Grape Hyacinth - Muscari armeniacum
Violets growing everywhere
Sage with a lovely purple tinge
Witch Hazel - Hamamelis sp.
Incredibly fragrant pink and white blooms
Moss and lichens
Preoccupation
March 21st, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink
Fang Feng
I have been preoccupied with school. It is my constant companion, my ball-and-chain, my ultimate teacher, my inspiration, the first thing I think about when I wake and the last thing on my mind at night. It is the most perfect and natural thing I could imagine doing with my life right now, a great joy and gift, but it is also very trying to coerce myself to study, and to sit in a chair for 25 hours a week when I’d rather be hiking in the woods.
There are a plethora of wonderful things about going to school for Oriental medicine and acupuncture. One of my *favorite* things is, of course, herbs. Although I don’t have quite the amount of leisure time to meet the Pacific Northwest herbs in their natural habitat as I’d wish, I am still surrounded by herbs at school. And for that I am so excited I am practically jumping out of my skin.
Gui Zhi
I will start with the basics. The number one way I am learning about herbs is through class. We have 4 terms (1 year) of single herbs, where we study the herbs grouped in categories. The categories of Chinese medicine are a brilliant organizational system based on what action the herbs have in the body. At first I was appalled by the idea – how could you group herbs by what they do? They are so varied and unique? I though about yarrow; it would probably be in the “Acrid, release the exterior” category, but it is so much more than a diaphoretic. It is a bitter digestive, moves blood and also stops bleeding, and it is an external remedy for wound care. It is complex in flavor and action and the thought of forcing it in a category was unthinkable. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the categories may be fixed, but the herbs withing them have no limits to their additional actions.
Taking a herbal class with almost weekly tests, learning somewhere between 300-350 herbs in a years time was equally appealing. Learning about herbs is indeed a life-long process, but forcing myself to swallow my pride and practice rote memorization to learn the herbs is not a bad first step to take. Its like doing scales before you learn how to play a song.
Dr. Liu, one of the teachers at school, said he had a Chinese doctor study with him. This doctor was out of school 8 years, which is upon first glance, a decent amount of time to gain experience with herbs. It was obvious that he was not near mastery, as Dr. Liu told him to go back and study the single herbs, especially their natures and flavors. What he told us reverberates in my head when I approach my wits end during a study session:
“You must study the herbs again and again to broaden your foundation upon which to build a high building. Everybody wants a new and different approach, but first you need the foundation of the old.”
Zi Su Zi
Dr. Liu taught an elective for two terms, called Herbal Combinations. The class looked at the interactions between herbal pairs, and how their flavors, natures (hot, cold, ect…) and actions changed when combined. Although it was a little over my head (or a lot, actually) at times, I still learned a ton, mostly through having my view of herbs both reduced and expanded. It all came down to the flavors, which is the reductionistic part, but the flavors as I previously understood them broadened.
This term I started formulas, which are organized similarly as the single herbs, in categories based on their action. Compared to the other classes, I feel like it is a difficult subject for me to grasp, mostly because of the shear quantity of information contained within the formulas. The coolest thing about formulas is that they exist. I am not sure if there is a comparable body of formulas in Western herbalism (granted, I have not dedicated my attention to discovering them). The Chinese formulas have been so carefully and elegantly formulated, meticulously documented and studied by generations of physicians since 220. The year 220. What were the Western herbal formulas from 220? Do we use them now? Did that knowledge get lost, or did it evolve into pharmaceuticals?
Emulsified Body Scrubs
January 19th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink
After much time and toil, I finally concocted the my ideal body scrub.
In the past, I simply mixed olive oil and sea salt and enjoyed it just fine as an invigorating, polishing, moisturizing scrub, but it left much to be desired. It was hard to clean up after, in the tub, on my linens and on my skin. I love, love, love olive oil as a moisturizing body oil, but as a scrub it behaves quite differently, mostly because of the sheer quantity needed to be a vehicle for the exfoliating salt. It doesn’t wash off, which is bad because the salt needs to come off, unless you can lounge about your bathroom all day until it is dried (I fantasize about days like that).
The first modification I tried was making a lotion based scrub, using Rosemary’s Perfect Cream recipe (an all-time favorite) and mixing in the salt. It was a slight improvement. It too felt greasy in such large quantities; as a lotion only a tiny drop will do the job, so anything more than a pea-size dab is overkill.
