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| Water color by Gretchen del Rio. Used by permission. |
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
White Tiger Healing Arts website
If you haven't been to my website, please come for a visit. I've noticed that some search engines are directing folks to this blog page rather than White Tiger Healing Arts. There's plenty of material on the site as well as information on my acupuncture practice in Spruce Pine, NC.
Monday, February 17, 2014
"Winter Guardian": What do I do with it?
When I made my initial batch of "Winter Guardian", I figured everyone's first question would be, "What's in it?" So I designed a little flyer to go with it. Turns out, no one has asked me that. But everyone has asked how to use it.
First, this is a 2% dilution which is safe for most applications other than sensitive mucus membranes. Sources suggest that a 1% dilution is better for young children so you might want to dilute it by half before applying to kids younger than 7 or 8. It's used rather like some of the ancient herbal mixes for the prevention of everything from colds to the plague. "Winter Guardian" is designed around oils that stimulate and awaken the respiratory function and call our protective resources to come forward. Even at a 2% dilution, this oil will get your attention with its spunky scent. It contains peppermint, thyme, rosemary, bergamot, ravensare and hyssop.
There, I've done it again. Told you what's in it and not how to use it.
1. As a preventive, put some on a cotton ball and tuck it in your bra or pocket. Take it out of your pocket and sniff it from time to time if you are sitting in a movie theater where everyone is hacking and coughing. My husband puts it on his mustache. Or you could wipe a little between your nose and lip. You want to inhale some of the molecules periodically - it doesn't take much.
2. Keep the bottle in the car and simply take the cap off and take a few whiffs or put several drops in your palm, rub your hands together briskly and inhale before you head into the doctor's office, the preschool or church during times where things "are going around."
3. Apply to the bottoms of the feet and rub into any sore areas for a brief, intuitive reflexology massage.
4. Rub some onto the chest area and/or the back of the neck if you're already in the grip of something. It may help to relieve congestion and hasten recovery. This blend uses oils that are antiseptic, antiviral, antibiotic and expectorant.
I would not recommend putting this blend in a humidifier or diffuser - the grapeseed oil is not volatile like essential oils and can gum up these contraptions. For diffusing you need drops of pure essential oil. Some good ones to use this way are eucalyptus, rosemary and hyssop.
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| Depiction of a tiger guardian |
First, this is a 2% dilution which is safe for most applications other than sensitive mucus membranes. Sources suggest that a 1% dilution is better for young children so you might want to dilute it by half before applying to kids younger than 7 or 8. It's used rather like some of the ancient herbal mixes for the prevention of everything from colds to the plague. "Winter Guardian" is designed around oils that stimulate and awaken the respiratory function and call our protective resources to come forward. Even at a 2% dilution, this oil will get your attention with its spunky scent. It contains peppermint, thyme, rosemary, bergamot, ravensare and hyssop.
There, I've done it again. Told you what's in it and not how to use it.
1. As a preventive, put some on a cotton ball and tuck it in your bra or pocket. Take it out of your pocket and sniff it from time to time if you are sitting in a movie theater where everyone is hacking and coughing. My husband puts it on his mustache. Or you could wipe a little between your nose and lip. You want to inhale some of the molecules periodically - it doesn't take much.
2. Keep the bottle in the car and simply take the cap off and take a few whiffs or put several drops in your palm, rub your hands together briskly and inhale before you head into the doctor's office, the preschool or church during times where things "are going around."
3. Apply to the bottoms of the feet and rub into any sore areas for a brief, intuitive reflexology massage.
4. Rub some onto the chest area and/or the back of the neck if you're already in the grip of something. It may help to relieve congestion and hasten recovery. This blend uses oils that are antiseptic, antiviral, antibiotic and expectorant.
I would not recommend putting this blend in a humidifier or diffuser - the grapeseed oil is not volatile like essential oils and can gum up these contraptions. For diffusing you need drops of pure essential oil. Some good ones to use this way are eucalyptus, rosemary and hyssop.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Bitters for a sweeter life
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Maria Treben is the herbalist that first introduced me to Swedish Bitters through a book. The recipe is found in Health from God's Pharmacy.
