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Over the past few decades we’ve seen a number of trends in popular supplements and so-called “superfoods.” First there was ginseng and echinacea, then ginkgo and St. John’s wort, then green tea, glucosamine, kombucha, fish oil, chia, maca, bone broth, magnesium l-threonate, vitamin D, and so on. Often, there’s a widespread hope that this substance is going to give us vibrant health, make us happy, perhaps even solve all our problems.
Turmeric has been on the charts for some years now, so I wanted to write about its uses and limitations – and why we need to take a broader view on health and supplements. First, it’s important to state that there’s some value to nearly all of these substances. Sometimes it’s a rather modest value for a fairly small subset of the population (like kombucha, most of which is essentially an overpriced mildly-caffeinated acidic soda with a little probiotic activity), other times it’s a significant value for a larger portion of the population (like vitamin D and magnesium). A food or supplement doesn’t need to be life-changing for everyone in order to be important; the key is that we’re realistic about what it can do and knowledgeable about who stands to benefit from it.
For several years, turmeric has been hot stuff in the West, though it has been used for at least 4000 years in Asia. Native to India, it’s a prominent herb in Ayurvedic medicine, though it’s even better known for its place in Indian cuisine and its use as a dye. Its particular yellowish-orange color is almost synonymous with Indian culture. It probably appeared in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) about 1500 years ago, but has always been a relatively minor herb in that system.
In both Ayurveda and TCM, turmeric is almost never taken as a single herb. Rather, it’s utilized in a formula of multiple herbs that’s prescribed by a trained practitioner, based on the specific constitution and presentation of the person who will be consuming it. However, as with many adopted herbs, Americans generally take it on its own, without any understanding of its traditional application or the diagnostic framework of the systems that have utilized it for so long. Consequently, many probably conclude that herbs aren't very effective medicines.
This is really the crux of what limits Westerners in their use of herbs – lack of context. The systems through which herbs have been historically defined and applied include methods for determining when and how and with whom to use them. One of the things that makes Ayurveda and TCM so special is that their diagnoses and their interventions utilize the same philosophical framework and terminology. That is, there’s a seamlessness between diagnosis and treatment. For example, for a TCM diagnosis of liver Qi stagnation, the treatment is clear because there are herbs and acupuncture points that specifically unblock stagnant liver Qi.
In contrast, knowing the Ayurvedic properties of turmeric – a pungent vipaka, a heating virya, a light, dry guna, which enters the digestive, circulatory, respiratory, and female reproductive srotas – is meaningless if we’re working from a Western biomedical diagnosis such as lung cancer, because the languages and philosophies don’t match. We can only guess at equivalencies.
For any given symptom presentation, there might be half a dozen or more possible diagnoses of the actual cause. When we take an herb without a diagnosis, it has a limited chance of working as we hope, because we may or may not have the underlying disease pattern that this herb addresses. It might even make things worse.
When we take an herb based on properties revealed by modern research – such as antibiotic, diuretic, or anti-inflammatory – it might work if we’ve correctly identified that we have the biomedical diagnosis corresponding to this biomedical terminology. But we miss out on accessing the body of wisdom developed by the traditions that have utilized the herb for centuries. It’s more like taking a brand new, poorly-understood drug, usually with very little human research behind it.
Years of discussion and trial-and-error in traditional plant-medicine systems reveals important nuances, and synergies with other herbs. Without that context, however, scientists were able to discover that turmeric possesses anti-inflammatory properties. Hooray! People started taking turmeric by the handful. But it didn't work as well as predicted. Later research revealed that unless the inflammation was in the digestive tract itself, the herb (specifically a compound called curcumin) wasn't likely to reach its target. Absorption into the bloodstream, it turned out, was very poor.
Eventually, researchers discovered that with absorption-enhancers, they could get more curcumin into the bloodstream. They came up with two main devices. The first is to combine it with a compound called
piperine that helps it pass through the lining of the digestive tract. The second is to attach it to a form of fat known as a
phospholipid, that's what our cell membranes are made of. This helps it move into cells more readily. Interestingly, equivalents of both strategies were utilized for centuries (if not millennia) in India. Piperine is a constituent of black pepper and a similar herb called pippali (long pepper), with which turmeric has been traditionally combined. And turmeric is also routinely taken with ghee (clarified butter) which happens to be rich in phospholipids!
