by Ron Foster
Tanacetum parthenium may reduce break down or conversion of drugs in the liver. Examples include omeprazole (Prilosec), lansoprazole (Prevacid), amiodarone (Cordarone), lovastatin (Mevacor), ketoconazole (Nizoral), and itraconazole (Sporanox). Check with your doctor before using this herbal product.
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11
Band-Aids And Boo Boos
"Zack, didn’t you say to me this little roll on Tick and bug bite juice I bought off you could be used for snake bite also? I am trying to understand this concept so bear with me. How much do you have to use since I doubt that I will ever have on me a full bottle because I seem to always have some boo on me I tend to dab a drop on here and there regularly.” Sloan said holding up the multi colored bottle to the light to try to see how much he had left.
“Ah Hell, man, you are trying to get me to get all scientific about something that there is no specific answer to. I told you it would help with a snake bite; I didn’t say I guaranteed you recover or get you thinking it was some miraculous cure for them venomous creatures.” Zack responded, not liking to get pinned down on something that was so variable to every person’s health, weight, size, type and size of snake, etc.
“Oh, I ain’t trying to get you to commit to something or say anything you don’t want to, don’t get me wrong. I don’t want you telling me anything you don’t believe in or you don’t want to say anything about if you are unsure about it. My question is how much do you think I would need just to scrape by with, if I can say it like that.” Sloan said a bit apologetically.
“I am sorry, buddy, that I was a bit snippy with answering you the way I did, but if you want the short answer, its whatever liquid that you got left in that little bottle is what you need along with a whole bunch of common sense! I ain’t trying to be a smart ass or anything, but whatever you can use as the most potent antimicrobial, antibiotic thing you have available is what you use on it first, as I have told everyone many times in the past. First thing you want to do is reduce your chances of infection. Triple antibiotic, Iodine, whatever, if it’s all you got, use it. However, like most of us you ain’t going to have your first aid kit with you, so rather than scrambling around hunting some plantain plants in a panic to do something about being bit, just use your fingernail or your knife to carefully remove that roller ball and dump a little colloidal silver and herbs into the wounds. That is some powerful antiseptic shit you got sitting in your breast pocket at all times as you know already and it is far better than anything you got for the job back at camp most likely. Keep in mind too you got that with you and not however close or however many miles away that first aid kit at home is. Stop that inevitable necrotic infection from this unfortunate encounter the best you can and do it as soon as you can. At the moment, we worry about that bacteria rich bite going septic in your blood stream before we start sweating the possible venom poison. Most bites about 75% of the time are dry bites; snakes have for themselves a conscientious control over how much venom they release or pump into you. That’s why small immature snake bites tend to be worse than big ones because the small ones lack some control and release all they got at times if really scared, etc.” Zack said appraising Sloan’s reaction.
“Ok, I got that kill the infection first part, but didn’t you say you got some botanicals in there to help break down or dilute that poison some too, don’t you? I guess that’s more what I am asking about, how much of that liquid in the bottle do I need to do me some good? I guess you could say what’s the dosage but I know that’s variable.” Sloan said.
“Well, believe it or not I thought of that same question, buddy, when Ann and I were making the stuff up. It’s not like I was packaging ampules of snake antivenom or anything. No, this stuff is multipurpose and made to be kept on you and used so if it was me and I still had ¾ of a bottle left I will tell you what I would do. First get a safe distance from the snake, then I would look at the fang marks and see if I spotted any yellow or otherwise oily venom around the holes. Might be some tiny bit of residual whether or not the snake released a full dose or not and I don’t want that residue seeping in the puncture wounds and making things worse. Then if I had me a hanky or bandanna or something, I would dab it off so the hospital could use it to identify the snake later if need be and there was one close by to get to. Then I would pour a reasonable amount of the contents of my bottle on and into the wound. Now’s the tricky part: how far is help? I kind of need to estimate that for my next actions of drinking some of the solution. If I am miles in the backcountry and help is a long way away, I would sip me about a quarter of what I had left. If you had ¾ of a bottle to start, use about ¼ on the wound depending on bleeding etc., then just say half of what I had left. The remaining quarter is messed up to think about. If I had a buddy with me, I would have his or her ass hunting me some plantain or prickly pear to make a poultice for the bite and avoiding snakes. If I was alone, I got other worries. I know I am going to need more anti-infection medicine eventually just for the bite itself and I am left with only a bunch of drops in my bottle, but I would be thinking I got me a hard row to hoe ahead of me both internally and externally and opt to go the homeopathic micro dose route with what I had left to try to effect a cure and dump what’s left in the bottle in my canteen and sip as needed every half hour or hour or so over the coming hours. It is much less medicine for the body, but it is putting its helpful bits of pain relievers and blood purifiers on the front line along with infection fighters and liver antitoxin effects like employing reserves in a battle. I can find other woods medicine growing along the way back home when I decide it’s safe for me to attempt travel or maybe I got something stashed in my backpack at camp.
