Archive for March, 2009
HERBAL TREATMENT FOR KIDNEY AND BLADDER
Bed Wetting
For enuresis, or bed wetting, especially in children:
2 parts Cramp Bark
1 part Stinging Nettle herb
1 part St John’s Wort herb
1 part Lemon Balm leaves
Combined decoction and infusion: 1/2-1 ñèð 3 times per day, the last dose taken before retiring
Note that with children, dosage should be adjusted according to age and weight.
Fluid Retention
For fluid retention or oedema:
1 part Cleavers herb
1 part Dandelion root or leaves
2 parts Marshmallow root Infusion: 3 cups per day
2 parts Couchgrass rhizomes
1 part Plantain leaves
2 parts Burdock root
2 parts Marshmallow root Infusion: 3 cups per day
Serious or persistent cases of fluid retention may be associated with kidney or heart function, and should receive professional attention. More minor or temporary cases, however, may benefit from the use of diuretic formulas such as those given above.
Kidney and Bladder Problems
A kidney and bladder tonic:
2 parts Cleavers herb
2 parts Plantain leaves
5 parts Dandelion root
1 part Parsley root
2 parts Burdock root
2 parts Marshmallow root
1 part Ginger root
Combined decoction and infusion: 3 cups per day
The above formula is a good tonic for the entire urogenital system, and will also serve as an all-purpose diuretic.
For kidney and bladder infections:
2 parts Plantain leaves
2 parts Burdock root
1 part Marshmallow root
Infusion: 1/2 cup every 2 hours for acute conditions, otherwise 3 cups per day
Externally, apply a hot Ginger compress over the lower abdomen. Ensure an adequate fluid intake and for 2-3 days take warm soups and broths as the main part of the diet.
Prostatitis
8 parts Couchgrass rhizomes
1 part Parsley root
2 parts Marshmallow root
1 part Ginger root
Combined decoction and infusion: 3 cups per day until relief is obtained
Urethritis
2 parts Couchgrass rhizomes
2 parts Plantain leaves
1 part Meadowsweet herb
1 part Cleavers herb
2 parts Burdock root
2 parts Marshmallow root
Infusion: 1/2-1 ñèð every 2-4 hours for acute conditions, otherwise 3 cups per day
1 part Cleavers herb
4 parts Marshmallow root
Infusion: 3 cups per day
1 part Blackberry leaves
2 parts Burdock root or leaves
Infusion: 3 cups per day
Essentially herbs with diuretic, antiseptic and demulcent properties are used to treat urinary tract problems. Other herbs with these properties may be combined to treat the problem if the above herbs are not on hand.
*78/66/5*
HERBAL TREATMENT: ARTHRITIS, RHEUMATISM AND GOUT
General formulas for the treatment of arthritis, rheumatism and gout:
3 parts Celery seed
3 parts Stinging Nettle herb
3 parts Elder flowers
3 parts Yarrow herb
3 parts Meadowsweet herb
3 parts Burdock root
3 parts Dandelion root
1 part Cleavers herb
1 part Liquorice root
1 part Angelica root
1 part Cayenne Pepper
Combined decoction and infusion: 3 cups per day
1 part Celery seed
3 parts Burdock root
5 parts Dandelion root
1 part Ginger root
Combined decoction and infusion: 3 cups per day
In the above formulas, Celery seed and Nettle have an alkalizing effect and help to clear out excess acid in the system. Celery seed also has a diuretic effect and Nettle contains tonic quantities of iron and other useful minerals and vitamins. Elder flowers, Yarrow and Meadowsweet have diaphoretic and anti-inflammatory properties. Burdock has diuretic and demulcent properties, and long-term alterative effects. Dandelion, high in minerals and vitamins, is tonic to the liver and blood. It also has a laxative and diuretic effect. Cleavers and Liquorice have diuretic and laxative properties that promote elimination. Angelica, Ginger and Cayenne Pepper provide warming antispasmodic properties and a stimulus to peripheral circulation.
