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10 Ways to use comfrey, a powerful healing herb

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(Natural News) Comfrey, or gum plant, is a medicinal herb that can be used as an astringent, anti-inflammatory or anti-rheumatic agent. It can also be used to treat wounds, bites, stings, rashes and other conditions. Not only does it speed up recovery on the surface level, but it also penetrates into the tissues to speed the healing of sprains, strains and even broken bones.

Comfrey is a nutrient accumulator. The roots of the comfrey plant reach far into the earth to pull up minerals, and it is known to be a good source of calcium, manganese, potassium, vitamin A and vitamin C. (Related: How to grow and use comfrey for gardening and medicine.)

Using comfrey for healing

As Oil

You can boil comfrey in a pan and heat it on low until the oil takes the color of the herbs. This will take about thirty minutes to an hour. You can then strain the herbs and bottle the oil. While it can be stored at room temperature, comfrey oil will last longer when kept in a cool place.

You can apply the oil liberally to aches, pains, and other areas when desired. Use a roller bottle to use the oil without getting your hands messy.

As Decoction

Use 1-3 teaspoons of dried comfrey root for every cup of water. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for up ten to fifteen minutes. Drink this concoction up to three times a day, or gargle it to treat infections, dry mouth, sore throat and bleeding gums.

As tea or water infusion

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Prepper medicine: How to use sage, a versatile healing herb

Image: Prepper medicine: How to use sage, a versatile healing herb

(Natural News) Sage is a flavorful herb that’s often used during Thanksgiving to season turkey and homemade stuffing.

The herb may be popular as a culinary seasoning for holiday recipes, but you also need to learn the medicinal uses of sage before SHTF. (h/t to TheSurvivalMom.com)

Sage: A versatile herb for your home garden

Sage belongs to the mint family. While there are many varieties, the one you’re probably most familiar with is the one used for cooking, Salvia officinalis.

Sage is very aromatic and using it gives your dishes an earthy, warm quality. The herb can be used fresh, dry, rubbed, and ground. (Related: 10 Ways to use comfrey, a powerful healing herb.)

While the modern use of sage usually involves savory dishes, sage has been valued for its health benefits for thousands of years.

The ancient Greeks and Chinese used varieties of sage to address different health issues. Native Americans used sage for meditation, protection and relaxation.

Common garden sage, the variety you often use for cooking, is also used for broader health purposes as recently as the late 1800s by early doctors like Physiomedicalists in the United States.

Traditionally, sage has been used to address minor discomforts like bloating and gas after eating a fatty meal to more serious health problems like typhoid fever and tuberculosis.

Sage health benefits

Sage is full of vitamins and minerals. One teaspoon (0.7 grams) of ground sage contains only two calories, 0.1 grams of fat and protein and 0.4 grams of carbs.

The same serving also contains:

  • Vitamin K –10 percent of the reference daily intake (RDI)
  • Iron – 1.1 percent of the RDI
  • Vitamin B6 – 1.1 percent of the RDI
  • Calcium – One percent of the RDI
  • Manganese – One percent of the RDI

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BBC – Travel – Living in: The world’s most eco-friendly cities : Eco-tourism

BBC – Travel – Living in: The world’s most eco-friendly cities : Eco-tourism.

From offering plentiful bike paths and thriving farmers’ markets to ensuring cleaner air, a city’s environmental efforts don’t just help the planet – they benefit residents too.

According to the Siemens Green City Index, an ongoing project researched by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the world’s greenest cities score high marks in CO2 emissions, transportation options, water and waste management, and overall environmental governance.

Different urban areas have different sustainability strengths, so we talked to residents in the top-ranked cities across the globe to find out what living in them is like.

Vancouver, British Columbia
Compared to other cities of its size, Vancouver scored incredibly well in C02 emissions and air quality, due in part to the city’s emphasis on promoting green energy and its use of hydropower. Vancouver has vowed to reduce emissions by 33% by 2020.

Vancouver, British Columbia, gardening, green, eco-friendly
One of Vancouver’s many gardens. (AFP/Getty)

That commitment doesn’t surprise resident Lorne Craig, who moved to the city from Calgary in 1985 and writes the Green Briefs blog. “Vancouver has been home to a deeper green counter-culture since the 1960s and is recognized worldwide as the birthplace of Greenpeace,” he said. “Mountains tower over the city. It reminds everyone here that we are part of something bigger and more beautiful.”

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Living Minimally | Sierra Club

Living Minimally | Sierra Club.

‘Tis the season for sales. We’ve got Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday — days designated for buying more stuff. Yet most of us have spent the better part of a Sunday afternoon decluttering our homes and unloading bags full of unwanted goods at our local thrift store. Do we really need to buy all of those things in the first place? Living minimally makes way for more time, money, and opportunity in our lives.

“We all have limited time, energy, and money. The world by itself has limited life, and if we are using those resources for manufacturing things that don’t enhance our lives then it is a waste of our resources,” said minimalist Joshua Becker, author of Simplify: 7 Guiding Principles to Help Anyone Declutter Their Home and Life, and BecomingMinimalist.com.

Living minimally is about detaching ourselves from material things and connecting ourselves instead to people and the invaluable experiences life can provide –putting our money instead toward our futures and/or to those in need.

The minimalist lifestyle becomes appealing when it becomes necessary.  In June 2001, Time magazine writer Janice Castro termed the movement “the humble makings of a revolution,” in which Americans were slowly trading in consumerism for contentment and finding joy in everyday moments rather than attaching themselves to status symbols. This movement was mostly tied to the economy, and it seems that today it is tied to the environment.

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Knowing what ‘just enough’ is: Azby Brown on Japan’s Edo period – Part One | Transition Network

Knowing what ‘just enough’ is: Azby Brown on Japan’s Edo period – Part One | Transition Network.

One of the most extraordinary books I have read in recent years is Just Enough: lessons in living green from traditional Japan by Azby Brown. Brown is director of the Konazawa Institute of Technologies Future Design Institute and has lived in Japan for the last 30 years.  It is a beautiful analysis of the integrated, mindful and design-driven way in which one traditional society worked and embodied the principles of sustainability.

His analysis of the Edo period is the perfect example of the ‘Less is More’ that is our theme for this month.  I talked to Azby by Skype from his home in Tokyo. I began by asking him when the Edo period was, and what it is that he finds so fascinating about it:

“The Edo period began in the first decade of the 17th century and lasted until the country opened to the West in the 1860s. That was a period of a little over 250 years. It was remarkable in many respects culturally, technically and economically because it was preceded by centuries of civil war and also of economic and military expansion overseas. The country basically had exhausted itself, had exhausted its resources. It had deforested most of the country, it had damaged its capability for agricultural production, the population had increased and the country was on the verge of environmental collapse, mainly caused by the deforestation.

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Olduvai IV: Courage
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Olduvai II: Exodus
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