Herbal Medics

California has officially declared a Whooping Cough (Pertussis) epidemic. This is a very serious illness that can even cause death. At a minimum, this illness makes it extremely difficult to function normally in the manner that a post-disaster environment would require. Basic necessary chores and working, exacerbates coughing spells, and of course noise discipline is non-existent if someone has this illness.

Thousands of people have been infected with Pertussis this year already, and it is not only infants who are coming down with it. Adults and children who HAVE BEEN VACCINATED are also getting Pertussis. This brings to question of course, the effectiveness of the pertussis vaccine.

More importantly, however, it is vital to be able to recognize whooping cough when it presents itself. What are the initial symptoms? The late stage symptoms? Most importantly, what can we do about it, especially in a post-disaster environment? The orthodox, pharmaceutical treatment for Pertussis includes antibiotics that can have moderate to severe side effects and many of them are not antibiotics you would expect to be stocking up on. Moreover, if a person has been infected for several weeks, it is very difficult to effectively treat it at all with antibiotics. Finally, there is no real treatment to quell or help the horrible spasmodic coughing fits.

So the question is – could we successfully use herbs to work with Pertussis in a post-disaster environment where there was no higher definitive care? The answer is yes, absolutely...

April 10, 6 pm 8910 Callaghan RD, San Antonio, TX

Learn how to plan, create and grow your own medicinal forest garden this spring! Sam Coffman will step through the basics of creating a forest garden full of medicine in the Central Texas area.

He will discuss topics such as:

• Building the layers of a forest garden

• Basics of soil health and soil building

• The Forest Garden concept & water during Central TX

• drought-Specific medicinal herbs for your forest garden that do well in this region

• A specific materia medica (medicinal herbs) that includes all layers of a forest garden as well as a wide range of health problems

• Local medicinal plants

This fun 2-hour class will include a handout with a medicinal plant list, as well as a short walk in order to do a short "site analysis" as a class.

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Class Tuition: $10 in advance, or $15 at the class. Includes medicinal plant handout.

Demonstrating splinting and making homemade percolation tincture equipment in this year's Wilderness Herbal First Responder 84-hour certification course. 

SHTF Post-Disaster Herbalism. Jan. 11/12th. Includes an 8-hour WFA certification too and herbal field guide as well. What would you do for medical care if there was a huge natural disaster, a terrorist attack, economic collapse, civil war or major societal collapse?

Sam Coffman from The Human Path (an herbalism and survival school in Austin and San Antonio, Texas) discusses herbal wound care. Starting with the 4 stages of wound healing, and including wound infection, this video is geared toward a wilderness or post-disaster environment. What herbs can you use to help stop bleeding? Treat inflammation? Deal with wound infection? Help speed tissue healing? Sam answers these questions as well as some simple fundamentals of wilderness first aid laceration, abrasion and wound care.

What would you do for medical care if there was a huge natural disaster, a terrorist attack,  economic collapse, civil war or major societal collapse?

The SHTF (Sh*t Hits the Fan)-Medicine series is a 16-hour introduction into medical self-sustainability in a world without clinics, doctors, emergency rooms, antibiotics and pharmaceutical drugs.

Central Texas is a filled with extremely powerful medicinal plants if you know how to use them.  Learn basic first aid techniques that incorporate some of the most potent medicine in our local area. Medicine that anyone can use if they have the knowledge and skill to use it.  Plant medicine that rivals pharmaceutical medicine in many cases, grows all around us and is available even after a disaster.

I have decided to create a 16-hour course that will give you an introduction to disaster herbal medicine.  An introduction that is complete enough to get you up and running on the road of self-sustainability right now, or in the future if we were to suffer a catastrophe that took our modern medical conveniences away.

16 hours is not very much time, but I can give you a broad enough foundation to build upon that you can walk away much more confident about medical care for yourself and your family in the face of disaster.

Integrated into this course will be 8 hours of Wilderness First Aid certification, so that all students receive a WFA 8-hour certification as well.

  The John W. Stormont Conference on South Texas presents

a workshop by Sam Coffman entitled

"Introduction to Practical Herbal Medicine for

Home and in the Field"

Saturday, January 4, 2014

9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

at the Leo J. Welder Center for the Performing Arts

This full day workshop is an introduction to the world of plant medicine and self-sustainable health care from your own back yard.

The workshop is a hands-on intensive covering the basics of identifying, harvesting, preparing, storing and using medicinal plants found both in south/central Texas as well as throughout the USA and world. Students will finish and take home a useful tincture (2 ounce) while also being introduced to the making of syrups, glycerides, infusions, decoctions, salves, oils and more.

We will go on a short plant walk and learn about the underlying fundamentals of working with medicinal plants through an approach that can help keep loved ones more healthy or even provide useable health care options in a remote or post-disaster environment.

The workshop will start at 9 a.m. and end at 2 p.m. with an hour break for lunch. Students should bring a notebook, pen or pencil, a camera (if desired) for the plant walk, and comfortable outdoor attire for an approximately hour-long plant walk. Various books will be brought to look at, and the instructor’s own field guide to the use of local (Central/South Texas and the Southwest USA), medicinal plants will also be available for purchase ($20).

Cost for the workshop is $30.

Many people are disillusioned about the current state of health care, and find they are not able to afford the care they need or want.

What if you had the knowledge on how to recognize and work with health issues, using natural plants? What if you knew herbs that could help to keep colds from taking root, to soothe coughs and reduce pain or inflammation? And what if you could identify the plants growing in your backyard that were potentially medicinal?