He Has Given Us Herbs For The Service of Man Psalm 104:14

Women’s Intuition is a powerful force.  The more you recognize it and use it, the stronger your intuition becomes.  After 3 months of suffering severe asthma attacks, my inner voice was instructing me to drink Sage tea. Why Sage Tea, I thought?  But I was not going to question or rationalize.  The last time I didn’t listen to my intuition, it turned out to be a disaster.

Winter months are not very kind to asthmatics. Just breathing in the cold air is enough for some people to suck on their “inhalers”.  Cold air causes bronchial constriction.  The airways narrow, causing breathing to become difficult to impossible. Overtime, it's "like trying to breathe through a straw stuffed with cotton," the AAFA states. 

Along with breathing in cold air, allergens in the air can restrict airways and trigger an asthma attack: allergens such as mold spores and pollen and particulates of all kinds.  But the most life threatening pollutant to asthmatics is wood smoke.  The EPA considers breathing in “wood smoke” to be more detrimental than breathing in cigarette smoke. 

Smoke is a huge “trigger” for my asthma, one that usually lands me in John Dempsey Hospital for lung treatments.  So since I was going to Vitamin Shoppe to get Mary’s Organic Sleepy Time Tea, I purchased a box of Organic Sage Tea for myself in hopes of getting my lungs to work again and avoid a trip to the hospital.  I am glad I did.  The aroma alone started to loosen up my stuffed sinuses and by the end of the day, after 3 cups of Sage tea, my airways opened just enough to allow a small stream of air in.  By the end of the week, my breathing was not back to normal but improved enough to forget about the trip to the hospital.

After researching the benefits of Sage, it was no surprise to me why my breathing had improved.  The oils in the sage leaves are beneficial to lung and respiratory problems.  The Georgetown University Medical Center has done extensive studies on sage and discovered it to be used worldwide, especially in indigenous areas as a cough suppressant and treatment for sore throats.

Sage is a known expectorant, expelling mucus from the sinuses and lungs and this is what I experienced as well.  I suffered a respiratory infection since the end of October due to inhaling smoke and after 3 weeks on sage tea my sinuses and lungs cleared up.  The EPA suggests asthmatics stay away from areas where wood smoke is airborne but when it invades one’s home, this remains a difficult task.  Coincidently, for the past week the air has been pretty much smoke free which also helped my lungs to clear.  Let’s pray it stays that way.

I used to grow my own Sage as a ground cover and it just flourished.  A Native American woman would pick it to use in her cooking and to sell in her gift shop.  She told me it is used in ceremonial rituals to cleanse away evil spirits and negative energy and as an insect repellent.  But I had no idea of Sage’s medicinal properties.  Going back to the Egyptians, Romans and Greeks as well as Native Americans, Sage was used for it’s healing properties in issues concerning digestion, heartburn, memory loss, colds, sore throat, rhinitis, cholesterol, and stress relief.  The Gypsies used Sage to restore hair color and they believed Sage to be a key to longevity.  The Arabs believed if one planted Sage and it flourished, that it was a sign of living a long life.  If this is true, I shall live many years.

Sage should only be taken short term, as needed.  It is not a tea to drink on a daily basis.  I stopped drinking it when my asthma symptoms subsided.  Sage should not be taken if you are on medication for blood pressure, diabetes, seizures and sedatives.  Sage should not be taken if you are pregnant, breast feeding or if you have hormone sensitive issues such as breast, ovarian and uterine cancer.

If you are currently seeing a doctor for asthmatic issues…..please, by all means, continue with your medical protocol.  If you would like to try Sage tea, talk it over with him or her first.  But by now, we all know…..I choose to live healthy chemical free…….