Category: Herbal Healing

Herbal Healing, Herbs & How to Use Them, Infection, Colds & Flu

A Pure Essential Oil Air Freshener You Can Make Yourself

Dara Dietz

Herbal Air is one of those things members fall in love with. It is nothing but pure essential oils in a spray bottle: no water, no alcohol, no fillers. Fresh Eucalyptus leads, brightened with four citrus oils, and a few spritzes freshen a whole room.

We have made it for years, but five pure essential oils make it expensive to produce, and we have decided to stop making it. It is simple to put together at home, though, so here is the recipe for anyone who wants to make it for themselves.

What Goes Into It

A good batch of Herbal Air contains these five pure essential oils:

  • Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus), 12 parts. The heart of the blend. Its clean, penetrating scent has long been used to clear the air and open the breathing passages.
  • Grapefruit, 4 parts. Bright and uplifting.
  • Lime, 3 parts. Fresh and sharp.
  • Lemon, 1 part. Clean and cheerful; a classic for freshening the home.
  • Sweet Orange, 1 part. Warm and sweet, rounding out the blend.

“Parts” can be any measure you like, as long as you use the same one for every oil. A handy batch is 12 teaspoons of Eucalyptus, 4 of Grapefruit, 3 of Lime, and 1 each of Lemon and Sweet Orange. That makes about 3½ ounces, just right for a 4-ounce spray bottle.

Putting It Together

Pour the oils into a glass spray bottle; amber or cobalt glass protects them from light. Pure oils can break down plastic, so glass is best. Cap it and give it a gentle shake, and that is all there is to it. Keep it tightly capped in a cool, dark place. Citrus oils fade with time, so mix a batch you will use within a year.

How I Use It

  • Spray a few times into the air, toward the middle of the room. Because it is pure oil, a little goes a long way.
  • In a sickroom during colds and flu, it clears the air and helps open a stuffed-up head.
  • At bedtime, give your pillow a light spritz. Members tell us they sleep amazingly well.
  • I like to spray it on the towels hanging in my bathroom. It keeps the whole room smelling comfortably fresh.

Use It with Care

These are pure oils, so treat them with respect. Spray into the air, never onto skin or toward the eyes. Keep it off polished wood, painted surfaces and plastics, since pure oils can mark them; a light spritz on cotton pillowcases and towels is fine. Keep it away from cats, who are especially sensitive to eucalyptus and citrus oils. And keep it out of reach of children and away from open flame.

This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.

Herbal Healing, Herbs & How to Use Them, Organs & Glands, Women's & Men's Health

A Bitter Tea Worth Making: Support for the Prostate and Urinary Tract

Dara Dietz

Some formulas earn their place by how well they work, not by how pleasant they are. This is one of them. Dr. Christopher put it together in response to a patient in real distress, to help with kidney stones, infection and sediment in the prostate gland. It brings together seven herbs for the whole urinary tract: kidneys, bladder and prostate.

It is also one of the most bitter teas you will ever drink, and one of the most expensive to make. That is exactly why you won’t find it on many shelves, and why I want you to know how to make it yourself.

What a Good Formula Contains

A good formula for the prostate and urinary tract might contain these seven herbs, all powdered:

  • Goldenseal Root, 3 parts. The backbone of the formula. A powerful, very bitter herb, long used to support the mucous membranes and the body against infection.
  • Gravel Root, 1 part. Its name tells you its traditional use: helping the body clear gravel and stones from the urinary tract.
  • Marshmallow Root, 1 part. Soothing mucilage that coats and protects irritated tissue and eases the passage of whatever needs to leave.
  • Parsley Root, 1 part. Gets the fluids moving and flushes the kidneys.
  • Juniper Berries, 1 part. A traditional urinary antiseptic that wakes up sluggish kidneys.
  • Lobelia, 1 part. Relaxes spasm and tension so the passages can open.
  • Cayenne, 1 part. Drives circulation and carries the other herbs where they are needed.

“Parts” can be any measure you like, as long as you use the same one for every herb. A handy batch is 3 tablespoons of Goldenseal and 1 tablespoon each of the other six, a little over half a cup in all.

