“Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head.” (1 Corinthians 11:4, NIV)
I had never really looked at this verse before this morning. Lining the translations up side by side, most say much the same thing: a man who prays or speaks for God with his head covered brings shame, disgrace, or dishonor on his head. Then I came to the Living Bible, which turns it into a rule about hats: if a man refuses to remove his hat while praying or preaching, he dishonors Christ.
That is a very concrete reading, and I believe it misses what Paul is saying. Christ is not petty. There is no merit in the outward action of removing a hat. The covering of the head is a symbol of something, and the question is, of what?
Two Heads
Paul has just told us in verse 3 that the head of every man is Christ. So when he says a covered man dishonors “his head,” he is speaking of two heads at once: the one on his shoulders and the One he answers to. The Remedy catches this, describing the covered head as a man symbolically hiding himself from God, as though he were going his own way instead of following the loving leadership of Christ.
What Truly Dishonors Someone?
The translators reach for strong words: dishonor, shame, disgrace, disrespect. So I asked myself, what act truly meets those descriptions? What can we do that shames and disgraces another person?
We refuse to tell the truth about them. We publicly lie about them, saying they have done something horrible, something despicable that they would never even think of doing. That is what dishonors a person.
Christ is our head. When we pray, or talk about Him to others, with a veil between ourselves and the knowledge of Him, a barrier between our mind and Christ, and we choose to keep that barrier in place, we are acting dishonorably toward Him. He has done everything possible to make Himself known to us. Yet we can refuse to know Him personally while publicly telling others that we do know Him and this is who He is.
The Lie Behind the Veil
By calling ourselves Christians we accept the Christ who came to earth and lived a life to overcome and heal the damage caused by Adam’s breach of trust with God. Adam broke faith with his Creator and chose to believe the lies told by a talking snake over the truth spoken by the loving Creator who came daily to spend time with them.
A man keeps his head covered when he refuses to know the One who is his head by creation and redemption, when he believes the lies about Christ and God that Satan has been spewing since before the world was created: that God does not have your best interest at heart, that He would withhold something good from you, that He is vindictive. It is the picture the devil has painted of God all along, a god who needs the appeasement of a blood sacrifice to turn his anger away from the fallen, sinful humans he created.
This is Satan’s lie. If we believe that God requires the torture and brutal murder of His sinless, faithful Son to appease His anger, we are holding a veil between ourselves and the truth Christ came to reveal about Himself and the Father. That veil, that head covering, must be removed before we can speak of Christ publicly, pray, or preach about Him without bringing Him dishonor or shame.
Paul’s Own Veil
I was encouraged to find that Paul himself uses the veil this way. In 2 Corinthians 3:13–18 he writes of a veil that lies over the minds of those who read Moses, a veil that is taken away when a person turns to the Lord. Then, he says, “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image” (2 Corinthians 3:18, KJV). And just a few verses on in our chapter, Paul says a man ought not to cover his head because he is the image and glory of God (1 Corinthians 11:7). A covering hides glory. A false picture of God hides His Glory.
In Paul’s day the covered head was a real practice. Roman men drew their togas up over their heads when offering sacrifices to their gods, so a covered head in Christian worship could look like pagan worship. Paul was speaking to that. But behind the outward custom is the symbol, and the symbol is what speaks to us today.
Adam’s Choice
Thinking about the veil took me back to Eden. Scripture tells us Adam was not deceived; it was the woman who was deceived (1 Timothy 2:14). I believe Adam knew Eve had fallen. He did not eat because he believed the serpent. He ate so he would not lose her. He broke faith with Christ by not trusting Him with his own life and the life of his wife, not trusting that Christ could and would fix the damage done to Eve. His fear was focused on himself and on losing her, so he chose to let what had happened to her happen to him too.
Then look at what sin did to him by that same evening. When God came to speak with them in the garden, Adam threw Eve under the bus: the woman You gave me, she gave me the fruit (Genesis 3:12). Before he fell, he was nobly willing to share her ruin. After he broke faith, he was willing to let her take all the blame to save himself, and he blamed God for giving her to him besides. That is what believing the lie does to us. Once we believe God is not for us, we start protecting ourselves at everyone else’s expense. And Adam hid from God among the trees. The veil was already in place.
Questions I’m Still Working Through
This is a first look. I have not yet worked through the translations of verses 5 and 6, where Paul says the woman should be covered. If the man’s covering is the veil of lies between his mind and Christ, the symbol must mean something different for the woman, and I don’t want to force an answer before I’ve lived with the text. Here are the questions I’m carrying forward:
Is the woman’s relationship to man different from her relationship to Christ, and how does that shape what her covering means?
Does the man’s place over the woman come from the fall, “he shall rule over thee” (Genesis 3:16), describing what sin does to the relationship rather than God’s design? If so, how does that fit with Paul’s appeal to creation in verses 8 and 9?
If a woman’s life gives her husband a false picture of Christ, as Eve’s choice did for Adam, does she in some way dishonor her head? And is the other side of that her power to win him by the life she lives (1 Peter 3:1)?
Why does Paul so quickly add, in verses 11 and 12, that neither man nor woman is independent of the other?
When confused, read on, as Graham Maxwell used to say. But I stand behind what I have seen so far: what dishonors Christ is not a hat. It is the lie we keep between ourselves and Him. Remove that veil, and we can speak of Him with honor.
What a Tumor Really Is, Benign and Malignant, and the Lumps That Are Not Tumors at All
Understanding the Condition
Finding a Lump
There are few things that bring us to attention quicker than finding a lump or bump under the skin. The first thought for most people is cancer, and fear takes over. But most lumps are not cancer, and many are not even tumors. Understanding what a lump is, and why the body made it, takes away much of the fear and shows the way to clearing it.
What a Tumor Is
A tumor is a mass of cells growing out of order. Healthy cells grow, do their work, wear out and are replaced in an orderly way. In a tumor, a group of cells keeps building past what the body needs, and the extra tissue forms a lump. Tumors can be slow-growing or fast, small or large, and they can form almost anywhere: in the glands and lymph nodes, the breast, the uterus and other reproductive organs, the urinary tract, the abdomen, or just under the skin.
Dr. Christopher described a tumor as “a swelling, an abnormal formation” of tissue “arising from the cells of the host,” and named its cause as “the inability to eliminate unhealthy material.” His aim was to “rebuild tissue so the body can slough off the tumor accumulation.”
Benign or Malignant?
Tumors fall into two very different groups, and knowing the difference removes a great deal of fear:
Benign tumors are not cancer. They grow slowly, are usually wrapped in a smooth wall (a capsule), and stay where they are. They push neighboring tissue aside rather than growing into it, and they do not spread to other parts of the body. Most tumors people find are benign. They can still cause trouble by their size or by pressing on an organ or nerve, so they deserve attention, but they are not a death sentence.
Malignant tumors are cancer. They have no smooth wall. They reach into the tissue around them like roots, and cells can break away into the blood or lymph and start new growths elsewhere. This is why a malignant tumor calls for serious, full-time work.
Three kinds of lumps: a benign tumor, a malignant tumor and a cyst. Simplified diagram drawn for H.E.A.L.
Have Every New Lump Checked
A doctor needs to look at any new or changing lump. Ultrasound, mammogram, CT or MRI can show where a tumor is and how big it is without opening it. Only a biopsy can tell for certain whether it is cancer.
My caution about biopsy: A tumor is a bag of waste the body has wisely stashed away in a dark corner. A biopsy pokes a hole in that bag, and allowing the waste to spill into the bloodstream is not the wisest choice. Each person must decide for themselves. Talk it over with your doctor and weigh what you will gain from knowing.
Why the Body Builds a Tumor
The body is designed to carry waste out every day through the bowel, liver, kidneys, lungs, skin and lymph. When these channels are blocked or worn down, waste builds up faster than it can be cleared. The body then does the wise thing: it locks the toxic material away in a sack, out of the main stream of the blood, where it can do less harm. That sack is the lump.
In the 1950s, Dr. Ernest Wynder of the Sloan-Kettering Institute painted rabbits’ ears with tar from cigarette smoke. The cancers came only after years of steady exposure. What I take from this study is that before a tumor or cancer can form, the eliminative organs (the liver, kidneys and bowel) have already been worn down until they can no longer clear the waste. The tumor is not the real issue. It is a symptom of a degraded internal system. That is why we cleanse and feed: clear out the waste while rebuilding the organs that should have been carrying it away.
Study: E. L. Wynder, E. A. Graham and A. B. Croninger, Sloan-Kettering Institute; rabbits painted with cigarette-smoke tar over their life spans (news photo, December 1957).
This is also why cutting a lump out, by itself, so often fails. Dr. Christopher warned that you can cut cysts out and tumors off, “but unless you go to the cause, they will grow back again.” The body still lacks the ability to eliminate the unhealthy material it was storing. The liver is the vacuum cleaner of the body; when it is free, it can draw the waste out of the lump and send it out through the bowel.
Potassium and the Lumps of the Body
Dr. Christopher taught that many cysts, tumors, warts and moles grow where the body lacks potassium. Potassium chloride keeps fibrin, the material the body uses to build muscle and connective tissue, dissolved and moving. Without enough of it, fibrin is “thrown out as a stringy, insoluble mess” that can form fibroid tumors, cysts and adhesions. He likened cysts and tumors to leeches that “stay in places where there is a body deficiency. As soon as the body is balanced and well, the cysts and tumors have to go.” Potassium-rich whole foods, not pills, are his answer: fresh vegetables and their juices, and the Potassium Broth below.
The Lumps That Are Not Tumors
Many lumps people fear are something else entirely. Most of these are harmless, but any new or changing lump should still be checked.
Cysts. A cyst is a closed sac filled with fluid or soft material, with its own thin wall. It is not a tumor. Cysts form in the skin, breast, ovaries, kidneys and elsewhere, and are a sign the body has walled off what it could not process. Dr. Christopher tied them to potassium deficiency; the castor oil pack and the potassium foods on this sheet support clearing them.
Fibroids. Firm, benign growths of muscle tissue in the wall of the uterus. Very common, and almost never cancer. See the Uterus sheet for the female program.
Lipomas. Soft, rubbery lumps of fat just under the skin that move when pushed. They grow slowly, are almost always harmless, and are usually painless.
Swollen glands (lymph nodes). The lymph nodes are the body’s filters. When they are fighting an infection or backed up with waste, they swell into tender lumps, often in the neck, under the arms or in the groin. They usually go down when the infection clears and the lymph is moving again. Dr. Christopher told of his seven-year-old granddaughter whose glands swelled until she could hardly swallow; he pinned a mullein and lobelia fomentation around her throat, and the next morning she came downstairs “all smiles and no pain.” A swollen gland that is hard, does not move, is not tender, or stays for more than a few weeks should be checked.
Moles. A mole is a small cluster of pigment cells. Almost all are harmless. In my practice, the BBB Mole Salve with Cellfood has been an excellent support for dissolving moles (see below). Any mole that changes shape, color or size, bleeds or itches should be checked by a doctor first.
Nodules. Small, firm lumps, often near joints (rheumatic nodules) or in glands like the thyroid. Most are harmless. Lobelia has long been used on the skin over rheumatic nodules (Pedersen, Nutritional Herbology, p. 122). Have any new nodule checked, especially in the neck.
Polyps. Small growths on a stalk that form on a moist lining, most often in the nose, sinuses or colon. Most are harmless, but colon polyps should be checked during a colonoscopy, since some can turn cancerous over time. In my experience, snuff works really well on sinus polyps. See the Head Infections sheet for how to use it.
Boils. A boil is an infected hair root or oil gland filled with pus, red, hot and painful. It is an infection, not a tumor. A few years ago I had a breakout of boils on the back of my leg (I’m very sensitive to pork, and a hint of pork grease will do it). For weeks I played around with blood-purifying options without success. Then I read in Dr. Christopher’s writing that burdock root will “quickly” clear boils. I took one teaspoon of the dried root in a cup of boiling water each day. I began on Tuesday, and by Friday the boils were gone, completely gone.
The Emotional Side: the Energy Work
Healing the whole person. We are body, mind and spirit, and all three must heal together. When one part is neglected, the other two cannot find complete healing. A person can follow a perfect herbal program, but if she stays in a life that keeps wearing her down, or never makes time to care for herself, the body will keep losing ground. Healing the body often means facing what is happening in the heart and spirit as well.
A tumor is the body holding on to what it could not release. Very often the heart is doing the same: holding old hurts, old shocks and regrets that were never let go.
Louise Hay, in her book Heal Your Body, describes these patterns:
Tumors: nursing old hurts and shocks; building remorse. Turn it around: I lovingly release the past and turn my attention to this new day. All is well.
Cysts: running the old painful movie over and over; nursing hurts. Turn it around: The movies of my mind are beautiful because I choose to make them so. I love me.
Breast lumps and cysts: refusing to nourish the self; always putting everyone else first. Turn it around: I am important. I count. I now care for and nourish myself with love and joy.
Boils: anger boiling over; seething. Turn it around: I express love and joy, and I am at peace.
Emotional patterns paraphrased from Louise Hay, Heal Your Body (Hay House). These are not faults to blame anyone for; they are a reminder of how much the heart is carrying.
Areas Affected & Opening the Way to Healing
A tumor sits in one place, but it was built by the whole body. The work starts with the bowel that must carry the waste out, the liver that draws it from the blood and lymph, the kidneys, and the lymph system that drains the area around the lump. Open those channels first. Then work directly on the lump to loosen it and draw the waste out, and feed the body so it can rebuild the tissue.
Opening the Way to Healing
1. Clear the blockage.
2. Get the healing nutrients into the area.
3. Let sunshine and fresh air cycle over and through the affected part.
4. Bathe regularly.
5. Move the area as much as you can.
6. Know which area is truly affected. Not where the symptoms show up, but the part causing the issue. That is the area that needs to be cleared. With a tumor the lump is where you see it, but the bowel and liver are where it comes from. Clear them, and the lump has nothing left to feed on.
Castor Oil Packs: Two Uses
Over the liver and bowel. Soak a flannel in castor oil, lay it over the whole front of the body (neck to groin), and put a hot water bottle over the liver (right side, just above the waist) for about 1½ hours. This is the opening step for anyone on the Incurables Program, to get the bowels open and working well. Usually there are years of backup to clear. The castor oil pack works to turn cement into soft mud that can be easily evacuated from the body. It also softens the waste in the liver, so when you flush it the ELF (Emergency Liver Flush) is more effective.
Over the tumor itself. First spread a layer of M&L Salve over the lump. The salve opens the area so the waste can move out better through the lymph. Then lay a castor-oil-soaked flannel over it, cover, and leave it on all night, every night.
Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice
The hot charcoal and flaxseed poultice draws waste out and keeps the lymph from backing up. Use it over a lump, over swollen lymph nodes, and over the liver during the day. Apply it as hot as can be comfortably tolerated, cover with plastic and a cloth, and leave it on overnight or at least 2 to 4 hours. Never reuse a poultice; it holds what it has drawn out. See the Charcoal & Flaxseed Poultice sheet for how to make it.
Blood Purifying Formula (Chaparral)
Dr. Christopher wrote that chaparral is “especially known for specific action in cancer,” calling it “a potent healer… to lymphatics” that “tones up the system and rebuilds the tissue” (The School of Natural Healing, p. 70). It is the backbone of the Blood Purifying Formula, along with red clover, burdock and poke root. Early laboratory studies found that chaparral’s main compound, NDGA, slowed some tumor cells in rats. Human studies have not yet confirmed this, and researchers call for more study (Pedersen, Nutritional Herbology, p. 70). In my practice, many members have used the Blood Purifying Formula over the years to clear tumors. Take it as directed on its formula sheet, traditionally two dropperfuls 4 to 6 times a day during a cleanse week, in a few ounces of grape juice.
