My daughter has been complaining that her mouth hurts, and I thought nothing of it because she said she scratched her cheek with her fingernail. Yesterday, I finally looked in her mouth, and there was a huge canker sore, which is a small mouth ulcer. Canker sores can be caused by a minor injury to the mouth, such as my daughter’s fingernail, as well as bacteria, a faulty immune system, stress, certain foods (chocolate, coffee, strawberries, etc.) and/or a diet lacking B vitamins. I wondered if the flush of strawberries from the garden had been impacting my daughter’s canker sore, as well as her weekend full of ballet performances added stress to her little body. There is also some evidence that toothpastes containing SLS, like Tom’s of Maine, may contribute to canker sores.
Most canker sores heal on their own within two weeks, but due to my daughter’s pain, I decided to treat it naturally with herbs and homeopathy that we already had in our home. There are other recommended herbs not included in this list, but this list reflects our current regime without making a special trip to town.
- Calcarea Carbonica: This homeopathic remedy is often recommended for canker sores, but like all homeopathic remedies, the remedy needs to be selected based on the individual’s symptoms beyond the sore itself. Homeopathy takes a holistic approach when choosing the correct remedy. Borax is more often used for canker sores than calcarea carbonica, but since CC is also a remedy for cradle cap, we already had it.
- Herbal mouth rinse: In a little bit of water, combine salt, echinacea, goldenseal, and calendula tinctures. Swish in the mouth for about 10-20 seconds. This mouth rinse tastes awful, but if your child will take it, their canker sores will heal faster. Native Americans have traditionally used echinacea and golden seal to heal open wounds, and I have witnessed these herbs amazing healing properties with my dog. By packing my dog’s wounds with golden seal, she managed to avoid surgery after a bad dog fight.
- B Vitamins: People whose diets lack B vitamins often have recurring canker sores. B vitamins also help with stress, which can cause or contribute to these mouth ulcers.
- Zinc : Zinc is another important nutrient often lacking in people’s diets who suffer from canker sores. You can usually find zinc in fruit flavored lozenges, which are much easier for children to take than swallowing capsules or pills.
- Multivitamins: Once again, if a poor diet is to blame, quickly boosting your child’s diet with a multivitamin may help heal the canker sore. My kids love Rainbow Light’s chewable NutriStars, which contain plant source enzymes, supporting herbs, vegetable concentrates, and superfoods.
- Acidophilus: Acidophilus is considered an important supplement for preventing canker sore outbreaks. Most natural yogurts contain this beneficial bacteria, but I found a children’s chewable supplement called Junior Dophilus for my son had taken antibiotics after surgery.
- Chamomile tea: Not only will chamomile tea help calm a child and prepare them for nighttime, this nerve tonic is useful in treating canker sores. My daughter has been drinking chamomile tea from a travel mug beside her bed, as she read in the evenings.
- Baking soda paste: Mix a small amount of baking soda with water and apply it directly to the canker sore. This does hurt a little, so your child may not tolerate it. Baking soda is most effective when done as soon as a sore is noticed.
Since we started this regime yesterday, my daughter’s whining has subsided and she feels better. My herbalist friend also recommends vitamin C to help the immune system and licorice for inflammation, as well as lysine. Gathering additional remedies would mean a trip to town, so we will hope that our current regime will offer my daughter continued canker sore relief! Of course, if your child has any medical conditions or is on any medications, it is important to consult a health care provider before introducing herbal, natural remedies.
Image: The New York Times
Related posts on children’s natural health:
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Editor’s note: Part 3 of the “Human Interaction with Nature” series focuses on an endangered plant species: echinacea. This post, and the accompanying podcast, were created by Bobby Grace, and originally published on Friday, May 19th, 2008.
I spoke with KU professor, ethnobotanist, and Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie author Kelly Kindscher about the sustainability of Echinacea.
Echinacea is a species native to Kansas that is used as a general cure all and as protection against the common cold. In the United States, herbal medicine has gone by the wayside and today the main importer of Echinacea is Europe. The demand has leveled off, but there are still people harvesting the species.
The plant was heavily harvested during the herbal products boom of the late nineties. Harvesters were using shovels and pick axes to dig up roots and capitalize on the rush. Kelly’s work focuses on the harvesting techniques associated with Echinacea. He’s found that Echinacea is a very resilient species and will re-sprout even after a great amount of harvest.
Kelly believes the preservation and respect for native prairie habitat is the primary means for maintaining the species. Kelly’s work stresses the resilience of nature. Even after heavy harvest, Echinacea stands strong.
