With its high content of bioflavonoids, hawthorn berries best support the heart. The bioflavonoid substances help dilate and strengthen the walls of blood vessels, relax arteries, and improve circulation of blood to heart muscles.

Hawthorn berries help normalize the heart, either by stimulating or depressing its activity. For this reason, hawthorn berries are used to lower high blood pressure and high cholesterol, as well as increase low blood pressure.

When used to support weight loss programs, hawthorn berries reduce water retention expelling excess salt from the body. Hawthorn berries have also been known to reduce nervous tension, alleviate insomnia and aid digestion.

A celebrated cardiac tonic for many centuries. Under conditions of stress, the heart often "works overtime." Hawthorn berries can help in treatment of high or low blood pressure, tachycardia, and arrhythmia. It is also anti-spasmodic, sedative, and soothing to nerves, especially in nervous insomnia.

[Dr. Christopher]

Many folks suffer great discomfort during the pollination season of plants. They attribute their symptoms to the pollen, saying that they are "allergic" to it. What is happening is that the pollen is bringing out of their bodies years of accumulated toxins. These come out in the form of mucus running from the nose, eyes, and lungs. Symptomatic relief can be obtained by using the SHA Tea Formula, but again, permanent change can only be had through faithful adherence to the mucusless diet. After one year on the mucusless diet, all allergies should disappear. For an immunity to the local pollen, a tablespoon of local raw honey may be taken daily. It won't do you any good to take honey from Hawaii or Minneapolis if you are sneezing from pollen in Copperstown, North Dakota.

Tension headache is generally described as a bilateral dull ache, pressure or cap-like pain that is usually located in the forehead, neck and shoulder regions. The headache typically occurs from two to seven days a week and can last from one hour to all day; a small proportion of tension headache sufferers have continuous headache. Migraine headache, on the other hand, is described as a unilateral pain, generally accompanied with nausea and vomiting, with the pain characterized as throbbing or pulsating.

Both tension and migraine headaches can be related to allergic reactions and food sensitivity.

Read Controlling Vascular and Migraine Headaches by Walt Stoll, MD here .

A diet high in fruits and vegetables, fiber, and possibly fish appears protective against heart disease.

See also Cardiovascular Disease

According to Jonathan Wright, M.D., and some other doctors of natural medicine, another cause of heartburn can be too little stomach acid. This may seem to be a paradox, but based on the clinical experience of doctors such as Dr. Wright, supplementing with betaine HCl relieves the symptoms of heartburn and improves digestion.

[Dr. Garner]

Ten percent of the USA population suffers daily from heartburn. Complications can be serious, including bleeding of the esophageal lining, constriction of the esophagus making swallowing difficult, asthma, pneumonitis, bronchitis, etc. Chronic heartburn almost always occurs when the lower esophageal sphincter (at the junction of the stomach and esophagus) weakens, allowing the highly acidic gastric juices to flow into the esophagus (acid reflux). Much of the time such relaxing or weakening of the sphincter comes from prescription drugs, especially antidepressants and sedatives, and/or from food allergies especially from tomato, chocolate, coffee, carbonated drinks, alcohol, and some spices. Other causes include ulcers, parasites especially intestinal worms, and gallbladder dysfunction. Gorging at the dinner table tends to give heartburn temporarily because the overfilled stomach forces gastric juices up the esophagus. TV commercials for antacids do a great deal of harm in encouraging the use of antacids for heartburn sufferers. Antacids not only produce a “rebound effect,?i.e., a worsening of symptoms from frequent use, but also affect even in low doses the body’s ability to metabolize calcium and phosphorus, leading ultimately to weakness, pain, loss of appetite, constipation or diarrhea, and weakening of the bones. Moreover, many popular antacids contain aluminum salts—aluminum is toxic and has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Again, remedies suggest themselves, mainly getting off medical drugs, watching your diet, avoiding over-eating, and having your allergies determined and eliminated. Other possibilities include herbal remedies such as drinking fenugreek tea three times a day, taking 2 or more capsules of gingerroot before eating, or using capsules or extracts of gentian root, goldenseal, wormwood or activated charcoal; drinking before each meal and at bedtime the fresh juice of a finely grated raw potato strained through clean cheesecloth and diluted with 2-3 parts of water to each part of juice. Of course, these herbal and other remedies are palliative, not curative.

See also GERD, Hiatus Hernia

Hellerwork.co.uk has a lot of Hellerwork information here .

