Category: Health and Wellness
Hi all,
Earlier this year, I was taking volerion root to help relieve stress. When it became increasingly difficult for me to be productive, I began to wonder if it might be a side effect of the herb. Sure enough, prolonged use of volerion root can result in apathy and mental dullness. So I'm looking for an herbal treatment that will relieve stress without this side effect. A friend suggested scullcap, kava, and chamomile for relieving stress, but even after researching all of them, I'm not sure which would be best and which would not lead to the brain draining. lol. Would love some insight into this!
Thanks,
Becky
Camomile, depending who you ask, can be considered a natural mild sedative. It won't put you to sleep per say, but I wouldn't take it just before heading out somewhere. However, it's great if you're just sitting at home doing casual activities. I usually do drink it before bed just to help me wind down if I've had a stressful day, but it doesn't actually make me tired.
Shoot something, its a great way to relieve stress. Music, all natural, great stress reliever, no side effects. Poetry, also no side effects. Relaxing, no side effects.
Lets just point out a few things. First, there is no herb that relieves stress, not a one. Unless your stress is caused by a bad smell, then I can recommend a few good herbs. However, stress is caused by negative emotions which cause us to release certain chemicals in our brains. This is natural and healthy in certain doses. However, causing those chemicals to not be released would not relieve your stress.
Let me see if I can give you an example. Lets say you slip and fall and a kitchen knife goes through your palm. This, obviously is very painful. So, you take a pain reliever. This pain reliever masks the pain by deadening the receptors in your brain to the pain signals the nerves in your palm are sending. However, it doesn't take the knife out of your palm.
Point is, you're still hurt, and still in pain, you just don't know it. This, is a dangerous thing. That's why if you're an athlete, you shouldn't take painkillers because it can mask an injury, and you can seriously injure yourself.
Back on topic though. You can only make yourself not feel the stress. You can't, however, swallow something, and have the stress go away. You can prolong it, but you can't solve it. You should find out why you're stressed and deal with it.
Oh, and by deal with it, I mean fix it, not take a pill, or an herb, or any of that.
Oh, and little side note, be very careful buying herbs. There is no regulation on what they put in those things. The vast majority of herbs, based on a sample study, contain little more than grass clippings. So unless you know what the herb looks like, and pick it yourself, be careful.
I have used catnip as a tea. I used the leaves from the plant. It has a nice flavour and is very calming and relaxing. I think there's nothing wrong with using herbs if you know what you are doing.
You know what you call alternative medicine that works? Medicine.
If your stress is unmanageable, perhaps you should talk to a professional who can teach you behavioral changes that can help reduce stress.
Also, physical activity of any kind can help, as well as hobbies that don't require you to mark your progress.
I definitely second the one-liner in the last post, plus the PT. A good PT regimen is often all there is between you and a meltdown - because in truth we can't always manage situations. In truth we're often way in deep with ourselves only as our own advocate, and idealism aside, that's what you got. So I'm definitely for a good and consistent workout regimen, helps burn it off.
OK. I have one minor bone to pick here:
I agree with all of your points. Any kind of medicine, herbal or conventional, is only dealing with the symptoms, and not the greater problem. I agree with that whole heartedly. and yes. As cody pointed out, you could be wasting your money or worse if you don't do your research before taking these herbs. But this, is my friends, is why she posted this topic. she was wondering if anyone had any success stories with any of these. I, too, hope she ultimately targets the root of the problem in the grand scheme of things. But in the meantime, what's wrong with her taking herbal supplaments to help her out while she's working on the greater problem? As long as she doesn't blindly follow the ads, she should be OK.
That's like asking what's wrong with someone cutting while they wait for their anti-depressant prescription to be filled. Its certainly not the same level of seriousness, but its the same idea.
