Kirst's Health Kiosk

Miriamma Carson, one of my anarchist midwives...

Comfrey aka "Knitbone:" Nature's Bandaid
I first became aware of comfrey when a housemate in Santa Cruz, Ca. pointed to a plant with huge leaves in the yard and said that American Indians used the leaves as pouches to carry things in. I wondered how that worked, so I picked one of the big leaves and put some rosemary leaves in it, and rolled it up. The tissues of the leaf actually held it in place, like a weak Velcro, and as it dried, it dried in the shape of the pouch, similar to a fried eggroll, but more fragile. After that experience, I have since used comfrey in lotions and oils, skin poultices and compresses, hair tonics, as pouches, and more. Comfrey (symphytum officinale) has been cultivated since approximately 400 BC, is used medicinally and cosmetically, as well as in glue, leather tanning, soap making, fabric dying, fertilizer, etc. It is native to Europe and Asia, and grows in temperate climates. It is used in England, America, Germany, the USSR, Kenya, China, Angora, Haiti, Spain, Turkey… (Read More...)

Let Food Be Thy Medicine
Hippocrates, the person the Hippocratic Oath that doctors take is named after, said, "Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food." There is profound wisdom in that simple phrase. Modern Americans do not eat enough whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, even amidst the cheap abundance of such foods. But added to that, is the eating of foods that actually tax the system and lessen immunity, such as fast foods with little to no nutritional content. These foods take energy from the body to digest and give little back in return, depleting vitamins, not building them up. We also have a problematic, profit-driven health care crisis in America. From scheduled C-section births in conveyor belt succession, to doctors receiving drug company kickbacks, American health care is often lacking integrity. Corporate drug mogul motives have robbed essential plant and food healing knowledge, as well as health care knowledge, from the common people in an effort to capitalize on a health care monopoly based on greed. It is a revolutionary act for people to learn how to identify plants and herbs, and to learn how to use these plants and herbs. It is also revolutionary to learn how to avoid eating the foods that make us sick, regardless of what the advertising says, so we do not need the chemical prescriptions they feed us later to get "better." (Read More...)

Chemical Coolness: Anti-Capitalists in Makeup and Hair Dye
I am trying to figure out why so many of my friends who are eco-conscious, anti-capitalist, and anti-authoritarian, wear tons of toxic chemicals and corporate beauty products in the form of hair bleach and dye and face makeup. The pollution created from the making of the toxins on many an anarchists' head is equal to an SUV's pollution, I would guess. I do not believe all of the counterculture is buying bio-friendly hair bleach. Does that even exist? And I also know that a lot of the counter culture is buying cheap hair dye, full of toxic chemicals not only in the dye itself, but in the output in pollution in the making of those hair dyes at chemical factories. Additionally, most punks and anarchists I know cannot afford the designer organic face makeup available in health food stores. Many of them use cheap chemical cosmetic products, such as Maybelline. But even "health" products are made in polluting factories. "Tom's Toothpaste" makes it sound like he is making that stuff in a stream in his backyard. But I have heard from people who have visited the town Tom's factory is in, and Tom's toothpaste is made in a factory, polluting like all factories do. I have been trying to figure out for decades now, why buying a bunch of chemical crap from corporations, then smearing it on your face, is considered radical or anti-establishment in any way. (Read more...)

The Cancer Prevention Coalition's website at www.preventcancer.com is "Fighting for a safer environment at home, in the community, and at work." The site addresses some of the more controversial political aspects to the cancer industry. "Winning the war on cancer means preventing cancer. Yet cancer is a multi-billion dollar business (for pharmaceutical companies, etc.)." The site discusses failures in cancer prevention, as well as listing "avoidable exposures" for consumers to things such as U.S. milk and beef, the "dirty dozen" breast cancer risk factors, talcum powder, lice treatments, perfumes, cosmetics, hair dyes, hot dogs, irradiated food, insecticides, pesticides, household cleaning products…and potential work dangers, such as exposure to radiation, chemicals, pesticides, and indoor air pollution. The site promotes the "Stop Cancer Before It Starts Campaign," has posted cancer news stories, such as the European ban on American milk and beef, there is an extensive Links page, and you can sign up for "action alerts."

Natural Family Online (www.naturalfamilyonline.com) is a wealth of information for today's family striving for a more healthy and natural lifestyle. This site offers very practical advice for parents on a very wide breadth of topics. The site hosts articles on parenting teens, kid's crafts, potting training, pregnancy, baby and children's teeth, homeschooling, breastfeeding, kids and war, reading to kids, traveling with kids, sleeping information, cotton diapers, parenting stress, and more. They offer a free newsletter and have many useful forums to meet and discuss issues with other parents. I especially appreciated the forum topic, "Parents as People." The front page offers "Winter Illness and Flu Prevention" articles, with topics such as cough syrups and herbal immunity supplements and a section on child vaccinations, as well. The site offers information about natural treatments for lice, coughs, tummyache, asthma, etc., and has a Links page stocked with ample resources on parenting, birthing, products, services, and community resources for parents.

