Colorful Description

On my friend’s farm in central Colorado grows rows of lavender, and by mid-summer its flowers fragrantly scent nearby fields. While working on the farm, I find my spirits lifted and happy despite the intense heat and my tiring muscles. It is no wonder that for much of history, lavender has been used in sachets and oils alike to bring pleasure as well s reduce stress and anxiety. Other traditional therapeutic uses include as a sleep-aid, relief from pain and headaches, an anti-inflammatory, treatment for cough and respiratory infection, and as an insect repellent as well as a perfume. Greeks, Romans and Egyptians alike have all recorded using lavender in various remedies. Today, lavender is mostly used in the same way - widely used to dress wounds, induce sleep, ease depression and reduce stress. It can also be found in ingredients of teas and culinary dishes and of course the delightful scent in perfume. Current research is investigating the antimicrobial as well as anti-cancer properties of lavender essential oil.

Although generally known as lavender, there are actually thirty-nine species of the genus Lavendula, yet only a handful is used commercially. This fragrant plant is native to the Mediterranean region south to tropical Africa and to the southeast region of India. Today lavender is successfully cultivated in southern Europe, Australia and the United States. Aromatherapists distinguish lavender species according to their therapeutic uses and medicinal properties. True lavender (L. officinalis, L. angustifolia) when distilled at high elevations is known for its large percentage of ester content and regarded as the best in quality. Uses for true lavender include cases involving anxiety, stress, small burns, cuts and insect bites. Spike lavender (L. spica, L. latifolia) is known for its camphor content and thus used for respiratory infections, for muscular aches and pains and as a possible stimulant. Lavendin (L.fragrans, L. burnatti) is a hybrid of true lavender (L. angustifolia) and spike lavender (L. latifolia) and commonly used for large-scale commercial purposes. Stoechas lavender (L. stoechas) is used as an expectorant and known for its antimicrobial properties.

Reducing Anxiety

Lavender is well recognized as an agent able to support a reduction in anxiety, mainly due to its high linalool levels. The physiological process of reducing anxiety through the use of essential oils is quite phenomenal. Once the diffused molecules of essential oil enter the nasal cavity, they bind to receptor sites of the olfactory neurons which then trigger a cascade of events. In short, the olfactory neurons send messages to the olfactory nerve and then onto the olfactory bulb (located just three inches from the brain) where messages are initially processed. Within the olfactory bulb are input and output stations, the glomeruli and M/T (mitral and tufted) cells respectively. The olfactory output from the bulb to the brain has several targets, mainly the primary olfactory cortex and the higher olfactory associated areas where olfactory discrimination, perception and memories take place. The other is the limbic system, sometimes referred to the ‘nose’ brain comprising a complex system of 122 regions and associated areas which together is heavily responsible for the expression of emotion. Main structures of the limbic system (LS) are the amygdala, septum, hippocampus, anterior thalamus, and hypothalamus.

True lavender (L. angusifolia) is thought to have a sedative effect on the amygdala, which is considered to plays a role in processing emotion as well as governing emotional response and greatly responsible for the sensation of fear. Recent science studies looking at anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) propensities of lavender are numerous. A University of Central Lancashire, UK study (J Ethnopharmacol. 2007 May 22; 111(3): 517-25) investigated the effects of lavender odor inhalation on the behavior of gerbils (a type of rodent often used in laboratory research) and noted that exposure to lavender may have an anxiolytic effect in gerbils similar to that of the common anti-anxiety medication diazepam. A recent study published in Holistic Nursing Practice (2009 Mar-Apr; 23(2): 88-93) concluded that the use of lavender (as well as rosemary) essential oil sachets reduced stress-taking anxiety for graduate nursing students. Also in 2009, a study published in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology (Nov 23) found that dental patients who were exposed to lavender scent had a reduction in their forthcoming procedure.

Other Applications for Lavender

A rather haphazard discovery of lavender in the use of tissue regeneration was made by the late Dr. Rene-Maurice Gattefosse (a French cosmetic chemist) who after he severely burned his hands in a laboratory accident, submerged them in a container of lavender essential oil and noted the remarkable speed at which they healed. More recent research has newly discovered the possible antimutagenic (inhibits mutations) effect of lavender. In this study (Food and Chemical Toxicology 2005 Sept; 4319: 1381-7) scientists noted antimutagenic effects of lavender oil (L. angustifolia) on a strain of Salmonella bacteria, concluding that such uses of lavender may be promising for applications in modern human healthcare. Other uses, such as antimicrobial and antiviral have been recognized and supported on the University of Maryland Medical Center website (www.umm.edu).