Watch the lump. As the herbs loosen a tumor, it becomes less tightly packed so the waste can move out, and it can look bigger for a time before it shrinks. Don’t guess. If a lump keeps growing, have your doctor measure it so you know what is really happening.
Using Chaparral and Comfrey With Care
Chaparral is one of the herbs in the Blood Purifying Formula. It has long been regarded as one of the strongest blood purifiers in herbal use and has had years of bad press, but used wisely it supports the body in clearing what has built up. Stay at the dose on the formula sheet. Avoid it with existing liver disease. If the skin or the whites of the eyes turn yellow, the urine turns dark, or there is pain under the right ribs, stop and have the liver checked.
Comfrey root is one of the nine herbs in BF&C, where it feeds and rebuilds tissue as part of a traditional blend. Take the extract at 1 teaspoon three times a day. Use the salve as an overnight pack, and leave the area open and clear of salves for at least 6 hours each day. More is not faster.
Working Directly on the Lump: The Poultices
For a tumor that needs more than packs, two strong poultices draw the waste out through the skin. Both are powerful tools and belong with the Incurables Program, never on their own. Read the directions carefully and follow them exactly.
The Black Cancer Poultice. A dry mix of red clover blossoms, powdered poke root, slippery elm, bentonite clay, goldenseal and activated charcoal, blended into a paste with a liquid of apple cider vinegar, bloodroot, tea tree oil and garlic. It is an excellent support for skin cancer and has been a huge aid with breast tumors.
Make the 50/50 solution: 4 oz raw apple cider vinegar and 4 oz distilled water. Add 1 oz bloodroot extract for every 8 oz of 50/50 solution.
Blend: In a Magic Bullet, pour in 2 oz of the solution first, so the liquid is on the bottom. Add ¼ tsp tea tree oil for every 8 oz of liquid used. Add 1 to 2 Tbsp of the herbal powder mix on top (more for a larger poultice; start small), then more solution on top of the powder. Add 3 large garlic cloves for every 16 oz of liquid. Garlic is the big killer in this poultice and one to respect; adjust it to your preference. Blend until smooth, adding solution until it is a paste.
Store in a lidded glass jar in the refrigerator for up to one week.
For skin cancer: apply a thick layer over the spot twice a day and hold it in place with a bandage. It often dries to a hard crust, which can be soaked off in the shower or bath.
For a tumor: smear a generous amount onto flannel, lay it over the tumor and bandage it in place. Leave it on overnight or 6 to 8 hours. It is best to alternate it with the castor oil pack.
In My Experience: The Black Cancer Poultice
This poultice cleared spots on my own arm that I recognized as skin cancer in about two weeks. It also cleared the smaller, VA-diagnosed spots on my father in 2008, without harming the healthy skin around them. It has also been a great aid with breast tumors. Bloodroot is a strong herb, so stop if the skin becomes raw, blistered or very painful. If a breast tumor bleeds, packing it with cayenne will usually stop it quickly, but call your doctor that same day.
The Poke Root Poultice. Used for tumors of the breast, during the second liver flush week of the Incurables Program. Grind fresh poke root fine, enough for one use, and roll it ¼ to ½ inch deep onto a piece of muslin or cheesecloth cut to cover the breast, with a hole for the nipple. Moisten once a day with poke root extract diluted to 1/16 strength (only if the root is dry), cover with plastic to hold the moisture, and change it every 2 to 3 days. Within about two weeks the skin breaks out in pustular sores as the waste comes out; continue one to two weeks after the breakout begins. When the drainage stops, wash with diluted apple cider vinegar and dust with bayberry powder; the skin heals in 7 to 10 days. The full procedure, with a member’s pictures of each stage, is on the Poke Root Poultice direction sheet.
Support the lymph while you use it. Increase Echinacea to two ounces a day, six days a week. Keep M&L Salve over the tumor and any swollen lymph nodes, rebound 10 to 15 minutes a couple of times a day, and use the hot charcoal and flaxseed poultice over swollen nodes and the liver. Do an ELF each night for up to five nights. If the lymph nodes become painful and swollen, take a break and let the body catch up.
Use With Care: Poke Root
Poke root is a powerful lymph detoxifier. Used too freely, it will cause uncontrolled vomiting. Wear gloves when handling the fresh root, and never use the extract full strength. Dilute it as directed. Poke root is too detoxifying to be taken by itself. Internally, it is best used in a mix with other herbs, never alone.
For Moles: BBB Mole Salve and Cellfood
A member in Florida introduced me to Cellfood and taught me how to use it. The BBB Mole Salve needs the Cellfood to do the good work:
Twice a day, dab full-strength Cellfood on the mole with a Q-tip. Let it dry a few minutes, then cover it with the BBB Mole Salve to hold the moisture in. Cellfood alone dries the skin and slows healing, so use the two together. Expect several months.
Drink Cellfood in water as well, following the directions on the bottle.
Scullcap, one of the five herbs in the BBB Salve, is very high in potassium, 2,180 mg per 100 grams (Pedersen, Nutritional Herbology, p. 155), and lobelia, blue cohosh and blue vervain all add more. That fits Dr. Christopher’s teaching that moles, like cysts and warts, form where the body lacks potassium. Blue vervain is also a powerful liver herb, and black cohosh stirs the liver, kidneys and lymph to carry the waste away (Dr. Christopher, The School of Natural Healing, pp. 291, 398).
BF&C: Rebuilding the Tissue
As the waste leaves, the tissue left behind needs rebuilding. BF&C (Bone, Flesh & Cartilage) feeds and knits tissue back together. Take the extract at 1 teaspoon three times a day, and use the BF&C Salve as an overnight pack over the area once the lump has softened, leaving the skin open and clear of salves for at least 6 hours each day.
Feeding the Body: Potassium Broth
Cleanse and feed: clear the waste out while flooding the body with the nutrients it needs to rebuild. Fresh vegetable juices (at least 32 ounces of carrot juice a day on the full program), Superfood, and this broth give the body the potassium it is missing.
Potassium Broth
Fill a large pot with organic vegetables, roughly equal parts:
• Thick potato peelings (at least ½ inch) or whole chopped potatoes
• Carrots and beets, chopped, with their tops
• Onions, chopped, and up to 50 cloves of garlic
• Celery stalks and leaves, plus dark greens (spinach, beet greens, chickweed)
• A few black peppercorns, or hot pepper to taste
Cover with distilled water. Then choose:
Quick (my way): simmer on very low heat 1 to 2 hours.
Stronger (Dr. Christopher’s way): keep it around 130°F for 6 to 10 hours. Never let it boil. A slow cooker on its lowest setting works well.
Strain and drink only the broth, 1 to 3 cups a day between meals. Make enough for two days and refrigerate the rest.
Use distilled water for all teas, and when taking your extracts in hot water. If you use a hot water dispenser for your teas, using only distilled water greatly adds to the life of the unit.
Sun, Air, Movement and Bathing
Move the lymph. The lymph has no pump of its own; it moves when you move. Rebound or walk every day.
Hots and colds in the shower open the pores and drain the area. Finish with cold.
Sun and air bath for 10 to 15 minutes a day.
Bathe regularly to keep the skin open, so waste can leave through it.
When to Get Medical Care
Herbs are support alongside medical care, not a replacement for it. Have a doctor check any new lump, and any lump that grows quickly, is hard and does not move, is attached to the skin or deeper tissue, or comes with unexplained weight loss, night sweats or fever. A mole that changes shape, color or size, bleeds or itches; a breast lump or nipple discharge; a swollen gland that stays more than a few weeks; blood in the stool; or a lump that keeps growing while on the program all need to be seen. If a tumor bleeds and the bleeding does not stop quickly, get help right away. Don’t stop a prescribed medication without the doctor.
Level of Commitment
How much is needed depends on what the lump is and how long the body has been building it:
Gentle support. For moles, boils, small cysts and swollen glands. Clear the bowel, add potassium foods and broth, and work on the spot itself: the charcoal and flaxseed poultice, burdock tea, or the BBB Mole Salve with Cellfood.
Focused cleansing. For benign tumors, fibroids, lipomas and stubborn cysts. Bowel cleansing, a week of liver flushing followed by a week of kidney flushing, castor oil packs over the lump with M&L Salve, the Blood Purifying Formula, and BF&C to rebuild.
Incurables Program. For malignant tumors and large or long-standing growths. The full program, full time: bowel cleansing, Echinacea, juicing and Superfood, liver and kidney flushing, castor oil packs, and the poultices. The poultices are only one part; without the liver free to carry the waste away, they cannot finish the job.
More Is Not Faster
These doses are set to what the body can clear. Taking more stirs up more than the bowels, liver and kidneys can carry out, and that is when cleansing starts to feel like poisoning. Healing the body requires steady, consistent nutrition and action, not a bigger dose.
People are different, and now and then someone reacts poorly to a particular herb. If that happens, stop it. What I offer here is a guideline. You are the one living in your body, so work with the Holy Spirit and the wisdom the Lord has given you to apply these supports in the best way for your life.
A Loose Healing Plan
First: have it checked. Know what you are working with: its location and size.
Week 1: open the bowel. LBF, building up until the bowels move two or three times a day. Castor oil packs over the liver and bowel. Juices, Superfood and Potassium Broth every day.
Week 1 onward: work on the lump. M&L Salve and a castor oil pack over it every night; the charcoal and flaxseed poultice over it and any swollen nodes during the day.
Weeks 2 and 3: clear the liver and kidneys. A week of liver flushing, then a week of kidney flushing. Add the Blood Purifying Formula during the cleanse week. Repeat the flushing cycle as the program calls for.
When the program is established: the poultices, if the lump calls for them, alongside the full Incurables Program.
All along: rebuild. BF&C, potassium foods, movement, sun, air, bathing, and the heart work. Let go of what you have been holding.
Every few weeks: take stock. Small lumps and boils can clear in days or weeks; tumors take months. If a lump keeps growing, have it measured.
Stories from the Work
Dara’s Story: A Lump Under My Arm
Back in 2000 a lump came up under my arm about the size of a golf ball. I used the charcoal and flaxseed poultice to get rid of it. It went away and never came back. I have no idea what that was all about. But as soon as it came up, I got rid of it, so nothing had a real chance to back up behind it.
Dara’s Story: My Father’s Skin Cancer
My father came to live with us in 2008 with three spots of skin cancer, diagnosed at the VA, where he had already had others cut out. The Black Cancer Poultice cleared the smaller spots in short order, with no harm to the skin around them, even though he wasn’t careful to keep it only on the spots. But he would not do a liver flush. The largest spot, right beside his nose, would not clear. His liver was full and could no longer draw the cancer out, so he went in for surgery to have the rest removed. The poultice draws the waste out, but the liver has to be free to carry it away.
A Member’s Story: Learning the Poke Root Poultice
A member in Michigan sent in her pictures and her story so other women would know how to do this poultice. Her first attempt went badly because she misread the directions: she added undiluted extract to fresh root that was already moist, and it burned and blistered her skin and left her weak and dizzy. She healed within about a week. “Let me urge you to read and re-read these instructions carefully before doing this.”
Her second attempt, with no extract added, “produced amazing results.” Within a day the breast was covered in pustular sores: “It was amazing to see how much garbage was being pulled right out through my skin!” When her lymph nodes became painful and swollen, she took a break, did lymph cleansing, rebounding and liver flushing, and used warm charcoal and flaxseed poultices, and the pain quickly went away. Her advice: “Know that it isn’t pleasant, it isn’t comfortable, but it is powerful! Don’t be afraid of the sores and swelling.”
Her pictures of each stage, from the first breakout to the used poultice, are on the Poke Root Poultice direction sheet, along with the full step-by-step procedure.
A Member’s Story: A Mole Above His Ear
A member in Florida cleared a sizable mole above his ear in about six months with the BBB Mole Salve and Cellfood, painless and without surgery. All that remained was barely some scar tissue.
Clearing the Bowel, Relaxing the Muscles, Driving Out Congestion
Understanding the Condition
A headache is a messenger. It is rarely a problem of the head itself; it is the body signaling a disturbance somewhere else. Dr. Christopher listed the usual sources: the stomach, liver or bowel, problems in the abdomen, menstrual irregularities, pinched or misaligned vertebrae in the neck, concussion, eye strain, nervous excitement and fatigue. Taking a pill quiets the messenger, but the cause is still there, and the headache comes back. Clearing the blood and the bowels is what really gets rid of headaches; numbing the pain only masks it.
Like all pain, a headache means the circulation has been disturbed. Too much blood held in the head, toxic blood, or blood choked off by tight muscles all press on the nerves, and the head pounds. Clear what is driving it and the pain lets go.
The common drivers behind a headache. Simplified diagram drawn for H.E.A.L.
The Toxic Headache: the Bowel
The most common headache is the toxic headache. When the bowel is backed up, the waste sitting in it is reabsorbed, and the blood carries that toxic load to the brain. Dr. Christopher taught that compressed fecal matter can also press on the nerves that affect the head, and that many migraines come from an impacted, sagging transverse colon (the part of the colon that runs across the upper belly). He saw severe migraines cleared by a catnip enema. Many people have no idea how sluggish their bowels really are. A healthy bowel moves shortly after rising and again after each main meal.
The Tension Headache: the Muscles
Tight muscles in the neck, shoulders and scalp choke off the blood flow to the head. Stress, long hours at a desk or a screen, sleeping in a chill, or an old injury such as whiplash can keep these muscles locked. Many migraines are fed by a spasm of the muscles in the neck and head. Relax the muscle and the circulation, and the pain, return to normal, often within minutes.
Congestion in the Head
Sometimes too much blood is held in the head, and the pressure builds. Pulling the blood down to the legs and driving the congestion out of the head, as the Ice Towel does, relieves it quickly.
Other Common Triggers
Not enough water. Most people walk around somewhat dehydrated. Thick blood moves slowly, and the head is often the first to complain.
Sugar and artificial sweeteners. Dr. Christopher described sugar headaches as a kind of withdrawal: the head pounds while the body works to get rid of it. Aspartame (the little blue packet) has been a migraine trigger for some people, often with a delay of up to a day, which makes it hard to pin down (see Dara’s story below).
Cheese, other dairy, meat and eggs. Common triggers. Dr. Christopher taught that no wholesome food should cause a reaction; when one does, there are usually toxins in the system reacting with it, or the food is not being chewed well. The answer is cleansing, not a lifetime of avoiding foods.
The liver. The old “sick headache,” with nausea or a bilious stomach, often points to a congested liver that can’t keep the blood clean.
Eye strain, fatigue and the menstrual cycle.
Migraine
A migraine is a severe, often one-sided, throbbing headache, sometimes with nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, or flashing lights or blind spots before it starts. The same drivers are behind it, only stronger: a toxic bowel, a liver under strain, tight neck muscles, and a trigger that tips it over. Keeping a food diary is one of the best ways to find the trigger.
The Emotional Side: the Energy Work
Healing the whole person. We are body, mind and spirit, and all three must heal together. Stress brings on many headaches. When we can’t deal with what we are feeling, our heads can pound. Worry, panic and fear are the hardest headaches of all to relieve with herbs alone.
