The Herbal Insider

Melatonin, valerian, kava, and others promote sleep naturally

Insomnia is not just having trouble falling asleep, it can also manifest as waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to fall asleep again. Statistics are grim: insomnia is experienced by 95% of adults at some point in their lives.

Insomnia varies in its severity. Transient insomnia lasts only a few nights and is often the result of excitement or minor stress. Short-term insomnia persists for a couple of weeks and stems from major stress or illness. Chronic insomnia is a long-term disorder with many contributing factors, including physical illness, depression, poor sleeping environment, and lifestyle.

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Reading, ‘Riting & Ritalin?

Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was a rare condition 50 years ago. Today, it is extremely common, affecting an estimated 5-20% of all children in the United States. Previously known by a number of different names (including hyperactivity, hyperkinesis, and minimal brain dysfunction), ADHD is characterized by learning disabilities, short attention span, easy distractibility, impulsive behavior, hyperactivity, and lack of coordination. Although children with ADHD are not mentally retarded, they often do poorly in school and have difficulty making friends.

Conventional medicine has discovered that methylphenidate (Ritalin, a chemical related to the amphetamines) is often effective for children with ADHD. For reasons that are not understood, stimulants like Ritalin produce a paradoxical response in these children: slowing them down and helping them concentrate, rather than speeding them up.

Unfortunately Ritalin has many side effects and does not address the cause of ADHD, it merely suppresses the symptoms. Nevertheless, both teachers and parents sometimes look at Ritalin as a quick fix, or as the simplest way to deal with a complicated problem. Indeed, in some parts of the United States, as many as 6% of grade-school children are on this drug.

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Germ Warfare
“…shore up your immune defenses with a good diet, plenty of rest, and immune-boosting supplements.”

The common cold is actually caused by one of 200 different viruses which all produce similar symptoms: sore throat, runny nose, congestion, watery eyes, cough, and general aches and pains. Influenza (the flu) causes many of the same symptoms and is also caused by a virus. Colds and flu can be spread person-to-person by coughing or sneezing. Infection can also be spread by touching a virus-contaminated object (like a doorknob, phone, or shaking hands with an infected person) and then touching your eyes or nose.

Surprisingly, whether or not a person comes down with a cold or flu is related less to exposure to a virus and more to the strength of the immune system. Now is the time to shore up your immune defenses with a good diet, plenty of rest, and immune-boosting supplements. In a recent Email received from Robyn Landis, author of Herbal Defense, she said she is now into her 8th winter without a serious cold. Her book will tell you how you can do the same.

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The Herbal Insider Vol 1, Issue 6“The B vitamins…neutralize homocysteine, and thus reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke.”
Nutrition for a Healthy Cardiovascular System

Heart disease is not only one of the nation’s deadliest killers—taking the lives of almost one million Americans each year—but it is also responsible for chronic illness and suffering in many more. Although there are impressive medical advances in the treatment of heart disease, it simply makes sense to take the nutritional initiative and prevent heart disease from developing in the first place. Fortunately there’s no shortage of supplements geared to nutritional prevention—whether it is the management of cholesterol levels or the prevention of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

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Re-printed from:  MotherEarthNews Online

Returning to our medicinal roots
By James A. Duke, Ph.D.

At a time when the entire Western world is looking forward–to a new year, a new century, a new millennium–I’d like to challenge this nation’s physicians and pharmacists to do just the opposite: look back. It’s my belief that the future of medicine is rooted in the past, before chemists undertook to synthesize synthetic silver bullets for all that ails, and before pharmaceutical companies hitched our collective health to what has become for them a multibillion-dollar wagon.
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