Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Storax and Playing Mandolin

[00:00:00] Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. I hope you're having a great January. Loving this bleak cold weather, I know I am.

[00:00:10] Well, it's a good time to get some writing and wood carving going. And it's a good time to get new projects started inside.

[00:00:16] And that brings me to a little bit of an announcement this week. As many of you know, I am a musician.

[00:00:23] I've played music for well over 30 years. I play about a dozen instruments or so.

[00:00:30] Guitar is my main instrument, but I'm also a pretty darn good mandolin player.

[00:00:37] And I decided to start offering free mandolin lessons online.

[00:00:43] I have some issues with the way mandolin is taught these days. You know, I'll get into all that.

[00:00:49] I don't think you really learn to play an instrument just by copying other people's solos.

[00:00:56] That's basically what it comes down to. That's, you know, mandolin used to be an instrument that was played in many different genres of music.

[00:01:03] From Celtic to classical. I mean, it was really popular in popular music around 1900.

[00:01:08] Actually, the first jazz recording of all time was actually not recorded by the original Dixieland Jazz Band in 19, what, 17, I think, as people usually say.

[00:01:19] It was actually recorded about two years earlier by an all black band called Cairo's Club Kuhn Orchestra, believe it or not.

[00:01:29] That's probably why it's kind of been erased from history.

[00:01:32] The Ken Burns types get all upset when you call early jazz Dixieland jazz, right?

[00:01:38] And they're like, oh, that's, you know, the original Dixieland band, the first record was an all white band and it's racist for you to call it Dixieland music.

[00:01:47] I think that is insane. I mean, Dixie's a term for the South. The music was made equally by black, white and especially Creole musicians.

[00:01:57] In fact, most of the early jazz musicians who recorded were Creole, which is distinctly different from either white or black, by the way.

[00:02:05] It's a I'm part Creole myself. I'm as white as sheetrock.

[00:02:10] You'll see other Creoles that are dark black and everything in between.

[00:02:14] It's a mixed race of people, a mix of French and Spanish and African and English and Irish and German and all kinds of stuff got mixed in there down in the islands.

[00:02:25] But especially French and African is what well and some of the native folks, too, and a big Spanish influence cannot leave that out.

[00:02:34] How how this idea got that like, you know, jazz is a black invention.

[00:02:39] I don't get it because really the first guys to record were Creole and they probably had a bigger influence on the music than anybody.

[00:02:47] And they all play together in the same band.

[00:02:49] So it's not like you can say, well, it's Creole and not black or it's black, not Creole or it's white and not black or whatever.

[00:02:54] They all played together in New Orleans, which was, you know, unsegregated.

[00:02:58] And but that doesn't mean there were not racial tensions.

[00:03:02] Jelly Roll Morton.

[00:03:03] I know I'm getting way off topic here, but Jelly Roll Morton actually has probably the best claim to having truly invented jazz as a form of music.

[00:03:13] You know, Buddy Bolden was a black guy who played trumpet and he was a little bit.

[00:03:19] Well, they were more contemporaries, but he may have been just a little bit before Jelly Roll.

[00:03:24] But contemporaries that wrote history said he was really a blues musician that played trumpet.

[00:03:29] So Jelly Roll was Creole and he actually was extremely racist.

[00:03:34] He would not play with black musicians.

[00:03:37] If you call it in black or African-American or whatever you want, he would punch you in the face.

[00:03:41] He was really not a nice guy.

[00:03:43] He was a pimp.

[00:03:43] He was violent.

[00:03:45] I mean, he so this whole idea of how, you know, it's so racist to call it Dixieland jazz.

[00:03:51] Actually, it's not because all these people lived in Dixie and they made Southern music.

[00:03:56] And that's all there is to it.

[00:03:57] But anyway, this Cairo's Club Coon Orchestra, just be glad it wasn't named after their band as opposed to the original Dixieland jazz band.

[00:04:06] Well, anyway, they did a version of WC Handy's St. Louis Blues, which I consider to be the first jazz recording of all time.

[00:04:14] Look them up on YouTube.

[00:04:15] It's brilliant.

[00:04:16] You would not believe this was done live in one take.

[00:04:20] And the lead instrument was a mandolin.

[00:04:22] It was what's called a mando banjo.

[00:04:24] It's essentially a small framed banjo strung and tuned like a mandolin.

[00:04:29] So what I'm saying is before Bill Monroe came along, mandolin was played in all kinds of different genres.

[00:04:35] You'd see it in, you know, just anything you can imagine.