Dr. Christopher’s advice was to combine prayer with action: take time to pray, to meditate and to talk with the people involved to work out what is causing the stress. With a clear body and mind, the conflicts become something we can handle.
Louise Hay, in her book Heal Your Body, describes these patterns:
Headaches: invalidating the self, self-criticism and fear. Turn it around: I love and approve of myself. I see myself and what I do with eyes of love. I am safe.
Migraine: dislike of being driven, and resisting the flow of life. Turn it around: I relax into the flow of life and let life provide all that I need, easily and comfortably. Life is for me.
Emotional patterns paraphrased from Louise Hay, Heal Your Body (Hay House).
Areas Affected & Opening the Way to Healing
The areas involved are the bowel, the liver, the muscles of the neck and shoulders, the nerves, and the circulation to the head. Find what is driving the headache and clear it: waste out, fresh blood and nutrients in.
Clear the Bowels
This is the first step for any headache that keeps coming back. Use LBF (Lower Bowel Formula #1), starting with one capsule at dinner and adding one capsule a day until the bowels move two or three times a day. The average person uses three to five a day; some need many more. A castor oil pack over the bowel the first few evenings softens hardened waste so it can move. If the bowels become loose or crampy, a rounded teaspoon of LBF #2 in 6 oz of water or juice firms them within minutes.
For a headache right now, empty the bowel first. A catnip enema clears the lower bowel quickly and has ended severe migraines. Then use the Ice Towel.
Drive Out the Congestion: the Ice Towel
This is hydrotherapy at its best, and it has never failed to clear a toxic headache for Dara. Empty the bowels first if you can.
Prepare the towel. Wet a hand towel, wring it out, fold it in thirds lengthwise and freeze it until icy, about 45 minutes. Keep one in the freezer so it is ready.
Hot water for the legs. Fill a bucket with water as hot as can be borne, deep enough to come up to the knees.
Put it together. Sit with the legs in the hot water and wrap the icy towel around the head. The cold drives the congestion out of the head while the heat pulls the excess blood down to the legs. Add hot water to keep the bucket hot.
10 to 15 minutes. Most people begin to feel real relief within this time.
A hot bath works too. Instead of the bucket, sit in a hot bath with the icy towel wrapped around the head like a turban. The hot water draws the blood to the lower body just the same.
For a really severe migraine, Dr. Christopher used the same idea on a larger scale: cold packs on the head and neck while soaking in a very hot tub, drinking plenty of water.
Relax the Muscles
M&L Salve (mullein & lobelia). Massage it into the back of the neck, the shoulders and the base of the skull. Lobelia is the best antispasmodic we have, and the mullein helps move excess lymph fluid out of an injured area. It relaxes even the worst spastic muscles, often within minutes, and works on tension headaches even when whiplash is involved. Applied at bedtime, it helps prevent the night pain that comes when sore neck muscles get chilled.
Keep the neck warm. A chill on sore neck muscles at night can throw them into spasm. Keep a natural-fiber scarf on the bedpost or headboard; if you wake with a headache starting, pull it around your neck, and it often eases within minutes. While the neck is healing, wear the scarf over the M&L Salve at night. It holds the salve in place, keeps it out of your hair and off the sheets and pillow.
Antispasmodic Extract or Lobelia by mouth. For a severe spasm, take a dropperful along with the salve. Take it in a few ounces of hot water to drive off the alcohol; a swallow of juice or a nice tea afterward helps the taste.
Hot and cold over the neck and shoulders, and a good massage, bring fresh blood back into tight muscles.
BF&C for an old injury. When a neck injury such as whiplash keeps feeding the headaches, a BF&C pack over the neck overnight helps repair the muscle and cartilage.
Calm the Nerves
G-Nervine Salve and the General Nervine. The nervine herbs calm throbbing nerve pain. Rub the salve on the temples, forehead, the back of the neck and behind the ears; it works well together with the M&L Salve. The General Nervine tincture can be taken by mouth in hot water. The valerian in it is sedating, so expect to feel sleepy and plan to rest.
Peppermint. Drink a cup of hot peppermint tea, then lie down and relax. A cloth wrung out in water with peppermint added, laid over the forehead and temples, gives quick relief for many; wet it again as it dries.
Rosemary. At the first sign of a headache, breathe in the scent of rosemary and rub a little rosemary oil, diluted in a carrier oil, on the temples and the back of the neck. Rosemary stimulates the circulation in the small vessels, bringing more blood and oxygen in and carrying waste out.
Feed and Support the Body
Water. Drink plenty of pure water every day, sipping through the day rather than all at once.
Live food and juices. Celery juice, or celery and apple, is an old remedy for a sick headache. Cut sugar, artificial sweeteners, and heavy dairy and meat while cleansing.
Superfood for steady nutrition, and rest. A depleted body is quick to get headaches.
Fresh air and movement. People who exercise and then stop let the toxins build up again. Just getting outdoors and moving strongly can clear a headache.
The liver. For the sick headache, or headaches that keep coming back, a week of liver flushing helps clear the blood.
When to Get Medical Care
Herbs are support alongside medical care, not a replacement for it. Get emergency care right away for a sudden, explosive headache, the worst of your life; a headache with a stiff neck and fever; a headache after a blow to the head; or a headache with confusion, slurred speech, weakness or numbness on one side, loss of vision, or a seizure. These can be signs of a stroke, bleeding in the brain or meningitis.
See a doctor for headaches that are new after age 50, that grow steadily worse, that wake you from sleep, or that change pattern. Don’t stop a prescribed medication without the doctor.
Level of Commitment
How much is needed depends on how often the headaches come:
Gentle support. For the occasional headache with a plain cause. The Ice Towel, M&L and G-Nervine Salves, peppermint tea, plenty of water and a bowel that moves well. Most clear within the hour.
Focused cleansing. For headaches that come every week, or migraines. Bowel cleansing with LBF until the bowels move after every meal, a week of liver flushing, then an ELF (Emergency Liver Flush) once a week, with weeks of kidney flushing alternated in. Find and remove food triggers, drink plenty of water, and keep the neck muscles relaxed. Give it about three months.
Incurables Program. For headaches that come from a serious or long-standing disease. Get a medical diagnosis first, then follow the sheet for that condition; the headaches will ease as the blockage behind them clears.
A Loose Healing Plan
In the moment: rule out an emergency. Then find what kind of headache it is: toxic, tension, or both.
First hour: clear it. Empty the bowel (a catnip enema if needed), then the Ice Towel for 10 to 15 minutes. M&L and G-Nervine Salves on the neck and temples for a tension headache. Rest.
Same day onward: get the bowels moving. LBF, building up one capsule a day, and plenty of water.
First weeks: find the trigger. Keep a food diary. Cut sugar and artificial sweeteners; watch cheese, other dairy, meat and eggs.
Week 2: clear the source. A week of liver flushing, then an ELF once a week, with weeks of kidney flushing alternated in.
All along: relax the neck and the heart. M&L Salve at bedtime, fresh air, movement, and time to pray and let go of what you’ve been holding.
About 3 months: take stock. Most people find the headaches have become rare. When one comes, check the bowels first.
Stories from the Work
Dara’s Story: The 24-Hour Migraine
Shortly after the birth of my daughter in 1982, while Michael and I were dating and living in California, I began experiencing excruciatingly painful migraines. I lived with these horrid headaches for years. The pain forced me to lie in a dark room with a cold washcloth over my eyes. My doctor ruled out anything serious and gave me a strong pain medication. It got me back on my feet, but this was not my idea of living.
There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it. Weeks would go by and then out of the blue I’d be laid out with horrible pain. I began keeping a record of everything I put in my mouth. My normal lunch was a sandwich and a glass of unsweetened tea. One day I ran out of my tea and accepted a glass of my friend’s diet tea. Exactly 24 hours later, almost to the minute, I was laid out with a ghastly migraine. It had been a few months since my last one, and the only change was the aspartame sweetener, the little blue packet, in that tea. My father explained that it made my brain swell. It took about 24 hours from the time I took it in until my brain was pounding and I was about ready to pass out, and that delay was why it had taken so long to find.
Removing all artificial sweeteners from my food program in 1985 stopped these painful migraines.
Dara’s Story: Bowel Cleansing Away My Headaches
As far back as I can remember I had headaches. Often the discomfort was just enough to send me looking for a bottle of aspirin. No one ever asked, and I assumed everyone got headaches for no reason. My bowels moved once in the morning and maybe a bit later in the day, and I thought that was about right.
Clearing the sweetener stopped the migraines, but it did not get my bowels working well, so the headaches kept coming until I found the bowel connection. In 1998 I did my first bowel cleanse. Wow, what an experience! The immense amount of waste eliminated from my body flattened my pouchy stomach and brought an end to thirty-eight years of headaches. These days it is only when I fail to keep my bowels clear that I have to deal with head pain or a stiff neck.
The cesspool I had been holding in my bowels had been putrefying my entire body, creating a toxic condition in my brain. Over the next nine months I continued the bowel cleansing routines. My inflamed bowel healed, along with a case of irritable bowel syndrome I had developed years before. My bowels had been speaking loudly to me for years: one day too loose, the next not moving at all, and horrid cramps if I ate the wrong foods. Bowel cleansing became the beginning of my healing journey. Cleansing and healing my bowels was better than discovering the fountain of youth.
Dara’s Story: My Husband’s Ice Towel
My husband still gets a headache from time to time. He wraps an ice towel around his head like a turban and sits in a hot bath. The ice towel drives the toxic blood out of the brain, and the hot water draws it down to the lower body. It was supposed to be a bucket of hot water for his legs, but he is too grumpy when his head hurts, so I let him have the bathtub.
Dara’s Story: Whiplash from an Office Chair
My office chair rolled out from under me and I landed hard on the tile floor. I felt fine at first and slept well that first night. Around 2 a.m. the second night I woke to a searing pain in my head; it felt like someone was sticking a knife into my brain. Struggling into the bathroom, I found my jar of M&L Salve and smeared it liberally around my neck. Relief came in less than two minutes. The salve began working on contact, and the pain stopped before I had crossed the room back to my bed.
Over the next few months I used the M&L Salve nightly along with BF&C packs. The M&L Salve stops the spasm, while the BF&C works to knit the damaged area back together.
For a while after that, if my neck and shoulders got chilled at night, I would wake in pain. M&L Salve at bedtime let me sleep through. One night I forgot, woke about 3 a.m., and used both the G-Nervine Salve and the M&L Salve. In less than five minutes the pain was completely gone and I went back to sleep.
That neck will likely be a weak spot for the rest of my life. Summer is no problem, but I like sleeping in a cool room, and the winter chill in the bedroom causes the neck muscles to spasm. I keep a natural-fiber scarf on the headboard. When I wake with a headache trying to form, I just pull the scarf around my neck, and in minutes it all goes away. While it was healing, I wore the scarf over the M&L Salve I smeared around my neck. It kept the salve in place, out of my hair and off the sheets and pillow.
Whiplash is no small thing. In 1976 my mother received whiplash in a car accident. I was in my late teens and remember vividly the horrid headaches she endured. She never fully recovered from that neck injury, and struggled through periods of debilitating neck and back pain for the rest of her life.
My own stories and what I have learned about back, knee and sciatic pain. For the full teaching, start with the Pain and Arthritis information sheets.
A backache can be caused by any one of several issues. The first to look at is a structural or spinal issue. Has there been a recent injury, a fall or a sharp twisting of the spine, or overuse of the back, lifting a heavy object incorrectly, that has caused the back to rebel? An arthritic condition in the spine can seriously limit the freedom of movement, causing the back to ache, and when the affected joints become inflamed it can cause severe pain.
Kidney issues, stones or infection, should be ruled in or out when working to clear a backache. The kidneys sit toward the back on each side of the body. Kidney stones travel through the kidney, causing the pain to move from the back to the front as they wind their way through. An infected or inflamed kidney will be enlarged, creating pressure and muscle spasms around the organ and causing the back to ache. For women, menstrual cramps are another cause of a backache.
Is It My Back, My Kidneys or Cramps?
The first issue to address when working to clear a backache is why the back is affected. Being female, menstrual cramps were an issue for me. I had also cracked my spine in a car accident in the 1980s, and I had serious kidney issues since childhood. When my back would act up, I had to determine why. Over the years I found a fail-proof way, for me, to tell which of these was causing the discomfort.
Cramps. If menstrual cramps were possible, I used Lobelia, cramp bark, or the stronger combination for spasms that Dr. Christopher called the Antispasmodic. If the cause was cramps, it would take about 15 minutes for the uterus to relax and the spasms to stop.
Kidneys. When cramps were not an option, I would start with my three kidney support drinks: (1) 1 oz of Echinacea in 12 ounces of water; (2) hot lemonade (1 tsp cayenne, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and maple syrup to taste, in 16 ounces of water); (3) 1 tablespoon of Herbal Aid 1 in 16 ounces of hot water. It would normally take about 45 minutes for the teas to filter through the kidneys enough to calm the spasms. That would also tell me my kidneys had become inflamed and it was time to do the Infection Program.
The spine. If neither of those calmed it, I knew it was the structural issue in my back.
When my kidneys are inflamed, the muscles over them become spastic, making it hard to take a step without pain. I would have to hold onto furniture as I moved around the house. See the Kidney Disease sheet for more.
When It Is the Spine
My Story: Years of Back Spasms
Following a car accident in 1985, I endured years of debilitating back spasms. Out of the blue my back would go into a spasm, sending me to the floor in a world of hurt. All of this came to a blessed end when I discovered the BF&C (Bone, Flesh & Cartilage) formula in the late 1990s. Three months after I began using the body-repairing herbs in the BF&C formula, the devastating back spasms ended.
When my back acts up from the old injury, I have found a hot and cold shower will calm or end the spasm. After my shower I apply the M&L Salve, followed by a BF&C pack over the lower back where the injury occurred. I also take the BF&C extract, 1 teaspoon in hot water every three hours, for a week or so until the crisis is over, then go back to my normal dose of once or twice a day.
When an arthritic condition of the back becomes inflamed (hot and painful is the way I’ve heard it described), packing the area with an herbal support that dissolves the uric acid crystals causing the inflammation can be very helpful. Dr. Christopher’s A&R Salve packed over the inflamed joint has proved an effective support to stop the discomfort and cool the inflammation. Once the area is comfortable again, switch back to the BF&C Salve, which has the nutrients to repair the damaged joint. The same formula as the A&R Salve is also made as a liquid extract, Joint Support, for additional support.
Michael and the Rain-Soaked Lumber
My husband, who is 6’4”, fairly thin with a long back, had an up-close and personal opportunity to witness the power of the M&L Salve. While moving a pile of rain-soaked lumber to a sheltered area, he sprained his lower back. When will the over-forty masculine half of society realize they are no longer nineteen? Yes, I’ll get off that subject; you all pay dearly for your misconceptions.
His lower back grabbed as he went to straighten up with a load of lumber. When he found me in my office, he said he felt something rip in his back. We immediately massaged the M&L Salve into the affected muscles, and a BF&C Salve pack went on a few minutes later. Throughout the day he kept applying the M&L Salve. Later that day he took an Epsom salt soak, three cups of salt in a tub of hot water, which he felt was extremely beneficial, and went to bed shortly after his bath. Saturday he rested and kept applying the M&L and BF&C salves. Sunday morning he woke up feeling 90% better and was able to finish the job he had abandoned on Friday.
Knowing what to do when an emergency occurs can cut the recovery time down from weeks to days. Since the spastic muscle was not allowed to stay in spasm, there was no swelling or blockage to contend with, and the recovery shortened to only a few days.
