October and nettle seeds

The south facing branch of the sycamore tree across the road from my suburban home has turned from green to yellow, showing autumn is finally here. The warm days of the past few weeks have brought both respite and a lengthening to the late growing season, but it is good to be reminded the wheel of the year is turning and change will follow soon.

September always fills me with panic. Have I grown enough? Has the harvest been enough? Have I foraged everything I need. Enough is such a strange concept. How many people do I need to treat? How many people will I need to feed over winter?

In previous years I could plan and estimate but these strange times make things more uncertain. Winter is coming and all I want to do is find my sheltered place, line my nest and hibernate for the duration. I know it won’t be possible but I can hope.

October is the time of roots and seeds, preferably gathered after the first frost, whenever that is. My ashwagandha plants are still vibrantly green. They were so late germinating and then growing back in July that they have hardly put out their flowers and the seed pods are still green. I will wait to see if any of them turn to orange in the next few weeks. Otherwise everything will be dug and dried or tinctured. There is no rush.

What I did find whilst I was pulling up the dead broad and climbing beans was a hidden last harvest of nettle seed. I remember finding some last seeds this time of year in local parks in the first year I gathered. I’d forgotten the time of gathering was quite so long.

Reading through foraging posts on social media, it seems everyone has finally discovered nettles make more than leaves for soup and fibre for fishing lines. The seeds carry a rich nutritive density. As with any medicinal plant, you do need to harvest and consume with caution.

The fresh seeds when eaten can send some people “high”. The American herbalist, Kiva Rose Hardin first pointed out that if you have a “dry” constitution then nettle seed will dry you out further. She lives in New Mexico, so she is very conscious of moisture and the lack of it. Another issue we have discovered is that if you have misused “recreational drugs” somewhere in your past, nettle seed will cause you difficulties.

We tincture fresh nettle seed  to support kidney failure, as first highlighted by David Winston. It is especially helpful in dealing with kidney pain when you haven’t drunk enough fluid. The dry seeds support exhausted adrenal glands. The usual dose is one teaspoonful taken in yoghurt or porridge or as a seed topping to salads.

We usually recommend they are consumed for at least three months or until the “patient” can’t stand the taste of them anymore. I have one friend with an incredibly stressful job who is still happily consuming her nettle seed two years after they were first given to her.

Dried nettle seeds can also be an aid to reducing dietary salt. They can be ground with salt crystals in a ratio of two: one to produce a useful condiment. If you want something a little hotter, add chilli flakes to the mix.

It worried me when nettle seeds at the farm were turning black and dropping off back in July, thinking I had not found enough for fresh seed tincture. The following month I found another stand of vibrant green, enough to put up nearly 5 litres of tincture. After our herb festival in September, huge nettle plants now covering all the Sanctuary like rampant triffids, dangled their seeds so seductively I was forced to pick them, even though I was there to harvest my damson tree and time, as always, was very short.

I did manage to pick my usual five pounds of damsons and these are now sitting on my jam shelves ready to eat. The quince harvest is very sparse but luckily my friend has a tree and shares her largesse with me. Two bottles of spiced quince gin and three of vodka are now infusing in the larder until Christmas and twenty small jars of quince jelly were made over two days this week.

Now, there are more nettle seeds from the garden drying in a paper bag over the kitchen radiator. I should have added another batch from underneath our hawthorn tree but I was too tired and now it is raining.

What I did pick was an orange flourish of calendula, waving from underneath the runner beans. I’ve lamented the lack of a dedicated calendula bed for the past two years, but collecting a few flowers here and there, self-seeded in the vegetable beds have given me a few to dry for anti-viral tea and enough to turn into oil for skin salves when next needed. There was even a rogue chamomile plant this year, providing enough to fill a tiny jar for emergency use in the future.

This gentle week at home has given me the time to decant this summer’s St John’s wort oil. Only two jars this years, but still plenty in the larder from previous summers. The dried vervain, yarrow and sage have also been poured into glass jars, labelled and put away. The vervain will be mixed with chamomile and lemon balm for IDGAS tea, yarrow for colds and conditions which require an anti-inflammatory and sage for mouth/tooth infections.

There are still bags of St Johns wort flowers, plantain leaves, red clover blossoms and other mysteries to emerge from the “hot cupboard” and put away but not today. I still have tomorrow. 

