Dandelions: To Weed or Not To Weed?

It is hard to find someone who doesn’t enjoy a thick, green grass lawn.  People spend hours per week making sure their lawn is the best in the neighborhood.  Cutting, trimming, weeding, fertilizing and watering all to make your lawn look great.  A large percentage of people use professional landscapers to beautify their lawn and use lawn care services that fertilize and spray weed killers to make sure that your lawn is all grass.  But did you know that one of the “weeds” you are constantly trying to get rid of is very good for you to eat?  And that this weed you spend money trying to kill is actually worth more than what you spend to kill it?  I am talking about the dandelion plant. 
 
Dandelions are from the same family of plants that include daisies, sunflowers, chrysanthemums and even artichokes.  Dandelions, a French word meaning lion’s tooth, were named for the jagged leaves that look like teeth.  Botanists consider the dandelion to be an herb because the leaves, stem, flower and roots can be used for medicinal purposes.  Dandelions are even made into a coffee substitute that sells for up to $35.00 a pound!  As most homeowners know, dandelions are a plant that thrives anywhere and in pretty much all conditions.  This hearty plant grows out of the cracks of driveways, curbs and sidewalks.
 
That being said, it may be time to think twice before ridding your yard of this plant.  Due to their long tap roots, dandelions improve soil quality.  The roots draw up minerals from the soil. These minerals give dandelions their health benefits.  Once the dandelion dies in the late fall and winter, the minerals from the roots are absorbed in the soil, improving soil quality. And as I mentioned, dandelions are very good for you.  They are full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.  Evidence shows that dandelions can protect your skin from damage, benefits cardiovascular health, has ingredients that can lower blood pressure and blood sugar.  Dandelion ingredients can reduce liver fat and they are also a prebiotic needed for your body’s healthy bacteria.
 
When eating dandelions your first priority is to eat pesticide and fertilizer free dandelions as these chemicals on the and in the plant are bad for you.  Second, you also want to check with your pharmacist if you are on mediations prior to eating dandelions as dandelion consumption may change your medication requirements.  Here are five ways to eat and enjoy dandelions.  1.  Use the leaves in your salad.  2. Sautee the greens.  3.  Collect the flower heads and make fritters. 4. Bake with dandelion flower petals. 5.  Steep the dandelion in hot water for tea.
 
Since I am in the subject of green, luscious grass lawns, it reminds me of a chiropractic analogy that I would like to share with you.  This analogy involves lawn irrigation.  As you know, to have a healthy lawn, your grass needs to be watered on a regular basis.  If for some reason there is a problem with your sprinklers (maybe there is a kink in the hose and the water cannot flow out of the sprinkler), parts of your lawn will become brown and patchy.  If for some reason, your entire sprinkler system shuts down and cannot water your lawn at all, your grass will start to dry up and die.  The nervous system of the body is like an irrigation system. The water has to flow through the hoses or pipes at 100% to get to your grass for your lawn to be healthy.  Nerve impulses have to flow from your brain, down your spinal cord, out your spinal nerves to your body parts for your body to be healthy.  If there is a blockage in nerve flow, just link the kink in your sprinkler hose, the loss of nerve impulses will effect your body’s ability to function properly and be healthy. Similar to your lawn drying up from lack of proper amounts of water.  In chiropractic, the cause of decreased nerve flow is not the kink in the hose, but the kink in your back.  If the back bone is out of alignment, it places pressure on the nerves decreasing nerve flow.  When you have your spine adjusted, neural impulse flow is improved, allowing you body to function better and to be healthier.
 
Covid-19 update:  The Center for infectious Disease Research has reported on April 12^th, 2021 that people who have had Covid-19 have a 93% less chance of symptomatic infection of Covid-19 for at least 7 months.  The research study included over 25,000 people infected with coronavirus and has shown that antibodies are produced and will induce a 7 month immunity in most people.  Florian Krammer of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, said that although natural infection tends to induce lower and more variable antibody concentrations than COVID-19 vaccines, the findings suggest “that infection and the development of an antibody response provides protection similar to or even better than currently used SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.”  This leads us to another concern.  Based on the vaccine only providing protection for a 6 month period, vaccine manufacturers are considering yearly booster shots.  “We may have cycles where we have to keep boosting people — either boosting them with the original vaccine, which gives you enough antibodies to spill over to the variants, or develop a vaccine that's specific for one or more of the variants," Dr. Anthony Fauci said last month on MSNBC. 
 
Prenatal Pregnancy Covid-19 Vaccine Information:  Pfizer and Moderna say that there is no evidence to suggest that the Covid-19 vaccine poses any risk to pregnant women. A peer reviewed paper published in The New England Medical Journal studied 35,000 pregnant or soon to be pregnant women who had the coronavirus vaccine.   Two very big red flags are waving at me as I read this study.  The first is that the study is based on self-reported data given by the pregnant subjects.  Meaning no lab work, no vital signs of mother or fetus or any other analysis. Just a questionnaire. The second red flag is that the study’s results were “only preliminary” and the study was only 11 weeks long.  Based on my experience, pregnancy lasts 40 weeks.  That leaves 29 weeks of pregnancy where there could be concern for the mother and the unborn child.  I personally think it is irresponsible for the vaccine manufacturers to say there is no evidence to suggest a vaccine risk during pregnancy when the study is self-admittedly “preliminary” and only lasts 11 weeks with no medical analysis.   
 
 
Covid-19 Vaccination Reaction Update:  As part of informed consent for your personal information here is the latest reported events from the CDC vaccine adverse reaction reporting system (via their website) to help you make your own health care decision concerning the vaccination.
 
As of 4/25/21,  Over 200 million people have been given at least one dose of the vaccine and over 80 million people are fully vaccinated.  Adverse reactions took a big jump this week from 68,199 to this week’s total of 85,926. (Of the 85,926 reported events, common reactions such as arm soreness and swelling, fatigue, fever, body aches and headache are included. Also included are the more severe reactions such as anaphylaxis (530 reported cases).  The most common reactions are chills and fever (32,152), headache (20,059), shortness of breath (4856 cases), nausea (11,447 cases).  Also, 5,800 people have contracted the covid-19 virus after receiving the vaccine.  In addition, it has also been reported on the CDC web page that 2,558 people have died after receiving the vaccine. 
 
Here is a link to the CDC Vaccine Adverse Reaction Reporting System.  You can look up any and all symptoms associated with the Covid-19 vaccine.  Or any vaccine.
 
https://wonder.cdc.gov/VAERS.html
 
1^st, scroll to bottom of page and click on the “I agree” tab.
2^nd, then scroll back to top and click on VAERS Data Search
3^rd, scroll down to the vaccine products box and search for Covid-19 and select it by clicking on it.
4^th, scroll down to bottom of page and click send.
This will bring you to the Covid-19 page.

Author

Dr J. Zimmerman, Chiropractor Dr. Zimmerman is a practicing chiropractor from Galloway, NJ with 30 years of chiropractic practice.