IN THIS ISSUE:

Dear Friends of Healing Plants

Using Cat's Claw to Support the Lymph Glands and the Intestinal Tract

Using Royal Camu to Help Your Body Maintain a Low Viral Load

Testimonials for Royal Camu and Royal Desmodium

Viana's News: Peru

Health Action

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Dear Friends of Healing Plants:

Happy Spring! It's been an extra hard winter this year and world events have been very hard as well. The longer days with spring rains and spring sunshine are definitely welcome. The renewal of life against all appearances every year (for those of us who enjoy four seasons) is so encouraging. But with the change of seasons, people tend to overestimate the warmer temperatures, get chilled and come down with colds and flu. So I thought we should talk about strengthening the immune system. Immune system issues are big for many people because so many of us lead stressful lives with too little time for ourselves, because we tend to indulge in comfort foods more than is healthy for us and these foods create an idea environment for bacteria and viruses to multiply in our blood--and because of the general toxicity of our environment which puts extra stress on the immune system.

What is the Immune System?

Of course, it's kind of a misnomer to speak of "the immune system" since the body has so many different mechanisms for fighting off disease-the lymph system, the elimination systems-including the intestinal tract, the kidneys and bladder, and the skin; the blood in the circulatory system as a mechanism of detoxification, as well as a carrier of nutrients, the tracheae and lungs as an expeller of bacteria, viruses and phlegm-as well as a gateway for oxygen, an important fuel for all of the protective mechanisms in the body. These are some of the important elements in maintaining a healthy immune response.

In this edition of the Whole World of Herbs Newsletter, we will look at the role of two herbal products from Whole World Botanicals and their roles in supporting the immune response-Royal Cat's ClawT and Royal CamuT.

Using Cat's Claw to Support the Lymph Glands and the Intestinal Tract

Most people understand that the lymph glands that are found in all parts of our body are key to fighting off infection. The lymph glands bathe our organs and muscles and tissues with a powerful fluid that attacks pathogens. The lymph glands are most active when people are exercising. The movement of vigorous exercise stimulates them to produce more lymph fluid. So exercise is key to maintaining a healthy immune system. Did you know that 70% of your body's lymph glands are embedded in your intestinal tract? Mother Nature was wise in arranging this, as so many pathogens are eliminated through our intestines. If it weren't for the lymph glands in the intestines, our body would be a very toxic environment, indeed!

How to Balance Your Mood through a Clean Intestinal Tract

Another astounding piece of information about the intestinal tract told to me by a naturopathic doctor is that there are more neurotransmitters in the intestinal tract than there are in the brain! So when things aren't going so great in the intestinal tract, we tend to get depressed.

In order for the neurotransmitters to work well and for the lymph glands to do their job efficiently, they need a "clean" non-impacted colon--ideally one that eliminates fecal material twice a day--not once a day, as you probably grew up believing. That's where Royal Cat's Claw Tea and Liquid Extract .(Uncaria tomentosa) can make a major contribution, along with whole fruits--not fruit juice-and lightly steamed and raw vegetables and adequate exercise. Some people have asked me, "Does Cat's Claw work as well as Psyllium Husks?" Well, it's not a "bulker" and technically can't be called a laxative either. Because it helps stop diarrhea as well as helping with constipation. Uncaria tomentosa is an adaptogenic herb that provides wonderful nutritional support (with wonderful results) for all kinds of intestinal imbalances-including diverticulitis, Crohn's Disease, gastritis, acid reflux, and ulcers.

Cat's Claw is Helpful for People with Auto-Immune Conditions

For those who despite their best efforts with diet, exercise, find that they are subject frequently to infections and/or that their energy is definitely under par, they might consider turning to the great detoxifier and immune system builder-Royal Cat's Claw. One of the great things about Cat's Claw is that it does not stimulate the immune system in the way, for example, that the herb Echinacea does. So, it's fine for people with autoimmune conditions to take it. Royal Cat's Claw Tea or Royal Cat's Claw Liquid Extract taken two or three times a day for a few days every week or every other week will be very helpful and can be taken indefinitely on this basis. So it provides nutritional support for people with Hashimoto's and Graves' diseases, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, etc. It also has chemical compounds which help increase the killer T cells in our body and improve the efficiency of the macrophage cells in our body.

Strangthens the Immune System Through Purification of the Blood

These specialized blood cells, the killer T cells and the macrophage cells are a second aspect of our immune system. (When I was in Albuquerque recently I had the absolute fascination of seeing my own killer T cells and macrophage cells, along with my other blood cells, on a video screen magnified 20,000 times when I had a live blood cell analysis done.) These are the cells that destroy the viruses and the harmful bacteria, as well as the mutated "foreign" cells in our blood stream, helping the body to thrive in the midst of pathogens.

