Biohacktress

ANYBODY WANT TO CLAY?

Clay is a wonderful ingredient for anyone suffering from digestive problems. In scientific studies it has been proven to help with both constipation and diarrhea, including IBS.

It's also used as a detoxing agent. It can rid the body of carcinogens, lead, pesticides and other toxins.

Yet another benefit: It helps increase good gut flora and decreases bad bacteria.

In Peru, I buy it in small "rocks" of dried clay (see photo). I put the clay in warm water and drink it on an empty stomach, twice a day if I'm doing a treatment. Otherwise, I just take it as a preventative aid from time to time.

WILL GARLIC HELP HEAL A COLD OR THE FLU?

So many people swear by garlic when it comes to the common cold or even the flu. The logic makes sense: Garlic is a powerful antiviral.

However, there is a problem. Garlic is a localized antiviral, not a systemic one. This means that if you have a herpes sore and apply garlic to it, the sore will go away in a matter of days. However, if you have a respiratory virus, garlic is actually not going to be a lot of help.

Garlic is a strong antiviral but its compounds get broken down in the stomach so eating it isn't a great cure for a respiratory condition or for a sore throat.

However, if you gargle with garlic, that will help a sore throat because you're taking advantage of its localized properties. Garlic is also great for the stomach flu because there it's able to attack the virus directly.

Garlic is a wonderful antiviral (not to mention antibacterial and antimicotic). However, you need to make sure that it comes in direct contact with any virus, bacteria or fungus in order to take advantage of its powerful healing properties.

HUACATAY IS HARD TO SAY BUT VERY GOOD FOR YOU

If you visit Peru, it's hard to avoid this fresh herb. It's abundant in Peruvian cooking, much the way you'd come across basil if you went to Italy.

It's used to help digestion and get rid of stomach gases. It's also used as a treatment for bronchitis.

The leaves and flowers are prepared into an infusion or decoction.

I like putting the fresh leaves into hot salsa, which is probably the most popular way of enjoying the herb in Peru. I put tomatoes, onions, garlic, salt, and huacatay into a blender and the result is a spicy hot sauce that I like to put on just about everything.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN INFUSION AND A DECOCTION?

When working with herbs, sometimes I create an infusion. Other times, I need a decoction. The main difference between these two is the amount of heat that the plant receives when exposed to water.

If you boil a sensitive herb like flor blanca for long, the heat will destroy many of the herb's beneficial properties. On the other hand, if you let an herb like uña de gato only seep in hot water, the resulting beverage will be too diluted to have many health benefits.

When preparing an herb, it's important to know whether it should be turned into an infusion or a decoction. An infusion means heating water to boiling and then turning off the heat, while letting the herb seep. This is the way most people prepare tea.

A decoction means boiling the herb in water for two to 15 minutes to allow the properties of the plant to concentrate themselves in the hot water.

Which method is better depends on the herb you are working with as well as which part of the plant you are using. When working with the root of a plant, you'll almost always use a decoction. The flowers tend to be more sensitive and are usually consumed in an infusion.

To complicate matters a little bit, some herbs are more soluble in fat or alcohol than water. So adding an herb to alcohol, for instance, is sometimes even more effective.

In the end, all of these factors depend on the plant you are working with and the results you want to achieve.

Wishing you good health!

LEMON JUICE HELPS CONTROL BLOOD SUGAR

A new study done at the Université Paris-Saclay adds growing evidence to the theory that adding lemon juice to a meal high in carbohydrates helps prevent blood spikes.

According to researchers, lemon juice slows down the body's ability to turn carbohydrates into sugar, which decreases the body's insulin response.

This is great news for diabetics and also anyone hoping to lose weight. A growing number of researchers and doctors are convinced that insulin is actually to blame in many problem weight-loss cases. The theory is: Keep the body from producing insulin and the weight will come off.

According to this study and others, simply adding lemon juice to a carbohydrate-rich meal prevents the blood sugar spike that would have occurred otherwise. Other studies have shown that vinegar has a similar effect.

