Supplying the cells of the body with oxygen is the responsibility of the respiratory and circulatory systems. This process is controlled by the brain via the medulla oblongata in the brain stem, where messages concerning blood composition are integrated with other information, thus regulating the appropriate breathing rhythm.
The ebb and flow of the breath draws into the being life-energy. Thus if there are respiratory disturbances which inhibit gas exchange, they can lead to a lowering of the body’s vitality, an increase in metabolic disorders, and degeneration of tissue.
The anatomy and physiology of the respiratory system is a complex and beautiful embodiment of integration and wholeness.
Prevention of respiratory disease
We are not only what we eat, but also what we breathe. Any problem with breathing will not only affect other organs and systems, but may well cause disease in these systems. However, as the body is a whole, the reverse is also true. When the lungs need to be treated, we also have to look at the circulatory system; much of what has been said about the heart and the circulation is relevant to the lungs. We should also look at the condition of the digestive system and especially of the organs of elimination, as the lungs share the role of removing waste with the bowels, the kidneys and the skin. If a problem develops in any of these systems, the body compensates by increasing the load on the others. There are limits to the amount of waste the lungs can put up with if, for instance, the bowels are clogged.
Most pathological changes in tissues can be prevented if the environmental milieu of the cells is constantly rich in oxygen. The amount of oxygen the circulation supplies to the tissue is largely controlled by respiration.
From all this it is apparent that the best preventative measures for this system are regular exercise and good breathing. While we take breathing for granted, conscious and proper breathing is regarded, even in orthodox medical circles, as invaluable. The central role of the breath in many spiritual paths should perhaps give us a clue here.
As with all disease, the best prophylactic is right lifestyle. Diet, exercise and quality of life all have a profound influence on the health of the lungs.
To ensure healthy lungs, the inner environment must be in harmony, and so also must be the outer environment. If the air we breathe is polluted it will disrupt the ecology of the lungs just as it disrupts the ecology of any forest. Air contaminated with chemicals and particles, gases and smoke, should be avoided. Which brings us to tobacco. Smoking puts a wall of tar and ash between the individual and the world so that a free ecological flow cannot take place in the lungs. This can lead to an impressive host of problems, from bronchitis to cancer, without taking into account all the effects of a diminished oxygen supply to the rest of the body. If we are to heal our selves and our world, here is a good place to start. Eating a whole food diet and living in the country pales a bit when faced with twenty cigarettes a day!
There are other specific dangers which can be recognised and avoided. In the case of infections, the simplest answer is to just avoid contact with it. However, as this is often socially impossible, we need to maintain our natural defences at their peak. A word is in place here about the questionable use of immunisation. The body, if given the chance, is capable of great feats of self-defence, as long as we provide a balanced, vitamin-rich diet in combination with a life style that is healthy in thought and feeling as much as in action. In this context it is vital to curb the misuse of antibiotics. While these drugs, used at the right time in the right way, can save lives, they can also reduce the innate defence systems of the body to impotence. In addition to the reduction of our defence, they also in the long run create—in an evolutionary sense—highly resistant bacteria, so that problems become more and more difficult to be treated. Over the last thirty years doctors have had to watch alarming developments in this direction. With correct life style and the use of herbal remedies when needed, antibiotics can often be avoided.
Herbs for the respiratory system
All aspects of the respiratory system can benefit from appropriate herbal remedies. Herbs can aid the activity of the mucous membranes and ensure that gas exchange through these membranes can occur; they can activate the secretion of lung tissue so that the air is sufficiently moistened and the membranes protected; they can augment neurological responses regulating the breath; they can tone up the circulation and ensure that blood bathes the tissues properly, and help by stimulating the whole of the glandular and excretory processes to ensure a clean and harmonious inner environment.
As we view the respiratory system in the context of the whole, it is evident that to truly heal any condition focused in that area we have to look at and be prepared to treat the whole of the body. Nature has been bountiful in the range of actions of the ‘pectoral’ herbs available to us, thus giving us the possibility of working within a wide context.
Whilst it is inadvisable to classify herbs strictly by their actions, it may be of value to lay some broad guidelines. We will look at respiratory stimulants, respiratory relaxants, amphoteric remedies and respiratory demulcents.
Cowslip
Respiratory stimulants
Herbs in this category act as stimulants to the nerves and muscles of the respiratory system by triggering a neurological reflex via the sensory endings in the digestive system. This causes ‘expectoration’. Expectorants encourage the loosening and subsequent expulsion of mucus from the respiratory system. Plants that fit into this category include Bittersweet, Cowslip, Daisy, Senega, Soapwort, Squill and Thuja.
Respiratory relaxants
The primary action of these plants is to relax the tissue of the lungs, which will be most useful in any problem connected with tension and over-activity. In a seemingly paradoxical way the easing of tension promotes the flow of mucus and thus allows expectoration to occur. Many plants can be included in this group, but Angelica, Aniseed, Coltsfoot, Elecampane, Ephedra, Flaxseed, Grindelia, Hyssop, Plantain, Pill-bearing Spurge, Sundew, Thyme, Wild Cherry Bark and Wild Lettuce are representatives.
Amphoteric remedies
The concept of amphotericity is of great value when we deal with the apparently contradictory actions of many plants. The term is borrowed from chemistry where it is used to describe a substance that is capable of acting as either an acid or an alkali. Amphoterics, which are normalisers, change and adapt their action, depending on the conditions. That such a concept should find a place in herbal medicine might at first seem odd. In orthodox medicine a remedy is expected to have a clearly definable effect, which should be related to the dosage and easily controlled. If we see the body as essentially mechanical, this makes sense. However, in a holistic view it must be remembered that the body is seen as an integrated, synergistic whole, and that the work of the healer is to augment and aid the vital recuperative processes naturally at work. Thus we find that the amphoteric herbs work in a way that suits the systems at a particular time, using the body’s wisdom to do that which is appropriate.
The best respiratory