Berkeley Holistic Health Center and Shepherd Bliss
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| One evening, we decided to have a tea party and I took the opportunity to bring in some chamomile tea, a well-known mild calmative and relaxant herb. That night, I didn't need to distribute as many Seconals, and in the morning, the patients did not experience the typical medication hangovers. "For the first time in years, I don't feel like a zombie," Sophie, 56, told me when I arrived the next day.
The patients were thrilled, but the nursing department and medical staff were not. |
Kenny Ausubel
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 The idea that the American Indians or a veterinarian would accidentally stumble upon some herb that would cure a large number of problems is rather far-fetched. It's like the idea that, if you put three billion monkeys in a room, one of them might write a Shakespearean sonnet."
And what about Hoxsey's horse? Francis Brinker is respectfully skeptical. A horse might possibly have nibbled on poke root, barberry, and burdock, while consuming substantial amounts of red clover. Prickly ash, however, is a decidedly aversive experience, inciting severe burning in the mouth. |
David Brownstein
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 Taking an herb, saw palmetto, may block any possible negative effect of testosterone on the prostate by stopping the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone. Dihydrotestosterone is thought to cause the excess growth of the prostate gland.
Nutritional Support
In men taking testosterone, I recommend saw palmetto extract, for the reasons explained above. Vitamin C 3000mg/day and Vitamin E 400-800I.U. per day are also helpful for promoting testosterone production.
' Fackelmann, K.A. |
Dr. Joseph M. Kadans, N.D.
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 LEEKS
Botanical information: Culinary herb, closely related to the onion, the common garden variety of the allium porrum family.
Nutritive values:
Vitamin A: 40 I.U. per 100 gm. Fat: .3 gm.
Vitamin B: Thiamine .11 mg.; Carbohydrates: 11.2 gm.
Riboflavin .06 mg.; Niacin .5 mg. Calcium: 52 mg.
Protein: 2.2 gm. Iron: 1.1 mg.
Calories: 52 Phosphorus: 50 mg.
Reported health benefits: The leek is a valuable addition to the diet; having many of the same medicinal properties of garlic, it may be taken by those who find garlic too irritating to the system. |
| EGGPLANT
Botanical information: An herb of the nightshade family (Solarium melongena) with large egg-shaped edible fruit (berries), commonly purple.
Vitamin A: 30 I.U. per 100 gm. Fat: .2 gm. Vitamin B: Thiamine .04 mg.; Carbohydrates: 5.5
Riboflavin .05 mg.; Niacin .65 Calcium: 15 mg. mg. Iron: .4 mg.
Vitamin C: 5 mg. Phosphorus: 37 mg.
Protein: 1.1 gm. Potassium: 390 mg.
Calories: 24
Reported health benefits: Eggplant has been found valuable for cases of constipation, colitis, stomach ulcers and various nervous conditions.
Preparation: Eggplant should not be fried. |
| Botanical information: A biennial apiaceous herb (Apium grave-olens). Cultivated mainly for its leafstalks.
Nutritive values:
Vitamin B: Thiamine .05 mg.; Carbohydrates: 4.9 gm. Riboflavin .04 mg.; Niacin .4 mg. Calcium: 22 mg.
Reported health benefits: Celery has been recommended for diseases of the kidney (nephritis), arthritis, rheumatism, neuritis, constipation, asthma, high blood pressure, catarrh, pyorrhea, diabetes and dropsy. The celery stalk is usually used, but the leaves are eaten for diabetes and the celery root for dropsy, the condition of accumulation of fluid in a body cavity. |
| BEET GREENS
Botanical information: The plant of the biennial herb Reta vulgaris of the goosefoot family. Edible greens are from the white, Sicilian or Swiss chard-beet.
Nutritive values:
Vitamin A: 6,700 I.U. per 100 gm. Fat: .3 gm.
Vitamin B: Thiamine .08 mg.; Carbohydrates: 5.6 gm.
Riboflavin .18 mg.; Niacin .4 mg. Calcium: 118 mg.
Vitamin C: 34 mg. Iron: 3.2 mg.
Protein: 2.0 gm. Phosphorus: 45 mg.
Calories: 27 Potassium: 332 mg.
Reported health benefits: Beet greens, especially the tops of the red beets, are richer than spinach in iron and other minerals. |
| BEETS, COMMON RED
Botanical information: The biennial herb Beta vulgaris of the goosefoot family. A fleshy and succulent root.
Nutritive values:
Vitamin A: 20 I.U. per 100 gm. Fat: . 1 gm.
Vitamin B: Thiamine .02 mg.; Carbohydrates: 9.6 gm.
Riboflavin .05 mg.; Niacin .4 mg. Calcium: 27 mg. Vitamin C: lOmg. Iron: 1.0 mg.
Protein: 1.6 gm. Phosphorus: 43 mg.
