Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Thyme and Thumos

[00:00:00] Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. Finally getting back to it. I had to take a couple weeks off. I've been dealing with a lot of issues with the teardown and reconstruction of my house after hurricane damage. And in the process of dealing with all that, I was exposed to something. Don't know if it had to do with all the water damage and mold and mouse crap and everything.

[00:00:26] Or if it was just a virus I picked up while traveling. But woke up one morning with a terrible upper respiratory infection. And, you know, coughing, congesting, congestion, coughing to the point that I threw up and basically lost my voice. For at least to the ability to podcast. I mean, I could still, I didn't completely lose my voice, but I couldn't talk without coughing and it was awfully raspy. Sort of Tom Waits kind of situation, you know.

[00:00:55] So, um, I wasn't able to do one, but treated it with herbs and I'm back on top now and ready to, um, to, uh, tell you about one of those herbs that I used. And it's actually probably my, well, I'm gonna say my third or fourth favorite culinary herb. Okay. You know, I got to rate onions and garlic at the top. And then after that parsley, um, I put onions, garlic and parsley in just about everything that isn't sweet.

[00:01:21] Uh, but after that, uh, it's time and time is just fantastic. Time is also a very, very powerful medicinal herb. Um, time, it has a savory flavor to some people. Some people say it's slightly bitter. I don't taste the bitterness to it. I really taste more savory. It's kind of hard to describe. It's sort of what they call umami.

[00:01:44] That's a Japanese word, which means like that, that, that, that extra flavor. That's hard to describe what you get from brown to meat or mushrooms or, um, soy sauce, you know, Worcester sauce, Worcester sauce, whatever Worcestershire. Anyway. Um, that, that just kind of depth of flavor. That is just really hard to describe. Um,

[00:02:07] it goes so well with any kind of meat, meat, fish, onions. I mean, it just brings out the flavor of your food like crazy. I'm honestly starting to drool because I can't think about time and meat and onions without starting to drool. I mean, literally, I love that flavor with beef, with pork, with fish, with chicken, just fantastic. Any kind of game. So good. Uh, but medicinally it's really a, it's a, like I said, very powerful.

[00:02:37] Uh, and, and, and often too overlooked herb. Um, I talked a lot about this during, uh, the COVID pandemic, scamdemic, whatever it was. And, um, every year I try to talk about it during cold and flu season because time is an essential herb for coughs, bronchial congestion, and, uh, respiratory colds. You need to have it on hand at all times. Have some in your, um, urban spice cabinet for cooking with, um, you can always use that to make a tea if need be.

[00:03:07] Just make an herbal tea, pour some simmering water over it, cover it with a lid so the essential oils don't gas off. And, you know, if you've got a head cold with a runny nose, add a pinch of sage to it or a sore throat. Perfect combination for colds. But especially, uh, respiratory viruses. And, um, it's, uh, you can make a tincture of it. Absolutely. I actually usually add about an ounce of it to, uh, my Swedish bitters.

[00:03:34] That's one of the few herbs that does not come in the Swedish bitters that are ordered from Germany. Uh, they're just fantastic. Something like 27 herbs. I add thyme, um, and usually some mullein. And that gives me, you know, cause I have, I inherited asthma and that gives me a little more lung support. So, um, that's another way to use it. You can certainly make a straight tincture of it. You could do an infused oil. You could do all kinds of stuff. Um, I wouldn't do an infused oil. Um, but you could.

[00:04:03] Yeah. I mean, if that's something you want to do, um, rub it on your chest, maybe it would help. I would much rather have it as a tea or tincture or in food. And, um, I do put them just about everything and vegetables, carrots, time on carrots with a little, um, sugar and vinegar and salt. Fantastic. Cook down, you know, the old copper pennies recipe. Just delicious. Usually that's good. Honey, honey and thyme go really well. In fact, you can get honey, um, from certain specialty places where

[00:04:32] the bees actually make the honey from thyme flowers. And it has all the medicinal properties of thyme and it's really delicious. Very expensive, unfortunately. But, uh, if you keep bees, that may be something you want to think about. So it's also one of the most written about herbs in all recorded history. Uh, thyme was noted as an antiseptic herb, uh, at least as long ago as 3000 BC in ancient Samaria.

