New Teas

 Well the blog posts have gone by the wayside in the last month as I have been busy formulating the new additions to the Puraty range.  We have some stellar favourites coming and a surprise as well! We listened to you, our loyal tea drinkers, and asked – what do you need? What do you WANT?   I hope we have come up with additions that will excite you and invoke healing.

Formulating a tea is actually not that easy, or simple. I am always thinking ahead – will this herb work best with this herb or do I like THIS combination better and why?  What does the rest of the team think is important? Why is THAT a bad idea? all the W words, who, what, where, why …

For me it’s always about the actions – what we need the tea to DO in a therapeutic sense – no flavoured water going on here.

As most of you know I work in a busy integrative naturopathic clinic.  Using herbs day in and day out you get a feel for what works as far as you are comfortable prescribing it, and that the patient sees a positive result.

So I wanted these teas – the originals and now this new lot – to pack a therapeutic punch, and to taste good as well.  I believe they deliver this well. I hope you will continue to think so too.

So…I am a medical herbalist. I work with herbs all day in clinic…but what does this mean really?  What really is Herbal Medicine?  And what do I do all day?  – well, as a medical herbalist (and a naturopath) I am trained to prescribe herbal medicine using the extracts of plants, whether it be bark, seeds, leaves, flowers to promote a healing response within the body. The aim is to restore health, promote healing and bring homeostasis – or balance – back to the body.  Nowadays we prescribe in pill form, capsules or as herbal tinctures – and of course, there are herbal teas!

When I was asked to formulate the Puraty range I felt pretty clear in my mind that the teas had to pack a powerful healing punch, that it would be the same as if someone came to see me in clinic and I prepared a bottle of herbs. Although a gentler proposition, these teas do pack the healing abilities of herbs into a cupful. And that was deliberate!   When you have worked in practise for a while you get a feel for what works, which combinations you like, which formula provides maximum healing potency.

I think, as more and more people take responsibility for their health choices, we have seen a resurgence in the popularity of natural medicine. Known as phytotherapy (plant therapy) herbs are cost effective, have few side effects, and often times can be used for more than one purpose.

 Now, the use of herbs and natural remedies has been around for millennia, right back to the stone age and predating that –it is truly the oldest form of medicine -  there is a long history documented of how herbs treat various ailments. Our forebears did not have medical drugs – they used the bounty of nature to cure.  Most modern drugs are based on the constituents of a plant or herb.

Although we must be careful and realise that herbs have an effect on the body and mind, as do medications, herbs tend to have less side effects to deal with.  Most plants are considered safe to use but this is where a person trained in herbal meds is so valuable – because of the risk of contraindications between drugs and herbs. This is a real thing! One of my chief bug bears – one of my regular rants!  It is so very important to make sure that any herbs and drugs you are taking do not contradict themselves and cause side effects you were definitely not expecting.  It’s important to understand the actions of an herb before you use it. For example, St John’s Wort should not be used if you are taking antidepressant medicine.  This sort of thing needs to be prescribed by a person qualified in these matters.

Sadly, still, many medical professional insist that herbal medicine is not the way to go, ignoring millennia of documented research into their efficacy – and I get that, they are not trained in the use of plant medicine. It is heartening to see more medical professionals at least having an open mind into the use of natural meds and asking questions, checking things out, supporting the use of natural medicines. This is encouraging. We want to work hand in hand – surely it is what is best for the patient? To use the best of both worlds harmoniously if necessary?

That would be the perfect solution I think.

By Joanna Loveys BNatMed HbT