Counseling Sheet

Agatha M. Thrash, M.D.

Preventive Medicine

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‍Fibrocystic Breast Disease

‍Wear cotton bras. (One patient saw benefit in one month.)

Use no coffee or its relatives—chocolate, tea, colas, or beverages containing caffeine.

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‍Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

‍Use 1 teaspoon echinacea and goldenseal tincture every hour in the day, and every two hours during the night. When better, drop down to every four hours, three times a day. May substitute one cup of tea for one teaspoon of the tincture.

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‍PMS

1. ‍‍Use no salt for six months' trial and no dairy products.
2. Use no free fats.
3. Use no free sugars.
4. Try the Elimination and Challenge Food Sensitivity Diet.
5. Take muscle building exercise daily.
6. Wear warm, loose clothing.
7. Drink 8-10 glasses of water daily.
8. Take hot sitz baths for 20 minutes with PMS onset.
9. Have a 15-30 minute massage.
10. Eat principally fruits and vegetables.

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‍Herbal Remedies for PMS

• ‍‍Chaste tree 1 T (Use 2 T for bad cases to stimulate the corpus luteum. This much may cause foul smelling gas, but it is worth it.)
• Dandelion root 1 T (most useful diuretic for PMS)
• False unicorn 1 T
• Echinacea 3 T
• Water 1 qt.

Simmer 5 minutes and pour onto 2 T skullcap. Steep 20 minutes. Take all through the day, not all at once. At first take all through the month, but when symptoms seem to be cleared and the patient is well, try to stop taking the herbs. If symptoms return, begin again with the herbs only during the symptoms.

Do not use licorice root for PMS, only for dysmenorrhea, as it has estrogens, which worsen PMS. Black cohosh acts as a blocker for unnatural estrogens, which makes it useful in PMS and breast cancer.

Other helpful herbs are red raspberry, clover, and alfalfa leaves.

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‍Low Thyroid and Women's Hormones and PMS

• ‍‍Echinacea
• Chaste tree
• Dandelion
• Milk thistle seed
• Hawthorn berry
• False unicorn
• Astragalus
• Chamomile
• Siberian ginseng

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‍Hyperthyroidism

‍Bugleweed used with hawthorn berry and motherwort, which is good for the heart.

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‍Teas Having Hormonal Effects

• ‍‍Ginkgo
• Ginseng
• Silymarin
• Pycnogenol
• Chaste tree (stimulates pituitary)
• Bilberry, garlic
• Astragalus
• Licorice
• Borage
• Wild yam (adrenal cortical-like)
• Black cohosh
• Milk thistle seed (potentiates liver function to enhance herbs)
• Dulse (parathyroids)

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‍Dysmenorrhea

Lifestyle Remedy

1. Correct posture
2. Warm loose clothing
3. Exercise
4. Diet (Plant-based. Note sensitivity to irritants and avoid them.)
5. Constipation
6. Rest and regularity
7. Hot bath

‍Herbal Remedy #1

‍Motherwort 2 T

Boiling water 1 pint

Steep 30 minutes. Drink as needed for pain throughout the day.

‍Herbal Remedy #2

‍Take several roots (half pound or so) of fresh ginger and chop them in a food processor or by hand to a fine pulp. Place this in a heavy pan with 4-6 cups of water. Cover and bring to a slow boil. Simmer for five minutes; then remove from heat and allow to cool somewhat. Strain off liquid as needed, and save pulp for compresses or for cooking. Sip the liquid (diluted as needed for palatability) as a tea. You may wish to pour about half the liquid in a hot bathtub and immerse body for half an hour.

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‍Prolonged Menstrual Bleeding (several months or several years)

• Heat one and a half quarts of water to boiling
• Add 2-1/2 tablespoons of chaste tree berries
• 2 tablespoons of milk thistle seed
• 1 tablespoon of false unicorn
• 1 tablespoon of witch hazel bark

Simmer gently 25 minutes. Remove from the heat, and add 2 tablespoons of red raspberry leaf. Steep for 20 minutes. Strain.

This is one day's supply. If this causes nausea, add 1 teaspoon of soy milk powder per cup. This should prevent nausea.

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‍Miscarriage

‍For threatened miscarriage with painless bleeding, try black haw and false unicorn, two tablespoons of each, and cramp bark, one tablespoon. Boil gently in a quart of water 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and add one tablespoon of both blue cohosh and red raspberry leaf tea. Strain and drink a cup every 3-4 hours until all is used. (For one patient, it stopped contractions within 20 minutes, although miscarriage of a blighted ovum eventually occurred.)

For bleeding after miscarriage, try cranesbill. 1 teaspoon of tea to 1 cup boiling water.

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‍Nausea

‍May use in pregnancy, for motion sickness, or infection.

Mint extract. Purchase a small bottle from the grocery or health food store. Take it with you on trips if you get carsick. Merely wet the tip of your finger by covering the top of the bottle, and touch it to your tongue. Relief comes within minutes.

Milk thistle berry, 2 T in 1 quart of gently simmering water, steep 20 min.