In TCM, turmeric is called jiang huang, which means “yellow ginger.” Based on its primary function, it’s categorized as an herb that promotes blood circulation. Therefore (through that handy-dandy seamlessness of diagnostic and therapeutic terminology), it is used to treat conditions of stagnant blood. When we have a condition of blood stagnation, often the tongue takes on a slightly purple color and the veins on the underside of the tongue become more prominent and blue or purple. The pulse at the wrist feels “choppy” or “wiry.” The complexion often becomes dark. In women, the menstrual blood might be clotty and dark. And most obvious, there is usually pain – often sharp, stabbing pain in a fixed location.
Also, low grade blood stagnation – essentially impaired circulation – is thought in TCM geriatrics to be an almost inevitable part of the aging process. Whenever we see an older person with cold and/or purplish feet, hardened skin of the lower legs and feet, prominent purple and blue veins, and perhaps a history of cardiovascular disease and/or diabetes, it’s likely that a TCM practitioner would make a diagnosis of blood stagnation. Biomedically speaking, it’s probable that such an individual has chronic inflammation, and we could therefore think of the herbs that address stagnant blood as likely possessing anti-inflammatory properties, like those ascribed to turmeric.
In such cases, an herb like turmeric might be utilized, but if we look at the actual practice of TCM, we find it’s not especially popular among the herbs in its category. That’s probably because there are about thirty other herbs in this category, and thousands of years of tradition have shown that other herbs do just as good of a job – if not better than turmeric.
In addition, with a palette of thirty herbs to choose from, we have a great deal of specificity available to us. There are blood movers with an affinity for the head, or the abdomen, or the shoulder (one of turmeric’s affinities), or the legs, or the arms, or the back. There are mild blood movers and strong blood movers. There are blood movers with an ability to break up masses or to heal broken bones. There are blood movers that soften tight muscles and tendons and promote healing of unhealing wounds. And there are ways to combine them in order to make them exponentially more effective; to direct them to certain parts of the body; to prevent side effects, and so on.
Since I’m lucky enough to have all these herbs at my disposal (and the training to know how to use them), turmeric isn’t exceptional to me. It’s just an herb that got noticed by Westerners. There are thousands of others that are equally impressive. But don’t get me wrong – I love it, as I love all herbs, and I do occasionally recommend it.
If you don’t have training in traditional herbal medicine and you don’t have access to a practitioner who can help determine if it’s good for you, at least it’s a very safe herb. You can try it, and if it doesn’t work, you’re unlikely to do yourself any harm (though I still recommend checking with your doctor).
If you’re going to take turmeric, be sure to take it in a form that’s going to be well absorbed (unless you’re meaning to target your digestive tract). That means combining it with black pepper, long pepper, or piperine (and a little ghee may help, too); or using a brand that binds curcumin with acetylcholine (such as Meriva); or a brand that utilizes very small particles (such as Theracurmin).
Because I don’t have the ability to teach you traditional diagnosis through this format, we're actually best off banking on what the research shows. And while there's a lot of hope that it does many things, the only thing that it's been really clearly proven to do (on its own) is alleviate inflammation and some of its expressions. Pain, swelling, arthritis, and even hidden inflammatory processes will usually improve with ongoing consumption of turmeric/curcumin (assuming you’re using an absorption-enhancer). The degree of improvement varies. Sometimes it’s dramatic, other times subtle. Just remember that because you may or may not have the underlying diagnostic pattern that makes you a good candidate for turmeric/curcumin, it might not work.
I’d like to finish by discussing some broader measures for reducing the “stagnant blood” (and accompanying inflammation) that we’re prone to in our elder years. First, there’s exercise. Ideally, this isn’t the exercise of going to a gym and using weight machines (though if that’s what you like, keep doing it) – it’s the exercise of walking to the store, riding a bike to work, digging in the garden, shoveling snow, and above all, playing.
