Toxic Chocolate

Normally,  chocolate is a "wonder drug" boosting serotonin levels and improving mood, particularly the dark kind. 

FOR HUMANS!!!

So let's not leave our chocolate on a table that can be easily accessed by an 8 month old puppy lest said puppy EAT IT and have to have her tummy pumped- or the "HOME" remedy of a teaspoon of Hydrogen Peroxide to induce vomiting. 

The toxins in chocolate are theobromine and caffeine.  Their effects are dose dependent.  Pure cocoa  and dark chocolate have much more of these toxins than milk chocolate, which is mostly sugar and milk.  If your pet has eaten dark chocolate, baker's chocolate or pure baking cocoa you may have a toxic problem.  

Naturally I called my vet:  

• If  it has been less than 20 minutes from the time the pet has eaten the chocolate, then make your pet vomit using hydrogen peroxide.  If your pet has consumed a significant amount of chocolate and it has been greater than 20 minutes, call the vet for instructions and possible hospital admittance.
• Measure 1 milliliter (ml) of 3% hydrogen peroxide per pound of dog weight, using either the syringe or teaspoon. One teaspoon is approximately five ml. The maximum amount of hydrogen peroxide to be given at any one time is 45 ml, even if a dog weighs over 45 pounds.

• Squirt the hydrogen peroxide into the back of the dog’s mouth using the syringe or turkey baster. Since I didn't have either of those, I used one of the disposable pipettes I use to measure essential oils. 
• If vomiting has not occurred within 10, administer a second dose of hydrogen peroxide measured out as described above. If vomiting still does not occur, call your veterinarian or the pet poison control center/hotline back for instructions.
• Once vomiting has occurred, clean up immediately so that the dog doesn't try to eat it. 
• Unless instructed otherwise by your veterinarian or the pet poison control center/hotline, take the dog to a veterinary clinic immediately for evaluation and continued treatment.

The Hero That Is Lemon Balm

Kelsey Ligon

June 17, 2015

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Backstory

I've decided to do a series on some different herbal remedies to explain how they have been used in the past and how they are currently being used.  First up: lemon balm.

The Traditional Hero

Lemon balm, one of the great heroes of lore, has been used over the centuries by hundreds of physicians to banish anxiety, boost memory, protect sleepers, and propel digestion.  It bears the mint family crest.  Its given botanical name is Melissa, which is Greek for “bee,” chosen for its general sweet nature and healing properties.

Lemon balm has been found far and wide to be a natural savior to its people.  In France, King Charles V drank lemon balm tea for his health.  In Greece, lemon balm was sacred to the temple of Diana and was likely used by her followers.  In the Middle East, Arab physicians prescribed Melissa, the honey leaf, for those suffering from melancholy. 

The Real Hero (Research done on lemon balm)

Lemon balm has been found to be useful for a variety of ailments, but what the Ancient Greeks, Medieval French, and traditional Arab physicians didn’t know was that the range of uses was even greater. 

Studies have found that tea prepared with lemon balm helps aids subjects in sleep, helps keep subjects focused, and removes agitation.  These applications can help in a wide variety of medical issues.

According to a 2003 article in the Journal of Neurology, a mixture with lemon balm reduced dementia and agitation in Alzheimer’s patients.  It has also been found to treat overactive thyroid. 

In one study, researchers tested children 12 years and under that suffered from anxiety and insomnia, and they found that lemon balm greatly reduced symptoms.  For children 12 and under that suffered from a lack of focus, lemon balm decreased this from 75% to 14%.  For overly hyperactive children, lemon balm decreased their hyperactivity from 61% to 13%.  Finally, it decreased symptoms of impulsiveness from 59% to 12%. 

These studies show just how impressive the minds of ancient physicians were.  They observed the effects of lemon balm and regularly prescribed it.  Their use inspired contemporary researchers to determine just how effective lemon balm could be, and their results have shown that lemon balm is still a very reliable treatment for numerous ailments.

References:

Wolsey, Lindsay.  “Lemon Balm.”  Herbal Legacy Newsletter.  March 2005.

