"Anxiety is a major issue; there ar...

"Anxiety is a major issue; there are 65 million Americans who sustain from symptoms of anxiety, [ranging from] butterflies in the stomach [to] heart palpitations," Harold Bloomfield, MD author of Healing Anxiety with Herbs (HarperCollins, 1998) shared at a modern lecture about the potential for herbal remedies to surmount anxiety.

Adding to the frustration of feeling anxious is the disturbing fact shared by dint of Bloomfield that "the average character with depression or anxiety goe to nine or 10 doctors before smooth getting the right diagnosis." And when a diagnosis is actually made, the medical establishment's collective reply to this problem is to prescribe 5 billion tranquilizers and sleeping pills each year for the epidemic of anxiety and insomnia.

Although anxiety can be unsettling, it is important to recognize that anxiety -- as part of the flight-or-fight answer -- does serve the aim of heightening the body's ability to focus, concentrate, and total the task at hand. The question comes when anxiety and nervousness are an overriding factor in daily lives and impair a person's ability to function optimally at work, at residence and socially. Individuals with this plain of anxiety often experience dilateed periods of worry and intense fear that is not at home of proportion to a given situation. In near cases, there is no underlying basis for worry, to this time feelings of anxiety are at hand nonetheless.

Although St John's wort is best known for aiding cases of depression, Bloomfield notes that "it is also effective 80-90 percent of the time for situations of mild-to-moderate anxiety, particularly when combined with the herb kava."

Kava, an herb native to the southward Pacific, has been used to make a traditional social drink for more than 3000 years. Kava parent contains several active ingredients, known as kavalactones, that yield physical and mental relaxation and feelings of well-being, without causing addiction or harmful side effects

"Kava provides a intellect of relaxation, while maintaining mental clarity. This is unlike prescription pills, similar as Xanax, that do help us relax, if it were not that at the cost of mental dulling," Ray Sahelian, MD author of Kava: The Miracle Anti-Anxiety Herb (St Martin's Pres 1998) told BN in a personal interview.

German scientists propose kava to the test by means of comparing kava extract with placebo pills in a assemblage of 58 patients suffering from anxiety syndrome After just single week in the study, the kava cluster reported dramatic improvements. By the extremity of the four-week study, the kava assemblage experienced significantly less tension and nervousness.

Using kava onward a regular basis can be effective in chronic anxiety disorders, if it be not that when used occasionally, It is effective for the everyday stresse experienced in late society.

united of the cutting-edge supplements emerging for the relief of anxiety is a substance called 5-HTP According to Sahelian, whose newest part is 5-HTP: Nature's Serotonin Solution (Avery, 1998) "Since serotonin is the brain chemical significantly involved in humor stabilization, 25-50 mg of 5-HTP (the immediate precursor to serotonin) -- taken upon an empty stomach -- provides a understanding of calmness and steadiness of humor that may be evident within an hour of ingestion." However, he cautions, until there is more scientific research with 5-HTP it should be avoided in high doses or for long-term use.

Amino acids are also extremely critical for anxiety relief/prevention. These include L-glutamine (along with vitamins B-6 and Q L-tyrosine, L-glucine, GABA (plus inositol), and taurine (to name a few) In addition, the herbs chamomile, oatstraw, skips passion flower, and valerian have all been applyed traditionally for helping anxiety sufferers

REFERENCES

Kinzler E et al. "Effect of a special kava extract in patients with anxiety-, tension-, and excitation-states of nonpsychotic genesis. Double blind thought with placebos over 4 weeks," Arzneimittel-Forschung 41(6):584-588 1991

Victoria Dolby takes a comprehensive await at the history and health benefits of virid tea in The Green Tea work (Avery, 1998). Ask your retailer to call (800) 548-5757

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