Second, reduce your sugar intake. If there’s one part of our diet that provokes inflammation and thickening of the blood more than any other, it’s sugar. By sugar, I mean caloric sweeteners of all kinds (and also white flour). If you’re up for improving your diet, you’d also do well to reduce or eliminate processed meats, deep fried foods, and margarine. Meanwhile, increase your consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts (dry roasted or raw), and oily fish. Third, if you smoke, quit. Smoking is terrible for circulation.
Finally, the best way to keep blood (and energy, and life itself) flowing is to be light-hearted. The circulatory system is an extension of the heart, and a light, open, joyful heart is best able to pump blood to all parts of us (much in the way it’s open to people and experiences of all kinds). Meditate (metta or lovingkindness meditation is especially good for this purpose). Laugh. Find ways to de-stress. Breathe deeply. Engage with community. Accept. Forgive. And love. Love yourself, love your family, love your environment, just love as much as you can. Even if you were to drop dead tomorrow, this is the stuff your soul wants you to prioritize.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
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My last article, on the pros and cons of eating meat, got quite a lot of comments. Clearly, it’s an issue the members of our community have given a lot of thought, and one we often struggle to reconcile within ourselves. On the pros side, many people feel healthiest when meat is part of their diet. Some have numerous sensitivities to plant foods, eggs, and dairy products, and meat is one of the few things that sits well in their body. Indeed, one could argue that the human race would have ended millennia ago if we hadn’t eaten meat.
On the cons side, large scale meat production has many destructive impacts on the environment. Farm animals are often raised in a way that lacks a reverence for life, and sometimes is downright cruel. And numerous studies claim that a high meat diet increases one’s risk of certain cancers and ischemic heart disease. (It should be noted, however, that some large studies have found no significant difference in all-cause mortality rates between vegetarians/vegans and meat-eaters.)
So, where do we go from here? First, I feel I should tell you my qualifications to lead such a discussion. In addition to being a nutritionally-oriented medical provider, I have a degree in plant and soil sciences from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where I focused on sustainable and organic agriculture. I've been studying ecology for over 25 years, and although I still wouldn't call myself an expert, I know more about this stuff, and have more clinical experience with the human health elements of it, than the average zealous blogger.
I specifically try not to be a zealot because zealotry makes us intolerant to opposing viewpoints and therefore keeps us from seeing the whole truth. You can trust that I have looked at this from many angles and I am passionate about saving the planet and finding long-term solutions that are in the best interests of the greatest number of people.
Now, let’s look closer at these pros and cons.
Some people feel better and have better objective measures of health when meat is part of their diet. In my opinion, there’s really no arguing with this. Bodies are different and some bodies thrive on meat. Does this mean everyone thrives on meat? No.
Does this mean we need meat to thrive? No, but for some, it may take work (and sacrifice) to thrive as a vegetarian or vegan.
Does this mean those who do well with meat should have lots of it? Probably not. One of the things the longest lived cultures of the world have in common is that they all consume little meat.
Meat production has many destructive impacts on the environment and public health. If we care about the planet and the future of our species, this point needs our attention. With just a few exceptions, production of animal-based foods is much more resource-intensive than plant-based foods. Animal food production (especially red meat) uses much more land than plant crop production does. It also uses much more water, and simultaneously contributes to water pollution. Meat production (again, especially red) has a massive carbon footprint – both through greenhouse gases and deforestation (we need trees to sequester carbon like giant sponges).
Farm animals contribute in a big way to antibiotic resistance. 70 to 80 percent of the world’s antibiotics are administered to animals, and this is often done in a “preventive” way that’s totally unnecessary. (It’s worth noting that part of the reason this percentage is so high is because farm animals greatly outnumber humans, and doses for large animals are much larger than those for people.)
In short, the world can’t all consume animal products in the quantities that Americans and Europeans do. There isn’t enough Earth to support it. We can’t expect the rest of the world to bear this burden. We must eat less meat and also change the way we produce animal products to make them more sustainable.
