Does anyone use essential oils???

[Ninurta]

Well, I've got 3 bitty little bottles of essential oils that my son sent to me for some malady or another, but I've never used them... never could figure out HOW they are supposed to be used. I've also got one of those hickey-doos - I dunno what you call 'em... aerator, vaporizer, steamer... whatever the hell it is, but I've never been able to figure that bugger out, either. I guess the oil goes into it somehow, magic happens, and I'm healthy again, but just how that's supposed to happen is beyond my ken.

The internet, for all of it's vast knowledge, was no help at all in figuring them out. About all I could gather from hours of research was that I shouldn't feed certain ones to my cat. Something about toxicity and cat livers. The word "toxicity" in connection with them was not very inspiring, though.

So I HAVE them, but have never USED them through lack of knowledge.

I eat onions to control blood pressure, and at my age it ought to be through the roof (especially considering the amount of pig and other cholesterol-laden stuff I wolf down), but it usually rides around 90/122, so I'm not in danger of exploding like an over-ripe grape anytime soon. Onions and garlic are both good for the blood, and about everything connected with it.

I use catnip tea for nerve problems like anxiety and whatnot - just whatever riles your nerves up - and It keeps my hands pretty steady. It seems to have worked wonders for my second wife's mood swings during pregnancy - she didn't kill me, at least, and without the catnip I'm not sure I'd still be here.

I drink sassafras tea in the spring. It's been a "spring tonic" around these parts for centuries. Right now is the time to be grubbing the roots up for it, as all the active bits have been driven down into the roots by the cold. Winter weather causes sap to drop in trees and concentrate in the roots. I just put about a gallon pot of water on the stove and chuck in the root(s). Keep it hot but not boiling, and after a few hours presto!. I can usually get about 3 batches out of a root before it's spent. Caution may be warranted, as some folks have a pretty dim view of saffrole, the active ingredient, and scream to high heaven that it'll kill ya, but I'm still kicking pretty high for all of that.

I use peppermint, in tea form, for stomach problems. Ginseng is good for that, too, as well as other manly stuff. Some of the old timers around here used to carry a root in their pocket and chew on it as necessary, but that's dangerous these days as the law will nail you for possession out of season... for them that gives a damn about the law, anyhow. Not many people around here use it any more - they're all hell-bent-for-leather to dig it up and sell it for giant American dollars. When I was a kid it would bring about 60 or 70 dollars a pound, but the price is through the roof now, and last i checked it was about 7 or 8 HUNDRED dollars a pound. I never sell it, and if I dig any, I plant the berries back to get more. I know where there is a patch of red ginseng, the good stuff, about twice as big as a truck bed, but I ain't tellin' - I'd rather it not vanish to some jackass's greed one dark and stormy night. That patch has been carefully tended for years and years now, and it'd be a shame for it to go POOF! and disappear.

I've occasionally found another plant around here called "blood root" or "red puccoon" which is curious. I don't recall what it's good for, but it's pretty potent stuff - 15 mg will do you for whatever it's good for. I always found it to be curious because when you dig the root, and snap it in two when it's fresh, it looks like it's bleeding. It looks just like leaking capillaries.

I ran into one plant  way up in the mountain that looked exactly like catnip, but was a lighter yellowish green in the leaf. Didn't know what it was, so I plucked a leaf and shredded it to smell it, and damned if it didn't smell exactly like lemons! Some one said it was something called "verbena", but I don't know if it has any uses or not. I've never seen any other than that one, single, solitary plant way up in the back of nowhere.

Back when I thrashed around in the woods a lot more, I always carried a snake bite kit that consisted of a knife, an onion, and a salt shaker, all wrapped in a shop rag. Dad always swore by it, and said if you dice the onion, mix in the salt, wrap it all in the rag, and slap it on a snake bite, it would draw the poison out. He claimed to have used it on snake-bit dogs, and said that the onion would turn as green as grass when it drew the poison out, and that the swelling from the bite would be considerably less than expected, and the patient would heal just fine. I can't swear to that, as I never had to use it - me and my dogs both always got the snakes before they got us.

Now, as a wound dressing, I did used to use lard, salt, and tobacco (I generally used Copenhagen, but I suppose any tobacco would do) as a poultice, mixed in about equal parts. Never got an infection from a wound when I used it, and it seemed to accelerate healing.

I prescribed valerian root for Grace's back pain. She uses it, and says it works. that's to be expected, I suppose, since valerian root is where they got valium from originally, and valium is used to control muscle spasms in the back that produce pain. Valerian root can be got at Walmart in capsules. Arnica, as a topical gel, works for back pain, too. I rub it on for Grace a lot, and it works. You can get it in tubes at Walmart.

I shy away from colloidal silver since I found out that it turns some folks skin bright blue when ingested. While blue IS my favorite color, I have no urge to BE blue.

I'll sit and ponder, see if I can recall anything else I've used out of these woods - there has been plenty. I never, ever went to a doctor when I was growing up, I just doctored myself out of the woods. Since then, the only time I've been to doctors was in the event of large wounds, and even then I had to be talked into it, since I am convinced that I can take better care of myself than a doctor can, and cheaper, too. I just about took a finger off with a wedding ring once, and when the boss found me I was trying to cut the ring the rest of the way off with a pair of tin snips - he made me go to the hospital, or else I would have handled it myself. Doc did the same thing I would have - cut the ring off, put everything back where it was supposed to be, and wrapped and splinted the finger. I don't see what I gained by going, but if the boss wanted to foot the bill, that was his prerogative I reckon. The doctor's splint WAS prettier, I guess.

I've put my own stitches in while folks were screaming at me to get to a doctor - they really ought not to do that, as it affects the concentration, and as a result I've got some scars and mis-matched skin edges where I might not have if they'd let me concentrate on the job at hand.

The last time I went to a doctor, Grace talked me into it. Went to the emergency room, and that visit lasted 90 minutes, a doctor cut about a quarter inch slot in me and let me bleed a while more, and I was done. It didn't improve anything, cost us 5500 bucks, and the doctor tried to talk me into going to a surgeon - that wasn't about to happen. I went home and fixed it my damned self, and if I hadn't gone to the hospital I'd have fixed it my damned self anyhow, with the added bonus of not cutting slots in myself and bleeding a while.

Doctors is funny folk, and the woods are friendlier... and cheaper.