dr. low dog story:layout 1

142 TUCSON LIFESTYLE

“In what is now the United States, indigenous popula-tions basically had a food, clothing or medicinal usefor all but about six to 10 percent of the vegetation,”notes Tieraona Low Dog, M.D. “All plants essentially

had some purpose, whether for food, shelter, making baskets orusing as medicines.”

Relaxing in a conference room in her midtown office, mesquitetrees visible through the windows as they shade the courtyardarea just outside, Dr. Low Dog seems perfectly balanced betweenthe natural world and the technological conventions of cellphones and air conditioning. Her striking good looks and openand approachable demeanor give her the perfect bedside manner,and her amazing skill set makesher a highly skilled healer.Currently the education directorfor the Program in IntegrativeMedicine at The University ofArizona, the Oklahoma nativewith the eclectic background thatincludes teaching the martial artsand running her own herb farm,says that if we all become morein touch with nature, we canimprove not only our individual health, but also the condition ofthe world. She references the Lakota phrase mitakuye oyasin,which loosely translates as “we are all connected.” That means thewhole web of life — earth, plants, animals and humans. Her mis-sion at the program that Dr. Andrew Weil founded is not just to dis-cover new and better ways to use plants as medicine, but to teachphysicians — and the public — that this connectedness meansthat good health begins literally right in your own backyard.

“I tell people who say, ‘I’m not sure I want to use herbal medi-cine — it sounds a little hokey,’ to go to Tucson Botanical Gardensand just experience it. Gardens are healing. Most great faithsbelieve that life began in a garden.”

To illustrate her point of how we are surrounded by desert florathat possess life-giving properties, she indicates the office court-yard. “Mesquite beans are a food source that many of the indige-nous people who used to inhabit this area would cook and eat. Agood source of fiber and protein, mesquite beans are digestedslowly, which means that blood sugars do not rise rapidly — apoint that should not be lost considering the epidemic of diabetesin local native populations that has occurred, in part because ofthe dramatic shift in their diet.”

According to Dr. Low Dog, another plant that’s currently beingstudied for its health benefits is a much-maligned succulent that allbut grows like a weed throughout our region — the prickly pear.

“Many cacti seem to have a bene-ficial effect on blood sugar, andthey are widely used by theHispanic population,” she notes.“Twenty-five years ago, you hadto go out and pick prickly pearyourself and burn off the spines.It was hard work. Now you canget the pads — without the stick-ers — in many grocery stores, soit’s very easy to cook with them.

You just use a cheese slicer and take off the outer layer to get to themoist inner flesh, and you can just cook it in your eggs.”

Not all of our native plants need to be consumed internally to bebeneficial. “I’ve got aloes all over my yard. They’re under my paloverdes in large patches. Aloe vera has been revered since ancienttimes wherever it has grown. When I was a kid, I don’t think therewas a fourth grader who didn’t know what the ‘burn plant’ was.All the teachers had it in their classrooms, and moms always had itin their kitchens. And now we’re looking at it not just for externalburns, but there’s growing evidence that aloe vera juices and gelscan be very healing for inflammatory bowel problems such asulcerative colitis and Crohn’s.”

Newcomers Edition |Healthy Living

According to one local physician, the treatment for manyof your ills might be sprouting just outside your door.

BY SCOTT BARKER

A Thyme to Heal

“I would argue that if you take your grand-mother to the store and she isn’t familiar

with the ingredients on a package of food,you probably shouldn’t buy it.”

— Tieraona Low Dog, M.D.

2007-2008 | NEWCOMERS EDITION 143

Tieraona Low Dog, M.D., is the education

director for the Program in Integrative

Medicine at The University of Arizona.

Photo by Martha Lochert.


Just as aloe is often simply seen as a border plantin our landscape, when we think of oaks, we gener-ally picture using them as furniture or flooring, butthey have other uses that native peoples under-stood well. “We’ve got lots of variations of oaksaround here — scrub oaks, live oaks. They’ve allbeen traditionally used for burns, and as an astrin-gent due to high tannin content. Plants that are highin tannins are going to bind with proteins in theskin, making a natural bandage. Oak leaf and barkhave been used for a long time for wound healing,and has been taken internally for diarrhea.”

