Healers have used the prickly milk thistle plant to treat liver ailments for more than 2,000 years. Somehow these early practitioners figured out that preparations of this purple-flowered member of the sunflower family could stimulate the flow of bile from the liver, improving digestion and various liver-related ills.
Day: May 19, 2009
Methionine
The importance of adequate stores of the amino acid methionine cannot be underestimated. Methionine is particularly important because it supplies sulfur–a mineral–that helps to maintain healthy skin tone, well-conditioned hair, and strong nails. Because your body can’t produce this essential amino acid on its own, you must get it from methionine-rich foods, such as cheddar cheese, eggs, chicken, and beef. Supplements are also a source.
Menopause Herbal Combination
As indicated by its name, a menopausal herbal combination provides a number of helpful herbs in one convenient capsule, sparing you the inconvenience of taking an assortment of products. Standard components of such combination products include such traditional “female-healthy” herbs as black cohosh, chasteberry, dong quai, and soy. Many contain additional herbs such as kava and dandelion root that can help with specific symptoms, as well as key nutrients such as calcium, vitamins E , C, and B, and magnesium.
Melissa
Folk healers in the Middle Ages considered melissa (Melissa officinalis) something of a cure-all, relying on it for everything from indigestion to insect bites. Today, this mint-family member–often called lemon balm because of the citrus-y aroma of its leaves–is still used to prepare healing oils, tinctures, compresses, ointments, teas, and other remedies for a variety of complaints.
Melatonin
Melatonin is a hormone manufactured and released into the bloodstream by the pebble-size pineal gland nestled deep within the human brain. Surprisingly, scientists only became aware of melatonin’s presence in 1958. Children tend to excrete large amounts of this hormone, while older adults produce relatively little. But individual levels of melatonin vary widely. About 1% of the population naturally has quite low levels, while another 1% has levels 500 times above the average.