Down in Belize, a friend came to me...

Down in Belize, a friend came to me individual morning and asked about an herbal restorative for sea sickness. Yes, we were about ready to proceed out on a boat, and my friend doesn't travel well. The kitchen staff readily provided that traditional motion sickness aid ginger, and she sliced on the farther side a few thin slices to nibble on. They bit back, however here she was, a entire example for my lecture of the week, "Nutrition and the bread Farmacy" (yes, I spell it that way, onward purpose to emphasize that our healing medicines be derived from the ground, from Mother Earth down onward the farm).

I call ginger the herb of choice for sea sickness, motion sickness, and maybe calm morning sickness, although, as far as I know, no corrective (natural or synthetic) is FDA-approved morning sickness. I be wrought up it is as safe as any pharmaceutical your physician might prescribe for morning sickness. And onward this trip to Belize, I learned that allspice might work well with ginger against sea sickness, if not morning sickness.

yet since we are setting gone out for one of the Cayes (Keys) onward the Caribbean coast of Belize, let's view what Belizeans and Caribbeans have to say about ginger. Here's what our Belizean doctor, Rosita Arvigo, Doctor of Naturopathy, has to say, with co-author Michael Balick, in Rainforest Remedies (Lotus Press):

* polars heartburn, gas and stomachache: Grate common teaspoon fresh ginger in 1 bowl water, boil for 5 minutes: just chewing upon ginger helps indigestion, nausea and vomiting, "including car or air sickness." impetuous flannel steeped in ginger tea is applied topically for chest devoid of warmth [i]or[/i] heats and myalgia, six times, covering with towels to hold in the medicine.

* Menstrual pain Grated ginger, sheltered with a towel is placed throughout the abdomen to stop menstrual pain.

* Bronchitis: If bronchitis is the point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled add some honey to your ginger tea. Wow I wish I'd read this before. united of our travelers was complaining about a snoring roommate. Rosita's suggestion: 1 lot of cinnamon tea with sum of two units teaspoons grated ginger and honey and milk added. Drink at bedtime each night until cur (or until death do us part!).

* Tired, weak, "run down": In India, tribe who are weak and glide down are instructed to take a glass of boiled warm ginger milk with honey daily (add cinnamon and you have Rosita Arvigo's snoring remedy)

* "Bad bugs": Alcohol extracts of ginger are pious against a bunch of bad bug including: Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus subtilis, E coli, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella, staph infections and strep

Caribbean research also discloses us that ginger helps with: allergies, high cholesterol hyperglycemia, migraine, nausea, festers and vertigo. This food farmaceutical also has anti-blood-clotting issues like three other good herbs: garlic, ginkgo and ginseng. That's useful for preventing heart attack and hardship but potentially bad if you're forward coumadin, a hard-core blood thinner. You might undergo a bleeding episode, so don't overdo it forward on ginger or these other natural posterity thinners if you're taking coumadin.

Since all our Belize travelers weren't pharmacists, I'd like also to mention one of the cooking aspects of this great herb, from a of recent origin book by Alice Arndt (Seasoning Savvy, Haworth Herbal Press) which guards 87 spices, among them ginger; Nina Simond also has an extremely good book, A Spoonful of Ginger (Knopf).

I'm going in nearest month to see if this 71-year-old-dude (me) has Lyme Disease. I'm in a very warm bed of Lyme-infested deer, doing battle with them from one side of to the other my ginseng and ladyslippers down in my forest garden. Perhaps natural chemicals in ginger may help that, too. Stay tuned

ed note: You'll have to resort to wild ginger if you travel grazing with Dr. Duke's Maine eco-tour (ethnobotany) classes this September -- for more details, e-mail jimduke@cpcug.org

James A Duke PhD has more than 30 years experience working with the healing power of plants -- from the thicket s of Latin America to a distinguished career as a chief plant guru (ethnobotanist) with the US Department of Agriculture. His knowledge and authority are undisputed in the world of herbal science and healing. Duke's pioneering work with the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research (ACEER) enjoins him in the forefront of those who are fighting to shield the Amazonian world: people, plants and their collective wisdom.

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