herbal/nutrition study notes 11/8-12/2010

Dr. Ginger, Medicine Woman (ya, it's really me in the picture...not really)

Dr. R. Schulz Herbal Therapy Lectures-I spent most of the week listening to these lectures as part of my course work for The School of Natural Healing. Wonderful. I solidified so many ideas I've been learning this year. Great series.I feel so blessed to be able to learn the art of herbal healing. Like Dr. Christopher, I wanted to be a doctor from a young age but not give shots and such. When the time came for choosing, I decided to be a homemaker instead. Although this was a good and fulfilling career, I learned anatomy and the names of things all along the way. I wish I would have had this knowledge while raising my children. Things would have turned out so much differently. 

Eat For Health-Dr. Fuhrman's research and those of others into the Nutrient Density of food includes, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and fiber, can help everyone, healthy or not, leave nutritional ignorance, obesity, and self-inflicted health maladies behind. Nutritional Density helps us understand which foods to choose to maintain proper functioning of the immune system, enable our body’s detoxification, and repair cellular mechanisms that protect us from chronic diseases as well as find joy in the God given sense of taste.

Over and again science has demonstrated what God told us all along.  Vegetables and fruits provide protective compounds. Science is still in the midst of discovering and naming phytonutrients. It's enough for me and quite comforting that these two authorities agree. Eat your veggies and fruits in all their varieties to ingest protective compounds and prevent the common diseases that afflict Americans. Interestingly and sadly, government sponsored propaganda encouraged a low-nutrient eating style since about 1940 that has led to an obese, nutritionally ignorant America, causing our medical costs to spiral out of control.

Some brilliant scientists, doctors, and alternative health providers decided not to sit back and watch the destruction any longer. Dr. Fuhrman developed a scoring system to guide people toward the most nutrient dense foods, ranked according to ratio of nutrients to calories. It doesn't take into consideration phytochemicals, because they are still in the process of being discovered and measured. However, usually the foods highest in phytochemicals are also highest in vitamins, amino acids, minerals, and fiber compared to processed foods and animal products..

We must keep in mind that nutrient density shouldn't be the only factor that determines what we eat. If we tried to stick to foods above the 300 level on the chart, we could not get enough calories and fat to maintain weight. Consequently, we pick a few healthy choices of lower nutrient density to add in  such as a few nuts, flax seeds, and rice, oats, or yams to guard against becoming too thin. It is so easy to achieve permanent weight control and optimum health by eating mostly non-starchy, mostly vegetables, fruits, and beans garnished with nuts, seeds, starchy vegetables and/or grains.

Cholesterol Protection for Life-War, terrorism, and violent crime are always in the news, because they are fear inspiring, graphic, and even fascinating. News producers push these things, because people buy it.  Shows and articles on heart disease give mediocre returns as people say ho-hum not that stuff again. But heart disease kills many more than war terrorism, and violent crime.

Over 1.5 million people heart attacks yearly, 1 million dying as a result. This equals one death every 30 seconds. Most believe that heart disease is nearly unavoidable because of family history. Others think drugs and surgery are a good defense. While angioplasty and bypass surgery help some, they have several significant adverse outcomes. Heart attacks, stroke and death are a few. Sadly such interventions are not a cure and those that submit to these procedures often continue to suffer and die from heart disease. There are safer, more effective options.

Without cutting a person or using expensive and risky prescription drugs, we can help them. In order to successfully, overcome heart disease we adjust the diet for specific goals: 1) LDL cholesterol of 100 or lower, 2) healthful weight, and 3) unmedicated, normal blood pressure.  A high-nutrient, vegetable-based diet enables people to remove cardiac risk factors and take their health into their own hands. Anyone can make a difference in their health and pocketbook by choosing what they will or will not put in their mouths.

What causes high blood pressure and other heart diseases?

As Dr. Christopher of the School of Natural Healing said (and now many scientist are echoing) 90% of all disease is caused by constipation. By that he didn’t necessarily mean constipation of just the bowel but entire bodily congestion: liver, kidneys, veins and arteries, lymph glands, and cells. Cholesterol, a waxy fat animal fat, plus saturated and trans fats, coat the insides of the veins, arteries, capillaries, and heart along with plaques of excess calcium, sodium, and other minerals. The narrowing of the arteries and veins with minerals and cholesterol causes the heart to pump harder, which in turn increases the pressure in the vessels Eating cholesterol, which is only found in animal products, raises blood cholesterol. The human body converts saturated fats and trans fats to cholesterol as a way to cope with and get rid of them.

