English Corpus

(Symphytum Officinale)

Medicinal Parts: Rootstock, leaves

Description: Comfrey is a perennial plant common in moist meadows and other moist places in the U.S. and Europe.

Properties: anodyne, astringent, demulcent, emollient, expectorant, hemostatic, refrigerant, vulnerary.

Comfrey is truly one of nature’s miracle cures. The root produces a high amount of a gummy material called mucilage, and the root and leaf are both high in allantoin, a substance that helps with cell proliferation. Comfrey is excellent for reducing the swelling around a fracture, thereby allowing the union to take place with greater facility. And according to herbalist John Gerard, “A salve concocted from the fresh herb will certainly tend to promote the healing of bruised and broken parts.”

My midwife first introduced me to Comfrey after the birth of my first child. To put it mildly, it was not an easy delivery. All of those little joys after childbirth were making me very uncomfortable. You know, the tearing, bruising, stitches, etc. The midwife instructed me to steep Comfrey leaves in hot water and add it to my sitz bath. The results were phenomenal. It relieved the discomfort almost instantaneously.

Today, any time I attend a baby shower, I make up a gift basket stocked with comfrey. I wrap a generous handful of comfrey leaves in cheesecloth, then tie it closed with a ribbon. The packets can then be tossed directly into a pot of water to steep. Recipients always think I’m a bit odd at first, but usually I receive a heartfelt thank you note a couple of weeks after the baby is born. This is one gift any mother-to-be will appreciate.

Comfrey is not always easy to find. If you don’t have a health food or herb supplier in your area, please visit us at http://usingherbs.com/herbs for direct links to online purveyors of organic herbs.

M.K. Welty hosts an informational website on herbs, herbal remedies and herbal gardening. For more great tips on Using Herbs and Herbal Gardening visit, http://www.UsingHerbs.Com

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Psychologists qualify an eating disorder as something of a mental illness that affects a person’s eating habits in such a way that drastically disturbs the physical health of that person. An in-depth analysis by psychologists and psychiatrists list the types of eating disorders as Anorexia Nervosa, Beriberi, Bulimia Nervosa, Hyperphagia, Kleine-Levin Syndrome, Rumination, Binge Eating Disorder, Orthorexia, and Pica. Among these, Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa rank as the most common eating disorder.

When a person is affected by eating disorders, normal consumption of food is obstructed. When this becomes the case, grave health problems occur. Individuals who are afflicted with eating disorders go through severe psychological suffering. Food, diet, and body image become their primary obsessions. They may not take it seriously, but their obsession risks their health to a much greater extent.

Cases of eating disorders are not to be taken for granted. Professional help is always available. There are also numerous self-help books to consult. Eating disorder treatment methods are categorized into three groups: diet regulation, medications and psychotherapy ranging from individual to family therapy. The treatment will not cause an abrupt change, as the problem may have been deeply rooted. What matters is the concerned individual’s willingness to be cured.

It is necessary to analyze your own eating habits. More so, it proves essential to find out if your friends and family members are engaged into some sort of eating disorders. They need help. They have to be treated or else these disorders will lead to more complicated physical conditions and possibly death.

