Why do we make a face, break a sweat, salivate and spit it out? Because it's dreadful; that's why! I'm talking about herbal medicine here. Most people who have never tried it will politely decline trying it at first sight - it looks "earthy". Then they smell it. "Earthy." Will they give it a try? Only the adventuresome dare put it to the tongue. These brave souls will then make a face, break a sweat, salivate, and spit it out. 

Ok - not every time, but herbal medicine can involve a learning curve for those newcomers who have neither the opportunity nor the drive to ingest and partake. But here's why they should.

Your senses are gateways to the nervous system. When they are stimulated in new ways, the nervous system has to expand a whole section of neurons in your brain, which increases the size of your brain in a good way. Your smell receptors relay information to a very ancient and instinct-driven part of your brain, the limbic system,  which generates feelings, emotions and links them to memories.  The more different tastes and smells you are experienced with, the more emotionally and intellectually intelligent you become, or so I like to believe.

I'm not sure how science has validated my theory on this, but what I do know to be evidence-based and sound is that bitter tastes stimulate the part of your nervous system that relaxes you and helps you digest your food. It calms your heart and lifts your mood. This is the effect of the Vagus nerve on the autonomic nervous system. Sours wake us up and clear our mind. When you have bitters and sours in one day, in increases bile production in your liver, and the rate that it flows through it, which helps you eliminate metabolic and environmental waste. Hot and spicy, or "pungent" things open our pores and widen our vessels so blood travels more freely. Pungents also relax the muscles that work our intestines, making digestion more comfortable.

Whether we are preventing stress, trying to improve our mental factions, avoiding stomach upset, improving our liver function, or trying to remain calm on a first date, we can actually use taste and smell to steer things in the right direction. Every year I've challenged my university students to take a bitter formula before measl for 14 straight days and then write a paper on their personal experience. They have so many unique reports, but one thing that stands out is that their tastes change in time. At first most found the bitterness abhorrent. After about a week it wasn't too bad. After 2 weeks, they craved it, it tasted almost sweet, and they wanted to keep going!

There is also the phenomenon that at first mental clarity and focus gets worse. Things get disrupted as the gut microbiome adjust to optimal digestion, but then clear up like the blue, blue sky after 2 weeks! So it's a huge leap of faith to ingest an herbal concoction when your better instincts tell you to spit the bitter (probably poisonous) nasty thing out. But as long as you know it is safe, written into thousands of years of human history, and science shows clear improvement to all functions, then be one of the adventuresome few who change their brains!