Hi.
My
name is Robyn and I am interested in helping people understand how
herbs, and combinations of herbs, can help to nourish the various
systems and organs in the body.
Many times there
is a fault in the diet, or in the workings of our systems that can
cause a deficiency to occur, and this can cause discomfort in our
lives.
Also past
treatments used could cause, or add to an imbalance.
Below
is a little bit about me and how I came
to choose firstly, to not have any drugs
if I could help it, and secondly, how I
came to know about natural means of treating
oneself.
I am an ex nurse
who has decided that 'alternative' methods are far safer than
orthodox treatments when dealing with problems.
I have been
dealing with herbs along with a range of other Vitamins and Minerals
since 1980, and for 13 years before that I used only dietary methods
to deal with any health discomforts that arose in my children and
myself. (I had not heard of encapsulated herbs before then).
My
experience in hospital:
I had experienced
very scary things in hospital work, and I especially remember how we
all felt when told to read the toxic side effects of drugs before
administering them to the patients.
Usually the list
started with the word “rash”, but some of them ended with the
word "death”. I waited with bated breath for something really bad to happen.
Now that was very scary and I became very wary of
these substances.
When I contracted
a very bad case of the flu' I was sent to sick bay and made to stay
in bed for 2 weeks. They gave me drugs which I HAD to take, and these
drugs made me feel worse. (In those days nurses had to live at the
hospital and do as Matron said. She was, in effect, our mother).
They would not let me go home to my parents, who were only 10
minutes away and would have come and got me, to get over this flu' naturally
as we always did at
home.
Suddenly,
after the 2 weeks of strict bed rest, apart
from going to the toilet, I was
told I could go and convalesce at the nurses home, still not allowed
to go to my parents, and I nearly collapsed getting out of the sick
bed and walking up the corridor for the first time. (I was also taken off the
drugs).
I
decided then and there that drugs were not
a good thing for me. It had to be the drugs
having that bad effect on me as I was more
than familiar with the course that influenza
takes, and it was nothing like this.
I'm glad it
happened like that though, as it put me off drugs in general for the rest of my
life! I knew though that certain drugs might be necessary at some point, depending
on the circumstances.
I must say here that I am sensitive to foods and allergens,
so maybe another person might not have reacted as I did to the drugs. I do admit to
taking pain killers for toothache as my
teeth deteriorated, and I had an intramuscular pain killer to help
me through labour for my first child, but aside from those drugs everything was
treated naturally for myself and later on for my children after an episode with
penicillin.
When people ask me
about my GP and I say I have none, they are astounded and I am left
wondering how “medically minded” people in general have become,
even rushing off to the doctors for colds and other minor
discomforts. I am sure there are very many like minded people, like myself,
out there treating things safely though.
I do believe that the
medical world has its rightful place for certain situations, when there is no
other alternative, and they do a marvelous job in the surgeries
performed and other life saving procedures. In fact we couldn't do without them,
so I'm just making the fact clear that I appreciate all roles
played in the health field.
How
I came to learn about natural treatments:
When my children
were very young I was given a book to read, written by Harry
Benjamin on the subject of “Nature Cure”. He was quite famous and cured himself
of blindness no less. His two books that
I am familiar with are named
"Everybody's Guide to Nature Cure'
and "Better sight without Glasses".
He has written other ones too I think.
The reason I
needed this book very badly was because my son, then 3 years old, was
constantly coming down with very bad tonsillitis which made him bed
ridden for days each time. By the time he was well enough for us to walk to the
Doctor's, he was already obviously starting to get over it, but we
felt that we must “see to it”. The Doctor, of course, would give
him liquid Penicillin each time, telling me that it would not harm
him. (But I wondered and worried about that).
A lady across the
road saw the trouble we were in and kindly gave me her copy of the
book to read.
After reading it
and believing it, I
emptied my cupboards out of everything that was not in as natural a
state as possible.
