Hey I know it’s interesting to post this stuff but I think the undertone of “herbs are great, prescription medicine is bad” is extremely problematic. No amount of herbs and cold water baths would have saved me from my autoimmune diseases as a child. Please encourage smart medical practices for parents and families, not this.
Modern medicine certainly does some things better. But the truth is, some things are better treated with herbs. I don't see it as an either or - doctors are fine, so are OTC meds and herbs.. I just like to care for my own needs at home. That is my choice and it works for me.
Having voluntarily left industrial healthcare, I would like to suggest that the need for said system might be reduced by wholistic self care.
This would include 1) attentiveness to the Creator's design for us, 2) proper use of the food/meds with which we have been both intentionally placed and evolved, and 3) maintaining connection with each other and the rest of creation. Sadly the current "health" systems, in the last few years, have stepped up their efforts to distance us from these 3 necessary aspects of self care.
Allopathic medicine remains useful for medical trauma and disasters, surgically correctable issues, and diagnostic imaging, but is increasingly falling down in the area of managing chronic disease. A large part of the failure results from use of treatment "protocols", because the standard 8 minute visit provides insufficient time for the diagnostician to evaluate each patient as an individual.
Some of the autoimmune issues are iatrogenic, bodily responses to injected or otherwise administered pharmaceuticals , or perturbation of gut flora by these products. Some others might stem from consuming products from the industrial food chain.
At this point in time, the most prominent reason people are running from industrial health care is to avoid these problems, and the one-size-fits-all protocols (that ancient herbalists had long avoided). The systems of energetics touted by these wholistic herbal practitioners are forerunners of pharmacogenomics, (a newer field which was becoming very useful before protocols and "wokeness" arrived. )
You make some excellent points. A major reason I got into herbal medicine was because I developed an auto-immune form of asthma at age 5 or so. I was on very strong meds through my teens - some were chemically similar to meth and caused heart damage when I was about 20! Nearly as bad was the depression and disconnectedness they caused in my teen years. Regardless, I was faced with the choice of continuing to take prescriptions that would likely kill me or to find alternatives that would allow me to breathe. I found lobelia, mullein, codonopsis and a few other herbs to be more effective than the prescription meds, with no adverse effects... except that too much lobelia can cause nausea. I used to have to rush to the ER when the asthma flared up beyond the ability of the meds to stop the attack. Now, I haven't been to a doctor in 25 years or so except for once due to several broken ribs.
During the course of my prior career, the recommended "protocols" for asthma treatment changed drastically, and the costs of inhalers are becoming enormously prohibitive.
The problem for non-specialist practitioners is that they have no prayer of having the time to research the rationality of each protocol coming from "on high".
The numbers of herbs containing smooth muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories is amazing. People in many regions can obtain some asthma help among the weeds.
Have you experimented with any of the cultivated Lobelia species, vs. the traditional Lobelia inflata? (It's cool that Lobelia dosage is sort of self limiting 😎 )
Yes, inflata grows wild in my yard, and it is my go-to. It was the standard lobelia used in the pharmacy manuals and medical dispensatories around 1900. The red and darker blue lobelias that are often grown ornamentally, are not as strong. That is not, necessarily, a bad thing as the effects of lobelia are much like tobacco. Like tobacco, a tolerance is built up over time. Some years ago I was hiking in early spring and fell into a very cold deep creek. As I struggled back up the ravine, asthma kicked in. It was a dire situation as I was a good 3 miles from my truck and the air temp was around 40 degrees. I had to keep going to prevent hypothermia but my lungs were shutting down. In a little beam of sunlight, there was one lobelia inflata plant. I picked it, ate the entire plant and survived. It was a true miracle!
Not really; perhaps just a little. I've gotten fairly used to lobelia. But, my thinking was if it did make me puke that might even help prevent shock. I have used syphilitica before. A little patch of it grows on a neighboring property. It is very mild.
Yes, I definitely agree with the issues in the healthcare system. For me, I am incredibly fortunate to have access to the Mayo Clinic to help with the treatment of my health conditions. But compensating for the pitfalls in the American healthcare system takes a lot of time, money and work. I do regular symptom tracking and testing on my own end, and have access to a dietitian to help with the more holistic part of my health. I acknowledge that I am very fortunate in this regard. I think our current American culture likes to “throw the baby out with the bath water” per se, when something isn’t working we need to jump to something else or reinvent the wheel. I believe that we have the responsibility as Christians to lean into the struggle and suffering both to bolster our relationship in Christ AND to make things better for the future generations. Otherwise the problems remain and the coping mechanisms are just as bad.
Most of my practice efforts were directed towards members of the 95% who absolutely did not have access or understanding of high tech self maintenance. They would, for example, have access to greens, and possibly the ability to use intermittent fasting to prevent the most prominent health problems that affect them. The 8 minute diagnostician visits are not so good for teaching such things, as we can see by even superficial evaluation of the patient population.
