Being the mother of three young adult children, this is the time of year when I start thinking about what to send with them as they head back to college – hmmm…let’s see, a case of cod liver oil, some probiotics, some immune boosting herbs, and, of course, I will be checking to see what refills they need in their Basic First Aid NaturoKit®. 

My oldest son, who is getting a degree in Adventure Outdoor Education, has hauled his NaturoKit® kayaking and canoeing, rock climbing up sheer cliffs, backpacking with groups of adolescents, and just about everywhere else that he goes adventuring. The once white cotton kit bag is now a grimy, perhaps bloodied, well-worn and much used blackened tote. The remedies inside look equally as grubby and I notice that he needs some refills.

How did he so effectively break in his NaturoKit®? Let’s peek inside the kit to see:

Arnica 30C: Over-exertion from carrying a 40 lb. backpack all day or rock climbing for hours on end; bruising and pain from falls while climbing or biking…

Apis 30C: Bee and wasp stings! Swollen eyes form seasonal allergies…

Cantharis 30C: Sunburns from reflected light off the river and looking up that sheer rock cliff, burns from picking up that camp frying pan with only a bandana…

Hypericum 30C: Crushed fingers, tailbone injuries from climbing…

Ledum 30C: Mosquito bites, spider bites while camping, puncture wounds from cacti….

Activated Charcoal (opening these caps might account for the blackened bag): Stomach upset on the trail, used as a poultice to prevent infection while out in the wild…

Calendula succus: Deep cuts, broken skin, topically on sunburns…

Wild Weed Salve: Chapped lips, wind-burned cheeks, scrapes from jagged rocks…

Crisis Calm: For every emergency! Oh, and to stay cool, calm and centered during finals week and when student loan money hasn’t yet come through…

While your college student may not be in the constant need of first aid that mine is, it’s still a good idea to equip them for all of life’s little emergencies with a Basic First Aid NaturoKit®.

One of the challenges in creating our Basic First Aid NaturoKit was limiting the kit to just the most essential remedies that would cover the greatest number of conditions.  The homeopathic remedy Hypericum perforatum made the cut (no pun intended).

The name Hypericum is derived from the Greek, hyper eikon, meaning ‘over an apparition’ because of its traditional use as warding off evil spirits.  The perforatum refers to the translucent dots on the leaves (perforations) that contain the essential oils of the plant.

You may know Hypericum perforatum by its common name – St. John’s wort (wort meaning plant).  This beautiful yellow flowered plant peaks near St. John’s (the Baptist) feast day – June 24^th – close to the summer solstice and the longest day of the year.  St. John’s wort, as an herbal remedy is used to support the nervous system – easing tension, elevating mood, and bringing the warmth and light of summer to those suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

The homeopathic preparation, Hypericum perforatum, is also used to heal the nerves – but is more commonly used as an acute first aid remedy for trauma to nerves or to any part of the body rich in nerves – fingers, toes, tailbone, genitals, etc.  

Think of Hypericum for any kind of injury to nerves.  Indications for Hypericum include deep cuts or jagged wounds, crush wounds such as slamming fingers in a door or dropping a heavy object on a toe, and blows to the coccyx and spine.

After an injury, Arnica may need to be given first to ease the bruising and swelling, and then Hypericum given for tearing and shooting pains and to aid in healing of the nerve.

During Portland’s snowstorm of a year ago, I was trying to lower the storm window when it came crashing down on the ends of my fingers.  Convinced that I had broken my fingers and dumb with the pain, I grabbed my remedies and ran to my son Sam’s room.  He quickly discerned that I needed Arnica.  Within minutes the pain had subsided to where I could assess the damage.  The skin of my fingers was lacerated, the tips flattened by half, but I could move them.  I applied Calendula succus to the cut, took another couple of doses of Arnica that day and by the next day, my fingers were fine except for the numbness.  I then took a couple of doses of Hypericum and my fingers were good as new within a day or so.

A couple more cases where Hypericum saved the day:  My friend Kevin while setting up an extension ladder severely crushed his finger in the hinge; Hypericum eased the pain and within minutes he was back to work. My sister slipped and fell on her icy porch sustaining a crushing blow to her tailbone; she was in significant pain and discomfort until a couple doses of Hypericum relieved her symptoms.

So, pack up your Basic First Aid NaturoKit so that you are ever at the ready with Hypericum Perforatum 30C for any nerve injury, shooting pains from cuts or trauma, or crush injuries to the extremities or spine.

Why did we include activated charcoal in a natural first aid kit?  Remembering that part of our goal in creating the Basic First Aid NaturoKit was to cover the greatest number of first aid conditions with the smallest number of remedies, charcoal was an obvious choice.

Charcoal, the residue obtained from burnt wood or other vegetative matter, is a superstar for first aid situations.  Charcoal ADSORBS toxins meaning that it has thousands of places to bind toxins and escort them out of the body.  This is why charcoal is used internally to treat certain poisonings and gastrointestinal conditions and used topically as a poultice over poisonous bites or infected skin such as boils. 

Charcoal has literally thousands of years of medical literature as testimony to its healing properties.  Both the “Great Physician” Hippocrates (ca 400 BC) and Galen (ca 150 AD) extolled the healing virtues of charcoal. It has been an official remedy in the United States Pharmacopoeia for over 100 years.  It is safe, easy to use and effective (the criteria that we use in choosing remedies for NaturoKits!).

There are entire books written on the subject of charcoal as a first aid remedy.  One of our favorites is Prescription: Charcoal by Calvin and Agatha Thrash, MD.  The doctors Thrash detail how they have used charcoal with their own family and in their clinic for treating everything from poison ivy to kidney failure. According to the Thrashes, when in doubt, consider administering charcoal, as it is often helpful and virtually non-toxic.

