THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

Healing with Medicinal Plants


            Herbalism is sometimes maligned as a collection of home-made
remedies to be applied in a placebo fashion to one symptom or another..
provided the ailment is not too serious and provided there is a powerful
chemical wonder-drug at the ready to suppress any "real" symptoms.

            We often forget, however, that botanical medicine provides a
complete system of healing and prevention of disease. It is the oldest and
most natural form of medicine. Its history of efficacy and safety spans
centuries and covers every country on the planet. Because herbal medicine is
holistic medicine, it is, in fact, able to look beyond the symptoms to the
underlying systemic imbalance; when skillfully applied by the trained
practitioner, herbal medicine offers very real and permanent solutions to
very real problems, many of them seemingly intractable to pharmaceutical
intervention.

            Nowhere is the efficacy of herbalism more evident than in
problems related to the nervous system. Stress, anxiety, tension and
depression are intimately connected with most illness. And the herbalist
finds his success accelerated by including in his treatment, medicine to
free the body from the vicious cycle of interference from worry and
nervousness that so often takes its toll on otherwise healthy systems.

            Few health practitioners would argue with the influence of
nervous anxiety in pathology. We know that the Xth Cranial Nerve, the Vagus,
travels down from the medulla oblongata at the brain stem to innervate the
pharynx, heart, bronchi, lungs and gastro- intestinal tract, including the
small intestine, caecum, appendix and colon, supplying both motor and
sensory fibers. It is not surprising that nervous stress can interfere
directly in digestion. Nervous tension is generally acknowledged by
pathologists to contribute to duodenal and gastric ulceration, ulcerative
colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and many other gut-related pathologies. We
know also from physiology that when a patient is depressed, the secretion of
hydrochloric acid...one of the main digestive juices... is also reduced so
that digestion and absorption are rendered less efficient. Anxiety, on the
other hand, can lead to the release of adrenaline and stimulate the
over-production of HCL and result in a state of acidity which may exacerbate
the pain of an inflamed ulcer. In fact, whenever the voluntary nervous
system (our conscious anxiety) interferes with the autonomic processes, (the
automatic nervous regulation that in health is never made conscious),
pathology is the result.

            But few other health professionals have access to the scope of
botanical remedies with their fine subtlety in rectifying this type of human
malfunction. The medical herbalist knows, for example, that a stubborn
dermatological problem can best be treated by using alteratives specific to
the skin problem, circulatory stimulants to aid in the removal of toxins
from the area, with re-enforcement of the other organs of elimination (liver
and kidney); but above all he will achieve the excellent results for which
phytotherapy is famous, by using herbs which obviate nervous interference in
the situation and allow the patient to relax... perhaps for the first time
in many months.

            Curiously this is an approach which has never been taken up by
orthodox medicine. There, the usual treatment of skin problems involves
suppression of symptoms with steroids. Our subtle, non- invasive botanical
nervines are not available in synthesized form. And the use of
anti-histamines or benzodiazepines by the orthodox profession often achieves
less lasting benefit to the patient than an additional burden of "impairment
of intellectual function",[1] drowsiness, further toxicity for an already
compromised metabolism, and often life-long drug dependence.

            Botanical nervines, on the other hand, are free from toxicity
and habituation. Because they are organic substances and not man-made
synthetic molecules, they possess a natural affinity for the human organism.
They are extremely efficient in balancing the nervous system. Restoring a
sense of well-being and relaxation is necessary for optimum health and for
the process of self-healing.

            Herbal medicine can justifiably boast of Valeriana officinalis
(Valerian), the ideal "tranquilizer". The rhizomes of this plant contain a
volatile oil (which includes valerianic acid), volatile alkaloids (including
chatinine), and iridoids (valepotriates) which have been shown to reduce
anxiety and aggression and even to counteract the effects of ethanol [2]. So
effective is Valeriana in cutting out the interference of anxiety while
maintaining normal mental awareness, that it enables the patient to continue
the most complicated mental exercise without drowsiness, loss of
consciousness or depression. Valerian has been usefully taken even before an
examination or a driving test!

