I had no idea that the dandelion was really a wonderful gift from nature for our body's to help maintain the health of our liver and kidney's, like so many I have come to know who learned all about this abundant weed from their grandparents and how to make it into food, wine and even cookies! Neither did my dad!
I just thought they were beautiful fun flowers and loved blowing the white puffy seeds off their stem when they were ready to fly. Needless to say, my dad was not happy any time I did such a thing!
Do you have a parent or grandparent to teach you about dandelions and herbs?
Obviously, I did not and came to be an Herbalist due to being in dire straits, you can read that brief story here, and always wondered why the heck some kids grew up using dandelions as food and some grew up with parents ripping them out and throwing them away.
Did you know that before 1847 almost everyone in the U.S.A. used herbs, homeopathic and naturopathic health remedies as their #1, that were taught by the Native Americans and Europeons? Using these natural ways was the only way to truly help the body heal itself at the core issues for true healing is why they did so. Nature's plants are free to top it off!
What the heck happened?
Treatments had started in which blood would be drained from the body to "get the disease or devil out", cutting out limbs and whatever wasn't working right would happen and heavy dosages of something like mercury and lead would be given as another alternative for medical management. That's how allopathic medicine started out and the A.M.A. in a lump sum. Go here for more of the story.
Then I discovered what the true story behind 'snake oil' is! Do you know? It put me in a state of holy crap! Now everything is looking even clearer and no wonder why I've been having such a time being shunned by some friends and not taken seriously by many family members, even though I had huge results using herbal medicine with my kids, husband, myself and willing friends! Honestly, I'm grateful for continuing to be that "black sheep", listening to my intuition and overcoming my fear and self esteem issues in order to teach others what I had learned and embedded into my life from direct experience in seeing how well the body balanced and healed itself.
Oh here's what I found out about snake oil, there is the Chinese medicine oil from a snake to help with joint pain, but the well known, Quackery snake oil, which was used to turn the tables on holistic health care was invented by William Rockefeller. Mainly the petroleum derived oil called mineral oil claimed to cure cancer (also called ( "Rock oil") and many other frivolous claims.
I'd love to hear your reaction and your knowledge about all this, please comment below.
A couple more links if you'd like to explore more:
https://www.corbettreport.com/rockefeller-medicine-video/
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Rockefeller_Medicine_Men/lLBCsAfmNBYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover