the Life Force formula webcast!

Just a heads up to those interested in Ayurveda.  Floracopeia is offering a FREE webcast next week called the Life Force Formula. 


Its totally free, and offered at 3 different times of the day so you can choose the time that works best for you.  Wednesday April 13th 10:00am, 3:00pm, 6:00pm (Pacific Standard Time)


It looks like a great offering and I'll be listening in as well!  
Sign up for the FREE webcast  Life Force Formula from Floracopeia

Nourishing the Wild You- Food, Energetics and Nourishment Online Intensive

Back by popular demand in 2011!  I will only offer this course once this year, so get in while the getting is good!
Class size is strictly limited to 20 students!  Last year 45 students enrolled!  Don't miss out!

Join Herbalist, Nutritionist, and food lover, Darcey Blue French of Brighid's Well Herbs (www.brighidswellherbs.com), for an  8 week online intensive course on the energetics of food, true nourishment, nutrition, relationship with place and food, nutritional healing and more.

*Learn about the ways traditional healing systems such as Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine see food energetics, and use food as healing tools on a day to day basis.

* Explore your relationship with food, your body, what you eat and why.

* Discover your natural physical constitution, and how you can use food to help you stay balanced.

* Be prepared for a deep exploration of food and our relationship to it, this can be uncomfortable and emotional, as well as enlightening and sensual. Food is a deeply influential factor in our psyche, social interactions, and cultures. All students are expected to be sensitive to others and compassionate and respectful.

*Appropriate for food enthusiasts & practitioners alike.

*Very HANDS ON, expect to be preparing foods, meals and weekly assignments for the duration of the course. This is an EXPERIENTIAL class, not just book work. I will provide resources and readings, but the bulk of the work will require the actual preparation and consumption of food.

* This is not a cooking how to class. You should feel comfortable cooking and working in your kitchen. There will be recipes and ideas shared during class discussion, and pointers and questions are always acceptable.

*Requires access to e mail and the internet on a weekly basis. Class discussion is a part of the learning process.

*Weekly telephone conference session with Darcey and other students for discussion, questions and sharing.  

*some additional texts/books suggested in addition to course fee

Arrangements may be available for those with limited access. Please inquire.

 Payment in installments is available by request.

Please register by emailing Darcey at shamana.flora@gmail.com or calling 520 429 2654.

About the Instructor:

Darcey Blue French is an herbalist and food lover, who has over the years explored various ways of eating, interacting with food and preparing food. Educated as a Clinical Nutritionist at the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism in 2008, she has been in private practice since that time. She has experience in Ayurvedic Cooking, Vegetarian, Allergen Free, Primal/Paleo diets and the philosophies of Dr. Weston Price. Food is far more than fuel, and Darcey is passionate about food that not only nourishes the body, but also the spirit, and tastes wonderful too. She works closely with plants, both wild and cultivated that provide both food and medicine. She is an avid forager of wild foods, gardener of organic vegetables, and is passionate about local and sustainable food systems, and how our relationship with the land, nature and wilderness impacts our physical and spiritual health and wellbeing. She truly believes that one cannot separate the health of the people from the health of the ecosystem in which they live.

Intense, vibrantly wild and alive!

REPOST FREELY!! PLEASE & THANK YOU!

Journey of Heart: Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference 2010

Last week I made a long anticipated journey back to the Southwest, the land I called home for so long to attend the first annual Traditions In Western Herbalism Conference at Ghost Ranch.  The conference was the dream child of two people who have deeply transformed my life on so many levels, Wolf  and Kiva Rose of the Anima Center.    From the beginning so many moons ago, it was clear this would be a unique and outstanding event, unlike any other. 

I was deeply honored to be included in the select group of teachers and presenters this first year-  Including my teachers Paul Bergner and Rosemary Gladstar, long time friends and collegues like Jim McDonald, Phyllis Hogan, and Margi Flint, and herbalists I've long admired and turned to over and over for information and insight like Matt Wood, Phyllis Light, and Charles Garcia.  I got to meet and hang out with new friends from all over, including HerbMentor founder John Gallagher, Howie Brownstien, Seven Song and Corey-Pine Shane.  Every single teacher and presenter there was truly gifted and offered deep teachings on so many levels. 

A long journey westward with Sean ended with a late night driving to the Albuquerque airport to pick up the last of the featured speakers.  I didnt get much sleep between caffiene overload and nerves, but prepared to give my own presentation first thing on Friday morning.  I spoke about Nourishing the Wild Self- what it means to really nourish deeply on levels of the self, not just the biochemical, but the spiritual, social and community levels, and how the choices we make about food can in turn nourish the land we live on and the wild Earth that provides for us everything.  If you missed my talk at the conference, I'll be posting some writing in a similar vein very shortly.  They also managed to video and audio record the entire session, so avail yourself of the recordings for sale of the entire shin dig!

It was truly amazing to be able to share something I feel so passionate about with students, collegues and friends in such an amazing environment.  Each and every one there was engaged and enthused and countless comments about how the subject matter touched individuals in various ways were more than reward for the long journey and agonizing hours I spent formulating and calculating just how to deliver the topic ( which of course flew out the window when I sat down with that group of eager folk!).  

Afterward,  I prepared to just relax, visit with friends new and old and attend the other speakers presentations and teachings.  Evenings were full with stunning entertainment and moonlit sandstone rock formations and massive star studded skies. Being back in the desert southwest was like coming home...to a land that is sacred and infused into my cells and bones, to a family of people and plants I hadn't seen in too many months.  Of course just being there, in the presence of that land and the memories was emotionally intense for me, feeling all the heartache of leaving a home and people I loved for a new life on the other side of the country.  Moving on to new places and experiences is never an easy thing, but I'm deeply grateful for everything I've taken from my time in the desert over the years, the ways that I found myself, the ways that I learned from the land and the plants, the friends and family.  I shed more than a few tears over the course of the weekend.

Really, hard to describe how it felt, but it was like everyone there was on equal ground- as healers, herblaists, plant people, wild ones, and explorers.  No one was left out, the community energy was phenomenal, and I'm still having withdrawl pangs from being in such a wonderful open and outstanding community of herbalists, movers and shakers.

The underlying mission of the TWHC organizers and conference is to further the growth and strength of Grassroots herbalism.  The village herbalists, and unsung heros of communities all over who are working every day with people of all walks of life bringing healing and wholing to bodies, hearts, minds and communities.  It isn't about having certain letters after your name, or how long you've studied, or what plants you use, but about really doing the work, and keeping the flame of traditional healing alive.   This is just the kind of movement we need as governments tighten down on "alternative" medicine, increase regulation of health care, food /agriculture and societal norms.  No, we won't back down, we won't go away and we will get up again and again. 

The point is here- if you missed this years conference,  make sure not to miss it next year.  Though I won't be speaking next year, you can be sure I'll be there to attend and tend to this miraculous energetic community of healers and wholers!  I hope to see you there!

Conquering Insulin Resistance Naturally with Nutrition and Herbs: Online Intensive

Conquering Insulin Resistance Naturally with Nutrition and Herbs: Online Intensive

Are you concerned about any of the following modern diseases: Type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, trouble losing weight, cardiovascular health concerns, inflammation, cancer. Did you know that all of these are signs and or symptoms of what is called Syndrome X, or Metabolic Syndrome. Underlying the syndrome/symptoms is a metabolic dysregulation called Insulin Resistance. Much to our dismay, this is rampant in the United States, and is causing health problems for millions of people, some without even knowing! Fortunately for us, there are many natural ways of dealing with and controlling insulin resistance through food, nutrition, herbalism and lifestyle changes. Western medicine will tell you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes or cancer and throw you a medication to control the symptom, but very rarely does the underlying cause of the symptom get addressed.

