Entries by tag: herbs
I was registered and attempted to attend some of it. I have never been to this event before, and it was free for me because I work for the University that hosted it. The keynote talk was Friday night, and the speaker was intriguing and beautiful, but it was held in Radelet Hall which holds about 200 people, but has air exchange sufficient for about 20. When I went in the room was very warm already, and the talk was just beginning. The O2 content had to be low, because I immediately felt sleeply. Perhaps all those young brains can withstand a high CO2 environment for 2 hours to get the wisdom, but I cannot. The University should improve the ventilation systems for that space, as it has no windows to open and doors only on one side. It is stuffy even with a small crowd.
I hung out near the back door long enough to hear the theme of Ola Obasi's talk which was Deconstructing Reductionism. The theme continued to resonate from the entire gathering. I went to Paul Bergner's talk because his was a name that I have long heard in herbalist circles. I had no conscious expectation, but his appearance surprised me. Most famous herbalists are gaunt and woodsy looking, and he had a pot belly on a stocky frame and a collared shirt that made him look like a gas station attendant. Bergner was perhaps a little surprised at the turnout, for he was in a room that held 40 and there were 60 of us in there. I was stationed near the door because that is my rule when inside the academic building which is an old masonry structure that is likely to crumble in a quake. They're planning to replace it but that's years out.
Bergner talked a bit about how science is applied to herbal medicine. "A scientific trial is like a serial killer" he said, "because it kills the complexity of the herb." He said that all botanical science falls into one of two groups, 1. pharmaceutical companies prospecting for useful constituents, and 2. supplement manufacturers shoring up the plausibility of their formulations. In other words, the profit motive is always at hand. When Big Pharma finds a useful constituent, they extract or synthesize it and sell it as a drug. They are always looking for another blockbuster drug. When supplement companies conduct their own studies, they are usually trying to prove that one of their products works for a particular condition. In both groups the tendency is to bury negative results and exaggerate positive ones in order to generate sales and profits. It is no wonder that herbalists in general have a bad attitude about science when it is said to be reductionistic and corrupt.
What I hope that the herbalists will integrate is the fact that each one of those studies that does give us a result--this plant has that constituent which has such and such an effect--gives us an evidence base upon which we can build a case for herbal medicine. Sure, the studies are not done for our benefit. But we can learn from that and build upon it, even while keeping close the traditional knowledge upon which the studies are built. If we know from all that corrupt research that Scutellaria baicalensis lowers inflammation in the liver and the brain, awesome! We can use it for those purposes, and extrapolate that it might help with inflammation systemically. We can also remember all the indications for that herb in ancient Chinese and western eclectic traditions, and extrapolate beyond what the science says as to what the herb in its fullness (and not just one constituent) might do.
We need both. We need the subjective and the objective. Science does not have to be reductionistic. I suppose there are scientists that will say that everything is reducible to chemistry and physics. But there are just as many scientists who will tell you that we just don't know everything that is out there, and there could be surprises. The fact that we just don't know is not a rational reason to believe in nonsense, but it is a reason to stay humble and reject reductionism. Everything is more complex than we know. When we find out one detail about something through the scientific process, we know one tiny piece in a very big puzzle. Nobody knows how complicated things are better than scientists.
Berner's talk was officially about herbal pairings (and triplets). To him this means pairs of herbs with complimentary actions which he can see no contraindications for giving together, and no situations in which he would want one and not the other. One of the pairs he mentioned was dandelion and Oregon grape, aka taraxacum and mahonia. In general his pairings have a function so that he can grab that mixture off the shelf and add it to a more complex formulation, saving time in the formulation process.