Aren’t there sustainable ways to raise animals? Yes, animal husbandry can even restore poor land. But such practices represent a tiny minority of total agriculture and simply couldn’t be scaled to meet current demand.
Can plant farming be destructive too? Absolutely, though not as destructive in as many ways as meat production. We need to make all agriculture more sustainable.
Does the world need to go vegan? No, I have seen models that allow for some meat, egg, and dairy consumption – especially if they’re produced intelligently – but we do need to shift to a primarily plant-based diet if we endeavor to feed everyone and maintain a healthy planet.
Eating meat usually entails the mistreatment of animals. Chances are, if you eat meat at restaurants and you buy meat at the store, you are supporting agricultural practices that are unkind to animals. Animal welfare regulations have gotten a little better in the past few decades, but in the “factory farms” where about 95% of our food supply originates – humanity is generally not a core value. Are there exceptions? Definitely. Look for products from humanely-raised animals and get to know local farms. Because raising animals with compassion requires more space, expect the price to be higher – but isn’t it worth compensating farmers for giving animals a more natural and dignified existence?
If you care about these issues – health, animal welfare, the environment, hunger, etc. – I encourage you to read more and challenge your assumptions. As I said last time, we tolerate the negative impacts of meat consumption through a collective practice of willful ignorance. The food industry depends on it. As I see it, the global solution depends on a large-scale willingness to be uncomfortable – to recognize the cost of our choices, to seek out more conscientious sources even if they’re less convenient or more expensive, to reduce our consumption of factory-grade animal products, and so on.
What’s your story? What are your solutions? What changes are you willing to make? Share below!
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
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Last week I wrote about the basic principles of cleansing and why this is the ideal time of year for it. Generally, I favor cleanses that consist of reducing food intake and simplifying the diet to things that are natural, non-irritating, and easy-to-digest. This regimen is best accompanied by an equivalent reduction and simplification of physical and mental activity. Virtually anyone can do this form of cleanse without worry of suffering ill effects. Rather than undertaking a more intense cleanse, people can usually get the same benefit from a gentler cleanse over a longer period of time (even a few weeks or months). If you choose to do something more challenging, I recommend you consult with a healthcare practitioner.
Now, let’s look at the details of how to accomplish this housecleaning.
1. Consume Less (on all levels)
This is just basic mechanics. If you want to clean out a sausage machine, you can’t keep stuffing meat into it. Consuming less means less energy is tied up in assimilating what you take in, and more resources can be devoted to removing waste.
Studies have shown that fasting induces organ regeneration, but a total fast (just water) for more than about a day is difficult for most people. Luckily, some of the same benefits can be achieved through “intermittent fasting” – fasting briefly and repeatedly. A study a few years ago showed a correlation between a 13 hour fast each day (between dinner and breakfast) and a reduced rate of recurrence of breast cancer. Subsequent research indicates that a longer fast can provide additional anti-aging benefits.
When a patient is interested in trying intermittent fasting, I have them aim for at least 14 hours, and ideally 16 hours between dinner and breakfast. This means all your meals are consumed in an 8 (to 10) hour window. This window should correspond roughly with the daylight hours (for example, eating only from 9 AM to 5 PM). In this way, when the sun is shining (the main presence of the Fire Element in our lives) there’s a parallel activation of our digestive fire, and when it’s dark, these organs are allowed to rest. This is what both Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine recommend.
Outside of this window, it’s ideal to have only water. During a cleanse, I believe it’s permissible to also consume plain, non-caloric, unsweetened herbal teas (avoid even non-caloric sweeteners).
Whether or not you choose to limit your window of eating, during a cleanse (and really, always) you should never eat to the point of feeling full. Fullness means the stomach is packed. Perhaps even stretched beyond its normal size. Rather than aiming for a feeling of fullness, the goal should be to simply not be hungry. So, stop eating at the point of feeling no more than 80% full. It may require some mental retraining, but you’ll find if you pause and listen to your body, this is enough. If you’re slow and mindful during the eating process (that is, giving it all of your attention), you may find that you need much less food than you think.