Join Herbalist and Nutritionist, Darcey Blue, for an 8 week long online intensive covering all aspects of Insulin Resistance and how to manage it naturally through food, herbs and lifestyle changes. We will cover the following topics.

*Physiology of insulin resistance
*Sugar/carbohydrate cravings and addiction
*Nutrient dense foods and meals that control insulin resistance
*Herbs and Supplements
*appropriate and effective exercise specifically for managing IR
*stress and sleep
*the role of inflammation

This course is specifically helpful for those who are working to manage Insulin Resistance in their own lives, but is appropriate for anyone who wants to learn more about health and the roots of many of today's chronic and rampant diseases, or those working with clients or family members with Insuslin resistance.

You will receive bi-weekly lessons and reading material, suggestions for additional resources, assignments which focus on experiencing first hand the ways you can use the suggestions for Insulin Resistance in your own life, personal attention and coaching from Darcey, a supportive group community all working towards the same goal! Classes are run via e-mail mailing list, and weekly computer access is a requirement for the course.

Class runs from July 5- Aug 30
Cost: Sliding scale $150-$200- payments plans are available
Some additional materials (books, herbs) will be needed for the course.

For more details or questions, or to register contact Darcey (shamana.flora@gmail.com or 520-429-2654)
Payments may be made via check/money order or paypal.


About the Instructor:
Darcey Blue French is an herbalist and food lover, who has over the years explored various ways of eating, interacting with food and preparing food. Educated as a Clinical Herbalist and Nutritionist at the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism in 2008, she has been in private practice since that time. She has experience in Ayurvedic Cooking, Vegetarian, Allergen Free, Insulin Resistance diets and the philosophies of Dr. Weston Price. Food is far more than fuel, and Darcey is passionate about food that not only nourishes the body, but also the spirit, and tastes wonderful too. She works closely with plants, both wild and cultivated that provide both food and medicine. She is an avid forager of wild foods, gardener of organic vegetables, and is passionate about local and sustainable food systems, and how our relationship with the land, nature and wilderness impacts our physical and spiritual health and wellbeing. She truly believes that one cannot separate the health of the people from the health of the ecosystem in which they live.

Intense, vibrantly wild and alive!

Influenza prevention and therapies

There's a whole lot of fear mongering going on about the swine flu, and I thought I'd point you all to my thoughts on how to prevent and manage an influenza infection. I'm not convinced swine flu is the big baddie the media is making it out to be, but being prepared is NEVER a bad choice.

Please refer to my previous posts on Influenza here:
Prevention
Remedies

Got questions? Comments? Other ideas? Please share!

How to Unwind: Herbal Hydrotherapy

I've recently begun working until late in the evening a few nights a week. I come home at 10 pm after being on my feet for hours, talking to people, under bright artificial light, and being rather busy.
It's been hard to get to bed at a decent time, mostly because it takes me a while to unwind after 8 hrs of work. But getting to bed at midnight isn't doing my body good. So I've accquired a new habit to help me unwind. A hot herbal foot soak. Simple, beautiful, effective.

Being of a somewhat watery constitution, hydrotherapy has always felt good to me. Water is calming, soothing, flowing, and for many folks a lukewarm/nuetral temperature bath before bed can really help them to relax and get ready for sleeping, and it's a nice technique to use for folks with chronic insomnia, especially if it is related to too much activity or tension late in the evening.
A bath at 10 pm just wasn't feeling very feasible for me, but, a foot soak. That was something I could handle after a long day, and served a similar purpose.

I simmer 2-3 cups of water in a BIG pot (big enough to put both feet in), turn it off as it starts to bubble, and throw in a few handfuls of some relaxing herbs. The soles of the feet are suprisingly very absorbent, and many folks find that herbal compounds absorb through the feet well.
The first night I tried this my feet were rather sore and achy, so I steeped a combo of sage and lavender flowers in the hot water for 5 min. Then I topped off the pot with cool water until it was a safe temperature to put my feet in without burning them.

Last night, a combo of lavender and hops was just the ticket.
I prepare the pan of hot herbal water and a tea kettle at the same time. I fix a cup of relaxing herbal tea, I choose lavender and linden, and sit down on the couch with the hot tea, and rest my feet in the steamy, fragrant herbal bath.

The warm water draws heat, blood and energy down from the head into the lower regions of the body, and the relaxing herbs soak in through the feet and the aromatics float up on the steam to relax the mind and spirit.
10 min of this treatment, and I'm completely ready for bed. I dry my feet off with a soft towel, then rub a nice herbal oil all over my feet to pacify vata, and encourage the calming and relaxing. A favorite foot oil of my creation is infused St Johns Wort oil with a touch of sandalwood and ylang ylang essential oils. Rosemary oil is especially nice for cold and aching feet, and I use that often as well. After that, I lay down, and fall right to sleep, and sleep all night long.

And it only takes about 30-40 min to prepare, soak and sip, and oil. I can be in bed by 10:45 instead of midnight (if I don't dally or soak for longer than 10-15 min), the quality of my sleep is deeply restful, and my aching feet don't hurt.

Lovely, simple remedies are often the best. Some other nice herbs to try for foot soaks include:
Chamomile
peppermint
rosemary
mugwort
tulsi
rose

Work, play, and staying fit

Growing up as a woman in today's society, for many years, led me to the belief that I had to be on a "diet" and work up a sweat every day at the gym, and had to keep my weight below a certain, unattainable number on the scale.
For years and years I tried to play the game. I remember the summer before 8th grade, I worked out every day on my mom's stationary bike to loose a few pounds ( incidentally the blessing of womanhood suddenly changed my childish figure into that of a fertile and vuluptuous woman). I don't remember if I thought I was "fat", but regardless, I worked hard to loose some weight before school started in the fall.
In high school I joined in the only sport I was coordinate enough to try, Cross country running. Of course, my figure would only benefit from the exersize, but I learned quite rapidly, that it was no easy task to take up running mile after mile, day after day. I suffered with painful shin splints, and was discouraged on the "easy days" when my easy pace left me miles behind the pack of jogging kids. I gave up on running and joined the gym. Again.
I lost some pounds, and ate a low fat vegetarian diet.
I went to college, and promptly gained the weight back, plus some. Oh I tried to force myself to run on the wooded trails around the campus, and get up at the crack of dawn in the freezing winter to get to the gym, swim, ride the elliptical or lift weights. Pretty much every minute of it tortuously boring, and I never seemed to loose the "weight" I desired. I felt fat, unattractive, and exhausted.
This cycle continued into my early twenties, with another gym membership at the urging of a partner unsatisfied with my weight. I joined group sports again, this time a women's road cycling club. I trained and trained for a 100 mile race, somewhere between 2 and 6 hrs a day, all the while hoping I'd shed a few pounds. I never did. I got fit, I completed my race, and I even enjoyed riding the bike with the other women in the group, but I burned myself, overtraining, and never achieving the "goal" of loosing the weight I wanted.

