We hope the tea drinkers out there will enjoy this list.
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We all know you can drink tea, and I’m sure many of us know one or two other things a person can do with a tea bag, but take a look at this list of 15 things you might not have thought of:

1. Put some tea bags in your drawers for a fresh scent on your clothes or linens.

2. Stain fabric with tea to make it appear aged.

3. A wet tea bag is soothing on shaving cuts and burns.

4. Seed your lawn! Sow grass seed in small bare spots with a used tea bag. Make sure the bag is moist and place it in the dirt where you want the grass. Sprinkle it with seed. The bag will hold moisture and gradually decompose.

5. For a broken fingernail: cut a small piece of tea bag and coat in clear nail polish. Place over broken nail, cover in colored coat.

6. Freeze leftover tea in an ice cube tray. Add that to your next iced tea brew.

7. Cold, wet tea bags have been known to soothe bee stings and insect bites.

8. Prevent rust by wiping out your cast-iron pots with a brewed-out tea bag.

9. Place the contents of used, but dried out, tea bags into your cat’s kitty litter to neutralize odor.

10. To heal plantar warts, place a hot wet tea bag on it for 15 minutes a day.

11. Clean your mirrors with strong tea that has cooled. Use a soft cloth for a streak free clean.

12. Wash your face with tea to fight acne.

13. If used on lighter colored hair, Chamomile has been effective as a hair dye.

14. Clean Persian and Oriental Carpets by sprinkling nearly dry tea leaves on it, and then sweeping them away.

15. Let it cool down a bit and a tea bag can be used to calm swollen, puffy eyes.

It doesn’t take a health nut to know that herbal teas are all the rage. They are healthy, tasty, varied, and a great substitute to your morning cup of coffee. But, surprisingly, they are also quite easy to make.

One of the great things about easy to make herbal teas is the control: you can include or omit the herbs you want. If you are hoping to stimulate your mind, you can include vanilla. If you are hoping to fight off a cold, you can include sage. If you are hoping to soothe an upset stomach, you can include lemongrass. Basically, if you have an ailment, you can find a herb to assist you in beating it.

Some people use easy to make herbal teas as a “make it up as you go along” process. This can be both rewarding, with a concoction you absolutely love, or disastrous, with a mixture that tastes like, well, you made it up as you went along.

For anyone looking for easy to make herbal teas sans the adventure, a great rule of thumb is to use herbs you have tried, and liked, before. If you love mint tea, for instance, you will probably like your homemade mint tea. Another good rule of thumb is the taste the tea as you go: instead of adding a ton of herbs at the same time, add them one at a time. This way, you can stop if you suddenly produce something really tasty (or not so much).

It is also smart to make sure you are not combining herbs that contraindicate each other. There is little sense of including a stimulant herb if you are going to use one that relaxes you as well.

After you have your chosen herbs, you can either grow them yourself or buy them dried, place your herbs in a container (preferably not metal) and pour in boiling water. Allow these herbs to simmer. Periodically taste your tea to help you determine how much simmering they actually need. Some herbs will taste better the longer they sit, some will taste worst. After it is to your liking, drain the herbs from the tea and drink up.

If you are making the tea for its medicinal qualities, be sure to cover it while it is simmering: this will help trap in the powerful elements.

Herbal tea making is supposed to be fun, so treat it as such. If you find that your tea is lacking in taste, but contains all the herbal benefits you are after, try adding some honey, milk, or even spices that you are fond of.

From old fashioned blueberries to the fad of the acai berry, berries, when it comes to health, have us surrounded. While this is true, not all berries are as well known as the strawberry or the raspberry. Take, for instance, the cedar berry. Chances are, you don’t know a lot about this berry and the benefits you are missing out on.

Cedar berries are a berry of many aliases. They sometimes go by one-seed juniper, cherrystone juniper, New Mexico Cedar, West Texas Juniper, or their scientific name, Juniperus monospermous. Whatever you want to call them, cedar berries hail from the cedar berry tree, a tree with a long history in Native American medicine.

The cedar berry tree is great at flourishing in places of poor soil and can often thrive where other trees suffer. In many instances, the cedar berry tree reaches heights of twenty five feet.

The cedar berry tree is found in the Southwestern US, including New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado. In the former, New Mexico, these trees run rampant and cover nearly seventy five percent of the state.

An interesting tidbit about the cedar berry tree is that there are two different types, one male and one female. Both produce flowers, but it is only the female tree that produces berries. It takes about a year for berries to be produced.

