Tuesday

I stopped off at Tesco in Warwick on my way back from the hospital in search of garlic oil .. seems most of it's in the garlic capsules you get in health shops!!

I have variable blood pressure .. dunno why really .. usually when it's measured it's fine .. but occasionally it's gone up. Not surprizing maybe when I've been in a great deal of pain and vomitting up blood .. but once when it was measured .. I was a day rather than an in patient .. and it'd gone up I couldn't think of a reason why it should have. Anyway .. even if I'm only drinking one mixed herb liquorice tea bag .. about 40% liquorice content I think .. heavens knows what % of a pontefrat cake that's equal to .. the teabags aren't exactly bulging ,, I still think that I should be eating my garlic clove a day, keeping an eye on my potassium and checking out my cholesterol. As it said in the contraindications pages on the herbs hands healing website I put up a while back. Can't remember quite when so I'll put it up again.

http://www.herbs-hands-healing.co.uk/contraindications/contraindications.html



If you're healthy taking a garlic capsule is no problem .. or if ur only problem .. other than fighting off a bug .. is high blood pressure ... lol!! .. otherwise check out the contra indications. And .. ask your GP cause a high dose is a medicinal dose.

I find that if I eat it without food it upsets my tummy too .. found that out years ago when, for some reason or other, I decided chewing a raw garlic clove a day would be good .. well, maybe .. but I'd've felt better if I hadn't decided to eat it by itself ... ouch .. after a few days ... lol!! I know some people can happily chew tham just as they are but I'm not one of them.

I have no idea how much oil is in a garlic capsule compared to an average sized garlic clove but I'm sure there are people out there who do cause it's their business.

I would prefer to keep everything as near to a dietary dose rather than a medicinal one where possible.

As far as star anise goes there are apparently no contraindications at the moment .. except that you don't use Japanese star anise .. that is star anise that's not used as a herb and it's recommended that you only buy star anise to use for cooking/medicinally if it's being sold as food by a named brand .. don't buy it already ground up in teas from a shop .. make your own. I don't grind mine up anyway .. just pop it in as it is,

Always best to ask your doc about herbs and spices if your taking meds anyway. Or your pharmacist .. they should know I guess.

I wish that I didn't have to drink my cup of liquorice tea (40%) a day but it seems that it's a good idea for me at the moment .. but I'm keeping a watch on the other things too.

Foods rich in potassium

http://www.weightlossforall.com/potassium-rich-food.htm

there are probably more inclusive lists but that one shows quite a few of the foods that are high in potassium.

The recommended dose is one to three cups a day .. I'm ok with my one .. though would consider upping it if I caught the flu for a couple of days. I know other people do use the teas continuously .. but I've decided to have breaks of a few days every month now .. I'll just keep up with the other anti virals during the break .. say three weeks on .. one week off.

I will definitely be taking it when I have the flu though.