Participants: Agatha Thrash (Host), Calvin Thrash, Don Miller, Rhonda Clark
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000239
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00:01 Hello! I grew up in rural South Georgia
00:05 about 33 miles from the nearest hospital because of our 00:09 distance away from good medical care, my parents became quite 00:10 proficient in home remedies. 00:16 Since I grew up with these I know their effectiveness 00:20 I know that in may instances they are the best remedy for 00:24 a certain disorder. 00:25 It won't work for all things but it does work for many 00:29 and where it is applicable, a home remedy is the best remedy 00:34 that we have for that disease. 00:35 We're going to be talking about Home Remedies, some of which 00:39 I think you will never have seen before, 00:41 so we hope you will join us and I know you will 00:43 enjoy the program. 01:05 Welcome to Help Yourself to Health 01:07 with Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute 01:10 and now here is your host Dr. Thrash. 01:16 In most homes you will find a lot of things that are very 01:22 applicable to home remedies. 01:25 Now every home that has water and a source of heat and a 01:32 source of cold and cloths and sometimes some kind of 01:39 irrigation equipment, any home that has these can be 01:43 sure that they know how that they have the equipment to do 01:47 the home remedies. 01:48 Now I have here a very simple home remedy, 01:52 this is a cough syrup, and notice this thick honey, 01:56 see how thick it is. 01:57 This honey is produced in South Georgia, 02:04 it's Gall Berry Honey and as you can see it is quite thick 02:08 but when you put that with some chopped onion, 02:11 just ordinary onion chopped notice how very thin the 02:17 honey gets, the reason for that after 12 hours or so 02:21 it has extracted all the benefits from the onion. 02:25 Now we have there the Quercitin, we have a lot of flavonoids and 02:29 a variety of antioxidants, some antimicrobial substances, 02:35 a lot of things that can be most beneficial for a cough. 02:40 and this is a cough medicine. 02:43 Let me show you what you would do from this point, 02:46 just take a strainer and pour the juice, the onion honey 02:55 pour that into a strainer and strain out the onion 03:01 and then you have the onion honey fluid, you can mash this 03:08 a bit to get it so that you have only the fluid in a cup and then 03:17 it can be stored in the refrigerator. 03:19 Simply store the nice honey water, now when a person has 03:25 a cough, whether it's dry or productive, this can be used 03:30 by the teaspoonful to quell the cough. 03:34 Not very long ago we had a patient who had a cough, 03:39 it was really terrible, and every time she coughed, 03:43 she would take a teaspoonful of this from the refrigerator 03:46 and simply swallow it. 03:48 In seconds her throat would feel better, she would have a 03:52 paroxysm of coughing and in just seconds she would be 03:58 free of cough and go sometimes for half an hour with 04:02 no coughing. 04:03 Then another paroxysm of coughing, just almost like 04:07 the whooping cough, take another teaspoonful, and it was 04:11 again quelled in just a matter of seconds. 04:15 Now a close relative of onion is Aloe, Aloe can grow in your 04:20 kitchen or in your living room, it's a beautiful plant. 04:24 You can have it if you live in very warm climates 04:27 you can have it living out of doors, and it has so many 04:31 uses, and I have asked Rhonda Clark who is one of our 04:35 co-workers at Uchee Pines to tell us some of the wonderful 04:40 unexpected uses of Aloe Vera. 04:43 - Oh! There are so many I really enjoyed researching a little bit 04:46 of the unexpected uses of Aloe Vera. 04:48 A typical bottle of Aloe Vera Gel that you can find at a 04:52 Health Food Store, even now in many pharmacies or 04:55 grocery stores has so many uses for she wouldn't believe. 04:58 Some of the ones that I knew of of course that it's wonderful 05:04 for burns, it's wonderful to put on poison ivy or insect bites 05:09 or other irritations of the skin, such as a scrape 05:13 or a small abrasion, but did you know that this also can be 05:17 used as a deodorant. 05:18 It can be used as a hair jel, or a hair conditioner, 05:22 and it even is a wonderful treatment for dandruff 05:25 if you just thickly apply Aloe Vera get to the scalp 05:28 allow it to set for 10 minutes and then shampoo the hair 05:32 as normal, it can help clear up dandruff. 05:35 - And you just sort of work it into the scalp. 