How To Start Your Self-Taught Education In Herbal Medicine
As we get older, health is the most important thing in life. Without it, life becomes painfully dreary, but when we’re healthy it’s full of possibilities. One common thread among people who keep their health for life is a skill at intentionally maintaining one’s own health. Wellness doesn’t just happen; it takes discipline, knowledge, and diligence.
Herbal medicine has always been an important way by which certain people maintain their own health. Herbal tonics and supplements have been used for millennia to prevent illness, both occasional and chronic. While modern medicine typically concerns itself with reversing illness after it has already set in, herbal medicine is primarily preventative in nature. Properly applied, knowledge of herbal medicine could help prevent common maladies from ever cropping up in your life.
But how do you acquire education in herbal medicine? After all, practitioners of herbal medicine throughout history have sought out lengthy apprenticeships and academic training. You may not be able to do the same in your current situation, but you can still gain the knowledge you need.
Humans have always learned through a combination of theory and praxis. With theory, we learn the information that we need for a proper herbal education. In praxis (practice), we learn by doing. It’s important that we start with both of these methods working in tandem.
Start with a health problem you wish to solve. Let’s say you want to stave off many of the negative symptoms associated with aging. You could start by ordering Fo-Ti Root Powder from Starwest Botanicals, then recording observations as you take the supplement. In this case, the best method would be to learn everything you can about Fo-Ti Root by reading studies, historical accounts, and the observations of other home researchers. This is theory. By taking the supplement and recording the effects you observe, you are learning by praxis.
Once you have enough experience with the herb to understand its effects, you’re ready to expand your repertoire. This time, you might go for lomatium extract from Herb Pharm, in an effort to promote immune system health. Here, again, you would learn everything you can about the nature and efficacy of lomatium extract as a medicine. Then you’d put your learning into practice, by using the supplement as directed and then recording your observations.
The more knowledge and experience you acquire, the more you’ll be able to use herbs to solve problems (or prevent problems from occurring in the first place). Fill out your herbal arsenal with products from Ayush Herbs, and keep improving your skill through theory and praxis.
The important thing is not to overwhelm yourself with information or supplies. It’s easy, in the early days of a self-taught herbal education, to flood your shelves with different herbal remedies, without giving yourself the time to properly “form a relationship” with each one. Remember, your education in herbs is a marathon, not a sprint. This isn’t like high school, where you’d cram the night before a test and squeak out an A. With herbs, you really have to allow yourself to learn about them at the speed of life. Trying to rush the process will have you spending a ton of money on herbs, without taking the time to thoughtfully assimilate each herbal tradition.
Once you’ve absorbed the relevant herbal information, and applied these theories in your daily life, you’ll have an herbal education that stands the test of time. No matter where you acquire this kind of practical knowledge (a teacher, a school, or the internet!), the proof is in the pudding. Herbs have the potential to heal, but the healer is you. Take the time to develop this skill, and you’ll be just as much an herbalist as the healers of yore.
Sunburns are one of the harsh realities of summer. If you’re a paler person, and you don’t spend long periods of time in the sun regularly, chances are that you are surprised by a sunburn once or twice a year. Sunburns often happen during vacations - times when we want more than anything to be free of pain and suffering. If you earned yourself a burn in the summer sun, here are some ways to alleviate the hurt.
The Day Of
It’s important to treat your skin as soon as you get a sunburn. Following sun exposure, your skin may take as little as 30 minutes to turn red, or as long as 2 to 6 hours. At this point, the damage is done, but there are things you can do to minimize your upcoming suffering.
Start by hydrating your skin, from the inside and out. Drink lots of water, and avoid dehydrating drinks containing caffeine and alcohol. Try to double your normal water intake. Your skin has been damaged by the sun and needs to recover its fluids. Topical treatments like Vaseline jelly form a moisture barrier atop your skin, to prevent further dehydration. Of course, there are more wholesome salves for your skin, but we’ll get to those in the next section.
The Next Day
The redness of your sunburn will peak at about the 24-hour mark. At this point, you’ll look like a boiled lobster, and the mild prickle that you felt last night will start to feel noticeably painful. It’s here that your skin really starts to experience the damage it incurred the previous day.
At this point, salves like aloe vera can really help. If you have a particularly painful sunburn, choose aloe vera ointment with lidocaine. This topical anesthetic will temporarily alleviate your sunburn pain when it’s at its worst. Other ointments, such as coconut oil, contain high levels of saturated fats, which your skin will absolutely love. You may find that your skin, on this day, is more absorbent than normal. This is because your skin is hurt, and needs to soak up every beneficial nutrient it can find.
Using coconut oil and aloe vera as a base, you can add many nutritious ingredients to a homemade sunburn salve. Lavender, eucalyptus, and chamomile essential oils can cool hot and soothe painful skin. Oils like these are also strongly antimicrobial, thus helping to prevent infection or secondary inflammation of sun-damaged skin. Vitamin E can help restore skin more quickly than would be possible without it.
In addition to topical treatments, make sure to eat nutritious foods in the day following a sunburn. Keep drinking lots of water and continue avoiding dehydrating beverages.
Day 3-20
Depending on the severity of your burn, sunburn discomfort will likely be most acute on the second or third day. During this period, just keep using all the techniques we’ve described so far (and, of course, stay out of the sun!).
As your burn heals, the damaged upper layer of skin will die and be sloughed off. This is the “peeling” stage, and while nobody likes the Freddy Krueger look, it does mean that your skin is healing. If your burn is no longer red and painful, you may start applying your favorite skin lotion to the affected area at this stage. This will help reduce the appearance of flaking, speed up the peeling process, and heal the new layer of skin beneath the old burn.
Nobody likes a sunburn, and this affliction can be quite the speedbump on a summer holiday. However, with proper treatment in the hours and days following a burn, you’ll be able to minimize suffering and speed up recovery.
