NOTE: We never trade products for mentions in our blogs or our published magazine. We do receive free samples and will mention them only if we like the product or find it especially effective. 

A few weeks ago the employees in our office were saddened to hear that the little granddaughter of one of our co-workers had been badly burned in an accidental encounter with a teapot. The toddler had pulled on a tea towel hanging down from the kitchen cabinet and part of the tea pot, which had just been filled with boiling water, was resting on the towel. The hot water went down the little girl’s back, giving her second degree burns on most of her scalp, back and shoulders.

After spending time in the burn unit, she came home and underwent a couple more weeks of unpleasant recuperation. By this time, the open wounds had healed over and I knew it was time for our herbal secret arsenal. I contacted one of my friends, Gayle Bousman, who is an herbalist in the Ozarks and sells an amazing salve she creates on her farm in Missouri, Evening Shade Farms. Though it’s sold as a facial cream, thanks to FDA regulations that prevent it from being sold with any medical claims, Gayle’s Elder Cream is an amazing salve for healing skin that’s been burned or damaged. I used some when I had surgery on my hand and my doctor was simply amazed at the near-disappearance of the scar by my second follow-up visit. Gayle has given the cream to friends who’ve been treated for breast cancer and it helps heal up any skin damage due to radiation burns.

The bark of the elder tree, known for its skin healing properties,
is the main ingredient in Gayle’s Elder Cream.
Photo by Kpjas/Courtesy Flickr

I also called our friend Virginia DeSimone at derma e and asked what she could suggest. She overnighted a jar of derma e’s Cracked Skin Relief Crème and Scar Gel. Derma e is one of the companies whose products I use regularly and in whom I’ve never been disappointed. The quality of ingredients is superb and their formulations are thoughtfully done and actually accomplish what the company claims (not all that common in today’s market, sadly).

I knew that I could recommend any of these products for use on the baby’s scars because I trust the companies and products themselves. And I am so thrilled to report that Kelly, our co-worker, reported enthusiastically on Monday that she thinks the way her granddaughter’s scars are healing is just about miraculous.

I love hearing stories like this. Once again, we find in the plant world the stuff of miracles—or at least of dramatic healing with no side effects or additional pain.

Many, many thanks to Gayle and to Virginia for their kind contributions to the healing of a part of our office family.

What have you used for healing of scars and burns? And why aren’t these salves and creams used in every burn unit in the country?

I’m facing some serious temptation today. I wanted to stay home all day, not because I feel ill, but because I got my hands on another great cookbook. I didn’t want to call in sick, I wanted to call in cooking.

The Culinary Institute of America: The New Book of Soups (Lebhar-Friedman Books, 2009) is a real page-turner, at least for those of us who read cookbooks like some people read the latest fiction. Gorgeous photography, illustrated step-by-step techniques and simply scrumptious-sounding recipes from one of the world’s premiere culinary colleges—who wouldn’t want to immerse oneself in this?

If I were actually as enterprising as my busy brain tells me I am, I would take on a kind of Julie & Julia challenge and make one of these recipes every day for however long it took me to get through it. The book overflows with variety, and literally every recipe sounds do-able and delicious. How about the velvety Cream of Broccoli soup and the Fennel and Potato Chowder that look like health in a bowl? Or maybe the Tortellini in Brodo, with those sexy little pastas floating in that flavorful pool of broth? Don’t know how to make your own tortellini? The recipe includes directions and a helpful photo that will have you chanting like the Little Engine that Could, I think I can, I think I can … 

Some of the soups get more exotic, but I don’t know that they’re much more difficult. Minguichi, a cheese and chile soup, sounds like heaven to me after many years’ residence in New Mexico. And while it does involve peeling a couple of roasted poblano chiles, it doesn’t require many more steps than a basic cream of mushroom soup.

In the front of the book is a chapter on basics, detailing how to create a stock, what thickeners are and how to use them, how to “finish” a soup (other than licking the bowl, which one mustn’t do when anyone is watching, despite the temptation) and also a good little section on the importance of the right pots and tools. In the back are recipes for tasty accompaniments like Cheddar Rusks (rusks are pieces of bread toasted crisp and brown), homemade croutons and bread sticks, buttermilk biscuits and some deliciously unusual crackers (e.g. Cheddar Cheese and Walnut Icebox Crackers).

I know I have work to do today, but it won’t be easy. I have deadlines to meet, articles to edit and all the while I’m thinking, “Crab and Crimini Mushroom Chowder  … Cold Cantaloupe Cream Soup … Palmiers with Prosciutto …  Hmm … palmiers. I wonder what that is…

The Food and Drug Administration has ordered the makers of Botox (Allergan) to place a “black-box” warning on its packaging, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. Black-box warnings are required for drugs that present serious or life-threatening health risks. This order also applies to Dysport and Myobloc, rival products that, like Botox, are derived from a bacterial by product called botulinum toxin, which causes botulism. The drugs are used to smooth facial wrinkles, but can also interfere with breathing and swallowing.

