18. Chronic disease starts in the gut.
Hippocrates said, “All diseases begin in the gut.” Obviously, not all diseases start in the gut, but many do. This wouldn’t apply to genetic illness, certain bacterial or viral infections, parasites, or exposure to toxins. However, when we take into account that the gut houses a whopping 70 percent of the immune system, it’s easy to see how this affects our general immunity and immune response, regardless of the cause of the illness.
Gut health affects immune activity, plain and simple. Sometimes a person’s first inkling of a physical problem is digestive discomfort. Viewed in isolation, digestive problems may simply be due to overeating or poor restaurant choices. However, viewed holistically, when digestive problems turn into food sensitivities that turn into leaky gut syndrome that turns into ulcerative colitis, there is a huge issue. The red flag should have been waving around food sensitivities. Any change in digestion is a signal that something is not right. It’s signaling that attention needs to be paid to overall health, not just digestive health, and to slow down and take time to figure out what’s bothering digestion. A food elimination diet can be very helpful to determine any food sensitivities.
The very nature of a chronic disease or autoimmune disorder is that it slowly builds in the body. It can take about five years from the onset of symptoms until a problem can be accurately diagnosed by blood work.
Digestive problems can also lead to depression. Scientists have discovered that about 90 percent of our serotonin is produced in the gut by bacteria. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that affects the nervous system, moods, muscle activity, and our sense of happiness and well-being. Drugs that affect serotonin are some of the most prescribed mood-enhancing drugs used in conventional medicine.
Bottom line: Gut health is a reflection of overall health and our sense of well-being. When in doubt, work on the gut.
19. Every person is born with a talent, and we must find and use our talents to grow who we are and become ourselves.
If we deny our talent, if we deny ourselves, this may cause unhappiness, depression, and illness. So what is a talent? In this context, a talent is any gift or leaning innate within us. It may be creative, such as art, music, or dance. You might be a natural-born athlete or love flower arranging or building things from wood. You might have an aptitude for business or chemistry. It may be an ability such as being a good listener or having an aptitude for foreign languages.
Even though we may have been born with a talent or leaning, it still takes practice, practice, practice to become skillful and expert with the talent. All the innate talent for music, athletics, or math may lie dormant or not reach full potential without study and practice. Manifesting your talent isn’t about achieving greatness, becoming famous, or becoming rich. It’s about fulfilling that bit inside you that yearns to express that which is waiting.
More than likely, this tenet made its way into Southern and Appalachian Folk Medicine from the Bible. There are several Bible verses concerning talents. The most commonly quoted one is from 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, which basically says that gifts (talents) are given for the common good. One person may have the gift of wisdom and another the gift of knowledge. Other gifts mentioned are for healing, languages, prophecy, and teaching.
20. Faith healers can lay on hands, talk out fire, bloodstop, or talk off warts.
These are all gifts that may be apparent at birth but more commonly are given from one person to another. These folk traditions can be found in the South and Southern Appalachians, the Ozarks, the Midwest, around the Great Lakes area, and really all across the country.
Touch therapies for healing are found in almost every culture and folk medicine in the world. They are extensively documented in the traditional medicines of China, Tibet, Egypt, Japan, and India, and among Native Americans and African Folk Healers. To touch someone who is ill is an automatic response and provides comfort, reduces anxiety, and soothes the nerves. Mothers touch and hug their children when they are ill or injured. And often all it takes for the child to feel better is a kiss from Mom. Modern laying-on-of-hands methods include Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, and reflexology.
Laying on of hands is referenced in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible and is used in religious and healing ceremonies within a religious context. In this setting, laying on of hands transfers the healing power of God to the person in need who may be too sick, tired, or ill to pray themselves.
Talking out fire and bloodstopping are skills that can be passed from one person to another. A woman can teach a man these skills and a man can teach a woman, but a woman can’t teach a woman and a man can’t teach another man. Once a person teaches another to either bloodstop or talk out fire, their own ability is lost. They’ve passed it on.
Reference to bloodstoppers appears in manuscripts from the eighth century in Britain, Scandinavia, and Germany. A Bible verse is quoted under the breath while the bloodstopper holds one hand over the head of the person who is bleeding.
Fire-blowing takes away the pain of a burn, though it can also be used for any type of pain. Traditional Native American spiritual healing may involve sucking out the pain or blowing out the fire (pain). Blowing and sucking away pain have been documented among Native American tribes from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States. Instead of blowing out the fire, I was taught to suck it out and spit it onto the ground. This is called drawing out the fire.
In some areas of Appalachia and the Midwest, fire-blowing may be called “talking out the fire.” The fire-blower murmurs a Bible verse while holding a hand over the affected area.
