Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295749013 At first glance, medicine and poison might seem to be opposites. But in China’s formative era of pharmacy (200–800 CE), poisons were strategically employed as healing agents to cure everything from abdominal pain to epidemic disease. Healing with Poisons explores the ways physicians, religious figures, court officials, and laypersons used toxic substances to both relieve acute illnesses and enhance life. It illustrates how the Chinese concept of du—a word carrying a core meaning of “potency”—led practitioners to devise a variety of methods to transform dangerous poisons into effective medicines. Recounting scandals and controversies involving poisons from the Era of Division to the Tang, historian Yan Liu considers how the concept of du was central to how the people of medieval China perceived both their bodies and the body politic. He also examines the wide range of toxic minerals, plants, and animal products used in classical Chinese pharmacy, including everything from the herb aconite to the popular recreational drug Five-Stone Powder. By recovering alternative modes of understanding wellness and the body’s interaction with foreign substances, this study cautions against arbitrary classifications and exemplifies the importance of paying attention to the technical, political, and cultural conditions in which substances become truly meaningful. Healing with Poisons is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) and the generous support of the University of Buffalo.

This is a guide to help you understand harmful chemicals and food practices, and how to reclaim your health. I will explain how to heal your body with food, and what all to avoid. We do not need to rely on man made medicine, everything we need grows from the earth! The truth is so simple.

Healing Poisoned Medicine offers a powerful, no-holds-barred approach to eliminating toxic prescription drugs and replacing them with safe and effective alternatives. Dr. Reed Sainsbury is an ANMA board-certified naturopathic doctor who shares common sense, patient testimonials, and scientific facts as he teaches patients to find the cause of disease and provide the means so that the body can heal naturally. Dr. Sainsbury provides practical, down-to-earth information and advice on how patients can reclaim their health by refusing drugs that simply camouflage symptoms. As this book shatters medical myths and exposes the flaws of our nation's medical system, you will find your current views on health transforming. Specific subject matter discussed includes: How the Body Heals The Body's Warning Signs Living Foods for Living People The Cholesterol Myth The Healthiest People in the World Healing Poisoned Medicine provides Americans with a refreshing point of view on how to truly heal, along with valuable information on innovative and potentially lifesaving alternatives to prescription drugs and surgery.

Changing Poison into Medicine is a collection of poetry, prose and monologues about self-healing and love. It is about the experiences of self-worth, self-discovery, uncertainty, acceptance, solitude, love, wisdom and ignorance. Ultimately, we all want to be happy. Every action in our life is motivated by that strong desire, but still, during difficult events of our lives, we tend to behave in habitual patterns and avoid what is uncomforting to us even when we know that the comfort which we are gaining out of it will be temporary. We respond to these times in ways that surrender our own happiness, causing irreparable damage to self. The book rides you through the most painful times of your life and shows how during those crucial times of adversity you could change the poisons within you into medicine and healings for others and lead your life with utmost dignity and meaning without causing damage to self.

Plants have been used to treat disease throughout human history. On a clay slab that dates back approximately five thousand years, the Sumerians recorded medicinal recipes that made use of hundreds of plants, including poppy, henbane, and mandrake. During the Middle Ages, monks commonly grew and prescribed plants such as sage, anise, and mint in their monasteries. And as the market for herbal remedies and natural medicine grows, we continue to search the globe for plants and plant compounds to combat our various ailments. In Phytomedicines, Herbal Drugs, and Poisons, Ben-Erik van Wyk offers a richly illustrated, scientific guide to medicinal and poisonous plants, including those used for their mind-altering effects. Van Wyk covers approximately 350 species—from Aloe vera and Ephedra sinica to Cannabis sativa and Coffea arabica—detailing their botanical, geographical, pharmacological, and toxicological data as well as the chemical structures of the active compounds in each. Readers learn, for example, that Acacia senegal, or gum acacia, is used primarily in Sudan and Ethiopia as a topical ointment to protect the skin and mucosa from bacterial and fungal infections, and that Aconitum napellus, more commonly known as aconite, is used in cough syrups but can be psychedelic when smoked or absorbed through the skin. With 350 full-color photographs featuring the plants and some of their derivative products, Phytomedicines, Herbal Drugs, and Poisons will be an invaluable reference not only for those in the health care field but also for those growing their own medicinal herb gardens, as well as anyone who needs a quick answer to whether a plant is a panacea or a poison.

Describes the physical characteristics and natural habitats of several varieties of plants, as well as their poisonous, medical, and magical properties.