You can find more information on the study here:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00394-020-02228-x

THREE OF THE BEST FRUITS FOR GUT FLORA

I'm always trying to improve my gut flora by any means necessary. Here are three of my favorite fruits for increasing good bacteria in the gut. I eat them whenever they are in season:

POMEGRANATE

Pomegranate is one of the only foods in existence known to increase quantities of Akkermansia
muciniphila, a bacteria that is essential to good gut health. This bacteria is not found in any supplement form.

Akkermansia is great for immune system boosting and helps fight obesity. It's also critical for people going through cancer immunotherapy.

KIWI

There have been so many studies conducted on kiwi's ability to increase good bacteria in the gut. One of these studies, conducted by the University of Singapore, found that Lactobacillus (a good gut bacteria) increased by 35 percent in a single day after people ate kiwi fruit.

DRAGONFRUIT

The first time I saw this at the market, the vendor convinced me to buy it, telling me it would send anyone to the bathroom within a couple of hours. I have to say, his claim has proved to be quite true.

Various studies have proven the effectiveness of dragonfruit on promoting gut health. Since I live in Peru, it's a local fruit for me. I buy it whenever it's in season and it always works wonders on my digestion.

Dr. William Li is one of my favorite sources for great information on how fruits and vegetables can help prevent disease.

This picture comes from his ebook, A Plant-Based Approach from Eating to Beat Disease.

You can get the full PDF here:https://drwilliamli.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/A-Plant-Based-Approach-to-Eating-To-Beat-Disease.pdf

AND NOW FOR SOME "GIRLY" HERBS!

When I asked one of my Peruvian herbalists what "flor blanca" was used for, she told me, "It's for women." Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised given that it has a super girly name. In English, it would be translated as "white flower."

My first thought was, "Really, the person in charge of naming herbs in Peru couldn't come up with something a little less frilly? After all, names for prostate herbs are things like Devil's Claw and Horse's Tail. And we women get stuck with White Flower?!"

Then I calmed down a bit and looked at the plant. Guess what? It was a bunch of white flowers.

Flor Blanca is the go-to herb in Peru for women with hormonal problems, whether it's PMS or menopause. I think of it as the Peruvian black cohosh.

It's usually taken in tea form, however, my herbalist warned me not to boil it. Boiling White Flower for more than a minute or so destroys the beneficial properties of the plant.

The right way to prepare this remedy: Take a fistful of the dried plant and add to four cups of cold water. Put on low heat until the water boils. Then turn off the heat and cover the pan for an hour. Drink twice a day, in the morning before breakfast and at night before bed.

It's one of the nicer tasting herbal remedies I've ever tried, almost like chamomile but even sweeter. Just how a girly tea should taste!

DON'T EVEN TRY TO COME BETWEEN A GIRL AND HER VALERIAN ROOT!

The best treatment for insomnia I've ever found has to be valerian root. My problem isn't trying to fall asleep. It's that I wake up most mornings around 4 am -- which is far too early for me! Worse is that I wake up with a surge of energy and have a tough time falling back to sleep.

In the past, I've tried melatonin, but it seemed to quit working after a couple of weeks. I've also used Tylenol PM a few times out of desperation, but felt like it was bombarding my body with nasty chemicals. I also felt groggy and unhappy every time after taking it.

Valerian root has truly been a lifesaver for me! And there are so many clinical studies that prove its effectiveness. There are even references to it on medical websites such as Mount Sinai and the Mayo Clinic.

However, it has a really nasty taste. So instead of buying the loose leaf valerian sold by my local herbalist here in Cusco, I opt for the tablets, which I down with a glass of water. I find that they take about 45 minutes to kick in.

Some medical studies suggest that valerian root takes a couple of weeks of continued use to start to become effective, but that has never been the case for me. The first time I tried it, I fell back to sleep and slept soundly until 8 am. And it's worked for me ever since.

