Braiding Sweetgrass

Braiding Sweetgrass is a New York Times bestseller by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I got this book just before New Years and have been savouring it. It was published in 2013 and I’ve had it on my to be read list ever since. I saw it in the bookstore and I had to pounce. Usually I mow down a book in a matter of days. This one I have chosen to take my time with – reading a chapter at a time. This collection of essays is particularly suited to this way of reading because it is a slow burn.

Braiding Sweetgrass speaks to me on a deep level. Frequently when I look at books to read as an herbalist they fall into the “if this, then that” category. Long lists of herbs, their scientific names, and what properties they might have. There is without question a place for those books but my soul needs more. We need books that examine the why. We need philosophers and Ms. Kimmerer is one I can relate to. Part of what speaks to me is the blend of science and traditional wisdom. I struggle daily to reconcile the two. Seeing the tension between them so beautifully resolved gives me hope. Ms. Kimmerer teaches at SUNY and founded the Centre for Native Peoples and the Environment. Reading last night about her students and their cattail adventures I was trying to figure out how I could study with her. If, as the days lengthen, the forest is whispering to you – this book is for you.

“The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness. Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.”

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Pain of endometriosis

The pain of endometriosis

The pain of endometriosis is twofold. Women with this condition frequently suffer from infertility. On top of this – women often experience crippling pelvic pain. For those unfamiliar with the condition, endometriosis is when tissue that ordinarily lines the uterus (endometrium) grows outside the uterus on other pelvic organs like the fallopian tubes or ovaries. This tissue, even though it is outside the uterus, responds to the hormonal changes of a woman’s cycle and thickens and bleeds just as the endometrium does during the menstrual cycle. Despite this condition being common it can take years for women to obtain a diagnosis.

I talked with a woman in tears because she was dealing with endometriosis. She was desperate to have a baby and endometriosis was a major contributing factor to the fertility problems that she and her partner were experiencing. She asked me about vaginal steaming and if I thought it was something she should try. I remember taking a deep breath. Foaming at the mouth about misinformation from behind a screen is one thing. To crush someone’s hopes when they are barely hanging on is another, however, needs must. I told her the same thing I am writing here. When I was talking with her I was a lot softer about it.

Bullshit Alert

Vaginal steaming is bullshit. Bullshit. It is not ancient. It is not traditional. Even if it were – who cares? There are no health benefits. It does not do anything except expose you to the opportunity to get burned. Now that is sacred yoni energy!

That was sarcasm.

One more time – vaginal steaming is bullshit!

You vagina is beautiful. It IS sacred.

It does not need to be “cleaned”.

The natural ph of the vagina exists to keep happy the mix of bacteria that live there. Ever suffered a yeast infection? When the microbiome of the vagina is out of whack that’s what happens. The majority of the strains in the vagina are lactobacilli. Think of them as the hot house orchids of the yoni. They are finicky. They like what they like. Assuming you could get steam from the exterior of your body to the inside of your vagina (a big assumption) heating up your vagina is only likely to change their happy home into a neighbourhood they do not like.

The bad news is that mainstream interventions for endometriosis are not fantastically effective and typically the condition is something that is chronic over time. There are herb and lifestyle interventions that can help with managing the condition. Not that any health condition is simple to deal with but endometriosis is definitely one that is complex.

Causes

immune system

estrogen/progesterone balance

inflammation

exposure to xenoestrogens

diet/nutritional status

emotion/psychology

genetic component

Typically, they stage endometriosis based on the severity, 1 being least severe and 4 being the most severe.

I want to provide some concrete suggestions of things you can incorporate. I always want people to live the healthiest life they can enjoy (hat tip to Yoni Freedhoff for that fantastic phrase) – not turn themselves into pretzels while they try every single intervention out there. This is a brief overview, and not, therefore, a comprehensive treatment plan.

The pain of endometriosis is usually dealt with by any of our excellent antispasmodic herbs. Black cohosh, cramp bark, passionflower are all great antispasmodic herbs. For extreme pain there are herbs like Jamaican dogwood, pulsatilla, and corydalis.

