Some of you may have seen that I've been writing a series of posts about making herbal remedies at home. I want to share what I know of this topic so that, as the world gets crazier, folks will have other avenues of medical care, namely those of themselves and their community. If you look back over this blog, you can see heaps of info on the topic, plus loads and loads of posts on herbs and using Australian bushfoods from a white perspective. If you haven't been around on in the @hivegarden and @naturalmedicine communities for long, you may be interested in looking back. There's w-a-a-a-a-y too much there for me to repost and the Hive system doesn't let you vote on old posts so, if you're happy with what you find, I believe that there is now a tip option...
Back Story to the brew
For a couple of years now, some folks have been benefitting from a herbal combo that I make up in bulk every year. I don’t make remedies for sale but distribute them for free though some kind folks are willing to leave a little something on the table to keep the process rolling.
Most of you know that I’m only a humble kitchen herbalist and this brew came out of the sadness that grew from so often hearing folks telling me that they can’t sleep because of chronic pain. Lack of sleep leads to many other health problems, especially when it becomes a chronic thing. So I got to work investigating various anodynes (pain relieving herbs). It is interesting that many herbs listed as ‘pain killers’ don’t work directly on the pain like industrial medicines do. Many of them work in a more gentle, indirect manner that relieves the pain by helping with causes both direct and indirect.
I investigated soporifics (sleep inducers), hypnotics (stronger sleep inducers) and narcotics (heavy duty stuff that should only be sought temporarily or at the end of your pain journey, if you know what I mean).
My primary filter for all of the information was, as it always is, ‘can folks find the stuff easily or grow it at home’. That ruled out many, many plants which are not suited to our South Australian gardens. The second filter was ‘can folks afford the herbs and gear to make this stuff themselves’?
I found that there was not one single herb that would do the job well and not for the wide range of ailments that could cause the condition I sought to relieve. There are many causes of chronic pain and many causes of sleeplessness and not all of them can be relieved by a single herb. Thus, I sought out a triad. A triad is a traditional way of creating a formula for a complaint using three herbs. It’s beyond the scope of this post to go into depth about it. I hoped to be able to work on pages describing the ins and outs of formulation but may not be able to. We may be closing down the website when the renewals for the domain name and the WordPress theme that I like to use come up. It looks like we won’t be able to afford them any longer.
That’s why I’m putting these herbals out there, so folks can get to read them before we potentially shut up shop.
Anyways, a cup of Lemon Balm tea to pick me up and on we go!
Which plants?
I decided on three plants in a triad that would reinforce each other’s abilities to heal plus bring their own particular beauty to the mix. The plants are easy to find in our local area too. Triads are a classic method of formulation that I use a lot.
Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca serriola) Lavender (Lavandula sp) (Note: Some folks are allergic to Lavender. Check first) and Hops (Humulus lupulus). The first is an easy to grow wild plant (aka ‘weed’), the second is in most gardens in some form or another and the third is quite widely grown nowadays and once you’ve managed to get a rhizome, easy to grow in your own garden.
All three are listed in many books as pain relievers, sleep inducers and anxiety relievers. All three are great for one’s digestion too which, as you will see is very important..
One of the key synergies of the triad is that all three help our poor overworked liver and gall bladder. When we have chronic pain, so many waste products build up in our system that excretory organs frequently become congested and sick themselves. If you add industrial pain killers into the mix, well, they all need to be metabolised and eliminated via the liver. Doctors frequently prescribe cortisone or similar steroids to mask the pain as well. They mask pain, don’t relieve it. Some even work by making our body think that nothing is wrong – all the while we work the damaged tissue with no pain (for the moment). These chemicals too need to be metabolised by our poor liver.
To step through all three of the herbs, we find -
By my understanding, their functions in this brew are as follows –
Lavender – Lavender moves blood and energy down from our head, relieving congestion and pain. It is also a great at directly relieving inflammation in tissues and organs through a similar method. The beautiful oils in Lavender can also directly relieve pain when used topically.
Hops – A well known relaxant and sedative and digestive tonic, the bitter taste of hops sends signals to the central nervous system to start a whole slew of energising, pain relieving, metabolic activities. Hops is a direct sedative, encouraging deep, gentle sleep while it goes about its other healing activities. It too helps clear congestion in the head and, I find, upper spine.
Prickly Lettuce – this is one of the few herbs that directly target pain receptors. It contains compounds lactucin and lactucopicrin. They are bitter substances that act on the central nervous system, producing pain-relieving and sedative effects. It too works on the Liver. Wow! That liver should be clean and shiny after all of this!
How to make it –
Each of these herbs is best picked on a warm day when their constituents are most active. Except for the Hops, pick the other two just as the flower buds are forming. Some folks swear by Lavender flowers but I’ve found that the plant is best before flowering. Prickly lettuce can be picked at any time but is at its most potent when the flower spikes form,
Hops are best harvested when the cone is dry and brittle and you can see (and smell) the Lupulin, the yellow powder that contains the plant’s therapeutic goodness in the form of plant acids and oils. The cone may still be a little green at this stage. With our plant of the variety called ‘Pearl’ I’ve found that totally brown cones are past their prime. Maybe it’s different for other varieties or even in other gardens.
