Menopause Metamorphosis

Emotional Uproar

Emotional Uproar

excerpt from New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way

Step 1. Collect information . . .

Premenstrual, pregnant, premenopausal, and menopausal women rage and weep. Like it or not, you'll probably find your emotions harder to control as you enter your menopausal years. Men given hormone therapy (against prostate cancer) weep and rage too!

Step 2. Engage the energy . . .

* Take time for yourself when you find yourself crying, yelling, raging, depressed, out of control. Create your own sacred space, even in a closet, where you can be alone, without responsibilities, where you can be safe to have every one of your feelings.
* Begin (or deepen your commitment to working with) a journal as a way to care for yourself and your emotions. The Change is an opportunity to value your emotional self and to nourish all of your feelings, from grief to bliss, rage to outrageous.
* Universal healing energy can help when your emotions are roaring. Channel it through your hands to your heart or womb; hold yourself.

Step 3. Nourish and tonify . . .

* My remedy of choice for women dealing with premenstrual emotional uproar is motherwort - the calm, fierce-hearted mother who helps you find your center in the wildest of emotional storms. A dose of 5-15 drops taken several times when you're upset will bring calmer feelings quickly. A dose of 10-30 drops taken twice a day for a month can help prevent mood swings.
* Let a cup of garden sage tea with honey restore your emotional center and soothe your irritated nerves. It is even said to cure insanity and relieve hysteria. In Chinese herbal practice, honey is used (in tea, not cooked) to soften the energy of the liver when it is hardened by rage, frustration, and anger.
* Pamper yourself. Get a massage. Cuddle with someone you love.
* Moods don't swing so much in women who nourish their nerves and even out their blood sugar levels with lots of calcium.
* Slow-acting liferoot flower tincture (5 drops) or slower-acting vitex berry tincture (25-40 drops), taken daily for a week or two premenstrually for several months will help you unravel your emotional snarls.
* Black cohosh root tincture eases menopausal flashes and is said to cure hysteria, too. Try 10-20 drops once or twice a day for a month.
* Keep a piece of licorice or ginseng root handy to chew on when you feel like chewing someone's head off.

Step 4. Stimulate/Sedate . . .

* Valerian root, as a bath or tincture (15-20 drops as needed) is a powerful sleep-inducing sedative that also eases uterine cramps. Avoid long-term use.

Step 5b. Use drugs . . .

* Feeling moody? Mood-altering drugs, legal (tranquilizers, anti-depressants, alcohol, coffee, cigarettes) or illegal (cocaine, opium), create dependence.

Step 6. Break and enter . . .

* Psychoactive plants (such as marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, and mescaline), when taken in a safe setting, offer radically different results than mood-altering drugs. Instead of dependence, they foster self-worth, helping the individual to break open new neural pathways and establish easier flows of emotions and energy through both the physical and subtle bodies.

excerpt from New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way
www.wisewomanbookshop.com/product-page/new-menopausal-years

*

Heavy bleeding

Dear Susun...I am 42 and severely disabled by Lyme. I started Buhner's protocol. I also have endometriosis, fibroids, and very heavy bleeding. I learned about Vitex from this site and tried it. I just got my first period since being on the herb and already have a wonderful improvement. Now I need to decrease the duration and intensity of the bleeding. The bleeding got even worse since Lyme came into the picture. Doc said I need a hysterectomy, but I'm too sick now for surgery:) what may I add to shorten the bleeding?

Hi,

First thing, several tinctures that are helpful would be Shepherd's purse, Witch hazel and Lady's mantle. You would take a dropperful, 4-6 times a day. If bleeding is extreme, it should start slowly within minutes and within 48 hours if leaking. I find shepherd's purse tincture very helpful for the immediate issue and lady's mantle as a nice ally for long-term. When 10-30 drops of the lady's mantle tincture were taken 3 times a day 1-2 weeks before menstruation, it prevented flooding altogether.