The failing health care system is awash in vastly more money than at any time in human history. We do not need to be funding the set of administrators who are telling the diagnostician that he only has 8 minutes to 'get 'er done'.
Health care personnel are bailing because they have all the liability for error, but not the time to do it right. This exacerbates the unavailability of effective health care for the 95%
Within the last few years, many people in my region have begun to fear the health care systems. (Irrationally cutting off visitation of the sick might have had a lot to do with this.)
This fear is the biggest new health assault, as it kills the placebo effect, which is responsible for very large portion of health care and drug effectiveness.
Even the least technically competent herbalists, using remedies of insufficient strength, are still providing the touchy-feely portion of care that the 95% of humans need for self healing.
Kay, thanks so much for commenting. I definitely didn’t intend to offer an implicit or explicit rejection of modern/prescription medication, so I appreciate you pointing this out. Both my girls are awake right now, but I’ll add a little note at the top of the post when they go down for their naps.
For what it may or may not be worth, I see herbal/traditional remedies in the same lens I see chiropractic care. It could help with a backache (headache, insomnia, etc etc), but isn’t a magical panacea, cure for cancer, or (as you mentioned) the answer to auto-immune disease.
Thanks again for chiming in; I truly do appreciate it.
Hi Sara, apologies I didn’t mean to accuse you of making a broad statement, I know that this is something of nuance and that you wouldn’t intend to wholly endorse it. Tone can be hard to convey in comments sometimes.
I see this thinking a lot as a mom and as someone who deals with chronic health issues. Both are areas of life where you are confronted with your own littleness, and there is a lot of temptation to take things into your own hands (esp. medical methods and lifestyles) to maintain that illusion of control. It is a hard line to walk, but thankfully as Christians we have Christ to lean on. That is why when I see articles or videos that have an undercurrent of “I suffered from X but when I turned away from modern methods and took matters into my own hands I was saved” I feel obligated to comment and warn about this line of thinking, since I have seen it and dealt with it myself and felt the consequences.
I hope you and your family are well and that you have a great Monday!
I love love love the point you’re making here: when we are confronted with our own littleness, we do strive so hard to maintain even the illusion of control. But ultimately it is in surrender and trust (and taking the long view) that we can see the Lord working in our lives, not in grasping at control. (Catch me forgetting this every night at 2am when I’m nursing the baby back to sleep and wondering what I did “wrong” during the day to cause her to wake up... like she’s not just a hungry baby 😂🙃) That belief (fear, hope, etc) that we can “hack” our life or that we can make everything perfect if we just figure out the right combination of routines and supplements and books to read and so and so forth ad nauseam... it’s such a tempting but ultimately dangerous mentality.
Your comment puts me in mind of two things I read recently. One was an article by a woman paralyzed from the waist down about the overlap between disability and motherhood that was such a poignant testament to that truth that we are not nearly as “in control” of our lives as we want to think we are. The second is a Substack by Laura Kelly Fanucci called Not a Caring Bridge but a Compassion Brigade (she also writes at The Holy Labor). Laura is undergoing treatment for breast cancer and her sense of trusting abandonment is an incredible inspiration to me.
Haha same, when I get up for my sons 1 am feeding I always think it’s something I caused. Last night I was thinking it was because we had a shorter story time, it’s so silly but I have to be intentional with surrender with everything as a mom. You said it much better than I ever could! Also thank you for the reading recommendations, I will definitely check those out.
Very different. I have studied ayurveda and studied Traditional Chinese Medicine seriously for about a decade. These are all different traditions. German Folk Medicine, grew out of Monastic Medicine, which has its roots in the ancient Greek and Roman tradition - Dioscórides, Hippocrates, Galen, etc.... which developed from even more ancient sources such as Hebrew, Egyptian, Babylonian, etc. The diagnostic model is different, although there are similarities between "humors" and doshas. While several herbs are used in common, many are different. And, the overall philosophy or even theology is different. When you get into Saint Hildegard von Bingen, you can definitely see similarities with many of the great healing traditions of different cultures, but through a decidedly Christian perspective. German Folk medicine is much more like "keep Masterwort on hand for diarrhea" rather than considering any form of energetics other than whether someone is more robust in health or frail.
A topic that stirs my soul! It’s refreshing to find more Christian resources & folks who appreciate natural medicine. Thank you 😊
Absolutely fascinating. Thanks for sharing.
Great origin story!
Hey I know it’s interesting to post this stuff but I think the undertone of “herbs are great, prescription medicine is bad” is extremely problematic. No amount of herbs and cold water baths would have saved me from my autoimmune diseases as a child. Please encourage smart medical practices for parents and families, not this.
