With the mass outbreak of heat exhaustion and reports of over sun exposure at Dr. Twinklestiein's offices, there has been an increase in demand of medicine to help the elves deal with the issues related to heat stroke, sun burn, and being overheated causing a shortage of these medicines.
Dr. Twinklestein turned to the Division of Forestry who runs the greenhouse at Santa's Village and asked them to make available many herbs and plants to the elves at the North Pole, that will help them combat these issues and recover from their conditions.
MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: Herbs are not regulated by the FDA (Federal Drug Administration). That means it’s important to do your research to ensure the herbs you ingest are high quality and unadulterated. There are some herbs that can interact with prescribed medications or cause allergic reactions. Be sure to rule out possible interactions and allergies with the help of your doctor and a qualified herbalist. You should always talk with a healthcare professional before you begin taking herbs, especially If you’re pregnant, nursing, living with preexisting conditions, or giving herbs to children.
Traditionally, the elves at the North Pole and within Santa's village will use a more holistic approach when it comes to healthcare and taking care of themselves; however, there are times when they just have to go and see Dr. Twinklestein. The Doctor generally prescribes the following to the elves if they come and visit him when temperatures are higher than normal and the sun is out up at the North Pole. (This is not the normal weather in this climate and most of the time the elves live in very cold and snowy conditions, but when the sun comes out, they love to come out and play. As with everything else, they just don't know when enough is enough.)
So let's look at this in more detail and break it down to see how we can use some herbs or plants to help achieve the goals of this prescription.
Normally, elves do not like, nor do they drink, a lot of water. Their main beverage of choice of course is hot cocoa, but this is not very helpful if you are trying to hydrate your body. A great suggestion from Dr. Twinklestein is if you get tired of drinking water, make yourself a soothing glass of peppermint iced tea.
Peppermint tea is naturally calorie and caffeine free. Some research has suggested that the oils in peppermint may have a number of other health benefits, such as fresher breath, better digestion, and reduced pain from headaches. Peppermint tea also has antibacterial properties and helps in cooling your body temperature. Although regular tea contains caffeine which is a diuretic (meaning it will dehydrate the body), peppermint tea is made from 15-20 peppermint leaves which does not contain caffeine, that is crushed to release the flavor and added to 2 cups of hot water then cooled over a glass of ice.
When you have a sunburn, you may get the feeling like your skin and body is on fire. This sometimes can make it hard to relax and get some rest, but focusing on trying to lower your body temperature (or the temperature of you skin tissues) will help with trying to make this condition more bearable.
There are three types of herbs; heating, cooling, and neutral. Herbs that are considered to be cooling herbs, are categorized in two different areas. Refrigerants and Diaphoretics. Diaphoretics help encourage sweating and perspiration while refrigerants work on reducing the temperature of body tissue. These are the ones we want to focus on if you are suffering from a bad sunburn or heat exhaustion and they will help you cool down your body temperature. These herbs include: lemongrass, chrysanthemum, cilantro, lavender, spearmint, peppermint, and chamomile. Most of these can be added to soups etc. or made into tea. There are some great recipes out there to incorporate these herbs into your diet. Learn more about these herbs.
If you are going to be out in the sun for long periods of time, you should really consider using some kind of sunblock or sunscreen. Even if you do, it is possible to get a sunburn an once that happens, it is important to treat your skin and the burnt areas with some lotions or soothing creams. A great plant to help with this, is the aloe plant.
Aloe vera is a succulent plant species of the genus Aloe. The plant is stemless or very short-stemmed with thick, greenish, fleshy leaves that fan out from the plant’s central stem. The margin of the leaf is serrated with small teeth. The gel from aloe vera leaves can be used topically, but should NOT be eaten by people or pets. (Ingesting it can cause unpleasant symptoms such as nausea or indigestion and may even be toxic in larger quantities.) To make use of the aloe vera plant’s soothing properties, remove a mature leaf from the plant and cut it lengthwise. Squeeze the gel out of the leaf and apply it to your burn, or simply lay the opened leaf gel-side–down on top of the affected area. Learn how to grow Aloe Vera plants.
Another thing you can do is make some cooling sunburn ice cubes. These skin-soothing cubes are perfect to stash in your freezer and pull out as needed to quickly relieve mild sunburn and other minor skin irritations such as razor burn, scrapes, and itchy insect bites. Easy to make, this natural sunburn relief remedy features a few herbal ingredients and some water; plantain leaf, violet leaf, aloe vera gel, and witch hazel extract. Simply take these cubes out of the freeze and gently rub them on the sun burned area. Complete recipe for cooling sunburn ice cubes.
You hear this from doctors all the time when you are sick and not feeling well. Get some sleep, get some rest, but why do they tell us this? The main reason is, when your body is calm and resting and while you are sleep it will actually heal itself. The best thing you can do when you are not feeling well, is to get some sleep. Some times it is hard to force yourself to get some sleep or rest when you don't feel good, but a good cup of chamomile tea may help you get that much needed rest.
Some of the benefits of chamomile include: treating diabetes and lowering blood sugar, slowing or preventing osteoporosis, cancer treatment and prevention, reducing inflammation, treating cold symptoms, treatment for mild skin conditions, and helping with sleep and relaxation. source
There are two types of chamomile, Roman (Russian or English) and German. Both types are very easily grown with the Roman growing like a ground cover mat with the German growing to be 1 or 2 feet tall and reseeding annually. The plant requires very little care and only needs to be watered during periods of a long drought. These plants are also considered to be companion plants that can be planted in vegetable gardens to help keep pests away due to the smell that comes off the plants. source
If you find yourself with sunburn or heat exhaustion, please consider this prescription from Dr. Twinklestein to help you cope with healing your body and getting better. It's also a very good idea to try and limit your exposure out in the sun if you are prone to getting sunburn from year to year. Find some shade, take a little rest, and hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.