For the most part, and I do not confess to know whether the original poster fits this category or not, anyone who seeks out herbal remedies is not willing to avail themselves of medical technology. Why take an anti-depressant with chemicals you can't read, when all you have to do is snort some St. John's wart through your left nostril, turn around three times, sneeze, then have a cup of lamb's ear tea and you'll be fine?
So the real question is not whether she should be taking herbal remedies, and I use that word loosely because they don't remedy a headcold, let alone anything else, its whether she is actually going to seek the medical attention that she may very well need. Over exposure to stress is a serious thing, one that can't be solved by rubbing a leaf against your skin, or any other herbal solutions.
In closing, let me ask those who are fans of herbal remedies one question. If herbal remedies work so well, why do we have hospitals?
they don't. Nor are hospitals. if they were, nobody would die in tragic accidents or because of diseases they contracted at the age of 20.
You can be the life of the party without alcohol. that doesn't mean people shouldn't enjoy a drink.
As the husband of someone who suffers debilitating stress, I can tell some of you first hand that it's not always that easy to "deal" with things. There is a chemical component to stress as well as a psychological one. You can know in your heart and in your mind exactly what you need to do to relieve your stress and fix it, but actually doing it is not always as easy. I have no doubt at all that there are a lot of scams out there involving herbal treatments, just as I know for certain as much as we like to praise modern chemical medicine, it often leads to some very negative side effects. I will agree that it's extremely worth-while for a person to you to deal with stress on their own. We can't rely on medication as the only solution, herbal or otherwise. However there are times when certain herbs, when actually used right with the right body will actually work. It's all about finding what works for you. I can't give you any suggestions about what to try TC, though I wish I could. But since it seemed like a couple people were sort of ragging on you for doing this, I thought I'd chime in. I do have to agree with one small thing that was said; be careful.
no one said that dealing with stress on one's own isn't easy, but it can be done.
and, as has also been said, no herbal medicine will do the trick.
I think herbal medicine can work just as well as, if not better than, modern chemical meds, if you know what you're doing. For instance, I have found that Ecchinacea works better for my allergies than any of the chemical medications I've taken. As others have said, it's important to try to figure out the root of the problem, but chamomile tea won't harm you, so you could try that in the meantime.
I think the point Cody was trying to make was, why try things in the meantime when there are other options out there that would actually give you promising results?
saying herbal medicine is the way to go, when said person likely hasn't been to a doctor first, is equivalent to putting a bandaid on the problem.
just to clarify, I know of a lot of people who feel herbal remedies are the answer.
and, while it's their life and their body to do with as they please, I'm just sharing my thoughts.
Here's the main problem I have with herbal medicines.
I've come full circle on this one since I was young and dumb. Now, let's face it: At Age 20 or so, anything anti-establishment, anti-institutional, looks attractive. And I were raised in the same or similar educational institutions as were you all. The problem is, people rarely know the difference between a testimonial and a scientific hypothesis let alone theory, and they definitely don't understand the two meanings of the term theory: e.g. music theory, germ theory, evolutionary theory, and "I have a theory". Same word, two different contexts, two different meanings.
Also, the argument that medicine has side effects doesn't by definition give the green light to the herbal kind.
And let's face it: Who doesn't love a good story? About some grand conspiracy, some cover-up, some alleged connection between great powers? We Americans love it, have concocted such alien beliefs as the New World Order, the modern Illuminati, and the rest. Most of us have been exposed to it, be it for a good laugh, or, unfortunately, for some it is a way of actually interpreting their surroundings. And the neat part about all of this, is since it is all a giant cover-up, you have no responsibility, except maybe to be one of the elite few, "in the know."
I'll admit: I wasn't terribly involved in any of this, more playing around the edges, for which some have criticized my judgment of it since I never got truly involved. The reason? There were far too many holes: you had people talking about overuse of medicines, usually distorted to grandiose proportions, and yet, you would see these same people spend thousands on supplements. The way they'd pour them out for themselves, being blind you might mistake what they were pouring out as birdshot. Seriously, gobbling tons of the stuff.
