Author: Chris Habib

Posted on by Chris Habib

Herbs and Foods for Constipation

Constipation occurs when bowel movements are not happening frequently or regularly, or are difficult to pass. Most people suffer from constipation periodically.  Sluggish bowels produce chronic bloating and gas and cause significant discomfort. It’s always best to start with diet. The following foods for constipation were selected because they are supported by research and people can easily add them as part of their routine.

Rhamnus

There exist many herbs that act as laxatives. Rhamnus is one example. It helps to directly stimulate a bowel movement by activating the bowels. Other herbal laxatives may also help pull more water into the bowels, causing a bowel movement.

Flax Seeds

Flax seeds are rich in fiber and oil which both help relieve constipation.  Flax seeds are natural laxatives that can act as both a bowel lubricant and bulk laxative. They can be consumed whole, or ground. They can be frozen for preservation. Flaxseeds are rich in fiber: two tablespoons have roughly 4 g of fiber. Fiber-rich foods act as bulk laxatives because they absorb water and expands in the bowels.

Olive Oil

Olive oil has numerous health benefits research suggests it can help constipation.  One study showed hospitalized patients given olive oil received the same benefit as those taking the standard treatment. Olive oil acts as a bowel lubricant. When excess olive oil is consumed, it remains in bowels and helps to soften and lubricate the stool.

Prunes

Drinking prune juice is the most common home remedy for constipation and it has research to support it. Prune consumption was found to be associated with increased bowel movement and improve stool consistency. Furthermore, eating prunes may do more than just relieve constipation. They are loaded with antioxidants. Prunes contain high amounts of sorbitol which has a natural laxative effect. Sorbitol is an “alcohol sugar” that is not readily absorbed and pulls water into the stool.

As always, seek advice from a qualified health practitioner.

Posted on by Chris Habib

Herbal Treatments for Morning Sickness

It is common to experience some nausea and vomiting in the morning, during the 1st trimester of pregnancy. Although it is called morning sickness, a pregnant woman can experience nausea any time of the day. Have you ever tried ginger?

Ginger is important herb in both Asian cuisine and traditional medicine. It is used in herbal medicine to help promote digestion and reduce nausea. Studies show it relieves mild to moderate symptoms of nausea and vomiting in pregnant women. How should you take it? Dried ginger can be taken in a dose range of 1-6g per day.

How safe is it? Ginger is generally very safe and has minimal side effects. It may cause mild gastrointestinal symptoms.

Another potential option is peppermint. Peppermint in the form of oil can be sniffed to help reduce nausea symptoms. As a bonus, it is non-invasive and inexpensive.

Acupuncture and acupressure are other alternative therapies that you can use along with herbal medicine to help alleviate morning sickness. Feel free to visit one of our practitioners or our acupuncture clinic for an individualized treatment plan.

Posted on by Chris Habib

15 Herbs to Support and Improve Your Digestion

Our digestive system is arguably the most important organ responsible for many key functions in the body. From producing inflammation/allergy responses to processing key neurotransmitters like serotonin, the digestive process, when unbalanced, can cause a myriad of health issues.

Luckily, there are a number of herbs that can both keep your digestive system functioning smoothly as well as help heal a gut that’s had the proverbial wrench thrown into it. There’s no question that dietary and lifestyle habits play a major role (e.g., sugar, wheat, dairy, and stress levels), but when the hardware is damaged, or when trying to prevent damage, there are a few helpful herbal go-tos you can count on.

Here are 15 medicinal herbs that have been organized into three categories: Bitters, Calmers, and Healers

Bitters
Bitters help stimulate digestion and are typically taken 5-30 minutes before a meal in tincture form. Keep the solution under the tongue for 30 seconds, which will stimulate saliva production. The digestive enzyme amylase is then released, needed for the breakdown of starches into sugars. Bitters also stimulate the secretion of bile from the gall bladder, helping to break down fats into fatty acids. Ultimately, they keep your digestive system on track where long-term use can help restore an underactive digestive system. Examples of bitters include:

Dandelion Root (Taraxacum officinale)
Artichoke (Cynara scolymus)
Barberry root (Berberis vulgaris)
Gentian (Gentiana lutea)
Andrographis (Andrographis paniculata)

Calmers
The formal name for these herbs is carminatives. They help prevent gas formation in the intestinal tract, which can be extremely uncomfortable when eating foods that don’t agree with our system. We’ve all experienced bloating and cramping after eating the wrong foods – the beauty of these herbs are that most of them can be incorporated into the cooking process or added to a warm tea during your meal. Examples of calming herbs include:

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
Peppermint (Mentha piperita)
Cardamom (Elettaria cardomomum)
Caraway (Carum carvi)
Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

Healers
These herbs often contain mucilage, similar in consistency to the mucous we produce, their thick and gooey consistency helps to coat the epithelial lining (skin) of our internal organs. In the same way that aloe vera helps soothe inflamed wounds topically on our skin, they also help soothe us on the inside. This helps move things along through our system and protects us against friction and inflammation along the way. Some examples of these are:

Slippery Elm Bark (Ulmus fulva)
Aloe Leaf (Aloe vera)
Marshmallow Root (Althaea officinalis)
Mullein Leaf (Verbascum sp.)
Licorice Root (Glycyrrhiza Glabra)

While most medicinal herbs have traditionally been perceived as weeds, as such, they grow plentifully and have many benefits they can provide us with. Many of the herbs mentioned above can easily be grown in both indoor and outdoor gardens and are very forgiving to even the most inexperienced gardener. With 75% of modern pharmaceuticals coming from derivatives of plant sources, it’s no wonder more and more of us are returning back to the original source to help us in out personal healing journeys.