[00:05:00] It was used in ancient Egypt for embalming, uh, theophrastus wrote thyme as a bee plant. Like I said, bees really loved thyme and ancient Greek beekeepers grew it for honey. Pliny the elder wrote of thyme's ability to repel venomous creatures. Virgil, the poem, poet Virgil wrote, uh, entire poems about the sin of thyme. I mean, it's amazing. You know, the ancient Greeks really loved thyme. Uh, Dioscorides wrote of thyme under the name of Thumos.

[00:05:28] Now, if you remember your high school literature classes, or I think we maybe middle school, I don't know. Uh, you read the Odyssey. Well, you might remember the word Thumos, uh, Thumos, um, written. I mean, I think it's also talked about in the Iliad as well as the Odyssey.

[00:05:46] I hope it is. And I hope students still read the Odyssey and the Iliad. I mean, they're incredible classic works. Uh, just, I mean, I loved them. Uh, and, and, and, you know, uh, Gilgamesh and, and all that stuff. Um, I was talking with a guy the other day and, uh, we were, he was talking about how like, you know, scientists and progressives, they want to get all rid of all the stories and myths.

[00:06:09] And he said, but sometimes it's a really good story. You know, even if it's just, you know, mythology, if it's a, it's a made up story, it's a really good story. And you can still learn from it and enjoy it. And, you know, those old, uh, stories, uh, that were really used for forming the conscience and, uh, you know, the warrior ethos and spirit for, um, centuries, thousands of years.

[00:06:37] And I mean, they're still just wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. I love fairy tales. You know, I love the lore. People always getting on my case, like, um, some of the books I write on herbal medicine. Uh, like I've got, um, my, probably my most controversial was called Christian herbal medicine, where I give the history of how Christianity spread throughout Europe by founding hospitals and free hospitals for the poor and everybody else.

[00:07:05] And using herbs as medicine or, you know, herbal medicine was plant-based medicine was the only medicine there was until about 1920s. So, I mean, pagans don't like that. The witches and such really hate it. When I write these books, uh, they want to promote this myth that the church burned witches at the stake for using herbal medicine.

[00:07:25] That's not true. That's not true. It never happened. That's actually, um, was a story written by a Dutch anti-Catholic to try to turn people against the, uh, the Catholic church. It has no foundation in history whatsoever, not in Druids or, or, I mean, Germanic traditions, nothing. It never happened.

[00:07:50] Um, there's, there's, there's actually a great book written by a Protestant, uh, historian called, um, Bearing False Witness that dispels a lot of the myths about the Catholic church. And, you know, this persecution of, of, of, of, of, of witches and everything for using herbal medicine is one of those myths. Um, far more were actually, uh, killed in, uh, Protestant England. Uh, the English were really the ones that went after, um, so-called witches.

[00:08:19] Well, a lot of those so-called witches were Catholics who continued to go to the cemetery and say prayers for their dead relatives. They would accuse them of witchcraft and kill them. Um, a lot of others were, um, those who refused to join the guild system. They were people who practiced herbal medicine. Yeah.

[00:08:40] Or were beer brewers who brewed beer at home and they did refuse to essentially join the union or, you know, like the American Medical Association version of England in the 1500s. And so what the professional apothecists and doctors and beer brewers would do would be to accuse them of witchcraft. That was the easiest thing or being Jewish. They would also, uh, hang them or burn them alive if they were thought to be, uh, practicing Jews.

[00:09:08] So if, um, or gypsy. Yeah. I mean, you, for a good two, 300 years there, even in Protestant New England, um, you know, among the pilgrims and such. I mean, you remember reading the books about the Salem witch trials and all that. But most of those people were not practicing witchcraft at all. They were either Catholic, Jewish, or gypsies. And, um, or people that just didn't want to join the union, essentially the guilds.