Putting It Together

Stir the powders together until they are evenly blended, and keep them in a tightly closed glass jar. For a cup of tea, stir 1 teaspoon of the powder into a cup of hot water, let it steep a few minutes, and drink it, powder and all. If the bitterness is more than you can face, fill #00 capsules with the powder instead.

How to Take It

For daily support, take 2 capsules in the morning and 2 at night. When the need is urgent, drink half a cup of the tea frequently throughout the day.

Why It’s Worth Making Yourself

Goldenseal is one of the most expensive herbs there is, and this formula uses a lot of it. Most people only need it now and then, so a large batch sits for years before it is used up. It makes far more sense to mix a small batch yourself when you need it. Don’t let the cost or the bitterness talk you out of it. This is a valuable formula, and it does help.

Keep the Whole System Supported

For ongoing prostate care, see Keeping the Prostate Clear. To feed and flush the kidneys, see Food for the Kidneys: A Daily Formula and Tea. And drink plenty of pure water; whatever these herbs loosen has to have a way out.

This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.

Food & Nutrition, Herbal Healing

Nutritional Yeast: The Yeast That Feeds You

Dara Dietz

Every so often someone asks me to leave the yeast out of their superfood. They have been told that yeast is bad for them, especially if they are fighting Candida. I understand the worry, but it comes from mixing up two very different things. The yeast in a good superfood blend is not the yeast that raises your bread, and it is not the yeast that overgrows in the body. It is a food, and one of the most nourishing foods we have.

Three Kinds of Yeast

  • Baker’s yeast is alive. It is sold active, so it can feed on sugar and give off the gas that makes bread rise. This is the yeast people picture when they hear the word.
  • Brewer’s yeast is left over from brewing beer. It is usually deactivated too, but it often tastes bitter from the hops.
  • Nutritional yeast is grown on purpose as a food, usually on beet molasses or cane sugar. When it is ready, it is heated enough to stop all yeast activity, then dried into golden flakes. It cannot grow, multiply or ferment anything. It is no longer a living yeast at all.

Why It Is Not a Candida Problem

Candida is a different organism altogether, one that overgrows in the body when the diet is full of sugar and refined foods and the bowel is sluggish. Nutritional yeast is not Candida, and because it has been deactivated, it cannot feed Candida, join it or start an overgrowth of its own. Eating it is no different from eating any other cooked, dried food. What feeds Candida is sugar and white flour, not a spoonful of golden flakes.

A true allergy to yeast is a different matter, and it is rare. Someone who truly reacts to yeast proteins should leave it out. But that is not the same as being afraid of yeast because of Candida.

What Nutritional Yeast Gives You

  • Complete protein. About half of it is protein, with all the essential amino acids the body needs to rebuild itself.
  • B vitamins. It is one of the richest sources of B vitamins we have, the vitamins the nerves, the brain and the energy of every cell depend on. We use a fortified flake, which adds B12 as well.
  • Minerals. Iron, zinc, selenium and many others.
  • Beta-glucans. A special fiber in the yeast cell wall that supports the immune system.

That is why nutritional yeast is the largest part of our superfood blend. Leave it out, and what is left is mostly green herbs and peels, good in themselves but missing the protein and B vitamins that make the blend a real food. See Superfood: Raw Material for Healing.

A Warm Flush

A fortified yeast is rich in niacin, one of the B vitamins. At a larger serving, some people feel a warm, tingling flush in the skin for a little while. It is harmless and passes on its own; if it bothers you, use a smaller amount and build up.

How to Enjoy It

Stir it into your superfood drink, or sprinkle the flakes on popcorn, salads, potatoes, soups and steamed vegetables. It has a rich, cheesy, nutty flavor, which is why so many people who avoid dairy love it.

This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.

The pan scored into small squares
Cleansing & Flushing, Digestion & Gut, Herbal Healing

Bowel Formula Squares: An Easier Way to Take Your Herbs

Dara Dietz

Not everyone can swallow a handful of capsules, and the herbs in a good lower bowel formula are bitter. Here is a simple way around both problems: make the powder into coconut oil squares. The coconut oil masks the bitter taste, and small chunks go down easily with a swallow of juice.

A dear doctor friend of mine, who practiced well into her nineties, made these squares for all of her patients who needed a lower bowel formula. She bought the powder 30 pounds at a time.