A friend up the
road was delighted and kindly took them off my hands for her family
to eat. (Later on she followed my example to help her family, who
were in a far worse state than mine. With great success I might add).
Thankfully my
two children were young enough not to make waves about our change in diet, (3 years and
11 months), and I made sure they still had tasty meals to enjoy.
I made my own
“regime” based on things I had heard and read, plus some of the principles
in the book, as I knew we would not completely enjoy the foods that
Harry Benjamin recommended. (He was from a different country and ate
different foods).
One of the
principles was to always eat the raw food first at meal times, and
that was the new rule in our house. At first the children sat and
looked at the meal and were not too keen, but it took less than a
week to have them eagerly looking forward to each and every meal and
lapping up the salad or fruit with great enjoyment, and even asking
for raw food throughout the day, which was never denied. (Thankfully
we had loads of fruit growing on trees and vines in our yard). It
became the mainstay in our diet and the follow on food at each meal
was just to get the necessaries in the protein, fat and starch fields. We
were loving it.
We became
remarkably healthy with great colouring to our skins and everything
glowed. For the first time I had great muscle tone, something I had
never had before. (I was 29 years old). Also I could go out in the sun
for a short time and instead of burning, I would always get a golden
tan. A first for me, so obviously the new diet had released the
melanin in my system. Before that I never ever went brown, only red.
My son never
needed the Doc again and never had tonsillitis again. When he did
have it, Doc would say
“Ugh, these are the worst I have ever
seen”. They were very swollen and purple with white pustules all
over them. After a month on the new diet I examined his tonsils
and for the first time since he was a baby they were a healthy pink,
and a normal size. I was so glad!
I was proud of my
children for taking so kindly to the new eating program. My daughter
was only 11 months old and she busily chomped away on her salads too, with her
less than complete set of teeth.
Fruit was never a problem anyway and they were allowed to freely eat as much
fruit as they wanted whenever they wanted.
We ate starch only
once a day and protein twice, never mixing the two, and it had to be
after the raw part of the meal. Inbetweens were always fruit or a
bit of honey if asked for. We also ate nuts and dates and always had them raw
as well. Dried fruit was eaten regularly
as well. We ate eggs and dairy products,
(no meat or fish at all), rain water was
caught and stored for drinking, and honey
was our only sweet substance out of a pottle,
plus vegemite as the only other spread. We
had wholemeal bread, brown rice
and potatoes for starch, and I made our
own yoghurt plus the children drank raw
goats milk which was delivered to our box
regularly.
For
special occasions I baked wholemeal cakes
and did the usual icing addition, but I
coloured the icing with a little bit of
home made vegetable juice which could
not be tasted in such a sweet topping, but
the colours of these natural colourings
is so beautiful. The cake itself was always
sweetened with honey.
We
went on the recommended fruit only days
if we got something wrong with us, but after
a short while we did not need to do this.
Fruit diets are amazing for getting rid
of catarrh.
That was years ago
of course and things change over the years.
My
introduction to herbs:
In 1980 I first
started using “Licorice Root”. (no not the lolly...) It came in
capsule form and is still on the single herb list. (Nutrition for the
adrenal glands).
This simple herb
helped me to have driving lessons without the stress. Before I
started taking it I was a total mess learning to drive, and
apparently my 2 children and I all needed this herb for the inner
stress, the adrenal stress that many suffer from, that “tied up in
knots inside” feeling. After I started taking it near misses and mistakes didn't
bother me one little bit, I was very laid
back!
A
Naturopath who was well versed in iridology
told us this at a friends house where they
were having a gathering and it was a
great start in a new field for us. I was now “hooked”.
I
signed up as a member/independent distributor
of NSP and started getting
the herbs for friends, family and acquaintances.
So that was my
road to the herb world and I am totally delighted with all the
interesting experiences I have had over the years.
I do hope you can
also get great benefits from today's selections.
My regards to you
all.
Robyn.
|