I was just about the give in and buy one, taking the walk of DIYer’s shame into the New Seasons’ body care isle. But then I came across a recipe on the inter-webs for an EMULSIFIED sugar scrub WITH SOAP and WATER added. Brilliant! The castile liquid soap would make it sudsy and easy to clean off. My enthusiasm waned as I read the recipe. It called for all sorts of crazy ingredients: parabens, steric acid (not terrible, but not something I keep in my supplies), preservatives, fragrance oils, chemical waxes, that sort of thing. I didn’t have them around and I wasn’t about to purchase them nor use ingredients I can’t pronounce.
A week or two of tweaking and experimenting with proportions and ingredients led to a body scrub I can get behind. I used to sauna and shed my skin on a regular basis in Minnesota. Where we live now, I have just a few minuet to shower before all the hot water disappears. As you can obviously see, I am suffering an exfoliating deficiency, and this body scrub is my gateway to the land of everyday luxuries.
Basic Proportions for Emulsified Body Scrub
- 29.5g Shea and cocoa butter
- 54g Apricot kernal Oil and herb infused olive oil
- 20g Candelilia Wax (a vegan, plant derived wax)
- 5g Emulsifying Wax (plant derived)
- 85g Water
- 85g Castile liquid soap (Dr. Bronner’s)
- 600g Salt or sugar, ground to almost fine.
Yeah, I used grams. I am a metric type of girl. have a postal scale, but you could use a fancy kitchen scale.
I also didn’t follow this recipe to the “T”. But here are the basic directions:
- Melt the solid butters (shea and cocoa) in the liquid oils by placing a glass jar (I use an old Pyrex measuring cup with a handle) in a hot water bath.
- When melted all the way, add about half of your waxes into the oils. Stir until melted.
- Remove oil jar from water, let cool for a few minuets on counter, then place in the fridge to cool for about 5-10 mins.
- Check the consistency of the oil after it has cooled a bit. It should be a little thick and opaque with a little bit of a meniscus on the top, but not solid like a salve. If it looks 100% like oil, put the jar back in the hot water bath and add more of your waxes, a bit at a time. I usually melt and cool a total of two times before I like it. If you add too much beeswax, it will be much harder, like lip balm, and make a waxy scrub or lotion. To dilute, add more oils and melt, cool until you like it.
- Pour oil into a mixing bowl. Stir a few times.
- Pout the water and soap into the bowl with the oil.
- Mix with a beater for 3-5 mins, until thick and creamy, with bubbles.
- Stir in a preservative, if you like. I choose freshly wilted rosemary, which is a great antioxidant. Vitamin E oil or rosemary oil (not essential oil) work well, too. A teaspoon will do.
- Pour in salt or sugar. Make sure it is ground finely, but not so fine that they are powdery. Stir until well absorbed.
- Mix in essential oils, herbs, whatever floats your boat. Start with just a couple of drop of essential oils, don’t overdo it.
- Bottle, label, use liberally and frequently for smooth skin. Store excess in the fridge to keep the oils from oxidizing prematurely. Keeps a little over a year.
Top left: Comfrey oil.
Top right: Chamomile oil.
Bottom left: Arnica oil.
Bottom right: St. John’s wort oil.
Start with quailty herb-infused oil. I like olive oil. Add skin-soothing herbs like calendula, chamomile, comfrey or plantain to a jar with a lid. Cover with oil, so the herbs are covered by at least two inches of oil. Let steep for 4-6 weeks, or longer. Shake the jar often, let it bask in the light on your window sill. Look inside to wipe out any mold that may be growing on the lid (happens once in a great while).
Top left: I don’t have the sunniest window, nor do I live in the sunniest town, so I helped my herbs steep a bit more by giving them a hot water bath in the crock pot. Use a warm setting for about an hour. Use a thermometer, the water should be under 110 degrees. I have lost more than a few batches by frying my herbs in the oil, which is what happens when the temp gets too high. Crunchy herbs are not good.
Top right: Strain the herbs, let sit for a few days, decant (pour off) the clear oil from the bottom of the jar goo. It’s not bad goo, it just changes the color and consistency of an oil. Save it for a salve.
Bottom left: Ingredients you may need.