Calories: 42
Reported health benefits: The blood-building nutrients in beets furnish excellent food for the red blood corpuscles. |
Kenny Ausubel
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| The red paste contains the mineral-based antimony trisulfide and zinc chloride, as well as the herb bloodroot, known by its botanical name of San-guinaria canadensis. Antimony trisulfide is a salt of the highly toxic heavy metal antimony, also known as stibnite. It is believed to act as a "permeant" to facilitate infiltration of the zinc chloride. Zinc chloride is a caustic chemical that opens the skin and permits the slough to form. It acts as a "fixative."1
Bloodroot is a red root that acts as a chemotherapeutic agent to kill the cancer cells. |
Richard Gerber, M.D.
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 So dilute were his homeopathic remedies that in many of the medicines given, there was not a single molecule of the original herb present! Hahnemann's observation of greater efficacy from increasingly weaker concentrations would certainly contradict many of the accepted principles of dose-related effects in pharmacokinetics!
The ability of homeopathic drugs to have effectiveness without containing amounts of their substance necessary for measureable physiologic effects would seem to be impossible at first glance. |
Kenny Ausubel
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| That's not what I'm expecting or looking for from that herb." While some of the plants may directly kill cancer cells to some degree, most work by indirectly interfering with malignant cell growth through other mechanisms.
Duke, who worked closely with the NCI, is critical of its protocols. "One of the major problems with the NCI screen is that they do not test the plants in the way humans use the plants. I don't know that they have ever given an oral extract of red clover to a human being, and that's how it's used in folklore. |
Joe Graedon and Teresa Graedon
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 Ubiquinone (Coenzyme Q10)
CoQ10 as it is sometimes called, is not an herb, but it is sold in health food stores as a nutrient. It is a very popular alternative treatment for everything from heart failure and gum disease to lowered immunity and lack of energy. Ubiquinone is a natural substance made by the body and is important to many biochemical reactions. While this substance appears to be relatively nontoxic by itself, it may interact in a dangerous way with Coumadin (warfarin). |
Kenny Ausubel
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| Because an herb or formula like Hoxsey cannot be patented, such remedies occupy the status of orphan drugs, with no incentive for companies to develop them. Among other casualties of this quandary are potentially valuable cancer therapies such as vitamin C, hydrazine sulfate (an inexpensive chemical that has shown anticancer properties), and laetrile, the natural extract of apricot pits.
It was actually laetrile that bumped Ralph Moss sideways into his role as gadfly to the cancer establishment. |
| Is the herb as good as the synthetic? In many cases, it's as efficacious and in some cases probably more so. In almost all cases, it's cheaper. In almost all cases, it's gentler. I have good evolutionary reasons to suspect that in many cases the natural will be safer and as good, largely because my genes already know the natural chemicals. My genes do not know tomorrow's synthetic chemicals.
"Chemotherapy is really assaulting the immune system and assaulting cancer at the same time," Duke goes on. |
David Heber, M.D., Ph.D.
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 Echinacea bottles warn against using the herb over periods longer than six weeks without a break, but there is no evidence demonstrating any loss of efficacy of echinacea in humans.
Nonetheless, echinacea is safe, while the alternatives, such as strong antibiotics, provided by Western medicine are not only wrongly used but dangerous. Antibiotics are supposed to be used for bacterial infections, where they work well. The common cold is caused by viruses, and antibiotics have no role in this treatment. They do, however, stimulate the development of strains of bacteria resistant to infection. |
| The action of this herb is enhanced if it is present before the test stimulus is given. This observation translates to its use in the prevention of migraine headaches. Parthenolide is the active ingredient, and preparations are standardized to deliver a known amount of this substance. A daily dose of 125 milligrams of the leaf, assuming a 0.2 percent content of parthenolide, is recommended to prevent migraines.
Traditional medicine offers pain relievers that don't address the cause of the problem. The migraine headache usually results from a two-step process. |
| Proper use of this herb could improve the quality of life of many migraine sufferers.
Saw Palmetto
Prostate gland enlargement and reduction of urine flow is a virtual certainty as men age. I once knew a urologist who wrote a paper on the decreasing arc of urine streams in men with each decade of advancing age. Whenever I go to a play or a movie and find long lines of men at the urinals, I try to get behind a younger group of men, knowing that urination is a slower process for men as they age. Saw palmetto is widely used to increase urinary flow and appears to be quite useful for this. |
| Many baby boomers take this herb to enhance their ability to find their car keys. I often find that these people are simply overloaded with tasks and have some minor memory loss. This common form of memory loss usually doesn't respond to ginkgo biloba. The usual dose per day is 120 to 240 milligrams containing 22 to 27 percent ginkgo flavone glycosides and 5 to 7 percent terpene lactones.
Kava Kava
Kava kava has been used safely in Polynesian societies for centuries. |
| Kava kava is commonly used as a social beverage in Fiji, and offers relaxation and stress reduction to many westerners who now use this herb on a regular basis for anxiety, tension, and stress.
