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 skilfully 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 fibres. 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 adrenalin 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 "tranquillizer". 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
wholefood 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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