Day 632 - Black Walnut (Juglans Nigra)

"The leaves of English walnut trees, Juglans regia L., also known as European walnut, have been used medicinally for thousands of years particularly for treating skin disorders. English walnut is native to southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, India and China.

The leaves are considered astringent, and insecticidal against bedbugs and mites (i.e. scabies). The famous herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper, used European walnut to "kill worms in the stomach or belly". The juice of the green husk was boiled with honey and used as a gargle for sore mouth and throat and to relieve heat and inflammation in the throat and stomach.

Walnut leaf today is most often used externally as an astringent for treating eczema, herpes and ulcers. The leaves of black walnut are most often used to treat hemorrhoids as well as liver and gallbladder problems. In folk medicine, black walnut leaf was also given to relieve headache, hepatitis, and skin conditions, although there is little evidence to back up these claims. The walnut’s active compound, juglone, isolated from black walnut, has been shown to be a laxative, fight worms, and have strong activity against bacteria and abnormal growths."*

*http://store.healingifts.com/blwaleexor.html

The headache has been pretty stable the whole summer, hovering between 1 and 2; I only had one flair-up which lasted a couple of days, and was only about a 5. I say ‘only a 5’ because those of you who also suffer from a constant headache know that 5 is bad but perfectly bearable. I have not had a 9 for a long time now luckily. I dread to remember what it was like.

I saw the kinesiologist again a week ago. When muscle testing me, ‘bacteria’ came up a few times; whether this is a possible bacteria I caught when travelling in South America this summer or a cause of the headache I do not know; he gave me black walnut drops to take for a few weeks.

I have recently had a number of postings on my blog - thank you everyone - although sadly many of those who have commented have had some terrible side effects from the medicines they have been taking to quell the headache. I cannot stress how much my headache has improved since those horrific first few months, and only through natural methods. I myself felt the urge to take some strong medicines at the very beginning when the haunting headache was horrendously bad but I opted out of this option having read what side effects some of these have.

I know natural remedies, as a general rule, take longer to have an effect on our organism but this is not a reason to discard them; western medicines may have an immediate effect but they all have side-effects of one sort or another. The stronger the medicine, the stronger the side effect. I know my headache has not gone away but it is better - all I am trying to say to those of you who suffer from a similar condition is to try some natural remedies first before moving onto potent medicines.