As with all herbal treatment for chronic ailments, these remedies should be persisted with for 2 or 3 weeks before any noticeable effects can be expected. Chronic ailments of long standing may require extended treatment, sometimes amounting to several months overall. The above remedies may be taken for extended periods where necessary provided suitable breaks in treatment are observed (e.g. an alternating pattern of 3-6 weeks of taking herbs, followed by 2-3 weeks during which treatment is suspended).
For internal treatment of painful, stiff or swollen joints:
Meadowsweet herb
Infusion: 3-4 cups per day as the sole course of treatment for 3 weeks, the first cupful taken first thing in the morning before eating
For external treatment of painful, stiff or swollen joints, and for rheumatic pain in general: place 50-60 grams of dried Mullein leaves and St John’s Wort herb (equal parts of both) in 500 ml of vinegar, cover and heat gently for 30 minutes. Applied directly as a hot compress it will ease the pain and, in almost every case, reduce the swelling.
Hot poultices, compresses or rubbing oils prepared from herbs such as Ginger, Cayenne Pepper, Angelica, Fennel and Chamomile are also useful.
*61/66/5*
HERBS: PLANTAIN
Plantago spp.
(P. major, P. lanceolata)
Action: Vulnerary, diuretic, astringent, emollient, expectorant, haemostatic, antipyretic, antibacterial.
Systems Affected: General effects on the whole body.
Preparation and Dosage (thrice daily): Dried leaves, dose 2-5 grams by infusion.
Plantain grows as a weed throughout temperate zones of the world, and is particularly widespread in Australia. There are several species of Plantain, two of the more common ones being the Greater or Common Plantain (Plantago major) and Soldier or Ribwort Plantain (P. lanceolata).
Essentially all the plantains have similar properties and can be used for medicinal treatment, although the American herbalist Michael Tierra adds the observation that ‘the wider the leaf the more pronounced the diuretic effect’. Greater Plantain is perhaps most commonly used by herbalists.
Plantain has cooling, soothing and astringent properties. Internally it influences the entire mucous membrane and so is used to treat a wide variety of ailments: diarrhoea, haemorrhoids, infections and inflammations, ulcers, kidney and bladder problems, aching in the lumbar region, scanty and scalding urine, excessive menstrual discharge, bronchitis, bronchial catarrh and coughs. It is particularly useful in cystitis and for haemorrhoids with bleeding and irritation.
Plantain seeds (particularly those of P. psyllium, which are known commercially as Psyllium seeds) are a useful bulk laxative; 15 grams or so are taken with a cup of hot water.
Externally the plant is one of the best remedies for cuts and wounds, skin infections, boils and inflammations. For this purpose it is often used in compresses and ointments, alone or in combination with other herbs such as Chickweed, Comfrey, Marigold and St John’s Wort. Used fresh, the leaves can be applied bruised or chopped in the form of a poultice.
Plantain is well known for relieving the pain of insect bites and stings, nettle rash etc. It provides relief as an application to burns and scalds, and will stay the bleeding of minor wounds. It is particularly effective as an external application in blood poisoning.
Long held in high regard as a healing herb in Europe, India and China, modern research has shown that Plantain has an antibacterial action which destroys a wide range of micro-organisms, and that it stimulates the healing process (epithelisation).
*44/66/5*
HERBS: ELDER FLOWERS
Sambucus nigra
Action: Diaphoretic, anticatarrhal, alterative, emollient.
Systems Affected: Circulation, lungs, skin.
Preparation and Dosage (thrice daily): Dried flowers, dose 2-5 grams by infusion.
