Sage: A Wise Old Herb

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Sep 29, 2001

When I found out that sage had more to it than just something I added to my spaghetti sauce I was shocked. It’s a cooking herb, I thought. This was a few years back when I really didn’t consider herbs for much more than something you added to food. A friend of mine had given me a "calming" tea. I didn’t know her well, but I was grateful for the gift. I looked at the ingredients and noticed sage and some other funky stuff was in there. My first thought was this was going to taste really gross. I was game though and gave it a try. The tea had a spicy twang to it and even though I could taste the sage in it, I still enjoyed it.

That was about all I could associate sage with for awhile until one night I flipped on the television and there was a gentleman talking about different herbs. Honestly, I wasn’t paying good attention. I had a bad habit at that time of turning on the TV and then reading a book. Anyway, he said something that tore my eyes off the book I was reading for a moment. He was talking about sage. There’s that sage again, I thought. He was stating sage’s uses and the one that struck me was that it helps with colds and congestion. Somehow that stuck, so the next time I had a cold I decided to check it out. I went out and bought some sage, boiled some water and had myself a drink. Wasn’t bad. I found that if I drank it about three times a day while I had a cold it really seemed to help with my symptoms. Now a days I mix it in with my little cold concoctions and it just blends wonderfully.

Now I was hooked. I was on a quest to find what else this little gem could give. I was rewarded. I'll just name off a few more things that sage does, let’s see – it’s makes a great gargle and aides in healing mouth sores and even helps freshen breath. It aides in digestion and helps soothe sore throats. It can help heal wounds by making a poultice and applying it directly to a wound. It assists in drying up milk when you’re breast feeding days are done. Sage assists menopausal women in combating the "sweats". It even helps regulate your menstrual cycle. Studies have also been done in relation to people with Type II diabetes. Sage has shown to boost the insulin production in their bodies.

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