There are probably more home remedies for warts than the common cold. Many of the home remedies, such as soaking the affected area in vinegar, using the herb thuja, or crushing an aspirin and applying as a paste, may have some scientific basis. But the more colorful wart remedies, which seem to work just as often as anything else, have no basis in science, such as rubbing a penny around the wart three times and throwing away the penny; tying a thread around the wart, leaving it overnight, and then burying it in a graveyard the next day; and rubbing the wart with a slice of potato and then burying the slice.
Locally, Cousin Calvin was considered the best wart-talker. People came from far and wide to have him talk off their warts. Calvin would wave his hand over the affected area, mumble a few undecipherable words, and tell the person that their wart would be gone in a few days. Warts disappeared fast enough on folks that Calvin developed a solid reputation that stood the test of time. I once asked Calvin what he mumbled, to which he replied, “Whatever takes my fancy for that person.” He didn’t have a set verse but tailored each individually. Another time I asked, “How does this work Calvin? What makes the warts disappear?” To which Calvin replied, “It’s my energy. My energy has to be stronger than the wart and people believe this to be true.”
21. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
Although this is often attributed to the Bible, this phrase is not actually found within its pages. The source is most likely the Jewish Talmud. In 1605, Francis Bacon wrote, “Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God.” John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, said in one of his sermons in 1791, “Cleanliness is indeed next to Godliness.”
Whatever the source, cleanliness is an important concept in Southern Folk Medicine. From a practical point of view, an unclean house can harbor bacteria, fungus, and mold and mildew, and be a home for small critters such as rats, fleas, scabies, or lice. In older times, it was important to keep the house as clean as possible because folks lived very close to the elements and to nature, and there was often very little barrier between indoors and outdoors.
A clean house and a person who bathed regularly and wore clean clothes were signs of a person with good character. A person who routinely had an unwashed body and wore dirty cloths was considered to have low character, was considered unclean. Or as my mother was fond of saying, “Nasty.” She enco
uraged me to have cleanly dressed friends whose mothers kept clean houses.
The concept of clean and unclean didn’t rely on social status. For several years Mama earned money for our family by cleaning houses for some of the better-off families in town. She understood that even though these folks had a tremendous amount of money in comparison to her, they weren’t always clean people. And in her eyes, this greatly lowered her view of their character. She once told me, “When I leave their houses, I know I’ve made a difference in their lives because I’ve cleaned it up.” And she was right.
Even though we were extremely poor, our house was so clean you could eat off the floor. (No joke.) When a house is untidy, the floors haven’t been swept, nor the dishes washed, and clutter is everywhere, this effects the physical body, the mood, and the mind. The buildup of dust, dander, pet hairs, and dust mites can affect allergies and creates a haven for fleas and germs. The clutter also creates an environment where it’s easy to lose things like car keys, shoes, and bills. How do you find what’s missing in all that clutter? Just the overwhelming presence of clutter increases anxiety and stress, and makes you feel tired. If your surroundings get too cluttered, the thought of cleaning both becomes and feels like an overwhelming task. Even more importantly, all that clutter blocks anything new from entering your life and encourages holding on to the past.
22. At the deathbed, burn cedar, stop the clocks, and cover the mirrors. Place a coin, generally a penny, over the eyes.
Birth and death rituals are an important part of any folk medicine. Many of these rituals have lost their place in the community but traditionally were there for a reason. My elders suggested never taking your newborn into a public place or having visitors, other than family, until the baby was at least three months old, if not older. This was to protect the newborn with an immature immune system from catching whatever was going around. Words of wisdom to be sure.
While birth rituals were times of joy, death rituals were a time of grief and, in my family, more important than birth rituals. They were especially important to my Mama. During the deathbed vigil, small cedar branches were often burned to “clean the air.” Cedar is a sacred herb for Native Americans of the Southeast, along with tobacco, white sage, and rabbit tobacco. Traditionally, burning cedar at the deathbed purified the spirit and sent it along the way; it also scented the air. Stopping all the clocks and watches was a way to record the moment of death. My aunt Sadie told me that covering the mirrors kept the spirit that was leaving from seeing their reflection, realizing they had died, and trying to go back into the body. A penny was placed on each eye to keep them shut, but also to pay the ferry to cross the River Jordan.
If a woman had passed, the women family members along with other women in the community would wash the body, fix the hair, and dress the body for burial while singing gospel songs. If a man had died, the male members of the family and male community members washed the body, dressed the man in his burial suit, and either shaved the man or combed his hair and beard. The women would sing gospel songs in the next room.
All this had to be completed fairly quickly while the body was somewhat pliable and before rigor mortis set in. Mama and Daddy were often called upon to help in this capacity. This was in the days when the body was kept at home for the wake and taken to the church for burial. It would be called a green burial today, but back then, it was what poor people did who couldn’t afford a funeral home or a fancy funeral. It was important to Mama that we all had proper burials, and she took out burial policies on each of us.
