Have you relied on a plant for healing today? You probably did without even realizing it. It’s easy to take these anchored down organisms for granted, but the truth is that many plants are filled with an arsenal of chemicals that can help or hurt us, depending on how we decide to put them to work. Humans have been using plants for their medicinal properties for thousands of years, but no part of a plant has ever been more valued than its essential oil.

Used medicinally, recreationally, and even religiously, essential oils have been an important part of cultural rituals since the beginning of human history. You too can benefit from the potent powers of healing plants, so long as you take the time to learn the facts about essential oils. From this guide, you’ll learn what essential oils can do (and what they can’t) for your health, how to use them and the kinds you should buy. No matter what your long term goals are for using essential oils, this guide will get you started.

What Makes an Oil Essential?

Put simply, an essential oil is the part of a plant that smells strongly. The aroma comes from the chemical content of volatile oils, which means that they are made from terpenes, or hundreds of carbon and hydrogen-based compounds intermixed. Unlike “true” oils (like olive oil), essential oils are far lighter and tend to vaporize when exposed to air.

A good way to understand essential oils is to think of them as the blood of plants. Like blood, essential oils seal cuts and trigger hormonal responses in plants when they are threatened. These oils are so essential for plant vitality that without them, plants would die.

Unlike human blood, essential oils only come from specific parts of plants. Some, like cardamon, can be found in seed pods, while others, like ginger, come from the root. Tree resin (myrrh), fruit peels (citrus oils), petals (rose), tree bark (cinnamon), and leaves (eucalyptus) also contains essential oils for some species.

On average, every essential oil contains over 100 components, many of which can change between plants themselves. Once distilled, essential oils become highly concentrated, meaning you need an incredible amount of plant material to make them. For example, one ounce of rose essential oil requires over 60,000 roses, and an ounce of peppermint oil requires more than 16 pounds of fresh leaves.

Looking Closer at the Essential Oil Extraction Process

It’s no simple task to pull essential oils out of plants, but there are several methods that tend to work best. The most popular method is steam distillation, which involves suspending fresh plants over boiling water so that steam can pull out their essential oils. These oils are captured in a vessel that pushes it through a tube, where it cools down and condenses back into a water-oil mixture. Because water and oil don’t mix, the oil can be carefully harvested, leaving 100% pure essential oil.

Another extraction method is expression, which is how citrus essential oils are made. Just like the process of cold pressing olive oils, citrus peels are mechanically squeezed until every last drop of essential oil comes out.

The Benefits of Aromatherapy for Your Body

Plants use their essential oils to keep themselves safe, but humans have long put them towards a different use: aromatherapy. In 1928, the French chemist Rene-Maurice Gattefosse found that his burnt hand felt better when he put some lavender oil on it. He decided to test these benefits out farther and soon stumbled upon the science of aromatherapy, which is the use of essential oils to promote healing and wellness.

Aromatherapy didn’t take off in the United States until the 1980s, but these valuable plant extracts were soon added to lotions, candles, and makeup for their aromatic benefits. Today, there are trained professionals (aromatherapists, physical therapists, and natural medicine doctors) who use aromatherapy to promote healing for a range of ailments.

More than 100,000 aromas exist in nature, but the human nose only recognizes a few hundred. Even so, certain smells can dramatically influence your emotions, feelings, and overall well-being. Many are capable of stimulating immune responses to help you fight off a cold and can dry out mucous to clear your air passageways. Others have nervine properties that calm anxiety, promote relaxation, and soothe tension headaches before they get out of control. Some have stimulating effects that work to wake you up, sharpen your focus, and eliminate mental fatigue.

The Three “Notes” of Essential Oils

Most essential oils are categorized as being a top, middle, or base note. The best blends of essential oils involve mixtures of all three notes to get a well-balanced scent.

Top Notes: Because they are made from young leaves, fresh herbs, and delicate flowers, top notes are the most volatile and fragile. These oils evaporate quickly, but they can quickly stimulate your senses in order to wake you up or snap you out of a bad mood. Some examples include peppermint, cinnamon, and sweet orange.

Middle Note: These well-balanced oils are good for the entire body. They are normally made through distilling the entire plant and tend to create a strong connection between the mind and the body, making them ideal for treating physical problems like stiffness and arthritis. Common examples are nutmeg, juniper, and lavender.

Base Notes: Robust and earthy, base notes are the richest form of essential oil and often come from tree resin. Their heavy, distinctive scents are great for calming anxiety and nerves. Some well-known varieties are vanilla, myrrh, and patchouli.

Benefits of Different Essential Oils

Because there are hundreds of essential oils, this article can’t delve into the benefits of each one. However, below are some of the most common essential oils and their benefits.

• Rose: As one of the most valuable essential oils in the world, rose oil is great for reducing skin inflammation and as a facial moisturizer.
• Cypress: Reduces the visibility of varicose veins, helps heal broken bones, and improves blood circulation.
• Grapefruit: Helps to reduce cellulite when blended with coconut oil, and can work to rev up your metabolism.
• Frankincense: Works to build up the immune system and reduce inflammation while supporting the brain and possibly helping you fight off cancer.
• Clove: Protects your body against bacteria and parasites and provides you with antioxidants.
• Lemon: A powerful ingredient to add to homemade cleaning products, lemon oil can also cleanse your body.
• Tea Tree: Works to stimulate the immune system and can eliminate bad smells. Also renowned as an anti-bacteria, anti-fungal oil.
• Myrrh: Can help prevent infections and promotes beautiful skin while minimizing stretch marks. Myrrh is also a natural antiseptic.
• Ginger: Relieves nausea (especially from traveling) and improves digestion while supporting the health of your joints.
• Eucalyptus: Improves respiratory issues, especially sinus infections and colds. Also used as a natural way to wake up your mind when you’re tired.
• Oregano: Helps you recover faster from a cold and is an anti fungal and antimicrobial as well.
• Sandalwood: Known for boosting energy and renowned as a natural aphrodisiac to increase libido.
• Lavender: Great for healing wounds, calming nerves, and improving moods. A natural choice for adding to personal care products.
• Peppermint: An instant way to boost your energy, peppermint also reduces fevers and headaches, supports digestion, and helps you focus on tasks in front of you.
• Rosemary: Improves brain function and memory and helps thicken hair when added to natural shampoos.

Buying Essential Oils: What You Need to Know

Because essential oils are natural products, their overall quality will change depending on where and how the plant was grown, the age of the plant when it was extracted, and the extraction method used. This means that not every oil is created equal. The best way to ensure you are avoiding inferior, low-grade products is to search for pure, uncut oils that were grown as close to nature intended as possible. Because essential oils are the most concentrated part of a plant, it can be disastrous to invest in some that were exposed to pesticides and other chemicals when alive. For this reason, it’s always smart to buy organic essential oils whenever possible.

Make sure to pay attention to the purity grade of the oil you intend to buy, choosing pure essential oils over synthetic whenever you get the chance. Sometimes cheap oils are diluted with true oils like olive oil, which you can test by dabbing a little on a tissue. If the oil doesn’t evaporate, it’s not truly essential. Price point often isn’t a good indicator of quality because low-grade oils can be sold for more than their value. Another red flag is when every oil from a company costs the same because true essential oils considerably vary  in cost. The best thing to do is to read reviews from previous buyers and learn where a company sources its oils in order to ensure quality.

Oils should be stored in tight closing, dark glass containers (some oils can dissolve plastic) and kept in a cool place. It’s also a smart idea to write the date on the bottles after opening them so that you can gauge their potency over time. When you use them, be sure to use a separate glass dropper for each bottle to prevent contamination, and tightly seal every bottle immediately after use. When stored correctly, most essential oils will last between one and three years.

Tips for Getting Started with Essential Oils

Knowing where to get started in the world of essential oils can be tricky. The best advice is to start small; invest in ten or fewer oils and see how you can incorporate them into your daily life. As you learn about the benefits they provide, you can slowly start expanding your collection to fit your needs.

Because essential oils evaporate so quickly, they usually need to be mixed with a carrier oil before use and many practitioners recommend mixing essential oils with carrier oils to dilute them. Carrier oils are true oils that come from the fatty parts of plants, meaning that they last longer on your skin and prolong the benefits of aromatherapy. Some common carrier oils include olive oil, coconut oil, and jojoba oil.

The most common methods for using essential oils are described below.

Inhalation

The simplest way to experience the benefits of many essential oils is to simply breathe them in. It’s possible to open a bottle and breathe deeply, but you can also use an electronic diffuser to spread the scent around a room. Another option is to create a potent steam by pouring 2-3 cups of boiling water into a bowl and adding several drops of oil. Keep your nose within a foot of the water and cover your head with a towel, breathing deeply to fully inhale the steam.

Topical Application

Many (but not all!) essential oils are also useful and safe to apply directly to the skin. The ears, temples, feet, and upper back are all popular places to try. Just put a few drops in your calm and carefully massage them into your preferred spot with gentle, circular motions. It’s usually best to dilute the oil with a carrier oil, so make sure to do your research first.

