Herbal medicines for women’s health

Photo Cred: Mareefe/Pexels

By Katherine Shagoury

Plant medicines are a woman’s ally to achieve optimal health, said Leslie Korn, PhD, MPH, LMHC, a traumatologist specializing in mental health nutrition and integrative approaches to treating the mind and body, and author of the new book Natural Woman. They bring balance and nourishment to daily life and can reduce or eliminate symptoms of physical and emotional distress.

We sat down with Korn to discuss plant and herbal medicines for women’s health and how nature can help women thrive at every age.

Integrative Practitioner: Why are plant medicines better for women’s health?  

Korn: Many of my patients are girls and women throughout the life cycle. Everything about our lives, from birth, puberty, menstruating, fertility, and gestation, is governed by hormones, and plant substances are ideal for bringing balance and helping us regulate our hormones gently and naturally.

I think nature has given us what we need to regulate our hormonal status, whatever age we are. That’s really been a major emphasis of my work. In looking at plants, for example, we have what are called “hormone-modulating herbs,” and those are designed to bring hormonal balance. They’re very similar chemically to our own hormones. They bind to our hormone receptor sites and support hormonal function.

I want to give the science and art of how we use plants in our lives to maintain balance in our modern lives. I have so many favorite plants I want to share—one of my favorites is the hormone-modulating chasteberry. Chasteberry is very important to regulate progesterone, a natural anxiolytic. It’s very useful for regular menstruation and it’s important during menopause. It’s an important core herb that can really help us maintain balance.

Integrative Practitioner: What do you suggest for practitioners in preparing herbal medicines and prescribing them to their patients?

Korn: Let’s remember that until 100 years ago, herbal medicine was the core factor in all treatment in medicine. We gain so many natural medicines and even pharmaceuticals from the active substances of herbs.

However, an allopath tends to identify an active substance and extract it, and then concentrate it to achieve [a powerful] effect. But sometimes the side effect is too profound. I believe in the role of the whole plant and that moderates what we think of as the active constituent.

I think that we can see this in almost any plant that we look at. One of the plants that we are giving a lot of attention to today is the hemp plant. If we look at cannabis, it has several constituents. Some of the broad constituents have tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), which moderate each other, along with perpines, powerful aromatic anti-inflammatories.

Sugarcane on its own has never given anyone diabetes, because sugarcane not only has sugar, but fiber, B vitamins, and minerals. The coca leaf never really made anyone addicted, but when we extract the active substance and we concentrate it even further into crack cocaine, it becomes dangerous. But when it’s used as nature intended, people remain healthy. The natural world gives us a whole constituency [of plants] for a reason.

Now, in terms of preparing herbal medicines, what we want to think of is how can we use the plant most efficiently and optimally? Some plants have leaves, and those leaves can be gently simmered or soaked in hot water, and we drink them as tea. For other plants, we might use the root or seed and prepare by gently simmering. Some we might use only topically and apply them to our skin to absorb.

It’s very important, whether we’re using pharmaceuticals or herbs, that we understand their action. For example, lavender. We prepare lavender oil, or we put lavender in a pillow to help our children sleep, but we know that there’s some current research that applying essential oil of lavender, especially with boys, becomes an endocrine disruptor. We must do our due diligence in understanding the whole range of effects as we’re preparing and using these herbs.

One of the things that I love to do, besides making massage oils and tinctures and teas, is making herbal cordials. This is where you take fresh plants, or you can make an elixir with dry herbs, and combine with a little bit of alcohol. You could make an herbal cordial for digestion, use a little sherry or a little brandy and you soak the herb over a period of time.

One of my favorites is called fennel cordial, which is good for digestion. If you think about how cordials are used, you might use it a little bit before you have a heavy meal, or maybe you had a fatty meal and you’re going to drink it a little bit afterwards.

There are many applications for thinking how do we prepare herbs and who’s going to imbibe them? For example, licorice is a delicious tasting herb, but not everyone loves that taste. Like in anything where we’re combining the art and the science of integrative medicine, we’re thinking, who’s the individual? Matching them with the herb, or even the combination of herbs. How are we going to help them benefit? Are they going to drink it or are we going to massage or are they going to do a foot soak? I think that’s where we’re going to apply the art to the science of the delivery of herbal preparations.