Modern medicine certainly does some things better. But the truth is, some things are better treated with herbs. I don't see it as an either or - doctors are fine, so are OTC meds and herbs.. I just like to care for my own needs at home. That is my choice and it works for me.
Let’s agree to disagree here
Having voluntarily left industrial healthcare, I would like to suggest that the need for said system might be reduced by wholistic self care.
This would include 1) attentiveness to the Creator's design for us, 2) proper use of the food/meds with which we have been both intentionally placed and evolved, and 3) maintaining connection with each other and the rest of creation. Sadly the current "health" systems, in the last few years, have stepped up their efforts to distance us from these 3 necessary aspects of self care.
Allopathic medicine remains useful for medical trauma and disasters, surgically correctable issues, and diagnostic imaging, but is increasingly falling down in the area of managing chronic disease. A large part of the failure results from use of treatment "protocols", because the standard 8 minute visit provides insufficient time for the diagnostician to evaluate each patient as an individual.
Some of the autoimmune issues are iatrogenic, bodily responses to injected or otherwise administered pharmaceuticals , or perturbation of gut flora by these products. Some others might stem from consuming products from the industrial food chain.
At this point in time, the most prominent reason people are running from industrial health care is to avoid these problems, and the one-size-fits-all protocols (that ancient herbalists had long avoided). The systems of energetics touted by these wholistic herbal practitioners are forerunners of pharmacogenomics, (a newer field which was becoming very useful before protocols and "wokeness" arrived. )
You make some excellent points. A major reason I got into herbal medicine was because I developed an auto-immune form of asthma at age 5 or so. I was on very strong meds through my teens - some were chemically similar to meth and caused heart damage when I was about 20! Nearly as bad was the depression and disconnectedness they caused in my teen years. Regardless, I was faced with the choice of continuing to take prescriptions that would likely kill me or to find alternatives that would allow me to breathe. I found lobelia, mullein, codonopsis and a few other herbs to be more effective than the prescription meds, with no adverse effects... except that too much lobelia can cause nausea. I used to have to rush to the ER when the asthma flared up beyond the ability of the meds to stop the attack. Now, I haven't been to a doctor in 25 years or so except for once due to several broken ribs.
During the course of my prior career, the recommended "protocols" for asthma treatment changed drastically, and the costs of inhalers are becoming enormously prohibitive.
The problem for non-specialist practitioners is that they have no prayer of having the time to research the rationality of each protocol coming from "on high".
The numbers of herbs containing smooth muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories is amazing. People in many regions can obtain some asthma help among the weeds.
Have you experimented with any of the cultivated Lobelia species, vs. the traditional Lobelia inflata? (It's cool that Lobelia dosage is sort of self limiting 😎 )
Yes, inflata grows wild in my yard, and it is my go-to. It was the standard lobelia used in the pharmacy manuals and medical dispensatories around 1900. The red and darker blue lobelias that are often grown ornamentally, are not as strong. That is not, necessarily, a bad thing as the effects of lobelia are much like tobacco. Like tobacco, a tolerance is built up over time. Some years ago I was hiking in early spring and fell into a very cold deep creek. As I struggled back up the ravine, asthma kicked in. It was a dire situation as I was a good 3 miles from my truck and the air temp was around 40 degrees. I had to keep going to prevent hypothermia but my lungs were shutting down. In a little beam of sunlight, there was one lobelia inflata plant. I picked it, ate the entire plant and survived. It was a true miracle!
Pretty amazing how your eyeballs were directed to the plant right when you needed it. Did you have to pay the nausea price for being saved?
We have some escaped Lobelia syphilitica (love the name) growing wild by our creek, but I have not yet fooled with that species.
Not really; perhaps just a little. I've gotten fairly used to lobelia. But, my thinking was if it did make me puke that might even help prevent shock. I have used syphilitica before. A little patch of it grows on a neighboring property. It is very mild.
Yes, I definitely agree with the issues in the healthcare system. For me, I am incredibly fortunate to have access to the Mayo Clinic to help with the treatment of my health conditions. But compensating for the pitfalls in the American healthcare system takes a lot of time, money and work. I do regular symptom tracking and testing on my own end, and have access to a dietitian to help with the more holistic part of my health. I acknowledge that I am very fortunate in this regard. I think our current American culture likes to “throw the baby out with the bath water” per se, when something isn’t working we need to jump to something else or reinvent the wheel. I believe that we have the responsibility as Christians to lean into the struggle and suffering both to bolster our relationship in Christ AND to make things better for the future generations. Otherwise the problems remain and the coping mechanisms are just as bad.
