NUTRITION IN A NUTSHELL: HEALING WITH HERBS

By John Meddling

About the Book:

This book was originally written in 1997 but was unpublished and local to Nashville TN. Over the years many have continually asked me about its c

• Language: English
• Publisher: Writers Branding LLC
• Release date: Aug 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781639451227

John Meddling

I have resided in Atlanta, Georgia, since 2002, where I am currently practicing as a licensed neuromuscular/physical therapist and serving as a health and wellness consultant. My work experience varies, from photography, writing, electronic repair, life coaching, couples counseling, motivational speaking, and teaching. I have taught anatomy, physiology, pathology, and many other medical subjects as part of the massage program at Georgia Medical Institute for five years. My passion for health and wellness and human development keeps me actively involved in social and behavioral sciences and medical/alternative healing research. I am a certified TESOL/TESL/TEFL (English teacher overseas) and am certified by Oxford Seminars based in Los Angeles, California. I have taught Christian education in one form or another for more than seventeen years. I am the father of one son, DeAndre.

Book preview

PLEASE READ BEFORE USING THIS MATERIAL!

Because herbs are foods, they should not be used in the place of prescribed medication unless instructed to do so by a licensed herbalist or nutritionist working in conjunction with your medical physician. Herbs only help fuel the body in its own natural ability to heal itself. Herbs are best understood to be used for maintaining good health. However, from my personal experience of using herbs for more than 26 years—I’ve seen how the consistent and knowledgeable use of them can promote healing in the body. The best results from herbs are usually noticed in about three to five months of consistent use. They have also shown promising results in thousands of people around the world who have been under severe illnesses such as Cancer, AIDs, diabetes and auto immune diseases, just to name a few.

This book was originally written in 1997 but was unpublished and local to Nashville TN. Over the years, many have continually ask me about its circulation—so I am now reintroducing it to the masses. I hope the information in this book will give clear guidelines to easy body maintenance. The language is so simple and defined that I’ve entitled it Nutrition In A Nutshell- Healing with Herbs.

Author’s Note: I do not claim to know everything there is to know about nutrition. This book is intended for educational purposes only and should not be used as a guide for diagnosis or treatments of any kind. This book is a compilation of numerous medical and nutritional studies as well as many other continuing researches.

~ Hope you enjoy and find healing in this well studied information ~

Please send correspondence or comments to [e-mail]

About The Author

I have resided in Atlanta GA since 2002 where I am currently practicing as a license neuromuscular/physical therapist and serve as a health and wellness consultant. My work experience vary from photography, writing, electronic repair, serving as a life coach, motivational speaking and teaching. I have taught anatomy, physiology, pathology and many other medical subjects as a part of the massage program at Georgia Medical Institute for five years. My passion for health and wellness keeps me actively involved in a variety of medical and alternative healing research. I am a certified TESOL/TESL/TEFL (English teacher overseas) and am certified by Oxford Seminars based in Los Angeles California. I have taught Christian Education in one form or another for more than seventeen years. I am the father of one son, DeAndre.

Since I was a teenager, I was intrigued with how the body functioned and what it took to keep the body healthy. At the age of 19, I became particularly interested in herbal medicine. Seeing family members suffering with a variety of health issues that was diet related—I couldn’t understand how they could be under doctors’ care but never getting better. All of them died prematurely without ever getting well. This really troubled me, but started me on the venture of studying how food, herbs and medicine affected the body. So for the next 26 years, I studied any material I could find on health and wellness, researched statistics on diseases in various demographics, and studied the effects that various medications have on the body. I also studied and taught pathology for five years to increase my understanding of the effects that diseases have on the human body’s systems.

Health and wellness has been my life-long journey—and my hope is that this information will positively change the well-being of all who read this material.

BE HAPPY AND LIVE WELL!

Resources

Thanks to:

University of Maryland Medical Center (History of Herbal Medicine)

Wikipedia (History of Herbal Medicine)

Web-MD (Vitamins and their function)

Chicago Associate Press (AP) (Drug Overdoses in America- article)

Prescription for Nutritional Healing (Second Edition- James F. Balch, MD & Phyllis A. Balch, CNC)

Livestrong.com (Holistic Cancer Treatments)

Mayo Clinic Research staff (What you need to know about dieting- article)

Back to the Basics of Human Health (Mary Frost)

Healing Naturally by Bee (Bee Wilder)

Progressive Health (Internet article- Vitamins & Edema)

The Rationale for Optimal & Balanced Trace Element Levels (Alexander G. Schauss, Ph.D.)

