Every man is known for who he is, by what he stands for. Medicinal plants are not different. Some are known for keeping the brain young and agile.
During the Second World War, the eyes of American pilots could not stand the glare of bomb blasts. British pilots faced the glare again and again almost everyday with little or no tribulation. The plant called bilberry made the difference. Bilberry jam was in the breakfast of British pilots. It turned out in studies later that plant medicines in the purple-colour bilberry has affinity for the retina, the light sensitive portion of the eye and protects it against photochemical insults from sunlight.
Since that time, bilberry, like gingko biloba and grape seed extract became an important component of any proprietary vision supplement worth its salt.When the brain does not receive enough blood from the heart or there is enough supply but the circulation is poor, the job of restoring normalcy often goes to the likes of Ginkgo Biloba. Hawthorn berries, ubiqunol, vitamin E and magnesium are among live- sustaining remedies for heart and blood vessels health.
Cayenne pepper, like Ferrom phos(phosphate), In cell or tissue salt medicine, disperses blood clots. When the blood vessels become so weak that they leak blood, setting the stage for hemorraging anaemia and a possible collapse of the heart from insufficiency of blood to pump, it is time to call in rutin and the likes of horsetail and diatomaceous earth (diatom ) for their silica which, like rutin, is a cellular cement. Buggle weed slows hyperative thyroid gland. Sea kelp shores up underactive thyroid gland. Bilberry helps the optic nerve. Zinc is good for the senses of taste, smell, healthy skin, hair and nails, reproduction, immunity and wound healing, among more than 200 uses which includes healthy night vision.
So, when the legs are suffering from venous return insufficiency, are weak, swollen, tired, numb, cramping, riddled with tingling toe pains and cannot bear the body’s weight or are instalmentaly dying, which plant medicine’s can come to their rescue? In the thinking of some alternative medicine practitioners, the answer is …Butchers’ Broom and House Chestnut. But this is not necessarily a wining ballot or in any way relegates several scores of the other helpful plant medicines to the background. For there are many cooks who can cook the soup well. It is only a question of choice, passion and/or familiarity.
The plants which may help include blood thinners, anti-inflammatories, vascular dialators, nervines, antioxidants, heart regulator.
Butcher’s broom
This herb is indeed a butcher’s broom.
Long ago, European Butcher’s bundled it’s branches into a broom bundled to sweep clean their shop blocks after the days business. They little remembered that they had a medical plant in their hands, although the health benefits of Butcher’s broom had been known to mankind since about the First Century AD.Then, it helped out in bone fracture healings, gout, kidney stones, and jaundice, among other health challenges. Then, in the 1950s, it was known for other useful health benefits which included swellings in the hands and feet and arthritis inflammation. Then came a long spell of forgetfulness for this plant. It returned to human memory in the 1950s when scientists discovered that Butcher’s broom, which resembles Asparagus, an antioxidant, digestion, weight, libido and urinary tract system manager , contained two striking compounds in its edible root. These components constricted the veins in dogs and laboratory animals. The constriction increased blood flow and strengthened the veins against blood leakages.
Americans investigated Butcher’s broom in some human experiments but were not too sure it could give them all they wanted for venous Insufficiency. But the Germans were not as foot dragging or as ambivalent as the Americans in favour of Big Pharma when it comes to healing herbs. So, evaluating scientific data and case studies, they approved Butcher’s broom for use “in alleviating the discomforts associated with chronic venous insufficiency. In Europe, Butcher’s broom was evaluated for its effectiveness, to guide response to it by European Union members health policy makers.
The work was to also help the guild of herbs, medicine products committee in respect of European Union nutrition. In Europe butchers broom use and effectiveness were evaluated by the Herbs Medicine Products Committee (HMPC) in a reference guild for health policy makers of the E.U. Its conclusions appear in ema.europa.eu/medicines/herbal rusci_aculeat.rhizoma.
In its conclusions, HMR says: “the conclusion in the uses of these Butcher’s broom medicines for minor blood circulation problems and for haemorrhoids are based on their “traditional use”. This means that, although there is insufficient evidence from clinical trials, the effectiveness of these herbal medicines is plausible and there is evidence that they have used safely in this way for at least 30 years (including at least 15 years within the EU). More over, the intended use does not require medical supervision.”