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‍To Start Labor

‍Blue cohosh—brings on labor, if overdue. Is also a nervine. Start with this herb, then go to black cohosh.

Squaw root is oxytocic, stimulating the uterus to contract. It also helps joints and muscles.

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Tips for Pregnancy

‍Goldenseal should be avoided in pregnancy, if any cramping or discomfort arises. However, when it is used for acute conditions, this complication is rare. Goldenseal (Hydrastis) is good for postpartum hemorrhage and for dysmenorrhea. It has anticonvulsive activity in rats. It lowers the blood pressure in hypertensive laboratory animals. Goldenseal, as well as yarrow, will lower blood sugar when it is excessively high. Red raspberry leaf has a strengthening and toning effect on the uterus and should be started early in pregnancy.

Squaw Vine has an oxytocic effect (stimulates the uterus to contract). Start the squaw vine six weeks before the expected date of delivery for an easy and prompt delivery. Blue cohosh augments labor or starts it up again, if stalled. Cranesbill is used for bleeding after delivery. Use 1 tsp. to 1 cup boiling water.

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‍Cholestasis of Pregnancy

‍Treat with charcoal. Use one tablespoon of the activated powder in water per hour.

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‍Heartburn of Pregnancy

‍Cheese and milk are common causes of heartburn. If one eliminates all milk products, it usually takes about 2-3 days for symptoms to clear. It may be the milk proteins, rather than lactose intolerance lying at the root of the problem. The greater the consumption, the more likely the trouble.

Never lie down after meals, as the lower end of the esophagus is relaxed during pregnancy and allows acid and food to backwash.

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‍Postpartum Hemorrhage

‍Take 1 T each of shepherd's purse, motherwort, bayberry, cinnamon, and a pinch of cayenne made into a tincture and reserved for possible use.

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‍Uterine Bleeding

• ‍‍2-1/2 T chaste tree berries
• 2 T milk thistle seed
• 1 T false unicorn
• 1 T witch hazel bark
• 1-1/2 qt boiling water

Simmer 25 minutes. Remove and add 2 teaspoons red raspberry leaves. Steep. Strain. This is one day's supply. Add 1 teaspoon soy milk powder per cup, if it causes nausea or diarrhea.

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‍For Pain (ovarian, menstrual, or postpartum pain)

Wild lettuce, white willow bark, and valerian root. Mix equal parts. Use 1 T/1 cup water, boil or steep 1/2 hr. Use 1 cup/hr. for pain.

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‍Failure to Thrive

‍Give a catnip tincture, 3 drops 3 times daily, or one tablespoon of catnip tea (1 tsp./1 cup) every hour.

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‍Milk Production Increase

• ‍‍Fenugreek 2 T
• Chaste tree 2 T
• Milk thistle seed 3 T

Directions:

Begin with 1 1/2 qt. water brought to a simmer.

Add herbs.

Simmer 25 minutes.

Remove from the stove.

Add 1/4 cup red raspberry.

Steep 30 minutes.

Make fresh daily.

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‍Fistula

‍Recto-Vaginal or Recto-Perineal following childbirth.

Mingle goldenseal, cranesbill, bayberry bark, and warmed cocoa butter to make suppositories. Cool enough to roll out in suppositories the proper diameter and length to fit into the fistula, if possible. Cool in refrigerator. Insert into fistula or both rectum and vagina. For perineum, put the warm mixture on a mini-pad to keep against the skin most of the time—day and night. May also be used for fistulas in Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.

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‍Cystitis

‍Buchu (soothing for the genitourinary tract)

Uva ursi (antiseptic for the genitourinary tract)

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‍Fibroids

‍Chaste tree, 1 tablespoon in 1 quart water.

Simmer 25 minutes.

Drink daily until fibroids shrink.

Use a fat-free diet.

Take hot and cold sitz baths for a total of 30 minutes, alternating every five minutes of hot with one minute of cold, about 65-75°.

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‍Menopause

Remedy #1

‍Black cohosh 1/2 part (emmenagogue, balances hormones, and stops bleeding)

Chaste tree, 1 part

(Because of its high estrogen-like activity, it cuts sexual desire. It is the greatest help to stimulate LH and FSH to regulate progesterone; starts menstrual period, balances hormones.)

False unicorn, 1 part

Licorice, 1 part to sweeten 1 quart boiling water

‍Remedy #2

‍2 T licorice, 2 T chaste tree, 2 T false unicorn, 1 T black cohosh (or squaw vine)

Boil gently for 30 minutes in one quart of water. Then pour over 1/2 cup red raspberry leaves, steep, and strain. Use 1 quart a day until symptoms are controlled. Then reduce to 1 pint a day, refrigerating the other pint for next day.

You may not find evening primrose effective, although it is often used. A good lifestyle will go far toward minimizing symptoms.

‍Remedy #3

‍"Change-O-Life" capsules (Nature's Way brand) are helpful. They contain black cohosh root, sarsaparilla root, Siberian ginseng root, licorice root, blessed thistle leaves, squaw vine leaves, and false unicorn root.