What You Need

LBF #1 powder in a glass bowl beside a jar of coconut oil

1 pound of lower bowel formula powder (see Helping Sluggish Bowels Move Again for what goes into it), 1 cup of coconut oil, and a foil-lined cookie sheet.

Making the Squares

Melted coconut oil being poured into the powder

Melt the coconut oil and pour it into the powder.

Whisking the powder and oil until smooth

Whisk until it is completely smooth, then pour it onto the foil-lined cookie sheet and spread it evenly.

Scoring the set mixture with a knife

Chill it just until it is firm enough to hold a knife line but still soft: about 4 to 5 minutes in the freezer, or 15 to 20 in the refrigerator. Then score it into squares. I always did 14 cuts the long way and 10 the short way. Whatever size you choose, cut it the same way every time, so every square holds the same amount.

The pan scored into small squares

Put the pan back in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. The squares will break apart evenly along the score lines. Store them in the dairy compartment of your refrigerator.

Taking Them

Build up just as you would with capsules: 1 square the first day, 2 the second, 3 the third, and so on, until your bowels are moving well. Once you know how much you need, you can cut future batches to suit your own dose.

Don’t try to swallow a whole square; it can get stuck in the throat. Cut each square into small chunks with a paring knife. Put a spoonful in your mouth and wash it down with a swallow of Superfood or juice. They float right down, and you will hardly taste the herbs.

The finished pan of squares on the counter

This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.

LBF #1 powder in a glass bowl beside a jar of coconut oil
Herbal Healing, Women's & Men's Health

An Herbal Bolus for Weak, Sickly Female Organs

Dara Dietz

When the female organs are weak and sickly, they become a dumping ground for toxic waste from the rest of the body. Endometriosis, cysts and many other female problems grow out of that toxic load. An herbal bolus works right where the trouble is, feeding and strengthening the female organs and drawing out what has settled there, as part of a full healing program.

Start with the Bowel

The bowel sits right against the female organs. Any constipation held in the bowel presses on them, and the waste seeps into them and pollutes them. A constipated bowel destroys the female system. So before anything else, and all the way through, keep the bowel open and moving well; see Helping Sluggish Bowels Move Again.

What a Good Bolus Formula Contains

A good bolus formula might contain equal parts of these eight herbs, all powdered:

  • Squaw Vine. A classic female herb, used to tone and strengthen the uterus.
  • Slippery Elm Bark. Its soothing mucilage protects tender tissue and helps hold the bolus together.
  • Yellow Dock Root. A blood cleanser, used to help draw out toxins.
  • Comfrey Root. Known as “knitbone,” used to support the growth of new cells and tissue.
  • Marshmallow Root. Softens and soothes irritated, inflamed tissue.
  • Chickweed. Used to help dissolve unwanted growths and deposits.
  • Goldenseal Root. Long used to support the mucous membranes and keep tissue clean.
  • Mullein. A gentle drawing herb for the glands and lymph.

Making the Bolus

Powdered herbs in a glass bowl beside a jar of coconut oil

Work the powdered herbs into coconut oil until it reaches a pie-crust consistency: firm enough to hold its shape, soft enough to roll. Roll it into sticks about as thick as your finger and cut them about 1 inch long. Chill them until firm, and keep them in the refrigerator.

Using It

Melted coconut oil being poured into a bowl of powdered herbs

Insert one bolus at bedtime, and wear a sanitary pad, not a tampon. Leave it in through the next day; a little coming out in the morning is normal. In the evening, douche to clean out the area before inserting the next one. A pint of warm water with 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar works well.

Use it 6 nights a week, resting over the Lord’s day.

Feeding the Female System from the Inside

The bolus works from the outside in. Pair it with the formulas that feed the female system from the inside: Rebuilding a Worn-Down Female System and Food for the Female System.

This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.

Herbal Healing, Infection, Colds & Flu, Skin, Wounds & First Aid

A Simple Drawing Poultice: Charcoal and Flaxseed

Dara Dietz

Some of the best tools for infection are the simplest. Two ingredients from your kitchen shelf, activated charcoal and flaxseed, cooked into a thick black paste and laid on warm, will pull infection, boils and toxins right out of the body. I have used this poultice for boils, earaches, tooth and gum infections, vertigo, swollen glands, and stings and bites.

