Did you know

Did you know that Chrysanthemum contains natural healing properties, but only if prepared by a natural therapist, or herbalist. The Chrysanthemum contains properties which can help the heart, at this stage I am not sure if it can lower blood pressure, or help cholesterol levels.
It would seem that the leaves, flowers, and petals if prepared in the correct way can lower fevers, soothes inflammation, dilates the coronary artery disease, increasing the blood flow to the heart. Also for angina,and hypertension.

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Grand Rounds is Up

Grand rounds, the weekly collection of posts from the health blogosphere is up at Get Better Health. This week it's the Emotional Edition.

Also Patients for a Moment - posts specifically from patients -- is up at The Road I'm On.

Sweet Moments

Richard, my sweetie, is worried about his vision. I am worried about my pain condition. These worries usually play quietly through the rumblings of our day. Sometimes they squeeze through the busy-ness and force our attention, insisting we sit with them for a while. Richard covers one eye as he looks at the angles in the living room, searching for squiggles or blind spots. I curl over and mumble softly to my pain, asking it to calm down, to go away.

The other morning, we awoke, spooning -- huddled under the warm quilt, arms and legs entwined, luxuriating in utter coziness and love.

Later that day, Richard said to me, "You know, I don't need my vision to enjoy a moment like this morning. I can have that sweetness, no matter what."

What sweet moments have you experienced, moments whose sweetness isn't tainted by illness?

Alternative ways of treatment

Alternative ways of treating illness and disease such as cancer and heart disease using natural cures.

How Do You Grieve for Your Partner?

Sorry for the absence. I was with a friend who was dying from leukemia and then with her husband and adult sons after her passing.

She and her husband were one of those lucky couples who totally adored each other, from the day they met. And he continues to adore her after her passing. They were so loving to each other that even when they fought, each person tried to comfort the other for the pain he or she was inflicting. To be angry and compassionate is a high state of relationship.

Sixty people stood by her open grave for over two hours on a bitingly cold New England afternoon. Many shared stories that commemorated her selflessness, her vivaciousness, and her love for her husband, family, and friends. Everyone helped shovel dirt onto her plain wooden coffin, an act of final respect her community and family paid to her.

The husband is bereft, robbed of half of his spirit, his memory, his daily reality. How can he preserve the forty years they spent together; and how is he to grieve for the remaining 20 or 30 years he will have without her? Right now he is being a good host to all those who have come to gather in her memory. He is worried about how his children are doing. He went back to the hospital where she was treated and died to thank the nurses and aides and doctors who cared for her. He has had a few episodes of crying on the shoulder of some dear friends. He cries more freely at night, alone, in bed.

I took him on a walk around their neighborhood. He started to tell me how sorry he was that she had so much loss and pain in her life. Sorry that he could not diminish it or protect her from it. Sorry that he could not help her. I told him to tell her. Talk to her. Say to her, "I am sorry you had pain and that I could not make it better for you." He asked me to tell her for him. I did. Then he cried. A few minutes later he sighed deeply and said, "I did make it better for her. I did." Then he turned to me and said, "You know, this is like a prayer. Better than a prayer."

We are so amputated from expressions of grief in our western, U.S. culture. We hurry grief along as if it were not a river. We don't have a catalog of possibilities for holding and expressing our grief, so we wonder what is OK and what is not. Some may have religious ritual to guide them; many don't; and even religious ritual may not offer all the forms of expression a mourner might need.

Mourning, I believe, does not only occur after the moment of death. I think we (both the ill and the well partner) experience forms of grief with each diminishment of function and possibility that illness inflicts throughout its course.

Grief, I believe, is not completely apart from celebration. Grief forces memory, and memory connects us to experiences we cherished and invites us to reclaim a life that was a force of joy. A life that merits celebration.

Her husband wrote this in an email he sent to me:
"People have told me that I should be nourished by my memory of our relationship. I cry because the despair, the yearning ache I suffer, is just not sated by remembering the way in which she and I loved any more than my hunger is satisfied by remembering a delicious meal I once ate."

I emailed him back:
I think remembering is not a substitute, it's not even an approximation. It's one way to remain connected to not only her, but to a vital part of ourselves. The good part -- the part she inspired us to get better at.

Remembering, talking to her, seeing her in her favorite chair or playing with the dogs. These acts bring a rush of sweetness that is too soon eclipsed by the overpowering sadness. But I want the sadness as much as I want the sweet memories. It all helps me to feel close to her, to feel her in my present and not just the past.

In the Jewish tradition, we don't ask that the mourner be nourished by the memory of the person who died. We say - May her memory be a blessing to you.

I think that means that at some point in time, maybe now, may the ways in which she lives inside you help you to continue to be the best person you can be.
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How have you mourned for your partner, or for yourself? What advice or counsel or comfort did you receive that was helpful? What did you receive that was definitely not helpful?

Natural cures for angina

Are there natural cures for Angina?.

Angina, sometimes called angina pectoris, is the pain that occurs when your heart isn’t getting enough oxygen. You feel a sensation of heaviness or pressure in the middle of your chest. Sometimes the pain radiates to your left arm, throat, or jaw.

Exercise, a large meal, emotional upset, or stress can bring on an attack of angina. But the condition that makes such attacks possible is narrowing of the coronary arteries, which carry oxygen-rich blood to the heart.

What makes these arteries leading to the heart become narrower? Little clumps of cholesterol-based substances called plaques, which accumulate along the artery walls. It’s similar to the gunk that builds up in the pipe draining your kitchen sink.

Elevated blood cholesterol is one cause of plaque, but it’s not the sole cause. According to current theories, the initial step for plaque formation is a injury to the inner lining of the artery, called the endothelium.

What causes that injury? Scientists don’t yet know for certain. But as in the beginning of a murder mystery, many suspects have been implicated. Cigarette smoking is one common cause, as are the normal chemical processes of aging. Vitamin B6 deficiency is thought to play a role. Other possible factors include immune-system malfunctions; physical injury, viral, bacterial, or chemical assaults; drug use; and poor diet. Also, certain chemical agents can cause blood cells called platelets to clump together, helping plaque to form.

Angina is a serious problem and should never be ignored; it can lead to a heart attack. This is not time to play the stoic. If angina-like symptoms begin to occur with greater frequency or with less provocation than usual, they could be a sign of worsening heart disease and impending heart attack. And if you have any undiagnosed chest pain, see your doctor immediately for an evaluation.

Because angina is such a serious disease, you must continue to see your family physician or cardiologist on a regular basis. If you are on medications for angina, work with an experienced herbalist-there are many potentially dangerous ways that drugs for the heart and herbs can interact. Do not stop taking prescribed medications on your own.

Herbal treatments for angina focus on preventing attacks. Once and episode of angina is occurring, take your nitroglycerin. Herbs can do much for angina-lower blood cholesterol, prevent and heal injuries to the endothelium of arteries, prevent the clumping of blood platelets, shrink plaques, and expand or dilate involved arteries. Herbs can also strengthen the heart in general, especially the herbs that improve energy metabolism within the heart.

There is a cure out there

Ever since I was young I was interested in alternative ways of healing people. In my early days I had a great deal of success in treating my family and friends in a natural way, with minor complaints.
I still think think there are natural cures to yet be discovered in such places as in the Amazon jungle, or in the depths of the oceans.
Some plant, or a fish that heal people with serious illness such as cancer, or heart disease.
The cure may be right in front of us, in our own garden. I eat small amounts of a leaf that is unknown to me, just to see its effect. I do not advise doing this, as some plants, or herbs can be very poisonous.
Holistic cancer cures