[00:09:37] And so they would be accused of witchcraft and then given ridiculous tests to see if they floated in water or weighed more than a duck or, you know, crazy stuff. Just absolute insanity. Um, but really those. So anyway, that book is very controversial among the, the pagan side because they want to own herbal medicine.

[00:10:01] So they're always leaving me bad reviews, but it's also, um, can be, uh, you know, kind of controversial among certain Christians who will say they don't like the lore. They think that, you know, the myths and the old stories about plants are actually pagan in nature, as opposed to just being an entertaining and interesting story, which I find them to be. And they'll leave me bad reviews.

[00:10:25] Some, somebody, for some reason, wrote a review on there a couple of weeks ago saying the book was, uh, all about anti-white bigotry and that I'm somehow anti-white. Um, I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous. It's slanderous. It's stupid because I don't mention race in the entire book. I talk about ancient Sumerian Babylon, ancient Jewish herbal practices, uh, Greek, Roman, Polish, English.

[00:10:55] Most of the folks I talk about in the book are white and I'm praising them. So I'm not, I mean, it's just somebody trying to damage my reputation and damage the book in some way, shape or form, but it does hurt book sales. So, I mean, if you do have an Amazon account or if you bought my book, Christian herbal medicine, please go on the site. And when you see the one that says I'm an anti-white bigot, um, yeah, which is absolutely stupid because I'm about as white as a sheetrock wall.

[00:11:24] Um, I mean, really, and I'm, I mean, I'm always defending Western culture, which is anyway, quick report. If you just need to take you 30 seconds or less, and it would be a huge favor to me. Um, and if you have time to write a good review of the book, that really, really helps. But bad, really slanderous reviews like that, uh, totally false do hurt book sales and Amazon would not let me have them removed. But if enough people will go in and complain, then, um, they'll remove it.

[00:11:55] You know, they'll actually take action. If, uh, maybe a hundred people say this, uh, report, the review is being false. So please do that. I'm asking you from the bottom of my heart, not the heart of my bottom, two very, very different things to quote adult comedian. Oh, that was a line. I can't remember who said that. Was it, uh, probably Roddy Dangerfield. Uh, no, Groucho Marx. Uh, 100% Groucho Marx. Yeah. I love Groucho Marx. Anyway, Thumos, you may remember was courage.

[00:12:23] It was that, you know, battle furor, manliness, passion, uh, forcefulness. That was Thumos. And so time was thought to stir up Thumos. Yes. So, um, let's see. Diaz Corridis said in Dia Materia Medica, he, of course, uh, describes it first and he liked it mixed with honey and what they call it a link to us. It's a syrup.

[00:12:50] And, um, taking a large doses, it would, um, smaller doses would help with asthma. Um, moderate doses expel worms, um, stimulate menstrual flow, um, and was good for the urinary system. Um, diuretic properties essentially. And, but also you gotta remember there's a very, um, tithemol is the oil, the essential oil of it. It has antibiotic and aseptic properties. So good for urinary tract infections and all kinds of stuff like that.

[00:13:19] Also good, uh, to help with, uh, stones and such. Uh, let's see. Applied, let's see. Mixed with honey as a linctus. It makes matter come up. In other words, taking a very large dose with honey. It could, um, uh, be, um, emetic. That's the word I was searching for. Makes you throw up. Uh, applied with vinegar. It dissolves new swellings and clots of blood. And, uh, hanging warts. Applied with wine and polenta.

[00:13:49] Now that would, they didn't have corn. So their polenta was actually just ground grain of pretty much any sort. Uh, edible grain. It says good for hip pains. Eating with meat. It's good for poor vision. Now, isn't that interesting? Why would it be good for poor, poor vision? Well, it's got a lot of antioxidants. It's got a lot of phytonutrients in there. It is good instead of a sauce for use, for health. In other words, use the herb instead of, um, you know, uh, well, this is ancient, uh, Greece.

