The Earthwise Herbal Repertory

by Matthew Wood

  In the previous section we learned how important it is to observe the condition of the skin or periphery of the body. The surface shows the evidence of disease hidden further within; it also needs to be restored to healthy functioning in order to maintain internal health. The mucous membranes are analogous to the dermis, and we must learn to think about them in the same way and to visualize their conditions, even if we cannot see them directly. The Chinese physicians, ever-so-wise, understood this relationship. The “Triple Heater” maintains both the health of the surface (wei qi) and the health of the linings of the internal cavities. This is paired with the “Heart Protector,” which guards the heart against the shock of stressors external and internal. As we learned in our discussion of the autonomic nervous system and the regulation of the surface, powerful emotions use the same pathways in the periphery (blush, sweat, shiver) as environmental stressors—the heart is susceptible to both.

  We can easily observe the mucosa in the mouth and tongue, and when we do we frequently find one or more of the tissue state imbalances. The mucosa are prone to all six of them (except tension), and thus we speak of refrigerants for heat, stimulants for cold, mucilages to moisten dryness, bitters to cleanse and purge dampness, and contractants or astringents for toning tissue that is too relaxed.

  General: • Acacia (inflamed and irritable) • Achillea (inflamed; see peeled or feathered tongue) • ALTHAEA (inflamed and dry) • Arctostaphylos (damp, phlegmatic, atonic; bacteria) • Capsicum (atonic, inactive) • Collinsonia (congested, relaxed, irritable) • Commiphora myrrha (pale and relaxed) • Cornus florida (chronic, debilitated, relaxed) • Epilobium (gastrointestinal mucosa; profuse discharges, bacterial) • Erigeron (profuse discharges; bacterial) • Geranium (damp, atonic) • HYDRASTIS (stimulating bitter; feeble circulation, irritation, catarrh) • Linum (irritable hot mucosa; flaxseed oil) • Mahonia (dry; tumid with profuse secretion) • Monarda fistulosa (cool clammy skin, yeasty mucosa) • Myrica cerifera (laxity, catarrh, feeble venous flow, poor peripheral circulation) • NYMPHAEA (yeasty) • Phytolacca (atonic, congested) • Rheum (hot, inflamed, dry; poor persistalsis) • Rubus canadensis (atonic) • Rubus fructicosus (damp, atonic) • Rumex crispus (hot, inflamed, damp, atonic, yeasty) • Stillingia (red, glistening, and swollen; scanty secretions) • TABEBUIA (candida, mucosal problems) • Taraxacum (inflamed; see geographical tongue and dark red tongue body) • Tilia (inner bark is extensively used as a mucilage in France; flowers for autoimmune heat) • ULMUS (inflamed and irritable).

  4. Chronic Conditions

  Stages of Life

  The first category below is offered somewhat tentatively, though I have personally seen Gnaphalium succeed in congenital cases. Traditional Chinese Medicine has remedies to offer here. Congenital weakness is called jing deficiency; jing is used to describe the life-essence or primal configuration. Another approach is found in some traditions of American Indian medicine; “Rabbit Medicine” is associated with congenital deficiency because of the weakness and vulnerability of this animal.

  An important theory in modern TCM attributes the ill effects of aging largely to blood stagnation and increasing imbalances between blood and qi. The latter is considered the “commander of blood,” meaning that blood circulation depends on qi. If circulation is not sufficient, blood will “congeal.” This is considered the source of the joint and muscle pains of aging. Therefore, treating blood stagnation and circulation is of utmost importance in gerontology. Attention to circulation, of course, is appropriate in every stage of life.

  Congenital Weakness: • Amygdalus (sensitive constitution; brain, spine, marrow tonic) • Aralia nudicaulis (Cree “rabbit root”—Rogers) • GNAPHALIUM (Cherokee “rabbit tobacco”; congenital problems or immune weakness from birth or first year of life) • Osmunda (bone weakness) • Rubus canadensis (used in pregnancy for hundreds of years to strengthen the mother and baby; often confirmed) • Urtica (used in pregnancy to strengthen mother and baby).