I think it was at that point that I gave up on doing anything to loose weight. I resigned myself to the fact that I'd always be larger than the skinny soccer girls I'd grown up with, and 20 something college girls in their pink mini skirts, chasing frat boys. It wasn't me.

What was me was putting on a pair of sturdy shoes and taking a hike in the mountains in the crisp winter air, walking as slow as I wanted, stopping to look at frozen orange mushrooms on a fallen tree, or taking off my sandals in a wash running with spring runoff, hiking up my skirt and wandering up the wash to find the blossoming manzanita bushes, kissed with spring rain. I forgot about "racing" or exersizing for the sake of loosing a few pounds or getting "fit". I moved my body because it felt good to move in a natural way, picking my way around rocks in the wash, or hoisting myself up over a large boulder. Walking down a trail for an hour to discover an isolated peak where I could take a nap, and then walk back up the trail at the end of day, break a sweat, and feel completely full from my time sitting under a tree just a mile down the trail, rather than hiking in 6 miles in from the trailhead, as fast as I could, just to turn around.

I've always hated exersizing for exersizing sake, and now, find myself getting my "exersize" in more natural ways, while working, and while playing. During the month I stayed at the Anima Center this summer, I learned to physically challenge myself to accomplish tasks, yet at the same time, take time for myself, to rest, and play. I would walk up the steep hill every morning, and then chop gnarly pieces of juniper with a large, heavy maul. To most, the idea of chopping wood might seem difficult and distasteful, but the feeling of splitting a tough log in two, and filling the wheel barrow full of wood to fuel the wood stove which cooked much of the food I ate, was incredibly satisfying. I worked, I sweat, and I accomplished something ( as opposed to running in place on a silly machine in a sweaty stuffy room.) Then I'd head back down the hill to take a break and take a swim in the cool river. My daily exersize came from the simple tasks I did during work, and during play. One day I walked an especially long way for a dunk in a deep beaver pond at the end of a very physically demanding day. I didn't have to walk that far for a swim, but it felt so good to walk, slowly, mindfully, and in anticipation of a cool swim in deep waters.

Now, at home, I find the satisfaction of physical effort to accomplish something far more fulfilling than a trip to the gym. I've spent the last two weeks digging my new garden beds early in the morning. It isn't an easy task. I work hard, break a sweat, and get tired. My muscles get sore and fatigued, but it feels so good to know that the work I put in now, is going to make all the difference in a very short while when I begin to harvest fresh, organic greens, full of nutrients, and full of my energy and intention. My sweat and love is going into every square inch of that dirt, and will subsequently feed every plant that grows there, and will nourish every cell of my body. How's that for exersize? Satifsying and nourishing, it doesn't burn out my adrenals, and feels good. I like to push myself beyond the point I think I can go, and then rest and relax.

Exersize wasn't a "task" to fit into our days for many thousands of years. We just did it. We walked where we wanted to go, and daily life required us to move our bodies in different ways, every day.

So, here's a few ways to get some exersize, without really exersizing ( and certainly not going to a gym).

• Build a garden! Digging, weeding, and hauling harvest!

• Go wildcrafting! Find yourself a place to wander around and gather plants for food or medicine. Walk, stoop, climb and carry.

• Chop wood! Get yourself a woodstove and chop some wood.

• Walk to the grocery store and carry your purchases back home. I live a block away from the store, just far enough to get a nice walk in, and close enough it seems rediculous to drive there! So I walk. Today I had to walk there and back 3 times.

• Take a walk at sunset with your beloved. Just walk, talk, catch up, and enjoy the evening air. A good way to end the day.

• Play with a child! Go to the park with your own, or a friends child ( w/ permission of course) and play tag, catch, water ballon toss or any other game that you can come up with.
  

What is Vitalism?

In my practice I follow a tradition of healing known as Vitalism. You may find that the suggestions given to you in your session differ greatly from what you are used to and might expect to hear from your M.D. or even some other herbalists.

• Vitalism is a Life-supporting, holistic system of healing. Vitalism believes that the Life force, a native intelligence, inhabits the body, mind and spirit, and knows best how to heal imbalances in the body, mind and spirit.
• Vitalism sees the person as an intelligent and vital whole, and respects and works with the unity of body, mind and spirit. One cannot treat just one aspect of a person and expect permanent, true healing. Health problems often show up in multiple aspects of your life. This is easily seen in the connection between stress and ulcers in the digestive system. One cannot treat the physical ulcer alone, and expect a permanent cure without addressing the underlying mental/emotional stress.
• Vitalism believes that the symptoms of disease are the body’s way of reestablishing balance within the person. The symptoms are not wrong, or bad. For example, a fever is the body’s way of fighting off bacterial or viral infection, and is actually helpful, not harmful. Suppression of a symptom can push health problems deeper into the system, where they may show up later and more severely (i.e. aspirin to suppress a fever, surgery to remove an organ etc.)
• A Vitalist treats disease symptoms through the use therapies which support the body’s natural processes, for example, allowing a fever to progress naturally and using herbs to promote the comfort of the patient while the body is doing its healing work through fever.
• A Vitalist believes that the basis of good health and vitality is diet, nutrition and digestive health. The body depends on well-digested food to build tissues and perform biological functions. If the diet is lacking proper nutrients the body will not be able to perform certain processes correctly. Likewise if the digestive system is damaged or unable to function properly, the rest of the body will suffer.
• One can build vitality and health through lifestyle choices such as; nourishing food, gentle exercise, adequate rest, spiritual development and attention to one’s hearts desire or life calling. Herbal remedies can help support the natural vitality and the actions of the Life force within a person, but will not cure disease without proper attention to diet, rest and other lifestyle habits.

Going Home

I finished my last homework assignment yesterday, I have two days of classes left during the next week. I've quit my job at the store hawking pills and herbs in capsules and my last day is Thursday.
I've given notice to my landlady, and will be moving out in three weeks time.
I have three weeks to pack up the few belongings I've unpacked since I left the desert a year and a half ago....

Three-and-a-half weeks until I head home to the desert.


We've deliberated, decided, and changed our minds countless times about where to go next, what to do...but have come to the decision that it's time to go home. Home to the desert. Home to the land of coyote sunrise, saguaro dawn, monsoon summers, sky islands in a sea of chaparral studded valleys. The Sonoran desert is home; it became home 6 years ago to a girl who hardly knew herself after spending four years in a nest called college.

I found myself in the desert. Wandering among saguaro forests at dawn, listening to coyote laughter at twilight, cicadas singing in the monsoons, flooded arroyos in the spring wet, walking barefoot with my feet in the warm trickles filling the arroyos, licking raindrop crystals from the manzanitas, sitting with Grandmother Juniper and Oak, teaching me every day lessons I needed to learn, I got lost in the rhythms of that strange desert, and found myself. Once a stranger, and now a friend and family member to the cactus and coyote. So many tears I shed into the rocks, so much heartache rendered into knowledge and self love under the whispering pines....

Sometimes you have to leave something, let it go, before you know what it truly means to you.
I left the desert searching for a teacher to give me confidence as a healer, a guiding hand to support me as I spread my wings. But like any teacher, one eventually does fly away, and that support is not what is needed.
I have to go home, to my community, my family of wild plants, desert critters, my canyons and rivers, my pine topped peaks, and the people who live there, and need the healing that the desert has given me. It's time to give it back. It is time to go back home and be the support.