Woodard, Stephanie.  “Ancient Remedies Modern Cures.”  Prevention.  Feb. 2009, Vol. 62 Issue 2, p. 102-108.

Controversy of Medicinal Herbs

by Kelsey Ligon

As someone who is naturally suspicious of anything that someone tries to sell me, I was also suspicious of medicinal herbs.  My thinking was, why not just get a regular prescription from a doctor if something goes wrong? 

The thing is, the more I read about healthcare, the more I realize how fallible it actually is.  Doctors are frequently overworked, and they are constantly being sold drugs by pharmacy sales reps.  These pharmacy sales reps are in hospitals and clinics daily, and they bring with them all sorts of goodies to entice the doctors to buy their goods.  I knew someone that worked in a clinic, and she said that she never needed to bring her lunch because there was always a decent spread of food from one sales rep or another.

Keeping this in mind, are doctors actually prescribing the best medication?  When they are seeing several patients a day and sorting through the information related to symptoms, causes, and treatments, they are bound to slip up or even pick the first drug that comes to mind, which is probably the one that the sales rep with the Jimmy John sandwiches was trying to sell him yesterday.

Frankly, I would love it if my doctor prescribed me more natural treatments than drugs.  I think we need a health care system that focuses more on preventative, natural, and holistic care. For example, the health care system in Japan encourages doctors to look at the patients a long time before symptoms get really bad, and they prescribe preventative options.

Dried Rosemary: can be used in lotions and ointments. 

Additionally, there are some doctors here in the United States that are practicing a form of preventative medicine in which they give their patients a prescription to get fruits and vegetables from the farmer’s market.  In their minds, getting patients to focus on a healthy lifestyle instead of a new trick drug will help patients develop healthy habits and reduce their needs for prescription medication. 

I apply this same kind of thinking to medicinal herbs.  They are plants that are grown locally, and you can even grow your own at home.  They have fewer negative side effects than prescription drugs.  Aside from the difference in side effects, the only difference between medicinal herbs and prescription drugs is the length of time for them to take effect.  Prescription drugs are designed to be fast acting, which is what we typically want when we get sick.

However, because medicinal herbs are slower acting, they are also better for your body and easier for your body to digest.  They follow the same principle as the prescription for natural foods from the farmers market.  The food that you get at a farmer’s market is not going to have immediate and fast results, and in this culture, that can be a turn off because people really want fast-acting drugs. 

Going back to the example of doctors subscribing fruit and vegetables, getting fresh fruits and vegetables to make yourself healthier takes time.  So do medicinal herbs, and that’s fine.  If we really want to take care of our bodies, we have to take the time to take care of them.  We have to give them the nutrients they need and stop filling them with artificial and mass-produced pills.  We have to take the time (and care) to research and read up on the best practices for our bodies. 

Herbs I've grown in my garden and kitchen. 

This is why we’ve started this blog.  We really want to help people understand in their own terms what herbal medicines can do.  These medicines have been around for centuries.  The problem is that when people hear that lemon balm was used in Ancient Greece to banish anxiety, they think that medicinal herbs supported superstitious beliefs because back then, people didn’t really understand science the way we do now.

That’s partly true, but in the case of a lot of medicinal herbs, a lot of those ancient doctors really knew what they were doing.  After hundreds of years of observations of patients, they figured out that some medicinal herbs really worked to alleviate symptoms.  Lemon balm has recently been found to help alleviate agitation in patients.

Furthermore, Catherine Ulbricht, PharmD, a senior attending pharmacist at Massachusetts General Hospital, says about medical herbs, “Practically all of the most widely used drugs have an herbal origin . . .  Many statins are based on fungi; and Tamiflu originated from Chinese star anise.”

For this reason, I am starting a series to help people understand what medicinal herbs once were to people and what research has shown them to do in recent years.  I hope you’ll be interested in the history and excited to create a healthier lifestyle for yourself.

References:

Woodard, Stephanie.  “Ancient Remedies Modern Cures.”  Prevention.  Feb. 2009, Vol. 62 Issue 2, p. 102-108.