05:37 - Work it in good, let it sit and then shampoo your hair 05:41 as normal. 05:42 - Well that sounds interesting. - Yes! You know it was said 05:44 that Cleopatra used as her secret for beautiful skin. 05:49 In Ancient Egypt they used Aloe's in the embalming process 05:54 not to help preserve anything, but just to help keep the 05:57 skin intact Aloe Vera Gel makes a wonderful face moisturizer 06:01 face cream and it has nice microbial killing property 06:08 that makes it useful for individuals with acne's, 06:10 psoriasis, other types of skin conditions that you want to 06:14 keep the skin very clear of bacteria. 06:16 - Do you have anything for wrinkles? 06:17 - No! cream against wrinkles unfortunately. 06:21 - Well I guess I'm proud of all my wrinkles, it indicates that 06:24 I have lived a long time and that's amazing in this age. 06:28 - Yeah, there were some things that surprised me when I was 06:31 doing this, I guess there are some individuals who suffer 06:34 with odor in the belly button of all places and Aloe Vera 06:39 is a wonderful remedy for that. 06:40 Using Aloe Vera gel twice a day in the belly button can help 06:44 reduce irritations or odor in the belly button 06:47 and some other kind of surprising things of Aloe Vera 06:50 that I thought were... 06:52 Oral care, this one really surprised me. 06:54 There is a growing body of evidence of the benefits of 06:57 Aloe Vera gel in many dental procedures. 06:59 It can be used to treat gingivitis or inflammation 07:03 of the gums and that can be either by gargling, rinsing, 07:07 swishing with an aloe Vera juice, or letting the gels sit 07:11 against the gums for a period of time. 07:13 There is even now toothpaste made with Aloe Vera that can 07:16 be useful in fighting against gingivitis, when a tooth has 07:20 been extracted, Aloe Vera can help prevent infection 07:23 in that socket of the extracted tooth it could be... 07:26 - A nice way to put it against the gum is to take a small 07:34 segment of one of the blades of the Aloe, remove the cortex 07:43 the little bark of it from one side and make sure there are 07:47 no thorns projecting from it and then lay that right against 07:52 the gum and then in a few minutes it becomes quite nicely 07:56 soft and molds to the side of the jaw and that makes a 08:02 very nice anti-microbial remedy for a gum boil 08:07 or an abscess tooth. 08:09 - Yeah! -Well I appreciate the opportunity to come and share 08:13 some of these unusual uses of Aloe Vera gel. 08:15 - Well thank you so much, I enjoyed these and I would 08:18 like to try the one with the Aloe Vera shampoo. 08:21 - Yes! - Thank you! 08:23 Now I would like to show you another remedy and this remedy 08:28 is a heating pad, it's a very simple one, you could just buy 08:34 these from a pharmacy or a department store, 08:36 and they should be in every home having electricity. 08:41 If you don't have electricity all is not lost, you can simply 08:45 take a bottle of the appropriate size, fill it with hot water, 08:49 wrap it with a towel and it can be applied in the same way 08:54 to the chest, to the abdomen, to the back, to a knee, 08:57 a foot, and any place where there is pain or discomfort 09:02 it can be nicely used to great advantage it has both immediate 09:07 benefits in pain relief, and it also has long term benefits 09:12 in healing. 09:14 Now I suppose my very favorite remedy is charcoal 09:18 and I have asked Cal Thrash to join me for this 09:22 next demonstration which will be of charcoal remedies. 09:26 - Yes! 09:27 - Cal you have a number of things here I see, 09:30 and I know that you are very familiar with charcoal, 09:34 - Oh yes! - Because you grew up with it. 09:35 - I certainly did, in fact I have some experiences that I 09:38 would like to tell today to our viewers as well. 09:41 Charcoal is an absolutely amazing substance, but it 09:44 doesn't look like a whole lot when we look at it, it's just a 09:47 powder and it's what you expect a black substance, 09:50 and of course what we use is powdered activated charcoal. 09:54 It is quite useful for many external applications and some 09:58 internal ones as well. - Now you said it was activated 09:59 tell us what that means. 10:03 - Activation is a process that charcoal goes through when it 10:07 still in the kiln the steam is injected into the environment 10:14 under pressure and at just the right temperature and the right 10:16 pressure, it actually blows open more holes little surface 10:20 area in the charcoal. - And these little surface areas 10:23 are for what purpose? 