Berberis aquifolium for the heart

The forest floor these days is all Fern and Salal it seems. That, and Berberis Aquifolium, which for the sake of simplicity, I will from now on refer to as Berberis.

My mom and I visited the Butchart Gardens this morning. It's a magical place any time of year.

Frankly it looks empty at the moment. Its starkness serves to reveal its structure.

And Butchart has good bones.

The forest is the same these days, only wilder.

Berberis made itself known to me in the barren season.

It's a fun looking plant because it likes to change colours. Its anatomy feels simple.

You think, yes that's right, you're the plant that Apple took to make a plant emoji. 🌿

It feels plant-y.

And it's everywhere.

I kept looking at this plant thinking, well you're nice but I have nothing to say about you.

I mean, "plant-y"?

I looked up its name and as you do when you read a plant name you don't already know, I shrugged and moved right along.

But then a few days later I was seeing a patient in the office and she throws in a bonus question. I love patients' bonus questions because they're always the most interesting. Like the toenail fungus knows I can't make it go away, and so we get to the good stuff.

(I am being facetious here, much of my day involves complex medicine).

Anywho, she asks me whether I'd heard of Berberine supplementation for cardiovascular health.

I don't know if any of you ever get lightbulb moments in your brain but YO, they're cool. It's as though I can feel these two neurons meeting for the first time. Two neurons who know they are destined to be friends. A synapse is born. SICK.

Berberis aquifolium. Berberine.

I looked it up.

Sure enough Berberis contains a compound called Berberine which has been the subject of many a clinical trial.

It baffles me how paradoxical we can be as people. We pit western medicine and naturopathy against eachother as though they aren't trying to accomplish the same thing. Besides, nowadays the patient visiting the naturopath is getting an ozempic prescription and carrying around hand sanitizer, and the heart-attack-on-legs is telling me how statins melt your brain because it's made of cholesterol, and therefore leads to Alzheimer's.

I digress.

Supplements are a big market because they make both the naturopathy patient and the western medicine patient happy.

Supplements feel safe because they're plant-based, but also because they're put into gel capsules and a childproof plastic cap. Still, I'm all for our return to source.

There's a meta-analysis of 18 randomized trials that demonstrates Berberine's beneficial effect on our cholesterol levels. I'm certainly not here to convince anyone of anything, nor make medical recommendations.

All these new neuronal friendships got me thinking different. There's a theory I read from this book called The Secret Teachings of Plants and The Intelligence of The Heart, by Stephen Buehner.

Pause here. In order to read this next part you're going to have to loosen your associations to the meanings you've attached to words. Just, keep an open mind.

The author talks about how mother nature is divine designer. We humans are intrinsically part of her design, and therefore she considers us in her wisdom choices.

As such, she presents us with the plants we need most, in the moments we need them most.

Is Berberis' abundance meaningful?

I wonder if we need Berberis Aquifolium because we have an epidemic of high cholesterol, which, when not attributable to poor diet, we can't explain beyond age and genetics.

What if mother nature is so good at what she does, that without us barely considering her, we find exactly what she knows we need?

My husband and I joke sometimes about the way we "found eachother." Our meeting is analogous to running lost in a forest, tripping over a root and from our knees lifting our gaze to see the other standing there, and saying: "Look I've found you!" We know something greater than ourselves was at work in our meeting. That and our mutual friends.

The divine dances in mysterious ways and really does love to shower us with grace. Rarely does it ask for credit.

And in the part of this world that is rampant with fear and guilt and shame, I wonder if we're being asked to remember that, just like Berberis, we're here for a reason too.

That we humans, paradoxical though we may be, are in equal measure part of her plan. And if we were to realize this acutely in our hearts, would we not treat eachother, and our forests, a little differently?

Thanks for being here <3

Izzy