Mullein to the resue

This post is part of the Natural Cures Blog Carnival.

In my journey from standard American to smarter American, I embarked on an herbal medicine course. Due to family issues, I had to stop two or three weeks before completion. I have since finished the course on my own, but don’t have the official stamp of certification. Studying herbal medicine was a wonderful step toward being more self-reliant for our family. As I see the US move toward socialized health care and as I study the strengths and weaknesses of the Canadian and British systems, I am more and more convinced that I need to take care of as much as I can in my own home and not rely on doctors for everyday illnesses and injuries. DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor, the medical advice I provide my family is just that…advice. The herbal remedies I make at home are for supporting our health, they aren’t cures.

Studying herbs has also lead me to study food and the way what we eat supports or degrades our health. I believe there are critical first steps to take to help our bodies function at their peak: sunshine, fresh air, clean water, lifestyle exercise, restful sleep, peace with God and the foods we eat. Sometimes our bodies fall ill and we need to take stronger steps. But long before I bring out the cannons of prescriptions, I’ll try some smaller guns like herbs and time-tested home remedies.

I have what some might call “weak lungs.” That is, when I catch a cold, it usually goes to bronchitis and occasionally pneumonia before resolving. In order to stop the downward cycle, I have a weapon in my herbal arsenal I’m never without.

Mullein grows wild in many parts of the US, including the Pacific Northwest where I first learned about this gem; and the southeast where I now live. The first year it makes a soft, green rosette. These leaves can be made into a soothing salve for scrapes and hemorrhoids.

If left through the winter, the plant puts up a flower spike that I’ve seen rocketing 7 feet tall in its second summer. As the spike blooms, the flowers can be picked and made into a tincture.

When I catch a cold, the cold goes through these stages if left untreated: the headache, the runny nose, the congested chest, bronchitis, pneumonia, healing. When my cold reaches the congested chest stage, I will start taking my mullein tincture. The mullein causes the congestion in my chest to break up. The coughing that results is good coughing, called expectoration. This coughing breaks up the mucous in my lungs and keeps a secondary infection from getting started. The exercise of coughing also increases blood flow to my lungs, which helps my body warm up and clean the area. Since I’ve begun taking mullein during the congested part of a cold cycle, I have only had one bout of bronchitis and it didn’t develop into pneumonia.

I now have mullein growing in my medicine garden so I don’t need to wonder if the herb I wildcraft has been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. The next time you’re driving through a wild area and see a tall spike like this, I hope you think “medicine” and not “weed!”