Diatomaceous Earth

I got the pix above from a website that sells DE for ridding birds of parasites. And I got the idea for researching DE from Kellene Bishop's nifty and useful blog Preparedness Pro. She discusses using DE in your food storage; that is, when you go to store a 5 gallon bucket of wheat or rice or beans or whathaveyou, you add a tablespoon of DE to kill insects. We've been using DE in our food storage for about a year now and we have very little bug problems, if any. We also use bay leaves. I highly recommend it for this purpose. However, Kellene also mentions that DE can be a good source of trace minerals, it absorbs nasty heavy metals and toxins in your system (and disposes of them), rids you of worms and other parasites, regulates digestion and elimination, and gives you stronger, healthier skin and hair. Wow. Sounds like a good deal!

Since I didn't know any of this prior to reading Preparedness Pro on the subject, I thought I'd better do a bit of research. Let's look at each of the benefits separately.

Absorbs Heavy Metals and Toxins

Diatomaceous earth (DE) Fossil Shell Flour has been reported in scientific literature to absorb methyl mercury, E. coli, endotoxins, viruses (including poliovirus), organophosphate pesticide residues, drug residues, and protein, perhaps even the proteinaceous toxins produced by some intestinal infections. Pyrethroid insecticide residues probably also bind to diatomaceous earth, since pyrethrins from Chrysanthemum flowers bind to and are stabilized by this material.

This excerpt is from an article on the benefits from a website that sells food grade DE from Canada. I haven't checked prices at various vendors, but I would before I buy. However, this website includes a lot of useful information, and I always like that. I'd certainly consider buying DE from these folks if the prices were equivalent to other vendors. The entire article is very good. Apparently, DE binds to all these toxins, including pharmaceutical drugs and other poisons, and takes them out of the body via elimination. Activated charcoal and benntonite clay can do the same, however, DE has so many other uses and benefits to make it even more attractive.

Trace Minerals

DE is essentially silica, which performs a host of good things in the body. You can't easily absorb calcium without the presence of silica. See this article on the benefits of silica/DE on health. It all sounds great, although I take everything I read with a grain of plain old sea salt. DE contains calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper, zinc....well, check it out here. That's a LOT of trace minerals, which, lord knows, are difficult to get from our basic foods these days (see my previous entries on the nutritional value of food--and look under the label for it).

Kills Worms and Other Parasites

DE is used to rid animals, both livestock and pets, of worms and parasites. Of course, it works for humans as well. I have read that 80% of the entire human population on earth has parasites, which can cause a host of nasty diseases. The parasites in your gut will eat YOUR nutrition, eliminate their toxic waste in your gut, and cause many other problems, even kill you. Frankly, I don't know if I have worms, but if I do, I'd want to get rid of them. I don't like any parasites, including lawyers and politicians, but at least I can take DE to rid myself of the less evil kind (HAH!).

Over at Wolf Creek Ranch, they feed everyone DE: humans, kids, pets, livestock, feral rescue animals, birds, etc. You may want to read all the information on that page, it's excellent stuff.

On final note on this topic: if you care to read one woman's diary of how she uses DE to rid herself of worms, read here. A word of warning: it's not very pretty. But it is very enlightening.

Regulates Digestion and Elimination

If you read all of the articles at the links mentioned here, you'll find a lot of mention how DE helps nearly everyone with constipation and other digestion problems. You'll find more here.

The upshot of all this is that food grade diatomaceous earth is very beneficial. One website even includes some nifty household uses (besides ridding the house of pests). It cleans metal, you can use it as a face mask and toothpaste, etc. With all this good stuff going for it, I think incorporating DE into your normal healthy routines is a great idea. I just started taking it a few days ago. I will let you know how I feel in updates (although I don't think I'll share all the worm elimination details if it is all the same with you :).

If anyone currently uses DE and has good (or bad) things to say about it, I'd like to hear about it. Thanks!

HM

Something REALLY Useful--for the Ladies

Wow. Oh wow oh wow oh wow. Although I have trained myself diligently to NOT want things, I'm afraid I would love one of these. Oh yes I would.

I was reading along in a Countryside & Small Stock Journal, a very cool homesteading magazine, and an ad caught my eye. There's an attractive woman wearing overalls holding this lavender plastic thing in her hands. Yes, it's the pStyle.

The text to the add reads:

• Pee standing up while fully clothed
• Eliminates the need for t.p.
• Reuseable & simple to clean
• Comes in six fun colors

"Such a wonderful product. It worked with zero leaks the first time. I ordered them for my friends, each of my sisters, and my aunt. It's going to replace diamonds as a girl's best friend!"--Anne

What busy outdoors woman hasn't wanted to pee standing up and fully clothed? How many times in the garden did I have to head for the bushes to do the ol' squat and piss? I don't bother counting, tell you that. This thing sounds like a GREAT product.

