Over twenty budding herbalists gathered for Herb Day celebrations at the Portland, Oregon campus of the Australasian College of Health Sciences on October 13th. It was a crisp, sunny fall day and the herb identification walks in the ACHS Botanical garden on Hood Avenue and alongside the Willamette River were informative and enjoyable. The riverside walk revealed a wealth of wild botanicals, including red clover, plantain, wild carrot and dandelion. ACHS instructor, herbalist and Ayurvedic specialist Gia vonKarl demonstrated how to prepare a cough syrup. Gia formulated a blend just for Herb Day and attendees took home a sample. The formula and preparation instructions with all the herbs and additional ingredients are available as a kit from the College Store the Apothecary Shoppe. Other lectures and demonstrations included - How to Prepare a Tincture, The Top Ten Herbs You Need to Know, and a slide show of the Summer School in Greece. Free downloadable PDF's of the lectures are available by emailing achs@achs.edu. We all had a lot of fun making new friends and celebrating our joy and interest in herbs and herbal medicine.

Listen to ACHS President Dorene Petersen on Voice of America

Click here and download the Mp3 file to listen to ACHS President, Dorene Petersen discuss Alternative Medicine on Voice of America on October 11th. If the link does not work try copying and pasting this url into your browser - http://www.voanews.com/english/NewsAnalysis/TTA-New-Past-Shows.cfm

Ayurvedic Remedies May Help With Alzheimer's

Researchers studied five plants commonly used in Ayurvedic medicine, and found that the plants acted to prevent the breakdown of neurotransmitters, improving memory and concentration in people with Alzheimer's disease.

The BBC reported in India drug gives Alzheimer's hope that researchers "are now trying to identify the chemical compounds responsible so they can be used to develop more effective drugs."

Ayurvedic medicine uses herbs and spices, as well as massage techniques and yoga, for healing.

If you are interested in studying Ayurvedic medicine online contact the Admissions Department of Australasian College of Health Sciences

An Introduction to Holistic Wellness

well·ness (wlns)
n.
The condition of good physical and mental health, especially when maintained by proper diet, exercise, and habits.

Most often, western (or allopathic) health care focuses on illness and disease. Indeed, focusing on ill health may sometimes be necessary, for instance to address problems that require surgical intervention or medication.

However, here at the Australasian College, we teach a holistic perspective of health. We like to teach each student to focus on the overall holistic concept of wellness and the tools that we can all use to stay well. This introduction is intended to assist you to do this.

Why focus on wellness?
Any psychologist will tell you that focusing on a concept is the first step to achieving it. An equestrian will tell you that you must look over the jump ahead to where you want to go: If you look at the jump, your horse will balk. A car racer will tell you that you need to look at where you want the car to go, not what you need to avoid.
However, how often do we focus on wellness? Instead, we go from day to day, not thinking about our health or body until it begins to ache, a joint twinges, or a headache starts. Then we try to remedy the problem.
Wellness is a wider concept, encompassing our physical, mental, and spiritual sides. Each day we make a myriad of decisions that affect the balance of our body and our wellbeing:
• What we eat for breakfast: Whole-wheat toast with a poached organic egg or a fast food sandwich?
• How we respond to our morning commute: By getting upset at other drivers and changing lanes every ten seconds or by listening to classical music and deep breathing?
• How we respond to feeling sleepy during the day: Choosing a third (or seventh) cup of coffee or selecting a tonic herbal tea blend?
• How we act when we get home from work: Collapsing on the couch, exhausted, or summoning up the will to stop at the gym or a yoga class on the way home, or popping in a yoga tape at home?
Each decision we make throughout each day creates our wellness.

Stress
In our view, stress is one of the most harmful issues our bodies have to deal with in the modern world. Stress is linked to many illnesses. Stress has been shown to affect thyroid function, to affect our immune systems, our blood sugar levels, cause headaches, cause ulcers, and affect just about every aspect of our lives and our bodies.
Feeling in control reduces stress in our lives. There are a number of steps to regaining that sense of control. One is having the tools we need to achieve wellness.

Tools for Wellness
The Australasian College of Health Sciences Holistic Nutrition course
focuses on one of our most powerful tools for wellness: Good nutrition.

Although nutrition is vital, do not forget that holistic wellness also comes from optimal:
• Elimination;
• Exercise; and
• Stress reduction

Every person is a blend of the physical, psychological, and spiritual. Neglecting any area will lead to imbalance and affect our wellbeing.

