Making my own tea for my liver

I didn't expect to be making my own tea this soon after I started the not-so-ordinary ordinary items challenge, but when I wrote about tea, the idea popped in my mind that I would be doing in 2023.

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Feeling pretty sick

At the end of 2022, I started to show vague symptoms. Headache, noxiousness, extremely tired throughout the whole day, dizziness, pain while walking (this started to show 2 years ago), raising heartbeat (even though I have meds for my heart rhythm disorder), and the feeling I had a constantly blown belly. You could say to the very least I was a bit anxious about what it could be. At first, I thought it could be due to the medication I started to take in 2022 for my heart. Eventually, I fainted at the dentist, and a few days later, I nearly fainted again. I messaged my doctor, and proposed to check the heart rhythm disorder by doing a blood test, he first declined, but after telling him I nearly fainted for the 2nd time again, he told me to take another blood test.

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Something with the liver eh?

So, I did this a few days later when I was feeling a bit better. The very next day the doctor called me, which is pretty unusual, telling me my liver values were 3x the maximum. Oh crap... Wtf is going on? I immediately started to Google symptoms, and potential diseases, according to Google, I should already be dead by now. While I'm still alive, I know this couldn't be it, but it did let me know that I needed to change some of my habits. Even though I almost stopped drinking alcohol, during the holidays this was almost inevitable. A beer or two here, and there, and in between we're easy refreshments while visiting my parents, and lackofcolor's. On the 20th of January (this month), I'll have to go to the hospital to take an Echo of my liver. I hope it isn't something bad...

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Aiding my liver

I know that most days, I rarely drink enough water. I also knew that when you're feeling sick, antioxidants are pretty much helpful when it comes down to giving your body a helping hand. Whenever I think about antioxidants, I think about lemons, oranges, and grapefruit. I hate the taste of grapefruit, but I do enjoy lemons and oranges. But constantly making fresh orange juice every single day is not something that I am planning to do. Then it popped; tea. I could easily make tea from the skin of these citrus fruits, and aid it with some ginger and other herbs.

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Drying and getting these antioxidants

I immediately started to make zest (small rasp) out of a few leftover oranges and started to dry them on top of my speaker system (lol). Usually, it would take a few days, but because it gets pretty hot, but not too hot, on top of there, it kind of dried the very next day.

This looked pretty good, but I thought it looked maybe a bit too thin.

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Getting more fresh citrus fruit

When I made the Soto Ayam soup, I also bought a net of oranges. I knew Lackofcolor was talking about it a few days before, so it was a win-win for both of us. I'm more interested in the skin, and she wanted to dive into the flesh of the fruit. I also got a huge lemon, and today, Lackofcolor came home with a big net of more lemons.

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How can you make your own tea from citrus zest?

Before I'll tell you this, apparently, there are many uses for orange or lemon zest. I had no idea, but this is a great way to make use of the entire fruit. It makes me not wanna throw this away like I usually would.

• Dry lemon or orange zest
• Dry small parts of fresh ginger
• add Tumeric
  
  

You can easily air dry the zest on a baking sheet, out in the open, or do it like I do and place it on top of a speaker system or something. Because the zest is not that big, you'll need a herb holder thing to make the actual tea.

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Benefits

I'm not going to play the doctor here, or a herbal master. I'm not. But I do believe that all things that grow on this Earth have their own properties and can provide us with health benefits. I don't even know how much you'll need to consume for these benefits to start kicking in, but I can only imagine that with anything, there is some small truth in it.

• Detoxification
• Vitamin C
• Antioxidants
• Anti-inflammatory
• Heart-protective nutrients
  
  

Anyone who would claim or say that if you drink one cup of this tea, you're instantly being cured, is a fool to believe so. However, as these properties are traveling together with the infused water of this zest, it is pretty logical to be aware that your body has at least been in contact with these properties for a limited amount of time (digestion). So... upkeep or not, I'm going to drink more of this stuff in the future. Not only because it will help me, but also because it has a nice scent and flavor, and I'm kind of more aware of the stuff that we use and throw away.


This leaves me to say; wash your oranges and lemons beforehand, you don't want any pesticides in your tea. Brush it off (gently, you don't want to destroy the oils inside of the zest), and soak it in water. Whatever you feel is necessary ^^.

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Feeling a bit better

After drinking way more water every day, and drinking a lot of tea with the orange zest, I do feel a lot better. I also pay more attention to eating fried food. I almost threw up eating a single "oliebol" during New Year... Oh well :D What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger right?

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This is pretty damn good for a home-made-brew!

I'm thinking about adding dried cranberries as well to the combination.
That sounds pretty nice. While writing about tea, and making my own tea, I'm actually doing more of what I wanted to do in life for a long time. Making my own stuff, and becoming a bit more self-sufficient.

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Did you ever make herbs for tea yourself? If so, tell me what you used and share it in the comments below!

I'd love to know, and I bet other people would find it valuable as well!


Cheers,
Ruben

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