BF&C: A Gift from the Father
Since my own back healed, I’ve been privileged to share in many healings brought about by the BF&C formula. Several years ago one of our members asked us to make the BF&C into a salve. It took some doing, but we mastered salve making, and since combining the BF&C Salve with the extract we are never short of dramatic healing stories.
A sprained ankle, swollen and sore, mended overnight. The BF&C Salve was applied right after the accident, supporting the soft tissue immediately.
An arthritic spine. A woman in her 80s, in bed and in pain, had a BF&C pack put over her spine at bedtime by her son. The next morning she bounced out of bed feeling “right as rain.” (Her story is on the Arthritis sheet.)
Scales cleared from a teen’s face. A young teenage girl with a scaly growth on her face was given the BF&C Salve and tincture by her loving uncle. Her condition cleared quickly.
Old injuries. These herbs correctly knit the body back together. Old injuries are cleared of adhesions and the mineral deposits that contribute to arthritic conditions.
My Knee
My Story: A “Fire Ball” in My Knee
What you might call a “fire ball” of pain had developed in my knee. None of the regular herbal remedies were bringing any level of relief. Searching in Dr. Christopher’s writings, I found a reference to the use of nervine herbs for nerve pain. I applied the General Nervine Tonic directly from the bottle to the painful area on my knee. It was as if I’d taken a fire hose to the pain. It just wiped it out. The relief lasted about three hours; when it began to wear off I applied more, and it continued to work. We quickly made a salve from the formula, now our G-Nervine Salve.
Once the pain and inflammation were under control, I began building up my injured knee with the BF&C Salve and extract. It takes time, but I could see positive progress every day.
Hydrotherapy is also important to healing an injured knee. Anytime you have injury or illness you have blockage, and hydrotherapy is all about clearing blockage. The hot water brings fresh blood to the injured area, and the cold slams all that fresh blood through the blockage. It is like shooting a blood bullet into the area: the hot water loads it and the cold fires it. The more dramatic the change between hot and cold, the deeper the blood with all its healing nutrients will penetrate.
M&L Salve: releases a locked-up knee and helps remove excess lymph fluid from the area.
G-Nervine Salve: for the fiery, throbbing pain of an overused or injured knee; no numbing, just an end to the throbbing, and a good night’s sleep.
BF&C Salve and extract: with consistent use, supports the body to restore and repair bone, flesh and cartilage.
Sciatica: Thirty Minutes to Relief
A Member’s Story: Sciatica in Both Legs
I had the opportunity to assist a woman dealing with sciatica in both legs. She had only had the discomfort for about a week when she began the herbal supports. To make a long story short, she cleared the worst of it overnight.
The sciatic nerve runs right behind the bowel, so an important part of clearing this issue is cleaning out the bowel. Our member had been using LBF #1 regularly, but while doing an intense program she had not increased her dose when her bowels tightened up, and she had become backed up. When the pain is this bad you don’t want to wait several days for the bowel to clear; we cleared it quickly that day.
Then we did Dr. Christopher’s foot soak. I added 3 cups of apple cider vinegar to about half a gallon of hot water. She soaked both feet for the first ten minutes while the chopped garlic was prepared; even before her foot went on the garlic she said she was more comfortable sitting in the chair. We added hot water several times, along with more vinegar, until we had used the whole 32-ounce bottle, and she drank two tablespoons of the vinegar in a large glass of water. She rested her right foot on the garlic for about 15 minutes of the half-hour soak.
At the end she said the pain and tightness were nearly gone. The next morning she told me she had slept through the night without pain. She did another soak the next day when some of the tightness tried to return.
For the full sciatica program, see the Arthritis sheet.
Watch
Back Pain Class. Structural issues, the kidneys and menstrual cramps: how to tell them apart and the herbal supports for each.
Stiff, Swollen and Painful Joints, Rheumatism, Fibromyalgia, Gout and Sciatica
Understanding the Condition
A Healthy Joint
Where two bones meet, the ends are capped with smooth, slippery cartilage. The joint is wrapped in a capsule whose lining makes a thick, clear fluid, the joint’s own oil, which keeps the cartilage gliding and feeds it. Cartilage has no blood vessels of its own. It is fed the way a sponge drinks: every time the joint moves and then rests, fluid is pressed out of the cartilage and drawn back in, carrying fresh nutrients in and waste out. Muscles, tendons and ligaments hold the joint steady, and the blood flowing through them brings what the whole area needs.
So a joint lives by circulation and by movement. When the blood is clean and flowing and the joint is used, it stays smooth and free.
A healthy joint and an arthritic joint. Simplified diagram drawn for H.E.A.L.
How the Trouble Develops
Dr. Christopher taught that there are over forty kinds of arthritis, and that “they all stem back to a toxic condition of the body.” When the bowel is backed up, the liver is overloaded and the kidneys cannot keep up, acids and waste build up in the blood. Waste that cannot get out settles where the circulation is slowest, and the joints, with no blood vessels in the cartilage, are among the first places it lands. Over time it hardens. As the old sheets put it, arthritis is caused by acids and waste matter in the body, which eventually become solidified and lock the joint.
First, stiffness. Waste and acid in the joint fluid make it thick and sluggish. The joint is stiff in the morning and loosens as it moves.
Then inflammation. The lining of the joint becomes irritated. The joint swells, turns warm and hurts, and the swelling presses on the nerves and slows the flow even more.
Then deposits. Mineral the body could not use (hard water, processed food, rock-based calcium) and uric acid crystals settle in and around the joint as spurs and gravel. The cartilage wears rough and thin.
Finally, locking. In long-standing cases the joint enlarges, the muscles around it waste from disuse, and the body lays down scar tissue until the joint can fuse.
Dr. Christopher, quoting Thomas Deschauer, explained how the body turns worn-out tissue into urea and should pass about an ounce of it every day. When that process is left unfinished, or the urea is held in, it turns back into uric acid. Things that hold it in: stopping perspiration, cooling off too quickly, neglecting bathing and clean underclothing, and sleeping in a room with no fresh air. Avoid these if you want to get well.
Dr. Christopher noted that “when an arthritic is badly constipated, the stiffness and pain are worse.” The joint is where it hurts, but the bowel, liver, kidneys and blood are where it starts.
The Kinds of Arthritis
Wear-and-tear arthritis (osteoarthritis) is the most common. The cartilage wears rough and thin and spurs form, usually in the knees, hips, hands and spine.
Rheumatoid arthritis begins in the lining of the joint. The body’s own defenses inflame it, often in matching joints on both sides of the body, with fatigue, morning stiffness that lasts for hours, and flares that come and go. Physical or emotional stress can bring a flare on.
Rheumatism and fibromyalgia cover aching, stiffness and pain in the muscles, tendons and soft tissue around the joints. Dr. Christopher traced rheumatism to poor elimination: toxic matter stagnating in the body.
Gout is uric acid crystals in the joint. Attacks come suddenly, often at night, and usually in one joint, most often the big toe, which turns hot, red, tender and shiny. Left alone, it spreads into the foot, ankle and knees, with indigestion, constipation and scanty urine.
Sciatica is pain, numbness and tingling down the back of the thigh along the sciatic nerve. Dr. Christopher called it sciatic rheumatism and taught that it is not a nerve problem at all: toxic poisons from a congested lowest part of the bowel (the sigmoid colon) irritate the nerve and throw the sacroiliac out of place.
Bursitis is inflammation of the small fluid sacs that cushion a joint. See the Bursitis sheet.
The Emotional Side: the Energy Work
Healing the whole person. We are body, mind and spirit, and all three must heal together. When one part is neglected, the other two cannot find complete healing. A person can follow a perfect herbal program, but if she stays in a life that keeps wearing her down, or never makes time to care for herself, the body will keep losing ground. Healing the body often means facing what is happening in the heart and spirit as well.
Stiff joints often go with a stiff heart. Resentment held for years, criticism of ourselves and others, and refusing to bend all lock the flow the same way deposits lock the joint. Rheumatoid arthritis in particular is known to flare with emotional stress.
Dara has found that fibromyalgia can be one of the hardest conditions to clear, and the reason is often not in the body. After years of hurting without being believed, a diagnosis can feel like finally being understood: there is a reason for the pain. Once some people receive it, it becomes part of who they are, and letting go of it can feel like losing something, even though it is the pain. Healing asks for a willingness to be well, and to step out of the role of the one who suffers. That is the heart work, and it matters as much as the herbs.
Louise Hay, in her book Heal Your Body, describes these patterns:
Arthritis: feeling unloved; criticism and resentment. Turn it around: I am love. I choose to love and approve of myself, and I see others with love.
Arthritic fingers: a wish to punish; blame; feeling like a victim. Turn it around: I see with love and understanding. I hold every experience up to the light of love.
Rheumatoid arthritis: deep criticism of authority; feeling very put upon. Turn it around: I am my own authority. I love and approve of myself. Life is good.
Rheumatism: feeling like a victim; lack of love; long-held bitterness and resentment. Turn it around: I create my own experiences. As I love and approve of myself and others, my experiences get better and better.
Gout: the need to dominate; impatience and anger. Turn it around: I am safe and secure. I am at peace with myself and with others.
Sciatica: being two-faced; fear about money and the future. Turn it around: I move into my greater good. My good is everywhere, and I am secure and safe.
Emotional patterns paraphrased from Louise Hay, Heal Your Body (Hay House). These are not faults to blame anyone for; they are a reminder of how much the heart is carrying.
Areas Affected & Opening the Way to Healing
Arthritis involves the joint itself: its cartilage, fluid and lining, and the muscles, tendons and ligaments around it. But the work starts with the bowel that must carry waste out, the liver and kidneys that filter it from the blood, and the blood that feeds the joint and carries the waste away. Clear the blockage, get fresh blood and nutrients into the joint, and keep it moving.
Opening the Way to Healing
1. Clear the blockage.
2. Get the healing nutrients into the area.
3. Let sunshine and fresh air cycle over and through the affected part.
4. Bathe regularly.
5. Move the area as much as you can.
6. Know which area is truly affected. Not where the symptoms show up, but the part causing the issue. That is the area that needs to be cleared. With arthritis the joint is where it hurts, but the bowel, liver and kidneys are where the waste comes from. Clear them, and the joint can let go of what it has been holding.
Quick Relief: Hot Apple Cider Vinegar
Over the years Dara has seen one natural aid act quickly and effectively every time for pain and swelling in the joints: apple cider vinegar.
The hot soak. Soak the inflamed joint in hot water with apple cider vinegar. The hot vinegar works to dissolve the uric acid in the joint, and relief often comes within a few hours or by the next morning. For a joint you can’t soak, wring a towel out of hot vinegar and lay it over the joint, as hot as can be borne without burning the skin.
The daily drink. A tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water, one to three times a day, with a little honey if you like. It cuts the toxic waste loose from the joints and supports the kidneys in filtering it out of the system.
Two Formulas That Work Together
Joint Support and BF&C (Bone, Flesh & Cartilage) work very differently, and together they knock down the inflammation and restore the damaged joint.
Joint Support (formerly the Arthritis Formula). Hydrangea root, which Dr. Christopher called the solvent of solvents for mineral deposits; yucca, Mormon tea, chaparral, burdock and sarsaparilla to purify the blood; wild lettuce, valerian and black cohosh to ease pain; black walnut, wormwood and cayenne to carry it all where it needs to go. It takes down the inflammation so healing can begin. Take ½ to 1 teaspoon in a cup of hot water, two to three times a day. Relief is gradual, because there is a long rebuilding job to do.
A&R Salve (Arthritis & Rheumatism), the same formula made as a salve. Spread it on flannel, lay it over the painful joint, and hold it in place with Press’n Seal. Dramatic results often appear when the pack is left on overnight. An arthritic flare can be handled in a few hours with the salve.
BF&C, extract and salve. BF&C knits the damaged joint back together. It works to remove mineral deposits and clears old injuries of adhesions while it rebuilds bone, flesh and cartilage. Take 1 teaspoon three times a day, and use the salve as an overnight pack over the joint. For extremely painful or crippled joints, use both salves as packs.
Using Chaparral and Comfrey With Care
Chaparral is one of the herbs in Joint Support. It has long been regarded as one of the strongest blood purifiers in herbal use and has had years of bad press, but used wisely it supports the body in clearing what has built up. Stay at the dose on this sheet. Avoid it with existing liver disease. If the skin or the whites of the eyes turn yellow, the urine turns dark, or there is pain under the right ribs, stop and have the liver checked.
Comfrey root is one of the nine herbs in BF&C, where it feeds and rebuilds tissue as part of a traditional blend. Take the extract at 1 teaspoon three times a day. Use the salve as an overnight pack, and leave the area open and clear of salves for at least 6 hours each day. More is not faster.
Gout
Ease the attack. Bathe the joint in hot apple cider vinegar; relief often comes within a few hours or by the next morning. A few drops of Lobelia tincture added to the vinegar bath helps relax the joint.
Free the waste. Apple cider vinegar and honey in water three times a day, and a tea of equal parts skullcap, valerian and yarrow to help free the toxic waste from the tissues and carry it out.
Clear the cause. Gout comes from overloading the system with the wrong foods. Improve the eliminative organs (bowel, kidneys and skin) and change the diet, or it will keep coming back and spreading.
Sciatica
Clear the bowel first. No lasting relief will come while the bowel is backed up. Empty and cleanse the lowest part of the bowel with LBF.
The foot soak. Soak the feet in hot water with apple cider vinegar. For faster action, rest the right foot on a plate of freshly chopped garlic while the left foot soaks. Add hot water and more vinegar as it cools. This starts a circulatory movement that brings quick relief.
Burdock and lobelia. Drink burdock root tea, and lay a fomentation of burdock root (or crushed burdock leaves) with one-fourth part lobelia, or a hot apple cider vinegar fomentation, over the hip and down the leg.
Hots and Colds: Getting the Blood Into the Joint
Anytime there is disease or injury there is blockage. Alternating hot and cold water over the joint blasts through the blockage and lets the body flood the area with fresh, nutrient-rich blood. It does no good taking in all the great healing herbs and juices if the nutrition is blocked from the joint.
Think of firing a blood bullet through the blockage. The hot water loads the gun: run the shower or a hand wand as hot as you can tolerate without scalding, over the joint, until the skin is pink with fresh blood. Then switch to cold, which drives the blood out so fresh blood rushes back in. Go back and forth several times, ending on cold. When healing any major disease or injury, do the hots and colds three times a day.
Clearing the Source
The bowel. LBF, building up one capsule a day until the bowels move two or three times a day. A backed-up bowel makes the stiffness and pain worse.
The liver and kidneys. A week of liver flushing followed by a week of kidney flushing, repeated at least every six weeks while clearing and repairing the joints, more often if needed.
Kidney bean pod tea. Dr. Christopher called it a Godsend: one or two quarts a day. He told of a woman of 91 who drank only a few cups a day and could walk without her cane or walker; when she stopped the tea, the trouble came back.
Burdock root tea. One of the best blood purifiers in nature; it increases the flow of urine and relieves congestion in the lymph. Drink it over a period of time.
Kelp. Dr. Christopher found kelp a great help in arthritis and rheumatism, which he tied to faulty kidney function and a lack of the sodium salts.
Water. Plenty of clean, soft or distilled water every day to flush the waste out. Hard water adds to the mineral load.
Feeding the Joint
Live food. Fresh fruits and vegetables and their juices, much of it raw. Celery, cucumber, carrot and apple juices are old favorites for the joints.
