Thursday, May 28, 2009

Young Living Essential Oils for Bug Relief

Nontoxic essential oils for repelling of a variety of bugs:

Ants: Peppermint or citronella essential oil...use 3-5 drops o windowsills, doorways and under sink

Blackflies: Cinnamon oil or turmeric oil...spray or dab on clothing and exposed skin

Cockroaches: Kaffir lime oil or Citrus oil....spray on problem areas ie. under kitchen sink

Mosquitoes: Catnip oil or thyme oil...spray or dab on clothing and exposed skin

Ticks: Lemon eucalyptus Oil....spray or dab on clothing and exposed skin


Prepare spray: dilute 20 drips of essential oil with 1 cup of grape-seed oil and 11/2 cups of purified water and shake well

Source: June 2009 Body + Soul

Purchase Pure therapeutic grade essential oils: www.youngliving.net/stephaniewalcot

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

PERFECT WELLNESS TIDBIT

My grand daughter, who is a chronic allergy sufferer since very early childhood, like myself, was suffering this beautiful pollen fillled weekend. I gently persuaded her to give the neti pot a try, which has been a major saving grace for me since last year. She had not a symtom the rest of the day. She and her Mom promptly went to the health food store and got a neti pot.

Not only does it relieve allergy symptoms, it totally eliminated every possible sign of a cold during the so called "flu and cold season." Here's what Dr. Mercola has to say about Nasal Irrigation or the use of the Neti Pot.

If you have seasonal allergies, hay fever or chronic sinusitis, nasal irrigation is a simple and inexpensive tool that can help relieve your symptoms. Originating in the Ayurvedic medical tradition, nasal irrigation or "jala neti" has been used since ancient times to help gently flush away irritants that cause allergy symptoms and sinus infections.

The goal of the nasal irrigation, which typically is made of a natural saline solution, is to reduce or eliminate the recurrent irritant so your body can be given a chance to heal itself. Oftentimes antihistamines, antibiotics or even surgical interventions are used to treat these conditions but do little to treat their underlying causes, nor their recurrence.

On the other hand, nasal irrigation has showed much promise, not only anecdotally but also in research studies. One recent study in children even found that nasal saline irrigation significantly eased symptoms while lessening the need for medications like steroid nasal sprays.

Nasal irrigation is useful not only for symptom relief when your allergies or sinuses are acting up, but also for routine “cleansing.”

Nasal irrigation has actually been a part of yoga health-oriented "cleaning rituals" for centuries, and practitioners use a neti pot (a small, teapot-like pot) to pour lightly salted warm water into one nostril and then let it run out of the other. Some will also forcefully exhale the water to further cleanse their nasal passages.

This practice proved to be beneficial, as one study of those using daily saltwater nasal irrigation showed it helped to protect against the common cold.
Why is Salt Good for Your Sinuses and More?
Salt -- in its natural form -- has many therapeutic properties when inhaled or used as a soak. Not only are brine baths, which you can make at home by adding a large amount (about 2.6 pounds of salt for a 27-32 gallon tub) of natural, high-quality salt like Himalayan salt to your bathwater, a great way to revitalize your body, but salt rooms are also growing in popularity.

These rooms, which are essentially small rooms covered in salt, originated in Eastern Europe but have made their way to the United States, including to my hometown of Chicago. Visitors sit in the room for a half hour or an hour to simply breathe in the salty air. And anecdotal reports say they’re beneficial for everything from asthma to respiratory infections to stress.

Nasal irrigation, however, is likely beneficial not only because of the therapeutic effects of salt, but also due to the physical flushing that helps remove irritants.

If you are going to use salt in your nasal irrigation I would suggest you avoid using conventional processed salts and instead use a high-quality sea salt or even better Himalayan Salt.
How to Use Nasal Irrigation
Nasal irrigation takes a bit of getting used to, but once you learn the technique you’ll see how simple it really is. To start, you’ll need:
• All-natural Himalayan salt or sea salt
• Filtered or distilled water
• Neti pot or bulb syringe
• Towel or washcloth
The technique, outlined below, may seem unusual at first. However, once learned, you will quickly realize how beneficial it is for sinus problems.
1. Locate a workable container. The neti pot is specially designed with a spout that fits comfortably in one nostril. Alternatives you can use include a bulb syringe, a small flower watering pot, a turkey baster or just a teacup (though the latter will be messier).

2. Fill the container with lukewarm salt water. The salt-to-water ratio is 1 teaspoon sea salt to 1 pint (2 cups) water. Filtered or distilled water is best.