Internal Consumption

Some essential oils actually have nutritional benefits that make them safe to use as a food flavoring or dietary supplement. However, this is not an area where you should be experimenting. Before tasting an essential oil, be sure to read the instructions carefully and seek the advice of a medical professional. When in doubt, find another way to enjoy the benefits of your oil.

Therapeutic Bath

If you want to ease the stress of your day away, a bath infused with essential oils can’t be beat. Simply blend several drops of essential oil into a few scoops of Epsom salts (to help the oil spread through the water) and dissolve the mixture into your bathwater for a relaxing experience.

Aromatherapy Massage

Ease tension from your body and clear out your mind by experiencing an essential oil based massage. Just make sure to mix the oil with a carrier oil so that you can actually feel the benefits. Stronger blends are best, so plan on using up to 20 drops of oil per ounce of carrier oil.

Remember: More is Not Always Better

It’s easy to overdo it when it comes to essential oils, so keep in mind that these compounds are extremely concentrated plant chemicals. A little goes a long way because there’s a lot contained within each drop of oil. In fact, just one drop of peppermint oil has the same strength has 28 cups of peppermint tea. So use your drops sparingly and you’ll have plenty of oil left to enjoy for months to come.

In Summary

Essential oils are a world of aromatic goodness. Once you start experimenting with blends and scents, you’ll realize how addicting they can be and keep expanding your collection. No matter if you’re trying to ease some health problems or you’re simply trying to relax, there’s bound to be an essential oil out there that can help you out.

Related Reading:

• Heal Gum Disease and Cavities Naturally – Step by Step
• How I Replaced Medications With Essential Oils
• How To  Correctly Use Essential Oils To Prevent the Flu and Other Illnesses
• How To Relieve Allergy Symptoms With Essential Oils
• Five Essential Oils That Help Fight Infections
• Eleven Essential Oils That Help Fight Lyme Disease

Related Products:

• Essential Oils

Sources:

• Steam Distillation – Wikipedia
• How Are Essential Oils Extracted? – National Association For Holistic Aromatherapy
• What Are The Best Essential Oils For Inflammation? – The Fusion Model
• The 9 Very Best Essential Oils For Treating Colds and Flu – Off Grid News
• 19 Essential Oils For Beginners – Mother Earth News

“Love the skin you’re in.” Though it may be cliche, take a moment to think about why you wouldn’t want to take care of your body’s biggest organ. After all, your skin is one of the first things others notice about you, so it pays to keep it in the best shape possible.

There’s just one problem. Most of us do a pretty terrible job of tending to our skin. Sure, we slather on some sunscreen on a hot summer day or casually rub in lotion during winter dry spells, but few people take the time to think about what’s really going on their skin. That’s a mistake. Your skin does more than look pretty, it’s actually a natural barrier, the first line of defense that keeps toxins from the outside world from getting inside you. However, your skin is far more permeable than most people notice.

Think of a nicotine patch. It works by allowing trace amounts of addictive chemicals to be absorbed directly through the skin and into the bloodstream. Just as skin is no barrier against a flood of nicotine, it also doesn’t prevent any other chemical from going through. This means that any chemical product you put on your body (bug spray, lotions, makeup) have every possibility of flowing through your bloodstream.

If that doesn’t scare you, it should.

Using Conventional Lotions? Think Again.

In today’s world, smelling amazing is no guarantee that something’s actually good for you. Your lavender scented lotion might be a pretty purple color and even come with flowers on the label, but chances are that most of the contents of that bottle never came close to a plant.

Below are some of the common chemicals used in conventional lotions and their effects on your body and the planet.

Paraffin: Made from petroleum, this chemical is known for coating your skin in a thin plastic covering, clogging pores and building up toxins along the way.

Parabens: A common cosmetic preservative in over 10,000 beauty products, parabens have been shown in studies to have connections with cancer, and they disrupt your body’s endocrine system by mimicking the hormone estrogen.

Propylene Glycol: Used as a moisturizer in many lotions, propylene glycol has been shown to inhibit skin cell growth and cause irritation, and some evidence points to it causing kidney and liver abnormalities.

Sodium laurel sulfate: Over 90% of personal care products have some form of sodium laurel, a chemical known for breaking down your skin’s moisture barrier so that it (and other chemicals) can easily get into your bloodstream. Studies have shown that SLS can lead to hair loss.

Ready to exchange these icky products for something a little less toxic? Keep reading to learn about the importance of taking care of your skin the natural way.

Natural Body Butters: The Quality Comes from the Ingredients

When it comes to taking care of your skin, nothing can compare to a natural body butter. Actually, “body butter” is a general term used to describe dozens of different body creams that are dense and full of nutrients that add extra hydration to your skin. Most body butters are filled with essential oils, vitamins, and nutrients that make them invaluable in a skin care routine. There is a huge range of ingredients that can be used to make body butters, all of which have distinct benefits that make them useful in a variety of ways.

In most cases, body butters are made from cold pressed oils that are extracted from nuts, seeds and fruits, and then combined with fatty acids and other forms of oil to thicken the consistency. Most body butters are solids at room temperature that melt from your skin’s heat when you slather them on, creating a deeply moisturizing treatment that lasts for hours.

Some of the best benefits of natural body butters are described below.

• Plenty of Moisture: Skin sucks in everything you put on it, but thankfully natural body butters will provide nothing but hydration. Nut-based butters are filled with emollients that provide skin soothing moisture long after conventional lotions have quit.

• Protection: The thick ingredients in body butters form a protective barrier over your skin to keep moisture in check. This prevents you from drying out in heat, hot sun or cold winter air that otherwise sucks away moisture. Instead of relying on parabens like other products, natural butters take advantage of the natural emollients found in nuts and seeds to trap moisture deep into the fatty layers of your skin for optimal moisture protection.

• Skin Nourishing Vitamins: No matter the type, body butters are rich in omega 3 fats that benefit you both inside and out. These highly moisturizing fatty acids help keep inflammation in check and make vitamins far more accessible for your skin to absorb.

• Reduce Wrinkles: Allowing your skin to dry out is a quick way to start looking old and faded. A better option is to protect yourself with moisturizing body butters that help your skin retain its elasticity so you keep a healthy glow, no matter your age.

• Softer Skin: Chronic, chapped skin is no problem when combated with the moisturizing power of homemade body butter. Regular treatments of this rich cream can eliminate dry, cracked skin and even clear up chronic conditions like eczema. Just slather on some body butter immediately after showering and your skin will stay noticeably softer throughout the day.

• Affordable: Are you currently paying a small fortune for your skin care products? Switching over to homemade body butters will save you money, and you’ll get to control exactly what goes in them.

• Cuticle Saver: If your cuticles look ragged much of the time, a gentle coating of body butter will help them stay hydrated and healthy, getting your nails back to top shape in no time.

• Stretch Mark Solution: Having children can be brutal for your body, but a little body butter can make those scars a little less visible. Regular treatments of body butter help the skin to heal and regenerate, which means you can hide the appearance of stretch marks before they get out of control.

Top Ingredients for Making Homemade Body Butter

There are so many ways you can make your own body butter, you’re truly limited only by your creativity. Whether you choose to stick to staple ingredients like coconut and shea butter or opt for something a little more exotic like cupuacu or jojoba butter, the possibilities of what you can do is endless.

While it’s usually best to plan on using a ration of 75% solid to 25% liquid oil for your natural butter, the oils listed below are some of the best to invest in when first getting started.

Almond Butter: You want to lick yourself all day when you make a butter with sweet almond oil. This thick, rich butter is great for moisturizing and is a smart way to hydrate a dry scalp.

Cocoa Butter: Known for being a highly stable fat, cocoa butter can last on your shelve for years and is flush with natural antioxidants. A silky smooth texture and delicate fragrance makes it useful for a wide range of products, and pregnant women have been relying on cocoa butter to prevent stretch marks for centuries. Because of the high moisture content of cocoa butter, it’s not always a great choice for oily skinned people.

Shea Butter: Definitely one of the most popular butters available today, shea butter has a unique fatty acid composition that makes it versatile for many products, including dry skin, massage creams, and sun protection. A great all around oil, everyone can benefit from a little shea butter in their life.

Jojoba Butter: If you need an intensive moisturizing boost that only the best can get you, jojoba oil is worth checking out. Perfect for treating eczema and psoriasis, jojoba oil works well on all skin types.

Coconut Oil: With a melting point so low it’s practically a liquid at room temperature, coconut oil gives your body a delicious tropical smell and is great for treating troubling dry spots.

Cupuacu Butter: Made from the cupuacu fruit (commonly grown in Brazil) cupuacu butter is a perfect ingredient to add to your homemade hair conditioner, though it should be used sparingly on your skin if you tend to be oily.

