Photo courtesy Rickydavid on flickr

Did you know that sleep is the single most important factor in your daily health? Sleep rejuvenates and repairs you physically and mentally, and most of us don’t get nearly enough. The old adage of “eight hours a night” is a good starting point, but many people require more. If you are sleep deprived, it has been shown that three consecutive nights of nine and half hours of sleep or more is the magic bullet to reverse the damage. This of course can be difficult to achieve. Stress, physiological imbalance and uncomfortable conditions can keep you awake at night. So what can you do to help restore balance?

There are numerous herbs that have been used as sleep aids throughout history. What you want is an herb that relaxes your body and calms an overactive mind. Chamomile, Skullcap, Valerian and Passion Flower are but a few examples. Any of these can be used in combination as a tea or in a capsule in the evenings. As well, taking 400mg of magnesium before bed can help you get a restful night’s sleep.

Having been an employee of both Kroeger Herbs and now Hanna’s Herb Shop, I have tried many products. Of the line we produce, Serenity capsules, SLP Tea, Valerian Root and Kava Kava tinctures are all excellent for promoting relaxation and meaningful rest. Good health and good night!

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More and more veterinarians are starting to take advantage of this knowledge.  (Like Margate Animal Hospital, who use our products as part of their practice.)  Many herbal supplements are cheaper and safer than many of the pharmaceutical alternatives. Of course the most common treatments are for parasites such as worms and Lyme disease. Many more people are turning to natural sources for joint health and general nutrition for their pets as well. There is a company in Japan named Big Wood that manufactures pet food using some of our herbs and natural supplements to create a product that you would feel comfortable feeding to a human as well as your beloved furry family members.

More options are available all the time, especially if you keep an open mind. Just remember to start slow with our smallish friends because most animals will show results with less than you may think.

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Hanna had contact with many people both through her travels where she gave lectures on health and healing and through her Peaceful Meadow Retreat, where she taught closer to home, actually, right out of her home.  Many people would seek her out when they had some kind of health issue and they were unsure what the next step was. Usually she had a ready answer for them. But not always.

When she was stumped, she was not accepting of that as the final answer and she would put it to the frontline of her efforts until she came up with an answer. I especially remember one time when she was trying to come up with a solution for people with benign cysts. I had only been working for Kroeger for a relatively short amount of time and she came to me with a list of three herbs; Cottonwood Leaf, Grape Leaf and Chaparral Leaf, and the proportions to mix them. Now these are not all commonly traded herbs through the normal channels. Luckily we have many different options when it comes to sourcing raw materials. Though, it still is a challenge when they are new to our operation.

Well we all got right on the task of getting the herbs in, getting them to our resident miller and encapsulated as fast as we could. Which we thought was pretty fast. Hanna had a different opinion. You see. Once Hanna came up with her solution, she had already spread the word that it was available and she would check in with us every day to see if it was ready and usually well before it was done we would start getting orders for it from stores around the country.

We have always enjoyed the challenge and even though she often made us look like we were slowpokes holding back the healing medicine from her faithful followers, it was an honor to work so closely with such an amazing woman.

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The number one thing to look at is what you put in your body. Get rid of counting calories or the idea that fats make you fat, these strategies don’t work. If a calorie is empty, meaning it has no nutritional value, then you’ve fed yourself nothing that will nourish, nurture or feed your body. What kind of calories are more important than how many. This doesn’t mean overeat, it means be smart about what you eat: how much was it processed? Did it come out of the ground that way? Was it genetically modified? Does it have chemicals and pesticides on it? Was the meat you are eating pumped full of hormones? Eat as clean and balanced as possible and make sure you get a good variety of foods along with a good vitamin & mineral supplement.

Exercise is essential and the effects are exponential. It kicks in our metabolism. Start where you are at even if that means walking for 5 minutes outside; next week you can make it 10 minutes and keep building on your progress.

If you are truly eating well with little to no processed foods and you exercise, you would start looking at things like the thyroid which regulates metabolism. If you are constantly tired, overweight, having hair loss, cold body temperature and/or experiencing brain fog, you may want to get your thyroid checked. This is a simple blood test that your doctor can prescribe. To find out more, a good book is Solved: The Riddle of Illness by Stephen Langer, MD.

There is also the issue of absorption in the digestive system and food allergens which should be looked at. If a person is consuming something they are allergic to it causes inflammation in the digestive system, interrupting absorption. This can actually make a person over eat because the body truly is hungry, not getting nutrients and energy out of the food that’s being consumed. Really common food allergens are gluten (wheat, rye, barley), soy, corn and dairy.

