herb drops

Hey, they said it was cool, it's not just me bragging

Parent Wise: Austin featured a wonderfully favorable review of Peak Power in this month’s edition (it’s on page 12 if you are interested in reading the print edition). My personal favorite part of the review:

“Coffee was her trusty crutch, but not altogether reliable, what with the super-ups and super-downs. So when we foisted Herbalogic’s Peak Power: Energy and Performance Formula on her, she figured she’d give it a try. And lo and behold, within two days she reported that she had energy that was consistent, soothing and sustainable.”

While I certainly cannot condone any disparaging remarks about my personal drug of choice, as an over-worked, exhausted mom myself, all I have to say to Tester Mama Rachel, I hear ya sister and glad we could help.

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Well not just one cup of coffee- he's a pretty cool kid

Quite without intent, it seems I have become a connoisseur of blogs, especially those on the topic of herbs and alternative health care. I guess it goes with the territory.

For most blogs about Traditional Chinese Herbal therapy (TCH) the intended audience are acupuncture and herbal practitioners. I’m not going to sugar coat it here, most of what’s written on these blogs are astoundingly boring. Maybe it’s the nature of the medicine, I don’t know.

So imagine how excited I got when one of the TCH bloggers posted about what is possibly my very favorite beverage in the world, and quite frankly one of the most exciting substances on the planet, coffee. And though well written and chock full of information, the post was still boring- no offence Eric. Let’s see if we can’t punch it up a bit.

Coffee drinking habits in the west being what they are, praise the creator of your choice, have inspired numerous scientific inquiries as to its curative effects. Several modern practitioners of Chinese medicine, in China no less, have spent some time talking about coffee in the language of TCH. Read the rest of this entry »

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How cute- the bottles look like they're dancing!

I recently read that Austin, Texas made the top 10 list of fittest cities in America. Places like Wheatsville, that provide healthy, organic foods at a reasonable price. And with their emphasis of locally produced stuff, Herbalogic continues to be a favorite! Once again we made it into the current Wheatsville Breeze.

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It's not just a fun, summer food anymore!

Standing majestically over all the other traditional Chinese herbs are those that do double duty as both herbs and foods. And emperor among this royal court reigns the benevolent watermelon. Traditionally used to combat summer heat and its effects- significant thirst, dark, scanty urine and dry heaves- it’s no wonder that entire towns have built reputations on growing these green skinned fruits of wonderfulness.

What prompts my love of the watermelon today in particular? As you may remember the Herbalogic team lives in beautiful Austin, Texas. And the rumors are true; summers here are just plain hot. This leaves us residents with two choices: cower inside for 3-5 months waiting for better weather (those of you to the north may be familiar with this strategy) or find ways to keep cool while enjoying our usual outdoor activities. Enter my love of the mighty watermelon.

During my herbal training, I once had an entire 45 minutes of lecture devoted to the watermelon and its two companion summer heat fighting foods, mung beans and lotus leaf. During the break, several of us students were comparing our own experiences with these foods. My friend, Cindy*, told me the following story.

Back before Cindy and her husband each spent 28 days on “vacation”, they used to throw wild pool parties at their home. Read the rest of this entry »

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Oh precious, I have you in my sights

Imagine my pleasure when I came across this article reporting that scientists have determined the mechanism by which the polyphenols in red wine inhibit cancer cell growth. Hooray for red wine! But wait, there’s a catch. Dr Gerald Weissmann, MD is quoted in the article:

“As long as they are taken in moderation, all signs show that red wine and green tea may be ranked among the most potent ‘health foods’ we know.”

There’s that sticky word, moderation.

It reminds of a time, just after college when my best friend and I took a celebratory trip to Spain. We toured around, saw sights, ate the food and drank the wine. One particularly hot and sunny day, we spent the afternoon in the sun on the beach. That night we met up with some other Americans for dinner, and started drinking red wine. After dinner, it hardly seemed fashionable to end the party, so we drank some more wine. In particular, we drank just about the cheapest Spanish rioja available. It was so cheap that $5 bought the bottle, the guy uncorked it, and then handed us 4 waxed paper cups to drink it out of. Read the rest of this entry »

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Do these shoes seem past their prime?