Two Ways to Make Your Own Natural Body Products

Interested in making your own body butter? These recipes will get you started!

Extra Hydration Body Butter

You could truly spend weeks trying out recipes for different types of body butter, but for your first batch, you’ll want to go for something as nourishing as possible. This recipe combines four types of butters into one batch in order to get you maximum skin hydration. Great for babies or anyone with sensitive skin, this butter also makes a good gift.

Take half a cup each of shea butter, mango butter, coconut oil, and olive oil, and combine them all into a double boiler on medium heat. Stir the mixture constantly until it all melts and remove it from the heat. If you’re looking for a particular scent, you can add between 10 to 30 drops of essential oil. Put the entire mixture into the fridge and let it cool for an hour, or to the point where it starts to harden but is still pliable. Take a hand mixer and whip the batch for 10 minutes until fluffy, after which it should be put back in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. Once set and somewhat hardened, you can store your butter in a glass jar with a secure lid and use it like any regular lotion. So long as your home is less than 75 degrees F, the butter will stay whipped. Any hotter than that, and you should store it in the fridge between uses.

Homemade Hand Lotion:

While not truly a body butter recipe, this lotion uses all natural ingredients for a hydrating blend that is too good to miss out on. Body lotion and body butter are more similar than they are different, but the difference comes from the liquid content. Lotions sometimes contain up to 70% water, and the moisturizing effects don’t go as deeply or last as long as body butters. Even so, lotions are great when your skin needs a quick pick me up but doesn’t want all the excess hydration of a true body butter.

Instead of water, this recipe relies on oil for its texture, making it more hydrating than other versions. To make your own lotion, combine a half cup of liquid oil (almond works well), with a quarter cup each of coconut oil and beeswax. Melt them together in a double boiler, stirring constantly so nothing burns. Once everything melts, add a teaspoon of Vitamin E and a few drops of essential oil. Pour the mixture into a glass jar with a tight fitting lid, and dip in whenever you need an extra hydration boost. This product is best used within six months.

Simple Tips For Using Natural Body Products

Using body butters and lotions is a fairly straightforward process. In essence, you put a little butter on your hands and rub it in where you want it. Even so, the tips below can help answer some of your questions about use.

• Body butters are super concentrated, so a little goes a long way. Take a tiny amount and carefully warm it with your hands before putting it on your body so that it absorbs more easily into your skin.
• The kinds of butter you purchase for your body butter is crucial. Look carefully on labels for terms like “unrefined,” “crude,” and “cold pressed,” as these are signs that the oil was extracted through natural methods, not high heat that destroys the butter’s natural nutrients.
• So long as you store your butter in an airtight container, it should last for a year or more.

In Summary

Your skin does a lot for you, so it pays to take care of it. By relying on natural skin care remedies like body butters, you’ll be keeping your body’s biggest organ in top shape. Add some homemade body butter to your skin care routine, and your skin will stay hydrated, healthy and beautiful, at almost no cost to you.

Recommended Reading:

• 35 Things You Could Do With Coconut Oil – From Body Care to Health to Household
• Heal Cavities, Gum Disease, Naturally with Organic Oral Care – Toothpaste Recipes Included
• How to Optimize Curcumin Absorption – With Golden Milk Tea Recipe
• Five DIY Organic Shampoo Recipes for Beautiful Hair
• Natural, Safe Sunscreen Options with Homemade Sunscreen Recipe
• Homemade Vitamin C

Sources:

• Skin Barrier Function – Just About Skin
• Homemade Lotion Recipe – Wellness Mama
• What is Cold Pressed? – Livestrong
• Natural Butters- Garden of Wisdom

Brain Enhancing, Fat Burning, Cancer Preventing, DIY Homemade Supplementation

It is not another drug or folk remedy. You can prevent many forms of cancer, improve gut health, establish healthy body fat composition, enhance brain function, detoxify your cells, and reduce depression with this one miracle compound.

It’s called sulforaphane, and it is naturally produced when cruciferous vegetables are damaged. We initiate the reaction that creates sulforaphane with the process of chewing, which allows us to reap a plethora of benefits that make the scientific research on sulforaphane look like a late night TV ad.

The Scientific Sales Pitch

Although there are many proposed effects of sulforaphane, let’s stick with what has been studied. Sulforaphane has been shown to prevent the growth of many cancers including breast, prostate, colon, skin, lung, stomach, and bladder cancer. The risk of common diseases like diabetes, heart disease, gastric disease, neurodegenerative disease, ocular disease, and respiratory diseases are reduced with the consumption of sulforaphane as well. Even behavioral disorders like autism have been helped with sulforaphane supplementation. And if that isn’t enough, sulforaphane has been shown to decrease fat gain and improve body composition in mice. All this is possible because sulforaphane stimulates protective and detoxifying mechanisms in the cells. This allows the cells to eliminate environmental toxins like mercury and air pollutants from the body and repair themselves from the damage caused by oxidative stress.

The Best Source of Sulforaphane

With positive and protective effects on almost every cell in the body, sulforaphane is like a health insurance policy for your cells. This compound can be found in raw or minimally cooked cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.

It is important to note that sulforaphane cannot be produced from vegetables that are cooked at a temperature above 158 degrees Fahrenheit. This is because the enzyme that helps create sulforaphane is deactivated when is heated above 158 degrees Fahrenheit.

The enzyme that helps create sulforaphane may also become less active in mature cruciferous vegetables, so it is uncertain how much sulforaphane you will actually get from mature plants. This is where crucifer sprouts save the day. Due to their increased enzyme activity, crucifer sprouts are the best source of sulforaphane. But one sprout, in particular, may provide the most sulforaphane of them all. That sprout is the broccoli sprout.

Where To Get Broccoli Sprouts

After seeing the benefits of broccoli sprouts it is tempting to add that $10 bottle of broccoli sprout capsules to your cart, but don’t let the tempting price fool you. At $10 per bottle, you are spending 20x more than if you bought broccoli sprouts in the store, and supplements can’t even guarantee that they actually have any sulforaphane or enzyme activity.

With store bought broccoli sprouts you can at least guarantee that you are getting sulforaphane in your diet. However, store bought broccoli sprouts will run you about $1 per ounce when you can easily grow them at home for the cost of ~9 cents per ounce.

With one 64 oz mason jar, a seed strainer lid, broccoli seeds, a glass bowl, and water you can grow up to 15 pounds of sprouts per pound of broccoli seeds. That means you can have a half pound of sprouts every week for over 6 months. Fifteen pounds of broccoli sprouts would cost you $240 if you bought them in the store or almost $5,000 in capsule form, and you can get them for less than $50.

How to Grow Your Own Broccoli Sprouts

Growing your own broccoli sprouts is simple and easy. It doesn’t require gardening skills, and after less than a week you can have up to half a pound of delicious broccoli sprouts for the cost of less than a dollar.

Here is what you need:

• Organic broccoli seeds for sprouting (~$15 per pound)
• A 64-ounce mason jar (~$10 per jar)
• Strainer sprouting lids that fit the mouth of your jar (~$9 per lid)
• A glass bowl
• A cool, dark place
• Optional: full spectrum light
• Optional: salad spinner

Estimated yield: 3 tablespoons of seeds will most likely sprout to a half pound of broccoli sprouts in about 5-7 days.

Step by Step Guide to Sprouting Your Broccoli Seeds

Step 1

Put 3 tablespoons of broccoli seeds in your mason jar, cover the seeds with cool, distilled water or spring water (60-70 degrees Fahrenheit), and swish the water around gently. Put your mason jar, with the sprouting lid on, in a cool dark place for 6-12 hours to allow the seeds to soak.

Step 2

Drain off the water by tipping the mason jar to let the water pass through the strainer. Take the glass bowl and rest your mason jar inside of it so that the remaining water can drain. Put it in a cool dark place for 8-12 hours to let the seeds drain and sprout.

Tip: make sure the jar is tipped enough so that the seeds can drain and have adequate airflow. The most common cause of poor sprouting is inadequate drainage.

Step 3

Rinse the seeds 2x daily and put the jar back in the bowl in a cool dark place so it can drain. It might help to set reminders on your phone.

Here’s what mine looked like 60 hours after the beginning of the first rinse:

Tip: Try not to expose them to too much light until most of them are sprouted with tiny yellowish leaves.

Step 4

After 3 to 4 days you will notice white sprouts with tiny yellowish leaves coming from the seeds. When this happens for most of your seeds, you can begin exposing them to indirect sunlight or a full spectrum light bulb so that they can start to green up. Continue to do the same rinsing process as before.

84 hours after the beginning of the first rinse:

Step 5

After a day or two of light exposure, rinse them once again, and let them drain overnight. The next morning they will be ready to eat!

