Herbs And Natural Remedies:
�And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into the nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.� Gen 2:7.
In the beginning God created man using as His main material the dust of the ground. He created us perfect, in harmony with all His laws, including the natural laws. Adam and Eve were placed in the middle of nature living and working in the Garden of Eden. Their diet was in perfect accord with the chemical composition of their bodies. They ate, according to the Holy Bible, raw food, that comes from the ground. �And God said, behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed (grains), which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed (nuts and fruit); to you it shall be for meat.� Gen 1:29.
This was before man�s fall. After the fall God had to change man�s original diet for another one, similar, but a little different. He added another element to the diet - vegetables. �Thorns and also thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shall eat the herb of the field (vegetables).� Gen 3:18. Grain, fruits, nuts and vegetables now constitute the diet chosen for us by our Creator.
With the sunshine, the air, the water, and the soil, the plants received the vital nutrients they needed. They receive from the soil a large amount of nutrients, which they assimilate and transform into vital energy for human beings. These vital elements, which we find in some of the plants that grow on our land, are to be carefully studied and prepared as simple remedies, which will do much to restore healthful action to the human body.
Since the beginning of earth�s history nature has provided for man the solution for all kinds of health problems. In the written record, the study of herbs dates back over 3,000 years to the Sumerians, who described well established medicinal uses for some plants such as laurel, caraway, and thyme. The Chinese also used herbs very early in earth�s history as well. The first known reference is the Chinese herbal book dating from 2,700 B.C. and included a list of 365 medicinal plants. We can also see references in the Egyptians of 1000 B.C., with the use of herbs such as garlic, castor oil, coriander, mint, indigo and others. The Old Testament also mentions herbs� use and cultivation, including mandrake, vetch, caraway, wheat, barley, and rye.
The Greeks and Romans valued plants for several uses including medicinal purposes. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, preserved the most important Greek and Roman medicinal writings. He advocated the use of a few simple herbal medications, together with fresh air, rest and proper diet to help the bodies own �life force� in eliminating problems. He believed that our body has the capacity to recover itself when these simple principles of life were applied. The Greek physician Dioscorides compiled the first European treatise on the properties and uses of medicinal plants in the first century A.D.; his compendium of more than 500 plants remained an authoritative reference into the seventeenth century.
The use of plants for medicine and other purposes changed little during the middle Ages. Many Greek and Roman writings on medicine, as on other subjects, were preserved by diligent hand copying of manuscripts in monasteries. The fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the great age of herbal treatment, many of them available for the first time in English and other languages other then Latin or Greek. But the seventeenth century also saw the beginning of a slow erosion of the pre-eminent position held by plants. The introduction by the physician Paracelsus of active chemical drugs (like arsenic, copper sulfate, iron, mercury and sulfur), followed by the rapid development of chemistry and the other physical sciences in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, led to the dominance of chemotherapy, chemical medicine, as the orthodox system of the twentieth and now the twenty first century.
Ginkgo Biloba Leaf
Herbal remedies are very simple and they are in harmony with life. Our Creator has provided for us an escape for all our health problems in natural remedies. �God has caused to grow out of the ground herbs for the use of man and if we understand the nature of these roots and herbs, and make a right use of them, there would not be a necessity of running for the doctor so frequently, and people would be in much better health than they are today.� Letter 35, (Feb. 6, 1890) E.G. White.
With this in mind let us approach some simple principles to maintain and preserve our health with these simple remedies provided by our God and Creator. The use of herbs requires from each one of us a serious study on the subject. The first step to use these simple remedies is to learn about their properties. Today we have thousands of written pages available with studies on the subject. The second step is to study your own body in order to apply these simple remedies as preventive medicine. The third step is related to your lifestyle. In order to apply the simple herbs, as a preventive, your diet must be in accord with God�s directions, that means you are better off to follow a Vegetarian or Vegan diet (no dairy products). This type of diet will increase the effectiveness of the simple remedies.
One of the most important systems in our bodies is the digestive tract. If our digestive tract is properly fed with the right quality of food, it will provide a good supply of blood to our cells. A great number of health problems are related to digestion. For that reason if our bodies are in good shape with a proper diet, our immune system will function well. The immune system plays a special role in our protection against health problems.
The immune system is one of the most remarkable and complex in the human body. When we understand that it has the capacity to produce one million antibodies in one minute and recognize and disarm billions of invaders, we will start to give more attention to it. We have to stimulate the ability of our immune system. How we do this?
Exercise, mental attitude and proper diet are very important to maintain our immune system at high levels. An excess of exercise will decrease the immune system and by consequence the body�s capability to react to fight disease. Also stress, depression and family tragedy decrease the immune system levels. The main goal of the immune system is to identify and destroy the body�s enemies, such as bacteria and viruses.
Our immune system�s vitality is totally dependent on our vitamin and mineral intake. Deficiencies in vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, folic acid, C, E shut down our immune system, as well as deficiencies in iron, zinc, magnesium and selenium. It is important for our nutritional balance to take in large quantities of antioxidants, especially vitamin C. Your bodies �invaders�, (viruses and bacteria) produce oxidants, chemical substances and free radicals that weaken our immune system cells. Nutrients such as Vitamins A, C, E, zinc and selenium disarm these �invaders.� Vitamin C is very potent to stimulate the immune system. So far, scientists have identified a dozen different roles of this vitamin related to the immune system. Vitamin C controls excessive levels of the stress hormone, cortical, a powerful immune system suppressor.
The best sources of Vitamin C are the Camu-Camu fruit, Acerola, (Barbados cherry) and Rose hips. Rose hips are the most common and easy to get. With Vitamin C you have to be sure it is natural. Acerola can contain up to 4.5% vitamin C, compared to 0.05% in a peeled orange. Acerola also provides twice as much magnesium, pantothenic acid, and potassium as oranges. It also contains vitamin A (4,300 to 12,500 IU/100 g, compared to approximately 11,000 IU for raw carrots) and thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin in concentrations comparable to those in other fruits.
All our needs are provided through nature. Herbs contain all we need to prevent disease and to recover our bodies� healthy vigor. �There are herbs that are harmless, the use of which will tide over many apparently serious difficulties. But if all would seek to become intelligent in regard to their bodily necessities, sickness would be rare instead of common. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.� MS 86 1897 E.G. White.
Lavender
References: The Optimum Nutrition Bible, 1997 Patrick Holford
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