 One of my favorite anecdotes from this collection recounts a camping trip in which a camp counselor takes a group of young girls on a four day trip in the woods.  On the first night, they built a campfire, ate the picnic lunch that they had brought with them, and retired for the evening.  By the next morning, the whole party, including the leader, had diarrhea and felt terrible.  As the camp leader was wondering what to do, she looked at the campfire and decided to try making her own charcoal.  She took several pieces of the charred wood and chewed it fine enough to swallow it.  Within an hour of chewing the charcoal, she felt fine and was able to convince half of the girls to follow suite.  Those that did, were symptom free within the hour.  Those that couldn’t bear the idea of munching on charred wood were sick for the remainder of the camping trip.

While we are not recommending that you start grazing on the charred remnants of last night’s fire if you are feeling queasy, we do recommend that you keep your Basic First Aid Naturokit handy for any of the first aid situations that call for charcoal:  diarrhea, food and drug poisoning, intestinal gas, nausea and vomiting and topically for drawing out the toxins of bee stings, wasp stings, spider bites, infected skin, and poison ivy.

Making a Charcoal Poultice

Break open enough capsules to cover affected area and mix with a small amount of water to create a paste.  Apply the paste to a bandage and apply directly to affected area.  Diluted Calendula Succus from your Basic First Aid NaturoKit may be used to moisten charcoal when used on infected skin. 

Natural Stress Relief

Whew!  This past week has been a doozy …worry about family, anxiety about getting everything done, negotiating major life changes….it is during times like these that I am particularly grateful for flower essences, especially for our formula “Crisis Calm”.

What are Flower Essences?

Flower essences are gently acting substances derived from flowers that balance emotional states such as fear, anxiety, worry, etc.  Flower essences act quickly to calm and support during crisis or to catalyze change over a longer term.

When do I use Flower Essences?

Flower essences can be used any time emotional support is needed or to support physical healing both after acute injury and for long-term healing.  Flower essences can be used when feeling stressed or scattered, during times of change, when feeling negative or depressed, or to enhance personal growth and change.

Crisis Calm

We felt that a flower essence was indispensable to our Basic First Aid NaturoKit®.  Our formula  “Crisis Calm” was especially created for NaturoKits® using Columbia River Gorge flowers (flowers from our local version of paradise).  In the event of any injury to self or others, a calm focus is needed to handle the emergency whether big or small.  We have seen wondrous results using Crisis Calm for grief and loss, test anxiety, stage fright, claustrophobia, generalized worry, and insomnia due to anxiety and worry in addition to many other indications.  We have had customers tell us that once they have used Crisis Calm, they can’t imagine being without it – they (and we!) keep it in their purse, their car, their desk drawer…Ahhh – “Crisis Calm” – natural, almost instant stress relief! 

Oh, ouch!  Cuts, scrapes, burns – what to do? 

The humble calendula flower is a wonderful natural first aid remedy for any injury that disrupts the skin.  Unlike other antiseptics like iodine and hydrogen peroxide, calendula acts to enhance healthy cell repair as well as discourage germs.  A member of the marigold family, calendula is styptic (inhibits bleeding), antimicrobial (kills germs), and accelerates tissue healing.

Calendula has a long and noble history with written accounts from the Middle Ages to the Civil War era in which surgeons used it on the battlefield to prevent infection of wounds.  Dr. Dorothy Shephard, an English surgeon who operated on wounded soldiers during both WWI and WWII, claimed that she never saw a case of infection when calendula was the only antiseptic that she used in surgery.  She details dozens of cases in her lovely, informational book, Homeopathy for the First Aider.

I hope that you never have to treat anything as extreme as a shrapnel wound!  In my experience, calendula succus, prepared from the fresh juice of the flower, is remarkable for promoting rapid healing without infection in superficial cuts and abrasions as well as in deep, jagged wounds.

My new sister-in-law, Shannon, recently went on her dream honeymoon to the south of France.  While she had a spectacular time, she had more than a few contra-temps along the way.  Fortunately, her new mother-in-law (yes, my mother), had equipped her with a NaturoKit™.  Shannon actually used all of the remedies from her NaturoKit™ while on her trip but found that calendula was indispensable.  She applied the succus in a compress for her Riviera induced sunburn, used the Wild Weed Salve for her sun-dried lips, and applied the succus directly to the DEEP gash she endured while trying to get her bike up a Paris metro escalator.

As I understand it, she fell on the escalator and the step dug a good two-inch long gauge into her shin.  In spite of the pain and bleeding, Shannon, not one to be daunted by a little flesh wound, managed to enjoy a lovely picnic of raspberries, brie, wine and baguette.  Back at their hotel, she opened her NaturoKit™ and took Arnica 30C for the trauma and applied calendula succus directly to the wound.  She declined to get stitches because she didn’t want to take a minute away from her Paris interlude but was very regular in her use of the calendula.  I saw the cut a few weeks after this event and could see that it was a VERY serious wound; however, it was very clean, no sign of infection, and was healing up nicely.  In fact the calendula succus did such a marvelous job of healing her leg that Shannon was able to ride her bicycle in the 138 mile RATPOD (Ride Around The Pioneers in One Day) two weeks after her return from Paris, without any further intervention!

Calendula succus is one item that I believe everyone should have on hand for its remarkable properties of being styptic, anti-microbial, and speeding the healing time of wounds.  Grow calendula in your yard, make a salve or succus from the buds or flowers, or order it ready-made along with other indispensable natural first aid remedies and full directions for use at www.naturokits.com.