Evidence That Cat's Claw Supports Coronary Health

Royal Cat's Claw Tea (1/2 cup twice daily) or Royal Cat's Claw Liquid Extract (1 tsp. once a day or tsp. twice daily on an empty stomach) is a very effective form of nutritional support for people who have heart disease or for people who have a genetic tendency towards developing heart disease. One large well known clinic of alternative medicine has found that it lowers the C-reactive protein level in the blood of their patients down to practically zero. Research has shown that a high level of C-reactive serum protein level is correlated with a harmful inflammatory condition of the heart and is often a precursor of heart disease. Heart attacks are now understood as the end result of a long-standing inflammatory condition of the body. As many as 50% of heart attacks have been traced to a chronic bacterial condition in the heart. A rise in the C-reactive protein is part of this inflammatory response to the presence of infection. As you will remember, inflammation is a result of the body's trying to heal itself. So if the inflammation subsides, it is a good indication that the body has won its fight to heal itself. (Some doctors are now giving antibiotics to people with the early symptoms of coronary disease, but overuse of pharmaceutical antibiotics, of course, carries its own risks.) To read more about the results of published research on Uncaria tomentosa's effect on the heart and the immune system, go to the Herbal Library at Whole World Botanicals' website.

Which is Better-The Royal Cat's Claw Tea or the Liquid Extract?

I get this question all the time, and what's better for one person is not necessarily better for the other. The people who prefer the tea are the following: those who like tea, who have the time to make and store the tea, who want to save money (it's more economical), and who want to use a product that is closer to the way it was traditionally prepared. It's also preferable for people who don't do well with alcoholic extracts.

Those who prefer the Royal Cat's Claw Liquid Extract are those who: like the convenience (one teaspoon or less at a time taken from a dropper topped glass bottle), really love the taste, and value the double extraction process of the Liquid Extract-it's been extracted with alcohol and water separately, since some of the phytochemical actives of Uncaria tomentosa dissolve better in alcohol and some in water.

Using Royal Camu™ to Help Your Body Maintain a Low Viral Load

Another aspect of the immune system response is the way it uses Vitamin C. Every animal makes its own Vitamin C--except for primates--human beings, monkeys, gorillas, etc. We depend on an adequate fruit intake--or a Vitamin C supplement--to help our bodies fight off disease. Royal Camu is a high potency natural Vitamin C which is far more powerful than Ester C, according to most of the people who have used both. Although the scientific studies don't exist at this point, there are a number of medical doctors who routinely prescribe Royal Camu to their patients who have herpes infections, because the results are so outstanding. And we have many testimonials to that effect as well. Whole World Botanicals does not claim that Royal Camu "cures" or "treats" herpes infections. Rather, it provides the right nutritional support, just like synthetic Vitamin C but much more effective, we believe, so that the body can mount an effective on-going defense against the viruses which lie dormant in the blood.

Dr. Gary Null, a well known nutritional researcher and author of more than 40 books on health and nutrition, also claims that camu-camu provides excellent nutritional support for people who have the hepatitis virus. I have no personal knowledge or experience of this, but I do know that a high quality Vitamin C has proven to be very important as nutritional support of the liver.

Mainstream doctors are always telling their patients that it's better to get their vitamins from food than from vitamin pills. Well, so far, so good. The problem is that most of our foods have precious little Vitamin C in them by the time they reach our table. Royal Camu is a food--a dehydrated pulp from the Camu-Camu fruit that grows wild in the Amazon rainforest, but it is a superfood since it has more natural Vitamin C than any other food source so far discovered. Whole World Botanicals has many testimonials from individuals who swear by their Royal Camu Capsules or Powder and take it on a daily or twice daily basis to help maintain the strength of their immune system. The maintenance amount will vary from 2 caps (or 1/3 tsp.) once or twice a day to 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. several times a day to help build the body's ability to fight off infection. People with on-going or recurrent virus issues are particularly grateful for Royal Camu.

Testimonials for Royal Camu™ and Royal Desmodium™

Below is reprinted in full an e-mail which I received a couple of months ago.

Hi Viana. This is L.S. from Allentown, PA. I have spoken to you several times regarding my health problems and how your products have helped. Well, I just wanted to give you an update. I started taking Royal Camu and Royal Desmodium in Dec. 2001. That year was probably my worse year health-wise. I had pneumonia and/or bronchitis 4 times that year. In Nov. of 2001 my husband and I took a plane flight to our vacation and honestly I didn't think I would walk off that plane. My chest felt like it was going to explode, I had numbness in my left arm and shooting pains in my head. I know I had to do something. I started taking the Royal Camu and Royal Desmodium. I could not believe how well they worked. I began coughing up a lot of mucous. When that was cleared I started to feel better. I did not have any pneumonia, bronchitis-not even a cold in the whole year of 2002. It was amazing.

