good at taking on the scent and flavor of whatever it is mixed with and I think that’s more pleasant for tinctures.

Put the jar in a cool place where it will be undisturbed except for your shaking every other day. Let the herbs/berries steep for about six weeks. Strain the plants from the vodka through an undyed, unbleached cotton cloth and then store the tincture in a dark bottle with a dropper style lid. Use a dropper or two of elderberry tincture in a cup of tea a couple times a day for the duration of the cold. You’ll find that your body will nearly cut the time you would have been ill in half and, providing you get plenty of rest and fluids, you’ll feel more able to function while you are sick.

Our tincture will be read by the end of the month. The vodka has already taken up the deep violet of the berries and it is getting thicker as the berries give up their goodness. Its nice to see medicine in the making. Each time I shake it, I focus on putting loving, healing energy in to the mixture. I think this makes the medicine stronger, though I can’t prove that of course. *smiles*

Here’s a nice post on medicinal plants for your garden.

Author’s note: An addendum. I had saved this link to include in this post and just ran across it tonight when I was cleaning out my saved links lists:

Elderberry Sambucas, a local forgotten medicinal by Angie Goodloe

Wisewoman: Flooding

This post is about flooding or extremely heavy menstruation.

I was reading DJ’s blog recently where she was sharing her struggles to find ways to control her bleeding. This is an issue that I have had for many years myself. I tried talking to the girl docs when I first began to have this problem and the only solutions were to take hormones, which I knew were not the right solution for me. I couldn’t take hormones for birth control without becoming suicidal, so I certainly wasn’t going to do it for flooding. The other option was to have my uterus removed. That too didn’t feel like an option. At the time, I wasn’t sure if I might want another child and I’m well aware that this organ produces many sorts of chemicals the body needs to be balanced. I felt it would cause me other equally uncomfortable problems later, such as early aging, thinning skin and all sorts of things.

My only solution therefore seemed to be to just live with it and to be very careful of my nutrition. I took supplements and I rested alot, and made sure that I ate plentifully. I must admit that its exhausted me for many years. I have been living with the results of loosing several pints of blood a month for many years. I wish that I’d learned more about some herbal remedies earlier in my life and I wish that they’d had the current surgical solution years ago.

I’ll share the surgical solution first. My friend has had this done. I have not. She was having all the same flooding symptoms that I have and went to the doctor….after some failed trials at hormone replacement therapies, she was taken in for day surgery. The procedure is to dilate the cervix, and then insert a bag of boiling saline into the uterus, letting it leak out into the area, burning the tissue that holds the blood. Oila`! No more heavy bleeding because the uterine lining is incapable of collecting blood. The organ is retained, so there’s no changes to the body chemistry but the bleeding is eliminated. My friend needs only a pantyliner for two days a month now.

By the time I learned about this surgical solution, I’d already learned to reduce my bleeding with herbal remedies. The are three that I have tried. The first was Shepard’s Purse. That reduced it by about a third. That was enough to make a significant difference in my health. I was able to do a lot more each month. I used a tincture, taking it a day or so before and during my period. I only used two or three droppers a day of the tincture.

The next remedy I found by a fluke. I happened on some very yummy dark chocolate and real licorice candies. I got really piggy with them one period when things were really heavy….and again over the next two weeks because I was really stressed and was emotional eating. The next month my periods were again cut down by a third. The following month, no candy and my period was heavier again. The next month, I had the candy again and my period was lighter yet again.  It occurred to me that the candy might be the cause. It was the only thing different for me, so I investigated licorice. I asked some of my friends who knew alot about herbalism and sure enough, I’d accidentally found a remedy that lightens the symptoms of flooding. Now I use a licorice tea (not as much fun as the candy, but better for my figure) off and on throughout the month and all during my period to keep my flow lighter. I especially like this tea, because it eases digestion also.

The most recent remedy, I have not concluded anything about as yet. I’m just sharing that I’m giving it a try on recommendations from a friend who’s been studying herbalism to get her certification here in Maine as a professional herbalist. That product is a Motherwort tincture. The jury is still out on that one. I’ve taken two or three droppers full in tea when I sit down near the bottle with a cup of tea and think to put it in. I’ll add it to my teas while I bleed this next cycle and see what happens.

In all, I’ve managed to cut the problems with flooding in half with these remedies, so things are much, much better. I am nearing full menopause, so I’m not choosing the surgical procedure. I just don’t want to do that to my body when this is all nearly over. I don’t respond well to such things like that surgery emotionally….If I had another decade to face with this, I’d get that surgery without question. I sense that I’m only going to bleed perhaps two more years…and I know full well that at least one of those years will be sporadic, so its not worth the emotional trial for me. I’m sticking with my herbal solutions.

You can get the licorice tea and other teas with these herbs in mixes from a company called Yogi and its particularly delicious, unlike some of their other diet and detox teas. I can find this brand in normal grocery stores as well as natural grocers in my state. You can also purchase tinctures with these herbs in natural grocers. I particularly the Avena Botanicals brand. I know know those gardens are very well cared for and that the plants are grown organically. I know that the women who run that business are deeply spiritual people who hold classes, rituals and just plain loving time in those gardens, so I feel really good about the medicines made from the plants from their garden.

These are remedies that are discussed in books written by Susan Weed, a rather well known herbalist who wrote a highly favored series of books on women’s natural health care.

I’ll let you know what happens with this Motherwort. Blessings and good health.

For more about the Wisewoman series read here.