To the extent that it can be used as a substitute for stronger and more expensive antianxiety and sleep-inducing drugs, it has potential as a self-care option. The usual dose is 70 milligrams of kavalactones in a standardized 11 to 1 root extract one to three times a day for anxiety and muscle tension, and 210 to 500 milligrams of kavalactones one hour before bedtime for sleep. |
| But they remain skeptical, in large part due to concerns about safety and also about actually getting the type and amount of herb listed on the labels of these products.
In the next chapter you will learn more about fruits and vegetables, spices and nuts that are eaten less often or in smaller amounts in the Color Code diet but serve to enrich its taste and variety. |
Kenny Ausubel
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| A common plant throughout the Southeast, poke is a well-known herb and food to local residents, who like to parboil the leaves and add them to salads. The root, berry, and leaf are toxic in larger quantities. The amount in the Hoxsey tonic, however, is well below any threshold of danger. [Warning: Do not even consider self-medicating with poke. Eating the leaves can also be toxic without proper preparation.]
Back in Duke's study, stacked high with books, papers, and oversized reference works, he lifted a hefty three-pound volume called simply Plants Used Against Cancer. |
Gary Null
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 A wonderful immune-strengthening herb that can be used in cancer prevention or as an adjunct to cancer treatments. Letha Hadady says, "It has worked wonders for my friends on chemotherapy who take this between sessions for strength." Add one teaspoon of astragalus powder to some pure water, and drink once or twice a day. Or try Astra-8, a combination of astragalus and other immune-strengthening remedies in capsule form, found in health food stores.
EXERCISE Dr. |
the Editors of PREVENTION
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 The formula calls for 2 parts echinacea to 1 part of each of the rest of the herb tinctures, so you might go to your health food store and buy a 2-ounce bottle of echinacea tincture and 1-ounce bottles of el-derflower, usnea, and thyme. Mix them together, and you'll have plenty of cough-with-cold formula.
Cuts and Scrapes may be the most highly evolved creatures on the planet, but with no thick hide or pelt of fur to protect us, we're at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to skin injuries. |
Gary Null, Ph.D.
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 An extensive review article on the herb has also noted that its active constituent, NDGA, has been the subject of numerous studies on its efficacy as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogen, anti-microbial agent, etc.; many of which have produced findings supporting its use and calling for the need for additional research into the overall health benefits of the plant in general.
Angelica
Angelica has been found to possess potent anti-tumor properties, and to protect against arthythmia in rats during myocardial inschemia and against myocardial dysfunction and injury in rabbits. |
the Editors of PREVENTION
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| Strain out the herb and let the liquid cool a little, but soak your washcloth in it while it's still warm. Settle back and press the cloth to the outside of whichever jaw hurts (it's usually just one side, Dr. Stay says) for at least several minutes.
Comfrey can cause liver problems in high or prolonged doses, Dr. Stay warns. Don't drink this extra-strong tea for bruxism, and limit your daily compress treatment to a few weeks at most.
Arnica
Rub ointment into your jaw once daily. |
Gary Null, Ph.D.
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| Black Cohosh
Black cohosh in tincture can be useful in the treatment of depression. The herb has also been shown to have beneficial effects in women suffering from menopausal symptoms. Black cohosh can be a useful therapy during the early stages of measles, and additional studies have found it to be effective in influenza, mumps, measles complicated with pneumonia, congenital syphilis, and tonsilitis as well. |
| Dandelion
A popular liver remedy, dandelion is an herb loaded with vitamins, minerals, protein, etc. Dandelion extracts have exhibited antitumor and hypoglycemic activity in animal studies. Evidence indicates that it may also be effective in treating additional conditions, including liver problems, hepatitis, gallstones, kidney trouble, and weight loss.
Echinacea
A common remedy for colds and general immune enhancer, echinacea is a plant native to America's Great Plains and long used by Native Americans. |
| Contemporary research points to the herb's promise as an effective therapy for cancer, AIDS, alcoholism, hepatitis, and isomnia. St. John's Wort has been used historically against symptoms associated with PMS and as an reliable treatment for wounds and burns. It can be taken as a tincture, tea, decotion, oil, or capsule.
Stinging Nettle
Several studies point to the benefits of stinging nettle extracts in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia. |
| Results of one study on the effects of the herb on blood hyperviscosity in 105 patients found that intravenous doses of 10 ml in 250 mil of 5 percent glucose over a period of fifteen days produced clinical benefits with respect to reduced blood mammary viscosity and in fibrinogen volume as well as an increase in the deformability of Rbc, decreased time of Rbc electrophoresis, and enhanced anti-platelet aggregation. |
Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D.
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 Black cohosh: This herb is an antispasmodic used for pelvic pain and menstrual cramps. It contains saponins, phytochemicals that are said to stimulate the uterus and increase pelvic blood flow. Black cohosh might be mildly effective, but results can take several weeks to appear Do not take black cohosh if you suspect you are pregnant, since it might stimulate uterine contractions. |
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