Did you know our planet is undergoing one of the largest mass extinctions in the past 4 billion years? “So what,” you say. “It does not really affect me. Sure I feel sorry for the polar bears, elephants and tigers but their time is coming to a close. We all have to deal with our own and our own is humanity.”
This kind of human attitude suggests the question, “How many species can our planet afford to lose before we human are placed on the same extinction list?” Certainly at some point in this evolution of the species humanity will not be forgotten. The only questions are when and how our species will have to really struggle for survival?
The current extinction numbers are truly fantastic to consider-in fact the recent loss of species from just pollution and deforestation, within the past century, are enough to boggle your mind. Also our planet’s reefs are being devastated so fast the abundance of marine life, which uses coral reefs as a home, will not be alive for long.
In the mist of each human life I believe there are key turning points which go on to determine, not only personal success achieved, but as well the quality of life for each individual and that individual’s family; and that it is how this quality of life affects ones community which determines, in a large part, how successful communities are in fact built.
Applying this same individual reckoning to nations I would suggest our planet has come to a critical cross-road, a key turning point, if you will, whereby the future quality of life upon our planet is in question. Individual nations now have the opportunity to address or ignore the issues of population control. If nations choose to address this urgent human issue then I have little doubt quality of life in the future will be positively impacted. On the other hand, if nations continue to ignore population statistics, they will do so at their own peril.
Folk medicine has been a part of every culture throughout our history. Many folk remedies have been found to be based upon truth. A lot of the medicines we have today were derived from plants. Unfortunately there were many more folk remedies that just didnt seem to make logical sense.
As folk medicine practices grew over the centuries many treatments were developed that were questionable at best. One may want to think twice about using some of these folk remedies as their adverse side effects could sometimes be worse than the condition they were supposed to heal.
As an example of one highly unlikely cure for lockjaw, one was supposed to make a tea with ground up insects and other bugs, cockroaches for preference, and then drink it. It is not mentioned whether the cure was contained in the drink or in the body´s need to forcefully expel the concoction.
XXX Remedy
A rather painful “cure” for stuttering was to take the shank bone of a freshly slaughtered calf and hit the stutterer in the mouth with it. One primitive culture´s answer to snakebite was to immediately rip a live chicken in half and place one side of the carcass against the wound. As the chicken meat turned green this was taken as a sign the poison was being drawn out. No one has bothered to test this for any possible real solution.
Then there is this dubious cure for warts. According to one folk remedy all one has to do is rub the wart with a piece of red meat and then bury the meat at the full moon. By new moon, two weeks later, the wart is supposed to have gone away.
As one can see, there are any number of strange and bizarre folk remedies that have been tried over the centuries. Many of them have such a sense of “quackery” and folk “superstition” that it is hardly any wonder that all folk remedies are suspect.
However, many folk remedies, and especially herbal treatments, have proven not only effective but are often the basis that modern medicinal practices have modified and improved upon. There are a wide variety of herbs that have proven effective in the treatment of mild to severe ailments, such as coughs due to a cold, rashes caused by poison ivy, or a bad case of nervous tension.
Source – Ezine Articles Written by Simone Mefford and used here with express permission.