Of burns and bereavement

When a blogger fails to post for a long time, regular readers may wonder what is happening in real life to cause such silence. I rarely post about family events but on 9th February my mother died, following a long, debilitating struggle with ischaemic dementia which left her unable to move, speak or see. Death is a journey we all face alone and those who watch and share and wait can only wonder and hopefully grow through their own lessons offered during this time.

In my last paid employment, I spent eight years travelling around England training various organisations, including community nurses and army welfare officers, how to cope with loss and bereavement. I learned a great deal from the stories people shared and was able to make suggestions about things to look out for following bereavement.

The first was the lowering of immune health by grief which often causes the first twelve months to be fraught with viral infections and other more serious conditions, especially if a carer has neglected their own health to look after the person during the final period of their life.

The second was a propensity towards accidents and other events caused by a lowering of attention span or inability to be “sensible” or even to process information.

You could say that my gall bladder issues have stemmed from providing support to my parents over the years and neglecting my own health. On Thursday, March 26^th 2015, I managed to burn/scald myself by tipping an overfull pan of boiling bolognaise sauce over my left thigh whilst trying to keep our back door from flying open in the wind. Whilst I was more concerned about losing half the contents of the saucepan, the accident provided a wonderful opportunity to learn about treating burns at home with herbs and other household products.

The general UK advice about treating burns can be found here .  It  says

• Stop the burning process as soon as possible. This may mean removing the person from the area, dousing flames with water or smothering flames with a blanket. Do not put yourself at risk of getting burnt as well.
• Remove any clothing or jewellery near the burnt area of skin. However, don't try to remove anything that is stuck to the burnt skin because this could cause more damage.
• Cool the burn with cool or lukewarm water for 10 to 30 minutes, ideally within 20 minutes of the injury occurring. Never use ice, iced water or any creams or greasy substances such as butter.
• Keep yourself or the person warm. Use a blanket or layers of clothing, but avoid putting them on the injured area. Keeping warm will prevent hypothermia, where a person's body temperature drops below 35ºC (95ºF). This is a risk if you are cooling a large burnt area, particularly in young children and elderly people.
• Cover the burn with cling film. Put the cling film in a layer over the burn, rather than wrapping it around a limb. A clean clear plastic bag can be used for burns on your hand.
• Treat the pain from a burn with paracetamol or ibuprofen. Always check the manufacturer's instructions when using over-the-counter (OTC) medication. Children under 16 years of age should not be given aspirin.

What it doesn’t tell you is anything to aid the cooling or healing process. Nor does it identify first (reddened skin) or second (blisters) degree burns but only tells you when to head for hospital for

• large or deep burns – any burn bigger than the affected person's hand
• full thickness burns of all sizes – these burns cause white or charred skin
• partial thickness burns on the face, hands, arms, feet, legs or genitals – these are burns that cause blisters
• all chemical and electrical burns

Also get medical help straight away if the person with the burn:

• has other injuries that need treating
• is going into shock – signs include cold clammy skin, sweating, rapid shallow breathing and weakness or dizziness
• is pregnant
• is over 60 years of age
• is under five years of age
• has a medical condition such as heart, lung or liver disease, or diabetes
• has a weakened immune system (the body's defence system), for example because of HIV or AIDS, or because they're having chemotherapy for cancer

Although my burn measured the distance from my knee to a hand’s width up my thigh with two blisters measuring 1” by ½”, I decided I preferred to stay at home rather than spend up to four hours in a crowded A&E department.  It’s been a while since I looked at first aid treatments for burns so I was unaware of the advice to cover with clingfilm. I did know the aim was to keep the skin intact if possible to reduce the chance of incurring infection.

After dropping the saucepan I removed my socks and trousers and rushed upstairs to kneel in the bath with my thigh under a running cold tap for as long as I could. I moved, reluctantly, when my toes told me they were developing frost bite. Then I sliced off two large aloe vera leaves from the triffid which sprawls over our upstairs window and lay on the sofa daubing the juice from the centre of the leaf onto the entire area of the burn.

It is amazing how aloe vera removes heat from burns. It is also really important NOT to treat a burn with any oil or salve until ALL the heat has gone. This is because oil traps heat underneath the application.