[Dr. Christopher]

Cayenne: A wound, external or internal, may stop bleeding if the individual will drink a cup of water (preferably hot) with a teaspoon of cayenne pepper (red pepper) stirred into it. The bleeding may generally stop by the time a person can count up to ten after drinking the cayenne tea. The cayenne equalizes the blood pressure from the top of the head to the feet. This keeps the pressure from the hemorrhage area so it will clot naturally, which it cannot do with heavy blood pressure pumping the blood rapidly at the hemorrhage area.

They are revealed by pain, itching, bleeding, and distension on straining to defecate.

Hemorrhoids can be caused by underactive adrenals, a congested liver, and poor diets.

Mary Hyland has a nice section on Healing and Comforting Herbal Teas on her website here .

I told one man that herbs were God's gifts to us for better health. They were Nature's medicines and that nothing could be more natural. It is just that we have been brainwashed by medicine into thinking that chemotherapy, radiation and surgery is O.K., but herbs are dangerous. What could be farther from the truth?

Mary Hyland has a Guide to Herbal Remedies on her website here .

Mary Hyland has a section on her site devoted to Possible Herb Side Effects here .

[Dr. Schulze]

Most of us have the herpes viruses in our body. Many of us test positive for it even though we don't have the outbreak.

I think in years to come, we will all test positive for herpes simplex and zoster, for Epstein-Barr virus, and for HIV. We can't stop virus contamination.

The point isn't, do we have these viruses in our body?

The point is, do these viruses ever get a hold in our body and come into a clinical state, where we actually notice we have them?

I have patients with HIV that are going to outlive their doctors. So just having a virus doesn't mean you are sick.

With herpes, one thing I've noticed is, that since you have an immune system that is depressed, and then the virus gets a hold, and the virus keeps breaking out constantly, the real cure for herpes is to strengthen your immune system.

You can read Dr. Schulze's HERPES and PARASITES: How to eleminate them with natural healing. on dusan's website.

Read Reducing Herpes Outbreaks by Elizabeth Burch, ND here .

See also Cold sores, Genital Herpes, Herpes Simplex 1, Herpes Simplex 2, Herpes Zoster

Read Upper Gastrointestinal Symptom Relief by Walt Stoll, MD here .

Hold your breath and take ten sips of water. Your hiccoughs will be gone.

[Dr. Christopher]

A few drops of antispasmodic tincture taken internally and rubbed on the chest area will often bring relief.

Although it is by no means the only major risk factor, elevated serum cholesterol is clearly associated with a high risk of heart disease. Most medical doctors suggest cholesterol levels should stay under 200 mg/dl (5.2 mmol/liter). Cholesterol levels lower than 200 are not without risk, however, as many people with levels below 200 have heart attacks. As levels fall below 200, heart disease risk continues to decline. Many nutritionally oriented doctors consider cholesterol levels of no more than 180 to be optimal.

Medical laboratories now subdivide total cholesterol measurement into several components including LDL cholesterol (which is directly linked to heart disease) and HDL cholesterol (the so-called “good?cholesterol). The relative amount of HDL to LDL is more important than total cholesterol. For example, it is possible for someone with very high HDL to be at relatively low risk for heart disease even with total cholesterol above 200. Evaluation of changes in cholesterol requires consultation with a healthcare professional and includes measurements of blood levels of total cholesterol as well as HDL and LDL cholesterol.

High cholesterol is sometimes helped by probiotics.

Homocysteine, a normal breakdown product of the essential amino acid methionine, is believed to exert a number of toxic effects in the body. A growing body of evidence suggests that an elevated homocysteine level is a risk factor for heart disease, independent of other known risk factors such as elevated serum cholesterol and hypertension,1 though, in some research the link has appeared only in women.

While some scientists still have doubts,3 this association may represent a cause-effect relationship, as homocysteine appears to be capable of promoting the development of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Increased homocysteine levels also appear to be a risk factor for the development of stroke, and this compound may also play a role in the development of osteoporosis.5 Recently, elevated homocysteine levels have also been reported in people with inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) and Alzheimer’s disease.

Normally, the body detoxifies homocysteine by converting it back to methionine or by breaking it down further to a compound called cystathionine. However, the efficiency of these detoxification mechanisms may be impaired either by a genetic defect in one of the homocysteine-metabolizing enzymes or by a deficiency of one of the nutrients needed to activate these enzymes.

Many people have elevated blood levels of triglycerides (TGs). TGs are composed of three fatty chains linked together. This is the way most fat exists in both food and the human body. People with diabetes often have elevated TG levels; Successfully dealing with diabetes will, in some cases, lead to normalization of TG levels. Most studies indicate that people with elevated triglycerides are at higher risk of heart disease.