3. Have some tissues within reach for this next part. Over a sink, tilt your head forward so you are looking directly down toward the sink. Insert the spout into your right nostril. It is important that you breathe through your mouth. Turn your head to the right and let water move into the right nostril and exit the left nostril. Normally, you will feel the water as it passes through your sinuses.

It is fine if some of the water drains into your mouth. Simply spit it out and adjust the tilt of your head.

4. After using a cup of water, repeat the above procedure for the other nostril.

5. To finish, expel any remaining water by quickly blowing air out both open nostrils 15 times over the sink. Avoid the temptation to block off one nostril, as doing so may force water into your eustachian tube.
It is important to follow all the instructions very carefully and continue the routine until all your symptoms resolve. This may take three to six months in the case of a chronic infection, so be patient. For acute problems like seasonal allergies, perform the nasal wash up to four times per day until your symptoms improve.

www.perfectbeautyinsideout.com

Thursday, May 21, 2009

PERFECT WELLNESS TIDBIT

Lavender essential oil is a natural sedative. It
promotes relaxation in your nervous system. At time when you feel stressed or your confidence is low, place 3 drops of pure lavender oil on a soft cloth and inhale deeply. www.youngliving.org/stephaniewalcot

"FRAGRANCES" TO AVOID IN ALL PRODUCTS

Natural Solutions magazine
May 19, 2009 article

NATURAL SOLUTIONS MAGAZINE

With so many of us and our children suffering from all manner of health challenges, from behavioral and emotional issues to so-called allergies I thought this bit of info would be a major source of reference.

In products such as perfume, shampoo, fabric softener, bleach, air fresheners, dishwashing liquid, laundry detergent, soap, hairspray, shaving cream, aftershave, deodorants, nail polish remover, and more, synthetic ingredients are used to create fragrance. Many of these ingredients are toxic and can cause adverse reactions. Look for these ingredients in products containing fragrance and avoid them if you can:

Acetic acid, benzyl ester: Targets nerves and kidneys; possible carcinogen.
Benzyl alcohol: Central nervous system (CNS) depressant.
Diethyl phthalate: Possible risk of congenital malformation in the fetus; targets nerves.
Musk ketone: Increases carcinogenic effects of other materials. Remains stored in blood, fat tissue, and breast milk; crosses placental barrier.
Musk xylene: Carcinogenic in animal studies. Stored in blood, fat tissue, and breast milk; crosses placental barrier.
6-Octen-1-ol, 3,7-dimethyl: Extremely destructive to mucous membranes and upper respiratory tract tissues.
Toluene: Carcinogenic, Targets liver, kidneys, brain, or bladder. One of nine major starting materials for synthesis of fragrance chemicals. Addictive.
4-Vinylphenol: Toxic. May impair fertility. Toxic by inhalation. Respiratory and skin sensitizer.
2,6-Xylenol: Toxic. Harmful by inhalation. Material is extremely destructive to upper respiratory system, eyes, and skin. Corrosive.
Acetone: Inhalation causes dryness of the mouth and throat, dizziness, nausea, incoordination, slurred speech, drowsiness, coma in extreme cases. CNS depressant.
Benzaldehyde: Narcotic. Sensitizer. CNS depressant. May cause kidney damage and irritation to the mouth, throat, eyes, skin, lungs, and GI tract, leading to nausea and abdominal pain. Do not use with contact lenses.
Benzyl Acetate: Carcinogenic. Irritating to eyes and respiratory passages. Causes systemic effects through skin. Do not flush to sewer.
Camphor: Irritant and CNS stimulant. Readily absorbed through body tissues. Irritation of eyes, nose and throat, dizziness, confusion, nausea, twitching muscles, and convulsions.
Ethanol: EPA hazardous waste. May cause fatigue and irritating to eyes and upper respiratory tract even in low concentrations. Initial stimulatory effect followed by drowsiness, impaired vision, ataxia, stupor. Causes CNS disorder.
Ethyl Acetate: Narcotic. EPA hazardous waste. Irritating to eyes and respiratory tract; headache and narcosis (stupor); skin drying and cracking; anemia with leukocytosis; and damage to liver and kidneys.
Limolene: Carcinogenic. Irritant and sensitizer. Wash thoroughly after using and before eating, drinking, and applying cosmetics. Do not inhale.
Linalool: This narcotic causes respiratory disturbances and CNS disorder and attracts bees. In animal tests, it was found to cause ataxic gait; reduced spontaneous motor activity and depression; respiratory disturbances leading to death; and depressed frog-heart activity.
Methylene Chloride: On hazardous waste lists. Carcinogenic. Stored in body fat; metabolizes to carbon monoxide, reducing blood�s oxygen-carrying capacity. Headache, giddiness, stupor, irritability, fatigue, and tingling in the limbs. Causes CNS disorder.
a-Pinene: Sensitizer. Damaging to the immune system, irritant to skin, eyes, and mucous membranes.
g-Terpinene: Causes asthma and CNS disorders.
a-Terpineol: Highly irritating to mucous membranes. Aspiration into the lungs can produce pneumonitis or even fatal edema. Excitement, ataxia (loss of muscular coordination), hypothermia, CNS and respiratory depression, and headache.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Heads Up! A Soulful celebration of our Hairitage will be held this Weds, May 20, 2009 at 6pm at the Kumble Theater for Perf Arts at LIU's downtown Bro

