History of Ginkgo: Chinese Medicinal Herb
There are many reasons why ginkgo is a popular symbol. Ginkgo trees are not only beautiful, they are also an important medicinal plant with a fascinating story. The ginkgo is considered to be a living fossil and is the only remaining representative of the Ginkgoales order, which had 19 original varieties. Fossils from these plants date back 270 million years, putting the ginkgoes on the planet before the dinosaurs. At one time they were common and widespread throughout Asia, Europe, and North America. If you look closely at a ginkgo leaf you will notice how the veins are all the same in width, beginning at the stem and fanning out, and there are at most two lobes. This is quite different and simplified compared to the leaves of more modern tree species, like maples, which have multiple lobes and a central vein that branches out into smaller and smaller veins. Like redwoods, ginkgoes have very long life spans, with some individuals estimated to be more than 3,000 years old.
Ginkgoes were first discovered by Europeans in the 17th century in Japan by the German botanist Englebert Kaempfer. Up until then, the plant was considered to be extinct by many, as it was known mostly through fossil records. The tree, however, had survived in Asia in Buddhists monasteries and Shinto shrines, where they had been revered and cultivated since around 1100 AD. These monasteries and shrines acted as ancient nature preserves, offering protection for the trees and conserving the natural landscape around them. Ginkgo is thought to originate in eastern China in the Xuangcheng province, spreading first to Japan, around the same time that Zen Buddhism was introduced there.
Ginkgo is used as a medicinal plant in both eastern and western herbal traditions. In the west, the leaves are taken to enhance blood circulation and oxygenate the heart. They are also known to increase the supply of oxygen to the brain, making them applicable for conditions marked by memory loss, such as Alzheimer's. They are anti-oxidant, reduce blood pressure, and inhibit clotting. They are also used for tinnitus, vertigo, hearing loss, impotence, and Raynaud's disease. In the east, the seed is favored over the leaf. It is prescribed for chronic coughs with wheezing and copious sputum. It is also taken for vaginal discharge and cloudy urine. The seeds are first mentioned in Chinese herbals published a long time ago, way back in the Yuan Dynasty (1280-1368).
Today ginkgoes are widely cultivated and propagated in both the east and the west, primarily as ornamental landscape trees. They are very hardy and are not easily susceptible to environmental pollutants so they thrive in places where the air quality is poor, such as in New York City, where they line the streets of Greenwich Village. There are even some ginkgoes in Japan that survived the 1945 atomic blast at Hiroshima in an area where all other life was obliterated. They are all still alive today, located in temples or public gardens. Because of this, the Japanese consider the ginkgo tree to be a powerful symbol of hope. Though the seeds of the ginkgo are edible and considered a delicacy in Asia, they are covered in a fleshy coating which some consider to be untidy for landscaping. Because of this, the seedless male tree is preferred to the female as an ornamental. This, unfortunately, has made it difficult for the tree to propagate itself naturally, and ginkgoes are still considered to be an endangered plant. Still, for a tree that was almost extinct not too long ago, the ginkgo is doing quite well.
The ginkgo is an important symbol for many reasons. First, it is an amazingly ancient tree. Surely there is an inherent wisdom in a plant that has survived for 270 million years. Second, this is a tree of great beauty. Who hasn't appreciated the ginkgo in the fall, with its beautiful golden leaves? Third, the ginkgo is a powerful medicinal plant. It has been used in many healing traditions and over many centuries. Even today in America it is one of the top ten herbal supplements. And finally, the ginkgo is an example of how humans can consciously choose to help save a rare and endangered plant. This began almost 1,000 years ago with the Chinese Buddhist monks and continues today all over the world where this plant is appreciated and revered.
Carbohydrates and Dampness
One of the major categories of imbalance in Chinese medicine is Dampness. Dampness is a type of accumulation that bogs us down, making us feel tired, heavy, unmotivated, and physically weak. It can affect our thought processes, causing fuzzy thinking, absentmindedness, and poor memory, especially short-term memory. Other common signs of Dampness include loose stools, achy muscles, post-nasal drip, oily skin and hair, and candida imbalances. Weight gain is common, as are other types of accumulations like phlegm, lipomas, swelling, nodules, cysts, and cellulite. Some western medical examples of conditions that could be categorized as Dampness include chronic sinus congestion, hypothyroidism, and fibromyalgia syndrome.
In Chinese medicine Dampness usually occurs when our digestive organs are unable to burn the food we eat cleanly and efficiently, resulting in the accumulation of thick, residual fluids in different areas of the body. Sometimes this happens because we have low digestive fire, perhaps due to genetics or medications like antibiotics. In other cases, it has more to do with diet, especially the overconsumption of Dampness-producing foods, many of which are staples of the American diet. In either case, dietary changes can often be very helpful.
