Primal Music - Native American Flute

People all over the planet have used wood or bamboo to make flutes.  I enjoy wooden and bamboo flute music and am learning to play a bamboo flute.  Enjoy.

A Path to Primal Feet

Primal people who had only simple or no footwear had feet that look like this (thanks to Tim Ferris at The Four Hour Work Week for the first three images in this post):

The toes have interspaces, the ball is wide, the basic shape is almost triangular, and you can draw a straight line through the big toe to the opposite corner of the heel, making this a very stable foundation for posture.  Modern people who wear toe-squeezing footwear have feet like this:

Obviously the latter provides a much less stable foundation for movement, and this transmits up the legs and thighs to the torso.  Dysfunctional (non-primal) feet form a foundation for ankle, knee, hip, lumbar, and neck dysfunction.

Moreover, the use of elevated heels forces the body to compensate by exaggerating lordosis (lumbar curve) and kyphosis (upper back curve), which again causes lumbar and neck pain and dysfunction:

My father has feet similar to those depicted in the second image above, deformed by wearing shoes too small when a child, so my parents made sure I had “roomy” shoes.  Nevertheless, my feet look like this:

 Not quite as wide and stable as primal feet, but not as deformed as feet forced to conform to shoes too narrow or small. 

To move in the direction of primal feet, I use gel toe spreaders:

After just half an hour of wearing the toe spreaders, my feet look like this:

The more I wear them the better it gets.

So I aim to wear them for an hour or more every day when at home.  I also wear Vibram Five Fingers KSO Treks all day long at my office:

  And after a day of wearing this my feet look like this:

Which is a little better than the first photo of my feet above, which was taken after some time in regular shoes.  So it looks like a consistent use of the toe spreaders and Five Fingers shoes will help me get primal feet.

My Meals 1/27/2010

Got a new camera so I can post some photos now.

Breakfast

Grass fed beef roast, very rare, ~10 ounces, with kale and onions sauteed with bacon

 1 sweet potato with 2 T organic butter and one-half of an orange 


Lunch

 

Same beef and vegetable dish as at breakfast, carried to my office in my stainless steel lunch container. Also had one banana, one apple, and a half-cup of walnuts.

 Here's what the container looks like sealed up.   I use these to avoid plastics that can leach endocrine-disrupters like BPA into the food.

Potential Thyroid Toxins in Cookware, Clothing, and Carpets

The primal perspective rests on the discordance hypothesis, that modern diseases arise from a discord between our modern environments and our stone age biology. Thus, it predicts that any chemical product of modern technology absent from the paleo environment would likely cause disease.

In efforts to make life "convenient," short-sighted "scientists" have developed and introduced into the environment a whole host of chemicals containing halogens such as chlorine, bromine, iodine, and fluorine. These chemicals never occurred in the primal environment, so the human body lacks the ability to detoxify them, and does not have adaptation to an environment contaminated with them.

Since the human thyroid requires iodide for production of thyroid hormone, and all halogens share similar electrochemical and physical properties, a primal philosopher like myself can predict that synthetic halogen-containing chemicals could have harmful effects on thyroid function.

So I felt no surprise to learn today that British researchers have found that people having high blood levels of perfluorinated chemicals found in food wrappings, non-stick pans, carpets, and fabrics report an elevated risk of thyroid disease.

After analyzing blood serum levels of two types of perfluorinated chemicals in nearly 4,000 U.S. adult men and women, they found that women having blood levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in the highest quartile reported thyroid disease more than twice as frequently those in the lowest two quartiles. They found a similar but not statistically significant in men.

Among men, those who had high levels of perfluoroctane sulphonate (PFOS) in their blood had greater incidence of reported thyroid disease, but the same association was not found in women.

This study only detected an association, and did not establish causation. However, the published study refers to previous animal studies thath have shown that these chemicals may affect the thyroid adversely.

So where do people get exposed to these chemicals?

“Perfluorinated chemicals are pervasive in industrial and consumer products, including food packaging, flame-resistant and waterproof clothing, chemical-resistant tubing and stain-resistant coatings for carpets. The chemicals are chosen for their ability to repel heat, water, grease and stains…..”

And the main source?

“The main source of human exposure to PFOA and PFOS is unknown, but it's believed to be through diet, such as from greaseproof food wrappings, researchers said. People may also inhale household dust that contained PFOA or PFOS from fireproof or waterproof coatings on fabrics or carpeting.”