Now, when it's all unregulated, that means that you do have to know. But how can you? Are you prepared to reverse-engineer the product and see what's in it? And how about the studies they make fun of? An independent study lets people know what's going on without the commercial interest. It's usually full of all that boring stuff like numbers and statistical data. None of the racy testimonial "data" talking about how this set of grass clippings healed obesity, impotence, high blood pressure, a lot of medically-sounding long names nobody's heard of except maybe the real medical people, and all with glowing reports.
Some of you kids, and unfortunately a lot of the baby boomer generation, need to learn the two definitions of the word 'theory' and the difference between actual data and testimonials. People like Galileo, Newton and Einstein were perfetly capable of making history-changing discoveries without a single testimonial.
What probably started me turning around seriously was two things: first the la leche league trying to tell the wife she couldn't use a bottle, even a bottle of her own milk, because of what they called "nipple confusion". Now, sometimes I'm a asshole, so she said, "They said I can't feed her with that!" I said, "I can, so blame me." Nice, nature-lover people pushing hard on a chick with the postpartem thing going on, and having some troubles with the milk and other stuff. Well the baby in the end of it all didn't seem terribly confused on either count.
The second thing? The Mad Cow scare in the mid 90s. OK so there was some concerns and some aspects of the livestock industry in Europe were being looked at / handled, the sorts of checks and balances one might normally find. But the mania! The hysteria! It would have actually been funny to watch as a show, except it was real!
We all know it's fun to buck the system. So go ahead and buck the system: Work out, read actual peer reviews on things you're interested in, skip over the massive amounts of testimonials and other anecdotal data, dare to take a step back when something makes your blood boil or gets you excited, and ask the hard questions, you know the kind that get you labeled as 'negative' or 'doubter'. It's kinda fun. Try it, you might like it, and learn something while you're at it.
That's real balls-to-the-wall thinking. I'm personally of the noninstitutional "freethinking" type persuasion on lots of things. But one major institution out there, with no regulation except for its priests, is the alternative medicine stuff.
Here's a place you may want to get started:
The Skepchick Website
If you want to see something that will make you question alternative medicine, watch James Randy's videos on the subject. For example, he takes an entire bottle of homeopathic sleeping pills, at one time, and then delivers a speech, with no side effects. He even reads the label where it says its poisonous to do so. He doesn't even yawn. He takes over thirty tablets and doesn't blink an eye.
Now, there is a difference between herbal remedies and homeopathic medicines, but not much. I will admit there are some herbs that work, aspen bark for example is a wonderful treatment for headaches. So wonderful, in fact, that a smart scientist took the active ingredient, put it in a pill, and called it aspirin. Those wacky scientists.
Things like alergies, upset stomach, sea sickness, trouble sleeping one night, and headaches, can be solved by some herbs, if you know which herbs to use. you want to fall asleep, drink some warm milk with some cinnamon in it. Sea sick, swallow some ginger. Headache, take an aspirin, though humans are starting to develope resistances to that. Alergies, there are lots of ways to treat that.
But when you get to chemical imbalances, sleep disorders, viruses, bacterial infections, psychological disorders, and a whole list of other things, there is no herb that will do anything more than make your breath smell good while you suffer. Not to mention that most of the remedies that are worked with herbs, are not worked by swallowing the herb. Usually its smoking, or burning, or inhaling, or making a salve of the herb. Rarely is it swallowed. Surprisingly, our bodies are made to digest things we eat, not to use them to treat afflictions.
I'll give one more point before I step off the soapbox. Polio, HPV, smallpox, chicken pox, cowpox, flu, and a host of other diseases now have vaccines. Depression, insanity of all types, appendicitis, cancer, viral infections, bacterial infections, broken limbs, interior bleeding, brain damage, these all have treatments. Not one of them is based on herbal remedies. Alternative medicine has not rid the world of one, not a single, not a god foresaken solitary disease or disorder or affliction, and i challenge anyone to prove me wrong.
science, has hundreds of cures under its belt. Herbal remedies ain't got one. Which horse would you bet on?