[Dr. Schulze]

It is really pretty simple. See, there are certain plant chemicals, phytochemicals, in a few herbs, called anthraquinones. There is a particular one called Emodin that is in certain varieties of Aloe that grow near the equator, and in Senna leaf and pod and in Cascara Sagrada bark.

Emodin doesn't have to be digested, or assimilated. It doesn't have to get into your nervous system. It has a direct chemical reaction with the smooth muscles in the intestine and makes them contract, along with other stimulating herbs in the formula like Cayenne pepper that do the same thing. I have never met a bowel to date that had the audacity to disobey this herbal order.

I have had babies that were so plugged up that they vomited fecal matter, that when x-rayed the fecal matter was found backed up into their stomachs. One had fecal matter backed up in its esophagus. The doctors always said there was no hope of ever having a working bowel and wanted to do colostomies on 6- month and 8-month old babies. I got ALL of their bowels working again, IN DAYS.

The release of histamine is necessary for sexual arousal & such release occurs during orgasm.

The Chronic Hives archives from the 'Ask Dr. Stoll' website are here .

The Desert, Siskiyou, and Hof van Axen essence sets are available through Three in One Concepts, (818) 841-4786.

Health is not just the absence of pain or other symptoms, nor is it just the presence of a fully "normal" set of biostatistical laboratory test results such as blood pressure, pulse rate, hemoglobin level, etc. Rather it is a state of wellbeing, physically, mentally, emotionally, socially and spiritually, with a sense of fulfilling one's mission in life. There is little holistic healing in the USA, inasmuch as most healing ignores the emotional, spiritual and karmic aspects of wellness. To some people "holistic healing" means using nutritional supplements in place of, or in addition to, medical drugs, to others "holistic healing" might mean using the services of a chiropractor, acupuncturist, homeopathic or naturopathic doctor, etc., instead of, or in addition to, a medical doctor. In this latter sense apparently one-third of the USA public currently is involved with "holistic health."

The best distinction between the allopathic and holistic models of healing that I have encountered is that given by Marilyn Ferguson in 1978. Her comparisons are partly summarized below. The allopathic model treats symptoms, the holistic model seeks patterns and causes; the former is specialized and treats parts of the person, the latter involves the whole person; pain and disease are regarded as negative vs. pain and "dis-ease" are considered as helpful signals of internal disharmony; disease is seen as a "bad" condition vs. as a process; the body is seen as a machine in good or bad repair vs. as a dynamic system of body-mind-spirit and of energy fields within fields (such as family, workplace, environment, culture, lifestyle, etc.); primary intervention is with surgery, drugs, radiation (the "cut-poison-burn" approach) vs. minimal intervention with technologies complemented by non-invasive use of such things as diet, nutritional supplements, exercise, colors, sounds, aromas, crystals, magnets, energy and aura balancing, psychological or clairsentient counseling, dream analysis, etc.; primary reliance on quantitative information (lab tests, instruments, charts, etc.) vs. qualitative information, including the client's statements and attitudes, the helper's intuition, etc; the therapist is an authority on whom the patient is dependent vs. the client accepts self responsibility and is autonomous, with the facilitator a therapeutic partner or catalyst; "prevention" is seen as an annual mammogram or other examinations vs. wholeness in relationships, work and play, goals, integration of and experience of a unity of body-mind-spirit, together with good nutrition, etc.

Posits a control system of interconnected components that function to keep a physical or chemical parameter of the body relatively constant.

A high blood level of the amino acid homocysteine has been implicated as a risk factor for heart disease. A group of American researchers now provide convincing proof that a high homocysteine level is also a potent risk factor for stroke.

According to the latest medical data, without adequate levels of B vitamins, the human body finds it difficult to convert high levels of the athereosclerosis-promoting compound homocysteine into harmless cystathionine, which may result in a more rapid onset of hardening of the arteries. Proper lecvels of these essential B vitamins may act as a preventative to arteriosclerosis. Homocysteine levels can be safely reduced by supplementing with folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12 or supplementation with probiotics.

Hops is rich in vitamin C and B-complex, and also contains various minerals. The natural antibiotic and antibacterial properties found in hops is beneficial in promoting healthy kidney functions, treating urinary tract infections and reducing painful urination.

Hops is beneficial as a digestive aid, stimulating the production of digestive fluids. Hops has been known to stimulate the appetite and relieve constipation and painful menstruation and headaches.

(Hops is not recommended for those who suffer from depression.)

As we grow older, the production of certain hormones, such as DHEA and melatonin, begins to drop off. As a result, our bodies begin to lose some of the benefits of these naturally-occurring substances. By supplementing with hormones, you can give your body the same advantages that it had in younger years.

