Stress - Adaptogens

[helwen]

Humans try all sorts of ways to deal with stress, some better than others. Time for sleep, meditation, and exercise are all good ones but sometimes those just don't happen or are insufficient to stress levels.

L and I have started taking ginseng, which takes 1-4 weeks to have a noticeable effect. Ginseng is not recommended for younger folks, in fact I myself might be a little young but as I'm past child-bearing age, I'm giving it a go. There are other herbal adaptogens, so depending on how stress shows itself in your body (nervous, muscular, digestion), you can choose something that will help your body to cope with the stresses in your life.

I'm nowhere near ready to even suggest what specific folks might want to use, but the folks at Goldthread Apothecary can no doubt help. I can't say, after 1-1/2 weeks, that I'm feeling significantly less stressed, but I have been getting a bit more stuff done than I thought I would, and life is less crazy-making overall, so I'll say tentatively that it seems to be helping.

Of course, life will also be less stressful when the electricians aren't coming here every week :P

Comments

thanks

[bytchearse.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about ginseng. Wonder if I can still get the tincture at the local TCM shop?

Re: thanks

[helwen.livejournal.com]

You should be able to either get a ginseng tincture there or pill form -- I have the freeze dried pills. If not, take a look for Dang Gui (pronounced "Dong Kw-aye").

I read that it's better for you to chew the pills, for more even distribution in your system but I tried that once and then had to brush my teeth to get the stuck bits out of my teeth :P I compromise and break it in half before taking it.

Stinging Nettles, by the way, is good for clearing out uric acid buildup and other gunk in your liver and joints. It's also food safe -- you can still harvest the tops right now for eating, just use gloves for harvesting, and then cook them up. Even leaving them set out on the table for a few hours will soften the needles, but you want to steam or braise them to remove all chance of stinging and also make them less "furry" in texture. I find butter or olive oil to be useful to smooth them down and make them more tasty. Good for both gout and allergies, if you know anyone with either of those.

Re: thanks

[oakmouse]

Er, dang gui isn't ginseng, it's Chinese angelica. Totally different plant, with different effects, and different safety requirements.

Re: thanks

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know dang gui is something else, and if I were going to take it I'd talk to someone at the apothecary first. But it was my understanding that it is also an adaptogen. There are quite a few adaptogens though, so I don't know if that would be the best choice or not.

Thanks for the link though -- interesting to read about the combinations it's used in.

That was one of the things we talked about on Wednesday at the farm, was combinations. That for instance in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), one might be suffering from fatigue and other symptoms that would call for herbs (blood tonic) to help with "blood deficiency", but might need a chi tonic as well if one were so low energy as to not be able to effectively make use of the blood tonic.

But if bytechearse has a TCM shop nearby, he really should consider a consult with the folks there. It's something I'm thinking about doing, to try to set up as effective a set of herbs to take as possible, combined with continue work on diet changes.

Re: thanks

[oakmouse]

I'm sorry, I phrased my comment clumsily. What I was trying to say is that dang gui can't be swapped out for ginseng --- they're too different. They don't have enough properties in common, and they differ too sharply on several important characteristics.

Just the fact that they're both adaptogens doesn't make them interchangeable at all. Some adaptogens will interchange readily with one another, others won't. In particular, powerful herbs (and ginseng and dang gui are very powerful herbs) really can't be interchanged without a close knowledge of their properties and risks. With those two in particular, ginseng is a very yang herb and dang gui is a very yin herb and never the twain shall meet.

Just to give you an example of potential risks, I gather that bytechearse is male; males should never take dang gui except under the supervision of a qualified TCM practitioner, because dang gui is estrogenic so it can really screw up a man's hormonal chemistry. Likewise, menopausal females or females who tend to heavy menstrual flow should never take dang gui except under the supervision of a qualified TCM practitioner, because it can make you start early and bleed like a stuck pig for weeks on end. (One dropperful of dang gui tincture sampled during a class almost caused me to get what would have been an unnecessary D&C for just that reason.) Also, dang gui can raise blood sugar, which can really eff up a person with diabetes.

