Herbs for CFS

I think with herbs it is always important to use LIVER specific formulas alongside others.

White Willow has pain killing properties and St John's Wort helps, but as I said I hardly ever get them now.

Funny you should mention Liver formulas because now and then I do liver detoxes and I'm about to do one soon, using Dandelion, Burdock root, nettles that I harvested from my garden, Slippery Elm Bark, Evening Primrose perhaps.

And liver flushes with lemons, garlic and olive and coconut oil. It always does me good but I haven't done it for ages. Thanks for reminding me! 

Good luck, liver is a VERY important organ to look after. Even though TCM did not work for me, i do still find myself drawn to their concepts of health, and the warm andd cold nature of foods, in TCM raw foods/juices are not recommended, they say the body likes to be warm. I came into my CFS on the back of 2 years juicing and i wonder even though i did feel really good did it have something to do with my illness ? I have not juiced in a good 8 months and have not improved so it might be nothing.

I can't see that juicing could be a cause. I've never heard of it doing it to anyone else and I've only ever heard of improvements from ME with juicing. The only thing I can think is that perhaps it could be pesticides in the raw foods?

I may be being ignorant but does TCM stand for traditional complementary medicine?

 

Hi Georgia, TCM=traditional chinese medicine.

When i was juicing most was organic, impossible to always be organic these days. I loved to juice and i felt so good on it but since my CFS i've just lost faith in it, so am trying other things. Weird journey. I guess if everything else fails i'll go back to juicing eventually... ?

Oh of course! Must be having a brain dead day! 

I've made smoothies on and off throughout the illness and I feel really good about it but I go through phases of being sicker and not having enough energy or motivation to do the healthy things I need to be doing.

I'm in a motivated mode at the moment though and I must get back into eating porridge and smoothies. Oh a question for you. I have a cheap juicer, very basic but I've read that it's worth getting a more expensive one. There's a particular sort that juice differently but I can't remember much about it. What do you think?

And is juicing really better than smoothies or just eating the fruit and veg?

Hi Georgia, juicing, they say MASTICATING is best method. I had a masticating juicer and i used it predominantly for greens as centrifugal shreds greens more than juices them. I often found that contrary to what you read the masticating did not produce MORE juice than centrifugal. I had a hurom juicer (which was awful) then a Samson Advanced which was much better. I had a Phillips centrifugal which was good. I think doing both juices AND smoothies best. Juices seem to be really good for detoxing. Lord knows i want to be back juicing again and feeling fantastic !

Wow that's expensive; I couldn't afford to pay a practitioner, which is why I took some herb courses and other courses so I can heal myself.

The thing I've found is that it takes a long time with herbs and recovery is slow and almost imperceptable at times. But when I look back at how I used to be 8-10 years ago I can definitely see an improvement. And I have days now where I don't feel ill; they're becoming more and more frequent.

It takes a great deal of patience as you're aware and I'm glad you haven't given up on the adaptogens. Kudos! 

I use St John's Wort because it lifts my moods. Vervain balances the central nervous system. Valerian helps me to have a good night's sleep so I'm a bit more awake the next day. 

I have Candida, which I hear a lot of people with ME do, so I use Grapefruit Seed Extract and Myrrh for that. 

Passion Flower is a very mild sedative that calms me down and makes me feel happier when I get anxiety assocated with the illness. These are just a few of the herbs I use. Ginseng and Kola nut are good for energy.

I found that Kelp is extremely good for the thyroid. A book I recommend is 'Bartram's Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine' by Thomas Bartram. There's info about ME in it.

Thanks, St.Johns wort i may try as i tried it before and it helped my moods and i believe it also has ant-viral properties. I used rhodiola for a while and it lifted my mood but then it stopped working probably because the body builds up a tolerance. Best of luck for 2015 !!

Yes it does have anti viral properties. I haven't heard of rhodiola but I'll look it up. I like trying herbs out that are new to me. I hope you have a great year and your health improves!