Fever
Definition:
The elevation of the body temperature above normal (98.6 F., 37 C).
Symptoms:
It is characterized by increased heat, accelerated pulse, general functional derangement, and usually is accompanied with thirst and loss of appetite. [SNH p.23]
Cause:
Fever is not a disease but a condition in the body wherein the balance of circulation has become disturbed. This is nature's way of trying to burn out the toxic poisons. When the body becomes exposed to excessive chilling or dampness, the capillaries near the surface contract and the pores close by becoming obstructed with body waste matter. This results in a containment of body heat and a sudden rise of body temperature. In fever the natural body function is to increase the heat to a point wherein the thick glutinous and fibrinous matters loading and congesting the system are made liquid enough to pass through the fine and delicate excretory membranes and tubules. [SNH p.23]
Herbal Aids:
General Instructions: If the fever is from cold or flu, eliminate the mucoid condition and eliminate the problem. Raspberry, and other sweetening herbs, are very beneficial. Raise the body heat with moisture, a stimulant and diaphoretic herbs so the restricted blood vessels relax, the obstructed pores open, and the morbid material washes out in the subsequent profuse perspiration. [SNH p.23]
Echinacea: Fever, typhoid fever. Drink sufficient of the hot tea to induce diaphoresis, and administer hourly thereafter until the system is relieved of stagnated wastage. [SNH p.89]
See formula for the Four Greater Cold Seeds remedy for catarrhal affections, bowel and urinary disorders, fever, etc. using pumpkin seeds, ground seeds, watermelon seeds and cucumber seeds. [SNH p.126]
Camomile: Colds, bilious fever. Give a warm infusion with a little ginger added. [SNH p.219]
See formula using pleurisy root and ginger. [SNH p.221]
Boneset: Influenza, colds, fevers, etc. Give the patient 1/2-1 teacupful hot, every hour until freely perspiring and the fever begins to subside- then give in smaller dose as a tonic (cold) every 2-3 hours and keep closely-covered in bed 24-48 hours until all signs of the fever are gone. [SNH p.225]
See formula for fever, (opens pores, equalizes circulation), inflammation of throat using hyssop, vervain, raspberry, centaury, and cayenne. [SNH p.232]
Fever Compound: See formula using catnip, pleurisy root, lobelia and composition powder. [SNH p.237]
Fever Tonic #1 (tincture): See formula using Peruvian bark, wild cherry, cinnamon and cayenne. [SNH p.444]
Fever Tonic #2 (tincture): See formula using Peruvian bark, wild cherry, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and brandy. [SNH p.444]
Cold Sheet Treatment: A fever is given to a person to assist in healing the body which has an over-case of toxicity which is causing a disease (lack of ease). Fever is like a fire, which can warm your body and save your life, or burn your house down and kill you. If the fever is properly controlled and skillfully handled it will clean the poisons, toxins and surplus mucus from the body and bring on a healing crisis. If not controlled properly the fever can kill the patient. See the instructions for the nine step Cold Sheet Treatment. [HHH p.70]
See entire Appendix on Fevers: Their causes and their Aids in Herbal Home Health Care. [HHH p.170]
When a Fever Just Gets Started: it can be cleared up very easily, if these following procedures are started early. One of the most simple remedies is to stop the use of all foods and beverages, take a high herbal enema (catnip is good) and drink only red raspberry tea. Between cups of this tea, distilled water may be used, and if desired, give some good organic (natural) Vitamin C. Drink several quarts of red raspberry tea during the day, but no solid foods. The running nose, fever, headache and weariness will soon leave and one will feel like a new person. Even after feeling greatly improved, continue on with the red raspberry leaf tea all that day and well into the next day. If an adult will stay on the tea for three days, it would do a wonderful cleansing job for the body. To make red raspberry leaf tea put one heaping teaspoonful of cut or granulated (powdered) raspberry leaves into a teacup. Fill the cup with boiling distilled water, cover and let stand in a warm place for five or ten minutes. Strain, and drink it while it is very warm (You may use an ounce of red raspberry leaves to a pint of distilled water, if desiring to make up more at a time). [NL 3-1]
Elder Flowers and Peppermint: When taken alone, elder flowers are inclined to be an emetic, and somewhat nauseous to some people. The effect can be prevented by combining them with peppermint (Mentha piperita). Peppermint is a stimulant, nervine, calmative, and antiemetic, which offsets the undesirable effects of elder flowers. This combination is world famous as a great fever and cold remedy. [NL 3-1]