If we lived in the desert Southwest some twohundred or more years ago, chances are we wouldknow the names of all the plants around us, and

what they were used for. It’s an education that issorely lacking for folks today, and the result is a con-dition that Dr. Low Dog noticed when she used tolive in New Mexico and would take kids out forwilderness walks. “You’d watch them when we firstwent out and they just tromped around, steppingon everything and not paying any attention. Youstarted teaching them the names of plants, wherethe names came from, and by the end of four or fivehours, they all walked differently. They weren’t juststomping on the plants. They’d say, ‘Oh yeah, that’sOsha, and it’s used for ....’”

The reality of how many common plants havemedicinal properties becomes evident as soon asDr. Low Dog begins to recite a list:

“I’ve seldom found anything that’s as good forthose chest colds that just stay and stay as Osha, alsoknown as Bear Root. Valerian is another usefulplant. It grows up in our mountains, and we haveour own unique species — Valeriana edulis. It’sgreat for nervousness and nervous stomach, orwhat old Hispanic women used to call ‘nervosa.’Yarrow was called Soldier’s Woundwort and it wasstandard issue in almost all soldiers’ bags upthrough the Civil War. It’s a powerful styptic whenit’s applied on a wound. It stops the flow of bleed-ing, and it has antibacterial effects. Yarrow tea issometimes used to ease heavy menstruation. Andthe flowers, consumed as a hot tea before bed, willhelp you to sweat out a cold/minor fever.”

And money may not grow on trees, but treat-ments for chronic conditions sure do. Willow, cot-tonwood, poplar and aspen all contain salicin, theprecursor to salicylic acid. “The bark and leaves ofthese trees have been used for centuries to ease

“I think people suffer from the loss of nature in their lives. It’s like a ‘nature sickness’ in

a way. We see nature as something to be conquered,

avoided, shut out.”

C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 1 4 8

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Yarrow, aloe vera, sage, lavender, peppermint and prickly pear.


arthritic aches and pains. Although milder thanaspirin, it also has milder side effects.”

In 1899 when German chemist FelixHoffmann patented aspirin — acetylsalicylicacid — made from Spiraea ulmaria (akaMeadowsweet), even though he worked forthe Bayer company he probably never imag-ined today’s multi-billion dollar drug industry.He probably couldn’t have foreseen, either, thecurrent rush to study the pharmaceutical usesof plants, or to try to develop drugs using theircompounds. “Twenty-five years ago, with myherb shop in Las Cruces, I would never havepredicted that the National Institutes of Healthwould spend $120 million annually of our taxdollars to study complementary and alternativemedicine,” notes Dr. Low Dog. “About 40 per-cent of that budget has gone to researchingbotanicals and other dietary supplements,because we believe they may hold tremendouspromise. It would be foolish to think that we’vefound every medicinal agent on the planet andhave made a drug out of it. We haven’t begunto explore much of South America and Africa.China and India have such rich pharmacopias,and researchers in the West have only justbegun to look at them.”

Part of what has held research back is thatonce a promising plant is found, it is some-times overstudied — examples being herbssuch as echinacea and St. John’s Wort. The oth-er stumbling block is that plants are incrediblycomplicated from a chemical standpoint. “Oneof the biggest mistakes researchers make isalways trying to fit herbal medicines into a drugmodel. We’re so used to looking for one agent— one compound that will do one specificthing in the body. Plants don’t typically workthat way because they have hundreds of com-pounds that are very complex, and they’re kindof messy to work with in that way. I think thatit’s been hard for researchers to get their headsaround.”

If it’s tough for medical researchers to under-stand the mysteries of the botanical kingdom, it’seven harder for physicians to trade the pill-for-an-ill model for one involving maintaininghealth through proper diet and using naturalsupplements to treat chronic conditions. Dr. LowDog, whose heritage is part Lakota, Comanche,Irish and English, grew up with a rural traditionof working with the earth and using home reme-dies for most ills. She jokes that, “If you didn’thave a bone protruding through the skin, youjust didn’t go to the doctor.”

That sentiment is a far cry from how patientscare for themselves, and how doctorsapproach treating them. “As far as herbal medi-cines, I think most doctors are interested inlearning about them because they know that

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many drugs are derived from plants, and theremust be something to them, but they’re alsokind of scared. They’ve heard that the qualitycan be all over the place, which is true. Thereare really good companies making very goodproducts and there are companies that put outreally poor quality supplements. That fear canonly be alleviated by better oversight. TheWhite House Office of Management andBudget recently released the new DietarySupplements Good Manufacturing Practices,which should help improve the situation byratcheting up on the quality standards manu-facturing companies will have to follow. I thinkthis will do a lot to build more confidence.”

