Although I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Aviva in person she is someone who has both inspired me and taught me so much! I loved reading about her (sometimes funny, sometimes heart breaking) experiences in Haiti this winter and her Naturally Healthy Babies and Children is probably my most often bought book since I often gift it to friends with children.
Her textbook on Botanical Medicine for Women is spectacular! I just used her protocol for Group B strep this winter to help a woman avoid having IV antibiotics during birth. But I digress... :)
This Thursday Aviva will be giving a webinar in celebration of International Herb Day, which is Saturday, May 5th. There has been a call out to herbalists to do something in their communities to help celebrate this day. I’ll be leading a plant walk with all donations going to support my sliding scale clinic in the Methow Valley.
Do you have plans to celebration International Herb Day? I'd love to hear them in the comments below.
Oh, and in case you don’t know Aviva, she is the past president of the American Herbalist Guild, has been a midwife and herbalist for decades and has recently graduated from Yale Medical School. Her life experience and dedication to learning makes her a gem to learn from.
Begin by beating the egg white with a wire whisk until it begins to froth.
Place your sugar in another shallow bowl. A note about the sugar, it’s best to use really fine sugar. I used regular sugar that I ground in a mortar and pestle. You can also find fine sugar in specialty shops. Fine sugar is different than powdered sugar.
Here comes the delicate part. Pick up a flower by its stem and dip it into the egg white. You can also use a clean paintbrush to brush the egg whites on to each petal. Make sure you coat all the petals well, front and back.
Next place the violet in the bowl of sugar and coat all parts of the flower with the sugar.
Place this on a plate or wax paper, snip the stem and repeat with all the flowers. Be sure to rearrange the flower so that it looks good, it will dry this way. (You can use a chopstick or fork to arrange the petals nicely.)
Lastly, place these in an oven on the lowest setting until completely dry of if you live in a dry environment, simply leave them on the counter for the day.
These will keep for awhile if stored in an airtight container, but it’s best to use them as soon as possible.
I am so incredibly excited to share a project with you that has been over three years in the making!
Have you ever wished you knew about herbs and healing when you were younger?
Have you ever wanted to share the magic of herbs with your children or grandchildren?
Then you are going to LOVE this!
Herb Fairies is a series of adventure books written by the creator of WildCraft!, the herbal board game, Kimberly Gallagher. These books offer an inspiring tale of herbal adventures that will have your kids on the edge of their seat while learning about herbal medicine.
Over the past years I’ve been reading these books to the young people in my life and have been able to watch them fall in love with herbs over and over again!
Click on this link to learn more about these books and to download lots of free bonuses such as posters and coloring pages.
I almost forgot! I’ve had my hands in this project too! I got to make these really cool recipe cards for each book. You’ll get to see one of those this week!
Zoologists classify the panda as a carnivore. The panda has gut structure, gut function, and gut enzymes like a carnivore.
The panda does not have multiple stomachs, nor an enlarged cecum, nor the gut microbes found in animals that eat diets composed largely of fiber, like cattle and sheep.
The Smithsonian National Zoo states that "A wild giant panda’s diet is almost exclusively (99 percent) bamboo."
At the Talk Origins site on human evolution, Douglas Theobald, professor of biochemistry at Brandeis University writes "... even though humans are herbivorous, the small human caecum does not house significant quantities of cellulase-excreting bacteria, and we cannot digest more than but a few grams of cellulose per day." [Emphasis added]
Leaving aside for the moment the interesting fact that this staunch defender of evolutionary theory describes humans as herbivorous, the panda's ability to digest cellulose is similar to humans. The gut microbes of pandas digest very little of the fiber the pandas consume; 92 percent of cellulose a panda ingests ends up eliminated in its feces.
If in pandas gut microbes convert only 8 percent of ingested cellulose into short chain fatty acids, this probably means that the panda gets most of its energy from the digestible carbohydrate and protein provided by bamboo leaves and stalks, not from fat. Does the panda challenge the idea that "the natural diet of mammals is a high-fat diet"?
The pandas provide a striking example of a non-human mammal that has almost none of the genetic or physiological equipment associated with herbivory (only having some dental and grip adaptations), yet it spontaneously lives as an herbivore.
The fact that a member of the Carnivora order has adapted spontaneously to a highly specialized and extremely fibrous, low fat, 99% herbivorous diet without apparent major physiological and genetic changes seems to raise some interesting questions for those who believe that modern humans are optimally adapted to some diet consumed by some paleolithic human ancestors.
The panda also seems to challenge another presupposition of paleolithic diet theory, which goes something like this: Any species that at any time in its evolution adopts a meat-based diet is required thenceforth to always maintain a meat-based diet to sustain health.
This is clearly not true for the panda; despite having physiological equipment that limits its ability to extract nourishment from plants, it has succeeded in its niche for at least a million years.
The panda shows us that when individuals of a species encounter an environmental challenge, they do whatever they can do to succeed in the changing environment without any concern about what their ancestors did, or whether they have the optimal physiology for the new habit. The new feeding strategy may not be optimal, and it doesn’t have to be; it only has to be good enough to allow individuals to survive long enough to reproduce.
