★★★★★
I have a strange story to tell. Early last week I developed a blistering headache/migraine after working on a sick person (if I had known they were sick, I wouldn't have gone near her). I had never experienced so much head pain before in my life and everyday to got worse. Even my hair hurt to touch it. I had to stop wearing my baseball cap it hurt so bad.
None of my usual tricks to heal myself were working. I had a brain storm and decided to go completely of the reservation. Rosemary oil!
I took a 2 oz. sprayer, filled it with 1 oz. warm water and 20 drops rosemary oil. Shook it til mixed and went to the shower. Ran hot water over my head for awhile, then sprayed my wet hair with the rosemary mixture. Moving my hair around so it makes contact with my scalp. I have short hair so 1 oz. did one treatment for me. Adjust formula according to your needs. After the spray bottle was empty and my hair was completely saturated including my scalp, forehead, around both ears and neck. I got out of the shower and left the mixture on my scalp to air dry and went to bed. Expect to have crazy dreams… I did.
When I woke up. The pain and brain fog I was experiencing had decreased by about 50%. So I decided to repeat the experiment again the following night. Again the head pain and fog decreased again.
Tonight is my 3rd night and again decreased.
What I noticed over the past few days is that rosemary oil does help a lot with headaches/migraines and brain fog. Also, my hair was really soft and thicker too.
Now, how did I come up with this?
The first records of rosemary's use as a medicinal herb date back to ancient times in the civilizations surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The herb was thought to have strong effects on memory and in strengthening the mind.
Rosemary has a tremendous variety of folk uses and mythology associated with it and a number of snippets from folk lore. It has particularly been strongly connected to memory and remembrance since ancient times. The main historical medicinal uses of Rosemary have been as a tonic to the brain and as a gently cleansing liver medicine.
Andrew Chevallier writes 'Rosemary is a well-known and greatly valued herb that is native to Southern Europe. It has been used since antiquity to improve and strengthen the memory. To this day it is burned in the homes of students in Greece who are about to take exams. Rosemary has a longstanding reputation as a tonic, invigorating herb, imparting a zest for life that is to some degree reflected in its distinctive aromatic taste'
Chinese physicians used Rosemary for headaches, indigestion, insomnia and malaria. Rosemary is also much used in European traditional medicine to strengthen the heart and blood vessels and there is a keen appreciation in this old culture of Rosemary being a herb that clears congestion in the liver and gall-bladder thereby lifting the mood and resolving 'liverishness'
Rudolph Weiss says 'Rosemary has a general tonic effect on the circulation and nervous system, especially the vascular nerves; it is therefore effective in treating all chronic circulatory debilities, including hypotension (low blood pressure). It is particularly effective in asthenic young adults who are pale and lack physical stamina...' Rosemary can be used for treatment of general and post-infectious debility in older patients'.
Thomas Bartram writes that Rosemary's actions include 'antibacterial, anti-depressant, antiseptic, circulatory tonic, diffusive stimulant, diuretic, sedative, mild substitute for benzodiazepine drugs. Used in European pharmacy to strengthen the heart and allay arteriosclerosis' and he suggests its uses can include 'migraine headaches, or those from high blood pressure. Headaches of gastric origin or emotional upset, psychogenic depression, cardiac debility, giddiness, hyperactivity, tremor of the limbs, flitting pains from joint to joint. To strengthen blood vessels by decreasing capillary fragility and permeability'
The medical properties may have been over-rated by old Parkinson the herbalist (John Parkinson 1567–1650), but some are recognised even to this day. Thus rosemary is used as an infusion to cure headaches, and is believed to be an extensive ingredient in hair-restorers. It is also one of the ingredients in the manufacture of Eau-de-Cologne, and has many other uses in the form of oil of rosemary. ‘The rosemary is for married men, the which by name, nature, and continued use, man challengeth as properly belonging to himself. It overtoppeth all the flowers in the garden boasting man's rule; it helpeth the brain, strengtheneth the memory, and is very medicinal for the head.
Rosemary worn about the body was believed to strengthen the memory and to add to the success of the wearer in anything he might undertake.
It is as an emblem of remembrance that rosemary is most frequently used by the old poets. Thus Ophelia:
‘There is rosemary for you, that's for remembrance; I pray you, love, remember.'
And in The Winter's Tale:
‘For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep Seeming and savour all the winter long; Grace and remembrance be with you both.'
In the 17th century, Nicholas Culpepper wrote in his herbal that rosemary helps “diseases of the head and brain, as the giddiness and swimmings therin, drowsiness or dulness, the dumb palsy, or loss of speech, the lethargy, the falling sickness… It helps a weak memory and quickens the senses.