After the first day of sun exposure:

The finished product, about 6 ounces of broccoli sprouts from 2 and a half tablespoons of broccoli seeds:

Bonus Step: How to Increase Sulforaphane content by 3.5x

Studies have actually been conducted to find out how to increase the bioavaliability of sulforaphane from broccoli sprouts. One study found that If you want to get the most out of your broccoli sprouts, you must never expose them to temperatures greater than 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit). However, if you let them sit in 65 to 70 degree Celsius (149 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit) water for 10 minutes, you can increase sulforaphane content by around 3.5 fold. The greatest increase was found at 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit) with a rapid decrease when the sprouts were exposed to greater temperatures.

To try this broccoli sprout hack at home all you need is a pot, thermometer, a glass bowl, a timer, water, and your broccoli sprouts. Put your broccoli sprouts in a glass bowl while you heat up the water in the pot until it reaches 70 degrees Celsius. Cover your sprouts with the water and set your timer for ten minutes. Check the temperature of the water that the sprouts are in every couple of minutes and add 70 degree Celsius water to the broccoli sprouts periodically to maintain the temperature between 65 and 70 degrees Celsius. After 10 minutes, drain the sprouts, pat they dry, eat them, add them to a smoothie, or store them in the refrigerator.

If that description was to confusing, check out how Dr. Rhonda Patrick hacks her broccoli sprout sulforaphane content:

How to Store Your Sprouts for up to Six Weeks

To keep the sprouts fresh and nutritious for six weeks follow these steps:

1. Eight to twelve hours after the final rinse and drain, pat your sprouts dry and/or use a salad spinner until the sprouts are reasonably dry. Nothing kills produce quicker than refrigerating it wet.
2. Put the sprouts in a plastic bag or container that will ensure minimal exposure to air. If they are exposed to too much air they may dry out completely.
3. Refrigerate them for up to six weeks and eat them whenever and however you like.

Enjoy!

Recommended Reading:

• Fight Cavities and Gingivitis Naturally With Homemade DIY Oral Health
• Total Nutrition – Make your own Homemade Multivitamin and Mineral Formula
• Natural, Safe Sunscreen Options with Homemade Sunscreen Recipe
• How To Make Natural Body Butters That Actually Moisturize Your Skin

Sources:

• Keap1-Nrf2 Signaling: A Target for Cancer Prevention by Sulforaphane — NCBI
• Sulforaphane treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) — NCBI
• Sulforaphane, a Dietary Component of Broccoli/Broccoli Sprouts, Inhibits Breast Cancer Stem Cells — NCBI
• Dietary Sulforaphane in Cancer Chemoprevention: The Role of Epigenetic Regulation and HDAC Inhibition — NCBI
• Frugal Chemoprevention: Targeting Nrf2 with Foods Rich in Sulforaphane — NCBI
• Oxidative Stress and Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Review of Upstream and Downstream Antioxidant Therapeutic Options — NCBI
• Sulforaphane, a phytochemical in broccoli sprouts, ameliorates obesity — Science Daily
• Sulforaphane improves cognitive function administered following traumatic brain injury — Science Direct
• Neuroprotective Effects of Sulforaphane on Cholinergic Neurons in Mice with Alzheimer’s Disease-Like Lesions — NCBI
• Broccoli sprouts: an exceptionally rich source of inducers of enzymes that protect against chemical carcinogens. — NCBI
• Heating decreases epithiospecifier protein activity and increases sulforaphane formation in broccoli. — NCBI
• Refrigerating — Sprout People
• Potential health benefits of sulforaphane: A review of the experimental, clinical and epidemiological evidences and underlying mechanisms — Academic Journals
• Broccoli sprouts: an exceptionally rich source of inducers of enzymes that protect against chemical carcinogens. — NCBI

Aging is an inevitable process that we go through, and it has the most profound effects on the brain. After the age of 40, the brain decreases in volume by at least 5% every decade, and this rate increases with age. This loss in volume translates to a loss of long-term memory, slower reaction times, decreased working memory, slower processing speeds, and detriments in sensory and/or perceptual function. These effects can be reduced and even reversed by addressing these four processes:

1. Neuronal Cell Death

In our adolescence, we have 1.5x more neurons in our brain than we do as an adult. As we learn and grow, our brains form new synaptic connections that allow our neurons to communicate. This allows us to do the things that we want to do efficiently.

As we reach our early 20’s, our brain starts to refine its connections. Underused neurons undergo apoptosis or programmed cell death. This is a natural process that allows us to remain good at what our environment requires us to do while unneeded neurons and synaptic connections are removed.

Neuronal cells can also be damaged and eventually die due to traumatic injury, environmental toxins, cardiovascular disorders, infectious agents, and genetic diseases.

2. Reduction in Synapses and Synaptic Plasticity

As we age, the amount of dopamine and serotonin in our brain decreases. This leads to a decrease in synapses (the connections that allow for communication between neurons.)

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) activity also decreases with age. BDNF increases our ability to form new synaptic connections (synaptic plasticity) and triggers the development of new brain tissue (neurogenesis).

3. White Matter Damage

The white matter of our brain is made of myelinated axons. These are like electrical cables that carry the signal from one neuron to another. As we age, the myelination (fatty insulation) of these axons deteriorates. This process is what reduces our reaction time as we age.

4. Impaired Vascular Function

The health of our circulatory system is as important for brain health as it is for heart health. The primary cause of impaired vascular function is oxidative damage that leads to inflammation and plaque build up. This process is caused by consistent exposure to environmental toxins, refined foods, trans fats, and/or head trauma. Damaged blood vessels lead to an easily permeated blood-brain barrier that allows toxins and infectious agents in. The brain’s ability to receive nutrients and remove waste (like beta amyloid plaque) will also be impaired.

Brain Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease

These four changes are largely to blame for the effects that aging has on our cognitive function. This process is accelerated to a catastrophic degree in people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s Disease: Brain Aging Accelerated

What makes Alzheimer’s disease so catastrophic is that it accelerates the synaptic damage and neuronal loss common with aging, while impairing the regenerative properties of the brain. This leads to a rapid decrease in brain volume and function.

Many genetic and environmental factors lead to the accelerated damage of neurons and their synapses. In a brain with Alzheimer’s disease, this leads to the accumulation of beta amyloid plaque and damage of the neurofibrillary tracks that help move nutrients and other key materials throughout the cell. As plaque builds up and the tracks become tangled it leads to a snowball effect of neuronal damage and cell death throughout the brain. This unforgiving process is what makes Alzheimer’s disease the sixth leading cause of death among older adults.

Although genetics, specifically the APOE genes, play a major role in our brain health and the progression of Alzheimer’s, there are many things we can avoid, changes we can make, and treatments we can use to improve brain health and reduce neurodegeneration due to age and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks, but first, we must understand what accelerates the aging of the brain and Alzheimer’s Disease.

How to Shrink Your Brain

Do the Same Thing Every Day

Every time we reach past our comfort zone by learning or experiencing something new, we increase the rate of neurogenesis and make new synaptic connections. On the other hand, if we do the same things every day without reaching beyond our competency, our brain will focus on pruning down its synaptic connections and more neurons will undergo apoptosis. As the process continues, your brain will become smaller and smaller.

Eat A lot Oxidized Polyunsaturated Fats and Trans Fats

When these fats enter our body they create chaos in the circulatory system which leads to an immune response to deal with the trouble that the oxidized fat and trans fat is causing. Our body handles these fats by depositing it as plaque which leads to atherosclerosis. This process also occurs in our brain, which contributes to the accumulation of beta amyloid plaque and tangling of the neurofibrillary tracks.

Eat Plenty of Refined Sugars

High blood sugar levels are associated with the increased risk of Alzheimer’s Disease. When blood sugar is high, the sugars tend to interact with the residues of proteins. Together they form glycation end-products (AGEs). These AGEs create oxidative damage and inhibit enzymes like macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) that are important for protecting the brain aging.

Make Sure You Are Chronically Stressed

Although acute stress can enhance your learning ability, chronic stress impairs working memory and prefrontal cortex function. When the function of the prefrontal cortex is impaired, we cannot reason effectively, and our emotions can take hold and control us more easily.

Live in a Polluted Environment

The process of brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease is accelerated by the accumulation of metals in the brain. The primary way that this can happen is through the nose. Nanoparticles of metals from car exhaust, industrial pollution, and smoking can cross the olfactory areas of the brain and accumulate in areas, like the hippocampus that are most affected by Alzheimer’s Disease.

Drink Alcohol Every Day

Drinking alcohol accelerates the shrinkage of the brain, which leads to cognitive decline that mirrors the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease.

The best way to reduce brain aging is by eliminating the things from your life that age your brain. There are many other factors that contribute to brain aging that we have not discussed, but we know for sure that if you continue doing any of these six things, your brain will start shrinking rapidly.

How to Grow Your Brain & Keep It from Aging

Increase Your Physical Activity

Increasing your physical activity can improve brain volume and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by up to 50%. Even people who had mild symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease increased their brain volume by increasing their physical activity. This means that you can grow your brain by simply taking a walk every day.