The half-life in the human body of PFOA is 3.8 years and that of and PFOS is 5.4 years. Toxicologists have found PFOA and PFOS in water, air and soil, even in remote areas of the globe. The blood of birds, fish and polar bears also contain PFOA and PFOS.

On the bright side:

“Because of concerns about toxicity, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency got commitments from eight manufacturers of PFOA to reduce emissions and usage of PFOA and related chemicals by 95 percent this year, and to move toward eliminating usage of the chemicals completely by 2015.”

Have you ever wondered why we do this? Why do we (humans) create toxic materials and poison ourselves with them? I mean, I think most people can appreciate that a rational approach would entail the precautionary principle, first do no harm. Yet it seems that our “scientists” rarely if ever question their omniscience, omnibenevolence, and omnipotence with regard to altering the furniture of nature. Why?

I believe that the people (“scientists”) who do this type of thing are both effects and victims of a diseased world-view. The fundamental disease is called dualism, a world-view that envisions the human mind/species as “made in the image” of an omniscient, omnipotent supernatural Big Boss of the Universe, and thus envisions the human mind as the divinely ordained, omniscient, supernatural, omnibenevolent Boss of “dumb” nature.

Entranced by the idea that human intelligence is a stranger in a strange land, our “scientists” labor the delusion that the conscious mind “knows” more than the system (nature) out of which it arose, and of which is it a very weak and small part. They view themselves as smart and the world (including the body) as stupid. Plus, they consider themselves as the elite divine priesthood and the common people as mere fodder for nuclear, chemical, biological (genetic engineering), psychical, and social experimentation.

In reality, they operate like adolescents who can’t believe that their elders have anything useful to say. They have pubescent knowledge, but no primal wisdom.

Phoenix Paleo/Primal Potluck

Any readers living in Phoenix area, I will host a paleo/primal diet potluck tomorrow Sunday, January 24, 2010 at 3 PM. If interested, join the Phoenix Paleo Diet Meetup Group and send me an email through the Meetup site. We have room for more members and I would like to meet you.

Phoenix Paleo/Primal Diet Meetup

Maori Music, Updated: Oceania

The New Zealand band Oceania combines traditional Maori music and modern music.

Neanderthin and Primal Hunting Video

I have a copy of Audette's original self-published version of Neanderthin: A Caveman's Guide To Nutrition, which appears now to have collectors value. When I first read Neanderthin, I had already read Weston Price's Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Ron Schmid's Native Nutrition (now Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine, and Eaton, Konner, and Shostak's The Paleolithic Prescription. However, Audette's book did something the others had not yet done, it turned me into a paleo/primal thinker/dieter.

You can see the cover of the original Neanderthin to the left, and in my opinion the major publisher made a mistake not retaining the idea of the original cover image (see that bland version below).

The first page  of text after the foreword looks like this:

Previous to seeing this page, I had not tried a grain-free diet.  I had cut down on grains considerably from my earlier vegetarian days, and at the time I read Neanderthin, I used grains, mostly oatmeal and some rice, in relatively small amounts, along the lines Barry Sears laid out in The Zone.  None of the other books I mentioned gave me any reason to consider grains inappropriate food for humans, but as soon as I read that first page of Neanderthin, I realized that grains and beans were the first staple foods consumed by humans that required processing to make them edible -- the first processed foods.

I enjoyed Audette's "biblical" approach, giving chapters titles like "Genesis" and laying out the paleo diet as "Ten Commandments":

Never Eat:

I.  Grains
II.  Beans
III.  Potatoes
IV.  Dairy
V.  Sugar


Do Eat:

I.  Meat "and any other meat by-products such as lard."
II.  Fruits
III. Vegetables
IV.  Nuts
V.  Berries

Basically, the first five consist of foods edible only with processing, the last five edible without processing or application of cooking.

Audette also provided me with the perspective and data resources that enabled me to see the flaws in the ecological and least harm arguments against a meat-based diet, in passages like this:

"As the principle cause of animal extinction and death is the plow and not the slaughterhouse, vegetarians actually kill more animals through starvation and habitat destruction than does the meat-eater throught his dietary habits.  In fact, it is for this reason that the person wearing a furn coat has killed less than 10% of the animals killed by [a] person wearing a cotton coat (cotton is one of the most ecological damaging crops grown today, second only, perhaps, to rice.).  Perhaps thte only species that are not endangered in our modern world are the domestic animals we eat."

