Mixing meds
Natural healing, Western medicine complement each other in RN's view
CLARE HOWARD GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

TOM MCCARTHY JR./GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE Nancy Venzon talks to Aaron Zaborac while stirring a crockpot filled with herbs and olive oil during a workshop she taught on herbal salves in Edwards, Ill.

As an herbalist and registered nurse, Nancy Venzon bridges two worlds. She values the knowledge and efficacy of each, but believes they are stronger in combination than opposition.

Venzon is educated in the Western tradition of pharmaceutical-based medicine and healing. She worked as a registered nurse for 30 years and has certifications in critical care and trauma nursing.

She's also an herbalist working with ancient knowledge of the healing qualities of herbs and plants to treat illness and maintain health.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, Venzon stirred herbs in an olive oil base simmering for hours in a slow cooker in a kitchen in Edwards, Ill. The wind howled outside; inside, the aroma of rosemary, myrrh and thyme filled the air.

Venzon, presenting a workshop on herbal salves, poured a warm herbal stew into cheesecloth and squeezed it to separate oil from solids. Then she returned the oil to the slow cooker and added beeswax and lard.

Dennis Weaver watched and took notes. His grandparents were Cherokee. His wife's grandparents were Scotch-Irish.

"Our grandparents knew these old recipes, but they passed before they passed on the knowledge. Now my wife and I are trying to learn again," Weaver said.

Venzon, 65, recalled that her grandmother, an herbalist, treated ear infections by squeezing onion juice into a warm spoon and pouring the liquid into the ear.

Her grandmother had been thrilled when Venzon went to college to study nursing. "A better medicine," her grandmother had thought. Venzon had thought so, too, until she perceived the common sense of natural healing in a context of integrated medicine.

The healing cream made during her class was based on a recipe Venzon prepares about twice a year. Once the preparation sets, it is a hard cream used for cuts, scrapes, burns, bites, rashes, poison ivy, athlete's foot and fungal infections. It relieves pain and itching and promotes healing.

"The first time I made this, I measured all the ingredients. The second time, I just added them and prayed over it. People raved about that second batch," she said.

Venzon said ancient remedies are often dismissed by people who are locked into the philosophy of Western medicine, but ancient remedies have centuries of wisdom behind them. There are many natural and herbal supplements that can be intermediary steps before starting regimens of Western medicine. For example, borderline high blood pressure often can be successfully treated with herbal teas.

"I believe there is a science and a spiritual part of healing. Someday we will look back at this time as the dark age of medicine," Venzon said. "Much of the research on herbal remedies was done in Europe, not America. There is no money to be made in dandelion tea."