A Sceptical Look at the Evidence.. I suppose it depends on what side of the fence you are on. Or if you have reached the end of your patience with one health expert telling you that your gut needs fibre, then another health expert tells you – just eat meat… But, there is one thing […]
15
Aug
Aug
Going beyond ginger biscuits…. When we were kids sitting in the back of the car feeling sick, our Mum would hand out ginger biscuits because they were supposed to ‘help’. My Mum didn’t know why, and we didn’t ask – we just ate the biscuits. So, does ginger help, and if it does, why does […]
08
Aug
Aug
Foraging to make condiments… Foraging for condiments? An approach I had not considered…. When I got married, we bought a book called ‘Food for Free’ which (after ignoring the grammatical error in the title) became one of my favourite books. The author [Richard Mabey] is a famous botanist and in the book he guides us […]
01
Aug
Aug
How long we can keep going half empty? We plough on with a shopping list in one hand, phone in the other, plans spinning like a Catherine wheel in the background. We attend to work, children, relatives, errands, emails, worries. The body [quiet and loyal] keeps up as best it can, like a trusted car […]
25
Jul
Jul
Doing the fun stuff… I don’t just teach, see patients and write stuff. I get to have fun… Spring and summer may be busy gathering leaves and flowers, dodging the showers or melting in the heat, but making useful stuff from stuff I have gathered from my garden or elsewhere satisfies the alchemist in me. […]
11
Jul
Jul
It’s safe, and it works…. I’ve been speaking to people, and what I’m going to say to you now, many of you probably know; lots of people already use this remedy, and I will explain why it works so well. But before I get into sharing this specific remedy that people can take to improve […]
18
Jul
Jul
A new-to-me remedy for painful joints… Last post I hinted at a surprise entrant to the painful-joint-remedy list of contestants. And here it is: Cirsium vulgare aka Bull Thistle, or Spear Thistle. While some of you may have heard about it – I hadn’t, until a colleague read an article about it and found some […]
04
Jul
Jul
The Flavour Connection… In traditional herbalism, taste has been a diagnostic tool, a therapeutic guide, and a window into a plant’s healing potential. Among all the flavours that our tongues recognise, bitterness stands out as perhaps the most medicinally significant. Ironically, it’s the most avoided in our modern starch-based, sweet-obsessed culture. What our ancestors understood […]
27
Jun
Jun
Or Just a Convenient Scapegoat? In December 2024, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) updated its guidance on herbal medicines. The document confirms the strict safety requirements for registered products under the Traditional Herbal Registration (THR) scheme. Even with these controls, herbal medicine remains an easy target in the media where it […]
20
Jun
Jun
Support for Damaged Cartilage and Joint Pain Many women of a certain age complain of aching knees, stiff shoulders, or hips that don’t move like they used to. They often describe a grinding sensation [crepitus] when they squat down, go upstairs, or try to lift their arms above their heads. Ageing combined with shifts in […]