The herbs for different stages of a woman’s life
The life of a woman is ever so changing, especially when referring to the special days of the month or specific stages of life.
Angelica sinensis and coix seed helps during puberty
During a female’s puberty, the commonly occuring problem includes irregular menstruation and leucorrhoea due to hormonal changes. At this stage the uterus is only beginning to develop, which leads to unpredictable physiological functions of the body.
In addition, the teenage years are possibly overwhelmed by stress from school and homework, and changes in lifestyles or irregular living habits. These can all easily be causes leading to irregular menstruation, dysmenorrhea, increasing leucorrhoea and other related symptoms.
There are many names for angelica sinensis in traditional Chinese medicine, including radix angelicae sinensis or dong quai (當歸) denoting the dried root. It is commonly used to treat menstrual disorders, regulating blood flow. Researches have also found that angelica sinensis can promote estrogen secretion, reduce vascular resistance, increase blood volume and even nourish the skin.
Abnormal leucorrhoea are often a result of spleen disorder. The vaginal discharge commonly contains thick, odorless, white or yellowish substance. At the same time the body may feel weak with the face looking pale as white, without much apetite to eat. The active herbs that are used to recover the spleen includes the grains of coix seed (yi yi ren, 薏苡仁), and atractylodes macrocephala (bai zhu, 白術). There are also commerically available Chinese patent medicine that make use of these herbs including Shen Ling Bai Zhu Pian (參苓白術片) and wuji baifeng wan (烏雞白鳳丸).
After child-birth is suggested to use ejiao and motherwort
During childbirth, women often loses a lot blood from labor which causes blood deficiency. They might feel dizzy, feverish, constipated, bodily pain, limps twitching and other symptoms.
Ejiao (阿膠), which is a protein-rich glue substance made from the donkey’s rawhide. Women use this herb to recover from the loss of blood inconjunction with other herbs such as codonopsis pilosula (dang shen, 黨參), red date (紅棗), and the longan fruit (龍眼).
The symptoms of blood stasis syndrome includes stomachache, fever, and lochia. The motherwort (益母草) is a nourishing plant that can be used to relieve stress after pregnancy. The medical name is leonurus cardiaca. Other names include throw-wort, lion’s ear, and lion’s tail. There are also commercial Chinese patent medicine that is made solely from this herb.
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