Herbs for Rebalancing Hormones

There are many herbs for balancing the hormone system because imbalances can be caused by several factors from diet to genetics (some in combination) and thus many people use selected herbs together. It is always wise to add an herb that relieves stress, like Ashwagandha, Dong Quai, a Ginseng (Indian, Siberian, American and White or Red Chinese Panax) or my favorite adaptogen, Astragalus, because the body is experiencing stress during an imbalance and a little support will speed-up recover.

 It is common to make these herbs part of your routine, as they also give you complex and simple vitamin/mineral combinations, which are vital to maintaining a robust constitution to protect yourself against disease and sickness.

Herbs can be taken as a tea, capsule or in tincture form, depending upon your needs and lifestyle. We carry most common herbs lose that can be bought by the ounce, some come capsuled and sold by the 30’s and the rarer herbs are mostly prepared as tinctures in sizes 50ml and 100ml.

Hints for choosing an herb for a tea:

1. Have one main herb at 50%. This is your action herb.
2. Add an herb at 25% for stress. My favourite is a ginseng or astragalus.
3. The remaining 25% can be for flavour such as chai, or another remedy reason.

Below are the most common hormone herbs and actions. These herbs are on the Safe List from Health Canada and are considered safe to take on a regular basis:

• Ashwagandha: an Ayurvedic herb used in western herbal medicine. It’s an extremely useful tonic for the hormone system and building-up energy reserves.
• Black Cohosh: reduces painful menstruation and menopausal symptoms.
• Chaste Tree Berry/Vitex agnus castus: shown to balance the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus. Aids the relief of PMS symptoms, especially nervous tension and insomnia. It’s useful for treating absent or irregular menstruation and aids menopausal symptoms.
• Dandelion: aids liver metabolism and reduces water retention. Also helps the elimination systems of the body lowering toxic levels.
• Dong Quai: a Chinese herb often used as an adaptogen for stress in western herbal medicine. It helps to balance hormone excesses and deficits. It’s excellent for treating absent or painful menstruation and menopausal symptoms. Will increase your sex drive.
• Kelp: a rich source of iodine. Iodine is required for optimum thyroid function, which regulates hormone production.
• Ladies Mantle: reduces heavy periods and is particularly useful during early menopause.
• Motherwort: excellent for treating menopausal hot flushes, absent or painful menstruation and PMS. It’s also useful herb for the treatment of fibroids.
• Saw Palmetto: primarily used as a tonic herb for men but it has a nourishing effect on the female reproductive system too – helps regulate the menstrual cycle, relieve painful periods and improve sexual energy.
• Valerian: helpful for reducing anxiety associated with PMS and menopause. Improves the quality of sleep.
• Wild Yam: reduces hormone imbalance associated with the menopause, supporting a deficit in estrogen.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive and all these herbs have helpful secondary features. Contact us for further assistance.

This is not medical advice. All this information is available in the public domain.