What People Eat on Raw Food Diets
When I used to eat only raw foods, people would constantly ask me what I ate. It was really weird! As if people could not imagine surviving on raw foods. But really, it is not that complex. It is quite simple really. I was raised eating TV dinners at home, and crap at fast food restaurants, like other American kids. It was not until I joined a cult called "The Source Family," that I was introduced to raw foods as a new way of eating and thinking. The Source Family ran a famous health food restaurant on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles. Only raw foods were served at the Source Restaurant for a while, but then over time, cooked food appeared on the menu (to the dismay of those on dishwashing duty). If nothing else, by eliminating cooked foods from your diet, you eliminate *a lot* of the crap that is not healthy to eat in the world. You also do not support as many industrial giants and processed food corporations. (Read More...)

The Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention hosts a website (http://www.yourdiseaserisk.harvard.edu/) offering preventative tips and information about cancer, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, and stroke. The website focuses primarily on risk assessment, screenings, and prevention. The site offers an in-depth cancer risk assessment tool for a wide range of cancers, including bladder, breast, cervical, colon, kidney, lung, melanoma, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, stomach, and uterine. These cancer topic areas include fact sheets and personal questionnaires about risk factors, as well as prevention tips. There is a "Community Action" component to the site which encourages people to get involved with community support and promotion of healthy lifestyles. The "Community Action" component addresses issues such as promoting physical activity and healthy diets, reducing tobacco use and alcohol consumption, reduction of sexual disease transmissions, skin protection from the sun, and more. The "Community Action" area also offer resources on promoting cancer prevention in your community.

A Canadian website entitled StopCancer.org (www.stopcancer.org) focuses on the environmental aspects of cancer prevention. Their logo is "Prevention Now." The site states its mission as being one of public education about the carcinogens in our earth, air, water and food, while promoting green alternatives to toxic chemicals. They cite the World Health Organization's findings in the 1960's that "concluded that the environment, not heredity, played the predominant role in causing cancer." The site offers a download entitled "Cancer and the Environment," and information on natural foods, women's health issues including breast and cervical cancer, recommended action to take such as pesticide petitions and writing government officials letters, and a current events section listing public forums on cancer prevention and conservation summits. The site has an extensive Links page, with links to topics such as breast cancer advocacy and education, cancer organizations, children and environment, environmental hazards, nuclear responsibility, pesticides, and more.

Feeding Vegetarians and Vegans In Your Family For The Holidays
I cannot count the times I hated holiday family dinners as a vegetarian. Each time my family acted like they had just found out I was a vegetarian! Even after years and years, no effort was made to accommodate my dietary preferences. It was instead sort of vengeful, as if having nothing to eat at those gatherings was my punishment for eating vegan or vegetarian foods. If I was going to eat like that, family members would scold, then I needed to just accept I could not eat food at family gatherings. This article was written for both the vegetarians and vegans who have been going through what I have just described for years with their family, but also for those family members who would like to show some extra care, as a gift, to their vegan and vegetarian relatives and guests. Feel free to forward this article to relatives.) (Read More...)

The Internet Connects Trauma Survivors
The internet is so new that we have barely touched upon its potential creative applications. I stumbled upon a use of the internet, which helped me heal from decades of trauma from child abuse. I used the internet to locate other adult survivors of the state run "child protection" institution in Los Angeles, Ca. called MacLaren Hall. MacLaren Hall functioned as an insane asylum/containment camp/prison for minors, although it was supposed to be a protective facility for severely abused children in Los Angeles county. Since my family were all either directly guilty, or guilty by association, or in the dark due to my parents skewing the facts, no one would talk to me about being in MacLaren Hall. But I used the internet to finally find someone else *who was there* to talk to about it, and finding those survivors seriously changed my life, and brought me a profound peace where before I had only angst. I have now realized this method of recovery could be used by survivors of trauma in many areas, such as survivors of mental asylums, group homes for troubled youth, war veterans, orphanage survivors, homeless allies, etc. This is not about locating old friends, even if some of the folks were friends for some period in time. This is really about finding other *strangers* who were in the same traumatic environment, often at the same time, to get validation and healing within that frightened memory you alone hold. (Read More...)

Kirsten Anderberg. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint/publish, please contact Kirsten at kirstena@resist.ca.

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