If you don’t have any aloe vera plants or juice then look to other cooling herbs – elderflower, rose, chamomile, bergamot (preferably wild monada fistulosa). These can be applied as a tea, herbal water or diluted infused herbal vinegar.

After a couple of hours, I used a St John’s wort salve that I had to hand since St John’s wort is specific for healing burns. I covered the burn area with clean cotton fabric (I use a piece of old sheet for most of my first aid treatments!) fastened at each end with micropore tape. I wanted the burn to be open to the air so it didn’t become soggy.

I didn’t take any painkillers because the soreness disappeared after the first night of sleep and the burn itself was only painful thereafter if pressed.

I continued treating with St John’s wort for three days. I was concerned that the blisters were still filled with liquid, so on the fourth day decided to try a honey poultice. I mixed calendula (for skin healing), St John’s wort and yarrow( to reduce any inflammation) oils with a teaspoon of honey (a gift from Cornish herbalist, Nick Jones, last August) and spread it over the wound. When using an oily poultice like this you do need to add a plastic backing unless you want stains all over your clothes!

Two days after applying the honey poultice, all the blisters had dried up and the burned skin area was diminishing. I then made up a salve from calendula, St John’s wort and yarrow and this has been applied twice daily ever since.

It takes at least three weeks for a burn to heal. I’m really pleased with how my burn is progressing.  It itches occasionally which tells me new skin is growing.  I try very hard not to scratch!

Two things I might have done differently would be to have applied a cooling vinegar or flower water after the aloe vera and not applied the salve until before bedtime (around 12 hours after the accident).  Knowing now how effective the honey was, I would have applied the poultice sooner and maybe made two applications (one per day) for two or more days.  If the wound had been worse I could also have applied a marshmallow root poultice to keep the area moisturised.

This summer I am also going to make a burns honey from apothecary’s rose, bergamot and evening primrose flowers. I made a jar several years ago when Kiva Rose Hardin first posted her recipe but no-one suffered with any burns so I ate the honey instead! Kiva Rose recommends the honey for burns where there is a chance of infection. Given how successful ordinary honey is at drawing moisture from a burn blister, I can see how an infused herbal honey would be even better.

Everyone hopes accidents will not happen but if they do, they provide a useful opportunity to learn new skills.

A holistic approach to managing eczema

Eczema is a condition suffered by people of all ages and at different times of life. The dictionary definition tells us that it is “an inflammatory condition of the skin attended with itching and the exudation of serous matter” (where serous means watery, resembling serum). 

It looks as if the condition was first given a name in the middle of the eighteenth century using Latino-Greek foundations of  “ek” meaning out of and “ze” (from “zein”) meaning “to boil or ferment”.

Eczema, no matter its origins, can be a miserable, life-restricting condition, bringing pain and frustration both to sufferers and their families.

A description of the symptoms of the most popular form of eczema can be found in a UK patient leaflet.

• The skin usually feels dry.
• Some areas of the skin become red and inflamed. The most common areas affected are next to skin creases, such as the front of the elbows and wrists, backs of knees, and around the neck. However, any areas of skin may be affected. The face is commonly affected in babies with atopic eczema.
• Inflamed skin is itchy. If you scratch a lot it may cause patches of skin to become thickened.
• Sometimes the inflamed areas of skin become blistered and weepy.
• Sometimes inflamed areas of skin become infected.

Typically, inflamed areas of skin tend to flare up from time to time, and then tend to settle down. The severity and duration of flare-ups varies from person to person, and from time to time in the same person.

• In mild cases, a flare-up may cause just one or two small, mild patches of inflammation. Often these are behind the knees, or in front of elbows or wrists. Flare-ups may occur only now and then.
• In severe cases, the flare-ups can last several weeks or more, and cover many areas of skin. This can cause great distress.
• Many people with atopic eczema are somewhere in between these extremes.

The leaflet also goes on to ask “What causes atopic eczema?” and provides the following response.

“The cause is not known. The lipid (oily) barrier of the skin tends to be reduced in people with atopic eczema. This leads to an increase in water loss and a tendency towards dry skin. Also, some cells of the immune system release chemicals under the skin surface, which can cause some inflammation. But it is not known why these things occurs. Genetic (hereditary) factors play a part. Atopic eczema occurs in about 8 in 10 children where both parents have the condition, and in about 6 in 10 children where one parent has the condition. The precise genetic cause is not clear (which genes are responsible, what effects they have on the skin, etc).

