It’s important for people on chemotherapy to eat well, so as to stay strong through both the illness and the treatment. And yet, because chemotherapy strips away all fast-growing cells, your mouth may be sore and your digestion upset; you may feel sick, and food loses its savour when your taste buds are blunted. So what can you do to stimulate your appetite? Some doctors prefer their patients not to take medicinal herbs when they are on chemo, in case the herbs interfere with the uptake of the drugs, but there is still plenty you can do at the more foodlike end of herbal medicine. Teas made o ..read more

Herbs that boost brainpower have been attracting a lot of research funding in recent years. It’s not just because we want superpowers like unlimited stamina, mental acuity and brilliant concentration (though that would be very nice, thank you). It’s also to do with the rise in Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, and finding ways to improve recovery from strokes and brain damage. When the right questions are asked, new answers emerge. So for example, sage (Salvia officinalis and related variations) has been used for centuries to improve alertness, and we now know that this is – at ..read more

With my other hat on, I am a writer of fiction. When I meet other writers, they don’t ask me, like everyone else, what they can take for their insomnia or anxiety or arthritis. They ask, ‘What would you use to poison someone?’ ‘What would you give to cause an abortion?’ And of course, I wouldn’t; I use herbs to promote wellbeing, and I’ve sworn an oath to that effect. But for most of human history, herbs have been medicine for everything, including doing harm to other people. Which is a way of saying, be careful what you use. There are plenty of poisons out there, and plenty of adulteration o ..read more

St. John’s Wort blooms at midsummer, and its clear yellow flowers capture the essence of sunlight. It’s been well-established for decades now as a reliable remedy for ‘mild to moderate depression’, but its healing action on the nervous system goes much further than that. For anything from easing the pain of post-herpetic neuralgia to slowing down the progress of degenerative conditions like multiple sclerosis, St.John’s Wort is one of the first herbs to choose. It’s a slow and steady worker, coming into its own after some weeks of continuous use, and happy to work alongside other herbs like Ya ..read more

Vitamin D has been getting more attention in recent years, as our understanding of its importance deepens. We’ve always known that severe deficiency disrupts the formation of bones and teeth, leading to rickets in young children and contributing to osteoporosis in the elderly. But not quite getting enough is more difficult to pin down. It can lead to joint pain, muscle fatigue, tiredness and depression, and some nutritionists advise regular supplementation if you live in the northern hemisphere, especially in the winter months. However, the best way to get your vitamin D is directly from sunl ..read more

Childhood leukaemia is on the rise in the more affluent parts of the world. This has been known about for some years, but a recent overview of research has confirmed that there is a link with lack of exposure to infections in early childhood. In other words, if we keep the environment too clean for our infants, there is a risk that their immune systems will not mature properly. It is normal and natural for a young child to have one cold or tummy upset after another, along with a variety of other viral and bacterial infections. Each new pathogen challenges their immune system and helps it to d ..read more

A recent poll of 2000 adults showed up some interesting trends in British eating habits. It was commissioned by Arla Foods who market dairy products, so obviously they were hoping to gather information that would help their corner of the food industry, but there were three points that stood out. 1. Six out of ten people usually eat the more or less the same food every day. I can verify this from the food diaries patients give me – and these are people with an interest in improving their health. We are creatures of habit, whether because we don’t have time to cook, or we like to stick with wha ..read more

Six million prescriptions for iron supplements are issued each year in Britain. You can be low in iron for a number of reasons, but it is most common in women, either because of heavy periods, fibroids or during pregnancy. The next most likely cause would be loss of blood, either following injury or surgery, or occult bleeding somewhere in the gut. In any case, symptoms of iron deficiency can include tiredness, dizziness, low blood pressure and a fast heartbeat, and other less obvious things. Any routine blood test will check your iron level, which is partly why it is detected so often. And t ..read more

Suddenly, milk substitutes are big business. In the past, people who were lactose intolerant (well over half the population of the world) simply didn’t eat dairy products. That left people who have problems digesting milk, and vegans. But things are changing. A Westernised diet – cereal with milk for breakfast, coffee and tea with milk – is getting more popular worldwide. At the same time there are health concerns about milk, and the rise in veganism means that more and more people want to ‘have their milk and drink it’; stick to a Western-style diet, but without the problem ingredients. That ..read more

As we go through life, the eye problems we are likely to encounter change. Younger people get more infections and acute illnesses, but they can get away with more potentially harmful activities. Things like staying up all night, smoking, staring at screens for hours or going out in bright sunlight are all things that take their toll as we get older. It becomes necessary to take more care, if we want to preserve good vision into old age. Some of the herbs traditionally used for eye complaints, like Eyebright and Chamomile for example, were not really thought of as helpful for problems like cat ..read more