Herbal infusions – a tonic and nourishing method of taking herbs. Not suited for every herb that is out there but in cases of endometriosis alternating red clover and oatstraw infusions could be helpful. Why do this? Briefly – red clover contains phytosterols and can lower your overall level of estrogen. Oat straw is mineral rich (similarly to nettle) and provides support for the nervous system.

Dietary Changes

Eliminate caffeine

Cut out alcohol

No added sugars

Reduce dairy

Reduce/eliminate red meat

3 servings a week of wild salmon or other high quality cold-water fish

2 tablespoons ground flax seed – daily. This is also to work to balance hormones. In a perfect world I would prefer if everyone ground their own at home. Grind just enough for 2-3 days at a time.

Supplements

Magnesium – if you are not already taking a mag supplement add one in. 400 mg a day. I like magnesium glycinate or bis-glycinate for absorption. Taking it a night works for most people and as it also helps with sleep you might as well get the benefit by taking it before bed.

NAC – there is evidence that it is beneficial for women with endometriosis. 600 mg 3 times a day.

Birth control – can help some women. There are the usual risks associated with birth control – depending on age/health history. Does help manage the condition while preserving fertility.

Herbal Approaches

Chaste tree berry – great for estrogen/progesterone balance. Tincture would be preferred. Some women find that chaste tree makes them cranky. With a capitol CRANKY. If this happens to you, first try to ride it out, if that is no good – discontinue use.

Love your liver – the liver is involved in so much of hormone metabolism that anything you do to improve liver function will be beneficial. Milk thistle, dandelion root, toadflax and turtlehead are all liver loving herbs.

Immune tonics – adaptogens that will improve the immune system over time.

A nervine herb combo that contains St. John’s Wort can help with stress/emotional balance. Aside from helping with the nervous system the St. John’s Wort also acts to modulate estrogen levels. If you are taking any pharmaceuticals, then St. John’s Wort is out. I have read a study (in vivo – rats) where a blend of sea buckthorn/St. John’s Wort oil applied topically was shown to reduce endometrial implants.

Cramp bark – the antispasmodic action of the bark is helpful for the pain associated with endometriosis. Pain associated with endometriosis is without a doubt something many women with this condition struggle with. The fruit of cramp bark is not ordinarily used in herbalism (usually use the bark) but another study (in vivo – rats) has shown that a tincture of the berries was also effective in shrinking endometrial implants. I am eager for next year’s growing season to being as I am going to make cramp bark berry tincture a priority to experiment with.

Other ideas

Reduce body fat – this will help lower estrogen. A realistic approach is to try to lose 5% of your current weight. Then maintain that loss, then reset a new goal to lose 5% of your new lower weight.

Adopt an anti-inflammatory lifestyle. There is so much that could fall under this. Eliminate sources of inflammation for example – bad/poor quality fats, chronic cardio. Add anti-inflammatory powerhouses – leafy greens, berries, turmeric, resveratrol.

Endometriosis is a serious health condition. The causes are still not completely understood. Women deserve to know the truth. Women do not need their time wasted by ineffective, harmful, and bogus ideas like vaginal steaming. If you want to have a womb affirming ritual – great. Go for it. Go to a Red Tent. But know that empowered women are women armed with facts and information.

Stress and the immune system.

To successfully fight off any infection we need a healthy immune system. Stress is something that has a direct impact on how well our immune system works. My husband left yesterday on a business trip to China. It would be dishonest of me to say I am not thinking about him and the coronavirus that has come out of Wuhan. The Chinese government has quarantined Wuhan and a number of other cities. People have died. The media is doing a poor job of providing perspective and the world is watching and waiting. We lived in downtown Toronto during the Sars outbreaks and it was an interesting experience in media literacy. Watching the nightly news reports one would have thought we were all goldfish gasping for air on the counter. In other words, out of our bowl and minutes from death.

Meanwhile there have been deaths from the flu in Canada. More than 800 people have been hospitalized because of severe flu symptoms. There are no thermal scanners at the entrances to malls. Have you gotten your flu shot?

