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.
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.
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| Poleo and , Menta de Lobo grow together in families |
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| Menta de Lobo |
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| 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.
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.
