29 May Health & wellness issues herbal medicine could help

It’s thought that around a fifth of us in the UK use some sort of herbal medicine or natural remedy to treat common ailments and maintain good health.

Herbal medicines come in a wide variety of forms, from easy-to-swallow tablets or capsules, through to teas or tinctures. A huge range of herbal remedies can be bought over the counter on the high street, whilst others are administered by herbal medicine practitioners.

How can herbal medicine help you?

Whatever your health or wellness problem – from dealing with water retention to warding off the common cold – there are traditional herbal remedies that could help. These work in two different ways:

To support your immune system to help prevent illness
To help alleviate the symptoms of common health problems when they arise
People use herbal medicines for a wide range of issues. Here’s our list of three of the most common ailments where herbal remedies offer a compelling alternative to prescription medications:

Mild depression or anxiety

If you’re someone who suffers from symptoms of mild depression, anxiety or sleep problems, you may be one of the tens of thousands of people in the UK who may find that a traditional herbal remedy containing St John’s Wort could help.

As the respected mental health charity, MIND, explains, St John’s Wort works with the hormones naturally produced by your body to help affect your state of mind.

The MIND website says, “It is thought that St John’s wort works in a similar way to standard antidepressant medication. Research suggests that it increases the activity of brain chemicals such as serotonin and noradrenaline that are thought to play an important part in regulating our mood. As well as hypercin and hyperforin, the plant contains many other substances that may boost its antidepressant activity in ways that are not yet fully understood.

HRI Good Mood is one of only a few brands of St John’s Wort tablets on the market. It is approved by the government Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and contains the highest dosage of the herb sold in the UK.  As with any medicine, you should always read the patient information leaflet to make sure the medicine is suitable for you and that it won’t interfere with other medicines you are taking, including the contraceptive pill.

Mild acne, spots, pimples or eczema

The beautiful, warm summer weather is wonderful, but for many people it can bring the misery of breakouts of spots and pimples. The summer heat can also be a trying time for sufferers of eczema who often see flare-ups worsen as the temperature soars.

Herbal medicines containing Blue Flag are a popular choice to treat a variety of skin problems including mild acne, spots and mild eczema.

HRI Clear Complexion is formulated with Blue Flag and Burdock Root and is a traditional herbal medicinal product used for the symptomatic relief of minor skin conditions such as spots, pimples, blemishes, mild acne and mild eczema, based on traditional use.

Colds and flu

Got a summer cold? It’s infuriating to find that you are all bunged up and feeling fluey when you could be out enjoying gorgeous weather.

Echinacea is widely used for its anti-oxidant properties and is traditionally chosen by busy people who can’t afford to be ill to both prevent and to treat colds and flu-like symptoms.

HRI Cold & Flu contains 338mg – 450mg of Echinacea purpurea root.

Always buy safely

When selecting a herbal medicine, be sure to choose one with the Traditional Herbal Registration (THR) logo which is your guarantee of quality and safety as it shows it has been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency.

In addition to traditional medicines, there a wide range of herbal supplements sold on the high street. However, you should be aware that these that have no medicinal qualities, so are only regulated under the EU Food Supplements Directive.

These regulations show what vitamin and mineral substances these foods contain, how they are labelled and how they are presented and advertised. Food Supplements are defined as ‘a concentrated source of a vitamin, mineral or other substance with a nutritional or physiological effect, alone, or in combination, sold in dose form’, so are very different to herbal medicines.

The British Herbal Medicine Association has a useful website that lets you check which herbal medicine is right to help support your health or deal with your symptoms.

If you are interested in finding out news and information about a natural approach to supporting your health, beauty and wellbeing, why not follow HRI Herbal on Facebook @HRIHerbal?