So it is, that in three weeks time, I'll be packing my bags again, and heading south, into the blistering heat of the desert in May, waiting anxiously for monsoon songs, and offering the gift plant medicine to the people of Tucson, AZ again.


We've found a nice person to share a house with, and will be looking for a house to make home as soon as we arrive in town. As soon as we get settled, I'll be available for in depth personal herbal, nutritional and flower essence consultations in the Tucson area. I'll be planning herb walks for the summer, and maybe a class or two on medicine making.
Come August I'll be taking a personal sojorn into the Gila Wilderness at the Anima Center , and then in the fall I'll find a space to turn into my herbal clinic/apothecary and hang my shingle, a home for Blue Turtle Botanicals.

How to Survive the Flu: Part 1: PREVENTION

So here is the promised flu survival post. I've been thinking about this all winter, when my mom got sick with the flu and called me, but didn't have any herbs on hand to help herself with, it got me to thinking about what I'd include in a flu survival kit. Most of it, is knowledge, not herbs. But the herbs are helpful as well. Once you come down with the flu, you just have to get through it, but read on to find out the ways you can help prevent getting the flu, and ways to address the symptoms and insure a complete recovery.

Every winter the influenza ravages the land and people fall ill with fever, deep respiratory infection and body aches. If you’ve ever had the flu you know how miserable it can be. Many people say they’ve come down with a flu, when they have any sort of sniffles or cough, but influenza is actually a rather serious infection which can have long term consequences if you don’t properly recover from the infection. Though the flu can be downright dangerous, especially for the elderly or the young, most people recover. But we can’t forget the flu of 1918 which killed thousands of people, very quickly.

The first thing to remember about influenza is that it is a serious illness, and not to be disregarded, ignored (as if that were possible) or pushed through like a race. When you or a loved one comes down with influenza I suggest all care be taken to address the situation safely and make the ill as comfortable as possible.

Many people choose to receive a flu vaccination every year. At best these can protect you from some strains of the yearly flu virus, but it isn’t a guarantee, as the virus can mutate often. At worst, the vaccination can make you sick. They are good idea for people at high risk for complications, but for a generally healthy person, possibly not helpful.

First, let’s explore ways to prevent contracting the flu in the first place. Truly the best medicine is prevention.

Support your immune system with plenty of sleep; at least 8 hours per night, though some people will need more.

Eat warm, nourishing foods, especially those containing immune supporting nutrients like Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin A, and Zinc. Think soups with beans, peppers, fish, liver, and brightly colored vegetables like sweet potatoes and greens.

To increase the immune boosting power of your soup cook in nourishing immune tonic herbs into your broth, my favorites are astragalus, burdock, shitake mushrooms and lots of garlic and onions.

Stay away from sugar like the evil it is. The amount of sugar found in about 2 cans of soda can depress immune function by over 40%. If you are surrounded by people frequently and could be exposed to the flu virus, sugar is your worst enemy. A healthy immune system will be able to fight off a bug faster and more efficiently. Regular exposure to immune weakening sugar on a daily basis can really increase your chances of succumbing to any number of winter bugs, including the flu.

Make sure you are getting enough Vitamin D. Lots of research has come out in the last couple of years about the very important action of vitamin D on a lot more than bone health. It has been shown to be a vital part in controlling inflammation and immune system function. Lucky for us, we can make our vitamin D in sufficient quantity as long as we spend time outside in the sunshine. But for most people, skin exposure to the sun decreases dramatically in winter, in some cases to zero. Its cold out, the skies darken earlier, and winds howl outside, no wonder we don’t go out in the winter. But it doesn’t decrease our need for vitamin D and its vital role in supporting a healthy immune system in the season of the flu. Vitamin D is abundant in a select few foods, including oily wild fish, liver (grass fed and free range please), and egg yolks. Try to eat these foods frequently throughout the winter. You can also include Vit D rich cod liver oil as a daily supplement. It is rich in omega 3 fatty acids, and contains bioavailable sources of Vitamin D and Vitamin A. Nordic Naturals makes a nice cod liver oil with 1000 i.u. of Vitamin D per serving. A daily dose of 1 tbsp of this cod liver oil stirred into foods, smoothies, juices, or taken by the spoonful will supply approximately 3 grams of omega 3 fatty acids and 3000 i.u. of vitamin D, and 4500 i.u of Vitamin A.

Alternatively you can take a Vitamin D₃ supplement daily during the winter. I usually recommend 4000 i.u. on a daily basis from a vitamin D supplement, and additional from food sources like eggs, liver and fish. Studies have shown that blood levels of vitamin D are increased only after about 4000 i.u. are taken. There are some contraindications for taking supplemental D, like hyperparathyroidism and sarcoidosis. I’m not going to go into the research here, but there is much information to be found at http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/. It is important to use the D₃ form, and NOT D_2. D₃ or cholecalciferol is the active form of vitamin D that the body can use and convert. Ergocalciferol found in many supplements and in fortified foods is not readily available or useful to the body.

I’ve taken between 4000-8000 i.u. of Vitamin D all winter long and haven’t had a single cold, or the flu.

Other herbs you can use to fortify your immune system throughout the winter include:

Elderberry- This makes a delicious tea, powder, syrup, or elixir/tincture. Kiva at Bear Medicine Herbals has elaborated extensively on elderberry at her blog.

Reishi Mushroom- Traditionally cooked into soups by the Chinese, reishi is easily found as capsules or extracts today, but I think the best medicine still comes from the long cooked and polysaccharide rich reishi broth. I suggest making a very big batch, and adding molasses to sweeten, and then freeze in ice cube trays for single daily servings to be added to soups or stews.

Astragalus- Another tonic herb from the Chinese, Astragalus strengthens the defensive energy or wei qi, that protects the body from invasion by outside forces. Best as a decoction rather than a tincture as many of the compounds aren’t alcohol soluble. You can use this as a powder to top foods or in soups as well.

The Sap is Rising

We're drawing near to the Spring Equinox, the days are growing lighter measurably, and the sap is rising in the plants around us. The catkins are bursting forth from the buds on the aspen tree out my bedroom window, just today. The cottonwood buds are swelling and oozing with medicinal resin,








the alder trees are putting out dangling male catkins and baby flowers which will mature into this years cones.


The motherwort and hollyhocks are putting up new baby leaves, and I've even seen the feathery green welcome of the yarrow plants in the community planting space across the street. Spring is the time to gather many of the first medicines of the year.

I've been collecting slippery slimy bark from the budding elms. They are everywhere, in every other yard, growing along the banks of the creek and they are easily spotted by the buds lining the branches in little pom poms opposite each other along the branch.

I've also been hard at work collecting the swelling buds and resin of the cottonwood trees. Unlike the elm bark which you could probably harvest all summer long and still get good medicine, (though I always prefer spring barks in most cases.), the cottonwood bud season is short. If you miss the few weeks in late winter when the buds are growing and coated in the yellow aromatic resin, you're kind of out of luck for the year. Of course you can always use the bark and leaves of the cottonwoods too, but if you are after the resin coated buds, now is the time. It's often very easy to collect plenty of buds from little branchlets that have fallen to the ground in the strong winds of winter storms. Just make sure they are relatively fresh and have lots of resin on them still. If you are lucky enough to find a entire downed branch or even a tree you'll have more buds and bark that you'll know what to do with. Buds can be collected from the lower branches of the tree, but always with care and respect. Never strip an entire branch of all the buds. I usually limit myself to two buds from a branch, so as not to harm the future flowering and leafing out of the tree.