Our house, as poor as we were, was often the home where the bodies of family members came for the wake. The coffin would take up any spare space in the living room and would be open day and night until the funeral. Family and folks in the community would come in and out over about two or three days, bringing food, “sitting up” with the corpse, and telling stories about the person’s life. Generally, it was men who sat up at night, not the women. For me, it was a really spooky time to tip-toe past a corpse on my way to bed, and I was often scared of going to sleep, lest I be haunted. On the upside, neighbors and community members brought food to eat and their kids with them, and we could play outdoors. As children, we weren’t shielded from death. It was the final act of life.
23. A person’s story can help reveal their illness.
Even though I’ve listed this last, this tenet is one of the most important ones to me. Each of us has a story, and throughout this book I relate a few of mine. My mother and father, grandparents, children, lovers, husbands, clients, and friends have influenced my story in ways that I could never have imagined. Much of my formative family story centered around that acre of land with the giant tree.
We all have many stories; these are the stories that have shaped who we are and how we live our lives. And when we pass this Earth, what we leave behind is our story. Many of our stories develop from events in our lives, some good and some traumatic, and these are the ones that create our personal identity—how we see ourselves, how we view our world, and how we find our place in it. And these are the stories that make our personal narrative.
Some stories develop about us or around us, and of those stories, we may be unaware—these are the ones that create our public persona or myth. These are the stories that shape how others see us and see our place in the world. Family is really good at sharing stories about us, especially at holidays, although they are not always the ones we want to hear. It’s also often very true that our families see a different story than our friends because our story is also part of their story. Due to this, they filter the story through their lens of experience, which may not be the same as ours.
Hearing and understanding a person’s story is a great assessment tool. Often, living the same story over and over is at the root of chronic health problems. This may include dating the same type of person over and over, being in a relationship that is no longer rightful, or holding onto beliefs that no longer serve a purpose. A person’s story can hold them immobile and impede their healing journey. Unhealthy beliefs may center around self-esteem, feelings of belonging or worthiness, or traumatic life events. Regardless, the event or belief becomes an element in our personal stories the moment they occur or we think them into being. They become us.
Sometimes, an illness actually becomes the main character in a person’s story. This happens when a person loses the dream, the vision, of who they are and allows the image of others to take over. As a matter of fact, whenever we have a symptom, it immediately integrates into our story. Before we know it, the illness may have its own personality, causing behaviors to be exhibited that are not normal for our personality. This is because a new personality has been introduced into the story, and a new relationship has gained prominence.
In Southern Folk Medicine, discovering a person’s story is half the assessment process. This is how important their story is to understand. It is their narrative, their life in words. Without the story, how do we truly know the full extent of the events that led up to their illness? Without the story, how do we know who they are? Without the story, our approach is allopathic. Without the story, we are not thinking in a holistic manner encompassing mind, body, emotions, and spirit—a basic tenant of folk medicines around the world. Everything centers around the story.
I encourage you to spend some time discovering your own story and working to change any aspects of the narrative that no longer serve a purpose in your life. It will free up tremendous amounts of energy and open the door to new stories.
Chapter Seven
Hot/Cold and Wet/Dry
When clouds appear like towers, the earth is refreshed by showers.
—Old weather saying
Living in tornado alley certainly offers a glimpse into the concept of hot/cold and wet/dry that many people rarely experience. A tornado happens when different temperatures and humidity meet. In the Southeastern United States, tornadoes form when warm, wet winds from the Gulf of Mexico meet the cold, dry air drop
ping down from Canada. Often, it seems like they are meeting right over my town, and in some ways, they are.
Hot and cold describe temperatures, and wet and dry describe humidity. Normally, warm air rises, which makes your attic the hottest spot in your house. When the hot from the Gulf meets the cold from Canada, the cold air traps the warm air beneath it. Perfect tornado weather. The warm air really wants to rise but can’t, and so it begins to rotate in agitation. During the day, the sun continues to heat the ground and more warm air keeps trying to rise. This continues until the warm air creates enough rotation, agitation, and mass to push through the cold air holding it down. Now there is a flip-flop, and the risen warm air now traps the cold air beneath it. This creates the rotating column of raging wind and rain that is the tornado. One year, on February 14, it was 80°ree;F during the day, and that evening after the tornado passed, it snowed.
There’s no weather event more destructive than a tornado, which can reach speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour. Tornadoes happen more frequently than hurricanes, and cause more damage in the local area. Hurricanes reach speeds between 70 and 100 miles per hour, and tend to cause more destruction with flooding. In tornadoes, I’ve seen pine needles stuck horizontally into trees; pieces of hay embedded in the side of a house; and a house picked up off its foundation and deposited into the middle of the street. I’ve seen a house cut down the middle from attic to foundation like someone took a giant chainsaw and ripped through it, but nary a picture on the walls was disturbed. I’ve seen a tornado take out a whole neighborhood of houses and leave one house with only a few broken windows.
Southern Folk Medicine Page 18