To read more about Royal Camu, go to the Herbal Library at Whole World Botanicals' website.

SPRING SPECIALS ON ROYAL CAT'S CLAW AND ROYAL CAMU
CLICK HERE TO VIEW SPECIALS

Viana's News: Peru

I thought you'd be interested in seeing the photos of a solar dryer that Whole World Botanicals helped to design. We provided the loan that made it possible for one of the certified organic maca growing communities which partners with us to build. The photos were taken at the end of last summer and the dryer was put into use for the last maca harvest.

The weather patterns up in the Central Sierra of Peru, the traditional ancient maca growing region, have been changing with global warming-just as they have in other parts of the world. The people there can no longer count on the dry harvest season to be dry, and the rainy season is no longer consistently rainy. These new weather patterns meant that the farmers would harvest their maca roots and spread them on the ground to dry and after some weeks of drying a sudden unexpected rain would come along and wet them thoroughly, causing many of them to rot on the ground.

The new solar dryer maintains the traditional sun drying method. (Many companies do away with this, buy the roots fresh and dry them in commercial electric or gas run dryers. Roots dried in this way at the very minimum don't have the delicious slowly ripened natural sugars in them which ours do.) Elena Rojas Martinez, former midwife and the other working founder of Whole World Botanicals, returned two weeks ago from her latest trip to the Peruvian Central Sierra where she visited our maca community partners and found the other communities clamoring for their own solar dryers as well. So we have decided that helping these other maca community partners get their own solar maca dryers will be a major commitment for us in 2003.

Click on an image to enlarge it:

Two maca cultivators with partially finished solar dryer to protect the maca roots which need to two months to fully dry from unseasonable rain.	A maca growing family of father and sons who helped to construct the solar dryer with Dr. Viana Muller, in a maca growing community at more than 14,000 feet above sea level.

Health Action

Many of you know about the new National Organic Standards Act which went into effect last October and which is regulated through the United States Department of Agriculture. Now consumers know that the products which carry the USDA Certified Organic Seal have met very stringent organic standards imposed and verified by a third party-an authority outside the Company. This gives substantial protection to the consumer. But the cattle and chicken industries are trying to weaken the standards for organic beef, poultry, eggs, and dairy and have introduced a rider to an appropriations bill that would not require that organic feed be fed to beef or chicken labeled "Certified Organic" or that organic feed be given to dairy cows and to chickens whose dairy products and eggs are labeled "Certified Organic." If we do not stand up to this blatant attempt by agri-business to have their way with the organic standards, this is just the beginning of the degradation to come.

Please go to www.google.com and type in the name of your Congressperson and your State to find the Congressperson's website and e-mail address. Then you can send the following message in your own words:

Dear Senator (Congressman) _________:
"I am very concerned that a special interest group-the beef cattle industry-are trying to dilute the National Organic Standards Act. The amount of organic food that sold last year grew by 50% over the year before. Americans are catching on to the importance of eating foods that don't contain chemical pesticides, hormones, or grown on depleted soils with chemical fertilizers. This is a very important growing consumer movement and we are a politically active group of people. Please demonstrate your support for the maintenance of the high standards of the National Organic Standards by VOTING AGAINST Section 771 of the Omnibus Appropriations Bill and VOTE IN FAVOR OF Vermont Senator Leahy's Organic Restoration Act. S 457.

Wishing you peace and good health con todo mi corazon,

-- Viana

"A Whole World of Herbs" email newsletter is published regularly by Viana Muller, Ph.D. Please invite your friends to subscribe! Send them a copy with your recommendation.
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NOTE: All information is intended for your general knowledge only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for specific medical conditions. You should seek prompt medical care for any specific health issues and consult your physician or health practitioner before starting any supplements, vitamins, diet programs, fitness regimens, or changing prescribed treatments or medications. The statements contained herein have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, mitigate or prevent any disease.

Whole World Botanicals is a Fair Trade company. We are members of Co-op America, helping to support the environment, and the native peoples who are the growers and collectors of these herbs.

"A Whole World of Herbs" is copyright © 2003, Viana Muller.

Whole World Botanicals, Inc.
PO Box 322074 Ft. Wash. Station
New York NY 10032
Toll-free phone 877-885-5517
Phone 212-781-6026    Fax 212-781-0440