Of the three major categories of nutrients (proteins, fats, and carbohydrates), carbohydrates are the most relevant foods to look at when there is Dampness, especially the simple and refined carbohydrates. By their very nature, these foods tend to be dense and sticky, making them harder to process, gunking up our system, and requiring more digestive energy to burn. Too much of these Damp foods, especially over a long period of time, can even smother our digestive fire, lowering our metabolic rate. Think of foods like oatmeal, dough, bananas, icing, pie, jam, pastries, and mashed potatoes and you begin to get a general idea. Below are the major categories of foods that contribute to Dampness:
A Shifting Inventory of Herbal Formulas
Every few years I tweak my herbal pharmacy, adding and subtracting formulas as my practice and patient base shift and change. I just completed my latest re-evaluation this morning and thought you might find it interesting to know what categories of herbal formulas are more popular. There are four different ones, in particular, that stick out.
The largest category of formulas that I carry by far is the tonics, formulas that do things like replenish, nourish, support, and strengthen. This comes as no surprise for three reasons. First, tonics reflect one of the most unique and important ideas that Chinese medicine has to offer: that vital substances, tissues, organs, or systems that are depleted or under-functioning can heal, that deep imbalances can be corrected. Second, many individuals specifically seek out Chinese medicine for more chronic conditions, which tend to be marked by depletion or functional issues, just the type of imbalances that tonic formulas are designed to treat. Tonics are excellent at slowing or even reversing these conditions, healing them at the root instead of indefinitely managing their superficial symptoms. Third, tonics are very effective when used preventively, helping your body function optimally, slowing the aging process, and making you more resilient to stress and disease. These are the true longevity formulas of ancient Chinese medicine.
Another popular category is formulas that release the exterior. These formulas help us eliminate what is referred to in Chinese medicine as “exterior pathogens,” i.e. air-born disease-causing agents, like pollen and viruses. Their chief action is to induce a sweat, helping your body release the pathogens out to the exterior. These formulas have many other beneficial actions, like clearing heat to reduce fevers and inflamed throats and transforming phlegm, helping your body process out congestion. If taken at the first sign of an infection, before a virus has had time to burrow deeper into tissues and organs, these formulas can even be effective at reducing the length and severity of colds. Additionally, there are formulas in this category that you can take when you are exposed to someone who is sick that will help prevent you from catching what they have. I always take some of these when I treat a contagious patient and I've only been out sick two times in twelve years.
There are two other categories of note: harmonizing formulas and those that calm the shen. Harmonizing formulas often treat the liver. In Chinese medicine, since the liver is responsible for the smooth flow of chi all over the body, when it is out of balance it can easily throw other systems out of balance. For example, because the liver plays such an important role in digestion, when it is out of balance it can cause symptoms like bloating and indigestion. Calm shen formulas, on the other hand, help calm the mind and the emotions. They are especially effective for anxiety but can help with other emotional states like stress and worry. Because they are so calming, these formulas are even useful for treating certain types of insomnia, helping people settle down better so they can fall asleep more easily and sleep deeply through the night.
Summer Health: A Chinese Medicine Perspective
As the summer solstice approaches the sun gets higher and higher in the sky and the weather gets hotter and drier. Stimulated by the abundant solar energy we become more physically active, travel more, and require less sleep so we stay up later. This is the season of the fire element, the most yang of all the elements. Fire is the energy that makes us warm-blooded creatures and gives us emotional warmth, joy, and enthusiasm. Fire also fuels growth and maturation, especially for the plants, with the yang sunshine stimulating the plants to grow tall and the fruits and vegetables to ripen. The Summer Solstice falls this year on Friday, June 21st.
Fresh Food Has More Chi
It's April and our local farmer's markets are just about to start up once again for the season. In honor of this highly anticipated spring event, I thought I would take a little time to talk about the connection between our chi and how it relates to the types of foods we eat, especially the importance of eating fresh foods. One of the most common complaints I hear from my patients is that of fatigue. Many times what they are feeling is a lack of chi. Simply put, chi is your lifeforce, the basic underlying energy that makes everything in the universe, including us, go. The theory of chi is similar to the theory of energy as it is described in physics: that everything in existence is essentially a different manifestation or expression of energy and forces.
We get our chi from just two sources: whatever we inherit from our parents and whatever we extract from air, food, and water. Our respiratory organs extract chi from the air, our digestive organs extract chi from food, and our urinary organs extract chi from water. In other words, besides the energy that we are born with, air, food, and water are the only fuel that keeps us going. This is why it is so important to get fresh air, eat well, and stay hydrated.
In Chinese medicine, eating well most of all means eating fresh foods. Fresh, seasonal, local, and unprocessed foods, just like the ones found at our farmer's markets, are the best. This is because fresh foods contain a nutrient that you cannot get from foods that are dehydrated, canned, frozen, preserved, or highly processed: chi. Not only are fresh foods higher in vitamins and other nutrients, they are also more alive. Foods that lack chi can even rob us of ours, taking more energy and nutrients to process and digest than they replenish, or they may contain toxic ingredients like artificial flavors and preservatives that require great amounts of energy to neutralize and safely eliminate. Foods like these have been stripped of their nutrients but have also been dead for a long time, perhaps for months or even years before they are eaten. In short, eat more fresh foods to have more chi!