Horsetail has been used a long time in both Chinese and European herbology to treat external wounds. Because of its tannin content, horsetail helps halt bleeding, making is a popular treatment for nosebleeds and hemorrhoids.

Horsetail's astringent properties are beneficial in fighting infections of the bladder and urinary tract. Horsetail alleviates painful urination, reduces inflammation of the prostate gland, and helps eliminate some cases of adolescent bed wetting.

Horsetail also supports the skeletal system strengthening the bones and connective tissues. Horsetail absorbs calcium and facilitates it to the body nourishing the nails, skin and hair. Silicic acid contained in horsetail helps improve circulation and build the immune and nervous systems.

An Illinois coal miner before he began to promote himself as a healer in the 20s, the colorful, dynamic Hoxsey mixed his medicine with flamboyant public statements that skillfully contrasted his populist heritage with the growing elitism and hauteur of the American medical profession at mid-twentieth century (Young, 1967). In common with many advocates of unconventional therapies, Hoxsey considered cancer a systemic disease, however localized its manifestations might appear to be. Hence his therapy aims to restore "physiological normalcy" to a disturbed metabolism throughout the body, with emphasis on purgation [cleansing], to help carry away wastes from the tumors he believed his herbal mixtures caused to necrotize [necrotize means to kill or cause to die; in this instance, to kill the tumor] (Hoxsey, 1956, 44-48, 60).

Hoxsey treated external cancers apparently with considerable success, even in the judgment of his critics, with local applications: sometimes by a red paste containing antimony sulfide, bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) and zinc chloride; sometimes by a yellow powder containing arsenic and antimony sulfides, various plant substances, talc, and what Hoxsey called yellow precipitate (JAMA, 1951, 253; Hoxsey, 1956, 47). In 1941 Frederick Mohs, a respected surgeon in Madison, Wisconsin, with the help of the Dean of the University of Wisconsin Medical School and several of its faculty, devised a method of surgically removing accessible cancers under complete microscopic control (Mohs, 1941). The substance which Dr. Mohs and his co-workers created for fixing the suspected tissue in situ, to enable him to excise it layer by microscopic layer, contained the same ingredients as Hoxsey's red paste. Dr. Mohs published his new method in 1941 in the ultra-respectable Archives of Surgery and in 1948 in JAMA (for later refinements, see Mohs, 1956; Phelan 1962, 1963a, and 1963b). Nonetheless, AMA spokesmen, during their accelerated onslaught on Hoxsey in the 40s and 50s, discounted the fact that Mohs' paste and Hoxsey's were identical. In condemning caustic pastes as one type of frauds and fables in 1949, the AMA implied that arsenic was the chief ingredient of Hoxsey's paste, on the basis of their own testing of a sample pirated in the 20s (JAMA, 1926, 57; Young, 1967, 365). Apparently Mohs' use of surgery (which, along with radiation, constituted the entire range of what the Council considered "established treatment") made his method, in contrast to Hoxsey's, "scientific" and acceptable. The Council failed to grasp the central fact that both men were using sanguinarine, an alkaloid of bloodroot which has potent antitumor properties described in the medical literature as early as 1829 (Young, 1967, 365; Hartwell, 1960, 23-24).

The most controversial aspect of Hoxsey's method, in the eyes of orthodox medicine, was the dark brown liquid which he used to treat internal cancer. For many years Hoxsey refused to divulge the formula for this substance, generating a frenzy of vituperation in the pages of JAMA over a period of decades. He later gave several differing accounts of its origin (Young, 1967, 362). According to his autobiography (Hoxsey, 1956, 62-64), it was his great-grandfather, a horse breeder named John Hoxsey, who developed it at mid-nineteenth century, out of grasses and flowering wild plants which John took from the pasture where a favorite stallion, afflicted with a cancerous growth, grazed daily until the growth necrotized. According to Harry, John Hoxsey reasoned that the wild plants had caused the stallion's recovery. He therefore concocted a liquid out of "red clover and alfalfa, buckthorn and prickly ash" (and other plants which John could not identify), gathered from the area where the stallion had apparently cured himself.

John continued adding ingredients from old home remedies for cancer, until he found an herbal mixture that seemed to help similarly afflicted horses in the area around his farm, between Carlinville and Edwardsville, Illinois. According to Harry, John's reputation as a man with the "healing tetch'" soon brought him business from horse breeders all over Illinois and as far away as Kentucky and Indiana (Hoxsey, 1956, 64).

