The Global Medicine Hunter, Dr Meg Jordan

The Global Medicine Hunter
Dr Meg Jordan

The real life medicine man turns out to be a woman and whilst her quest for new cures might not quite be as glamorous as that portrayed by Sean Connery in the film Medicine Man, it certainly has its perks.

Dr Meg Jordan is a medical anthropologist, which means she searches for effective medicinal remedies from healing traditions around the Globe. When she discovers something she believes of value, she negotiates with the natives to bring it back, arranges a fair trade, tests it for scientific validity, and, if all that works out positively, tries to convince labs, clinics, universities and hospitals to integrate the remedy into medical practice.

Meg’s search for new medicines has taken her everywhere from the Caribbean to the Amazon, Southern India to the rain forests British Columbia. But the jet-set lifestyle isn’t all glamour and excitement, and whilst Meg loves meeting people from different cultures and learning about their way of life there’s a lot of hard work to do as she wades through mud, clambers up mountains and scrounges through snake-infested jungles in her quest to find natural medicine that really works.

The real satisfaction lies in finding something that really does work and helping the locals benefit from its export. A recent trip to St Vincent led to Meg meeting a local who was an enthusiastic spokesman for the healing therapies of his elders, the Caribs, the earliest known native residents of the Caribbean chain of islands.

Meg was particularly interested in the trumpet leaf, a local broad leafed plant that is used for coughs, colds, flu, nasal blockages, head congestion, asthmatic conditions and more.

A tea is made with the dried, ground up leaf, brewed to a certain strength for at least 20 minutes, then sipped all day long. The steam from the tea is most beneficial. Wrapping a towel around one’s head and inhaling the aroma is a sure fix for clearing up clogged nasal passages.

Meg is now trying to convince companies to strike a fair trade deal with the Caribs, in order to cultivate, harvest, and market their local cold and cough remedy and hopes to have some good news soon. St Vincent was hard hit in recent hurricanes and Meg feels is seems only right that the society should benefit from conscious global trade, now that they are swept up in the dire consequences of more frequent and harsher storms, more than likely due to climate change.

Meg’s real passion though, and at the center of her quest, is a desire to find the richest, and most potent ‘adaptogen’. An adaptogen is a herb or botanical compound that helps to normalise the body and aid its natural processes. Those adaptogens that have been found appear to have an uncanny ability to help the body with a large range of problems. For example, if you have low blood pressure, adaptogens help to raise it slightly. If you have high cholesterol, adaptogens help reduce it. Scientists have never been able to manufacture in a laboratory what natural adaptogens are able to achieve within human physiology.

Out of thousands of botanical remedies, only a few qualify as adaptogens. In Russia, Meg came across rhodiola; in India, ashwaghanda. Both have been used by native healers and are now integrated into modern medical practice. Meg is most excited however by an adaptogen she found in the East - the Red Reishi mushroom. This rare, woody mushroom from the remote Asian highlands is considered the most superior energy adaptogen on the planet. Used for over 2,000 years by traditional Chinese and Japanese healers reishi’s rarity meant it was once reserved solely for use by Emperors.

Thanks to the likes of Meg though reishi has now become more readily available and various scientific studies have helped show that, as with many of Meg’s finds, its claimed benefits appear to be real. Various therapeutic compounds, such as polysaccharides, beta-glucans, and ganoderic acid, have been identified in reishi and are seen to help strengthen the body’s response to disease-causing processes, rebuilding and restoring immune system function, and improve the body’s overall ability to cope with life’s stresses mental, physical and environmental. Red Reishi is also thought to help enhance energy levels if you’re feeling run down and stagnant, or help calm you if you’re irritable and stressed.

Despite Meg’s passion she is aware that not every cure is going to be found deep in the jungle, a fact brought home to her by the native healer who gave her the name “Global Medicine Hunter”. They asked Meg what she was doing so far from home -
“Don’t you know your medicine is in your own backyard?”
She had a point and Meg realizes that good medicine is the one that works for you, no matter if it’s alternative, complementary or conventional, but seeks to discover why the Eastern approach to cultivating and sustaining energy is so vastly different from the West’s material, structured approach.

Perhaps the most important lesson Meg has learnt from her travels is that its not always about the actual remedies themselves…

“More than anything, what medical anthropology has taught me is to honor wholeness and interconnectedness, and understand how every intervention is holistic in its impact, affecting person, place and planet.”


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