HEALTH &
Wellness
Tinctures, Tonics, and Teas, Part II: What You Need to Know BY RIC COGGINS
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In previous Green Living issues, I’ve shared in-depth the Hoxsey Herbal “Tonic” which I largely credit for saving my own life, as well as the lives of my grandfather and great-grandmother. You may recall that the Hoxsey tonic was developed from “weeds” that John Hoxsey, a 19th-century horse breeder in Illinois, had observed his cancer-ridden favorite horse eat when turned out to pasture to die… and instead, then fully recovered. Hoxsey’s tonic consisted of red clover, burdock root, stillingia root, barberry root, licorice, poke root, cascara amarga, prickly ash bark, and buckthorn bark. Now, I certainly could have gathered piles of those whole herbs and consumed them by the pound as did the horse, but by the Hoxsey clinic concentrating those herbs’ respective properties into a tonic, I was able to simply take one teaspoon of it in a glass of water a couple of times a day in order to enhance my immune system. I fully beat the cancer. Not only do herbal medicinals concentrate benefits, they greatly enhance their storage longevity, and perhaps most importantly, they afford the convenience of being able to keep
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these benefits easily within your reach, in your desk drawer, your purse, or even the front pocket of your favorite pair of blue jeans. When I was a kid in the ’60s and ’70s, herbal remedies were not always easy to acquire, and were often expensive due to their scarcity. That’s why my dad made them at home. Today, herbal medicinals have become more mainstream, and you can find them on the shelves of grocery stores—but like many things that have become commercialized, their quality can be suspect. While some of the best herbs in the world come from China, so do some of the worst. China has huge toxicity problems with pollution, which finds its way into some of its herbs. You need to do your homework on sourcing your herbs, as it does little good to nourish yourself and poison yourself at the same time. If you haven’t sprayed herbicides in the last three years, one place you may want to look first for medicinal herbs is in your own backyard! When I was diagnosed with cancer, one of the first things I learned is that anti-cancer medicinal herbs were
