El Empacho Remedio: Nebada, Poleo, Hinojo, Menta de Lobo and Hinojo

     Understanding El Empacho:

   Empacho is a term used in the south west and refers to stomach distress, Empacho is when food gets stuck in the intestines or accumulates around the stomach. It often manifests with a blocking in the epigastric area. I was wanting to make this formula for a while now. Published original 2015.

Today while walking along the river the herbs came to me. Our recent mild October weather brought up new growth of Bugle weed, Poleo and Catnip- the 3 ingredients along with fennel seed which are the basis of this remedio.
    In empacho the food becomes stuck and digestion suffers. This can lead to bloating, gas and constipation in dry empacho, or loose stools in wet empacho.  There is dry empacho with constipation and wet empacho with diarrhea. It can occur for several reasons including:
eating fatty foods, eating outside the normal rhythm; eat faster or slower than usual, eating foods that are not well prepared; They may be raw or eating foods that are difficult to digest like too many beans and not enough vegetables. In different biospirits,  empacho can occur from eating too much bread, pizza, eating on the run, eating with strangers.

Poleo and , Menta de Lobo grow together in families 

Menta de Lobo 

Poleo

     In traditional south west teaching, eating should be done with friends and loved ones.There should be harmony with the cook, and the people eating together. You should avoid for profit restaurants where people serving and cooking the food may be angry, judgemental or hostile to various biospirits. Crowded dining with diverse groups of people who may be jealous or confused by dominant culture meme pathogens. Women who hate men, men who hate women and all this will go into the food and cause a severe kind of indigestion. Especially people who cultivate programming in dominant culture cinema, music and literature. These people sometimes with and sometimes without intention seek to even a score for perceived past grievance and although no one can atone for a grievance not done, they seek to inflict justice by causing others to suffer, creating havoc in biospirit. These types of people can transfer this type of fearful paranoid energy to the food. Food must be balanced. Balanced in relation to the hot and cold intrinsic characteristics of the elements consumed. It's best not to eat too late, the last meal should be finished near sunset. If you are having this type of stomach upset you can make this remedio or find someone who honors the unique biospirit of each, to make it for you specifically. Often herbs are made in big batches and then someone will take the herb and wonder why it didn't work? Herbs should be made in small batches, for specific purposes, for specific people, with specific conditions. If at all possible a cleansing should be done, with the various prayers that we have been taught to use by Father God.

https://youtu.be/uEMI1dALX2Q

    There is a special type of emapacho that occurs with nursing mothers and their babies. Women and girls are often nursing, feeding babies and both their state of mind and what they are doing influences their milk. This can create colic in the baby drinking the mommas milk. Therefore fruits that are "cold" like oranges and watermelons, should not be consumed by pregnant women whose nature at that time is "hot". Likewise they should avoid windy places because the wind can enter the milk. In this sense, the ingestion of "cold" or "hot" food in the nursing mother can cause milk "curds" and harm the infant, just as if being in the sun too much she in excess or suffers a "cooling off" when wash or take a bath. Consequence of this is the "enlechamiento"  a variety of 'colic' that occurs when the child eats breast milk under the conditions listed, or mom offers her milk too frequently, too much,  or Mom nurses her baby after suffering a surprise event (shock) or a stressful event. In all cases, the milk is in lumps, and produces colic in the baby. The baby will be filled with gas and crying, if it progresses the baby will lose sleep and lose weight.
     If the Mom is frightened, or mistreated by her husband, if there is a lot of yelling in the house, this can spoil the milk. The idea that a husband and wife should always be together, always sleep together, is a crazy idea. During certain times a woman and man should not spend a lot of time together, they should not be intimate because they will make each other sick. If a husband and wife need to fight and argue, they should do it outside rather than in an enclosed space like a moving car or inside the house.  Often times when men and women separate and divorce it is because they were fighting inside the house. They want to break up and separate from the fighting angry energy in the house. That's why if you work with herbs you should also do house blessings and cleansing. If the woman is angry or jealous she may spill bile into the milk, creating empacho in the baby. Empacho can also be caused by older women beyond child bearing years who is jealous of the Mom with her baby. Jealous of her youth and beauty, she may intentionally or unintentionally stare at the Mom or kiss the baby and create a special type of empacho which can be helped by this remedio, but it may require a cleansing by someone able to do so.
     Recently I was with a woman who had some how been exposed to this type of 'susto' or fright. She was a bright, attractive and well educated, yet she was living in her car. Moving continuously from place to place she wasn't able to accomplish her goals. Then I noticed she was drawn to some herbs I had on the table, some traditional Remedios. She was drawn to the Espiritu de Poleo I had made and some yerba santa smudge sticks. In another south west tradition this is called moth sickness. Moths are drawn towards flames. Someone with moth sickness is unable to remain in one place. They are continually coming and going. Often seeking romantic relationships of a transitory nature, they may leave their partners unexpectedly seeking to hook up for one night stands. They go again and again towards the flame, eventually burning in the flame. Something outside of themselves is compelling them to run around. Leave their loved ones and family and go tramping about. It's not like they enjoy this running around. They are suffering. She agreed to try a limpia, which I did with yerba santa, and tincture of osha, Ligusticum porteri. It was a great help to her. In this type of susto, it's often necessary to use herbal formulas and techniques to resolve the condition.

