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Healing & Alternative Health: |
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Everyone Should Have a Little Mother(Wort) Around the House. |
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by Susun Weed |
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Motherwort - Leonurus cardiaca
Excerpt from: NEW Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way
Also called: Herzgespan, Agripaume cardiaque, Yi Mu Cao
"Everyone ought to have a little Mother around the house," grandmother Edith would frequently say. The Mother she meant is motherwort, a locally common weed and a treasured ally to women stressed by menopausal problems. Grandmother Edith's love affair with motherwort began when her hot flashes knocked her out in the supermarket, continued as it mended her husband's heart, and grew and grew as her five daughters found relief from PMS and menstrual cramps, constipation and the crazies with the help of the little Mother, motherwort.
Use motherwort regularly during your menopausal years to:
· Lessen the severity, frequency, and duration of hot flashes
Motherwort regulates and tonifies the functioning of the thyroid, blood vessels, liver, heart, and uterus. For best results use 5-25 drops of tincture daily for 3 months. But don't neglect to try a dropperful (in a splash of water) even after a flash has begun.
· Relieve faintness with flashes
Motherwort is traditionally used to relieve shortness of breath and congestion in the respiratory passages. She invigorates the circulation and increases oxygen in the blood. Use 15-25 drops of tincture as soon as you feel faint or dizzy.
· Ease stressed nerves, relieve anxiety
Motherwort calms, supports, and strengthens you the way the smell of your mother did when you were very young. Used regularly, motherwort feeds your nerves and your good common sense, relaxing and unclenching any held tension. Motherwort is not sedating, but calming, leaving you ready for action, not flying off the handle or bouncing off the walls. Ask motherwort to be your ally in tough times, in shaky times, in enraging times, in scary times, in depressed times, in grief-filled times. Try 10-20 drops as soon as you feel your nerves starting to fray or just before a stressful event. Repeat every five minutes if needed.
· Relieve insomnia and sleep disturbances
Use motherwort's high-calcium calming effect when you are awakened by night sweats and have difficulty getting back to sleep. Keep a glass of water and a bottle of motherwort tincture by your bed and take 10-15 drops and a swallow of water as soon as you wake, even if it's three times an hour. Motherwort eliminates the nightmares some women experience with their menopausal Change.
· Strengthen the heart, reduce palpitations and tachycardia
Motherwort calms a rapidly beating heart with readily usable minerals, trace elements, and an alkaloid exceptionally tonifying to the heart (and uterus). The German herbal doctor, Weiss, uses motherwort tincture for those with functional heart complaints. The botanical name translates as "lion-hearted." A dropperful/1 ml motherwort tincture acts quickly to ease palpitations and tachycardia. Regular use lowers hypertension, and sets you up to be a hale-hearted crone.
· Eliminate menstrual cramps
· Relieve uterine pain
Motherwort tincture is my favorite remedy for women with uncomplicated menstrual cramps. I find 5-10 drops usually eases cramps in five to ten minutes. Repeat every ten minutes as needed. Motherwort encourages strong (but not crampy) uterine contractions, which strengthen the uterine muscle. So the more you take motherwort to ease your cramps, the more toned your uterus becomes, and the less likely cramps are in the future.
· Restore thickness and elasticity to vaginal walls
Motherwort brings blood to the pelvis and thickens all tissues there (bladder, uterus, vagina). Noticeable results occur within a month of taking 10-15 drops daily.
· Lift depression
A dose of motherwort first thing in the morning is far kinder to your system than coffee and helps you ease into the day with a renewed sense of life.
· Reduce water retention, oedema
Small, frequent doses of motherwort will reduce bloat in a few hours. For chronic care, use a dropperful/1 ml a day for 3-6 weeks.
· Relieve constipation and extend life
There is a Japanese saying about the heirs of those who take motherwort: they are grumpy because they must wait so long for their inheritance. But does it really work? A small dose (5-10 drops as needed) does ease gas pain, encourage regular elimination, and improve digestion. That alone would make anyone want to live longer.
Bitter with minerals and alkaloids, motherwort is unwelcome in salads and nasty as an infusion, so it is used as a tincture, vinegar, or syrup. In Oriental herbalism, Yi Mu Cao is cooling, pungent, bitter.
Dosage: Tincture of fresh flowering plant, 15-25 drops, 1-6 times a day.
Vinegar of fresh plant, 1-2 tablespoons/15-30 ml, as desired.
CAUTIONS: Motherwort can aggravate a tendency toward flooding. Do not use daily if you bleed heavily or are easily habituated to substances that make you feel really good. Motherwort is so soothing, so calming, that you may begin to lose some of your own standing and lean too heavily on your Mom.
Excerpt from Chapter 2 of :
NEW Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way by Susun S. Weed.
This section on Motherwort appears as one of seven herbal allies for women in the midst of menopause (pp.113-115). The other six include: black cohosh, chaste tree, liferoot, sage, ginseng, and Dang Gui.
MOTHERWORT RECIPES FOR YOU
Excerpt from HERBALPEDIA™ CD ($49)
Cool as a Cucumber Tea:
1 oz motherwort
2 oz linden flower
1 oz chamomile flower
4 oz skullcap herb
3 oz borage flowers, stems and leaves
2 oz marshmallow root
2 oz hibiscus flower
Combine 1 oz of the mixture with 4 cups of boiling water in a teapot or container with a well-fitting lid. Let stand for fifteen minutes, then strain the tea and store it in a closed container. Allow to cool; drink at room temperature.
During daytime hot flashes, drink 1 cup as often as needed. Or it can be sipped all day. Just be sure to drink the entire amount each day.
Conserve of Motherwort:
Strip the flowers from the stems allowing 2 lbs of sugar to 1 lb of flowers. Beat them together well, stirring the sugar in gradually, then pot and tie down well.
Syrup of Motherwort:
Cut the flowering stems into small pieces and put them into an earthen pot and pour over them boiling water, allowing 1 gallon of water to every 3 pounds of the stems. Cover closely and leave for 12 hours, then squeeze the herbs very carefully, heat the liquid and add a fresh lot of herbs; infuse again, covering closely, and continue to do so until the infusion is strong enough. To every quart of the infusion add 4 pounds of loafsugar and boil to a syrup, and bottle when cool.
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Susun Weed,
Healer
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Susun S. Weed has no official diplomas of any kind; she left high school in her junior year to pursue studies in mathematics and artificial intelligence at UCLA and she left college in her junior year to pursue life.
Susun began studying herbal medicine in 1965 when she was living in Manhattan while pregnant with her daughter, Justine Adelaide Swede.
She wrote her first book -- Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year (now in its 29th printing)-- in 1985 and published it as the first title of Ash Tree Publishing in 1986.
It was followed by Healing Wise (1989), Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way (1992), and Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way (1996).
In addition to her writing, Ms Weed trains apprentices, oversees the work of more than 300 correspondence course students, coordinates the activities of the Wise Woman Center, and is a High Priestess of Dianic Wicca, a member of the Sisterhood of the Shields, and a Peace Elder.
Susun Weed is a contributor to the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women's Studies, peer- reviewed journals, and popular magazines, including a regular column in Sagewoman.
Her worldwide teaching schedule encompasses herbal medicine, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, psychology of healing, ecoherbalism, nutrition, and women's health issues and her venues include medical schools, hospital wellness centers, breast cancer centers, midwifery schools, naturopathic colleges, and shamanic training centers, as well as many conferences.
Susun appears on many television and radio shows, including National Public Radio and NBC News.
This article is an excerpt from "Healing Wise" by Susun Weed, who graciously granted us permission to bring you this reprint.
Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081
www.susunweed.com
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