[Carolyn (OP)]

My mom was a smoker the majority of her life.  She is 58, and I believe started smoking around the age of 15.  She was in terrible shape.  She couldn't walk across the room without having to use her nebulizer.  She had asthma most of her life, emphysema, COPD and a host of other breathing problems.  She carried her Albuterol inhaler with her everywhere she went.  In May of this year, she had to go on oxygen.  I guess that was the straw that broke the camels back.  She finally was able to give up cigarettes sometime around the end of May and the beginning of June.  

She heard about oregano oil and started using it in her nebulizer.  The change is unbelievable.  She can breath. She no longer needs the nebulizer, albuterol or oxygen.  A short time ago, she was sick and ended up in the hospital for over 2 weeks with an abcessed liver.    She went in to see the surgeon this week and he said "you're not a smoker are you?"  She said no, she quit in June.  He was flabbergasted that she had only quit a such a short time ago.  He said she had the clearest sounding lungs that he had heard in a very long time.  He of course wanted to know what she had been using.  When she told him, he said he had several patients he was going to recommend it to.  

I had a runny nose while I was visiting her this weekend.  She recommended getting a bottle of cheap nose spray and putting in about 8 drops of the oregano oil.  I did it right before bed.  It dried my nose up and I felt fine the next morning.  My son has exercise induced asthma and we are going to try it out on him as well.  

She did say that if you're going to mix it in with your nebulizer, or nose spray, be sure to get the kind that is water soluable.  The brand she uses is H2Orega Oil, from the North American Herb & Spice Company.  Their website is www.oreganol.com

I must tell you, I'm not impressed with their website at all.  There is an 800 number listed, so if you have questions, call them.  Or google oregano oil and find another web site, but be sure to find out if it's water soluable.  

Carolyn

[mikey]

very interesting that carolyn, especially as i'm in the process of giving up,its my second week.

[Carolyn (OP)]

Paul - You're on your second week without smoking?  That's great.  Don't give up.  Nov. 4 will be 2 years for me.  Congratulations.

Carolyn

[iko]

I deeply like oregano as a spice...it's quite mediterranean.
I must say that this wonderful spice is under re-evaluation by western orthodox science.
May be it had never been studied before and just neglected, I'm not sure.
It is not alone, but in a nice spicy group, together with green tea, sesame oil and, most of all, curcumin (from turmeric).
We might see them in action in the near future. For now they show extraordinary healing power 'in vitro', i.e. under experimental conditions in cell cultures (mainly tumor cell lines).
They do not cost much and cannot be patented...they may serve as models for 'more powerful' analogues and become respected official DRUGS.

iko  

http://springvilleherbary.com/herbs/oregano.jpg

[PaulMc]

I've read with interest your writng on Oregano oil. It seems to me it's very important for people with CPD and other lung disorders. It would be great if there could be some more validation on the effects of it from the medical profession (I spoke to my doctor about it only to be met with ridicule).  I have a friend who, like your mother is on oxygen the whole time he has a tube and a machine in his home.  He's a great musician who can't even play his guitar anymore. So if you can get any proffessional validation for the oil it could go a long way to helping him and many people. I have alerted him to the oil and I would love to hear from you with any developments.

[greif]

is there a cheaper site to buy the H2Orega Oil from or another maker of water souble oregano that has better pricing?
thanks

[Carolyn (OP)]

quote:Originally posted by PaulMc

I've read with interest your writng on Oregano oil. It seems to me it's very important for people with CPD and other lung disorders. It would be great if there could be some more validation on the effects of it from the medical profession (I spoke to my doctor about it only to be met with ridicule).  I have a friend who, like your mother is on oxygen the whole time he has a tube and a machine in his home.  He's a great musician who can't even play his guitar anymore. So if you can get any proffessional validation for the oil it could go a long way to helping him and many people. I have alerted him to the oil and I would love to hear from you with any developments.

Hi Paul - I wouldn't count on getting a whole lot of validation from the medical community.  My moms primary physician mocked her as well.  But what's important is that she is getting the last laugh, and can do so and still be able to breathe.  More often than not, when I mention something herbal/all natural to a physician their general reaction is one of skeptisism.  I don't know what the reason is, but that's what I've run into.  I have my suspicions, but that's a whole 'nother topic.  However, I think there is a line in Iko's post above that in my opinion just about sums it up.  (Hint: has to do with patents.) I believe Iko is a physician, maybe he can help us with an explanation.  And he is also a HUGE supporter of cod liver oil.  My suggestion for you and your friend is to research water soluble oregano oil.  Actually, any medication that you take, whether it's herbal/all natural or something prescribed by your physician should be researched by you.  Do not rely solely on your physician.  They are human and can make mistakes.