These profound effects are due to the fact the exercise helps reduce inflammation, anxiety, and insulin resistance, while stimulating growth factors (like BDNF mentioned above) that improve the health of your brain cells and blood vessels.

Do Something New Every Day

When we were children, we were filled with curiosity. Every moment was an experiment that led to a new discovery like walking or crawling. During this phase of development, our brains were primed and ready to form new synaptic connections, so that we could thrive in our environment. By the time we are in our 20s, our brains are almost fully developed, and we begin to form patterns and habits, leaving our curiosity behind.

As we age, we must stimulate our curiosity again by learning new things, going on adventures, and reaching outside of our comfort zone every day. This will trigger a process in the brain called scaffolding, which stimulates the brain to form new connections with different neurons in new ways. This allows the brain to function more efficiently and age gracefully.

Drink Coffee or Tea

Habitual caffeine intake may protect against cognitive impairment. In studies done on mice, caffeine has been found to suppress the buildup of beta-amyloid plaque in the brain. On the other hand, OLM’s stance on coffee is not positive; try circumin:

Try Circumin

Like caffeine, circumin can prevent plaque build up, and it removes plaque as well. This potent anti-inflammatory molecule makes up 5-10% of turmeric. It is known to lower cholesterol, reduce oxidative damage, and remove metals that accumulate in the brain like iron and copper. Check out How To Optimize Curcumin Absorption for more on circumin.

Supplement with Vitamin B3 and B1

UCI scientist Kim Green conducted a study on the effect that nicotinamide (vitamin B3) has on mice with Alzheimer’s disease. This B Vitamin completely prevented the loss of cognition in the mice. Clinical trials are now being carried out using vitamin B3 as a treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease.

Thiamine or vitamin B1 is also a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Our brain uses up 20% of our energy, and in doing so, it uses enzymes that depend on thiamine for their function. When we don’t have enough thiamine, it can lead to memory deficits and excessive plaque buildup. With enough thiamine, the cells in the brain can metabolize sugar effectively and function properly.

Cook with and Consume Coconut Oil

Coconut oil, especially the medium chain triglycerides found in coconut oil, provide an alternative fuel source for brain cells, which may prevent neuronal cell death. It has been found to help improve cognitive function in women with Alzheimer’s, people without type 2 diabetes who had Alzheimer’s, and people with severe cases of Alzheimer’s. Coconut oil is also a great oil to cook with because it is not easily oxidized like polyunsaturated oils. Check out what else coconut oil can do for you.

Eat More Cruciferous Vegetables

Cruciferous vegetables contain sulforaphane, a compound that activates a transcription factor called Nrf2.What this means is that sulforaphane helps to set off a cascade of processes that detoxify and protect the body and brain from oxidative damage. sulforaphane works synergistically with circumin to reverse the aging of our cells due to oxidative damage.

The best source of sulforaphane is broccoli sprouts, and they can easily be sprouted at home in 7-9 days. If you don’t have access to broccoli sprouts, any cruciferous vegetables will do. Check out this salad recipe.

Increase Your Acetylcholine

Acetylcholine is the most used neurotransmitter in the brain and body. It is essential for muscle contraction, alertness, concentration, focus, and memory. Feeding your body with the components of acetylcholine and/or blocking the enzyme that breaks it down can be very effective for reducing the effects of brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease.

One of the primary components of acetylcholine is choline, and it is an essential nutrient that you must include in your diet. The best sources of choline are egg yolks, heavy cream, fatty fish, fatty meats, and liver. Make sure you source your meat, dairy, fish and eggs for people that treat their animals humanely and feed them what they are meant to eat. This will ensure that your animal products have a high amount of good quality fats and choline.

To ensure your brain gets the choline it needs, you can take a supplement like Alpha-GPC. This is a form of choline that can easily cross the blood-brain barrier. DMAE is another supplement that increases the level of acetylcholine in the brain while reducing beta amyloid plaque.

Other supplements like galantamine and huperzine-A increase acetylcholine in the brain by preventing the enzyme cholinesterase from breaking down acetylcholine.

What if Nothing is Helping?

Take the holistic approach, and improve your brain health by improving the health of your whole body. The gut and the brain are inexorably linked. Just like you can dimish cognitive function with poor health choices, you can improve brain function with a better diet. Research in brain regenration is making groundbreaking strides lately. Recently, many studies on mice have surfaced that use commonly used technologies, like ultrasound, to reverse Alzheimer’s disease. In one study researchers used a “…focused therapeutic ultrasound, which non-invasively beams sound waves into the brain tissue.” These sound waves activated the brain’s microglial cells so that they could do their job of removing the beta amyloid plaque. The results were tremendous with 75% of the mice with Alzheimer’s disease regaining their cognitive function. This means that this treatment may help reverse Alzheimer’s disease by using the brain’s own natural waste removal processes. This may be the miracle we have been searching for to treat Alzheimer’s.

Related Reading:

• The Alzheimer’s Aluminum Connection – Organic Lifestyle Magazine
• Increase your IQ with the Right Foods, Herbs, Vitamins
• Mental Health, Physical Health & B Vitamins – Nature’s Valium
• Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

Related Products:

• Shillington’s Brain Tonic
• Coconut Oil
• Vitamin B
• Beneficial Fats

Sources:

• Ageing and the brain — NCBI
• Brain Tour — Alz.org
• Molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease — NCBI
• Oxidative stress in brain aging, neurodegenerative and vascular diseases: An overview — Science Direct
• Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor is subjected to glucose modification and oxidation in Alzheimer’s Disease — Nature
• Repeated Stress Causes Cognitive Impairment by Suppressing Glutamate Receptor Expression and Function in Prefrontal Cortex — NCBI
• Alcohol Use and the Risk of Developing Alzheimer’s Disease — NIH
• Why neurons die: cell death in the nervous system. — NCBI
• Different kinds of physical activity shown to improve brain volume, cut Alzheimer’s risk in half — Science Daily
• The Adaptive Brain: Aging and Neurocognitive Scaffolding — Annual Reviews
• Caffeine suppresses β-amyloid levels in plasma and brain of Alzheimer’s transgenic mice — NCBI
• The effect of curcumin (turmeric) on Alzheimer’s disease: An overview — NCBI
• Vitamin B1 (thiamine) and dementia. — NCBI
• Vitamin B3 reduces Alzheimer’s symptoms, lesions — UCI News
• [COCONUT OIL: NON-ALTERNATIVE DRUG TREATMENT AGAINST ALZHEIMER´S DISEASE]. — Europe PMC
• The Nrf2/ARE Pathway as a Potential Therapeutic Target in Neurodegenerative Disease — NCBI
• How to Improve Memory with Acetylcholine — University Health News
• Galantamine–a novel cholinergic drug with a unique dual mode of action for the treatment of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. — NCBI
• Toxic air pollution particles found in human brains — The Guardian
• New Alzheimer’s Treatment Fully Restores Memory Function — Science Alert

If you’re a gardener, the single most time-consuming thing you probably do for your greens is to weed them. Unless you have a killer raised bed setup, the odds are good that your wimpy garden plants won’t be able to withstand the onslaught of weeds perfectly optimized to thrive in the conditions you’ve created.

Watching your kale get overrun by chokeweed is enough to make the most seasoned gardener despair, but what if the way you are thinking about these garden nuisances is actually completely wrong?

Weeds aren’t always bad. Ralph Waldo Emerson once famously proclaimed that weeds were simply misunderstood, as “…a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered”. Though it might be hard for you to match his candor, the truth is that there’s a lot to like about common weeds that few of us are aware of.

As it turns out, weeds have far more benefits for our health than you can imagine.

Garden Weeds: Even Healthier Than Your Vegetables?

It takes a tremendous amount of effort to get garden plants to produce food. No matter how carefully you try to coax your tender plants to thrive, the odds are good that without some significant effort on your part, the close-growing weeds will soon take them over. While it’s easy to hate weeds for their effortless abilities to overwhelm your hard work, the truth is that the scrappiness of weeds is part of what makes them so special.

To understand this, keep in mind that every garden plant once started as a weed that was carefully grown over centuries until it came to resemble the plant that it is today. Fruits got bigger, inedible seeds got smaller, and unpleasant bitterness in leaves slowly became reduced. However, as the traits humans enjoyed best slowly became more prominent, the biggest benefits of these plants – their nutritional content – was slowly weeded out.

Wild plants don’t get the benefit of careful gardening to keep them alive, so they’ve adapted to defend themselves. For this reason, weeds are often full of phytonutrients, essentially an “arsenal of chemicals” that helps them fend off diseases and predators. While the bitter taste they produce often keeps the hungry away, these chemicals are full of health benefits for humans that help them fight off diseases like heart disease, dementia, and even cancer. Filled with vitamins and mineral levels that regular vegetables can’t compete with, garden weeds are truly more nutritious than supermarket greens. If you want the easiest, most efficient way to fill your diet with foods as close to nature as possible, chomping on wild weeds is a great place to start.

