Painkilling Food

Autumn in the Forest.

Now we are once again on our way to autumn and a lovely colour palette - a sunny day in October with the cool fresh air is healing and medicine for the soul. It's getting colder in the night hours and the house feels chilly, we begin to heat up our home - first a little and then a litte more. If we've got some physical weaknesses, they might tease our poor delicate bodies before winter comes. I've heard that we'll get a tough winter this year. They don't know for real, do they?
 
Here are a few natural "remedies", which might help you to ease your pain and strengthen your body, if you've got....


..... sore joints: try ginger and rosehip. Both are known for easing the osteoarthritis and other problems of the joints. There are substances in ginger which imitate aspirin, used in painkilling tablets. Rosehip is antibacterial and is fx used against rheumatoid arthritis.

..... migraine: try oily fish. The Omega-3 fatty acids in the fish help heart and blood vessels, so that the circulation functions in the best possible way. Oily fish also works anti-inflammatory = it diminishes inflammation, and according to research it eases pain in neck and shoulders.

 .....muscular pain:  try cherries. They contain substances which can block the muscular pain in the same way as some medicines. Studies of long distance runners show that they get less pain in the muscles, if they drink cherry juice before running.

.....stomach pain: try bananas (green are best) and cranberries. The bananas contain pectin, which forms a protective film around the stomach mucosa. The cranberry juice has shown that it is able to eradicate a part of the bacteria causing gastric ulcer.

.....headache: try coffee. Caffeine has an adstringent effect on the blood vessels, which have expanded,when our head hurts. But don't drink too much coffee, this might have the opposite effect!

 ..... bloated stomach : try yoghurt with live bacterial culture. The yoghurt keeps a balance in the intestinal bacterias and ease both stomach ache and the bloated feeling.




And now we can all go out enjoying the fresh October air..... 

 

Source September 2013: Ugebladet Søndag, News about your Health, Vivi Ahlström/ Marianne Arnvig, scientist professor Charlotte Erlanson-Albertsson. 


photo Moesgård forest: grethe bachmann

Elderberry Juice, Black Tea and Jasmin Oil.

Elderberry
Autumn is on its way, you cannot avoid it. The nights grow colder and the sun is losing some power. Stop your colds and your sneezing. Have some elderberry juice ready. If you'd like to be ahead, before it hits you then pluck a basket, full of the healthy black elderberries and make some juice. Take care it might give extra colour to your kitchen table.
If you cannot find elderberries in your  nearby forest, there is enough elderberry - like bottles with juice and soup in the frost disc - to get in the shops.

Scientific research has shown that elderberry juice can reduce fever, tiredness, headache and relieve sore throats. The elderberry juice is a vitaminbomb with a high content of C-vitamins and flavonoids. which promote the absorption of the vitamins. 

Black Tea
The green tea is the most emphasized tea, when it's about your health, but the black tea has also entered the field. The black tea contains some flavonoids, which Australian scientists have examined for their regulating effect on the blood pressure. The scientists selected a group of 112 women and men, who all had a high blood pressure. Half of the group had to drink three cups black tea daily, the other half had to drink three cups of a drink without flavonoids.

It showed already from the first day that the group, which drank black tea, had reduced their blood pressure. The experiment ran for six months, and the effect stayed all the way. The group, who did not get the black tea, had  unchanged blood pressure.

Source: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Jasmin Oil
If you suffer from anxiety, or if you have a constant feeling of uneasiness then try to get some etheric Jasmin oil. Just if to stick your nose down in a blooming jasmin makes you feel you'll have to take a deep breath and let the good feeling spread in your body.
The concentrated etheric oil from jasmin shows that it is able to compete with the most common anxiety medicines like barbiturates, benzodiazepines and propofol.

German scientists conclude in Journal of Biological Chemistry that there is scientific evidence to use the etheric oil of jasmin against anxiety, uneasiness and insomnia. A fragrance lamp and a bottle of the etheric jasmin oil can help you. Let the fragrance spread in your room and feel the tranquility!