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Ever wondered why some people manage to keep their weight off
easily and others just pile it all back on when they stop that
new diet? The answer is easy, it comes down to one simple
change. Before we get to that simple change, you need to keep in
mind these rules of thumb when it comes to dieting. 1. Never do
a diet which forbids a food group. This is simply asking for
trouble. One day, not matter how hard you try, you will eat
something from the forbidden food group and fail. Not very
positive is it? You are setting yourself up for disappointment.
Dieting is hard enough, so try and make it easy as humanly
possible. 2. Never give up trying. Overeating is a little like
smoking, they are both addictive, costly and bad for your
health. People recognise the world over that giving up smoking
is very difficult but overeating is seen as a weakness. No
matter what people may think, you can lose weight. Choose a diet
that is right for you and start again. Never give up trying. 3.
Seek help. You can get help with your weight loss program from
lots of different sources. Online forums are free places where
you can discuss your diet and meet new friends. You can motivate
one another. If you are too shy for forums then some weight loss
programmes offer online support as one of their packages but
these usually involve a charge. Help from friends and family is
free and invaluable to your dieting efforts. Help can motivate
you and encourage you to hit your slimming goals. Now these
three points should help you to chose a healthy diet and
motivate you into trying to lose those extra pounds. Back to
that simple change. People who keep their weight loss off,
change tiny things in their daily life. Instead of full fat milk
they have skimmed, they grill rather than fry and they choose to
reduce the amount of cheese, cream, cakes and biscuits they eat,
every single day. Now you are immediately going to say that that
is lots of changes not just one. To some degree you would be
correct, but not completely. If you look at a photograph it is
one small picture but when looked at closely, it is made up of
thousands of pixels. One small sugar cube is made up of hundreds
of sugar grains and a handkerchief consists of numerous cotton
threads. Almost everything in the world, no matter how small,
can be broken down into even smaller parts. All those tiny parts
still only amount to one small thing. You make several tiny
changes to your lifestyle which you genuinely do not mind and
weight loss becomes easy. Remember, they have to be changes that
you will hardly notice, low fat spread instead of full fat, low
calorie squash or just eating more fruit. Make the one small
change to adjust your eating habits slightly and permanently and
even if you break your diet program, you could still lose weight
slowly and steadily. Good luck with whichever weight loss
program you choose and happy,easy slimming!

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Sometimes we need to think outside of the box, such as to give ourselves permission to change a belief or paradigm that we have developed. One such disabling belief is that doctors, dentists and other health professionals can heal you. These health professionals can sometimes guide you in the direction you need to go, but they cannot provide healing.

Healing comes naturally; it is innate, it’s part of our wondrous design.

It may be a stretch for you to believe that you know more about healing than your doctor or dentist, but it is something I suggest that you start thinking about (meditating on). Of the many talents given to those practitioners, healing is not amongst them. They have learned the knowledge that allows them to diagnose (which is an educated guess) and then prescribe a protocol that may help your situation.

However, all healing is internal. A doctor may dress a wound, clean it, add some stitches, but when it’s all said and done, all they have done is enhance the conditions so that healing can take place. A dentist may grind away the decayed portion of a tooth and then add a filling to cover the hole so more decay won’t happen, but have they really accomplished any healing? A psychotherapist can keep asking questions until you reach a disabling belief that is creating a problem for you, but are they the one’s that actually change the belief that is in your mind? Never. Only you can relearn a new belief and it only happens when you become willing to make the change.

The thing that we can do ourselves is set the stage so that the healing can take place. You wouldn’t start building a house on bare dirt. It would be best to provide the house with a firm foundation. The same is true for our bodies. We need to supply the body with all of its needs so it can repair itself.

Our daily existence requires thought and energy. To rejuvenate, we require rest. Our bodies are 70% fluid. We sweat, we urinate, we may spit, or blow our noses, depleting our fluid levels. This means we need to re-hydrate consistently.

We also deal with toxins daily. We absorb chlorine when we shower, we breathe in all sorts of toxins from the glue in our rugs, breathing in exhaust fumes as we drive to work. This list could go on and on. But, the point is that all of the toxins taken into the body create Free Radicals, and to counteract these Free Radicals, we need to consume Anti-Oxidants.

Our bodies are one of the most complex and complicated chemical manufacturing plants in the world. In order for all of the processes to take place we must have all of the micro and macro minerals that the body requires. Without a constant supply of quality nutrients, our body has to rob Peter to pay Paul. This is what happens in the case of osteoporosis. The body needs some calcium, which it is not getting from our nutrition, or the body is lacking in other nutrients that won’t allow the calcium you are getting to be assimilated.

It is not the stress in our lives that causes us to grind our teeth at night or clench them during the day - it’s how we deal with that stress. A phenomenal stress buster is simply breathing efficiently and effectively!

Emotional issues can be dealt with by learning skills that allows you to process your feelings appropriately while you are feeling them. Having a Higher Power in your life can provide that shoulder to lean on when life seems to be overwhelming.