You can watch me make it here:

And for more ways to work on an infection from the outside, here is my video on topical applications:

What You Need

  • 1 cup of water, distilled if you have it.
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons activated charcoal powder.
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons flaxseed, freshly ground.
  • A piece of old cotton sheet, about 12 inches square.

Making It

Grind the flaxseed, then whisk it with the charcoal into the water in a small pot. Bring it to a boil and stir until it thickens to a paste about like toothpaste. If it isn’t getting thick enough, add more flax, or more of both. Spread the hot paste in the middle of the cloth and fold it up like a burrito so the filling is completely contained. Let it cool just enough to be comfortable, then lay it on while it is still quite warm. The heat opens the pores so the infection can be drawn out. Plastic wrap and a washcloth over the top keep it warm longer.

Leave it on overnight, or at least 2 to 4 hours during the day. Then throw it away. Never reuse or reheat a poultice; it holds what it has pulled out.

Where It Goes

For earaches and vertigo, always put a poultice over both ears, even when only one is affected. I recently discovered that two wide sweatbands, angled low around the head and over the ears, hold them in place beautifully. A pair of pantyhose works too: wear the seat like a shower cap and tie the legs over the poultices. Nylon stretches rather than tightens, and children take well to it. For children, always use the pantyhose rather than sweatbands; the bands are too large for them and could slip down around the neck. And any small child wearing a pantyhose cap overnight should sleep with a parent, or be watched through the night in shifts.

For a tooth, gum or mouth infection, lay it on the cheek over the sore spot and hold it the same way, 4 to 6 hours or all night. For boils, sores, stings and bites, place it right over the area; you can make it as small as a Band-Aid or as big as a sheet. It is good over swollen lymph nodes in the neck or armpits, and over the liver, changed daily until the bad odor is gone for two days running.

Before you work on healing an ulcer or a deep wound, always use this poultice first to clear any infection; then move on to the healing poultice in Filling In Deep Wounds and Ulcers.

Why It Works

Activated charcoal adsorbs. Toxins cling to its surface by an electrical attraction, which is much stronger than simply soaking something up. The flaxseed holds the heat and moisture against the skin while the charcoal does its work.

A Tip from My Own Kitchen

When I needed this poultice recently for an infection in my mouth and the vertigo that came with it, I learned to grind a supply of flaxseed ahead of time. It saves a step when you need the poultice in a hurry, but keep the ground flax in the freezer. It loses its value quickly sitting out in a warm room.

The Key for My Own Gums

Dara wearing charcoal and flaxseed poultices over both ears, held with wide sweatbands

After a broken tooth was pulled, a pocket of infection in my gum would not clear with all my regular infection work, and I was fighting vertigo at the same time. When my left ear began to ache, I put a poultice over both ears, held with two wide sweatbands, and changed them every 4 hours over two days. The first few made my ears sore, as if the tissue itself was full of toxins; a little healing salve took care of that. The pocket on my gum began clearing with the very first poultice, and by the fourth it was completely gone, and my dentist’s x-rays later showed me infection-free. I was surprised that a poultice over the ears would pull infection from the gums, but it was the key. The whole story is in Herbal Aids for Clearing an Infection in the Teeth and Gums, and the vertigo side of it in Natural Support for Vertigo.

A Toe That Was Saved

Years ago I met a woman whose big toe was scheduled to be amputated the next morning. An infection had set in after an ingrown toenail was removed, and nothing the doctors gave her had touched it. I made her one of these poultices for her whole foot, and she wore it all night. The next morning she came by to show me: the redness and tenderness were gone, and so were the blue streaks that had been running up her leg.

Work from the Inside, Too

A poultice draws from the outside. Support the body from the inside at the same time; see Our Two Infection Fighters, Echinacea: Telling the Immune System to Gear Up and Getting the Herbs to Where the Infection Lives.

This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.

Herbal Healing, Skin, Wounds & First Aid

Filling In Deep Wounds and Ulcers

Dara Dietz

Some wounds need more than closing. A deep gouge, an ulcer that has eaten into the flesh, a bedsore, or any serious injury where tissue has been lost has to fill back in from the bottom up. For these, I reach for a healing poultice: a blend of powdered herbs packed right into the wound, where it forms a protective herbal scab and feeds the body the raw materials it needs to grow new flesh. The wound grows shallower as the tissue fills in, healing from the inside out, often with little or no scarring.