Become Healthy Now- Images of the Hormone Glands

Symptoms of Hormone Problems (Dr. Bruce Rind)

Marc David M.A. (Founder of Psychology of Eating Institute)

Dedication & Thanks

This book is dedicated to all those who wish to have a healthy life with longevity. Also to my mother who has transitioned from this life into another one—who passed away prematurely from complications of diabetes, and high blood pressure. This dedication is also to my very youthful and energetic father, James Meddling, Sr., who will be 84 years old this December 2014—continue your daily 45 minute work-out daddy. Special thanks to Linda George who encouraged and reminded me to devote my time to rewriting this book. Special thanks to you Linda for all of the many years of supporting me in my many endeavors including all of my writings. You have always been in my corner and you mean the world to me!

History of Herbal Medicine

Herbal medicine is known by three terms, and they are botanical medicine, herbalism and phytomedicine (phyto meaning plant). This refers to the many parts of a plant or tree such as the use of a plant’s bark, roots, leave, seeds, berries, roots and flowers, for healing purposes. Herbal medicine also includes mushrooms and bee products, as well as minerals, shells and even certain parts of animals like the bones as in shark cartilage and grounded antlers from goats, bulls, rams, deer and etc. Herbs have been used throughout human history in medical treatments and are still widely used for healing purposes today. Even outside of conventional medicine herbs have become extremely popular as people consistently fail to get the results they’re looking for in prescribed medications. More research in how herbs help heal the body along with new data in clinical research show the value of herbal medicine in the treating and prevention of diseases.

Plants were used for medicinal purposes long before recorded history, but some archaeological evidence indicates that the use of medicinal plants dates back to the Paleolithic times which was approximately sixty thousand years ago. There have been countless writings found on ancient Chinese and Egyptian papyrus describing medicinal uses for plants dating back to 3,000 BC. Cultures such as African and Native American used herbs in their healing rituals, while others developed traditional medical systems such as Ayurveda (Hindu system of medicine) and Traditional Chinese Medicine also known as (TCM) in which herbal therapies were used. Many herbs found throughout the world have been used by different cultures for the same purposes according to researchers.

Chinese herbal medicine date back over 3,500 years according to written records. But there are yet others who believe that during the 12th century is when the deeper implementation of Chinese medicine began. Before that time, Chinese medicine was primarily focused on acupuncture than herbs. The first known Chinese herb book lists 365 medicinal plants and their uses including ma-huang root that was in the fen-phen weight loss product that was popular in the 1990s. The ma-huang shrub introduced the drug ephedrine to modern medicine in which it was reported to cause heart palpitation in some users. Many people to this day still rely on the Chinese medicine system which includes acupuncture, herbology, massage, diet therapy and therapeutic exercises like Tai Qi and Qi Gong. Chinese doctors treat the whole person by examining his or her medical history, birth constitution, living habits, and home environment. According to the Chinese medicine, it is believed that most health problems are caused by some sort of deficiency in a part of the body. The deficiency may be related to the digestive system, nervous system or the reproductive system. In early Chinese herbology potions were used in part as medicine and magic. But in today’s Chinese practice, doctors focus on rebalancing an individual’s entire body by strengthening the system that is weak—this is where acupuncture is often used by placing needles in particular meridian locations. The first acupuncture needles and herbal medicine appeared around 2500 BCE. The Chinese also use tonic herbs like astragalus, ginseng, garlic, wild onions and turmeric to prevent health problems.

Ayurveda (Hindu system of medicine) is a 5,000-year-old philosophy and healing system from India based on the physical makeup of a person’s body type, personal habits, emotions, and behaviors. According to this philosophy, each one of us is made up of varying amounts of the elements earth, water, fire, air, and ether that determine our individual makeup. Ayurveda is about balance and inner harmony. It focuses on getting plenty of rest, eating healthy, exercising, and living in tune with nature and strengthening your digestive power. It also includes the use of herbs—and once you identify the herbs that work for you—you can choose the herbs that will balance your entire being, body, mind and spirit. The Ayurveda natural healing philosophy includes the medicinal powers of culinary spices like cardamom, cinnamon and herbs that play an important role in creating the flavors of Indian cuisine like turmeric root in which curry is made from.

Western Herbalism came about when early westerner’s learned the implementation of herbs through trial and error to treat physical complaints with plants. Much of the understanding of herbalism was passed from Asia Minor from great herbalists whose names are renowned. But the basis of modern medicine in the West dates back to Greek herbal medicine and its famous doctors like Hippocrates and Galen. Hippocrates was an ancient Greek healer who became known as the Father of Medicine. Hippocrates was also known to be responsible for establishing a rational base for understanding the working of the human body and the use of plants and herbs to heal the body. Hippocrates was an advocate of using herbs such as ginger (the warming herb) for the winter, rosemary, thyme, mint, fennel, caraway, rose, cinnamon, clove, anise, garlic, opium, myrrh and frankincense. He also believed that along with these herbs—fresh air, rest, and proper diet were needed to help the body’s own life force in eliminating the problem. Galen on the other hand believed that direct intervention with large doses of complicated drug mixtures (often accompanied by some magical incantations) was necessary to correct bodily imbalances that caused disease.