As the autobiographical account has it, John Hoxsey bequeathed the formula to his son, who in turn presented it to Harry's father, John, a veterinary surgeon licensed under the grandfather clause of the Illinois Medical Practice Act of 1877. "Fired with the notion that a remedy effective in curing horses might be of equal benefit to human beings stricken with the same disease," John Hoxsey began "quietly treating cancer patients" under the supervision of two MDs in the region of Girard, Illinois, where he bought a livery stable shortly after Harry's birth in 1901. From the age of 8, Harry served as his father's trusted assistant, as growing numbers of human patients gradually crowded out his veterinary practice (Hoxsey, 1956, 66-71). Recognizing Harry's calling to be a doctor, John gave the family formulas as a deathbed legacy to Harry in 1919, charging him to go forth and heal the sick if need be, in defiance of the "High Priests of medicine" (Hoxsey, 1956, 65, 71-74; Young, 1967, 362-363).

Harry's initial unwillingness to disclose the formula, taken together with his peripatetic [moving frequently] existence (Taylorville, Illinois; Chicago; Clinton, Iowa;Philadelphia; Detroit; Wheeling; Atlantic City; Dallas), his growing financial success, and his open taunting of organized medicine, led Morris Fishbein to label Harry (and his late father) as charlatans. This assault, entitled "Blood Money" and published in 1947 in the Hearst chain's widely circulated magazine section, American Weekly, provoked Harry to sue for libel. He won though the judgment called only for a token payment for injury to Harry's and his father's reputations (Young, 1967, 374-375).

By 1950, court decisions had sufficiently broadened the labelling requirements of the 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to enable the FDA to act against Hoxsey's interstate shipments. In the ensuing litigation, Hoxsey revealed the composition of his long-secret preparation. He explained that, depending on the type and stage of cancer, and the individual patient's condition, he added to a basic solution of cascara (Rhamnus purshiana) and potassium iodide one or more of the following plant substances: poke root (Phytolacca americana); burdock root (Arctium lappa); barberry or berberis root (Berberis vulgaris); buckthorn bark (Rhamnus frangula); Stillingia root (Stillingia sylvatica); and prickly ash bark (Zanthoxylum americanum) (Young, 1967, 375; Hoxsey, 1956, 45-46; JAMA, 1951, 252; JAMA, 1954, 667; Farnsworth, 1988).

For all that the AMA and the FDA had been trying to force this revelation from Hoxsey for more than a quarter-century, they did not respond to it by investigating these botanical constituents for possible pharmacological properties. Instead, the AMA Bureau of Investigation dismissed the entire formula as worthless: "only potassium iodide has any recognized therapeutic activity. "The Bureau added that "Any person possessing a modicum of knowledge of the pharmacological action of drugs should know that any combination of ingredients listed on the current label of Hoxsey Tonic.. .is without any therapeutic merit in the treatment of cancer." Disregarding the most fundamental question in science -- i.e., What is the evidence? -- the AMA insisted that "Any intelligent physician" could testify that all of these substances were worthless in the internal treatment of cancer (JAMA, 1954, 667-668).

A specialist in pharmacological and experimental therapeutics from Johns Hopkins testified at the FDA trial that there was no basis for therapeutic claims for any of the contents, but he did not publish either laboratory or clinical data to support this conclusion. A noted cancer research scientist testified that, in an experiment he had conducted for the FDA (also apparently unpublished), malignant growths in mice appeared larger at autopsy than before the mice received the Hoxsey tonic (Young, 1967, 375-376). The FDA and the NCI merely reviewed cases. In the public warning issued against Hoxsey in 1956, Commissioner George P. Larrick stated that the FDA, after what he called a thorough and long-continuing investigation, had "not found a single verified cure of internal cancer effected by the Hoxsey treatment." Larrick's warning said an NCI review of case histories submitted by Hoxsey likewise failed to provide evidence of therapeutic effect (Larrick, 1956).

In addition to an extensive literature attesting the folk use of Hoxsey's herbal ingredients in the treatment of cancer (Hartwell, 1967 and 1971), the orthodox medical literature at that time contained at least one suggestive article about one of them, based on empirical observation by a regular, orthodox practitioner. In 1896, in the Medical and Surgical Reporter (Philadelphia), a surgeon described the action of poke root as retarding the growth of epitheliomas and increasing the patient's survival time, if it was given before ulceration became extensive (Millard, 1896, 421). Despite bibliographic tools that make it easy to search the medical literature back through the 19th century and beyond, this article had apparently escaped the attention of the AMA, the FDA, and the NCI.