Types of Edible Weeds

The complete list of edible weeds is far too vast for any web article, but this list of common weeds from around the world should get you started.

Clover

You’ll find yourself lucky in a patch of clover even when four leafed varieties are nowhere to be found. Red clover is full of the phytoestrogen genistein, a substance that has been studied to treat colon and prostate cancers. While you might have to compete with the honeybees for your supply, raw clover can be chopped into salads or sauteed with other greens. However, there is some concern for pregnant women. Studies have shown that the large amounts of the phytoestrogens in clover may increase your risk of breast cancer and possibly birth defects.

Lambs Quarters (Goosefoot)

Young, tender, and very versatile, lambs quarters can be used as a substitute for spinach in any recipe. This is great news for salad lovers, as lambs quarters peak right when spinach is winding down for the summer. Loaded with vitamins A, C, and K and full of calcium and protein, you are actually better off eating this wild spinach over the cultivated variety. If you are filled with patience, the seeds from lambs quarters can also be collected and cooked as a quinoa-like grain filled with 16% protein.

Dandelions

Though you might cringe at the sight of their sunny-hued flowers blanketing your lawn, dandelions are actually nutritious and surprisingly delicious when used well. In fact, European settlers first brought the dandelion to the U.S. for use as a salad green. One cup of raw dandelion greens contains well over your daily needs of vitamin A and vitamin K.  The best ways to eat dandelions tends to be raw in salads or dried into herbal teas. For those feeling a little more adventurous, the yellow flowers can be breaded and fried for a tasty snack.

Catnip

Not simply a treat for cats, catnip actually has some fascinating health benefits for humans, too. Native to Europe, catnip easily grows around the world and makes for a great herbal tea that encourages relaxation. The mild mint flavor is tasty when snacked on raw or sauteed with other greens

Plantain

Though it has little resemblance to the tropical fruit with the same name, plantain weeds grow all over the world and make for a stellar medicinal plant that can be used topically to soothe skin ailments like rashes or burns. Even better, the younger leaves are tasty in salads and can be steamed, boiled, or sauteed. If you take the time to harvest the seeds, they can be ground into a nutritious flour that’s great for baking.

Bamboo

Though bamboo’s versatility has been put to use on everything from flooring to kitchen cutting boards, few people are aware that this fibrous plant is also edible. Often described as tasting like corn, bamboo shoots can be harvested when they are less than two weeks old and added to your favorite stir fry. Simply peel off the outer leaves and cut the tender middle into one-eighth inch slices before boiling them in an uncovered pan for twenty minutes. After the bitterness has been boiled out, you can eat bamboo any way you choose.

Garlic Mustard

Though it’s highly invasive throughout much of the world, garlic mustard originally came from Europe. The flowers, leaves, seeds, and roots of garlic plants make them great for weight loss and controlling cholesterol levels, and their faint garlic scent makes them a tasty addition to any dish. You can harvest garlic mustard all season long, but the tastiest roots need to be collected in the early spring.

Green Amaranth

Similar to lambs quarters but with a more mild taste, green amaranth is also known as redroot, pigweed, and wild beet. Because of the detergent-like qualities of the saponon on raw leaves, green amaranth is best cooked before eating to eliminate the strange aftertaste. For this reason, it’s often best to serve green amaranth with a stronger tasting vegetable to offset its mild flavor.

Watercress

There’s no avoiding the high price tag of watercress in classy grocery stores, but you can harvest it yourself for free. This weed can be found throughout the U.S. Adding it to your salads is a foolproof way to boost up your daily antioxidants.

Kudzu

While “the weed that ate the south” is a symbol of despair for millions in America, this voracious plant is actually edible itself. Simple to make into jams and jellies and tasty when the flowers are pickled, there’s a lot of ways to experiment with this tricky vine. Commonly used as a digestive aid in China, you can also chop up a cup of kudzu leaves and boil them for thirty minutes before drinking the health-infused creation.

Mallow (Cheeseweed)

Common to see in yards around the world, mallow is a blessing for adventurous eaters to enjoy. Both the leaves and seed pods are edible and can be enjoyed steamed, boiled, or raw as a salad green. Mallow is full of vitamins and minerals that make it useful as an herbal medicine, especially when used as an anti-inflammatory, diuretic, or laxative.

Purslane

If you only choose to eat one weed from your garden bed, purslane should be the one. This succulent looking plant grows close to the ground and in between the cracks of the sidewalk. If you find some, you’re in luck. This juicy, lemon-tasting green is filled with omega-3 fatty acids. It is tasty eaten raw, cooked or blended in a smoothie. Because every part of the plant can be eaten, you won’t have to worry about shoving it all in your mouth at once. As an extra benefit, purslane consistently produces a bumper crop of edible seeds, which can be used for baking. All you need to do is dry out the seeds for several weeks on a sheet of plastic before winnowing out the tiny, black seeds.

In Summary

The benefits of spending your summer days wrist deep in garden dirt cannot be underestimated, but there’s a lot you can do to enjoy fresh grown produce without the effort. Garden weeds are equipped to thrive where your vegetables suffer, and most of them actually contain more vitamins and minerals than conventionally grown produce. If you’re ready to enjoy the benefits of these long-valued “famine foods”, give your garden weeds a try and see how they make you feel. You might be amazed at the results.

Related Reading:

• The Amazing Benefits of Stinging Nettles, with Recipes
• Mulberries and Mulberry Recipes
• How to Start a Vegetable Garden – How to Grow Vegetables
• Dandelions
• The Health benefits of Moringa: A Modern Miracle Tree

Sources:

• Breeding the Nutrition Out of Our Food – NY Times
  Phytoestrogens – Wikipedia 
• Eight Weeds You Can Eat – Rodale’s Organic Life
• Please Eat the Dandelions: Nine Edible Garden Weeds – Treehugger.com

The pain is in your head.

Seriously, it is.

Knee pain, lower back pain, sciatica pain, and even stomach pain would never exist if it wasn’t for the brain.

However, any practitioner who says your pain is in your head without giving you a means to deal with it, shows their ignorance.

Let’s explore what is really meant by  “the pain is in your head“.

Pain is the Brain’s Way of Protecting You

You are walking without shoes on and suddenly your pinky toe slams into the corner of a wall. Small nerves in your toe called nociceptors send this noxious stimulus (potentially dangerous information) to your spinal cord, which then relays the message to the thalamus of your brain. The brain receives the message that something dangerous has happened in the area of your left pinky toe. At this point, there is a brief pause as your brain decides how to react, and then… ouch! you feel the pain intensify so fast that you can’t help but yell.

It hurts, but as you keep moving, it begins to feel better. After 15 minutes, you forget that it even happened. A couple hours later, you go to put your shoes on and… ouch! The pressure on your pinky toe feels as if you stubbed your toe again. This is a natural protection mechanism called central sensitization that is elicited by the brain to keep you from overusing the damaged tissue as it heals. After a few more days, your pinky toe is back to normal.

This is the stereotypical story of pain and it is referred to as nociceptive pain. The tissue is damaged in some way, the brain receives the signal and creates pain and inflammation for healing, and it heals.

Simple.

It may even sound too simple, and that’s because it is.

Pain Is Your Brain’s Opinion

Pain is an opinion on the organism’s state of health rather than a mere reflective response to an injury. There is no direct hotline from pain receptors to ‘pain centers’ in the brain.” – Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, Neuroscientist

The pain that your brain creates depends on many more factors than just tissue damage. These other factors are what can turn nociceptive pain into chronic pain. For more on brain health, check out Increase your IQ with the Right Foods, Herbs, Vitamins, and Exercises for Your Brain.

When Pain Becomes Chronic

Chronic pain is usually defined as pain lasting longer than 12 weeks. There are at least two ways to create chronic pain in the body:

1. Chronic Re-injury

One cause of chronic pain is chronically re-injuring damaged tissues. If you keep stubbing your toe, your toe will never heal, and you will continue having pain.

Chronic pain with the primary cause being chronic tissue re-injury usually has these attributes:

• There are specific movements that always make the pain worse (ex. it hurts hurts every time the lower back is rounded forward.)
• The pain is consistently in one area, and there is no pain anywhere else.
• The pain slowly gets worse with an increase of demand on the tissues (ex. lifting more than usual or working more often)
• Pain is relieved when the painful tissues are not being used.
• There is inflammation around the site of pain.

If your pain is consistent with these criteria then letting the injured tissue heal will most likely relieve the pain. For this type of chronic pain, it is best seek guidance from a skilled physical therapist that can help provide you with treatments to speed the healing process, exercises to strengthen your body, and lifestyle modifications that relieve your pain.

It makes sense that the brain would create pain in cases of chronic tissue re-injury, but what happens when pain cannot be explained by tissue damage?