     (left to right)  Poleo, Menta de lobo, Nebada

     El Empacho Remedio is a traditional remedy for treating empacho. I use the following 4 herbs together in a formula called El Empacho Remedio:Nebada, Poleo, Hinojo, and Menta de Lobo. Nebada is catnip Nepeta cateria. Poleo, is our native bit Mentha arvensis. Hinojo is Foeniculum vulgar or Fennel seed. Menta de Lobo is Lycopus americanus or Bugle weed. Use fresh herbs and try to gather the herbs from the same place. Don't mix herbs from far away places, they all come from the same place.
    The first ingredient is Nebada, or catnip, Nepeta cateria. I prefer the catnip which grows wild along the river. Nebada relieves stomachache, cramps, and spasms of the intestinal tract. The second ingredient is Poleo, Mentha arvensis. Poleo is a sweet and spicy mint growing in riparian areas. It relieves stomach pain, and settles the stomach along with dispersing heat. It is used as a colic remedio for infants. The 3rd ingredient is Menta de Lobo, Bugle weed, Lycopus americanus. The traditional name Menta de lobo refers to Lycopus refers to the greek 'lyco", wolf and 'plus'-little foot, referring to the plants leaf shape. You can find out about these herbs from books but it is best to encounter them face to face and learn them that way. Michael Moore, in Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West, states, "Bugle weed is specific to nervous indigestion, being both tonic and nervine. As a sedative and tranquilizer it is strong but not druggy, producing few symptoms other than relaxation...much better than something like Valerian...", this combination of equal parts Nebada, Poleo, Menta de Lobo with seeds of Hinojo makes an exquisite remedio for empacho. I encourage you to try it. 

Bugle weed, Lycopus

Lycopus, Bugle weed is an important herb to know on our Heavenly Father who breathes in our nostrils  biospirit worship as healing continuous no-separation endless medicine road.

Lycopus uniflorus, Northern bugle weed in flower

     lycopus asper, rough bugle weed, lycopus uniflorus, northern bugle weed

Lamiaceae (Mint Family)

Rough Bugleweed (Lycopus asper) is distinguished by its (usually) hairy stem and calyx square upright stems. The various bugle weed Lycopus like all herbs are moving, walking here and there. In finding a Lycopus that is active, use your organoleptic taste and harvest the bitter ones, they be most active for biospirit and what we are doing rather than specific botanical names. Although it is helpful to loupe them and know the subtle differences. This wet swampy northwest medicine garden has two different Lycopus species i have been working with. 

Lycopus asper, rough bugle weed, 2 stamens, purple tinge flowers

      Undivided with no separation medicine road garden Bugle weeds are a perennial, short low to the ground wet mint, growing from a thin white nodular trailing root. The white knobby root has a crispy texture and varies in bitterness, having been eatable by many. In this sense bugle weed is a food/medicine plant, maybe more medicine/food in certain stands. As such it is a relatively safe, non-judgemental plant that works for people. Not a heavy medicine plant it does have a complex chemistry. You gather the whole plant in flower with occasional roots as they present. FPT 1:2 it's a delightful abundant and frequently encountered plant with a wide distribution from east to west, north to south Arizona to Cascadia. 

    Lycopus in the northwest hugs lake edges, marshes, watery boggy swaps and small feeder creeks that tend to dry out mid summer. Bugle weed has erect square stems, leaves serrate to deeply saw toothed. Usually there are several species growing together. Often bugle grows with other water loving mints such as Scutellaria galericulata hooded skullcap, Mentha arvensis, Mentha canadensis in little groups. Telling the bugle weeds apart is easier in the field than on paper because in one place the same species will tend to have different growth patterns and character. Generalizations don't apply to species across broad areas outside of a face to face encounter. You will find 2 foot high hairy spindly varieties and short varieties. 