Our “TMJ Relief” DVD gives you the information you need so that you can ask the right questions, make better decisions, and start the healing process, no matter how far your TMJ has progressed. Please go to www.holisticspecifics.com for more information.

Michael McCright is a Holistic Health Practitioner, educator, coach, and motivational speaker. His website: http://www.bodymindconnection.com covers a variety of health concerns. Michael is co-producer of an informative and educational DVD: “TMJ Relief”. For information and holistic solutions regarding TMJ disorder, go to: http://www.holisticspecifics.com
© 2005 Michael McCright - Reprints allowed as long as copy is complete with last paragraph and copyright information.

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Your mental health is often drastically improved when you use the techniques Dr. Kuhn teaches in this article. When you are able to experience this improvement, your relationships blossom, career paths open, and people find you attractive and accessible. You deserve to have fun and joy in your life - and Cliff Kuhn, M.D. will help you do that.

In the classic Frank Capra film, It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey’s mental health is overwhelmed by the difficulties of his life and he wishes he’d never been born. George’s guardian angel grants his wish and takes him to a grim reality as it would’ve been without him. George feels nothing when he reaches into his coat pocket to retrieve the flower his daughter, Zuzu, placed there - and that’s when George knows that his wish has come true…he’s never been born.

Wishing she had never been born, Roberta became my patient, seeking desperately to improve her mental health. Like the fictional George Bailey character, Roberta’s depression and anxiety had grown so strong as to threaten her ability to lead any semblance of a normal life. Fortunately for Roberta, she soon discovered exactly why the natural medicine of humor is one of the most powerful adjunctive treatments for improving mental health, because humor literally pours water on the fire of depression and anxiety.

Roberta is not alone. As many as 35% of all Americans suffer from depression and anxiety, the twins that make mental health elusive for millions. Your depression and anxiety is exacerbated by your seriousness - taking yourself too seriously. As we move into adulthood, we unfortunately buy into the notion that responsible and productive people must be “serious.” As we make the biggest mistake of our lives and relegate our humor nature and fun to recreational activities (if we experience fun at all), we doom ourselves to all the symptoms of the corresponding seriousness that fills the void - declining health, rising stress, increased pain, lessened energy, impaired creativity, and more.

The good news for your mental health, however, is that we know how to shrink your deadly seriousness to practically nothing and reduce almost completely the sway it holds over your health, vitality, wellness, and zest. The natural medicine of humor is an incredibly powerful resource that you already possess; you’ve only forgotten how to use it to maximum effectiveness. You will soon discover that, while not a panacea, the natural medicine of humor is a tremendous tonic for depression or anxiety and will also supercharge other treatments because it is an amazing adjunctive medicine too!

I have distilled the natural medicine of humor, through my years of medical practice, into an amazing prescription I call The Fun Factor. Based on what I learned over twenty years ago from a terminally ill fifteen-year-old patient, I created a unique set of principles I call the Fun Commandments, then forged these Commandments into my Fun Factor prescription and have been prescribing The Fun Factor with great success for years. This report will show you how to use just three of my Fun Commandments to turn your mental health around, and gain new joy, pleasure, and appreciation from your life!

Improve Your Mental Health Using My Fun Factor Prescription

Step One: Always Go the Extra Smile

The first Fun Commandment I recommend for improved mental health is: Always Go the Extra Smile. This Commandment is doubly helpfully for depression and anxiety because not only does it provide measurable emotional and physical relief, but it also is completely under your control - regardless of your circumstances. Because smiling remains totally under your control, it can be your greatest resource for using humor’s natural medicine to accelerate your mental health.

Smiling produces measurable physical benefits you can experience immediately: your stress decreases, your immunity improves, your pain and frustration tolerances increase, and your creativity soars. And guess what? You experience all these benefits even if your smile is “fake.” That’s right…forcing a smile onto your face perks up your immune system and lightens your mood just as readily as a genuine smile. Fake a smile and you’ll soon feel well enough to wear a real one!