2. Chronic Central Sensitization

Central sensitization is one of the processes our body carries out in response to tissue damage. When you stub your toe,  your toe (and the tissues around it) becomes hypersensitive to any other stimulus like hot, cold, or pressure, so that your body can heal the damaged tissue without interruption. This is absolutely necessary for your survival because if your body can’t move properly due to damage then you can’t protect yourself from danger.

However, there is one important caveat to mention — your brain cannot tell the difference between real danger and perceived danger. This means that the mechanism of central sensitization can become active even when there is no tissue damage.

Pain is a Response to Danger, Not Damage

The perception that you have hurt yourself can create a pain response even when there is no real damage.

Here is a perfect example of how the brain does this from the British Medical Journal in 1995:

A builder aged 29 came to the accident and emergency department having jumped down on to a 15 cm nail. As the smallest movement of the nail was painful he was sedated with fentanyl and midazolam. The nail was then pulled out from below. When his boot was removed a miraculous cure appeared to have taken place. Despite entering proximal to the steel toecap the nail had penetrated between the toes: the foot was entirely uninjured.

Throughout our daily lives, we tend to do the same thing as the builder. We react to danger when danger is not there, which leads to more pain and tension. If danger begins to paint every moment of our day, it can lead to chronic pain and symptoms of depression like helplessness. This explains why depression has been found to be a better predictor of low back pain than MRI findings.

Another factor that can increase pain sensitivity and make pain chronic is chronic inflammation. Inflammation is necessary for the body to heal damaged cells from the cells of a stubbed toe to the cells that are damaged by toxic exposure. When the damage becomes chronic so does the inflammation. This only adds to the “DANGER!” messages that the brain is already receiving. Not only does this make pain more intense and stick around longer, it lengthens the healing process as well.

Become Your Own Pain Relief Specialist

Everything you do, you become better at. The longer you are in pain, the better your brain gets at creating the pain.

Luckily, the opposite is true as well. You can reverse and, in most cases, completely relieve chronic pain by practicing these simple pain relief principles:

1. Give Your Brain More Pain-Free Input

Have you ever hit your hand on something and immediately began rubbing it with your other hand? This actually helps, but not in the way you think.

Rubbing our hand when it is in pain feeds our brain with non-threatening information. According to the Gate Control Theory of pain, this stimulation provides enough non-threatening information to the brain that it overwhelms the “DANGER!” signals. In response, your brain decreases pain.

Although relieving pain is more complex than simply giving your brain pain-free information all the time, applying these ideas to chronic pain can be very effective. For example, instead of focusing on what you can’t do because of the pain, focus on things that you can do that you enjoy. This will show your brain that you are not in danger, while you give it more positive information than threatening information.

For the activities that are painful that you can’t do without, try new ways of moving that don’t provoke pain. If this doesn’t work, try the other suggestions on this list before doing the activities that are normally painful.

2. Stimulate the Parasympathetic Nervous System

Pain is a response to danger. When we experience life as a persistent string of dangerous and uncertain events then our brain will chronically respond with pain and sympathetic nervous system activation. In this state of uncertainty, our brain will not allow our parasympathetic nervous system to activate. This makes it impossible for our bodies to rest, digest, and recover.

The simplest way to activate your parasympathetic nervous system is by breathing. Try letting go of all the air in your lungs for the longest exhale of your life. Inhale through your nose, deep into your abdomen, and finish the breath by letting your rib cage gently expand. Finally, let go of your air once again for an even longer exhale than before.

When you have a nagging pain or even a nagging thought, bring your attention to your breath. This will activate your parasympathetic nervous system and relieve pain and tension.

3. Reduce Chronic Inflammation

In order to reduce inflammation we must be mindful of our diet and environment. Refined foods, sugar, oxidized fats, pesticides, commercial bread products, factory farmed animal products, and other toxic ingredients like aspartame and MSG all damage the cells in our body and lead to inflammation. If we decrease our consumption of these foods, we will be able to stop the accumulation of damage and inflammation. Environmental factors that cause cell damage like polluted air can be removed by using indoor plants like Sansevieria trifasciata laurentii and Areca palm, which have been found to improve air quality and reduce pollution tremendously.

4. Cognitive Functional Therapy

Cognitive functional therapy is one of the most effective treatments for reducing chronic low back pain and is most likely effective for other forms of chronic pain as well. This kind of therapy targets the beliefs and fears of each individual regarding their pain and how it effects their lives.

The first step in cognitive functional therapy is to understand the different causes of pain and how chronic pain can be related more to fear, anxiety, and negative beliefs than actual damage. Motivational interviewing is also used to find new ways of moving and relating to the body that make activities more enjoyable. During this process, the person who has chronic pain gains confidence in themselves because they realize that they are not broken. In fact, their body is strong and adaptable.

Becoming Your Own Cognitive Functional Therapist

To come up with your own solutions right now, make a list with 2 columns.

Label one column “Danger” and the other “Safety”. Under the “Danger” column right down everything that makes your pain worse and everything that makes you feel stressed from a smell to an activity. In the “Safety” column write all the activities or things that you enjoy, feel safe doing, and that don’t create pain. Add more of the things in your “Safety” column to your life while reducing the amount of
“Danger” you experience.

If you can’t eliminate specific things in the “Danger” column from your life, try using the other suggestions in this article like breathing. Deep breathing will reduce the amount of danger you feel while you are doing the activity, which will lead to parasympathetic activation and less pain.

For example, is the action of bending over in the “Danger” column because it creates pain? Try taking deep breathes before and while you are bending over, it will most likely feel better.

5. Find a Quality Health Practitioner

If you want some guidance on your journey to becoming pain-free, find a quality health practitioner (physical therapist, doctor, chiropractor, etc.) that meet these criteria:

• They look at the body from a biological, psychological, social, and environmental perspective and how each one can contribute to your pain.
• They make sure you understand what is going on in your body and let you know why they are doing a certain treatment or prescribing a specific exercise.
• They don’t religiously use one modality or another. Instead, they use the appropriate modalities for you.
• After every session, you have a decrease in symptoms, more confidence, and know exactly what to do to progress on your own.
• They admit to you if they cannot help you and refer you to someone who can.

If most of these criteria are met by your health practitioner then you are probably good hands. If you are not sure, then check in with yourself by asking yourself these questions.

• Do you have a clearer understanding of what is going on in your body?
• Are you feeling better than you did before you started seeing that practitioner?
• Do you know what to do to continue the progress on your own?
• If you can’t confidently answer these questions then that practitioner may not be right for you.

Conclusion

Pain is the brain’s response to danger, whether it is perceived or real. A real danger like the damage caused by stubbing your toe will provoke a pain and inflammation response that decreases and disappears as the damage is healed. A perceived danger may lead to a pain response as well, but if perceived dangers become chronic, so will the pain.

Chronic pain can be relieved by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, doing more of what you love, moving in different ways that don’t provoke pain, reducing chronic inflammation by changing your diet and environment, and removing perceived dangers from your life.  If you need guidance, don’t hesitate to find a skilled practitioner to help you relieve your pain.

Most importantly, we must remember that we are not damaged goods. Our bodies are strong and adaptable. Just because you feel pain now does not mean that you have to feel pain for the rest of your life.

Related Reading:

• Mercury Fillings, Root Canals, Cavitations – What You Need to Know
• What Causes Chronic Inflammation, and How To Stop It For Good
• Understanding Stress, Chronic Stress, and Adrenal Fatigue
• Naturally Treat Multiple Sclerosis – Therapies, Diet, Pain Management, Alternative Medicine
• How to Cure Lyme Disease and Virtually Any Other Bacterial Infection, Naturally

Sources:

• Efficacy of classification-based cognitive functional therapy in patients with non-specific chronic low back pain: A randomized controlled trial. — NCBI
• Pain and Why It Hurts — University of Washington
• Three-year incidence of low back pain in an initially asymptomatic cohort: clinical and imaging risk factors. — NCBI
• Central sensitization: Implications for the diagnosis and treatment of pain — NCBI
• A pain neuromatrix approach to patients with chronic pain. — NCBI
• Learned Helplessness in Humans: Critique and Reformulation — Appalachian State University
• Is there a link between pain and depression? Can depression cause physical pain? — Mayo Clinic
• MRI Reveals Relationship Between Depression And Pain — Science Daily
• Longitudinal associations between incident lumbar spine MRI findings and chronic low back pain or radicular symptoms: retrospective analysis of data from the longitudinal assessment of imaging and disability of the back (LAIDBACK). — NCBI
• Depression Can Lead To Back Pain — Science Daily
• Chronic Pain: Symptoms, Diagnosis, & Treatment — NIH Medline Plus
• Pain is Weird — Pain Science
• The sympathetic nervous system and pain. — NCBI
• A study of interior landscape plants for indoor air pollution abatement — Archive
• DIM SIMs — Noijam
• Classification based cognitive functional therapy for back pain — Body in Mind

It is important to gain control over what goes into your mouth. Understanding where your food comes from is great for your body and the health of the environment, but starting another container tomato plant or a itty-bitty herb garden in your kitchen window can start to get old after a while. If you’re sick of sprouting greens and eager to try your green thumb at something new, the wonderful world of mushrooms might be calling your name.