10:24 - Well that's to attract poisons to it, 10:28 now I have a graphic that perhaps 10:30 we could show at this time that has actually a picture 10:34 that the tunneling electronic microscope took of charcoal 10:38 surface, and you can see the surface of the carbon there 10:41 under extreme magnification of course, and see the features 10:46 that charcoal has too. 10:47 - It has little ridges and holes and valleys. 10:50 - Right! - I guess the toxins go in all 10:53 of those little valleys and into those holes and are held there. 10:58 - That's part of the beauty of charcoal actually, in fact 11:02 one of the uses of charcoal is to take up and draw poisons 11:07 of all types, drugs fit into that category as well 11:11 so they can be taken up, but toxins and... 11:14 - Toxins from germs. - That's true and in fact 11:16 even bacteria themselves can be actually taken up by charcoal 11:22 some people think though that once the charcoal has actually 11:25 soaked up, if you want to call it these toxins and poisons, 11:28 that it could be squeezed back out again. 11:30 But that is not really what happens with charcoal. 11:33 charcoal works through the process of what we call 11:36 adsorption, you notice I said adsorption and not absorption, 11:40 which is different, it's actually the attachment of 11:43 the toxin to the surface of the carbon itself. 11:47 - So it comes into the charcoal by method of traction. 11:53 - That's correct! - Rather than just being 11:55 absorbed where it's just like a sponge it flows into it. 11:59 - That's right, now the process of taking the poison back out 12:03 of the charcoal is considerably more difficult and usually not 12:07 compatible with life, although it's true that under certain 12:10 circumstances some of the toxins could come out 12:12 but those are very unusual circumstances. 12:15 For instance if a person has been given a drug like Morphine 12:18 or something that actually stops the bowel itself 12:22 and a person may have trouble actually eliminating that 12:24 charcoal and it could cause problems. 12:26 Most people don't have that kind of a problem 12:28 and if they are generally healthy then they won't have 12:31 a problem with eliminating the charcoal and the toxin 12:35 that it took up. 12:36 - Now you look as if you are going to make a 12:39 charcoal compress. 12:40 - Actually I'm going to show some of the uses for external 12:43 uses of charcoal, and I have some of the sizes, 12:47 I will show you some of the sizes of charcoal that we 12:49 actually carry at our book store at Uchee Pines, 12:53 and we bottle this up ourselves. 12:54 Now this one is the largest size we have, that is 21/2 lbs. 12:58 size and it's the easiest probably to use under most 13:02 circumstances for external uses where you need a lot of powder. 13:06 - Such as a brown recluse spider bite. 13:10 - That's correct. 13:11 - It takes up that toxin right through the skin. 13:13 - And we'll be talking about some of those uses too 13:16 as we go along here, I won't be able to show you probably 13:19 that one because that would be quite an intense usage 13:23 of charcoal, but this smaller size is probably the most 13:27 common size, that's the quart size charcoal, and we have 13:30 that as well. 13:32 These are powders and it's powdered activated charcoal, 13:35 and then we have smaller sizes, this one is a tablet and a 13:41 capsule vege-caps, both of which we have at our store 13:46 there at Uchee Pines, and we bottle all of those together. 13:52 - Now would you use charcoal capsules for it's external use 13:57 say making a compress? 13:59 - You could of course, but it is considerably more expensive 14:02 to do it that way. 14:04 Probably the best way to use charcoal the most effectively 14:08 way, the most cost effective way is to use it as the powder, 14:12 you can use it both internally and externally in powder form. 14:15 - So if you are traveling you certainly want to take the 14:16 powder. - You probably want to take some 14:18 along, now I think it's entirely possible that you'd want to have 14:22 capsules and tabs when you go traveling and in my experience 14:27 actually it seems like the most common thing that happens 14:31 to you when you are traveling is some kind of 14:33 gastrointestinal distress. 14:35 - Yes! What can be called Montezuma's Revenge if you 14:39 are going south of the border. 14:41 - Now I have to say that charcoal is very effective 14:43 with these types of gastrointestinal problems, 14:47 and I wouldn't travel without it, it's... 14:50 - Yes, I never travel without it, 14:51 it will save your trip sometimes. 