The eclectic learner

How to beat cold sores (If you don't want to know about cold sores, and just want the therapy, scroll all the way down) If you have ever suffered with cold sores, (herpes simplex virus -HSV- type 1)  you know how annoying they are: first, the redness, then the tingling, the crust, not to mention the pain and the insult of the ugly scab, all this lasting for about two weeks. I suffered from cold sores in my twenties and thirties, but fortunately they all but disappeared by the time I was about 35. Hurrah! I was finally free from this horrible problem. UNTIL - I was 39 weeks pregnant with my daughter and a student visited me with a baby who had chicken pox (but nobody knew until the day after she visited me). Terrified, my students duly informed me and apologised profusely for letting me have contact with chicken pox - which as most people know, can cause fatal damage and problems in pregnancy. Now, I had alr...

How a friend healed from Paronychia  (bacterial nail infection) with herbs! About a week ago I went to my local supermarket and I noticed that the till assistant had a sling on his bandaged middle finger. I am curious by nature , so I couldn't help asking him what happened to his finger. Carl, that was his name, promptly showed me and my daughter his finger (after taking off bandage and sling of course). To have an idea of what it looked like, have a look at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paronychia It looks painful, doesn't it? He said that when he was watching a football on TV, he didn't realise that his nail-biting had gone a bit over the limit, and he had torn some flesh. His doctor was about to see him in two days, he reassured me, and he probably expected to be given antibiotics to treat the infection. Not happy with what I saw, I suggested a few herbs that could help him earlier than his G.P. appointment. However, once I got hom...

Garlic  and Echinacea tincture - Cold and Flu Fighters!  We’re coming up on winter time again, and for many that means more colds, flus, coughs, sniffles and other annoying ills .  What natural remedy helps to keep you healthy during this time?  The answer is probably sitting in your kitchen cupboard.  It’s garlic. Garlic has been touted as a health booster for a long time, that’s nothing new.  Anecdotal evidence , old wive’s tales, and folk medicine are full of uses for the herb .  Turns out though, that they are actually pretty accurate. A study done at the University of Alabama at Birmingham sheds some light on exactly why garlic is such a powerful herb.  In the study researchers extracted juice from supermarket garlic and added small amounts to human red blood cells.  The scientists discovered that the cells immediately began emitting hydrogen sulfide (HS2) which acts a cell messenger. Interestingly, hydrogen sulfide is ...