 And this:

"Since ancient times, the most destructive factor in the degradation of the environment has been monoculture agriculture.  The production of wheat in ancient Sumeria transformed once-fertile plains into salt flats that remain sterile 5000 years later.  As well as depleting both the soil and water sources, monoculture agriculture also produces environmental damage by altering the delicate balance of natural ecosystems.  World rice production in 1993, for instance, caused 155 million cases of malaria by providing breeding grounds for mosquitoes in the paddies.   Human contact with ducks in the same rice paddies resulted in 500 million cases of influenza.

"Many environmentalists now believe the only way to preserve the envrionment is to return to our natural place on teh food chain (tree of life).  Over time nature produces more nutrients per acre than any method of agriculture.  Learning to intelligently harvest this natural bounty without destroying it is the biggest challenge facing modern man."

In the chapter "Genesis" Audette tells how, after getting diagnoses of rheumatoid arthritis and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM, type I), with no prospect of relief offered by conventional medicine, he went to the library and studied the conditions on his own.  He discovered that neither occured in non-agricultural societies -- i.e. hunter-gatherers.  So, he resolved that he would eliminate the fruits made edible by technology from his diet.  He wrote:

"I determined, therefore, to eat only those foods that would be available to me if I were naked of all technology save that of a convenient sharp stick or stone."

What happened when he applied this rule?

"Expecting only modest results, I was astounded by what actually happened. My blood sugar levels returned to normal almost immediately and remained constant throughout the day. Every day it seemed I had more energy. I slept less than eight hours per day, whereas I had previously reuired at least ten. Although I lost a few points, I seemed to be getting bigger as my muscles became larger and more toned without special exercise. After a few weeks my joints stopped hurting almost completely. Even my ability to think and concentrate seemed to improve. Needless to say, my moode and overall attitude towards life changed for the better as well."

Some people may find the idea that our ancestors hunted large game with nothing but sharp sticks -- i.e. spears-- incredible. Yet our ancestors did it. In a previous post I provided a video of !Kung men doing persistence hunting, which involves running an animal to exhaustion, then killing it with a spear.

Paleo hunters had another, less exhausting way of hunting with spears: ambush. This video clip from Relentless Pursuit features Jared Allen (Minnesota Vikings Defensive End) demonstrating how to wait in a tree above elk browsing grounds, then kill an unlucky buck with a spear.



Some of the books I have mentioned here, and learned from:

Good Calories, Bad Calories Notes Available

Toban Wiebe has made available in PDF form extensive notes of the main points in Gary Taubes's Good Calories Bad Calories. Get your copy here. Great as an introduction to or review of the book.

Thanks to Toban for the great work. If you haven't read this book yet, put it on your list. Have the notes handy as well, they'll help you remember the main points. Read the notes for each chapter, then the chapter, then the notes again. Soon you will know more about the topics than most physicians!

Music From the Homeland

An ensemble of traditional African drums made from hardwood and goatskins. Mamady Keita is among the best of traditional djembe players. Enjoy.

My Meals 1/16/2010

Breakfast

8 ounces of steak tartare* using Kenny Aschbacher's grass-fattened beef
2 omega-3 eggs fried sunny side up (yolks runny) in 1 tsp beef tallow (A-Bar-H Farm)
~1 cup steamed carrots
~1 cup steamed broccoli
1 avocado
1 orange

Lunch

8 ounces of steak tartare
2 soft boiled omega-3 eggs
~1 cup steamed carrots
~1 cup steamed broccoli tossed with olive oil and white pepper
~1/2 cup walnuts
1 apple

*To make my simplest steak tartare, I take 1 pound of raw ground grass-fed beef, add 1-2 T ground New Mexico chili, 1-2 tsp dried garlic granules, and 1 T extra virgin olive oil, mix well, then serve.

Combining Sweet with the Sour: Oxymels

Oxymels: Herbal preparations for the Respiratory System

Oxymels are preparations using both vinegar and honey. These mixtures have a long history of use in western herbalism, dating as far back as the ancient Greeks.

Hippocrates spoke highly of oxymels for coughs but cautions against its use for people with a cold and dry constitution (these people are commonly always the coldest in the room, wearing sweaters when others have on t-shirts, and may have dry skin, dry eyes, etc.). He

also suggested heating these mixtures gently when they are being consumed during cold weather.

I learned from Paul Bergner that William Cook, a Physiomedicalist of the 1800s preferred vinegar as a menstruum for issues of the respiratory system. He felt that it concentrated the herb’s actions to the respiratory system.

