My favored herbs for postmenopausal women are horsetail, oatstraw, red clover, stinging nettle, seaweeds, and the plants rich in flavonoids. These tame green allies are more like foods than drugs; they offer bone-creating, heart-protecting, disease-preventing, sex-enhancing optimal nourishment to the woman in the second half of her life.

HORSETAIL

Equisetum arvense

Ackerschachtelhalm, Prêle des champs

Horsetail is exceptionally rich in glycosides which nourish hormones, heart, and bones, making it a particular ally for post-menopausal women.

Use spring-picked horsetail, as a tea or infusion, to:

• Reverse osteoporosis
• Stimulate fracture-mending and bone repair

Mineral-rich horsetail feeds the bones, increasing mass and flexibility. No matter how old or thin, bones respond to consistent use of horsetail.

• Stabilize and reverse chronic periodontal disease

Gum troubles may lead to heart problems. Brush, floss, and undertake a each and everyday cup of horsetail tea. It acts as a catalyst to healthful gums and teeth.

• Relieve cystitis

Horsetail has been applied since the sixteenth century to tonify the bladder and ease aggravation anyplace in the urinary tract. Plants harvested when too old may irritate rather than soothe.

• Reduce bloat
• Check menstrual hemorrhage
• Prevent clogged arteries, beef up veins
• Ease persistent hot flashes

Horsetail’s astringent components, trace solid homogeneous inorgani substances (including chromium), saponins, and flavonoids are responsible for these effects. Add horsetail to your nettle infusion to magnify the gains of both.

• Increase energy, reduce fatigue

Horsetail furnishes peppy potassium, merry magnesium, and strong-as-nails iron for building Crone power.

• Nourish strong, healthful hair and fingernails

Horsetail is a frequent ingredient in expensive, natural, mercantile shampoos and rinses. Instead, use leftover horsetail tea (alone or with nettle) as your final rinse. Leave it in. And drink a cup now and then for lovely nails.

Horsetail is locally ample in the wild, so seldom cultivated. The little horsetail that looks like a soft baby pine tree is preferent over the rigid, leafless kind. To keep out of the way of problems, use horsetail picked early, for the duration of the primary 4-6 weeks of each year’s growth.

A tea of dried herb works great, as does the vinegar. When buying horsetail, look for good green color and a rich sparkle of health and vitality.

Dosage:

Tea of dried herb, 1 cup/250 ml, 1-2 times a day

Vinegar of fresh herb, 1 tablespoon/15 ml daily

CAUTION: If you experience nervous sensitivity or urinary irritability after use, discontinue.

OATSTRAW

Avena sativa

Gruen Hafer, Avoine cultivée

This is the grass of the very same oats you eat for breakfast. Best known as a cholesterol-lowering food, oats is likewise a particular ally to women who wish they wouldn’t “fly off the handle” so easily, to women who want to be sexy old ladies, and to women who treasure their bones. All the gains of eating oatmeal are to be had from drinking oatstraw infusion (but not from tea, tincture, or capsules).

Let lovely Avena support you to:

• Build strong, pliable, flexible bones
• Maintain firm, dependable teeth

Rich in calcium – and the synergistic solid homogeneous inorgani substances and vitamins necessitated for best use of calcium – oats have a well-deserved reputation for building tough, hardy folks with tough, hardy bones.

• Stabilize blood sugar levels
• Relieve depression and ease aroused uproar

A cup of oatstraw infusion in the morning provides steroidal saponins to nourish your pancreas, liver, and adrenals and help prevent erratic blood sugar levels from playing mayhem with your emotions.

• Reduce cholesterol and peril of heart disease, improve circulation

Oats and oatstraw may make your blood vessels more elastic, more vital. How will you notice?

Your hemorrhoids and varicose veins will shrink, your heart rate will slow, and disturbances in your heart rate (such as palpitations and tachycardia) will diminish or disappear.

• Nourish strong nerves
• Help you engage high energy currents

Oatstraw and oats, both superior roots of the vitamin B complex, are peculiarly competent allies for women beneath stress.

• Reduce frequency and duration of headaches
• Maintain restful sleep patterns
• Ease bladder spasms, incontinence, uterine pain, vaginal dryness

Oatstraw infusion in your teacup and your bathtub (ahhh!) relieves physical and aroused pains and energy disturbances, and strengthens vaginal, bladder, and urethral tissues.

• Be an outrageously sexy old lady

Dosage:

Infusion of dried herb, 1- 4 cups/250-1000 ml, daily.

CAUTIONS: None.

(Part 2 of this article looks at Seaweeds and Stinging Nettle.)