Ginseng, on the other hand, is neither estrogenic nor prone to cause heavy menstrual bleeding; in fact it can dry up a woman's periods. (Been there, done that one too during my herbal training. I do a great guinea pig imitation, lemme tell you.) Neither does it raise blood sugar. Those differences are hugely important.

Sorry if this comes across as lecturing, which I don't mean to do, and certainly I don't mean to take you to task either; it's just that I saw your dang gui comment and my gut instincts went "RED ALERT!!!!!!!"

[oakmouse]

Cool! That means you're using two adaptogens that work well together. (Nettle. *g*)

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Great! I thought they might go well together but I wasn't sure. My digestion is still wonky, but I guess that like any of the changes I'm making, it'll take a little time. Meantime, I'm trying to make sure to add carminatives wherever possible.

I also probably should pick up a bitter tincture for pre-meal, but for now I'm just doing salad when possible -- not as bitter, but does seem to help get the stomach going -- oddly, so does a bit of kelp, which is salty, not bitter.

Thanks for the confirmation on what I've got going so far :)

Also happening -- creative juices are starting to flow again. Not consistent, but getting there. Still wish the journey weren't so long, but nice to see some sign posts!

[oakmouse]

Well, adaptogens don't always have tonic effects on the digestion; it depends, among other things, on why the digestion is wonky in the first place.

In addition to carminatives and bitters, there are stomachics (non-bitter digestive tonics). Ginger, raw or Japanese-style pickled radishes, pickled cucumber (I use our own home-canned bread-and-butter pickles, but dill pickles are also good), horseradish, mustard, turnip greens (or greens of almost any kind), kelp and other sea vegetables, and celery all serve as stomachics, and there are a number of stomachic herbs too (fennel, anise, dill, etc). You might need to watch ginger, horseradish, and hot mustard because you're taking ginseng too, and if you overdo it you could end up with a hot-dry imbalance (which is NOT FUN).

Glad things are doing better! Herbs aren't usually quick, but they often treat the underlying condition and thus make for a more thorough resolution.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

That's funny about the kelp -- this morning I was looking at the spice rack area and saw the kelp (Wakame) and nabbed a piece to nosh on -- just what I needed.

Thanks for the note on ginger and ginseng -- I usually only have some in my morning tea, but I have one of the ginseng pills in the morning too, so looks like I need to drop ginger. *sigh* Sometimes I have a grip on the qualities and other times...not so much.

Salad greens are definitely a regular part of the diet -- L doesn't like most pickled things so it's a good thing he'll eat the greens. I bought anise for the garden and hope to add dill and fennel as well. If I don't get to dill this year I can always go across the street, where a cousin had it going out of control last year -- she should still have a healthy patch there... hm, maybe I should see if her garden needs rescuing from it...

I don't mind too much herbs not being an immediate thing -- I figure, when used correctly, they help at the speed the body can handle change. I do sometimes wish things could go faster, but then the effects might not be as lasting or as deeply effective, and I definitely want the best result.

[oakmouse]

You may not need to drop ginger; just keep an eye out for symptoms of excess yang (fever, "hot" headaches, etc) and if those crop up then you might want to drop or reduce your intake of ginger. It really depends on how sensitive you are to the combination. (For example, it messes me over like whoa, but JM can do it without turning a hair.) You may be just fine, but I figured you need to know the possibility is there in case you start to get the excess yang stuff happening.

There's a learning curve, and all herbalists in training make mistakes --- sometimes epic ones. Do your best and keep on plugging, and eventually you'll be surprised at how much stuff will stick, and will emerge when you least expect it to.

Seaweed is wonderful stuff. JM's SMIL has begun to send us care packages since they visited and she saw how poor our local selection of Japanese food is, and the main thing she sends is wakame, hijiki, and nori. It's a big part of our diet. We're working on finding local-ish sources (like, say, from Maine) so that we can switch over if/when the care packages dry up.