White Willow Bark and Leaves - Natural Pain Relief

by Liliana Usvat
Blog 212 -365

History

The use of willow bark dates back thousands of years, to the time of Hippocrates (400 BC) when patients were advised to chew on the bark to reduce fever and inflammation.

Willow bark has been used throughout the centuries in China and Europe, and continues to be used today for the treatment of pain (particularly low back pain and osteoarthritis), headache, and inflammatory conditions, such as bursitis and tendinitis.

Hippocrates, Galen, Pliny the Elder and others knew willow bark could ease aches and pains and reduce fevers. It has long been used in Europe and China for the treatment of these conditions.This remedy is also mentioned in texts from ancient Egypt, Sumer, and Assyria.
 
The Reverend Edmund Stone, a vicar from Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, England, noted in 1763 that willow bark was effective in reducing a fever. The bark is often macerated in ethanol to produce a tincture.

In an article published in 1652, Nicholas Culpeper had suggested that physicians use the burnt residues of the white willow bark blended with vinegar to remove warts, corns as well as unnecessary flesh from the body.

How to Use

 
White Willow Bark: A Natural Alternative to Aspirin for Pain Relief

WHITE WILLOW tea- Natural Pain Relief 15-20 cups White Willow bark has been used for many many years as a pain reliever. Willow contains glucoside.
 
White willow bark contains salicylic acid that is also found in aspirin. It is recommended that one drink 3 to 4 cups of this tea to benefit from its use. Although the tea may be slower acting than aspirin, it has longer lasting effects.

Start by adding 1 to 2 teaspoons of white willow bark to 8 ounces of water.
 

Allow this to boil for about 5 to 10 minutes. Once it has boiled, turn off the heat and allow it to steep between 20 and 30 minutes. You will notice the herbs drop down to the bottom of the pan and the tea is taking on a beautiful red color.
 
Add cinnamon and honey to your steeped white willow bark for a better tasting tea.

Once the bark is done steeping, strain the bark out and compost it. 

Common Name
White Willow
Other Known Names
Cartkins Willow, European Willow, Pussywillow, Willow, Withe Withy
Botanical Name
Salix alba

Whats it look like
Willows range in size from the statuesque weeping willow tree to plants barely 2 inches high. The many varieties of willow—close to 500—are now considered interchangeable for medicinal use. Its bark has a spicy scent and a bitter flavor.

What part of the plant is used
Bark, leaves
Properties

• Anti-inflammatory
• Expectorant
• Antiseptic
• Analgesic
• Astringent

Uses

• Bronchitis
• Coughs
• Headaches
• Fevers
• Rheumatism
• Gout
• Diarrhea
• Dysentery
• Neuralgia
• Gastrointestinal distress
• Pain
• Osteoarthritis
• Menstrual cramps
• Flu
• Tendonitis
• Bursitis

Cautions-Adverse Reactions-Side Effects
Do not take if you have a bleeding disorder


Headache
Willow bark has been shown to relieve headaches. There is some evidence that it is less likely to cause gastrointestinal side effects than other pain relievers, such as ibuprofen (Advil) and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, do.

Low back pain
Willow bark appears to be effective for back pain. People who received higher doses of willow bark (240 mg salicin) had more significant pain relief than those who received low doses (120 mg salicin).

Hot Flashes and sweating

White willow is also useful for women as the herb helps in lowering night sweating and hot flashes through menopause period.

Dosage and Administration Adult

General dosing guidelines for willow bark are as follows:

• Dried herb (used to make tea): boil 1 - 2 tsp of dried bark in 8 oz of water and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes; let steep for ½ hour; drink 3 - 4 cups daily.
• Powdered herb or liquid: 60 - 240 mg of standardized salicin per day;
• Tincture (1:5, 30% alcohol): 4 - 6 mL 3 times per day. 

Leaves

INFUSION - infusions prepared from white willow leaves can be consumed following meals with a view to cure digestive problems as well as enhance the digestive process.

Chase-away-your-pain aperitif

• 3 cups (750 ml) Sweet white wine (Alsatian Muscat, Muscadet)
• 3 T (50 g) Willow bark, dried and crushed

Macerate month. Strain. Drink 2 T (30 ml) during attacks.

Habitat and cultivation

Basically indigenous to European countries, white willow is now found abundantly in North America as well as in Asia.

The tree best thrives in humid areas like riverbanks and can be grown from partially matured cuttings during the summer or from hard wood cuttings during the winter.

 Normally, the white willow trees are often pollarded and the bark of the tree is shredded during spring from branches of trees that are two to five years old.

Forest of Halkidiki Greece

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 211-365

I was visiting Greece and while in Thessaloniki we were invited by a group of young people to tste the products of the area cheese tomatoes to see what they will loose because of an Canadian company wants to destroy to find and extract Gold.