14:53 - Absolutely! Now what I would like to demonstrate today is a 14:57 poultice and for that I would like to ask Arianna Hartsfield 15:00 if she would come and we will show you actually the external 15:04 uses here in kind of a small way because obviously it would be 15:11 very difficult to work with charcoal in a large way 15:14 here at this set. 15:15 I want to show you exactly what I mean by that 15:18 when I add the water to the charcoal you can immediately 15:23 see that charcoal will begin to powder out and it's very 15:30 light, now people have... - Now see this little dust 15:33 coming up there. - And you don't want to stir 15:36 very rapidly, now people have told me that they have tried to 15:40 mix charcoal in various ways they have stirred it very 15:43 quickly and tried to get it mixed up quickly, 15:46 but this is not a quick process at all, you want to really 15:49 take your time when you are adding the water and mixing 15:52 the charcoal. 15:53 One person they told me they had a neat experience 15:55 they put this into the blender and put some water in there 15:59 and turned it on and even after they opened up the top 16:02 it was pretty much everywhere all over the kitchen, 16:05 and so it's something that you want to go very carefully and 16:09 very slowly with, and the mixing process can take a little bit 16:14 of time so don't rush this process at all. 16:17 But I have mixed some up already for you and you can see from 16:21 this little container here about the consistency that I've 16:25 mixed it up, is the consistency of soft melted ice cream here. 16:30 And it does taste wonderful just like that ice cream would 16:34 but this is probably just a little bit thick for the average 16:39 poultice it's not to bad, but you certainly don't want to 16:42 scrimp to much on the water when you are using it because 16:45 you do want it to go ahead and soak through the material 16:48 that you are going to put it on and of course this today 16:51 we are going to use a paper towel which is very easy 16:55 to use for the poultice, so we are just going to spoon this 16:59 on to the paper towel material itself and it will begin to come 17:04 through the paper towel as you spoon it on 17:06 and of course you can make it fairly large whatever the sizes 17:10 that you need to be able to take up the surface of the 17:13 problem that you have and we'll just assume that 17:16 Arianna has a bug bite that she is having some 17:21 little bit of inflammation, maybe a little bit of infection 17:25 there. - There it is right there. 17:26 and you want to try to take all of this up with the charcoal 17:29 so we are going to put that right on to the surface of 17:32 the area and cover it well, so that you make sure you have 17:35 plenty of area covered with the charcoal. 17:38 Don't scrimp in this area, this is not where you want to 17:41 scrimp at all, you want to make sure you cover plenty of 17:44 area with that charcoal poultice, then we take some 17:47 plastic wrap, the regular good stretchy kind is good, 17:51 and we can cover our charcoal poultice with our stretch wrap 17:57 and of course this is probably way to much for the 18:01 average poultice, but it's to show you exactly what 18:05 you would want to do. 18:06 You probably could use less, just enough to cover the 18:10 charcoal poultice itself, and you can take some tape... 18:13 The best thing actually is to take some paper tape 18:17 the kind of surgical tape that you find and actually 18:20 tape the edges around like this, and of course that keeps 18:25 the charcoal from coming out the side and it makes it so that 18:30 the person can wear this for quite some time, 18:33 maybe several hours without having any problem at all 18:35 with the charcoal leaking out around the edge. 18:38 - Maybe even wear it over night. 18:40 - It certainly can be worn over night. 18:42 - Or a couple of days if necessary. 18:43 - But depending on what it is this poultice could be used for 18:49 an hour or two, or up to twelve or so hours, 18:54 but you wouldn't want to keep it on for to terribly long 18:57 because it could begin to cause a little bit of a problem 19:01 being wet there, once the charcoal has pretty much all the 19:05 surface area has been used then it's taken up whatever 19:09 it needs to, you need to go ahead and take that one off 19:11 and if the problem still exists then you want to do that 19:15 all over again, start with another charcoal poultice 19:18 and continue to do it. 19:19 Now we talked about Brown Recluse spider bites, 19:21 Brown Recluse spider bites are quite a problem in that they can 19:26 actually cause a necrosis or death of the tissue all the way 19:31 down to the bone in a cone shaped area, and there is no 19:34 real effective way to treat Brown Recluse spider bites 19:38 except for using charcoal. 