Every day I come across articles and studies describing the harmful and sometimes fatal side effects of medications - even common over the counter ones that have been used for years.  Sometimes the harmful effects don't even show up in the users of the meds, but show up in their kids instead.  This is not really surprising if you understand that the study of medicines - pharmacology- actually means the study of poisons.  Yes, the word pharmacology comes from the Greek word pharmakon, which means poison.

This is not as bad as it sounds.  In your body there are only three disease states - excess, confusion, and deficiency.  The thousands of disease names come from identifying exactly which tissue type or group of tissues are reacting with one of these three disease states.  When the body goes into excess, it is going into inflammation. 

Back in early Greek days, this was the most troublesome and common condition for them to deal with - infections and inflammations.  Confusion produces diseases like cancer and deficiency produces degenerative conditions and neither of these were much of a concern in early Greece.  Most folks died young and never had to deal with these conditions.  They are much more common now.

The Greek thought was that if the body is over-reacting than the remedy was to poison the body a little bit to calm it down.  This is the same process our modern pharmacology still uses today.  It works fine for things like a fever.  The aspirin or Tylenol poisons a couple biochemical pathways that produce inflammatory chemicals and these stop the pain in the area.

The problem is that our modern medicines are increasingly more powerful and unintentionally poison (suppress) many more pathways in the body than intended.  It is this unintentional suppression (poisoning) that produces the side effects and sometimes death.

Natural Medicine

Natural medicine works from a different principle.  Instead of suppressing body functions and biochemical pathways, natural medicine tries to enhance functions and pathways in the body.  Our body is built with checks and balances for everything and for every pathway that goes wrong there is another pathway designed to balance it.  The trick is to find substances in nature that stimulate those balancing pathways into greater action.  This is the opposite of pharmacology, which tries to control function through suppression with poisons.

There is a place for heavy handed control methods through the use of poisons - like the use of powerful drugs to save a person from immanent death.  The problem is that it is inappropriate for 80 to 90% of the conditions that patients seek medical help for.  Unfortunately, in this country pharmacology is the only option given to medical doctors for treating their patients.  Natural remedies are frowned upon and doctors risk loosing their license if they try to use natural means with their patients.

Fortunately Chiropractors have always used natural remedies and defined their profession by banning the use of pharmacology based medicines under the Chiropractic license.  Naturopathy uses both sides of the fence in the two states that it is a licensed profession.  Acupuncture brought a wealth of natural Chinese herbal knowledge to this country to add to our natural medicine resources.

Natural medicine is gentle and supportive of the body when properly applied.  But just because something comes from nature does not mean it is always safe to use.  There are many natural poisons that can be quite deadly and many more natural compounds that can create unbalance in your body and loss of your health.  For instance the California highway favorite - the Oleander bush - has a deadly poison in its leaves.  Do not eat them!

But properly used natural herbal compounds, essential oils, minerals, foods, and activities can promote your health without the risk of hazardous side effects or death.

So with that in mind I started looking in my medicine chest to see what I use to support my health and healing at home without dangerous drugs.  There is quite a bit of stuff in my bathroom cabinet - so much it overflows under the bathroom sink and into the kitchen.  So this will probably take several newsletter issues to cover it all.

Antiseptics

The first area of concern for bathroom medicine is how do you stop bad germs, viruses, or fungi from infecting a wound?  Compounds that do this are called antiseptics.  My first line of defense for little cuts, bites, skin inflammations, and so on is a purifying essential oil blend that Ellen learned about and used years ago when she was an aesthetician.  It would work miracles on facial inflammations (acne) and infections because this blend would penetrate deeply into the skin and kill the bad bacteria under the skin.  Your typical antibiotic ointments have a petroleum base that does not penetrate the skin, so they do not get down into the involved area and keep the bad bugs out.