     

 Lycopus bugle weed is an important herb to know on the continuous endless medicine road. what i am seeing? i am seeing a lot of flowering Bugle weed. Like every single person reading this, i am feeling wet mud between my toes. Lot of mosquito bites, sunburned, everyone, anyone reading this, without a doubt you are walking through the mud on undivided endless biospirit medicine road. 

https://youtu.be/uEMI1dALX2Q

    Here at this medicine garden there are two different bugle weeds. After sloshing about the mud for a couple of weeks we see everyone going from one wet muddy boggy swamp to another. Begin to acknowledge the patterns of growth in the species. Lycopus asper, rough bugle weed can often be distinguished by its frequent densely hairy stems, and purple spots on the flowers. Lycopus uniflorus tends to be shorter and more in clusters from a thin bulbous trailing root node, although this is a local trait that varies. All the bugle weed i have encountered in the west have white flowers around the leaf axil, four lobed flowers with two stamens unlike most mints. While most southern bugle weed flowers in arizona and new mexico are white in some northern populations i have worked with in Nevada, BC, montana, washington and idaho on continuous medicine road you'll see pink and purple splotches in the white. Flowers occur in all varieties in dense clusters around the opposite leaf axils, tiny 1/8 inch or less, tubular four lobed white with two purple tipped stamens unlike most mints. 

      Many mints are highly aromatic, bugle weeds are not strongly aromatic in the mint sense. Northern bugle weeds do have a distinct scent in the crushed leaves. You recognize it in time. It is not a typical mint mentha scent. It's a iodine and sulphur scent. This scent says about its relationship to thyroid gland as sulfur and iodine are connected there. Look for a bitter bugle weed that is best for tincture. A good bugle weed will have bitter taste not immediately noticed because it can be so wet, the bitter comes on stronger as you chew leaves. Look for that taste and smell in your bugle weeds. 

      Bugle weed is an excellent folk biospirit  plant due its mildness and complex chemistry. Bugle weed nourishes glands in the body including the kidney. It works on many body systems and lends itself to wide presentation. It promotes blood circulation and prevents blood pooling. It can encourage movement of fluid accumulation in lower limbs. It will support the kidney. In a superficial rapid thready pulse it subtly decreases pulse while increasing more definitions in the beat, so fluid moves. It is a quieting relaxant to the nervous system. 

    Although mint plants are usually aromatic this one is not. So many good changes as biospirit folk plant more and more people are gathering closely intimately together using bugle weed...Undivided. Most mints also are not hemostatic, bugle weed is. As such it can be used by women in heavy periods or in older women who are losing their monthly but then it returns spotty. It is also a useful herb for women to try in menopause for night sweats and hot flashes. It combines well with motherwort. It can be helpful for sweating, bounding pulse, at night for women with these hot flashes and promote relaxation and sleep. 

     Although not widely known in biospirit positive circles bugle weed is becoming more and more useful as a mild nervine. For insomnia and sleeplessness it works best for people who tend to jump and look around when there's a loud sound, and continue to look around after the sound is gone. It works for people who become afraid at the sound of thunder and lightning. In short people who are thin, naturally don't gain weight, tend to be jumpy and worry about what people think about them. In generalized uneasiness and hesitancy with an anxious dark worried mind it can work to relax and calm. In these cases it can be a valuable nervine ally. It's not a druggy sedative chemical it's more of an alterative to support the hormonal stress glands. Especially the thyroid and pituitary complex, that tend to get switched on and locked on, so the natural loops that turn things off and on are stuck on. 

      If the pulse is too fast and there is a tendency for breathlessness where the heart beats quickly and thumps, then decreases and a person is anxious it can encourage the heart beats to be more distinct and separate, like a bum-bump, rather than b-b-b-bum,  rather than all clumped in quick little beats that don't move stuff around very well. Because this herb grows in wet moist cool slow flowing water it tends to balance flow of blood with the kidney so the water can mix and piss out of the blood and get to a proper thickness.  

    This folk formula growing together in moist wet swampy low places, the three herbs catnip, poleo and bugle weed or minta de lobo grow together and create a polycrest place formula. It addresses accumulation of hardness in the belly which is called empacho. In children this can be colic, crying fits, and restlessness. This formula can sweeten the milk in a breastfeeding mother, especially if she has been sad or crying, fighting with her husband's family, or arguing with her husband about money, and not sleeping well, or sleeping too much. In adults this can be either hard or soft, with constipation or loose stool. Often in adults this formula will help heartburns below the  small space between ribs in the upper abdomen. 

      So apparently appreciate this Bugle weed medicine and enable it to appropriate biospirit wellbeing, now going free do no harm bless and praise His holy name. 

Lycopus Bugle weed with nutlets and flowers