Honey in itself offers us a wide range of benefits for coughs and sore throats. It’s anti-microbial, inhibiting the growth of pathogens as well as slightly expectorant. As most of us know, a spoonful of honey can soothe a sore throat.

There are a variety of ways to make oxymels. In this article we’ll explore these different preparations as well as different herbs to use.

#1. Oxymel preparation: Water, vinegar, honey

Decoct one ounce of herb in one quart of water, simmer until ¼ of the liquid remains. Strain and add four ounces of vinegar and four ounces of honey. Mix until it forms a syrupy consistency. This preparation works best with roots or leaves. Because of the long decoction it is not well suited for aromatic herbs because the simmering will boil away the volatile oils.

#2. Oxymel preparation: for aromatic herbs (no boiling involved)

If wanting to use aromatic herbs (those in the mint family for example) you can simply combine an herb-infused vinegar with an herb-infused honey. I would suggest the ratio of one part of vinegar to three parts of honey. You can determine ration of honey to vinegar to suit your own tastes.

#3. Oxymel preparation: Vinegar decoction with added honey

Lastly, another variation of oxymels is to simply decoct the herb of choice with vinegar and then add 5 parts of honey to each part of vinegar.

I recently made an oxymel preparation similar to example number 3 using fresh pine needles harvested from near my cabin.

You can follow the steps in this photo essay keeping in mind that many different herbs could be substituted for the pine needles. Ginger, onion, garlic, elecampane, cottonwood buds, and grindelia all come to mind.

More aromatic plants like bee balm, hyssop, thyme, etc may be better suited for method number #2.

This time of year most plants are slumbering in winter dreamland. I live in the middle of a pine and douglas fir forest however and so evergreen needles are a constant source of fresh plant material. Many evergreen needles are a stimulating expectorant, which lends itself well to insistent wet or mucous producing coughs. I would not use pine needles or an oxymel preparation for dry hacking coughs. Pine needles are also a good source of vitamin C, giving us another reason to use it during times of illness.

To cut the needles into small pieces I suggest using scissors, as it is much easier than cutting with a knife.

Add a generous handful of needles to one cup of organic apple cider vinegar.

Simmer this mixture gently. If at any time it turns into a vigorous boil, turn down the heat so that it simmers once again.

After the liquid is reduced by half, strain off the needles.

Add honey to the pine needle vinegar. Many oxymel recipes call for five parts of honey for each one par

t of vinegar. So, if you have a ½ cup of vinegar you would add 2 and ½ cups of honey. You could add less if this seems too sweet to you.

Stir this mixture well until the honey dissolves into the vinegar forming a syrup consistency. We keep our oxymel preparations in the fridge and take it by the teaspoon to tablespoon when experiencing sore throats or wet productive coughs. This mixture should keep for a long time in the fridge.

Meta-Analysis Finds No Evidence that Saturated Fat Promotes Cardiovascular Disease

Thanks to Stephan for bringing this to my attention:

Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease Am J Clin Nutr (January 13, 2010)

"Conclusions: A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVD risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat."

As Stephan said, anyone who reviewed the evidence honestly (as Stephan did here) would come to this conclusion. Finally the lipid researchers themselves see the writing on the wall.

My Meals 1/14/2010

Breakfast

Chuck roast, rare, about 10-12 ounces
Kale sauteed with white onion and garlic in olive oil, about 1 cup
1 banana, medium, sliced and topped with 1/2 cup walnuts
1 orange

Dinner

Last of the chuck roast, about 4 ounces
4 ounces of lamb liver from A-Bar-H Ranch, chopped, raw, mixed with True Natural Taste horseradish mustard
2 omega-3 eggs, soft boiled
Salad of romaine, radish (roots and greens), and red onion with olive oil and lemon dressing, about 2 cups
Sweet potato, medium, with 1 tablespoon pastured butter
Almonds, about 1/2 cup

I marinated the liver in about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of the horseradish mustard for about an hour. Then I mixed the roast, liver, eggs, and salad together. For dessert I had the sweet potato and the almonds.

True Natural Taste has awesome mustards--creamy white mustard, plain or with honey, jalapeno, or horseradish. Check them out.

Masai Use of Herbs

When a carnivorous diet is not

I have seen some bloggers cite the Masai as an example of a people who consume a diet high in saturated fats from animal products, eating no plant foods, yet have a very low average serum cholesterol (approximately 150 mg/dl) and little or no cardiovascular diseases.

Some have suggest that the Masai provide “proof” that humans don’t need plant products to maintain good health.