Astringent uterine tonics such as red raspberry leaves, garden sage and black haw bark can help. Make an infusion of these herbs (you can combine or use single herb rotated) - drink a cup or more a day at either room temperature or cooler for best effect. Women with fibroids also have found great relief from using drinking shepherd's purse as an infusion, used daily. Same with witch hazel infusion.

http://www.susunweed.com/How_to_make_Infusions.htm

Some things to keep an eye on, if you drink red clover infusions, don't drink more than 1 quart a week - this will help with fibroids, but if you drink more than that amount, or use tincture, it can increaase bleeding tendencies of fibroids. Strengthening the liver with dandelion and yellow dock helps metabolize strong estrogens into weak ones, reducing fibroids. Also both dandelion and yellow dock are tremendous sources of usable iron, something you need to address if having heavy and/or constant bleeding. Add cooked dandelion greens to diet, put yellow dock root vinegar on salads, or use tincture. Also, I don't know how long you have been taking Vitex, but continuing with the tincture will work on decreasing flooding and is helpful for fibroids. It is a slow-working treatment and can take months before manifesting results. I am also including a link to Susun's article on fibroids that may be useful.

http://www.menopause-metamorphosis.com/An_Article-fibroids.htm

blessings,

Kim

Wise Woman Team

www.wisewomanweb.com

www.wisewomanbookshop.com

www.wisewomanuniversity.org

 

You can get your health questions answered by Susun in one of two ways. Join the health hotline teleseminar on Monday and Thursday evenings 8pm EST, through the winter months. Or you may register for a private telephone consultation. You can also join the free women's health forum where hundreds of wise woman can help you. Sign up for the free herbal healing ezine, filled with wise woman wit and wisdom. Visit the Wise Woman Bookshop for online university, gift shop, bookshop, digital downloads, and more. Go to www.susunweed.com for a complete list of offerings including radio show and free videos.

 

 

 

Taking Hormones? These Herbs Are for You

Taking Hormones? These Herbs Are for You
 Susun Weed

excerpt from: Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way  

    More and more American women are using herbal remedies to help them with menopausal problems. Those who do take ERT (estrogen replacement) or HRT (hormone replacement) may be surprised to discover that herbal medicine has a lot to offer them as well.

    Herbs for women on ERT/HRT include those that alleviate side-effects as well as those that counter problems caused by the hormones.
    Herbal Helpers Counter Side-Effects

    Water retention is the symptom most often cited for dissatisfaction with hormone replacement. Herbal tinctures and tea, such as dandelion or cleavers, and ordinary foods can not only relieve the distress, they will go to the root of the problem and help prevent recurrences.

    * Dandelion root tincture (Taraxacum officinale) strengthens the liver and helps it process out the excess hormones you are taking. When the liver works well, the kidneys work better, and tissues no longer bloat. A dose is 10-20 drops in several ounces of water or juice 2--3 three times a day. If you have any digestion problems, take your dandelion before meals; otherwise, anytime is fine. You can safely take dandelion daily for months or years if you need or want to.

    * Cleavers herb tincture (Galium molluga) tells the lymphatic tissues to get moving. Relief from edema is usually rapid when 20-30 drops are taken in several ounces of water or juice. Repeat up to six times at hourly intervals if needed. Cleavers is especially helpful for easing swollen, sore breasts.

    * Foods that relieve water rentention include (in order of effectiveness): asparagus, nettles, corn (and corn silk tea), grapes, cucumbers, watermelon (and watermelon seed tea), parsley, celery, black tea, and green tea.


    Headaches are the second most common side-effect of hormone use. Unfortunately, they are common among menopausal women not taking hormones, too. Herbs that help relieve headache without a drug-like action -- such as dandelion, yellow dock, milk thistle, burdock, garden sage, skullcap, and St. John's/Joan's wort -- are generally considered safe to take with hormones.

    * Chinese herbalists say headaches are caused by liver stress. My favorite liver-strengthening herbs are dandelion, yellow dock, milk thistle seed, and burdock. I use one at a time, a 15-25 drops of the tincture several times a day, for two weeks. If symptoms continue, I switch to a different herb.

    * A strong tea of garden sage leaves (Salvia officinalis) offers immediate relief from headaches and helps prevent future ones. It also reduces night sweats.

    * Tinctures of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and St. Joan's/John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) ease pain and relieve muscle spasms. Use 5-20 drops of skullcap and a dropperful of St.J's at the very first sign, no the very first thought, of a headache. Repeat the doses every five minutes until pain free. Skullcap can be quite sedative, especially in large doses.

    Herbal Allies to Prevent Problems Caused by Taking Hormones

    Breast cancer risk is increased 20% in women who use ERT for five or more years. Use of HRT for five or more years increases breast cancer risk by 40%. Each five years of continued use increases the risk. In addition, women who take ERT are far more likely to get uterine or endometrial cancers. All women on hormones increase their risks of lung and ovarian cancer, too. Nourishing herbs such as red clover, and foods such as beans and yogurt, offer easy ways to stay cancer-free.