Heads Up! A Soulful celebration of our Hairitage will be held this Weds, May 20, 2009at 6pm at the Kumble Theater for Perf Arts at LIU's downtown Brooklyn Campus on Flatbush Ave. b/w DeKalb & Willoughby

The event is free and it's a celebration of Our hair in music, dance, dialogue, film and style featuring

Melba Toliver--the first Black person to anchor a network TV news show, and then banned from the TV studio where she worked for wearing an Afro to cover a story at the White House!
Kathe Sandler
Camille Yarbrough
Majora Carter, environmental activist
Rev. Malika Lee Whitley
Phyllis Yvonne Stickney, actress, comedian, writer
Mireille Long-A-Kong
Farah Jasmine Griffith, professor and writer
Ademola Mandella, founder of Locks n Chops salon
asha bandele, author of the Prisoners Wife and other books
Michaela Angela Davis, editor and activist
Dominique Morrisseau, playright and actress
Fatima Friday
Mten Halsey

For RSVPs contact Khamit Kinks at 718 422 2600
headsuphairitage.com

Monday, May 11, 2009

PERFECT WELLNESS TIDBIT

It’s easy to find natural ways to clean your home. Here’s my quick Top 10 list:

1. Use cleaning products made from safe natural and not-toxic ingredients to prevent exposure to the hazardous synthetic chemicals conventional cleaners often contain.

2. Dust with a damp cloth to ensure that household dust, which can collect toxins, is removed from surfaces and not stirred back into the air.

3. Open windows and doors occasionally (even in winter!) to rinse out any air pollutants that have accumulated inside.

4. Spray carefully. Propellant-powered aerosol spray products release their ingredients in the form of easily-breathable microscopic droplets that stay suspended in the air for hours after use. Better bets are hand-powered spray products or those you can apply with a sponge or rag.

6. Use baking soda. Freshen everything from carpets and cat boxes to trash cans and drains with non-toxic baking soda. Just sprinkle, let stand overnight, and vacuum or rinse odors away the next day.

7. Warm water can be best. Synthetic chemicals and other pollutants often accumulate unseen on the surfaces you are cleaning. Since hot water easily turns many of these substances into vapor.

8. Use chlorine-free dishwasher detergent. The chlorine in conventional detergents is easily vaporized by hot dishwasher water and then released into your home’s air.

9. Ask guests to remove their shoes when entering your home. That way, they won’t track in pollutants.

10. Buy a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter. These special filters trap unhealthy dust particles.

Jeffrey has led Seventh Generation from its humble beginnings to its current position as the leading and fastest-growing brand of natural products for the home, and the leading authority on issues related to making a positive difference in the health of the planet and its inhabitants through our everyday choices.

www.perfectbeautyinsideout.com

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Swarthmore College Microbiologist Discusses Keys to Swine Flu Response

Swarthmore College Microbiologist Discusses Keys to Swine Flu Response
AScribe News

05-05-09

SWARTHMORE, Pa., May 04, 2009 (ASCRIBE NEWS via COMTEX) -- Amy Cheng Vollmer has taught biology at Swarthmore for 20 years.

The best way for the public to confront fears of H1N1 Swine Influenza A (swine flu) is to practice basic good health, says Swarthmore microbiologist Amy Cheng Vollmer. In addition to information about transmission, people should be aware of factors contributing to susceptibility.

