Welcome, Tribe
“In the coldest February, as in every other month in every other year, the best thing to hold on to in this world is each other.”
-Linda Ellerbee
It seems odd that February, a short, cold, dank month in most places, was picked as the time we celebrate love. Love is easy when everything is beautiful and new (May/June), living is easy (summertime), or when the world says it’s time to rest (October/November). But February? That’s a month that tests people. Winter has been around long enough for its beauty and wonder to fade into cold dampness. Spring is still seemingly endless weeks away. It’s hard to love nature in February…which is why we turn to each other with love, instead. We need each other to make it through this month.
I once upset a group of young adults I was teaching when I told them they need to treat love like a business. By their reactions, you would have thought I told them to go out and start forest fires! “Love is love, not a business!” was their general response. Ah, the innocence of youth. Making a successful business requires setting specific goals, making a plan to meet them, creating a budget of money and time, and regular meetings of the people in charge to make sure things are on track. A reward/bonus plan doesn’t hurt, either. 😉 Not knowing your partner’s relationship’s goals, plans, and budget will lead to failed love just as surely as a poorly run business will fail.
So, let’s turn from nature this month and focus on our partner. You spent January focused on improving yourself and now it’s time to figure out how to build bigger, stronger love.
Talking Herbs – Maca
Lepidium meyenii
What better herb to learn about this month than South American Maca? Cultivation of this tuber by indigenous people of the Andes Mountains goes back more than 2000 years and plays a big role in their herbal medicine for multiple reasons. It is known to increase physical strength, reduce anxiety, assist with menopausal issues, and improve memory…but first and foremost it increases the libido of both males and females!
To clarify, it’s not just something for men! A double-blind test of 45 women suffering from sexual dysfunction due to antidepressant use found that taking a maca supplement for 12 weeks lead to a significant increase in sexual desire and satisfaction.
Dried maca root contains useful amounts of ananamide, one of the neurotransmitters in the responsible for feelings of pleasure and bliss in the human brain. This compound was unknown until 1992 when it was discovered while studying human cannabinoid receptors. It is also believed responsible for the “runner’s high” that occurs during exercise.
Just to go sideway for a moment, two compounds (N-oleoylethanolamine and N-linoleoylethanolamine) in chocolate have been found to work together to mimic the effects of ananamide. This explains why chocolate became such a big thing for Valentine’s Day. It’s a maca root mimic!
Want an even strong effect? Have some black pepper a bit before taking anything with maca. Compounds in the pepper interfere with the enzymes the body uses to remove ananamide, resulting in a higher level of this pleasure molecule. Life is meant to be good.
Lifestyle Tips
Love languages
Over the years I’ve mentored a lot of young chemists and they are always surprised by how much time I spend working on their communication skills. Being able to quickly and clearing explain things to upper management plays a huge role in how quickly they enter those ranks of power. The key is not saying things how you want to say them but saying them in the manner that the ones you are talking to prefer. Is the boss a numbers person? Do they want every detail or just the big picture? Are they optimists or pessimists? Understanding their preferred communication style will help you tremendously.
And going back to “treat love like a business”, do you know your partner’s Love Language? What are their primary and secondary ways of showing love and feeling they are loved? If you are lucky, you and they have the same love language and so things work smoothly. But if they are different the result can be confusion, misunderstanding, and feelings of hurt and rejection. Those do not bode well for a relationship.
According to the theory’s creator, Dr. Gary Chapman, there are five separate love languages, so the chance of poor communication is higher than people realize. These “languages” are:
· Words of Affirmation/Compliments
· Quality Time Together
· Physical Touch
· Acts of Service
· Receiving Gifts
An example of not understanding each other’s Love Language would be like a husband packing a lunch for his wife everyday as a sign of his love (Acts of Service) but she being upset because he doesn’t put puzzles together with her (Quality Time). Lack of communication and understanding each other’s Love Language leads to feelings of rejection, which is rarely good in a relationship.
Determination of one’s Love Language involves a series of A/B questions where you are given a series of two choices, and you pick which you prefer. There are plenty of websites out there, such as ww.lovelanguagetest.org, that will give you the test for free. FYI, my results are:
· Words of Affirmation : 17%
· Quality Time : 30%
· Physical Touch : 41%
· Acts of Service : 7%
· Receiving Gifts : 6%
Touching me and spending time with me means a lot whereas giving me some trinket is a waste of your resources…unless it’s coffee. 😊
February is a good time to learn and start using your partner’s Love Language.
Product Spotlight
You saw this coming, didn’t you?
It’s a rare person that doesn’t care for intimate physical contact. Yes, they exist and more power to them if they are happy. But for most of us, it is an important part of satisfaction. Alas, the body doesn’t always work in tandem with the mind, does it? Our modern lifestyle almost seems to be designed to suppress making love. ☹
I want you to be happy! Hence the creation of The Libido Pill. This formula was created to help both men and women in the bedroom…or wherever else, excluding public places ;). You already learned how the maca root it contains helps with feelings of connection and arousal. It was traditionally used to increase the sexual desire of male humans, horses, goats, and other livestock but its best scientific studies were on women. Everybody wins!
Burdock root has a long history of use in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to help support sexual activity. Its main power is that it helps quickly remove fatigue-causing compounds, lactic acid and ammonia, produced by muscles in hard, active use. Burdock stimulates the liver, whose job it is to remove these from the blood, preventing their build-up which normally leads to the muscles no longer being able to function strongly.
The final ingredient in The Libido Pill is goldenrod. This medicinal plant is found worldwide and is loaded with all sorts of interesting antioxidant, antimicrobial, pain-relieving, and even mood-enhancing compounds. Of special interest are its bioflavonoids which have been found to rebuild fluid-holding tissues such as capillaries and…other body parts.
McGuffin, M. et al. 1997. Botanical Safety Handbook. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Use the coupon code “LOVER” to save 15% on The Libido Pill in February!
Upcoming Classes
Join me at these in-person plant walkabouts and online presentations!
Registration Links: https://medicinemanplantco.com/pages/upcoming-classes
Podcasts & Articles
Hear, see, or read the latest the advice from the Medicine Man.
In the Media - Podcasts & Articles – MM Plant Co. (medicinemanplantco.com)
Closing Thoughts
If you look closely at trees, you’ll notice they are beginning to produce the buds of springtime leaves. They still look asleep, but changes are occurring inside them and deep down in their roots. We can’t see the flow of sap rising up, carrying what the tree needs to build its coming leaves. We can’t see the shift in their enzymatic activity. But change is in progress.
People are the same way. We often don’t look closely enough at our friends and family to see subtle changes but then one day, boom! Their “new” growth is no longer hid. This often catches people off guard and can cause confusion…even dislike. Most people don’t like change because it disrupts their own comfortable routine. So maybe pay closer attention to what is feeding the roots of your circle of people. That will help you understand what is growing inside them. Yes, this is easier to say than do, but it's worth the work.
-Mark “Merriwether” Vorderbruggen, Ph.D. Chemist and Herbalist