    * Red clover blossoms (Trifolium pratense), when dried and brewed into a strong infusion (one ounce herb steeped an a quart of boiling water for at least four hours) prevent cancer by providing phytoestrogens that counter the cancer-promoting effects of oral hormones. Usual dose is 2-4 cups a day. The infusion tastes like black tea and can be flavored with mint if you like.

    * Beans, especially lentils, but also yellow split peas, black turtle beans, baby limas, Anasazi beans, and red kidney beans are also rich sources of anti-cancer phytoestrogens. Both uncooked beans and unfermented soy contain anti-nutritional factors that may promote bone loss and dementia; soy "milk" and tofu (both cooked, but not fermented) are not recommended. Miso and tamari definitely help to prevent breast cancer but soy isoflavones may promote it.

    * Yogurt helps build powerful immunity. Women who eat a quart of yogurt a week have 700% less cancer than women who eat no yogurt.

    Dry eyes afflict more than 9% of women using ERT and over 7% of those on HRT. Risk increases by 70% for every year of continued use. And the longer a woman uses hormones, the greater her risk. Herbs such as oatstraw, chamomile, and chickweed can help relieve and prevent this problem.

    * Oatstraw infusion (Avena sativa) cools and moistens your eyes from the inside out, builds strong bones too. Use one ounce of dried herb in a quart jar; fill to the top with boiling water and cap tightly. Let steep four or more hours. Dose is 2-4 cups a day. Refigerate after straining.

    * Cucumber slices ease dry eyes; so do chamomile tea bags.

    * The ultimate ally for women with dry eyes is fresh chickweed (Stellaria media), applied as a poultice to the closed eyes. Leave on for five minutes, or until the plant material feels warm (it will heat up). Repeat as needed.

    Stoke and heart attack are actually increased by use of ERT/HRT, though modern medicine has long proclaimed the opposite. Every major double-blind study done to date has created a larger and larger gap between ERT/HRT's supposed ability to help cardiovascular health and its actual results. Protect you heart with nourishing and tonifying herbs and foods such as motherwort, hawthorn, and cherries.

    * Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) tincture helps the heart. The Japanese claim it is their secret of longevity. A dose is 5-15 drops, twice a day. Motherwort also relieves hot flashes, calms tachycardiia, and eases anxiety. It's an all-in-one remedy for menopausal women.

    * Hawthorn (Crataegus oxycantha) flowers, leaves, and fruits are all used to maintain heart health and control fluid build-up in hear tissues. A dose is 20-30 drops of tincture 2-4 times a day, or a cup of tea with meals. This widespread shrub is considered one of the finest heart tonics in the worlld.

    * Cherries are even better than apples at keeping the doctor away. Dried cherries and cherry juice, even tincture of cherries.

    More than three-quarters of the women in America over the age of fifty have refused ERT/HRT. If you want to join them, taper off your dosage slowly, while continuing to use nourishing and tonifying herbs such as dandelion, motherwort, red clover, oatstraw, and seaweed. And pick up a copy of New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way, Alternative Approaches for Women 30- 90. Meanwhile, these Wise Woman hints can help you stay healthy and counter the detrimental effects of hormone replacement.

 

Emotional Uproar

Emotional Uproar
excerpt from New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way

Step 1. Collect information . . .
Premenstrual, pregnant, premenopausal, and menopausal women rage and weep. Like it or not, you'll probably find your emotions harder to control as you enter your menopausal years. Men given hormone therapy (against prostate cancer) weep and rage too!

Step 2. Engage the energy . . .
* Take time for yourself when you find yourself crying, yelling, raging, depressed, out of control. Create your own sacred space, even in a closet, where you can be alone, without responsibilities, where you can be safe to have every one of your feelings.
* Begin (or deepen your commitment to working with) a journal as a way to care for yourself and your emotions. The Change is an opportunity to value your emotional self and to nourish all of your feelings, from grief to bliss, rage to outrageous.
* Universal healing energy can help when your emotions are roaring. Channel it through your hands to your heart or womb; hold yourself.

