Hawthorn tea helps you sleep better

Hawthorn flowers, leaves and fruits are used for medicinal purposes, as all have a vasodilatory effect. If stress, heat, or worries do not let you sleep, drink hawthorn tea. It is an excellent remedy for insomnia and balances blood pressure. Hawthorn fruits contain flavonoids, fatty and essential oils, tannins, sugars, and vitamins C and B. They have a calming, sedative effect and are therefore recommended in treating arterial hypertension, headaches, and heart disorders with a nervous substrate. Hawthorn calms the sensations of heaviness around the heart, and regulates the heart rate. Infusion of this plant heals migraines and disorders related to menopause, balances blood pressure, and cures pectoral angina and disturbances caused by the menstrual cycle.

Hawthorn helps in cases of anemia, states of weakness, old age, and serious illness, and it is an adjuvant in bronchial asthma. As a remedy against insomnia, one cup of hawthorn infusion is recommended before bedtime, or 10-15 drops of hawthorn tincture in the evening. Large doses may have a sedating effect. Use with care during pregnancy.

Viola tricolor - The Wild Pansy/ Heartsease

Heartsease tea will get rid of your allergies

Do you suffer from allergies? Drink wild pansy tea. The plant is the best known allergy remedy. It contains saponozides, flavonoid, salicylic compounds, carotenoids, anthocyanins, tannins, volatile oil, vitamins C and A. It has depurative action, clearing the blood of toxins, and it is diuretic, anti-allergic, and slightly laxative. Great results are achieved in people sensitive to colds and bronchitis. Drink one to two liters of tea per day, for one to three months.

A cure for cancer

Heartsease, a plant that attracts attention with its fragrance, and vivid and varied colors, is a miracle remedy for detoxifying the body. For centuries, however, in the folk medicine, the wild pansy is the plant that heals all skin diseases. This remedy has complex therapeutic actions that release the flow of bronchial secretions, prevent super-infections, and controls asthma attacks. Furthermore, recent studies showed the wild pansy contains very strong substances with cytostatic effect. Therefore, the researchers say that the next generation of cytostatic drugs will contain extracts from this plant. In the treatment of lung cancer, six teaspoons of wild pansy powder are administered traditionally during the course of three months, followed by a three to four weeks break. Studies have shown that the same treatment is an effective therapy for other forms of cancer, such as gastric and intestinal cancer.

Cabbage Soup Diet

The Cabbage Soup Diet is the diet that, the more you eat, the more you loose weight.  During this diet, you can not eat just anything, and your main food for a week (the diet takes a week) is cabbage soup.
How to prepare the cabbage soup?

Choose a couple medium onions, 2 green peppers, 1 medium (or 2 small) cabbage, 2 boxes of tomato paste or sauce, salt and pepper as you prefer, 1 Knorr cube, celery leaves, hot pepper (if you like spicy food) and parsley. Wash and cut all veggies and place with all ingredients into a pot of water just enough to cover the vegetables. Boil 10 minutes at high heat, and for 2 hours at low heat. Eat as much as you can. The soup is nourishing and pretty tasty


The diet
This diet is recommended for 7 days at the end of which, if you do not cheat, you lose between 5 and 7 kilograms.

• On the first day, along with cabbage soup, you are allowed to eat fruit as much as you want and drink and a lot of plain water.
• The next day, combine the cabbage soup with vegetables and water, but avoid vegetables such as beans, peas, potatoes and corn.
• The third day you can have both fruits and vegetables. And a lot of water, of course.
• The fourth day eat 3 bananas and the soup. Do not forget the water.
• The fifth day you can have 800 grams of beef or chicken with the soup, and lots of water.
• In the sixth day you can eat boiled rice along with the soup you are already used too, plus water.
• The seventh and last day you can have some fish and more soup, of course.

If you feel you lose too much weight in the early days, stop the diet for 2 days and then start again.
It is better not to use this diet for more than a week. If you want to lose more than 7 kilograms, take a break for a week and then start all over again.
Good luck!

Pot Marigolds relieve bowel disease

Beautiful pot marigolds, popularly known as Calendula or simply marigolds, are appreciated and valued as ornamental flowers, but especially for their therapeutic and culinary effects. Just a few people know that their leaves are very tasty and healthy in salads of raw vegetables, and their petals have the same properties as the saffron.

Since ancient times, the pot marigolds were famous for their healing virtues, mainly for the stomach, intestines and liver. Moreover, in many parts of Europe, these plants are nicknamed "flower rain", because they act as a barometer: the day the flowers do not open their corolla in morning between 6 and 7am, it will rain.