Do the Masai “prove” that humans thrive on a plant-free diet? No, not because they don’t thrive, but because they don’t eat a plant-free diet.

I recently read Wild Health, by biologist Cindy Engel, Ph.D. , who specializes in studying the health maintenance behavior of wild animals. Wild Health presents a lot of evidence indicating that wild animals deliberately engage in “non-nutritive ingestive behaviors” that appear to have medicinal functions. In other words, they go out of their way to consume items that have little or no nutritive value (clay, various herbs). I plan to write more about this in the future.

In the last chapter of this book, Engel discusses paleo diet and the deficiencies of agricultural diets. She notes that paleo people had higher intakes of phytonutrients even if they ate a meat-based diet:

“Agriculturalists select and domesticate plants for ease of cultivation and palatability. Over time they have chosen plants with fewer bitter-tasting or astringent secondary compounds, and these plants are inevitably more susceptible to disease. Modern crops, therefore, need more chemical intervention than wild plants, which retain their own defensive pesticides. Consuming modern crops is consequently very different from consuming wild plants, and when we eat the meat of domesticated animals fed on these domesticated plants, our total intake of beneficial plant compounds is far lower than if we had eaten wild game.”

Many people tell me they dislike the “gamey” flavor of wild game or, as Joel Salatin calls it, “salad bar” beef from 100% grass-fed animals. That “gamey” flavor disappears when we feed animals corn (witness corn-fed bison), because that flavor comes from the fat-soluble secondary plant compounds present in the green leafy vegetation eaten by wild or grass-fed animals. So a real hunter-gatherer would get a daily dose of “greens” via the phytonutrients in his meat, even if s/he didn’t eat a lick of leaves directly. (This is one reason I recommend regular consumption of green leafy vegetables, unless you eat only grass-fed meat and do so every day.)

Engel refers to the some papers by Timothy Johns, a nutritionist who has studied the use of herbs in the Masai diet. I got a hold of a couple of papers that Johns wrote:

Phytochemicals as Evolutionary Mediators of Human Nutritional Physiology, Int J Pharmacognosy 1996, 34:5:327-34.

The Chemical Ecology of Human Ingestive Behaviors, Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 1999, 28:27-50.


In these papers, Johns presents the following hypothesis:

1. Human evolution involved gains in brain and body size; increased ingestion of long-chain (omega-3) polyunsaturated fats, cholesterol, and total fat and calories; heating of fatty food; and greater longevity, all of which increase cumulative oxidative stress.
2. Meanwhile, increased reliance on meat and reduced reliance on plants decreased ingestion of exogenous antioxidants.
3. These two trends led to selection for “nonnutritive ingestive behaviors” as a compensatory mechanism for increasing intake of antioxidants, including the development of herbal medicine. In other words, they favored the development of the use of herbs as both dietary components and medicines, to compensate for the loss of plant secondary compounds due to the reduced direct reliance on plant food.

To illustrate, Johns points to the Masai (Maasai). According to Johns, Maasai usually consume meat with or as soup, using 28 different herbs to make the soups, using the herbs in levels that make the food bitter. They also add a dozen plants to milk to prepare a tea-like beverage called orkiowa. Such use of herbs occurs universally.

Screening of 12 of the Masai food additives found that 82 percent contained potentially hypocholesterolemic saponins and/or phenolics. The Masai, when questioned, state that a person would not maintain health without using these additives. They recognize the most widely used of additives, okiloriti (Acacia nilotica) as a digestive aid, flavoring, and nervous system stimulant (in high doses). The Masai’s appreciation of the digestive effects of these herbs likely relates to their ability to stimulate bile flow to emulsify fats in their high fat diet, lack of which would lead to diarrhea.

Plug “Acacia nilotica” into a PubMed search window, and you will find that this herb has strong free radical scavenging compounds, and displays anticancer, antimutagenic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antifungal, anthelminthic (kills worms), antidiarrheal, and antiplatelet-aggregation activities.

Johns also points out that chewing of plant gums, resins, and latexes occurs universally. The Maasai use 25 different gums, and adults chew gum an average of 3 days per week, with a third of the people chewing daily. Of gums and resins used by the Masai, Commiphora africana (A.Rich) Engl., of the genus that includes myrrh, is the most important. Some research indicates that phytosterols in Commiphora mukul Hook. ex Stock have

hypocholesterolemic effects

hypolipidemic and hypoglycemic effects

and

thyroid-stimulating effects.

It may also inhibit oxidation of LDL.