Step 3. Nourish and tonify . . .
* My remedy of choice for women dealing with premenstrual emotional uproar is motherwort - the calm, fierce-hearted mother who helps you find your center in the wildest of emotional storms. A dose of 5-15 drops taken several times when you're upset will bring calmer feelings quickly. A dose of 10-30 drops taken twice a day for a month can help prevent mood swings.
* Let a cup of garden sage tea with honey restore your emotional center and soothe your irritated nerves. It is even said to cure insanity and relieve hysteria. In Chinese herbal practice, honey is used (in tea, not cooked) to soften the energy of the liver when it is hardened by rage, frustration, and anger.
* Pamper yourself. Get a massage. Cuddle with someone you love.
* Moods don't swing so much in women who nourish their nerves and even out their blood sugar levels with lots of calcium.
* Slow-acting liferoot flower tincture (5 drops) or slower-acting vitex berry tincture (25-40 drops), taken daily for a week or two premenstrually for several months will help you unravel your emotional snarls.
* Black cohosh root tincture eases menopausal flashes and is said to cure hysteria, too. Try 10-20 drops once or twice a day for a month.
* Keep a piece of licorice or ginseng root handy to chew on when you feel like chewing someone's head off.

Step 4. Stimulate/Sedate . . .
* Valerian root, as a bath or tincture (15-20 drops as needed) is a powerful sleep-inducing sedative that also eases uterine cramps. Avoid long-term use.

Step 5b. Use drugs . . .
* Feeling moody? Mood-altering drugs, legal (tranquilizers, anti-depressants, alcohol, coffee, cigarettes) or illegal (cocaine, opium), create dependence.

Step 6. Break and enter . . .
* Psychoactive plants (such as marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, and mescaline), when taken in a safe setting, offer radically different results than mood-altering drugs. Instead of dependence, they foster self-worth, helping the individual to break open new neural pathways and establish easier flows of emotions and energy through both the physical and subtle bodies.

excerpt from New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way
www.wisewomanbookshop.com/product-page/new-menopausal-years

*

Herbal and Home Remedies That Prevent Memory Loss

Herbal and Home Remedies That Prevent Memory Loss

Excerpt from: New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way

Even a single family member who is senile or afflicted with Alzheimer's is enough to make anyone dread the possibility. Since women have always lived longer than men, the Ancient Grandmothers have a thing or two to tell us about how to keep our memory sharp until the day we die (at 100+). These remedies are taken from my book New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way. They are arranged in order of safety, with the safest first and the most dangerous last.

“Touch my face, granddaughter,” murmurs Grandmother Growth. “Feel the lines that time has worn. Each line tells a story. Feel the lines in my palms. Every line is a memory. Close your eyes and travel with me to your ovaries, real or energetic. They are your memory baskets. When you feel forgetful, close your eyes and journey to the place of memories. Touch your face, your palms, return to this place, and retrieve the memory you want.”

“And, dearest,” Grandmother's voice sighs with the wind, “Remember yourself.”

• Improve your memory fast with meditation. Start with five minutes a day. You can do it! Breathe out.

• Researchers doing double-blind studies on treatments for those with memory loss, dementia, or Alzheimer’s, consistently note that placebos generate a very strong response. In one instance, those on the placebo did so well that it was suspected that they did not have sufficient impairment at the beginning of the study. So get a bottle, label it “Memory Pills,” fill it with candy or nuts, and take one every time you forget to.

Ginkgo biloba tincture has been well studied for the treatment of those dealing with Alzheimer’s and dementia. In one study, those taking the leaf extract, 27 percent maintained cognitive functioning and memory, while 86 percent of the placebo group lost functioning. CAUTION: Ginkgo increases aspirin’s blood-thinning effects.

Mental exercise (word puzzles, reading, writing) and physical exercise are important aspects of nourishing and tonifying the brain and memory. Memorize poetry and recite it for friends. Volunteer for community theater and memorize your part. The more you use your memory, the stronger it will be.

• Lower your blood pressure and improve your memory. In a study of 200 men and women, those with even moderately high blood pressure (164/89) had more memory problems than those with normal blood pressures. A dropperful of motherwort tincture (Leonurus cardiaca) daily dependably lowers blood pressure and can generally be used safely with drugs if desired. (Do not use capsules of any herb while you are taking a drug.)

• My father has been taking 400 IU of d-alpha tocopherol (supplement form of vitamin E) and 2- 3 dropperfuls of ginkgo tincture (not capsules) since his non-Alzheimer's dementia was first apparent, more than fifteen years ago. His doctors remain amazed at the glacial pace of his losses.

• Think taking estrogen will save your memory? Think again. The largest (120 women) scientifically rigorous study (Journal of the American Medical Association, January 23, 2000), found 80 percent of the women taking estrogen replacement (and 74 percent of the women taking a placebo) had less memory, less ability to perform daily tasks, and less cognitive functioning after fifteen months of treatment.