My favorite way to use the buds is as an infused oil. The buds go into a canning jar and I pour warm oil (not too hot , don't want to fry those babies!) to cover the buds. Then I let the whole mess sit in a warm water bath for 24-48 hrs, or in a warm spot by the heater or stove, or even in a warm sunny window. I've found the warmth is important when making a poplar bud oil. It helps to melt the resin on the buds into the oil. You'll want to strain off the buds from the oil while warm as well.

This fragrant oil is a favorite for all sorts of painful afflictions. It contains salicin and other compounds related to the painkilling properties of willow and other plants. It's an excellent analgesic and mild antiinflamatory. I find it superior for burns of all types, including from a hot stove or a sunburn. It's an excellent sore muscle rub, and wonderful on any sort of bruise, sprain or painful swelling and inflammation, like arthritis. It's also a mild antiseptic and can be used to dress minor wounds and help prevent infection.
I also like to use the oil as a base for an expectorant and aromatic decongestant chest rub, with other expectorant and decongestant herbs like eucalyptus, ginger, myrrh, pine and peppermint.

The buds can also be tinctured in a high proof alcohol for similar uses internally. It is especially good as a stimulating, warming expectorant in moist, chronic or stagnant and cold respiratory conditions. I'd be careful using it during acute respiratory infections with a fever, as populus species can have a tendency to reduce fever.
In most cases fever is a beneficial and healing reaction by the body and supressing a fever is very rarely helpful in reducing the length of illness. There may be cases where reducing an extremely high fever is appropriate for children or elders, and it could be used in those cases, but as a general rule, a vitalist will not supress a healthy fever, and will usually encourage it as a natural part of the body's healing intelligence. More on that in our surviving the flu post ( coming soon to a blog near you!)
Populus tincture can also be used a urinary tract disinfectant and stimulating diuretic, and a mild pain reliever in inflammatory conditions with pain. Osteoarthritis, sore muscles and the like. It may also be useful in hot, full and throbbing headaches which need draining, as populus's energy tends to move downward.

Finally it can be used as a digestive stimulant through it's bitter flavors, though I'd probably favor the bark and leaves for this purpose, which are more purely bitter and a little less spicy, resinous.

Populus balsamifera is the official medicinal species used, but I've used whatever poplar species is growing in my region, as long as the buds are resiny and aromatic. One sure way is to pick a resinous bud and chew it. The persistant, stick to your teeth and rather pungent leaning towards downright spicy resin will tell you if it is good medicine or not.

If you're anything like me, you feel the sap rising in your bones and the anxious feeling of cabin fever if there's snow where you are. We've got another snowstorm in the forecast for tonight, but I'm chomping at the bit to move, get out and about, instead of being inside writing thesis and chemistry homework. I'm also eagerly awaiting the first dandelion greens for pesto!

Vitalist Pracitces:Sun Bathing

No, I don't mean sunbathing by laying on the beach for hours at time slathered in baby oil and frying to a crisp.

But some amount of sun is a neccesary and healthy thing for our bodies. Back in the days before brick and mortar homes, layers of clothing, and 9-5 work days at an indoor job, appeneded on either end by a commute in a car, we spent a lot of time outside, in the sun. When we did so our bodies developed the ability to product Vitamin D from the sunlight on our skin. Vitamin D, long touted as moderately toxic, is a very important vitamin to our physiology, acting more like a hormone and beneficial in maintaining bone health, immune function, moderating inflammation, improving mood among many other things. Recent research is coming out of the woodwork indicating the very vital importance of vit D on our health, and the safety of supplementing with up to 10,000 i.u. per day.
Not ironically, 10,000 i.u. is about what your body would make naturally if exposed to sunlight. It takes about 20 minutes of full body sun exposure in a caucasian to produce 10,000 i u. of vitamin D naturally.

Obviously, we don't spend a lot of time naked outside, especially in the cold winter months. But we can spend some time outside in this simple vitalist practice that is sure to improve your mood, decrease your stress, and improve your health.

We've had some warm days interspersed with cold, wintery ones. On those warm days I've been taking the oppurtunity to get a little sun. You can do the same. Get as unclothed as you feel comfortable getting. Naked would be ideal, but not always possible. I sit out in a tank top and a sarong that I can hike up to my thighs. Make yourself a cup of tea, and step outside and make yourself comfortable. Sit in a chair, in the grass, or just on your porch. Sit for 15 min and enjoy your tea.
Take in the sunshine. breathe deeply of the fresh air. listen to the birds, or the squirrels chattering.
Make some vitamin D.
DO this several times a week, weather permitting. Every day if it is warm enough.

Blog Party: Kitchen Spices- Turmeric, Haridra, Curcurma Longa

This month's blog party is on Kitchen Spices, and their medicinal uses (or otherwise uses). The kitchen pantry is FULL of useful medicines that we use to make our food taste delicious every day. Cinnamon, cloves, sage, thyme, garlic, onions, ginger and honey are all extremely useful herbs that most people keep in their pantry at any time. If you are a fan of Indian food, you probably have curry powder on the spice rack as well. The spice/herb I'm going to explore in this post is an ingredient in curry powders. Turmeric, the bright yellow powder that gives curry its color, among other things.
I know, not everyone keeps turmeric on their spice shelf, but it's been talked about
an awful lot these days, and is quickly becoming a "fad" herb sold in encapsulated CO2 extracts with standardization to a percentage of curcumoids. What is all the big fuss about turmeric?

Turmeric is a SPICE and a food, and there is no real reason why you should need to buy it in fancy softgels for $30 a box. Instead go to the bulk spices and fill a bag with the bright yellow powder and begin to use it. Cook with it, tincture it, stir it in hot water for tea, mix with honey as a paste, or add it to other powders and clay as a poultice.

Turmeric has been used in Ayurveda and by Indian chefs for thousands of years, known as Haridra. Closely related to ginger (zinzigber officinalis), most people buy it as a powder in the spice asile. But you can buy whole pieces of root in asian markets, or whole food co-ops and the like, usually in the produce section, next to the ginger. You might even mistake the turmeric for ginger. It looks remarkably similar, but the bright orange yellow color of the meat is unique. The roots are also slightly smaller and thinner than those of ginger.

Either way you buy it, its uses are myriad.

I love turmeric stirred into the cooking water with rice (just a 1/2 tsp or so) will color rice a brillant shade of yellow, and add a nice savory and aromatic quality to the rice. Turmeric is less pungent than its cousin ginger, even fresh. And it is full of antioxidants.
Yup, those highly touted antioxidants, scavenging free radicals and putting out the fires of inflammation all over the body. That bright yellow color from carotenoids and Vit A is good for the eyes and general antioxidant protection.

Used in cooking it adds color and flavor, but is also a useful digestive stimulant and chologouge. It gently warms the digestive system, and through slight bitter and pungent flavors increases secretion of digestive fluids ( be careful if you have an ulcer, like other spicy foods it can aggravate it in some people.), and stimulates the production and secretion of bile, which is extremely important in the digestion of fats in the diet. If you have trouble digesting fats (often characterized by smelly, soft stools and gas known as steatorrhea, or nausea after eating fats) try a little turmeric stirred into your food, or as a warm tea before (or after) meals. Just a teaspoon stirred into warm water with a spoon of honey is a pleasant digestive stimulating tea. Or just have a small portion of rice cooked with turmeric, or a spoon stirred into your soup broth.