I tried to go to a couple of other lectures but ended up walking out. One speaker's voice was practically sedating--though I imagine some in his audience might have been hypnotized. Social justice is a major theme for this group, and there was a lot of talk about finding our roots so that we could extract ourselves from the white supremacy paradigm. I imagine the goal would be to begin to operate as a conglomeration of cooperative and complimentary minorities; a modern civil society. I appreciate this message, and I do not need to sit through another 2 hour lecture in which someone recites their entire lineage and teaches us their family traditions. I am fully aware that there is great variety in human life. And I have been quite educted enough about the advantages I have in this society because of my pale skin tone and heterosexuality. Berate me no more, instead go out into the world and be awesome. Run for office and help us bring nuance back to government. Model your own kind of success.
After I left the lectures I went home and processed my own herbs. I learn more from handling the plants than I do from lay-level herbal lectures. It makes me appreciate the difference between CE and not. At least continuing education classes allow for the possibility that we might actually talk about how to treat a condition, because we have licenses that allow us to practice medicine. I believe I need to offer an herbal class, and I'm sorting out a topic. Probably herbs for the mind, perhaps herbs for the aging mind. The kiddos won't be interested yet but I'm interested.
I hung out near the back door long enough to hear the theme of Ola Obasi's talk which was Deconstructing Reductionism. The theme continued to resonate from the entire gathering. I went to Paul Bergner's talk because his was a name that I have long heard in herbalist circles. I had no conscious expectation, but his appearance surprised me. Most famous herbalists are gaunt and woodsy looking, and he had a pot belly on a stocky frame and a collared shirt that made him look like a gas station attendant. Bergner was perhaps a little surprised at the turnout, for he was in a room that held 40 and there were 60 of us in there. I was stationed near the door because that is my rule when inside the academic building which is an old masonry structure that is likely to crumble in a quake. They're planning to replace it but that's years out.
Bergner talked a bit about how science is applied to herbal medicine. "A scientific trial is like a serial killer" he said, "because it kills the complexity of the herb." He said that all botanical science falls into one of two groups, 1. pharmaceutical companies prospecting for useful constituents, and 2. supplement manufacturers shoring up the plausibility of their formulations. In other words, the profit motive is always at hand. When Big Pharma finds a useful constituent, they extract or synthesize it and sell it as a drug. They are always looking for another blockbuster drug. When supplement companies conduct their own studies, they are usually trying to prove that one of their products works for a particular condition. In both groups the tendency is to bury negative results and exaggerate positive ones in order to generate sales and profits. It is no wonder that herbalists in general have a bad attitude about science when it is said to be reductionistic and corrupt.
What I hope that the herbalists will integrate is the fact that each one of those studies that does give us a result--this plant has that constituent which has such and such an effect--gives us an evidence base upon which we can build a case for herbal medicine. Sure, the studies are not done for our benefit. But we can learn from that and build upon it, even while keeping close the traditional knowledge upon which the studies are built. If we know from all that corrupt research that Scutellaria baicalensis lowers inflammation in the liver and the brain, awesome! We can use it for those purposes, and extrapolate that it might help with inflammation systemically. We can also remember all the indications for that herb in ancient Chinese and western eclectic traditions, and extrapolate beyond what the science says as to what the herb in its fullness (and not just one constituent) might do.
We need both. We need the subjective and the objective. Science does not have to be reductionistic. I suppose there are scientists that will say that everything is reducible to chemistry and physics. But there are just as many scientists who will tell you that we just don't know everything that is out there, and there could be surprises. The fact that we just don't know is not a rational reason to believe in nonsense, but it is a reason to stay humble and reject reductionism. Everything is more complex than we know. When we find out one detail about something through the scientific process, we know one tiny piece in a very big puzzle. Nobody knows how complicated things are better than scientists.
Berner's talk was officially about herbal pairings (and triplets). To him this means pairs of herbs with complimentary actions which he can see no contraindications for giving together, and no situations in which he would want one and not the other. One of the pairs he mentioned was dandelion and Oregon grape, aka taraxacum and mahonia. In general his pairings have a function so that he can grab that mixture off the shelf and add it to a more complex formulation, saving time in the formulation process.