First, Clear Any Infection

Before you begin, the wound has to be clean. Infection left in a wound will keep it from healing no matter what you put in it. So any time you are working to heal an ulcer or a deep wound, use the charcoal and flaxseed drawing poultice first, to be sure the area is clear of bacteria and infection. Once it is clean and clear, start the healing poultice.

What a Good Healing Poultice Contains

A good healing poultice might contain these five herbs, all powdered:

  • Slippery Elm Bark, 4 parts. The heart of the blend. Its soothing mucilage binds the paste together, protects tender tissue and nourishes it.
  • Plantain, 2 parts. A classic wound herb, used for generations to draw out infection and support healing.
  • Goldenseal Root, 1 part. Long used to keep tissue clean and support it against infection.
  • Comfrey Root, 1 part. Known as “knitbone,” used to support the growth of new cells and tissue.
  • Cayenne, a pinch. Brings circulation into the area and helps stop bleeding.

“Parts” can be any measure you like, as long as you use the same one for every herb.

Making and Applying the Paste

Mix a small amount of the powder with distilled water, aloe vera juice or aloe vera gel into a stiff, mud-like paste. Once any bleeding is under control and the wound is clean, fill the open wound with the paste and cover it with gauze or another natural-fiber bandage. Natural fiber lets the skin breathe; under plastic, the cayenne can feel hot.

As it dries, the poultice often hardens into a protective herbal scab. Each day, take off the bandage and soak or rinse the area during the daily bath. If the poultice washes out, pack the wound again and cover it. If the scab holds, just add more paste on top as needed. Don’t worry if some of the material stays in the wound; the body takes it in and uses those nutrients to grow new flesh.

Ulcers and Bedsores

Ulcers and bedsores need circulation brought back into the area. Before each application, soak the area in hot cayenne water, made with ½ teaspoon of cayenne tincture to each gallon of hot water. Feet can soak right in it. For sores on the back or bottom, soak a towel in the hot cayenne water and lay it over the area, changing it as it cools, for half an hour. Alternating hot and cold, 7 of each, during the daily bath helps too.

Infection salve around the top edges of the ulcer speeds the healing. Keep it to the edges, though; the oily salve makes it hard for the poultice to stay in the wound.

Here is my video on caring for wounds and bedsores:

This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.

Cleansing & Flushing, Herbal Healing

Clearing Heavy Metals from the Body

Dara Dietz

Heavy metals and other pollutants get trapped in our systems from the world around us and from what we put into our bodies. Clearing them is not a quick job, but it can be done. It takes an herbal combination that draws the metals out, a routine of hot mineral baths, and a bowel that is open and working so the metals have a way out of the body.

That last part matters more than most people realize. The bowel vacuum, the absorbing fiber blend in A 911 for Vomiting and Diarrhea, should be used the entire time you’re working to clear heavy metals. People using it found their hair samples showing a decrease in heavy metals within a few weeks.

What a Good Heavy Metal Formula Contains

A good heavy metal formula might contain these three herbs:

  • Bugleweed, 3 parts. The lead herb, long used to draw out minerals, drugs and other pollutants trapped in the system.
  • Yellow Dock Root, 3 parts. A strong blood purifier that helps the liver and bowel carry the waste out.
  • Lobelia, 1 part. Relaxes and opens the body, and carries the other herbs where they need to go.

“Parts” can be any measure you like, as long as you use the same one for every herb. By weight, that’s 3 ounces each of Bugleweed and Yellow Dock, and 1 ounce of Lobelia.

It is paired with a Chaparral extract. Chaparral is one of the strongest blood-cleansing herbs there is.

Putting It Together

The heavy metal extract: Put the dry herbs in a glass jar and pour in 80-proof vodka. Once the herbs have settled, you want about 60% herb sediment on the bottom and 40% liquid on top. Shake the jar every day. The traditional timing follows the moon, from the new moon to the full moon, about two weeks. I prefer to let my extracts sit a full three months, which makes them good and strong. Then strain and bottle the liquid.