Bad enough that each batch of Botox tortures and kills animals, it can also make you gasp and choke. And wasn’t the hideous sight of Ryan O’Neal’s frozen, immobile face as he grieved for the passing of Farrah enough to warn any rational person away from that stuff? (OK, I don’t know for sure if that is the reason for Ryan’s frozen face, but I’m not certain what else can turn a human face into a mask like that.)

Photo by AJ Cann/courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/people/ajc1/

Listen, people, faces that move and emote and express and even, God forbid, sag a bit, are human faces. We are human beings. We should have those kinds of faces.

Be kind to your face—and the rest of you—by eating lots of fruits and veggies, exercising, taking quality supplements, laughing a lot, having as much fun as possible and saying an emphatic NO! to tobacco products. Then as age has its way with you—and we all know it will (see mug shot of yours truly for verification)—you’ll have a face full of character and charm, rather than something that looks like it’s been dipped in lacquer.

Do yourself a favor with some natural, herby, fabulously aromatic lotions, potions, salves and creams that actually feed your hair and skin and give Botox and all that other unwholesome crud the old heave-ho!

Even though I’m buried with work today, I have now circled over to the Marketing Department three times, ostensibly to visit my friend Taylor. My meandering is really a visitation to see and smell Taylor’s hand balm. I drift over and cadge a little, rub it on my hands, come back to my office and just sit and smell them while I’m doing my other work. I can’t get enough of it!

The source of this fabulousness is Gardener’s All Natural Hand Balm with Shea Butter by SunFeather Natural Soap Company ($9), a delectable combination of olive oil and shea butter scented with lavender, lemon and ginger essential oils. It feels great on my sunburned hands (another story, precisely how my hands got sunburned), but most of all it smells like the essence of clean. The company says say it is made with lavender, lemon and ginger, but I know there has to be a secret ingredient in there somewhere. It smells like it is infused with pure summer in it!

www.sunfeather.com 

It isn’t a particularly girly scent; in fact, the aroma resembles that of some soap from Herban Cowboy that I discovered a few years back. But with the wonderful olive oil/shea butter combination, it makes for a product I know I will use again and again (as soon as I get my own. Relax, Taylor, your balm is safe from me). I will have the softest hands in the building.

If it were cologne, I’d wear it everywhere.

I finally have taken the plunge: I bought a new bike and have signed up for a 40-mile charity ride in June. I don’t actually think I can do it, given the flaccid state of my muscles right now–it's just six weeks away. But I’m going to give it the Compton try. Since diabetes is rampant on my family tree, the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure is a cause I can embrace enthusiastically.

When I lived in Santa Fe several years ago I rode my bike regularly (100+ miles a week) and was in the best shape of my life. But that was then, this is now. Now, my body is quick to tell me how much things have changed, especially in my right thumb and knee, which would just as soon I found a nice recliner and confined my movement to the occasional shamble to the fridge for a beer.

However, I am made of stronger stuff than that, so I refuse to give in. And besides, I have some important assistance to make those complaining muscles and joints quiet down and line up with my agenda.

My latest favorite assistance is Little Moon Essentials’ “Asana Kisser,” which is a salve that smells like health to me. It's composed of organic ginger and cayenne, wintergreen, camphor, lavender and menthol in a nice sesame-oil and beeswax base, which makes it go on easy and disappear quickly without feeling greasy. It isn’t magic, but it definitely has extraordinary healing power. It makes a huge difference in my ability to lean on handlebars for mile after mile and then to work those nifty little shifters strategically placed for thumb-and-finger operation.

I’m not kidding about this, and it isn’t a paid announcement. If you have joint or muscle pain, as in hands that hurt or joints that are stiff, GIVE IT A SHOT. I don’t know if it would be effective for seriously bad arthritis, but I can tell you that my thumb has given me so much trouble from time to time that I’ve worried I won’t be able to type (and then I immediately fall into doomsday fantasies about what I’d do for a living if I weren’t able to work a keyboard, so actually, it’s been good for my mental health as well, since I no longer have those worries.)

I’m also greatly assisted by regular visits to my friendly neighborhood practitioner of Zen Bodytherapy, which isn’t massage, but is a “structural realignment,” and sometimes feels like it sounds. But it works to loosen up the connective tissue that literally has my body in a bind.

With the combo of body therapy and Asana Kissers, I’m good to go.

Some of my other favorites for dealing with aches and pains are not necessarily new to me, but they are dependable and effective stalwarts: Boiron’s arnica gel, available at natural health stores, Nature’s Inventory Back Soothe and Neck & Shoulder Rub and HealthSonix’s ZingiberRx Joint and Muscle Cream. Again, they might not be magic, but as far as I’m concerned, they might as well be.

And let me repeat my mantra, just in case Constant Reader has forgotten: You don’t have to be stuck with stuff. Just because you have some body aches and pains or other medical problems, you don’t have to get stuck with them. For most of our common maladies, there are ways out, and often they involve a combination of body work, massage, diet, supplements and some of the absolutely great herbal products that are available now.

I could just go on and on …