Cut the acid-forming foods. Dr. Christopher named eggs, bread, milk, meat, salt and sugar among the worst for arthritic calcification. Processed and overcooked foods add to the load.
Plant calcium the body can use. Superfood and Dr. Christopher’s Calcium formula feed the bones and cartilage without the mineral residue of rock-based calcium.
Cayenne, worked up gradually, keeps the blood moving to the joints.
Sun, Air, Movement and Bathing
Move the joint every day, gently and within comfort. Movement is how cartilage is fed. Walking, stretching and warm water exercise all count.
Sun and air bath for 10 to 15 minutes a day, and walk barefoot in the grass or dirt when you can. Breathe deeply while you’re outside.
Bathe regularly to keep the skin open, and use the Detox Bath to draw waste out through the skin.
Massage helps encourage toxins out of the tissues. M&L Salve softens and relaxes tight muscles around a stiff joint.
When to Get Medical Care
Herbs are support alongside medical care, not a replacement for it. See a doctor for a joint that is suddenly hot, red and very swollen, especially with fever (it can be an infected joint); a joint that may be broken or torn after a fall; new swelling with fatigue, rash or fever, which can be the start of rheumatoid arthritis or another inflammatory disease; or a first gout attack with fever. Sciatica is an emergency when it comes with loss of bladder or bowel control, numbness in the groin or inner thighs, or a leg that grows weak: go to the emergency room right away. Don’t stop a prescribed medication without the doctor.
Level of Commitment
How much is needed depends on how long the trouble has been building:
Gentle support. For occasional stiffness and the first aches. The hot vinegar soak and daily drink, Joint Support, BF&C, daily movement, plenty of water and the Foundational Programs: bowel cleansing, Echinacea and good nutrition.
Focused cleansing. For joints that ache every day, swell, or have begun to change shape. All of the above, plus A&R Salve and BF&C packs overnight, hots and colds three times a day, and a week of liver flushing followed by a week of kidney flushing at least every six weeks. Give it about three months, then keep going: this is a long rebuilding job.
Incurables Program. For crippling or long-standing arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The full Incurables Program, with fresh juices, the mucusless diet, cleansing the bloodstream with HEAL’s Blood Purifying formula, and the BF&C fomentations every night. Blood Purifying also contains chaparral: take it in courses, not continuously, two dropperfuls 4 to 6 times a day for a week at a time in a few ounces of grape juice, while drinking 64 to 128 oz. of liquid a day, with the same liver cautions as above.
More Is Not Faster
These doses are set to what the body can clear. Taking more stirs up more than the bowels, liver and kidneys can carry out, and that is when cleansing starts to feel like poisoning. Healing the body requires steady, consistent nutrition and action, not a bigger dose.
People are different, and now and then someone reacts poorly to a particular herb. If that happens, stop it. What I offer here is a guideline. You are the one living in your body, so work with the Holy Spirit and the wisdom the Lord has given you to apply these supports in the best way for your life.
A Loose Healing Plan
Day 1: ease the pain. Hot apple cider vinegar soak or fomentation, and a salve pack on the worst joint overnight.
Week 1: start the formulas. Joint Support and BF&C, the daily vinegar drink, LBF to get the bowels moving, and plenty of water.
Week 1 onward: hots and colds over the joints, up to three times a day, and gentle movement every day.
Week 2: clear the source. A week of liver flushing, then a week of kidney flushing. Repeat at least every six weeks.
All along: feed the joint. Live food and juices, cut the acid-forming foods, Superfood and plant calcium, kidney bean pod tea.
All along: sun, air, bathing and the heart work. Let go of what you have been holding.
About 3 months: take stock. Relief often comes in weeks; rebuilding a joint takes months. Keep going with what is working.
Stories from the Work
Dara’s Story: A Finger Shooting Bullets
I do a lot of work with my hands: embroidering, painting and all types of crafts to keep myself occupied. I woke up one morning and my index finger was shooting bullets of pain I did not know it had the gun to shoot. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was well into the 9 range. I could hardly stand to touch it, and I could not bend it or move it at all without a lot of pain. I laid a thick layer of the A&R Salve over the entire finger, wrapped it with a roll of gauze and tried to ignore it. By lunchtime the pain was gone, and it did not come back. That was about four hours.
A Member’s Story: A BF&C Pack on an Arthritic Spine
A woman in her 80s was in bed and in pain with an arthritic spine. Her son applied a BF&C pack over her spine at bedtime. The next morning he reported she bounced out of bed feeling “right as rain.” She was not healed overnight. The BF&C had greatly reduced the inflammation around the arthritic areas in her spine, which contributed in a large part to her pain. Her improvement has continued, as it has for everyone who keeps using the formula over an extended period.
From Dr. Christopher: Out of the Wheelchair
In Mesa, Arizona, a young man in his middle twenties, badly crippled with polio and arthritis, was brought into Dr. Christopher’s lecture in a wheelchair and laid on a pile of pillows. He had been told he would never be out of the wheelchair unless it was into a hospital bed. A practical nurse took him into her home and helped him follow the program faithfully. A year later, in the same hall, he walked down the aisle to the front and asked to speak. He was traveling on foot, house to house, selling, to pay off his hospital bills, and he urged everyone to listen and put the program to use.
Watch
Arthritis: Natural Support and Herbal Healing Suggestions.
Pain is not your enemy. It is a friend trying to show you where the damage is, giving you an opportunity to repair it before a worse issue appears. Dulling the area with pain killers only masks the real issue, and numbing it often makes it easy to keep overusing an injured part of the body that needs rest and healing.
Pain Means the Circulation Is Broken
Anything that hinders or breaks circulation causes pain. In nature, water circulates from the oceans to the ground, up to the sky and back down again, and that circulation keeps the earth thriving and healthy. It is the same in the body. Good circulation of nutrients, water, light and air creates a healthy condition. When you lose the ability to move out the waste and bring in fresh nutrients, you end up in pain and with an unhealthy, toxic condition in the body.
Nature’s water cycle and the body’s circulation. Simplified diagram drawn for H.E.A.L.
Jethro Kloss, author of Back to Eden, taught the same thing: “All pain is caused by disturbance to the circulation because the overfilled vessels put pressure upon the nerves.” Dr. Christopher put it this way: when the system is clogged with wastes, mucus and sludge, “the organism can drown in its own filth. Pain is a result of congestion and degeneration of healthy cells and tissues by poor elimination of waste products.”
Blockage and Injury
Whenever there is injury or disease, there is blockage. Pain is usually caused by blockage, injury or inflammation, or any combination of the three. Clearing the blocked area and allowing free movement through it often relieves the pain quickly.
Congestion and waste. A backed-up bowel, an overloaded liver and sluggish kidneys leave waste in the blood and tissues.
Deposits. Uric acid crystals in gout, old mineral deposits in arthritic joints, and stones and gravel in the kidneys.
Spasm. A muscle locked tight chokes off the blood flow through the area. A kidney under stress can throw the muscles of the back into spasm.
Trapped air. Gas pressure in the stomach and bowel.
Swelling. Inflamed tissue and excess lymph fluid press on the nerves.
Injury. A sprain, a pulled muscle, a break, a wound or a burn tears the vessels and stops the flow.
Pain Killers and the Liver
All the drugs hospitals use for pain place a heavy weight on the liver. It is the liver’s job to clear poisons and drugs from the system, so habitual use of pain medication keeps wearing it down. Dr. Christopher noted that the old opiates hid the true cause of pain while they brought on chronic constipation, a sluggish liver and lethargy, and the original complaint was still there when the drug wore off. The first and most important step with any pain is to understand why it is there.
When Cleansing Stirs Up Pain
When old waste breaks loose from the bowel and the tissues, it can hurt on its way out. These pains may be rough, but they are temporary and subside as the cleansing goes on. Dr. Christopher taught that on a clean, living diet, pain usually means the body is housecleaning. On a diet of acid-forming, mucus-forming and overcooked food, it is a warning that poisonous congestion is building.
Pain That Shows Up Away From Its Source
Pain often shows up somewhere other than where the trouble started. The area that needs clearing is the part causing the issue, not the place the symptoms appear.
A backache that is really the kidneys. When the kidneys are inflamed, the muscles over them go into spasm. Dara’s Three Drinks (see the Kidney Disease sheet) tell the two apart: if they calm the pain, it was the kidneys.
A headache from the bowel. A backed-up bowel sends toxic blood to the head. Keep the bowels clear and the toxic headaches stop.
Sciatica from the bowel. Dr. Christopher taught that crippling pain down the leg comes from toxic poisons in the lowest part of the bowel (the sigmoid colon) irritating the sciatic nerve. Clean out the bowel and the poisons no longer reach the nerve.
A tight chest from trapped air. Gas pressure can make the heart and upper chest feel constricted (see Trapped Air below).
Skin trouble from the liver. With psoriasis and eczema the skin is affected, so we want to treat the skin. The real answer is to clear the liver so it stops pushing toxic waste out through the skin.
The Emotional Side: the Energy Work
Healing the whole person. We are body, mind and spirit, and all three must heal together. When one part is neglected, the other two cannot find complete healing. A person can follow a perfect herbal program, but if she stays in a life that keeps wearing her down, or never makes time to care for herself, the body will keep losing ground. Healing the body often means facing what is happening in the heart and spirit as well.
Feelings that are held in instead of let go stop the flow the same way a blockage does. Dr. Christopher wrote that pain and suffering can begin in the mind as well as the body, and that anger, hatred and selfishness can set a person up for physical anguish. Love is the best pain reliever.
Louise Hay, in her book Heal Your Body, describes this pattern:
Pain: guilt, and guilt is always looking to be punished. Turn it around: I lovingly let go of the past. They are free, and I am free. All is well in my heart now.
Emotional pattern paraphrased from Louise Hay, Heal Your Body (Hay House).
Areas Affected & Opening the Way to Healing
Most acute pain can be quickly cleared without much drama if you can see or understand the driving cause behind it. Clear the blockage and restore the natural circulation through the affected area: waste out, fresh blood and nutrients in.
Opening the Way to Healing
1. Clear the blockage.
2. Get the healing nutrients into the area.
3. Let sunshine and fresh air cycle over and through the affected part.
4. Bathe regularly.
5. Move the area as much as you can.
6. Know which area is truly affected. Not where the symptoms show up, but the part causing the issue. That is the area that needs to be cleared. With psoriasis and eczema, the skin is affected, so we want to treat the skin. But the real answer is to clear the liver so it stops pushing toxic waste out through the skin. Then the body quickly clears the skin, and the topical supports become effective in healing the damage.
Keep the Bowels Open
The bowels must be kept open and clean so the body can absorb nutrients and carry waste out of the cells through the blood and lymph. Nothing else on this sheet works for long while the bowel is backed up. Use LBF, building up one capsule a day until the bowels move two or three times a day. Slippery elm tea soothes an inflamed bowel.
Hot and Cold: Getting the Blood Moving
Kloss taught that hot and cold applications, alternated for thirty minutes or more, relieve congestion faster than any other remedy. Heat relaxes the tissues and takes the pressure off the nerves; the cold that follows drives the blood out, and fresh blood rushes back in.
Hot and cold fomentations. A towel wrung out of hot water, as hot as can be borne, then a cold towel. Dry the skin between each round. Dr. Christopher ran them the full length of the spine for deep pain, as well as over the painful area.
Hot baths increase the circulation and have eased pain both inside and out. Arthritis and hemorrhoid pain respond well to hot water.
The castor oil liver fomentation. A flannel soaked in hot castor oil over the liver (right side, under the ribs), a hot wet towel over it and a hot water bottle on top, 20 minutes; then a cold towel for 5 minutes. Repeat for up to an hour and a half. It has relieved the pain of congestion in the liver, gallbladder and pancreas.
The Ice Towel for headache. Wet a towel, fold it in thirds and freeze it until icy (about 45 minutes). Wrap it around the head while the legs soak in a bucket of hot water. This drives the congestion out of the head and pulls the excess blood down to the legs. Most headaches begin to ease in 10 to 15 minutes.
Hot apple cider vinegar. For gout and inflamed joints, soak the painful part in hot apple cider vinegar; relief often comes within a few hours or by the next morning. Drink a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water three times a day to help clear the uric acid from the joints. The Arthritis sheet gives detailed instructions for clearing gout.
Sweating: Opening the Skin
The skin is one of the great ways waste leaves the body, and sunshine and fresh air on the skin are part of opening the way. Dr. Christopher taught that wherever the trouble is in the body, if the general circulation is involved, sweating helps dramatically. Drink hot yarrow tea, or take a ginger bath, and let the body sweat; then rest, wrapped up warm.
Spasm and Soft Tissue Injury
A spasm is a muscle locked tight, and it chokes off the circulation through the area. M&L Salve stops the spasm. BF&C Salve repairs the damage. BF&C Salve is the answer for any soft tissue injury. Once the ice comes off, wrap or pack the area with BF&C Salve. As long as nothing was ripped or torn, it should recover by morning.
M&L Salve (mullein & lobelia) relaxes spastic muscles and releases a locked-up joint. It also moves excess lymph fluid out of an injured area, which eases the pain and lets the circulation back in. Massage it into the muscle; for a severe spasm, add a dropperful of Lobelia by mouth.
Over the spine, too. Dr. Christopher rubbed lobelia over the area of the spine whose nerves feed the painful part, as well as on the sore spot itself.
BF&C (Bone, Flesh & Cartilage). The salve packed over the injury overnight, and the extract by mouth, 1 teaspoon three times a day, to knit the tissue back together. With time it also clears old injuries of adhesions and the mineral deposits behind arthritic pain.
Lobelia for cramps. Lobelia or M&L Salve is good for any kind of cramping. By mouth, 1 good dropperful usually does the job; up to 2, depending on size and how severe it is.
Arthritic flares and inflamed joints. An arthritic flare can be handled in a few hours with the A&R Salve. Joint Support (the extract) and A&R Salve (the same formula as a salve) take down the inflammation so healing can begin; BF&C then rebuilds the joint. For a stubborn joint, apply the A&R Salve as a pack overnight.
Using Comfrey With Care
Comfrey root is one of the nine herbs in BF&C, where it feeds and rebuilds tissue as part of a traditional blend. Take the extract at the dose on this sheet, 1 teaspoon three times a day. Use the salve as an overnight pack, and leave the area open and clear of salves for at least 6 hours each day. More is not faster.
Nerve Pain
G-Nervine Salve and the General Nervine. The nervine herbs calm the fiery, throbbing pain of an injured or pinched nerve, shingles and nerve injuries. Apply the salve, or the General Nervine tincture straight from the bottle, over the painful area; when it begins to wear off, apply more. The valerian in it is sedating, even on the skin, so expect to feel sleepy.
Sciatica. Clear the bowel first; no lasting relief will come while it is backed up. For quick relief, soak the feet in hot water with apple cider vinegar. For faster action, rest the right foot on a plate of freshly chopped garlic while the left foot soaks. Add hot water and more vinegar as it cools. This starts a circulatory movement that brings quick relief. The Arthritis sheet gives detailed instructions for clearing sciatica.
Swollen glands and lymph nodes. A fomentation of mullein and lobelia (3 parts mullein to 1 part lobelia), or the M&L Salve, has reduced pain and swelling in the lymph nodes of the neck, under the arms, the breasts and the groin.