So, to eat like the Masai you have to use the full complement of herbal additives that the Masai use. They do not eat a purely carnivorous diet composed only of meat and milk, and the herbs that they consume may actually be essential to the success of their dietary regime from both an ecological adaptation standpoint and a health standpoint. If you eat milk and meat but avoid bitter herbs, you can't expect that you will have the same lipid profile or good health as the Masai, because you aren't eating like the Masai.

Since it appears that wild humans naturally and continuously ingested many plant secondary compounds, both directly from plants and herbs, and indirectly from wild game meat, and did so for millions of years, it seems very likely that human physiology adapted in specific ways to these components and now requires them to maintain normal functions. I find the hypothesis put forward by Johns fairly compelling as an explanation for the universal human use of herbs as food additives and medicines.

Breath of Life; Understanding our Respiratory System

This article is part of the Anatomy and Physiology section of www.HerbMentor.com.

When we draw in a breath, we share that air with all other human beings and all other life on our planet. Through respiration, our oneness with trees becomes a manifest fact, and our communion with the oceans has immediate impact. The reality of the planetary whole reveals itself, with implication for all human life, through the circulation of the gases and energy of the atmosphere. This vision underlies holistic healing as much as it does ecology. The anatomy and physiology of the respiratory system is a complex and beautiful embodiment of integration and wholeness.

-David Hoffman, Herbalist

The respiratory system is divided into the upper and lower respiratory tracts.

The upper respiratory system consists of the organs located above the thorax.

This includes:

Nose

Pharynx

Larynx

Part of the trachea

The lower respiratory system consists of:

Bronchial tree

Lungs

The respiratory system plays a crucial role in delivering oxygen to the cells of our body. The cells of the body require a continuous supply of oxygen; without this oxygen, we would die within minutes.

In this article we will explore the different organs of the respiratory system to better understand the physiological function of breathing. At the end of this article we will explore different pathologies or problems within the respiratory system by reading articles written by herbalists.

Nose

Bones and cartilage support the protruding portion of the nose, which is made up of connective tissue and skin. The nostrils, which form two external passages, are lined with hairs that help to filter out large particles in the air. The nostrils open up into the nasal cavity. The nasal cavity is separated from the mouth by the hard and soft palettes. It is lined with ciliated columnar epithelium and cells within these structures produce mucous that line the upper respiratory system. This mucous is an important defense mechanism of our immune system as it traps airborne particles, including pathogens. The cilia move the mucous with the entrapped particles to the throat where it is swallowed. Gastric juices from the stomach then kill most micro-organisms.

The mucous in the nasal cavity also moistens air as it moves through the nasal passageways. The mucous membranes are blood rich and serve to warm the inhaled air. In this way, air traveling through the nasal passageways are filtered, warmed, and moistened before heading to the lungs, which is why it is better to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.

Several bones that surround the nasal cavity contain air-filled hollow areas called paranasal sinuses. Sinuses in this area serve to lighten the weight of the skull and increase voice resonance. They are also lined with the same ciliated mucous membranes found within the nasal cavity.

Pharynx

More commonly called the throat, the pharynx is a short tube that extends from behind the nasal cavity to open to the larynx and esophagus. It is a muscular wall that is lined with mucosal tissue. The tonsils are located within the pharynx and we will be discussing those in greater detail when we look at the immune system.

Larynx

The larynx consists of cartilaginous tissues. It connects the pharynx to the trachea and the esophagus. The larynx houses the vocal chords whose vibrations produce the sounds of speech.

When swallowing, muscles lift the larynx, which causes the epiglottis to fold over and cover the opening to the trachea, which leads to the lungs. If food, water, or other particles somehow breach the trachea, a strong coughing reflex is produced that will expel the materials.

Trachea

The trachea, commonly known as the windpipe, is a tube that connects the larynx to the bronchial tree and allows for inhaled air to proceed to the lungs and exhaled air to leave the body. Cartilaginous rings support the trachea and hold it open despite the changing air pressure within this tube.

The trachea is lined with the same ciliated mucous membranes that we find in the rest of the respiratory system. It also traps airborne particles and then transports the mucous upwards towards the pharynx where it is swallowed and proceeds to go down the esophagus.

The trachea splits into two sections at about the mid-chest to form the left and right primary bronchi.

Bronchial Tree

The term bronchial tree refers to a series of structures within the lungs that actually resembles a tree! I find this incredibly fascinating. Trees transform CO2 into oxygen. Humans transform oxygen to CO2, and the human organ for performing this process looks like a tree!