Fear is as big a threat to our health as any microbe. Just as contagious and harder to treat. Today I saw an ad for a selection of tinctures to fight the coronavirus. It was $125. Also it was imo profiteering. I also saw a news report that called the 2019 novel coronavirus a Chinese virus. A virus does not have a nationality so the side dish of racism is not helpful. Now is the time to practice critical thinking. There is a lot – a lot – of disinformation out there.

Instead of handwringing and scrolling for breaking news about stuff that is beyond our control let’s instead focus on how we can support our immunity.

As an example, it is much like doing regular maintenance on our car to keep. Prevention is how we keep it running smooth. Looking after our health on a day to day basis leaves us with an immune system that is functioning as well as it can. This doesn’t mean we won’t ever get sick, on the other hand, it does improve our odds of contracting viral/bacterial/fungal infections and our chances of effectively fighting the infection if we do succumb.

Stress

Lack of sleep

Crappy diet

All of the above can negatively impact the functioning of our immune system and as a result leave us more vulnerable to infection. These are things we need to address daily. Today I want to focus on stress.

Fight or flight

There are few of us today who have not heard of fight or flight. Stress is the 21^st century disease that we are all suffering from. Some stress is good for us. The problem is when we get overwhelmed. Our body has a very specific and structured response to stress. Developed over years of evolution to protect us from bad things. When we are stressed the body becomes focused on short term survival. It pumps out corticosteroids. We focus on living through the next 5 minutes. The body is not looking ahead to the next 5 days. Stress hormones lower the number of lymphocytes we have. There are the white blood cells that fight infection. Lower numbers of these cells mean that our immune system is less effective in its defense of us.

Stress

Stress also negatively affects us because it can make us fall back on unhealthy coping methods.

Enjoying an occasional glass of wine over dinner is not a problem. Drinking a 6 pack nightly to deal with your life is not healthy. The alcohol supresses your immune system.

When we are stressed, we may decide to skip out on our trip to the gym. Regular physical activity improves immune function and increases anti-viral and antibacterial activity of our immune cells.

We may slide into the McDonalds drive-through instead of heading home to make a home cooked meal. When our diet is lacking in fruits and vegetables, we may lack antioxidants like vitamin c, vitamin e and beta-carotenes. Stress also shuts down our digestive tract. Fight or flight remember? When our digestive tract is not working it doesn’t matter how good the meals we eat are. We cannot effectively access the nutrition within them.

Fighting stress with nervines

For stress there are many different techniques to mitigate. Yoga, relaxation response, meditation, counselling, and others. When looking into our botanical medicine cabinet for support we want to focus on the group of herbs known as nervines. These are herbs that have a calming and restorative action on the nervous system. Part of how nervines work is that they gently move us back to a state where the parasympathetic nervous system is in control.

We also want to differentiate between those herbs whose primary action is on the body itself and those whose activity is on a person’s state of mind. Nervines are not usually sedating (individual reactions may vary) and act to uplift our mood. They also are fast acting. When stressed we want to feel better as soon as possible. A good herbal tea blend made up of nervines can make you feel better almost immediately. To ensure a significant result on stress and the immune system we would need more sustained treatment.

Putting together your team

I sometimes waffle between the idea of pointing people in the direction of a single great herb (lemon balm) or working with a group of herbs. I usually come down on the side of a team. It is kind of like having the opportunity to call in the entire group of Superfriends vs just calling on Wonder Woman.

A team gives you access to a whole bunch of talents that may not exist in a single superhero. I also like knowing that even though the ends might be the same the means by which an herb acts to achieve an action may be different. Differing mechanisms of action increases our chances of getting the result we want.

When putting together the formula we want a group of nervines, usually 2-3. Every herbalist has their special herb friends. I have a friend who likes to use oat seed in her stress formulas. Me, I am more meh when it comes to oat seed because I once had a cranky reaction to oat seed. As a result, I seldom use it. On the other hand I would never put together a stress formula without lemon balm. Both of us are correct.