Excerpt from:
New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way
www.wisewomanbookshop.com/product-page/new-menopausal-years

*

Emotional Uproar

Emotional Uproar

excerpt from New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way

Step 1. Collect information . . .

Premenstrual, pregnant, premenopausal, and menopausal women rage and weep. Like it or not, you'll probably find your emotions harder to control as you enter your menopausal years. Men given hormone therapy (against prostate cancer) weep and rage too!

Step 2. Engage the energy . . .

* Take time for yourself when you find yourself crying, yelling, raging, depressed, out of control. Create your own sacred space, even in a closet, where you can be alone, without responsibilities, where you can be safe to have every one of your feelings.
* Begin (or deepen your commitment to working with) a journal as a way to care for yourself and your emotions. The Change is an opportunity to value your emotional self and to nourish all of your feelings, from grief to bliss, rage to outrageous.
* Universal healing energy can help when your emotions are roaring. Channel it through your hands to your heart or womb; hold yourself.

Step 3. Nourish and tonify . . .

* My remedy of choice for women dealing with premenstrual emotional uproar is motherwort - the calm, fierce-hearted mother who helps you find your center in the wildest of emotional storms. A dose of 5-15 drops taken several times when you're upset will bring calmer feelings quickly. A dose of 10-30 drops taken twice a day for a month can help prevent mood swings.
* Let a cup of garden sage tea with honey restore your emotional center and soothe your irritated nerves. It is even said to cure insanity and relieve hysteria. In Chinese herbal practice, honey is used (in tea, not cooked) to soften the energy of the liver when it is hardened by rage, frustration, and anger.
* Pamper yourself. Get a massage. Cuddle with someone you love.
* Moods don't swing so much in women who nourish their nerves and even out their blood sugar levels with lots of calcium.
* Slow-acting liferoot flower tincture (5 drops) or slower-acting vitex berry tincture (25-40 drops), taken daily for a week or two premenstrually for several months will help you unravel your emotional snarls.
* Black cohosh root tincture eases menopausal flashes and is said to cure hysteria, too. Try 10-20 drops once or twice a day for a month.
* Keep a piece of licorice or ginseng root handy to chew on when you feel like chewing someone's head off.

Step 4. Stimulate/Sedate . . .

* Valerian root, as a bath or tincture (15-20 drops as needed) is a powerful sleep-inducing sedative that also eases uterine cramps. Avoid long-term use.

Step 5b. Use drugs . . .

* Feeling moody? Mood-altering drugs, legal (tranquilizers, anti-depressants, alcohol, coffee, cigarettes) or illegal (cocaine, opium), create dependence.

Step 6. Break and enter . . .

* Psychoactive plants (such as marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, and mescaline), when taken in a safe setting, offer radically different results than mood-altering drugs. Instead of dependence, they foster self-worth, helping the individual to break open new neural pathways and establish easier flows of emotions and energy through both the physical and subtle bodies.

excerpt from New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way
www.wisewomanbookshop.com/product-page/new-menopausal-years

*

Taking Hormones? These Herbs Are for You

Taking Hormones? These Herbs Are for You
Susun Weed

excerpt from: Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way  

    More and more American women are using herbal remedies to help them with menopausal problems. Those who do take ERT (estrogen replacement) or HRT (hormone replacement) may be surprised to discover that herbal medicine has a lot to offer them as well.

    Herbs for women on ERT/HRT include those that alleviate side-effects as well as those that counter problems caused by the hormones.
    Herbal Helpers Counter Side-Effects

    Water retention is the symptom most often cited for dissatisfaction with hormone replacement. Herbal tinctures and tea, such as dandelion or cleavers, and ordinary foods can not only relieve the distress, they will go to the root of the problem and help prevent recurrences.

    * Dandelion root tincture (Taraxacum officinale) strengthens the liver and helps it process out the excess hormones you are taking. When the liver works well, the kidneys work better, and tissues no longer bloat. A dose is 10-20 drops in several ounces of water or juice 2--3 three times a day. If you have any digestion problems, take your dandelion before meals; otherwise, anytime is fine. You can safely take dandelion daily for months or years if you need or want to.

    * Cleavers herb tincture (Galium molluga) tells the lymphatic tissues to get moving. Relief from edema is usually rapid when 20-30 drops are taken in several ounces of water or juice. Repeat up to six times at hourly intervals if needed. Cleavers is especially helpful for easing swollen, sore breasts.