In the early 19th century, when chemical analysis first became available, scientists began to extract and modify the active ingredients from plants. Later, chemists began making their own version of plant compounds—and over time the use of herbal medicines declined in favor of drugs. Almost one fourth of pharmaceutical drugs are derived from plants and herbs.

In 1948, the World Health Organization was established, and it is estimated that eighty percent of people worldwide rely on herbal medicines for some part of their primary health care. Even in Germany today, about 600 - 700 plant based medicines are available and are prescribed by some 70% of German physicians. In the past 10- 20 years in the United States, people have become so dissatisfied with the cost and side affects of prescription medications, that they are now returning to natural and organic remedies at record breaking statistics.

Why Vitamin & Mineral Supplements?

Vitamin & Minerals:

Vitamins and minerals are often called micronutrients because your body needs only tiny amounts of them. Yet failing to get even those small quantities virtually guarantees disease. The difference between vitamins and minerals is that although they are both considered micronutrients, vitamins and minerals differ in basic ways. Vitamins are organic (plant base) and can be broken down by heat, air, or acid. Minerals are inorganic (rock base) and hold on to their chemical structure. So why does this matter? It means the minerals in soil and water easily find their way into your body through the plants, fish, animals, and fluids you consume. But it’s tougher to get vitamins from food and other sources into your body because cooking, storage, and simple exposure to air can inactivate these more fragile compounds. Vitamins & minerals work synergistically with one another meaning that they aid each other in their ability to absorb into our bodies. For example: Vitamin D enables your body to draw calcium from food sources passing through your digestive tract rather than harvesting it from your bones. Vitamin C helps you absorb iron. The best kinds of vitamins are water-soluble vitamins. Water soluble vitamins consist of vitamin C and the B vitamins, such as B-1, which is thiamine, B-9 which is folic acid, and B-6, which is pyridoxine. You cannot store these vitamins, so if your body does not need them exactly when they are digested, they will be eliminated through urination. They are packed into the watery portions of the foods you eat. Vitamins in the tablet form are absorbed directly into the bloodstream after they break down with the foods we eat during digestion. Because much of our body consists of water, many of the water-soluble vitamins circulate easily in our body. Our kidneys continuously regulate levels of water-soluble vitamins—flushing unneeded vitamin contents out of the body through urination.

Where vitamin & minerals come from:

We are familiar with the notion as children that if we eat our fruits & vegetables, and incorporate the basic food groups into our diets, that we’ll grow up to be big and strong. That was probably a somewhat true assumption up until the early to mid 1930s. However, in 2014 this is not a safe assumption because soil is given less time to neutralize due to demands placed on farmers to produce abundantly and quickly. Most of our micronutrients come from the earth in one form or another. Our livestock eat the grains and plants from the earth and we in turn eat the cattle that digest the vegetation—which gives us nutrients from the meats we eat. But in 1936, the US Senate was presented with the results of a scientific study it had commissioned on the mineral content of our food. The results demonstrated that many human ills could be attributed to the fact that American soil no longer provided the plants with the mineral elements which are so essential to human nourishment and nutritional health. In a March 1936 issue of Cosmopolitan, an article stated that 99 percent of the American people were deficient in minerals. These are the same minerals that if you lacked any one of them, could actually result in getting a disease.

Most of us today are suffering from serious nutritional deficiencies which cannot be remedied until the depleted soils from which our foods come—are brought into proper mineral balance. The alarming fact is that our foods/ meat (cattle), fruits & vegetables and grains are now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contains enough of the crucial minerals needed to sustain our nutritional needs. We are being nutritionally starved no matter how much of this food we eat!

Remember reading in school about the size of the dinosaurs—particularly the Brontosaurus? This huge reptile weighed about 100,000 pounds and was about 105 ft tall when it stood erected. Its head was said to be a little larger than a horse’s head—and it was not a meat-eater but lived on vegetation only. Can you imagine how nutritionally dense the vegetation had to be in order for this reptile to grow to such large proportions being a vegetarian? The land during that time was so mineral enriched that tress were growing in excess of 16- 27 feet a year. But today our land is stripped of its nutrients because soil is not given enough time to revitalize its nutrients—due to demands placed on today’s farmers to produce abundantly and quickly. Therefore it is crucial to our health to supplement with vitamins and minerals.

Simple Facts about Mineral

Trace Minerals are minerals that your body needs a very small amount of. They consist of iron, zinc, copper, selenium, iodine, boron, fluorine and chromium, to name a few.

Major Minerals are the minerals that your