Simply find your favorite liver root - I recommend yellow dock or burdock if you live in the NE as you can harvest it simply outside your door in most cases - and make a strong decoction of 1 tbsp herb to 1 cup of water simmered, covered, for 20 minutes. Drink a cup 3-4 times a day for a week, and see how you feel.
You're likely to either love or hate bitter flavors. Spring is the time of change - and to make sure that change flows we need bitters. My first introduction to a custom herbal protocol as an adult (I'd been experimenting on myself for years before that, and my mom often gave us herbs) was a bitter herbal liver cleanse by one of my teachers - Karen Rose of Sacred Vibes in Brooklyn. I came complaining about feeing stuck in the winter, slow, sluggish, lethargic. She gave me Oregon Grape, Yellow Dock, Dandelion & Burdock to take 3x a day for a week. Clearly this decoction did not taste great, but Karen said to choke it down - the taste was important too. I started the cleanse skeptical, but left feeling exactly as promise - FLOW was back, I felt lighter, not craving the heavy winterfoods, and my skin had cleared up. I was a believer in bitters. The herbs helped my liver do what it loves to do - process out impurities and toxins in the body - so in a sense I was just helping my body remember (through bitter flavors) what it was doing all along. I recently started reading The Wild Medicine Solution by Guido Mase. Guido writes poetically about bitter herbs and their effects in "remedying digestive symptoms, bolstering liver health, and reestablishing blood sugar balance." Exactly all the things you need after a long winter of sluggishness (if you live in the cold climates like I do) and eating a lot of heavy foods. I recommend reading this book for its fusion of science and energetic herbalism and the simple focus on aromatics, tonics and bitters.
Simply find your favorite liver root - I recommend yellow dock or burdock if you live in the NE as you can harvest it simply outside your door in most cases - and make a strong decoction of 1 tbsp herb to 1 cup of water simmered, covered, for 20 minutes. Drink a cup 3-4 times a day for a week, and see how you feel.
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I am the proud caretaker of the herb garden at the Tivoli housing co-op in upstate New York. And by caretaker, I mean I'm just following the plan of the previous gardener, getting starting on planting and clearing space for cultivated herbs these last few warm weeks of Sprin-winter. There are many medicinal plants growing in the "way" of the garden, but the one I was digging up last week first was Yellow Dock. One of my most powerful experiences with herbs involved a 1 week liver detox that included yellow dock, oregon grape, dandelion, and yes, yellow dock. A common field weed, yellow dock is a superior reliever of liver stagnation and deficiency. I had had a rough winter, and the yellow dock helped to jump-start my body and mind - relieving past bad habits and creating space for new habits of health and lightness. Yellow dock is nutritive and gets things moving, resolving dampness and stagnation in a deficient Spleen/Stomach and Liver/Galbladder meridians. Yellow dock is also a remedy for nettle stings - and often grows close by - but only if you sing the tune "Nettle in, dock out. Dock rub nettle out!"
I've noticed dandelion, burdock, violet and other old friends sprouting up all over the place. Nettles are next, ramps, and the elderflowers! Be in touch if you'd like to talk more about liver detoxing - I'm starting my annual one in a week or so and would love to do it with you. |
AuthorStephen Rye is a massage therapist, herbalist, gardener, and organizer. Archives
August 2016
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