Happy New Year! Seasonal Spotlight: Heart Health
Happy New Year!
It’s always exciting to turn the calendar over to a new year, especially after a period of holiday eating, extended time with family and friends, and perhaps spending more time than usual watching movies or television. Whether or not you have made New Year’s resolutions about lifestyle changes, I hope you are starting 2025 with renewed hope and excitement!
When the New Year arrives, it’s almost easy to forget that we are only a couple of weeks into Winter, and that we still need to take measures to keep our immune systems strong. Our November blog focused on a variety of herbs that can be used to support our immune systems, and the shop highlighted a display with these herbs.
When the shop opens again on January 3, the Seasonal Spotlight display will feature Heart Health, highlighting herbs that support the cardiovascular system in a number of ways. Our focus on the Heart is not because we want to jump into Valentine’s Day displays early — but because health statistics have shown that cardiovascular events are more common in winter. Research has suggested a variety of reasons for the “Winter Cardiovascular Diseases Phenomenon”, such as changes in physical activity, increased air pollution (especially indoors), increased infections, different food habits, and seasonal variations in hormones, cholesterol, and other substances in the body. While maintaining healthy cardiovascular health is complex — involving diet, sleep, and lifestyle habits — we can also incorporate herbs and spices into our diets as additional support. A few of these are described below, although the Seasonal Spotlight display in the shop has a more complete list.
Heart tonics are herbs that support the overall health of the heart, strengthening and toning cardiac muscle, and supporting circulation. These herbs also help in regulating heart rhythm.
Arjuna (Arjuna terminalia) is an Ayurvedic herb that is best known for its heart-supporting properties
Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) is the Western herb best known for heart health.
Motherwort (Leonorus cardiaca)
Linden (Tilea spp)
Cholesterol lowering herbs act in a variety of ways — by reducing production of cholesterol, by increasing excretion of cholesterol, and by reducing absorption of cholesterol into the body from the diet.
Fenugreek (Trigonella f-graecum), Garlic (Allium sativa), Psyllium (Plantar ovata), and Turmeric (Curcuma longa) can be added to the diet to reduce absorption of cholesterol into the body
Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), Artichoke leaf (Cynara sp.), and Triphala (an Ayurvedic mixture of three fruits) increase excretion of cholesterol from the body.
Arjuna (Arjuna terminalia), Olive leaf (Olea europaea), Hawthorn (Crataegus sp.), Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum), and Shilajit (an Ayurvedic substance from the Himalayas) reduce production of cholesterol.
Blood Pressure Regulating herbs also have a variety of actions, like lowering blood pressure through fluid reduction, stress reduction, improvement of circulation, or by acting like ACE inhibitors.
Hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa), Garlic (Allium sativum), and Olive leaf (Olea europaea) have actions like ACE-inhibitors, which help relax and widen blood vessels.
Arjuna (Arjuna terminalia), Hawthorn (Crataegus spp.), Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), Cayenne pepper (Capsicum annuum), Ginger (Zingiber officinale), and Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) help to improve circulation, which helps to lower blood pressure.
Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri), Shankhpushpi (Convolvulus p.), Jatamansi (Nardostachys jatamansi), Motherwort (Passiflora incarnata), Valerian root (Valeriana offinicinalis), and Linden (Tilia spp) aid in blood pressure regulation by reducing stress.
Herbs with Anti-Inflammatory Actions are useful to heart health as well and include plants such as Turmeric, Guduchi (Tinospra cordifolia), Amalaki (Emblica officinalis, one of the three fruits in Triphala), Cinnamon, and Black Pepper (piper nigrum).
Like most herbal supplementation, any of these herbs can be taken as teas (although the literal word for an herbal tea is “tisane”, since the term “tea” is supposed to refer to the tea plant, Camellia sinensis), tinctures (alcohol extractions, like vanilla extract), or in capsules.
Herbal tisanes and decoctions are made by extracting the active plant compounds through hot water (like making a tea). These are great for people who enjoy the taste of the herbs and like drinking teas!
Capsules are made by grinding the plant part (leaf, flower, bark, or root) into a powder and encapsulating it. These are great for people who don’t feel they have time for teas, don’t like the taste of the herbs, and find it easier to take capsules at certain times of the day.
Tinctures are made by extracting active plant compounds through a process using alcohol or glycerin (for people who cannot have alcohol). These are great for people who do not want to take capsules and who want to have a quick way to make a tisane by adding the extract to hot water.
We hope to see you in the shop this year, where you can find a variety of herbs in different forms. We will also be sending and posting a schedule of talks and workshops planned for the next few months, and hope to see you for those events as well. Don’t hesitate to let us know how we can serve the community.
Thank you for your support since our opening in November 2024 — we appreciate you!