From The Ground Up

08/24/2023

03/27/2023

Long COVID
Two months after a positive COVID test, 15% of adults will report long COVID symptoms. Some people start feeling sick when they get COVID and continue having symptoms for weeks or months. Some start having symptoms weeks or months after the initial symptoms go away.Others don't have initial symptoms of COVID with a positive test, but develop long term COVID symptoms later. What are long term COVID symptoms?
There can be many symptoms because COVID has been found in all body tissues. Fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, cough, brain fog, and sleep and mood problems seem to be the predominant symptoms. It is notable to mention that that other infections can cause long lasting recurrent symptoms of their own, flu, Epstein-barr, Lyme and other virus are some examples.
There are common sense things you can do to help protect yourself from long COVID, or at least help your body be better able to fight. Build a good foundation of a healthy diet, and nutrition. Your body needs adequate protein , especially when under the assault of long COVID. Eggs, meat and fish are good choices. Have a little extra protein with each meal.Berries are neuroprotective , as are Omega-3 fatty acids, in general 4-7000 mg a day with food. Having been vaccinated reduces the severity of long COVID symptoms.
Herbs are good at supporting the affected organs. Plantain, Calendula, and Marshmallow root help the gut heal. Lemon Balm, Ginkgo, Skullcap, Rosemary and Goto Kola are some of the herbs that help the brain recover.
Overall reaction of inflammation is important. Turmeric Ginger and a little Licorice root are good herbal anti-inflammatories. Exercise can help, but remember that if you feel like yo "hit a wall", stop, don't push it and rest.
I am available by appointment and can be reached at 575-644-5504.
Deborah Brandt

04/17/2022

Wild Onions
Members of the Allium genus are widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere. Besides onions, garlic and chives are part of the family.
The nodding wild onion is a perennial, and like its tame relative the domestic onion its pungent bulb is found just below the surface of the soil. Wild onion bulbar much smaller, about the size of an ovoid shaped pea. They tend to grow in clusters with other bulbs. The inner bulb coat is often reddish to white with a course meshed outer bulb covering. It send up narrow green leaves about 8 inches tall in the growing season, followed by a single leafless flowering stalk with a flower cluster on top. The flower cluster is umbel shaped (many small flower stalks bearing a single flower in a globular shape). The flower can range from mostly white to pink, to wine red. All wild onions have a characteristic garlicky aroma.
Wild onions like to grow on mountain slopes in the pine tree zone. You can pick and eat the the bulbs anytime, but they are best just before flowering, usually spring through early summer.
It is important to be sure you are harvesting onions in the wild and not some potentially poisonous look alike. If it doesn't smell like onion or garlic when you crush it, then it isn't. The flowering stalks of the wild onion are evenly globular in shape, not unevenly ragged like the toxic Nothoscordum ( Crow Poison).
Wild onions are a flavorful addition to food. Eaten fresh or dried for spicing stews, soups, meats and salads, it was a popular Native American herb for food and medicine.
The Comanche braided wild onion tops together for drying or roasting fresh over a fire. The Tarahumara and Tewa cooked wild onions with beans and chile. I have used the the green tops as a substitute for chives. You can get quite creative, cream of wild onion soup, stuffing, etc.It is possible to overdo them, too many at a time can cause heartburn or gastritis. Enjoy them in moderation.
Wild onions were used in the mid nineteenth century to repel snails and grubs. Mosquitoes are not fond of them either.
Medicinally wild onions have been used to expel worms, treat headaches, hives, tumors, and relieve the pain of insect bites. Mix with warm honey water for coughs as well. The Cherokee used them to treat sore throats and made a poultice for application to the chest for croup, colds, and tuberculosis. They also used the poultice on feet for fever and on inflamed feverish wounds. In New Mexico it was a traditional remedy as a 'mash' mixed with kerosene for snake bites. Today, many New Mexicans cut an onion in half, brown the cut end in a skillet and apply it as a drawing agent for boils, and even headaches.
Modern research has shown onions to be antiviral, antibacterial and anti fungal. There has been studies for its use as an anti inflammatory and tp possess anti tumor properties.
Some research has also shown that eating onions before a fatty meal could reduce cholesterol levels. There is promising research that the onion family may also reduce inflammation from arthritis. Since the Allium family also has anti -coagulant properties, don't binge on them if you are on anti-coagulant therapy or are about to go in for surgery, as overdoing it can inhibit blood clotting.
Transplanting wild onions to your garden is easy and can be done any time of the year.They grow ell in our soil and make an attractive pot herb.

09/30/2020

HAY FEVER

It’s about time when fall ‘hay fever’ comes for it’s annual visit. Ragweed pollen is responsible for about 75% of hay fever, and about 25-30 million Americans suffer from it.

Hay Fever allergy is caused by the body’s immune system over-reacting to histamine. Your body secretes histamine when it feels it is under attack. Some of us just take ragweed pollen a little too seriously, get paranoid, and pull out a sledgehammer to swat a fly.Oh well, most of us let our emotions get in the way of logic too. So why should we expect our physical selves to be more rational?

You can go to the pharmacy for decongestants and antihistamines. They are easy to get, easy to take, and usually work well. They do have side effects however and really only treat the symptoms. I prefer to go a little deeper, and work with more natural approaches. My own experience with hay fever has been nearly eradicated without over the counter medications.

Curiously, one of the treatments for hay fever is ragweed. The leaves, dried, and made into a tea BEFORE flowering is often desensitizing enough to relieve the brunt of ragweed allergy. The trick is to start drinking a cup of tea a day before the season hits. Actually, all allergy treatments work best when initiated before the full force of allergies are upon you. When picking Ragweed remember to gather it only before flowering, otherwise you’re likely to seriously aggravate the problem.

One of my favorite remedies is Stinging Nettle. Fresh plant tincture or freeze-dried capsules work best. Nettle grows in moist mountainous areas. It looks rather like a large 3-4 foot mint, with rich green hairy leaves. You won’t forget it if you have ever run into them because the formic acid it contains is like little ant bites that causes a temporary stinging rash when brushed against. When dried or tinctured it loses this effect. Taken daily, starting about 2 weeks before you usually start to suffer and continuing through allergy season is often surprisingly effective for hay fever. Nettles are also very nutritive, containing many trace minerals and vitamins.

Although I haven’t tried it, Ginkgo reportedly works well too by interfering with the mechanism that triggers allergies and inflammation. 60-240-mg. daily of a standardized extract is recommended by James Duke PhD, renowned ethno botanist.

Quercitin, which is a bioflavinoid and related to vitamin C is effective at inhibiting MAST cells, which cause allergic inflammation. It works best combined with Bromelain (a pineapple enzyme). You can buy quercitin and bromelain together as a supplement.

Vitamin C is also a good natural antihistamine. 1,000 mg a day before and during allergy should help.

Don’t forget chilies, cayenne, or horseradish when your sinuses are clogged up. As you probably know, there is nothing quite like hot Hatch chilies to get your nose running and clear out your sinus cavities.

Local honey and bee pollen is said to reduce allergies too. This makes sense, because you are ingesting small amounts of the local pollens, enough to help desensitize reactiveness.
For you hay fever sufferers, I hope this helps get you more smoothly through the fall.