"A week in the life of an ACHS Aromatherapy Instructor"

We have had quite the week here. We had a fun camping trip over the 4th of July holiday weekend, however, within the first five minutes of our arrival at the campsite, Hazel (my 5-year old) managed to fall off a rock and cut her face pretty badly. Fortunately I had my Aromatherapy first aid kit handy, and with regular applications of tea tree oil and my infused calendula oil, her cut is healing quite nicely. And amazingly, even with three days of camping and playing in the dirt, it didn't become infected. The rest of our camping trip was fun and relaxing.
Unfortunately once we got home, in the midst of doing all the camping laundry, our washer died (and it's a Maytag!), and that night, Matt (my 7-year old) was up all night with the stomach flu. I mixed two of the strongest antivirals I know: clove and cinnamon essential oils, and put them in the diffuser. It smelled like Christmas in July here, but thankfully, no one else got sick. Since bad things are supposed to come in 3's, I assumed we were "home free" for a while. Lesson learned: Never assume!

Yesterday we had the invasion of the bees: a swarm of bees moved into our garage, for the second time in a month! By swarm I mean thousands; the first time the exterminator took away a hive with over a pound of honey (two days work for bees), and charged us $400.00. Yesterday they showed up again; in the morning I saw a couple of bees in the front yard and I didn't think too much about it, but two hours later our front yard and inside the garage were covered with a black cloud of bees. So I sent the kids to a friend's house and called the exterminator again. He showed up in his bee keeper/hazmat suit and took care of them in about half an hour (this time for free - thank goodness!). So, of course, what I wanted to know was "why me?". The bee guy said that it's because we've been leaving the garage door open (the kids are around for the summer and they leave it open so they can get their bikes, scooters, etc.) and the bees come in through the open door. But as to what is drawing them in the first place -- he hands me a box with my 5 pound block of bees wax that I use for making creams and lotions! I keep my supplies in a cabinet in the garage, and the bees smelled the bees wax and thought this was a great place to build a hive! Who knew?! Another lesson learned: Don't keep your bees wax where bees have access to it. Sheesh!
Then, Geoff, my oldest, who is in Jr. Lifeguard training, forgot to apply sunscreen yesterday and came home with a terrible sunburn. We've been applying my mixture of jojoba oil, aloe gel, and lavender essential oil, and this morning it looked great!
Thankfully, the Maytag repairman arrived today to fix the washer. Then we discovered that with everything else that was going on, I had forgotten to remove the load of laundry that I was doing on Tuesday when the washer broke. It is amazing how fast a load of wet laundry can grow mold in 90 degree weather. It is even more amazing how quickly tea tree essential oil can kill that mold!
How do people survive without essential oils?
I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend:) What else could happen, right?!"
Deborah Halvorson

ACHS Herb Garden Online

The ACHS herb garden is a wonderful example of an urban herb garden, with a wide variety of medicinal plants in both sunny and shady areas. The garden includes ginkgo trees, hops vines, a wide range of perennial and annual herbs, and a fountain, laid out in a semi formal pattern with flagstone pathways.
The garden is open year round to visitors and students, with a self guided tour available. During open houses and other events, faculty are happy to guide visitors through the garden. Sign up for our mailing list to be notified of these events.

Australasian College of Health Sciences (ACHS), based in Portland, Oregon, is a leader in natural health education. We are accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council and state licensed by the Oregon Department of Education. ACHS, founded in 1978, is one of the oldest and most respected distance education natural health colleges, offering flexible programs, a highly qualified faculty, and a diverse student body.

Natural Gardening Tips for Spring

1. Coffee grounds have several uses in the garden, not only do they work as good fertilizer, they are a great pest
control.
2. Don’t throw out those nylons! Cut _ “ strips from the legs and use them to ties back you plants. They work quite well on heavily staked plants, as they are stretchy.
3. To help you visualize what a section of a perennial border will look like, take paint stir sticks and pains the end the color of the flower, Plunge the stick into the ground where the flower will grown. Stand back and see if the color will work.
4.Transplants become less stressed when they are set out on a cloudy day.
5. Disassemble old mini blinds and cut the slats to the desired size. Write in permanent marker pen the names of herbs, flowers and vegetable for easy identification.
6. Save those metal frozen juice can lids, punch a hole through and hang from fruit trees or veggie stakes to deter birds.
7. Add banana peels for fertilizer to your roses
8. Placing mothballs in the garden will keep rabbits and unwanted critters away.
9. Sugar water might be more effective bait for slugs than beer.
10. Pinch back petunia’s new growth to encourage bushiness rather than leggy plants.