Posted on by Chris Habib

3 Reasons To Make Your Own Tea Blends

The Toronto Star recently featured an article about making your own tea blends. We were so humbled that they mentioned our store!

So why should you even think about making your own tea blends? Here are a few reasons.

#1 — You have a specific action you are trying to accomplish with the herbs.

Many herbs have medicinal properties. You can learn more about the medicinal properties of herbs by grabbing books at the library, or more commonly by reading up about them online. If you’re going to go down this road, we recommend using the latin names of the herb. They look like this: Vitex agnus-castus. The common names vary much  more, whereas the latin names have more consistency among herb species.

Once you know what you’d like to accomplish, you can start searching for herbs that fit the bill. You can do specific learning about some herbs here, although the information there is meant more for health practitioners. You can also try using a herb calculator. We are currently trying to build an online system to help people learn more about various herbs. Bottom line is you can put together a tea that does what you want it to do.

#2 — You like a specific taste or you want a variety of flavours.

Herbs don’t always taste good, but many of them taste great. And many of them taste great when blended together. Try selecting a few of your favourite herbs and mixing them together to see what type of outcome you get.

#3 — It’s a lot of fun AND you save money.

There’s something about blending herbs that is engaging. It brings us back to an older time and it gets us involved with the things we choose to consume. It’s a wonderful activity to try by yourself or with a friend to see what you can come up with. It’s also significantly cheaper to buy herbs in this format than it is to buy pre-packaged individual bags of tea. Save money and have fun? What’s not to like.

Feeling lost? Don’t worry! Our clerks are available to help you and we have tons of pre-formulated combos from our experiences blending teas. Feel free to try to use them as a starting point if this is something you want to try more of. Thanks for reading and we hope to see you blending your own teas!

Posted on by Chris Habib

Colds and Flus: Aromatic Herbs

Ever wonder why herbs like Sage, Rosemary, Clove, Thyme, and Oregano are known as ‘culinary spices’? It’s not because they’re divinely tasty. In fact, it’s likely the arrow goes the other way: we find them tasty because, over time (thyme), we sagely discovered that these herbs are potent anti-microbials.

Imagine you’ve just killed and cleaned some kind of beast for a familial feast. But as you’re stoking some coals for an all-day flesh-roast, an urgent flapping of wings delivers a carrier pigeon message to inform you that Aunt Rosemary, the one that always brings those tasty pies, got her wagon wheel stuck in a rut and had to camp an extra night by the creek. You chuckle, then try to stuff the carcass in the fridge but realize you don’t have a fridge because they haven’t been invented yet. Your innards churn uncomfortably as you remember that three-day-old racoon meat you ate last summer. What to do?

Answer: rub and stuff your game with aromatic herbs. This prevents infection and spoiling. And as a bonus, it helps hides that gamey-taste.

Great folklore, you say, but what does this have to do with treating my cold or flu at home? It means that if you’ve got any of these herbs in your spice cupboard, you needn’t go further than your own kitchen to brew up a potent anti-microbial brew. At first onset of that tickly throat or stuffy nose, take any combo of these herbs, add about six combined tbsp to a liter of water and simmer for 1 hour. Drink up to 2 liters a day for up to 1 week.

Posted on by Chris Habib

Steps for Building a Formula

The process below can be used for preparing any formula. It can provide good justification as to why it makes sense to have some guidance, through a herbalist or health practitioner, when making a botanical tincture.

  1. Confirm your working assessment (aka. make sure you have the right diagnosis)
  2. Choose specific botanical actions to match your assessment.
  3. Choose herbs with overlapping primary and secondary actions.
  4. Choose the desired delivery method (decoction, powder, tincture)
  5. Look up reference doses, cautions, contraindications, and side effects.
  6. Determine the desired daily dose for each herb, taking into account the reference dose and the desired representation of the actions in the final formula.
  7. Multiple by an approximate factor to generate proportions of each herb and adjust numbers to 100 based on desired representation of actions.
  8. Determine desired duration of prescription (how long the patient should take the formula).

A health practitioner or herbalist will be really helpful with herb selection and dosing, which are of extreme importance for safety and for effectiveness.

If you want some help with formulating, let us know.

Happy formulating!

Posted on by Chris Habib

What is Herbal Synergy?

Synergy means the cooperation of two parts to cause an outcome greater than the sum of their separate effects. In botanical medicine, this means combining 2 or more herbs to get a stronger tincture.

Synergy is hard to reconcile with evidence-based medicine. Some practitioners use herbs at doses lower than recommended based on therapeutic range. They assume overlapping actions will make up for the missing dose of the individual herbs.