Conclusion

The physiological pathway for molecules of lavender essential oil to reach the brain is remarkable. By following the molecular trail into the nasal cavity and its subsequent neurological reactions, one can better appreciate the recognized stress-reducing qualities found in lavender. Traditional uses of lavender are now being investigated and their diverse applications more fully understood. With science now uncovering the specialization of olfactory receptor sites for certain scent molecules, aromatherapy becomes an even more valuable remedy for maintaining wellness. We would all do well to familiarize ourselves and perhaps re-remember what our ancient brain (the limbic area) has stored for thousands, even millions of years- molecules of scent, and in this case lavender, are powerful and effective.

Read more about the use of natural botanicals for skin care.

Millions of people suffer needlessly and silently with hemorrhoids, or piles, ever year. This is likely one of the least talked about ailments. Most people simply don’t feel comfortable talking about this sort of thing.

After you finish reading this you’ll know one very powerful and very simple tip that may very well end your hemorrhoids for good. It’s quick, easy, and you can get it at your local supermarket.

Hemorrhoids can be frustrating, embarrassing and painful. And because it can be so difficult to discuss them with somebody other than your doctor, it can be very difficult to find any useful information.

And if you do go to the doctor, they will likely prescribe pills, or a topical cream, or even recommend surgery. All of these are expensive, time consuming, and can surgery can be painful and require time off work.

What most people don’t realize is that these all only treat the symptom, and not the underlying cause. By only treating the symptoms, they are bound to come back sooner or later.

Those that have had hemorrhoid surgery know that they can have up to a fifty percent chance of coming back. And when you consider the pain and time off from work needed for surgery, these odds don’t sound very good at all.

Luckily, there are plenty of natural cures that not only don’t require any doctor or prescription, but also treat the cause, rather than just the symptom, so that when they are gone, they are really gone. For good.

One of the most common causes of hemorrhoids is lack of fiber. Lack of fiber can cause a need to stress or push during a bowel movement, which can put undue pressure on the rectal area.

By simply adding fiber, you will drastically increase the ease with which you can produce a decent bowel movement. You will remove the need to strain and push, which may very well allow the hemorrhoids to heal on their own and never come back.

The easiest way to add fiber is go get a hold of some psyllium fiber. You can get this at any supermarket. You just mix a couple of tablespoons in a glass of water of juice once day, and pretty soon your bowel movements will be back to normal. And your hemorrhoids can quickly vanish.

This is one of many simple and natural cures that are available to when you know where to look. They are quick, easy, and will have you back to normal in no time. Hemorrhoids can quickly become a thing of the distant past.

For more information on how to easily stopHemorrhoids, please visit Russ Hurst’s Hemorrhoid Treatment page.

As consumers, we are truly embracing the natural health movement. We’ve taken a good hard look at our medical system, and realize there must be something better — and it turns out that Nature has been offering it this entire time in the myriad forms of plant medicine. Using plants and herbs for healing has been happening the whole during the whole of human civilization. Researchers have now even discovered animals in the wild eating particular plants to cure their ills. We are now seeing an explosion of interest in “aroma medicine”, the use of pure and natural essential oils as powerful healing tools. And these tools are readily available to you and your family to improve your health and wellbeing.

The body of scientific research regarding the healing actions of essential oils has grown vastly over the last 20 years. A search on Pub Med, an on-line database of the US National Library of Medicine, for “essential oil” returns 8808 results as of April 10th, 2009. The very first listing describes the anti-dementia (Alzheimer’s) effects of Lemon essential oil! The diversity of actual medical applications of essential oils is truly incredible — more diverse than just the plants themselves, as many essential oils have multiple applications. The inhalation of lemon has been shown to improve mood, improve mental accuracy and even act as an antimicrobial, perfect for general household cleaning.

