1. Sage Tea (Salvia officinalis): suggested to be used as an antibacterial / antiseptic / antifungal / estrogen enhancer / blood sugar stabilizer / to treat spasmodic pain and irritable bowel syndrome (as an antispasmodic) / general body tonic

2. Ginger Tea (Zingiber officinale): suggested to be used for indigestion (dyspepsia) / stimulating the gastrointestinal system / alleviating constipation by promoting the production of bile / stimulating circulation by thinning the blood / to lower cholesterol / to calm anxiety by stimulating serotonin / regulating diabetic blood sugar levels / used to fight E. coli and certain kinds of diarrhea / as a treatment for nausea (considered safe for morning sickness in pregnant women) / as an anti-inflammatory / to teat arthritis / as a cough suppressant / as a treatment against viral infection such as the common cold / as a stimulant to decrease fatigue / said to prolong life ( a general panacea) / as a treatment used to fight ovarian and skin cancers / used as natural preservative

3. Chamomile Tea (M. chamomilla / Matricaria recutita known as German Chamomile or camomile): recommended to alleviate insomnia / reduce stress and anxiety due to having anxiolytic agents that act as tranquilizers / contain antiallergenic properties / used to treat certain skin disorders and rash-like breakouts / stimulate uterine contractions (and induce miscarriages) / used as a laxative to treat constipation and for its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties to treat irritable bowel syndrome and sooth the gastrointestinal tract / used as an antiseptic oral wash / due to containing the active ingredient terpene bisabolol is sometimes used to treat inflammation, swelling, pain, muscle cramping, back pain and alleviate redness in rosacea (topically) / promote healing / considered to be an antioxidant / as a herpes remedy / to regulate diabetic symptoms

Shopping Suggestions:

Sage:

• Alvita Sage Tea (24 caffeine-free tea bags)
• Desert Sage Tea (Full-leaf Loose Herb Tea) made by The Republic of Tea / beautifully packaged tin with 2.8 ounces
• Organic Sage Leaf by Starwest Botanicals (1 lb. bag)

Ginger:

• Organic Ginger Tea by Traditional Medicinals (Best Deal: 6 boxes with 16 tea bags)
• Lemon Ginger Tea by Yogi (Best Deal: 6 boxes of 16 tea bags)
• Organic Ginger Root by Starwest Botanicals (bulk 1 lb bag)

Chamomile:

• Certified Organic Chamomile Tea (a Fair Trade product) by Traditional Medicinals (Best Deal: 6 boxes of 16 tea bags)
• Organic Chamomile Tea by Davidson’s (bulk packages) 16 ounce bags

Can Sage, Ginger and Chamomile Tea Help Treat Chronic Health Conditions?

Sage - Sage oil is more potent and contains: cineole, which is a eucalyptol with anti-inflammatory properties. Aside from tannic acid, the leaf contains flavonoid glycosides that can have an antioxidant effect in the body. Sage also can contains niacin and estrogenic substances that may explain why in some women, drinking sage tea can have a mild effect on hormone levels – with positive or negative results depending on dosage and/or natural hormone conditions.

Ginger – Fresh ginger / essential oil contains: gingerol, which is related to the active ingredient in cayenne peppers (capsaicin). When ginger is dried and ground into a powder to make ginger tea preparations, gingerol becomes stronger and is converted to shogaols, said to have antibacterial properties and can aid gastrointestinal functions. For this spicy root to be a chemopreventive (to reverse carcinogenesis), more than ginger tea is required. Concentrated gingerol extracts may be used, but clinical studies don’t show conclusive evidence as to its cancer fighting effectiveness.

Chamomile – the essential oil is stronger and contains: terpene bisabolol, an anti-inflammatory that can aid gastrointestinal issues. The tea may contain luteolin, which is flavonoid with antioxidant properties, thought to help metabolize carbohydrates and aid in regulating the immune system The German chamomile flower may also act as an anti-inflammatory agent. It contains small amounts of coumarin (which gives chamomile its sweet hay-like scent) and may have positive effects against arrhythmia, hypertension and act as a mild painkiller. It has been studied to see if it may help treat diabetes and lower blood cholesterol levels, however results are inconclusive.

