Vioxx is man-made, and after lengthy trials was approved at one time. That speaks volumes about the apparatus that brings drugs to the masses. I'll take my chances with the natural pokeweed berries. As I mentioned earlier it's not my intent to take them all the time. Hundreds of years of various cultures consuming them, versus a few decades of bad press mostly coming from special interest groups that profit immensely off of pushing synthetic medicine exclusively. I put the "pokeweed is poison" mantra in the same category as "pine will cause a chimney fire". Often repeated but misguided. Not that I'm against modern medicine. I see the doctor/dentist regularly. I take antibiotics as the need arises, or whatever non-narcotic is prescribed for me. I'm just not a "pill for every ill" type person; I rarely ever take aspirin. Herbal remedies (pseudoscience as the corporate pharma machine loves to label it) appeal to me.
Saturday was a good test. I spent 7 hours walking around an amusement park for my 12 year old’s birthday. I woke up yesterday in pain and limping, and it stayed with me all day. Took 4 pokeweed berries yesterday, and another 4 this morning. As of right now I’m feeling 80% back to normal (not hobbling around). Seems the turmeric is not really a good preventative, or I just really overdid it on Saturday. The berries are helping for sure though. Previous to the berry/turmeric experiment when I woke up limping, I’d stay that way for the better part of a week. Now I bounce back faster.
Eric Wanderweg, are you taking black pepper with the turmeric? I believe the pepper is supposed to help the turmeric do it's thing, or do it better (supposedly) ....
I live in Pokeweed heaven. I recall that you are supposed to harvest it small (talking about eating it as greens, like collard greens or turnip greens) and a key is that if it's green, that's good; if the stalks are turning purple, that's bad. And recall that there is a definite regimen you are supposed to go through with boiling it multiple times. One time I saw an old backwoods gent in the Piggly Wiggly store and he was picking out some onions and I remarked "those look nice" or something and he said he was about to cook some poke salat and needed some onions. I asked how he cooks it and that turned into a masters class in poke salat in aisle #1 at the Pig. He knew what he was doing. My take on why poke salat ever became a thing is because it was free, grows wild, and back when people were dirt poor, free meant calories/nutrition for survival. I just looked it up... very high in Vit A, C, iron and calcium. I wish I knew who the old man was, I would like to visit him again and pay closer attention! It's cool that it is working for arthritis.
The plants you have down south are a bit larger from what I can see, but it is fairly common here. The more I look for it around here the more I find. Any sunny roadside or fence row that’s left to go wild seems to have at least one pokeweed plant. I make sure in my own backyard to spit the seeds out close to the parent plant, so next year they come back. I’ve watched a couple videos on boiling the young leaves. 3 boils with a water change each time seems to get the astringency out of them. You’re right too, they are supposed to have a lot of nutritional value. I don’t see myself going through all that trouble, but I suppose if it were a matter of survival I would.
Pokeweed sprouts wherever the soil got disturbed. Any kind of digging or scraping up dirt, like by heavy equipment of some sort. Or a big tree falls and there's a root ball tearing soil.
LOL, there were NO studies done before it was put on the market to evaluate cardiovascular risks with taking Vioxx. NONE. ALL the studies done were to prove efficicies of its intended use. That's unfortunately how our FDA and related agencies work. Too many clinical trials are done AFTER a drug is approved. It is Vioxx that made some sweeping changes to how drugs are brought to market, or not. Most will claim not sweeping enough as the FDA still approves studies done by the manufacturers themselves. Over and over and over again the drug manufacturers' "studies" never find problems with their drugs like independent studies do and it's always the independent studies done after a drug ha been on the market for periods of time . Vioxx was never proven "safe". It was proven "effective" . Same with Singulair and dozens of other drugs that have been taken off the market over the years.
I'm not too well versed in how specific medications get pushed through the approval process. What I do know for sure is that there's a symbiotic relationship between the FDA and the pharmaceuticals, which goes back to the 1980s when that arrangement was made. I've even heard it being described as a revolving door. Many people in the upper echelon at the FDA were once big wigs at the pharmaceuticals, and vice versa. It's a continuous feedback loop that keeps the approvals coming and the money flowing.
Take the time to watch painkiller on Netflix. I know alot of it is fantastical but it is pretty eye opening.
I really pushed myself Friday-Tuesday processing/moving firewood, with a little hiking thrown in the mix. By Monday morning I woke up limping badly. My arthritis-ridden right ankle was letting me know I went too far. I had several bags of frozen pokeweed berries saved from this past fall, so Monday afternoon I ate 6 berries. I did the same thing Tuesday and today, and as of right now I'm 100% back to "normal". No more inflammation whatsoever. Absolutely amazing. I'm sold. I think I've gone on the 3-4 day pokeweed berry regimen half a dozen times since last fall, and without a doubt it helps. Oh yeah, I've been saving the seeds from the berries too, and dispersing them in a swale along my property line for future years' crops
Compost will turbocharge their growth if you want mega poke. Once you have them it may hard to get rid of them. I don’t like taking anything, but I have been on a firewood binge since last Friday along with having an infected toe. The toe and sore everything was slowing me down, so I took some ibuprofen and it worked I told my wife I had forgotten how amazing that stuff is. It may not always work on a headache but it sure alleviates body aches. The grind must continue until next Monday Good luck growing weed!
I might be in the small minority of people that actually want to cultivate this weedy plant but hey, it's better this stuff takes off rather than more Japanese barberry or multiflora rose. I've tried the ibuprofen thing and it doesn't touch my body aches for some reason. It does help with fever for me though, so I do keep some handy.
At least a week and a half of hobbling around, easily. Before I ever saw a doctor and got diagnosed, there were periods of a month or more where I could barely walk without being in agony. Stubborn and stupid of me to put off going to see the Dr. for so long. Overall it's been incremental improvements since 2022 when I got diagnosed. Wearing an ankle brace helped hugely, as did my diet change. A little weight loss, turmeric regimen, now the berries and I can manage.
The first botanical listed, Balsam Poplar, is my go-to in salve form. Analagesic, antimicrobal, and anti-inflamitory so it's good for sore muscles/joints, cuts and scrapes and dry skin. In most places the harvest window is closed since the leaf buds have to be picked before they open then soaked in a carrier oil (jojoba is what I use) before being heated and eventually mixed with beeswax. Only 3 ingredients required, buds, oil and beeswax. The trees the buds come from are actually cottonwoods (Eastern cottonwood and black cottonwood are the other two), the balsam poplar, lives in damp places of which this land has plenty. Near ponds, sloughs, etc is the best place to find them, they grow like weeds so the advice to not over harvest kind of goes out the window. The scent tends to make me think woodsy, have heard other descriptions such as turpentine. Even in the summer when the sun is heating up the leaves the unmistakable scent is recognizable.