"Because your susceptibility depends on both the amount of virus to which you are exposed and the overall health of your immune system, the keys are to minimize exposure and maximize your immune responsiveness," says Vollmer, a professor of biology whose research focuses on bacterial stress response. "Think of this as a race - if a pathogen enters at a low concentration and your immune system is ready to respond, you win and don't get sick. If you are either exposed to a high concentration of the virus and/or your immune responsiveness is not at its peak, you'll be sick."

Swine Flu Information for the Swarthmore Community from Worth Health Center

According to Vollmer, minimizing exposure is specific for each pathogen. "The virus is transmitted through aerosol vapors that are the result of coughing or sneezing," she says. "Even if those small droplets that carry the virus alight on an inanimate object like a handrail, computer keyboard, or doorknob, the virus can persist for potentially several days. Hence the recommendation to wash your hands is a good one."

So why then, if handrails and doorknobs have viruses on them, are we not sick all of the time? Vollmer says it depends on how much of the pathogen you are exposed to and for how long. So the key, she adds, is to maximize your immune responsiveness, which "is universal and applicable to all infectious diseases."

How healthy is your immune system? That depends on several factors:

- age - the very young have immune systems that are not fully developed and the very old have immune systems that are no longer able to work to full capacity.

- sleeping habits - it is during sleep when your body restores and repairs; it is also when extra energy is stored away. Since the immune system is one of the most energetically expensive systems to run (and usually the first to be shut down when energy reserves are low), getting enough sleep every day is key.

- nutrition - your body is able to fully extract and store extra energy reserves if you have consumed essential nutrients and vitamins on a regular basis. Failure to do so diminishes the rate of your response to a pathogen.

- exercise - your immune system is most responsive when you are active and have good muscle tone - it helps your lymphatic fluids flow and that allows immune system cells to be most responsive;

- hydration - cells are 80 percent water, including the cells of your immune system. For them to operate maximally, you must drink water. Alcohol, salty foods, caffeine have dehydrating effects. Also mucous membranes in your nose and throat can trap viruses that come in through the air. If you are dehydrated the mucous does not trap as well.

- stress - chronic stress depresses your immune responsiveness.

- being immuno-compromised due to medication, pregnancy, and/or being sick already

Vollmer notes that after being exposed to a pathogen, an immune system will respond faster the next time it is exposed. "That is why vaccines work," she says. "A vaccine is a rehearsal for the immune system, tricking it into acting as if you were infected."

But for a virus that mutates as quickly and easily as the swine flu, Vollmer says finding a vaccine is difficult. "Viruses mutate by swapping viral DNA with other similar viruses," she says. "It would be like mixing two full decks of cards and coming up with a hybrid deck. Because the cards that are swapped cannot be predicted accurately, we cannot easily predict the next rendition of the flu."

Vollmer hopes that learning about swine flu will encourage people to take a more preventative, holistic approach to their health. "As a biologist, I am completely in awe of how healthy most of us are most of the time, given our exposure to many particles and organisms in the air and water," she says. "If we can learn from this outbreak some basic principles about how to maintain good health, then it will be a powerful lesson."

- - - -



Articles featured in Life Extension Daily News are derived from a variety of news sources and are provided as a service by Life Extension. These articles, while of potential interest to readers of Life Extension Daily News, do not necessarily represent the opinions nor constitute the advice of Life Extension.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

PERFECT WELLNESS TIDBIT

It's gotten pretty scary out here let's get to work and begin putting more effort into cleaning up our living space inside and out!!!!

We must do something quickly to positively affect the environment.

We're all interconnected and interdependent and part of a larger whole. With that consciousness, we also need to be committed to the awareness of sustainability of our environment. Harmony between us and our planet is crucial to every living creature.

Get rid of those toxic materials and solutions in your home. Try new products. Shop To Earth has an abundance of great products that most people would never try. Sweet Wheat is just one of the hundreds of products sold there that does wonders for the skin and is totally healthy for your body and the earths body...find items for your animals, your home and more. Lets heal our world and ourselves.