The Chaparral extract: Make it the same way, but use a 50-50 mix of 80-proof vodka and apple cider vinegar instead of straight vodka. A few herbs respond better to that mix, and Chaparral is one of them.

How to Use It

  • The tea: ½ teaspoon of the heavy metal extract and 1 teaspoon of the Chaparral extract in a cup of hot water, three times a day.
  • The baths: every other day, soak in a tub of hot water with 1 to 3 pounds of Epsom salts. Keep up the baths for three weeks, then rest from the baths for a week while you keep taking the tea. See The Detox Bath.
  • The bowel vacuum: keep it going the whole time, with your lower bowel formula alongside it so the bowels keep moving well.

Two or three cycles of baths is a good place to begin. How many you need really depends on how bad things are, and on whether you’ve cleaned up your life so the cleansing is actually working.

Lay the Foundation First

Before beginning the baths, the foundational work should already be in place:

It’s also good to have at least one week of liver flushing and kidney flushing under your belt. See Week 2: Liver Flushing and Kidney Flushing Light to Intense.

Then, all the way through the program, do at least one ELF liver flush a week. It keeps the liver cleared so the waste can move out freely, and leaves the liver free to pull toxins effectively.

For the full routine as I taught it in class, see Clearing Heavy Metal Class.

This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.

Digestion & Gut, Herbal Healing, Skin, Wounds & First Aid

A 911 for Vomiting and Diarrhea

Dara Dietz

This fiber blend does two very important jobs. In a bowel cleansing program it is the bowel vacuum, pulling inflammation from the bowel walls and carrying out the waste the body releases as it heals. And every home should have a jar of it on the shelf for the middle of the night, when a stomach bug or a bad bit of food has the body purging from one end or the other. Then it soaks up the acid, bacteria and poisons that are causing the trouble, and it soothes the raw tissue while it works.

What a Good Absorbing Fiber Blend Contains

A good absorbing fiber blend might contain these nine ingredients, all powdered:

  • Psyllium Husk Powder, 8 parts. The bulk of the blend. It swells into a gel that firms up loose stool and carries waste out.
  • Flax Seed, 2 parts. Soothing, lubricating fiber.
  • Apple Pectin, 2 parts. A gentle, binding fiber long used to settle diarrhea.
  • Bentonite Clay, 2 parts. Draws toxins and bacteria to itself and carries them out of the body.
  • Activated Charcoal, 2 parts. One of the great absorbers. It soaks up poisons and gas in the gut.
  • Slippery Elm Bark, 2 parts. Coats and soothes raw, irritated tissue all the way down.
  • Marshmallow Root, 2 parts. Another soothing, coating herb that calms inflamed membranes.
  • Peppermint, 1 part. Settles the stomach and eases cramping.
  • Plantain, 1 part. A healing, drawing herb for irritated tissue.

“Parts” can be any measure you like, as long as you use the same one for every ingredient. By weight, that’s 8 ounces of Psyllium, 2 ounces each of the next six, and 1 ounce each of Peppermint and Plantain. Mix the powders well and keep them in a tightly closed jar.

The Bowel Vacuum

This is the blend’s most important work. As part of a bowel cleansing program it acts as a bowel vacuum. It pulls inflammation from the bowel walls, and it helps carry out the toxic waste the liver dumps when the body is going through a healing program.

Because it is so absorbing, it needs a lower bowel formula working alongside it, or it can stop you up with a brick in your bowels. So the lower bowel formula of your choice comes first (see Helping Sluggish Bowels Move Again). Spend about a week finding your number of capsules, and if your bowels still aren’t regulated, give it another week before moving on.

When your bowels are moving well, increase your capsules by 1 or 2 the night before you begin the vacuum the next morning. Someone already taking 10 or more capsules may need 2 or more extra to pass the vacuum well. It all depends on the person, their size, and the state of disease in the body. Then take 1 rounded teaspoon about every 3 hours through the day, which comes to five doses a day, for a two-week bowel cleanse. A rounded teaspoon is right for almost everyone. For someone very large, or with serious bowel disease, a bit more may prove helpful. If your bowels seem too tight at the end of the day, add another capsule. If they’re a bit too loose, drop one. You are in charge. The lower bowel formula keeps the bowels moving well while the vacuum does the heavy cleansing and healing work.