The left and right primary bronchi further branch to form smaller secondary bronchi. There is a secondary bronchi in each lobe of the lung. These secondary bronchi continue to branch into smaller and smaller tubules.

All of these airways continue to be lined with ciliated mucous membranes that also trap and then remove airborne particles.

As these branches become tubules they are called bronchioles. Structures the size of bronchioles are not lined with the same mucosal tissue as the rest of the respiratory system. As a result, foreign particles that reach these sections are harder to remove. If the mucosal tissue that contains the ciliated mucous membranes becomes damaged, say from cigarette smoke, more particles can reach these vulnerable areas and create more bronchial infections.

Bronchioles continue to branch until finally leading to microscopic alveolar ducts that then terminate in alveoli. Back to our image of a tree, the primary bronchi is similar to the trunk of a tree, the secondary bronchi are the main branches, which then become smaller branches and, finally, leaves.

There are 300 million alveoli in each lung. They resemble a grape cluster on a vine and have a surface area of 75 square meters. A capillary network surrounds each alveolus.

The alveoli perform the magical task of infusing blood with oxygen, while removing excess CO2 from the body. This chemical process takes place between the alveoli membranes and the rich capillary network that surround them.

Lungs

The lungs are two large organs that fill much of the rib cage. The right lung is slightly larger than the left and is made up of three lobes. The smaller left lung is made up of two lobes. A secondary bronchus, blood and lymphatic vessels, and nerves support each lobe of the lungs. The heart and the mediasteinum separate the two lungs from each other.

The lungs are primarily made up of connective tissue, which gives them their soft and spongy texture. They also consist of blood, lymphatic tissue, air passageways, and alveoli.

Surrounding each lung is the serous membrane. It serves to protect and enclose each lung. The visceral pleura is the next layer of tissue around the lungs. The parietal pleura encases the inner wall of the rib cage. The space between the parietal pleura and the visceral pleura is referred to as the pleural cavity.

Breathing

Here’s an overview of the breathing process.

Air is inhaled through the nose and or mouth and travels down a series of tubes including the pharynx and trachea until it reaches the bronchi and finally down to the microscopic aveloi. At the membrane surface of each alveolus, a gas exchange between oxygen and CO2 takes place. The oxygen enters in the blood stream and binds to red blood cells while the CO2 is expelled back out of the respiratory system and exhaled into the atmosphere.

Inspiration – The act of inhalation

We breathe about 5,000 times a day or about 15 to 20 times each minute. With each inhalation the muscles of respiration contract. When the diaphragm, a flat skeletal muscle tissue at the base of the rib cage, contracts it flattens and creates more space in the thoracic cavity for the lungs to expand. Concurrently, the external intercostals elevate the ribs and sternum, creating even more space for lung expansion.

This expansion of the lungs increases the volume of internal air passageways, which then means that the air pressure inside the lungs decreases below the air pressure of the air outside the body. This change in air pressure causes the atmospheric air to rush into the lungs, because gas likes to move from regions of high pressure to low pressure.

Expiration – The act of exhaling

With each exhalation the diaphragm and external intercostal muscles relax. This causes the elastic fibers in lung tissue to recoil to their original volume. Air pressure is now reversed and so the air rushes out. During times of rapid breathing such as exercising, exhaling is further facilitated by the intercostals muscles and the abdominal muscles contracting.

“Chronic lung conditions compromise quality of life for millions of people around the world”

Dr. Michael Alberts

Support the health of your respiratory system

There are many things we can do to help encourage the health of our respiratory system and prevent any problems later on down the road. I’ve listed some important elements below and you may also find this comprehensive article informative as well.

Food and herbs

Many studies show that what we eat has a direct correlation with our respiration health. Diets high in fish (omega 3s) and anti-oxidants from fruits and vegetables seem to have the most positive benefits. ^{1, 2}

Vitamin D

Recent studies have shown that vitamin D has a huge impact on the health of our respiratory system. ¹ In one study the difference in people with normal levels of Vitamin D and low levels of Vitamin D was essentially the same difference as in people who do not smoke and those who do in terms of mortality rates.

Breathing Exercises

All around the world ancient traditions have supported the breath. Although the Anatomy and Physiology series on HerbMentor.com has been entirely focused on a Western view of the body systems, I would like to briefly go into how the Chinese view the Lungs. According to acupuncturist Suzanne E. Sky,

“Chinese medicine states the Lungs receive Pure Qi from the heavens. The air we breathe is an essential ingredient that sparks the formation of Qi, the life force that flows through our body. Qi flows throughout specific pathways in our bodies to nourish and vitalize all our organs, tissues, and systems and to energize biochemical and electrical activity in our body. Thus, the Lungs are the root of the body’s Qi and are said to dominate the Qi. The Lungs rule physical strength and stamina and are also called the Master of Breaths.”

