GUIDELINES FOR BREWING A HERB INFUSION OR A HERB TISANE

Healing with Herbs, PART 7
GUIDELINES FOR BREWING A HERB INFUSION OR A HERB TISANE

Natural food stores and even many grocery stores today sell all sorts of ready- made herbal medicines. Still, it is far less costly and more satisfying to make your own remedies with homegrown herbs picked right from your garden. You can combine herbs to fit your own needs and tastes and make just the amounts you need. Furthermore, one can guarantee the purity of the herbs since you would know they had not been treated with any toxic chemicals.


CAUTION: Keep in mind that many herbs have toxic properties, and some are absolutely poisonous. Take care to identify plants accurately and if you are not sure of one, then do not use it. The standard rule is: Use all plants judiciously; use some plants not at all. Remember that medicines that are healthful when taken in small quantities can be harmful in large doses. Of course, do not self medicate for ailments which have not been previously diagnosed by a licensed physician or other qualified health professional. Certain herbal medications may not work well in conjunction with other drugs you may be taking.

The following are standard guidelines for brewing herb infusions and tisanes:

1) Use a glass or ceramic container: Aluminum, iron, tin, or other metals will leach into the tea, so do not use pots made from these metals. Although copper and stainless steel may be okay, herbalists recommend you stay with a clean glass, ceramic, pottery or an unchipped ceramic pot.

2) Use pure water: Do not pollute our tea with chlorine or other chemicals in the water you use. Fresh spring water or distilled water is best for making medicinal teas.

3) Used boiled- not boiling- water: Boil your water first, then remove it from the heat and add the herb.

4) Use the proper proportions: A typical medicinal tea requires 1 ounce of dried herb (about 2 handfuls) to 2 cups of water, or 2 ounces of fresh herb to 2 cups of water. Let the infusion steep for 15 minutes to several hours, depending on the herb's potency and how strong a tea you wish to make. The herb will soak up about 1/2 cup of the water, leaving you with roughly 1 1/2 cups of beverage.

5) Cover the pot tightly: If you smell the aroma of the brewing tea, the herb's essential oils are escaping into the air, rather than being retained in the liquid.

6) Strain the finished infusion before capping and storing.

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Author Dr Cathleen V. Carr, JD, PhD is the Editor in Chief of The Best Natural Health Directory and Natural Medicine Ink

See the entire series on Healing with Herbs at Radient life or nationally syndicated Examiner.com

How Long Will You Live In Good Health?

Growing Old In Good Health:
The Great Disparity


The lowest ‘years of healthy life’ is seen in Estonia, where the age is 59 years for men and 61 for women. In Denmark, by contrast, those values rise to 73 years for men and 74 years for women. The UK is higher than the European average with figures of 69 years and 9 months for men and 70 years and 9 months for women.

The lowest ‘years of healthy life’ is seen in Estonia, where the age is 59 years for men and 61 for women. In Denmark, by contrast, those values rise to 73 years for men and 74 years for women. The UK is higher than the European average with figures of 69 years and 9 months for men and 70 years and 9 months for women.

Although life expectancy is constantly growing, living longer isn’t always the same as living well, and knowing to what age someone will live in good health remains a different question altogether.

Carol Jagger, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Leicester, is part of the European Health Expectancy Monitoring Unit (EHEMU), who have undertaken a research project on healthy life expectancy within the EU.

Using a new indicator called Healthy Life Years, they found that in 2005 life expectancy in the EU was 78 years on average for men and 83 for women, while men live on average without any health problems up to 67 years and women to 69 years.
Great disparities persist, however, between the countries of the EU, and the differences in Healthy Life Years are much greater than differences in life expectancy.

The lowest ‘years of healthy life’ is seen in Estonia, where the age is 59 years for men and 61 for women. In Denmark, by contrast, those values rise to 73 years for men and 74 years for women. The UK is higher than the European average with figures of 69 years and 9 months for men and 70 years and 9 months for women.

These results are correlated with the overall wealth of the different countries as measured by GDP and the average level of health spending by the countries on older people. In general, a strong GDP and higher health spending are associated with more Healthy Life Years at age 50.

For men, long periods out of work (over 12 months) and poorer education were equally responsible for fewer Healthy Life Years.

The disparities observed are even stronger among the last ten countries to have joined the EU. For most of these countries, the age of retirement is higher than or coincides with the average age at which people can hope to live without health problems.

Carol Jagger commented: “Without an improvement in the state of health of older people, it will be difficult to raise the retirement age or bring more older workers into the workforce for certain EU countries.”

Partner institutions in the research project are: the University of Leicester; the French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED); The Scientific Institute of Public Health, Belgium; the Erasmus Medical Center, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands; and the French Institute of Health and Medical Research.

Ayurvedic Doshas

Ayurveda helps people heal by balancing the doshas. When the doshas are balanced, the body is in homeostasis (a state of zero change) and that is a state of perfect health. When the body is healthy it automatically repairs and protects itself.

The three doshas are vata, pitta, and kapha. The doshas are three general body types. On a simple level vata, pitta, and kapha mean small, medium and large. More deeply dosha indicates three basic patterns of how we use energy. Vata spends energy. Pitta manages it. Kapha stores it.

Body type is a combination of doshas that Ayurveda uses to understand and approximate a person's constitution. If a person has a vata body type they have the gifts of vata but also the tendency to get vata type illnesses.

Every day, our body must react to change. In Ayurveda, a disease is any change from "normal" in the body. The body uses dosha to buffer changes and dosha is the body's preventative medicine. Doshas and qualities accumulate in the body until they begin to overwhelm tissues. For example vata tends to be dry. Vata's natural home is in the colon but when vata accumulates it begins to travel around the body leaving residue. Drinking less water, then skipping a meal, then doing exercise all cause dryness to accumulate. Vata increases and accumulates to manage dryness.