Herbs for stress and the immune system

Catnip Wild Bergamot Motherwort Chamomile. Lemon Balm St. John’s Wort

Ordinarily I include in all my tincture formulas a catalyst. For a nervine formula I might consider skipping the catalyst. The whole purpose of a catalyst is to stimulate. We are wanting to calm – not stimulate. If I did want to use a catalyst I would probably use rosemary because it is itself a nervine and it also improves blood flow to the brain. At about 10% of the whole it would uplift without being too stimulating.

All my tinctures are made at a 1:5 ratio so when I speak of blending together a formula I am talking about using tinctures that are that strength. There are commercial blends out there that are effective. So, select your 3 herbs. We want to make a formula that is tonic and does as little as possible. Sounds strange I know. Would you do 100 pushups to build up your biceps if 1 pushup would get the job done? If we are using the rosemary at 10% that leaves us with 90% of formula left to work with. 30% for each of the nervines works well. If I wasn’t using rosemary I would possibly divide the formula into thirds or I might put 1 of the herbs in the formula slightly higher, say 40 %, and then I could put the other 2 herbs in at 30% each.

Start out with a dose of 2 droppers and take the dose 3-4 times day. I encourage my clients to assess for themselves how well they feel a tincture is working. Many people find a cup of tea to be a calming and relaxing ritual. The tincture can be put into a cup of tea and drunk with the tea. The dose could be gradually increased to as much 4 droppers. If at 4 droppers 4 times a day a person still felt stressed I would change the formula. Stress and the immune system is not a linkage we often think of. When we think immune system we often think immune stimulants or antimicribials. That’s great short term. Long term day to day, though, we can’t be at our best when we are overwhelmed.

All herbs can have contraindications. Certain populations (children, the elderly, pregnant and nursing people) may not be suited to certain herbs. Consult with an experienced herbalist to ensure that the herbs you are working with are right for you.

Rosemary is for more than cooking.

Rosemary is for more than cooking. It is a potent medicinal herb. I remember some rosemary I saw in a community garden. I know we have community gardens here in Ottawa. In Vancouver it seems that they are more common. This particular garden was smack dab in the middle of downtown. Imagine a large community garden. Flourishing right at the corner of Bank and Laurier! There were many rosemary plants making a home in this garden.

It was pouring down rain at the time I took this picture.

Here in Ottawa (zone5a) a rosemary would never survive the winter. There are lots of plants that we can grow here with ease. Many more that we can baby to ensure their survival. As rosemary is native to the Mediterranean (zone 9) it is, in other words, not likely to make it. I suppose I should check back to see if these rosemary plants survive the full Vancouver (zone 8) winter. I still remember seeing a rosemary in North Carolina. It was as large as a car.

Memory and Cognition

Remembering rosemary makes for a useful mnemonic. Rosemary has a centuries old association with memory and cognition. Thomas More wrote that he let rosemary run rampant in his garden “because it is the herb sacred to remembrance.” Then in Hamlet the doomed Ophelia tells us the same – “there’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance.” Each time I learn something new about this plant’s medicinal uses I feel like people are not remembering rosemary. I love it as a cooking herb myself – this marinade is officially for pork tenderloin. One of my favorites and rosemary is part of the yum. But rosemary is so much more. Rosemary is for more than cooking.

Name Change

The Latin name of rosemary has changed. DNA examination has revealed that rosemary is a member of the sage genus (Salvia). So – not just your Uncle getting crazy results from 23 and me. 2 words make up botanical names. The first word is the genus or larger plant group that the plant belongs to. The second name refers to the specific species. Species names are often descriptive of some aspect of the plant. The first letter of a botanical name is always capitalized. A botanical name is written in italics. These names are botanical currency.

Rosmarinus officinalis is the old botanical name. Officinalis translates to “of the officina” which was the room in a monastery/apothecary where medicines were kept. After botanists decide to change the name of a plant it can take years for the change to filter out into common usage. DNA research on rosemary took place in 2017 but it was really only recently that the new name became more favoured. It helps to keep track because when dealing with older references the old Latin name will still be in use. I’m still calling black cohosh Cimicifuga racemosa although I know it now goes by Actaea racemosa.