[00:04:38] I mean, it was from upscale music to folk music, right?

[00:04:42] A blues mandolin was really big.

[00:04:45] But then Bill Monroe, of course, invented bluegrass and everybody went crazy over it.

[00:04:49] And, you know, now everybody just totally associates mandolin with bluegrass.

[00:04:52] Well, I grew up playing bluegrass.

[00:04:55] I grew up following Doc Watson around.

[00:04:57] I'm really more of a blues and jazz and actually more like a lot of Southern music, a lot of soul, a lot, you know, a lot of that kind of stuff.

[00:05:05] And actually, I really love punk rock.

[00:05:07] You know, I'm of that generation.

[00:05:10] So I play rockabilly.

[00:05:12] I play all kinds of different music on the mandolin as well as the guitar or the banjo or whatever I happen to put my hands on.

[00:05:18] Right.

[00:05:19] So I wanted to teach mandolin in a way that teaches you to play the instrument as opposed to copying a bunch of solos by Bill Monroe or Jesse McReynolds or, you know, Sam Bush or Dave Grisman.

[00:05:35] And I mean, I was really privileged growing up around those guys.

[00:05:40] I got to see Dave Grisman many, many times.

[00:05:42] Never got to see Jerry Garcia except at a concert, but never you had to hang out with him or anything.

[00:05:48] But yeah, I mean, Dave Grisman was hanging around Doc a lot.

[00:05:50] So Sam Bush.

[00:05:51] So was Marty Stewart and Ricky Skaggs and just about everybody you can imagine, you know.

[00:05:58] Anyway, I'm going to start doing these videos and put out maybe one or two a week.

[00:06:03] If you're interested, they're going to be on Rumble.

[00:06:05] I may go on YouTube as well.

[00:06:07] You know, I have issues with YouTube, but I put together a free Substack newsletter.

[00:06:12] It's called Mandolin Demystified.

[00:06:14] And if you go to mandolindemystified.substack.com, you can get the free newsletter and you'll get my lessons for free each week.

[00:06:24] And, you know, share it with everybody you know.

[00:06:26] And let's see if we can get a Mando revolution going here.

[00:06:30] If that interests you, you know.

[00:06:31] If you play the tenor banjo, everything is absolutely applicable.

[00:06:35] The two instruments are basically the same, just tuned a fifth apart.

[00:06:42] If you play violin or fiddle, you'll be able to pick up a lot from it.

[00:06:46] And really if you're a guitar player or any pianist, whatever.

[00:06:51] But because I will be getting into some very practical music theory.

[00:06:57] Like how we build chords and how to voice them and such as that.

[00:07:02] I think you'll find it interesting as well.

[00:07:04] So anyway, again, that's mandolindemystified.substack.com

[00:07:07] So that's my January, that's my winter project.

[00:07:11] I'm going to write a companion book to go along with it.

[00:07:15] And, you know, book sales will be the only money I make off of it.

[00:07:18] You know how that goes.

[00:07:19] But yeah, I think it's fun.

[00:07:21] I really enjoy it.

[00:07:22] I've gotten started on this.

[00:07:23] I haven't done any videos yet.

[00:07:24] But I've gotten a couple of like the first chapters of the book written.

[00:07:27] And I don't think there's actually anything like this in terms of music construction for the mandolin really on the market today.

[00:07:36] So I think you're going to find it useful if that's something that interests you.

[00:07:39] So now let's get into the herb of the week.

[00:07:42] And we're going to start with one that goes by a couple of names.

[00:07:46] I know it is Styrax.

[00:07:49] Older books call it Storax.

[00:07:52] That's the Latin name.

[00:07:53] The common name is Snowbill.

[00:07:56] And there are three varieties of Styrax that have been found useful in herbal medicine.

[00:08:03] That's Styrax japonica, Styrax aficionalis, and Styrax seriolatus.

[00:08:10] But we have two native Styrax to my region, which are not among those three.

[00:08:16] But they seem to have fairly interchangeable uses.

[00:08:20] We have here the Styrax americanus, Styrax grandifolius, or big leaf snowbill, and American snowbill, obviously.

[00:08:29] And they do seem pretty interchangeable.

[00:08:31] I just don't think there's been a lot of research done on our native varieties yet.

[00:08:36] Like I said, they likely share the same properties, but you always got to put in that caveat.

[00:08:41] They'll need further study.

[00:08:42] But plants for a future list Styrax is simply a resin obtained from the stem of the plant as antiseptic and expectorant.

