h and h

Posted on October 29, 2008
Filed Under Thursday Thamauturgy, exercise and martial arts, fitness and medicine, health |

For a healthy heart, Hawthorn and Horsetail.

Hawthorn (Crataegus) is the plant, related to the roses in your garden, that is used to make Mayhaw jelly (berries). It is also used to make many Chinese candies and teas; so it can be found anywhere from Asian grocery stores to Piggly Wiggly. It is also available as a tea and capsules at many health food stores.

When compared to other vasodialators such as foxglove, Hawthorn is a very safe medicinal plant. There is great precedence for its safety, as evinced by its widespread safe use as a food. There is also very good evidence for its use in lowering bloodpressure, mitigating serious cardiac problems, and improving the function of blood vessels throughout the body. Try a search for “hawthorn clinical trials” to see for yourself… it fairs better than many man made drugs.

Horsetail (Equisetum) has been used to strengthen the body and prevent hemorrhaging since its use by the ancient Greeks or before. It is well known for its ability to strengthen the walls of blood vessels and to promote their regeneration. This may be useful for general hemorrhaging, easy bruising, hemorrhoids, and any number of similar problems. It has also been studied and found to increase bone density — perhaps for similar reasons to its action on blood vessels; it contains a large amount of silica, which affects the strength and flexibility of blood vessels, certain other connective tissues, and bone. Children are sometimes prescribed horsetail to speed the healing of bone breaks, and women with osteoporosis have been successfully treated with horsetail or horsetail plus calcium supplements.

Both plants are somewhat diuretic. Together, hawthorn and horsetail are a good combination for maintaining cardiovascular health. Their action is not confined to the heart itself, but encompasses the entire circulatory system.

Contraindications for both plants stem mainly from their diuretic action. Any diuretic (meaning anything that increases urination) can increase the toxicity of prescription drugs already in the system. There is also the potential for overdose with Hawthorn, but the plant would have to be concentrated and taken very frequently to present much danger.

Incidentally, nothing here should be seen as medical advice. These are just notes to myself in the quest to reach the grand old age of 300… or maybe older.

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