Last week, I lost my darling Silky to lung cancer. At age fifteen, she enjoyed running up and down the stairs, sunning herself, and stalking birds on the porch this past summer and early fall in Vermont. In New York she naturally became subdued in our small apartment. She had lost little more than one pound over a period of a year, had fairly normal blood tests, then suddenly stopped eating. Cats are able to hide their lung vulnerability, can seem fine until they suddenly start panting and stop eating. Seeming well is their defense against potential threats. People, being complex, may feel emotional pain in the body. We often transform feelings into illness; it may be part of the healing process. Once I met a woman who had broken off with her lover and developed a two week cold. Her pain had shifted from a deep place in order to leave.

My grief for Silky transformed into a head cold. Recently, it was reported that swine flu is capable of being passed on to cats and dogs. I don’t have the flu. I have no fever but chills. I know this pattern: When exhausted I feel weak and chilled from deep inside. Then even an open window or standing by the open refrigerator makes me sneeze. Normally a dose of 5 pills once or twice of the Chinese cold pill Gan Mao Ling is enough to sweat out a chill. It contains honeysuckle flower an antibiotic that kills strep and pneumonia germs and chrysanthemum flower to increase sweating and thereby normalize body temperature. An additional strong dose of Chuan Xin Lian, an herbal pill containing antibiotic andrographis, is enough to stop a strep throat.

Always take cold/flu remedies between meals because they are not digestive. They may increase sweating, which spreads digestive acids throughout the body and therefore weakens digestion. Take cold/flu remedies separated at least 2 hours from meals.

I remain emotionally vulnerable: Hearing Mahler’s Fifth symphony, the adagio, I am reduced to a puddle. A friend advised to allow myself to grieve. I have been through that, remembering the horror of medical testing that left Silky’s ten-pound body a rag. Even without cancer chemotherapy, that was enough to kill her. Lack of sleep encourages my cold.

I need immunity- and energy-enhancing herbs such as Astra 8 pills made by Health Concerns, which contains astragalus (huang qi) to increase T cells. That can stop weakness and depression from going deeper. Immunity fails with grief. Astra 8 is a good remedy for people with weak lungs, adrenal deficiency, muscle aches, and immunity unbalanced in either direction—too active or too inactive. HIV, arthritis, stress, overwork and emotional upset. It contains eleuthero ginseng to support the nervous system and reduce chills, schizandra for immunity and energy, and reishi the immortality mushroom. It sounds perfect. It reduces night sweats.

Some energy tonics such as ginsengs can be taken with meals to avoid upsetting the stomach. Sensitive people should use a dose that feels comfortable.

I should have been taking Astra 8 pills a long time and given it to Silky ground up in her food. I recommend it for you all winter, if you are run down and stressed, have a pale tongue and chills and night sweats without fever, to keep your energy and immunity in balance, to build resistance to stress and disease. I need more than Astra 8, the immune and energy tonic, now because my problem is more than weakness and chills. It is heartache. I will be improved when I can remember happier times together, see beyond the illness that took her, and desire the company of other people.

Death likes company: It tries to take as many as possible. Losing someone dear, we lose a part of our past and pleasures. Grief is a little death. Receiving many emails of friends has helped a great deal, the loving attention of my family has helped, and writing to you helps lift the cloud that settled in my chest. Writing about the herbs reduces the obsession of my self-involvement.

People who are overweight, have heart weakness, diabetes, edema (swollen ankles or face) or blood pressure troubles need additional heart help beyond energy tonics. Do not mix heart herbs with cold/flu herbs. They are too different. The heart needs special attention, a time separate from food, coffee or other stimulants, antibiotics and others.

Arjuna is Ayurveda’s primary heart herb recommended to prevent and treat heart failure. That occurs when the heart muscle–due to disease, age or stress–becomes weak and fails to empty the heart’s chambers. Blood and cholesterol congest in surrounding blood vessels leading to heart stress. Arjuna a tree bark is astringent, a muscle tonic. It empowers the heart to rid excess waste and edema.

Treating the heart, empowering circulation to reduce illness, is something taken from traditional Chinese medicine. Herbalists are taught in ancient Chinese medical texts and from experience: When many things are wrong with body and mind, treat the heart. The heart does more than keep us alive. It maintains our humanity. People and pets can walk around after death of the spirit. You see it in lifeless eyes, a particular heaviness of dead body weight, and with the lack of emotional readiness and response to others. Limbs may feel cold.

If you lead a sedentary lifestyle, sitting at a computer much of the day, over-indulging in fat foods, sleeping during the day—a heart tonic such as arjuna can keep body and mind in better shape. You might take 500 – 1,000mgs of arjuna your with morning black tea and some digestive fruit like papaya or pineapple juice. Mental clarity benefits from such a heart treatment because reducing cholesterol and enhancing circulation brings oxygenated blood to the entire body, including the brain. I am starting to mend.

Update 12/16/09

My cold gone except for left over congestion, I took a dose or two of homeopathic pulsatilla 30C which resolves thick phlegm, shortness of breath and weeping. It eased the tightness in my chest. I recommend it to people with asthma, who feel shut in by their surroundings and who seek comfort from others. It improves breathing therefore energy, by drying thick congestion in head, throat and chest. Ancient Chinese doctors believed grief threatens lungs and breathing–a spirit called PO, that protects our desire for survival.

People with lung and breathing problems feel more threatened and smokers may even give up on survival. . .

The weekend after Silky died, I awoke in the middle of the night, remembering my Tibetan precious pills. I had brought them back from India many years ago, but they are sold online now. They are made by monks and include many herbs, precious metals and prayers in their making. I took a special one and dreamed about Silky’s incarnations. IT was pleasing to see her incarnated in my dreams.