The cedar berry is often used in traditional types of medicine due to its diuretic, antibiotic, germicidal, and antiseptic affects. These berries have been used to treat toothaches, tuberculosis, coughs, fevers, diabetes, pancreatic conditions, and rheumatism. There is also some speculation that cedar berries can alleviate asthma, arthritis, hepatitis, and muscle aches.

The ingredients in cedar berries are many and include alcohols, sugars, tannins, vitamin C, resin, flavonoids, camphene, and anti-tumor agents.

When it comes to preparations, cedar berries can be added to food or tea for flavor or health benefits. They are eaten both fresh and dried and can sometimes be found in a capsule.

Though cedar berries are beneficial to your health, they are not without precautions. If consumed in large amounts, they can be toxic. They should also not be consumed by people who have kidney or bladder problems or women who are nursing or pregnant. Like with any supplement, you should talk to your healthcare provider before making cedar berries part of your daily routine.

I don’t know about you but the winter is an awful time for me in regards to skin care. Much like so many others, I suffer from dry skin and cracks in skin because of the dry air and cold winds. As it gets colder, dryer and windier, it’s critical to protect your skin from the elements.

It becomes very important to take proper care of your skin in the winter. One way to make sure your skin stays healthy and beautiful is by using essential oil blends. Essential oils will ensure you and your skin will look dazzling and attractive.

Essential oils have many wonderful uses. You’ll find many of these oils found in aromatherapy products, perfumes, creams, lotions, and bath products. They are used to promote mental health and relaxation along with physical health. Plus, the aroma they give off is absolutely splendid.

Did you know that essential oils are a great therapy for achieving better skin? It’s true. Essential oil blends hold many vitamins which strengthen and rejuvenate your skin. Normally only a few drops are essential oils needed.

Here are a few easy skin care tips you can do in your own home using essential oil blends:

• Try adding eight to ten drops of essential oils into your next bath. There is nothing more relaxing than sitting in a hot bath filled with hot water and essential oils. Another option is to use cool water and essential oil blends to calm an inflammation.
• Try massaging parts of your body with an essential oil. About twenty to twenty-five drops of essential oil with two ounces of canola or any other vegetable oil works great.
• Essential oils are great for facial compresses. Put two to five drops of essential oil in a basin filled with water, stir, and soak it all up with a clean washcloth. Squeeze out any excess water and apply the washcloth to your face. Sit back and relax.
• Use essential oils along with moisturizing products. Ten to twenty drops for every two ounces works best.

I recommend using all of these beauty tips. These are so many different uses for essential oil blends that it would fill up this entire blog! Try some this winter. Your dry skin will thank you for it.

Like its Korean counterpart (to which it has no relation), ashwaganda is classified as an “adaptogen.” In herbal therapy, this means that it aids in resistance to the effects of:

• stress
• trauma
• anxiety
• fatigue

Overall, an adaptogen strengthens immune function and physiological defenses against any kind of stressor, whether it is a physical injury, a chemical toxin or a biological pathogen, thus normalizing bodily functions and maintaining a state of homeostasis, or stable and healthy condition.

Botanical Characteristics

Ashwaganda (withania somnifera) belongs to the same botanical family as nightshade and the tomato plant. In fact, it bears a superficial resemblance to the latter, producing yellow flowers and small red fruit. The ashwaganda plant is native to the dry regions of southwest and central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa and the Mediterranean. Most of the ashwaganda that is cultivated is raised in the central Indian state of Madya Pradesh.

The word “ashwaganda” itself is Sanskrit, and refers to the smell, often compared to that of a sweaty horse.

Medicinal Uses

In Ayurvedic Medicine, ashwaganda is considered to be rasayana. This is similar to a “yang” herb in Traditional Chinese Medicine; such herbs are said to promote vitality and have rejuvenating effects on the body and mind. Interestingly however, the plant’s Latin name, somnifera, suggests that it has sedative properties as well.

Several pharmaceutical companies in Japan and the U.S. have patented various extracts and compounds made with ashwaganda that are supposed to treat everything from sexual dysfunction and memory loss to skin conditions and fertility issues. However, recent research suggests that ashwaganda may have some anti-carcinogenic properties as well.

Implications for Oncology

The patented uses for ashwaganda extracts suggest that it works by increasing blood flow. In light of this and the evidence that it strengthens immunity, it seems counter-intuitive that the herb would have any value as a cancer treatment. Nonetheless, some biochemical substance contained in ashwaganda appears to inhibit the excess production of a protein known as Nuclear Factor Kappa-B1 (NFKB1), which is encoded by the gene identified by the same appellation.