Another consideration is animal protein and its significant effect on blood cholesterol. A low-fat diet, which includes animal protein, will do provide desired cholesterol lowering unless the diet also greatly reduces the low-fat animal products including low-fat dairy and skinless white-meat. Any animal products, lean white or lean red meat, skim milk, fish and so on, in the diet raise cholesterol levels.

The China Study looked at populations with few or no heart attacks consume less than 10% to no animal products, while Americans and other Westerners consume 40% or more of their calories from animal products. When populations have animal product consumption of 10% or less of total calories, high fiber vegetables, fruits, beans and raw nuts increase and high blood pressure and other heart diseases almost disappear. "Heart Healthy” programs should reduce both refined carbohydrate and animal products. Heart disease is a condition is reversible through aggressive nutritional intervention and cholesterol lowering.

Because plants have negligible cholesterol, they are considered cholesterol–free. A nutritarian diet, vegetable, fruit, nut, and bean-based, is the most effective cholesterol-lowering dietary approach and can potentially save millions of lives and billions of dollars. Why then is it virtually ignored by the mass media? With this dietary approach, most patients drop their total cholesterol below 150 and LDL below 100, without the need for medications.

The Herb Walk and The Herb Walk Manual-Mousy order, ladder like cavities in the roots, and the reddish purple spots on the stem is used to distinguish poisonous Hemlock from other look-a-likes. Water Hemlock’s odor resembles parsle- like.  Sweet cicely with a licorice like odor medical herb has white umbel flowers and a hairy stem. They are very tall as opposed to the 1-2 feet of the carrot family the previous plant from other members of the carrot family? Lovage produces the oldest known salad leaf? Cow parsnip has the largest leaves in the carrot family? The smell of Angelica’s flower resembles honey-like odor. The main differences between Lobelia inflata and other Lobelia species the color. Mint claims Skullcap as one of its members.  Skullcap is used as a sedative. Many poisonous plants, such as Wild Tobacco, belong to the tomato family?  Some distinguishing characteristics glandular hairy erect stems and a strong odor of nicotine.

The identifying aspects for Burdock are bristly, purple flowers, leaves large hairy cordate, and downy grey underneath. The leaves of the Rhubarb are not edible.Comfrey belongs to the Borage family.  Comfrey’s distinguishing characteristics include very large, hairy leaves with veins that stand out although not as much as burdock or rhubarb.  It has downy pale-yellow to purple bell shaped flowers that hang down in clusters. Fox glove resembles Comfrey in some stages of growth.

The best time to harvest bulb like plants in the wild is when in bloom for accurate identification. You be sure you are harvesting Wild Onion and not Death Camas because WO flowers do not appear until Death Camas is through blooming. The main differences in leaf and flower structure between Feverfew and Chamomile are the leaves of Feverfew are cut or dissected and the flower petals are longer. The chamomile leaves are highly dissected giving a filmy or lacey appearance and the blossoms have a cone-shaped yellow middle; the petals grow downward as they mature.   

Two identifying factors for herbs in the mint family heart shaped leaves and square stems. You can tell the difference between Spearmint and Peppermint. Peppermint has an oval, smooth, dark  leaf, while the Spearmint has leaves that are sharply toothed and lancelet. Catnip gets its grayish-green appearance from downy grey hairs. It also has heart shaped leaves. Penny royal, also of the mint family, must be used with caution, because it may induce abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. The physical features of Horehound’s stem are erect, square, wooly, 3-feet tall, and whitish-gray. The main differences between 

Wild Sunflower and Jerusalem Artichoke are that the Wild Sunflower has a widely branched stem and a brown seed-bearing disk and the Jerusalem Artichoke has an edible tuber. 5 common vegetables that belong to the mustard family are broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, Brussels sprouts. Pepper Grass leaves used for salads. Alfalfa is a good source of: vitamins B, C, D,E, potassium, phosphorous, iron, chlorine, sodium, silicon, magnesium, protein, and calcium. Amaranth is high in two nutrients: iron and vitamin C.