Further down the same page is an abstract confirming the beauty of natural medicines: All the natural molecular constituents of Thyme essential oil have an additive antimicrobia effect — science and industry has a habit of extracting a single component, patenting it, and bringing it to market while forgetting to tell us that natural Thyme oil itself is even more effective. Other jaw-dropping notes about essential oils: Clove oil has the highest Oxidative Radical Absorbance Capacity of any natural substance ever tested — over 100,000, on a scale where blueberries score about 5,000 and Wolfberries are about 30,000. A large number of studies have confirmed the stress reducing effects of Lavender, going to far to show reduced Cortisol levels AND an increase in the body’s natural scavenging of oxidtive radicals — JUST FROM SMELLING the oil!

At this point you may be saying: that’s all well and good, but where’s the REAL medicine? You’ve heard about MRSA — the “Superbug” bacteria running rampant in the world’s hospitals, becoming a real epidemic? MRSA stands for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. Methicillin is an antibiotic that is supposed to kill these bacteria, but they’ve evolved so that they’re no longer affected. Guess what: a combination of Tea Tree and Geranium essential oils plus Grapefruit Seed extract outperforms our greatest laboratory achievements in the modern production of antibiotics. Now, of course, the final test results are being withheld so that the researchers can patent the formula, but you can read through the data yourself — Google does us a giant favor that way — and see that this medicine is already available if you’re willing to blend a few oils for yourself. (It is VERY important you get the help of a knowledgeable practitioner; there are many many oils, and many therapeutic protocols. Like any medicine, it is crucial to precisely match the protocol with the condition for the greatest healing efficacy).

And for the really big one: essential oils are showing great promise in the treatment of many cancers. Frankincense and Lemongrass are just two of the oils that have been shown anti-tumorial, and Sandalwood has been show to specifically prevent skin cancers from UVB radiation exposure. Searching for “Frankincense tumor” gives a first result of: “Frankincense oil derived from Boswellia carteri induces tumor cell specific cytotoxicity”. The conclusion states: “Frankincense oil appears to distinguish cancerous from normal bladder cells and suppress cancer cell viability…” There are many more results like this, with a variety of oils and a variety of cancer cell lines. This is a very exiting time for natural medicine, as a combination of new extraction techniques, and faster turn around times in research facilities made lead to new, life saving protocols in the very near future (and it’s important that we as members of the world community keep voicing our opinions, and making these changes in our available medical treatments — it’s not only good for us, it’s good for the world as well, as the production of natural medicines takes SO much less energy than their pharmaceutical “equivalents”).

It’s important to note that essential oils don’t just effect serious medical conditions — they have a place in our everyday lives, too. Tea Tree essential oil is a wonderful, effective antibiotic, especially useful when combined with soothing Lavender for childhood cuts and scrapes (if you’re tough, just use the Tea Tree to prevent infections). Essential oils have been shown to reduce bacteria in the mouth which reduce tooth decay. Helichrysum essential oil is one of the most profound pain relievers and inflammation-reducers for muscular injuries, and makes small kitchen burns heal almost instantly (just a drop on that little hot spot and you’ll be quickly convinced!). Sea Buckthorn heals wounds and reduces wrinkles. Chamomile or Mandarin have been used for years in Europe to soothe the traumas of childhood, and lend a hand to parental sanity. The scent of many pure essential oils just makes folks happier (and it’s important to note this same results do not occur with “fragrances”, a term for man-made smells — they do not have the same make-up as natural plant aromatics do — and in fact, many people are allergic to them).

Sure, this can sound a little overwhelming…where, really, to start when you’re new to it all? Well, that’s the trick: just get started. Anyone in your family not sleeping well? Rub a drop of lavender on each foot at bedtime for a few nights and see what happens. Someone with athlete’s foot or other similar rashes? Mix 30 drops of Tea Tree and 30 drops of Palmarosa into a fluid ounce of Jojoba oil and massage into the area a couple times a day. Just get a simple diffuser, some Black Spruce essential oil and make your house smell like the middle of the forest. Dab a drop of Rose, Amber, Jasmine or Sandalwood oil to your wrist, rub them together and smell like heaven. It’s that easy. And these simple ideas get you ready for when you might need to tap into the serious medicine available here. Essential oils won’t be foreign anymore, and you’ll start to trust their real medicinal value. Also, there are tons of great books, and very qualified teachers. Open your eyes and heart to the world of Aroma Medicine, and you’ll be sure to find your way.