As I explained in the previous article, this reduction of consumption should go along with a fasting of the mind. Avoid media of all kinds – especially anything that involves conflict or pain. It’s just more to digest.
2. Choose Simple & Easy-to-Digest Sustenance
While many people believe a cleanse should involve zero food, and perhaps even substances to cause the body to purge waste, I see a safe and universal cleanse a little differently. Since I can’t assess the suitability of a strong cleanse for a person I haven’t met, I lean again toward gentleness. Rather than starving the body or taking the herbal equivalent of Liquid Plumbr, think of the process as one of satisfying the body’s minimum nutritional needs while replacing waste with nutrients.
In Ayurveda, the main fasting food is kitchari, a porridge made with rice, mung beans, spices, and occasionally vegetables. You can find lots of kitchari recipes online. For the easiest cleanse, you can have a day or several days of kitchari with well-cooked vegetables in it. For a more challenging cleanse, you can work your way from kitchari with vegetables to plain kitchari (just rice, mung beans, and spices). To take it a step further, you can then go to a day of just rice. To go further still, you can follow this with a day of just rice water (the solid rice strained out). To go further still, you can follow this with a day of just water, and then follow the cleanse in reverse – rice water, then rice, then plain kitchari, then kitchari with vegetables.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, a simple cleanse is achieved through a qing dan diet. Qing means clear, pure, or light, and dan means bland. This means generally avoiding rich (fatty) and foods that have a strong flavor (i.e., very salty, very sour, very bitter, very sweet, or very spicy). It sounds boring, but it’s easy for the body to handle and tends to calm the internal environment. All sweet processed foods would quality as very sweet, all salty snack foods would qualify as very salty, almost anything fermented or that contains vinegar would qualify as very sour . . . you get the idea. Primarily it’s a diet of whole grains, cooked vegetables, beans, and a little fruit. A staple is porridge known as congee (“con – jee”), usually with a base of rice cooked with several times more water than usual, sometimes with bland root vegetables such as yams.
Many American naturopathic physicians recommend Bieler Broth (or Bieler’s Broth) – a bland green soup presented by Dr. Henry Bieler in his 1965 book, Food is Your Best Medicine. The basic idea is to steam or simmer several kinds of chopped green vegetables (ideally organically grown) in a couple cups of water until tender, then puree the whole thing, including the water, and consume warm. It’s best to use little or no salt.
Most recipes utilize some combination of zucchini, string beans, celery, parsley, chard, and spinach. Some cook and puree the whole thing, while others add some of the leafier ingredients (such as spinach and parsley) just for the last two minutes, or even don’t cook them at all. Also, there are differing philosophies on how long to cook the broth. I recommend that if you have very sensitive or weak digestion, you may benefit from cooking the vegetables for quite a while (perhaps 45 minutes on low heat). You can find many variations if you search for “bieler broth” online. Bieler Broth could be your sole sustenance for a cleanse, or something you use as a supplement. It’s rich in minerals and is considered to be alkalizing.
Finally, many people like juice cleanses because the all-liquid diet tends to clean us out well, and juice is tasty. However, fruit and carrot juices are very high in sugar, which is arguably a significant downside (non-sugary vegetable juices would be better in this regard). Second, because they’re raw, they’re not always easy for everyone to digest. If large amounts of juice upset your digestion or make you feel bloated, this probably isn’t the ideal cleanse for you. Third, some people have sensitivities to fruits and veggies that are high in latex or salicylates. And fourth, some people have difficulty digesting certain kinds of sugars found in produce, referred to as FODMAPs, which I’ll discuss in the next section.
3. Avoid Irritants
Any of the above foods, as benign as they may sound to most people, may present problematic substances to a sensitive individual. The best way to figure out your sensitivities is to eat a simple diet and pay close attention to what your body tells you. But sometimes it’s tricky, so here are a few common offenders to consider.
A. The Big Five: The most commonly problematic foods are gluten-containing grains (wheat, rye, and barley), milk products, corn products, soy products, and eggs. Oats technically don’t contain gluten, but they’re sometimes stored with glutinous grains, and some people are sensitive to a gluten-like protein in oats called avenin.