I tried to go to a couple of other lectures but ended up walking out. One speaker's voice was practically sedating--though I imagine some in his audience might have been hypnotized. Social justice is a major theme for this group, and there was a lot of talk about finding our roots so that we could extract ourselves from the white supremacy paradigm. I imagine the goal would be to begin to operate as a conglomeration of cooperative and complimentary minorities; a modern civil society. I appreciate this message, and I do not need to sit through another 2 hour lecture in which someone recites their entire lineage and teaches us their family traditions. I am fully aware that there is great variety in human life. And I have been quite educted enough about the advantages I have in this society because of my pale skin tone and heterosexuality. Berate me no more, instead go out into the world and be awesome. Run for office and help us bring nuance back to government. Model your own kind of success.
After I left the lectures I went home and processed my own herbs. I learn more from handling the plants than I do from lay-level herbal lectures. It makes me appreciate the difference between CE and not. At least continuing education classes allow for the possibility that we might actually talk about how to treat a condition, because we have licenses that allow us to practice medicine. I believe I need to offer an herbal class, and I'm sorting out a topic. Probably herbs for the mind, perhaps herbs for the aging mind. The kiddos won't be interested yet but I'm interested.
Just the other day a young man came to a doctor for help with persistent headaches after a hard head hit. He left with a prescription for Nat sulph 1M. What's that you ask? That's sugar pills. That's homeopathy, that's a substance so diluted that it isn't there, that's a treatment that has zero basis in science and plenty of mythology around it. If you look online you will find plenty of articles supporting the use of homeopathy for brain injuries. Check it out:
http://www.naturalnews.com/026057_injury_homeopathic_medicines.html#
http://www.britishhomeopathic.org/bha-charity/how-we-can-help/conditions-a-z/a-little-bump-or-a-major-injury/
https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/blog/unexpected-help-for-victims-of-traumatic-brain-injury/
http://homeopathyplus.com/brain-injury-homeopathy-can-help/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/natural-remedies-emotional-health/201302/healing-cognitive-and-emotional-effects-head-injuries
Traumatic brain injuries are very common in athletes and soldiers, and many of them go unreported and untreated. Sure, there's a lot of media buzz these days about TBI because they've discovered that some football players and boxers have dramatically shrunken brains, and depression and tremors later in life, because of something they call CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Those words just mean longterm brain injury from being bashed around.
If you go to your doctor for a TBI, and it's a conventional doctor, he's likely to tell you rest will fix it. Specifically no reading or screens for a week or so, no work if you can get out of it. He's likely to tell you that it will pass on its own. Sometimes it does. That's when homeopathy "works", of course, when the condition it is supposed to treat would have passed on its own without treatment. But what about those cases that are more severe? What if rest and sugar pills aren't enough, and the brain really needs some help? Both the homeopath and the conventional physician fail in that case.
There are good treatments for TBI. There are doctors in the military who know them. At a bare minimum people who've bashed their brains need lots of omega 3 fats and a clean, veggie rich diet. There are herbs that have been shown to help a lot with brain recovery. It's concerning that conventional doctors are so anti-botanical medicine that they don't even study up on that. When are we going to get real about what works and what doesn't, instead of walking around parroting what we've been told?
http://www.naturalnews.com/
http://www.britishhomeopathic.
https://www.
http://homeopathyplus.com/
https://www.psychologytoday.
Traumatic brain injuries are very common in athletes and soldiers, and many of them go unreported and untreated. Sure, there's a lot of media buzz these days about TBI because they've discovered that some football players and boxers have dramatically shrunken brains, and depression and tremors later in life, because of something they call CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Those words just mean longterm brain injury from being bashed around.
If you go to your doctor for a TBI, and it's a conventional doctor, he's likely to tell you rest will fix it. Specifically no reading or screens for a week or so, no work if you can get out of it. He's likely to tell you that it will pass on its own. Sometimes it does. That's when homeopathy "works", of course, when the condition it is supposed to treat would have passed on its own without treatment. But what about those cases that are more severe? What if rest and sugar pills aren't enough, and the brain really needs some help? Both the homeopath and the conventional physician fail in that case.