            Verbena officinalis (Vervain) on the other hand, is not only
effective against depression, but also strongly supports the detoxifying
function of the liver. Its French name is still "Herbe Sacre"; an old
English name is "Holy Wort"; for Vervain was one of the seven sacred herbs
of the Druids. (Significantly Druidic medicine worked very much upon the
psychological background to the disease, attempting to revitalize the psyche
before healing the body). To-day we know that the antispasmodic qualities of
Verbena are largely due to the glycoside verbenalin. Recent Chinese research
has linked the plant with dilation of arteries in the brain: a likely
explanation of its usefulness in treating migraine, especially when this
problem is accompanied by liver congestion. It is certainly indicated for
hysterical, exhausted, or depressive states.

            Hypericum perforatum (St. John's Wort) is an analgesic and anti-
inflammatory with an important local application to neuralgia and sciatica.
Systemically, its sedative properties based on the glycoside hypericin, (a
red pigment), make it applicable to neurosis and irritability. Many English
herbalists use it extensively as a background remedy.

            Melissa officinalis (Lemon Balm) being both carminative and
antispasmodic, is active specifically on that part of the vagus nerve which
may interfere with the harmonious functioning of the heart and the stomach.
Recent experiments at the University of Heidelberg have confirmed that the
action of the volatile oil begins within the limbic system of the brain and
subsequently operates directly upon the vagus nerve and all of the organs
that are innervated by it. Accordingly, neurasthenia (complete nervous
prostration), migraine, and nervous gastropathy are amenable to its healing
power.

            The great herbal restoratives of the nervous system are Avena
sativa (Oats), Scutellaria lateriflora (Scullcap) and Turnera diffusa
(Damiana). Oats contains a nervine alkaloid which also helps to restore the
heart... (again the vagus connection). According to Canadian research, Avena
is helpful in angina and in cardiac insufficiency. Moreover in an article in
Nature in 1971, Gonon outlined its usefulness in the treatment of addiction
to morphine, narcotics, tobacco and alcohol... a use which is still current
in British hospitals.

            But the list does not stop here. Rosmarinus officinalis
(Rosemary) helps the circulation to the brain and is therefore useful in
geriatric senility; Lavandula officinalis (Lavender) exerts a cardio-tonic
and anti-migraine action; Tilia europea (Linden or Lime Flowers) is an
antispasmodic particularly suited to problems of venous congestion and
arteriosclerotic states, but gentle enough for an anxious child.

            There is great scope for the development of herbal medicine in
the area of nervous diseases and of its application in so-called "mental
illness" where pharmaceuticals seem at best to be applied for their
"management" effect. And this is an area where the benefits of a whole food
diet and holistic life-style are badly neglected.

            Among the more outstanding serious problems that have been
recorded at the Clinic of Herbal Medicine in Balham, London, England, (the
teaching clinic of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists), are: the
control of Parkinson's disease in a 59-year old man; the elimination of
epileptic seizures in a 14-year old girl; the removal of clinical depression
in a 46-year old woman; the eradication of frequent migraine attacks in many
patients; and the regulation of the wide mood swings and other distressing
symptoms that accompany both menopause and premenstrual stress in countless
women patients. (These are just cases which I myself have witnessed over a
period of 10 months).

            Understandably, the choice of a nervine most suitable to an
individual patient must be based upon a thorough health assessment and the
experience and training of a qualified herbal practitioner. But even the
layman can do much to alleviate stress and sooth frayed nerves. Drinking
Chamomile, Lemon Balm or Linden tea (long the custom in Europe). is the
prudent choice instead of coffee for anyone having sleeping difficulties or
anyone who wishes to achieve a greater sense of inner calm. Twenty minutes
out-of-breath exercise (walking, swimming, or cycling) will go a long way as
a natural antidote to the pent-up tension that results from a stressful day
at the office. And it will have the unexpected bonus of improving
circulation, increasing metabolic rate and enhancing heart and lung
function. The B-vitamins as found in whole-wheat bread, wheat germ, torula
or brewer's yeast and liver (organically produced) provide ideal nourishment
for the nervous system and can be wisely substituted for the stimulant foods
such as white flour, sugar, junk foods and their myriad harmful chemical
additives.

            Keith Stelling. M.A; Dip Phyt; M.N.I.M.H.

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