“What all is in there to help with the snake poison, Zack? I already know about the silver water and heal all and such for helping on the infection and Echinacea to help on immunity.” Sloan said.
“Well, you have Echinacea in there also because it’s a time honored traditional historic response to snakebite. It is thought to denature venom and help detoxify the system; I got Chinese Gold Coin Grass because it’s a traditional Asian response to snake bite and a lot of other stuff that’s working hand in hand to help but we don’t have time to get into that. I just wish everyone would learn simple plantain in the meantime.” Zack said.
Broadleaf plantain, the backyard Band-Aid
Plantain has been used as a panacea in some Native American cultures and with some very good reasons. Many of its active constituents show antibacterial and antimicrobial properties, as well as being anti-inflammatory and antitoxic. The leaves, shredded or chewed, are a traditional treatment for insect and animal bites and the antibacterial action helps prevent infection and the anti-inflammatory helps to relieve pain, burning, and itching. There is some investigations ongoing to study its effects on lowering blood sugar.
Being used as a panacea (medicinal for everything) in some cultures, one American Indian name for the plant translates to “life medicine.” And recent research indicates that this name may not be far from true! The chemical analysis of Plantago Major reveals the remarkable glycoside Aucubin. Acubin has been reported in the Journal Of Toxicology as a powerful anti-toxin.
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12
A State Of Mind
Zack and Ann sat on the front porch of the old mansion listening to the cicadas and seeing the fire flies starting to blink on and off.
“Time to move in, the mosquitos are starting up.” Zack said, rubbing an itchy bite on his arm.
“You need to fix that screen on the back-sleeping porch. Maybe you can pull some of the screens off the windows on Parkers bedroom since that’s all the screening we have.” Ann advised.
“That’s sounds like a plan but I would just as soon find a screen door on an abandoned house or something.” Zack said, wondering if it was advisable to broach the subject of him maybe getting into their precious stash of alcohol for a drink or two that sure sounded nice right now.
“You have been saying that
for a while and as hot as it’s been, I had a mind we should think about sleeping on it now that we got the house mostly to ourselves.” Ann said chiding him mildly.
“it sort of slips my mind when I am out and about to remember. Who knew screening material would be so hard to get these days? Everybody, if they got any sense these days, is in early mornings and before dusk avoiding those dang super mosquitoes or whatever you want to call them blood sucking new disease carrying critters. Thankfully, I got so much wood smoke in my clothes they tend to leave me alone and that herbal bug be gone stuff you made up the other day seems to work a lot of the time, but those suckers are voracious this time of the year. Freaks me out too when I see some kind of weird looking mosquito, makes me wonder if there wasn’t some kind of biowarfare going on, besides all the contagious people getting bitten and spreading diseases. The CDC has been warning about mosquitos in the emergency broadcast reports, but nothing much more is said than increased threat levels of acquiring diseases. You notice more people are wearing long sleeves these days? About time somebody listened to an emergency announcement. At least most folks listened to that boil water announcement at the beginning of this shit or a whole lot more people would be dead or sick now.” Zack said.
“Yea, I noticed that.” Ann said warningly about her and Zacks continuous little arguments over her wearing shorts and such because Zack recommended pants or at least looser fitting clothes. Ann figured it was too hot to wear pants and long sleeves and Zack reminded her farmers did it for years and look at all the clothes the Arabs wore. Ann retorted the Brits and Aussies had tropical uniforms with shorts but Zack ended that discussion reminding her they wore wool-cotton blend knee socks and just the thought of those in an Alabama summer made them both cringe.
Zack and Ezra had a talk the other day at the dispensary with Rod about what they thought might have been in those malarial pills they made soldiers take daily during the Vietnam War, but neither knew. Ms. Betts came in the store about then and said that her and her late husband used to take malaria pills when they traveled certain places abroad in the world and might still have some at home. Zack and the others puzzled over the labels of a few half-used bottles and doxycycline was the only ingredient Zack recognized as an antimalarial.
He didn’t know of any antimalarial herbal things to take daily to prevent anyone acquiring malaria in all its various forms, just a few old-time remedies and his theoretical applications of herbal lore for certain plant substitutes, if what he wanted couldn’t be found.
Rod had scored the master coup of apocalyptic scrounging for barter trading early on in the disaster. He was real smart about it and had a good stash by swapping bullion silver to a little pet store owner he knew for a bunch of fish medicines and such. He had doxycycline from that haul and it was still within its 6-yr. expiration date but it was reserved for hardcore emergencies and not much of it was to be had. Ezra’s Emporium, or just the plain Clinic, as Rachel and Donna called it, had managed to finagle a small amount of veterinary meds off Rod in a tough trade, but it was in their inventory, if needed.
