Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:31 pm   Reply with quote      

Witch Hazel is used as an astringent with tonic properties for the venous system. Like many strong astringents it is not used for long periods of time. Useful for burns, scalds, and inflammatory skin conditions. Excellent when applied on a cotton ball to insect and mosquito bites. More information about witch hazel can be found here. http://www.shilajeet.com/store/Witch-Hazel-Leaf--Cut-12-0-973.html

Mon Apr 18, 2005 10:54 pm   Reply with quote      

I suppose that you say this is 200% better than what you can at your local drug store.

Mon Apr 18, 2005 10:57 pm   Reply with quote      

BTW, welcome to the forum, shilajeet!

Tue Apr 19, 2005 1:00 am   Reply with quote      

Thank you. I am enjoying your forum and glad to know that alternative medicines are appreciated by forum members!

Tue Apr 19, 2005 1:39 am   Reply with quote      

One of members in the forum, Thais is really big in alternative medicine, and the emphasis on alternative/complementary medicine in this forum is largely due to her input.

Tue Apr 19, 2005 4:32 pm   Reply with quote      

I love explaining benefits of alternative medicines and herbs to folks myself. I must say that this forum is probably one of the best out there about alternative medicines.

Tue Apr 19, 2005 5:31 pm   Reply with quote      

Hello Shilajeet - welcome to the forum!

You might be interested to know that in this country (UK) there is a preparation for haemorroids (sp?) called Prep H Gel - the main ingredient is witch hazel - that women use on their faces to give themelves a 'facelift!' I actually tried it (once!!) to see it worked, and as a matter of fact, it does! It only costs about $2 in a pharmacy! (I only discovered it had witch hazel in it after I bought it.)

Tue Apr 19, 2005 7:47 pm   Reply with quote      

Hi Thais:

IRule mentioned about you in one of the posts. Nice to meet you.

Witch hazel is commonly used in many medicines; we dont know it as we dont care to read the label.

Witch Hazel can be made into a tea:

A tea made of the leaves or bark may be taken freely with advantage, being good for bleeding of the stomach and in complaints of the bowels, and an injection of this tea is excellent for inwardly bleeding piles, the relief being marvellous and the cure speedy. An ointment made of 1 part fluid extract of bark to 9 parts simple ointment is also used as a local application, the concentration Hamamelin being also employed, mainly in the form of suppositories.

We stock witch hazel here - http://www.shilajeet.com/store/Witch-Hazel-Leaf--Cut-12-0-973.html

Tue Apr 19, 2005 10:59 pm   Reply with quote      

One of questions I have is this. I rarely see or hear about these things. Surely, you can find some information on the internet, but I'm not so sure if any popular TV program or major medical journal mentions about drinking tea(applying alternative/complementary medicine). Also I don't think many doctors actually recommend to do so to patients. How come?

Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:16 pm   Reply with quote      

There is more money in recommending vioxx, viagra, vicodin, or any number of such medicines. You see, they have their bread buttered on both sides:

- Create several side effects in trying to fix 1 condition
- Fix the side effects and create more ...
- Keep doing this as long as you can

Alright, I sound like believing in conspiracy theories but one can only wonder why healthcare companies spend billions of dollars in lobbying congress about miscelleneous drug related issues including importing of drugs manufactured in other contries. Very often, these multi billion dollar companies will contract out manufacturing of drugs to contries like India and China and then reimport it and sell it in USA. The whole point is, so long as the US drug companies are making money, they dont care about where the stuff comes from but when some one other then them stands a chance to make money, they want to crush them outright.

Has anybody heard of 200% (or may be a little less) anti dumping duty on chinese plasma tv's in the US? Talk about free market economy where markets are only free so long as US companies are the one's making money.

Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:28 pm   Reply with quote      

<sigh> I'm so glad there's someone else here who shares my point of view about the pharmaboys.

Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:06 pm   Reply with quote      

What makes you so sure that they are not pharm girls?

Wed Apr 27, 2005 7:34 pm   Reply with quote      

I can live with pharma girls, farm girl on the other hand is a different story all together

Wed Apr 27, 2005 10:43 pm   Reply with quote      

That's pretty cute .