As I have mentioned before, I developed bad asthma at the age of 5. Allergies and asthma run in my family. Even though I went to a lot of doctors and allergy specialists, there really wasn't much I could do but just deal with it. My asthma got much worse when I was a vegetarian. It got better when I began eating a lot of meat and natural fats again and avoiding processed foods. For a while, especially while I was going to school in Georgia and working in Virginia, it basically went away. But, life brought me back to North Carolina... the land of the longleaf pine. My allergies are predominantly to pine, various molds and ragweed. The asthma meds I was prescribed into my late teens didn't work well and resulted in chest pains. So, I began to treat my asthma with herbs and other natural remedies.
My first real "game changing" discovery was Dang Shen (Codonopsis). Dang Shen is a Chinese herb that I found very helpful. It reduced my asthma symptoms and flare ups by about half, almost immediately. This was far more effective than any medication I had ever tried! A combination of turmeric, fish oil and black pepper helped with the allergic inflammation. Valerian helped with the spasmodic side of asthma. In an emergency, a glass of bourbon and a pipe of natural, burley tobacco did the trick in stopping an asthma attack... yes, this seems counter intuitive, but it is true. The tobacco would dilate my bronchioles and the bourbon would relax my lungs. I'm not recommending that to anyone else (in fact, I'm not recommending anything to anyone!) but, it worked for me. When the Primatene Mist inhaler was banned for a few years... supposedly because the tiny bit of propellant in the tiny cartridge was a "greenhouse gas" (as opposed to being a political favor to deep pocketed donors who wanted to force people onto prescriptions... prescriptions that have nice side effects, such as "may result in sudden death"), that combination was life saving more than once.
Things really came together in a manageable way when I also began brewing and drinking water kefir and kombucha daily. The micro-biome of the gut is incredibly important. The more we discover all the things that beneficial gut flora do for us... from immunity to cognitive ability and everything in between, the more we realize how essential a healthy gut is to being a healthy person. Actually, it becomes harder to differentiate the human organism from the bacteria and fungi we host! Anyway as, kombucha, kefir and lacto-fermented vegetables, like home made pickles and sauerkraut became part of my daily diet, my asthma symptoms mostly went away.
But then, I ended up in the NC Sandhills... in a pine barren which should never have been inhabited by humans! Whether it was the pines, the drinking water (which is full of heavy metals and actually radioactive), the chemical run off from the many golf courses, the black mold and mildew that covers everything that stands still.. or the former Monsanto owned "Super Fund" site just on the edge of town that locals blame for all sorts of diseases like cancer, heart disease and cardiac issues... a site so contaminated that the ground water isn't even to be used to water grass... whatever it was, my asthma came back BIG TIME! Due to work and family issues, I was stuck there for most of several years.... I still have to be there for extended periods due to family responsibilities.
The herbs and ferments still helped, but my asthma was becoming chronic bronchitis. Then, I discovered bitters. In an old lecture by herbalist, Michael Moore, he mentioned that if a person's allergies or asthma flare up just after eating a meal, it was a sign of upper GI deficiency. Essentially, there wasn't enough gastric acid to break down the food fast enough. The body then reacted to the undigested proteins as it would to an invading organism - a bacteria or virus. That is, basically, what triggers allergies, by the way - the body mistakes pollen (for instance) as being an infectious threat and fires up the immune system to fight it off. Well, I had just recently begun to have that problem and it was getting bad fast. Not only would I have an asthma attack after every meal, but I was beginning to have esophageal inflammation and spasms while eating that would occasionally even cause me to vomit!
Moore explained that taking digestive bitters before each meal would increase digestive juices, from saliva to gastric acid, to the pancreas and on. Obviously, it was worth a try, so I bought a bottle of Agnosrua Bitters - cocktail bitters. The effects were immediate! Not only did I find the bitters to be tasty, but a half teaspoon before each meal did the trick. I stopped having asthma flare ups after meals. I stopped throwing up during meals. Within a few days, my asthma symptoms were almost completely gone. I would still get a little tight and congested when my allergies flared up. But, the daily, chronic misery ended. I was so impressed, I began to that Moore's full herbal medicine course.
Well, that put me on the path to making my own bitters. I wanted more and better quality healthful herbs than I could get in cocktail bitters. I began making bitters from ancient formulas (bitters are among man's oldest medicines) and coming up with my own formulas. A lot of medicinal herbs have a bitter flavor profile - I really enjoy combing herbs for specific actions and flavor profiles. I'm a real foodie, so this appeals to multiple aspects of my personality.
And so, this blog was born. I look forward to sharing my discoveries with others. Bitters may help with all sorts of health issues. But, it is very important that my readers understand that in no way is anything I write or say intended to diagnose or treat any disease or health condition. I will only say that an herb or other substance has "traditionally been used for" or share my own experience. This is information for the reader only. Unlike a doctor, I am not telling you what to do or even recommending anything. If you use any herb or other substance for any reason, whether mentioned on my bog or elsewhere, you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility. There are risks involved in any responsibility, so it is up to you to research and learn and be fully and truly responsible for yourself. Always keep in mind that people are unique individuals - what works for me may not work for you, you may have an allergy or an adverse reaction that no one else experiences, you may have underlying conditions that you don't even know about. Be very careful with your health.
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