What helped in that little negotiation was when Dee brought up the fact Zack’s Trail Master blend, in her opinion, was more useful to have around these days because it was more broad spectrum and when you didn’t know what disease you were dealing with most of the time, that mixture would be her go to choice for relief if she had to decide on taking something. A good antibiotic like doxycycline was great for some things to get rid of an infection, but it didn’t have the physical body symptom alleviators or versatility of Woods Walker or Trail Master. You couldn’t dab a bit of that powerful antibiotic on a tick bite or poultice a skin condition with the pharmaceutical med and it didn’t help with the toxins of snakebite etc. like Zack’s formulas.
It seems Zombies walking dead-like symptoms could be real these days and there were some very strange and terrifying things going on with some sick folks. Blinding headaches, confusion, various psychosis etc. had been noted. Zack suspected it might be encephalitis from a variety of conditions and when he heard several horses had inexplicably died in the local area, he guessed it might be EEE in the area.
Eastern equine encephalitis, commonly called Triple E or sleeping sickness, is a zoonotic alphavirus and arbovirus present in North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean. EEE was first recognized in Massachusetts, United States, in 1831, when 75 horses died mysteriously of viral encephalitis. EEE virus is a rare cause of brain infections (encephalitis). Only a few cases are reported in the United States each year. Approximately 30% of people with EEE die and many survivors have ongoing neurologic problems. No human vaccine against EEEV infection or specific antiviral treatments for clinical EEEV infections is available.
Encephalitis is an acute inflammation of the brain. The majority of cases are caused by either a viral infection or the immune system mistakenly attacking brain tissue. In medicine, "acute" means it comes on abruptly and develops rapidly; it usually requires urgent care. Only a handful of antiviral medications can help treat encephalitis.
When Zack had crafted and devised his Wood Walker and Trail Master formulas, which he had agonized over for a month, all the while studying and cross checking stacks of Latin laden scientific wordy studies of Chinese Gold Coin Grass to backup or confirm his concerns of his particular choice of a botanical key ingredient, was the best, safest and most effective match for the elixir he wanted to develop as a prepper woods medicine or pandemic panacea.
Not only must it do several duties in a grid down plaque-ridden apocalyptic world, it also had to enhance and add vigor to the other herbs in the mix. It’s not easy to come up with everything you want in an herbal formula, particularly when one is very good for something or the other but has side affects you don’t want, or it interacts with other things in combination peculiarly. A lot of known antivenin-like herbs are also emetic or purgatives and while you would take that for snake bite in an emergency, you wouldn’t want it in you for the flu at all if you were already throwing up. With the flu, you would be puking and having diarrhea enough and needed no help doing it more as a known possible side effect.
This wonderful botanical Gold Coin Herb has a tradition of being used for snakebite although it is used these days mostly for liver complaints or kidney stones etc. It even has a unique property of relaxing the opening muscles in your urethra to allow stones to pass more easily. Because it’s a detoxifier of the liver, Zack had thought this was advantageous because often times malaria can also go through a liver phase where it lays dormant for a long time or can reoccur after a bout with malaria.
When the malaria-causing Plasmodium parasite first slips into the human bloodstream, injected by the bite of an infected mosquito, it does not immediately target red blood cells.
Instead, it seeks refuge inside the liver and rapidly reproduces, copying itself as many as 30,000 times in the span of 48 hours.
After building strength in numbers, the parasite leaves the liver and escapes into the blood stream, invading red blood cells and triggering the devastating disease.
The battle against malaria usually focuses on either helping people evade infected mosquitoes or developing strategies to kill the parasite after it raids red blood cells. But Zack wanted to also try to take a different tactic -- disrupting the parasite while it lurks inside the liver.
Now the whole basis of making his woods medicine was it had to be good for snakebite and removing poisons from the liver is a key property of this plant and it had to be mild on the body, with no, or very mild, side effects.
The malaria parasite finds a way to manipulate the host's liver cells to make it favorable for this replication event I mentioned before to occur, often times this happens in 7-14 days. Currently, we do have medicines for treating malaria in the blood but we don't have good medicines for treating it in the liver.
This fact suggested to Zack that maybe he could develop a botanical formula to try to target the host to prevent malaria. “The liver
stage is a checkpoint, a bottleneck, where it goes from a few dozen parasites to many thousands of parasites, which are released from the liver into the blood where it is amplified into hundreds of billions of parasites." If we could put out the forest fire when it is the smallest possible little campfire, would be a potential therapeutic breakthrough, in his reasoning. The entire antitoxin liver rejuvenation, reduction of swelling, fevers and building up the immunity for a snake bite medicine made this herb along with the other protective liver enzymatic regulators and antiparasitic botanicals Like Pau D’ Arco, in his opinion, a likely coming and going defense along with an eradication method!