[00:14:15] They would use, uh, a lot of, um, well, their sauces were rather complex. I mean, it's kind of hard for me to say their sauce was made of this or made of that, but they were, you know, heavy. They were sweet. Um, and for someone on a diet, you'd want to cut out some of the fat and some of the, well, some of the calories and from whatever. So extra fat, extra sugar, you know, that's actually really good for you. So I don't, I never say cut out the fat, but definitely cut out the sugar. If you want to lose some weight and get healthier.

[00:14:45] Uh, let's see. Um, talks about the Romans and the Egyptians and everything. And, uh, he, he included regular garden time, wild time, and an herb called mother of time. And he said, um, they would bring energy into asthmatic and congested lungs. He also included a time infused vinegar and a time infused wine.

[00:15:11] Both of these were to be used culinarily and for medicinal purposes. The, I think this is the vinegar, uh, said, uh, taken with, uh, water, uh, was good for a weak stomach. Um, arthritis and those inflated with wind. So bloating, it extracts the black fluids. And, uh, yeah, this is vinegar, um, time and a little bit of salt and, uh, could be used externally or internally.

[00:15:39] Um, soaked linen cloths wrapped around the chest to, uh, open the airways. That's why I said, you know, if you had the oil, you could actually use it topically. And of course it's going to be good for wounds and such too, because it does have those good antimicrobial properties. So, um, the wine is a very large batch. Okay. You're talking a hundred ounces of pounded, sifted thyme into nine gallons of wine must.

[00:16:06] So that's not something we're really going to do at home, but, um, this would be taken internally. Good for digestive difficulties, lack of appetite, dysentery, disorders of the nerves, uh, hypochondria, which was a swelling, uh, around the lungs and, um, stomach as well. It could have some gastric issues, uh, winter shiverings and poisons from venomous creatures. And, uh, uh, it would help with chills and would purify. So that's a lot.

[00:16:34] Um, yeah, a lot of wine was it's must too. So it's not the wine. It's what's leftover in the barrels after. And, um, wow. Um, and he talks about wild time or mother of time. It's a little more, uh, strong, uh, unless you're growing that in the garden, don't even worry about it. And you're going to have trouble finding seeds for it. Really. It's one you would more forage for, um, in Europe. I don't really think mother of time grows, uh, here naturally wild.

[00:17:03] Uh, it may have gotten out of somebody's garden at some point, but so monastic medicine of the middle ages time was much used as a disorder and St. Kilogard von Bingen, another white woman that I'm saying good things about. I said that wild time should be eaten frequently for skin issues and would clarify thought and time. And this is just regular time. She says carries off putrid matter from the head externally.

[00:17:27] She recommended it for leprosy and she recommended an ointment made of time sage, uh, for palsy and stitch. Um, brother Alwishus, uh, another monastic, uh, herbalist several centuries later, we're talking more like, uh, early, early 1900s when he wrote recommended time for stubborn cough, whooping cough, anemia, worms, excessive gallbladder and bladder complaints to clear the lungs, migraine, dizziness.

[00:17:55] And as a depurative, the use of time. Oh, okay. Use of time continued into German and French folk medicine. Um, Maria Trebin, uh, Austrian herbalist said that, uh, she recommended it and so did Maurice Messagu, the most famous French herbalist of the, um, 1950s or so. Um, in England, Gerard listed six varieties of time. He said it bringeth down, um, desired sickness.

[00:18:25] I'm not quite sure what that means, but he follows that with it provoked with the urine and applied in baths and fermentations. It procureth sweat being boiled in wine. It helpeth the ague or fever. It easeth the strangury or, uh, uh, edema as we, well, not really edema, but, uh, suppress urination. There's another word for it. Um, anyway, it stayeth the hiccet. What is a hiccet? It's a hiccup. It stayeth the hiccet.

