Natural Stress Relief: Herbs and Aromatherapy
Keep your stress in check with these herbs.
March/April 2000
By Michael Castleman
1. Brew some chamomile. When Peter Rabbit ate himself sick in Mr. McGregor’s garden, then got chased out at the wrong end of a hoe, his mother gave him chamomile tea. She was a wise herbalist. The two medicinal species of chamomile (Matricaria recutita and Chamaemelum nobile) contain apigenin, which binds to the same cellular receptors as pharmaceutical tranquilizers and has similar effects, but without sedation, morning-after grogginess, or risk of addiction.
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Japanese researchers exposed experimentally stressed laboratory animals to chamomile oil. Compared with unexposed animals, the ones that inhaled the vapor showed lower stress hormone levels. Meanwhile, the bisabolol in chamomile relaxes the digestive tract, which relieves a common stress symptom, indigestion.
To make chamomile tea, use two to three heaping teaspoons of flowers per cup of boiling water. Steep ten minutes. Or add a handful of chamomile flowers to a hot bath and inhale their calming aroma.
2. Pop a kava capsule. The latest herbal stress reliever is kava, the age-old social intoxicant of the South Pacific. In the large doses used in places like Fiji, kava has the effect of a couple of beers. But in lower doses, it’s a nonintoxicating stress reducer. Kava (Piper methysticum) contains kavalactones that have a mild tranquilizing effect similar to Valium, but without its side effects.
Kava may cause some numbing of the mouth. This is harmless. Do not mix kava with alcohol or other sedative or psychoactive medications because kava adds to their sedative effect. And don’t use kava if you are pregnant or nursing, or if you have any condition that impairs coordination such as Parkinson’s disease.
The recommended dose is 100 mg three times a day of a standardized extract containing 60 to 75 mg of kavalactones per capsule.
3. Have some hops. The herb famous for adding bitterness to beer is also a stress-relieving tranquilizer in small doses and a sedative in larger ones. Folktales abound about hops pickers falling asleep on the job. This should come as no surprise because hops (Humulus lupulus) is botanically related to marijuana but is not psychoactive. The research, all animal studies, shows that hops’ effects range from calming to sedating, depending on the dose.
Experiment for yourself, starting with one-half teaspoon per cup of boiling water, steeped for ten minutes. Take before bedtime to help ease isomnia.
4. Soothe yourself with passionflower. This herb’s name comes not from sexual passion but from the Passion of the Crucifixion. Native peoples from the Andes to the Gulf Coast used passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) to soothe their nerves. Eventually, it was adopted into American herbalism.
Oddly, passionflower contains both tranquilizing compounds and stimulants, but researchers consider its net effect to be tranquilizing. In Europe, passionflower is an ingredient in many tranquilizing and sedative preparations. It’s non-narcotic and nonaddictive.