[00:08:50] Well, that obviously makes it very useful in any kind of survival situation.

[00:08:55] I mean, you need antiseptic herbs.

[00:08:59] You know, you're going to get cut.

[00:09:00] You're going to get, well, all kinds of issues, right?

[00:09:03] But when you've got one that's also expectorant, which means helps get the mucus up out of your lungs,

[00:09:08] you don't have to worry about what's really probably the biggest danger right now, at least where I am this time of year.

[00:09:17] We've had so many respiratory viruses going around.

[00:09:20] People are getting hit by one after another or two or three at a time.

[00:09:23] And it seems like half the county has walking pneumonia.

[00:09:26] Well, this would be a very good herb to have on hand.

[00:09:30] It's got a long use.

[00:09:32] D.S. Cordes wrote of it back in, you know, over 2000 years ago.

[00:09:37] He said Styrax is the oozing of a certain tree that is like a quince tree.

[00:09:42] So it's not a very big tree.

[00:09:44] The best is yellow, fat and full of resin.

[00:09:48] Wow.

[00:09:49] Anyway, he says the gum is also found to be transparent like myrrh.

[00:09:57] Oh, it could be yellow or it could be transparent.

[00:10:00] And it was so popular it was actually counterfeited by certain apothecaries at the time.

[00:10:08] It would mix honey with the boring, the sawdust left over by worms or termites that were eating the plant, which is odd.

[00:10:18] And it makes it a little wax or tallow.

[00:10:19] So, obviously, it was thought to be a very important remedy.

[00:10:25] He goes on and on about how to tell which one is authentic and which one is not.

[00:10:30] There's always been an issue in medicine.

[00:10:32] He says it is softening and digestive.

[00:10:35] It cures coughs, dripping mucus, running noses, hoarseness and loss of voice.

[00:10:41] It is good for closures and hardness of the vulva and taken as a drink and applied.

[00:10:47] It dries out the menstrual flow.

[00:10:49] It gently softens the bowels if a little of it is swallowed.

[00:10:53] It is also effective mixed in ointments or applied as a plaster.

[00:11:00] It is burned, roasted, scorched and made into a soot.

[00:11:04] And the soot is used for the same things.

[00:11:06] But the ointment of Styrax, which is made in Syria, warms and powerfully softens.

[00:11:16] It causes pain and heaviness of the head and sleep.

[00:11:20] Interesting.

[00:11:21] So, it was used as an ointment for probably sore muscles and joints.

[00:11:26] But it would give you a headache and make you go to sleep.

[00:11:29] So, it's interesting.

[00:11:32] In 1500s England, Gerard said,

[00:11:35] It helpeth the cough, the falling down of the rooms and the humors of the chest.

[00:11:41] That's basically post-nasal drip.

[00:11:43] It helps with the falling down of the rooms or the mucus from the nose into the humors of the chest,

[00:11:50] the congestion of the chest.

[00:11:52] And hoarseness of the voice.

[00:11:54] It also helpeth the noise and soundings of the ears.

[00:11:58] So, he thought it was good for probably not like tinnitus ringing ears.

[00:12:03] But like you know when your sinuses are really clogged and your ears kind of get stuffed up and they just ring.

[00:12:09] That's what he's talking about.

[00:12:11] Good against the king's evil nodes of the nerves.

[00:12:15] That means the...

[00:12:17] Oh, what's the name for that scroful?

[00:12:18] It's basically swollen, infected throat glands.

[00:12:23] Any hard swelling preceding the cold cause.

[00:12:26] And prevaileth against all cold poisons such as hemlock.

[00:12:31] I'm not going to recommend it as a cure for poison hemlock.

[00:12:34] One of the most deadly poisons on the face of the earth.

[00:12:37] But hemlock is considered to be very cold.

[00:12:40] And it actually does reduce body temperature as it lowers the heart rate and respiration.

[00:12:49] The person becomes very cold to the touch as they slip into a coma.

[00:12:53] And apparently this is warming and stimulating.

[00:12:55] So, you know, it may have helped.

[00:12:57] I'm not going to say it didn't, but I'm not going to...

[00:12:59] I'm going to avoid eating poison hemlock if I can possibly help it.

[00:13:03] He says,

[00:13:04] Of the gum, there are made sundry excellent perfumes, pomenders, sweet waters, sweet bags, and sweet washing balls,

[00:13:12] and diverse other sweet chains and bracelets, whereof to write were impertinent to this history.