An excess of this protein as been associated with several inflammatory diseases – and recent research suggests a strong connection between chronic inflammation and some types of cancer. This in turn appears to cause normal “cell-death,” or apoptosis, which fails to occur in cancer cells. This study was published in the June 2006 edition of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; however, as there currently appears no profitable way to patent, market and monetize such a treatment, U.S. pharmaceutical corporations have been reluctant to follow up on the research.

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Sources

Ichikawa, H. et. al. “Withanolides Potentiate Apoptosis.”

Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, vol. 5 No. 6 (June 2006)

Dried kelp comes from seaweed, under the Latin botanical name of Ascophyllum nodosum. It also goes by the common names of egg wrack, knotted wrack or knotted kelp. It is found in the northern Atlantic Ocean, the northwest coast of Europe and East Greenland. It is thought that there are several dried kelp benefits that may come from the use of this interesting sea vegetable.

Kelp flourishes in sheltered estuaries. Plants of this seaweed have been shown to live for ten or even fifteen years. The plants will live longer the fewer stresses are placed on them in terms of temperature changes and exposure to waves, as well as the salinity of the water.

Kelp is a sea vegetable and has been eaten by animals and people. It also makes a wonderful fertilizer for plants.

Dried kelp may be purchased in several different forms and varieties. These include powder and granular forms, as well as organic and kosher versions.

It is thought that kelp powder and other forms of dried kelp may help with thyroid issues. It has also been commonly used for rheumatism and arthritis joint pain. Dried kelp may also act as a diuretic.

You can purchase kelp capsules to be taken as as a seaweed supplement online from Starwest.

Dried kelp has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, it is not meant to diagnose, cure, prevent or treat any disease, and this information should not be used for health problems or disease diagnosis or treatment. Consult your health care provider if you have or believe that you have a medical problem.

Can artichoke extracts be used for cholesterol control? A research study published in a 1998 edition of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics described experiments in which extracts made from artichoke leaf was shown to lower levels of LDL cholesterol in laboratory rats.

What About People?

Does this work in humans? Scientists in Germany believed there were some benefits. That same year, the country’s Commission E (somewhat analogous to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which until a few years ago regulated the use of therapeutic herbs in that country) approved the use of artichoke leaf for the treatment of certain digestive problems, though not specifically for lowering cholesterol.

In 2008, a the results of a study on adult human subjects was published in the journal Phytomedicine showed similar benefits in lowering cholesterol levels with the use of artichoke leaf extract has had been achieved in laboratory rats ten years earlier.

The Mechanism

Artichoke leaf appears to work by preventing the digestive system from absorbing cholesterol into the blood system. The way this works is by stimulating the production of bile in the liver. Bile, as you may remember, is a substance that is excreted from the liver and enters the digestive tract through the gall bladder. It acts as a sort of surfactant, or “wetting agent” (like dish soap), which aids in the emulsion of fats and enabling these to be absorbed in the small intestine. Somehow, the action of biochemical agent cyanin within artichoke leaf causes the low-density cholesterol (LDLs) to pass through without being absorbed.

A Supplement, Not a Cure

It should be noted that therapy with artichoke leaf extract is most effective with combined with proper diet and exercise. In particular, persons using artichoke leaf extract should eat a diet that is high in soluble fiber (such as whole oats and other unprocessed grains) and substitute saturated fats (such as lard or butter) with unsaturated fats like olive oil. A minimum of 30 minutes of aerobic exercise daily is also recommended.

Sources:

Curries are traditionally spicy vegetable dishes found in many regions in Asia and India, although some dishes may also include tofu or meats. The word “curry” can also refer to a sauce that is used to spice up vegetable or meat dishes. Curry spices are a spice blend that varies a bit by region, but often includes a base of fenugreek, turmeric, cumin and coriander, and may also include ginger, black pepper, garlic, red pepper, fennel seed, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace, clove, cardamom, mustard seed and clove. You can purchase premixed curry spice blends, or you can buy individual spices and mix your own custom blends.

How to Make your own Biryani:

One dish that features curry Indian spices is called biryani. It features vegetables and rice in a wonderful spicy sauce, and chicken can be added to it if you wish. After placing some butter in a saucepan, you can add some Indian spices such as turmeric, cumin, coriander, cardamom and cinnamon to the pan over low heat and toast the spices for a couple of minutes, being careful not to let the pan get too hot because they can burn easily. After, stir in the rice and toast it for a minute, then add water and boil, cooking the seasoned rice. As the rice cooks, in another skillet melt butter, and saute onion, garlic and ginger, to which you will add raisins, almonds, and more coriander, cumin and cardamom, all the while stirring. To this mixture, add your vegetables. You can include your favorites, but some that work well in this dish are new potatoes, green beans, carrots and cauliflower or broccoli. Add a bit of water to the vegetables, raise the heat and cook them with the lid on the pot and then removing the lid to reduce the water, until the vegetables are tender. To finish, simply add the seasoned rice to the seasoned vegetables and mix together.