Time and time again, professional and amateur athletes find themselves sitting on the sideline with an injury that could have been prevented. If the injuries don’t respond to conventional treatment, the athlete may continue to practice or play through the pain to show everyone how tough or how dedicated they are.

Unfortunately, this kind of behavior may result in further injury and can very often make whatever was wrong before even harder to cure in the long run. Pain killers may mask the symptoms of an injury, but just like playing through the pain, unless something is done to address the root of the issue before the injury gets worse through overstressing or overuse, permanent damage can be the result.

As much as any other field in medicine, chiropractic treatment is perfect for sports injuries as it can provide a tailored approach to solving nearly any problem. Chiropractic cannot fix a broken ankle, but in conjunction with the right other types of therapy, chiropractic medicine can actually address the source of the problem, for example fixing a posture or balance issue that might have helped the player break the ankle in the first place.

In this way, chiropractic is more of a preventative health process, and as any athlete or sports player knows, it is far better to prevent an injury in the first place than it is to work on an injury once it has already occurred.

These days, more professional athletes are coming out to publicly proclaim the benefits of chiropractic. From runners, to bodybuilders, to football stars, it seems like everyone has something to gain from keeping their spines in the right alignment. Even more, chiropractic does not just prevent injuries, it can also enhance your game. There can be a huge amount of pressure on athletes to perform at the highest of levels.

This is what sometimes leads athletes to lose sight of why they got into the game in the first place and turn to illegal and harmful steroids. With chiropractic, all of the harmful stuff isn’t necessary. Chiropractic is perfect for the athlete that wants to live up to their full potential physically.

Some athletes get adjusted before the game, kind of a pre-game “tune up. This allows the athlete to be better balanced, have better blood flow, more energy, and less stress. The San Francisco 49ers swore by chiropractic in the 1980s, citing it as one of the reasons they managed to win four championships during that decade.

Working along with other sports therapy techniques, chiropractic is a great treatment for anything from sprains and strains to “tennis elbow” and bursitis. The best part is that it doesn’t use any drugs, chemicals, or surgery to achieve its results.

When considering going to a chiropractor about your neck pain, it is first important to keep a few things in mind. The chiropractic practice began with the intent of only working with spine and back related problems, and while many instances of neck pain may be related to back misalignment, many others are not.

While low in its risk, a chiropractic neck manipulation may carry some additional risks if done improperly. A chiropractor should perform a thorough physical examination that can range from pinching or severing of the major blood vessels in the area or even stroke.

Chiropractors clearly understand the risks involved in performing any spinal manipulation, especially to the neck, and only perform this procedure when it is the right treatment for the patient. The doctor of chiropractic will learn the patient’s case history and perform a physical, orthopedic, and neurological examination before performing any treatment. When spinal manipulation goes wrong, it’s often the result of an untrained, non-chiropractor attempting to perform the treatment.

Neck pain, headaches, and tingling or numbness in the upper extremities can be directly linked back to cervical vertebrae misalignment. The benefits of receiving a specific spinal adjustment to the neck can mean an end to a lifetime of a chronic condition. Many chiropractic patients only sought out treatment after all other more “traditional” treatments have been tried and failed.

Chiropractic care can be just the thing to help neck pain. Many times this neck pain may be caused by muscle tension or postural issues which can be fixed in one or two visits with a highly skilled practitioner, even if the problem has been chronic. Because chiropractic can reset or change the way a person carries their body, this can also fix how the person deals with tension or how they carry around their pressure and how it translates itself into the neck or back.

If you are concerned about whether chiropractic is right for you, you can set up a consult with a chiropractor or consider seeing your general practitioner first if you know of something in your personal medical history that you think might be a problem. He or she can help determine if chiropractic care is right for your problem, or if other treatment options would be more suitable for your problem. You can also seek out the help of friends, family members, or co-workers that have had a good experience with a chiropractor.

The doctor of chiropractic may do an x-ray examination of your neck (and maybe your entire spine) and then may suggest a regiment of chiropractic care that may include massage, heat, cold therapy, electric stimulation, or ultrasound in addition to chiropractic adjustments. These additional therapies are complementary to problems dealing with muscles and the spine.