Read More about Endangered Plant Species:
Image credit: bcballard at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
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Wellness Formula is a blend of healing ingredients,
The immune system is our guardian angel if you will, it heals us with unconditional love, responds quickly to outside influences, and protects the body in microscopic, unconsciously controlled ways. When illness attacks hit, there is a way to consciously address these problems to support your natural healing system. The answer is Wellness Formula. It works very well when allergies or colds strike, and when we encounter extreme conditions and need a boost.
A key benefit of the daily wellness vitamins are increased and sustained antioxidant defense.
The maker Source Naturals provides a nice overview on how to befriend your immune system with this formula and explains the benefits of the blend:
“White blood cells generate free radicals, highly reactive molecules that can damage cells. Vitamin C, a free radical scavenger, is concentrated in certain white blood cells at much greater levels than in surrounding fluid, providing them with a built-in defense mechanism. Bioflavonoids complement the action of vitamin C.”
Here are many more of the formula’s active ingredients:
- Vitamins A and C
- Astragalus
- Boneset
- Echinacea
- Isatis
- Propolis
- Selenium
- Zinc
- Beta Carotene
- Bioflavonoids
- Hawthorn
- Pau d’Arco
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Garlic
- Goldenseal
- Mullein,
- Copper
- Oregon Grape
- Siberian Ginseng
For example they explain more about specific ingredients like Siberian Ginseng for: “Stress Response Mechanisms~
Science now shows that emotional and physiological stress significantly impact the immune system. Siberian ginseng is an adaptogen whose key constituents, saponin glycosides, support the body’s stress response.”
The formula also helps the respiratory system by helping to naturally aid in cleansing mucous membranes. Nasal passages, sinus areas, throat and bronchial tubes are protected and guarded by mucous membrane. Our membranes help to protect us and to cleanse the body of outside influences. Nutritional aids that help the integrity of these membranes is key because these moist layers of connective tissue are the initial helpers in immune defense. The Wellness Formula has a special blend of respiratory healing ingredients as well to aid in the health of the entire system.
I have been taking these vitamins for some time now and let me tell you, they work. I am always protected by my guardian angel immune system that I nurture with Source Naturals Wellness Formula and I feel great!
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Editor’s note: Last week, we published a piece by our editorial intern Oscar Cardenas on the endangered status of many herbs used in alternative health practices. Today, we’re pleased to give you Oscar’s second piece on the subject, which focuses on the popular herb Echinacea.
Imagine an organism, native to the American prairie, whose value to people prompted wholesale hunting to fill the demands of a niche market. In the period of roughly a decade and a half, consumers managed to rediscover and exploit natural reserves of this species which had originally been utilized by Native Americans in the eastern United States. The organism, echinacea (not the American bison), consists of 9 species of plants, some of which are recognized as endangered by federal and state authorities.
What Is Echinacea and How Does it Work?
The blanket term echinacea usually refers to three species of this plant: Echinacea angustifolia, Echinacea purpurea, and Echinacea pallida. All three varieties are native to North America and are often packed into individual or homogenized mixtures that are marketed as immunity boosters and touted to either prevent colds or lessen their impact/duration. Echinacea can be used preventatively or post-exposure to shorten the duration of colds when the rhinovirus (the cause of the all-too-common cold) has invaded and incubated, causing symptoms (the sniffles). Doses are delivered orally and come in the form of tinctures, pills, or drinks with intake instructions specific to the product listed within the packaging.
The active components have yet to be identified but echinacea is believed to improve immune defenses by stimulating lymphocyte activity. Lymphocytes are the white blood cells that fight disease-causing pathogens by identifying, marking, and “eating” them. Additionally, echinacea appears to increase interferon levels which interfere with the reproduction of viruses like the rhinovirus.
The Market for Echinacea
The demand for echinacea was extremely high around the close of the last century. Echinacea sales totaled some $300 million a year in the late 90s; however, these numbers have since dropped to around $150 million a year. According to the Nutrition Business Journal, 2006 saw a drop in echinacea sales with $129 million-worth sold in the United States. Theories abound as to the potential reason for a dip in sales of late including a reported lack of effectiveness and the presence of other remedies (goldenseal, vitamin C and zinc combinations, etc).
I believe that high demand for echinacea will resume. The most recent study published in July 2007’s The Lancet Infectious Diseases concluded that taking echinacea reduced the risk of catching a cold by 58%. Additionally, it lessened the duration of colds by an indefinite amount (couldn’t agree on that one, I guess).
Save the Echinaceae?
Humanity has done a good job of learning from the past. Due to the diligent efforts of the American Bison Society, the buffaloes are once again roaming parts of the central U.S.. Likewise, wild endangered echinacea plants are protected in states like Florida, Michigan, and Tennessee. A rigorous monitoring system set up to protect wild echinacea plants would be well-advised before the next surge in demand (October through April, roughly). In the meantime, seek out and patronize dealers that practice sustainable agriculture.