The United States FDA lists valerian root as "generally considered as safe." There are some studies that do point to side effects with excessive use. I can only speak to my personal experience: I've had it on my nightstand for years with no ill effects.

Sweet dreams!

WHAT I DRINK EVERY NIGHT FOR DIGESTIVE HEALTH

I've had stomach problems since I was a kid so I'm always trying to take care of my digestive health.

One of the things I love to do is sidle up to this hot healthy drink every evening. I try try not to drink it too late or else, I p*e way too much during the night!

It's super easy to make and tasty too.

You'll need boiling water, two or three limes and a small chunk of fresh ginger (about a third of the size of your thumb). You can also add sweetener. I love adding stevia.

I squeeze the lime juice into the hot water and add freshly grated ginger (I use the finest grate on my cheese grater). I add a tiny amount of stevia. I drink as is, meaning that I swallow down the grated ginger as well. I try and get as much ginger down as possible since it's such a fabulous digestive aid.

If you don't like all that ginger fiber, you can let your tea sit for 10 minutes and then strain out the ginger.

The lemon has a detoxing effect and is great for digestion. It's also great for your liver. The ginger also has antibiotic properties, killing off the bad stuff in my gut and helping to regulate my biome.

I would definitely use fresh ginger instead of dried. Studies have shown that dried ginger, while still delicious, loses most of its antibiotic properties. You can also use lemons in place of limes. Just make sure they are freshly squeezed.

SUPER FAST TREATMENT FOR COLD SORES

My husband actually discovered this one by accident. He loves putting raw garlic into everything, especially rice, which he eats a lot of. Several years back, he happened to have a cold sore and although the garlic in his food burned his lip like crazy, his cold sore was much better the next day. It was completely gone two days later.

On different occasions, we both tried taking slices of raw garlic and dabbing a cold sore. Within two or three days, our cold sore was always gone.

Be warned. While this is an amazing and effective solution, it does sting pretty badly.

A less painful alternative is fresh ginger root. It's another powerful antiviral that I have tried on cold sores and it works nearly as quickly and stings a whole lot less.

If you want to try this cold sore cure, take a slice of fresh garlic or ginger and dab a cold sore three times day for as many times as you can stand.

Then you can make delicious Chinese food with the leftover garlic and ginger. 😁

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This nasal rinsing method seriously changed my life. I went from debilitating upper respiratory infections every few months to living normally -- and being able to breathe.

Even though I've only had one upper respiratory infection over the past three years, I still do this every morning as a preventative measure. It also just feels so good when you're done -- it's like flossing your nose! 😁

I just use warm water with salt. I have tried adding iodine a few times, but never xylitol.

It's pretty intense and I know this is not for everyone. In my case, it took me a couple of days before I felt like I was doing it right. It's not pretty to watch, but the effects are definitely worth it.

https://youtu.be/dwJBBinb220

Chronic Sinus Problems? Try the Bulletproof Sinus Rinse. HOW TO GET RID OF A COLD QUICKLY: https://www.bulletproof.com/supplements/age-immune/how-to-get-rid-of-cold-quickly/The best nasal irrigation I’ve found is a...

THE EXTRA STEP I TAKE BEFORE EATING STRAWBERRIES

If you live in Europe, North America, or Australia, you're probably used to rinsing off your strawberries quickly or even eating them straight out of the box. However, in developing countries, it's important to disinfect your strawberries to prevent cysticercosis.

Cysticercosis is just as bad or worse than it sounds. It's a disease caused by the larva of a certain type of tapeworm. The larva embed themselves in a person's muscles or brain and the result is seizures or muscle tremors like those experienced by Parkinson's patients. Not my idea of a fun time!

I hope I haven't ruined strawberries for you! There is a simple preventative measure. Since I live in Peru, I disinfect my strawberries in a mixture of water with a small amount of bleach. I wait five minutes and then rinse with clean, drinking water. Voila! Tapeworm-free fruit!