So many things in this world inspire me to sing their praises from atop the highest peak, or at least say how really great they make life. But the top three are probably

• The utilization of cell phones during airport pickups
• Maps
• Common sense

And truly, how I rank those three depends on my activity at the moment you ask me. Having recently seen an acupuncture patient, common sense is winning at the moment. Though not my most recent common sense moment, this is still my favorite.

An attorney friend came to me for acupuncture treatment for foot and ankle pain. He reported that the pain was much worse whenever he went running. I examined his foot, and inserted some acupuncture needles.

While he was lying on the table, I noticed the shoes he had worn into the office. They were a pair of worn out, misshapen, dilapidated running shoes. Read the rest of this entry »

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An actual case of heavy metal contamination

When my husband and I got married 5 years ago, many people had their doubts whether we would make it for two fundemental differences in our beliefs

• he’s a Yankee’s fan- hello, Red Sox fan here!
• he’s card-carrying, small-government, fiscal-restraint Republican- and I just wasn’t

But as time passes, and once respectable media outlets like the New York Times continue to run sensationalist crap, I find I am being pulled into the right wing conspiracy.

Specifically, this latest article reported the recent findings of a GAO report on dietary supplements.The first paragraph of the article reads:

Nearly all of the herbal dietary supplements tested in a Congressional investigation contained trace amounts of lead and other contaminants, and some supplement sellers made illegal claims that their products can cure cancer and other diseases, investigators found.

Anyone who bothers to continue reading will find in the second paragraph that those tested supplements that contained lead in fact “did not exceed thresholds considered dangerous”. But really, how many readers get to the second paragraph? Read the rest of this entry »

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When water doesn't move, it gets gross. Why do we think our bodies are any different?

Yesterday, after not having run for 2.5 weeks, I went running. During that run, I came to several important conclusions:

1) I will most certainly not survive a zombie attack of any sort

2) Me surviving the rise of the machines is not looking good either

3) I might survive the island, but only if it’s not too hot and I find that stash of food left by the Dharma initiative pretty quickly

However, if there is a sudden TV/movie pop-culture quiz that will save humanity, I’m your girl.

After my less than magnificent run, and I use that term “run” very loosely, I felt a lot better despite my performance. Why? In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) terminology, I had cleared stagnation.

The concept of stagnation as a cause of disease is huge in TCM. Read the rest of this entry »

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It's not just a vacation spot, it's a metaphor

If you ask me to describe my hair color, I usually say something about it being sewer-rat brown. And like most girls sporting naturally light-brown hair, I have a) spent a lot of money and time trying to change its color b) have noticed my hair has gotten considerably darker as I have aged and c) have inexplicably heard a bunch of blond jokes that I think were supposed to refer to me, and all I could think was, “Dude, are you color blind? So not blond here.”

But a few weeks ago while doing an education event for Herbalogic, I just smiled sweetly, at the guy who wanted to share his full library of blonde-jokes with me. To my shock and amazement, he told me one that I hadn’t heard before. It went something like this:

Two blondes were sitting on their back-porch in Austin looking up at the full moon.  One said, “Ah, look at how beautiful the moon is.” The other blonde said, “Yeah. I wonder which is closer- the moon or Florida?” After some consideration, the first blonde replied with an air of authority, “The moon.” Surprised at her friend’s self-assuredness, the second blonde asked, “How do you know?” Her friend answered with the supreme confidence that comes with rock-solid logic, “Well we can see the moon. We can’t see Florida, can we?”

OK, it’s not particularly funny. But this joke got me to thinking Read the rest of this entry »

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Featured on page 16, Herbalogic drops!

Having been living in the House of Plague since Monday, I’ve been a little out of it. So it was with a bit of confusion this morning that I found out the Austin American Statesman ran a piece about Herbalogic in the Glossy.

The conversation went something like this:

Rachel: Congratulations!! You look so awesome!

Me: Huh? What?

Rachel: In the Glossy!

Me: (briefly considering the possibility that the paparazzi had finally caught some photos of me in my glamorous double life) Huh? What?

Rachel: OMG- you have no idea do you? Herbalogic made it into the Glossy in the Statesman today.

Me: (slightly disappointed to realized that I do not in fact have a glamorous double life)  And that’s good, right?

Rachel: That’s amazing! The Glossy is very hip and very che’che’

Me: Hey, that is good!

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