Here's a nice simple recipie for your digestive pleasure.
1 c rice
2 c water
1 tbsp ghee
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp salt

Melt ghee in a pan, and stir in the spices and heat until just fragrant, (try not to burn them. Not nearly as tasty.)
Stir the rice into the sizzling ghee and spices and toast slightly ( some kernals may turn golden brown and it may smell a bit like popcorn.)
Add the water and stir the whole mixture once or twice to mix. Cover with a lid, and turn the heat to low. Cook the rice with the lid on until the water is absorbed. White rice will take 20 min, and brown rice will take 45-50 min.

Turn the heat off and leave the lid on for another 10 min. Just before serving, fold the seeds back into the rice with a spatula. Don't stir too much, or the rice may stick or become gluey. Just enough to mix the seeds into the rice. Serve hot.

Another one of turmeric's wonderful healing properties is its affinity for the liver, both a gentle liver stimulant and detoxifier. It stimulates liver production of glutathione, the body's natural liver antioxidant and protectant. You can use turmeric any time there is sluggishness in the liver, or when undergoing mild alterative therapies to restore normal elimination and detoxifying processes. Turmeric is a blood mover and can help release sluggish, backed up blood in the liver or liver chi stagnation. This can be of benefit in a whole host of conditions relating to stuck liver chi or sluggish liver function, including PMS and menstrual cramps, poor digestion and constipation, heat in the core with cold/hands and feet, bloating, emotional explosiveness, and hot/full headaches from stuck chi.
In fact, one of my most effective teas for addressing menstrual cramps consists of antispasmodics and blood movers.

Menstrual Cramp Tea
2 tbsp Wild yam root,
2-3 slices red peony root,
1 tsp turmeric root powder
1 tsp ginger root
sometimes with a touch of wood betony.

It makes a very strange looking bright yellow tea, but served warm with honey and lemon, I find it quite pleasant, and very effective in addressing monthly cramping. (Always worse with the consumption of gluten. Damn those holiday temptations!)


Turmeric is also considered highly hepatoprotective and can be used for those with liver disease like jaundice, hepatitis and mild chirrosis. Obviously underlying causes need addressing, but used with other hepatoprotective herbs and therapies ( milk thistle, schizandra, reishi, selenium ) it can be of great benefit, espeically if there is inflammation anywhere in the system going on as well.

As a blood mover and antiinflammatory, turmeric can be used externally as well for bruises, sprains, arthritis and injuries. Either a poultice or linament used externally can alleviate pain and inflammation. Use it internally as well to address the injury both inside and out. But do be aware it will dye the skin (or any cloth)bright yellow for a few days. (Well, your cloth may stay yellow forever, but it will wash off the skin. Hey, think of it like a new yellow henna! Paint pretty flowers around your sprained ankle and messages of positive healing.) Additionally, turmeric is used topically on the skin for infections and infestations. One study showed it effective in combination with neem leaves as a poultice for scabies. But used in salve it is effective for any inflammed and infected wound. I've not tried it for fungal infections like athletes foot or ringworm, but imagine it might be useful. Also useful for inflammatory skin conditions like eczema, but again, it will turn the skin bright yellow.

Turmeric is also a nice immune stimulant and anti-infective herb to use during cold and flu season. Another reason to cook with it, or add it your favorite immune formula. I know one herbalist who uses turmeric in her fire cider recipie. (I usually use ginger.) Especially if you need a diaphoretic stimulant during cold or flu, a nice hot brew of turmeric and ginger tea will do the job nicely.

Finally, the use to which commerce is latching on to. It is a superb antiinflammatory. Turmeric is being sold in capsules to address the pain and inflammation of arthritis, prostatitis and heart disease. This is where the CO2 extracts are being sold as a bargin at 4-5 times the price of the spice on the shelf. For most people the powdered spice or a tincture of the fresh root will do just the same thing, but you will need to take it in fairly large quantities.

Most of the capsules for sale are now standarized to curcuminoids, and frankly, even though turmeric is well studied by science, I hate to reduce the healing properties of a such a versatile food herb to just ONE compound. The curcuminoids have many studies showing their effectiveness in controlling inflammatory processes, but turmeric has a lot more to offer than just anti-inflammatory curcuminoids. Rich antioxidants, hepatoprotective properties, improving digestive function, and supporting immune function are probably all things we want to embrace, along with quenching the fires of inflammation.

But, with any inflammation in the body, one must get to the root of it. Why is the body inflammed? Is there a food intolerance, leaky gut, not enough omega 3 fatty acids to regulate inflammation from within? You can certainly use turmeric to slow that process down, to relieve pain, and help someone off NSAID's or other antiinflammatory drugs like corticosteroids, cortisone or prednisone with a whole slew of dangerous side effects, but if the root is not addressed, the inflammation will continue and the health will continue to degrade.
Turmeric, in the marketplace is being used a band-aid, or like any other pharmacuetical to stop pain and inflammation without addressing the reason for inflammation and pain. Turmeric is incredibly useful when addressing injuries and chronic inflammation, but use it with a grain of salt. One must also remember that inflammation is actually a helpful process used by the body as part of the healing process. We run into a problem when the inflammation never stops, because the root hasn't been addressed.

Turmeric has also shown promise in the treatment of the many symptoms of metabolic syndrome, or syndrome x. Through its antioxidant, antiinflammatory and liver and digestive stimulating properities, it helps to adddress the inflammatory state of the body that can lead to oxidation of the plaque on the arteries or cholesterol in the blood, leading to heart attack or stroke, and can aid in maintaing blood sugar control. In addition to major dietary changes, and supplementation of important nutrients to control insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia leading to cardiovascular disease and diabetes, turmeric, and other helpful herbs can be added to the regimen to address these aspects of Metabolic syndrome.

In Ayurveda turmeric is known as a supreme blood purifier and nourishes and builds the blood and ojas, it can be of benefit for women's reproductive health and menstrual problems, and for men in supporting healthy semen. It is used extensively as a skin tonic. Vasant Lad (Ayurveda, the Science of Self Healing)suggests its use topically mixed with aloe vera gel for burns, herpes or cold sores, and other skin afflictions. Women in India often stain their skin with Turmeric as a beauty aid.

In Ayurveda turmeric is traditionally administered in a warm milk decoction, mixed with ghee or honey, or as a paste applied to the skin. Because the powder is so easy to come by, most people will just use the powder. But I have made a fresh tincture from the fresh whole roots of turmeric and find it to be sweet, resinous, and delicious and effective. If you find whole fresh roots and want to tincture it, go ahead, just be careful, it will stain your hands, your cutting board and your muslin you strain it with, and anything you spill it on!

I know there a million more ways and reasons to use turmeric as a spice and a medicine, but this post has gone on long enough. Enjoy!

Vital practices for winter health

Seems like this time of year people are commonly sniffling, coughing or run down. Vitalist practitioners like myself have a set of tools, in addition to nourishing herbs and foods for helping to stay healthy and happy through the winter months.