Difficult Questions on Natural Remedies and the Curative Powers of Herbs

With mounting evidence that genetics plays a major role in individual predispositions toward specific diseases and chronic health problems such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, gastrointestinal disorders, type II diabetes, cardiovascular and circulatory dysfunctions, rheumatoid / osteoarthritis conditions and even how well people fight bacterial infections and viruses like the common cold, we may begin to wonder if what we eat and drink makes much of a difference. At the same time, due to a recent trend toward alternative therapies and natural healing, confusion exists about what to do when faced with a serious illness. Some people are asking questions like:

1. If herbal remedies and teas stimulate or regulate body functions, why don’t medical authorities prescribe them instead of drugs?
2. If herbs prolong life, and be used in place of painkillers, antibiotics, antidepressants, tranquilizers as well as hormone or blood sugar regulators, why don’t researchers focus on studying the properties of chamomile, ginger or sage tea (for example)?
3. Why don’t pharmaceutical companies make herbal remedies, like ginger tea formulas, instead of leaving it in the hands of bulk herb store companies, traditional medicine shops and alternative healing clinics?
4. Why are herbal formulas and natural dietary supplements, considered “alternative”? Are there really two different systems that are equally effective – one that’s natural and one that’s mainstream and uses drugs?
5. If alternative healing teas really work, then why do bulk herb store and dietary supplement companies officially state that their products are NOT intended to treat or cure disease?
6. Why do medical or scientific professionals say that studies show inconclusive results while healers may say “scientific studies prove….”and then list traditional benefits of ginger, sage, chamomile and other herbal teas?
7. Is medical science withholding valuable information about natural remedies?

The Heavy Burden of Proof

Theoretically, herbal remedies like chamomile sage or ginger tea can stimulate or regulate certain functions because they contain ingredients that the body may respond to, and sometimes does. The problem is “sometimes”. The body not only follows a genetic code, but is regulated by chemicals. Slight chemical imbalances can lead to dramatic changes. In order to ascertain how a particular substance is produced or regulated, scientists / medical researchers examine stable (duplicable) formulas to see if a genuine chemical effect exists or merely a placebo response. In order to do this, isolating active ingredients is essential to measure dosages and see specific results. A scientific test can’t be conducted if dosages / ingredients are variable. Since herbal formulas are normally taken in less than precise ways and prepared using different methods, from plants grown and harvested in different regions with different levels of active ingredients, studying precise health effects is virtually impossible.

Product Example: Fresh Ginger Root by Ajika (Your Indian Shop USA)

How Much is Just Right?

When a drug is produced from a plant (such as when extracting or synthesizing salacin for aspirin from white willow bark), the active ingredient is isolated, and made identical, and therefore can be tested in exact dosages to know how much works, what’s safe, if reactions occur and why. But how much of a particular tranquilizing ingredient is in a cup of chamomile tea? How much of an antibacterial agent is in a teaspoon of Zingiber officinale in a ginger tea formula? How much will a cup of sage tea lower a diabetic’s blood sugar level?

Product Example: Chamomile Flowers by Frontier Whole German Certified Organic Chamomile (16 ounces per bag)

Factors that affect testing how much of an active ingredient is in something:

1. where the plant was grown / soil nutrients / regional type of plant
2. how it was harvested and handled afterward / heat/ light / moisture
3. how long the sage or ginger or chamomile has been left to steep before drinking
4. what other body chemicals (or regular foods) will interact with the active ingredients
5. what active ingredients remain after a plant is heated, cooked, boiled, brewed
6. how much of the curative power is placebo (which will only offer temporary relief)

(An ideal herbal preparation would be made from genetically identical plants, grown in identical soil, harvested in a controlled environment and isolated into specific dosages containing precise amounts of active ingredients, and that, by many standards, would convert it into something unnatural, perhaps a drug.)

