Why Study Saffron? As part of my MSc in Mental Health Studies, I’ve chosen to focus my dissertation (15,000 words of it) on herbs for depression. More specifically, I’ll be conducting a literature review on Saffron (Crocus sativus) and its potential use in depressive disorders. Saffron is a fascinating plant. It’s expensive, delicate, and has […]
24
Oct
Oct
The Arrogance of Dismissing Human Suffering… One of my patients came to see me last week, an intelligent, well-educated woman who’s been struggling with depression. When I asked her what help she had got from her GP she told me that her doctor was a woman in her forties, and when she had heard of her mental health issues she […]
17
Oct
Oct
Neither should you…. There is a chilly nip in the air. I can see a definite change in the character of my garden, now the busy harvesting of spring and summer is over. Stems dry, seeds harden, berries ripen, and roots draw their strength back underground. Nonetheless, I head outside with a basket, to see what remains to make myself an […]
10
Oct
Oct
Dandelions… Every spring someone complains about the dandelions. They pop up between paving slabs, in carefully mulched borders, even in the middle of a perfect lawn. Then, out come the weedkillers and trowels, and out go the dandelions. Over and over again, year after year. But what if we stopped waging war on them? What if, instead […]
03
Oct
Oct
Tools to build resilience… Medicinal herbs can be used as tools that build resilience in mental health. Resilience isn’t just ‘not getting depressed’ but it refers to the ability to adapt, recover, and maintain wellbeing in the face of stress, adversity, or ongoing mental challenge. Resilience in mental health refers to one’s capacity to: Physiologically, this sort of resilience involves regulation of the stress response (such as the HPA axis: hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal), […]
26
Sep
Sep
The discipline of appetite… We live in a world that never stops offering food. Every hoarding, every advert, every supermarket aisle is an invitation to eat, whether we are hungry or not. In such a culture, appetite becomes complicated. Hunger is no longer a simple signal from the body; it is tangled with mood, memory, […]
19
Sep
Sep
What We’ve Forgotten…. Every year it’s the same: the air cools, the evenings draw in, and a chorus of sniffles fills the bus, the school gates, and the office. Cold and flu season doesn’t sneak up quietly it sweeps through households with irritating predictability. Yet, despite how regular this cycle is, many of us feel […]
12
Sep
Sep
When Big Food Hijacks Healing… Walk down any British high street today, and you’ll see ‘wellness’ everywhere. Health food shops display shelves groaning with supplements, major pharmacy chains stock CBD oils alongside prescription medicines, and supermarkets now have expanded health food sections promising better nutrition. But beneath this apparent democratisation of wellness lies what I […]
05
Sep
Sep
Sorry, Aldi….. Every week, another headline tells us what not to eat. Don’t touch tinned food — the lining has plastic. Don’t eat frozen vegetables — not fresh enough. Don’t buy supermarket bread — too processed. Don’t eat white rice — stripped of nutrients. Don’t, don’t, don’t. The problem is that all this advice assumes […]
With an outdated stereotype…. I was listening to an audiobook when the inevitable scene cropped up: the odd aunt with her mysterious ‘little brown bottles,’ and whiff of menace hanging in the air. We’re supposed to smirk, roll our eyes, and assume her potions are either completely harmless or dangerously poisonous. And if you’ve watched […]