Drink plenty of liquid during the cleanse: an extra glass of water after each dose, and lots of pure water, herb teas and diluted juices through the day. It makes the whole program work better.

And what are we aiming for? A healthy bowel moves once for every meal you eat. If you eat three meals, you should have three bowel movements.

For someone with Crohn’s disease, colitis or irritable bowel syndrome, where loose, irritated bowels are the problem, it may be necessary to back into the healing program by starting with this blend first. Sometimes the lower bowel formula isn’t used at all, because the bowels are so sick and loose that they just need this blend. Taken daily, it soothes the bowel and firms up the stool. Some find one teaspoon a day does the job, others need three, and it can be used for as long as it’s needed.

I know this one firsthand. In the late ’90s I was working in social service, and my own bowels were a real mess: horrid cramps one day and constipation the next. That’s when I first discovered this blend. I took it for nine months. I wasn’t perfect with the dosing, but at the end of those nine months the cramping and constipation stopped. My bowels have never worked quite right, but they are healthy now, and I don’t suffer, as long as I take my poop pills.

In an Emergency

The blend thickens fast. Put it in water or juice in a jar with a lid and shake it. Don’t expect to stir it, because it won’t stir. Then drink it all at once, before it sets up. Water or juice is fine either way. If blood sugar is a concern, water the juice down.

Cramping bowels. If the bowels are crampy, even if you’re not passing anything (the old folks called it griping), shake one rounded teaspoon in about 6 ounces of water and drink it down. In about ten minutes your bowels will be right as rain.

Wet, crampy stool. If you’re passing wet, solid stool with cramping, take the same rounded teaspoon each time the bowels produce the crampy stool. Usually one dose clears it, but if you need more it is not a problem.

Watery diarrhea. If you’re passing water from the bowels, shake a full tablespoon in 12 ounces of water and drink it all at once. Repeat each time you pass water. This can be repeated as long as needed to tighten the bowels back up. Drink extra water along the way to replace what you’re losing.

Don’t get ahead of the problem. Don’t anticipate and take more than you need, because it can over-tighten the bowels. Take another dose only when the bowels produce the problem.

For Vomiting

Shake a full tablespoon in 12 ounces of water and drink it all at once. It absorbs the acid or bacteria in the stomach that is making your insides want to purge. Either it settles the stomach, or it comes back up. Most people throw it up rather quickly, but it comes up like applesauce and is not harsh on the tissue in the throat.

Once it has come back up, the stomach-settling herbs will now work very well. Peppermint tea, an ounce of ginger root juice, or a teaspoon of a good digestive tonic in a cup of hot water all help. The digestive tonic can also be mixed in equal parts with a liver and gallbladder formula. See Fast Relief for an Upset Stomach and Cleansing the Liver and Gallbladder, and Clearing Parasites.

For Children

Dose children by weight. Put the child’s weight over 150 pounds, and give that share of the adult dose. I round their weight to make it easy: a 50-pound child gets a third of the adult dose, and a 75-pound child gets half.

My Own Night of Food Poisoning

I had a case of food poisoning myself over twenty years ago. I ended up using nearly an 8-ounce jar of this blend during the night, taking a dose each time my bowels let go, and drinking extra water since I was dumping so much from my bowels. Finally, around 5 a.m., I passed solid waste, and that was the end of the event. I was exhausted, but my bowels were fine all day. I was not constipated, and there were no leftover issues in my bowels at all.

For everyday bowel support, see Helping Sluggish Bowels Move Again and A Fiber Blend That Heals While It Works.

This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.

Cleansing & Flushing, Digestion & Gut, Herbal Healing

Helping Sluggish Bowels Move Again

Dara Dietz

Everything we eat that the body can’t use has to leave through the bowel. When the bowel is sluggish, that waste sits. If you hold a cesspool in your middle, the blood that travels through every part of you picks up that poison and carries it throughout your entire system. What can you expect but to develop issues in every part of the body? Supporting the body to remove its waste every day is one of the most basic, most important things we can do for our health.

Over the years I’ve come to rely on two bowel formulas. The first is fashioned around the formula Dr. Schulze used to make. The second I put together for myself nearly twenty years ago, fashioned around Dr. Christopher’s lower bowel formula. So many people have come to love it that it’s made right alongside the first.

