230 The Complete Home Guide to Herbs, Natural Healing, and Nutrition
~ Take cold sitz baths, which can help severely prolapsed piles, as can
sitting on bags of frozen peas at intervals.
(^) ~ An anal suppository (see chapter 3) will help heal and support the
area. Useful herbs would be barberry bark powder, black walnut hull
powder, a pinch of cayenne, and witch hazel essential oil.
hepatitis
Hepatitis is a form of liver disease that has several different causal agents,
its types currently labeled A, B, and C. Less common ones also exist. It
takes the form of liver infl ammation, usually caused by a viral infection,
which leaves the liver enlarged and unable to function properly.
Treatment before travel to countries where hepatitis is endemic is
preferable to vaccination;
I have known of many cases in which the patient felt that the vaccination
was responsible for later symptoms and, occasionally, for the full-blown
disease. Conventional medical practitioners will openly admit that
vaccination does not necessarily stop one from contracting hepatitis.
Symptoms include headaches, facial fl ushing, infl amed gums, tenderness
from infl ammation in the liver area, diarrhea, a yellow coating on the side
of the tongue, a profound sense of fatigue and loss of well-being, and
possibly migraine head aches. Hepatitis A is transmitted through food,
blood, water, bodily fl uids, and other sources of infection, and is usually
acute and infectious. Hepatitis B is more likely to be transmitted by
bodily fl uids including blood. It has an incubation period of three months,
and is usually chronic. Hepatitis C is also infectious, present in blood and
in broken, weeping skin. Current treatment of hepatitis C involves
prolonged doses of interferon, which can make the patient feel
permanently ill with fl ulike symptoms while simply delaying
the regeneration of the liver. Hepatitis is known to increase the likelihood
of other liver disease in later life.
Hepatitis is called chronic when it lasts longer than six months. Chills,
fever, and malaise accompany acute hepatitis. Although liver function
tests can be useful, generally no specifi c treatment is recommended
except rest for hepatitis A and B. Isolation may possibly be recommended,
depending on the type.
Hepatitis needs different treatment depending on the type. But all
types will respond to the following treatments:
f Bile needs to be decongested in this situation, and the “fi re” and
“heat” of the problem purged and cooled. Many herbs common to
the kitchen and garden will help: dandelion root, turmeric root, mint
leaf, oregano leaf, and burdock root. Avoid cooked and raw hot spices
diseases 230