Trapped Air and a Crampy Bowel
Trapped Air: Pressure, Not Cramping
Trapped air feels like pressure, as if you want to explode. The stomach feels hard all the way across, and the heart and upper chest can feel constricted. Take 2 teaspoons of the L-P Formula and 2 teaspoons of the Digestive Tonic in a few ounces of hot water, which drives off the alcohol. Follow it with a swallow or two of juice or a nice-tasting tea if you like. Then lie down on your right side for a few minutes. The formulas displace the pressure and let the blocked air move through the system. Lying down also relaxes the stomach muscles, so the trapped air can pass more easily. Before long you may begin burping or passing gas. Either way, the pressure is relieved.
Keep a cup of cayenne tea ready while you wait for the gas remedy to work. If the tightness in the chest doesn’t ease within a few minutes, gets worse, or comes with pain running into the arm, jaw or back, shortness of breath, sweating or nausea, treat it as the heart: give the cayenne and call 911 (see Chest Pain below).
A Crampy Bowel
A crampy bowel is a different feeling. It can come with loose stool, or you can be crampy with nothing coming out at all. Either way, stir a rounded teaspoon of LBF #2 into 6 oz of water or juice and drink it all at once. Then sit in your favorite chair with a heating pad across your stomach. LBF #2 quickly absorbs what is irritating the bowel and firms the stool, and the cramping usually ends within 5 to 10 minutes. Even if you’re stuck on the potty, it only takes a few minutes before you can move to your chair and get comfortable with the heating pad.
Chest Pain and Heart Attack
In a heart attack, a blockage breaks the circulation to the heart, and the pain is the heart crying out. Cayenne supports the heart and blasts through the blockage. That restores the circulation, and restoring the circulation is what ends the pain.
For chest pain: stir 1 teaspoon of cayenne and 1 tablespoon of hawthorn berry extract into a cup of hot water and sip it as a tea.
If the person takes any drug that slows the heart rate, such as a beta blocker (metoprolol, atenolol, propranolol) or digoxin, leave out the hawthorn and give the cayenne alone. If you’re not sure whether a medicine slows the heart, ask the pharmacist.
The pain stopping doesn’t mean the heart is well. It is still sick, clogged and damaged, so the work of healing needs to begin or continue. Dr. Christopher said to “follow with the diet, bowel cleaning and heart foods from then on until healing is fully evident.”
A Heart Attack Is an Emergency
Call 911 first. Give the cayenne while help is on the way, not instead of it.
Quick Relief for Common Pains
Each of these has its own sheet; here are the first steps.
Toothache. The Tooth & Gum formula on a cotton swab over the tooth. Oil of cloves or a few drops of cayenne tincture will do in a pinch.
Earache. Two or three drops of warm mullein flower oil or garlic oil in the ear, two or three times a day, massaging around the ear. The Infection Poultice over the ear often draws the infection out overnight.
Sore throat. Freeze a damp washcloth (20 to 30 minutes) and sip a teaspoon of Herbal Antibiotic in a cup of hot water with honey, letting it wash over the throat. Then wrap the frozen cloth around the neck, cover it with a hand towel and pin it. The cold draws fresh blood full of infection fighters to the throat. No eating or drinking while it thaws, about 45 minutes.
Menstrual cramps. One good dropperful of Lobelia by mouth usually ends them in about 20 minutes; M&L Salve over the lower belly helps too.
Kidney stone pain. Hot fomentations over the kidneys are the go-to: people rolling on the floor in agony have been comfortable in 15 minutes or less. Keep the fluids going. See the Kidney Disease sheet and the Stone Dissolve Routine.
Gallbladder attack. See the Gallbladder Attack & Gallstones sheet.
Shingles. The pain of shingles is nerve pain, and the G-Nervine Salve over the inflamed area stops it. One man who had been in so much pain he could barely sleep or wear clothes for nearly three weeks got relief shortly after the salve went on, and slept a good five hours that night. Shingles near the eye needs a doctor right away. See the Shingles sheet for clearing the virus.
Muscle tension headache and stiff neck. M&L Salve massaged over the tight muscles of the neck and head.
Insect stings and spider bites. Plantain ointment or crushed fresh plantain leaves over the bite. Red streaks running from a bite need medical care the same day; keep the plantain on alongside it.
Cuts, scrapes and burns. BF&C Salve; the BF&C herbs make one of the best burn pastes.
When to Get Medical Care
Herbs are support alongside medical care, not a replacement for it. Get help right away for chest pain that doesn’t ease quickly, sudden severe pain anywhere, a severe headache that comes on like a thunderclap, pain with a high fever or a stiff neck, red streaks running from a wound or bite, a possible broken bone or torn tendon, or any pain after a serious fall or accident. Don’t stop a prescribed medication without the doctor.
Level of Commitment
How much is needed depends on what is causing the pain and how long it has been building:
Gentle support. For a sudden pain with a plain cause: a spasm, a sprain, gas, a headache, a crampy bowel. Use the quick relief on this sheet, keep the bowels open, drink plenty of water and rest the injured part. Most of these clear in hours or days.
Focused cleansing. For pain that keeps coming back: headaches, back pain, sciatica, arthritis, gout. Bowel cleansing with LBF, a week of liver flushing, then an ELF (Emergency Liver Flush) once a week, with weeks of kidney flushing alternated in. Hot and cold hydrotherapy, BF&C and the salves over the painful area, daily movement and sunshine. Give it about three months.
Incurables Program. For pain that comes from a serious or long-standing disease. Find the sheet for that condition; the pain will ease as the blockage behind it clears. The full Incurables Program includes cleansing the bloodstream with HEAL’s Blood Purifying formula. Blood Purifying contains chaparral, which has long been regarded as one of the strongest blood purifiers in herbal use. It has had years of bad press, but used wisely it supports the body in clearing what has built up. Use with care: take Blood Purifying in courses, not continuously: two dropperfuls 4 to 6 times a day for a week at a time, in a few ounces of grape juice, while drinking 64 to 128 oz. of liquid a day. Avoid it with existing liver disease. If the skin or the whites of the eyes turn yellow, the urine turns dark, or there is pain under the right ribs, stop and have the liver checked.
More Is Not Faster
These doses are set to what the body can clear. Taking more stirs up more than the bowels, liver and kidneys can carry out, and that is when cleansing starts to feel like poisoning. Healing the body requires steady, consistent nutrition and action, not a bigger dose.
People are different, and now and then someone reacts poorly to a particular herb. If that happens, stop it. What I offer here is a guideline. You are the one living in your body, so work with the Holy Spirit and the wisdom the Lord has given you to apply these supports in the best way for your life.
A Loose Healing Plan
In the moment: find out what kind of pain it is. Blockage, injury, spasm, trapped air or the heart? Rule out an emergency first.
First hours: open the way. Use the quick relief that fits: hot and cold, M&L or BF&C Salve, the trapped-air or crampy-bowel remedy, the Ice Towel, a vinegar soak.
Same day onward: get the bowels moving. LBF, plenty of water, and live food.
First week or two: feed the repair. BF&C extract and salve packs for injury; Superfood for nutrition; rest the injured part, then move it as much as you can.
For pain that keeps coming back: clear the source. A week of liver flushing, then an ELF once a week, with weeks of kidney flushing alternated in. Hot and cold hydrotherapy several times a week.
All along: sunshine, fresh air, bathing, movement and the heart work. Let go of what you’ve been holding.
About 3 months: take stock. Long-standing pain takes steady work to clear. Keep going with what is working.
Stories from the Work
Dara’s Story: A “Fire Ball” in My Knee
What you might call a “fire ball” of pain had developed in my knee. None of the regular herbal remedies were bringing any level of relief. Searching in Dr. Christopher’s writings, I found a reference to the use of nervine herbs for nerve pain. I applied the General Nervine Tonic directly from the bottle to the painful area on my knee. It was as if I’d taken a fire hose to the pain. It just wiped it out. I was amazed. The relief lasted about three hours, and when it began to wear off I applied more. It continued to work. We quickly made a salve from the formula, which continued to relieve the pain in my injured knee. Over the next few months I found the salve worked great on the pain of shingles and nerve injuries; if it is pain from an injured or pinched nerve, this salve is helpful.
Dara’s Story: Twelve Years of Back Spasms
A car accident in the late summer of 1985 caused a compression break to a vertebra in my lower back. For years afterward, out of the blue, my back would go into a spasm and send me to the floor in a world of hurt. All of this came to a blessed end when I discovered the BF&C formula in the late 1990s. Three months after I began using the body-repairing herbs in the BF&C, the devastating back spasms ended.
Dara’s Story: My Husband’s Back
My husband is 6’4” and thinks he is still 19 years old. He sprains his back at least once a year. One time he wouldn’t wait for help to arrive so the two of them could move a new, oversized piece of furniture into the house. He did it on his own and paid dearly for it. The next morning he could not even lift his head off the pillow. When he couldn’t get up, he began taking the BF&C I suggested. By the end of the day he was on his feet, shuffling around like an old man. By day two he was back to himself, still a bit sore but moving normally. Last time it was moving wet lumber. I use the M&L Salve to stop the spasm and the BF&C Salve to repair the damage.
A Story from the Work: Sciatica and a Foot Soak
Someone close to the work was suffering badly with sciatica and decided to give our foot soak a try. We filled her foot basin with hot water and two cups of apple cider vinegar. Her left foot went into the hot soak while her right foot rested on a plate of freshly chopped garlic. As the water cooled we added more hot water and more vinegar. Her pain nearly cleared during the 45-minute soak, and over the next several hours she became completely pain free.
“But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” (1 Corinthians 11:3, NIV)
A verse I had a problem with
This morning I came to 1 Corinthians 11:3, and it was a tough one. Paul lays out three pairs: Christ is the head of every man, man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ.
As always, I wrote the verse out in several translations side by side. Most simply say “head.” But the TEV says the husband is supreme over his wife. The Living Bible says a wife is responsible to her husband. I have a problem with that. It doesn’t fit anything else I know about the God of the Bible.
The Remedy gave the most reasonable rendering. It speaks of every man following the loving leadership of Christ, the wife following the loving leadership of her husband, just as Christ follows the loving leadership of His Father. So I set out to understand what Paul actually meant by “head.”
What does “head” mean?
The Greek word is kephalē. Scholars have argued over its meaning for a long time, and there are three main views:
Authority over. The traditional reading, and the one behind “supreme over.”
Source or origin, like the head of a river, where it begins.
The prominent or honored part, the head as the part that carries the body’s honor.
I was drawn right away to the second. When the Greek translators of the Old Testament met the Hebrew word for head meaning “ruler,” they usually chose another Greek word. Kephalē didn’t naturally mean “boss.”
And Paul tells us what he means a few verses later. Woman came from man, yet every man since has come through a woman, “but all things of God” (vv. 11–12). He is talking about where we came from, and how we need each other.
Why it can’t mean “supreme over”
Paul is not writing about domination. Both men and women, husbands and wives, can build and keep a close, loving relationship with Christ. As a woman, I want Christ to be my head too. He is the one I follow and the one I lean on.
So think it through. If “head” means who rules over whom, then a woman who never marries has no head. Of course that isn’t so. That kind of thinking doesn’t hold up against any other part of the Bible.
Then there is the last pair: God is the head of Christ. If head means “supreme over,” Christ becomes less than God. But Jesus said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30).
The order of the verse matters too. Paul doesn’t give a top-down list from God to Christ to man to woman. He gives Christ and man, then man and woman, then God and Christ. Whatever he is describing, it isn’t a ladder of rank.
Three beginnings
Look at the facts. Man was created first, and he is the first one given a head in this verse. Woman came from man, and he is given as her head. Then Christ came forth from God to be man. Each pair names a beginning, an origin:
Man from Christ. Christ is the Creator: “All things were made by him” (John 1:3).
Woman from man. Paul roots this in Genesis 2 (vv. 8–9).
Christ from God. “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world” (John 16:28).
That third one is a little tricky, because Christ is God. But He came from God to become man. This isn’t about His eternal nature. It’s about Christ as He stepped onto the stage of this world.
And He came because of sin. If man had never fallen, Christ would never have come as a man, and God would never have been His head in this way. So the verse begins in creation and ends in redemption. Paul says in this same letter that Christ is “the last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45). He made the first Adam, and as the last Adam He re-creates humanity through the power of God. Even though He is God, in Christ He was human.
We are His twice over, by creation and by redemption. This isn’t order forced on us. It is how life came about, and how it is restored.
The last pair is the key
Why does Paul save “God is the head of Christ” for last? Because it shows us what headship looks like. Christ and the Father are equal. Yet Christ freely chose to come, to honor His Father, and to “do always those things that please him” (John 8:29).
That is headship between equals, entered freely and carried out in Love. If that is the model, it tells us what “head” means in the other two pairs.
Within a marriage, a man by his nature and the way he is put together is to cover, protect and cherish his wife, and give of himself for her and his family. She in return responds and gives him a loving home, a place to come to when the work day is over. Men and women are not the same; we are equal but different. And Christ is the head the man is to follow in his decisions, while the woman has her say and a right to her own mind.
This is exactly what the Remedy says: the wife follows the loving leadership of her husband, just as Christ follows the loving leadership of His Father.
Surrounded by God
Look at the shape of the verse once more. Christ as man’s head comes first. Man as woman’s head is in the middle. God as Christ’s head comes last. Man in his fallen state is surrounded by God on all sides. It is a bit like being in the middle of a God sandwich.
Scripture says the same thing. “Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me” (Psalm 139:5). The Lord goes before us and is our rearguard behind (Isaiah 52:12). And “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27).
Looking at this through the eyes of Love, what do we see? Christ at the head of fallen man, saying, “Follow Me, I will show you the way home. I am here for you always; you can depend on Me.” In the middle, how we are to relate to each other: a man treating his wife and family with the same love and respect, the same value, that Christ put on him. And God, our foundation, ready to give all the power of the universe through the life of Christ for the healing and salvation of humanity.
That is what it means to have a head. Not someone supreme over us, but Someone before us, behind us, and underneath us, from whom we came and to whom we are being brought home.
Still reading on
I want to be honest with you: this is not a finished understanding of this verse. It is one verse standing alone, and I am sharing the struggle as much as the answer.
Graham Maxwell used to say that when you come to a place of confusion, read on, and it will make sense at some point. It always has for me. Paul’s own explanation is still ahead, in the verses that follow, and I expect this picture to fill in as I work through them.
So take this as a first look, not the last word. I’m trusting the Lord to make it clear in His time, and I’ll share what He shows me as I go.
Forgetfulness, Confusion, Senility and Alzheimer’s Disease
Understanding the Condition
The brain is the hungriest organ in the body. It is only about 2 percent of our weight, yet it uses about 20 percent of the blood’s oxygen and fuel, every minute of every day. It cannot store food for later. It depends on a steady flow of rich, clean blood, on plenty of water, on the liver to supply its fuel (glucose) and carry off its waste, and on the nerves to carry its messages to every part of the body. When any of these falters, the mind is often the first place it shows.
Dementia is not one disease. It is a name for a group of signs: memory loss together with trouble in at least one other area, such as judgment, language, planning or personality, bad enough to get in the way of daily life. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of a dementia that keeps getting worse; the second most common is vascular dementia, from narrowed blood vessels and many tiny strokes. Many older people have some of both.
Two kinds of clouded mind. Simplified diagram drawn for H.E.A.L.
When the Mind Can Come Back
Much of the confusion we see in older people is not true dementia at all. It is a brain that is starved, poisoned or upset, and it often clears in days or weeks once the cause is found and the brain is fed. These are the first things to look for:
Not enough water. Many older people stop feeling thirst, and a dry brain is a confused brain.
