Healing Wise

Be Your Own Herbal Expert

I just wanted to let Ms. Weed know I very much appreciate all the
information she provides online.

I am new to mixing my own herbs. (Although I have LOVED the outdoors, plants
and dirt for about as long as my memory can remember) I am so excited that I
am trying to learn all I can as quickly as possible and it is very hard when
most of the information I have came across is not laid out very well for
newbies.

I have learned a wealth of information from your lessons already and am so
excited to get started with my first experiments.

I just wanted to extend my Thanks for sharing your wisdom with those of us
that are new to this area of wisdom.

Hello! So glad the info at herbshealing.com has been useful for you. In case
you have not yet found the Eight part series "Be Your Own Herbal Expert",
here is the link to part one:

http://www.susunweed.com/An_Article_Weed_Self-help1.htm


Blessings,
Wise Woman Team
www.wisewomanweb.com

Making Soft Pine Vinegar

Dear Susun:

In reference to your article about pine needles, www.susanweed.com/herbal_ezine/April08/healingwise.htm I have a question re making the vinegar.

1.  Do the pine needles need to be washed and if so in what before covering with the vinegar?

2. You state pasteurized apple cider vinegar, could one use the Braggs unpasteurized acv that I normally use for everything else?

3.  I don't know one pine tree from another. I know you mention that it doesn't matter, but I'd hate to waste the vinegar if solution proved to be like turpentine or a cleaning product. So is there an easy way to differentiate the soft pine from the others?

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I am slowly learning about herbs etc, but it is quite a specialty of its own.

 

M

 

 

M,

No need to wash the pine needles, better if they are not washed.

Better to use pasteurized apple cider vinegar, you can pasteurize your vinegar by heating on the stove.

The soft pine has long needles, here is an excellent tree leaf id page http://www.aces.edu/forestry/dendrology/leaves.php

 

Here is also an article on making herbal vinegars:

http://www.susunweed.com/Article_Herbal_Vinegar.htm

 

love, Justine

 

Epidemic influenza and vitamin D

Epidemic influenza and vitamin D. It was published in 2006 in the journal Epidemiology and Infection (2006, 134:6:1129-1140 Cambridge University Press) and its abstract reads as follows:

"In 1981, R. Edgar Hope-Simpson proposed that a 'seasonal stimulus' intimately associated with solar radiation explained the remarkable seasonality of epidemic influenza. Solar radiation triggers robust seasonal vitamin D production in the skin; vitamin D deficiency is common in the winter, and activated vitamin D, 1,25(OH)2D, a steroid hormone, has profound effects on human immunity. 1,25(OH)2D acts as an immune system modulator, preventing excessive expression of inflammatory cytokines and increasing the 'oxidative burst' potential of macrophages.

Perhaps most importantly, it dramatically stimulates the expression of potent anti-microbial peptides, which exist in neutrophils, monocytes, natural killer cells, and in epithelial cells lining the respiratory tract where they play a major role in protecting the lung from infection. Volunteers inoculated with live attenuated influenza virus are more likely to develop fever and serological evidence of an immune response in the winter.

Vitamin D deficiency predisposes children to respiratory infections. Ultraviolet radiation (either from artificial sources or from sunlight) reduces the incidence of viral respiratory infections, as does cod liver oil (which contains vitamin D). An interventional study showed that vitamin D reduces the incidence of respiratory infections in children. We conclude that vitamin D, or lack of it, may be Hope-Simpson's 'seasonal stimulus'."