Greif - I haven't really checked other sites, but you can google water soluble oregano oil and check out all the different sites and compare prices.  Good luck, and please let us know if you find it at a good price.

Carolyn

[iko]

Good doctors are used to listen to their patients and sometimes encourage them to follow an healing path that patients themselves strongly believe will be good for them.
They cannot know everything but it's easy to get better informed about alternative treatments and offer an opinion about safety and toxicity and some practical suggestions.
Facing spontaneous regressions of dreadful diseases or miracle cure cases, many doctors had been reported saying to their patients: "Whatever you did, keep on doing it!"
They are not supposed to practice alternative or complementary medicine.

Dr. Bernie  Siegel

Author of:
"Love, Medicine and Miracles:
Lessons Learned about Self-Healing
from a Surgeon's Experience
with Exceptional Patients"

iko

[iko]

Spices Kill Bacteria and protect cells
 

quote:Oregano vs. germs. "No wonder oregano has been used since antiquity to fight infections," Preuss says. He recently found oregano oil as effective as the common antibiotic drug vancomycin in treating staph infections in mice. Bonus: It wiped out an infectious fungus. A daily dose of oregano oil, mixed with oils from fenugreek, cumin and pumpkin seeds, reduced blood pressure and improved blood sugar and insulin sensitivity in diabetic rats. In Texas research, oregano killed parasites in humans. The point, Preuss says: People who eat small regular doses of oregano may get antibiotic and antidiabetic benefits, although more tests on humans are needed to verify it.
...
Strongest antibiotics.
The most ferocious killers of 30 bacterial species in Cornell University tests are (in order) onion, garlic, allspice, oregano, thyme, tarragon, cumin, cloves, bay leaf and cayenne pepper.

http://www.prostatecanceralternatives.com/Spices%20Kill%20Bacteria%20and%20Protect%20Cells.htm

 

quote:Antimicrobial effect of spices and herbs on Vibrio parahaemolyticus

The antimicrobial effects of spices and herbs from 18 plant species were examined on a foodborne pathogen, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, with the use of combinations of temperatures and nutrient levels. Basil, clove, garlic, horseradish, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, and thyme exhibited antibacterial activities at incubation of 30 degrees C, while with the exception of horseradish, the same spices and additional 7 species exhibited the activities at 5 degrees C. The lowest MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) was 0.125% observed in clove and marjoram at 30 degrees C in a nutrient rich medium. Lowering of incubation temperature produced little effect on the MICs except for turmeric. The decreasing of the MIC in turmeric appeared to be basically attributed to the sensitivity of the bacterium to coldness. In nutrient poor medium, the lowest was 0.001 and 0.00025% in marjoram at 30 degrees C and at 5 degrees C, respectively. The sensitivity to several spices and herbs was similar among different clinical serotypes including the emerging strain O3:K6. These results suggest that the spices and herbs can be practical for protecting seafood from the risk of contamination by V. parahaemolyticus and used in hurdle technology with low temperature.
from: Yano J,Satomi M, Oikawa H.
Int J Food Microbiol. 2006 Aug 15;111(1):6-11.

origaniko

[Hadrian]

[greif]

carolyn

how do you get the oil in the nose spary since most have only a small hole in the tip?
thanks
greif

[Carolyn (OP)]

Hi Grief - Every bottle I've ever seen has a cap that will come off.  It's on there tight, but keep twisting, it will come off.  Did you get a bottle of oregano oil yet?

Carolyn

[greif]

Carolyn
yes I got some & put it in the spray & tried it. Burns a little but wow it works great. Clear my nose right up. The last week I have had a bad sinus infection, so bad that my upper jaw & theeth hurt. I did the spray last night & my morning I was starting to feel better. Did it again this morning & tonight and I can feel the infection getting much better already. I am also taking oregano oil in capsules so it must be giving it the 1 - 2 pucnh.

thanks

[Carolyn (OP)]

Hi Greif - Thats fantastic.  I'm glad it worked for you and that you're feeling better.

Carolyn

[iko]

More bits for the oregano oil supporters:

Dried Oregano Fact Sheet

WHAT IS 'OREGANO' ?-It is fair to say there is still a lot of confusion with both the name given to dried herbs and with the living plants. Many confusions are carried forward by gardeners and even garden writers, not being helped by the botanists re-assigning species into sub-species of a different name!

'Oregano' is a term used in North America covering the dried herb of the two 'hotter' Origanum species  - Origanum vulgare and Origanum onites ('pot marjoram'). It also covers several sub-species (the abbreviation is 'ssp.') of Origanum vulgare, particularly the very widespread and common sub-species Origanum vulgare ssp. vulgare, as well as the much less common O. vulgare ssp. viride, and the one that we are concerned with, the relatively localised Turkish sub-species - Origanum vulgare ssp. hirtum, the 'true Turkish' form of oregano, a form very high in essential oils.
 
