Anxiety and depression in Ayurveda

~ free online lecture ~

Join me on April 1 for a free lecture on the prevention and treatment of anxiety and depression in Ayurveda.

 

As we cope with the psychological effects of this pandemic, this timely lecture will review the theoretical and clinical foundations of anxiety and depression in Ayurveda.

 

First given at the AHG Symposium in 2018, this lecture will provide a practical review of yuktivyapāśraya cikitsā (i.e. rational therapy), sattvāvajaya cikitsā (i.e. behavioural therapy), and daivavyapāśraya cikitsā (spiritual therapy). This lecture will also incorporate the use of entheogenic and psychedelic therapies, which I have been using in my practice for a decade.

 

Title: Anxiety and Depression in Ayurveda
When: April 1, 2021 at 1pm PST / 4pm EST
Register for lecture here
 

Making Balm of Gilead

This week I put out the call to the community that the cottonwood buds were ready to harvest, which, in my coastal area, is a lot sooner than some of you would normally experience. I have a big lot behind my little farm where the local pulp mill grew poplar trees with the idea of using it as hog fuel to power the boilers.

 

Although cottonwoods are much faster-growing than other tree species the mill could have used, it was probably not a successful decision: cottonwood is a terrible wood for burning. Apart from medicine, it’s not a great wood for too many things, and finds limited use as lumber. But to the herbalist, this is some valuable medicine!

 

Where I am on the Sunshine Coast of BC, our local species is black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa). It extends throughout the West, and is so closely related to the balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera, syn. P. candicans) native to eastern North America that it used to be thought of as a subspecies (i.e. Populus balsamifera ssp. trichocarpa).

Collecting cottonwood buds

While the inner bark of both species is used medicinally, the most useful medicine is derived from the leaf buds. After summer, both trees set new leaf buds for the following year, impregnating and coating them with a sticky red protective resin. It is the same resin that local bees collect to make their hives, and thus, in many regions, bee propolis will contain a lot of cottonwood and balsam poplar bud resin which imparts a sweet balsamy odor.

 

The best time to harvest the leaf buds is some time before the xylem starts to flow and the leaf buds open up. In cold, dry climates such as the eastern Rockies, this might not be until April, or even later. So if you live in this region, you probably still have time to wait before harvest. Ideally, you want to let the resins accumulate as much as possible before it starts to warm up.

 

In my region, where winter is quite mild, the optimal window for harvesting the leaf buds is only a couple of weeks. Typically, the best buds are found in climates with colder winters than we get here. But this medicine is so precious, that it is worth gathering it wherever and whenever you can.

Infusing the fresh buds in olive oil, over a double boiler

There are a number of ways to prepare the leaf buds, including as a tincture or medicated oil.

 

The leaf buds can also be prepared as a decoction, but this must be consumed soon after preparation, and won’t extract the lipid-soluble constituents.

 

An alcoholic extract should use at least 70% ethanol to fully extract all the constituents, prepared as a 1:2 ratio from the freshly picked leaf buds.

 

This extract will result in a rich, red-colored tincture that has a few uses, including as a liniment for muscle strain, sprain, and injury.

 

The leaf bud tincture in particular is useful as a mildly stimulating expectorant, to address chronic cough, deep bronchial congestion, and weakness of the lungs.

 

While the tincture is useful, I more often use the leaf buds to make an oil extract, which in turn can be prepared with beeswax to make the so-called “Balm of Gilead” salve. It is interesting to contemplate the origins of its traditional name, as the original balm of Gilead mentioned in the Bible was prepared with entirely different species of tree, probably Pistacia terebinthus or Commiphora gileadensis.

 

When white settlers spread into North America, they didn’t have access to these exotic species. Seeking inspiration from the Bible to help them understand their place in a “new” world, they began to identify balm of Gilead with cottonwood and balsam poplar leaf buds. Before then, this medicine was imported into Europe as “tacamahaca”, which google tells me is a Spanish variant of the Nahuatl word tecomahca, which refers to an aromatic plant resin.

 

Regardless of the etymology, it's pretty clear that white settler use of this plant is entirely derived from First Nations use. In the Native American Ethnobotany DB alone, there are 173 records for Populus balsamifera, and 92 records for Populus balsamifera ssp. trichocarpa, documenting its widespread use by First Nations groups.