Research hasn’t supported that idea, but there’s almost certainly some truth to it. When herbs that overlap in action but differ in their mechanisms of action are combined, the outcome likely exceeds that of the individual herbs.

However, you can do one better. Use the same herbs within their therapeutic range and your results will improve even further.

Synergy can also be applied to optimize the actions within a herbal formula. In many cases, a smaller selection of specific actions based on an accurate assessment is likely to yield the best results. For example, if you require a specific action in your formula (such as alterative), then you could select a formula where each herb has a least that action in its primary, secondary, or tertiary profile.

As always, we recommend you consult with your healthcare practitioner.

Posted on by Chris Habib

Cool Herb Highlight: Equisetum

Equisetum, also known as horsetail, is a fantastically diverse herb. Here are some useful tidbits you may not have known.

It is good for hair, skin, and nails

Horsetail is one of the best sources of silica, which helps the body produce collagen, a building block of your hair, skin and nails.

Studies have shown it increased hair growth, volume, and thickness.

It is used for healing wounds

Studies have found horsetail ointment helped women heal from episiotomy wounds faster, while significantly reducing post-op pain.

It can help with some heavy metal detox

A study found drinking a liter of high-silica removed aluminum without removing essential metals like iron and copper.

It reduces inflammation

Studies have found that horsetail is one of several herbs that contain kynurenic acid, which possesses anti-inflammatory, antioxidative and pain-relieving properties, especially for rheumatoid arthritis.

How to Use Horsetail

To make a strong infusion, boil a half cup of dried horsetail in 2 cups of hot water for 10 minutes. Let sit for 1-7 hours.

You can use this infusion for:

– Herbal Hair Rinse to strengthen hair and stimulate growth.

– Skin Tonic for glowing skin soak a paper face mask in the tea and wear it on your face for up to 30 minutes.

– Sore Throat. Mix the infusion with some sea salt. Gargle a couple times a day.

– Gingivitis. Gargle/swish 3-4 times a day.

As always, make sure to seek the advice of a qualified healthcare practitioner.

Posted on by Chris Habib

Acute Colds and Flus: URTI

Upper respiratory tract infections are extremely common. Getting sick a couple of times per year is not unusual and as long as you’re clearing things up and feeling better, that’s the sign of a healthy immune system.

However, if you’re getting over 6 colds or flus a year, it might mean that you are more susceptible. Perhaps there are obvious causes for weakened immunity, such as medications, protein deficiencies, or sleep deprivation.

Using antimicrobial herbs to decrease the number and activity of the pathogen is one way to support the body’s immune response. But how do we know which microbes are involved? Is the infection viral or bacterial? Sometimes we have clues, but luckily, many herbs are broadly active against both bacteria and viruses.

Immune stimulating herbs are also a good bet in these situations, since they can help improve the strength of the immune system directly.

An example formula might include:

Barberry, Elderflower, Echinacea, Sage, Clove, and Licorice Root. Optimally taken as a tincture, 1 tablespoon, 3 times per day. For 5 to 7 days.

As always, check with your healthcare provider to make sure whatever is decided is right for you.

Posted on by Chris Habib

Health Benefits of Green Tea

Green tea is a beverage made from the Camelia sinensis plant, a shrub native to Southern China that has been used through time for its many attributed benefits. It is of major cultural importance in Asia where it is known as China’s National Drink. Both India and China have incorporated green tea in their complementary medicine practices for supporting digestion, cardiovascular and mental health among others. In the last decade alone, there have been numerous studies that have endorsed green tea’s diverse applications in promoting health. These studies have also ushered in a newfound appreciation for green tea in the West.

As a botanical therapy, green tea can be used as a hot beverage a few times a day or as a supplement that is standardised to polyphenols. One cup of green tea, in addition to polyphenols, also contains alkaloids such as caffeine although not in as large amounts as in coffee. Although it is safe when consumed regularly, the presence of caffeine in green tea can create side effects if it is over-consumed. It is interesting to note that the Chinese originally consumed green tea as a powder (matcha) and with time, transitioned into steeping the loose leaves. Its evolution of use in recent times has paralleled some exciting scientific findings. This article will discuss the applications of green tea therapeutically in weight loss and as an adjunctive treatment for cancer.

WEIGHT LOSS: One recent double-blind randomized placebo controlled clinical trial of 115 women with central obesity, who had taken 857mg of EGCG for 12 weeks had significant weight loss, a decrease in BMI and reduced waist circumference. Blood work also showed a decrease in total cholesterol and in LDL (low-density lipoproteins). There were no side effects or adverse events.

CANCER: Green tea has been reported to be protective against several types of cancers, including osteosarcoma, leukemia, skin, breast, prostate, esophageal, stomach, colorectal, pancreatic, lung, cervical and bladder cancer. Green tea is composed of catechins, which are polyphenolic flavonoid-derived compounds that have been found to inhibit cancer growth.

We always suggest seeking the advice of your Naturopathic Doctor prior to making any modifications regarding your health, as every individual is unique.