A Yarrow to Your Liver

Anxiety, depression, mood swings!
Headaches, low energy, weight gain!
PMS, early menopause or irregular cycles!

Any of this sound familiar?

While your doctor or the media may be telling you its your hormones, your thyroid, or your diet… guess what? It's not the whole truth.

---

It’s your liver.

Your liver is the STAR regulator of your hormones. It’s breaks down excess hormones, like estrogen, for elimination, which affects how your endocrine glands function - especially the thyroid and adrenal glands. This determines how energized or happy you can feel.

Your liver also processes and breakdowns toxins. The portal vein receives all the blood from the intestines and delivers it straight to the liver. The “toxic load” from the intestines may be higher if there is incomplete digestion and a high level of unfriendly bacteria in the gut.

When the toxic load gets too high, the liver has a tough time doing it’s jobs, which means excess toxins and hormones are not being eliminated from the body. Too much of even one hormone can cause a feedback issue with all the rest, and we may experience the above mentioned problems.

The good news? The liver's function is dependant on the health of our gut!

In particular, the health of our gut flora and the intestinal lining.

So if you're working with me, relax! You're on track with that!

(And if you're not, what is stopping you? It's a good question to consider or talk about. Remember you can book a free call with me here)

This month we're focusing on what we can find outdoors to help our gut. You can check out the full list in our It Takes Guts Community facebook group, but let’s look at one common and beautiful wild weed that is great for the liver – YARROW or Achillea millefolium

Yarrow is an bitter herb that can relieve stomach indigestion, bloating, gas, and nausea. Take it as a tea before a meal or use up to 10 drops of tincture after a meal.

Yarrow also helps cleanse the liver so that hormones like progestoerone and estrogen are processed more efficiently. It can help regulate a woman's menstral cycle and soothe heavy or painful periods.

Common yarrow comes in a variety of colours - yellow, white or pink. We find it in meadows, sandy slopes, dry or gravel-ly areas across Canada and the entire circumpolar north.

Easiest way to consume it is to make a tea of the flower heads, and a couple of the leaves. I like to mix it with pineapple weed/wild chamomile, a few rose petals and a teeny bit of local honey.

Here's a cool 5 minute video on it! Very interesting history and many, many benefits beyond digestion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qda16Wip_E8

Give it a try and let me know how it changes your symptoms!