"Here's good advice for practice: Go into partnership with nature, she does more than half the work and asks none of the fee."—Martin H. Fischer (1879-1962) Fischerisms (Howard Fabing and Ray Marr).

Nature can provide many answers indeed. If we would all follow nature's lead closely instead of trying to out-do her, we would probably be more balanced mentally, physically, and emotionally. Take a loot at the wild animals, for instance. When an animal is injured it fasts, it only eats when hungry, and then stops when it has had the proper amount of food.

Most animals stretch after sleeping and before walking around again. The female animal chooses her mate very carefully before mating and creating offspring. Don't we all have something to learn from nature?

This article will address some imbalances such as high and low blood pressure, bladder infections, bronchitis, and more, and then will show you what nature to offer as the balancing remedy.

Herbs For Bad Breath (Halitosis)

You don't have to eat onion to have bad breath. And you don't need to be a rocket scientist to realize that if everyone around you backs away when you talk to then you probably need an oral odor eater! Local infection such as gum disease harbor bacteria and can give a foul odor to your breath.

Sinus drainage can be another localized factor. If no localized problem exists, and if you haven't had onions or garlic lately, bad breath is probably a result of a toxic bowel or sour stomach. When bad breath is due to a sour stomach, food enzymes will help support your digestion and get to the cause of the problem.

Enzymes will also help you break down your foods better so that you are eliminating more efficiently. Enzyme tablets are best taken before meals. Remember our zinc rhyme? If you stink, take zinc. A client told me once about a friend's son's feet that smelled terrible all the time. His mother took him to a naturopath, who told him take zinc. After taking zinc for two days, the smell was gone!

Activated charcoal is another absorbing remedy that will absorb toxins and their smells from the body. Charcoal is used for other things as well, such as filtering harmful pollutants from drinking water. Taken internally, charcoal helps neutralize your bad odors, including body odors.

Chlorophyll, the green pigment of the plant, works as one of the best natural deodorizers for the body. Liquid chlorophyll can be swallowed straight, put in water or juice, or taken in capsule form. Liquid chlorophyll takes the smell out of the body and neutralizes acids in the body that can make you smell.

It's also good for helping to cleanse the bowel, which is where many waster materials are harbored. Liquid chlorophyll has been used for various conditions and has been useful in:

• Deodorizing the body
• Building up blood count in cases of anemia
• Stopping bleeding when applied externally to wounds
• Supporting the digestive system
• Restoring minerals in the body after depletion
• Clearing up skin conditions
• Providing energy
• Easing sore throats when used as a gargle
• Speeding the healing of cancer sores

Until the chlorophyll and charcoal kick in, you can use a dab of pure peppermint oil on your tongue to refresh your breath. Peppermint is stimulating and will give you a little lift, too. Peppermint also is an activating herb that is used as a flavoring in hard candy. Not only does it aid digestion by stimulating digestive juice, but it also has been useful in stimulating mental alertness.

Herb for Bites and Stings

From flies to mosquitoes to stinging bugs, there's not much we can do about living with these things. Bugs are part of our environment, and I remember my parents telling me that all creatures on earth have a purpose. (I still cannot figure out what purpose biting flies serve, however, except to help humans create new curse words!) Read on for some herbal help on keeping some bugs at bay!

And to fight off allergic reactions to bites and stings, a mixture of blessed thistle, pleurisy root, skullcap, and yerba santa will help you through. Another mixture rich in organic minerals includes alfalfa, marshmallow, plantain, horsetail, oatstraw, wheat grass, and hops. For allergic reactions, I also recommend taking pantothenic acid and high doses of vitamin C. Activated charcoal will help internally and externally as well.

Flies are attracted to dark colors, so try wearing nice white slacks next time you go camping. Just kidding, but remember the tip when you are packing your camp gear—bugs truly are less attracted to lighter-colored clothing. Blood-sucking bugs such as mosquitoes seem to be attracted to the sweet smell of your blood, so put away those M&M®s to fully enjoy the great outdoors.

Also make sure you don't wear any sweet-smelling perfumes or personal care products, which can attract way too much attention. In fact, pumping up your body with herbs that smell offensive to bugs such as garlic, will offer your best prevention.

Make sure you remove any stinger from the skin before applying any external applications. You can make a compress out of activated charcoal or black cohosh mixed with some aloe vera and place it on the affected area. For multiple stings, take a bath with activated charcoal in the water to draw out poisons from the skin.

To prevent being bitten in the first place, use a mixture of essential oils on your skin that works like a charm. Remember that your skin is an organ, so it also absorbs into the body what you apply to it. I like to use natural products whenever possible. Mix up a batch of equal parts of the following pure essential oils: citronella, lemongrass, lavender, and melaleuca (also known as tea tree oil).

You can add these to olive oil, store in a dark glass bottle, and apply as needed. If your oils are pure, they contain enzymes that will eat through plastic containers, so make sure you store any oils you mix in glass. These oils are natural and not harmful to your body, and best of all, bugs hate them!

Herb for Bladder Infection

A bladder infection (cystitis) is a painful inflammation of the bladder. Its symptoms include an urge to urinate frequently, even when bladder is empty, and painful or burning urination. The bladder may be so irritated that blood will be seen in the urine.

Bacteria found in the bowel can cause a bladder infection, so good old bowel cleansing is a great helper in reducing the possibility for future infection. An emotional link to bladder infections can literally be interpreted as "pissed off." If you are getting reoccurring infections, you might want to ask yourself who you're really angry at. Letting go of this anger might or might not help, but at least you will feel better emotionally!

Cranberries are Mother's aid to our bladder. These berries are very acidic and help to alter bacteria in the urine. In fact, studies have shown that a special factor in the juice of a cranberry seems to make harmful bacteria less likely to cling to the surface of cells in the urinary tract and can be your best preventative solution against bladder infections.

Cranberry concentrate can be found in powder form in capsules; drinking cranberry juice is good, too, but sugar-sweetened cranberry juice is not your best choice because the sugar can serve as food to harmful bacteria. Most health food stores carry cranberries juice sweetened with fruit juice, cranberries alone are very astringent and will make you pucker without some type of sweetener.

You may also juice and/or eat raw celery, water melon, cucumbers, parsley, and kale to help heal and soothe inflamed, internal mucus membranes in the bladder during or after a bladder infection. Buchu root (Barosma betulina) is another excellent herb to aid the bladder, and cranberry and buchu work very well together as a remedy for preventing bladder infections or any urinary tract infections.

Golden seal can be used to help fight the infection as well; uva ursi is another bladder tonic, and cornsilk nourishes the bladder and can serve as a diuretics. These herbs can all be used together or separately for any type of bladder problems. And don't forget to drink copious amounts of water when you have a bladder infection. Water will help flush out your infection.

To all you gals suffering from reoccurring urinary infections of any kind, I'd like to give you some kind advice that you might not have learned elsewhere. Typically bladder infections occur because of outside contamination. This can occur two ways. First, make sure that you wipe from front to back after urination.

Second, urinating after intercourse will help flush away extra bacteria and any rectal bacteria that can contaminated the vaginal area. You might want to use non-scented or non-dyed toilet paper because the chemicals used to make these pretty patterns and smells can be irritating to your sensitive parts.

Also, "holding it" can weaken the bladder and make you more vulnerable to future infections. When nature calls, be sure to answer!