It’s important to remember that although many people have sensitivities to these five groups of foods, there’s nothing inherently bad about them. However, most people would do well to avoid these foods during a cleanse.
B. Common Irritants: Many people have allergies or sensitivities to shellfish, nuts, sulfites, alcoholic beverages, artificial colors, and preservatives. In addition, deep fried foods, charred foods, hydrogenated oils, processed meats, and all sweeteners should be avoided or consumed in moderation by everyone, and are worth cutting out for a cleanse.
C. Nightshades: Vegetables in the nightshade family – tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, huckleberries, goji berries, and all peppers – can make some people feel bad, especially folks with joint pain. Symptoms may include achy muscles and joints, skin rashes, itching, phlegm, and nausea. It’s probably a good idea to avoid nightshades during a cleanse.
D. FODMAPs: FODMAP stands for “Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides and Polyols” – a group of short-chain carbohydrates that are difficult for the body to digest. For most people, they pass through the body without being absorbed and without symptoms. But in some folks, their gut bacteria ferment FODMAPs and produce hydrogen gas, causing gas pain, bloating, diarrhea, constipation.
Anyone with Irritable Bowel Syndrome or longstanding digestive upset should try avoiding foods that are high in FODMAPs during a cleanse. They may be worth avoiding long-term, if you feel better without them; however, some scientists have suggested that FODMAPs play an important role in maintaining healthy gut flora and shouldn’t be permanently removed from the diet. The list of high-FODMAP foods is long, so if you suspect you have a FODMAP problem, I encourage you to read about this diet on the web.
E. High Latex Foods: These are only a problem for people with a latex allergy (usually you would know this from irritation from latex gloves, condoms, or blowing up a balloon) and they tend to cause itching, hives, nasal congestion, or difficulty breathing. Some foods containing the most natural latex are: apple, avocado, banana, carrot, celery, chestnut, kiwi, melons, papaya, raw potato, and tomato.
F. High Salicylate Foods: These foods contain chemicals that are essentially a naturally occurring form of aspirin. Only people with a salicylate sensitivity are bothered by them (more often the case in people with asthma), and they should certainly avoid them during a cleanse. Symptoms of salicylate sensitivity include: nasal and sinus congestion, asthma, gas, digestive upset, diarrhea, and hives. The list of high salicylate foods is long, so it’s best to look it up if you’re concerned.
Okay, I know that’s a lot to process, so it’s worth saying again that most people don’t have sensitivities to all these things, and significant sensitivities to many foods is pretty rare. For most people, rice, millet, wild salmon, sweet potato and cooked squashes make a good, gentle diet for a cleanse. If you need more variety, you could add most well-cooked vegetables to that list (however, it may be worth avoiding nightshades for the reasons listed above and perhaps avoiding cruciferous vegetables if you find them difficult to digest).
I’d love to hear about your cleanse experience – both past and present.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
[post_title] => How to Cleanse, Part Two: The Details
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Over the past few decades we’ve seen a number of trends in popular supplements and so-called “superfoods.” First there was ginseng and echinacea, then ginkgo and St. John’s wort, then green tea, glucosamine, kombucha, fish oil, chia, maca, bone broth, magnesium l-threonate, vitamin D, and so on. Often, there’s a widespread hope that this substance is going to give us vibrant health, make us happy, perhaps even solve all our problems.
Turmeric has been on the charts for some years now, so I wanted to write about its uses and limitations – and why we need to take a broader view on health and supplements. First, it’s important to state that there’s some value to nearly all of these substances. Sometimes it’s a rather modest value for a fairly small subset of the population (like kombucha, most of which is essentially an overpriced mildly-caffeinated acidic soda with a little probiotic activity), other times it’s a significant value for a larger portion of the population (like vitamin D and magnesium). A food or supplement doesn’t need to be life-changing for everyone in order to be important; the key is that we’re realistic about what it can do and knowledgeable about who stands to benefit from it.
