Holistic Health

By David Crow, L.Ac.

Introduction
The last century brought immense improvements in health and longevity to people in the US. Some of these benefits can be attributed to medical advances, but most were the result of better sanitation, nutrition, and overall quality of life. Now, many of the improvements that were gained are being lost, and new threats to individual and collective health are emerging. Instead of open sewers, we have ubiquitous environmental contamination; instead of malnutrition from inadequate intake of food, we have widespread nutrition-related illnesses caused by degradation of the food chain. While modern medicine has made great advances, iatrogenic illnesses are among the leading causes of morbidity and fatality, and preventable and treatable chronic degenerative diseases have reached epidemic levels.

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By David Crow, L.Ac.

Until now, all the articles in this series have focused on beautiful, exotic, rare, and tantalizing flowers, fragrances, and essential oils. But the plant realm is full of many mysteries and surprises, and some of the most effective remedies are found in common weeds. This month we feature two aromatic herbs that are so unobtrusive and humble they could easily be overlooked, yet they contain remarkable healing powers that make them superior among the vast selection of natural medicines.

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By David Crow, L.Ac.

History
Essential oil-containing aromatic plants have been used for anti-infectious purposes for millennia. Sewage, rotting garbage, sick people, environmental pollution, and other sources of unpleasant smells reveal the presence of proliferating microbial toxins. Without knowing the details of what pathogenic agents were present, people understood that where there were bad vapors, diseases lurked. Aromatic plants have been the primary antidote for these evil spirits. Traditional medical systems, such as Ayurveda, had a general concept of microscopic pathogens and knew that substances such as essential oils counteracted those toxins.

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By David Crow, L.Ac.

Essential oil-containing aromatic plants have been used for anti-infectious purposes for millennia. The unpleasant odors of sewage, rotting garbage, sick people, and environmental pollution reveal the presence of proliferating microbial toxins. Without knowing the details of what pathogenic agents were present, people have always known that where there were bad vapors, diseases lurked. Throughout history, aromatic plants and their essential oils have been the primary antidote for these evil spirits.

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By David Crow, L.Ac.

Published in Light on Ayurveda, September ‘07

Traditional medical systems such as Ayurveda and Chinese medicine (TCM) are fundamentally systems of eco-physiology, which describe the functioning of the human body using terms and concepts derived from observing the elements and energetic patterns of planetary biospheric physiology. If students contemplate these principles deeply, they begin to develop a kind of macro-thinking that reveals not just the basic elemental correspondences taught in Ayurvedic and TCM colleges, but vast patterns of interrelationships between living beings and the underlying commonalities of biological functions. When this type of synthetic and integrative thinking is combined with an understanding, even rudimentary, of botany, physiology, and chemistry, a truly holistic vision of life emerges. A holistic vision of life awakens a sense of reverence for the intelligence operating within every aspect of nature, and this awakening in turn is the foundation of spiritual wisdom.

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