Now, why does Professor Theobald say that humans are herbivorous? Because we humans have descended from a very long line of herbivorous ancestors and have a body displaying more features in common with other herbivores than with carnivores, including plantigrade stance, relatively slow sprints (compared, for example, to canines or felines), color vision, nails (rather than claws), small mouth, fleshy lips, non-shearing teeth, carbohydrate taste receptors (rather than amino acid taste receptors found in cats), non-expandable esophagus, haustrated and long intestines, low potency bile, a vermiform appendix, and a sense of fear (those at the top of the food chain are not stalked so do not need fear to enhance survival).
During the last two to four million years, climate changes and migrations put human ancestors in environments where they had to adopt omnivorous diets to survive, despite not being fully adapted to the new foods (meat and animal fat), just as the first panda ancestor to eat bamboo was not fully (physiologically) suited to a bamboo diet. Nevertheless, just as the bamboo diet was/is good enough for the panda lineage to survive, a meat-based diet was/is good enough for the human lineage to survive in plant-food depleted environment.
That does not mean it will produce the best health. A diet does not have to protect individuals from heart disease or cancer, or support maximum longevity, to be good enough to support the continuation of the species. These diseases typically kill people long after they have reached reproductive age.
The discordance hypothesis favored by some Paleolithic diet advocates states that diseases arise as a consequence of an individual adopting a diet, lifestyle, or habitat sufficiently different from the diet, lifestyle, or habitat of its ancestors to create a discordance with the genetic heritage of its species.
The wild giant panda seems to have a diet substantially discordant with its genetic constitution. Yet the panda doesn’t suffer from a host of diet-induced diseases.
“Each facility feeds a steamed grain mixture comprising 13–56% of the diet on an as-fed basis, animal products (milk, eggs, and/or meat; 8–25% of the diet), and bamboo (17–82% of the diet). Seasonally available fruits and/or vegetables are sometimes included (0–29% of the diet).”
This mixed and cooked diet deviates from the 100% raw, 99% bamboo diet of wild giant pandas, and includes foods never eaten by wild pandas during the past 3 million years (grains). The San Diego Zoo reports:
“At the San Diego Zoo, pandas are offered bamboo, carrots, yams, and special leaf eater biscuits made of grain and packed with all the vitamins and minerals pandas need.”
It seems the San Diego veterinarians have settled on a vegan diet for the panda. The pandas apparently do quite well on this non-ancestral diet, at least in terms of longevity. According to the SanDiego Zoo, wild pandas live only 14-20 years, but pandas in zoos live 30 years, 50 to 100 percent longer. Apparently, a panda can live much longer when eating an evolutionarily novel diet including steamed grains than when eating only the raw foods eaten by its wild ancestors. This experiment apparently trumps the discordance hypothesis.
Consider that the panda has been isolated to a bamboo forest, and eating a bamboo-based diet, for perhaps one million years, yet this sustained selective pressure to adapt to a bamboo diet has had relatively little impact on its basic anatomy and physiology. Today’s panda still does not have an herbivorous body form despite such a long period of evolution on the 99% bamboo diet, but the diet works good enough for the panda (perhaps as good as it gets in the current niche) to pass the bamboo habit to the next generation.
In contrast, the past two million years of human evolution occurred under much more varied ecological conditions. During human ancestral evolution, the variability of the ice age climate and human mobility led to wide variability of plant-animal ratios in ancestral diets, and this combined with intertribal marriages tended to minimize selective pressures for any specific physiological adaptations to meat-eating and supported retention of the basically herbivorous primate physiology.
The panda seems to challenge the idea that our genes, or the diets of our remote ancestors, determine the optimal diet for present-day humans. Apparently neither ancestral diets, nor genes, nor physiological equipment will necessarily make a meat-based diet a perpetual requirement, or the optimum choice, for any given species, let alone one (such as humans) with an extensively herbivorous ancestry and numerous adaptations to herbivory.
I think the panda shows us quite clearly that if we want to know how to prevent degenerative diseases and maximize healthy longevity, we will want to gather knowledge from the experience and experiments (natural and controlled) of present day humans, rather than assume that we will get the best results by eating only the foods consumed by our remote ancestors.
Post Script
This post was inspired by similar, but less dramatic examples of non-human animals adapting to non-ancestral foods/diets in some Plant Positive videos, for example:
Primitive Nutrition 60: Ketosis Is Natural. Natural Is Good. Part III
"Polar bears in captivity are not fed a diet like they would consume in the wild. They are actually fed fruits and vegetables. But this isn’t their natural diet! Surely this is a form of animal abuse, right?"
"Actually, polar bears in captivity live considerably longer. But shouldn't an evolutionarily novel diet destroy their health? This is yet another example of how Paleologic is no substitute for experiment and observation."
"In the wild, polar bears live an average 15 to 18 years, although biologists have tagged a few bears in their early 30s. In captivity, they may live until their mid- to late 30s. Debby, a zoo bear in Canada, lived to be 42."
