To kick off the Centennial we have a very exciting announcement.  For quite some time The School of Natural Healing has been working very hard to convert their introductory course, Family Herbalist, to a simple, easy-to-use, online course.  We are pleased to be the first to announce that this is done!  The regular price for this course is $495, but to celebrate Dr. Christopher’s 100th anniversary of his birth, they are offering this course for just $100!  If you have been waiting to sign up because of financial reasons this is the time to jump in.  You will never see the cost for this course this low again.  More details follow below.

We thought it would be appropriate to share some memoirs of Dr. Christopher as our article today.  The article comes from “Dr. Christopher’s Natural Healing Newsletter” Volume 4, Issue 4.  Christopher Publications has agreed to give you a PDF copy of this article for free.  You will find a link to it in the article.

Memoirs of Dr. John R. Christopher, Master Herbalist
Excerpt from Dr. Christopher’s Natural Healing Newsletter, 4-4

Once in a great while the Earth is blessed with an enlightened soul who is able to raise the consciousness of his fellow man by his love, wisdom, and humor.  It is as though this person…has a direct connection to a divine source of information.  Dr. John Raymond Christopher, the great herbalist, was one of these beings.

Like the Savior, Dr. Christopher in his life went about doing good and healing the sick.  And like the Savior, for his efforts, he was despised and rejected of men.

Shortly before his death, Dr. Christopher said, “You know, the only good thing in this life is when you’re helping somebody else.”

A man who truly practiced what he preached, Dr. Christopher’s life was marked by service to those around him and service to many others whom he helped through his extensive writings on natural healing, his lectures, his formulas and the School of Natural Healing.

To read the entire newsletter, you can download it for free by clicking on this link (it is a large file, so please be patient while it downloads):
http://www.herballegacy.com/Memoirs.pdf

SCHOOL OF NATURAL HEALING ONLINE: As mentioned above, The School of Natural Healing is offering their introductory course online for just $100.  You will never find see a price this low again.  Several changes have been made to the course to bring it online:

• Herbs to the Rescue by Kurt King, M.H. has been added to the course along with a study guide
• 2.5 hours of audio about Vaccines has been added to the course
• All the books, study guides, audio, and video are online, so no material will be shipped to your home (if you choose to purchase the materials you will be able to do so at wholesale prices)
• The study guides will be filled out online – allowing for quicker grading, especially for those overseas
• The Final Test is online and will be graded immediately, so you will know right away whether or not you have passed.

Other courses will be added to the online school over the course of 2009.

To learn more about the online school, including answers to Frequently Asked Questions, please visit http://online.snh.cc. 

You can register for the course with the Register link on that page or if you are ready to register now click this link: http://online.snh.cc/Register.html 

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Dr. Christopher always extolled the virtues of red raspberry leaf tea.  Red raspberry leaves are a great aid in times of cold or flu and provide the body aid in times of cold and flu and provide the body with iron in an absorbable form.  It is high in calcium, making it an important tea for the pregnant or nursing woman.  Throughout the history of American Botanic Medicine, red raspberry leaves are mentioned as a tonic for the female reproductive system.  Its astringent properties help strengthen the uterus.  Dr. Coffin, of the early American Botanic Medicine School mentions red raspberry leaves extensively for every phase of pregnancy.  Jethro Kloss states in Back to Eden that red raspberry leaves will allay menstrual cramps and promote a painless labor.  Dr. Christopher has always advised nursing mothers to drink marshmallow root tea to increase milk flow and red raspberry tea to enrich the milk.  In the booklet The Cold Sheet Treatment and Aids for the Common Cold, Dr. Christopher explains how to conquer the cold by fasting on red raspberry leaf tea.  The leaves contain fragrine, a substance that affects the muscles of the pelvic region.

The astringent and nutritive properties of red raspberry are employed in Dr. Christopher’s lower bowel formula, the female corrective formula, and the herbal eyebright combination.  The great medical botanist, Dr. Samuel Thomson, used red raspberry in his patented system of medicine.  Lobelia was first given as an emetic, then cayenne was administered to restore heat to the body and red raspberry was taken as a tea to remove canker from the digestive tract.  Red raspberry leaf tea may be used as a gargle for sore mouths and throat canker, according to the English Herbalist, Maude Grieve.  Externally the tea can be used as a wash on ulcers and other wounds.  The herb also aids in setting the stomach.

Red raspberry can be easily cultivated.  It should be planted in the spring from suckers taken from plants that are a year old.  The suckers can be set three feet apart with six to eight feet between rows.  The soil needs to be moist and the plants should be exposed to full sun.

Red raspberry leaf tea should be kept on hand for women and women-to-be.  A mother should give a young girl a cup of red raspberry tea every day as she approaches puberty. This will make the transitional period much smoother.

Red raspberry leaf tea is made by using a heaping teaspoons of red raspberry leaves to each cup of hot steam-distilled water, or one ounce of the herbs (two heaping tablespoons, approximately) to each pint of distilled water.  Never let the tea boil, but pour the boiling water over the herbs and then steep fifteen or twenty minutes in a warm place, strain and drink.  It is best to drink three or more cups a day of this tea during the entire pregnancy.  It is a pleasant-tasting tea and is also an anti-nausea.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:

• Dr. Christopher’s Natural Healing Newsletter – Vol. 4, No 7 “Ten Honorable Herbs”
• Herbal Home Health Care by Dr. John R. Christopher
• Red Raspberry Master Herbalist Thesis by Marisa Corless: http://www.herballegacy.com/Red_Raspberry_Corless.html
• Christopher Publications carries all the books highlighted in the article above
• To find an herb shop that carries red raspberry leaves and other Dr. Christopher herbs check out http://www.christopherwebsites.com.