The website given says thepstyle.com, but for once, google didn't come through for me. However I did find a place called Krista's Cups, and she sells both the pStyle and Diva Cups (a menstrual cup). The pStyle is $12, a case for it is $14 or you can order pStyle and case for $22 or 2 pStyles for $20. There's also a list of retailers in certain states. (There's even a pix of a woman using it, standing up and fully clothed!)

These days we're poor. So rather than buying something, I think I'll just make one. I'll cut up a plastic water bottle probably and see if I can get the shape of the pStyle. My bet is that would work, maybe not quite as nicely, or certainly not in purple or pink, but it would function as needed. I've often thought of making a funnel kind of thing, but really squatting and pissing isn't a big deal. Yet. As I age or my knees get all achy, it may become a problem. Soooooo..... off to the "Make It Do" labs to see what I can come up with.

Onwards, HM

Pine Tree Resin for Those Awful Cracks in Winter Skin

A cure for cancer is all very well and good, but what can you do for the truly annoying wintertime problem when the skin on your fingertips crack and bleed?

A bit of research turns up that winter cold, a lack of humidity, dry skin and perhaps other underlying medical conditions can all be part of the problem. This cracking in the skin around the fingertips can be worse if you often have your hands in water--washing dishes, for example.

Some of the remedies I found using google were bag balm, other dry skin lotions, using a good lotion at night and putting on cotton gloves and wearing them to bed, Vicks Vaporub, and superglue. I've done the strong emollient at night with the gloves, and that does help. But it doesn't always heal the little cracks.

I don't have a dishwasher, just Ms. Right and Ms. Left to help out, and I wash dishes as they get dirty--which is often throughout the day. So not only do my fingertips crack, but they don't heal very easily. These cracks can be very painful, and occasionally bloody. Is there a good cure for this?

I was over to Fred's house, making him dinner or breakfast, and he had just gotten a box of some health food supplements and stuff. Included in that box were six tiny samples of pine tree resin (made with olive oil and petrolatum, whatever that is). He gave me one and I've been using it on the two little cracks I have in my thumb tip. They are responding very well--they'd probably be healed already if I could keep my hands out of water for a few days.

Here's some information on this ointment I found on the website that sells it:

PAV OINTMENT Trees could never live as long as they do, or be as resilient against fires, molds, fungus, cancerous growths, insect infestations, wounds, etc, without their precious resin. It is the healing power Nature puts in their pitch that gives the tree it's resilience to calamity and extreme conditions. Put Nature's healing power to work for you today! Learn what thousands now know about PAV, and why they now call it the "miracle salve" that challenges ALL skin problems!

PAV , Anti-fungal, antibacterial, anti-viral, topical formula. All natural, highly effective on ALL fungal conditions, itchy feet, foot odor, and infections! For most skin problems, PAV does the job! Dermatologists & Chiropractors LOVE PAV ! PAV contains rare, natural Tree Resin, Petrolatum & Olive Oil Note: petrolatum is a FOOD GRADE thickening agent!

This stuff is amazing. It is by far the best thing to put on pimples, blemishes, insect bites, etc. Nothing clears them up faster. It also works great for poison ivy, poison oak, spider bites, eczema, gum infections, diaper rash, genital warts, acne, gangrene, athletes foot, nail fungus, and the list goes on.

Hmmmm. This newsletter that published this was dated 2005, and when I did a search for PAV ointment at the website, PAV didn't come up. However, as they were selling a 1/6 oz. sample of PAV for $9.00 (yikes!), I wouldn't have bought the stuff anyway. Once I get my hands on some pine tree resin, I'll make my own salve with it.

The other salves I have on hand are calendula, which is working great for my dry winter skin, but it still not enough to heal the fingertip cracks, and plantain salve, which might or might not do the trick.

If the pine tree resin salve doesn't heal the cracks, then I will try this: I'll make sure I get enough PAV into the cracks, and then put a layer of superglue or New Skin over the salve, then gloves at night for a couple of nights.