[00:13:20] In other words, it was used in perfumes and things you might put with your clothes to make them smell nice or anything like that.

[00:13:28] And he's saying that's not pertinent to his herbal.

[00:13:31] But, if you're looking for a cottage industry, look up the word pomander.

[00:13:37] P-O-M-A-N-D-E-R-S.

[00:13:40] These were once very, very popular.

[00:13:43] Kind of like potpourri is today.

[00:13:45] And potpourri, of course, was very popular as well.

[00:13:47] But a pomander could be something as simple as an orange studded with cloves and dried.

[00:13:53] And it has this incredible scent.

[00:13:55] And you put it in with your clothes and it would make them smell nice.

[00:13:59] And it would help keep the bugs out.

[00:14:01] People made pomanders out of all kinds of things.

[00:14:04] He's talking the gum of this tree.

[00:14:06] You know, if you've ever seen a cedar-lined chest, the scent of the cedar would help keep the bugs out.

[00:14:12] And also made your clothes smell nice.

[00:14:15] So, it's actually a pretty...

[00:14:19] People sell those things on Etsy.

[00:14:20] And they get some good money for them.

[00:14:22] And, of course, you could use it to make scented candles or soaps or anything like that.

[00:14:26] And it's always good to have, you know, the side hustle as they say.

[00:14:29] I have several myself, as you know.

[00:14:32] About a hundred years later, Cole Pepper wrote of the Storax tree.

[00:14:36] He said the gum was used.

[00:14:38] And it's hot in the second degree.

[00:14:39] Meaning it's very warming and drying.

[00:14:43] It heals, mollifies, which means soften.

[00:14:46] Digest.

[00:14:47] And is good for coughs, cataract, congestion.

[00:14:50] Distillations of the rooms.

[00:14:51] That's again the mucus and hoarseness.

[00:14:54] Pills thereof, made with a little turpentine, gently loosen the belly.

[00:14:58] So, it could be basically good for constipation.

[00:15:02] It resists cold poisons.

[00:15:04] Dropped into the ears.

[00:15:05] It helps the singing and noise in them.

[00:15:07] So, again, we're talking about ringing in the ears.

[00:15:08] It has a stringency to it.

[00:15:10] And that warming would also help kind of break up congestion and such.

[00:15:14] Applied to parts afflicted with cold aches.

[00:15:17] It gives much comfort and ease.

[00:15:19] And it's good to be put in baths for lameness and weakness.

[00:15:24] It is also good to be put with frankincense to perfume those that have cataracts or congestions,

[00:15:30] rooms, defluxions from the head and the nose or other parts.

[00:15:34] By casting on quick coals or hot coals and holding the head over the smoke.

[00:15:38] It dissolves hard tumors in any part and is good for the king's evil or scruffulous swollen infected glands essentially.

[00:15:46] That's interesting.

[00:15:46] So, burn almost as an incense but inhaling the smoke would help with congestion in the head.

[00:15:52] Ms. Greve, writing in the 30's, said a stimulating and expectant and feeble antiseptic.

[00:16:00] So, she didn't think it was a very strong antiseptic.

[00:16:03] At present, it is very seldom used as a constituent of the compound tincture of benzilin.

[00:16:11] Benzilin may still be around actually.

[00:16:13] Benzilin was sold in the pharmacy when I was a kid, you know, my teens working in the drugstore.

[00:16:19] Externally mixed with two or three parts of olive oil, it has been found useful as a local remedy for scabies.

[00:16:26] It has the same action as balsam and peru.

[00:16:31] I'm not sure what peru is, but benzilin I know.

[00:16:35] It has been recommended as a remedy for diphtheria and pulmonary catara and as a substitute for the South American copabia.

[00:16:45] Oh, using gonorrhea and leucorrhea.

[00:16:48] So, a remedy for gonorrhea and leucorrhea.

[00:16:52] Combined with tallow or lard, it is valuable for many forms of skin disease, such as ringworm, especially in children.

[00:16:59] The taste and smell of opium is quite well concealed by Storax in pills, its fragrance being used frequently also in ointments.

[00:17:09] Hmm.

[00:17:10] I wonder why you would want to conceal the taste and smell of opium.

[00:17:14] Opium, if you've ever smelled it, smells very nice.

[00:17:18] Any sap from the poppy is going to be very, very bitter.

[00:17:22] So, maybe the taste, but that seems a little shady.

[00:17:25] I'm not sure why you'd want to be slipping somebody some opium without their knowing it.

