Your cart is currently empty

There are no items in your cart.
Continuing Shopping
Blog

Herbs for Getting Older

Shopify API,

There are many herbs that can help the ailments of the older years. Some of them are covered in our section on Joints and Muscles.  However, there are a range of herbs that can support healthy ageing.  Learn more here.

Copied

Herbs for Getting Older

There are many herbs that can help the ailments of the older years. Some of them are covered in our section on Joints and Muscles. Other notable ones include:

Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) helps to increase blood flow in the arteries and small capillaries. Improved circulation has many benefits: Better heart function, lowered sense of numbness or coldness in feet and hands, lowered tendency to varicose veins. By improving the supply of oxygen-rich blood to the fine capillaries of the brain it also helps to delay the impairment of mental processes, especially if combined with antioxidant supplements. Ginkgo can be taken as a food supplement.

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) helps to maintain healthy blood pressure levels. It has a vasodilatory action on the arteries helping the blood to flow under less pressure. It is also reputed to help keep the heart muscle toned and strong and several clinical trials have shown that it does have a positive benefit to patients with heart failure ( Pittler et al, 2008). 

If hawthorn is taken with heart drugs like beta-blockers it increases their action. In beneficial monitored situations, this means that lower doses of drugs can be taken with the same outcome but a lower risk of side effects. However, you must tell your GP or Medical Herbalist if you are taking or wish to take hawthorn at the same time as prescription drugs, so you don't end up with too high a dose and a negative action on your heart.

Rose (Rosa spp.). Various parts of the rose are helpful in the older years. Rose oil has always been both mentally calming and kind to the skin. Recent research has shown that concentrated rose extract may help to prevent Alzheimer's. It contains natural components called Very Long Chain Fatty Acids (VLCFA). Fatty acids help to protect the brain and neurological function. Rose hip is high in Vitamin C and taking rose hip seed extract has been shown in clinical trials to be effective in lessening the pain and inflammation of arthritis (over a 3 month plus period). This may well be helpful to those intolerant of turmeric.

HEALTH WORRIES?

If you have health concerns or over the counter remedies do not help as much as you would like, we advise you to see a medical herbalist. Click this link to find a herbalist in your area or email us for advice

REFERENCES

Pittler MH, Guo R and Ernst E. (2008) Hawthorn extract for treating chronic heart failure. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2008 Jan 23;(1):CD005312. Review. PMID: 18254076

More articles like this

View all Blogs
  • As we age, the inevitable happens: sometimes certain bits of our bodies just don’t work as well as they used to or as well as we want them to. We can accept that our knees might be a bit stiffer, our back gets sore in bed, or our hair starts going...

    Keep Reading
  • Menopause is said to take place when you have 12 months without a period, with no other explanation. The average age a woman will reach menopause is 51.5 years however this can happen earlier or later in women.  We have outlined our advice for man...

    Keep Reading
Free UK shipping over £65 Shop now
3-5 Day International Shipping Learn more
Rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot Read our reviews
Sign up for our newsletter today to stay up-to-date with exclusive discounts, early access to new products, offers, and curated articles.