Healing virtues

Marigold flowers contain saponins, carotenoids, fatty acids, volatile oils and manganese salts. This chemical composition stimulates the functions of the liver and kidney, and help in the absorption of calcium and iron. In addition, they have anti- inflammatory, antibacterial and healing effect, and therefore are indicated for the treatment of infections, inflammation and skin lesions. Pot marigolds products are recommended in the treatment of many diseases, such as hyperacid gastritis, gastric and duodenal ulcers, inflammation of the colon, liver disease, acne, leucorrhoea, burns, frostbite, purulent wounds, skin cancer, skin ulcers, breast cancer, skin diseases, fungus, osteoporosis, and the list does not end there.

Pot marigolds are used as powder, simple infusions, combined infusions, tincture, essential oil and balm.

Internal Remedies

Combined infusion for ulcers and gastritis

These diseases are treated during eight weeks with a combined infusion prepared as follows: Macerate four tablespoons of flowers into 500 ml of water, for eight hours, and then filter. Add another 500 ml of water and boil for five minutes. After it cools down, mix the tea from the first and second filtering. Consume three cups of tea per day, unsweetened.

Fights colitis

A mixture of powder of pot marigold flowers and St. John's Wort has proven to be a cure for both types of fermentation and putrefaction colitis. Four to six teaspoons per day is administered in cycles of three weeks. Abdominal cramps can also be treated with powder of the flowers, half a teaspoon before and after meals, until pain recedes.

Tincture, good for cholecystitis
Calendula tincture helps calm gallbladder crisis. Take a teaspoon of tincture diluted in water, 15 minutes before each meal. Treatment must last three weeks and has anti-inflammatory effects on the gallbladder, regulates bile secretion, and supports its secretion into the duodenum. It also has a stimulating effect on digestion.

Remedies for external use

Lavage and compresses with calendula tincture are beneficial for varicose ulcers and wounds that heal difficultly. Wash the affected area daily, with a compress sprayed with tincture of pot marigold. To speed up healing, remove the compress after two hours and apply on the affected area an ointment containing calendula. Marigold oil has healing, anti-inflammatory, soothing, antibacterial and antifungal effect. This oil is used as feedstock in the preparation of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals (ointments, creams, gels, lotions, eggs).

Pot marigolds are useful in treating warts. Use calendula tincture or tea twice a day. Cover the area with a gauze. After 10-15 minutes, rinse with warm water.

Do you have heartburn? Drink Calendula tea!
Our stomach lining secretes acid gastric juice containing pepsin, an enzyme that degrades proteins; hydrochloric acid to kill bacteria in the food and promote action pepsin, and intrinsic factor essential for the absorption of vitamin B12 in the small intestine. Sensations of sour and heartburn are often only a transient acid hypersecretion caused by certain foods (fried fat, alcohol and others). If you confronted with this issue, use a natural trick that you heal you: calendula tea. Soak a teaspoon of ground calendula flowers in a cup of water (preferably spring water). Allow soaking for four to six hours at room temperature, or allow infusing for three to five minutes in boiling water. Drink four cups a day with small sips.

The Miraculous Tomato

As recognition of the tomato’s health value, the Italians call it “pomo d’oro” – the golden apple, and the Germans “Paradiesapfel” – the apple of paradise. The tomato is so special because it contains a treasure: lycopene.

Lycopene is a red antioxidant found in almost all red fruits and vegetables. However, the largest quantity of lycopene is found in the tomatoes only. Lycopene is a substance with anti-tumor effects, especially in prostate, breast, urinary bladder, pancreas, cervical, ovarian, uterine, intestinal, lung and skin cancer. It is said that one tomato a day could keep us far away from cancer, if we would not smoke, drink alcohol, coffee, and we would not eat unhealthy cooked (fried, roasted, smoked) food.

Lycopene might bring hope in preventing neoplasia, degenerative diseases, and Alzheimer’s disease. It is the only antioxidant that grows in concentration through boiling. In other words, tomatoes are healthy fresh or cooked. Olive oil substantially amplifies the absorption of lycopene, so add olive oil to your tomato salad!

Besides lycopene, the tomato contains 90 percent water, and it is an important source of vitamin A, B1, B2, B5, B6, C, E and minerals. The tomato is very tasty and poor in calories (25/100g). The tomato is important in remineralization, revitalization, it is depurative, detoxifying, and it can be successfully used in weight control diets. The tomato also contains a substance with anti-inflammatory properties, similar to cortisol, but without its side effects.

