2011 July/August Newsletter
Welcome!
Thanks for reading this issue of the Herbal Path e-newsletter! We are excited to bring you these articles — for your interest and enjoyment! Please let us know if there are topics you would like to see featured in an upcoming issue.
Click article titles to jump to individual articles, or just scroll down.
Author Spotlight: Successful Natural Medicine
An Herbalist’s Perspective: Herbal Conferences in June 2011
My Herbal Journey and Back Home Again
Food For Thought
Q&A: What’s your favorite LOCAL product or company?
You can sign up to receive the newsletter via email at herbalpath.com.
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Successful Natural Medicine
by Guy Daniels, MS, MH
There are generally three groups of people when it comes to natural medicine. On one side of the equation, you have those who buy into natural and preventative medicine fully, who don’t need any convincing of its benefits. On the other end of the spectrum, you have the jelly bean and doughnut eating soda drinkers out there who are wed to the drug and surgery concept of medicine. They roll the dice hoping for when they do become ill, there exists an all-knowing doctor at the end of their HMO rainbow with some Rx “magic in a bottle”. There’s little I can say or do to persuade these folks.
My goal here is to try to reach the masses in the middle. Natural medicine is not easy business. It requires an enormous knowledge base, experience, an open and curious but exacting and scrutinizing mind, and a commitment to patients which goes beyond an appointment. Whatever your ill, it is not “in your head”. There is a biochemical explanation for everything that goes on in your body. Although biochemistry in an imposing concept, that’s how your body works, and there’s no way around it.
I want your first, second, or other foray into natural medicine to be a success. I don’t want you to walk away from help because your attempts weren’t optimal. However, you have got to realize that you are the most active participant in your own healthcare. This isn’t the old philosophy of continue your old habits, and take a drug to deal with symptoms or misguided labs. This should be a holistic approach. You can’t walk into a health food store, buy something off the shelf, and expect miracles in short order. Without a doubt, supplementation is a large part of natural medicine, but your diet can be equally important. Adding to this list, we have your genes, any toxin exposure, pathogens, exercise, your emotional status, and the simple aspects of aging. It is these things, these factors that form the base of a disease pyramid that cause inflammation, oxidation, glycation, metabolic inadequacies, and hormonal decline.
As a case in point, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease many years ago. I could have gone the drug and surgery pathway, but I resisted it, because in my heart, I knew it was wrong, and there was an explanation for my ills. I tried numerous types of natural approaches, ranging from zero to some success. I could have given in. Only after years of research, trial, and error did I develop a flawless approach to Crohn’s disease. Many years later, drug and surgery free, I have no issues managing my Crohn’s, and I successfully treat IBD for my patients. I take several supplements, but if not for my dietary changes, my results would be dramatically reduced.
I don’t expect the average person to be an expert in all things. I do want you to know that natural medicine does work when practiced properly. You know there is something to it, otherwise you wouldn’t be on this email list. In my book, “Reduce Your Healthcare Costs Through Natural Medicine” I go through great lengths to illustrate for you the VAST SUMS of clinical data that back up natural medicine. With that said, I’ll leave you with a question to ponder. If natural medicine was as useless as the many naysayers claim, then why is it that numerous drug and multinational companies are developing “drugs” from natural medicines by either altering their chemical structure or not, buying up nutraceutical companies, bringing their own OTC products to the market, manufacturing raw ingredients for the natural medicine market, while at the same time numerous MDs are changing how they practice as they understand the value of integrative medicine?
Guy Daniels MS MH (masters in nutrition, master herbalist) is the owner of Seacoast Natural Medicine, LLC in Hampton, NH and the author of ‘Reduce Your Healthcare Costs Through Natural Medicine.’ Guy is a consultant, practitioner, lecturer, and writer in the field of natural medicine with frequent appearances on radio programs throughout the country, whose book has garnered acclaim from other experts nationally.
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Herbal Conferences in June 2011
by Greg McCrone, RPh/Herbalist
The past couple years I’ve had to stay a little closer to home due to my mother’s deteriorating health. With mom being cared for and in a safe place I signed up for two herbal conferences in the month of June. The first was Gaia’s “Medicines from the Earth” in North Carolina and the second in late June was Rosemary Gladstar’s “International Herb Symposium” at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. At each gathering I have been encouraged over the years, by my friends and colleagues, to lead bird walks in the surrounding forests. Attending these gatherings is like a family reunion. Spending time with herbalists and plant lovers who take very seriously the care and shepherding of Mother Earth is a religion. The following is just a little excerpt of some of the highlights of each of these trips.
After a 3-year absence from Gaia’s “Medicines from the Earth” conference, returning to Black Mountain North Carolina the first week of June was like a pilgrimage. I flew down a day early and drove from Charlotte to Lake Lure and stopped at a rock shop to visit with an old friend who sells amazing minerals, fossils, carved figures and mortar and pestles. The temperature was in the 90s and I took a walk out back along the river listening for birds and sat relaxing in the humid shade. An Alder Flycatcher was patrolling the riverbank; a bird I saw a few years ago in the same place. In no hurry, I thought I’d just enjoy a little more quiet time and to my surprise and amazement high in the thick deciduous trees across the river I spied a bird moving deliberately through the high canopy. Although I’d never seen one before, I got to watch a Yellow-billed Cuckoo gleaning the branches for tasty snacks. I had a new bird to add to my life list.