    * Foods that relieve water rentention include (in order of effectiveness): asparagus, nettles, corn (and corn silk tea), grapes, cucumbers, watermelon (and watermelon seed tea), parsley, celery, black tea, and green tea.


    Headaches are the second most common side-effect of hormone use. Unfortunately, they are common among menopausal women not taking hormones, too. Herbs that help relieve headache without a drug-like action -- such as dandelion, yellow dock, milk thistle, burdock, garden sage, skullcap, and St. John's/Joan's wort -- are generally considered safe to take with hormones.

    * Chinese herbalists say headaches are caused by liver stress. My favorite liver-strengthening herbs are dandelion, yellow dock, milk thistle seed, and burdock. I use one at a time, a 15-25 drops of the tincture several times a day, for two weeks. If symptoms continue, I switch to a different herb.

    * A strong tea of garden sage leaves (Salvia officinalis) offers immediate relief from headaches and helps prevent future ones. It also reduces night sweats.

    * Tinctures of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and St. Joan's/John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) ease pain and relieve muscle spasms. Use 5-20 drops of skullcap and a dropperful of St.J's at the very first sign, no the very first thought, of a headache. Repeat the doses every five minutes until pain free. Skullcap can be quite sedative, especially in large doses.

    Herbal Allies to Prevent Problems Caused by Taking Hormones

    Breast cancer risk is increased 20% in women who use ERT for five or more years. Use of HRT for five or more years increases breast cancer risk by 40%. Each five years of continued use increases the risk. In addition, women who take ERT are far more likely to get uterine or endometrial cancers. All women on hormones increase their risks of lung and ovarian cancer, too. Nourishing herbs such as red clover, and foods such as beans and yogurt, offer easy ways to stay cancer-free.

    * Red clover blossoms (Trifolium pratense), when dried and brewed into a strong infusion (one ounce herb steeped an a quart of boiling water for at least four hours) prevent cancer by providing phytoestrogens that counter the cancer-promoting effects of oral hormones. Usual dose is 2-4 cups a day. The infusion tastes like black tea and can be flavored with mint if you like.

    * Beans, especially lentils, but also yellow split peas, black turtle beans, baby limas, Anasazi beans, and red kidney beans are also rich sources of anti-cancer phytoestrogens. Both uncooked beans and unfermented soy contain anti-nutritional factors that may promote bone loss and dementia; soy "milk" and tofu (both cooked, but not fermented) are not recommended. Miso and tamari definitely help to prevent breast cancer but soy isoflavones may promote it.

    * Yogurt helps build powerful immunity. Women who eat a quart of yogurt a week have 700% less cancer than women who eat no yogurt.

    Dry eyes afflict more than 9% of women using ERT and over 7% of those on HRT. Risk increases by 70% for every year of continued use. And the longer a woman uses hormones, the greater her risk. Herbs such as oatstraw, chamomile, and chickweed can help relieve and prevent this problem.

    * Oatstraw infusion (Avena sativa) cools and moistens your eyes from the inside out, builds strong bones too. Use one ounce of dried herb in a quart jar; fill to the top with boiling water and cap tightly. Let steep four or more hours. Dose is 2-4 cups a day. Refigerate after straining.

    * Cucumber slices ease dry eyes; so do chamomile tea bags.

    * The ultimate ally for women with dry eyes is fresh chickweed (Stellaria media), applied as a poultice to the closed eyes. Leave on for five minutes, or until the plant material feels warm (it will heat up). Repeat as needed.

    Stoke and heart attack are actually increased by use of ERT/HRT, though modern medicine has long proclaimed the opposite. Every major double-blind study done to date has created a larger and larger gap between ERT/HRT's supposed ability to help cardiovascular health and its actual results. Protect you heart with nourishing and tonifying herbs and foods such as motherwort, hawthorn, and cherries.

    * Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) tincture helps the heart. The Japanese claim it is their secret of longevity. A dose is 5-15 drops, twice a day. Motherwort also relieves hot flashes, calms tachycardiia, and eases anxiety. It's an all-in-one remedy for menopausal women.

    * Hawthorn (Crataegus oxycantha) flowers, leaves, and fruits are all used to maintain heart health and control fluid build-up in hear tissues. A dose is 20-30 drops of tincture 2-4 times a day, or a cup of tea with meals. This widespread shrub is considered one of the finest heart tonics in the worlld.