Most of my practice efforts were directed towards members of the 95% who absolutely did not have access or understanding of high tech self maintenance. They would, for example, have access to greens, and possibly the ability to use intermittent fasting to prevent the most prominent health problems that affect them. The 8 minute diagnostician visits are not so good for teaching such things, as we can see by even superficial evaluation of the patient population.
The failing health care system is awash in vastly more money than at any time in human history. We do not need to be funding the set of administrators who are telling the diagnostician that he only has 8 minutes to 'get 'er done'.
Health care personnel are bailing because they have all the liability for error, but not the time to do it right. This exacerbates the unavailability of effective health care for the 95%
Within the last few years, many people in my region have begun to fear the health care systems. (Irrationally cutting off visitation of the sick might have had a lot to do with this.)
This fear is the biggest new health assault, as it kills the placebo effect, which is responsible for very large portion of health care and drug effectiveness.
Even the least technically competent herbalists, using remedies of insufficient strength, are still providing the touchy-feely portion of care that the 95% of humans need for self healing.
Couldn’t agree more!
Kay, thanks so much for commenting. I definitely didn’t intend to offer an implicit or explicit rejection of modern/prescription medication, so I appreciate you pointing this out. Both my girls are awake right now, but I’ll add a little note at the top of the post when they go down for their naps.
For what it may or may not be worth, I see herbal/traditional remedies in the same lens I see chiropractic care. It could help with a backache (headache, insomnia, etc etc), but isn’t a magical panacea, cure for cancer, or (as you mentioned) the answer to auto-immune disease.
Thanks again for chiming in; I truly do appreciate it.
Hi Sara, apologies I didn’t mean to accuse you of making a broad statement, I know that this is something of nuance and that you wouldn’t intend to wholly endorse it. Tone can be hard to convey in comments sometimes.
I see this thinking a lot as a mom and as someone who deals with chronic health issues. Both are areas of life where you are confronted with your own littleness, and there is a lot of temptation to take things into your own hands (esp. medical methods and lifestyles) to maintain that illusion of control. It is a hard line to walk, but thankfully as Christians we have Christ to lean on. That is why when I see articles or videos that have an undercurrent of “I suffered from X but when I turned away from modern methods and took matters into my own hands I was saved” I feel obligated to comment and warn about this line of thinking, since I have seen it and dealt with it myself and felt the consequences.
I hope you and your family are well and that you have a great Monday!
I love love love the point you’re making here: when we are confronted with our own littleness, we do strive so hard to maintain even the illusion of control. But ultimately it is in surrender and trust (and taking the long view) that we can see the Lord working in our lives, not in grasping at control. (Catch me forgetting this every night at 2am when I’m nursing the baby back to sleep and wondering what I did “wrong” during the day to cause her to wake up... like she’s not just a hungry baby 😂🙃) That belief (fear, hope, etc) that we can “hack” our life or that we can make everything perfect if we just figure out the right combination of routines and supplements and books to read and so and so forth ad nauseam... it’s such a tempting but ultimately dangerous mentality.
Your comment puts me in mind of two things I read recently. One was an article by a woman paralyzed from the waist down about the overlap between disability and motherhood that was such a poignant testament to that truth that we are not nearly as “in control” of our lives as we want to think we are. The second is a Substack by Laura Kelly Fanucci called Not a Caring Bridge but a Compassion Brigade (she also writes at The Holy Labor). Laura is undergoing treatment for breast cancer and her sense of trusting abandonment is an incredible inspiration to me.
Haha same, when I get up for my sons 1 am feeding I always think it’s something I caused. Last night I was thinking it was because we had a shorter story time, it’s so silly but I have to be intentional with surrender with everything as a mom. You said it much better than I ever could! Also thank you for the reading recommendations, I will definitely check those out.
How would Christian herbalism be different from ayurveda?
Very different. I have studied ayurveda and studied Traditional Chinese Medicine seriously for about a decade. These are all different traditions. German Folk Medicine, grew out of Monastic Medicine, which has its roots in the ancient Greek and Roman tradition - Dioscórides, Hippocrates, Galen, etc.... which developed from even more ancient sources such as Hebrew, Egyptian, Babylonian, etc. The diagnostic model is different, although there are similarities between "humors" and doshas. While several herbs are used in common, many are different. And, the overall philosophy or even theology is different. When you get into Saint Hildegard von Bingen, you can definitely see similarities with many of the great healing traditions of different cultures, but through a decidedly Christian perspective. German Folk medicine is much more like "keep Masterwort on hand for diarrhea" rather than considering any form of energetics other than whether someone is more robust in health or frail.
In addition to your books, I have found St Hildegard's books very helpful, especially this one: https://www.amazon.com/Hildegard-Bingens-Medicine-Folk-Wisdom/dp/0939680440
Always my favorite!
That's fascinating, thank you!
Succinctness award to J.C. for this post, especially the last sentence. :-D