Integrative Practitioner: Are there particular herbs that you recommend for different seasons or for very specific purposes or conditions?

Korn: One of the things I recommend is a seasonal cleanse. I’ve created different kinds of cleanses that were appropriate for the spring, the summer, the fall, and the winter, and that aligns with our circadian rhythms and what time of year it is.

Let’s take a spring cleanse. Herbs for the spring include those that cleanse the liver, such as dandelions. I have a recipe called the polarity tea, an ayurvedic remedy that combines fenugreek seed, fennel seed, licorice root, and phlox, all of which are designed to cleanse the liver. They can address some of the allergies that emerge in the spring. They’re very soothing. It’s good for a spring cold and is soothing for the mucous membrane. The licorice is what’s called an adaptogen, which helps us adapt to stress. I pair these recipes with different kinds of foods and herbs to cleanse the liver like you might clean our your closet.  

Integrative Practitioner: Can you talk about what you consider “spice medicine” and how you’ve incorporated that specifically into women’s health?

Korn: Spices are medicine. They are often rich in volatile oils. Smells are one of the quickest ways to affect our consciousness and goes directly into the emotional centers of the brain. Taste is also important, thinking about the flavor of fresh ginger root or fresh turmeric or a deeply spiced Indian dish. Spices in particular stimulate our senses and elevate our mood.

When I’m working with women, women are often so busy, so we try to incorporate [spices] into recipes, from soups or stews to simple salad dressings. These seeds or roots can be fresh ground, fresh cut, or even added to smoothies, and they alter our consciousness and give us natural anti-inflammatories and strengthen resilience. That’s a lot of the focus of my work with my female patients.

One of the most revered herbs and spices we use is dong quai, called the empress of herbs, very central to Chinese medicine. Dong quai is what’s considered an estrogenic herb, and we might add it to a soup, to give women just a little bit more estrogen, which, besides being central to fertility and balanced hormonal cycles, is key to maintaining cognitive function as we age, and also, vaginal supplements and vaginal lubrication. Whether I’m working with a woman who is 30 years old or 70 years old, I’m going to recommend dong quai and add it to a wonderful broth in a soup, and that way spices become a part of their everyday life.

We [shouldn’t] feel like we have to go out of our way. One of my favorite recipes is shakshuka. The reason I love it is because eggs are so healthy for us. I love to have eggs at any time of day, but this is one of those egg dishes you can have for dinner, and it’s got paprika and coriander, which is a very important detoxifying herb. It’s one of the most important herbs to detoxify heavy metals from the body. It’s also got cardamom, which is a mood lifter, caraway seeds, which are important for reducing gas and aiding digestion. Of course, sea salt, which is rich in minerals and very good for adrenal glands, black pepper, which is central to the absorption of herbs like turmeric and paprika, and cayenne pepper. This becomes part of a delicious tomato sauce, in which you add few eggs and gently simmer. It’s a wonderful use of spices as medicine.

Integrative Practitioner How do you use herbal rituals?

Korn: Rituals and herbs go together hand-in-hand, and I think one of the things that we’ve in our modern life are organized rituals. These are ceremonies that we might do individually, or we might do them with other people. Rituals are really designed to synchronize our rhythms. They synchronize our energies between us and others, the cosmos, our deepest intentions. They usually involve some kind of activity in which we share a behavior. We might have music or movement.

I wanted to share some of the ancient rituals that we’ve done as humans, and then how we bring practices into those rituals to mark notable or important times in our life. Think about birth, about bringing a child into the family or a new animal into the family. One of my favorite rituals that’s very common in Mexico and Central America is called la cuarentena. That is where, for 40 days after birth, the woman’s family and friends basically take care of her and the baby so she has very little pressure on her. They bathe, her, they make massage oils, they cook for her, and it really is a ritual that brings people together to celebrate and apply herbs and spices as food and as topical applications. These herbs and spices are going to nourish the mother postpartum. We experience in modern society a lot of postpartum depression, and I think it’s not just the hormonal change that women go through, but it’s the fact that women are often alone in these separate nuclear families, away from communities, that are really traditionally designed to care for the woman in the family during this time. That’s where I have a lot of emphasis on how you recapture, along with herbal medicine, how we’re meant to maintain our health in communities.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited and condensed.