More recent literature leaves no doubt that Hoxsey's formula, however strangely concocted by modern scientific standards, does indeed contain many plant substances of marked therapeutic activity [emphasis added]. In fact, orthodox scientific research has by now identified antitumor activity of one sort or another in all but three of Hoxsey's plants and two of these three are purgatives, one of them (Rhamnus purshiana) containing the anthraquinone glycoside structure now recognized as predictive of antitumor properties (Kupchan, 1976). Between 1964 and 1968 four articles appeared in Lancet, Pediatrics, and Nature, describing the mitogenic activity of pokeweed, which triggers the immune system by increasing the number of lymphocytes, causing the formation of plasma cells, and elevating levels of immunoglobulin G (Farnes, 1964; Barker, 1965; Barker, 1966; Downing, 1968).

In 1966 two Hungarian scientists, engaged in a screening program at the University of Szeged, published their findings of "considerable antitumor activity" in a purified fraction of burdock, a plant which they included in their project because of its use as a folk remedy for new growths and ulcerations (Dombradi, 1966). In 1972 Kupchan described the growth-inhibiting activity of sesquiterpene lactones, a structural group which includes burdock (Kupchan, 1972). In 1984 researchers at Nagoya University, Japan, found in burdock a new type of desmutagen: a substance uniquely capable of reducing mutagenicity both in the absence and in the presence of metabolic activation. So important is this new property that these scientists named it the B-factor, for burdock factor (Morita et al., 1984).

Two recent studies from the Orient, one Japanese, one Chinese, have established the presence of antitumor substances in barberry (which Hoxsey also sometimes called berberis root). Testing tumor size in mice by the total packed cell volume method, Hoshi and his co-workers found strong antitumor activity in berberrubine, an alkaloid isolated from Berberis vulgaris (Hoshi, 1976). Also in 1976, Owen et al. derived from berberine a new antitumor substance which they have named Lycobetaine (Owen, 1976).

At the University of Virginia in the mid-70s, Kupchan and Karim isolated an antileukemic principle from buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula). Their discovery that the efficacy of this substance in leukemia is vehicle-dependent led these scientists to advise re-testing of other anthraquinone plant substances for similar antitumor activity (Kupchan, 1976).

The least studied of Hoxsey's herbs to date are stillingia sylvatica and prickly ash (Zanthoxylum americanum), but even these are represented in the scholarly literature. In 1980 two German scientists discovered several new diterpene-esters (a chemical group known to have antitumor activity) in Stillingia root, the portion of this plant used by Hoxsey (Adolf, 1980). At a symposium on folk medicine in 1986, Varro Tyler observed that, despite the wide use of northern prickly ash bark in folk medicine, it has been nearly 50 years since any studies were done of its chemical composition and there have never been activity-directed fractionation studies. Noting that pharmacological tests have revealed significant anti-inflammatory and anesthetic properties in several closely related species, Tyler urges scientists to study prickly ash for these and other therapeutic properties (Tyler, 1987, 106).

Whether there is therapeutic merit in Hoxsey's particular formula for internal use remains as much a question today as it was in 1925, despite provocative findings of antitumor properties in many of the individual herbs he used. Neither laboratory nor clinical reports have roused the AMA, the FDA, or the ACS to re-examine the possibility of efficacy.

In adding Hoxsey's remedy to its Unproven Methods list (ACS, 1971), the ACS used its customary phraseology about lack of evidence of worth. In actuality, except for work with mice done in the 50s by an outside contractor for the NCI, but never published in the scientific literature, it appears that Hoxsey's treatment has never been tested, either in animals or in humans. The only negative investigation cited by the ACS was a three-day visit to Hoxsey's clinic by several Canadian physicians, who failed to find merit in his methods (American Cancer Society; Moss, 1980).

As recently as 1965, Morris Fishbein, former long-time editor of JAMA, repeated in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine a rolling, melodramatic sentence he had first coined for a popular presentation of the AMA case against quackery on the March of Time. In 1947, in a major JAMA editorial called "Hoxsey Cancer Charlatan", Fishbein reiterated this favorite phrase: "Of all the ghouls who feed on the bodies of the dead and the dying, the cancer quacks are most vicious and most heartless." Verbiage such as this, widely circulated by the influential writer who was the "Voice of American Medicine" for more than four decades, has done much to set the low level of discourse and the emotional rather than analytical tone that have characterized the American medical profession's response to unorthodox remedies.

