Women's disorders

Fibrocystic breast disease

Wear cotton bras. (One patient saw benefit in one month.)
Use no coffee or its relatives - chocolate, tea, colas, or beverages containing caffeine.

Miscarriage

For threatened miscarriage, with painless bleeding, try black haw and false unicorn, two tablespoons of each, boil in a quart of water 30 minutes. Remove from fire and add one tablespoon of both blue cohosh and red raspberry leaf tea. Strain and drink a cup every 3-4 hours until all used. For one patient, it stopped contractions within 20 minutes, although miscarriage of a blighted ovum eventually occurred. For bleeding after miscarriage, try Cranesbill, 1 teaspoon of tea to 1 cup boiling water.

Labor — to start

Blue cohosh — brings on labor if overdue. Also a nervine. Start with this herb, then go to Black cohosh (Squaw root oxytocic, also helps joints and muscles.)

Menopause

• Remedy 1: Black cohosh 1/2 part emmenagogue (balances hormones and stops bleeding). Chaste Tree — 1 part. (Because of its high estrogen-like activity, it cuts sexual desire. It is the greatest help to stimulate LH and FSH to regulate progesterone, starts menstrual period, balances hormones. False unicorn 1 part. Licorice 1 part to sweeten 1 quart boiling water
• Remedy 2: 2T licorice, 2T chaste tree, 2T false unicorn, 1T Black cohosh (squaw vine). Boil gently 30 minutes in one quart of water. Then pour over 1/2 cup red raspberry leaves, steep, strain, use 1 quart/day until symptoms are controlled, then down to 1 pint/day, refrigerating the other pint for next day. You may not find evening primrose effective although often used. Good lifestyle will go far toward minimizing symptoms.
  
• Remedy 3: “Change-0-Life” capsules (Nature's Way) are helpful. They contain Black cohosh root, sarsaparilla root, Siberian ginseng root, Licorice root, Blessed Thistle herb, Squaw vine herb and False unicorn root.

PMS

Chaste tree 1 T. (Use 2 T for bad cases to stimulate the corpus luteum. This much may cause foul smelling gas, but worth it). Dandelion root 1 T (most useful diuretic for PMS. False unicorn 1 T Echinacea 3 T. Water 1 quart. Simmer 25 minutes and pour onto 2 T skullcap. Steep 20 minutes. Take all through the day, not all at once. At first take all through the month, but when symptoms seem to be cleared and the patient is well, try to stop taking the herbs. If symptoms return, begin again with the herbs only during the symptoms. Do not use licorice root for PMS, only for dysmenorrhea, as it has estrogens which worsens PMS. Black cohosh acts as a blocker for unnatural estrogens which makes it useful in PMS and breast cancer.

Low thyroid and woman's hormones, and PMS

Echinacea, Chaste tree, Dandelion, Milk thistle seed, Hawthorne berry, False unicorn, Astragalus, Camomile, Siberian Ginseng.

Cystitis

Buchu (Soother for the genitourinary tract) Uva ursi (antiseptic for the genitourinary tract)

Fibroids

• Chaste tree 1 T, Water, 1 quart. Simmer 25 minutes. Drink daily until fibroids shrink.
• Give a fat-free diet
• Hot and cold sitz baths, 30 minutes, interrupting every five minutes for one minute of cold sitz, about 65-75o

Dysmenorrhea

Mother wort 2 T Boiling water 1 pint Steep 30 minutes. Drink as needed for pain throughout the day.

Dysmenorrhea, muscle aches and pain

Take several roots (half pound or so) of fresh ginger and chop them in a food processor or by hand to a fine pulp. Place this in a heavy pan with 4-6 cups of water, cover, and bring to a slow boil. Simmer for five minutes, then remove from heat and allow to cool somewhat. Strain off liquid as needed and save pulp for compresses or for cooking. Sip the liquid (diluted as needed for palatability) as a tea. You may wish to pour about half the liquid in a hot bathtub and immerse body for half an hour. Sleep well!

Fistula-recto-vaginal or recto-perineal following childbirth

Mingle golden seal, cranesbill, bayberry bark and warmed cocoa butter to make suppositories. Cool enough to roll out in suppositories the proper diameter and length to fit into the fistula if possible. Cool in refrigerator. Insert into fistula or both rectum and vagina. For perineum, put the warm mixture on a mini-pad to keep against the skin most of the time day and night. May be used for fistulas in Crohn's disease -or ulcerative colitis.