Go here and learn more:

www.shoptoearn.net/stepharitshops

www.24hourtour.net/stepharitshops

Thanks

Need health counseling?

www.perfectbeautyinsideout.com

Learn to make your own environmentally healthy cleaning products and therapeutically regain your healthy balance with essential oils:

www.youngliving.org/stephaniewalcot

Friday, May 1, 2009

Frankincense Kills Bladder Cancer Cells

United Press International
03-18-09
OKLAHOMA CITY, Mar 17, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Enriched extract of the Somalian frankincense herb Boswellia carteri has been shown to kill off bladder cancer cells, U.S. researchers said.
H.K. Lin and his team at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Oklahoma City VA Medical Center evaluated frankincense oil for its anti-tumor activity in bladder cancer cells.
The study authors investigated the effects of the oil in two different types of cells in culture: human bladder cancer cells and normal bladder cells.
The study, published in the BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, found that frankincense oil is able to discriminate between normal and cancerous bladder cells in culture, and specifically kill cancer cells.
Gene analyses were performed to determine how frankincense oil affects bladder cancer cell survival and the researchers found that the oil suppresses cancer cell growth by arresting cell cycle progression and induces bladder cancer cell death by activating multiple cell death pathways.
"Frankincense oil may represent an inexpensive alternative therapy for patients currently suffering from bladder cancer," Lin said in a statement.
FROM LEF.ORG
URL: www.upi.com


FOR THE MOST SUPERIOR THERAPEUTIC QUALITY FRANKINCENSE OIL PLEASE GO TO:

WWW.YOUNGLIVING.ORG/STEPHANIEWALCOT

You Should Avoid Fast Food, Right?

Not So Fast… I’ll Show You How to Feast on REAL Fast Food

FROM THE WEBSITE OF DR. MERCOLA..........
Picture this: A patient walks into my office. When I look up from her chart, I advise her to eat more fast food. She flashes me a look of horror… as if I had just told her to jump off a bridge. Let me explain. I’m not talking about a bucket of fried chicken from the Colonel or a cheeseburger combo meal from your local drive-thru window. I’m talking about real fast food… what I call whole food. Whole foods are healthy and unprocessed. It can be as fast as picking up an apple and taking a bite – or as simple as a fistful of walnuts and a bag of dried cranberries.

Whole foods are foods that come to you as nature intended – without corporate or chemical interference. But you don’t have to sacrifice on taste, flavor or satisfaction. How about a grass-fed New York strip or a marinated chicken breast with mango salsa? These whole foods are fast and easy to prepare. And they represent real value. Whole foods keep you happier, healthier and alive longer.
It’s easy to be tempted by dollar menus and drive-thru windows – especially when the economy is bad. But these foods are not really fast. (They take months to prepare.) Even worse, the chemical additives and fake fats put you on the fast track to chronic disease.
Exposing the Big Lie in Your Drive-Thru Bag
When you pull away from the drive-thru window, visions of a fresh, hot hamburger dance in your head. But what’s really inside that wrapper is far from what you’re imagining. Imagine growing up on a farm as I did. You’d savor the smell of a fresh hamburger cooking and couldn’t wait to sink your teeth into it. From start to finish, that burger was the result of a very simple process:
A cow was born
It grew up eating grass in the pasture
At full maturity (roughly 3 to 4 years), you took the cow to the butcher
You brought the fresh hamburger meat home and cooked it
That’s it. That was the complete lifecycle of a hamburger. It was a whole food – complete in nutrition… nothing altered or stripped from what nature intended.
Now let’s take a look at the lifecycle of a modern drive-thru “junk food” burger:
A cow is born.
Ranchers rip the un-weaned calf from its mother and send it off to a commercial feedlot.
The calf lives with tens of thousands of other cows among giant mounds of manure. It gorges daily on a concoction of corn (a completely unnatural food for cows), antibiotics (to fight the bacteria of its living conditions) and hormones (to make it grow fatter faster).
The cow begins to get sick from the unnatural diet and living conditions (13% of all cows at slaughter have abscessed livers1). It’s given more antibiotics and a hormone implant.
At only 14 to16 months old, they send the sick and obese cow to slaughter.

An industrial slaughterhouse processes as many as 400 cows per hour. The speed of the lines in the name of profit makes it difficult to keep manure out of the meat. This is why, out of all foods, ground beef is the leading source of E. coli infections in the U.S.2
The slaughterhouse sends the meat to a food processing plant, where they mix the ground beef with chemical flavorings, preservatives and other ingredients.
They cook the meat, freeze it, package it, and ship it to your local junk food restaurant.
Your junk food vendor re-heats your burger from frozen to done in around 40 seconds.
They top your burger with chemically enhanced condiments. McDonald’s mayo has 19 ingredients including preservatives and coloring. There’s also the pickles and catsup – equally as chemically laden.
They wrap your burger and put it under a heat lamp where it sits for an undetermined amount of time until you pull up to the window.
Hardly a natural process, is it? Now you know why it’s called junk food.

