Balance is Everything Healthful

Did you know that balance is everything if you want to be healthy? Balance is all about giving attention to nutrition and lifestyle, in addition to your choice of anything else, such as herbs and remedies. When the things you can control—nutrition and lifestyle—are balanced, you’re helping your body to do its best.

Dedicated to her teacher, renowned herbalist Michael Moore (1941-2009), Body into Balance is a collection of health and herbal medicine information and a reference for daily use on how to achieve and maintain a balanced life. It is one of the very few books on herbal medicine that speak directly to people who are deeply interested in these subjects and are non-practitioners.

Body into Balance: an Herbal Guide to Holistic Self-Care. / Maria Noel-Groves, 2016. Storey Publishing. 336 p. illustrations in color.

Each chapter of the book is devoted to a part of the the body and its functions. Since we can all relate to our bodies in some way, this format is incredibly useful. The book provides insight into the healthy versus dis-eased bodily functions, and these are supported by introductions to the herbs and spices that are most helpful, most nutritional. Body into Balance is likely the first book of its kind to treat the whole human from an herbal and nutritional point of view.

Body into Balance is for people who enjoy being approached as grown-ups, and who are eager to know more about maintaining health. Yet if you are a novice when it comes to herbs, one thing is certain: you do in fact have a body so you can start with you. Author Groves makes four main points about your body’s basic needs: good nutrition, consistent and quality down-time with less stress, good digestion in and out, and regular detox—which happens automatically if the organs of detox are healthy—think Liver, Colon, Kidneys, Skin and Lymph.

If all these filters are to work consistently and well, they might need the help of drugs or pharmaceuticals, but even better, they could use the nutritional foundation of herbs. Why nutrition? Nutrition is what makes proper body functions possible.

“Herbs act like training wheels to help your body relearn patterns of health.”

—Maria Noel Groves, Introduction, Body into Balance.

By learning about how your bodily system may be reacting to life and stress, and matching that up with herbs that best represent the reinforcement it needs, you can get the therapy—the kind that retrains your body to heal itself.

Groves lists and describes all kinds of herbs—from the flowers, shoots, leaves, twigs and roots you’re familiar with to adaptogens, tonics, and longevity herbs. Her focus is nutrition and lifestyle. Groves’ point is that making poor choices in these areas can bring on disease or increase the likelihood that your body will be negatively affected. And then you will have to, or perhaps already have to, deal with the consequences of poor nutrition, poor circulation, an overloaded system that cannot effectively cope with toxins.

What’s ultimately helpful is the way this book was put together. A reader can learn about an herb from several bodily systems since many herbs work within the body on several levels—not only organically but also with the skin or muscles and bones. And don’t forget the spirit and mind-body connection.

A few profiles of herbs with astounding capabilities follow.

Gotu Kola, a meek and mild-looking herb that hugs the ground as it grows in semi-wet areas, is one such herb.

Gotu kola (Centalla asiatica) lends its secondary metabolites to humans, serving four of the seven bodily systems. Plus, it’s known as one of the longevity herbs—it helps humans recover vitality. It’s used by herbalists for circulatory issues, digestive issues, nerve and skin issues. And in Body into Balance, Gotu kola is featured in chapters on Stress and Energy, Nervines and Mood, Cardiovascular Health, Skin and Connective Tissue, and Longevity Herbs. An exhaustive list of causes and sites of disease in humans, is what this small and unassuming herb is capable of addressing.

The fully heralded Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is another amazing herb, capable of assistive healing in multiple areas. Groves admits she “turns to Turmeric … for anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, cholesterol-lowering, digestion-enhancing properties”, p.99 That’s quite a mouthful—to have at hand an herb that can be taken in cases of pain, arthritic or nerve, that does the job of aspirin but is longer-lasting and holistic in effect. Because it takes the body a number of weeks of ingesting it to prove its power, plan on using Turmeric for months prior to realizing the full effect of this pain-calming herb. Groves lists Turmeric’s additional benefits: two are thinning the blood and detoxifying the liver.

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum spp.) is featured in the chapter on Blood Sugar. Traditionally used a warming spice, known herbally as a treatment for diarrhea, and recently as a blood sugar regulator, Cinnamon might be found in your kitchen cabinet. There are basically two types of Cinnamon: Ceylon Cinnamon, and Cassia, a cinnamon-like spice which in the US we recognize as cinnamon with its firey cinnamon flavor. While not counseling against the use of Cassia, Groves says there are questions about safety if used in quantity since it synergizes coumarins or blood-thinners. Ceylon cinnamon, though lighter in color and flavor, delivers the same benefits, without detractors, and thus offers insulin-protection and its remedies to the intestines, digestion, and circulation.

Rather than relying on pharmaceuticals to do an incomplete job on you, two areas of health that can be positively influenced by prudent choices are nutrition and lifestyle. So in the herbal manual Body into Balance, more emphasis is placed on what you are getting out of your herb choices and what efforts you should make towards assisting your body to do its best, to bring you to the state of health in which you thrive.

Groves’ tables and special inserts give extra information about herbs. There are all sorts of means to compare the herbs, cutting the huge amount of information down to manageable size. Chapters contain illustrations of herbs grouped according to their healing aspects, so hunting the index for similar remedies isn’t necessary (but you certainly can if you wish). “At A Glance” tables provide lots of information on one or two pages, collecting the gist of herbal actions for immunity, the Heart, Pain Management, digestion.

For the lifestyle approach, Groves advises you to get up and move! Without exercise, movement, breathwork, and/or meditation, your bodily systems will suffer over time—even if your intake is from the most pure and wholesome diet, lacking in sugar and fake foods! Bodily organs require massage, something that is impossible without moving, and bodily lymph, the system which removes cellular wastes, absolutely requires movement. So, do it! Do some form of exercise you like that makes you feel good, walking, running, skating, cycling, etc. And don’t overlook the mind- and spirit-transformation with breathing exercises, yoga, tai chi or qigong.

One of my favorite chapters, “Herbal Nutrition”, is found at the beginning of the manual. In it there’s a recipe for Pesto (made from herbs like nettles, dandelion, chickweed) and several recipes for nutritional teas—herbs that can bolster your day to day nutritional needs if you super-infuse them to get “about 30 times” their nutritional value! Groves tells you how. The chapter also sports a table listing herbal nutrients, complete with RDA values.

There are many reasons why Body into Balance defines twenty-first century herbalism, at least now. It’s a manual, a collection of information written in a reader-friendly style with a focus on human health. Many extra bits of information have been added to enhance the flow and use of each chapter. And while you could use the book specifically for one problem, say pain management and nothing else like digestive issues, heart and circulation, stress, skin issues, and more! there is ultimately a connection from seemingly small issues to the larger picture and this is captured in Body into Balance, ready in case you need it.

For myself, one of these aspects is the last chapter, “DIY Herbal Remedies”. Sometimes I find that making my own skin cream is preferable to purchasing expensive ones. You may like to take herbs and garlic from your garden which you could infuse as an herbal vinegar, or herbal oil, medicinal or culinary. Or try your hand at herbal honey or tincture. The recipes are simple, easy to follow.

While you’re debating to whom to give this book as a gift, consider yourself, too! See the website Wintergreen Botanicals for more on author-herbalist Maria Noel Groves.

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