Bottom right: Chunks of shea and cocoa butter floating in the liquid oils.
Top left: The oil is a little opaque from the wax, which becomes apparent after it is cooled a bit.
Top right: The water and soap is poured in, and is already getting a little creamy.
Bottom left: Whip it! Whip it good! One beater will do the job.
Bottom right: Smooth and creamy, light and fluffy after about 3-5 mins of beating.
Top left: Salt is a moisture-sucker. The salt scrub was much thicker, dryer, than the sugar scrub even though I used the same amount of each.
Top right: I poured some lovely green comfrey oil to thin it out a bit.
Bottom left: You can see that the salt scrub is still a bit dry compared to the sugar scrub.
Bottom right: Added even more oil; now it is better. Next time I will add less salt.
Experiment with herbs and oils for scent, visual appeal (aka beauty) and skin soothing effects. The options are endless!
Left top: Sugar scrub. Chopped rose petals and cardamom seeds. Just a litte bit of cardamom, it is pretty potent.
Right top: Salt scrub, with a tiny bit of ground juniper berries and orange essential oil. Very fresh smelling.
Left bottom: Rosemary mint salt scrub; chopped fresh rosemary and mint essential oils.
Right bottom: Sugar scrub, dried and ground chamomile and lavender mixed throughout. This one smells like a cup of tea, yummy!
Blue Cohosh ~ Caulophyllum thalictroides
November 14th, 2011 § 2 comments § permalink
After a bout of tossing and turning, I got out of bed and wandered to my book shelf. Matthew Wood’s Healing Wise – New World Plants edition called to me, so I picked it up and randomly opened it to the entry on blue cohosh, Caulophyllum thalictroides. As I read, I realized that I needed to learn much more about this Eastern US woodland herb in the Berberidaceae than I thought.
I have been a birth doula since 2006, and although I haven’t been a bustling, full-time doula, and I don’t use herbs during labor per se (which is kind of out of a doulas’ scope of practice anyways), I still consider herbs for pregnancy one of my favorite topics. From talking to midwives, herbalists and moms with personal experience, I had never heard a positive story about the popular black and blue cohosh combination used during the last few weeks of pregnancy to prepare the uterus for labor, or to induce labor after the due date. Comments include three accounts of allergic reactions, most accounts of nothing happening after taking it, and one women who thought that it induced labor too early and contributed to a long labor.
When people asked me about preparing for labor in the last few weeks of pregnancy, I would talk about positions, yoga, exercise, sexual activity, rest and relaxation, visualizations and affirmations, nutrition and hydration (including herbal teas, of course), but I never thought to mention an herbal partus perpatorus. This is mostly because of what I heard from herbalists and/or midwives like Aviva Jill Romm.
Romm, who is a midwife, mentions that blue cohosh is an herb contraindicated for use in pregnancy, and she says that
“Blue cohosh has been implicated in at least one and possibly several incidences of cardiac problems in newborns, including myocardial infarction (heart attack) when taken by pregnant mothers in the last three weeks of pregnancy, even when used in the generally recommended doses. Blue cohosh has not been associated in the medical literature with problems when used short-term during labor, but the potential for such problems cannot be entirely discounted. Again, the use of blue cohosh as a general late pregnancy tonic is not advisable, it should never be taken prior to three weeks before the due date, and its use is best left to qualified health professionals.”
Romm does mention the use of black and blue cohosh might be indicated to help promote uterine contractions when the due date has come and gone, and that together, the cohosh pair may be a better alternative to pitocin induction. She also says that blue cohosh can both relax and tone the uterus and that “the right balance of relaxation and tone is necessary for effective flavored. The use of many such herbs was taught to us by Native American women, who have long use herbs in late pregnancy for the purpose of easy birth.” Conflicting information, no?
On one hand, a few (or even just one) isolated incidences of cardiac problems make using this herb ‘not advisable’, on the other hand, a long-standing Native American use makes it sound not only perfectly safe, but something desirable.
The medical journal that Romm discusses is a 1998 issue of Journal of Pediatrics. She states that blue cohosh contains alkaloids and cardiac glycosides, which are well-known in the herbal and medical community to having effect on cardiac muscles. Romm also states that blue cohosh, black cohosh, partridgeberry, and spikenard were used as a partus preparators, or herbs that were taken towards the end of the pregnancy to prepare the body in uterus for labor. Romm states that partus preparators would be used “with the hope of ‘ensuring a speedy delivery’”. I do appreciate that Romm brings to light the question of why herbs would be used or needed to do what the body and your can do on its own.