In 1976, surveying the results of the plant screening program begun in 1960 by the Cancer Chemotherapy National Services Center at the NCI, Richard Spjut noted that the occurrence of activity was found to be higher in plants reported in folk literature than in plants collected at random, "suggesting a correlation between plants used in folklore and those with anticancer activity" (Spjut, 1976, 979). Jonathan Hartwell, the chemist who long directed this national program of drug development from plant products, also values folk usage as a guide to plants likely to yield therapeutically active substances. In his Plant Remedies for Cancer (1960), Hartwell quoted historian of science, George Sarton, on the recurrent phenomenon of initial medical hostility toward folk remedies that eventually become valued tools in conventional medical usage. Writing in 1947, Sarton had in mind chaulmoogra (for leprosy), cinchona bark (for malaria), and variolation (for smallpox): to these we can now add (for cancer alone) periwinkle, mistletoe (labelled a "promotion" by Morris Fishbein as recently as 1965), Mayapple, autumn crocus, and chaparral tea. Sarton counselled the profession to exhibit less intellectual arrogance and more open-mindedness: "The remembrance of these astounding folk discoveries should sober our thoughts when we criticize too freely the old pharmacopoeias. It is easy to make fun of mediaeval recipes; it is more difficult and may be wiser to investigate them. Instead of assuming that the mediaeval pharmacist was a benighted fool, we might wonder whether there was not sometimes a justification for his strange procedure." (quoted in Hartwell, 1960, 24).

The original Hunter-gatherers lived in the warm, temperate climates of central Africa. Their diet was decidedly animal based and was supplemented primarily with indigenous fruits. Recent Hunter-gatherers (those living during the last 100,000 years) were different. Lack of game forced their migration into relatively cold or arid climates. While the mainstay of their diet continued to be animals, fruit was not plentiful in their new homes. In many cases fruit was non-existent. These recent Hunter-gatherers became well adapted to root vegetables and other hearty, edible plants rather than fruit as their principal source of carbohydrate.

This might seem like a subtle difference but it is an important one. Those that have inherited a Hunter-gatherer metabolism today are usually pulling from a gene pool of more recent ancestors that lived in these cold/arid climates. A great number of Americans trace their genetic roots back to the cool climates of northern Europe. It is not surprising that they are well adapted to root vegetables and other wild, indigenous plants. At the same time they are poorly adapted to many fruits ?especially those that can only be cultivated in temperate climates.

One familiar problem facing individuals moving to the Hunter-gatherer diet is the continued ingestion of too much carbohydrate. Excessive carbohydrate consumption over-stimulates insulin production in the Hunter-gatherer metabolism. Sugar cravings and fatigue are the usual symptoms as blood glucose levels tumble following a meal. In essence this hypoglycemic ‘bonk?is tied to the carbohydrate level of your last meal. Experiment with reducing carbohydrate while increasing the fat/oil content of your meals to find the appropriate balance.

While carbohydrate intake should be limited, a meal should not consist exclusively of meat/fish/poultry. It is important that a bit of carbohydrate (either fruit or vegetable) be eaten with each meal for optimal energy production.

Cholesterol is a critical component in the Hunter-gatherer diet. While nutritional ‘experts?have roundly vilified cholesterol they fail to note that this nutrient is the essential building block in the synthesis of a number of key hormones including cortisone -- our most important ‘anti-stress? hormone. Hunter-gatherers should endeavor to keep their total cholesterol levels above 185 ml/dl. Total cholesterol levels below 165 are signs of dietary cholesterol deficiency.

Weather plays a significant role in the metabolic needs of Hunter-gatherers. Dr. Watson noted that the Hunter-gatherer metabolism would become more extreme during very cold or very hot conditions. At these times carbohydrates should be even further restricted while increasing fat/purine intake. The opposite phenomenon is seen during periods of mild weather. Hunter-gatherers tolerate higher levels of carbohydrate and seem to need less meat/poultry/fish when temperatures moderate.

These metabolic variances highlight the degree to which our metabolic needs are genetically programmed by thousands of years of adaptation. Hunter-gatherers faced with long cold winters or hot, arid droughts would by necessity have limited access to vegetation. Moderate temperatures coincided with more abundant availability of plant foods. Temperature changes would signal our ancestor’s metabolism to make the proper adaptive response. Hunter-gatherers carry that same metabolic response to temperature extremes to this very day.

Each person whose parent has HD is born with a 50 50 chance of inheriting the faulty gene. Anyone who inherits the faulty gene will, at some stage, develop the disease. A genetic test is available form the Regional Genetic Clinics throughout the country. This will usually be able to show whether someone has inherited the faulty gene, but it will not show the age at which they will develop the disease.

The solvent properties found in hydrangea help break-down and prevent further formation of stones and deposits in the urinary and glandular systems. In addition, bitter compounds found in Hydrangea make it a great blood purifier and cleanser for the urinary tract.

Hydrangea promotes the overall health of the prostate gland, helping reduce inflammation and swelling. Hydrangea also contains nutrients and minerals, including a fairly large amount of calcium, which is beneficial in strengthening the bones and connective tissues.

Acid secreted by the gastric glands of the stomach that breaks food down for absobtion in the intestine.