There are good treatments for TBI. There are doctors in the military who know them. At a bare minimum people who've bashed their brains need lots of omega 3 fats and a clean, veggie rich diet. There are herbs that have been shown to help a lot with brain recovery. It's concerning that conventional doctors are so anti-botanical medicine that they don't even study up on that. When are we going to get real about what works and what doesn't, instead of walking around parroting what we've been told?
In the course of the winter's passing my sweetie has been snookered twice by the tricky naming of teas. The brand that I prefer is Traditional Medicinals. I send him to the store with tea on the list and he comes home with Yogi brand tea because the names are similar and because the Yogi teas are cheaper.
Traditional Medicinals has IMO the best blends with the most potent herbs in them. Some of my favorites are Throat Coat, Breathe Easy, Herb Tussin and Gypsy Cold Care. I discovered Throat Coat back when I was a raft guide and used to shout myself hoarse trying to get people down the river. These teas have been made for years and they are excellent.
There's this other brand, called Yogi Tea, which makes some decent teas. They have however been trying to steal the marketshare of Traditional Medicinals by naming their teas in parallel ways to confuse the consumer. Instead of Breathe Easy theirs is Breathe Deep, instead of Throat Coat it's Throat Comfort, right down the product line. It has worked twice on my boyfriend so I have had to drink boxes of Yogi tea, repeatedly testing my perceptions. While their blends are OK, they are nowhere near as good as the Traditional Medicinals herbal teas.
Frankly, even though I used to buy some Yogi Tea I have stopped entirely because I do not like their marketing approach, and the ones I did buy from them were not all that good. It seems normal for tea companies to start out making really good teas, then get bought out by some mega-corporation who starts cheapening the ingredients in a cost cutting exercise. This results in reduced quality. It happens in every industry, and I do not know how Traditional Medicinals has avoided it, but it appears that so far they have. I thank them for their quality. I stopped buying Celestial Seasonings a LONG time ago, when their quality took a dive. We used to joke that they were bagging up floor sweepings. If I end up with Bigelow or Stash brand tea in my tea box, it just sits there until I have a guest that chooses them. Tazo is middle of the road in my view. Trader Joe's is about as good as really cheap tea can be. There's a lot of "tea" out there that gives tea a bad name.
Much tea is bad just because it is old: herbs don't stay potent forever. If that box of tea bags in your cabinet has been open for years and collecting dust, the tea inside is not going to be good. Not liking this does not constitute not liking tea.
Full disclosure: I have no ties to any commercial tea manufacturers, other than I work part-time in a medicinary where we compound our own blends. Nobody is paying me to issue an opinion, but I have one, just like everybody. I think that most people who say "I don't like tea" have never had a really good cup of herbal tea suited to the season and their constitution. I am educated about the medicinal uses of herbs and have created some of my own blends for specific purposes.
Traditional Medicinals has IMO the best blends with the most potent herbs in them. Some of my favorites are Throat Coat, Breathe Easy, Herb Tussin and Gypsy Cold Care. I discovered Throat Coat back when I was a raft guide and used to shout myself hoarse trying to get people down the river. These teas have been made for years and they are excellent.
There's this other brand, called Yogi Tea, which makes some decent teas. They have however been trying to steal the marketshare of Traditional Medicinals by naming their teas in parallel ways to confuse the consumer. Instead of Breathe Easy theirs is Breathe Deep, instead of Throat Coat it's Throat Comfort, right down the product line. It has worked twice on my boyfriend so I have had to drink boxes of Yogi tea, repeatedly testing my perceptions. While their blends are OK, they are nowhere near as good as the Traditional Medicinals herbal teas.