After re-reading Romm’s stance on blue cohosh and feeling confused, I searched in my other herbals for more clarity, going first to one of my favorite herbalists, Rosemary Gladstar. She discusses the controversy around blue cohosh, and reminds us that the study was done of one isolated constituent of the plant (caulosaponin) being injected to lab animals in finding a narrowing of the arteries. From this, scientists said that blue cohosh may be responsible for heart damage.
Gladstar also gives a good account of the uses of blue cohosh, discussing it’s wonderful use in speeding up slow or drawn out, long labors where it is combined with black cohosh and pennyroyal. It should be thought of as a specific medicine, not as a tonic or food herb, and should not be used until the end of pregnancy. She quotes Dr. Shook, a physiomedicalist, who said,
“This exceedingly valuable herb is well called ‘woman’s best friend’ for the reason that it is much for a reliable and far less dangerous at expediting delivery in those cases were labor is slow and very painful. This is a very old Indian remedy. They believe it to be the best parturient in nature, and it was the habit of their women to drink the tea several weeks before labor”.
Uterine tonics can be used to treat pain since they regulate the muscular activity of the uterus, making them to be more regular, rhythmic and orderly. Australian NP and herbalist Ruth Tricky also puts in her two cents regarding the blue cohosh controversy and neonatal heart failure. In one case, the mother of took three times the prescribed amount of blue cohosh, in another, the dose was not named. It is hard to detect a toxic dose when the dose by these individuals is not the recommended dose.
Tricky mentions blue cohosh along with dang quai, false unicorn root and raspberry leaf in a class of uterine tonics which “initiate regular uterine contractions and regulate uterine tone” (319). The references that Tricky reviewed indicated that some constituents of blue cohosh seemed to increase the contraction force and rates while another alcoholic extract of the whole herb increased uterine tone that decreased the rate and amplitude contractions (no wonder, since and herb is more than the whole of its parts, or in this case, the whole of just a handful of parts). Uterine tonics like these can treat hemorrhage because they are able to improve weak muscle activity of the uterus, but also relax excessive spasm. Specifically, Tricky (239) says that blue cohosh is use:
“…when spasm seems to be localized in the cervix, resulting in acute crampy pain was very little flow. Women with this pain pattern usually experience relief once the flow becomes established”.
Let’s not forget that blue cohosh is a muscle relaxant. If it’s good for the uterus, it can be good for other muscles with all of their tendoness attachments. Matthew Wood gives many other uses and indications for the herb including amenorrhea of young women, chronic uterine disorders, particularly of those with broken-down constitutions, insomnia and nervousness, rheumatic conditions for spasmodic muscular pain, sexual debility, joint pain and more. It is quite useful, though, for bringing on suppressed menstruation, relieving cramps and menstrual pain, especially when considering its anti-spasmodic nature. Woods says blue cohosh as a “menstrual remedy, it can remove congestion of the uterus from muscular and vascular constriction and tension often accompanied by malposition of the uterus”.
Blue cohosh is a great example of not boxing in an herb and based on its most popular use. Perhaps blue cohosh should be used as a tonic herb rather than an herb only to induce strong contractions at the end of pregnancy. Also we cannot judge the safety of an herb on a few isolated, yet incomplete, reports or studies. Single isolated constituents are interesting to study, and they can contribute to a the chemical and biological activity of the constituent, but their findings cannot be seamlessly extrapolated over the use of the whole herb.
If we use the herb when indicated, if we understand it’s personality, actions and historical usage, if we use the smallest dose necessary, and consider using it as a tonic rather than a strong single-purpose uses, if we take the few studies with a grain of salt and combine with other herbs to produce a synergistic individually made formula, than this and other much maligned herbs could be used safely and indeed very effectively.
——
Tricky, Ruth. Women, Hormones, and the Menstrual Cycle.
Gladstar, Rosemary. Herbal Healing for Women.
Wood, Matthew. Healing Wise – New World Plants.
Romm, Jill Aviva.The Natural Pregnancy Book: Herbs, Nutrition, and Other Holistic Choices.