This is great news for your proactive stance on sustainable mental health. You have an amazing amount of pre-emptive control over your mood - you can, literally, choose more energy and happiness. The key for your use of this Fun Commandment in enhancing your mental health is to start practicing right now, so that smiling becomes an entrenched, habitual method of accessing the natural medicine of humor. If you wait to smile until your mental health has taken a turn for the worse, and depression or anxiety has taken hold of you, it will not be as effective.

Step Two: Act and Interact

Smiling leads us right into the second Fun Commandment you’ll find instrumental in maintaining your mental health: Act and Interact. Humor’s natural medicine works best when we are sharing ourselves and this Commandment will teach you how to capitalize on the control you’ve taken over your physiology and mood by smiling. Acting and interacting is now easier for you to do because you’re smiling more. Not only is your mood improved, but your smile is also a pleasant invitation to other people.

My suggestion is that you solidify the power of this Commandment by setting a reasonable goal regarding the number of people you will interact with each day. These social interactions are great for your mental health, forcing you to exchange information and ideas with another person. Combined with your commitment to smiling, your interactions should be pleasant, because your heightened energy, lessened pain, and lowered stress levels are very attractive to others.

Beyond keeping you out of isolation, there is another reason why acting and interacting with the people you encounter fosters improved mental health. It allows you to avoid spiritual “flat tires.” Spiritual flat tires occur when you sidestep, or avoid, an interaction that is about to happen naturally - you duck into an office to avoid encountering someone in a hallway or you don’t answer the phone because you don’t want to talk to the person calling. This type of avoidance drains and deletes your reservoir of powerful natural energy and siphons your mental health reserves.

Have you ever noticed that it usually takes you twice as much mental and physical energy to avoid doing a job than you would have expended just doing it? It also takes twice the energy to avoid acting and interacting with the people who cross your path because you are, in effect, saying, “I’m going to correct the mistake that nature made by putting this person in my path and I’m going to correct it by being mentally and spiritually negligent.” Mental and spiritual negligence have the same effect as physical negligence (isn’t it strange how you get tired if you don’t exercise?). If your mental health can afford to allow this much energy to be drained, then you have a much bigger reservoir than I!

But spiritual flat tires do more than drain our energy, they are detrimental in at least two additional ways:

We miss out on an interaction with a teacher. If nature didn’t have a lesson for you, that person you just avoided would not have been placed in your path. You say that the person you just avoided was a negative influence or would’ve wasted your time? I know we have legitimate schedules to keep, but if I am avoiding people based on my prejudgment of them, I’m cutting myself off from my greatest teachers - those very same people.
We all learn tolerance from the intolerant, patience from the impatient, temperance from the intemperate, gentleness from the ruffian, etc. I am supremely grateful for those teachers and the lessons they give me.

We create a small, nagging spiritual void of dishonesty, the kind of dishonesty that keeps us from laying our heads down with complete peace of mind each night. Our spiritual flat tire is caused by the pothole our avoidance created; it is a natural consequence, or symptom, of our spiritual dishonesty. These consequences clutter our lives with mental and emotional baggage that further drains us of our energy and vitality.

Step Three: Celebrate Everything

The third Fun Commandment which will help you use the natural medicine of humor to charge up your mental health is: Celebrate Everything. Celebrating everything may sound like a monumental task to someone who’s mental health isn’t up to par, but you will find this part of my doctor’s orders much easier to fulfill once you start practicing my first two Commandments. In fact, celebrating everything is more than a maintenance step providing sustainable mental health. It will also become your lifestyle, the more you practice it, because you will enjoy the results so much.

How do you celebrate everything and how will this keep your mental health on the upswing? The epitome of this Commandment is found in the old joke about the boy who wanted a pony for his birthday. Instead, he found a room full of manure waiting for him. But he dove right into the dung, gleefully exclaiming, “With all this manure, there’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!”

Laugh as we might, we’re quick to remember that, as adults, we would never allow ourselves such “naive” enthusiasm. Why not? Do you realize what is behind such a “grown up,” “mature” decision? Your deadly seriousness (taking yourself too seriously) encourages the attitude that a mature adult should not let herself be so optimistic and thus mental health is jeopardized.