    * Cherries are even better than apples at keeping the doctor away. Dried cherries and cherry juice, even tincture of cherries.

    More than three-quarters of the women in America over the age of fifty have refused ERT/HRT. If you want to join them, taper off your dosage slowly, while continuing to use nourishing and tonifying herbs such as dandelion, motherwort, red clover, oatstraw, and seaweed. And pick up a copy of New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way, Alternative Approaches for Women 30- 90. Meanwhile, these Wise Woman hints can help you stay healthy and counter the detrimental effects of hormone replacement.

Early menopause

Hello Susun

I am 40 years old and am currently in treatment for breast cancer. Because chemotherapy is part of the path I have chosen, I am now in early onset menopause.

As my symptoms progress, I have been looking for resources to help me along. I am looking for support as I try to make sense of this sudden thrust in to a different stage of life. (I, of course, have your menopause book.) But what I am finding is mostly geared toward women in their Crone years. I am the mother of two young children! I am still very much in my Mother years. Most of the main books on the subject only have a page or two dedicated to women in my situation.

Do you have any resource suggestions for me? Do you have plans to include a comprehensive section on early onset menopause in revised editions of your book? In my humble opinion, it is greatly needed!

 

Hello,

The suggestions in Susun's book absolutely can be used whether going through menopause naturally or if it is brought about prematurely... So I wouldn't hesitate to use them for various issues, whether emotional issues -- anger, depression or physical --  hot flashes, dry vagina, etc. You might also want to look into our forum at www.healingwiseforum.com. We have a room dedicated to menopause and I know that we have had younger women post in there ... might be a good place to look for support.

blessings,

Kim

Wise Woman Team

www.wisewomanweb.com

www.wisewomanbookshop.com

www.wisewomanuniversity.org

 

---

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

 

If you're ready to go deeper with your herbal studies, join Susun on her new Mentorship website. Get new content weekly such as the expanded herbal ezine, replays of teleseminars, videos, audio of Susuns past lectures, many articles by Susun, and even personal one on one mentorship from Susun.
www.wisewomanmentor.com

Early menopause

Hello Susun

I am 40 years old and am currently in treatment for breast cancer. Because chemotherapy is part of the path I have chosen, I am now in early onset menopause.

As my symptoms progress, I have been looking for resources to help me along. I am looking for support as I try to make sense of this sudden thrust in to a different stage of life. (I, of course, have your menopause book.) But what I am finding is mostly geared toward women in their Crone years. I am the mother of two young children! I am still very much in my Mother years. Most of the main books on the subject only have a page or two dedicated to women in my situation.

Do you have any resource suggestions for me? Do you have plans to include a comprehensive section on early onset menopause in revised editions of your book? In my humble opinion, it is greatly needed!

 

Hello,

The suggestions in Susun's book absolutely can be used whether going through menopause naturally or if it is brought about prematurely... So I wouldn't hesitate to use them for various issues, whether emotional issues -- anger, depression or physical --  hot flashes, dry vagina, etc. You might also want to look into our forum at www.healingwiseforum.com. We have a room dedicated to menopause and I know that we have had younger women post in there ... might be a good place to look for support.

blessings,

Kim

Wise Woman Team

www.wisewomanweb.com

www.wisewomanbookshop.com

www.wisewomanuniversity.org

 

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Wild As a Rose

Wild As a Rose
by Susun S Weed

June is the month for brides. And roses are the flowers of love. So I think it fitting to focus on roses this month. Don't you? Not only are roses beautiful, they are good medicine and fine food.

Yes, all roses that haven't been sprayed with poisons (more about that later) can be eaten, whether cultivated or wild, climbing or bushy, white, pink, yellow, or red. My favorite June breakfast is whole wheat toast with butter or cultured cream cheese and a double layer of fresh rose petals. That sure wakes me up! It's a nice change, too, from my spring fancy breakfast, which is whole wheat toast with butter and violet flowers.

Roses capture our imagination like few flowers, and that's saying a lot, as any flower can trigger a wonderfully imaginative burst from even the least poetic of us. "How sweet to seize the blushing Prey,/ And snatch it from the Thorn away!" said Anacreon in the fifth century BCE (translated by Addison, 1735). In mythology, Flora, the goddess of flowers, asks the gods to help her revive a beloved, now dead, nymph. Apollo gives her the breath of life; Bacchus washes her in nectar; Vertummus gives her a lovely scent; Pomona makes her fruitful; and Flora herself gives her a crown of shimmering petals. Thus Rose, the "queen of flowers," is created.