Atopic eczema has become more common in recent years. There are various theories for this. Factors which may play a role include: changes in climate, pollution, allergies to house dust mite or pollens, diet, infections, or other early-life factors. However, there is no proven single cause. There may be a combination of factors in someone who is genetically prone to eczema, which causes the drying effect of the skin and the immune system to react and cause inflammation in the skin.”

Whatever the underlying causes of eczema, it cannot be treated in a simple way if the condition is to be managed effectively. Putting a steroid cream on a patch of skin is only going to appear to help the skin to look normal again and hopefully stop the irritation. In reality it does nothing to affect the source of the outbreak, merely pushing it back inside the body to reappear in another form some time later.

Eczema needs a holistic approach. Hopefully you will have a period of time when the condition is relatively “quiet” to put together your own “plan of campaign” which will include strategies for both prevention and flare-ups, so you have support available when the time comes.

You need to think about eczema from the inside out. The skin is the largest organ in the body, so for someone to be showing signs of eczema there is some imbalance inside the body which is forcing its way out.

I have put together some questions to ask both yourself or anyone you are caring for which may help you to understand what may be happening within the body and some herbal suggestions which may help you to manage the condition.

Everything starts with digestion.

• What are you actually eating (as opposed to what you think you are eating)? Keep an accurate food diary for at least seven days and preferably two weeks. Include all snacks, treats, sweets given by doting grandparents or other carers/colleagues. 
•  Is there any allergic reaction to the three main food groups - wheat, dairy and solinaceas (potatoes, tomatoes and peppers). Do a three week exclusion diet for each group and see what happens when you start re-introducing the food.

Help digestion.

• Take a bitter half an hour before you eat to get your stomach working. Use chamomile as a tea to help you improve your digestive function.
• Help the liver to detoxify whatever is not helping you. Use dandelion and burdock or milk thistle seeds. Eat milk thistle leaves in salads.
• Stop drinking coffee and alcohol and see what improvements are made.
• Stop simple carbohydrates and concentrate on whole foods, lots of vegetables, fruit and pulses. 
• Eat good fats and meat.

Keep hydrated.

• How much water do you drink during the day? 
•  How many good fats do you consume in your diet? If you have been cutting back on fats to lose weight, this may affect your body’s ability to hold moisture. 
• Think about the type of fat you eat and whether you could change this to something healthier. Experiment with using coconut oil or ghee and see if you notice any changes.

Keep moisturised

• Do you need to shower or bathe every day? Would a strip wash do on alternate days? 
• Use a moisturiser either in the bath water or after you shower but before you dry off. Pat yourself dry, don’t rub. 
• Use a calendula/chickweed salve or cream several times during the day to keep your skin well covered. Remember to use a cream every time you wash your hands. If you want to add mucilaginous herbs to your cream try marshmallow, violet or heartsease. 
•  If your scalp is itchy with dry skin/dandruff/dermatitis soak your scalp with an equal combination of double infused rosemary and thyme oil for an hour before washing or showering. Continue to do this once a week for several months and you should notice a real difference.

Identify your current stress factors

• What is causing you stress at the moment? Is this financial? Work-related? Family related? Incident related? Emotional e.g. fear, anger, grief? Exhaustion?
• How much sleep are you getting? Is this because you find it difficult to sleep or because you don’t go to bed early enough?
• How much are you able to relax? Can you designate time to relax? Can you do breathing exercises/meditation/visualisations to aid relaxation? Do you have a favourite activity or hobby which pleases and relaxes you?
• How much exercise do you do?

Identify your triggers

Keep a diary and notice when your eczema becomes more bothersome.

• Where were you?
• What were you doing?
• What did you touch?
•  What did you eat? 
• What cleaners/aerosols/air fresheners/dishwasher cleaners/washing powder/fabric conditioners were you using or exposed to?

Identify all your avenues for support

• Who can help you?
• Do you have enough helpful information? If not, where might it be obtained?
• What physical support do you have available including food, plant and plant based materials/medicines, cleaning items, natural fabrics etc?

Determination/enthusiasm for change

• How much do you want to improve your health? On a scale of 1-10, how much do you want to change? What would have to happen to enable you to move up the scale by 0.5?