Part of what the Program in IntegrativeMedicine seeks to do is better inform physi-cians about herbal medicine, but also tochange how doctors relate to their patients.“Nobody knows your body better than you do,and as a doctor, before I look at your labs andtest results, I need to hear your story,” explainsDr. Low Dog. “Good doctors are like gooddetectives. If you tell us your story, we canoften get a good picture of what’s going on.But with the high-tech, low-touch approachthat’s taught in most medical schools, we’vesacrificed this crucial part of the doctor- patientrelationship. Doctors interrupt a patient within18 seconds of asking a question. We’re busyasking questions because we’re accustomed toworking in an acute care model. If you comeinto the emergency room, the chances are highthat you could be very sick. I need to get at theproblem and fix it fast. Works great in the ER ...works poorly in the primary care setting wherethe majority of our patients are suffering fromchronic problems, many of which are causedor worsened by our lifestyle choices.”

Fixing this backwards approach to primarycare brings into line the whole web that Dr.Low Dog speaks about: we have to care for theearth so we have safe and nutritious food and

Andrew Weil, M.D., is the founder of the Program in

Integrative Medicine at The University of Arizona.


plants to use as medicines; we have to pursuehealthy diets and lifestyles and avoid thingsthat lead to heart disease, cancer, etc.; and wemust develop and support public policies toensure that the system will work, that foods arebeing properly grown, and in the case ofherbal supplements, that they are properlylabeled, and so forth.

Personal responsibility plays a key role in cre-ating a nation of healthier people. “I can’t tellyou how many times I’ve seen a family wait sixhours in the emergency room to have their sixyear old with sniffles and no fever seen. Maybeit’s the loss of ‘grandmother wisdom.’ There’s nograndmother next door to say, ‘Oh, Johnny’sgoing to be fine. He’s got a little cold. Give himsome soup and some juice with Vitamin C andsend him to bed.’ There’s a sense that many ofus have lost the knowledge of how to care forourselves.”

There is hope, however, and the answermay be as simple as stepping out into the gar-den, taking a deep breath, and seeing not onlythe world in a different light, but viewing your-self in a new way, as well. “Your body is yourvery best friend. It never leaves you, and evenwhen you think it betrays you, it generally doesnot,” Dr. Low Dog concludes. “It’s absolutelydoing everything to adapt and try to survive,given how you care for it. And if you think ofyour body as your best friend, my guess is thatyou’ll treat it much differently.”

Editors note: Dr. Tieraona Low Dog is thedirector of education for the Program inIntegrative Medicine at The University ofArizona; past president of the AmericanHerbalists Guild; was appointed by PresidentBill Clinton to the White House Commissionon Complementary and Alternative Medicine;is currently the chair of the US PharmacopiaDietary Supplements Panel; and is conductingstudies with the Advisory Board of the NationalCenter for Complementary and AlternativeMedicine. She is the co-author with Dr. Marc S.Micozzi of the book Women’s Health inComplementary and Integrative Medicine — AClinical Guide. Her website is: www.drlow-dog.com.

It’s Only NaturalSniffles? Congestion? Before You Callthe Doc, Here Are Some NaturalRemedies to Consider

Allergies: Stinging nettles, of the sort that grow near bodies

of water and whose spine-like hairs tend to stick toyou if you rub up against them, have been found to be

|Healthy Living


helpful in reducing allergy symptoms. “Freeze-driednettles are quite safe,” reports Dr. Low Dog. “Theyaren’t like ephedra, which can speed up the heart. Intheir capsule form, there are no known adverseeffects, and you can try them even with younger kids.If they don’t work, you can always try somethingstronger, but medicines that are stronger also mayhave more risk. It seems to make sense to start withthe weakest/safest and work your way up when deal-ing with minor conditions.”

Migraines (and allergies):The herb Butterbur is gaining favor as a treat-

ment for allergy symptoms and migraines. “It hasbeen studied even in children as young as six,”notes Dr. Low Dog. “It has been shown to be aseffective as a non-sedating prescription antihista-mine, and it doesn’t make you tired.” One caution:read the label and look for Butterbur in a form thatis PA (pyrrolizidine alkaloid) free. PA can cause liverdamage, but once it is removed from the herb,Butterbur is deemed to be very safe.

Coughs:Chances are you have a great remedy right in

your pantry: dried thyme. Brewed up as a tea (andflavored with honey to make it more palatable), it’ssafe and effective for minor coughs and conges-tion caused by colds and allergies. “Take two table-spoons of dried thyme, and steep it in two cups ofwater for about 20 minutes,” Dr. Low Dog directs.“And then strain the thyme out, and add about ahalf cup of honey to it while it’s still warm. If youwant, you can squeeze half of a lemon into it. Andthen you just put it into the fridge. You take a cou-ple of tablespoons two or three times a day.”

