Patzin: los Gritos de Dolores – pain and yerbas

Patzin: los Gritos de Dolores – pain and yerbas
By Patrisia Gonzales

Column of the Americas (c) June 3, 2008

Patzin (Nahuatl for respect-worthy medicine) is a regular column on
Indigenous medicine

Physical pain can be addressed with the power of plantas. However, you
must understand the nature of pain. If it is acute, such as from a
fall, it can be addressed with arnica or hueso de aguacate. Is it pain
in the soft tissue (external use of arnica, tobacco)? Or is it
cramp-like (estafiate for the lower extremities) or from eating bad
food (then both the bacteria and the pain can be addressed with
avocado pit)? Is it chronic, such as with sciatica (tila with
cuachalalata and white pine) or from conditions such as arthritis,
which requires an herbal compound to address inflammation, hot and
cold conditions, joint health and soft tissue. Is it post labor pain?
-- which can effectively be addressed with homeopathy that can be more
effective than regular over the counter analgesics -- while labor pain
is an entirely different protocol. (In fact, pregnant women should not
consume any of these herbs other than what is suggested for postpartum
pain and after consulting her midwife or elder.)

In addition to understanding the nature of pain as shooting, spastic,
dull, chronic, or acute, you must use herbs that deliver to particular
parts of the body. For instance, romero will ease a headache and
coupled with wood betoney alleviates headache pain, as well as
arthritis if added to an herb that promotes circulation, and
therefore, delivery to the site, such as ginger, chile or black
pepper. Mild to moderate pain can be resolved with herbs and acute
pains can be diminished with herbs such as Jamaican dogwood, which is
one of the stronger herbal painkillers while white willow is nature's
aspirin.

Anti-spasmodics (spasms and cramps) include motherwort, estafiate,
skullcap latiflora, vervaines, peppermint, crampbark and black haw.
Valerian, pasiflora, ruda and black cohosh can ease pain but should be
used in small amounts (10 -20 percent of the formula) and mixed with
other herbs that promote circulation so that it relaxes the spasm
without making you drowsy.

Nervines, which relax the nerves and work through the central nervous
system, include celery, motherwort, estafiate, pasiflora, skullcap,
St. John's wort/ St. Joan's wort, hops, and peach bark. Nervines
combined with antispasmodics and a good circulatory herb can
effectively address pinched nerves. Comfrey leaf is used to reduce
pain in the bones, or post partum pain, as a compress.

Additionally in Mexican Traditional Medicine (MTM), pain is addressed
both externally and internally, with a limpia of plants and other
representatives of the four elements that sweep the body of pain and
trauma as well as the external application of plants as plasters or as
natural stimulators of circulation, such as rameadas with hortiga. A
popular plaster is made from savila asada in olive oil and applied as
a cataplasma after trauma to the body, such as a fall or accident.
Other rubbing liniments are made from the oils of pine, ocote,
volcanic rock, cardamom, chile and other hot plants. However, you
should not go out into a cold night after applying hot ointments.
Apply them when you retire for the night.

One of my elders, Dona Filo, has a receta of apple with garlic pomade
and a plant from her village that addresses inflammation. Please note
that the flora of Mexico is vast and, in my opinion, more diverse than
that of the United States, perhaps because many of the plants still
grow in their wild state, and are more potent, in a country that has
not lost much of its flora to vast industrialization. However, I am
faced with the moral dilemma of sharing the herbal knowledge and
simultaneously making it vulnerable to the supply and demand of a
voracious global market for herbs. Already, because of the robust
practice of traditional medicine in Mexico, many herbs are being over
harvested. Many plants were meant for a particular ecosystem and
people who were part of that land base and who knew how to sustain
that ecosystem. Therefore, I chose to go against the tendency in the
United States to promote "global herbalism." I write about herbs
already popularly known in MTM or part of the flora of the United
States and that are accessible or often easily grown in a home garden.
Therefore, herbs such as matarique or yerba manso, which can alleviate
pain but come from particular ecosystems, should best be gotten based
on a trade exchange with someone who has a direct relationship with
the plant. While sunflower leaves and stems, which can be cultivated
in your garden, or blessed thistle, which can be abundant in many
areas and wildcrafted, also can be added to a pain-reduction formula
in an ethical relationship with the plantas.

Now pains in the soul or someone who is a pain in the neck, those are
dolores and gritos of an entirely different nature. And they can be
the original source of other physical pains in the body.

(c) Column of the Americas 2008

Gonzales can be reached at: Patzin@gmail.com Column of the Americas is
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