Childbearing Year

Oatstraw

Oatstraw

One of my favorite herbs -- oatstraw -- is a grass. Oatstraw (Avena sativa) is the dried leaves, or straw, of the plant that gives us the grain oats, found in most households as rolled oats. I use a full ounce (by weight) of dried oatstraw, with or without seeds, in a quart of boiling water, steeped at least four hours, to make a restorative tonic (nourishing herbal infusion).
Oatstraw is considered an herb of longevity in India. American herbalists value it as a strengthener and nourisher to the nerves. Like oats themselves, oatstraw infusion is heart healthy and cholesterol-lowering. Many a menopausal woman has praised oatstraw's cooling, calming ways.
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Oatstraw Baths

Use a sitz bath of oatstraw to ease bladder spasms and pain, uterine pain, and chronic intestinal distress.
Use an oatstraw footbath to soak away stink, sweat, cold, and pain from your tender tootsies.
Use oatstraw washes to nourish and heal those with skin diseases, flaky or dry skin, frostbite, chilblains, wounds and eye irritations.

For chronic conditions, take your oatstraw bath twice a week or more, and drink the infusion freely, for as many weeks as needed. In acute situations, use hot oatstraw baths and poultices frequently until pain subsides, then once or twice a day, as needed.

2 qts/liters oatstraw infusion
Add reheated, strained oatstraw infusion to a tub of hot water. Immerse self and soak away tensions.

2.2 pounds/1 kilo oatstraw
Boil water and pour over oatstraw in a 1 galon/4 liters water large tub. When cooled sufficiently, bathe. (Yes with the oats and all.)

excerpt from Healing Wise p 205
http://www.herbalmedicinehealing.com/store/item_view.asp?estore_itemid=1000020

Spotting between periods

Spotting between periods

A caller on blogtalkradio says she has been reading Susun books, Down There and Childbearing year, and she would like to know if there are any herbs to help with spotting. Susun asks her some questions, about timing, and diet. She lists various reasons for spotting and gives some suggestions.
This audio is over 4:00 minutes long.

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Join Susun Weed on blogtalkradio, Tuesday nights 7:30-9:30 pm EST. Call in with your questions or email ahead of time to [email protected]. 

Visit the link for more info:
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Chaste Berry

Chaste Berry Bush

Susun Weed shows us her Chaste berry aka Vitex. Chaste berry is a wonderful herb for womens issues.

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Raspberry leaf

Raspberry leaf

Brewed as a tea or as an infusion, raspberry leaf is the best known and safest of all uterine and pregnancy tonic herbs.

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Pap Smear

Pap Smear

George Papanicolaou, a pathologist, pioneered this non-invasive screening test in the 1920s. It is not diagnostic. False negative results will occur 10-20 percent of the time.

The Art of Suzanne GrayA Pap smear is a sample of the tissues of the cervix (and sometimes vagina). In order to collect this sample, women are asked to lay back and put their feet up in stirrups. If this position makes you uncomfortable in any way, tell the examiner you want to put your feet on the examining table. With your knees spread, a speculum is gently fitted into your vagina and opened, making the cervix visible. Breathing deeply and relaxing will make any strange sensations easier to bear.

A small implement and a tiny brush are used to collect cells from the outside of the cervix and from inside the cervical os, like using your fingernail to scrape cells from the inside of your cheek, it is not painful, and there is rarely any bleeding.

The collected cells are either preserved in liquid (best) or smeared directly on a slide. Liquid preservation is required for HPV-DNA testing. Pathologists "read" Pap smears with a microscope, looking for cellular changes, such as cells with large black nuclei (cancer).

The vagina is best kept in its natural state for at least 24 hours prior to the Pap smear: avoid douching, intercourse, spermicides, vaginal hygiene products and sprays, and the insertion of boluses, pessaries, or hormonal creams. For the best results, keep it totally natural for three days before your Pap. Cancel your Pap smear if you are menstruating or have had vigorous sex the night before, as it won’t be accurate.

The original classification of Pap smear results - into four broad categories - created confusion on the part of patients and doctors, and resulted in hundreds of thousands of women being frightened into harsh treatments.

Since 1988, a clearer system, the Bethesda, has been used. It was hoped that expanding the categories and giving more specific information about the cells in the smear would limit the amount of over-treatment. Unfortunately, the new classifications have doubled the number of women with abnormal results, so, instead of fewer needless hysterectomies and drug prescriptions, twice as many women are told they need treatment. ....