The macerating leaf buds when they're ready, 24 hours later

To make cottonwood leaf bud oil I use olive oil as a base. It’s relatively inexpensive, mild in taste and odor, has reasonably good shelf life and thermal resistance. Other fats you could use include tallow, lard, ghee, sesame, or almond oil.

 

The leaf bud oil must be extracted slowly and carefully, so as not to volatilize and damage the constituents. The fastest way to do this is to place the fresh lead buds in a double boiler over low heat, at a ratio of one part buds (by weight, g) to three parts oil (by volume, mL). You can make it less strong (1:5 or 1:7), but being a clinician, I prefer stronger preparations because I am always looking for a maximal therapeutic effect.

 

Once macerating in the oil, the buds should be allowed to sit for several hours. Ideally, this is something you could leave on overnight at very low heat, letting it extract slowly over a 24-hour period. If you can keep the heat very low, this is something you could have macerating for several days.

Strain the leaf buds with a metal strainer, and use a press to get out any last remaining oil

You could even avoid using a double boiler and simply macerate the buds in oil in a jar, and let them sit in a warm place, such as the kitchen or near the wood stove. It’s best that it is made slowly, and at low heat, avoiding damage to the oil, while allowing for the gradual diffusion of constituents into the oil. In some cases I have made the oil within 12 hours - other times I have let it macerate for a couple of months. Play around with it, and let me know what you think!

 

Once you’re satisfied that it has infused long enough, strain the oil through a metal mesh, and squeeze out the marc with a cheesecloth, using your hands or a plant press.

 

At the end, you will have a rich, golden-amber toned oil whose odor gently permeates the room whenever you apply it. As part of the daily Ayurveda practice of abhyanga (oil massage), it provides for a sense of deep nourishment and spiritual protection, and keeps the body smelling very nice throughout the day.

The final product is like ambrosia to the skin, nervous system, muscles, and joints.

Should you get the vaccine?

Since COVID, in our newsletter, study groups, and on social media, I have done my best to provide some good information about COVID treatment and prevention. One common question nowadays is: “should I get the vaccine?”

 

I don’t claim to be a vaccine expert, nor do I have a particular agenda to push when it comes to vaccines. I understand both their benefits, and unfortunately, have also personally witnessed some of their issues - which, while very uncommon - can be devastating.

 

Given all of the social and economic issues the pandemic has caused, a vaccine seems like a no-brainer. I think ALL of us are sick and tired of the pandemic and the ways in which it has destabilized our lives. If a vaccine works like it is expected, it is the fastest and most effective way to get us back to “normal”.

 

I have to admit, however, that I am sort of dreading this return to normal, as the pandemic also gave us an opportunity to see how so many things about “normal” are actually pretty messed up, including the issues of racial, social, and economic injustice.

 

After the last five years, I certainly don’t want to go back to the way things were.

 

While I see the obvious benefits of vaccination, what troubles me is this one-size-fits-all, top-down approach to problem solving. This is also the bane of our industrialized, technology-driven society.

 

There are so many other health factors that are important in COVID-19, and many of these are simple considerations such as fresh air, fresh food, and clean water. Consider the most recent evidence suggesting that the death rate from COVID-19 is about 10 times higher in countries where half or more of the population is overweight.

 

Today a new report came out suggesting that a vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of COVID-19 deaths, echoing something I have been suggesting since the beginning of the pandemic, exhorting folks to supplement with vitamin D3.

 

While I think that the initially high COVID-19 death rate was likely attributable, in part, to heroic medical interventions such as ventilation used without due caution, public health policy-makers also dropped the ball on promoting and supporting the most basic criteria of health: diet and lifestyle.

 

With regard to vitamin D3, imagine how much benefit we could have obtained if the government had freely distributed supplements to the entire population? There was already ample evidence that cold and flu severity is tied to vitamin D3 deficiency, and throughout the pandemic, study after study shows the benefit of vitamin D3 in COVID-19.

 

The reason why the story around vitamin D3 and COVID was ignored is because modern medicine is fully invested in Big Pharma solutions. If it doesn’t make money for shareholders - it doesn’t make economic sense.

