A brief exchange with our Founding Member Timmy Taes, sparked todays think piece. We were discussing natural healing, and I mentioned that I had studied with a Navajo curadera back in my monastic days. It also brought up fond memories of epic battles with schools and Child Destructive Services because I wouldn’t vaccinate my children.
I remember as a kid watching those old pain reliever commercials, where a silhouetted figure swallows a pill, it breaks up in a thousand pieces and swim straight to the location of the pain. How, I wondered, does the medicine know where it hurts and how to get there?
I’ve always been fascinated with medicine and healing, probably because I’ve had so many injuries that required a lot of medical attention. I rarely get sick, but I’ve broken a lot of stuff that needed a quick patch, a little bubblegum, and a whole lot of bailing wire.
Mrs. FarSide is accomplished in Chinese herbalism. Either that or she’s slowly poisoning me. She constantly has me drinking foul potions and revolting tonics. According to Chinese medicine, the worse it smells and tastes, the better it is for you, or so I’ve come to believe.
It should give the dear reader profound comfort to know that I worked for a number of years in some very famous hospitals, making medical training videos for CME programs.
In order to be certified as a Biomedical Photographer (BMP), I took a graduate-level human anatomy class (with real humans), and subsequently spent many hours in operating rooms shooting surgeries (and births, and PAP smears, and testicular self-exams), then hours more editing the footage. I learned the Greco-Roman names for everything and the doctor lingo they use to baffle and mystify us.
I combined all that with what I had learned from the curandera, and surprisingly they overlap in one key area—circulation—not just of blood, but of all the various fluids that make up the human body.
Inflammation, also known as swelling, is the primary cause of disease. Low circulation of any of the body’s fluids allows bacteria, fungi and/or toxins to concentrate and cause major health issues. Note that I did not include “viruses” in that list—I only deal with real health issues. If the fluids stop moving, then you get sepsis, or infection, in a way analogous to rancid water in a pond with no circulation.
The eight major fluids in the human body are:
1. Blood (Circulatory System)
Contents: Red and white blood cells, plasma, platelets
Function: Delivers oxygen and nutrients, removes carbon dioxide and waste, transports hormones, regulates temperature
Pumped by: The heart
Vessels: Arteries, veins, capillaries
2. Lymph (Lymphatic System)
Contents: Lymph fluid (interstitial fluid, immune cells, fats)
Function: Immune surveillance, drains excess fluid from tissues, transports fats from the gut
Moves via: Muscle movement, not a dedicated pump
Vessels: Lymphatic vessels, nodes, ducts
3. Bile (Digestive System – Hepatobiliary Tract)
Contents: Bile salts, bilirubin, cholesterol, electrolytes
Function: Emulsifies fats for digestion and absorption
Produced by: Liver
Stored in: Gallbladder, spleen
Flows through: Bile ducts into the small intestine
4. Interstitial Fluid
Contents: Water, nutrients, salts, waste (outside of blood vessels)
Function: Bathes and nourishes tissue cells
Acts as: The middleman between blood and cells
5. Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF)
Location: Brain and spinal cord (subarachnoid space)
Function: Cushions the CNS, removes waste, circulates nutrients
Produced by: Choroid plexus in the brain ventricles
6. Synovial Fluid
Location: Joint cavities
Function: Lubricates joints, reduces friction, nourishes cartilage
7. Sweat (Sudoriferous System)
Contents: Water, salts, urea
Function: Thermoregulation, minor excretion
Produced by: Sweat glands
Urine (Renal System)
Contents: Urea, salts, excess water, toxins
Function: Excretes waste, regulates electrolytes and fluid balance
Produced by: Kidneys
This is by no means an exhaustive list. There’s also sebum, the aqueous and vitreous humour in the eyes, semen and vaginal fluids, and amniotic fluid, among others.
What I learned from the curandera was that various plants and fungi have properties that can open the fluid passages (healing), or close them (poisoning). Using them properly, along with eating healthful foods, will give you a longer, happier life.
What I learned from allopathy (Big Farm-Us) is that they take the knowledge of the curandera, synthesize the active chemicals, put it in a pill form and sell it back to us at outrageous prices. They also use the knowledge to poison us with one hand, then offer the antidote with the other hand, and make money off of both.
The only problem with what I learned from the curandera is that she used plants and fungi from the New Mexico desert that don’t grow here. However, the knowledge of which fluids are blocked by the symptoms observed means I only have to learn which local plants/fungi open those passages.
Mrs. FarSide has done well helping me learn that part of it, though I’m still better at the diagnosis part. In fact, having done as well or better than a trip to the doctor (for free mind you), I’ve gained a reputation in the family as the go-to guy for medical issues. The missus does the potions and tonics, though.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen some miraculous stuff in the operating room—a 17-year-old kid with a smashed face from a car wreck had his face rebuilt with bits of his skull, a woman with mouth cancer had her jaw rebuilt with bits of her tibia. Western medicine excels at surgical intervention, and I highly recommend it for traumatic injuries and reconstructions.
When it comes to ailments and illnesses, though, I will stick to herbalism. It doesn’t always have the instant relief of the allopathic remedies—they primarily block symptoms and almost never address the underlying problem, which is fluid movement.
I eat a lot of raw vegetables and mushrooms, and use fresh herbs and spices in my cooking. Combined with open-range meats, tallow, real butter, a variety of cheeses (healthful fungi and bacteria), and avoiding seed oils like a plague, I manage to stay relatively healthy year-round. Throw in a massage once or twice a month and I can’t complain too much—though Indonesian massages make pro wrestling seem tame.
I have also used acupuncture on several occasions, and I can say objectively that it works, though much depends on the skill of the practitioner and the ailment being treated. I went in for one session with stuffed sinuses. She stuck a couple of extra pins in and the sinuses snapped open almost instantly.
I’m not a “licensed” medical practitioner by any stretch of the imagination. Don’t listen to me. But you might do yourself a world of good by learning your local botany and the symptoms associated with blockage of various fluids.
I will divulge one secret: if you or someone you love has a problem with halitosis (chronic bad breath), the problem is in the lungs, not the mouth. Drink a cup of warm goat milk in the morning and evening, and the problem will disappear within a week.
One more? OK, you know those giant cockleburs? Dry them out, crush them and make tea for the best diarrhea cure I’ve ever found.
A good place to start your journey is The Textbook of Natural Medicine. It will teach you the basics of tracking symptoms to organs and fluids. The rest is learning which flora in your area address the underlying problem by opening up the fluid pathways. Proper diagnosis is half the battle, and its the beginning of any healing.
A particularly long one today, sorry about that, but I have a feeling that being able to heal yourself and your family with the local flora will come in handy in the coming months and years. Certainly, any reduction in dependence on allopathy will save your health and your money.
Most importantly, get plenty of direct sunlight and take an occasional warm bath with Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate). Does a body good.
Here’s to your health!
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Our cultural enrichment du jour is Embrace of the Serpent (2015). You won’t know anyone involved with this film, unless you’re a fan of Spanish cinema. However, you will be rewarded with an outstanding flick that has a great sense of place. It’s about the search for a healing plant in the Amazon that is way better than that dreary, preachy Sean Connery paycheck from 1992. A film should transport the viewer, and this one does it right.
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You just spilled the beans of why your brain is on steroids!
Great post for health issues and cures. I am going to try the Epson salt bath. I take a bath every Saturday night whether I need to or not and I think the Epson salts will be a great help.
Danny huckabee