I've worked in a health food store, and know the power of plants. I was living out in the mountains when we had an ice storm and I developed pneumonia. We had no heat, and I was fevered near to delirious most of the time. Fortunately, I was living with the owner of the health food store, and another naturopath's daughter was visiting when the storm hit. Her mother had sent over fresh tinctures from her harvest (she cultivated some things, wildcrafted others) and the phone was still working, so she was consulted on a treatment plan. It's possible those tinctures saved my life, though I still have scarring in that lung 10 years later that's visible on x-ray and CT.
For those who are curious, the course of treatment that was discussed over the phone and implemented was waking me up every hour during the day, and every other hour at night, to have usnea lichen tinctured in 50% alcohol (first tinctured in 75% alcohol for two weeks to get some of the most volatile portions, then water added to extract portions that are more water-soluble, and tinctured for six more weeks at least before not shaking the jars daily) as an antibiotic, and just enough of a lobelia seed in apple cider vinegar tincture to barely wet my lips as an expectorant.
Sometimes they had to do the lobelia first just to get me conscious enough to drink the tincture.... and oh boy, it makes you conscious all right. It tastes nasty enough that even a person near to unconscious will lick their lips, and the seed tincture is extremely potent. More than the drop they would put on my lips to induce coughing spasms and copious production of fresh liquid mucous from my mucous membranes would have caused me to throw up, and too much can be cardio-toxic in a similar fashion to ipacec, but even more dangerous. The reason for the alcoholic tincture being given so many times in the day was to make sure that they didn't add to the fever delirium by leaving me drunk, and because of the alcohol in the tincture they elected not to give me any anti-fever remedies because they didn't want to block my liver's ability to process the alcohol -- plus, with no heat and my boyfriend having to share a mummy bag with me at night, they figured my body was doing what it was supposed to do to kill off the infection in those circumstances. I was lightly buzzed but more impaired from the fever than the alcohol.
We were iced in for two weeks, and before the two weeks was up, I was much better and the fever broke on it's own (just meant I was the one setting the alarm to take my meds instead of the rest of the household). As soon as the car could make it out of the driveway, they took me to the doctor, and I took a course of normal antibiotics just to make sure anything lingering was dead, but while my chest x-ray was still nasty he could tell most of the infection had cleared listening to my lungs.
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So yes, plants are powerful, can be dangerous, but can also be medicinal.
Are there any naturopaths on here who have experimented with vaporization as a delivery system for herbs that used to be smoked to treat ailments? I'm still in contact with the lady who made the mixtures that helped me, and I've not yet broached the subject to her. She has a ton of old pharmacopeias that might have information, but I was curious to see if others on here had already done their own experimentation.
For those who are curious, the course of treatment that was discussed over the phone and implemented was waking me up every hour during the day, and every other hour at night, to have usnea lichen tinctured in 50% alcohol (first tinctured in 75% alcohol for two weeks to get some of the most volatile portions, then water added to extract portions that are more water-soluble, and tinctured for six more weeks at least before not shaking the jars daily) as an antibiotic, and just enough of a lobelia seed in apple cider vinegar tincture to barely wet my lips as an expectorant.
Sometimes they had to do the lobelia first just to get me conscious enough to drink the tincture.... and oh boy, it makes you conscious all right. It tastes nasty enough that even a person near to unconscious will lick their lips, and the seed tincture is extremely potent. More than the drop they would put on my lips to induce coughing spasms and copious production of fresh liquid mucous from my mucous membranes would have caused me to throw up, and too much can be cardio-toxic in a similar fashion to ipacec, but even more dangerous. The reason for the alcoholic tincture being given so many times in the day was to make sure that they didn't add to the fever delirium by leaving me drunk, and because of the alcohol in the tincture they elected not to give me any anti-fever remedies because they didn't want to block my liver's ability to process the alcohol -- plus, with no heat and my boyfriend having to share a mummy bag with me at night, they figured my body was doing what it was supposed to do to kill off the infection in those circumstances. I was lightly buzzed but more impaired from the fever than the alcohol.
We were iced in for two weeks, and before the two weeks was up, I was much better and the fever broke on it's own (just meant I was the one setting the alarm to take my meds instead of the rest of the household). As soon as the car could make it out of the driveway, they took me to the doctor, and I took a course of normal antibiotics just to make sure anything lingering was dead, but while my chest x-ray was still nasty he could tell most of the infection had cleared listening to my lungs.
-----------
So yes, plants are powerful, can be dangerous, but can also be medicinal.
Are there any naturopaths on here who have experimented with vaporization as a delivery system for herbs that used to be smoked to treat ailments? I'm still in contact with the lady who made the mixtures that helped me, and I've not yet broached the subject to her. She has a ton of old pharmacopeias that might have information, but I was curious to see if others on here had already done their own experimentation.