BTW, my tone in the first paragraph is rather flippant about my last post, on the old gentleman's letter about his cancer cure with red clover blossoms. I don't mean to be: I found that testimony extremely moving and powerful. And if I were afflicted with cancer, I'd certainly turn to herbs and good nutrition, without a doubt. But there ARE other little crummy problems in life that herbs and good nutrition can help with as well.
HM

Raw, Unrefined Shea Butter

Awhile back I was reading one of our favorite magazines, The Backwoodsman, The Magazine for the twenty-first century frontiersman. This is a DYI magazine, lots of articles are written by the readers. There's always an article on woodlore, some simple recipe (once a recipe for Grandaddy's gunpowder), how-to articles on lots of very useful items--anyway, a great magazine. In the July/August 2007 issue was an article on raw shea butter which said that the raw shea butter still had its medicinal and curative properties, unlike refined shea butter. I was intriqued, and wrote to the source given for purchasing the stuff. I bought a pound of this raw nut butter and I've been really pleased with it ever since.

This stuff is great for dry skin, for hands that have been working in a garden all day. It will take away the sting and itch of bug bites (almost as good as plantain salve), it is a good conditioner for hair as well. It can be used for diaper rash, scars, stretch marks, sunburn, small wounds, athletes' foot, treatments of the symptoms of psoriasis and eczema, and so on.

The raw butter is a sort of clay color, taupe or brownish yellowish tan. It smells a bit nutty, and it's texture is like a salve. It is solid, but will liquify on contact with your skin. If the shea butter you have is white or smells floral, then it is refined shea butter and not the natural product.

I really like the stuff. I have used refined shea butter, but I've been reading that cosmetics and fragrances are an area that the FDA doesn't watch carefully if at all. Not that I trust the FDA, but while cosmetics are regulated, fragrances are not--and that means any damn chemical, carcinogenic or otherwise, can be used to create those lovely smells. In an attempt to avoid all that crap--human bodies are NOT made to absorb all these nasty chemicals and we are better off without them--I wanted to try the raw butter.

Here's some good information from an article on raw vs. refined shea butter:

More commonly found in retail outlets, refined shea butter goes through an entirely different production cycle than its natural counterpart. In an effort to speed up the extraction process, increase profits and alter the smell and texture of shea butter, most manufacturers have adopted a refining method which destroys much of the natural integrity of the shea nut. In this process, the seed oil is extracted from the kernels using a highly flammable, gasoline-like chemical known as Hexane, which usually remains in the product in trace amounts.

Side effects from exposure to hexane include dizziness, drowsiness, headache, nausea, weakness, unconsciousness, and abdominal pain. Production by-products containing trace amounts of hexane are commonly sold as animal feed, and excessive amounts of hexane are thought to cause anemia in livestock – transferring to the meat consumers’ purchase. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Hexane compounds are carcinogens and are classed as a hazardous substance. Hexane also poses a serious environmental threat – implicated as a polluter and producer of harmful ozone build-up and air pollution when vented into the atmosphere during the flash-off (burning) cycle of manufacturing.

The side effects and environmental concerns surrounding the use of hexane are serious problems of refined shea butter production, yet other aspects of this refining process are equally as damaging to consumers. To remove the characteristic nutty smell of shea, the extracted oil is exposed to 450 degree heat and sodium hydroxide and carbonate chemicals are added. To change the texture and appearance of the product, it moves through an acid-treated filter and is bleached. Known carcinogens (BHT & BHA) are added to refined shea butter to enhance the shelf-life of the finished product.

“Refining shea butter removes natural essential fatty acids, valuable proteins and important minerals, leaving consumers with a questionable, ineffective and potentially dangerous product. In no way similar to refined shea butter, raw shea butter is significantly richer in vitamins, phyto-nutrients and UV absorbing factors. Raw shea is more difficult to find [than refined shea butter], but is well worth the effort,” states Killey.

(Hmmmm. That's probably more quote than is allowed under fair use...)

I purchased my raw butter from Body by Shea. These folks have an email, but no webpage. Contact them at rrakestraw@woh.rr.com. Alternatively, you can google raw shea butter and find lots of other places to buy it. I bought a pound of the unrefined butter for $12--and that's a lot of wonderful skin cream for not a lot of money!

A neighbor of ours, Fred, has had a persistent problem with a rash on his forehead. Just couldn't get rid of it. He had tried purslane cream, hydrogen peroxide, other skin creams, ointments, etc. I gave him some of the raw shea butter and it cleared the rash up right away.

OK, I grant you skin cream is not your most important prep item. But I guarantee that women will want to have something like this, no matter if the world is falling apart. Wall Street crashes and zombies are rampaging.... It will probably be an excellent barter item as well. Raw shea butter has the added goodness of its medicinal/curative properties, and can be helpful in a host of situations. You might want to check it out.

BTW, I won't do many posts like this--commercial stuff to purchase. But this is a good product and kind of hard to find, and I thought readers might be interested in knowing about it.
Handmaiden