Its assessment also considered a study involving 116 women with minor blood circulation problems treated with butcher’s broom for 12 weeks. Foot and lower leg swelling was reduced to a greater extent in women taking Butcher’s broom than in those on placebo (a dummy treatment), but the overall benefit was not convincing. Also, because the study did not include men and it was of short duration, firm conclusions could not be drawn about the effectiveness of Butcher’s broom”
Horse Chestnut
This is a herb with many feathers in its cap. The proprietary product called Leg Veins is formulated with butcher’s broom. Herbal medicine literature say it may relieve haemorrhoids, treat varicose veins, may help fight cancer, has antioxidants potentials, is anti-inflammatory. The miracle worker in horse Chestnut is believed to be a chemical compound called Aescun, to which are described multiple medical uses. Researchers say Aescun may increase venous blood flow. With 50mg of Aescun used over night for weeks curbed chronic Insufficiency symptoms. That included leg swelling, pain and itchy leg.
Nerves tissues
Before we proceed, I would like to mention that chronic venous Insufficiency is not limited to the legs. It can occur anywhere.The blood is the River of life. It flows from the heart to all parts of the body and back to the heart. The return flow must not be blocked or delayed anywhere. Hypothetically, If 100 buckets are pumped out but 20 buckets are held down anywhere, 80 buckets would flow back. Any cut back means a shortage of blood in the system, especially upstream. Let us consider the unlikely event of a quarter of the blood leaking out of the veins downstream, a situation we can remedy with Rutin, a bioflavonoid, or with Silica, and only half of the blood returns to the heart. May the heart not be affected one way another for want of enough blood to pump.
Pelvic circulation
Millions of Nigerian women suffer from uterin fibroids which are most probably associated with venous insufficiency in the pelvic region (Parts below the navel or the belly button). Blood circulation in the pelvic veins is compromised as blood begins to gather or pool in them. This raises pressure against the walls of the veins. The veins may begin to swell to take in more blood. The American journal of radiology says more than 23 per cent of hysterectomies (surgical removal of all parts of the womb)in that country is due to pelvic pain. The major cause of this is attributed to Pelvic Congestion Syndrome (pcs)and pelvic venous insufficiency (PVI). PVI is a major cause of pvs which causes pain in the lower abdomen, hips, back and thighs. PVI has many possible causes, including multiple births, frequent births, obesity, rapid weight gain, blood clots, varicose veins.
In pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.hov, we are advised of the cases of seven women whose uterine fibroids conditions were associated with pvi:
“Uterine fibroids have been described as an associate to acute venous thromboembolism (VTE), with case reports showing an association between large uterine fibroids, acute deep venous thrombosis (DVT), and acute pulmonary embolism (PE). However, there is little known about the association or causation between uterine fibroids, chronic thromboembolic disease (CTED), and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). We report on six women with uterine fibroids and CTEPH, as well as one woman with CTED, all of whom presented with exertional dyspnea, lower extremity swelling, and in the cases of CTEPH, clinical, echocardiographic, and hemodynamic evidence of pulmonary hypertension and right heart failure. Compression of the pelvic veins by fibroids was directly observed with invasive venography or contrast-enhanced computed tomography in five cases. All seven women underwent pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE) followed by marked improvement in functional, clinical, and hemodynamic status”
Uterine fibroid symptoms
If you do experience fibroid symptoms, they may include:
Heavy, prolonged menstrual periods, sometimes with clots Anemia (fatigue due to low red blood count)
Pain during sexual intercourse
Pain or pressure between the hip bones or in the back of the legs
Urinary frequency
Constipation or bloating
An enlarged belly
Please forgive my digression from venous Insufficiency in the legs and “dying legs “to venous Insufficiency in the pelvic floor and uterin fibroids. Our forefathers say that when we pull a shrub in the ticket, we do not know how Many shrubs tangled with it that this shrub will pull along. Uterine fibroids is widespread among Nigeria’s women folk. No fewer than about twenty possible causes are always assigned to it. One of the latest in the gossip mill not backed by science is that women who eat okra soup are fibroids prone. I have learned to not dispute a claim I do not understand. All I know is that my grandmother ate okra and had no uterine fibroids. I know, also, that the drawing part of okra is calcium, the green magnesium and the white pods good storages of Vitamin A. Time will tell if these nutrients cause any harm in he uterus. That is why I thought it important to invite attention to Venous Insufficiency in this matter.
