Reply To: Materia Medica
Hi Nancy,
Thank you for these questions, it is nice to have a set of questions that show me that you are thinking beyond the course, into your personal experiences and into critical thinking.
You are pretty spot on, garlic certainly can be very irritating to the digestive system and cause acid reflux to be worse for some people ( I am one of those people as well). This is more commonly the case when the garlic is raw or unprocessed and at higher doses. Perhaps it wasn’t written as a general caution because this doesn’t tend to be the case for everyone (some people have no problem with garlic). The dose thing is critical as well, many monographs actually often say to use caution with garlic at higher doses due to it’s digestive irritating qualities. For preparation reference: I find that raw garlic infused honey or oil is the ‘friendliest’ for my stomach if I need to take it at any medicinal type dose.
The contraindication for ginger and GERD/gastritis and ulceration in your monograph is likely to be based around it’s warming diffusive, stimulating properties and perhaps the anti-spasmodic action which may mean that the lower esophageal sphincter would relax enough to allow the stomachs contents up into the esophagus. Saying this however, there are some monographs and research suggesting that ginger may not only be useful for general nausea, but also ulceration and even reflux. I think it is a matter of taking it case by case (as is usually the situation :)). For e.g. it is important to consider why a person is having reflux, why they have an ulcer, or if they have any food sensitivities (including garlic). If someone is having reflux because they actually have a sluggish or insufficient digestive system with no irritation to garlic, then either herb could be of great use in this scenario. However, if the person is high heat, and has a raw, angry stomach with reflux that is definitely due to higher acidity in the stomach (maybe due to their energetics, lifestyle or diet), then neither garlic nor ginger would be applicable in this scenario and you would turn to cooling, astringent, and/or demulcent herbs (e.g. meadowsweet, rose, marshmallow, plantain etc.) depending on the specifics.
Ultimately I suppose that what I’m saying is that if you read something in a monograph and it doesn’t make 100% sense to you, it’s great that you are thinking about it and asking about it. I would always support researching more, experimenting for yourself and using your critical thinking, as you are, to discover why any statement is made. In this case it may have been put in the monograph as a contraindication rather than a caution, to keep things simple at this level of learning, when there are other herbs that can work more reliably/safely in the case of gastritis/ulceration and GERD, rather than a more specific case-by-case scenario.
As for your second question, Yes! That is a great idea. I LOVE using ginger topically, it is a wonderful ally there. And yes, the best preparation would be either a fresh (warm process) oil infusion, but you could also do a dried rhizome infusion. When you make it, leave the skin on (as long as it’s nice and clean). The other option is to use a tincture topically (which would be a fresh 90% tincture). You could use the tincture strait or mix in in with a base cream for the application.
I hope this was of some support. Don’t hesitate to ask further questions if you need any clarification on this answer.
With warmth,
Benna