Frankly, even though I used to buy some Yogi Tea I have stopped entirely because I do not like their marketing approach, and the ones I did buy from them were not all that good. It seems normal for tea companies to start out making really good teas, then get bought out by some mega-corporation who starts cheapening the ingredients in a cost cutting exercise. This results in reduced quality. It happens in every industry, and I do not know how Traditional Medicinals has avoided it, but it appears that so far they have. I thank them for their quality. I stopped buying Celestial Seasonings a LONG time ago, when their quality took a dive. We used to joke that they were bagging up floor sweepings. If I end up with Bigelow or Stash brand tea in my tea box, it just sits there until I have a guest that chooses them. Tazo is middle of the road in my view. Trader Joe's is about as good as really cheap tea can be. There's a lot of "tea" out there that gives tea a bad name.
Much tea is bad just because it is old: herbs don't stay potent forever. If that box of tea bags in your cabinet has been open for years and collecting dust, the tea inside is not going to be good. Not liking this does not constitute not liking tea.
Full disclosure: I have no ties to any commercial tea manufacturers, other than I work part-time in a medicinary where we compound our own blends. Nobody is paying me to issue an opinion, but I have one, just like everybody. I think that most people who say "I don't like tea" have never had a really good cup of herbal tea suited to the season and their constitution. I am educated about the medicinal uses of herbs and have created some of my own blends for specific purposes.
I found an awesome tree key online. Here: http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/tree-key/simple-leaf-trees.htm This one is only good for trees with "simple" leaves, meaning that they are not compound, or rather, that only one leaflet is on the leaf stem. Some trees like walnuts and ashes have many leaves extending from the leaf stem.
More than you wanted to know--unless you are into knowing about trees. =-]
More than you wanted to know--unless you are into knowing about trees. =-]
Just ran across a nice southern article about eating the leaves as salad, and painting the skin with the toxic berry juice. I have been taught to use an alcohol extract of the root as a "lymphogogue" meaning it is supposed to stimulate lymph movement, or at least a strong immune response. Far as I know there is no science to support this use. The juices of the root are very strong and caustic, and it should not be handled with bare hands.
The same stream of life
that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world
and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life
that shoots in joy
through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves
of leaves and flowers.
― Rabindranath Tagore
that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world
and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life
that shoots in joy
through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves
of leaves and flowers.
― Rabindranath Tagore
sponsored by the Aesthetic Medicine club
one year old at NCNM, Aimee Bonneval is new president
tonight's speakers from doTERRA
water with lemon and fennel EO: yummy
their cough drops: spicey and good
sharing wild orange and recommending putting drops in palms and rubbing together
RESOURCES
BOOK: Modern Essentials
www.myoilbuisness.com
www.aromatools.com
www.builddoterra.com
www.everthingessential.me
doTERRAPDX (facebook page)
( mostly unsubstantiated assertions about the indications of EOs but tap this for black book ideasCollapse )
one year old at NCNM, Aimee Bonneval is new president
tonight's speakers from doTERRA
water with lemon and fennel EO: yummy
their cough drops: spicey and good
sharing wild orange and recommending putting drops in palms and rubbing together
RESOURCES
BOOK: Modern Essentials
www.myoilbuisness.com
www.aromatools.com
www.builddoterra.com
www.everthingessential.me
doTERRAPDX (facebook page)
( mostly unsubstantiated assertions about the indications of EOs but tap this for black book ideasCollapse )
Notes from this talk on pediatric neuroendocrinology by Mary Bove: http://naturalmedicinejournal.com/article_content.asp?edition=1§ion=8&article=331
( notes from audioCollapse )
( notes from audioCollapse )
Herbal Blogroll: an attempt to catalog the blogs about herbs:
http://methowvalleyherbs.blogspot.com/p/herbal-blogroll.html
This list includes several that I already know to be useful.
Your blog can be included.
7/5/12: found this one: http://aradicle.blogspot.com/2012/07/natural-products-industry-that-isnt.html
http://methowvalleyherbs.blogspot.com/p/herbal-blogroll.html
This list includes several that I already know to be useful.
Your blog can be included.
7/5/12: found this one: http://aradicle.blogspot.com/2012/07/natural-products-industry-that-isnt.html
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