by Matthew Wood
Fever with Cough: • Achillea (flushed face, fever, bronchitis; rapid, nonresistant pulse) • Aconitum (homeopathic; incipient) • Arctium (excess or lack of perspiration) • Asclepias tuberosa (dry skin) • Atropa belladonna (homeopathic; contracted pupils) • Gelsemium (spasmodic, contracted pupils; external only) • Hypericum (chronic inflammation of lungs) • LOBELIA (half of tongue red, or half-coated; high fever; asthma and bronchitis; best to combine with other agents) • Lilium (stuck mucus, with fever) • Lycium (hectic or low-grade fever with fluid loss, wheezing) • MONARDA FISTULOSA (clammy, cold sweat; bronchitis and bronchial asthma) • Polygala senega (bronchopneumonia; dry, hot cough, becoming chronic; with thick mucus at bottom of lungs) • PROPOLIS (hot, raw bronchitis) • SAMBUCUS (young children and old age; bluish complexion) • SENECIO AUREUS (lung fever).
Dry, Irritable: • ALTHAEA (irritating cough with catarrh; root tea or syrup) • Anemopsis (dry, moist, persistent—M. Moore) • ARALIA RACEMOSA (dry, irritative laryngeal cough of allergies, from dry air in winter, wood smoke, night cough) • ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA (skin dry; after pneumonia, with difficult expectoration; pleurisy) • Betonica (weak cough reflexes) • BIDENS (moistens respiratory mucosa; antiviral—Kress, Buhner) • Bryonia (homeopathic; pleurisy; pain on movement) • Capsicum (with dry mouth) • Castanea (whooping cough/pertussis; to treat and protect other children in the family; American or European chestnut leaf) • Cetraria (recurring irritation; weakness in children and the elderly) • Cimicifuga (whooping cough; stuffy feeling in chest) • Codonopsis (dry, thin, weak, short of breath) • Commiphora myrrha (stimulant; dry, hot; in elderly) • DROSERA (irritable, persistent, explosive) • Eriodictyon (after influenza) • Ganoderma • Glycyrrhiza • Grindelia (dry, harsh; tenacious dry mucus, difficult to raise) • Guaiacum (sub-acute; moist, stubborn, recurrent) • Helianthus (irritative bronchial cough; seed or oil) • HYSSOPUS (dry skin and lungs; chronic, dried-out) • Inula • Lactuca (tightness of chest muscles, asthma without mucus) • Linum (fresh-ground seed poultice on chest) • Lobelia (spasm of the vagus with heartburn and nausea; worse from cigarette smoke) • Lycopus • Marrubium (incipient cough; hard cough with little phlegm) • Paeonia (whooping cough) • Panax quinquefolius (dried-out after febrile lung condition) • PIMPINELLA (harsh, dry, barking “like Cerberus”—Fernie) • Platanus occidentalis (whooping cough; twigs, bark, or heartwood) • Plantago (cough as if a fiber is caught in the lung; dry, irritable) • Polygala senega • Polygonatum (dry throat, thirst, cough due to dry lungs) • Pulmonaria (dry, hacking, night cough; exhaustion) • Pulsatilla • PRUNUS SEROTINA (irritative, continuous; harsh, rasping, hoarse; sore under sternum; irregular or oppressed pulse; incomplete circulation to periphery, histaminic irritation) • Pulmonaria (children’s dry cough) • Rumex (dry, irritable cough) • Schisandra • Squilla (scant, tenacious mucus) • Symphytum (worn-down hairs of lungs, ulceration from chemicals, heat; under sternum) • THYMUS (dry, irritated membranes, coughing jags; whooping cough) • Trifolium (irritable, drippy mucosa with cough, hacking) • Trigonella (dry, chesty) • Tussilago (hot, dry cough; infusion of leaves to avoid extracting pyrrolizidines—Weiss) • Ulmus (weak respiration, unable to breathe deeply) • USNEA • Valeriana (when going to asleep) • VERBASCUM (harsh, racking cough; dry membranes, worn-down hairs of lungs; nervous) • Verbena (tense, irritable cough, dried out membranes; whooping cough) • VIOLA.