1) Sleep.
This is probably one of the most important things you can do to stay healthy through the winter. Just like the bear who hibernates during the snowy season, or rodents who retreat to their holes, we too have needs for increased rest and relaxation. Life moves in cycles, and the busy summer inspires us to be active, gardening, playing, and experiencing all the wonders of the green season. We stay up later becuase the sun sets later. It gives us more time to accomplish things we choose to put our attention to. But staying up late and exercising hard all season long can take it's toll, especially with the addition of work, school and family obligations. When the winter dark comes, it is no wonder we have a tendency to get a bit slower, and less active. SOmetimes we try to push through, especially during the holidays, parties, shopping, family gatherings require a lot of energy from us, but winter is the time to conserve the energy and restore ourselves with a long winter nap. You don't have to hole up for the whole winter and stay in bed, but do take advantage of longer nights, get to bed earlier, and sleep in or stay in bed later on cold mornings. Take time to restore your body and mind with quiet activities, cooking warming meals, baked roots, long simmered soup and plenty of down time. 8 hours of sleep is a basic reccomendation, but I find myself needing closer to 10 in the winter months.

2)Barefoot snow walking
I know, you think I'm crazy, but you'll just have to try it to believe it. Bundle yourself up well, complete with hat, gloves and warm coat and pants, but leave off the wool socks and snow boots. Step outside and walk around in the snow in your barefeet for 2-3 minutes, or as long as you can stand. This is especially fun to do in the fresh fallen fluffy snow after a snow storm. Be like a kid and run around in the fluffy stuff for a minute or two. Then return to warmth inside, dry your feet well, and feel the vital response. Your body will send blood circulating to your periphery, and your feet will warm up, your hands and other extremities will benefit from the increased peripheral circulation, which brings blood and immune function to the surface, ready to assist in protecting you from the slew of virus and bacteria floating about.

3) Hot and cool alternating showers
Taking a nice hot bath or shower in the cold weather feels great, but when we do that, we draw blood to our surface and open all the cappilaries on the skin. This makes us feel warm, but if we go outside with our pores and cappilarries open to the chill winter air, it can be detrimental to our health, and make us feel colder, deeper. I reccomend using an alternating cool/warm shower, or at least, finishing the hot shower with a cool rinse, including the head and neck, chest and back. This shouldn't be icy water, but cool enough to stimulate a vital response from your body. This will close pores and capillaries, and keep your vital warmth within. This alternating temperature is also good for training our bodies to deal with the constantly changing temperatures of cold winter air and warm heated buildings.

4)Deep Breathing
Dress warm and go outside (with shoes this time!) find a nice place to sit, either in the snow, near a tree, or on any other surface comfortable for you. Do 5 minutes of deep breathing in the cool fresh air. Fill your lungs from bottom to top, expanding the diaphragm and belly, then the lungs in the chest and the shoulders rise to fill the last inch. Then release the air in reverse, squeezing your belly toward your spine to expel the last bit of air. Fill your lungs with life giving oxygen, fresh and clean and cool. When you are done, return inside and sip on warm tea.

5) Drink water upon arising
Winter air can be extremely dehydrating, and it can be hard to keep up with staying hydrated. I usually wake up and drink at least 8-12 oz of room temperature water first thing in the morning. You can add a squeeze of lemon, or drink the water slightly warmed. But don't drink ice water or water cold from the fridge. The significant amount of water will stimulate peristalsis and aid in moving the bowels in the morning, and starting off the day hydrated.

6)Eat warm and seasonably appropriate foods
My appetite obviously changes when the weather gets cold, and I can't stand to eat cold raw salads or frozen fruits in winter. Encourage healthy digestion by givng your body warm and easy to digest foods. Stew your fruits with warming spices, eat warm broth in the morning, indulge in well cooked root vegetables mixed with oil and vinegar as a salad rather than cold lettuce and tomatoes. Eating plenty of warm and nourishing foods during the winter can go a long way in improving overall health, energy and immune function. Try to keep your consumption of sugary baked goods, chocolates and desserts to a minimum as sugar can reduce immune function quite significantly.

7) Listen to your body
Finally, always listen to what your body is telling you. If you are feeling tired and run down, rest. If you feel cold, bundle up, if you are craving a certain food (excluding junk foods or sugars) eat it. If you start to feel like you might be coming down with something, get in bed, stay warm, rest and drink plenty of hydrating healing herbal teas and soups. If you have a fever, stay home from work or school, drink plenty of fluid and refrain from eating until the fever breaks. Always pay attention to your needs and feelings and intuitions about yourself. The Vital force within each us has supreme wisdom for us, and listening to it and supporting it is the best thing we can do for our health.

Wildflowers, fire circles and spoon carving

Poudre canyon is amazing and beautiful! I look foward to going back sometime soon. There were sooooooo many wonderful plants, osha, valerian, pedicularis, scullcap, uva ursi, red root, aralia, baneberry, clematis, pulsatilla, clovers, dandelions, rose, geraniums, alders and willows and so much more. Of course I had to bring some things home, and in the works are yellow sweet clover tincture, scullcap tincture and just some nice fresh alfalfa for tea.






The best part about Poudre canyon was the Poudre River, which of course beackoned each day to be dunked in. The water was COLD, melting fresh off the snow up in the mountains, but oh so refreshing and revitalizing. A quick cold dunk in the morning, and then a nice sit on sun warmed rocks was a beautiful start to the days, which were equally beautifully finished around a campfire with friends, classmates, teachers, and songs and prayers.







We headed to the plains and stayed at Pawnee Buttes for a couple of nights. What should have been sweltering heat gave way to gentle, cool rains for our pilgrimage out to the buttes to leave our prayers. Yucca and prickly pear flowers abounded, and more campfires at night, which were especially fun because of a little spoon carving project. everyone got a small piece of wood and burned a small indentation in it with a hot coal. Then they were carved with knives and sandstone rocks made them smooth. We all came away with special handmade spoons. I'm especially proud of mine.





After spoon making, we graduated to cup/bowl burning! I'm in the middle of mine, and wont finish for a while, but i'll be sure to share pictures when it is done.

Energetics and Ecology: Vitalist Healing Systems and Plant Medicines

Recently, on one of the herbal discussion forums I visit online, we’ve had a discussion about the disconnect between traditional energetic herbal/health/healing systems of the “east,” specifically TCM and Ayurveda, and how “western” herbalists are more connected with the plants they are using, not just HOW to use the plants as medicine.

I can see how the argument could be made, because the west doesn’t have a well developed and centuries old system of energetic healing patterns with which healers can easily classify herbs and ailments. But I don’t think the lines fall along east and west, nor between highly developed energetic systems like Ayurveda and more free form energetics of western herbalists.

Of course there are lines of division, most of the TCM/acupuncture practioners in the U.S. and possibly many practioners trained at medical levels in China, are completely disconnected from the herbs they are using to heal people. But the same problem exists with “western” naturopaths. They can easily prescribe an herbal formula, and give their clients a capsule or tincture made by some company, without ever having seen the plant.

I think the true division lies somewhere in the difference between folk healers and modern “herbal doctors.” The truth is there is a system of energetics developed in the west, that originated somewhere in Persia with Avicenna, and brought to Rome by Galen. This line of herbal energetics was continuous in Europe up through Culpepper to the modern day medical herbalists. This tradition was brought to America with the colonists (English, German and Spanish alike) and was subsequently squelched with the rise of allopathic medicine and the outlawing of herbalism.