'Oregano' is also used for a Turkishsage bush which is increasingly used as an 'oregano substitute', but labelled as being a form of oregano, usually being described as 'Turkish oregano'. All Origanum species are, in fact, native only to Europe, Africa and Southwest Asia. To confuse matters further, the 'flavoring' known in the trade as 'oregano' can also be extracted from Coleus amboinicus and several other totally unrelated species, and then used in products and described as 'oregano flavored'!
 
In UK and Australasia 'oregano' is usually called 'oreganum', and is occasionally known (confusingly) as 'wild marjoram'.
 
To eliminate confusion, all 'hotter' Origanum species should be referred to by the generic term 'Oregano'.
 
The oregano you buy in the shops is almost always the dried leaves of the common purple flowered 'wild oreganum' O.vulgare of Southern Europe, or the sub-species vulgare very widespread in the Mediterranean region and further East, or perhaps even the rather mild O.Onites, 'pot marjoram'.
 
True 'Turkish' oregano, Origanum vulgare ssp. hirtum, the strongest and most pungent form of the species, is of much more limited geographic spread and is rarely available.

Most importantly, the peasant practice of selecting and drying only the especially rich and powerful flowering stems is quite simply uneconomic, and therefore the customary 'true' Turkish oregano is not often commercially available. Where the Turkish origanum is grown commercially for the flower stems it is usually to distill the immensely valuable oregano oil from them. They are so potent that the dried flower stems are worth more distilled for oil than rubbed into culinary oregano for sale in supermarkets - even when 220lbs/100 kilos of dried 'true Turkish oregano' only yeilds 9lbs/4kgs to 13lbs/6 kilos of pure oil.
 
As seems the pattern with this genus, even the oil is not safe from confusion. One commercial 'oregano' oil is actually produced from the so-called 'Spainish oregano', actually a species of thyme, Thymus capitatus!
 
Origanum vulgare subspecies hirtum  - Turkish Oregano, Wild Oregano.
This is a subspecies of the widespread wild oregano, and is found only in Turkey(it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as Origanum heracleoticum), and is the essential herb for pizza. Known as 'kekik' in Turkey, it is only summer flowering heads that are dried and used. The flowers are always white. The leaves are fuzzy, oval and somewhat coarse in relation to the other species.

....

more readings from: http://www.origanumoil.com/about_oregano.htm

Wikipedia oregano:
Health benefits
Oregano is high in antioxidant activity, particularly due to a high content of phenolic acids and flavonoids (PMID 16218659, PMID 12730411). Additionally, oregano has demonstrated antimicrobial activity against food-borne pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes (PMID 16218659). Both of these characteristics may be useful in both health and food preservation. In the Philippines, Oregano is not commonly used for cooking but is rather considered as a primarily medicinal plant, useful for relieving childrens coughs.

 
http://www.herbalremediesinfo.com/images/fon.jpg

...I'm definitely losing my 'codcentration'...

ikoded

[moonfire]

This sheep is so funny...is this a before and after photo Hadrian?  See how much he hops now that he gave up smoking or is this because of oregano oil?

[moonfire]

Doc Iko,

I love to read about what natural herbs can do for you and the benefits...What do you do exactly?

[iko]

Hi Moonfire,
I'm not an expert in herbal med.
I surf on the net just like the
lot of us...a bit closer to
orthodox medical literature.

What do I do?...here is my cv from childhood leukemia topic:

Iko, I'm realativly new to the ask and answer boards. I'm wondering could you give me a bit of a "Bio" on your self since I see your name so often. Also Neilep, Whats your story?

Hi jeg29!
welcome to this forum (I just started last August)
Quick "Bio" of India Kilo Oscar:

[iko]

Hi Carolyn,
this "oregano connection" is really
more and more surprising indeed!
Thank you for starting this quite
scented, fragrant and just wonderful
spice topic.
"oregano" gets 216 citations in PubMed
database (Today), >80 are 2005-06...
It's running fast these days!

Here I stick an example of
anti-parasite action
supposedly stronger and less toxic
than the current drug treatment:

 

Oregano (Lippia spp.) kills Giardia intestinalis trophozoites in vitro: antigiardiasic activity and ultrastructural damage.

Ponce-Macotela M, Rufino-Gonzalez Y, Gonzalez-Maciel A, Reynoso-Robles R, Martinez-Gordillo MN.
 
Parasitologia Experimental, Instituto Nacional de Pediatria, Insurgentes Sur, C.P. 04530, No. 3700-C, Mexico, D.F., Mexico, marionmgordillo@yahoo.com.

