If You Don’t Have It When You Need it….

Life is unpredictable. Things can be puttering along just fine one minute, and the next moment, everything changes. In cases of illness or injury, the speed of our response can often have a significant impact on outcome. And, the immediate availability of the remedy for the problem is often critical to a good outcome. Let me give you some examples.

Years ago my daughter, who was in college, got a sore on her hand. She started to develop a circle covering half of her palm with a distinct line surrounding the circle and an area of discoloration inside that circle. She went to the doctor and he said she’d been bitten by a hobo spider (whose venom is similar to a brown recluse or a rattlesnake) and that all the tissue inside that circle would die and slough off due to the tissue-dissolving venom in the bite. She drove three hours to get home to “Dad the herbalist” and I put Venom & Sting formula on it and gave it to her internally. In a few hours the line was gone. By the next morning the discolored area inside the circle was also gone. She had no tissue loss or other issues from the bite. If I hadn’t had the herbs on hand immediately, I’d have been treating a pretty ghastly wound the next day.

On another occasion I was hosting a medicinal plant walk as part of a workshop at my place. We were going to head to the hills and look at wild specimens. As we were getting ready to load up and head out, I noticed a sweet, elderly lady sitting on a bench in front of my clinic looking sad. I sat next to her and asked her what was wrong. She said that she was having terrible pain in her feet and that she wasn’t going to be able to go with us. She was heartbroken. She’d traveled a long way for the event and had really been looking forward to it. I walked over to my clinic cupboard and grabbed a bottle of Arnica liniment. I took her shoes off and sprayed her sore feet. After a few minutes her eyes brightened, and she stood up. The pain was resolved, and she spent the day happily tromping around the hills with us learning about herbs. (I’ve since learned that pine needle or Hops tinctures also work well topically in situations like this).

I could give you countless other examples of cases; rattlesnake bites that were resolved with no tissue loss, bleeding that was immediately stopped, respiratory viruses that were knocked out before they could settle in and cause real sickness, asthma attacks, cytokine storms, wounds, shock, pain, threatened miscarriage, allergic reactions, panic attacks, muscle spasms, burns… I’ve seen all of these things, and many more, quickly resolved and potential outcomes dramatically changed for the better because of one simple thing; I had the herbs on hand and immediately available. Putting the emergency on hold and waiting 3 days for the nice UPS man to bring me some herbs would have changed those outcomes significantly.

Using herbs immediately when needed really does maximize their ability to resolve an issue. I’d strongly urge you to get some things on hand so that when things come up they can be quickly addressed. Tinctures are by far the best way to store herbs long-term so that they’re there when you need them. Tinctures also work faster and require no real preparation time to use compared to teas or capsules or other herb forms. In most cases of immediate need, they are the best answer.

I recommend having tinctures on hand to address basic first aid needs, respiratory issues, wounds, venomous bites and stings, and any issues commonly experienced by loved ones. It really can make all the difference.

If you aren’t in a position to make your own, or just want to save some time and money, have a look at our HomeGrown Herbalist herb kits. They’re great to have around, have great shelf lives and contain recommendations and instructions on how to use the various contents.

Having herbs on hand is like wearing a seatbelt. Most of the time, it’s entirely unnecessary. But, in the critical moment of crisis, wearing a seatbelt changes absolutely everything. My advice; buckle up and get some herbs on hand. Someday you’ll be really glad you did.

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