Thai spices are used for flavoring a variety of dishes from this exciting cuisine. Commonly used flavoring sauces and spices include soy sauce, hoisin sauce, hot sauce, peanut butter and cumin, coriander, cardamom, galangal, lemon grass, dried red chili peppers, garlic, cloves, mace, nutmeg, black pepper and bay leaves. These Thai spices can be used to flavor sauces that will go over seafood, noodles, tofu or chicken.

Find a variety of the finest, quality spice online at Starwest Botanicals, including Thai spices, Indian spices and curry spices for all of your exotic culinary delights.

Many people are concerned about the number and kinds of chemicals used in ordinary, everyday products that you use on your body on a regular basis. Synthetic chemicals can be found in toothpastes, shampoos and body lotions. If you are one of those people who have allergies to certain chemicals, it can be challenging finding personal care products such as body lotion that can work well for you and not cause itching or rashes on your skin. It is fairly easy to create your own organic body lotion, however. When you make personal care products for your own use, you know exactly what the ingredients are, and can avoid those to which you are allergic. Even if you do not have allergies, it is a healthier choice to avoid chemicals and use natural and organic products that, after being applied to the skin, will sink in and enter your body.

For how to make your own natural lotion, you can start by taking a cup of olive oil, and mixing it with an ounce of bees’ wax over low heat on the stovetop. Mix until the wax melts, and then pour the mixture into clean jars. Another recipe is to place a pan on low heat, then add a half cup of olive oil, a half cup of jojoba oil, which works as a carrier oil for essential oils, plus a half ounce of cocoa butter and the same amount of bees’ wax. After the mixture has melted, you can stir in a 1/2 cup Shea butter, plus several drops of rose and sandalwood essential oils for a first-rate scented body lotion. These lotions can be stored in the refrigerator to extend their shelf life.

There are other recipes to make organic body lotion. You can use olive oil and add a teaspoon beeswax with 2 teaspoons steric acid and heat over low heat until it has melted. In a separate pot put a 1/2 cup water with 1/2 teaspoon Borax soap and heat to boiling. Take both off the heat and, using an electric hand mixer, beat the oil mixture into the water mixture, mixing until the combination has cooled. When cool, carrier oil and essential oils may be added at your discretion. You can store this in a clean jar in the refrigerator to prevent bacteria buildup.

Many of our readers enjoyed the article on using soapnut berries as an eco laundry substitute.

We wanted to pass along some other great ideas from our friend’s at Herbal Recipe Journal. Enjoy these All Natural Cleaners for the Home and Recipes for Natural Cleaning products. Now you can replace those chemicals!

Window & glass cleaner
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup rubbing alcohol

Bleach Alternative:
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
12 drops Lavender essential oil
1/4 cup Baking soda
1/4 cup vinegar

Put ingredients into a large jug, and shake well.
Next time you wash a load of white use this in place of the bleach.

Floor Cleaner:
1/8 cup liquid castile soap
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 gallon warm water
5-10 drops tea tree oil or lavender oil

Furniture Polish:
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice

Place on a rag and rub down furniture. Use a clean rag to polish.

Non-abrasive degreaser:
Warm water
baking soda
drops of orange essential oil

Soft Scrub:
Use this for tubs, showers, and toilet bowls
1/2 cup baking soda
castile soap (Enough to make a “Soft but thick” consistency)
5-10 drops peppermint essential oil

All Purpose Cleaner:
1/3 cup Salt
1 cup Vinegar
1 cup Warm Water
1/2 Baking Soda

Put into a spray bottle.

* Castile Soap is an all natural soap made of oil olive or vegetable oil rather than animal fats and chemicals. You can buy castile soap in flakes or liquid form, check online or (maybe!) a local health store might have it.

Starwest also offer the “The Soap Makers Companion” Guide to Soapmaking.
From the author of the best-selling The Natural Soap Book comes this illustrated guide to making over 40 specialty soaps — from exquisite stained-glass, marbled, and layered soaps to soothing masseuse bars, hardworking laundry soap, and practical liquid soaps. Through clear, step-by-step instructions, master soapmaker Susan Miller Cavitch leads you through every step of the soapmaking process.