Ancient Uses

Egyptians used rosemary in funeral rituals. To repel bad dreams – place the herb under the pillow. To keep witches away, plant rosemary around the house. The plant was burned, along with juniper, to reduce the risk of infection in sick rooms. Rosemary is one of the herbs traditionally included in thieves vinegar to combat plague. Students used to pin sprigs of the herb to their hats to help them with their exams. In Elizabethan times to carry or wear rosemary was a sign of faithfulness.

Whole plant holism

My herbalism does not believe in a reductive approach to herbs. An herb’s healing is not one thing. I can’t pull apart a chocolate cake to get to the single ingredient that makes it taste so good. The healing ability of an herb can’t be reduced to a single constituent. When I know about all of an herb’s constituents it increases my knowledge, making me a more effective herbalist.

Constituents

Far from a complete overview. Any single plants contains thousands of constituents. Rosemary contains rosmarinic acid. This is the antioxidant/anti-inflammatory aspect. Rosmarinic acid is not very soluble in water. Firstly, to focus on those qualities I would want to use a tincture and not a tea. Secondly, when adding herbs to a formula, I might look for other herbs that also contain rosmarinic acid. To use rosemary for pain relief, however, I would focus on the 1, 8-cineole in rosemary. I might want to use it as a tub tea. Unlike rosmarinic acid – 1, 8-cineole is very soluble in water. Oh wait. Some folks (not everyone) with asthma respond poorly to 1, 8-cineole. Does my client suffer from asthma? This is the beauty of herbalism. Simple and yet complex.

Harvesting

Nothing beats fresh rosemary and we have all seen old, tired, dried out rosemary in a sad spice bottle. For any medicinal herb – we want the best. Here in Ottawa we can treat it like an annual. I admit I have bought myself a plant and butchered it to make tincture. The seeds can be hard to germinate and cuttings are a much easier way to grow the plant. Remember these plants come from the Mediterranean. In other words, they like full sun and can handle the heat. To capture the volatile oils of the plant we want to harvest it while it is in flower. The flower calyces contain much of the aromatic compounds. These flowers appear early spring to early summer. Harvest early in the flowering period the top 25-30% of the plant. A 40% alcohol 1:5 tincture would be effective.

Liniment

For sore muscles we often forget how good a liniment can be. We don’t always have time to soak in the tub. I like to make my liniments with vodka although you can use rubbing alcohol. Very easy. Grab a jar and about as much fresh rosemary as will fill the jar two thirds full. Rough chop the rosemary and add it to the jar. Fill with vodka. Let sit for a month. Strain. Use whenever Crossfit has gotten the best of you.

If you do use rubbing alcohol instead of vodka make sure you label the bottle well – not for internal use. You might even want to potentize your liniment with a few drops of rosemary essential oil. I have seen some references calling for the use of rosemary essential oil on the skin undiluted. Why this is a foolish idea could be it’s very own blog post. Let me say only – do not use essential oils undiluted.

I haven’t covered all of the medicinal qualities rosemary has. Just remember, rosemary is for more than cooking!

Self-care and herbalism at New Year’s.

Self-care and herbalism seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly. All part of that amorphous wellness we are all searching for. Lately I have been thinking about what true self-care is. This passage below inspired me.