Eye circulation
When a vein is blocked, it may cause blurry vision or “missing”vision in parts of, or all of the eye. Even hardered arteries compressing a vein may so narrow it as to cause blood clots which may impact venous circulation. Blockages in the arteries may cause eye Stokes similar to Stokes in the brain. When a retinal vein is blocked, it creates drainage problem in the retinal system which may affect blood and oxygen supplies to cells of the retina, causing them to wither and probably die. Circulation venous obstruction may cause either ischemic stroke of the deadlier stroke in which leaks from the vessel to Brain Cells.
Prostate glang
Some, if not many, prostate gland problems have been linked to Insufficiency in the gland venous system. In www.pubmed.ncbi.nml.nih.gov
We learn: “An important role should be attributed to the prostatic venous complex and to its pathology in the clinical aspects of prostate adenoma. This appears to be responsible for the acute retention of urine as well as for the hemorrhages that accompany the disease. The authors, on the occasion of 50 adenomectomies by the trans-vesical method, have carried out histological investigations on the excised tissues and made a correlation with the microscopic aspects of the peri-orificial urethra and of the prosthatic urethra, in connection with the changes noted in the venous system. The veins have displayed more or less important changes in all the cases. These consisted in stasis, lacunar dilatations or of the varicose type, inflammations or parietal modifications of a different origin. At the same time were noted signs of inflammation in the submucosa as well as in the muscular layer of the bladder wall, which appeared to be distrophic. The pathogenic role is stressed of the venous system in the developement of the clinical aspects especially in type II and III of a personal classification.”
Some remedies
There can be light at the other end of a long, dark tunnel as Butcher’s Broom and Horse Chestnut are promising us in any condition of Venous Insufficiency. We only need to know what it would take to stabilise the predisposing agent and do it. The following suggestions are made in this regard. But they are by no means all that are in the treasure trove of mother nature.
The nerves
Yoruba elders say the hunter’s dog that will be lost in the forest does not heed the hunter’s whistle warning it that it is time to return home. The same can be said of the person who does not heed signals that the nervous system is growing weak. If the nerves (the hunters)are weak, aging or injured, their ministration or control is weakened. So also, are the tissues and organs they control and nurse. The herbs which look after the health of the nerves are called Nervines. Vitamin B complex in particular vitamin B1(thiamins) is crucial for nerve health. It is water soluble. That means the body does not store it, and it has to be in the daily diet. The entire B-Complex, like zinc, are anti-stress vitamins. My choice nervine is Lion’s Mane Mushroom. It was discovered during World War II by an Italian female medical doctor searching for a plant medicine that would heal damaged or mangled nerves. Lion’s mane mushroom proved able to do that.
Today, it enjoys a wider range of uses in Alternative medicine. It should be good for all region of the body suffering from Venous Insufficiency. There are three other nervines I do not toy with…Valerian Root, Chamomile and Passion Flower. I have found them useful in all sorts of headaches, to relieve nervous tension, and even in cases of depression. I crossed my limits with vervain one day in the 1990s. I had always used the dry form as tea to stop nerve and muscle spasms. In fact, it was the first herbs I used in my pratice. A man had been vomiting for three days running. I gave him a tea made from vervian and Basil (scent leaf), which stops the intestinal spasms and diarrhoea. The tea worked wonders.
Literally speaking, the turbulent nerves obeyed me. Or, was it the herbs they obyed? So, I cut a few wet vervain leaves into a sumptous vegetable and fish soup and cooked them. No one in my household could eat the soup. They could not stand the bitterness. Ordinarily, vervain calms the nerves and promotes sleep apart from protecting gum and teeth health. Women who have period muscle spasms or pelvic floor venous insufficiency may wish to try vervain and Basil. So are lavender, St. John’s wort. I should not forget to mention Skull Cap, which curbs migraines in many cases. What about hyssop, schizandra, Goji berries, kava kava, lemon balm, red and white onion, hops, Damian’s, hawthorn, Willow, horsetail. In the proprietary medicine bracket, we cannot also forget such good blood movers as kayolic cardiovascular, cardiotonic pill, vida Maxx, ISK clear, Choleduz, neuro booster, golden six and many more.
