Working with herbs is not just about thinking that you can use this herb for headaches and that herb for an upset stomach and so on and so forth. While most herbs do have a affinity for a particular organ system or part of the body, the real knowledge of how plants works emerges when you start exploring plant energetics. The first place to start is considering the energetics of the plant and the constitution of the person. For example, we start with whether a plant is warming or cooling. We also look into whether a persons constitution tends to be warm or cool. I, for example, run cool and dry while someone else may run warm and moist (in Ayurveda, the constitution types Vata, Kapha, and Pitta are helpful to understand and can easily be applied to Western Herbalism). Knowing a persons constitution will make a different in selecting which herb or herbs you will work with. Herbalist jim mcdonald writes, Heating herbs generally speed up processes, increase peripheral circulation, are generally stimulating in nature... Cooling herbs slow down processes, soothe either irritations or excess... Or another way to frame cold-hot energetics, Christopher Hobbs writes, “Generally, hot herbs have constituents that make them stimulating to the blood circulation (resin-containing plants such as ginger) or increase metabolic activity (alkaloid-containing plants such as black tea). Cold herbs have antiinflammatory compounds such as sesquiterpenes (feverfew) or alkaloid-containing antibacterial and antiinflammatory herbs (golden seal).” If a person with a hot or warm constitution breaks out in a rash (which is common for these types of people), it is best to choose a cool or cooling herb to calm the inflammation or heat imbalance. Likewise, if a cold-natured person or a person with a cold-natured imbalance has sluggish digestion, warming spices and herbs would be helpful for encouraging proper digestion. A hotter constitution type might prefer a cooling bitters formula to support digestive function. Knowing the energetics of the plant and the constitution of the person will make a big difference in the application and use of specific herbs. Knowing if a plant is hot or cool or moist or drying (or where they are on the spectrum of both of those) is very important and is the first step in a more personalized approach to herbal medicine. For more on Herbal Energetics, please see this article ~ herbalremediesadvice.org/herbal-energetics.html For more on Tissue States, please see this article ~ bearmedicineherbals/tissuestates.html
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 01:56:46 +0000
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