HERBAL VOCABULARY:

TONIC: a medicine that invigorates or strengthens; pertaining to, maintaining, increasing, or restoring the tone or health of the body or an organ, as a medicine.

ASTRINGENT: a substance that contracts the tissues or canals of the body, thereby diminishing discharges, as of mucus or blood.

EMETIC: causing vomiting

CANKER: a defined area of diseased tissue

SUCKER: swift-growing shoots which appear around the tree’s base

STEEP: to soak in water or other liquid, as to soften, cleanse, or extract some constituent

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by Lindsay Wolsey, MH

In January of 2004, the results were in. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) reports showed that the flu shot did not keep people from getting the flu. Basically, the reports showed that people who got the flu shot were just as likely as those who didn’t to develop flu-like symptoms. This following all of the hype that there wasn’t enough vaccine for everyone, and then the announcements that you can still get a vaccine, and there isn’t really a shortage. In October of 2004, when I began writing this newsletter, the hype over the flu shot was just beginning. Chiron Corporation, one of the major manufacturers of the flu shot, was unable to ship their vaccine, due to contamination by the Serratia bacterium. This meant that people could only get the vaccines made by Aventis Pasteur Pharmaceuticals.

So the news media has kicked into full gear, warning people that the nation is short 46 million flu shots. Healthy adults and school children are being told to forego the flu shot, to leave those shots available for those in high-risk groups. What are the high-risk groups? The elderly, children under 24 months, and health-care workers. My dad, who is a Type II diabetic, is apparently also in this group. As he is only 54, he insists he’s not in the elderly category.

One of the things I still don’t understand about this vaccine, is why there is such a promotion about getting the flu shot, when they play a guessing game as to which flu strain to put in the vaccine? Vaccine manufacturers start putting together the vaccines in February. So, for the 2004-2005 flu season, Chiron and Aventis started producing flu shots in February 2004. One of questions is how do you know which flu will be going around in November of 2004? The answer is, you don’t. So they guess. They put up to 3 different strains of flu into the vaccine, hoping that one of them will match up to the flu that hits. Sometimes they get it right, and sometimes they don’t.

One of the funniest things I read about the flu vaccine situation last year was “The CDC says flu vaccine will offer “some” immunity against the Fujian flu that’s going around this year. Some people are expected to get the flu even though they got vaccinated. But they won’t get as sick as those who didn’t get the vaccine.” Okay, prove it.

So I was feeling pretty good about this newsletter, until this morning when I read an article that said “the flu shot is plentiful.” After a little research, it looks like it is plentiful in Utah, and now anyone who wants a flu shot can get one. We’ve also only had 21 cases of the flu reported this season. I predicted to David (before I finished reading the article) that it would say that it’s been a relatively light flu season, and sure enough, that’s what article said. However, it appears that the country as a whole has only 61 million doses, out of the 100 million they were anticipating, and that 98 million people need the vaccine.

When this whole situation started, I thought it would be highly likely that the flu wouldn’t be a big deal this year. Of course, I knew that the news media and the CDC wouldn’t admit that people don’t really need the vaccine, but would make it out to be that we were lucky it was a light season. According to statistics, over 200,000 people each year are hospitalized with the flu, and over 36,000 people die from it. I just ran the numbers, and each state should have about 4,000 cases of the flu this season. So, if Utah has had only 21 cases halfway through the season, is it going to hit us in full force with the remaining 3,979 cases? Or is the lack of vaccine the reason the flu season is so light? Time will tell, because we’re only halfway through the season.

How Do I Know If It’s The Flu?It usually starts off with cold-like symptoms, such as a runny nose, and a non-productive cough. Then it moves into fever, particularly a high fever. Flu is characterized by severe headaches, muscle aches, and fatigue. The fever may last 3-5 days and the whole incident itself may last up to eight days.

So If I Don’t Get a Shot, What Do I Do?One news station in our area had some advice that I thought was better than the advice to get your flu shot-to avoid the flu, wash your hands. In fact, washing your hands is just good advice all around. I would also add boost your immune system. Take things like Garlic, Echinacea, or Cold Season Immune (one of my all-time favorite formulas). For children, use Kid-E-Mune. Avoid eating junky foods, which is hard during the holidays, with everyone bringing over plates of cookies all the time. Get enough rest, and stay warm.

Dr. Christopher had a case where a whole household of children came down with the flu. Their mother called Dr. Christopher in a panic. Dr. Christopher chuckled to himself, thinking that the panic was more due to the fact that there was only one bathroom, than the fact that all the children were sick. He told he to use red raspberry tea, and the sickness passed fairly quickly.

If you get the flu, use Red Raspberry tea to nourish and calm the stomach; slippery elm gruel (slippery elm and licorice mixed with water) to nourish and calm the stomach; fruit juices to stay hydrated; vegetables soups for hydration and nourishment; and be sure to keep the bowels clean. If you have to, Master Herbalist and School of Natural Healing Graduate Sandra Ellis recommends using a catnip enema. For children, add the Kid-E-Well formula. And stay at home if you’re sick. For one thing, you’ll get better faster. And for another, you don’t need to go passing your flu germs on to the rest of the neighborhood. If you do, your neighbors who got the flu shot will be upset, because they got the flu anyway.

Copyright © 2004 Christopher Publications. All rights reserved.

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