Recently I was asked to make a written contribution to a collaborative peer-reviewed article on holistic measures towards mental health. While I dived into various alternative modalities such as yoga, acupuncture, meditation, etc., that complement traditional views and paths to support mental health, I didn’t touch on herbs as I wanted to leave that for you here.
Today we are finding that our global population is dealing with a large amount of mental health struggles, a great deal more than in the past. Anxiety and depression are on the rise and these can go hand in hand with autoimmune disorders. What I mean by that is many times an autoimmune diagnosis can lead to having depression and anxiety because we don’t know what we did to cause it or even if you can pin it down to one thing. The American Autoimmune Related diseases Association (AARDA) has indicated that there are more than 100 autoimmune diseases that affect 50 million Americans every day and that of these numbers ¾’s of this population are women!
I remember just a few years back when I had an autoimmune disease (in 2016-2017) the numbers given were that there were 80 different autoimmune diseases. All that the medical community could tell me was “we don’t know what causes it but it causes inflammation in the body. For me, I research and wondered there must be an answer a root cause what is causing the internal tissues and organs to get inflamed in my body and what could I do about it? My flare ups were coming one behind the other so much that it just seemed like one long flareup that lasts forever, then my dermatologist asked me “so are you ready to get shots now?” I agreed and was put on a biologic called Humira, I thought that I would have to just go in and get the shots, but later learned that no, I was to give myself a shot. Basically, the more I talked to others mostly women, they were suffering too and sometimes with more than one! This led me to my vegan lifestyle journey.
So, I made some lifestyle changes thanks for a friend who was vegan and I went down that path and also learned I needed to control my stress, which does play a big factor. I hadn’t discovered herbs back then it wasn’t until later that I learned there are many herbs that can help calm the anxiety and ease depression one can get when they see no hope from the autoimmune disease(s). Once I learned how Humira affected the body I wanted to try other more holistic measures and I knew that a focused lifestyle change was required. Things such as removing processed foods from my consumption, learning to not take on too much work and tasks and even ask for help! It took me a long time to understand that getting adequate sleep and rest played a huge role for me, I even fell back off the wagon when the pandemic hit in 2020, it was so hard, I was staying up working all the time and that caused more stress and anxiety and maybe even depression that took me a while to see.
Allow me share a few of many herbs that you can use to help calm the anxiety and ease the depression but do know that these are just like the Humira I was taking one has to find out what lifestyle changes you must make and accept to change and to know that medicine and herbs can’t cure but only treat in the meantime. May these herbs help you learn to ease some of your symptoms while you make solid lifestyle changes to help the root cause of your ailment and remember always check with your primary care doctor before using these or any supplements outside of their knowledge or agreement.
Valerian- depending on the dose it can be used both to calm the anxiety that the nervous system can experience as well as to help lift depression.
Ashwagandha- helps to calm anxiety, stress and just mental fatigue.
Lemon balm- is mildly lifting and is also calming for anxiety.
Motherwort- is both an anxiety reliver and rejuvenates for depression.
Gotu Kola- lifts spirits from depression and relieves anxiety.
California poppy- calms restlessness and anxiety.
Oatstraw- decreases anxiety and can calm the nerves.
Chamomile- naturally sedates and calms anxiety (one of my favorites).
Rosemary- as a cerebral stimulant and antidepressant.
To Your Best Health!
Dr. Tee
Sept 2023
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