For several years, turmeric has been hot stuff in the West, though it has been used for at least 4000 years in Asia. Native to India, it’s a prominent herb in Ayurvedic medicine, though it’s even better known for its place in Indian cuisine and its use as a dye. Its particular yellowish-orange color is almost synonymous with Indian culture. It probably appeared in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) about 1500 years ago, but has always been a relatively minor herb in that system.
In both Ayurveda and TCM, turmeric is almost never taken as a single herb. Rather, it’s utilized in a formula of multiple herbs that’s prescribed by a trained practitioner, based on the specific constitution and presentation of the person who will be consuming it. However, as with many adopted herbs, Americans generally take it on its own, without any understanding of its traditional application or the diagnostic framework of the systems that have utilized it for so long. Consequently, many probably conclude that herbs aren't very effective medicines.
This is really the crux of what limits Westerners in their use of herbs – lack of context. The systems through which herbs have been historically defined and applied include methods for determining when and how and with whom to use them. One of the things that makes Ayurveda and TCM so special is that their diagnoses and their interventions utilize the same philosophical framework and terminology. That is, there’s a seamlessness between diagnosis and treatment. For example, for a TCM diagnosis of liver Qi stagnation, the treatment is clear because there are herbs and acupuncture points that specifically unblock stagnant liver Qi.
In contrast, knowing the Ayurvedic properties of turmeric – a pungent vipaka, a heating virya, a light, dry guna, which enters the digestive, circulatory, respiratory, and female reproductive srotas – is meaningless if we’re working from a Western biomedical diagnosis such as lung cancer, because the languages and philosophies don’t match. We can only guess at equivalencies.
For any given symptom presentation, there might be half a dozen or more possible diagnoses of the actual cause. When we take an herb without a diagnosis, it has a limited chance of working as we hope, because we may or may not have the underlying disease pattern that this herb addresses. It might even make things worse.
When we take an herb based on properties revealed by modern research – such as antibiotic, diuretic, or anti-inflammatory – it might work if we’ve correctly identified that we have the biomedical diagnosis corresponding to this biomedical terminology. But we miss out on accessing the body of wisdom developed by the traditions that have utilized the herb for centuries. It’s more like taking a brand new, poorly-understood drug, usually with very little human research behind it.
Years of discussion and trial-and-error in traditional plant-medicine systems reveals important nuances, and synergies with other herbs. Without that context, however, scientists were able to discover that turmeric possesses anti-inflammatory properties. Hooray! People started taking turmeric by the handful. But it didn't work as well as predicted. Later research revealed that unless the inflammation was in the digestive tract itself, the herb (specifically a compound called curcumin) wasn't likely to reach its target. Absorption into the bloodstream, it turned out, was very poor.
Eventually, researchers discovered that with absorption-enhancers, they could get more curcumin into the bloodstream. They came up with two main devices. The first is to combine it with a compound called
piperine that helps it pass through the lining of the digestive tract. The second is to attach it to a form of fat known as a
phospholipid, that's what our cell membranes are made of. This helps it move into cells more readily. Interestingly, equivalents of both strategies were utilized for centuries (if not millennia) in India. Piperine is a constituent of black pepper and a similar herb called pippali (long pepper), with which turmeric has been traditionally combined. And turmeric is also routinely taken with ghee (clarified butter) which happens to be rich in phospholipids!
In TCM, turmeric is called jiang huang, which means “yellow ginger.” Based on its primary function, it’s categorized as an herb that promotes blood circulation. Therefore (through that handy-dandy seamlessness of diagnostic and therapeutic terminology), it is used to treat conditions of stagnant blood. When we have a condition of blood stagnation, often the tongue takes on a slightly purple color and the veins on the underside of the tongue become more prominent and blue or purple. The pulse at the wrist feels “choppy” or “wiry.” The complexion often becomes dark. In women, the menstrual blood might be clotty and dark. And most obvious, there is usually pain – often sharp, stabbing pain in a fixed location.