Remember this the next time you're traveling through a developing country and decide to go out to eat. Strawberries and lettuce are particularly prone to carrying this nasty parasite. I would only eat strawberries and lettuce that I had disinfected myself.

SPEAKING OF CHOCOLATE...

What? No one was speaking of chocolate? Why not?

Chocolate is one of my favorite health foods. Oh, how I wish I were talking about Snicker's bars and fudge here. But no, life is unfair that way.

However, pure dark chocolate has some amazing health benefits when eaten in its pure dark form, without added milk. Two of my favorite benefits:

1. IT IMPROVES GUT HEALTH

I am always looking to improve my digestion, since I have a few genetic strikes against me there. In one study conducted by the University of Reading in the U.K., 22 volunteers were given a cocoa beverage for four weeks. The results were large increases in good bacteria: Lactobacillus quantities increased by 17.5 times and Bifidobacteria quantities increased by 3.6 times.

2. IT CAN INCREASE STEM CELL PRODUCTION

Your body uses stem cells to heal itself. So I like to think of chocolate as a great addition to your diet, no matter what you're suffering from. You're giving your body another tool to fix itself on its own.

One study proving this benefit was conducted by UC-San Francisco. Participants drinking cocoa twice a day for 30 days had twice the number of stem cells as those in the control group.

However, to maximize chocolate's benefits, it's best to eat it in its dark, unsweetened form. My super simple recipe for healthy hot chocolate:

I start with a chunk of unsweetened chocolate in bar form. I break off a chunk about an inch or so on all sides (around 2 and a half cm) -- obviously this is not an exact science! Then I plop my chunk of chocolate it into water and boil it for about five minutes. Then I add stevia and drink it warm.

It's not quite a Snicker's bar, but it is pretty tasty, and as I drink it, I try and think of all the good things it's doing for my body.

MY STORY IN A BLOGSHELL

I first became interested in natural healing methods after suffering for years with upper respiratory infections. Without antibiotics, I was once bedridden for six weeks with one of these infections, and eventually I started getting these infections several times a year.

Each time I came down with an upper respiratory infection, I took another course of antibiotics in the hopes of getting better as quickly as possible. And then the antibiotics quit working.

Eventually I came across a book by Stephen Harrod Buhner called Natural Antibiotics, which talked about antibiotic resistance and proposed herbs as an alterative remedy.

What I really loved about this book was Buhner's scientific approach to herbs. He wasn't recommending a plant because his grandmother used it. Instead, he used reputable scientific studies to back his claims, which got my attention.

The other thing I loved was his explanation of why plants were actually perfectly suited to fight pathogens when it came to the problem of antibiotic resistance:

"It is easy for a rapidly reproducing bug or bacterial species to outwit (out-evolve) a single compound by learning to break it down or even to use it in its own metabolism, but not so easy for it to outwit the complex compounds found in herbs."

In other words, even though scientists have often turned to plants to create a new antiobiotic, they are almost always trying to isolate a single compound found in the plant. For a bacteria, it doesn't take long to figure out how to outsmart a single compound. But a plant uses hundreds or thousands of different compounds in its fight against bacteria. Plants have also been fighting off bacteria for millions of years so it's not so easy for the bacteria to rapidly mutate and figure out how to fight off the plant’s complex mix of synergistic compounds.

This idea changed my life forever. And that was how I began my journey toward understanding herbs and their power to heal the body.

Moon ya? That's the way it's pronounced, but actually it's spelled "muña."

This plant is the pride of Cusco, with people constantly trying to sell it to me on the street. I hear the shouts of "muña, muña" as if they were trying to convince me to buy somethig a lot more exciting than herbal tea.

Muña is sold as a freshly cut plant and also in teabag form. The plant has a minty flavor and is usually ingested as a tea, though it's also used as a spice in several Peruvian dishes. It's good for digestion and gastritis and has a slight calming effect.

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"Here be dragonfruit."