I had lunch in the town of Chimney Rock overlooking the rock formations that were part of the finale of the movie “Last of the Mohicans”, then made my way to Black Mountain and the historic YMCA conference center where I would spend the next four days with friends and teachers.
The next morning at six AM I was out scouting the paths and dirt roads listening to the warblers and tanagers and familiarizing myself the local birds. On Sunday I would be leading a class for some of the attendees called “Birding by Ear.”
Afterward at 9Am I met with my friend and gifted teacher David Winston along with another 30 students to spend the next 5 hours in the woods with this Cherokee medicine man. Since I’ve been going to Gaia and International gatherings starting in 1994, David has often been delivering in his native tongue, prayers and chanting & drumming the invocations at our get-togethers.
The first thing we did was go to the mountain stream on campus where he led us through his native morning ritual, chanting in Cherokee. The river or stream is referred to as the “Long Person” — his head in the mountain and his feet in the ocean. We took off our shoes and stood in the stream stroking the water counter clockwise 7 times and anointing our heads, faces, and chest washing away our yesterdays. With this simple ceremony I watched a montage of accumulated stressful moments from the last 3 years wash away from me.
We spent the rest of the day looking at lots of weeds and plants, some familiar to many of us and some you only get to see in the Blue Ridge. The mountains of North Carolina are the most diverse ecosystems in North America and it is challenging and fun to be surrounded by so many different species of kinfolk.
Most people arrived at the conference while we were in the woods, and after our class catching up with old friends was the order of the evening.
For the next 3 days most of us would attend 3-5 classes a day and we had to choose from 5 to 8 classes each time. Often I would make up my mind at the last minute and race off across campus to hear an old friend speak or a new speaker who had done some exciting research.
Jill Stansbury, a naturopathic physician from Oregon, gave an intense lecture on the physiology of leaky gut. Jill is brilliant biochemist, lecturer, and accomplished artist, and her drawings and knowledge of the latest molecular biology was enough to fry my neurons.
Bevin Clare, originally from Lee NH, now a teacher at Thai Sophia (the medical herbal college in Columbia Maryland), delivered a fact-filled talk on herbal approaches to treating the flu. The talk was loaded with the latest research and the evidence for a multi-pronged herbal attack is very compelling.
Saturday night we paid tribute to botanist James Duke, a mentor of mine and many others. Mark Blumenthal, director of the American Botanical Council and a spokesperson for the herbal industry, MC’d and entertained us with funny stories about their mutual adventures together. I met both men in early 1994 and traveled with them to the Amazon and Machu Picchu later that fall. I have fond memories of walking back through the jungle from a native Indian village with Jim after we had dropped off clothing, footwear, and health and school supplies. Jim was barefoot.
Jim got out his guitar and played songs for the rest of the evening. All the songs were about herbs and medicine that he wrote during his 80 plus years, over 60 of those traveling in the jungles of Central and South America and working compiling databases for the USDA.
Elderberry, like black cherry, extraordinary, very good for you, and tastes real good too.
My elders think, an elder drink, might even help stop the swine flu (better’n Tamiflu).
Can elderberry tune, tune a weakened immune, if you sing as you sip that brew so divine;
Good medicine for sure, the elderberry cure, as a jam or juice or just fine wine.
– J. Duke, Elderberry to Margaritaville
My last day at the YMCA center I took Jim’s gardener on a early bird walk down the wooded campus and we were standing quietly listening to an ovenbird on the edge of a clearing when a very large black bear sauntered out of the woods and across our path. Mother Nature rewards her humble servants.
After the conclusion of the conference I drove up the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway, stopping at the cultural art gallery outside of Ashville. I spent a couple of days visiting an old high school friend and his wife near Boone. We explored several waterfalls and hiked around Stone Mountain, all the while botanizing as well as sliding down waterfalls and bathing in the cool mountain pools. Again I was gifted with another bird sighting my last day as we hiked up a shaded mountain stream. A family group of Louisiana Waterthrushes (a warbler) were hunting and feeding along the dark streambed.
I drove back to Charlotte that evening and flew home after midnight, filled with the spirits of the plants and animals of the Appalachians and the love and friendship of so many old and new herbal kin. In two weeks a lot my friends and teachers would be making their way to Rosemary’s symposium, and that will have to be a story for the next newsletter.
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My Herbal Journey and Back Home Again
by Rebecca Petee
In March 2010 I packed up my things here in New Hampshire, left the Herbal Path and drove to Austin,TX where I took a job with the American Botanical Council. They are the publishers of “HerbalGram” and much more in our international herbal community.
While there I was herbalist on staff with the job title of “Education Coordinator”,which meant that I taught the Pharmacy Intern students from Univ. of Texas, and dietitian interns from Texas State Univ. all about using herbs: researching, making tinctures, formulating and preparing their own personal herbal infusions and gardening.
