Herbal Allies for Post-Menopausal Women - Pt 1

My favorite herbs for postmenopausal women are horsetail, oatstraw, red clover, stinging nettle, seaweeds, and the plants rich in flavonoids. These gentle green allies are more like foods than drugs; they offer bone-creating, heart-protecting, disease-preventing, sex-enhancing optimum nourishment to the woman in the second half of her life.

HORSETAIL

Equisetum arvenser
Ackerschachtelhalm, Prêle des champs

Horsetail is particularly rich in glycosides which nourish hormones, heart, and bones, making it a special ally for post-menopausal women.

Use spring-picked horsetail, as a tea or infusion, to:

* Reverse osteoporosis
* Stimulate fracture-mending and bone repair

Mineral-rich horsetail feeds the bones, increasing mass and flexibility. No matter how old or thin, bones respond to consistent use of horsetail.

* Stabilize and reverse chronic periodontal disease

Gum problems can lead to heart problems. Brush, floss, and try a daily cup of horsetail tea. It acts as a catalyst to healthy gums and teeth.

* Relieve cystitis

Horsetail has been used since the sixteenth century to tonify the bladder and ease irritation anywhere in the urinary tract. Plants harvested when too old may aggravate rather than soothe.

* Reduce bloat
* Check menstrual hemorrhage
* Prevent clogged arteries, strengthen veins
* Ease persistent hot flashes

Horsetail's astringent components, trace minerals (including chromium), saponins, and flavonoids are responsible for these effects. Add horsetail to your nettle infusion to magnify the benefits of both.

* Increase energy, reduce fatigue

Horsetail supplies peppy potassium, merry magnesium, and strong-as-nails iron for building Crone power.

* Nourish strong, healthy hair and finge
ails

Horsetail is a frequent ingredient in expensive, natural, commercial shampoos and rinses. Instead, use leftover horsetail tea (alone or with nettle) as your final rinse. Leave it in. And drink a cup now and then for lovely nails.

Horsetail is locally abundant in the wild, so rarely cultivated. The small horsetail that looks like a soft baby pine tree is preferred over the rigid, leafless kind. To avoid problems, use horsetail picked early, during the first 4-6 weeks of each year's growth.

A tea of dried herb works great, as does the vinegar. When buying horsetail, look for good green color and a rich sparkle of health and vitality.

Dosage:

Tea of dried herb, 1 cup/250 ml, 1-2 times a dayr
Vinegar of fresh herb, 1 tablespoon/15 ml daily

CAUTION: If you experience nervous sensitivity or urinary irritability after use, discontinue.
OATSTRAW

Avena sativar
Gruen Hafer, Avoine cultivée

This is the grass of the very same oats you eat for breakfast. Best known as a cholesterol-lowering food, oats is also a special ally to women who wish they wouldn't “fly off the handle” so easily, to women who want to be sexy old ladies, and to women who treasure their bones. All the benefits of eating oatmeal are to be had from drinking oatstraw infusion (but not from tea, tincture, or capsules).

Let lovely Avena help you to:

* Build strong, pliable, flexible bones
* Maintain firm, reliable teeth

Rich in calcium - and the synergistic minerals and vitamins needed for best use of calcium - oats have a well-deserved reputation for building tough, hardy folks with tough, hardy bones.

* Stabilize blood sugar levels
* Relieve depression and ease emotional uproar

A cup of oatstraw infusion in the morning provides steroidal saponins to nourish your pancreas, liver, and adrenals and help prevent erratic blood sugar levels from playing havoc with your emotions.

* Reduce cholesterol and risk of heart disease, improve circulation

Oats and oatstraw can make your blood vessels more elastic, more vital. How will you notice?
Your hemorrhoids and varicose veins will shrink, your heart rate will slow, and disturbances in your heart rate (such as palpitations and tachycardia) will diminish or disappear.

* Nourish strong nerves
* Help you engage high energy currents

Oatstraw and oats, both superior sources of the vitamin B complex, are exceptionally capable allies for women under stress.

* Reduce frequency and duration of headaches
* Maintain restful sleep patterns
* Ease bladder spasms, incontinence, uterine pain, vaginal dryness

Oatstraw infusion in your teacup and your bathtub (ahhh!) relieves physical and emotional pains and energy disturbances, and strengthens vaginal, bladder, and urethral tissues.

* Be an outrageously sexy old lady

Dosage:

Infusion of dried herb, 1- 4 cups/250-1000 ml, daily.

CAUTIONS: None.

(Part 2 of this article looks at Seaweeds and Stinging Nettle.)

Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081
Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ash-tree-publishing.com

For permission to reprint this article, contact us at: susunweed@hvc.rr.com