What a Good Lower Bowel Formula Contains

A good lower bowel formula might contain these eight herbs:

  • Curacao and Cape Aloe, 2 parts. A strong bitter that wakes up the muscles of the bowel wall and gets things moving.
  • Cascara Sagrada Bark, 2 parts. Tones the muscle of the bowel and helps it find its own natural rhythm again.
  • Senna Pods, 1 part. A dependable bowel stimulant, the gentler part of the senna plant.
  • Senna Leaves, 1 part. Adds the stronger push of the senna leaf.
  • Ginger Root, 1 part. Warms the bowel and eases the cramping that can come as it starts to move.
  • Barberry Root Bark, 1 part. Stimulates the flow of bile from the liver, which is the body’s own natural laxative.
  • Garlic, 1 part. Cleanses and fights the bacteria and parasites that thrive in a sluggish bowel.
  • African Bird Pepper, 1 part. Brings fresh circulation and carries the other herbs where they need to go.

“Parts” can be any measure you like, as long as you use the same one for every herb. By weight, that’s 2 ounces each of Aloe and Cascara, and 1 ounce each of the rest. Powder the herbs, mix them well, and fill capsules.

With or Without the Cayenne

I make this formula two ways, with the African Bird Pepper and without it. If you find you need more than five capsules a day, the cayenne can upset your stomach or burn a bit. It can feel like acid reflux, especially if you take the capsules without food in your stomach. For anyone who needs a larger number, leave the pepper out.

An Extract for the Very Sensitive

Some people can’t swallow capsules, and some bowels are so sensitive that even a small amount of the powdered herbs sends them into cramps. For them, the same formula without the cayenne can be made into an extract.

I had a woman who could not move her bowels, but even a quarter of a capsule would rip her up. She’d be in horrid cramps. We made the extract, and she needed only one or two drops a day. Without that little bit of help her bowels were just too tight, but with it she was fine.

Put the dry herbs in a glass jar and pour in 80-proof vodka. Once the herbs have settled, you want about 60% herb sediment on the bottom and 40% liquid on top. Shake the jar every day. The traditional timing follows the moon, from the new moon to the full moon, about two weeks. I prefer to let my extracts sit a full three months, which makes them good and strong. Then strain and bottle the liquid. Start with a single drop a day and adjust from there.

A Second Formula: Heavier on the Cascara

Senna has been given a bad name over the years, and some people find it harsh. Some simply respond better to a different set of herbs. For them, a good alternative formula might contain these five herbs, with no Senna and no cayenne:

  • Cascara Sagrada Bark, 4 parts. The heart of this formula. When I built it for myself I tripled the Cascara, because that was what my body responded to. It appears a good many other people like it too.
  • Barberry Root Bark, 1 part. Gets the bile flowing.
  • Ginger Root, 1 part. Warms the bowel and eases cramping.
  • Curacao and Cape Aloe, 1 part. A bitter that wakes up the bowel wall.
  • Turkey Rhubarb Root, 1 part. Moves the bowel, then gently tones it afterward.

By weight, that’s 4 ounces of Cascara and 1 ounce each of the rest.

How Much and How Often

Both formulas are used the same way. Take 1 capsule with dinner the first day, 2 the second day, and 3 the third day. Keep adding one capsule a day until you find your number, the amount that gives you good, easy movements.

The average person lands between 3 and 5 capsules a day. There are a few poor souls who need 10 or more. I need many times the average myself, and my body is grateful for every one. There is no limit. The goal is to support your body in removing its waste, however many capsules that takes.

Working Alongside the Fiber Blends

These formulas get the bowel moving. Fiber gives it something to move. In a bowel cleansing program, a lower bowel formula is always established first and kept going, so the bowel keeps moving well while an absorbing fiber blend, the bowel vacuum, does the heavy cleansing work. For a healing fiber blend, see A Fiber Blend That Heals While It Works, and for the bowel vacuum itself, which doubles as a 911 for vomiting and diarrhea, see A 911 for Vomiting and Diarrhea.

If capsules are hard for you to swallow, or the taste is too bitter, see Bowel Formula Squares: An Easier Way to Take Your Herbs.

This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.