We could do more than chuckle at this birthday boy’s unabashed optimism - we should emulate it! When was the last time you encountered an unexpected pile of manure in your life? You had absolutely no control over the mess, right? But you had absolute control over your reaction to it and this is the key to using celebration to keep your mental health improved!

When you celebrate everything, the natural medicine of humor creates spiritual, emotional, and mental health like nothing you’ve felt before. You will find that your fears become much less controlling when you are celebrating everything because it no longer matters so much how things turn out. In fact, you are literally ready for anything because you are prepared to find the blessing in whatever happens.

My daughter-in-law, for example, broke her back last year. My son, who is often my model for the embodiment of my Fun Commandments, can tick off a laundry list of blessings his family has received as a direct result of his wife’s “tragedy.” Not that his mental health hasn’t been challenged, but faced with the choice of depression and anxiety over an event he couldn’t control versus finding the blessings waiting for him, he has chosen the latter.

The choice to celebrate everything is not a panacea; my son’s choice did not change the reality of his wife’s injury. What did change, however, was his ability to respond to the injury and, thus, keep his mental health on an even keel. Celebrating everything changes our lives because it allows us to positively control the only things we have control over - our actions, ideas, and attitudes.

There you have it. Start by going the extra smile, use your newfound smiling energy and vitality to act and interact with people, and celebrate everything to maintain your positive momentum. Say good-bye to imprisonment from depression and anxiety and welcome to your new world of improved mental health!
Start Using The Fun Factor to Improve Your Mental Health…Right Now

Here are some simple, easy steps you can take right now to turbo-charge your mental health.

Subscribe to my Fun Times newsletter. The Fun Times is all about using your natural power of humor to increase the quality of your life - including your mental health. The Fun Times is 100% free, and is delivered instantly, every week, to your email inbox. If you sign up now, I’ll also throw in a copy of my “Stop Your Seriousness” Ecourse and my book, Ten Ways You Can Be Happier…Right Now! which will show you how you can use my Fun Factor prescription in your life to increase your mental health!

Check out The Fun Factor. This prescription has changed so many lives for the better - it would be a shame if you passed it up. Check it out here if you’re sick of wishing for mental health and want to finally achieve your greatest mental health!
My patient Roberta, by the way, learned to use these three Fun Commandments - and the rest of my Fun Factor prescription. She has enjoyed the same job for three years now and was recently engaged to be married. Roberta occasionally has setbacks, as most people suffering from depression or anxiety do. But, her mental health has never been stronger as she continues to apply The Fun Factor to her life.

In It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey is so shocked by the grim vision of a world without him that he decides he wants to live again and begs to return. He knows he is back when he finds Zuzu’s flower petals in his coat pocket again.

Let this article be like finding Zuzu’s petals. Move forward today with a new, positive outlook on your improved mental health by using my Fun Factor prescription.

Clifford Kuhn, M.D., America’s Laugh Doctor, teaches people and organizations to be more healthy and successful through the use of fun and humor. A psychiatrist, and the former associate chairperson of the University of Louisville’s renowned Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Kuhn now dispenses his prescription for turbo-charging your health, success, and vitality from http://www.natural-humor-medicine.com/EZA3 On his website you will find tons of fun, free ways for you to maximize your sense of humor, and enjoy a life others will envy.

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Chromotherapy is a method of treatment of diseases by colour. It is best used as a supportive therapy along with other natural methods of preserving health such as correct diet, adequate rest and relaxation, exercise, yogic asanas and so on.

According to practitioners of chromotherapy, the cause of any disease can be traced to the lack
of a particular colour in the human system. Colour therapy is a technique of restoring imbalance
by means of applying coloured light to the body. It was a popular method of cure even in ancient
times. Some 2,500 years ago, Pythagoras applied colour light therapeutically and ‘colour halls’
were used for healing in ancient Egypt, China and India.

