Hernia.

To: herb.franklin.oit.unc.edu
Subject: Re: hernia
From: p_iannone.lamg.com (Paul Iannone)
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 22:37:58 -0800

> do you have some suggestions about food & herbs concerning a friend with a (dubble) hernia?

Very definitely. ABSOLUTELY NO FRUIT. Especially no bananas or avocado or other gravid fruit. No cold foods. Everything warmed. Lots of soups, especially beef soups.

The Chinese use warming herbs to treat hernia (both injury and prolapse), and that is correct practice. Ginger, Ginseng, Lindera, Aconite, Cinnamon. Note that's warming herbs, not hot herbs. Though English is a treacherous language, it does still capture this distinction, though people don't heed it.

Hot herbs are hot in nature. Mahuang is a hot herb. It is not a warming herb.

Warming herbs warm the patient.

Injury hernia can need cold applications and warming herbs internally, though that seems contradictory.

Paul