 

My sense is that at least some of the public COVID skepticism is directly related to these failures of common sense. The people understand that there is more that they can do to stay healthy, but they do not get the required support to follow a preventative-health-lifestyle. This one of my worries about going back to “normal”. Normal is fucked up.

 

With all that said, there are also times when we need to think like a super organism, sacrificing some aspect of our personal freedom to protect the whole.

 

Just like in the body, we can’t have a large group of cells or “citizens” doing their own thing. A house divided cannot stand. When the body gets infected, information about the pathogen is disseminated widely by the activity of specialized immune cells, active in all the different tissues of the body.

 

Likewise, a vaccination program is multiplying this same effect throughout a population - giving your immune system a bit of vital information that creates immunity. This is why it works so well - it is modelled on a natural process.

 

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is less about protecting your own health, and more about protecting each other. In this way, it is just another measure similar to physical distancing and wearing a mask.

 

As we come to terms with all the damage we have done to our own lives and that of the planet, we will need to do a lot more thinking as a collective, and not just as individuals.

 

Vaccine safety

Getting into the nitty-gritty about COVID-19 vaccine safety, the data, like most of the data on vaccines generally, suggests that they are very well tolerated, at least over the short term.

 

None of them contain adjuvants like aluminum, which, given the fact that aluminum is inherently neurotoxic, has always caused me think twice about those that use it as an adjuvant, including the hepatitis A/B, diphtheria-tetanus-containing, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and pneumococcal vaccines.

 

There is some concern that the use of propylene glycol as an adjuvant in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may be responsible for causing severe adverse reactions. While there might be an inherent risk of adverse reaction with many different adjuvants, without adjuvants, vaccines are also much less effective. The recently approved Novovax COVID-19 vaccine is interesting, because it uses the natural saponins from the soapbark tree (Quillaja saponaria). This could be heralding a shift in how vaccines are made, opening up entirely new vistas in the use of phytochemicals in vaccine manufacturing. But it doesn't mean that even plant-based adjuvants will never cause adverse effects - that appears to be an inherent risk with the use of any adjuvant.

 

So far, the rate of adverse effects in vaccine use including death is minuscule when compared to the suspected number of severe COVID-19 outcomes. But there are a number of different vaccines with many different ingredients, produced in many different countries.

 

I know that the greatest fear among those involved in the vaccine rollout is that there will be a bad batch, and, reminiscent of the Cutter Incident, result in a dramatic turn-around in public opinion, which thus far has been mostly in support of vaccines.

 

But there are other potential risks and questions.

 

Just recently a colleague forwarded me a letter written by a Dr. Patrick J. Whelan, a pediatric specialist caring for and studying children with the multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) at UCLA.

 

This letter was written late last year to warn the FDA of his concerns regarding all five of the major vaccines currently being rolled out, including the ones by Pfizer and Moderna.

 

He refers to the increasing evidence that the COVID spike protein is itself pathological, causing microvascular damage to the heart and brain, beyond the effects of the virus itself. His concern is that all the current vaccine technologies harness the spike protein as the vaccine target. In this way, the body is tricked into making a viral spike protein which then activates the immune response.

 

Unfortunately, the synthesis of this spike protein might be causing microvascular damage that is not being picked up by the research, and so might be adding to the burden of chronic disease. This is something we might only realize when it is too late.

 

But this is the crux of the issue - the possible trade-off we might need to accept in order for the pandemic to end.

 

I can’t tell you for sure that this vaccine will be safe. For folks suffering from chronic inflammation, it might be wise for them to wait for other vaccines that are being rolled out, in order to reduce the risk of microvascular damage - vaccines that use another approach, such as only a portion of the viral spike protein to stimulate immunity.

 

In particular, I echo Dr. Whelan’s suggestion that we do not rush into vaccination with young children, who are at the highest risk of suffering from the adverse effects of vaccination.

 

Perhaps the best thing you can do to prepare for the vaccine if you are otherwise healthy, is to ensure optimal vitamin D3 status, along with regular exercise (one hour daily walking minimum!), and a wholesome diet rich in antioxidant phytonutrients including medicinal herbs, vegetables, and fruits. Don’t ask me which ones - ALL of them! Diversity is the key to health!