Nettles and Vitamin D

My box actually says something about joints.

Stinging nettles are those prickly weeds that everyone gets rid of, but I grew up eating them and drinking them as a tea.  Greek people make a lot of different herbal teas and a greater variety of greens than most Americans do.  I also grew up eating dandelion leaves cooked with potatoes and smothered with sea salt and EVOO.  Delicious.

Nettles meanwhile were put into a stew with various other greens and these large tough beans which I don’t know the name of.  These days, unlike on the island I used to live on, I have to go to Whole Foods to get my nutritious and exotic greens.  Although I will say this, when Dino was about 2 or 3, they used to sell a much wider selection of more obscure Grecian items, but ever since Amazon took over the pickin’s are slim.  Yeah the prices dropped, the other day my receipt said I saved 22 bucks, which is totally unheard of, but hey, that’s the cost of my vitamins so I’ll take it. 

Back to the nettles, now I had promised myself I wouldn’t purchase anymore teas until I finished the ones I had, well I finished quite a few, so much so that I was able to get rid of a bunch of boxes and put the remaining bags into my wooden tea box.  My other justification being that nettles support joint health where as Irish Breakfast tea sadly does not.  It probably doesn’t even support an old fashioned Irish hangover, but that’s an anecdote I shan’t ever experience.

I enjoy medicinal teas.  I wasn’t that child that spit it out and cried that it was gross, I drank it because the warmth always feels nice when one is ill and I happen to like earthy and herbaceous flavors.

My other purchase from whole paycheck was 5000 I.U. of vitamin D.  I’ve mentioned before that the recent literature (which I do read, thank you very much!) has concluded that basically psoriatic patients won’t die from 10K of D, but actually benefit from it.  One person on the forums swears up and down that that much vitamin D has completely cleared their skin.  I’ve personally never taken more than 1000.  Coupled with my old lady vitamins, that’s 6000 I’ll be taking daily.  So, let’s see what happens, I have nothing but excess skin cells to lose.

That’s a great self deprecating psoriasis joke.  Laugh, it’s ok, I’m gonna tell that one to my doctor next week and see what she says.

So, between the vitamin D, the nettles and the corydalis.  I’m still kicking and honestly I feel pretty damn good.  Yeah I still get achy when it rains, but I’m not lying in bed like I used to. I’ll never be 100 percent, but shit, 70 is fine.  Maybe after a couple of weeks of these new additions I’ll feel even better.  I just really have to get my blood work done soon.  Then I’ll know the corydalis isn’t killing my liver or kidneys, my poor kidneys have been through hell.

That is all.  Remember dear readers, food is medicine.  You can’t be part of an earth based religion and not use what Mother Earth has to offer to nourish your body.  Ritual is for the soul, spirit, your divine being.  Keep your body and soul in balance.  Eat your herbs and stop putting them in spell jars!

Blessed Be!

🌛🌝🌜