Three medicinal uses for Bugloss are alleviating fevers, headaches, and nervous complaints, and its leaves are entire, lanceolate, rough, and 5 inches long, stem spotted and red, flowers tubular and blue. The different parts of Chicory are used: roots=roasted and ground for coffee, leaves and shoots in salad, roots syrup for laxative. Chicory’s flower closes at night. List three uses for Red Clover? Dandelion is high in vitamins a and c.One of the richest sources of vitamin C is elder berry. Some uses of Gum Weed (Grindelia Squarrosa) are whooping cough, bladder and uterine problems, eczema and allergic dermatitis, cold sores, and mucus of the kidneys.

Jimson Weed causes death if the flowers are sucked for nectar. Mallow’s leaves are nearly round, seed are shaped like a wheel of uncut cheese, and flower are pink or white with pink veins. Four traditional uses of Motherwort are producing normal menstrual flow, easing painful menstrual flow, congested or inflamed genital area, and associated nervous orders.

Mullein’s flowers appear in the second year’s growth. Common Plantain has ovate leaves and English Plantain has lanceolate leaves. Four several medicinal properties of Plantain are wounds, bites, burns, and expelling worms. Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is used for food. Rose is the only plant that produces a hip, which is high in vitamin C. The hip begins to develop after the petals drop in the late fall. Two uses for St. Johns Wort are skin irritations and insect bitesSt. John’s Wort’s flower is yellow with black dots at the margins. The main medicinal use for Shepherd’s Purse is stop hemorrhage from internal organs including the uterus.

The tender young stalks and leaves of the Stinging Nettle are edible when added to soups, teas, and salads. Stinging Nettle is high in several nutrients: vitamins a and c, protein, and iron. Vitamins C, B2, E, and D are found in Water Cress. Wild Lettuce is sometimes called the compass plant, because its leaves turn and follow the sun’s light.

Two medicinal uses for Wild Lettuce are diuretic and emollient.The pink, yellow and white flowers of Yarrow all have the same medicinal properties of stanching bleeding. Yarrow’s leaf is delicate and feathery. A high percent of prescription medicines are derived from the plant kingdom.

Deadly Nightshade grows near under the shade of trees or on wooded hillsides. The berries of Belladonna are poisonous. Blessed Thistle’s flower is yellow. “Cohosh” means rough. The Blue Cohosh rhizome sends up a bluish stem with a single, large unfolding leaf halfway up. It has 3 leaflets, appearing to divide again. Flowers are yellowish-green and present in small clusters. The fruit appears in pairs of 1/3 inch in length, is soft textured and resembles a berry. The leaves of the Bugleweed herb are rosette-like; the upper ones presenting as toothed and elliptical, while the lower leaves spatula-shaped with wavy edges. Cayenne’s flower are white or yellow. Chaparral’s natural environment is desert regions of the US. Chickweed’s flower is white and star-shaped. Elecampane has a stout, course, wooly, round stem 3-6 feet high. It’s leaves are large, ovate, serrate, olive-colored with white stems. Flowers are large, yellow and grow in solitary or paniculate clusters. Gentian is a valuable tonic medicine because of the bitterness of the root. Wild Geranium sometimes called Cranesbill, because the fruit looks like a crane’s bill.

Ginger’s flower is tiny, dark, reddish-brown, 1-inch diameter, found at the fork of the two leafstalks, and hidden by the leaves. The life span of the average Ginkgo tree is 2-4 thousand years.To identify American Ginseng, look for a slender stem that is simple, erect,, and approximately 1 ft. tall, bearing three leaves divided into 5 finely-toothed oblong leaflets and a single terminal unbel of small greenish-yellow flowers. The fruit is a cluster of bright red, edible, drupe-like berries.

Goldenseal’s fruit looks like a raspberry. Mayapple’s fruit is lemon yellow, while the flower is white. Brigham Tea grows 4 ft. tall. Poison Ivy either grows as a low woody bush or a creeping climber on trees. Its leaves are bright, ovate, and tri-compound with small yellowish-white flowers and ¼ inch smooth, white berries. Psyllium has tiny, round, glossy seeds and  is used for an intestinal lubricant and laxative. Raspberry’s main is a uterine tonic. Sarsaparilla’s flowers are small and greenish.The fruits of the Sassafras tree are pea-sized. Senna’s leaf consists of 8-10 oblong, pointed leaflets. Sumac usually grows 15 feet tall. The tumbleweed survives because it is drought resistant and needs little moisture for a new crop. Yucca has gray-green, stiff, sharp pointed 1-2 ft. leaves that narrow to the tip and attach in a basal rosette. Scapes grow 3-12 feet high with creamy, white, cup-shaped flowers.