Also, low grade blood stagnation – essentially impaired circulation – is thought in TCM geriatrics to be an almost inevitable part of the aging process. Whenever we see an older person with cold and/or purplish feet, hardened skin of the lower legs and feet, prominent purple and blue veins, and perhaps a history of cardiovascular disease and/or diabetes, it’s likely that a TCM practitioner would make a diagnosis of blood stagnation. Biomedically speaking, it’s probable that such an individual has chronic inflammation, and we could therefore think of the herbs that address stagnant blood as likely possessing anti-inflammatory properties, like those ascribed to turmeric.
In such cases, an herb like turmeric might be utilized, but if we look at the actual practice of TCM, we find it’s not especially popular among the herbs in its category. That’s probably because there are about thirty other herbs in this category, and thousands of years of tradition have shown that other herbs do just as good of a job – if not better than turmeric.
In addition, with a palette of thirty herbs to choose from, we have a great deal of specificity available to us. There are blood movers with an affinity for the head, or the abdomen, or the shoulder (one of turmeric’s affinities), or the legs, or the arms, or the back. There are mild blood movers and strong blood movers. There are blood movers with an ability to break up masses or to heal broken bones. There are blood movers that soften tight muscles and tendons and promote healing of unhealing wounds. And there are ways to combine them in order to make them exponentially more effective; to direct them to certain parts of the body; to prevent side effects, and so on.
Since I’m lucky enough to have all these herbs at my disposal (and the training to know how to use them), turmeric isn’t exceptional to me. It’s just an herb that got noticed by Westerners. There are thousands of others that are equally impressive. But don’t get me wrong – I love it, as I love all herbs, and I do occasionally recommend it.
If you don’t have training in traditional herbal medicine and you don’t have access to a practitioner who can help determine if it’s good for you, at least it’s a very safe herb. You can try it, and if it doesn’t work, you’re unlikely to do yourself any harm (though I still recommend checking with your doctor).
If you’re going to take turmeric, be sure to take it in a form that’s going to be well absorbed (unless you’re meaning to target your digestive tract). That means combining it with black pepper, long pepper, or piperine (and a little ghee may help, too); or using a brand that binds curcumin with acetylcholine (such as Meriva); or a brand that utilizes very small particles (such as Theracurmin).
Because I don’t have the ability to teach you traditional diagnosis through this format, we're actually best off banking on what the research shows. And while there's a lot of hope that it does many things, the only thing that it's been really clearly proven to do (on its own) is alleviate inflammation and some of its expressions. Pain, swelling, arthritis, and even hidden inflammatory processes will usually improve with ongoing consumption of turmeric/curcumin (assuming you’re using an absorption-enhancer). The degree of improvement varies. Sometimes it’s dramatic, other times subtle. Just remember that because you may or may not have the underlying diagnostic pattern that makes you a good candidate for turmeric/curcumin, it might not work.
I’d like to finish by discussing some broader measures for reducing the “stagnant blood” (and accompanying inflammation) that we’re prone to in our elder years. First, there’s exercise. Ideally, this isn’t the exercise of going to a gym and using weight machines (though if that’s what you like, keep doing it) – it’s the exercise of walking to the store, riding a bike to work, digging in the garden, shoveling snow, and above all, playing.
Second, reduce your sugar intake. If there’s one part of our diet that provokes inflammation and thickening of the blood more than any other, it’s sugar. By sugar, I mean caloric sweeteners of all kinds (and also white flour). If you’re up for improving your diet, you’d also do well to reduce or eliminate processed meats, deep fried foods, and margarine. Meanwhile, increase your consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts (dry roasted or raw), and oily fish. Third, if you smoke, quit. Smoking is terrible for circulation.
Finally, the best way to keep blood (and energy, and life itself) flowing is to be light-hearted. The circulatory system is an extension of the heart, and a light, open, joyful heart is best able to pump blood to all parts of us (much in the way it’s open to people and experiences of all kinds). Meditate (metta or lovingkindness meditation is especially good for this purpose). Laugh. Find ways to de-stress. Breathe deeply. Engage with community. Accept. Forgive. And love. Love yourself, love your family, love your environment, just love as much as you can. Even if you were to drop dead tomorrow, this is the stuff your soul wants you to prioritize.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
[post_title] => I’ve Been Taking Turmeric for a Year But Still Haven’t Found My Soulmate!
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