| Remember the days of old when Grandmother | | | | poisonous snake survived after chewing snakeroot, a |
| strapped a warm mustard pack to our congested | | | | wounded bear rolled in mud to better heal and |
| chests when we had a cold? Or used a warmed tea | | | | escape infection, and old, rheumatoid deer eased |
| bag to rid pink eye, a clove of garlic to stop an | | | | their misery and made joints more limber by resting |
| earache, or prepared a mixture of chaparral and olive | | | | under the therapeutic rays of the sun.Nature's well |
| oil as a cure for itchy skin? I do.Distances between | | | | worked out plan for good health and freedom from |
| townships, limited funds, and the lack of readily | | | | disease is observed in animals. It is people who have |
| available medical professionals and facilities all dictated | | | | strayed from nature's medicine chest to create |
| that a woman be not only a wife, mother, and | | | | man-made remedies -- some of which are less |
| housekeeper, but doctor as well. Folklore healing | | | | effective, costly, and riddled with negative |
| practices, curative uses of herbs, and other medicinal | | | | side-effects.By working with, and not against nature, |
| "family secrets" were stealthily guarded and passed | | | | we increase our chance of a more healthy life, while |
| down from one generation to the next.Of course, | | | | decreasing our risk of disease and premature bodily |
| some of yesteryear's touted cures were not truly | | | | limitations and dysfunctions.A wealth of healing |
| cures at all. Superstition and myth "remedies," without | | | | resources is there for the taking, if we but open our |
| any practical application, crept into the mix. Little by | | | | eyes to the possibilities available.To highlight this fact, |
| little and through the years, suspicion as to the | | | | let's take a look at the multiple medicinal uses of just |
| validity of any natural, herbal remedy began to take | | | | one herb, commonly regarded as a noxious or |
| root.For instance, witch doctor type practices such as | | | | disposable weed.Sometimes found intercropped with |
| hanging herbs that resembled tears around a child's | | | | corn and wheat in the Midwest United States, |
| neck to help him cut teeth. "Reading" tea leaves to | | | | common burdock grows wild and vies for the sun |
| foretell future love interests, and assertions like | | | | and nutrients of the soil. Though routinely overlooked |
| placing certain spices under the pillow would improve | | | | as a native weed, it nevertheless has the potential to |
| memory, prejudiced many toward the genuine | | | | gift the bearer greater health and ease skin afflictions |
| curative uses of herbs.That is why some modern day | | | | when harvested for its root.In the herbal world, |
| practitioners regard the medicinal use of herbs as | | | | burdock is unsurpassed as a blood purifier. It is also |
| "quackery;" nothing more than old-wives tales. There | | | | the "king" of herbs in treating chronic skin problems |
| are, however, a growing number of otherwise | | | | such as eczema, acne, psoriasis, boils, syphilitic sores, |
| conventional medical professionals who acknowledge | | | | and canker sores.Make a medicinal tea by bringing 1 |
| what Grandmother knew all along. Natural, herbal | | | | quart of water to a boil. Reduce heat. Add 4 |
| remedies as a means to maintain good health and | | | | teaspoons cut, dried burdock root. Cover and simmer |
| cure certain diseases are valid. Nature's drug store is | | | | for 7 minutes. Remove from heat and let steep for 2 |
| making a comeback.And why should that be | | | | hours. Drink a minimum of 2 cups a day on an empty |
| surprising? After all, we -- like plants -- are organic. It | | | | stomach, or more if problem persists. This concoction |
| is the synthetic drugs used today that were | | | | can also be made in a larger quantity and used |
| formulated to mimic their natural counterparts, and | | | | topically to wash affected skin areas as |
| not the other way around. In days of old, there was | | | | needed.Mixed with catnip and made into a tea, |
| no other way to treat illness and discomfort, help | | | | burdock root is effective in clearing up stubborn |
| heal wounds, or cure bodily dysfunctions than with | | | | kidney and gallstones. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. |
| natural means.It was while living in tune with nature | | | | Add 2 tablespoons of chopped or cut fresh or dried |
| and studying wildlife that early man learned of the | | | | burdock root. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. |
| medicinal "powers" of herbs. Animals bitten by a | | | | Remove from heat. |