Digestive Disturbances Come In All Varieties

And guess what? From this simple basis we can go on to enlarging our knowledge about heat and cold, damp and dry, tense and relaxed—the basic energetics, yin and yang, earth, air, fire, and water—of the body. You we can all become wise in our herbal applications. In the meantime, we can guess and match symptoms as best we can.

One person will have dental caries, another gas and bloating, another colitis, another diarrhea. It is not the name of the disease or the location so much as the energy pattern, whether it is over-stimulated, depressed, etc.

"Hot" digestion There are six basic patterns–at least the way I practice. The first one is over-stimulation, heat, or irritation. The blood is rich, the tissues are engorged and over-active, secretions are excessive–too much saliva and stomach acid. Digestion is strong and quick, appetite voracious, and there is a tendency (with age) to weight gain from excessive nutrition. The transit time for the stool tends to be rapid, so there will often be diarrhea or at least loose stools. Almost always, the tongue is elongated, shaped like a flame, with red/pink coloration. Symptoms may include herpes, painful tongue, thrush, burning, gnawing stomach, restlessness and sleeplessness, regurgitation of acid matter, stomach ulcers, rapid transit of stool (which is loose), bleeding hemorrhoids, etc. These people need sedation. The best remedies for this condition are acids. You can remedy yourself with foods–tomato juice, lemon juice (less often), fermented sour whey (if you can find it, yogurt if you can't), vinegar and water, kombucha (fermented green tea), etc.

The sour herbs are peach leaf, yellow dock root (especially for thrush and loose stools), rhubarb root, lemon balm, St. John's wort, and yarrow (not sour but heat-reducing). If the person has taken a lot of antacids to suppress the acidity (which is not healing, it can increase acid secretion or suppress it), the remedy may be meadowsweet.

"Cold" digestion The second pattern is the opposite. Instead of too much secretion there is not enough. Worse yet, tissue life is depressed. There is deterioration of the tissue, including dental caries, receding gums, bad taste in the mouth, bad breath from rotting food, plaque build up on the teeth, poor secretion in the stomach, no digestion or appetite, rotting food in the stomach, putrid belching, nausea but inability to vomit, a very strong tendency to stomach ulceration, constipation with putrid smelling stool. Even more seriously, there are pathological growths (as the natural life of the body is suppressed), leading to polyps and favoring cancer. The tongue tends to be dark red, blue, purple, coated yellow brown. What is needed here are the traditional carminatives (warming, aromatic spices) such as cardamom, fennel, dill, or the stronger stimulants–hot pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cabbage leaf juice, mustard seed, rosemary. These can be taken as herbs or foods. Because there is depressed tissue life there may be worms or bacteria and we need a worming remedy like butternut bark, walnut, chamomile, thyme, tiny doses of artemisias, etc. These people also need to put in time rebuilding the flora of the colon (acidophilus, fructooligosaccharides).

"Tense, spastic" digestion The third pattern is constriction or tension. The person eats but spasms develop in the stomach and elsewhere. Gas builds up, there is pain, bloating, belching and then it all releases with a big gust of wind. There tends to be constipation, not from inactivity of the colon, or sluggishness, but from tension. (There are three basic kinds of constipation: sluggish bowels, a movement every few days, requiring the laxatives; constricted bowels, alternating constipation and diarrhea; dry bowels, stool is hard, ball-like, dry, and difficult to move). These people are usually tense, if they eat on the run they should slow down. The most famous remedy for this condition is peppermint, but we can also use spearmint, catnip, or chamomile. In severe tension we might need blue vervain, especially if the intestines are involved.

"Relaxation" digestion The fourth pattern is the opposite of the last– relaxation. The stomach is too relaxed. Food sits there, the muscles move slowly, the secretions are watery and thin. The tongue is moist, round, pale, coated white. Saliva is copious but thin and does not cleanse the teeth, causing dental caries. There is nausea, and unlike tissue depression, there is easy vomiting, because the stomach muscles are relaxed and the abdominal muscles and diaphragm can easily wring it out with a good heave. The stool tends to be loose. Astringents are needed: blackberry leaf tea, raspberry, bayberry, uva ursi, oak bark (especially for rotting teeth and gums), wild geranium, herb robert. Babies have this kind of digestion until they get to the point where they can eat solid food—so study babies.

"Lack of secretion" digestion The fifth pattern is dryness or lack of secretion. There is a lack of saliva, dry mouth, dry tongue, sometimes even a shriveled tongue, a kink in the throat–hard to swallow, dry stomach with gas, bloating, flatus, very poor digestion, poor assimilation, and therefore wasting and slenderness. The stool tends to be hard and dry. Constipation here is from dryness. These people often have weak gut level instincts, so they are lacking in confidence, worried, afraid. They tend to get a little nervous so whatever nutrition they do get is quickly burned off. The remedies here need to be soothing, moistening, lubricating, and nourishing. That includes marshmallow root, slippery elm, and American ginseng. If there is a shortage of oil, poor bile secretion, dry stool, constipation, dry skin, there may be a need for oily foods and herbs–flax seed oil, burdock, angelica, sage, wild bergamot.

"Stagnation" digestion The sixth pattern is stagnation. The system is sluggish. Look for a heavy coating on the tongue—stuff stagnating. Secretions are deficient. These people do well with bitters for the digestive enzymes, the liver and gallbladder, and the anthraquinone bitters for constipation---aloe, senna, cascara sagrada. For the liver: dandelion root, burdock root, Oregon grape root, barberry root, and the non-bitter liver remedies—st. john’s wort, milk thistle, NAC. For the gallbladder: yellow dock root (cooling), Chelidonium (hot, use the homeopathic), fringe tree, artichoke (dry), agrimony (stone passing, pain). For the stomach or digestion, all the above, plus some simple things like caraway seed and and bitter greens. 

Learning the tissue states elevates one's herbal knowledge from a "this herb for that ailment" herbalism to "this herb for the person's particular makeup and therefor unique presentation of the ailment" herbalism. In other words, become a pro. Learn more about tissue states in Tasting and Sensing Herbs.


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