Blue Vervain: Blue Vervain is a powerful sudorific; taken in warm infusion it will produce profuse perspiration and efficiently break a fever. (Capsules taken with water can have the same effect) (Hut:59). It is especially effective in intermittent fevers and is said to cure colds overnight (Klo:59), possibly due to its tonic and hepatic properties. Give hot as a febrifuge while the patient is closely covered in bed, every hour or so until perspiration flows and the fever breaks. This is much better than artificially breaking the fever with aspirin or other such drugs, for a fever broken through perspiration will cleanse the body, but a fever treated with medicines will weaken the body and render it susceptible to further illness. Be sure, however, that high fevers are kept moist, that is, that the patient drinks copiously and is kept covered, for a high, dry fever can kill. Needless to say, a powerful sudorific such as Blue Vervain is excellent used in Dr. Christopher's Cold Sheet Treatment. [NL 5-10]
Testimonials:
1. Yarrow: If the array of so-called remedies of orthodox medicine were any good, there would be no sick left. How different is this to the simple methods of the old-time herbalist. He saw a patient who was fevered. He did not even take the temperature. Often he did not know what a clinical thermometer was. But he knew there was fever. He placed a handful of yarrows in a jug, poured a pint of boiling water over it, and after allowing it to stand a few minutes, gave the tea to the patient as warm as it could be drunk. The result was a free perspiration. Congestions were removed; the circulation was equalized. The patient-treatment was easy, the results were sure and the remedy was safe, simple and natural. We know as we write this that yarrows is just the same today as it was a thousand years ago. [SNH p.216]
2. Yarrow for Dr. Christopher's Daughter: Two years ago while away at a summer camp my daughter caught a severe cold. When I went to the island for the weekend I found her in bed with a high temperature, headache, and the general symptoms of influenza or la grippe, the body aching and in a most restless condition. I had noted some yarrows growing a little distance from our cottage and went and gathered a handful. I did not weigh it. I had no scales. It was not necessary. It was not a harmful drug. I placed a bunch of the whole plant in a jug and poured over it about one and a half pints of boiling water, covered it for about five minutes, then poured off a cupful of the warm tea. I gave this to my patient who, by the way, insisted that she would vomit if I made her drink the whole of it. I merely told her that if the stomach rejected it, the result would be a cleaner stomach for the next dose. She drank the cupful, I went into the kitchen and poured off a second cupful of the warm tea and gave this to the patient. She got it all down, and in a few minutes was perspiring freely. In half an hour she informed me she felt better and in the morning she was completely recovered. You ask me what would I have done if there had been no yarrows there. I would have looked for sage, peppermint, hyssop or any other of the half a dozen other herbs which will do the work. [SNH p.216]
3. Discovery of the Powers of Peruvian Bark for Fevers: The story is told that an Indian was cast out from his tribe when he had a high fever; a jungle fever that was thought by tribal associates to be highly contagious and fatal. And, as was their custom, he was cast out from among his people, and it was believed that he would soon die. But, as he crawled on his hands and knees through the dense jungle, in a state of delirium and trying to find water (as his fever had him to the point where he was literally dying from thirst), he found a pool of water. A tree had fallen into the pool and the water was very bitter, yet he was thirsty enough that he didn't care--it was water! After a short time, the fever left. So he went back to his tribal friends and loved ones, to their great astonishment, and he told them about the miraculous powers in the "healing waters" that had saved his life. So these Indians discovered the source of these bitter waters and to use the bark thereafter for fevers and other afflictions, and they found it to be marvelously healing. And from here, the fame of this great bitter, yet curative herb spread abroad, with many other effective cures resulting. [SNH p.445]
4. Water Cure: An old story of the first written instances of the water cure is as follows: Many years ago a peasant was heading home on foot, with miles to go. He was racked with fever, colds, and lumbago. While crossing a stream, over a log for a bridge, he slipped and fell into the icy cold water and was drenched to the skin. It was a bitterly cold day and the man had to walk home in the cold in sloppy wet clothes. By the time he had arrived home, his clothes were nearly dried out. The fevers and heat in his body had been raised, while hurrying miles home, to a point of healing climax and was down to nearly normal at the end of his journey. The lumbago and fever were gone and he rejoiced! The next time he got lumbago and fevers he knew the cure--he would return to the stream, fall in and walk home again. [HHH p.70]