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Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

An email question is asked about Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Susun talks about what it is, and what fibroids are. She suggests reading the chapter on pcos in her book
Down There: Sexual and Reproductive Health the Wise Woman Way http://www.herbalmedicinehealing.com/store/item_view.asp?estore_itemid=1000578
This audio is almost 3 minutes long.

 

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Menstrual cycle post birth control

Menstrual cycle post birth control

A caller on blogtalk radio says she has stopped taking birth control pills and is trying to get her menstrual cycle back to normal. She's currently taking Vitex. Susun talks about why its ok to take birth control pills. She answers the callers question by saying it could take a year for her cycle to regulate.
This audio is almost 6 minutes long.

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Join Susun Weed on blogtalkradio, Tuesday nights 7:30-9:30 pm EST. Call or Skype in: 1-646-929-2463, with your questions or email ahead of time to [email protected]. 

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Raspberry Leaf - Uterine Tonic

Raspberry Leaf - Uterine Tonic

Brewed as a tea or as an infusion, raspberry leaf is the best known and safest of all uterine and pregnancy tonic herbs.

Blue and Black Cohosh

Blue and Black Cohosh

Susun shows us Blue and Black Cohosh. Blue cohosh causes the uterus to contract. Black cohosh is an antispasmodic.

Candida

To combat candida & the accompanying nausea, I'm starting a candida diet.

Are there any herbs that help in any way? Inside or outside.

Thanks. Grateful for your books during menopause. A friend & I grew herbs, made tinctures, salves, &_food. Easy passage.

Thank you for any help.
Donna

 

Hi Donna,

Susun has addressed candida before, so I can give you a number of resources of hers that you can go over it. The typical candida diet isn’t something that Susun has found to be helpful, so you will probably find the information below to perhaps be opposite of your diet – although I am not sure exactly what you are following…   http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/Weed_letter_Mar-02.htm#q2

 

Susun's Response:

“Every healthy human has candida in their gut. It is one of the most important organisms of the 400 molds, yeasts, bacteria, and fungi that colonize our intestines. Without these microbial helpers we would be unable to digest Any food at all. The problem is not having candida, But not having the other helpers, thus causing the candida to grow. Your diet needs to include high concentrations of fermented foods -- yogurt, miso, sourdough bread, home brewed wine and beer, sauerkraut, and cheeses like camembert and brie -- not to be devoid of them.”

 

Susun has also talked about candida during her health hotline blogtalk radio show:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/susunweed/2013/08/06/ask-herbal-health-expert-susun-weed-and-psychic-elizabeth-joyce-wise-woman

 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/susunweed/2013/09/24/ask-herbal-expert-susun-weed-and-natural-alignment-with-kathleen-porter

 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/susunweed/2014/11/19/ask-herbal-health-expert-susun-weed-terra-gifts-steve-shaft

 

One of Susun’s articles more indepth:  http://www.naturalbloom.com/articles/herbal-medicine-290/

 

Susun also discusses vaginal yeast a lot in her book, Down There, Sexual and Reproductive Health the Wise Woman Way – some of the suggestions she discusses there:

 

“Maitake are mushrooms that specifically inhibit and destroy candida.

Women with chronic infections benefit the most. A dose is ½ gram daily for a month, increasing by ½ gram a month to a maximum of 3 grams daily. A cup of fennel seed or ginger root tea will relieve the severe gas pains that will result from use of maitake.” Pg. 147

 

“The Journal of Reproductive Medicine reports that boric acid cured 98 percent of women with chronic, drug-resistant yeast infections. To use: Fill 00 gelatin caps (sold at health food stores) with boric acid USP (sold at drugstores). Insert one in the vagina nightly before bed for two weeks.” Pg. 149

 

Also a youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trd4lZiBn-8

 

You are also welcome to call into the health hotline and discuss it further with Susun directly. She holds the hotline each Tuesday from 7:30pm-9pm Eastern, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/susunweed, (646) 929-2463

blessings,
Kim
Wise Woman Team

www.wisewomanweb.com
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www.wisewomanuniversity.org
www.wisewomanmentor.com

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Join Susun Weed on blogtalkradio, Tuesday nights 7:30-9:30 pm EST. Call in with your questions or email ahead of time to [email protected]. 

Visit the link for more info:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/susunweed

 

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