In the world, giardiasis is still a very important parasitic disease; only in Asia, Africa and America, there are more than 200 million of infected people in a year. The usual treatments are drugs that produce undesirable secondary effects, perhaps favouring the resistant strain selection.
One alternative is to research compounds from plants used as antidiarrhoeic or antiparasitic in the traditional medicine. In a previous work, we found that Lippia beriandieri (Oregano) revealed to be more potent than tinidazole, a common antigiardiasic drug.
In this current work, we tested the cell viability by re-culture and reduction of MTT-tetrazolium salts to MTT-formazan, and we showed the effect of oregano ethanolic extracts against Giardia intestinalis (synonyms: Giardia duodenalis, Giardia lamblia) trophozoites at concentrations ranging form 58 to 588 mug.
We demonstrated the ultrastructural injury produced by oregano extracts in this parasite. Trophozoites lost their size and shape and showed damage in nucleus structure, perhaps by breaking the pattern of nucleoskeleton proteins.

Parasitol Res. 2006 May;98(6):557-60. Epub 2006 Jan 20.

             
http://web.indstate.edu/thcme/micro/parasites/giardia_lifecycle.gif
http://www.yosemite.org/naturenotes/images/Giardia.jpg
http://www.itg.be/itg/DistanceLearning/LectureNotesVandenEndenE/imagehtml/images/prevs/kabisa_1033.jpg

[iko]

       
http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/fox/e_coli-dk.jpg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/irish/blas/images/ecoli_big.jpg
http://www.ehagroup.com/epidemiology/illnesses/images/e-coli-0157-h7-C.jpg

Today, infection from deadly E.coli O157:H7 bacteria
and other foodborne microorganisms still represents
a major problem and cause of high mortality and
morbidity even in our safe 'developed' countries:

Edible Coatings May Boost Food Safety

By Rick Ansorge     HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Nov. 27 (HealthDay News) 2006.

A natural, edible coating could help keep deadly E. coli bacteria and other nasty bugs away from fresh produce, U.S. government scientists report.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture say the new compounds reduce the risk of infection from deadly E.coli O157:H7 bacteria and other foodborne microorganisms. They report their findings in the Nov. 29 issue of the Journal of Food and Agricultural Chemistry.

"We hope that these coatings will have wide commercial potential," said Tara McHugh, a food chemist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Service in Albany, Calif. Her team conducted lab tests on the E. coli-inhibiting ability of apple-puree food coatings containing one of three natural antimicrobial compounds: oregano, lemongrass and cinnamon oil.

The researchers say the oregano oil coating was the most effective, killing more than 50 percent of E. coli O157:H7 bacteria within three minutes.

Because such coatings contain sticky sugars and fats, they may adhere longer to fresh produce and provide a more concentrated, longer-lasting method for killing bacteria than conventional, water-based washes, McHugh said.

That would be welcome news to consumers who have been bombarded with reports this fall about food safety, starting with the E. coli O157:H7 scare in mid-September that killed three Americans and sickened nearly 200 others who ate tainted spinach.

Subsequent scares included a salmonella outbreak that sickened 171 people in 19 states, plus recalls of E. coli-tainted lettuce and ground beef. And on Monday, officials at the USDA announced that a type of salmonella typically found in eggs is turning up with increasing frequency in chicken meat.

But some scientists wonder if edible coatings with antimicrobial compounds will prove practical in improving food safety outside of the laboratory.

"They haven't yet been tested in the real world, which means they need to be tested on fresh fruits and vegetables. So we don't know how efficacious they would really be," said Dr. Pascal James Imperato, chairman of the department of preventive medicine and community health at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, and a former New York City health commissioner.

"When produce is shipped, it undergoes a great deal of handling and exposure to many different temperature environments," Imperato said. "For this to have commercial applications, it would have to undergo much more stringent scientific study."

Food allergy is another possible complication, Imperato said. "Suppose you have someone who's allergic to oregano? I would view this study as showing interesting preliminary scientific results that would have to be corroborated by other scientists before these coatings are adopted by the commercial fresh produce industry."

Because E. coli and other microorganisms can lurk anywhere on the surface -- or even the interior -- of fresh produce, it's possible that the coatings might not affect them all, said Arun Bhunia, professor of food microbiology at the Purdue University department of food science in West Lafayette, Ind.

"My concern is that only a small portion of the food would be in direct contact with the film," Bhunia said. "How can it be assured that the entire content of a package would be exposed to the antimicrobial agent and thus provide safety? How stable is this compound, and how long would it maintain its activity? It also appears that the researchers have not tested many strains of E. coli O157:H7 to assess overall efficacy."

for more reading click down here:

http://news.healingwell.com/index.php?p=news1&id=536211