The Elder is a shrub or tree growing up to 10 meters in height. Native to Europe, northern Africa and western Asia, it is introduced elsewhere. The tree has many uses, and a great wealth of folklore, romance and superstition has attached to the plant throughout history. The hollowed stems provide the pan-pipes and flutes used by the ancient Greeks and by modern English children; the fresh leaves, crushed, were used to repel insects and vermin; the leaves, roots and bark provide a range of blacks, greens, blues and violets for dyeing cloth; the flowers and berries are utilized in home-made pies, conserves, jams and drinks, including the well-known elderberry wine. The tree was associated with magic, and spirits were said to reside in it; in some parts of Europe old people still doff their caps at the plant and refuse to burn it.
From the time of Hippocrates the plant has been highly esteemed for its healing properties. Various parts of the plant are used medicinally but only the flowers should be considered safe for general use; without proper knowledge and preparation the bark, leaves and berries can be nauseating and even toxic.
The white flowers are picked in full bloom during mid-summer and dried in the shade (below 30°C) as rapidly as possible in order to prevent them from turning black. Correctly dried, they turn a brownish-yellow.
An infusion of the flowers is used for treating sinusitis, chronic nasal and bronchial catarrh, bronchitis, eruptive disorders such as measles and scarlet fever, rheumatism and gout.
Elder flowers are mostly used, however, in combination with Peppermint, forming a time-honoured infusion which is invaluable in treating colds, flu and fever.
Externally Elder flowers (and also the bark or leaves) are used as a soothing wash or ointment for mild burns, rashes and skin ailments. An infusion of the flowers is used as an eyewash for conjunctivitis, as a gargle for throat infections and as an inhalant for head colds.
The infusion also has its cosmetic uses, providing a mild astringent and toning lotion for the skin. Dabbed regularly on the face, neck and hands, and on rough patches at the elbows, knees and feet, it improves skin tone and function.
*27/66/5*
HERBS: ALOE VERA
Action: Vulnerary, demulcent, emollient, laxative.
Systems Affected: Skin, stomach, intestines.
Preparation and Dosage: Fresh gel expressed from leaves applied locally. (Internal use of plant not recommended.)
Native to the dry, sunny parts of southern and eastern Africa, Aloe Vera is now cultivated commercially as a medicinal plant and also grown as a house plant or garden ornamental.
The fresh gel of the leaves has both soothing and healing properties, and is widely honored for its capacity to heal even the severest burns and irritated skin rashes.
When the soft pulpy leaves are cut or broken open, the clear juice or gel flows freely arid should be applied to the affected area as quickly as possible.
For tender rashes and ulcerated sores, the healing gel can be used to saturate a piece of clean gauze or cotton which is then applied to the skin.
The gel is excellent for sunburn, and other uses include windburn, chafing, ‘detergent hands’, acne, eczema, pruritis, athlete’s foot, bruises, blisters, nettle rash and joint aches.
Because of its intensely bitter taste, extract of Aloes has been used to wean children and to discourage them from thumb-sucking and fingernail-biting, a practice which seems more punitive than therapeutic.
The plant also has an important history as a crude drug dating back to the time of the ancient Greeks. Traded throughout Africa, the Middle East and Europe, the dried extract was valued for its laxative or purgative action. It is still included in many commercial laxative preparations, but it is, however, extremely powerful in effect, with the potential for doing more harm than good, and is not recommended for general use internally. Excessive or prolonged use of Aloes extract irritates the digestive tract and may induce haemorrhoids.
Cautionary Notes: Aloe Vera gel needs to be stabilized in order to retain its active properties, and is available in commercial preparations in this form. For burns, however, make sure the preparation does not contain lanolin, as this will intensify the burn.
*10/66/5*
HOMOSEXUAL OFFENDERS VS. ADULTS: AGE OF COITAL PARTNER
The homosexual offenders vs. adults were average or just below-average in the numbers of their first coital companions who were twenty or less. However, they have the second highest percentage of those whose first sexual companions were twenty-one or older.