Toxins must also be considered. If the body is overloaded with toxins and can’t eliminate them, those toxins get stored in the body and guess what? Those toxins are toxic, so they get buffered with fat. The body does this to protect itself. We are in a day and age when we are literally bombarded with toxins like never before in the history of humanity. We all know this, but because it’s part of daily life, it’s easy to forget how big a deal it really is. Most people have a large toxic load in their bodies that the liver, kidneys, lungs and skin can’t completely eliminate. It also explains why we keep getting heavier and heavier as a society.

Bottom line: there’s no quick fix. Look at your lifestyle, make some changes to take better care of yourself and consider doing some cleansing to help eliminate toxins. If you need help, there’s tons of amazing practitioners out there who would love to help you! Open your mind and find them and if you don’t know where to start, check your local health food store. Remember to be patient and kind to yourself in the process!

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Photo by Cody Carlson on Picasa

The fact that Mr. Meyer suggests that Mr. Ortiz’s ignorance of steroid use could be based on a congressional bill passed in 1994 doesn’t get the same consideration. Congress passed DSHEA (dietary supplement health & education act) to help regulate the dietary supplement industry. A key component in the bill was that the FDA would have to prove that a supplement was “unsafe” in order to remove it from the marketplace. I imagine that the FDA would love to have a budget large enough to inspect every questionable product being sold but they don’t and besides nowhere does DSHEA suggest that a product is “safe” until proven otherwise. Mr. Meyers article suggests just that and wants us all to overlook the simple fact that professional athletes are being duped into taking steroids because the FDA hasn’t proven them unsafe. Was Major League Baseball taking this same stance? In order to protect the game from itself MLB was actively testing athletes for steroids. I wonder if David Ortiz missed that memo?

Mr. Meyer accurately stated, “There is no denying that some manufacturers of supplements spike their products. I’m guessing here that the thought never occurred to Davis Ortiz? A headline article in the USA Today quotes Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo as saying although he “never knowingly took steroids, he felt the lure to take the same performance-enhancing drugs MLB eventually would ban.” What kind of logic does Bronson Arroyo have that David Ortiz didn’t?

Mr. Meyer closes by saying that even if Mr. Ortiz isn’t telling the truth his case is an important reminder that a supplement doesn’t have to be safe to be sold. No John, word on the street is that smoking is bad for you too but cigarettes are legal and I don’t see athletes getting the issue confused in the same way as they do with steroids. One enhances their performance; one doesn’t; yet there isn’t any confusion or excuses coming from athletes that they had a drop in performance because they smoked cigarettes unwittingly.

The dietary supplement industry is being asked to take responsibility for its actions and is doing so with a great deal of effort and pride. When will the athletes in this country take responsibility for their actions? It might even be time for journalists who make excuses for them to do the same thing.

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Hanna Kroeger

Hanna would walk in the back of her store at a brisk pace, through the stock room, past her employees and into the retail area.  She would stay just long enough to see how many people were waiting to see her.  Four days a week from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm she would share her knowledge with people seeking her help.  They would start lining up sometimes hours before she got there so they could be first in line.  She would survey the line, see how many people were waiting and after a quick hello to her employees jump into her tiny examination room and start with each person’s needs.

The room was all of about 6 ft by 6 ft and was filled with vitamin and herbal supplements from floor to ceiling and covering every wall.  There were a few small chairs and just enough room to stand if you weren’t luck enough to get a chair.  By the time she asked you how you were doing and what you had come to see her for she was half way to determining it on her own.  You might have a specific need you wanted her to address and she would listen to your ideas but would already have a suggestion in hand or a flyer ready for you to read.  She would answer your questions, tell you what to do and then stood up and walked out of the room (expecting you to follow) and motioning for the next person in line to go in the room for their turn.

She gave you time to tell your story, to look at what suggestions she had in mind and probably even gave you a little bottle of the product she thought would help you.  The only thing she didn’t give you was the time to absorb what your next step was.  That you had to do on your own.  “Next!” she would say. And there you were, already out the door and talking with one of her employees trying to get all of your questions answered.  Once you got your answers, you took your new remedies home and started on them right away and before you knew it felt very good in little time.  She must be good you would say, I feel much better.  That’s probably why the next time you waited in line to see her you didn’t protest her style, you did what you did last time and in no time you  were feeling well again.  That was Hanna, she helped you feel better and that was always her bottom line.  It soon became yours!

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