I was also in charge of maintaining 30 garden beds, mostly medicinal plus some culinary and vegetable. The first day there I was mentioning the planting of chamomile and was told that would go in the “Winter Garden”. My first but not last new gardening learning experience. Hmmm, what is a winter garden? I only knew that as the time you sit around the wood stove and look at seed catalogs. Because it is so insanely hot in Austin in the summer, gardening is a real challenge, to put it mildly. I learned that the winter garden was my favorite. All of those lush greens growing from Oct. – May and the life coming back into the plants.
For the students, seeing the plants that they had heard about growing made a lasting impression on them. Weeding became a new way for stress relief, and pulling a carrot out of the ground for the first time in your life at age 35 was an “Ah Ha” moment that made one young lady say, “I will never live anywhere again that I can not have my own garden”. It was a rewarding experience for all of us
I had so much pleasure in making new plant friends as well. While missing many of the familiar plant allies here in New England, the discovery of new species was exciting and heartfelt. They have returned with me in the form of dried plants for infusions, tinctures and in my fond memories.
One of my favorites was the beautiful Mimosa tree, Albizia julibrissinhe — the scent will carry you to an exotic place filled with warm sunshine. In Chinese medicine it has been traditionally known as, “the herb of happiness”, helping with mental calmness and elevating the mood. Yes, it is one of the daily herbals I use to support my well-being. (The Herbal Path carries Albizia in liquid extract from both Herb Pharm and Planetary Herbals.)
Now back home since mid June, I am happily harvesting our local plethora of seasonal medicinal herbs that are surely showing us their vigilance and vibrancy after surviving the long, hard winter. Nature does reward us. One of the first things I was drawn to do was go collect the petals of the beach roses, rosa rugosa to make a vegetable glycerin infusion.
If you haven’t had the honor and pleasure of tasting this gold elixir of the rosa rugosa we at The Herbal Path have a local one made from the fine folks at Avena Botanicals. See what they have to say about this treasure from the coast of Maine (Rose Petal Elixir).
For some tips on making your own local herbal tinctures stop by The Herbal Path to see a demo on Echinacea Tincture preparation with two of the staff Herbalists; Greg McCrone and Rebecca Petee
Portsmouth: Weds. July 27 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Dover: Weds. Aug. 3 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
For more fun times with my herbal journeys, check in with our next newsletter for stories on Passionflower and Bay leaf. While on your own journeys pay attention to the plants that want to become your friends.
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Food For Thought
by May Grose
I wondered one afternoon to myself, “Where do we put all those unused or un-needed prescription drugs, medications, and supplements?” Well, after working at The Herbal Path for a year I knew more about various things which pollute our water supply (runoff, waste, mass farming, and ‘chemtrails’ to name a few) than maybe I wanted. After knowing more about the system of delivering drugs to society, I was interested in learning more about the system withdrawing those drugs when they are unused or not needed.
So the local police station was called. They said once or twice a year they open their doors and allow the public to come in and drop off the unused prescriptions, no date was set at this time as one date just past in the spring, and to go ahead and call my local pharmacy. Well, we are one of the pharmacies! I needed more information!
I stopped by another pharmacy, a conventional pharmacy at my local grocery store. I spoke to a kind technician that reinforced what the police department had said; once or twice a year customers can return their unused prescriptions, supplements, etc. but there was no set date. To note, I was told that some people will add coffee grinds, cat litter and water to ‘dissolve’ their drugs before then putting them in the trash- is this really any better than flushing them down the toilet and spreading them in the water system?
I was also told by the pharmacy to call the police department. Well, I had done that. I realized I don’t appreciate the run around and questioned, “Shouldn’t there be more organization regarding this issue?” I was told by the technician that there is no national organization which handles the proper and safe way to dispose of your unused medications or supplements. The FDA ‘regulates’ these drugs and has a hand in the doctors’ pockets who are prescribing them to the public, but shouldn’t they take some responsibility in proper disposal as well?
What I do know is that in order to keep our water, air, soils, our entire environment clean, we need to be mindful in all that we throw away.
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Herbal Path Q&A
The “go local” movement is gaining popularity and support — especially during the summer when there are so many options for locally grown food and locally made products. The Herbal Path is proud to support many local businesses. This month we asked — what is your favorite LOCAL product or company?
Patricia – Rocky Hollow Honey
Marci – Maine Medicinals’ new Cleanse & Fortify tonic — it won’t be released until August or September, but this blend of nettles, dandelion, reishi, tulsi, skullcap, lemon balm, elderberry, and MANY more is already on my wish list!
May – Badger massage oils, especially the Damascus Rose; and the Love My Liver tonic by Herbal Energetics
Ron – Jenness Farm’s Victorian Lavender goat milk soap
Greg – Avena Botanicals, especially the Wise Woman Tonic, Ashwagandha powder, and Elder Flower cream
Mekeel – Wholistic Pet Organics
Rebecca – Sage Smudge Spray by Lion’s Tooth Herbals
Chad – the wealth of knowledge and counsel available LOCALLY right at the Herbal Path!
Pat – MegaFood’s Women Over 40 One Daily multivitamin
Chantelle – Revitalive Cafe gRAWnola
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THANKS FOR READING!!!
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