It was a cry for help from people of Greece, country that i fell in love with while visiting it, to stop the destruction of the land of Halkidiki.

I felt for the cause so I decided to write about this in my Blog.

The destruction of Halkidiki has begun.
 
Since mid -June 2012 the Canradian company Eldorado Gold together with the construction company Aktor  with the blessing of the Greek State started razing the ancient forest in Skouries to turn into a huge open - pit mine.

The pharaonic project will turn Halkidiki into a wasteland and drain every single drop of water.

Poverty is not having water to drink.
Wounds of the past means total destruction in the future.

The "investment" planned by Hellas Gold ( 95% owned by Canadian company Eldorado Gold and 5% by Aktor) is a barbaric intervention in a small densely populated region with a rich natural and cultural environment.

The Scale of future plans is massive 33 millions tons were excavated in the past 2500 years with the plans is to extract 380 millions tons in the next 25 years, until the last metal is removed from the ground.

All mining activities and installations are located on an active seismic faultline which has already caused earthquakes of magnitude 7 on the Richter scale.

The upcoming disaster is of biblical proportions. In addition to the existing underground metal mining activities the plan is to develop a series of new open pit mines as well as a metallurgy complex. The processing of raw ore to produce pure metals is the most polluting industrial activity in the world.

What the independent scientific institution say?

Forest

• The region ancient fores will incur permanent and irreversible damage, destroying the landscape and its biodiversity.

Water:  

• Draining of mountain aquifers will cause the water table to drop by 600m causing desertification. 
• Surface and ground water will be contaminated with sulphuric acid, heavy metals as a result of mine drainage.
• The intensity of dangerousness of floods will increase.
• Deep mining in Olympiada will cause salinization of underground aquifer.

Soil

• The pollution from heavy metals carried in water will contaminate the soil, flora, fauna and crops, even at a big distance from mining activities.

Atmosphere

• The atmosphere will be contaminated with airborne particles and heavy metals in particular arsenic. 3116tons of dust per hour will be generated by Skouries mine alone. This toxic dust will travel over large distances, in a similar way to the sand dust from Sahara Desert.

Health,

Contamination of the environment and food chain with heavy metals ( lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, copper) will cause disease such as affection of the nervous system of children, anemia, kidney failure, gastroenteritis, nephritis, liver failure, hepatitis, cirrhosis, jaundice cancer

Conclusion

And all of this so few thousands of people maximum to make a profit. Is it worth it?
And you may ask why the health of the planet, the existence of the forest and people is less important that the profit of few?

• It is possible that these massive environmental destructions to be made because some companies that make the fesability study spend the majority of money taken from investors for these studies and let the investor hope that in the future they will make money while in the end the environment suffer? For them ( the investors) they invest in Gold.
•  It is also possible that because of the level of math education in Canada these studies to have massive math errors?
•  It is also possible that the profit would not be there and the investors would loose all the money because their money were used for the fesability study and the result was not fully understood by investors?

Links

http://antigoldgr.org/en/tag/halkidiki/page/6/

http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/content/protesters-greece-clash-police-over-gold-mine-again

Tree Meditation

by Liliana Usvat
Blog 210 -365

Do you have a tree? If not Plant one.
Did you ever Planted a tree? If not do it.
Do you see trees on daily basis? If not go to a park or just plant one.

This  meditation will help to align your energies with the earth’s energies so that you feel calm, refreshed and at peace. It begins with awareness on the out breath which helps to keep you focused in the present moment.

 The meditation itself is done as visualization, but you could do it outdoors sitting with your back against a tree. Trees and plants have their own energy fields and you can absorb this energy in a positive and revitalizing way for your whole being.

If you are standing, imagine your feet growing roots; if you are sitting, imagine the roots coming out of your legs and your bottom and heading down into the soil.

With each out-breath, your roots grow and reach deeper into the soil. Also feel stress and tension flow out of your roots with each out-breath. Keep focusing and extending your roots.

With each in-breath, feel yourself pulling cool, earthy, grounding energy from the soil and Mother Earth. Feel that energy move slowly from your feet and legs up through your “trunk,” down your “limbs” and into every cell in your body.  When your body is full of this grounding energy, feel it begin to exit through the top of your head.

Now that you have grounded, imagine your arms are limbs and are reaching toward the sky, toward the sun, the source of energy that nourishes green plants and life on earth. 
With each out-breath, your branches reach further into the sky.  Release tension and stress.  Feel your branches growing.

With each in-breath, breathe in the light, warm, energizing sunlight, allowing it to flow down from your “branches” and “trunk” to each part of your body and into each cell.
Feel the energies of earth and sky mixing within you.  When you are full of this vitality, let the energy seep down and out of your roots.

Feel how grounded, calm, and centered you are, but also energized, focused, and with broader perspective.

When you feel complete with this experience, slowly increase your breathing, feel yourself return to your body, stretch, and open your eyes.