Gathering and using wild plants

White berries are not usually edible.

To ensure your safety, before eating plants in the wilderness chew a small part without swallowing. If there is burning, stinging, or numbness in the mouth, try cooking it and trying it again. Often cooking neutralizes toxins. However, if the sensation remains after chewing but not swallowing a small part, do not eat the plant.  If there is no sensation, swallow a small amount and wait a few hours to overnight. If no problems follow, slowly introduce the item with more quantity each time until you are sure there are no ill effects. 

The Green Pharmacy by Barbara Griggs-Chapter 5-Kings, apothecaries, country herbalists, and every housewife in the kingdom had herbal knowledge at the time of King Henry VIII.Legislation was passed in the 1540's in order to control the practice of medicine gave physicians authority over surgeons and apothecaries in London, placed surgeons and barber surgeons into one category, and forbade barbers from practicing surgery.The Act known as the “Quack’s Charter” legalized a class of common practitioners who used herbs without formal training.  This was necessary to keep designing men or jealous physicians and surgeons from hauling them into court. According to Griggs, three things were remarkable about the “Quacks Charter.” 1) The herbalists were allowed to do more treatments than the surgeons. 2) Surgeons had to accept referrals from herbalists.  3) Herbalists had friends in high places. Henry the VIII supported this Act. Physicians were threatened by this Act, because even untrained nobodies could treat diseases and maladies that they failed to cure.

Chapter 6-Vesalius and Paracelsan medicine threatened the Galenic medical establishment in the early 1600's.Early chemists tried to find the “active principle” of plants in many different ways.  Most of the time they were not successful.  They couldn’t reduce scurvy grass down to its active principle, because the process of burning the plant to get the chemical salts destroyed the vitamin C that made it cure scurvy. Personal physician to three kings, Mayerne’s medical practice was decidedly chemical with usage of high doses of mercury, while still relying heavily on Galenical compounds.  His contemporaries did like him.

Chapter 7-Purging with copious amounts of senna and bloodletting seem to have been the practice of Gui Patin. Frogs, vipers, ants, worms, skull bones of dead humans, human blood, human toe nails, manures of various types, and pearls are some of the strange ingredients that were used in seventeenth-century prescriptions.Mother’s milk was not always recommended for children.  A mixture of cereal and cow’s milk was used instead. Hmmmm….not so different than the junk fed to babies in bottles today. And that's the end of the Google book. I guess I'll have to buy it.

Herb Energetics with Kiva Rose

Tasting is the primary way in which we perceive the energetics of an herb. Organoleptice means learning through all the sense of the body. In the context of herbal energetics, the flavor and sensation of a flower, leaf or  root will give us excellent insights into whether they are cold or hot, dry or moist, and what actions they might have on human physiology.  The taste of a plant gives us insight into its effects as a medicine, therefore we pay attention to the initial taste bitter, sweet, salty, sour, spicy, or aromatic. Often plants have a combination. The first impression may be sweet, move into bitter, and possibly a third or after taste. These tastes hint at what plants, including spices, vegetables, and fruits, are used for medicinally. For instance, I am a cold, dry person, with a propensity for poor circulation. So I would pick a warming food such as cayenne or cinnamon to warm and increase circulation but also add a sweet-moist plant like fennel, when chilled. This is why I love Indian curry and Italian marinara so much. A cup of warm cinnamon infusion with a bit of honey is the very best choice for a chill. That doesn't mean I should stay away from other plants, just that these things will help with my general constitution. Illnesses change a person's general constitution, sometimes a person is chill and damp, other times feverish and dry. I love how this compliments my studies with The School of Natural Healing. Learning the properties of herbs in different terminology helps me see the whole picture. Journaling them just as I did with homeschooling nature study has made it possible to connect the dots between book and practical knowledge. Fun stuff.