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Passiflora or Passion Flower (Passiflora Incarnata)

June 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

If I want an Herb which really looks after someone suffering from nervous strain, I reach for the Passiflora.

It is such a wonderful gentle, calming, supporting nervine with mild sedative properties, that it is useful for any condition involving stress where the person needs calming and supporting.

Because of these properties, Passiflora may be used for cases of Insomnia, as it calms the brain as well as relaxes the body. One of the problems with insomnia is the brain goes in to hyperdrive and starts thinking about stupid things in a loop system, such as shopping, cleaning, washing, work, children’s activities, anything really, to prevent you getting to sleep.

Passiflora is an Herb which calms this mental restlessness down so that people can fall into a natural relaxed sleep. Night Night!

Don’t use it in pregnancy though; you will just have to put up with that little footballer having fun inside you at two o’clock in the morning.

Linda Bostock

Medical Herbalist

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Lime Flowers – from Pevensey Castle Herb Walk

June 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Lime Flowers
Tilia Europea
Herb Walk near Pevensey Castle in Westham Norman churchyard.
24.05.2011

The dried flowers are used which contain volatile oils, mucilage, tannins, and flavonoids.

The flowers have antispasmodic, diaphoretic (make you sweat) sedative and diuretic properties. They are also known to clean out arteries which have fatty deposits on the walls.

Apart from anything else, being gently sedative and antispasmodic they make a good calming and relaxing night time drink as they are low in tannins and taste good.

I often add lime flower to a mixture of herbs in tincture form for a blood pressure mix (usual warning, don’t self medicate if you have high blood pressure consult a Doctor or a Qualified medical herbalist).

Linda Bostock
Medical Herbalist. Dip.Phyt

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Herbal Health Information for Insomnia

June 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

There is no easy answer to this one as there are so many reasons people suffer from insomnia. Too much Caffeine is top of my list. Stress is next. Inability to relax, worry, overactive brain, noise sensitivity, not enough exercise, poor nutrition, hunger and so it goes on.
When I have a patient visit me suffering from Insomnia I look at lifestyle with a fine tooth comb.
Although this applies to general good health it is essential that a person is well fed. By well fed I do not mean over fed I mean has the right nutritional ingredients going into them.

LOOK AT YOUR DIET: – it needs to be a well balanced intake of protein, fats and carbohydrates with foods containing a fair share of vitamins and minerals such as fruit and veg. Never go to bed on an empty tummy but also do not eat just before you go to bed as this activates the digestive system at a time when the body should be calming down for the night. There is some research that shows calcium helps natural sleep which is why many people like a milky drink before bedtime.

CAFFEINE containing foods must be cut out of the diet
Tea, coffee, chocolate, coca cola, and all stimulant drinks such as red bull.
Many people think that drinking green tea is better for them, but green tea is higher in caffeine than ordinary tea so is not good to drink if you suffer insomnia. I don’t really drink very much alcohol, but one mad evening had one of those vodka alcopop drinks and was awake most of the night.
When I looked at the ingredients I saw the drink contained caffeine! So it is worth checking ingredients on packaging.
Giving up caffeine is HARD. Caffeine is addictive and the withdrawal symptoms include pounding headache and caffeine cravings, which can last for up to a week.
What I normally advise people to do is to reduce it slowly until they are on low caffeine intakes and can come off it without the withdrawal symptoms.
Tea and coffee substitutes are:-
The best substitute I have found is Rooibos tea (any supermarket) drunk weak and black.
Honeybush tea (internet) which is similar to Rooibos
Peppermint tea, which is a good morning cuppa.
Any herbal tea.
And of course loads of water……….no don’t bother to say YUK it is our natural drink.
A safe fizzy drink to have is Seven up as it has no additives, but, remember, fizzy drinks are a treat and should not be your normal daily drink.

EXERCISE is very important as we are natural “wanderers”.
So many people are doing sedentary jobs that it is important to make time to exercise. Exercise does several things for us, stimulates good blood circulation, uses up excess carbohydrates to prevent weight gain and uses up adrenaline shooting around the system from our bosses or co-workers or the lady in the supermarket having wound us up during the day.

HERBS
I have a favourite sleep mix which I make up in clinic which contains:-
Passiflora
Skullcap
Valerian

The other herbs I use are Californian poppy and Wild lettuce but not all in the same mix. You will be asking why I haven’t mentioned Chamomile. I love Chamomile but there are a few people who react completely back to front if they take Chamomile as a sleep aid and become hyperactive, so I use Chamomile mostly for the digestion and also to calm hyperactive children.
To go back to my sleep mix

Passiflora I have talked about in its own little article. It has mild sedative properties and is a relaxant.

Skullcap is a relaxing nervine as well as being anti spasmodic and relaxing. I use it because it is the only herb I know, which, due to its relaxing nervine properties, stops the brain going in to overdrive and thinking all those horrible “loop” thoughts when you are trying to get to sleep, such as, the shopping list or what activities the children have the next day or what shall I wear to my daughters wedding, or the amount of work piling up in the in tray, etc etc etc.

