The End of Food

[magical thyme]

6. sorry for late reply....I just saw this!

The book is "The Green Pharmacy" by James A. Duke, PhD.

For the herpes family:

mint family (esp. lemon balm, but also peppermint, spearmint, oregano, hyssop, rosemary, sage, thyme and self-heal)

For antiviral / anti-inflammatories in general:

licorice
passion flower
bergamot
purslane
some chinese herbs I'm not familiar with

For the pain:
red pepper (capsaicin blocks the nerve endings just under the skin)

I was growing everything listed above in the mint family, along with wild bergamot, and I had licorice tea and red pepper in my kitchen. So I used the licorice tea as a base and added fresh leaves from my garden.

I drank the tea throughout the day. Most important, I took the strainings from the tea, added some red pepper, and made a poultice of it. The shingles were on my abdomen and lower back, so I put the wet mixture onto large gauze pads and wrapped myself in them, then overwrapped with saran wrap to help hold everything in place, and then covered all of it with horse bandages (basically oversized ace bandages).

This not only put the medicinal compounds right where the action was, it protected the affected area from being triggered (every time anything touches just the slightest, it sets of a round of needles and general pain).

It was a bit messy, but within 4 days the rash had receded and the pins, needles and pain were gone. The hardest part was judging how much red pepper to add. If I got the amount just right it was *heavenly.* It warmed from the inside out and felt like a nice heating pad provided support. Then there was the day when I accidentally overshot the optimum. I cannot believe how hot it got -- I was ready to call the fire dept. to put me out! But it still was better than the needles.