I definitely agree that herbal medicine should not be the be-all-end-all solution to too much exposure to stress and that it isn't a cure for serious diseases or disorders. My mother's a nurse, so I talk to her and/or my doctor before taking anything new. The ecchinacea capsules work better for me than any of the institutional allergy meds I've been prescribed, but I take them as directed; I could never imagine swallowing a whole bottle of them at once.
The point Cody was making, though, was that one could in fact swallow a whole bottle full of alternative sleep aids and not get drowsy. Most of this stuff they start talking about belief partway into the discussion where you have to have first talked yourself into it working. There is something wrong with that picture, profoundly wrong with it. In Cody's example, the guy should have fallen like a dead log but instead went on speaking with no harm done, because the pills themselves are ineffective.
How they get around this is they say you should take this remedy for 60 days regularly, and then you may possibly feel some effects and then they start redefining feel and effects for good measure.
The funny thing about these sorts of issues is you're always going to find one person or another who has different ideas on what is better, what is more safe, what works and what doesn't. One of the greatest problems with the information age is just how bloody much information there is. In some ways that's great, in others it just becomes confusing. I have no doubt Lightning and Leo have very sound reasons for believing the way that they do. Maybe they're even right. Frankly I don't know. As one of the biggest skeptics I know, I'm slow to believe in anything at all. perhaps it isn't so much the problem with modern medicine as it is modern doctors not knowing or caring enough to determine the true problem and find anything more than a bandaid solution. I don't know what your doctors are like in the US, but in Canada it's a prescribe and ask questions later kind of polacy. You have five to ten minutes to tell them what's wrong. Then if they don't immediately jump to conclusions or brush it off, they MIGHT examine you more. Then when you do finally get treatment, you'll be lucky if A: it works, and B: you don't get terrible side effects that are difficult to live with in another way. Frankly when it comes to many of the mental issues out there, I'm a huge believer in finding a way to "deal with" the problem. But after having known a pretty large number of people with mental issues, I know there are times when you really do need medical attention. We just tend to rely on it too much. And we need to find the right one that works for our body chemestry. Maybe all of this is the reason many people turn to hallistic medicine. Does it work? Well that honestly depends on who you ask, what you take, and of course, whether it's real. I have no doubt at all there are terrible herbal scams out there. But herbbalism has been around longer than any of us have been. So honestly I'm inclined to believe there's truth to some of it. After all there are many vegitables and other foods that are good for certain things, so it's not exactly implausible. Do you need to be careful? Absolutely. Do you need to educate yourself and do your research? You better believe it. Leo I think you're quite right in saying a person should seek data rather than testamonials. The problem there is unless you really know what you're looking for, and what that data is really saying, you might not recognize "truth" when you see it, and when you don't. A good writer can make anything sound plausable. Throw enough scientific terms and big words and statistics out there and I can pretty much garontee people will believe in what you're saying, either because it sounds good or because they really want to believe. So where does that leave us? Testamonials. And of course as we all know, testamonials are no better really. You can pay someone to say whatever you want, or write whatever you want and just say it's a testamonial. Are some of them real? Of course they are. But which ones? So who do we trust? Who or what can we count on to give us the "truth" about what works for who and when? How much do we really know? I'm sure some of us on this board are just brimming with absolute certainty that they know best. But how? Who do they trust? How are they sure what they're reading and learning is right? I'm not trying to be patronizing, I really want to know. Because all these great questions in life have to have answers.
I love when people say that because something has been around longer than we have, it must have some truth to it. You know what's been around longer than us? Bloodletting has. So the next time you're feeling a little off, balance out those humors. Slice open your arm at the crook of the elbow, and just pour some of that blood in a bowl. A few pints should do the trick. After all, its been around longer than we have, it must be at least a little true, right?