Small Swedish Bitters
10gm. Aloe
5 gm. Myrrh
0,2 gm Saffron
10 gm. Senna leaves
10 gm. Camphor
10 gm rhubarb roots
10 gm zedovary roots
10 gm Manna
10 gm Theriac venezian
5 gm Carline thistle roots
10 gm angelica roots
Let steep in a quart or so of 80% alcohol (I used vodka) for at least two weeks.
This is a tonic to be reckoned with, not for the faint of heart. When Chief Two Trees first recommended it to me, I bought the herb mix and made my own. When it had matured, I poured out a small shot and brought it to my lips. Whooee, baby! I had never tasted anything so vehemently strong and bitter in my life! I screwed up my face and spit it out, then washed my mouth out repeatedly to get rid of it. Shows you how little bitter taste was in my diet.
Treben attributes this formula to Paracelsus. I found this label on the web; don't know anything about it. Wonder if it's the same formula.
Over time, I learned to dilute Swedish Bitters and grew to relish the effects, even to appreciate the taste. Most days I take a tablespoon in about a third of a cup of water. If my gallbladder is acting up or I have digestive issues, I might take a second dose in a day. (Maria Treben's recommendations vary considerably by condition. Please consult her book or some other resources before deciding what's right for you. And start small; think teaspoon, not tablespoon.) A caution here: some herbalists warn against bitters when gallstones are present because extra excretion of bile may cause them to move and get caught in the bile duct. However, my experience is that they have done my liver and gallbladder a world of good over the years.
Pharmacies used to be replete with many kinds of bitters. Now is rare to see them outside of a small section in the health food store or in a liquor cabinet (Angostura) to make a whiskey drink like a Manhattan or an Old Fashioned. Flora makes a gentler-tasting non-alcohol bitter tonic but be aware it contains sugars.
Another site to check out is swedishbitters.com. These folks have a wide line of all things Maria Treben and offer the bitters in various forms. As well as the dried herbs, they carry both alcohol and non-alcohol liquid bitters, creams, soaps, books and other tinctures.
Small Swedish Bitters
10gm. Aloe
5 gm. Myrrh
0,2 gm Saffron
10 gm. Senna leaves
10 gm. Camphor
10 gm rhubarb roots
10 gm zedovary roots
10 gm Manna
10 gm Theriac venezian
5 gm Carline thistle roots
10 gm angelica roots
Let steep in a quart or so of 80% alcohol (I used vodka) for at least two weeks.
This is a tonic to be reckoned with, not for the faint of heart. When Chief Two Trees first recommended it to me, I bought the herb mix and made my own. When it had matured, I poured out a small shot and brought it to my lips. Whooee, baby! I had never tasted anything so vehemently strong and bitter in my life! I screwed up my face and spit it out, then washed my mouth out repeatedly to get rid of it. Shows you how little bitter taste was in my diet.
Treben attributes this formula to Paracelsus. I found this label on the web; don't know anything about it. Wonder if it's the same formula.
 |
 |
| A version of bitters by Flora |
Pharmacies used to be replete with many kinds of bitters. Now is rare to see them outside of a small section in the health food store or in a liquor cabinet (Angostura) to make a whiskey drink like a Manhattan or an Old Fashioned. Flora makes a gentler-tasting non-alcohol bitter tonic but be aware it contains sugars.
Another site to check out is swedishbitters.com. These folks have a wide line of all things Maria Treben and offer the bitters in various forms. As well as the dried herbs, they carry both alcohol and non-alcohol liquid bitters, creams, soaps, books and other tinctures.