For each of the plants you can use fresh or dried herbs. Make a tincture according to the instructions on our ‘tincturing‘ pages.
Each of the herbs are best macerated in high concentration alcohol. At least 70%. You can tincture at lower levels and will still get a reasonable tincture though. Wild Lettuce can be tinctured at 30% or above and you could, if you are short on alcohol, make a very strong decoction using the methods outlined on that page because the compounds in it are water soluble. I’ll post shortly on making a Prickly Lettuce decoction that’ll knock your thongs off).
If you’re adding your wild Lettuce via a decoction or double extracting the other herbs, , see the note above and remember that for storage the total alcohol concentration shouldn’t fall below 20%. Check out our ‘A Little About Alcohol‘ page for details on working out dilutions.
Tincture each plant separately and combine them before use. The reason for this is that some folks respond better to different ratios of the herbs. Some folks are more sensitive to Lavender than many others and tweaking the amount of this in the formula is often the key to success.
Store the tinctures separately so that you can adjust ratios as needed and when you have it right, you can make up bottles of mix as needed.
Using the stuff
To help with sleep start your suffering friend on a mixture of equal thirds of each tincture. I usually start folks on 1 tsp of this in a cup of water a little before bedtime. If that doesn’t work, don’t increase the dosage but add another equal dose after lunch time on the next day.
Some folks don’t take to it immediately but I’ve found that signs of improvement can usually be experienced after 2 – 3 days. Don’t start people on higher doses immediately should the first dose not work. The body uses only what’s needed and excess is excreted. Too much will just be passed out either as diarrhoea (overworked liver and gall bladder) or dark urine (excess from the liver being passed on to and excreted by the kidneys). See below for what to do if this happens. The cup of water that I recommend with every dose of 1tsp helps hydrate the body and move out some congestion too. Often these heavy industrial pain killers have a decidedly drying effect or they are used with diuretics as well. Increasing your water level and hydrating yourself better can work wonders in many ailments.
For quick pain relief, a tablespoon in a cup of water usually does the trick. Another half an hour later can help too but don’t take too much at this level.
Adjusting the mix
If the brew works, that’s great! There are cases where it need s to be tweaked a little. That depends on your suffering friend’s particular cause for sleeplessness. It can be tricky to advise on a perfect balance but I offer these suggestions –
- If there is long term inflammation at the root of the problem, increase the Lavender and reduce the other two
- If its from a direct, recent, physical injury, increase the Prickly Lettuce component.
- If its from a long-ago physical injury, reduce the Hops and boost the other two.
- Those are generalisations only, it can be difficult to recommend specifics because we recommend herbs for the person as well as the ailment. This is a very general brew and should be used as the starting point. Other herbs can be used alongside it but once again, its a case of ‘case by case’.
Other effects.
There are no ‘side effects’ in good herbal prescribing. They are all ‘effects’ but some may be stronger than expected. I’ve had many folks who take this remedy tell me that they not only got the first good night’s sleep in a while but slept through their morning alarm! One person in particular sleeps until mid afternoon whenever they go on a three day cycle of using the remedy. We found that three days of the remedy is enough to reset their sleep cycle.
I’ve mentioned slight diarrhoea or loose stools above. They’re to be expected at some stage of the healing process. Loose stools, stools that change their colour, usual smell or even buoyancy are indicators that the gall bladder and liver are working and are classic indications of progress in that area. If it is tolerable, consider continuing for a few days and you should see results. If the looseness and other signs are not tolerable, reduce the dosage to once a day or, especially if they happen after the first dose, halve the amount to 1/2 tsp in a cup of water. In herbalism, we don’t tend to throw on another herb to compensate for effects that come from the prescribed herbs in the way your GP will happily give you as string of medicines to compensate for the first. A well thought out formula should include these effects in its planning and the herbalist should explain these to their friend and both should keep an eye out for them.
Rarely, some people can’t tolerate bitterness due to issues in their upper digestive tract. It gives them acidity, if not pain. If that’s your situation, you can reduce the bitterness with a little honey or by diluting the dose with any other fluid to a point where you can handle it.
Disclaimers – I can’t absolutely guarantee anything but can say that I have had good results with this brew and the approach to using it covered in this post, for myself my family and an ever growing number of people. As most of you know, I’m only a back-yarder, a Kitchen Herbalist with no formal qualifications in Oz. If you’re unsure or haven’t had your painful condition checked, go see a GP or Naturopath before taking my word for anything. Remember, I’m not a doctor! I don’t produce remedies for sale either. Don’t you love the need to add disclaimers to everything?
Here’s to a good night’s sleep!