Product Examples:

• Clary Sage Therapeutic Essential Oil 100% Pure (10 ml) by Edens Garden Price: $3.45
• White Sage Smudge Stick by Rollingforce (Usually used in ritual ceremonies of purification or as incense) Packs of two 5 / 6 inch bunches of dried Sage Price: $7.95

Dietary Supplement and Bulk Herb Store Products versus Pharmaceutical Brands

In order for pharmaceutical companies to sell a product as something that prolongs life, reduces pain, fights bacteria, curbs depression, tranquilizes anxiety, regulates hormones or balances blood sugar, they must prove, through controlled experiments that:

1. the product proposed for sale contains an ACTIVE INGREDIENT, not just a placebo
2. what DOSAGE is required to produce a specific RESULT
3. what SIDE EFFECTS will be produced by a specific dosage
4. that the product has been proven EFFECTIVE and generally safe

The above checklist can only be accomplished by having a stabilized product that’s always the same. Pharmaceutical companies and scientists are not conspiring to keep information from the public, they simply can’t get approval to sell a plant as medicine unless they can prove a specific benefit.

Many people aren’t aware that there are few laws restricting the sale of “known food substances” (which includes most herbs, spices, dietary supplements and tea preparations) so long as they claim no medicinal properties. Therefore, dietary supplement and bulk herb store companies don’t need to prove the effectiveness of anything they offer in order to retail it as a food. A “food” may not be sold as a cure for a specific condition, and therefore dietary supplements / herbal formulas, including sage, ginger and chamomile tea, have the disclaimer: NOT intended to treat or cure any particular disease. In the United States there’s usually an additional note that states that the FDA hasn’t evaluated the product or statements pertaining to potential health benefits.

Alternative Medicine?

“Alternative” is a term used for herbal remedies and traditional therapies as well as teas, detoxification agents and most natural healing products and supplements that cannot be tested in controlled environments to prove their effectiveness because they’re foods, spices, condiments, vitamins, minerals, tonics or herbal teas – often nutritious, energizing, invigorating and healthful, but not medicine to treat the body when something has gone seriously wrong. If an active ingredient in a herb or tea is studied and found to genuinely help a particular ailment (more so than a placebo), it’s then moved from its “alternative” status to “mainstream” medicine because its effectiveness has been substantiated with evidence.

A Quick (but informative) Read: Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine by Edzard Ernst & Simon Singh / 2009

The Cure for Death

Eating fresh natural foods and drinking herbal teas nourishes the body, and should be used as such. Food and teas are nutrition for energy and also for maintaining and preventing illness, as well as assimilating vitamins and eliminating waste – yet a handful of spinach or a bag of tomatoes (although containing vital ingredients for life and health) would make us laugh if retailed in supermarkets with a label claiming to cure a disease. When things go WRONG, we need more than regular healthy food.

Water, while being the elixir of life (without which we would not live more than a few days), if packaged in bottles that said: “The Cure for Death”, we’d probably all have a good laugh. Why don’t we laugh at herbal food preparations and medicinal teas that claim to cure everything from fungus to cancer? Because many individuals want to believe weird things and don’t want to hear that the body is driven by a genetic program and controlled by chemicals and neural circuits.

Suggested Book: Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer (foreword by Stephen Jay Gould) Paperback 2002

Choosing The Best Natural Foods and Herbal Teas as well as Medical Science

Some people sip on a cup of chamomile tea before going to bed, and after a stressful day it’s soothing, calming, relaxing. Those who have an irritable bowel or suffer from gastrointestinal disorders may find that altering their diet may have a positive effect, as will drinking sage tea. People who have frequent colds, flue and sluggishness due to stress, poor diet or lack of exercise, may alter unhealthy lifestyles and add stimulating herbs and spices to their meals, as well as warm drinks – perhaps ginger tea. But, when the body seriously malfunctions, it’s important to remember that science and medical technology is working FOR us – to prolong life and make us healthier. While eating healthy fresh foods and drinking herbal teas is a means to maintain health, even prevent some conditions from developing, sometimes we need more than herbs or teas to effectively heal the body or rid organs of disease.