Roses are painted on fine china, splashed across wallpaper, fashioned out of satin and silk and sewn onto clothes and hats, even dipped in gold and silver. Roses are the very image of innocence; roses are filled with sexual allure. Roses are chaste and pure; roses are wanton and wild. Roses bloom and fade in a day, like love, perfect but passing. Roses endure, blooming year after year, like love, eternal.

Rose gardens are found all over the world. Notable rose gardens include the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York, Kew Gardens in England, Westbroekpark in the Netherlands (with twenty thousand plants), the Parc de la Grange in Geneva (with twelve thousand plants), and the gardens of the Italian Rose Society in Milan. The largest garden in the world devoted entirely to roses is in Shreveport, Louisiana, where more than seventy thousand plants are collected into forty different rose gardens.

There are at least two cities that claim to be "The City of Roses." One is Portland, Oregon, where the ten thousand roses of the International Rose Test Gardens are terraced on five acres of hillside in the shadow of Mt. Hood. The other is Chandigarh, the capital of the Punjab in India, where sixty thousand plants make up the thirty-acre Zakir Rose Garden, including a Museum of Roses, a Moonlight Garden of pure white roses, and a scent garden where roses are bred to be especially high in rose oil, the mostly costly fragrance made.

Roses are not especially easy to grow, for they are attractive to a number of insects and fungal pests. Sprays can keep pests at bay, but even organic pesticides and fungicides can be unwholesome if eaten. Instead, I use a strong brew of horsetail (Equisetum arvense)--one cup of dried herb brewed for four hours in a quart of boiling water--diluted, a cup at a time, in a gallon of rain water, to spray against black spot and other molds. Seeding lawn areas with milky spore is the best control for Japanese beetles which can eat through a rose bush in minutes, it seems.

If you enjoy an abundance of roses, as I do--through no effort on my part, I assure you, for the wild roses are rampant in my area--you may wish to make rose beads. Natural Rose Beads are sweetly-scented black lumps made by throwing wilted roses into a cast iron pot and allowing them to rot for several months. Before the rose paste dries out, gather it into balls by rolling between your palms, then thread carefully onto a thick string and hang to dry completely. Rose beads will last for decades if thoroughly fermented and carefully dried.

Wild roses have five petals, each gently notched in the center and arranged in a pretty, open star with a cluster of stamen (the pollen-producing parts) in the center. Cultivated roses have petals in multiples of five. The five-pointed star is a pentagram, or pentacle, which is, of course, the symbol of magic. The rose, a blooming pentacle, is as magical as a flower can be.

Eating the petals of roses will get you lots of healthy flavonoids and vitamin C, as well as coloring materials that contain polyphenols and other heart-healthy, cancer-fighting compounds. If you eat the whole rose, you'll also get allergy-busting pollen to help get your body in tune with your environment.

Besides sprinkling the petals lavishly in salads and across toast, try making Rose Honey. Fill any jar to the top with roses and rose petals. Pour honey into the jar, stirring as needed to remove air bubbles, until the jar is full. Cap securely and label. Wait for at least a week before eating. The longer you wait, the better the taste. You can make Rose Hip Honey the same way; be sure to remove all the seeds and itchy hairs from the rose hips before putting them in a jar and adding honey.

Rose petal or rose hip honey is splendid on toast or taken by the spoonful to soothe a sore throat. To forestall a cold, put a tablespoon of rose honey in a cup, add the juice of half a lemon, then fill the cup with hot water.

Roses are especially cherished as a remedy for "women's problems." The growing tips of the rose canes are rich in hormone-like substances that help women with menstrual difficulties get into an easy flow, those with libido problems to feel frisky, and those who want to conceive to be more receptive. Rose Hormone Remedy: Harvest leaf and flower buds just before they open, preserving with honey, or a mixture of one part glycerin and two parts water. The dose is a teaspoonful several times a day.

Roses are part of a very large family of plants, many of which are medicinal and edible. Raspberry is part of the rose family, and raspberry leaf infusion is a fine uterine tonic. Hawthorn, the heart remedy, is also part of this family. As are most of the non-tropical fruits we enjoy: apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots, strawberries, cherries, blackberries, raspberries, and even almonds.

If an apple a day will keep the doctor away, what will a rose a day do for you? Try it and see!