This thyme tea with honey will cost very little tomake, and lasts about seven to 10 days in yourrefrigerator. By the way, honey has natural antimi-crobial properties, and studies have shown that twovarieties — manuka and kanuka from New Zealand— appear to be the best in that regard.

Sore throat:We think of sage as a seasoning for poultry and

vegetables, but it also makes an excellent garglewhen your throat is irritated from pollutants or a cold.“In Germany, you can actually purchase throat spraysmade from sage, which have antimicrobial propertiesas well as soothing your throat,” notes Dr. Low Dog. Asan added benefit, the essential oils of this plant,whose name we associate with wisdom, shows initialpromise as a treatment to slow the progression ofAlzheimer’s. Dr. Low Dog points out, however, that forthose considering taking any essential plant oils, cau-tion must be used. They are highly concentrated, andshouldn’t be used without expert advice.

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Stress relief:The word lavender comes from lavage, meaning

“to wash.” The ancient Romans put it in their publicbaths not only for its attractive scent, but because itseemed to soothe and calm bathers. It turns outthat it’s also good for the skin, and has antisepticqualities.

Tummy troubles:Peppermint has long been enjoyed for its dis-

tinctive flavor and the tingle it adds to foods, aswell as its ability to calm an upset stomach. Minttea is especially good for this, and served hot, alsohelps with congestion. Poured over ice, it can bevery refreshing on a warm day. Dr. Low Dog recom-mends making some mint tea, pouring it into icecube trays, and if you’re so inclined, adding a littlemint leaf and a fresh raspberry. After the cubesare frozen, you can simply add them to a glass ofcold water. “As they melt, you get this light, fra-grant, fresh, minty water that just tastes so good.So you have a healthy little drink that costs youpennies to make.”

Getting With the ProgramThe Program in Integrative Medicine at The

University of Arizona was launched some 13 yearsago, and has built an international reputation as aplace for physicians to learn to blend standard allo-pathic care with methodologies that include herbalmedicine and acupuncture.

It’s an enterprise that, like its founder Dr.Andrew Weil, is in constant motion, always movingforward and evolving. Recently, Victoria Maizes,M.D., executive director of the program, talkedwith Tucson Lifestyle about some of the excitingnew developments.

For a number of years, the program has accept-ed physicians as fellows as a way of familiarizingthem with complementary care, but there’s a newtwist, one that down the line may influence howdoctors are educated across the country. “We’vegot a brand new project called Integrative Medicinein Residency,” Dr. Maizes notes. “We’re doing it atthe U of A, but also at six other residencies aroundthe U.S. All the residents coming into the class willhave a 200- to 300-hour curriculum in integrativemedicine. This is really moving toward having thiseducation become a fundamental part of everydoctor’s training.”

Meanwhile, the program continues to train fel-lows, both onsite and off. “For our DistanceLearning Fellowship, we just had our largest classever — 80 fellows,” says Dr. Maizes. “Three of themwere from the National Institutes of Health.”

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But it isn’t just doctors who benefit from what’sgoing on over there. The public can directly partici-pate in a variety of ways, including the Healthy Agingworkshop that takes place at Miraval Life inBalance, which Dr. Maizes, Dr. Weil and Dr. Low Dogall take part in.

Additionally, the public can attend the fall lectureseries at the U of A, or the Grand Rounds, where dif-ferent physicians report on specific topics. As anexample of how eye-opening these presentationscan be, Dr. Maizes referenced a recent one where aresearcher spoke about tests he had done onAyurvedic medicines he had randomly purchasedboth in his local area (Boston) and off the Internet.He discovered that 20 percent of them had unac-ceptable levels of lead, mercury and arsenic, all themore reason for patients to make sure they are buy-ing from a reputable company that can guaranteethe safety and purity of their products.

Down the line at the program, Medical DirectorRandy Horwitz, M.D., plans to open an integrativemedicine allergy clinic there. As for folks in Tucsonwho want to be seen at the program for variouschronic complaints right now, Dr. Maizes says,“We’re definitely seeing patients, and that’s a veryimportant part of our service to the community.” TL

For more information about the Program inIntegrative Medicine at The University of Arizona,check the web at: integrativemedicine.arizona.edu.

Victoria Maizes, M.D., is the executive director of

the Program in Integrative Medicine at The

University of Arizona.

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