Phytotherapy = herbal medicine; to quote:  “the study of the use of extracts from natural origin as medicines of health-promoting agents [Wikipedia.com]

Did you know that there are herbs used to treat bedwetting?  For instance, Oak Bark, Wormwood, and Horsetail.

We have a lot of sayings that just roll off the tongue, but where do they come from?

Here’s a sampling:

To beat around the bush:  to hint at - His Lordship would bring his ‘beaters’ with him on those grouse hunting trips, to flush out the quarry and therefore minimize the chance of getting shot by another hunter..

Saved by the bell:  to be rescued just in the knick of time - a Windsor Castle (London) sentry was accused of sleeping while on guard duty.  To save his skin, he claimed to have been awake, and that he heard the town church bells chime 13 tolls at midnight.  The townfolk collaborated his story, and his life was spared.

Money for old rope:  to make financial gain with little or no effort, or through trickery - in the old days, the executioner was allowed to keep the rope after public executions.  He would then sell pieces of it (or in some cases, what he said were pieces of it) as much sought-after souvenirs.

Pass the buck:  to shift responsibility to someone else -  From early 19th century, when the dealer in a poker game would have a buckskin knife next to him, and when the deal was passed to another in order to keep the game honest, the knife was also passed on; this told everyone who the dealer was in that game.

Winging it: to get by with little or no preparation - From the old days - stage performers who weren’t well prepared could read their lines from large boards held just offstage.  The first mention of this phrase was in an 1885 edition of the theatrical trade magazine The Stage.

Chip on your shoulder: to bear a grudge or behave anit-socially - Comes from the early 1900s, when a man looking for a fight would place a chip of wood on his shoulder and then dare his opponent to knock it off.  One of the first mentions was in the 1855 edition of the Weekly Oregonian:  “Leland, in his last issue, struts out with a chip on his shoulder and dares Bush to knock it off.”

Polydactyly is a condition that produces more than the usual 10 fingers and toes.  It occurs in the womb, at the time that the embryo’s ‘paddles’ split into actual toes and fingers.  Every now and then, an individual toe or finger will again split off into more.

Two boys in India hold the record for having the most fingers and toes - they each have twelve fingers and thirteen toes.

There will soon be a transfer of power in the White House.  Change is, indeed,  coming.

Change is coming on a personal level, too.  You cannot avoid change in your life; resistance only increases stress.  Instead of resisting change, breathe in deeply and embrace it.  You cannot grow without it.

It’s time for a personal transfer of power.  Take a moment to consider the things in your life that have influence - power - over you.  Consider, if you will, how many of those things are unnecesary or unwanted.  it’s time for you to step up to the plate and take back your personal power.  No one knows, really, what is good for you except you.  And I’m  talking  about a deeper knowing.

You may say, “sometimes  I have no idea what is best for me!”, but your inner advisor knows.  There is a part of you that has the answers.  All you have to do is to be open,  and learn to listen deeply.  “Be still, and know …”

I’ve heard this one before:  honey can last a VERY long time.  It seems that moisture content is the key.

Carpenter ants have been used in India for many centuries as a way to close incisions.  It seems that their jaws are held open and placed in contact with each side of an incision.  Once the ant makes contact with the skin, its jaws snap shut.  Then, the head is severed and held in place until the wound heals. 

This little factoid leaves me a little speechless.  Almost feels like using leeches.

Did you know that your stomach renews its lining every 7 to 10 days?

Acupuncture is 2,700 years old.  Descriptions of acupuncture were documented in the oldest known book on Chinese medicine, the Neiching.

There’s the story about the man who spent so much time in online forums that it killed him; he died of starvation.  Check it out HERE.

We learn in hypnosis that everyone relates to the world through their senses.  Typically each person has a dominant sense that they use most often, and it is rarely the sense of smell.  That’s not to discount that sense, however.  It is very powerful in evoking certain emotions and feelings.

German researchers recently conducted a study to see if scent can effect your dreams.  Fifteen women were given the scent of roses, rotten eggs, or no scent at all, after they entered REM sleep  - that depth at which we dream.

After waiting one minute, the researchers woke the women up.  The women who had been given the scent of roses had pleasant, positive-feeling dreams.  For the women who smelled rotten eggs, their dreams were negative.

Seems  like it would be a good idea to have some fresh flowers in your bedroom.