The Complete Home Guide to Herbs, Natural Healing, and Nutrition

air exchange. Colon cleanses will help maintain the health of the lungs.

Saunas, if taken for short periods of time alternating with cold showers,

will be beneﬁcial to lung health, but avoid them if pregnant, weak, or

elderly.

Essential oils can really help breathing, and different ones will produce

a wide range of effects. Eucalyptus and camphor will clear and open the

lungs, and the majority of people will ﬁnd this mixture most effective.

Some asthma sufferers, however, may ﬁnd it makes things worse. In such

cases, use essential oils like frankincense and mandarin that will calm and

regulate the breathing.

Nicotine affects the central nervous system, particularly numbing

autonomic ganglion blockers, which is partly why it’s addictive. However,

nicotine and the herb lobelia are similar in some ways (lobelia contains

lobeline, which is similar to nicotine, both of which raise serotonin levels

in the brain), so for anyone wishing to give up smoking, the lobeline-rich

plant lobelia would be an ideal substitute, with no side effects if used

properly except thoroughly positive ones. When you stop smoking, bowel

function is often affected, as nicotine is a stimulant and laxative. You may

feel sleepier with less stimulation and, if this presents a problem, use

prickly ash berry, which will almost instantly bring oxygen to the brain.

Cigarettes inhibit the circulatory system; they force the heart to beat

faster and create a constant oxygen deﬁcit in doing so, because the carbon

monoxide from cigarettes releases oxygen from the bloodstream. One

cigarette creates a six-hour reduction of blood supply to the hands and

feet. With this in mind, healing of wounds, internal and external, is

inevitably slowed down by smoking, and so too are all the vital functions

of oxygen and blood. Blood sugar levels are also severely affected by

tobacco, creating low blood sugar.

You may compromise by smoking herbal cigarettes, but any plant

material will contain smoke and tar, which both clogs and inhibits the

bloodstream and lymphatic system. Short-term choices could be red clover

ﬂower, honeysuckle ﬂower, mullein leaf, elecampane root,American ephedra

leaf (not Chinese ephedra), and lobelia leaf.

The Nervous System

This system affects both our emotional and our physical well-being. With-

out feeding and sustaining it with a positive lifestyle and nutritious foods,

we can feel stressed and emotionally unstable and exhibit a range of ill-

health patterns, from epilepsy, shingles, insomnia, hyperactivity, and poor

memory to learning problems.

There are two principal divisions of the nervous system: the central

Home Guide to Herbs - davies