“Self-care is often a very unbeautiful thing.
It is making a spreadsheet of your debt and enforcing a morning routine and cooking yourself healthy meals and no longer just running from your problems and calling the distraction a solution.
It is often doing the ugliest thing that you have to do, like sweat through another workout or tell a toxic friend that you don’t want to see them anymore or get a second job so you can have a savings account or figure out a way to accept yourself so that you’re not constantly exhausted from trying to be everything, all the time and then needing to take deliberate, mandated breaks from living to do basic things like drop some oil into a bath and read Marie Claire and turn your phone off for the day.
A world in which self-care has to be such a trendy topic is a world that is sick. Self-care should not be something we resort to because we are so absolutely exhausted that we need some reprieve from our own relentless internal pressure.
True self care is not salt baths and chocolate cake, it is making the choice to build a life you don’t need to regularly escape from.
And that often takes doing the thing you least want to do.
It often means looking your failures and disappointments square in the eye and re-strategizing. It is not satiating your immediate desires. It is letting go. It is choosing new. It is disappointing some people. It is making sacrifices for others. It is living a way that other people won’t, so maybe you can live in a way that other people ca’t.
It is letting yourself be normal. Regular. Unexceptional. It is sometimes having a dirty kitchen and deciding your ultimate goal in life isn’t going to be abs and keeping up with your fake friends. It is deciding how much of your anxiety comes from not actualizing your latent potential, and how much comes from the way you were trained to think before you even knew what was happening.
If you find yourself having to regularly indulge in consumer self-care, it’s because you are disconnected from actual self-care, which has very little to do with “treating yourself” and a whole lot to do with parenting yourself and making choices for your long term wellness.
It is no longer using your hectic and unreasonable life as justification for self-sabotage in the form of liquor and procrastination. It is learning how to stop trying to “fix yourself” and start trying to take care of yourself…and maybe finding that taking care lovingly attends to a lot of the problems you were trying to fix in the first place.
It means being the hero of your life, not the victim. It means rewiring what you have until your everyday life isn’t something you need therapy to recover from. It is no longer choosing a life that looks good over a life that feels good. It is giving the hell up on some goals so you can care about others. It is being honest even if that means you aren’t universally liked. It is meeting your own needs so you aren’t anxious and dependent on other people.
It is becoming the person you know you want and are meant to be. Someone who knows that salt baths and chocolate cake are ways to enjoy life – not escape from it.”

Brianna Wiest

Holidays

Holidays are time out of time. A chance for space and if you are lucky a break from the usual routine. I read this passage before leaving home to celebrate the holidays. I have been thinking about this passage since I read it. It is easy to link together self-care and herbalism. Let herbs heal and nourish your body. Yes, absolutely. But. I am longing for deeper healing – for my clients and for myself.

The line “making the choice to build a life you don’t need to regularly escape from.” is something I can’t stop thinking about.

I’ve been lucky enough that our whole family could get together for the holidays. This is on the west coast. There is no snow. I see eagles on the daily.

Local newscasters think plus 7 is cold. Ha!

The added extra bonus is spending time with an old friend. We ate dinner together the first night I arrived. A restaurant called Chongking. I really can’t explain how delicious it was. My husband and my friend frequently have dinner there and I have often made fun of them for always picking the same restaurant. No more.

Prickly Pear Cactus

Xerophytes are plants that have altered their physical structure to survive. The prickly pear cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica) is a perfect example. It can survive years of drought on the water it collects and stores from a single rainfall.

At dinner with my friend I felt like I was a cactus. He was long needed rain. I spent the entire dinner talking to him and only him. We were 4 people but I really only had time for him.

In light of the first passage about making a life you love I’ve been contemplating what my reaction to my friend means about the state of my life overall. Obviously I love the guy. We’ve often had the opportunity to connect over the years (despite the miles between us) and I never before had this reaction. I may be obtuse sometimes but even I can hear the bells ringing.

New Year’s Herbalism

Right now it’s the end of the year. A time to look both backwards and forwards. A time for resolutions and clear eyed assessment. You might be thinking what this has to do with herbalism? My herbalism is about whole people. What point is there in my helping you heal your body if your heart is in despair? I want to work with you so that every facet of your being is in harmony. That is the true self-care and herbalism match I am looking for.

Folks of a certain age will remember an advertising campaign with the tag line “Calgon take me away.”

If you are thinking something similar more often than not – I would invite you to take a moment as the year ends to really reflect. It is certain that we all want a life we love.

Think about the what. The how can come later.

For myself, I am still enjoying the mists of Vancouver. But I am preparing myself for our return home when I will be thinking about my prickly pear moment and what changes I want to make. For you and yours I wish you a vision of what you want your life to be and the courage to make it happen.

Happy New Year!