The tomato has impressive therapeutic effects. By itself, lycopene does not have even half the anti-cancer effects of tomatoes. Eating tomatoes reduces the risk of prostate cancer with 40 percent. Also, eating fresh, organic tomatoes on a regular basis increases bones and joints resistance, supporting calcium absorption, inhibiting degenerative processes. Vitamins A and B-complex in the tomatoes, together with potassium, enzymes and organic acids, have a benefic effect on metabolism. Lycopene, vitamin B6, C and other substances contained in tomatoes help maintaining the blood vessels’ elasticity. By simply drinking tomato juice, flues and colds are cured faster, because the tomato juice has antibacterial effect, increasing the body’s resistance to microbial aggression. Half a kilogram of tomato eaten daily, especially before lunch, accelerates the metabolism of starches and fats, protects the organism against cholesterol increase and excessive use of the pancreas, and against overweight. If you are a smoker, get used to drink tomato juice on a daily basis, because it lessens the negative action of tar on the blood. A diet with one kilogram of tomatoes a day has joint anti-inflammatory effect, being therefore favorable to rheumatic people. This diet is also depurative, very good against gout.

Tomato leaves treat eczemas. Cut some tomato leaves in very small pieces and fry them without salt, for five minutes, mixing at all times. Filter and let it cool. Refrigerate it in a very well closed jar. Eat three well-ripe tomatoes every morning on an empty stomach, and then apply the above mentioned concoction on the affected areas. Insect bites heal faster and are less painful if you rub the place with crushed tomato leaves.

Fresh, cooked, or canned, the tomatoes do not loose their properties. They can be canned as a whole, paste, sauce, juice, or even dry. Lycopene does not get lost through canning or cooking. Once cooked, keep them refrigerated, for no longer than four days. When eaten fresh, take them out of the refrigerator one hour before. Do not add salt when you eat tomatoes! They are one of the three vegetables that contain salt, and therefore it is not necessary to add more salt.

Avoid pickled tomatoes; through fermentation, they generate histamine – the main proallergic substance. Through metabolism, histamine generates oncogenic derivatives. Do not eat the green stem of a tomato, because it contains a toxic substance: solanine. 

Fennel helps digestion

The fennel has been known since antiquity. The Greeks, for example, used the infusion of fennel to lose weight, but also to have an easy digestion.

In the twelfth century, botanist Hildegard von Bingen said about fennel that it can bring balance to the whole body only through inhaling the aromatic smoke resulted from roasting fennel seeds or by massaging the body with essential fennel oil.

Fennel is used to flavor fish or mushroom dishes, having a double effect: the food gets a special taste, and whoever eats it will digest easier. In India, after a big meal, all people chew fennel seeds and aniseed to avoid digestive problems.

Fennel has diuretic properties similar to those of parsley. Infusions (fennel seeds and aniseed, one pinch of each, 250 ml boiling water, allow to infuse for 10 minutes at room temperature) can be drunk three times a day by people who have fluid retention, or by those with arthritis (together with the treatment recommended by a physician).

Phytotherapy specialists recommend a daily cup of the above infusion to improve vision, but also in compresses applied on tired or irritated eyes.

Fennel is not recommended for pregnant ladies, who should avoid it as much as possible.

Natural remedies for headaches

Headaches may occur independently in the sense that they are related to other health problems, or may appear as symptoms of a disease. Most times, they let us know that something is wrong in our body.

Headaches occur due to lack of sleep, or emotional and physical stress, and are of several types. The most common headaches are those that occur because of neck tension or pain, stress, anxiety, depression, or tense muscles (such as shoulders). Treatment is limited to pills that provide short term relief.

In addition to the tension, there are sinus pain and migraines which are also widespread, although migraine can not be classified just as headaches. They are more severe and their pain is not comparable to the normal headache. Sinus generated headaches occur because of sinus congestion which creates pressure, but also because of infections such as sinusitis.

The most appropriate treatment is simple - simple changes in lifestyle and relaxation. If you have persistent pain not responding to treatment, it is better to go to a more detailed consultation.

Chronic headaches should always be treated seriously, not only to escape the pain itself.

One remedy is lemon. To relieve pain, drink the juice from three or four slices of lemon squeezed in a cup of tea. The peel which is usually discarded is very good for headaches caused by heat. Grated lemon peel can be applied to temples for relief.

Henna flowers are good for healing headaches caused by bright sunlight; the flower should be soaked in vinegar and applied to the forehead. Peeled apples eaten in the morning on an empty stomach, with a little bit of salt, are also good remedies for headaches.

Cinnamon is useful for headaches caused by exposure to cold air. A fine paste of this spice should be prepared by mixing it with water. Apply it on the forehead and temples to relieve pain. Marjoram leaf tea is beneficial in treating headaches caused by stress, and rosemary is indicated for pain arising due to colds. A handful of rosemary should be boiled in a liter of water and then made into steam inhalation for as long as possible. Repeat until the pain goes away.

Another suggested remedy is treatment with hot water – a towel placed in a very hot water and held at the neck, or alternatively with cold water. Hot foot baths are good for chronic pain.