Valerian. You either love it or hate it. Smells like smelly feet but WHO CARES, when it is just about the best relaxing herb in the Herbal Pharmacopoeia.
Cats love it, my red headed daughter loves it and my once red headed now bald husband loves it, but the rest of the world hates it. I will list its actions:-
Sedative
Hypotensive (lowers blood pressure)
Hypnotic
Calming
Relaxant
Spasmolytic
All of this without giving you a woolly head the next day what more can you ask for?

There are many over the counter sleep mixes on the market, containing some or all of these herbs, but make sure they are licensed, or you could go visit your local herbalist.

Linda Bostock
Medical Herbalist Dip Phyt.

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A Herb Walk at the Long Man of Wilmington, May 2011

June 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

What a glorious walk we went on today. It was one of those perfect days, blue skies and little fluffy clouds. Not too hot and not cold.

We are looking after our daughter’s dog while she and her boyfriend are on holiday.

Her name is Bo but AS-BO suits her much better as she tries to rule the household somewhat.

We took her and Henry dog and ourselves to the long Man in Wilmington which is about a 10 minute drive from our home and in the South Downs.

The long man is a chalk figure carved into the hillside, but is a bit of an enigma as no one knows its actual date. It could be ancient or it could be Victorian. Certainly the Victorians are known to have put white brick on the figure to preserve it.

It is an unusual chalk figure as it appears to be holding walking sticks and has no male bits and pieces which makes me favour the Victorian theory, or it is actually a long woman.

At the Foot of the Long Man of Wilmington

Above the long man are some very ancient burial barrows so the whole area has a magical feel to it.

Today I wanted to go and photograph a hawthorn tree that is half way up the hill, which I have been photographing in all seasons and all  weathers.

On our way up the hill I saw that the elder flower in the hedgerow is just starting to flower and the wild plants in the hedgerow, cow parsley, nettles, dock and herb Robert were all growing so profusely the path was about half the size it normally is.

There were sky larks singing whilst on the wing and sheep in the field. The colours seemed exceptionally vibrant with the grass very green, the sky very blue and the sheep with their babies very white and fluffy.

We walked right up above the long man and stood on the barrows turning a 360 circle to see the countryside around us.

View from the Long Man

From there you can see the sea towards Brighton, the White horse chalk carving on the opposite hill, Arlington reservoir, the undulating weald and the South Downs heading off towards Eastbourne where they end. It is a view that makes you catch your breath every time and not just because you are panting and puffing from having climbed the hill to get up there!

Very often on our walks on the downs we find off cuts of worked flints which would have been used as small knives and scrapers, but today I kicked a piece of chalk on the path and when I looked down at it, saw that it had an Ammonite imprint on it as well as some shell imprints. Just a little reminder of how the South Downs were formed!

Right at the end of the walk and due to the dog running in to the edge of the field we saw a largish patch of fumitory growing. I was rather pleased as I have not seen fumitory growing in East Sussex before although I know it likes scrubby land.

I love that walk and confess I take all our visitors there.

To read more about the plants seen in this video, go to the ‘Herbs and Health’ section of the site. To find out more about the conditions mentioned, go to the ‘Health’ section

Linda Bostock

Medical Herbalist

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Herbal Health Information on Hay Fever

May 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment

It’s the time of year when plants are flowering and pollen is flying everywhere. It has been affecting people slightly earlier this year, as we have had such a warm spring and many plants are flowering early.

I know if you are a sufferer you can probably describe the symptoms better than I can, but for those who don’t know, hay fever can result in those with sensitivity, suffering from itchy and swollen eyes sneezing, running or blocked nose, sore throat and catarrh.

It can be mild, or it can make the sufferer’s life miserable for the length of time the plant pollen they are allergic to, is flowering.

If I have a hay fever sufferer visit me in clinic for the first time about this time of year, I treat the symptoms, but ensure the following year they come and see me to start their course of herbal medicine about a month before their normal hay fever season.

The logic behind this is, so that the mucous membranes in all those areas I have already mentioned are toned up. In a hay fever sufferer, the pollen attacks the lining of the eyes, nose and throat, irritating these linings and causing inflammation. The body’s natural defence mechanism is first to sneeze to try and expel the irritant from the airways and then to increase the amount of mucous produced in these areas to try and “wash” the irritants away. The inflammation of the membranes results in itching and the production of the mucous, in runny eyes and nose and catarrh. So if the mucous membranes are already toned up before the start of the hay fever season then either the sufferer will not get hay fever or the symptoms will be greatly reduced.

I have had an excellent success rate treating people who suffer from hay fever in my clinic. Remember there is no such thing as magic cure or 100% successful treatment. People all respond differently to medicines, whether orthodox or Herbal.

There is some dietary advice, which is to dramatically reduce the amount of dairy products you are eating and to drink plenty of WATER.