5. Lobelia: "Another incident I will relate while I was cutting up the lap of a large oak tree, together with a man named Jackson, as it was our day to work tithing. We were strangers to each other. It was hot weather and very sickly. Some would take the fever and die before the news would get circulated. Early in the day he suddenly took a very high fever; it was a very serious case and he was very much alarmed about it. I told him that there was a little weed growing around I thought might do him good. He eagerly wished for it. It was lobelia of the first year's growth. Some not much larger than a dollar and lay flat on the ground. I got some of it and told him to eat it, just like a cow would eat grass and he did so, and in a few minutes it vomited him powerfully and broke the fever and he finished his day's work. I mention this to show you what virtue there is in lobelia." [NL 2-11]
6. Anti-Spasmodic Formula: Dr. Christopher's Anti-Spasmodic Tincture: My main reason for my letter is: My neighbor's little son of 3 ½ had a fever of 104 F. for three days. I brought him one cup of honey-cider vinegar and water and the antispasmodic tincture. He drank ½ cup of the mixture (1 tsp. of each) took ½ dropper of the tincture and in three hours the fever was broken--his mother thought it was a miracle. So do I. [NL 3-7]
7. Intermittent Fever: Dr. Millspaugh wrote of an experience a physician friend of his had with this valuable Indian remedy: When he was a young man, he was attacked with intermittent fever, which lasted off and on for three years. Being of a bilious temperament, he grew at length sallow, emaciated, and hardly able to get about. As he sat one day, resting by the side of the road, an old lady of his acquaintance told him to go home and have some boneset "fixed," and it would certainly cure him. (He had been given, during the years he suffered, quinine, cinchonine bark and all its known derivatives, as well as cholagogue, and every other substance then known to the regular practitioner, without effect; the attacks coming on latterly twice a day.) On reaching home, with the aid of the fences and buildings along the way, he received a tablespoonful of a decoction of boneset evaporated until it was about the consistency of syrup, and immediately went to bed. He had hardly lain down when insensibility and stupor came on, passing into deep sleep. On awakening in the morning, he felt decidedly better, and from that moment improved rapidly without further medication, gaining flesh and strength daily. No attack returned for twenty years, when a short one was brought on by lying down in a marsh while hunting. [NL 4-11]
See Also:
Anti-Spasmodic Formula: Dr. Christopher's Anti-Spasmodic Tincture
Flu
Cold Sheet Treatment [HHH p.70]
The elevation of the body temperature above normal (98.6 F., 37 C).
Symptoms:
It is characterized by increased heat, accelerated pulse, general functional derangement, and usually is accompanied with thirst and loss of appetite. [SNH p.23]
Cause:
Fever is not a disease but a condition in the body wherein the balance of circulation has become disturbed. This is nature's way of trying to burn out the toxic poisons. When the body becomes exposed to excessive chilling or dampness, the capillaries near the surface contract and the pores close by becoming obstructed with body waste matter. This results in a containment of body heat and a sudden rise of body temperature. In fever the natural body function is to increase the heat to a point wherein the thick glutinous and fibrinous matters loading and congesting the system are made liquid enough to pass through the fine and delicate excretory membranes and tubules. [SNH p.23]
Herbal Aids:
General Instructions: If the fever is from cold or flu, eliminate the mucoid condition and eliminate the problem. Raspberry, and other sweetening herbs, are very beneficial. Raise the body heat with moisture, a stimulant and diaphoretic herbs so the restricted blood vessels relax, the obstructed pores open, and the morbid material washes out in the subsequent profuse perspiration. [SNH p.23]
Echinacea: Fever, typhoid fever. Drink sufficient of the hot tea to induce diaphoresis, and administer hourly thereafter until the system is relieved of stagnated wastage. [SNH p.89]
See formula for the Four Greater Cold Seeds remedy for catarrhal affections, bowel and urinary disorders, fever, etc. using pumpkin seeds, ground seeds, watermelon seeds and cucumber seeds. [SNH p.126]
Camomile: Colds, bilious fever. Give a warm infusion with a little ginger added. [SNH p.219]
See formula using pleurisy root and ginger. [SNH p.221]
Boneset: Influenza, colds, fevers, etc. Give the patient 1/2-1 teacupful hot, every hour until freely perspiring and the fever begins to subside- then give in smaller dose as a tonic (cold) every 2-3 hours and keep closely-covered in bed 24-48 hours until all signs of the fever are gone. [SNH p.225]
See formula for fever, (opens pores, equalizes circulation), inflammation of throat using hyssop, vervain, raspberry, centaury, and cayenne. [SNH p.232]
Fever Compound: See formula using catnip, pleurisy root, lobelia and composition powder. [SNH p.237]
Fever Tonic #1 (tincture): See formula using Peruvian bark, wild cherry, cinnamon and cayenne. [SNH p.444]
Fever Tonic #2 (tincture): See formula using Peruvian bark, wild cherry, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and brandy. [SNH p.444]