  Infants and Children: • Aquilegia canadensis, A. vulgaris (bedwetting; flower essence or leaf tincture) • Agrimonia (acting out) • Allium cepa (baby fretful, nervous, sleepless, colicky; tea, for the lactating mother) • Aloe vera (diaper rash; apply locally) • Amygdalus (delicate, sensitive; insomnia) • Anagallis (rage) • Anethum (colic in babies; seed) • Betonica (fear) • Calendula (fear of the dark) • CHAMOMILLA (teething; constitutional, humoral, temperamental upset of babies; convulsions; in olive oil for cradle cap; “for babies of all ages”—Wood) • Cetraria (congenital weakness) • Chelidonium (scared by cartoons and images; 1-drop dose, as needed) • CICHORIUM (selfish, childish) • Chondrus (congenital weakness) • CRATAEGUS (attention deficient, loss of focus) • Eschscholzia (sleeplessness) • Dioscorea (teething spasms) • Epilobium (balances and helps to master will; wild, angry, overactive children are sedated, and shy children are strengthened; flower essence) • Filipendula (diarrhea; nervous, irritable, hyperactive children) • Foeniculum (infantile colic; seed) • Gentiana (fear) • GNAPHALIUM (congenital weakness; childhood asthma) • Humulus (delicate, sensitive children; bedwetting) • HYDRASTIS (1-drop doses to stimulate the ANS; diluted doses for sore mouth in baby; constipation in infants; skin rash, chafing, rawness—brilliant cures) • HYPERICUM (fear of the dark, night terrors; “Here Nature gives the St. John’s Wort”—Parton) • JUGLANS spp. (children constipated, worrying about parental separation; black walnut, royal walnut, or butternut flower essence or herb; several successful cases) • Linaria (headstrong, willful children) • Mahonia (malnutrition due to poor anabolism, digestion; constipation, poor elimination, catabolism; dry constitution) • Nepeta (infants with colic, constipation and fever; bullying in children) • Nigella (hyperactivity) • Paeonia spp. (convulsions) • Panax quinquefolius (too nervous to play) • Papaver somnifera (fear from bad images, cartoons; constipation; seed tea) • Passiflora (atonic conditions; restlessness and insomnia in infants and the elderly) • Populus gileadensis (respiratory infection) • Rhamnus cathartica (syrup of berries with ginger, allspice, and honey or sugar; “considered one of the finest laxative remedies for children”—Tierra) • RICINIS (“for infants it is the safest”—Jones) • Rubus canadensis (childhood diarrhea) • Rubus fruticosus (childhood diarrhea) • Rosa (delicate constitution, low immunity; born by cesarean) • SAMBUCUS (pale, with blue swelling across nose; red, dry irritated cheeks—“the great infant remedy”—Wood) • Scrophularia (external; cradle cap) • Solidago (“for late development—brings them up to par”—Wolff) • Tilia (hyperactivity) • VERBASCUM (bedwetting) • Verbena (convulsions after fever) • Viburnum opulus (infantile enuresis) • Viola (dry skin, swollen glands, damp palms; flabby children) • WITHANIA (low weight gain, anemia, dark circles under the eyes).

  Teenagers/Puberty/Young Adults: • Agrimonia (oppositional) • Amygdalus (thin, delicate, low immunity, pale skin, sensitivity) • Cimicifuga (girls brooding, never well since puberty) • Humulus (flat affect) • LACTUCA (cystic acne of teens and others; apathetic, indifferent, with negative thoughts) • LILIUM (cystic acne, in girls) • Nepeta (bullying, bullied) • Oplopanax (increases sexual confidence, establishes healthy sexual boundaries, increases desire) • PHYTOLACCA (in puberty, during glandular growth; apathetic, lazy, unclean; purple spot on tongue) • PULSATILLA (girls never well since puberty; young women with lack of confidence, male dependence, dependence on friends’ opinions) • Quercus (sees skeletons, skulls in mind—one case only) • Vitex (calms down boys who are preoccupied by sex; regulates girls’ cycles; inappropriate sexual acting-out).

  Middle Age: • Capsicum (poorly exercised, flabby) • Chimaphila (weight gain, water retention) • Crataegus (loss of imagination in middle age) • Juglans cinerea (constipation) • Monarda fistulosa (loss of passion) • Rhus tox. (homeopathic; boredom with work, relationship, life) • Silphium integrifolium (“make a new man out of an old one”—Howard; renewed vision of life—Schnell) • Vitex (perimenopausal irregularity, heavy bleeding, hot
flashes, night sweats; lack of spiciness and libido later in life).

