5 Signs Your Body Might Benefit from Herbal Medicine
Often we can see symptoms in our bodies as an inconvenience.
We push them down, ignore them and move on with life.
Drink some more coffee and push through our day.
However, symptoms are actually the way that the body is communicating to us, and the longer we ignore them, the more our body will become disharmonious.
As a holistic practitioner, your body’s symptoms give me an in-depth insight into what systems and/or organs are struggling and what pattern the body is falling into.
Treating the underlying cause of disharmony is one of our core principles in naturopathic practice, but also managing uncomfortable symptoms e.g. pain, with natural medicines is also an essential part of what we do.
Common signs that your body needs some support.
1. Fatigue
I am sure that we have all experienced fatigue at some point in our lives.
Our energy is meant to naturally ebb and flow throughout the day, and for women, throughout our menstrual cycle.
However, a lot of people nowadays are functioning at suboptimal energy levels.
Whether that is being reliant on your more coffee to get you out of bed, or whether its days or weeks of lacking the energy to complete basic daily tasks.
Fatigue can vary in severity and length, and it can come on suddenly of progressively get worse.
From a holistic perspective, we look at what the current contributing factors to your fatigue would be e.g. diet, lifestyle, environment, etc. as well as look at past influences on your health that may be contributing to ongoing fatigue e.g. toxic exposure, infections, long term nutritional deficiencies, etc.
No two people’s treatments for fatigue are the same, as we all have different systems and influences that are causing the fatigue.
If you are struggling to regain your energy or to a level that allows you to live a normal life, getting some professional, individualised advice may be beneficial.
2. Poor digestion
Whether you experience debilitating gut symptoms such as daily bloating, IBS or reflux or whether you get occasional pain or upset to certain foods, addressing your gut health can go a long way to ensuring optimal health in the future, as the gut is often the root cause of disease in the body.
There is a lot of research about the importance of our microbiome, the colonies of microbiota that inhabit our gut and are essential in not only digesting our food but producing many anti-inflammatory compounds , vitamins and nutrients essential for health. Along with maintaining healthy microbiome, we must also address other aspects of our digestion include the mechanical function of the organs, the chemical secretions in the digestive tract and the innervation of the nervous system and its role in digestion.
Herbal medicines can address all these areas of digestion, from improving the movement of the muscle in the digestive tract (peristalsis), to increase digestive enzyme secretion, improving the tone of the nervous system in the gut while also being a source of prebiotics and flavonoids that help feed beneficial bacteria.
3. Hormonal imbalances
Hormonal imbalance can occur in females and males, and not only involves the balance of sex hormones such as oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone, but it also involves all other aspects of the endocrine system including the thyroid, the adrenals, the pancreas, the kidney and the parts of the brain that coordinate hormonal harmony.
Hormonal imbalance can show up in many symptoms, from PMS, painful periods, skin issues and libido issues to adrenal dysfunction, poor blood sugar regulation and thyroid concerns.
Herbal medicines can help to regulate the endocrine system, and can target specific organs, and help to reduce symptoms that can arise from hormonal imbalances.
4. Trouble sleeping
Trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep can become normalised among society, especially with the increase in blue light and electromagnetic frequencies disturbing our circadian rhythms but also disturbing us while we are asleep.
Deep sleep is the ultimate form of medicine for the body, it is its natural form of cleansing and detoxing and is essential for turning over dead cells, healing damaged tissues and circulating waste and nutrients throughout the body.
A lack of deep sleep or good quality sleep can have relay effects into every aspect of life, including energy, mood, motivation, mental health and general well-being.
Herbal medicines not only provide immediate support with helping the onset and quality of sleep but they can also be taken throughout the day to nourish the nervous system and help re-establish a healthy circadian rhythm, helping the body to remember how to produce its own happy sleep hormones.
5. Trouble managing stress
Every body experiences stress, and the increase pace of our modern cultures means that stress is becoming more prevalent in our day to day lives, while also becoming a normalised aspect of daily life. However, being in a state of stress for a long period of time, for example throughout a whole day, it actually very detrimental to the health of your nervous system, while draining your adrenals and increasing the production of stress hormones which cascades onto so many other aspects of health including the liver, digestion, hormonal balance and more.
We can’t always avoid stress, but in order to live a sustainably health and happy life we must find the tools that work for us in order to manage our stress and keep it at a healthy level, and support our bodies to process stress hormones and neurotransmitters when we do encounter longer periods of stress.
Herbal medicines can not only tone the nervous system, helping it to change from sympathetic mode (fight or flight) into parasympathetic mode (rest and digest), and they also help support the body to reduce the damaging impacts of high levels of stress hormones, while helping to clean up and restore function to the tissues that have become burnt out from long term stress.
How Herbal Medicine Can Help.
Herbal medicines as mentioned in each section can target specific organs and systems, providing a wide range of actions to either increase function, decrease function, nourish, support, cleanse and replenish different aspects of the body.
Using herbal medicines along with other holistic dietary and lifestyle strategies can be a valuable tool in your toolkit for reaching your health goals and living a vibrant, fulfilling and meaningful life while enjoying good health.
If you are curious about starting your holistic health journey, please get in touch via my contact page.
The information provided on this website is for general informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider regarding any medical concerns or conditions you may have. Please see my full disclaimer here.