Thus, an evolutionarily novel diet supports a doubling of lifespan in polar bears.
Thanks to Plant Positive for giving inspiration and sharing suggestions for this post.
In part I of the cardiovascular system we will gain an understanding of the various parts of this system and then put these organs together to gain an understanding of how blood is circulated through the body.
In part II we will learn more about the blood itself.
The cardiovascular system consists of:
The heart
Blood vessels including arteries, capillaries, and veins
Blood
The Heart
The heart is a muscular organ made up of involuntary striated muscle tissue. It is located in the thoracic cavity in between the lungs and just above the diaphragm. It is covered in protective membranes called the pericardium. Besides forming a protective layer, these membranes also secrete a fluid that helps to reduce friction as tissues rub together during heart contractions.
The next layer of the heart is a thick layer of cardiac muscle tissue called the myocardium. It is the contraction of the myocardium that creates the force necessary to pump blood through the body.
Attached to the outer surface of the myocardium is the epicardium. This membrane consists of blood vessels that nourish the heart.
Blood Supply
The heart is supplied blood through the coronary arteries, which come off of the aortic artery. Blockage of the coronary artery is what causes a heart attack.
The Heart Chambers
There are four chambers in the heart. The two upper chambers are called the atria. They receive blood from the veins. The two lower chambers are the ventricles. Blood is pumped from the ventricles to the arteries and to the rest of the body. The heart consists of two pumps. The left atrium and left ventricle is the left pump. The right atrium and the right ventricle is the right pump. There is no opening between the atria or between the ventricles. Instead, there are valves in between the atria and the corresponding ventricles.
The Heart Valves
There are two types of valves located in the heart: the atrioventricular valves and the semilunar valves. The atrioventricular valves are located between each atrium and its corresponding ventricle. These valves allow blood to flow from the atrium to the ventricle without allowing any blood to flow backwards from the ventricle to the atrium. The two atrioventricular valves are the tricuspid valve and the mitral valve.
Semilunar valves are located in the arteries that carry blood from the ventricles to the rest of the body. The two semilunar valves are called the pulmonary semilunar valve and the aortic semilunar valve.
The sound we associate with the heartbeat is actually the closing of the heart valves. “Lub-dub” is the sound often used to describe the sound of the heartbeat. The first sound, “lub”, is the sound of the atrioventricular valves closing. The second sound, “dub”, is the sound of the semilunar valves. If any of the heart valves are not working correctly then another sound might be heard. This is referred to as a heart murmur.
Blood vessels
There are three main types of blood vessels. Arteries, capillaries, and veins form a system of tubes that carry blood to and from the heart. The blood vessels form an incredible network of tubes throughout the body. An adult has as many of 100,000 miles of blood vessels in their body.
Arteries
These large blood vessels are made of a thick muscular layer to withstand higher blood pressure. They carry blood from the heart to the capillaries.
Capillaries
Capillaries form a vast network of very small vessels that enable the exchange of materials between blood and the tissue cells. The term capillary bed refers to a network of capillaries that supply blood to an organ.
Veins
Veins return blood from the capillaries back to the heart. They are made up of a relatively thin muscular layer and contain internal valves to keep the blood from ever flowing backwards. About 60% of the blood volume is located in the veins at any given time.
Blood Flow
Deoxygenated blood from the body flows from the superior and inferior vena cava veins to the right atrium. This blood is pumped to the right ventricle and then proceeds to the pulmonary trunk where it is oxygenated by the act of inhalation. This newly oxygenated blood then flows through pulmonary veins to the left atrium and is pumped to the left ventricle to continue to the aorta and the rest of the body. These are referred to as the pulmonary and systemic circuits.
Pulmonary Circuit
Assists deoxygenated blood from the right ventricle to the lungs and then assists newly oxygenated blood from the lungs to the left atrium. (This is the flow of blood between the heart and lungs.)
Systemic Circuit
Assists oxygenated blood to all parts of the body (except the lungs) and then returns deoxygenated blood to the right atrium. (This is the flow of blood from the heart to the rest of the body.)
The following diagram illustrates the flow of blood. Blue indicates deoxygenated blood and red indicates oxygenated blood.
Blood Pressure
The circulation of blood throughout the body happens due to changes in blood pressure. Blood naturally flows from areas of high pressure to areas of lower pressure. When the ventricles contract it creates the pressure necessary to push the blood into the arteries. As the blood travels throughout the body the pressure continually decreases.
Blood pressure is measured in two numbers. The systolic blood pressure is the measurement of the ventricular contraction. The diastolic blood pressure is the pressure measured during a ventricular contraction. Optimal blood pressure is around 120/8
The anatomy and physiology in this article was extracted mainly from ThePrinciples of Anatomy & Physiology, Tortora, Grabowski. I also used Anatomy and Physiology by Stanley E. Gunstream 4th ed.
The second half of this article giving us an herbal perspective on the nervous system would not have been possible without jim mcdonald’s Article Index. Thanks a thousand times to jim for putting this together.
This article is part of the Anatomy and Physiology section of www.HerbMentor.com.