Breathing exercises can be employed to support our health, reduce anxiety, promote meditation and mindfulness, and increase overall vitality.

Pranayama of Yoga, A fabulous overview of the importance of breath in the yogic tradition

Breathing Exercises, by Dennis Lewis (an expert on breathing)

Breathing article by herbalist Chanchal Cabrera

Another short but important article on Breathing by herbalist Todd Caldecott

Breathing Clean Air

The air we breathe directly influences the health of our respiratory system. Environmental pollution such as car exhaust and other toxins can weaken our lungs over time. Harsh household cleaners can do the same. Dust and smoke from a wood fire can taint even the most pristine country locations. And not only does smoking directly inhibit our lungs’ ability to work well, but second hand smoke (breathing smoke from someone else’s cigarette) and third hand smoke (breathing fumes on someone’s clothes, car, house) can also impact the health of the lungs. ¹

^{Reducing stress, including excessive grief}

Stress has a direct effect on our overall health and the respiratory system is no exception. Here is an article outlining Stress and Respiratory Health.

In Chinese medicine the lungs are where we hold our grief. If that sounds strange to you, think of how you feel when you are really sad and you may be reminded of that crushing or overwhelming feeling right in your lungs. Getting the support we need during times of grieving can go a long ways in supporting lung health.

Avoiding excessive mucous in the body

Mucosal membranes line the respiratory system and the digestive tract. These membranes and the mucous they produce are an integral part of our vitally functioning body. However, excess mucous in the body can create problems. Eating large amounts of cold foods (raw fruits, veggies, dairy), especially in the cold months can create this. For many people cold dairy food such as yogurt, milk, and cheese can create an overabundance of mucous. Fresh-from-the-farm milk, drank warm with warming herbs such as cinnamon, may reduce this effect.

Lung tonics

There are many herbs that affect the respiratory system. Some are even tonifying or strengthening to the respiratory system. A classic Chinese combination includes Astragalus root and Codonopsis root. In Western Herbalism, Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) and Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) are often used to strengthen respiratory health. In this pdf, 7song has listed a comprehensive materia medica for the respiratory system.

Common complaints within the respiratory system

Asthma

A pdf from David Winston outlining the eclectic protocols for asthma

David Hoffman gives an overview of asthma here

An overview of childhood asthma by Janet Zand

Bronchitis

David Hoffman has two articles delineating the difference between acute and chronic bronchitis.

Jill Stansbury discusses Bronchitis Recipes and Formulae

Sinusitis

jim mcdonald has written the ultimate view on surviving sinusitis here

An article by David Hoffman looking at sinusitis

Upper Respiratory Infections and Coughs

The Herbal Remedies for Cold and the Flu Ebook extensively covers coughs

Aviva Romm gives a comprehensive overview of Upper Respiratory Infections in Children (pdf)

An article on herbal expectorants by Shane Foley

Henriette looks at Herbs for Coughs and then at Lung Grunges and what you can do to strengthen your lungs.

Botanical Approaches to Winter Respiratory Complaints

by Jill Stansbury, N.D.

Tonics for the Upper Respiratory System by David Hoffman

Emphysema

An article by David Hoffman

Pertussis

An article by David Hoffman

Allergies

Henriette gives an overview of considerations

Guido Mase’ looks at asthma and allergies

David Hoffman explores Hay Fever

Laryngitis

An article by David Hoffman

Stop smoking cigarettes

A formula by David Winston

Neti Pot

Neti pots can be an important aid in maintaining respiratory health. Here is a pdf from Todd Caldecott explaining how to use a neti pot and other ayurvedic means to support the respiratory system.

Works Consulted

The anatomy of physiology of this article was extracted mainly from The Principles of Anatomy &f Physiology, Tortora, Grabowski. I also used Anatomy and Physiology by Stanley E. Gunstream 4^th 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.

Paleo Diet Interview Opportunity

I just received a call from a reporter with local (Phoenix, AZ) ABC-15, who wants to interview people eating paleo/primal diets, particularly interested in hearing about weight loss and health improvements.

I want to arrange the interview for Monday the 18th at my office. If you can't make that, she will come to you.

I welcome anyone following this blog to participate.