[00:18:52] It breaketh the stones of the bladder and helpeth the lethargy, frenzy, and madness. Stayeth vomiting of blood. So if you have lethargy, frenzy, and madness, you might want to put more time in your diet. Time boiled in wine drunk is good against the wombling and gripings of the belly. So stomach cramps, convulsions, and inflammations of the liver. It helpeth against the bitings of any venomous beast, either taken inwardly or, um, as a drink

[00:19:21] or outwardly applied. Um, he mentions that Galen said it should be given in vinegar against the vomiting of blood and would help with a grieved spleen. So if your spleen is grieved, um, and swollen, essentially inflamed. Culpepper about a hundred years later. Um, let's see. Good for what they call the chin cough. I'm not sure exactly. I think it's sort of like the whooping cough. Uh, purges the body of phlegm.

[00:19:49] Uh, excellent remedy for shortness of breath. Kills worms in the belly. Uh, provoketh the terms. It means stimulates menstruation. Um, ointment made of it helps with hot swellings and warts. Helps sciatica and dullness of sight. And takes away pains and hardness of the spleen. Tis excellent for those that are troubled with the gout. It easeth the pain in loins and hips. And the urge taken anyway inwardly. Comforts the stomach much and expels the wind.

[00:20:16] So there we are, um, 1500 years between, how was it? Discordies to, uh, Culpepper. And, um, yeah, still being, um, used for so many of the same, uh, I'm just kind of reading together. So many of the same issues. And I mean, you know, that's in different parts of the world. So, I mean, that kind of gives, I always say that makes me feel very confident in those uses.

[00:20:46] When different peoples at different thousand years apart in different places of the world use it, uh, for the same, um, purposes. Yeah. That's it. I always, yeah. Again, some of it may be lore, but most of it is, um, quite valid. All right. So, Ms. Grieve, 1930s, um, she says garden time is the improved or cultivated form of wild time, which mainly came from the mountains of Spain and European countries that border the Mediterranean.

[00:21:16] So, uh, you don't have to seek out wild time. You can use your garden, uh, time or time from the grocery store. As I say, uh, grocery store herbs, especially like in the Mexican section where they sell them little packets for like 50 cents or 99 cents, usually very fresh because there's such a good turnover there. Um, yep. Yep. She, she gives a lot of nice lore. Then I'm just going to kind of, I'm running a little long.

[00:21:42] I'm going to skip ahead here to, um, medicinal actions and uses antiseptic, antispasmodic, tonic and carminative. Carminative means it settles the stomach essentially. Uh, tonic means it seems like to say appetite. Let's see. Time T good for gastric issues. Wind spasms of colic, et cetera. Oil of time employed as a rheumatid and counter irritant and rheumatism. So that's one. Yeah. The oil of time, this is more of the essential oil than an infused oil, but it would work.

[00:22:09] It would, it would definitely work as an infused oil as well. But I think that's what she's referring to rubbed onto arthritic joints. Um, interestingly, uh, it was combined in a smoking mixture for headaches. It was called herb tobacco in the 1930s. I don't have the full formula on that. I wish I did. Uh, used in perfumery. Tymol is, is the, uh, volatile, uh, oil. Powerful.

[00:22:36] I think I said tithomol oil, uh, tithomol earlier. I meant tymol. T-H-Y-M-O-L. Um, really, uh, great antiseptic. She says for both internal and external use. Uh, also a local anesthetic. Yeah. It's, it's really quite, uh, powerful. So let's get up to modern use. So plants for future says common time has a very long history of focus for a wide range of ailments. It is very rich in essential oils, and these are the active ingredients responsible for

[00:23:05] most of the medicinal properties. In particular, thyme is valued for its antiseptic and antioxidant properties. It is an excellent tonic and is used in treating respiratory diseases and a variety of other ailments. The flowering tops are anthelmintic. That means it gets rid of intestinal parasites. Strongly antiseptic. Antispasmodic. A carminative deodorant. Diaphoretic means helps with a fever. Disinfectant, expectorant, sedative, and tonic. The plant is used internally in the treatment of dry coughs, whooping coughs, bronchitis,