[00:17:29] But, King's American Dispensatory 1898 tells us,

[00:17:36] Storax is a stimulant acting more especially upon mucous tissues as do nearly all the balsams.

[00:17:44] And, you know, balsams are very good not only for the sinus, like they said, for sore throats and all that.

[00:17:50] So, it's like balsam, it's stronger and probably more warming.

[00:17:53] It has been found beneficial as an expectorant in cough, chronic catara, asthma, bronchitis, and other pulmonary infections, also in gonorrhea, leucorrhea, and gleat.

[00:18:03] In which it is efficient and more pleasant than copaibia.

[00:18:09] Copaibia.

[00:18:11] Again, that word.

[00:18:12] It's C-O-P-A-I-B-A.

[00:18:16] I'm not sure why I'm having such trouble pronouncing it.

[00:18:18] In fact, the uses of Storax are very similar to those of the latter balsam combined with tallow or lard.

[00:18:25] It forms a valuable application in many forms of cutaneous disease, especially those common to children, such as ringworms, tinea, ringworm of the scalp, scabies, etc.

[00:18:36] It forms a good application for ulcerations as a result of freezing fingers or toes.

[00:18:42] It is much used on account of its fragrance when compounding ointments and pills.

[00:18:47] It is an excellent addition to opium in the form of a pill, where it is necessary to constil the taste and smell of this narcotic.

[00:18:55] Three to four grains of Storax may be combined with one grain of opium for this purpose.

[00:19:02] The dose of Storax is from 10 to 20 grains gradually increased.

[00:19:08] Storax obviously has some really good uses, especially when you're looking at survival applications.

[00:19:18] Whether it's the sinuses and the throat and the lungs, all can really be a big problem if you let them get out of control.

[00:19:25] Like I said, people walking around here with walking and moan you just about everybody's wheezing and coughing and gurgling all around me when I go to the store.

[00:19:32] But also, in any situation where you're going to be in the woods for any point of time, skin infections can become really serious.

[00:19:44] And they can be the ringworm, I guess it's bacterial, the scabies, which is I think a little mite causes that, etc.

[00:19:56] You know, anything that gets irritated and can become infected.

[00:19:59] So, learning to identify Storax would be very, very useful.

[00:20:06] Maybe get a few growing on your property.

[00:20:08] Like I said, it's not very big.

[00:20:11] Don't try to slip anybody any opium with it if you don't mind.

[00:20:15] But anyway, actually, you know, growing up around Boone, North Carolina, you know, it's a real hippie town.

[00:20:26] And basically, everywhere you went, I mean, this is going back to the 90s, the 80s, everywhere you went, you smelled pot.

[00:20:33] You smelled pot constantly.

[00:20:34] But every now and then, you get that little whiff of opium.

[00:20:37] And in my opinion, it smells very nice.

[00:20:40] It's like an incense.

[00:20:41] I don't use it myself.

[00:20:42] But a lot of people were into that for a while.

[00:20:47] And it did seem to be very popular.

[00:20:50] Mid, late 90s, wherever you go, you...

[00:20:53] Hmm.

[00:20:54] Oh, that smells...

[00:20:54] Oh, okay.

[00:20:55] You know, you can see somebody just kind of like stoned out of the gourd.

[00:20:59] But it does actually smell nice to me.

[00:21:02] So I'm not sure why you'd want to cover up the smell.

[00:21:04] But all narcotics are incredibly bitter.

[00:21:08] That's one aspect.

[00:21:10] And many of them have what's called a nauseating quality.

[00:21:14] So that may be why they were using it in the pills for flavor.

[00:21:18] So that's just an aside.

[00:21:19] This is a historical antidote, I guess, from recent history.

[00:21:23] So anyway, y'all have a great week.

[00:21:26] Remember, if you're interested in learning the mandolin, check out what I'm doing.

[00:21:29] Mandolin Demystified.

[00:21:31] I hope to have, by early next week, some videos up.

[00:21:34] And we're going to start, like, super simple.

[00:21:36] I mean, like, how to buy a mandolin.

[00:21:39] How to set it up.

[00:21:40] You know, how to string it and tune it.

[00:21:41] And then we're going to get into, like, you know, basic scales and how to build chords.

[00:21:46] It's going to be, like, super simple from ground level, getting up to really very advanced.

[00:21:51] And I think you're going to enjoy it.

[00:21:54] I think you're going to enjoy it a lot, actually.

[00:21:56] If that's something you're into.