19:40 They use steroids and just excision of the tissue 19:43 and so forth, but it can cause a real problem and continue 19:46 to cause problems on through until the person gets 19:51 skin grafts which sometimes will take and sometimes because 19:53 of the inflammation that is involved in this they can 19:56 slough off and cause a problem and be a real tough issue 20:00 in fact it can even cause amputation of certain limbs 20:04 because of the Brown Recluse bite. 20:06 This treatment that we've just shown you of course 20:09 considerably bigger area that you would want to make your 20:12 charcoal poultice, and you can use a cotton piece of sheet 20:16 or something that you could put it on rather than a 20:19 paper towel, if you would like to use it over it's something 20:22 that you can do, but certainly with a Brown Recluse bite 20:25 you want to change that poultice probably once every couple 20:29 of hours at the very most, maybe even more often than that, 20:32 to give the opportunity to take up as much of this poison 20:36 as possible and take it away so that it is not something 20:40 that the body has to deal with and the body can focus on 20:44 healing the Brown Recluse bite rather than... 20:46 - I remember a patient that you had one time who had a 20:50 Brown Recluse spider bite on the leg and it was a week 20:56 or so before the patient came for the poultice and yet it was 21:04 healed but it took quite awhile, it took what was it 21:07 5 or 6 weeks? - It took well over a month 21:10 in fact it was more like about 3 months that the person was 21:14 dealing with this problem. 21:15 So the faster that you can actually get the poultice 21:18 the charcoal to the site of the bite, the better, 21:22 and that of course includes bee stings or anything else 21:24 that a person is having any kind of reaction to. 21:26 - Very good, how about a snake bite, would you use it for 21:29 a snake bite? 21:30 I wouldn't hesitate to use it for a snake bite, 21:32 I have never had the opportunity to actually 21:34 do that and so, I'm not really certain the procedure other than 21:38 just simply using as much charcoal as is possible, 21:42 I think I would also use it internally as well as externally 21:45 in that type of instance. 21:46 - Yes, I'm sure I would too but I still think that the 21:50 anti-venom might be the good route to go, 21:53 maybe using both the charcoal for the first aid and 21:56 the anti-venom at a later time. 21:59 - That's correct, now we have one other graphic that we want 22:01 to show you and that's a picture of a young fellow that is in a 22:05 bathtub that has charcoal in it. 22:08 Now what was happening here was the individual involved 22:12 had the chicken pox and you just draw a bath full of water 22:16 and put some charcoal in it and you don't have to necessarily 22:20 put a certain amount, but a cup or two in the bath, 22:25 it helps to bring about the relief from the itching, 22:28 and the little boy there was saying, "it doesn't itch 22:30 any more" after only a minute of being in the charcoal bath. 22:33 - It certainly looks messy. - It is quite messy, and it's 22:36 not something that you would want to do every single day, 22:38 but I can tell you this that if a person did have a 22:41 snake bite or something that was a serious problem, 22:44 I certainly wouldn't hesitate to put their whole affected area 22:48 if it was their arm or leg, most of these snake bites are 22:50 around the leg area where the snake has actually gotten 22:53 the person as they walk along. 22:54 I wouldn't hesitate to put that whole limb right into 22:58 a bucket or even put them in the bath tub full of charcoal 23:01 because that certainly would give the opportunity 23:04 for as much skin area as possible to take that toxin 23:07 right out of the body. 23:08 - Now I know of three instances where really serious snake bites 23:12 have been treated with charcoal in field situations 23:15 and so I wouldn't hesitate to do it, and to rely on it 23:19 in a field situation. But if I had the anti-venom 23:23 I think I would probably not have the courage to just use 23:27 the charcoal alone. 