Humid, Mucoid, Congested: • Angelica (congestion with influenzal symptoms; old bronchial infections with mucus) • Asclepias (pleuritic stitches from old infections; lungs dry above, wet below; pneumonia, congestive heart failure) • Capsicum • Ceanothus (runny mucus) • Cimicifuga • Eriodictyon (difficult to expel mucus; weak) • Equisetum • EUCALYPTUS (inhalation for congestion) • Eupatorium perfoliatum (lack of cough reflex) • Geum urbanum (avens; catarrhal) • Grindelia (bronchitis; clingy, dried-out mucus; scanty secretion) • Hydrastis (thick, yellow mucus) • INULA (green mucus; acute bronchitis or ripened bronchial discharge; post-nasal drip, digestive upset from swallowing mucus) • Lilium (dried-out mucus stuck in periphery of bronchial tree; with active fever) • Ligusticum • Linum (irritable mucosa) • Lomatium (hard mucus) • MARRUBIUM (congestion, wheezing, full chest, poor expectoration) • Pinus strobus (green, viscid, saplike mucus, difficult to raise) • Plantago (draws out mucus) • Polygala senega (bronchopneumonia) • Polygonum aviculare (knotgrass tea) • Populus tremuloides • Rubus canadensis (runny nose, allergies) • Sambucus (children; croup and viral infection; waking at night) • Solidago (allergies, old infections, mucus) • Squilla (scanty secretion) • Symplocarpus • Tussilago (inflamed, sensitive mucus membranes; infusion of leaves prevents uptake of pyrrolizidines—Weiss) • Urtica (congestion) • Verbascum (bronchorrhea) • Veronica (mucolytic; hot, thick mucus).
Spasmodic, Paroxysmal (Repetitive): • Agrimonia (“tortured to capture the breath,” chaotic breathing; ribs bruised) • Amygdalus (dry, red tongue) • Anethum • Asarum canadense (whooping cough) • ASTER (quivery tension in lungs, aggravated by temp/humidity changes). • CASTANEA • Caulophyllum (strangling, turns blue, hawking and vomiting) • Chamomilla (poultice on chest) • Cimicifuga (chest tightness; whooping cough) • Drosera (whooping cough) • Grindelia (whooping cough) • Lactuca (tight chest) • Linum (fresh-ground seed poultice on chest) • LOBELIA (twisted tubes) • Marrubium (whooping cough, adhesive mucus, wheezing) • Mentha piperita • Monarda punctata (whooping cough) • PAEONIA (whooping cough) • Passiflora • Petasites • Pimpinella (barking cough) • Potentilla tormentilla (root) • Primula (rattling) • Pulmonaria (whooping cough) • SAMBUCUS (croup, suffocative night cough) • SPONGIA TOSTA (homeopathic; croup) • Stillingia • Symplocarpus • THYMUS (convulsive, whooping cough; soothing for bronchitis in the elderly) • Trifolium (drippy, sputtery; whooping cough) • Tussilago • Verbena (dried-out, spasmodic) • Viola.
Whooping Cough (Pertussis): • Agrimonia • Asafoetida • Asarum • CASTANEA (for prevention in other children in the family; sometimes curative; leaves) • Caulophyllum • Cimicifuga (5 drops in sweetened water) • DROSERA • Eryngium • Grindelia • Hieracium pilosella • Lobelia • Marrubium • Monarda punctata • PAEONIA • Petasites • Platanus • Prunus serotina • Pulmonaria • Symplocarpus • THYMUS (“treatment of choice”—Weiss) • TRIFOLIUM (“only four failures in fifty cases”—Jones) • Verbena.
Croup: • Allium sativa • Lobelia • SAMBUCUS • SPONGIA TOSTA (homeopathic) • TRIFOLIUM.
Debilitated, Exhausted, or Absent: • Allium cepa (syrup on chest to bring up phlegm) • Aralia racemosa (circles under eyes) • Asarum canadense (chronic debilitated cough) • Eriodictyon (exhausted) • EUPATORIUM PERFOLIATUM (absence of cough with congestion; very sore, holds chest when coughing) • Grindelia (emphysema; adhesive mucus, difficult to expectorate) • Marrubium (non-productive) • Osmunda (chronic cough with much perspiration) • Polygala senega (rattling, wheezing, deep, hoarse; bronchopneumonia) • Pulmonaria • Squilla (emphysema) • THYMUS (chronic).
Chronic: • ASTER (quivery tension in lungs) • Aralia racemosa (irritation in throat from dry air in the winter, allergies) • Asarum canadense (debilitated) • Eriodictyon (exhausted) • Grindelia • Helianthus (irritative; seed) • Inula (infection, green mucus) • Lactuca (from tightness of chest muscles) • Osmunda (dry) • Panax quinquefolius (dry) • Tussilago • Viola (dry).
Cilia (hairs on mucosa of the lungs): • Symphytum (damage from chemicals, bleach) • Tussilago (damage from chemicals, chronic cough, lung weakness) • Verbascum (damage from dryness and chronic coughing).
Smoker’s Cough: • Althaea • Vaccinium (gargle).
Inhalation Therapy (for coughs): • Chamomilla • EUCALYPTUS (oil) • Majorana • Mentha piperita (oil) • Pinus (oil) • Thymus.
Mucus
Hemoptysis (bloody expectoration): • Achillea • Bidens • Drosera • Erigeron • Lilium longiflorum (blood mixed with mucus, brown in color) • Lycopus
• Verbascum.