Cold Sheet Treatment: A fever is given to a person to assist in healing the body which has an over-case of toxicity which is causing a disease (lack of ease). Fever is like a fire, which can warm your body and save your life, or burn your house down and kill you. If the fever is properly controlled and skillfully handled it will clean the poisons, toxins and surplus mucus from the body and bring on a healing crisis. If not controlled properly the fever can kill the patient. See the instructions for the nine step Cold Sheet Treatment. [HHH p.70]
See entire Appendix on Fevers: Their causes and their Aids in Herbal Home Health Care. [HHH p.170]
When a Fever Just Gets Started: it can be cleared up very easily, if these following procedures are started early. One of the most simple remedies is to stop the use of all foods and beverages, take a high herbal enema (catnip is good) and drink only red raspberry tea. Between cups of this tea, distilled water may be used, and if desired, give some good organic (natural) Vitamin C. Drink several quarts of red raspberry tea during the day, but no solid foods. The running nose, fever, headache and weariness will soon leave and one will feel like a new person. Even after feeling greatly improved, continue on with the red raspberry leaf tea all that day and well into the next day. If an adult will stay on the tea for three days, it would do a wonderful cleansing job for the body. To make red raspberry leaf tea put one heaping teaspoonful of cut or granulated (powdered) raspberry leaves into a teacup. Fill the cup with boiling distilled water, cover and let stand in a warm place for five or ten minutes. Strain, and drink it while it is very warm (You may use an ounce of red raspberry leaves to a pint of distilled water, if desiring to make up more at a time). [NL 3-1]
Elder Flowers and Peppermint: When taken alone, elder flowers are inclined to be an emetic, and somewhat nauseous to some people. The effect can be prevented by combining them with peppermint (Mentha piperita). Peppermint is a stimulant, nervine, calmative, and antiemetic, which offsets the undesirable effects of elder flowers. This combination is world famous as a great fever and cold remedy. [NL 3-1]
Blue Vervain: Blue Vervain is a powerful sudorific; taken in warm infusion it will produce profuse perspiration and efficiently break a fever. (Capsules taken with water can have the same effect) (Hut:59). It is especially effective in intermittent fevers and is said to cure colds overnight (Klo:59), possibly due to its tonic and hepatic properties. Give hot as a febrifuge while the patient is closely covered in bed, every hour or so until perspiration flows and the fever breaks. This is much better than artificially breaking the fever with aspirin or other such drugs, for a fever broken through perspiration will cleanse the body, but a fever treated with medicines will weaken the body and render it susceptible to further illness. Be sure, however, that high fevers are kept moist, that is, that the patient drinks copiously and is kept covered, for a high, dry fever can kill. Needless to say, a powerful sudorific such as Blue Vervain is excellent used in Dr. Christopher's Cold Sheet Treatment. [NL 5-10]
Testimonials:
1. Yarrow: If the array of so-called remedies of orthodox medicine were any good, there would be no sick left. How different is this to the simple methods of the old-time herbalist. He saw a patient who was fevered. He did not even take the temperature. Often he did not know what a clinical thermometer was. But he knew there was fever. He placed a handful of yarrows in a jug, poured a pint of boiling water over it, and after allowing it to stand a few minutes, gave the tea to the patient as warm as it could be drunk. The result was a free perspiration. Congestions were removed; the circulation was equalized. The patient-treatment was easy, the results were sure and the remedy was safe, simple and natural. We know as we write this that yarrows is just the same today as it was a thousand years ago. [SNH p.216]
2. Yarrow for Dr. Christopher's Daughter: Two years ago while away at a summer camp my daughter caught a severe cold. When I went to the island for the weekend I found her in bed with a high temperature, headache, and the general symptoms of influenza or la grippe, the body aching and in a most restless condition. I had noted some yarrows growing a little distance from our cottage and went and gathered a handful. I did not weigh it. I had no scales. It was not necessary. It was not a harmful drug. I placed a bunch of the whole plant in a jug and poured over it about one and a half pints of boiling water, covered it for about five minutes, then poured off a cupful of the warm tea. I gave this to my patient who, by the way, insisted that she would vomit if I made her drink the whole of it. I merely told her that if the stomach rejected it, the result would be a cleaner stomach for the next dose. She drank the cupful, I went into the kitchen and poured off a second cupful of the warm tea and gave this to the patient. She got it all down, and in a few minutes was perspiring freely. In half an hour she informed me she felt better and in the morning she was completely recovered. You ask me what would I have done if there had been no yarrows there. I would have looked for sage, peppermint, hyssop or any other of the half a dozen other herbs which will do the work. [SNH p.216]