This brings up a problem which we have evaded until now concerning the ages of the female coital companions. We have seen that all three homosexual groups occupy high to intermediate positions in a rank-order of those who had their first coitus with girls of fifteen or younger. In age-category 16-17 all three groups fall to low or low-intermediate positions, and in the subsequent age-categories (18-20, 21+) they rise again to high or intermediate positions. If one considers only absolute numbers, one sees a similar picture: a steady increase followed by an abrupt decrease, followed in turn by an increase—in brief, an N-shaped distribution. The decrease occurs in the 16-17 age-category for the homosexual offenders vs. children and minors, and in the 18-20 age-category for the homosexual offenders vs. adults. Assuming that one’s initial coital companion is ordinarily one’s own age or somewhat older, this up-down-up sequence may be explained by the following speculation. At ages ten to eleven the homosexual offenders enjoyed a fair to excellent relationship with girls of their own peer group. This good relationship, with attendant sexual activity, carried over into the early teens. Later, as the individuals became aware or more acutely aware of society’s dichotomy between heterosexuality and homosexuality, and as their homosexuality turned from what had seemed play into an emotional and social problem to them, their heterosexuality was temporarily depressed. This is reflected in the mediocre or poor socialization with females which they reported as having existed at ages sixteen and seventeen, as well as in the lesser number of coital partners of this age. Still later, thanks to having worked out their sexual problems to some extent or through simply accumulating heterosexual experience by living additional years, the homosexual offenders “recover” from this depressed state both in terms of rank-order and in terms of absolute percentages.
The expressed age preferences of the homosexual offenders vs. adults are in no way unusual. To a male with a strong homosexual component there are many factors more important than age when he tries to visualize an ideal female sexual partner.
*208\161\2*
INCEST OFFENDERS VS. ADULTS: SUMMARY
The incest offenders vs. adults came from large families, were liberally endowed with sisters, and got along very well with both parents. Prior to puberty they had few friends of either gender and were the least active sexually of any group. This characteristic of minimal sexual activity earned over into postpubertal life: the incidences and frequencies of masturbation and nocturnal emissions are low. Similarly they did little petting until just before marriage. While prevented to an unusual degree from having premarital coitus by their moral feelings and by their concern with public opinion, these men subscribed to the double standard: they wanted a virgin bride, often avoided coitus with their fianc?e, and turned to prostitutes for their sexual gratification. The numbers of their nonprostitute petting and coital partners were relatively small, and their sexual techniques were also quite limited.
After marriage they still remained somewhat restrained in terms of techniques and coital frequency, but they were quite fertile. In their middle thirties extramarital coitus became more important, and they began to take an interest in mouth-genital contact.
They were the least homosexual of any group and strongly disapproved of homosexuality. They were also the least criminal, and few could be called alcoholics.
All in all, these men may be described as conservative, moralistic, restrained, religiously devout, traditional, and uneducated. They were also the least responsive of any group to visual or fantasy stimuli. From the foregoing these men would seem unlikely to commit sex offenses, but they also seem to have been impulsive and given to rather disorganized lives that were complicated, in some cases, by drinking. Many of them came from a cultural background wherein sexual morality was publicly emphasized but privately breached with relative impunity. Given such a situation it is easy to see how an inhibited male with poor control of his impulses might not only break a sexual taboo but would be likely to keep his lapse within the secrecy of the family group.
*166\161\2*
INCEST OFFENDERS VS. CHILDREN: SEX DREAMS
The incest offenders vs. children had the largest proportion of any group who experienced nocturnal emissions (91 per cent). Among the single males the age-specific incidence figures were moderate to high-moderate, grading up from an initial 37 per cent to 61-66 per cent. Among the married portion of the sample, the percentage is moderate to rather high in comparison with other sex offenders, similar to that of the prison group, and below that of the control group. In general a rather uniform 40-50 per cent level was maintained.
Fewer of the incest offenders vs. children than any other group reported dreamless ejaculations. All those who did dream reported heterosexual dreams. They rate rather high in dreams of sexual contact with animals, although only 4 per cent were involved. In brief, nearly all incest offenders vs. children had ejaculations while sleeping, and these orgasms were accompanied almost always by ordinary heterosexual dreams; a few (but proportionately more than in most other groups) reported exotic dreams.