Most of us folk herbalists today, who are not trained in medical institutions or naturopathic schools, are left to discover the energetics of plants through our own experience, or by combing the literature of the previous centuries. Knowing the plants, as PLANTS, not just as medicines is part of the exploration and discovery process we all go through to develop our understanding of energetics. The grandmothers of rural China probably understand their healing plants in a similar fashion, by observation of the plants in their natural habitat, gardens, and acting in the body. Just because the Chinese developed a system of energetics thousands of years ago, doesn’t mean that the folk herbalists of China aren’t connected with the plants they are using. But the “doctors” practicing TCM at a medical level are similar to a naturopathic doctor in the U.S. and use their energetic system to prescribe an herbal formula or diagnose an illness without ever having seen or held the plant.

I’m making a lot of generalizations here, I know, but my point is that it isn’t the energetic system that disconnects a healer from his or her medicine plants, it is the model in which the healing is practiced. Even my teacher claims a good clinical herbalist doesn’t need to know botany to understand energetics and effectively heal people.

To some degree this is true.  But it doesn’t sit right with my being. The plants CANNOT be taken as SIMPLY substances that have certain effects in the body according to certain patterns. They are beings that demand respect and knowledge to be used effectively and sustainably. How can one truly understand a plant’s energetics without seeing where that plant grows, or how it adapts to the environment around it?  Plants that grow in or near water are going to be dramatically energetically different than a plant that grows in the arid windswept and frozen tundra or alpine regions. Just as a plant from the Sonoran Desert has different energetics than one from the Amazonian rainforest.        How can one value the medicine and strength of a rare or sensitive plant like Pulsatilla (Anemone) (to be used with a very light hand, in small doses) without ever having seen it growing in just the right conditions or environment? In Arizona, the Anemone only grows for a few weeks out of the year, and only when the rains are abundant. I could harvest it one year, and not see it again for several more because of the environmental conditions. I know that it is a medicine I use carefully, and sparingly, precisely because of its ecological conditions.

I hear countless stories of naturopaths prescribing endangered herbs, or thousands of pounds of American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) being shipped to China for use as a tonic with energetics different from that of Chinese ginseng, just because the “energetics” fit the condition. I certainly don’t discount the validity of energetics of plants and constitutions in healing work. It is a vital part of the process, but without first hand experience with a plant medicine, I don’t think you can be a truly holistic and effective healer.

I also don’t believe that a healer is ONLY a healer of human bodies. A true healer should be as much a healer of the human spirit as a healer of the environment of which we are a part. As a Vitalist, I see no separation between the health of the body and the health of spirit and mind. And I see no separation between the health of the spirit and mind of a human, and the health of the environment in which a human may reside. Anyone using a plant medicine without respect to its place in the environment, and the wholeness of the earth spirit/body is ultimately doing a disservice to all life. We, as human animals, intimately connected with the earth upon which we live, and depend on for air, water, food and spiritual sustenance cannot remain healthy in an unhealthy ecosystem (think of pesticides, unsustainable agriculture, and alienation from the healing energy of nature.) The disconnect in modern “herbal medicine” from the plants is a deeper problem. It is a reflection of our society’s deep estrangement from the earth and our natural state of interconnection and interdependence on the earth.

I honestly believe that if  “Traditional” Chinese medicine and Ayurveda have lost their connection with the Vitalist view of interdependent life, and connection with the healing plants  it is because of the adoption of a modern materialistic and selfish view of the world and healing. Before large scale commercial farming and harvesting of medicinal plants was common, most herbal “healers” had to go out and collect or cultivate their plant medicines themselves, and prepare and dispense herbal remedies themselves, weather they lived in the Appalachian Mountains, India, Iran or China. And most “healers” would have as deep and intimate understanding of the plants they used as the body they were healing, in both an ecological and energetic sense. The prevalence of the use of “this herb for that condition” is purely a materialistic view of the human body. We have an inner ecology which is deeply connected to our surrounding ecology, and a true healer will use energetics of plants, energetics of human constitutions and conditions and an understanding of inner and outer ecology of both plants and people to truly bring wellness and vitality back to the human race and our home, the earth.

Herbalism vs Vitalism

Herbalism and vitalism are NOT synonymous. There is a mistaken idea floating around our country, and perhaps beyond that anyone using 'natural" medicines and herbs is doing themselves a great deal of good, as opposed to using pharmacuetical drugs. Though this is partially true, I'd certainly prefer tumeric to prednisone, many herbalists, and herbal therapies are still very allopathic in nature.
A VItalist, wheather M.D., N.D. or herbalist supports life, and honors life. A vitalist does not use suppressive therapies to make symptoms go away. The symptoms the body manifests during illness are the body's defenses hard at work, restoring the body to health. Even the infamous inflammatory response, which is known best as one of the culprits in diseases such as arthritis, autoimmune disease down to the simple runny nose of the common cold is the body's defense system at work. Now I do know that inflammation can run too far and cause tissue damage, but immediate suppressive measures like prednisone, or slapping back every sniffle with echinacea may not be the best way to handle inflammation. Likewise guzzling aspirin to quell a fever is not a good choice either in the context of a vitalist LIFE supporting practice or therapy.

Often times suppressing symptoms can lead to more severe, prolonged outbreaks of similiar symptoms, or worse. It can show up in the body in different places and different ways. Supressing a fever tends to draw out the length of illnesses such as influenza, and recovery is much slower. It has been postulated that Chronic Fatigue symptom could possibly be the result of an incomplete recovery from a suppressed febrile illness, compounded by such things as poor diet, food allergies, and excessive stress.
A classmate of mine recounted her experience of throwing some goldenseal powder in a wound with staph, closing it up and going on her merry way. For 10 yrs hence she's been fighting with periodic outbreaks of skin rashes, staph infected boils and the like.

Suffice it to say, suppression of the symptoms of illness is really suppressing your body's best and usually successful attempts at restoring health. SHould you suppress a symptom of one kind or another, you'll likely deal with complications further down the line.

And what do I hear today? A very well known and respected commericial herbal formula company has just created an incredibly suppressive echinacea formula for the symptoms of the common cold. The lecturer spent an inordinate amount of time explaining how the symptoms we experience with the common cold occur AFTER the infection has been wiped out by our immune system, and our runny nose, excess mucous and scratchy throat are the body's way of "cleaning up" after the heightened immune response and removing remains of virus and white blood cells in the respiratory tissues. And what does their product claim to do?? It suppresses the body's natural inflammatory response to "stop in it's tracks" the symptoms of the cold. That means all the viral bits and white blood cells that your body is trying to remove through the flow of mucous is staying right where it is, inside your body.
This sounds like a recipie for disaster! How many suppressed colds will it take for the backed up waste to explode in an itchy rash, digestive trouble, or worse yet, autoimmune problems?

I know as well as anyone that the symptoms of a cold aren't really that fun, and can be downright uncomfortable, but one of the most important lessons as a vitalist is to remember that sometimes the best thing to do is to DO NOTHING. The body DOES know how to take care of itself if you support it with good nutrition, plenty of rest and relaxation and a positive attitude. Rather than suppressing your symptoms with this new fangled echinacea products standarized to this or that compound ( no different than taking some alka seltzer cold plus in the vitalist perspective) why not get some extra sleep, stay home from work, and drink lots of fluids and warm soups to keep that mucous flowing, and trust in the body's innate ability to heal itself.