Because this was a professional product only, the price was/is outrageous.  She pays $30 for a 1 ounce bottle of this stuff (plus shipping) and was expected to sell it to clients for $60 a bottle.  A while back I decided I could duplicate the recipe and even improve on it for ourselves for less.  A couple weeks ago I bought some cool little essential oil applicator bottles so I could share this neat stuff with my patients.  I think I will call this product Purify.  The cute little hot pink bottles should make it visually clear that this is for inflammation.  Plus as a real bonus, these bottles have a roller ball applicator.  This makes it much easier to use and safer to carry around without fear of spilling.

The blend is an interesting group of essential oils - Cajeput, Atlas Cedarwood, Juniperberry, Bulgarian Lavender, and Lemon essential oil in a base of Grapeseed oil protected by astaxanthan (the most powerful natural antioxidant discovered so far).  These oils are chosen for their antiseptic properties while also nurturing the skin.  Many essential oils are good at killing bacteria and fungi, but too often they are harsh on the skin and can cause reactions.  These oils are powerful but have a good track record of supporting healing the skin without irritation.

The second most common antiseptic we use is Tea Tree Oil.  There is a ton of information on the antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial properties of Tea Tree Oil.  It is a little harsher than the Purify Oil, but serves as a good backup.

The third most common resource we use is DAG (Dickerson's Antiseptic Gargle).  This is an old family remedy that was sold as a cure all for all kinds of problems.  It can be used as a gargle for mouth problems and infections.  In fact I have seen it save teeth in really bad cases of gum infection in patients.  But mouth applications are just the tip of the iceberg.  It heals up bedsores like magic, heals wounds of all sorts, it can be used as a liniment for sprains and strains, even used as a vaginal douche. 

On a more conventional level we always have iodine, hydrogen peroxide, and rubbing alcohol on hand for quick sterilization of areas before using essential oils if the area got dirty and needed to be cleaned out.  In this same camp is the Colloidal Silver I manufacture which can be used the same way, though I mostly use the Colloidal Silver internally to knock out bugs whenever I feel a cold or flu bug trying to catch me.  I will use a couple ounces every hour all day long and that usually kicks the bug out of my system.

The last antiseptic I want to mention actually gets kept in the kitchen - Raw Honey.  Honey is a fabulous way to keep abrasions and burns free from infections in a way that is very gentle yet profound.  In fact medical science has finally admitted the superior benefits of using honey over antibiotic ointments as honey can not promote resistant strains of bacteria like the ointments can.  But of course the pharmaceutical company had to process the honey into a super pure pharmaceutical grade of honey for doctors.  The raw stuff dripping from the honey comb is actually more potent - go for that.  Don't use the cheap stuff in the grocery store.  Too often it has been cut with corn syrup to reduce the cost.  Get the real stuff - raw and natural.

Well this is it for installment one.  There is a lot more stuff in my medicine chest - more later.    

Take care of yourself.

Good Journey,

Mix 1 heaping cup of Candy Mix with ¼ cup water in a deep saucepan.  Cook over medium high heat stirring constantly until boiling.  Boil for 1 minute then turn off the heat.  Add extra vanilla at this time if you like a strong vanilla taste. 

Check the temperature with your candy thermometer.  When it gets down to 150 degrees, add 8 ounces of unsweetened chocolate discs (or 8 ounces of unsweetened baking chocolate) and mix until chocolate is melted and well blended.  This may now be poured into a buttered shallow pan for cooling and cutting into individual pieces or you may mix a couple cups of Rice Chex mix, dried fruit, or nuts into the chocolate mix first before turning it out into a shallow pan for cooling, cutting, and wrapping into individual pieces. Be aware that this one batch of candies contains about 200 grams of fiber.  Your digestion is probably only used to 10 to 20 grams of fiber per day at best.  So even though this is low carb and no sugar, don't eat too many pieces of this candy per day until your system gets used to the increased fiber levels.

 

 

david@fairoakshealth.com

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About Dr. DeLapp

Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 30 years.  He began experimenting with  medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis.  In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education.  Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic.  He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice. 
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health. 
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities. 
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth.  The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework.  Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.

Dr David DeLapp DC
Chiropractor

Ellen Flowers FGM
Spiritual Life Coach

 

Somatic Therapies

 

Lorena Morales