The pioneer of modern colour therapy was Niels Finsen of Denmark. Following the discovery, in
1877, of the bactericidal action of solar ultra-violet energy,Finsen studied the possibility of
assisting the healing of wounds with visible light. He subse- quently used red light to inhibit the
formation of smallpox scars and, in 1896, founded a Light Institute ( now the Finsen Institute of
Copenhagen) for the phototreatment of tuberculosis. In 1932, Gerrard and Hessay, two
Californian psychologists, scientifically established that blue light had a calming effect and red a
stimulating power on human beings.

Blue and red colours are considered at the two extremes with yellow representing the midpoint.
These are also the three principal colours in a rainbow. A patient is first subjected to an
examination to ascertain which colour he lacks. The deficiency is determined by observing the
colour of the eyeballs, nails, urine and excrement. In cases of the lack of red the eyes and nails
will be bluish, and the urine and excrement white or bluish. If there is a deficiency of the blue
colour, the eyes and nails will be reddish and urine and excrement yellowish or red.

Every substance on earth contains colour. Even the rays cast on earth by celestial bodies
contain colour in the form of white light. The rays of the sun contain seven different colours -
violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. These are natural colours which are highly
beneficial to the maintenance of health and for healing diseases.
According to Dr. Babbit, a well-known authority on chromotherapy, “sunlight is the principal
curative agent in nature’s laboratory and where light cannot enter, disease does. Chlorosis,
anaemia, leukaemia, emaciation, muscular debility, degeneration of heart and liver, dropsical
effusion, softening of bones,nervous excitability, physical deformity, stunted growth and
consumption are the result of excluding oneself from the beneficial effects of sunlight.”

Sunlight plays an important role in the recovery from chronic diseases. Judicious use of sunlight
can be part of the curing process in almost every affliction. The rays of the sun improve digestion
and nutrition, quicken blood and lymph circulation and increase the elimination of impurities
through the skin.

The action and effect of various colours on the body and their healing qualities are as follows:

Red:
Symbolic of heat, fire and anger. It is a stimulating and energising colour. It stimulates arterial
blood and brings warmth to cool extremities. Used as a general tonic, it is very valuable in the
treatment of diseases like low blood pressure, rheumatism, paralysis, anaemia and advanced
cases of tuber- culosis.

Orange:
Symbolic of prosperity and pride, orange is useful for stimulating blood supply and energising
the nerves. It is beneficial in the treatment of kidney and gall stones, hernia and appendicitis. It is
also used to stimulate the milk producing action of breasts after childbirth.

Violet:
Violet is beneficial in the treatment of nervous and emotional disturbances, arthritis, acute cases

Yellow:
Associated with joy and happiness, yellow is laxative and diuretic. It is a stimulant to the brain,
the liver and the spleen. It is also effective in the treatment of diabetes, indigestion, kidney and
liver disorders, constipation, eye and throat infections, syphillis and impotence.

Purple:
Purple or indigo combines the blood-warming red and the cooling antiseptic blue. It is an
excellent stimulant without being an irritant. It is beneficial in the treatment of advanced stages of
constipation, hydrocle, leucorrhoea, many disorders of the stomach and womb, cataract, migraine and skin disorders. It exerts a soothing effect on the eyes, ears and the nervous
system.

Green:
Made up of the blue and yellow, green is regarded as a colour of harmony. It is a mild sedative.
It is useful in the treatment of nervous conditions, hay fever, ulcers, influenza, malaria, colds,
sexual disorders and cancer. It preserves and strengthens eyesight. Being highly medicinal and
depressive, it is of great help in the treatment of inflammatory conditions.

Blue:
Cool, soothing and sedative, blue alleviates pain, reducing bleeding and heals burns. It is
beneficial in the treatment of dysentery, colic, asthma, respiratory disorders, high blood pressure
and skin aberrations. IN a study at the New England State Hospital in the United States, 25
members of staff with normal blood pressure were bathed in blue light for half an hour. It
resulted in universal fall in blood pressure. The blood pressure rose when red light was applied.

To learn more about the energy principle in healing, please read:

Cost-free Miracle Asthma Cure
Overcome Type I Diabetes and Type II Diabetes Naturally
Alternative Treatments for Incurable Diseases made easy

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