Oh, you know what else has been around longer than we have? That's right, women being forced to orgasm by their doctors as a medical solution to hysteria has. So ladies, the next time you're feeling a little stressed out, a little overworked, a little run down, just go to the doctor and have him rub you the right way. He may even use a vibrator, if he's a good doctor. That was what they were invented for.
You still wanna say that, because something's been around a while, it must be a little true?
and just like herbal medicine, there are conventional treatments that do wonders for some, and absolutely nothing for others. Nothing will *ever* work for everyone. OK. Let's take medicine out of the equasion entirely for the sake of argument. talking to a counselor works really well for some people. they respond well, get along with their counselors, and after a few months of weekly sessions, they're back to normal and ready to move on with their lives. for others, counseling only makes the situation worse. another example? Prayer. some people find it extremely theraputic, while others find it a waste of time. One size will never fit all, no matter what you're dealing with. I personally believe that just as some herbal remedies are complete scams, so, too, are some conventional meds. Well, I guess you can't technically call them scams considering they're not really hiding anything, but if a medicine designed to lower blood pressure and cholesterol has three times as many side effects, one or more of which is life threatening, then how are you really bettering your life by taking these pills? either way, you're putting yourself at risk. OK, so the difference is that you are always aware of these side effects, whereas with the herbs, you probably won't be. But how can you criticise someone for taking herbal remedies when people knowingly take pills every day that have side effects that are, in some cases, just as bad as the condition they're meant to treat?
I don't know much about herbal medicine, so I don't really have an opinion regarding it either way, but as far as other ways to relieve stress, do something to try to take your mind off whatever the issue is that's causing you stress. For instance, do you have a hobby/activity you enjoy? I have found that doing something that you like or makes you feel content really helps when you're stressed out about something. Yes, you'll still have to deal with the situation later, but sometimes it's a bit easier after you've had a break from the problem, even if it's just a day or a few hours. Hope this helps.
Condensed version of all this: Think critically, test scientifically, research everything. You have the internet - before you ingest any substance designed to physically/mentally alter you, talk to as many professionals as possible and look for other people who have talked to professionals, or websites that have replicable tests proving the costs and benefits of the substances.
If alternative meds were really all they were cracked up to be, they would not be squeamish about regulation, supervision and oversight. Anybody who startts boo-hooing about having to comply with building codes, road construction codes, or the FDA, has got a problem in my opinion. The oversight is the only way the consumer can really know that something has got what it says it has got.
Nobody says, for example, that bith math "works for some people and not for others". If the programming job requires use of bits and a word or a double word, use it. Never in 15 plus years of software have I seen a case made for an implementation based on a testimonial.
Sure, some software developers are cracks, sure many of us make mistakes, but that doesn't diminish the sound principles on which software development lives. That is the argument. It really is not a case about belief. After all, a foot is 12 inches, not 16, not 8, not even 11 -1/2. You don't believe that a foot is 12 inches, it simply is 12 inches, that is the standard.
Mine is not necessarily a pro-medical argument, but a pro-sound-principles argument. But if you really want to "believe in" alternative medicines, have your roads and your bridges built with no standards or oversights, because after all, what works for some may not work for everybody else, so skip the rebar here, mix the concrete with your own standards there, and write pages of glowing testimonials. And, by all means, start an MLM outfit with videos of sexy thin people running around on them. See how much transport gets done that way.
After all, you could cite the fact that much of our infrastructure needs updating, which is true, or that mistakes have been made, which is also true. But because mistakes get made via one implementation doesn't mean another implementation without standards automatically gets a free pass.
Research is nice, but sometimes you just have to try a product for yourself. Personally, I would opt for a bit of counseling to see if you can find coping mechanisms to deal with your stress in terms of mobifying your behavior or reaction to stressful situations. A good workout regimen also works well. I, myself, use medical cannabis and find that it helps my stress and also helps me sleep better when nothing else I've tried for sleep has worked. Good luck to you.