[00:21:58] You know, if it's something you've ever wanted to do.

[00:22:00] I think, you know, if you go to, like, Mandolin Cafe or any of the mandolin websites, people's beginners often get turned off.

[00:22:09] Because, well, first of all, they try to convince you you can't, you shouldn't learn to play a mandolin unless you buy a nice mandolin.

[00:22:18] And a nice mandolin is going to be, you know, $2,000 to $5,000, right?

[00:22:22] Well, no.

[00:22:22] Actually, you can get a, the mandolin I play on is exclusively these days.

[00:22:27] Like, my favorite instrument is really good quality and better than some of the nicer instruments I worked with when I was working at a music store.

[00:22:35] I mean, the really expensive stuff.

[00:22:36] I paid $75 for it.

[00:22:38] So, I mean, we're going to start at really a low entry point.

[00:22:43] And, you know, just like I do with herbal medicine.

[00:22:45] I don't like jargon.

[00:22:47] I don't like any kind of barriers to entry.

[00:22:49] You know, I try not to use a lot of scientific words on here.

[00:22:52] If I do, I try to define them so that anybody can listen and understand what I'm saying.

[00:22:56] Well, that's the same thing I'm going to do with music.

[00:22:57] So, if it interests you, I mean, I love to play music.

[00:23:01] And when the power goes out and I'm sitting, you know, in my cottage in the mountains in front of the fireplace two, three weeks.

[00:23:09] To me, having stored food and access to good fresh water and firewood and kerosene and everything else I need to survive up there is music just as essential.

[00:23:20] So, a good book to read during the day.

[00:23:23] But then when it gets dark, yeah, I'm going to grab my guitar, my mandolin, my violin, and, you know, banjo, anything.

[00:23:29] Anything, you go crazy sitting around up there in the silence or you just sleep a lot.

[00:23:36] And I consider, you know, playing music actually one of those essential life skills that a prepper really ought to know how to do.

[00:23:44] And, you know, anyway, I'm going to teach you to play this instrument.

[00:23:48] If it interests you, you can play country on it.

[00:23:50] You can play jazz.

[00:23:51] You can play reggae.

[00:23:52] You can play rock and roll.

[00:23:53] I don't care what you play.

[00:23:54] I'm going to teach you how to play the music.

[00:23:55] And that's what makes what I'm doing different than just about everybody else, which is like how to play bluegrass mandolin, how to play old-time mandolin, how to play Celtic mandolin.

[00:24:04] No, I'm just going to teach you how to play the instrument.

[00:24:06] You want to, I mean, I was rocking out with some Booker T and the MGs last night, old Green Onions, and ended up playing, oh, let's see, who originally did the song?

[00:24:16] Peter Green.

[00:24:18] He was with Fleetwood Mac back when Fleetwood Mac was actually a good band.

[00:24:23] He came up with a song called Black Magic Woman, and, of course, Carlos Santana made it famous.

[00:24:28] Well, I'm just fooling around on my mandolin.

[00:24:30] Next thing I know, I'm playing the solos from Black Magic Woman, kind of half Peter Green and half Carlos Santana.

[00:24:36] And I'm like, man, you know, more people really ought to play rock and roll on this instrument.

[00:24:40] It's pretty cool, you know?

[00:24:42] But anyway, y'all, thanks for putting up with listening to me talk about music.

[00:24:49] That's another subject I can go on about, I mean, herbal medicine, food, music, wood carving.

[00:24:56] You get me started.

[00:24:56] It's hard to get me to shut up.

[00:24:58] Anyway, y'all, have a great week, and I'll talk to you next time.

[00:25:04] The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition.

[00:25:10] Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA.

[00:25:14] I'm not a doctor.

[00:25:15] The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine, and there is no governing body regulating herbalists.

[00:25:22] Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs.

[00:25:24] I'm not offering any advice.

[00:25:25] I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true.

[00:25:29] I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for.

[00:25:32] I can tell you my own experience and if I believe in herbs help me.

[00:25:35] I cannot nor would I tell you to do the same.

[00:25:38] If you use an herb anyone recommends, you are treating yourself.

[00:25:42] You take full responsibility for your health.

[00:25:45] Humans are individuals and no two are identical.

[00:25:47] What works for me may not work for you.

[00:25:49] You may have an allergy, a sensitivity, an underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about.

[00:25:56] Be careful with your health.

[00:25:58] By continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog, you agree to be responsible for yourself,

[00:26:03] do your own research, make your own choices, and not to blame me for anything ever.