A Project: Mullein, Part I

[kellan_the_tabby]

Thanks to a suggestion from questrix I am embarking on a Project. So I'm gonna chronicle it here, partly for your edification but partly because this way I'll know when I started the stuff.

Here's what I have to start with. So at the event this weekend, there was a lot of mullein about; I picked a bunch. No more than two leaves from each plant and maybe only one from the small ones, because I don't want to overpick. Carefully picked only the good ones, no bugs or dirt of stuff. Put them in a plastic bag and drove home.

That was Sunday. Sunday night I was too exhausted to do much anything else so they didn't get processed until yesterday -- I soaked them in water overnight so they wouldn't wilt, which seemed to work fine. Monday I bought an entire gallon of apple cider vinegar and started processing.

No soft brush so I just used fingers and a lot of water to clean them. No pickle jar so I used a big plastic tub. Let them drain a bit to get the worst of the water off, wedged them in the tub, poured in the vinegar. And in the closet it goes for six weeks.

In the meantime, I've some dried mullein about; I made tea with it last night and will have a cup every day until the tincture is done. It tastes like poo but I breathed a little easier afterwards. I can deal with poo-tasting for breathing, and getting an effect after only one mug is brilliant.

questrix, how often do you take that one ounce of tincture? I figure a half-gallon of tincture isn't going to last me a year, so I'm going to get another batch started soon, but if you could give me a vague idea of how much you need to last a year, I'd appreciate it...

And thank you! I'll keep y'all updated.

Comments

[kass-rants.livejournal.com]

Good luck with it! So far none of the side-effects of that stuff you took last year that you were allergic to?

[kellan_the_tabby]

Nope -- that was the calendula, so far as I could tell. I'll give it a couple days to see, but I'm pretty sure I'm okay.

[kass-rants.livejournal.com]

Whew! I really hope it works for you.

[kellan_the_tabby]

Me too -- especially since I can make the whole thing with stuff I pick here, if I need to.

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

If you want it to taste a little less like poo you might mix the mullein with some peppermint and maybe even some licorice root. I'd bet a 1-1-1 ratio would still work well and would taste much better. Especially if you added a bit of stevia to it instead of sugar. Barring a few other ingredients that's the basis for my cold and flu tea, which works just as well as any prepared cold medicine I've ever used for 4 hours at a pop.

Oddly, I hadn't seen the older post. I've been missing huge chunks of my Flist but I think I might be in denial that it's too large for the amount of time I have to read it.

[kellan_the_tabby]

Yeah, that's a thought. I'll mess with it later on when I drink today's mug; I know I have peppermint about, at least. Thanks much!

And yeah, I know the feeling about the flist. I keep sort of meaning to read it more but I've also got to actually work some...

[questrix.livejournal.com]

I usually use it once a week. If I have a cold, then daily until the chest crap breaks.

Last year I only had 1 cold and it wasn't bad. I think I used it for 4 days straight. Chest crap broke up and went back to once a week.

Remember its only a shot right. So 1 oz.

I usually start at the beginning of the fall which is one of my bad times, until the sun shines for longer than 5 hours in the spring and the temperature has been high enough to get rid of the dampness of winter.

Hope it helps.

q

[kellan_the_tabby]

...dude, so maybe not that much.

I suspect my asthma is worse than yours was (admittedly with little evidence), so I might wind up needing more, but still, that's promising.

Can't wait can't wait! But in the meantime, there's tea.

[questrix.livejournal.com]

I am considered severe asthma with several triggers which all are still not diagnosed. I really try hard to avoid my triggers.

As for the tea, just remember, the more stuff you add to the tea the less effective the mullein might be. If I were you, I would just do the mullein straight.

Hopefully this works for you. Great luck!

Q

[kellan_the_tabby]

Yay triggers! :P

So you might be around where I am, then -- hard to say. Right now I _should_ be taking Advair morning and night -- I take it morning only and rely on my rescue inhaler at night, to save money. No insurance and the stuff is _expensive_. I sometimes have to use my rescue inhaler during the day, sometimes not; I know I should be on more daily medication than I am.

If I don't take the daily medication, I do need my rescue inhaler to get through the day. I don't know if it's a case of triggers for me so much as I simply can't breathe without the meds. It rarely gets worse, in any case.

...dunno.

[questrix.livejournal.com]

I understand completely about no insurance.

If I was to take what my respirologist has ordered, I would be taking Alvesco inhaler, 2 puffs x2/day, Symbicort inhaler 2 puffs X2/day + rescue from trigger, and Singulair x1/day. Also along with that are sinus rinses with Pulmocort x3/day. Sinus rinses are yucky.

I hate taking drugs, so I use the mullein and try to avoid using them. Asthma sucks. My biggest triggers are cigarette/cigar smoke and perfume. They cause instantaneous reactions with exposure of less than 5 seconds. There are others like molds and spores, but that usually only happens in spring and fall when its damp.

The thing I hate the most though, is once the attack is subsiding, I have a tendency to vomit which just complicates matters.

Hopefully the mullein works well for you as it has for me. I thank my friend everytime I see her/talk to her for giving me this information.

Q

[kellan_the_tabby]

Euw, sinus rinses.

And talk about completely different arrangement of the symptoms! I react to mold too, but usually it's only a slight worsening of symptoms that are already there -- I'll need to hit the rescue but it's not a huge difference. And I certainly never got nauseated; my sympathy on that!

So far the tea is definitely making a noticable difference. I think I'm gonna try two mugs a day and see how that does. The poo-taste is becoming bearable and truly as well as it's working already I can deal with it. I'll just make faces and whine, and I whine anyway so likely nobody will notice a difference.

You? Rock. :)

[questrix.livejournal.com]

Thanks... You rock too....

q