If you're not familiar with the phrase "here be dragons," it has kind of a fascinating history. Cartographers in the 1700s would put it on their maps to mark unexplored parts of the world, warning potential travelers that these were places filled with monsters and other unknown perils. Back then, I guess "Beware of dog!" simply wasn't enough.

I suppose it's fitting that I live in one of those places that was once considered remote and threatening -- and then there's the fact that Peru is filled with dragonfruit.

In the United States, I know they can be super expensive. However, when they're in season, I can buy dragon fruit for less than a dollar each at the main outdoor market in Cusco.

They do wonders for my gut health. Whenever I'm feeling a little clogged up, a dragonfruit roars through my digestive system and seems to scare all the bad stuff away within a few hours. So grateful for this fruit and to be able to live in a place where I can actually afford it!

What's the only word in English that rhymes with BAZINGA? Why, moringa, of course!

Native to Africa and Asia, this plant is widely available in Peru. (Actually, I learned about it here.) Most people take it to help control their diabetes. There have been several reputable scientific studies that show its effectiveness in blood sugar control, in increasing natural insulin production and in reducing insulin resistance.

It's also purported to help in reduce the proliferation of cancer cells, in lowering high blood pressure, and in protecting gastic mucosa against stomach ulcers.

The only thing is that it doesn't taste so great. "Hay-like" is the best description that comes to mind. You can get it in tablets, but I have yet to find them in Cusco so I buy the powdered form and suck it up (quite literally). I put a tablespoon into a large cup of very hot water, stir, and swallow.

It's not the most fun I've ever had with herbs, but I try and think about the good things that it's doing for my longterm health.

Talk about the world's most boring hallucinogen!

Wormwood is the ingredient in absinthe blamed for causing delirium and visions, though whether the plant really has this ability has long been a subject of debate.

There is some evidence to suggest that mixing wormwood with alcohol probably isn't the best idea as alcohol extracts a higher level of thujone from the plant, the alcaloid blamed for causing central nervous system damage and seizures.

However in recent years, most scientists have concluded that thujone wasn't ever the problem to begin with -- it was people drinking extreme quantities of alcohol!

I've taken wormwood to help with digestive issues. I live without a gall bladder and have struggled with stomach issues since I was little. Earlier this year, I juiced up the plant and took a tablespoon a day for two weeks. Sadly, no hallucinations to write about.

But, man, was it hard to swallow. Literally! It is so bitter that I kept adding hot water to my juice mix until I got it all down.

While it's not the world's tastiest plant, I am a fan of wormwood's anti-cancer properties. There is a growing body of clinical evidence that this plant is a powerful cancer fighter. If you want to know more, here is just one article that I found in the National Institute for Health's Library:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6347441/

Wormwood is also the source of the strongest anti-malarial medicine in existence. Doctors use semisynthetic extracts from the plant in treating malaria (Google "artemisinin" for more info), but using the actual plant works even better.

So, next time you get malaria, now you know where to turn. Though you might have to fly to Peru to get some. (Then again, you'd probably have to fly to Peru to catch malaria in the first place. Nice how that works out, isn't it?)

Getting a little flax with your diet? You should be!

In Bolivia and Peru, "linaza" is a white-colored drink made with flaxseed and lemon that is great for digestion. It's so common you can buy it on the street or wherever fruit juices are sold.

Some people consider flax a super food. It's packed with omega-3 fatty acids. There is some research that shows it can help decrease blood pressure, reduce cholesterol and even fight off cancer.

For me, it's been a lifesaver when it comes to digestion. I've suffered with stomach problems and constipation since childhood and linaza has worked wonders.

Linaza is super healthy and delicious. You can drink it cold or warm.

To make this traditional Andean drink:

Take two tablespoons of whole flax seed and combine them in a pan with four cups of water. Heat until boiling, then simmer for four to five minutes.

Pour the liquid through a strainer. Throw out the used flaxseed husks.

Mix the liquid with your sweetener of choice. I prefer stevia.

Add the juice of one lemon or lime.

You can enjoy the drink while it's warm or put it in the fridge and wait for it to chill.