We humans eat too much dairy products in a day as it is “easy” food, starting with milk in cereals at breakfast, maybe cheese and yogurt at lunch time and perhaps ice cream at dinner time as well as milk in tea and coffee. Dairy is a difficult food for human adults to digest it is only babies who have the enzyme for milk break down in the digestive system. A large amount of dairy products in the diet may result in the mucous membranes already being inflamed, together with increased mucous production. So as Mister Spock would say, “it is logical Jim” * (if your name is not Jim substitute your own name here *).

The Herbs I use to treat hay fever are herbs which tone up the mucous membranes and protect them from the outside world as well as herbs that help to calm down the immune system.

Top of my list are:
EYEBRIGHT, this is an excellent mucous membrane toning herb,

ELDERFLOWER, amongst other properties, it is anti inflammatory and anti catarrhal (check out my herb walk at the long man),

MARHMALLOW LEAF, this soothes and protects the mucous membranes as it is a mucilage containing herb.

To this I would normally add something to calm the body down as the immune system has now gone into overdrive and will over-react to everything.

So depending on the patient, either PULSATILLA or PASSIFLORA both of which are gentle relaxants and I find, work well to calm the immune system.

All of these I use in tincture form, as tinctures are nice and easy to use , but you will probably be able to find an over the counter preparation with most of these Herbs in it.

If you are buying an over the counter preparation, make sure it is licensed as it has then been through a rigorous testing process.

If you suffer from any other conditions or are already taking orthodox medicine for anything, or are pregnant, consult a qualified Medical Herbalist or your doctor.
The Herbs I have mentioned above are all safe Herbs taken in the right quantities but Pulsatilla cannot be used fresh and Passiflora cannot be used in pregnancy.

It sounds a bit of a mine field but is really just a matter of knowing what you are doing and if you don’t, there are professionals around who will help you and do not charge too much.

It is usually cheaper to go to a qualified Medical Herbalist who will charge a reasonable fee to tailor make a preparation for you, than to buy an expensive product over the counter which may not be right for you.

There is a full write up of the herbs mentioned in this article on the website.
If nothing else it is all very interesting!

Linda Bostock
Medical Herbalist

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About Me and Herbal Medicine

May 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Hi,

Linda

My name is Linda Bostock,

I qualified as a medical herbalist in 1993 after completing a four year diploma course at the school of Phytotherapy in East Sussex and have been running my clinic of herbal medicine since then, first in Slough and now in Eastbourne.

My oldest daughter had suffered very badly with allergies and food intolerance and had ended up at age 15, 5’7” tall, in hospital weighing 7 stone and very unwell. Despite me telling the nurses at registration that she had several allergies to medicines and listing them all and specifying that she must not be given anything orally without me being informed, she was given the drug Stemetil, to which she had a terrible reaction, causing her to have severe muscle spasms which affected her breathing.

The nurses and doctors at the time treated us appallingly, insinuating she was suffering from anorexia and as I had just had another baby she was attention seeking!!!! It took me about 4 hours of serious hassling to get a consultant to come and see her at 2 am, who laughed and said yes, Stemetil was known to have that reaction.

So I sat by her bed all night thinking this child, this precious, fantastic person I had nurtured for the past 15 years was going to die because nobody in that hospital cared. At 7 am I made them take her off her drip, picked her up from her hospital bed, carried her back to the car, took her home and phoned our G.P.

By the time we were together enough to ask to see her notes, they were predictably “lost”. Our G.P. Dr. Eyres was a slightly quirky slightly unorthodox man who would ask you if you had a cigarette on you that he could borrow, when you went in to the surgery (none of us have ever smoked so we never did), but who I trusted completely with my children’s lives.

Between the two of us we cared for her by putting her on a strict vegetarian diet and not giving her any foods that contained additives. She recovered slowly and now, at age 40 is married with her own three gorgeous children.

But I decided then that I would never sit beside a child’s bed and feel so hopeless and helpless. So with 2 big children, 2 little children, husband, house, garden, cats and working as an auxiliary nurse at the local hospital in the evenings (yes the same one) I embarked on a four year diploma course of herbal medicine, at that time the only accredited one in the world, which I did so that I could keep my children healthy, but discovered it was what I was supposed to be doing in life.

I will be taking you on herb walks on this site and pointing out the wealth of medicinal plants we all have growing in our local areas, even in towns. I will give an explanation of the medicinal properties of the plants, hopefully using examples of conditions for which they have been used in my Clinic.

I’ll also be reviewing topical conditions and treatments and a variety of over the counter products available for their treatment. It is very important to know when to self treat and when to seek professional help either from your Doctor or from a fully qualified herbal medicine practitioner and I will advise on this.

Please contact me below, if you would like to share any experiences with me. I would also be very interested to hear about medicinal plants that you have seen growing in your part of the world.

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Linda Bostock, EzineArticles Basic Author

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