The New Healing Herbs: Revised and Updated [Paperback]

Discover how to get the most from nature’s oldest remedies

In this revised edition, The New Healing Herbs provides up-to-date profiles of 100 of the most widely used medicinal plants, detailing the therapeutic benefits and healing properties of each of these amazing natural cures. Inside you’ll find:

• Valuable advice for buying, storing, and preparing herbal remedies

• Clear, concise dosage instructions and safe-usage guidelines

• A comprehensive cure-finder chart with treatments for more than 100 common conditions--Ginkgo to improve and even reverse symptoms of macular degeneration...Cinnamon to treat cuts and scrapes...Marshmallow to boost immunity...St. John’s wort to speed healing...Coffee for weight loss...Ginger for colds...Apples as a source of first aid...And much more!“I have been searching for a user-friendly, objective herbal guide for years. Michael Castleman has finally provided one! This book will tell you what you need to know about how to use nature’s medicines effectively.”
--Joe Graedon, author ofThe People’s Pharmacy
Michael Castlemanwrites about health and sexuality. For thirty-five years, his journalism focused on health defined broadly, including optimal wellness, mainstream medicine, alternative therapies, nutrition, fitness, and sexuality. Castleman also writes mystery novels set in San Francisco.Chapter 1

From Magic to Medicine

5,000 Years of Herbal Healing

In 1991, on a glacier in the Italian Alps that had melted back to an unusual extent, hikers stumbled on a dead body. It turned out to be the naturally mummified body of a prehistoric man who had frozen to death some 5,300 years before and whose remains were preserved in the ice.

Dubbed the Iceman, he’s been studied by Italian anthropologists ever since. He wore straw-lined leather shoes, leather clothing, a thick clS4