A hidden infection. In the elderly, a bladder infection often shows up as sudden confusion instead of pain or burning.
Poor blood flow to the brain, from a weak heart, hardened arteries or sitting still for most of the day.
Low B12 and poor nutrition. The nerves and brain run on nutrition; a body that has eaten poorly for years runs short.
Sleep aids and other medications. Dr. Tim Jennings teaches that sleep aids, both over-the-counter (the “PM” pain relievers and the diphenhydramine or doxylamine sleep tablets) and prescription sleeping pills, interfere with the brain’s work of moving short-term memories into long-term memory. Used night after night, they can produce what looks like serious dementia, and many people recover a great deal once they come off them. Herbal sleep supports are not part of this concern. Some bladder and allergy medicines, strong pain pills and a long list of prescriptions taken together can also cloud the mind.
Marijuana (THC). Dr. Jennings warns that THC, the part of marijuana that makes people high, disrupts the brain’s work of turning short-term memories into long-term ones. More and more older people are being offered THC gummies or drops for sleep and pain. In his view, marijuana is dangerous to the mind, and anyone whose memory is slipping should stay away from it. It can be habit-forming; if it is hard to stop, that alone is worth paying attention to.
A sluggish thyroid, which slows the thinking along with everything else.
A toxic bowel and liver. When the bowel is backed up and the liver is overloaded, waste stays in the blood that feeds the brain.
Grief, depression and loneliness, which can look just like dementia.
A change that comes on suddenly, over hours or days, is not dementia. Look for the cause, and see the box on medical care below.
Coming Off Sleeping Pills
Over-the-counter sleep aids can usually be stopped and replaced with herbal sleep supports such as the General Nervine and NFX. Prescription sleeping pills and anxiety medicines are different: stopping some of them suddenly can be dangerous. Work with the doctor to taper them down slowly.
When Damage Has Built Over Years
In Alzheimer’s disease, sticky deposits (plaques) build up between the brain cells and twisted fibers (tangles) form inside them. The cells lose their connections to one another and, over the years, the brain shrinks. In vascular dementia the arteries feeding the brain harden and narrow. Dr. Christopher wrote that when the arteries in the brain harden, the result is slowness in thinking, loss of memory, dizziness, and in the end senility, and that a long-standing case can leave a brain that has practically “turned to stone.” He also taught that hardening of the arteries can be reversed if the cause is reversed: dead, processed and overcooked food. This kind of damage takes years to build, and it takes time and steady work to turn. Herbs and good food can slow it, steady it, and sometimes improve it. The earlier you start, the more there is to save.
What Dara Has Seen
I’ve seen members give the Brain Formula to parents who drifted from the boat, so to say, and they came right back in only a few days. Other people it seems to do no good. I believe it is the heart work as well as how you have been feeding your body up to that time.
The common signs are forgetting recent conversations and events, repeating the same questions, losing words, getting lost in familiar places, trouble with money, cooking or other everyday tasks, poor judgment, changes in mood or personality, withdrawing from people and activities, restlessness and, later, confusion about time and place.
The Emotional Side: the Energy Work
Healing the whole person. We are body, mind and spirit, and all three must heal together. When one part is neglected, the other two cannot find complete healing. A person can follow a perfect herbal program, but if she stays in a life that keeps wearing her down, or never makes time to care for herself, the body will keep losing ground. Healing the body often means facing what is happening in the heart and spirit as well.
Dara has seen that the heart work matters as much as the feeding. Often a mind begins to slip when life has become too painful to face: a deep loss, a betrayal, loneliness or years of carrying more than one person can carry. Some people simply withdraw from a world that has grown too hard. Love, patience, company and a reason to get up in the morning help bring them back.
Louise Hay, in her book Heal Your Body, describes these patterns:
Alzheimer’s disease: not wanting to face the world as it is; feeling hopeless and helpless; anger. Turn it around: I let the past go with forgiveness. Each day holds a new and better way to live, and I walk into joy.
Dementia: refusing to deal with the world as it is; hopelessness and anger. Turn it around: I am right where I belong, and I am safe at all times.
Senility: retreating to the safety of childhood; escaping a life that became too hard to face. Turn it around: I rest in God’s protection. I am safe, and I am at peace.
The brain: the computer, the switchboard of the body. Turn it around: I am the loving keeper of my own mind.
Emotional patterns paraphrased from Louise Hay, Heal Your Body (Hay House). For the family: these are not faults to blame anyone for. They are a reminder of how much the heart is carrying.
Areas Affected & Opening the Way to Healing
Dementia involves the brain and its blood vessels, the heart that pumps blood up to it, the liver that supplies its fuel and clears its waste, the bowel that must carry that waste out, the kidneys that keep the blood clean and the body watered, and the nerves that carry every message. The work is to get the blood flowing to the brain, feed it, clean the blood that feeds it, and give the heart and spirit a reason to come back.
The Brain Formula: the First Support
Brain Formula. Ginkgo leaf, gotu kola herb, calamus root, rosemary, kola nut and cayenne. It opens the blood vessels and increases the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain, and this is often what brings a clouded mind back. Many people who are confused will not take a green drink or much nutrition at first, so the Brain Formula is the main support to start with. Take 2 dropperfuls three times a day, up to double that amount. As a tea: 1 teaspoon of the herbs to a cup, 6 cups a day.
Using the Brain Formula With Care
The Brain Formula opens the circulation, and its ginkgo and cayenne thin the blood a little. That is part of how it helps. If the person takes a blood thinner (warfarin, Eliquis, Plavix) or a daily aspirin, let the doctor know they have added it. Stay at the dose on this sheet; this is a time when more is not better. If unusual bruising or bleeding shows up, ease back, and set the formula aside for a week or so before any surgery.
Helping a Forgetful Person Keep Up
The formula only works if it is taken, and a person who is forgetting things will forget the formula too. Both of the stories below worked because the doses happened every day.
Reminder notes. Put notes where they will be seen: the bathroom mirror, the coffee pot, the kitchen table.
Tie it to meals. Breakfast, lunch and supper make three natural times for the three doses.
A pill organizer or a set of small cups set out each morning shows at a glance whether a dose was taken.
Family or a caregiver gives the doses. When the confusion is deeper, someone close by needs to make sure every dose goes down.
Feeding the Brain
The Brain Shake
When a green drink won’t go down, turn it into a milkshake. Blend frozen banana and strawberries with fresh apple juice. The berries turn it pink instead of green, and the sweetness goes down easily. Add 2 tablespoons of Superfood and 1 tablespoon of flax oil or wheat germ oil; both feed the brain and nerves and make it creamy. Blend and serve like a milkshake.
The Foundational Program. As soon as the person will take it: Superfood and juicing, Echinacea, and bowel cleansing with LBF.
Water. Offer water all day long; many older people no longer feel thirst. Dr. Christopher used steam distilled water to wash out the deposits that harden the arteries.
Live food. Dr. Christopher taught that hardening of the arteries comes from dead, stale, processed and overcooked food. Move toward fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, as many of them raw as possible, and away from sugar, white flour and processed foods.
Clearing the Liver and Bowel
Keep the bowels moving with LBF, building up one capsule a day until the bowels move two or three times a day. Many older people go days between movements, and that waste stays in the blood that feeds the brain.
Liver flushing. The liver supplies the brain’s fuel and clears its waste. A week of liver flushing, then an ELF (Emergency Liver Flush) once or twice a week; many people describe it as the fog lifting. Weeks of kidney flushing can be alternated in.
Circulation, Movement and Company
Hot and cold showers in the morning wake up the circulation, when the person is steady enough to stand safely.
Walk every day, outdoors and in the sunshine when possible. Movement sends blood to the brain.
Company and purpose. Conversation, music, singing old hymns, puzzles, gardening, and a job to do that matters. A mind that is used and loved has a reason to stay.
When to Get Medical Care
Herbs are support alongside medical care, not a replacement for it. Confusion that comes on suddenly, over hours or days, needs a doctor the same day: it is often an infection, a medication problem or a small stroke. Before accepting a diagnosis of dementia, ask for a check of B12, the thyroid and a urine test for infection, and a review of every medication, especially sleep aids. Don’t stop a prescribed medication without the doctor.
Emergencies: a face that droops, an arm or leg that goes weak, slurred speech, or sudden severe headache or loss of balance. These are signs of a stroke: call 911 right away.
Level of Commitment
How much is needed depends on how long the trouble has been building and how much the body and heart are carrying:
Gentle support. For the absent-minded and the early stages. The Brain Formula three times a day with reminders, plenty of water, the Brain Shake or Superfood, daily walking, and company.
Focused cleansing. When the confusion is plain to see. All of the above, plus LBF, a week of liver flushing, then an ELF once or twice a week, with weeks of kidney flushing alternated in, and the Foundational Program as soon as it can be taken. Give it about three months, with someone close by making sure it all happens.
Incurables Program. For diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease or advanced dementia. The full Incurables Program includes cleansing the bloodstream with HEAL’s Blood Purifying formula. Blood Purifying contains chaparral, which has long been regarded as one of the strongest blood purifiers in herbal use. It has had years of bad press, but used wisely it supports the body in clearing what has built up. Use with care: take Blood Purifying in courses, not continuously: two dropperfuls 4 to 6 times a day for a week at a time, in a few ounces of grape juice, while drinking 64 to 128 oz. of liquid a day. Avoid it with existing liver disease. If the skin or the whites of the eyes turn yellow, the urine turns dark, or there is pain under the right ribs, stop and have the liver checked. At this level the family carries the program, and it takes every one of them.
More Is Not Faster
These doses are set to what the body can clear. Taking more stirs up more than the bowels, liver and kidneys can carry out, and that is when cleansing starts to feel like poisoning. Healing the body requires steady, consistent nutrition and action, not a bigger dose.
People are different, and now and then someone reacts poorly to a particular herb. If that happens, stop it. What I offer here is a guideline. You are the one living in your body, so work with the Holy Spirit and the wisdom the Lord has given you to apply these supports in the best way for your life.
A Loose Healing Plan
First days: Look for the quick fixes. Get plenty of water in, look hard at any sleep aids, and have a doctor check for a bladder infection, B12, the thyroid and the medications.
Day 1 onward: Start the Brain Formula, 2 dropperfuls three times a day, with reminder notes or a family member giving the doses.
Week 1: Feed the brain. A Brain Shake every day, LBF to get the bowels moving, and the Foundational Program as soon as it will be taken.
Week 2 onward: Clear the liver. A week of liver flushing, then an ELF once or twice a week, with weeks of kidney flushing alternated in.
All along: the heart work. Company, conversation, music, walking, sunshine and a reason to get up in the morning. Face the grief and the losses together.
About 3 months: Take stock. Some come back in a few days; long-standing damage takes months of steady work. Keep the Brain Formula going.
Stories from the Work
A Member’s Story: “You Need to Fix This”
One of our longtime members, one of three brothers who have been with us almost from the beginning, called and started talking the moment I said hello: “My wife is not happy, I’m not happy, you need to fix this.”
A few questions later the trouble came out. His wife’s mother had become too confused to handle the phone. Her daughter lived too far away to visit easily and was beside herself with worry, missing her mother.
We sent the Brain Formula to the mother’s address, and her other children, who lived close by, made sure she got every dose. The next week he called back. All was well again, and his wife could talk with her mother on the phone again.
A Member’s Story: Still Finding Each Other
A local couple, two of the sweetest people, knew they were getting absent-minded and worried that in time they would be lost to each other. They started the Brain Formula, but at first they kept forgetting to take it, and they would call to ask what they could do. The answer was always the same: the Brain Formula, and how much.
Over time the calls stopped, but the orders kept coming, regular as clockwork. When they were down in Florida visiting a grandchild and having a blast, they ran low, and three shipments followed them there. They don’t call anymore to ask what to do. They just keep doing what is working.
Watch
Dr. Tim Jennings, The Aging Brain. Dr. Jennings, a Christian psychiatrist, explains in detail what is happening in the aging brain and what we can do to keep it healthy. He doesn’t cover herbs, but the science he lays out backs up what is on this sheet. It is solidly scientific, and easy for anyone to follow. If the video doesn’t play above, watch “Modern Medicine Seminar 6: The Aging Brain” at comeandreason.com/mmbttb-6.
Perimenopause, Hot Flashes, Night Sweats and the Change of Life
Understanding the Condition
Menopause is not a disease. It is a natural passage, as natural as the first period was in girlhood. Through the childbearing years, the ovaries make two main hormones each month. Estrogen builds the lining of the uterus and keeps the skin, bones, heart, bladder and vaginal tissue supple and strong. Progesterone, made after an egg is released, steadies the lining, calms the nerves and helps with sleep. The brain watches over all of it: the hypothalamus and pituitary send a hormone called FSH to call the ovaries into action each cycle.
As a woman moves through her forties, the ovaries’ supply of eggs runs low and they begin to answer that call less and less. The brain calls louder (FSH rises), and the hormones start to swing.
How the hormones shift through the change. Simplified diagram drawn for H.E.A.L. (not to scale).
How It Unfolds
Perimenopause (often four to ten years, usually starting in the forties). Ovulation becomes irregular, so progesterone falls first while estrogen swings high and low. This is the time of irregular or heavy periods, breast tenderness, PMS that grows worse, trouble sleeping, mood swings, and often thinning hair.
Menopause itself is one day: the point when a woman has gone 12 months in a row without a period. In this country it comes at about age 51 on average.
After menopause, the ovaries rest. The adrenal glands and fat tissue carry on making small amounts of hormones, and the liver keeps clearing used hormones from the body. This is why tired adrenals and a sluggish liver make the change so much harder.
Why the hot flashes come. The same part of the brain that calls to the ovaries also sets the body’s thermostat, sleep and heart rhythm. As estrogen falls and FSH rises, that center is unsettled. It decides the body is too hot, opens the blood vessels in the skin and turns on the sweat: a hot flash, or at night, a night sweat. Dr. Christopher wrote that this same disturbance can unsettle sleep, stamina, heartbeat, digestion and blood pressure, and that few women go through the change without some symptoms.
The common signs are hot flashes and night sweats; trouble sleeping; a racing or pounding heart; mood swings, anxiety and low moods; foggy memory; thinning hair; dryness of the skin and vaginal tissue; urgency or leaking of the bladder; weight settling around the middle; and joint aches. Over the longer term, falling estrogen leaves the bones and the heart with less protection, so this is the time to care for both.
Dr. Christopher believed the hard symptoms are not caused by the change itself but by a body that comes to it undernourished, without the raw materials it needs to make its own hormones. He saw women “glide smoothly through the changes of life” once that food was given. Medicine offers hormone replacement, but its own labels warn of risks to the uterus, breast and blood, and when it is stopped the symptoms often return.
The Emotional Side: the Energy Work
Healing the whole person. We are body, mind and spirit, and all three must heal together. When one part is neglected, the other two cannot find complete healing. A person can follow a perfect herbal program, but if she stays in a life that keeps wearing her down, or never makes time to care for herself, the body will keep losing ground. Healing the body often means facing what is happening in the heart and spirit as well.
The Hormonal Curtain
The real hormonal shift comes at the end, when the cycle stops. Many women think they’re home free when their cycles end without much drama, only to discover it has just begun.
From puberty on, the hormones that run a woman’s cycle also turn her attention outward. It is as if a curtain drops between her and the girl she was when it all began. Her focus turns to nesting, a home and babies, and all of that is hormonally driven. Something is lost during those years, too: the creative side of herself, so alive in her early teens. Not every woman loses it, but many put their inner selves on the back burner through the family years.