Next post we'll talk about getting your bitters from food.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Valentine's Day Food for the Heart
It's Valentine's Day, 2014 and there's most of a foot of snow and ice here in Spruce Pine, NC. Snowbound along with a lot of the east coast yesterday, I spent the day listening to acupuncture talks by Jeffrey Yuen and reading about herbs. In my reading, I bumped into a journal that took me by pleasant surprise: Plant Healer Magazine. It's an amazing compendium of art, articles, history and botanical wisdom with a fleet of contributors you might see at one of the big herb conferences.
I was thrilled to see such a resource and immediately downloaded it to my iPad as a PDF which I can read freely in iBooks. After virtually thumbing through it, I settled on a long article on bitters by Jim McDonald. I've taken bitters for years because of two herbal healers: Chief Two Trees who used to visit Spruce Pine in the 80's and Maria Treben, an Austrian herbalist who wrote Health from God's Garden.
As anyone with even a little nutritional knowledge knows, the bitter taste is the least favored flavor in American food. We get most of our bitter stimulation from chocolate and coffee. McDonald talks extensively on how bitters affect and benefit the digestive system all along the way from the mouth to the large intestine. Many Chinese herbalists emphasize the need to taste your herbs so they prescribe teas or granules instead of teapills. Some people chew up their teapills. The reasoning behind this is that there are loads of taste receptors on the tongue that deliver flavors, which are a kind of nutrition in themselves, to the body. Dr. Sean Marshall, founder of Jung Tao School of Classical Medicine, emphasized this pathway in our curriculum. He said the "sapors" as he called them by-passed the rest of the digestive tube and went directly to the spleen which in turn distributed them to the other organs. McDonald says that these bitter taste receptors (TAS2R) have been found all over the body, even in the gallbladder, testes and respiratory tract.
In Chinese Medicine, it's the fire phase (or element) that is associated with bitter flavors. The fire phase is connected to the heart and small intestine as well as the heart protector and what is called by several names: triple heater, san jiao, triple warmer and triple energizer. It's not just a digestive issue here but a calling from the fire element to be nourished by a broader spectrum of flavors.
So make your Valentine's chocolate today less about a sweet and more about a bracing bite of 85% or more serious cacao. In the words of Hart Crane, from his poem "The Heart" - a piece many might not associate with a celebration of love and romance - but to me is a revelation of raw self-acceptance:
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
I was thrilled to see such a resource and immediately downloaded it to my iPad as a PDF which I can read freely in iBooks. After virtually thumbing through it, I settled on a long article on bitters by Jim McDonald. I've taken bitters for years because of two herbal healers: Chief Two Trees who used to visit Spruce Pine in the 80's and Maria Treben, an Austrian herbalist who wrote Health from God's Garden.
As anyone with even a little nutritional knowledge knows, the bitter taste is the least favored flavor in American food. We get most of our bitter stimulation from chocolate and coffee. McDonald talks extensively on how bitters affect and benefit the digestive system all along the way from the mouth to the large intestine. Many Chinese herbalists emphasize the need to taste your herbs so they prescribe teas or granules instead of teapills. Some people chew up their teapills. The reasoning behind this is that there are loads of taste receptors on the tongue that deliver flavors, which are a kind of nutrition in themselves, to the body. Dr. Sean Marshall, founder of Jung Tao School of Classical Medicine, emphasized this pathway in our curriculum. He said the "sapors" as he called them by-passed the rest of the digestive tube and went directly to the spleen which in turn distributed them to the other organs. McDonald says that these bitter taste receptors (TAS2R) have been found all over the body, even in the gallbladder, testes and respiratory tract.
In Chinese Medicine, it's the fire phase (or element) that is associated with bitter flavors. The fire phase is connected to the heart and small intestine as well as the heart protector and what is called by several names: triple heater, san jiao, triple warmer and triple energizer. It's not just a digestive issue here but a calling from the fire element to be nourished by a broader spectrum of flavors.
So make your Valentine's chocolate today less about a sweet and more about a bracing bite of 85% or more serious cacao. In the words of Hart Crane, from his poem "The Heart" - a piece many might not associate with a celebration of love and romance - but to me is a revelation of raw self-acceptance:
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter - bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."
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