Mucus: • Achillea (red blood in mucus) • Agrimonia (profuse, thick, sticky) • Allium cepa (small dose for clear, excoriating mucus from nose; onion syrup or pack; to increase circulation to lungs and bring up mucus in pneumonia) • Allium sativa (adherent mucus in larger tubes) • Althaea (bronchial catarrh with digestive weakness; leaf infusion) • Althaea (catarrh with irritating cough; syrup of the root) • Anemopsis (thick white/opaque mucus; chronic conditions) • Angelica • CASTANEA • Ceanothus (clear, runny) • Cetraria (nourishing and moistening; dried mucus) • Chondrus (dried-out) • Cinnamomum zeylanicum (bloody) • Cnicus (bitter, to increase secretion) • Eriodictyon (abundant, easily expectorated mucus) • Eupatorium perfoliatum (congestion but no cough; atonic cough of senescence) • Equisetum • Glechoma (respiratory catarrh) • Glycyrrhiza (bronchial catarrh) • Grindelia (adhesive, thick, dry) • Hieracium pilosella • Illicium (maxillary sinus congestion) • Inula (yellow to green; swallows mucus, which upsets stomach) • Lilium longiflorum (brown mucus from admixture of blood; dried-out and lodged in the periphery) • Lomatium (hard) • Myrica (thick, excessive; poor expulsion) • Nymphaea (white mucus like pastry starch) • Petroselinum (bronchial catarrh) • Pimpinella (dried mucus with harsh, barking cough) • Pinus (green, adhesive, viscid, sap-like) • Plantago • Pulmonaria • Rhus spp. (clear mucin, free secretion) • Rubus canadensis (clear mucin, free secretion) • Thymus serpyllum • Trigonella • Tussilago • Veronica.
FORMULARY
Althaea—with Marrubium, Glycyrrhiza, Tussilago, and Lobelia as an adjuvant (irritative or spasmodic cough). BHP 1983, 22–3. Compare to the following:
Althaea—with Glechoma, Glycyrrhiza, Tussilago, and Sambucus—“Dr. Christopher’s Cough and Bronchitis Formula” (to resolve phlegm). Les Moore 2002, 27.
Angelica—with Asclepias, Inula (traditional American formula for bronchitis).
Asarum—with Caulophyllum (whooping cough).
Asclepias—with Lobelia, Piscidia, Glycerin (spasmodic, irritative cough).
Chamomilla—with Thymus and Majorana (inhalation therapy for coughs).
Drosera—with Thymus (whooping cough).
Lobelia—combine with Cimicifuga, Verbascum, or Zingiberis to reduce capricious, erratic action of this plant. Add to other formulas “to send the herbs to the right place” (paraphrasing Dr. Christopher).
Lycopus—with Prunus serotina, Bidens, Asclepias (hot, irritable, hemorrhagic lung condition). BHP 1983, 136. The original base of this formula was Lycopus and Trillium, used for bleeding in mid-nineteenth century America. I would always use Achillea for hemorrhage.
Marrubium—with Hyssopus (bronchial catarrh). BHP 1983, 117.
Marrubium—with Inula, Glechoma, Tussilago, Glycyrrhiza (cough, bronchitis). BHP 1983, 150.
Marrubium—with Pimpinella, Tussilago, Pulmonaria, Lobelia, or Capsicum (bronchitis). BHP 1983, 160, 173.
Marrubium—with Verbascum, Tussilago, Hieracium pilosella, Thymus (whooping cough). Modified from BHP 1983, 159.
Marrubium—with Zingiberis, Thymus (whooping cough). Modified from BHP 1983, 138.
Pimpinella—with Althaea, Verbascum, and Tussilago—“Weiss’ Cough Formula” (dry cough). Les Moore 2002, 37.
Thymus—with Castanea, Grindelia, Marrubium, Prunus serotina, Paeonia (whooping cough). Modified from BHP 1983, 53.
Thymus serpyllum—with Prunus serotina, Marrubium, Tussilago, Lobelia (whooping cough). BHP 1983, 212.
Tussilago—with Marrubium, Verbascum, Lobelia (spasmodic, acute and chronic bronchitis). BHP 1983, 227.