Dealing with an eczema outbreak

If you are dealing with an eczema outbreak which is hot and red, don’t use an oil or cream directly on the skin. Use a chamomile or elderflower water to cool the area down and soothe it. Drip it over the area and rub in lightly. Once the area is cooled and no longer inflamed, use a salve made from chamomile, calendula and chickweed to reduce the itching. If there is danger or presence of infection add St John’s wort oil. Use chickweed double infused oil in the bath or after a shower.

You can also use anti-inflammatory herbs internally to reduce the outbreak. Think turmeric, yarrow, plantain, calendula.

Recipes

Here are some links to recipe or articles with herbal products you can easily make yourself to help manage your eczema.

• Bitters
• Double infused oil (chickweed, calendula, St John’s wort, plantain, violet, marshmallow)
• Elderflower or chamomile water

Something to remember

Herbal remedies are rarely instantaneous. You need to allow one month for every year you have been suffering from the condition. This also gives you the time and opportunity to make any lifestyle changes you feel may be helpful. Don’t forget to look back and compare what is happening now with what was happening when you first started to make those changes.

• Have they been helpful?
• Do you feel more able to manage your condition?
• Would you do this again or would you do something different?

Herbal support for broken bones

I was sitting on Snow Hill station two weeks ago trying to tell Chris my train was on time when a text came into my mobile phone.

“My friend has a broken bone which won’t heal,” I read. “Can you recommend any herbs for her?”

The train was just pulling in and my texting abilities are not great, so I simply replied, “Comfrey and plantain.”

I hate giving single herb answers when asked a question. It falls into the “Take aspirin if you have a headache” mentality of allopathic medicine which does not allow any opportunity to think “What’s happening here?”, “What part of the body needs supporting?” and “Which herbs might be suitable for this situation and why?” So this is a more considered response to the original query.

Fractured bones are serious conditions. If you fracture a long bone and it isn’t dealt with in time, you can die. I first came across this during a Medical Services Committee hearing when a GP failed to diagnose a fractured neck of femur in an elderly lady who fell out of bed. The doctor on the Committee which was there to decide whether or not the GP was in breach of his terms and conditions of service to the NHS was not impressed.

“You do realised this lady could have died?” he said. “You were lucky her husband rang for an ambulance after you left the house.”

It was a sobering thought and one I had cause to remember a few years later when a woman with mental health problems slipped off the fourth floor windowsill of her locked ward onto an inaccessible concrete triangle between three buildings. It took the firemen an hour to reach her and none of the hospital staff would touch her until the ambulance men arrived. She didn’t die from the fall, but from breaking all her long bones. She lost so much fluid her blood pressure fell to a point of no return.

So what actually happens when you break a bone? A really good tutorial of the physical components can be found here. In a nutshell, the blood forms a clot and the bone is stimulated to form new collagen to hold the bone together which is gradually ossified, healing the break.

What really surprised me was the length of time it takes for a break to heal even at the most normal rate. We are talking about 3-4 weeks for the bony callous to form and a further three to four months for the bone to bind together with remodelling inside the bone taking place for several months after that.

This means anyone who breaks a bone needs to be thinking of supporting that part of the body for a good six months afterwards. Nothing is going to mend within a couple of weeks.

So how can a bone fracture be best supported from a herbal perspective? The most useful discussion I found was begun by Persimmon on the Herbwifery Forum back in 2007. She had been involved in an accident which resulted in a badly damaged ankle. She was using her inherent herbal knowledge to inform her own treatment and asked for any further suggestions to her protocol.

I thought the way she set things out was really useful, which is why I am repeating it here.

(i) Bone healing is an inflammatory process, so don’t take any medication which is anti-inflammatory. This means you don’t take ‘ibu-profen’ or ‘nurofen’ for the pain because these are both “non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs” (NSAIDs). Persimmon also recommends not taking any supplements which are targeted at inflammation.

You don’t need to take the same precautions with anti-inflammatory herbs. Calendula is a great anti-inflammatory, but is actually recommended for healing fractures by Henriette Kress.

(ii) You need adequate mineral intake, preferably through food. Persimmon recommends calcium in particular but also magnesium and trace minerals. If someone won’t change their diet, chewable calcium carbonate (CaCO3) can be taken.

