Very interesting, thanks for bringing up this subject!
Jonathan said:
It causes me to think that because Oak is so strong and resilient, that it may be part of the reason why it's imbued with qualities that fight fatigue. I know there's "nuts and bolts" elements at play here, like the root physical effects of Roburin A, but the archetypal connection seem really strong as well...
In Finland there is a product available that has pine bark and phloem extract mixed in spring water. They mention that the health effects of the pine extract are due to the high content of antioxidants, but perhaps the strength and resilience of the pine has a role too.
The manufacturer has been banned by the officials from publishing patient cases on their finnish site, but on a differing web site there are, if true, some pretty impressive stories: curings of cancer, etc. (Some patient cases can be read on their english language site.)
_http://www.ravintorengas.fi/en/
I found they sell the stuff in a local health store, and decided to try it out. I have been drinking the tonic now for some 4 days, and I think I feel a little more all around energy and clarity.
Rx said:
I was thinking of taking it for my eyes- lately they seem to be changing and I'm not really sure why. headaches from reading are becoming more and more frequent and I'm hoping this might help.
Hi Rx,
The oak extract might help with the eyes too. During these last few days I have noticed a lessening in the amount of floaters in my field of vision. I have also been taking lutein for a couple of weeks now, so an effect could come from there as well. (Lutein is supposed to be good for the retina, and I read a comment somewhere how a person noticed a decrease in the eye floaters, due to taking the stuff.)
However, when it comes to having headaches due to reading, I thought I’d ask if you have distance glasses (minus glasses), and if you wear them also when reading? If so, it might be good to try reading without them.
On the other hand, if you don’t have minus glasses (and actually in the case you have minus glasses of small value), perhaps wearing separate reading (plus) glasses while doing reading is worth trying. (They can be obtained quite cheaply e.g. from a drug store, etc.)
Doing close work like reading, requires the accommodation muscle of the eye to contract and increase the refraction of the lens (to enable the close up objects/ text to focus on the retina).
Prolonged reading, especially as with age the elasticity of the lens decreases (and the accommodation muscle has to ”fight” more to change the refraction of the lens), can really put a strain on the accommodation muscle. As the muscle is directly connected to the autonomous nervous system, headaches, migraine and other symptoms can arise.
In that sense, for those doing a lot of reading (especially when they are nearing or have passed the ”presbyopic” age with the lens’s elasticity decreasing), it might be a good idea to use separate reading/ computer glasses to lessen the strain being placed on the accommodation muscle.
There is some more info on this thread:
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,25228.0.html
and also on this website:
_http://kaisuviikari.com/wordpress/