While the incest offenders vs. children had the largest proportion of individuals experiencing nocturnal emissions, they did not have emissions with unusual frequency or infrequency. However, the average (median) incest offender vs. children is always, after age fifteen, to be found near the top of rank-orders of frequency, with 5 to 9 such orgasms a year. For a sex-offender group these are high frequencies, but they are less than the control group’s 10 to 12 a year. In terms of mean frequency, the incest offenders vs. children are intermediate.
Owing to their moderation in adult sociosexual activity and low masturbation frequency in their teens, a correspondingly large proportion of their total sexual outlet before marriage derived from nocturnal emissions up to age twenty. Beyond that age the proportions are moderate. The proportions of total outlet constituted by emissions among the married are unexceptional.
*124\161\2*
HETEROSEXUAL AGGRESSORS VS. CHILDREN: HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITY
Like the heterosexual offenders vs. children, heterosexual aggressors vs. children present a prosaic to below-average picture of homosexuality. In terms of rank-order, they are intermediate compared to other offenders in the percentage with homosexual experience in or out of prison (52 per cent), and with homosexual experience out of prison (48 per cent).
In the accumulative incidence table, which gives the percentages of individuals with postpubertal homosexual experience by given ages, they are seen to have small percentages: usually the second or third smallest up to age twenty, and near, or less than, those of the control group. Beyond that age our sample is numerically less adequate, but one can safely say that the accumulation of experience was unusually slow and gradual. This is also evident from the fact that the average (median) aggressor vs. children had his initial homosexual contact at twenty, the oldest median age recorded, whereas his first heterosexual contact occurred at sixteen. This four-year discrepancy is by far the greatest noted in any group.
Small sample size precludes calculation of age-specific incidence beyond age twenty, but up to that time the figures are moderate for single males. The frequency of homosexual contacts per year, outside prison, is also moderate: 3.7 per year, similar to that of the other aggressors and not much more than that of the control group.
The average (median) aggressor vs. children had homosexual contact with four males, a comparatively small number and one similar to the median control-group individual. Some 33 per cent, a large proportion, confined their activity to one male. The same number had two to five partners, and are intermediate in this rank-order. Relatively few had six or more partners, and none more than 75.
The sample with homosexual experience is too small to permit meaningful data on the age of the youngest male partner; however, one can say that there appears to be no pronounced homosexual pedophilia.
Two thirds of the heterosexual aggressors vs. children disapproved of male homosexuality in general and 12 per cent approved. This is more disapproval than reported by the majority of groups, but it is not extreme.
*82\161\2*
VARIETIES OF SEX OFFENDERS VS. CHILDREN: AMORAL DELINQUENTS
Amoral delinquents are persons known by various names such as “psychopaths,” “sociopaths,” “sociotics,” etc., who function essentially without regard to the controls society imposes and who do not have a conscience in the usual sense. When sexually aroused they are apt to employ any convenient human or animal for gratification. A few use children and hence appear, although rarely, among the men convicted for offenses vs. children. On the basis of very few cases it appears that such men are not apt to repeat the offense behavior: it is typically a one-time impulsive act. Deprivation and inferiority feelings are usually absent.
An illustrative case is that of a man of thirty-eight with dull to normal intelligence. His history was one of unskilled labor interlaced with gambling and bootlegging. At the time of the offense he was living with his third wife. He planned to go on a trip, and his wife invited an eleven-year-old girl to stay with her for company during his absence. However, he changed his mind and remained at home, where he and his wife had a drinking party and gave alcohol to the child. All three went to bed and the husband had coitus with the girl while the wife held her. He had had no prior interest in girls of this age; the act was simply one of amoral opportunism without any feeling of wrongdoing.
*39\161\2*
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