Christopher Nyerges (pasadenaweekly.com, Jan. 15, 2020), Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
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| Europeans burned the codices of wisdom. |
Let's blend knowledge of Western chemical medicine and Native Chumash herbal plant remedies to help cure pain.
Healer Cecilia Garcia was a Chumash medicine woman who collaborated with a Western doctor at the University of Southern California.
Dr. James Adams, a pharmacologist at USC, learned the healing techniques of the Chumash people -- Southern California Native Americans who lived from Malibu to Ventura -- to teach them as part of his regular college classes.
Dr. Adams earned his Ph.D. in comparative pharmacology and toxicology at the University of California at San Francisco in 1981. Since then he’s written more than 200 articles for lay and academic audiences.
Dr. Adams became interested in the medicinal uses of native plants in 1994. He was taking his son out on Boy Scout walks when he began to realize that all of the native plants they encountered had been used by local Native Americans for thousands of years.
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| Chumash medicine woman Cecilia Garcia (pin) |
Dr. Adams became Garcia’s student in 1998. He studied the intricacies and underlying belief structures of Chumash healing traditions with her.
“I was her apprentice for 14 years,” says Dr. Adams. “I worked with her on every aspect of healing — making medicine, gathering medicine, leading hikes, leading talks, leading religious ceremonies, and more.
“I was her apprentice for 14 years,” says Dr. Adams. “I worked with her on every aspect of healing — making medicine, gathering medicine, leading hikes, leading talks, leading religious ceremonies, and more.
“She taught me about the medicine and the Chumash religion. She taught me how to interview patients and reach a diagnosis. She taught me the traditional way to treat a patient. We spent many hours and days together, sometimes just the two of us out hiking. We went from Davis to Ensenada and many places in between.”
Nature’s Way
Dr. Adams and Native Medicine Woman Garcia eventually collaborated to produce the book Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West (2005). The fully illustrated text describes the chemistry of the plants that were used by the Chumash for medicine and generally used throughout the American West.
Since their collaboration Dr. Adams and healer Garcia led about 100 walks and workshops to teach Native American uses of healing herbs, until Garcia’s untimely passing in 2012.
Dr. Adams was also instructed by Ted Garcia, the chief of the Chumash, his brother Dennis Garcia, their father Ted Garcia, Frank Lemos, and many other Chumash people.
Dr. Adams points out that he is accepted by Chief Garcia and the Chumash people who follow him as a healer, though there are some Chumash people who do not accept him.
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| Co-author Dr. James Adams, Ph.D. in pharmacology, University of Southern California |
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Since their collaboration Dr. Adams and healer Garcia led about 100 walks and workshops to teach Native American uses of healing herbs, until Garcia’s untimely passing in 2012.
Dr. Adams was also instructed by Ted Garcia, the chief of the Chumash, his brother Dennis Garcia, their father Ted Garcia, Frank Lemos, and many other Chumash people.
Dr. Adams points out that he is accepted by Chief Garcia and the Chumash people who follow him as a healer, though there are some Chumash people who do not accept him.
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| History (Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz) |
I asked Dr. Adams whether he was cynical about the medical profession: Does he believe that Western doctors are more concerned about making a buck [selling treatments rather] than actually healing a patient?
“Neither,” he told me. “Doctors are simply working on a false preconceived notion that herbs are not strong enough to deal with certain physical conditions. But believe me, some herbs are just as strong as any patent medicines out there.”
He adds that there is a lot of good medicine being practiced, but not with the use of opioids for pain. In fact, their use is not only counter-productive, but sometimes deadly, with at least 67,000 people dying every year in the US from their misuse, and that figure continues to rise.
According to Dr. Adams, doctors work from the premise that people should try to control pain by using the drugs that affect the brain. They tell the patient, let’s try x, or y, or z, and when those don’t work, they try opioids, like Vicodin.
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| American troops move in to protect the poppy fields, the source of heroin production. |
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| The British created Chinese addicts. |
This is all based on the notion that we need to cure the pain in our brain, but the brain only processes pain signals from the skin. More than 95 percent of the body’s pain receptors are in the skin.
"Why have doctors gotten this so wrong?" I ask. Dr. Adams tells me that the prevailing theory is still that the brain is the center of all pain, that pain can be combated by giving the patient drugs that suppress pain detectors in the brain.
“That’s the prevailing notion,” Dr. Adams explains, “but the pain comes from the skin.” The brain might process pain, but we still need to treat the pain in the skin. “When a child skins their knee, do they quickly grab their brain, or do they grab their knee?” he asks wryly.
That form of treatment may have been based on the best of intentions, but it is not working, Dr. Adams has learned. “Think of a carpenter who can’t do a job with his hammer. What does he do? He gets a bigger hammer. In medicine, pain is often treated with ibuprofen and naproxen. But when that doesn’t work, the doctor has a bigger hammer — opioids. And some doctors just go right to that bigger hammer.”
Chumash healer Cecilia Garcia taught Dr. Adams about traditional ways of dealing with pain, among other things. “Cecilia taught me how to make and use liniments from black sage and sagebrush. And as a result of working with several hundred patients over the years, I have seen that these are great pain killers, which also have the ability to deal with chronic pain.”
Dr. Adams added science to his collaboration with Garcia by explaining medically why the Chumash systems work.
“Most modern Western-trained people do not want to believe that the Indian medicines are efficacious [effective]. I have learned how these herbs worked. It took me a lot longer to learn how they cure chronic pain,” he said, adding that he has written several academic papers on this topic.
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| Native American Pasadena: Hahamongna |
“Everyone says they feel pain in their organs, but it is almost always in the skin. So you put this herb liniment from native herbs on your skin, and the pain is gone. Even kidney stone pain can be treated with the sage brush liniment,” he explains.
“We need to learn how to treat pain correctly, and we are not doing that correctly with oral medicines,” says Dr. Adams. “When I was a boy, everyone knew how to take care of themselves when it came to the most basic everyday medical issues, like using sassafras, yerba santa, and other common herbs. But no one seems to know any of this anymore.”
Through his writings and teachings, Dr. Adams hopes to bring back the notion that the body can heal itself if we allow it to do so. Everyone should take charge of his/her health and not assume that any doctor can “heal” us.
Sage and Sagebrush
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| SoCal native sage in the garden (ucanr.edu) |
He cites an example of a 77-year-old woman with terrible hip arthritis. “She has been making the sagebrush liniment and applying it every day for the last five years, and she says that it keeps her going. Her pain is relieved. And there are dozens of other patients who treat themselves this way, and none have ever reported any incidents of toxicity.”
Dr. Adams points out that there were six top herbs used by the Chumash in healing:
- Mugwort
- sagebrush
- white sage
- black sage
- bay
- yerba santa.
These are described in detail in their book. There is a comprehensive scope and depth to Dr. Adams’ teaching, yet he usually emphasizes that he’s not healing anyone. He’s only making it possible for the body to heal itself.
Dr. Adams has also been compiling testimonials to demonstrate the efficacy of the healing methods he practices.
“Even if a person is told by [his or her] doctor that there is nothing the medical profession can do and that you will die, I say, you are still alive. Your body can heal itself. Don’t give up,” Dr. Adams encourages. “Learn to live in balance.”
- Dr. Adams’ class schedule and books: abeduspress.com
- Christopher Nyerges is the author of over 20 books including Guide to Wild Foods and others on botany, healing, survival, and self-reliance in the outdoors. He conducts regular wild food classes: schoolofself-reliance.com