3. Discovery of the Powers of Peruvian Bark for Fevers: The story is told that an Indian was cast out from his tribe when he had a high fever; a jungle fever that was thought by tribal associates to be highly contagious and fatal. And, as was their custom, he was cast out from among his people, and it was believed that he would soon die. But, as he crawled on his hands and knees through the dense jungle, in a state of delirium and trying to find water (as his fever had him to the point where he was literally dying from thirst), he found a pool of water. A tree had fallen into the pool and the water was very bitter, yet he was thirsty enough that he didn't care--it was water! After a short time, the fever left. So he went back to his tribal friends and loved ones, to their great astonishment, and he told them about the miraculous powers in the "healing waters" that had saved his life. So these Indians discovered the source of these bitter waters and to use the bark thereafter for fevers and other afflictions, and they found it to be marvelously healing. And from here, the fame of this great bitter, yet curative herb spread abroad, with many other effective cures resulting. [SNH p.445]
4. Water Cure: An old story of the first written instances of the water cure is as follows: Many years ago a peasant was heading home on foot, with miles to go. He was racked with fever, colds, and lumbago. While crossing a stream, over a log for a bridge, he slipped and fell into the icy cold water and was drenched to the skin. It was a bitterly cold day and the man had to walk home in the cold in sloppy wet clothes. By the time he had arrived home, his clothes were nearly dried out. The fevers and heat in his body had been raised, while hurrying miles home, to a point of healing climax and was down to nearly normal at the end of his journey. The lumbago and fever were gone and he rejoiced! The next time he got lumbago and fevers he knew the cure--he would return to the stream, fall in and walk home again. [HHH p.70]
5. Lobelia: "Another incident I will relate while I was cutting up the lap of a large oak tree, together with a man named Jackson, as it was our day to work tithing. We were strangers to each other. It was hot weather and very sickly. Some would take the fever and die before the news would get circulated. Early in the day he suddenly took a very high fever; it was a very serious case and he was very much alarmed about it. I told him that there was a little weed growing around I thought might do him good. He eagerly wished for it. It was lobelia of the first year's growth. Some not much larger than a dollar and lay flat on the ground. I got some of it and told him to eat it, just like a cow would eat grass and he did so, and in a few minutes it vomited him powerfully and broke the fever and he finished his day's work. I mention this to show you what virtue there is in lobelia." [NL 2-11]
6. Anti-Spasmodic Formula: Dr. Christopher's Anti-Spasmodic Tincture: My main reason for my letter is: My neighbor's little son of 3 ½ had a fever of 104 F. for three days. I brought him one cup of honey-cider vinegar and water and the antispasmodic tincture. He drank ½ cup of the mixture (1 tsp. of each) took ½ dropper of the tincture and in three hours the fever was broken--his mother thought it was a miracle. So do I. [NL 3-7]
7. Intermittent Fever: Dr. Millspaugh wrote of an experience a physician friend of his had with this valuable Indian remedy: When he was a young man, he was attacked with intermittent fever, which lasted off and on for three years. Being of a bilious temperament, he grew at length sallow, emaciated, and hardly able to get about. As he sat one day, resting by the side of the road, an old lady of his acquaintance told him to go home and have some boneset "fixed," and it would certainly cure him. (He had been given, during the years he suffered, quinine, cinchonine bark and all its known derivatives, as well as cholagogue, and every other substance then known to the regular practitioner, without effect; the attacks coming on latterly twice a day.) On reaching home, with the aid of the fences and buildings along the way, he received a tablespoonful of a decoction of boneset evaporated until it was about the consistency of syrup, and immediately went to bed. He had hardly lain down when insensibility and stupor came on, passing into deep sleep. On awakening in the morning, he felt decidedly better, and from that moment improved rapidly without further medication, gaining flesh and strength daily. No attack returned for twenty years, when a short one was brought on by lying down in a marsh while hunting. [NL 4-11]
See Also:
Anti-Spasmodic Formula: Dr. Christopher's Anti-Spasmodic Tincture
Flu
Cold Sheet Treatment [HHH p.70]
"Natural Healing with Herbs for a Healthier You"