[00:23:34] bronchial catarae, that's congestion, asthma, laryngitis, indigestion, gastritis, diarrhea, and enuresis in children. It should not be prescribed for pregnant women. That's absolutely true. Anything that can kill intestinal worms can obviously cause a miscarriage. Uh, now we're talking medicinal dosages there. I mean, a little bit in your food's probably okay, but I'm not going to say one way or the other. Externally, it is used in the treatment of tonsillitis, gum diseases, rheumatism, arthritis, and fungal infections.

[00:24:03] The plant can be used fresh at any time of the year, or it can be harvested as it comes into flower and either be distilled for the oil or dried for later use. Thyme has an antioxidant effect, thus regular use of the herb improves the health and longevity of individual body cells and therefore prolongs the life of the body. Now, that's thomose as far as I'm concerned. The essential oil is strongly antiseptic. The whole herb is used in the treatment of digestive disorders, sore throats, fevers, et cetera.

[00:24:33] The essential oil is one of the most important oils used in aromatherapy. Its key word is bacterial. It is used especially in exhaustion, depression, upper respiratory tract infections, skin and scalp complaints, et cetera. The oil can cause allergic reactions and irritation to the skin and mucous membranes. Yes. As it said, it reddens and brings warmth to the skin used for arthritis. So, of course, it can irritate the skin, obviously.

[00:25:02] So, yeah. Okay. Okay. So, here's like super simple recipe if you want to figure out how to use more parsley, I mean, more time in your diet. Roasted chicken. They always say the best way to judge a restaurant is to order the roast chicken. That's because it's so simple and easy that when the, you know, the chef isn't really paying attention, the quality goes down dramatically. I mean, it's just like, you know, let the staff take care of the roasted chickens. No one's going to know the difference. No.

[00:25:32] You want to make sure that what you're paying for is very high quality. So, go get yourself a good chicken and season it with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. That's traditional, right? Roast it in the oven until it's brown and delicious. Maybe put an onion inside if you like. Really very good. I mean, I think most people have gotten so used to bland, kind of really no good rotisserie chickens from the grocery store.

[00:26:02] A true real roasted chicken is sort of a revelation to people. And then, of course, save the carcass, save the bones, save, cut the back out of it, all that, and make a good chicken broth with, or stock with, well, more broth because you're going to use some meat too. If it's just bones, call it a stock. Eh, it doesn't matter. So, put it in with some water and garlic and onions, thyme and parsley, a bay leaf or two, a couple of cloves. Cloves go really well with onion.

[00:26:31] Turmeric, maybe. Turmeric, totally optional. I'm thinking more of a terms of a cold remedy. I'd want to maybe put some turmeric in there, black pepper. And, yeah, that's, make a nice chicken soup out of that. Perfect for cold. But keep a little thyme tincture on hand, and it'll help clear things out. But I'm telling you, thyme-infused chicken soup, probably about the tastiest cold remedy there is. Really, really good. Really super good.

[00:27:00] Anyway, y'all, have a great week. And, God willing, I'll talk to you next time. I hate it when I have to miss a week. I really do. I know James says, like, no big deal. You've got stuff going on. You've got hundreds of shows in the archives people can listen to. But, you know, I like to be very reliable and dependable. I mean, if there's nothing else that I am, if I have no other good qualities, it's I'm reliable and dependable. And it bugs the crap out of me when I'm not.

[00:27:30] All right, y'all, have a good one. I'll talk to you next time. The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not a doctor. The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine, and there is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs. I'm not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true.

[00:27:58] I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience and if I believe an herb has helped me. I cannot nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use an herb anyone recommends, you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, a sensitivity, an underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health.

[00:28:28] By continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog, you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices, and not to blame me for anything ever.