  Senescence (Physical and Mental): • Acorus (clarity of thought, articulation; digestion, arthritis) • Amygdalus (sensitive constitution) • Artemisia absinthium (a dose of absinth once in a while helps muscular soreness) • Artemisia vulgaris (moxibustion on cold, arthritic joints and muscles; or external application of herb) • BETONICA (mental, physical, digestive; tremendous for the elderly) • CALCIUM PHOSPHATE (homeopathic; osteoporosis) • Camellia sinensis (tea) • CAPSICUM (atonic debility of the digestive organs in senescence; weak peripheral circulation) • CENTELLA (circulation, memory, connective tissue) • Cetraria (weakness) • Chondrus • Cnicus (reduced circulation, memory) • Crataegus (heart, circulation) • Eleutherococcus (adrenal exhaustion, circles under the eyes) • Ganoderma • Gingko (cerebral circulation) • Hypericum (discouraged, depressed, and in pain) • Juglans cinerea (constipation, bowels; sluggish gall bladder; bark, if available, but the tree has lately been decimated by disease) • Juniperus (constipation from weakness of muscles) • Leonurus (rounded spine, osteoporosis; stiff joints; blood-mover in older women) • Lepidium • Lycopodium (homeopathic; “withered, dry, full of gas”—Boericke) • Nigella (oil or fresh-crushed seeds; forgetfulness, senility; combine with myrrh) • Panax quinquefolius (drying of skin, mucosa, joints) • PANAX GINSENG • Polygonum multiflorum • Rhodiola • Rheum (constipation in the elderly) • RIBES NIGRUM (many parts of this plant are used in several traditions) • ROSMARINUS (“low blood,” dark around ankles; improves cerebral and peripheral circulation) • Rubia (blood stagnation; blue/gray tongue) • SALVIA (decreased hormones; withering, drying, wrinkling; weak tendons; blood stagnation; blue/grey tongue, complexion) • Sinapis alba, S. nigra (delicate, sensitive, frail, elderly; easily catches cold and comes down with chronic respiratory problems; indigestion in old alcoholics) • Turnera (loss of spirits, libido; depression in elders—Donahue) • WITHANIA (adaptogen).

  Concentration, Memory (Lack of, due to senescence): See “Mind, Emotions, Will.”

  Exhaustion, Low Energy, Fatigue

  Requests for help with “low energy” are extremely common. These problems can arise from chronic infection, endocrine imbalances, malnutrition, nervous exhaustion, blood deficiency, excessive menstrual bleeding, sleeplessness, and many other causes. In energetic terms, people may be suffering from tissue depression, stagnation, atrophy, or lack of tone (relaxation).

  According to the E-C-R cycle, a person is first overstimulated (E—excitation), then tensed up (C—constriction), then overly relaxed (R—relaxation). If this happens in excess the latter becomes the chronic, and we get exhaustion, debility, fatigue, and weakness. Or, by another route, constriction does not allow circulation into the tissues, impeding nutrition and resulting in atrophy.

  So the tissue states associated with this section are relaxation, atropy, depression, and probably also stagnation. The tissue states that first occur in excess—excitation and tension (constriction)—should be treated before the exhaustion phase sets in, and sometimes still need to be treated even after it has arrived. These people have too much energy at first, but then they have too little. A small section on these remedies has been included below.

  Debility, Exhaustion, Weakness: • ALETRIS (in women; poor digestion, atrophy, infertility) • Alnus serrulata (wasting) • Apocynum cannabinum (watery infiltration of the tissues with weak circulation and general dropsy) • ARALIA RACEMOSA (adrenal exhaustion; dark circles under eyes; exhaustion in women) • ARCTIUM (adrenal burnout) • Arnica (from overactivity) • AVENA (exhaustion after fever; brain fog; sex and drug addiction; easily stimulated) • BAPTISIA (chronic fatigue syndrome; never well since glandular fever) • Berberis • Borago • Calendula (bone-weary feeling) • Cannabis (restlessness of nervous exhaustion) • Capsicum (feeble pulse and suppressed sweat) • Centaurium (lack of appetite and “digestive fire”) • Centella (fatigue of mind and body) • Chamomilla (sitz bath, oil) • Chelidonium (with irregular bowels; beat-up feeling) • Chelone glabra (post-febrile liver problems) • Chimaphila (debility with glandular swelling) • Chondrus (nutritive) • CINNAMOMUM SPP. (weak, cold, with low immunity, hypoglycemia) • Cola (debilitated, atonic, asthenic, dyspneic; CNS depression) • Commiphora myrrha • Crataegus (lassitude and fatigue from overwork, overexcitement) • ELEUTHEROCOCCUS (adrenal exhaustion; dark circles under eyes; jet lag) • Equisetum (general weakness) • Euonymus (prostration with nerve irritation) • Ganoderma (sympathetic excess and adrenal burnout) • GENTIANA (malnutrition, discouragement, debility) • Gingko • LAVANDULA (nervous exhaustion; in bath, to increase resistance to stress) • Leonurus (nervous debility; in elderly; irritation and unrest; lumbar pain and uneasiness) • Lycopus (post-febrile exhaustion with rapid pulse) • Medicago • Melissa (nervous exhaustion) • Menispermum canadensis • Olea • Oplopanax (asthenia; frequent sense of chill in warm room; fingers cold, appetite poor—M. Moore) • Osmunda (convalescence after exhausting diseases) • Panax ginseng (shortness of breath, after illness; collapse after severe fluid loss) • Panax quinquefolius (with loss of appetite, dryness) • Polygonum multiflorum (deep exhaustion and indifference; overworked, jaded) • Populus tremuloides (emaciation) • Pulsatilla (menstrual irregularity; emotional lability) • Rhodiola • Rumex crispus (feeble recuperative power) • Sabal serrulata (nutritive) • Scutellaria (nervous prostration) • Solidago (tired feet) • Trigonella (convalescent nutritive) • Tsuga canadensis (Canadian hemlock oil; apply externally over cold kidneys and back) • Tussilago (tired feet) • Ulmus (nutritive) • Urtica (tea) • Zanthoxylum (low nerve force; low dose) • ZINGIBERIS.

