Front Lines of Fantasy… I hope I am not being precious. I don’t mean to be. Apparently, there is a short-cut to becoming an expert health coach. In particular, someone who can become a veritable diagnostician of endocrine nuance in two months for less than the cost of a decent tincture press. There was an advert on Facebook [or Insta, or somewhere] which promised […]
Category Archives: Herbal Medicine
31
Oct
Oct
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), […]
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 […]
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 […]
15
Aug
Aug
Going beyond ginger biscuits…. When we were kids sitting in the back of the car feeling sick, our Mum would hand out ginger biscuits because they were supposed to ‘help’. My Mum didn’t know why, and we didn’t ask – we just ate the biscuits. So, does ginger help, and if it does, why does […]
08
Aug
Aug
Foraging to make condiments… Foraging for condiments? An approach I had not considered…. When I got married, we bought a book called ‘Food for Free’ which (after ignoring the grammatical error in the title) became one of my favourite books. The author [Richard Mabey] is a famous botanist and in the book he guides us […]