“Okay,” you think. “You’re right. I should limit my drive-thru stops to breakfast on my way to work.” Sorry, but it’s no better…Even breakfast is an over-processed chemical nightmare at the mega-chain drive-thrus. For example, if you ordered eggs you’d expect… well, eggs. But here’s the official McDonald’s ingredient list – word for word – of 2 plain scrambled eggs from their menu:

“Pasteurized whole eggs with sodium acid pyrophosphate, citric acid and monosodium phosphate (all added to preserve color), nisin (preservative). Prepared with liquid margarine: Liquid soybean oil, water, partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, soy lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservative), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).”3
As you can see, the commercial junk sold by mega-corporations isn’t really “fast food”.
If you want to save your health, it’s time you learn about real – and healthy – fast, whole foods.

For More on this topic google Dr. Mercola

www.perfectwellnessinsideout.com

www.youngliving.org/stephaniewalcot

www.shoptoearn.net/stepharitshops

Enzymes: Are You Lacking These Crucial Catalysts to Your Digestion?

Click the url below here and read how adjusting the amount of "live" foods you ingest can spearhead your journey toward significantly improved health.


Also check me out for healthy directives at one of my websites here:

www.youngliving.org/stephaniewalcot

www.shoptoearn.net/stepharitshops


cut and paste to your browser:

http://www.sixwise.com/Newsletters/2009/March/25/Enzymes-Are-You-Lacking-These-Crucial-Catalysts.htm

When You Can't Get to Sleep, Rest Easy - There's More Than Hop Pillows to Help

Western Mail
03-24-09
THERE has been a lot of media interest recently in hops (humulus lupulus)
The tall plant grows throughout Europe and Asia and is a member of the Cannabaceae family and contains bitter properties.

In herbal medicine the female plant's flowers are used, generally for their nervine or sedative properties. But they are also an excellent digestive aid and have a beneficial effect on the liver.

Traditionally hops have been incorporated in herbal pillows to enhance sleep. But if they are a suitable medicinal choice for an individual, an internal prescription might be more appropriate. It should be remembered that hops contain phytoestrogens but, as yet, no conclusive trials have been completed in relation to phyotoestrogens and certain hormone sensitive conditions, for example breast, cervical and prostate cancer.
My opinion is that it would be best to avoid hops in such cases.
The herbal pharmocopia states that hops are also contra- indicated in certain types of depression.

There are also a range of other plants worthy of mention in relation to sleep disturbances. The most obvious is valerian (valeniana officinalis) - the plant has the most unusual smell and cats find it irresistible.
A good sedative and a powerful antispasmodic, valerian can be useful when pain and spasms accompany insomnia.

I have used passion flower (passiflora incarnata) in the past for sleep problems, because I find it not quite as drastic a sedative as valerian.
Passion flower could also be appropriate when an overactive mind prevents sleep.

Scullcap (scutellaria lateriflora) cannot really be classed a sedative. It is more of an old-fashioned nerve tonic. I would certainly prescribe the plant in cases where a patient has had prolonged stress. Scullcap should be prescribed for use in the day, quietening the nervous system in preparation for a sedative at night.

Mistletoe is also worth a mention. This plant has many complex and diverse uses, but for the purpose of this article, I will concentrate on the nervine properties. Mistletoe could be one of the first plants of choice when a patient is showing signs of stress, with accompanying hypertension. Obviously, it is vital to investigate the cause of hypertension before any treatment commences.

There are a multitude of plants with sedative and nervine properties, each one slightly different from the next. This is why it is vital that the correct plant is used.

In some cases a simple cup of camomile tea will be sufficient to lull a person to sleep. With other individuals it can take a large dose of valerian to have any effect whatsoever.

Generally I will not combine the more powerful sedative plants. I feel it is rather more logical to use one plant at a time, as two plant constituents could cause a slightly different effect than might be expected.
The use of tinctures needs to be questioned when using sedative plants. The alcohol used in the preservation process is 100% sugar cane alcohol. So is it the alcohol or the plants having the relaxing effect?

I always prescribe either the actual plant or the pure herb powder. But do remember that herbs are not miracle workers.
The person needs to look at lifestyle. Adequate exercise is important and correct diet.

It is also important to consider any underlying medical conditions, such as hyperthyroidism, before embarking on a course of herbal medicine for insomnia.

Liz Sanders is a herbalist in Trecastle. She can be contacted on 01874 638873 Source Life Extension Foundation