Dr. Elizabeth Dane, Ph.D., O.M.D.

"There is no such thing as a weed," declared Darren, a budding young herbalist – and he’s right! What Mother Nature provides us with are not useless weeds to throw away, but a vast array of plants, grasses, flowers, and trees that can ease or cure almost every ailment.

These "miracle plants" - flowers, seeds, stems, leaves, bark, and roots of plants and trees, known as herbs - were the backbone of Eastern medicine for centuries! Would you believe that the first written herbal formula dates back to 5,000 BC, and that according to ancient texts, these formulas had been in use for centuries before that! This is how it worked. The "Barefoot Doctors" of China roamed the countryside dispensing their extraordinary formulas concocted from their herbal "medicine bags" containing the particular plants indigenous to that region. In fact, they trusted their formulas to much that it was the custom for the doctor to pay his patient if any of them fell ill while under his care!

It was, Egypt that gave the world the first herbal prescriptions as written documents, around 2,300 BC. This expanding knowledge spread through Greece, Italy, and Persia, finally settling in Germany, France, and England. Today, you can walk into thousands of pharmacies in Europe and find a vast assortment of herbal remedies, Bach Flower Remedies, homeopathic formulas, and aromatherapy or essential oil essences, all used as part of a healthy lifestyle!

You might be interested to know that the South American ‘rain forests’ are also known for their mysterious tonics and cures. For instance, ‘Cat’s Claw’, the bark of the Uncaria Tomentosa tree, has amazing properties that relieve arthritic pain and clear toxins out of the liver. It’s a wonderful healing herb for people with hepatitis! My Peruvian client, Jimmy, tells me it’s traditional to use Cat’s Claw tea as a "spring cleaning" tonic in his country! "It cures whatever ails you" he says, "and going from the heights of the Andes to the depths of the rain forests, you've got to have a healthy body!"

Our own drug companies even use herbs, but in more concentrated forms. For instance, the herb foxglove is the basis for the heart medication digitalis.

The benefit of using whole herbs is that the complete plant is used, containing all the amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids in perfect balance and harmony. That way, the body uses what it wants and discards the rest. But when just the isolated essences are extracted from herbs, and transformed into concentrated chemicals, the body becomes bombarded with the single potent ingredient, not balanced with its other compliments. The body can’t choose what or what not to absorb – and quickly soaks up the ingredient. The concentrated substance then leaches other nutrients from the body to activate itself. That’s when your body can become weak and possible side effects can occur from this isolated, concentrated substance.

For instance, if you consume only a part of the vitamin B-complex family - say B-12 or B-6 - that isolated unit will pull the rest of the B-complex components from your body to help initiate its action. Now, your body’s robbed of its own nutrients, and instead of being regenerated, it’s actually weakened -- like robbing Peter to pay Paul. It’s always best to use the whole herbal component, not just the isolated parts.

Now, there are also toxic herbs and they aren’t to be used at all! Eastern medicine, and I myself, use only the herbs that have long and proven track records of success and curative healing. Allergy sufferers might also be advised to stay away from herbs that are grasses, such as shave grass, scouring rush, or even camomile. They may tend to cause allergic reactions because of their high pollen content. But the barks, tubers, roots, and seeds of plants are always safe to use.

Traditional Eastern herbal medicine is structured on precise basic concepts and rules! All the herbal formulas and treatments used in Eastern Medicine are based on the principles that everything in life is interconnected and interdependent on each other. For example, it teaches that the universe, the earth, and man are completely connected and dependent on each other, and that everything is energy based in the balance of the dual nature of Yin (negative-dark-feminine) and Yang (positive-light-male) energy. This also means that the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual natures of man are completely inter-connected within his physical body, and rule the functions of his organs, which are seen as "systems" in Eastern medicine. Total healing then comes from keeping an even balance between the specific energetic flows of Yin and Yang in an individual’s body.

To explain more clearly, the dual nature of man is based on the yin feminine nature with its properties of cold, dark, slow, negative current, synthesis, emotion, mass, regeneration, and birth, and played out, in our metabolism, as the parasympathetic nervous system - the Synthesizers – as you’ll see in my book, Your Body, Your Diet. It is also based on the yang male nature with its properties of hot, light, fast, action, positive current, assertion, intellect, and energy and played out, in our metabolism as the sympathetic nervous system - the Accelerators.

Eastern Medicine’s herbal remedies are all formulated based upon these principles. For instance, if a condition is diagnosed as a "cold condition" (Yin), such as a runny nose with clear mucous, a sore throat, and feeling cold all over, your herbal formula would consist of "warm" (Yang) herbs, such as cinnamon, to help speed up the body’s immune response. Now, if the condition is a "hot condition" -- very Yang with yellow mucous and the beginning of a fever -- your formula would consist of the cooler herbs, such as mint or burdock fruit. They help the body cool down, and give your immune system a chance to kick in and make its antibodies.

Now, if the condition goes deeper into the body’s organs and is beginning to disrupt your fundamental energy – Yang - your formula would contain more of the stronger cooling Yin herbs, such as anemarrhena or gardenia. Supposing it goes deeper into the blood (Yin), you’d suggest the very strong Yang herbs, such as scrophularia (figwort) or red peony bark.

If the condition wasn’t eliminated and had progressed more deeply into the body, then your formula would include ‘heavy hitters’ such as coptis, philodendron or scutellaria. When your body has won the war, tonic herbs are given -- based on your individual need -- to either generate more energy (Yang) or regenerate cell tissue (Yin). There must always be a balance and interaction between the energies.

Some of these herbs may sound familiar to you because I use herbs that come from both the West and the East. But I formulate my herbal teas primarily based on the Eastern concept of balancing the energetic duality in the body that I just described.

The teas I’ve created for each of the metabolic types have two components, and are based on an old Eastern formula designed to reduce fat. The first component is the "Master Formula." It acts as the basis or foundation formula for all six metabolic teas, and contains neutral herbs. These neutral herbs help flush out toxins, open the digestive tract for speedier food assimilation and elimination, and help to emulsify fat. This "Master Formula" appears below.

The second component is the addition of specific herbs for each of the six metabolic types, to help accelerate and/or balance their particular Meta-type metabolism.

Preparing your tea is a simple matter. Your Body, Your Diet illustrates several ways you might choose to do this. You can choose to use all of them or just the ones that seem to fit your own individual needs. However, I’ve listed below what each herb does in the Master Formula, the purpose of the additional herbs in the six Meta-type herbal formulations, and how to prepare the teas.

Master Formula

Accelerator Herbal Additions

Balanced Accelerator Herbal Additions

Mixed Accelerator Herbal Additions

Synthesizer Herbal Additions

Mixed Synthesizer Herbal Additions

Your Meta-type herbal teas may be prepared in the following manner:

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