Wood Betony

Wood Betony is a lovely perennial plant with a leafy base and beautiful purple flowers that spike upward in reach of the sun. I grow it in my medicinal herb garden because of its nervine properties and its effectiveness on arthritis pain. From Mrs. Grieve in A Modern Herbal:

The common name of this plant is said by Pliny to have been first Vettonica, from the Vettones a people of Spain, but modern authors resolve the word into the primitive or Celtic form of bew (a head) and ton (good), it being good for complaints in the head. It has sometimes, also, been called Bishopswort, the reason for which is not evident. The name of the genus, Stachys, is a Greek word, signifying a spike, from the mode of flowering.

Mrs. Grieve ~ A Modern Herbal, Vol. One, pp 97-99.

The first year of its growth didn’t yield much in the way of flowers but I still gathered what I could and this year my wood betony plant is doing quite well. But it took several years for it to take hold which may have had more to do with where I planted it than the plant itself. I begin gathering the flowered spikes along with some leaves during mid-summer and either dry them for later use in teas or use them fresh in a tincture.

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Betonica officinalis can be used alone but it’s typically used with other herbs such as feverfew and skullcap for a relaxing tea that calms headaches and nervous tension along with pain associated with arthritic conditions. It also functions as an expectorant, diuretic, and a blood purifier. If pregnant or breastfeeding, however, please check with your doctor or herbal practitioner before using wood betony in any form. Otherwise, for tea, a standard infusion is recommended while 10-30 drops of tincture have been found to be useful.

One note about using tinctures. Just as we might use several herbs in a tea blend, we can do the same thing with a tincture. If using the traditional formulating pyramid of 70% herb(s) focusing on the condition itself, 20% on herbs that are soothing, and 10% on herbs that stimulate the action of the formula, we can essentially accomplish the same effect using what’s known in the herbalism world as simples.

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Simples are single herb tinctures that can be administered in tea or in a small amount of water. A shot glass works well if just using a small amount of water. But if you were going to use ten drops of a tincture, you could, for example, use 7 drops of wood betony tincture, 2 drops of oat seed or marshmallow leaf tincture, and one drop of dandelion or nettle to stimulate flow.

Or, using the earlier example, you could add five drops of wood betony, three of skullcap, and two of feverfew to a cup of tea or to a shot glass with some warm water. I actually prefer the shot glass method, but that’s just me. I still doctor my teas with any number of tinctures including a Crone tincture, nettle, a tincture I formulated for rheumatoid arthritis, and hawthorn for balanced circulation. And I have on hand a whole medicine chest of herbal tinctures that I’ve made to cover most situations my husband and I might encounter.

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But primarily what I focus on are herbs that keep things from becoming stuck, so I grow liver alterative and urinary herbs that promote healthy liver and urinary function. I spent too much time with severe rheumatoid arthritis to allow anything to clog up and affect my immune system.

That said, what saved my life was cannabis. After using concentrates for two and one-half months, my thirteen-year nightmare was finally over. I was in clinical remission, something I had given up on ever achieving. In fact, I was convinced given how ill I was that I wasn’t going to survive, so cannabis was really more about easing my transition than anything else.

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Needless to say, I was thrilled with the results. I achieved remission in March 2011 and I’ve had no return of symptoms since that time. I remained on Humira until four years ago yesterday. My last injection was on September 13, 2015, and to date, I have only improved more.

I still use cannabis oil to stay in remission and herbs such as wood betony to deal with any pain I experience from daily life or damage that still remains resulting from the RA attacking my body. But the bottom line is, my health returned when I changed my focus to plant-based medicines. I gave allopathic medicine a chance but it wasn’t right for me. Prescribed drugs never took me out of the severe range whereas, with cannabis and other herbs, I’m more healthy now at almost sixty-two than I’ve ever been in my life.

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Until next time…

Herbal blessings to all!

References:

• Grieve, M. Mrs. A Modern Herbal. Volume 1. Dover Publications, Inc. New York. 1971
• Erickson. Jan. Confessions of a Back Porch Herbalist. Amazon. 2016.

Disclaimer

The information above is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose any condition or prescribe any treatment. Please consult your medical/herbal professional for further advice regarding the use of herbs, particularly if you’re taking prescribed medications to avoid any unnecessary harmful interactions. Please seek treatment from a medical professional should symptoms occur that do not quickly resolve on their own. If you’re pregnant, please consult your medical/herbal professional before using herbs or herbal preparations.