For further reading on endangered/protected animal and plant species, go to:
The US Deparment of Agriculture
The US Fish and Wildlife Service
Read More about Alternative Health Products and Practices:
Natural Remedies for Morning Sickness
Image credit: bcballard at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
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Editor’s note: As part of his editorial internship with Green Options Media this Spring, I asked San Francisco State senior Oscar Cardenas to create a blog series that we could publish at the end of the semester. Oscar choose medicinal herbs and the environment for his broad topic — this post is the first of two on the subject. We’ve really enjoyed working with Oscar this Spring, and wish him well. The second post will be up next Monday.
If you’re a college student looking for an internship this Summer, we’re looking for web publishing and marketing interns.
A 2007 study of health practice trends cited in an issue of Alternative Therapies estimated that nearly 1 of 5 Americans reported using herbals for treatment of health conditions or for health promotion (Gardiner et al., “Factors Associated with Herbal Therapy Use by Adults in the United States,” 22-29). This translates to a multi-billion dollar industry that will probably only grow as public education and the cost of medicines continue to rise. This trend, which spells good news for herbal therapy retailers and users, does not come without its share of potentially negative environmental consequences.
At-Risk American Herbs
The rise of herbal medicine intake in the United States has led to threats to the native floral populations that make up those medicines. In 2004 the World Health Organization listed five American plant species including American ginseng, black cohosh, echinacea, goldenseal, and slippery elm as “at risk” for endangerment. A brief description of these herbs and their characteristics shows why they’re in such demand:
- American Ginseng. Also called Panax quinquefolius, American ginseng shares many indications with its Asian cousin ranging from use as an aphrodisiac to enhancing stamina; however, common usage of ginseng is as an adaptogen to return one to a healthy state after exposure to a stressor. This plant grows wild in the eastern and southern United States.
- Echinacea. The darling of the herbal healing trade, three species of echinacea (angustifolia, purpurea, and pallida) represent the bulk of herbal remedy sales in the U.S. accounting for over a hundred million dollars-worth sold in 2006, alone. Multiple studies have shown echinacea to have an impact on the severity and duration of cold symptoms. This plant is native to the eastern and central United States.
- Goldenseal. Hydrastis canadensis grows wild in the eastern U.S. and parts of Canada. Used by Native Americans for centuries to paint skin and treat disease, goldenseal is touted to assist with coughs as an expectorant (induces coughing) and to treat minor wounds. (Note: despite rumors to the contrary, there is no proof that goldenseal clears urine of drug evidence.)
- Black Cohosh. Cimicifuga racemosa, or black cohosh, has been in use for years to lessen menopause symptoms and fluid retention. The verdict is still out on this one and women who are or may be pregnant should avoid this one altogether. Use caution when mimicking hormonal activity with any substance. This plant is a native of the eastern United States.
- Slippery Elm. Ulmus fulva (sometimes ulmus rubra or red elm), the slippery elm, is used to coat the lining of the stomach to soothe digestive irritation or topically to soothe irritated skin. There is still not much scientific documentation to support these claims, so be careful. This tree grows in the central and southern United States.
Many of the above medicinal herbs are not just in demand locally but across the world, as well. This demand will increase as public knowledge about their benefits increases. Efforts should be made to enlighten harvesters and consumers of the plight of these plant species in order to foster responsible consumption.
Also in the Green Options Media blog network:
Eco Child’s Play: Herbs for Kids
Eco Child’s Play: Homeopathic Pink Eye Relief
Image credit: Eggybird at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
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As I have mentioned before when discussing vaccinations, I am not a medical doctor or an herbalist, but when my children are sick, I reach for Herbs for Kids. Herbs for Kids are liquid tinctures that children readily take. Unlike tinctures made for adults that have a grain alcohol base, Herbs for Kids uses sweet glycerin to preserve the medicinal qualities of the plants.
Not only are Herbs for Kids alcohol-free, but they are specially formulated for children, including the appropriate dosage. Founded by herbalist Sunny Mavo, Herbs for Kids is “the first company dedicated to Earth-reviving herbal health care for children”. My husband and I love these tinctures so much, that we use them for ourselves as well. Our medicine chest is always stocked with the Echinacea and Astragalus, the Cherry Bark Blend, and the Elderberry Syrup. It is important to note that herbs preserved in glycerin have a shorter shelf life than those preserved in alcohol. Glycerin tinctures are good for approximately one year.
Cold and flu season are in full force, and Herbs for Kids makes it easy to treat your child naturally and easily. My family could not live without these products, and Herbs for Kids is not just for children! These products are safe, but it is always good to consult with a doctor or a herbalist if you have any questions or concerns.
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