So where do we get the minerals? It’s back to nettles and oatstraw, possibly with red clover thrown in for good measure. These can be made into long infusion teas as per Susun Weed’s method (2 ozs dried herb covered with 16 fl.ozs (2US pints) boiling water in a large jar/jug left covered overnight and the resulting strained infusion drunk hot or cold throughout the following day).

If it’s spring/summer/autumn, I’d also do a fresh herb maceration overnight with cold water. (Gather as many herbs as you like, cover with cold water in a clean plastic bowl, leave overnight in a cool place, strain and drink the following morning.)

Minerals are best extracted in cider vinegar, so you could also take 2tsp herb infused vinegar (nettle, motherwort, mugwort) in cold water or with 2 tsp honey in a mug of boiling water several times a day.

You also need to eat lots and lots of green leafy vegetables (cabbage, sprouts, kale and other brassicas) unless you have an underactive thyroid, in which case you need to think carefully about your greens!

Susun Weed has a good mineral rich soup recipe here.

(iii) You also need adequate protein intake for making new collagen. Bone broth is really useful made with marrow bones. Jim Macdonald has a nice recipe and method here, I have one here. (You'll need to scroll down to the very bottom of the article for the recipe.)

Vegetarians and Vegans may be surprised if they suddenly get cravings for steak at this time. I’ve had vegetarian friends tell me about this phenomenon. It usually happens when the body is anaemic and needs an easily digested and absorbed protein source.

(iv) You will need to increase your fibre and water intake, especially if you have been taking a narcotic based pain killer (morphine, codeine & derivatives and dia-morphine). These medications cause serious constipation. If this happens you may not feel like eating. If you do become constipated, you need to not become reliant on senna or other commercial products because they will lessen the ability of the lower bowel to constrict. Lots of fibre, marshmallow, yellow dock, psyllium husks etc are all useful herbal allies.

You might be wondering where comfrey and plantain come into the equation. Comfrey has a long history of helping to heal bones. Matthew Wood has cautioned about not using comfrey too early, especially not before the fracture has been set or this may result in new bone growth and the bone having to be rebroken because it has healed in the wrong position.

You need to be aware of the discussions around comfrey and hepatoxic PSAs before you decide to use it, so you can make an informed decision. One thing to remember is that comfrey’s historical use has mainly been external, not internal, so it needs to be applied either as a poultice (bruise the leaves and apply to the skin, changing every three hours or so), a fomentation (mash the herb with water and apply as a hot poultice, replacing once cold) or an infused oil.

The dilemma is often lack of access to the site of the break once a cast has been put on. Some people have reverted to pushing comfrey leaves inside the cast when they can or waiting until the cast is removed and then applying liberal amounts of comfrey infused oil to the skin.

Plantain can be used in exactly the same way as comfrey, with the added advantage of being taken internally at the same time as externally either as a tea or tincture.

It is interesting that Dr Christopher’s classic Tissue and Bone Formula, has now replaced comfrey with plantain. The original recipe was comprised from oak bark, comfrey leaves, marshmallow root, mullein herb, walnut bark (or leaves), gravel root, wormwood, lobelia and skullcap. The current formula now includes white oak bark, lungwort, slippery elm bark, marshmallow root, mullein leaf, black walnut leaf, gravel root, wormwood herb, plantain leaf, skullcap herb, lobelia herb and aloe vera gel powder.

If you are thinking about making up your own formula, you need to be aware that lobelia is classified as a Class 3 herb in the UK which means it is only supposed to be dispensed by qualified herbalists. It is also a powerful emetic if you take too much, so miniscule drop doses only and preferably talk to someone who uses lobelia regularly before you experiment!

There are other herbs which are useful in the treatment of broken bones. Susun Weed recommends using St John's Wort tincture for infection free healing and preventing nerve damage for broken bones. The dose is 25-30 drops 1-2x day. Henriette Kress says that SJW oil used externally is good for swelling associated with broken bones.

Kiva Rose and Jim MacDonald recommend using a mallow, mullein and comfrey poultice for painful, swollen broken bones. They also recommend using a small dose of horsetail tincture in with other herbs when the break is fresh, or as a single dose (1-5 drops three times a day) if an old break won’t heal. Kiva writes about her experience here.

It has been a fascinating process putting this article together. Now, instead of a gut response of two major herbs, if someone asks me about broken bones again, I can help them understand what the process of bone healing is and which herbs and foods can be helpful to support the broken bone in the best possible way.