23:28 - I'm not sure I would either but certainly it has been 23:30 used effectively in stories that I've heard, especially with 23:34 animals where an animal was treated that way and 23:36 seemed to be just fine the next day so I'm not sure 23:40 that it's not effective but like you I'm not certain that I 23:43 would rely only on that one. 23:46 - Well thank you so much I appreciate this very nice 23:49 discussion of charcoal. 23:53 Now there are so many other remedies that you can use 23:57 and maybe I will ask Dr. Don Miller to come next 24:03 and show you some remedies and what have you here Dr. Miller? 24:09 You always have nice things that you talk about. 24:13 - Well, I travel around a lot but you know I was just thinking 24:15 as I was listening to Rhonda and Cal's presentation 24:18 Cleopatra used Aloe Vera for her youth and she needed 24:21 some of Cal's charcoal for her Asp bite there at the end. 24:25 - Oh! That's right, history would have been changed. 24:29 - Maybe! You know I travel a lot and here are some 24:34 charcoal tablets I bought in Ukraine. 24:36 - Oh yes! Ok I feel them in there. 24:39 - Where ever you go, it's amazing how other countries 24:42 have a lot more of the simple remedies and charcoal is very 24:46 easy to find, especially in Eastern Europe and 24:49 other countries, but what I wanted to show you was 24:53 my little travel kit, I basically have a mind towards 24:56 travel because when we travel we have to have it, 24:58 and that's why these come in so handy it's hard to mix a 25:01 charcoal poultice or a charcoal slurry when you are 25:04 36,000 feet and making a mess all over the place. 25:07 So a few tablets in the mouth chewed up, and you have to, 25:10 I like to chew them up because the more you break them down 25:14 the more they get to work. 25:15 - And then if you got anything in the mouth it helps with that. 25:18 - Absolutely! - Bad breath to gum boils. 25:21 - May sort of freak the stewardess out when she sees 25:23 all the black in your teeth. - It's also for a sore throat. 25:26 - It's good for whitening the teeth if you can get it off the 25:28 teeth, which you do with a toothbrush. 25:29 My goal when I travel is not to get sick in the first place 25:36 and charcoal is great to sit there and take care of that, 25:38 Montezuma's Revenge, but why not try to prevent Montezuma's 25:42 Revenge in the very first place. 25:43 Having been in the Marine Corp for 14 years maybe Montezuma's 25:47 a little bit more aiming at me, so I carry little things called 25:50 Wet Ones, there are various different types, this is a 25:53 Wet One. - One of the best ways to avoid 25:55 a cold, keep your hands clean. 25:57 You touch your eyes, and your nose, and your mouth you 26:00 won't be transferring germs. 26:02 - These are some I bought in Ukraine although they are 26:05 in English, but I bought those in Ukraine. 26:08 I use this for many many different things, if you are 26:11 traveling and you are in a situation where you use the 26:14 toilet and maybe the toilet paper is not adequate or 26:18 whatever else, these are very nice, very soothing, 26:21 cleaning your hands after anything that you do. 26:24 Before you eat, sometimes I even wipe my food down with it 26:27 you may catch a little bit of what is on the cloth but 26:30 I would rather have a little bit of that chemical 26:32 than whatever that virus or bacteria or whatever else 26:36 might kill me. 26:37 I carry, these are very nice I took a bunch of these one time 26:44 down to Africa for my students and I kept one set for myself 26:47 this is a pair of tweezers with a magnifying glass attached 26:51 to it for when you get those splinters or other things that 26:56 might be giving you problems that way you don't have to try 26:59 to hold a magnifying glass, you just got it all right there 27:03 and you can pick out your splinter or thorn or 27:08 whatever else it might be, very nice with the magnifying glass 27:14 and so I like to carry a piece of equipment like that. 27:17 When I'm traveling you know we talk about the laws of health 27:20 how important sleep is and sometimes it's hard to get 27:23 a good night's rest, or a good flight rest and so I like 27:27 to carry with me some earplugs, keep them around my neck 27:32 they are always there, I like this type because if one falls 27:35 out it's not going to fall on the floor and I can't find it 27:37 and so these are very nice mosquito protectors to you 27:40 can't hear the little fellow. 27:42 - Very good! Well thank you Dr. Miller I appreciate your 27:45 showing us your kit, and with these simple things 27:49 we hope that you will live much more successfully 27:52 in this diseased world. |
Revised 2014-12-17