• Hydrocortisone is in a class of drugs called steroids. Hydrocortisone reduces swelling and decreases your body's immune response.
• Hydrocortisone is used to treat many different conditions. It is used to treat endocrine (hormonal) disorders when the body does not produce enough of its own steroids. It is also used to treat many immune and allergic disorders, such as arthritis, lupus, severe psoriasis, severe asthma, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease.

The PDR reference is here.

Hydrogen tends to ionize by losing its single electron and form single H+ ions which are simply isolated protons since the hydrogen atom contains no neutrons. A hydrogen bond occurs when the electron of a single hydrogen atom is shared with another electronegative atom such as oxygen that lacks an electron.

Dilation of the collecting system within the kidney which may include dilation of the calyces and or renal pelvis. Usually associated with obstruction though there may be dilation without obstruction.

Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and the risk increases as blood pressure rises.

Many minerals and vitamins require proper stomach acid to be absorbed optimally—examples are iron, calcium, zinc, and B-complex vitamins, including folic acid. People with achlorhydria (no stomach acid) or hypochlorhydria (low stomach acid) may be at risk for developing certain mineral deficiencies. Since minerals are important not only for body structure (as in bones and teeth) but also to activate enzymes (such as superoxide dismutase) and hormones (such as insulin), deficiencies can lead to health problems.

One of the major tasks of stomach acid is to break proteins down to the point that pancreatic proteolytic enzymes can easily work. If this does not occur, these proteins might be absorbed in more complicated chains. This malabsorption has been suggested by some researchers to be a major cause of immunological stress and food allergies.

In addition, partially digested protein provides a favorable environment for “unfriendly?bacteria that live in the colon. Some of these bacteria produce toxic substances that can be absorbed by the body.

Some researchers have found that people with certain diseases sometimes have an inability to produce enough stomach acid. This does not mean the diseases are caused by too little stomach acid, only that there is a correlation. Jonathan Wright, M.D., will usually test patients?stomach acid if they suffer from food allergies, arthritis (both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis), pernicious anemia (too little vitamin B12), asthma, diabetes, vitiligo, eczema, tic douloureaux, Addison’s disease, celiac disease, lupus erythematosus, or thyroid disease.

Hypoglycemia can be an inherited disorder however there is a correlation between hypoglycemia and a poor diet. This increase in hypoglycemia due to an inadequate diet, includes a glut of over refined carbohydrates, white sugar, caffeine, and alcohol being consumed.

Individuals with hypoglycemia may experience such symptoms as shakiness, excessive hunger, abdominal pain, headache, light-headedness, irritability, cravings for sweets, and nervousness. The intensity of the symptom is determined by the length of time since the last meal. Individuals with hypoglycemia experience large surges of epinephrine in the bloodstream at the exact moment that they experience the symptom.

[Dr. Christopher]

Most hypoglycemics have problems feeding themselves, for they crave protein and sugar, yet these substances are wearing on the adrenals, which are often exhausted in hypoglycemics. You need to feed the adrenals with licorice root and hawthorne berries, the latter being said to produce natural adrenalin. You need to take high-quality protein, as in the nuts and seeds and legumes. Sprouted sunflower seeds, sprouted almonds, and chia seeds are all high-quality sources of protein. The other seeds and nuts are good as well. You can soak and low-heat legumes, particularly pinto beans, which are high in potassium and easily digested, for satisfying and long-lasting protein. Be sure that you eat plenty of vegetables, both raw and cooked, in preference to too many fruits, which can overload the system with sugar.

Read An Alternative Approach To Hypoglycemia By Elizabeth O'Brien, ND

See also Bipolar Depression, Mania

The Hypothalamus is also involved in the regulation of body temperature, water balance, blood sugar and fat metabolism. The Hypothalamus also regulates other glands such as the Ovaries, Parathyroids and Thyroid.

During the Chronic Bracing/ the Fight or Flight response, the hypothalamus shunts blood circulation away from the intestinal tract. That is not a problem so long as it lasts only a few minutes or hours. It is a serious problem when it is present 24 hours a day for years on end. Eventually LGS occurs as this reduced blood flow is insufficient for normal intestinal wall repair and regeneration.

[Anti-Spasmodic Tincture] To be used in cases of apoplexy, convulsions, croup, fainting, cramps, delirium, tremors, hysteria, etc., also good for pyorrhea, mouth sores, coughs, throat infections, tonsillitis, etc. Use 1/2 to one teaspoon in a glass of distilled water as a gargle, and use until throat clears, also take one teaspoon in distilled water morning and evening. You can buy Antispasmodic Tincture here .