Source: Magazine Søndag, Nyt om din sundhed, Søndags Sundhedspanel. 2013.
photo 2005/2012 : grethe bachmann nielsen

Rhinanthus - Rattle/ Skjaller

Rinanthus, Viborg 2009

Rhinanthus


Rhinanthus = Rattle/ Danish: Skjaller is a genus of annual hemiparasitic herbs. The genus consists of about 30-40 species found in Europe, northern Asia and North America, with the greatest species diversity (28 species) in Europe





Rhinanthus is seen everywhere in Denmark. The species is connected to ligth-open habitats with a neutral soil, it tolerates drought but the plant also cope well in moist meadows and it is often seen in dunes and meadows, beach meadows, pastures and heaths. There are only two species of wildgrowing Rinanthus in Denmark:
1)  Rhinanthus minor = Yellow Rattle or Cockscomb /Liden Skjaller and 2) Rhinanthus serotinus = Rattle/ Stor Skjaller. Both species have several sub-species.

The stems are square and without hairs, and the leaves are opposite. They are lancetshaped with a serrated edge. The flowers are in a cluster and the fruits are capsules with many seeds. The root system is rather tenous, it is a taproot with side roots which establish contact with suitable host plants (esp. grasses) which they such for water and minerals. The parasitisme of the Rinanthus species affect the surrpounding plant-society in a negative way. 


History. 
The fruit is a dry capsule, which contain loose, rattling seeds when ripe; the plant's name refers to these. Children had in the old days fun shaking the ripe plant as a rattle. The plant was also called rattle flower, but also money herb since the dry seeds sounded like paper money. The dry stems caused troube when the farmers were beating hay. The rattle and especially the subspecies rye Rattle (rugskjaller) might have been introduced with the rye cultivation and was in many districts a feared and troublesome weed. In  1688 a district in North Jutland had a rule in their city laws that the rattle and the corncockle (skjaller og klinte)  had to be hatched from the fields and be brought at home at once and burnt.

The rattle is in 1778-1850 mentioned as the worst weed in the western section of Jutland, and the farmers tried to fight it with hatching before blooming, the rye was also unsalable if it was contaminated with the seeds. The farmers expected a bad year for the hay if the rattle grew in numbers in the meadows. If the rattle was found en masse in the corn it removed the crop from the seed and made the bread almost black, the rye flour got a bluish colour and a sweet taste - and the bread was indigestible. But if rye was cultivated at the same place several years in a row the plant became almost extinct.

New Research. 
Research at the UK'sCentre for ecology and hydrology has shown that encouraging Yellow Rattle to grow in hay meadows greatly increases biodiversity by restricting grass growth and thereby allowing other species to thrive. The seeds are spread very effectively by traditional hay-making practices.

Ancient Harvesting Warnings
When the rattle was ripe the hay harvest started. When the seeds were ripe and the capsules dry the farmers could start beating the hay. This was also said upon the Faroe islands.

Folk Medicine.
The plant is mentioned as a means for the cattle's bloody urine.
The essence from the flowers or from the whole plant used as a drink or as a bath of wounds, pains in the joints and intestinal worms. 

At the Faroe islands: People used to put the plant into the nose to stop nose bleeding ( 1789).


Source: V.J. Brøndegaard, "folk og flora", Dansk Etnobotanik, bd. 4, 1979 
Danmarks flora/ wikipedia. 

photo Viborg 2009: grethe bachmann

Fish keeps the brain sharp ....

News about Health




New studies from USA have concluded that fish keeps the brain sharp. It is not news that fish keeps the brain sharp however, it is the way we prepare our fish, which makes the difference in relation to prevent dementia. If you eat baked or cooked fish at least once a week, you'll have a five times lesser risc of developing Alzheimer's demens - over a five year period. The test from USA has proved that persons who did eat baked or cooked fish at least once a week, had more grey mass in the regions of the brain, which are involved in memory and learning. The test persons who had fried fish, had in return seemingly no protection against the feared disease.






source: Nyt om sundhed; Søndags Sundhedspanel, Kvindemagasinet Søndag, 2012.

photo 11 March 2007: angler at Djursland's coast, grethe bachmann