Pregnancy

Golden Seal should be avoided in pregnancy if any cramping or discomfort arises. However, when it is used for acute conditions, this complication is rare.

Nausea

(May use in pregnancy, motion sickness or infection) Mint extract. Purchase a small bottle from the grocery or health food store. Take it with you on trips if you get carsick. Merely wet the tip of your finger by covering the top of the bottle, and touch it to your tongue. Relief comes within minutes. Milk thistle berry, 2 T in 1 quart of gently simmering water, 20 minutes.

Goldenseal (hydrastis)

Good for Postpartum hemorrhage and for dysmenorrhea. It should be avoided during pregnancy if cramping arises. It has anticonvulsive activity in rats. It lowers the blood pressure in hypertensive laboratory animals. Goldenseal as well as yarrow will lower blood sugar when it is excessively high.

Squaw root

Good to maintain pregnancy in threatened abortion. Has an oxytocic effect (stimulates the uterus to contract).

Blue cohosh

Augments labor, or starts it up again if stalled.

Cransbill

For bleeding after delivery. Use Cranesbill - 1t to 1C. boiling water.

For pain

Wild lettuce, white willow bark, valerian root. Mix equal parts. Use 1T/1c, boil or steep 1/2 hour. Use 1 cup per hour for pain.

Hyperthyroidism

Bugle weed (Used with hawthorne berry and motherwort, it is good for the heart)

Pelvic inflammatory disease

1 t. Echinacea and Golden Seal tincture taken every hour in the day, and every two hours during the night. When better, drop down to every four hours three times a day. May substitute one cup of tea for one teaspoon of the tincture.

Prolonged menstrual bleeding (several months or several years)

One and a half quarts of water boiling; 2-1/2 tablespoons of Chaste tree berries; 2 tablespoons of milk thistle seed; 1 tablespoon of false unicorn; 1 tablespoon of witch hazel bark. Simmer gently 25 minutes, remove, and add 2 tablespoons of red raspberry leaf, steep for 20 minutes, strain. This is one day's supply. If this causes nausea, add 1 teaspoon of ready prepared soy milk per cup, and it should make it so that it doesn't cause nausea.

Postpartum hemorrhage

1 T each of Shepherd's purse, motherwort, bayberry, cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne made into a tincture and reserved for possible use.

Premature labor

1 T. False Unicorn; 2 T. Black Haw Bark; 1 quart boiling water. Simmer 25 minutes, then add 1/2 cup Red Raspberry. Steep 25 minutes. Add echinacea if suspect possibility of infection (endometritis).

Braxton-hicks

Contractions and premature labor can often be stopped by drinking two quarts of plain water.

Uterine bleeding

2-1/2 T. Chaste Tree Berries; 2 T. Milk Thistle Seed; 1 T. False Unicorn 1 T. Witch Hazel Bark 1-1/2 quart boiling water; Simmer 25 minutes. Remove and add 2 t. Red Raspberry Leaves. Steep. Strain. 1 day's supply. Add 1 t. soy milk per cup if it causes nausea or diarrhea.

Cholestasis of pregnancy

Treat with charcoal. Use one T of the activated powder in water per hour.

Heartburn of pregnancy

Cheese and milk are common causes of heartburn. If one eliminates all milk products it usually takes about 2-3 days for symptoms to clear. It may be the milk proteins rather than lactose intolerance lying at the root of the problem. The greater the consumption the more likely to be trouble. Never lie down after meals, as the lower end of the esophagus is relaxed during pregnancy and allows acid and food to backwash.

Failure to thrive

Give a catnip tincture, 3 drops 3 times daily, or one tablespoon of catnip tea (1t/1c) every hour.

Milk production increase

Fenugreek 2T+; Chaste Tree 2T+ Milk Thistle Seed 3T+; 1 1/2 quart water brought to a simmer. Add herbs. Simmer 25 minutes and remove from fire. Add 1/4c Red Raspberry. Steep 30 minutes. Make fresh daily.

Teas having hormonal effect

Ginkgo, Ginseng, Sylamarin, Pycnogenol, Chaste tree (stimulates pituitary), Bilberry, Garlic, Astragalus, Licorice and Borge and wild yam (adrenal cortical-like), Black cohosh Milk thistle seed potentiates liver function to enhance herbs, dulse (parathyroids).