In perimenopause, the curtain lifts for longer and longer stretches, and at menopause it rises, never to fall again. The nesting urges simply fade, and you find yourself looking inward more and more. This is a gift. The old tales of the wise older woman, the understanding that comes from a lifetime of living, were always there. You just weren’t looking inward; too much else had your attention. Now you will bloom. You’ll write that book or pick up those paintbrushes again, and discover other amazing parts of yourself. It is time to make friends with yourself.
But behind that curtain is the stash of emotional bills: everything you swept under the rug or tucked away to deal with “later.” Later is here. The more unfinished business waiting there, the harder and more symptomatic your menopause will be.
Well, I hate to be the one to tell you, darlings, but the curtain is gone and the rug is up. It’s time to deal with yourself, or spend the rest of your life trying to medicate it away. You’re always free to keep denying the reality of your life, but you can no longer use the hormonal curtain as a barrier against the inner woman demanding your attention. Do the hard work on you, and become the woman you always knew you were.
Louise Hay, in her book Heal Your Body, describes these patterns:
Menopause problems: fear of no longer being wanted; fear of growing older; rejecting yourself; feeling you are not good enough. Turn it around: I am at peace through every change of life’s seasons, and I bless my body with love.
Emotional patterns paraphrased from Louise Hay, Heal Your Body (Hay House).
Areas Affected & Opening the Way to Healing
The change involves the whole hormone family: the ovaries stepping back, the hypothalamus and pituitary in the brain that set the thermostat and call to the ovaries, the adrenal glands that take over making hormones, the thyroid (whose troubles can look much like menopause), and the liver, which clears used hormones out of the body. It shows up in the skin and blood vessels (flashes and sweats), the heart, the nerves and sleep, the bones, and the bladder and vaginal tissue.
Opening the Way: Clearing the Liver and Bowels
Keep the bowels moving with LBF, building up one capsule a day until the bowels move two or three times a day. Used hormones the liver sends out through the bile are taken back into the blood if the stool sits.
Liver flushing. Juice fasting and flushing the liver are like hitting the restart button. When the body is out of balance, a good week of liver flushing clears a layer of toxins and helps the hormones settle. After that, an ELF (Emergency Liver Flush) once or twice a week until the symptoms have cleared.
Cool the triggers. Coffee and other caffeine, sugar, alcohol, spicy foods, hot drinks and stress all set off hot flashes. Many women find their flashes come at certain times of day once they start watching.
Hot and cold showers and fresh air. A hot and cold shower in the morning wakes up the circulation and trains the blood vessels to respond. Exercise, outdoor walks and sunshine steady the mood and protect the bones.
Feeding the Female System
Female Formula: the first support. Chaste tree berry, wild yam, dong quai, damiana, licorice and hops: it gives the body the raw material to balance its own hormones and calms the nerves, and it helps stop hot flashes, night sweats and the emotional free fall of the change. The daily amount is 1½ teaspoons. For hot flashes and night sweats, split it into three ½-teaspoon portions: ½ teaspoon in the morning, and the rest taken before your problem times. If the flashes come in the late afternoon, take the larger share in the early afternoon so the herbs are in the blood when they are needed most. For night sweats, take a dose at bedtime. Without these issues, take the full 1½ teaspoons in the morning.
Changease: hormonal food. Black cohosh, sarsaparilla, ginseng, licorice, blessed thistle, squaw vine, shatavari and vitex. When symptoms still persist after the Female Formula and liver flushing, add Changease alongside it: ½ to 1 teaspoon three times a day. It gives the body the raw material to make the hormones it needs in the last stages of the change; the shatavari is cooling and moistening, a help for hot flashes, night sweats and dryness, and the vitex supports the pituitary.
Wild yam cream: a helper alongside. Some women do best using both the Female Formula and a wild yam progesterone cream. Dara used the cream herself, mainly for thinning hair and the symptoms of perimenopause. It is valuable to a degree; the Female Formula is still the foundation, and the cream is an addition, not a replacement.
Feed the adrenals. The adrenals carry the load after menopause. The licorice in both formulas feeds them; when a woman is worn thin, see Rebuilding Tired Adrenals.
Heavy, breakthrough or lingering bleeding: kick it hard. The everyday Female Formula amount is 1½ teaspoons a day. When the bleeding turns heavy, comes between cycles, or a cycle refuses to end, even if it is only spotting, don’t let it drag on. Take 1 tablespoon all at once in a cup of hot water, and for heavy flooding with clots, up to three times a day. Keep it up for a day or two after the bleeding stops, then drop back to the usual dose. The natural progesterone in the wild yam can make the breasts tender at this higher dose; it eases within a day or two of returning to the normal dose. Any bleeding after menopause needs a doctor (see the box below).
Calming the Heart, Nerves and Sleep
A racing or pounding heart. Many women report palpitations through the change. Dara’s supports: NFX and the General Nervine for the nerves, with cayenne and hawthorn extracts for the heart. In hot water at bedtime, cayenne (working up gradually to 3 droppersful) and hawthorn (6 droppersful) make a calming evening tea; when palpitations wake you, take the cayenne and hawthorn every five minutes until the heart settles.
Sleep. 2 droppersful each of the General Nervine and NFX at bedtime help with falling asleep and staying asleep. See Two Formulas for a Good Night’s Sleep for more.
Thinning Hair
The Female Formula first. Thinning hair is one of the most common signs of perimenopause, and for many women it is the most upsetting. Dara’s own hair was falling out by the handful until she began the Female Formula; then it stopped. Use the daily amount above.
Clear the liver. The liver clears used hormones out of the body. When it is sluggish, the hormone swings are harder and the hair shows it. A week of liver flushing, then an ELF once or twice a week, supports the hair along with everything else.
Add Changease if it persists. When hair loss keeps on after the Female Formula and liver flushing, add Changease alongside them.
Wild yam cream. Dara used wild yam cream mainly for thinning hair, and some women do best using it together with the Female Formula.
Ease the stress and check the thyroid. Stress drives hair loss, and the nerve supports above help. Thyroid trouble also thins the hair and can look just like the change, so have it checked if the hair loss is heavy.
Protecting the Bones
Calcium the body can use. Dr. Christopher’s Calcium formula (horsetail grass, comfrey root, oat straw and lobelia) with Superfood: 1 teaspoon three times a day. Dara regards ordinary calcium pills as ground-up rock; plant calcium feeds the bones without leaving mineral residue for the kidneys.
Weight-bearing exercise and sunshine keep the bones strong; walking counts. Stop the calcium robbers: soft drinks, coffee and junk food.
Using Comfrey With Care
Comfrey root is one of the four herbs in the Calcium formula, used in traditional proportions as part of a blend. Take it at the dose on this sheet, 1 teaspoon three times a day. More is not faster.
When to Get Medical Care
Herbs are support alongside medical care, not a replacement for it. Any bleeding after menopause (once you have gone 12 months without a period) needs to be checked by a doctor, as does bleeding that is very heavy, comes every two weeks, or lasts much longer than usual during perimenopause. Have your thyroid checked if symptoms are strong, since thyroid trouble can look just like the change. A bone density scan in the years after menopause shows how the bones are holding up. If you are taking hormone replacement, work with your doctor to come off it gradually; stopping suddenly can bring a hard rebound.
Emergencies: chest pain or pressure, a racing heart with fainting, dizziness or shortness of breath, or heavy bleeding with lightheadedness. These need emergency care right away.
Level of Commitment
Most women pass through the change well with steady, simple support. How much you need depends on how much your body and your heart are carrying into it:
Gentle support. For most women in perimenopause and the change. The Female Formula, timed before your problem times; LBF to keep the bowels moving; cutting the triggers (caffeine, sugar, alcohol); water, walking and sunshine; the sleep supports as needed.
Focused cleansing. When the symptoms are strong or don’t settle: a week of liver flushing, then an ELF once or twice a week until the symptoms clear, with weeks of kidney flushing alternated in; add Changease to the Female Formula; the heart and nerve supports; the Calcium formula for the bones. Give it about three months.
Incurables Program. The change itself never calls for this. It is for a serious condition that comes along with it, such as fibroids, cysts, or cancer of the breast or uterus; see those sheets. The full Incurables Program includes cleansing the bloodstream with HEAL’s Blood Purifying formula. Blood Purifying contains chaparral, which has long been regarded as one of the strongest blood purifiers in herbal use. It has had years of bad press, but used wisely it supports the body in clearing growths, and over the years many members have used it to eliminate tumors. Use with care: take Blood Purifying in courses, not continuously: two dropperfuls 4 to 6 times a day for a week at a time, in a few ounces of grape juice, while drinking 64 to 128 oz. of liquid a day. Avoid it during pregnancy or nursing and with existing liver disease. If the skin or the whites of the eyes turn yellow, the urine turns dark, or there is pain under the right ribs, stop and have the liver checked.
More Is Not Faster
These doses are set to what the body can clear. Taking more stirs up more than the bowels, liver and kidneys can carry out, and that is when cleansing starts to feel like poisoning. Healing the body requires steady, consistent nutrition and action, not a bigger dose.
People are different, and now and then someone reacts poorly to a particular herb. If that happens, stop it. What I offer here is a guideline. You are the one living in your body, so work with the Holy Spirit and the wisdom the Lord has given you to apply these supports in the best way for your life.
A Loose Healing Plan
Week 1: Build the foundation. Start your Foundational Program (Superfood and juicing, Echinacea, and bowel cleansing with LBF). Start the Female Formula, timed before your problem times, with a bedtime dose for night sweats. Begin cutting caffeine, sugar and alcohol, and notice what sets off your flashes.
Week 2: Flush the liver. A week of liver flushing, then an ELF once or twice a week until the symptoms clear.
Weeks 2 onward: Calm and protect. Add the sleep and heart supports if you need them, the Calcium formula with Superfood for the bones, and daily walking and sunshine.
After a month or so: Take stock. If hot flashes, night sweats or mood swings persist, add Changease to the Female Formula. Weeks of kidney flushing can be alternated with the liver work.
About 3 months: Most women are steady. Three months is the average time to bring the hormones into balance. Keep the Female Formula going through the change, easing down as the symptoms fade, and return to the supports whenever a rough patch comes.
All along: the inner work. Make friends with yourself. Face what has been waiting behind the curtain, and give yourself the care you have given everyone else.
Stories from the Work
Dara’s Story: My Own Change
Menopause came for me in the middle of some of the most turbulent years of my life. Our move to Mountaindale, New York, had been a time of real growth, with all the drama that comes before growth. Our move to Hendersonville, North Carolina, gave us a little time to recover before our own family drama began, and perimenopause began right in the midst of it.
My hair started falling out by the handful. I had always had very thick hair, which was a good thing, because at that rate I was soon going to need a wig. My hairdresser suggested vitamins for stress. They helped a little, but nothing fixed it.
During those same years I was discovering the herbal cleansing programs and the herbs that support the female system. I began the Female Formula around 1997, when I was 37, with excellent results. My hair stopped falling out. My cycles improved, and the clots from the heavy bleeding that had been my lot for years were gone.
That was the beginning of a perimenopause that lasted about ten years. At 46 I began skipping cycles, and for several years I had one cycle every three months. In my 48th year, after 11 months without a cycle, I had one last one. It began with a feeling of emotional free fall, and my body seemed determined to make up for all 11 months: I was passing huge blood clots. I took a full tablespoon of the Female Formula three times that day and kept up that dose until the cycle ended. By midafternoon of the first day the bleeding had slowed to a normal flow, and my emotions felt steadier after that first large dose. The bleeding lasted five days and stopped. I kept taking the large dose for several more days. The last thing I wanted was to see that bleeding return.
During those twelve or thirteen years, I wrote my biography, recovered a marriage that was all but dead, and discovered who this woman really was.
The regular dose of the Female Formula is 1½ teaspoons a day. A tablespoon three times a day is the dose for controlling heavy bleeding, and the same approach handles breakthrough bleeding or a cycle that won’t end: kick it hard and get it done, then return to the regular dose. See Feeding the Female System.
A Member’s Story: Calming the Heart Through Perimenopause
A member in North Carolina shared how perimenopause brought what she called “panic attacks”: waking dizzy and lightheaded, her heart racing like a freight train, over and over. Every night she made herself a hot tea with 3 droppersful of cayenne (working up to it gradually) and 6 droppersful of hawthorn, and took 2 droppersful each of the General Nervine and NF (now NFX) formulas to fall asleep and stay asleep. When she woke with palpitations, she took the cayenne and hawthorn every five minutes until it stopped, usually just once. She used these supports at bedtime for years with great results; the only time the supports failed her was when she had overdone the caffeine or sugar.
Off the Hormones and Sleeping Through the Night (from Dr. Christopher)
A woman in Vancouver, British Columbia came to Dr. Christopher “climbing the wall” with nervous tension. Her hot flashes were driving her almost insane, she threw off the covers all night, and her husband was losing sleep and patience. She was taking estrogen but felt it was doing her more harm than good.
He put her on the three-day cleanse and the mucusless diet. She suffered for a time coming off the commercial hormones, but took the female corrective formula and the hormone formula (now Changease), each three times a day. A short time later she told him her whole life had changed: she slept all night without throwing off the covers, the nervous screaming jags were gone, and her husband fell in love with her again. She said it was worth every bit of the change in diet and the effort of taking the herbs.
“I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you.” (1 Corinthians 11:2, NIV)
The Remedy says it warmly: Paul is so pleased with them for remembering all he taught them and holding firmly to the truth he shared. The word “traditions” here is the Greek paradoseis — things handed over. Paul received the gospel from Christ and handed it on (1 Corinthians 11:23; 15:3), and these believers were holding on to what had been handed to them.
The Hard Part Is Keeping It
Paul recognized the effort it took to stick with the changes they had taken on while he was with them. He understood how hard it is to accept something new, to learn it, and then to keep doing it until it is no longer a new thing. The science of the brain wasn’t available then, but observation and wisdom could see how the mind works.
Think about who these people were. The society they came from was different in every way from the truths they had embraced into their hearts and minds. It was an entirely new way of living — and they learned it and kept living it without leaving the city and community they lived in. They changed their gods. They took a new foundation to build their lives on, right in the middle of the same society. That is truly huge.
A Perfect Storm
A change like that could not have happened if society had been at rest, with nothing stirring the heart to go looking for somewhere to rest. The Roman world was that storm. People were weary of the drama — of leaders, of politicians, of a military that could turn on itself at any moment. The more affluent Roman culture became, the more corrupt its leaders grew, and the decay was already in public view when Christ was born. A single ruler could give an order and every boy in a town would be killed, as Herod, Rome’s appointed king, did in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16).
Brain science shows the mind holds hard to its old foundational ways of thinking until something strong enough — a crisis, an epiphany, a force — pushes it to look for something new. Into that weary world, Christ brought something new.
The Imprint That Remains
Two thousand years later the whole world carries the imprint of what Paul and the disciples of Christ left behind. Slavery, once ordinary everywhere, has been abolished by law nearly everywhere. The life of Christ is known in every corner of the earth — not accepted by every culture, but known well enough that some fight against it. It began with ordinary people like those Corinthians, holding fast to what was handed to them.
So Paul’s praise is for us too. What Christ hands us is new at first, and it is hard. But we keep at it, day by day, until it is no longer new — until it is simply who we are. And then we hand it on.