Cast off your concerns that all homegrown mushrooms are poisonous. That’s something mothers tell young children to prevent them from chomping on a death cap in the backyard. In truth, there are dozens of mushroom varieties that you can grow right at home, all without putting your health at risk. Best of all, homegrown mushrooms are incredibly tasty and versatile. Rich in flavor and easy to toss into any recipe, homegrown mushrooms infuse an earthy taste into every dish you add them to, all for far less cost than buying them at the store.

What is a Mushroom, Anyways?

Not a plant or a vegetable, mushrooms are in their own fungal family. Often called saprophytes or organisms that extract nutrients from decomposing plants and animals, mushrooms get their nutrients by breaking down tree stumps, leaves and other material on the forest floor. Scientists estimate that there are over 140,000 species of mushrooms in the world today, though less than 10% have been fully studied at this time. However, the ones that have withstood scientific scrutiny are nothing less than impressive. Ranging in color, texture, shape and toxicity, mushrooms open an entire world of culinary adventures, though only a small number of edible mushrooms actually make it to the supermarket shelves.

Benefits Of Eating Mushrooms

No other food can quite compare to the health benefits of mushrooms. Not only can regular consumption help reduce your risk of developing breast cancer and diabetes, but mushrooms also naturally lower bad cholesterol levels and fill you up with protein, vitamins, antioxidants and more. Mushrooms are full of valuable substances like riboflavin, pantothenic acid, folate, thiamine, and niacin. As they are the only naturally vegan dietary source of vitamin D, mushrooms can naturally help inhibit the growth of cancer cells. One cup of stir fried shiitake mushrooms provides 3 grams of fiber, which helps you feel full for longer after your meal. Because most varieties are almost 90% water, mushrooms are extremely low in calories but still make for a top rate meat substitute that will leave you feeling satisfied.

Top Reasons to Grow Your Own Mushrooms

Your mushroom experiences have been stunted if you haven’t branched out beyond boring portabello mushrooms. Despite what you might think, growing your own mushrooms doesn’t require acres of farmland or specialized knowledge. All you need to get started is a little knowledge, the right spores, and motivation. The techniques for mushroom cultivation tend to be very basic, meaning that a little experience will take you a long way towards becoming self-sufficient and sustainable with your fungi consumption.

Top Three Types to Grow Yourself

Risotto fans, rejoice! Growing your own mushrooms is a simple way to enjoy the benefits of these fascinating fungi, and there are dozens of delicious mushroom varieties that are simple for the beginner to grow. Once you start growing one of these three mushroom varieties, you will soon start branching out into ever fancier varieties to grow. But be warned; mushroom cultivation is addictive, and once you start, it’s too hard to stop.

Pearl Oyster Mushrooms

You don’t need lots of yard space to grow these guys. With the smallest amount of effort, homegrown pearl oyster mushrooms can be yours to enjoy. All it takes is a plastic container full of something you throw away every day without thinking: coffee grounds.

To make these mushrooms work, you’ll need to collect more than two gallons of coffee grounds. If your caffeine consumption can’t quite handle that rate, simply visit your local coffee shop and see what kinds of grounds they have to spare. You’ll be sure to come home with more than you need.

Once you have enough grounds to get started, add them to a two-gallon bucket and blend pre-bought mushroom spores into the top inch of coffee grounds. Use a spray bottle to keep the spore-soaked grounds moist, and cover the bucket with plastic wrap. Punch six or more holes into the plastic wrap. For an even better effect, you can also drill holes in the bucket just a few inches above the top of the grounds so that CO2 from growing mushrooms can escape with ease. Put the bucket in a warm, dark place and spray it down twice a day to keep it moist. In a matter of weeks, small mushrooms will start to appear that can be easily harvested and eaten. Once your bucket seems to slow down its production, you can swap out those grounds and get started with fresh ones.

Lion’s Mane Mushrooms

If you want to grow something that truly stands out, lion’s mane mushrooms might be the variety for you. These softball-sized clusters of white fungi grow with long, white spines down the sides that look like the long hairs made famous on the King of the Savannah. Not only do lion’s mane mushrooms taste amazing when sauteed with other vegetables, they also have been shown to have plenty of neurotropic capabilities and are excellent brain boosters, especially for people suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia. grow bagAll you need to get started is a grow bag. Mushroom grow bags come with roughly 5lbs of sterilized spawn that have been inoculated into a substrate. When kept in ideal growing conditions, most bags can produce

A grow bag is all you need to get started. Mushroom grow bags come with roughly 5lbs of sterilized spawn that have been inoculated into a substrate. When kept in ideal growing conditions, most bags can produce more than a pound of stunning lion’s mane mushrooms.

Keep your bag unopened until you’re ready to fruit it (refrigerators work best). Once you start to see white mycelium starting to form throughout the bag it is ready to fruit. At this time, set the bag on a dinner plate or shallow container and keep it somewhere where it will get light and consistent humidity. Make a small slit in a place where the white fungus is extra thick, being careful not to cut into the block. Next, roll down the top of the bag so that it’s tight against the block and pull a piece of fabric over the bag to keep it in the dark. Keep the fabric wet by misting it with a spray bottle a few times a day, checking it repeatedly to see if the mushrooms have grown (this usually takes a few weeks).

Once you start to see a large mushroom growing out of the slit, you can harvest it by twisting and pulling it out of the block. Don’t use a knife, as it might contaminate the block. It’s easy to enjoy your giant mushroom in your favorite dish. If you keep the block moist for several more weeks, you should get additional mushrooms to form through the same hole.

Shiitake Mushrooms

Popular in Asian cooking, shiitake mushrooms are full of flavor and have a highly distinctive, almost meat-like texture. They are delicious when sauteed or baked, and tend to be big successes at farmers markets or natural food stores because they are simple to dry out and can be re-hydrated in a matter of minutes to restore the full flavor. Though shiitake mushrooms are well suited for a small mushroom business, they are also an ideal mushroom for first-time growers to start with if they want to learn how mushroom logs work.

Like many mushroom types, shiitakes need to be grown on hardwood logs that stay moist, well shaded, and out of the way of fierce winds. While oak wood tends to work best, any hardwood can work in a pinch. The best time to cut down mushroom logs is in the late winter in order to allow them plenty of time to set before getting inoculated in the early spring. Logs that are between 3-8 inches are ideal, and each log shouldn’t be longer than 3-4 feet. Make sure to choose logs with intact bark, as gaps provide perfect openings for wild spores to get inside and compromise your mushrooms.

In order to inoculate your logs, a high-speed drill is necessary to drill holes that are one inch deep, 5/16 inches in diameter, and spaced six inches apart. After drilling, you can fill each whole with a mix of sawdust and shiitake spores, and then seal the mixture in place by covering the top with melted cheese wax.

Once the logs are inoculated, they need between six months to a year for the spores to fully spread throughout the log in a thread-like network called the spawn run. Throughout these months, the mushroom logs need to be stacked in piles that allow for good air flow while still being protected from wind and rain. The best strategy is to shoot for 35-45 percent moisture content at all times and keep the logs off the bare ground in order to prevent contamination from strains of wild fungi.

After the spawn run is complete, the shiitake mushrooms will start to pop up from the log every few days. Once the caps are just about completely open they are ready to be harvested. It’s easy for mushrooms to go from almost ready to overripe in a matter of hours, so make sure to check your logs often to ensure they are being harvested enough. Once harvested, shiitakes can be stored for many months so long as you keep them in well-ventilated containers or dry them out before storage. After the harvest of most of the logs fruiting bodies, it’s best to let it rest for the next few months in order to give the mycelium in the logs time to regain their energy in order to bloom again. When taken care of in this way, most shiitake mushroom logs can fruit for 2-8 years with no problems.

In Summary

The wild and wonderful world of mushroom cultivation is not to be underestimated. If your only experience with mushrooms has been the boring button varieties at grocery stores, the time has come to branch out. Start out with one of these three simple strategies for cultivating your own mushrooms, and you’ll soon be a fungi fanatic who can’t leave them alone.

Related products:

• Mushrooms (Nutritional)

Related Reading:

• Medicinal Mushrooms
• The Unique Mushroom that Balances Hormones
• Mushrooms Boost Your Immunity
• Shiitake Mushrooms Can Help Prevent Cervical Cancer, Study Finds
• How To Kill Candida, Fungi, Yeast in the Body
• 10 Most Profitable Vegetables To Grow

Sources:

• Health Benefits of Mushrooms – Organic Facts
• Vitamin D Health Benefits – Mercola
• How to Grow Pearl Oyster Mushrooms – Everything Mushrooms
• How To Grow Lion’s Mane in a Grow Bag – Sow True Seeds
• Getting Started With Shiitake Mushrooms – Living Echo