NEW ENGLAND ASTER (ASTER NOVAE-ANGLIAE)
This herb was introduced into herbalism by Jim MacDonald, White Lake, Michigan. The beautiful appearance and aroma caught his attention, and he has found it to be an outstanding respiratory remedy. I was unable to include it in the repertory, so I asked Jim to share his notes with us from herbcraft.org. “Tincture of the fresh flowering tops of New England aster is indicated as a respiratory remedy. It is uniquely clearing, relaxing and decongesting to the head & lungs. This effect is readily apparent when taking a bit of the tincture; the effects aren’t subtle and can be easily perceived. It seems to act very effectively to break up stuffy lungs and (to a lesser extent) sinus congestion. It’s not especially astringent so it doesn’t stop a drippy nose as well as, say, goldenrod. It is, however, uniquely antispasmodic for the lung tissue; it relaxes and dilates the respiratory passages. I have repeatedly (though of course not always) seen aster tincture provide a lasting (and seemingly cumulative) effect upon asthma; lessening dependence on an inhaler. As a respiratory relaxant, I think of New England aster when tension is ‘quivery’ and irritable, whether such a state is acute or chronic. It’s less valuable in treating severe spasm states than it is in preventing them. I picture quivery, shivery, shuddery lungs which, if they shudder just enough, trigger coughing or asthma or whatever baleful respiratory woe the afflicted is predisposed to.”
Herbalist Sean Donahue writes, “A tincture made from the flowering tops can immediately relieve muscle constriction around the airways. I tend to use about 15 drops in acute situations—most effective when the is tightness around the airway that signals that an attack is imminent but spasms have not begun.”
The following would be Jim MacDonald’s additions to The Earthwise Herbal Repertory for Aster novae-angliae: Asthma: • Aster (restorative, frequently profound). Bronchitis (Dry, Irritable): • ASTER (spasmodic and irritative). Cough (Spasmodic, Paroxysmal, Repetitive): • ASTER (quivery tension in lungs, aggravated by temp/humidity changes). Cough (Chronic): • ASTER (quivery tension in lungs).
Blood
The blood is the major transportation system for materials in the body. It carries glucose, lipids, proteins, and minerals from the wall of the small intestine into the interior of the organism. It also carries oxygen from the lungs to the capillary bed. As chemical forces pull the oxygen off the hemoglobin, out of the capillaries, and into the extracellular matrix, carbon dioxide bonds with the hemoglobin and is carried back with water (the other waste product produced by cellular respiration) to the lungs.
The arterial blood moves under its own power, as mentioned in the section on the heart. Researcher Gerald Pollack has determined why: the water in the blood occurs in a special form, H3O2, which carries a negative charge and is attracted into and through the capillaries. In addition, the arterial blood is saltier than the waters flowing out of the saturated matrix around the cells, so it is attracted to these “headwaters” to renew the salt/water balance found throughout the body. Here it discharges its load of oxygen and glucose, picking up the carbon dioxide and water that are the waste products of cellular respiration.
The journey back to the lungs, to discharge the CO2 and water, now begins in the venous circulation. The veins do not possess the neuromuscular sheaths that the arteries do, and the blood can pool up in them if the capillary bed is congested. Though rid of oxygen and less dynamic in movement, “there is nothing exhausted or dead about the venous blood,” Phyllis Light told me in a lengthy conversation we had about the “forgotten side” of the circulation. Venous blood picks up the glucose, minerals, and digested matter from the small intestine and delivers them to the liver. It drops off some of the sugar, which may be stored by the liver, carrying the rest to the arterial blood, from whence it is brought to the capillary bed around the body. It supplies blood sugar to the lungs, which are fed “in reverse” by a vein. The “blue blood” carries away the waste products of cellular respiration, which would flood and kill us without their removal.
The liver also manufactures lipids (cholesterol) and blood proteins, which regulate the blood, making it thicker or thinner, or coagulating it as needed. Traveling further, the venous blood passes the hypothalamus, where its contents are assessed. The hypothalamus, like a nurse, pulls blood for testing from a vein, not an artery. The venous blood also receives the important red, white, and platelet cells produced in the bone marrow.
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The kidneys adjust salt and water levels by removing some sodium; the venous blood released from the kidneys is therefore more bland. This fine-tuning of salt levels maintains blood pressure by enlarging or reducing the size of the extracellular matrix. It is actually sodium that pulls the water from the blood in the capillary bed into the matrix or the glomerulus of the kidneys. Higher blood-sodium levels cause the blood to retain more water. (This might seem counterintuitive, since a salty mouth feels dry; yet it craves water and we drink more—taking in more water to balance the salt). Higher sodium causes higher blood pressure as the matrix plumps up and shrinks the available space for blood to circulate.
The thickening and thinning of the blood is a very important aspect of our metabolism. It is controlled by several factors. Low salt and water levels need adjustment to “plump up” the amount and consistency of the blood. Prostaglandins control the thickening or thinning of the blood through changes in lipid levels. They also control the arachadonic acid cascade that regulates the fever mechanism and influence corticosteroids, so the thickening and thinning of the blood is tied in with a lot of mechanisms regulating heat, fever, immunity, and self-healing. Thicker blood is more insulative, as oil insulates better than water. In biomedicine blood is thinned with aspirin (among other things) which act on the prostaglandins regulating blood and fever. This was the custome in Southern folk medicine, a long time before modern medicine came along. Tulip poplar bark (Liriodendron) has salicylates like aspirin that thin the blood.