  Sluggishness, Heavy Feeling: • Arctium (tired feet; internal abscess) • Armoracia • Carbo vegetabilis (homeopathic; sluggish, lazy, fat, with tendency to chronicity of complaints) • Capsicum (out of shape, needs exercise; pulse loose, unequal) • Gentiana • Phytolacca • Plantago (internal abscess) • Prunus serotina (weight on the heart, literally or metaphorically) • Sinapis • Solidago (tired feet) • Tussilago (tired feet).

  Internal Abscess, Abscessed Tooth Causing Chronic Fatigue (patient should be on antibiotics): • Arctium • Aristolochia (small or homeopathic dosage) • Ceanothus • Cnicus (fever, chills, exhaustion) • Plantago (put next to the tooth) • Solidago • Taraxacum.

  Relaxation (Lack of Tone): • Achillea (with free discharge) • Aesculus hip. • Astragalus (lax muscular tone) • Cinchona (weakness from loss of fluids, atonic muscles) • Erigeron (with profuse discharges) • Euphrasia (with profuse, watery discharges and acute inflammation) • Geranium maculatum (profuse, debilitating discharges) • Hypericum • Myrica (flabby, hypersecretion, catarrh) • Rhus spp. (free secretions, kidney anemia) • Rumex crispus (debility, from easily disordered homeostasis of fluids; ulceration, chronic skin disorders).

  Irritability (Easily Overstimulated): • Amygdalus • Avena • Chamomilla • Crataegus • Lycopus • Melissa • Passiflora • Primula • Rosa • Scutellaria (mentally overstimulated).

  Kundalini, Acute Crisis: • Peanut butter (or heavy, fatty meat; liberally and regularly, until condition subsides—Ryan).

  Kundalini, Chronic Crisis: The homeopathic nightshades (Atropa belladonna, Hyoscyamus, Stramonium) and some venomous remedies (Lachesis, Tarantula, etc.).

  FORMULARY

  Rosa (hips, 5 parts) with Fragaria (2 parts), Tilia (2 parts), Thymus vulgaris (1 part). This “Breakfast Tea” tonic is a “prophylactic for healthy people.” Les Moore 2002, 59. A cooling remedy with a circulatory stimulant (thyme).

  Environmental and Dietary Toxins

  In cases of acute poisoning, call the poison control center. An effective method for immediate removal of toxins or poisons is oil-pulling. This method used in Ayurvedic medicine places a dietary oil under the tongue, and the oil picks up toxins from the bloodstream. It is to be spit out after 15–20 minutes, or when it starts to taste bad. This can be done for either immediate poisoning or long-ter
m toxicity. I have seen it stop anaphylaxis within minutes.

  Poisoning: • Carthamus (oil-pulling to remove toxins) • ECHINACEA (“all diseases of blood poisoning, whether showing a great or small amount of cell destruction”; “powerful antidote to snakebites and poisonous insects”—Massinger) • Eupatorium purpureum (inhalation of poisonous vapors) • Fomes officinalis (an ancient and historical poison antidote) • Helianthus (oil, for oil-pulling) • LARREA (toxic headache, mucus congestion, sinus/respiratory troubles) • Veratrum (upper and lower respiratory).

  Damp, Hot Weather: • Calendula (rash between legs, diaper rash) • GELSEMIUM (lethargy of mind and body due to damp, hot weather; this homeopathic remedy is the only well-attested remedy I know for this) • Lonicera (traditional, for exhaustion from damp, hot weather in the South—needs confirmation).

  Drug Detox: • Ambrosia (ragweed; swelling of nasal turbinates from coke-sniffing) • AVENA (drug addiction—opiates, cocaine, cannabis, tranquilizers, sedatives, alcohol, coffee, tobacco, anti-depressants) • CENTELLA (cocaine) • Chamomilla (antidote to coffee) • ELEUTHEROCOCCUS • Eschscholzia (anxiety, tension, during withdrawal) • GERANIUM (restores lost part of self) • Hydrastis (cannabis; masks detection in tests) • Larrea (cocaine, speed, amphetamines) • OCIMUM (detoxification from cannabis; very effective; masks detection in tests) • Passiflora • Schisandra • Scutellaria (withdrawal) • SILYBUM (liver damage from alcohol and other drugs) • Zingiberis (craving and withdrawal from benzodiazepines).