An Herbal Medicine Case Study: Stress, Menopause, Dementia, and Cardiovascular Risk

Valerie is a 51-year-old menopausal lady suffering severe fatigue, insomnia, palpitations, and hot flushes. She was concerned about her sleep, and fatigue, which was affecting her work. She also wanted to look further at her risk for dementia and cardiovascular events, and mitigate those as best she could, as one parent had recently suffered a stroke, and the other had been diagnosed with moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

Having recently been offered statins by her primary care practitioner, she wanted to try and improve things naturally and avoid medications where possible, and so she has recently switched to a clean, gluten and dairy-free whole food primarily plant-based diet, low in grains, rich in omega-3 fatty acids and had recently given up alcohol. She had been experiencing recurrent palpitations triggered by stress and worsened by insomnia episodes and cold weather.

Upon physical exam, I noticed her skin and hair were dry and flaky, circulation was poor as her hands were extremely cold, although body temperature was warm and clammy. She had difficulty finding words, and tongue indicated poor assimilation of nutrients and underlying anxiety. Valerie had no issues going to sleep, but often found she woke up early and felt unrefreshed.

The key organs and systems to address were here hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and her nervous system. Peripheral circulation was poor, contributing to poorly nourished tissues.

Herb Formula Recommendations

Aside from recommending suitable lifestyle and dietary adjustments, we looked at lifestyle constraints and decided to create the following prescription:

1. Powder blend – to be taken 1 tbsp in morning smoothie or hot milk containing fat (starting with ¼ tsp daily and increasing dose).
2. Day infusion blend – to drink throughout the day, 1 tablespoon per pot (starting with 1 cup daily and increasing dose).
3. Sleep formula tincture – to take 10-15ml diluted and evaporated in a small amount of hot water before bed to promote restful sleep (starting with 5ml nightly and increasing dose if needed).

Prescriptions

Valerie tolerated all three formulae well and noticed a significant improvement in symptoms within the first month. This allowed her to make further dietary and lifestyle changes, including the implementation of a regular meditation practice.

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from the e-book, An Introductory Guide to Herbal Medicine. To access the full text, click here.