4 Herbs for Mental Health and Wellness

Excessive stress, lack of adequate sleep, and major life events can greatly affect your mental health, causing problems with how you handle life challenges, and can even lead to physical symptoms that can affect your body’s optimal state. As we age and experience what life has to offer, the importance of mental health and wellness cannot be understated. Hence, nurturing your mental health is as important as taking care of your physical well-being. Naturopathy offers a wide array of therapeutic care that nurtures the connection between your mind and body, fostering healthy stress levels through lifestyle practices, adequate sleep, nutrient supplementation, and botanical medicine.

Let’s explore a few of the best herbs for mental health! 

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera L.)

With over 50 active ingredients packed into one plant, ashwagandha can powerfully help nurture your body’s optimal balance through its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, immunoregulatory, and neuroprotective effects. As an effective herbal remedy for relieving stress, ashwagandha can help regulate the activities of your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is a mechanism in the body that regulates your stress response by increasing cortisol levels in times of stress and activity. Ashwagandha exerts its stress-relieving effects by regulating the balance of the HPA axis, preventing it from becoming too reactive to stressors. However, it is important to remember that the use of ashwagandha requires monitoring and regulation especially when used together with benzodiazepines and barbiturates as the plant can enhance the effects of these drugs. To learn more about the wonders of ashwagandha for stress relief, we have the perfect blog post for you!

Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.)

This wonderful herb previously featured in one of our blog posts stays true to its effects on relaxation throughout time! Packed with a wide array of active ingredients that help reduce inflammation and pain, prevent infection, and regulate stress levels, chamomile can be taken as an herbal tea or tincture after a tiring and stressful day! Chamomile actually contains apigenin, which competitively binds to benzodiazepine receptors in your brain, thereby enhancing the effects of gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) and helping promote relaxation and optimal sleep. 

If you are interested in exploring the wonders of chamomile tea for your mental wellness, we are happy to say that chamomile is generally safe to drink! However, contraindications may exist if you have skin conditions or allergic reactions caused by sensitivity to the plant’s family, which includes ragweed. Hence, it is important to explore the wonders of chamomile with your healthcare provider. 

Relax & Focus

Nourish Adrenals

Calm & Think

​Valerian Root (Valeriana officinalis L.)

Because sleep plays a vital role in regulating optimal brain and body functioning, having problems with sleep can cause detrimental effects to your health, especially towards your body’s abilities to handle stress. In fact, lack of sleep can significantly affect your mood, memory, daily performance, and metabolic health, eventually causing hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus.2 Hence, solving sleeping problems is an important step in achieving optimal health and wellness! 

As easy as it sounds, achieving good quality sleep can be difficult, with the environment, thought processes, and health status playing heavy roles. These factors are some of the many reasons why people may lean towards taking sedative-hypnotic medications to finally get adequate sleep. Although initially beneficial, the use of these medications can affect cognition and damage daytime performances.2 Valerian root is a special herb that effectively helps you get a good night’s rest after a long and tiring day, without that next-day hangover feeling pharmaceuticals leave you with. This plant promotes the action of adenosine, which is a chemical present in the body to maintain balance within the brain by preventing it from getting overexcited, as well as regulating the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle.2 

It is important, however, that the use of valerian root should be examined and monitored, as unregulated doses may increase anxiety levels, which is opposite to its intended purpose. A few people actually find valerian stimulating, so we recommend you don’t test it out for the first time the night before an important meeting! While many people love to use it as part of a nighttime tea, it is known for a rather funky taste and odor, so we’ve added a link for a capsule form we love that helps you avoid this taste. 
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St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum)

Commonly found in Europe and Asia, St. John's Wort is an effective herbal remedy to boost mood, reduce inflammation, and protect your body against mutations that can cause malignancy. As an anti-depressant, St. John’s Wort inhibits the reuptake of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, all of which help regulate your mood and stress levels. Preventing the reuptake of these essential hormones means maintaining their optimal levels, thereby nurturing their purpose in the body. Additionally, St. John’s Wort works wonders in preventing the binding of gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) to its original receptors by competitively binding to GABA instead!1 This action can help prevent central nervous system (CNS) depression, which is a phenomenon that can cause weakness, anxiety, drowsiness, sleep disturbances, and emotional distress. 

With all the wonderful benefits that this plant can offer, it is important to keep in mind that St. John’s Wort may not be for everybody! For instance, St John’s Wort may not be effective and can cause adverse side effects when used with other medications, especially blood thinners such as warfarin, oral contraceptives, antidepressants, and anti-viral drugs for HIV patients.1 In fact, combining St. John’s Wort with some of the commonly prescribed mental health drugs (like SSRI’s and SNRI’s) can result in a potentially fatal reaction called serotonin syndrome. Hence, it is important for you to talk to your healthcare providers before including St. John’s Wort into your regimen.

​At Natural Path to Wellness, our team of naturopathic medicine advisors will help you discover the best natural options for optimal mental wellness. Backed up by years of training and experience, we are committed to creating a personalized and holistic approach that includes the use of natural herbs and therapies selected for your unique case and preference.

The Naturopathic Approach

Naturopathic care helps you achieve mental health and wellness by guiding you through natural, holistic options that nurture stress relief, relaxation, and optimal sleep, all of which is important in maintaining balance within. This balance is achieved through herbal medications, nutrient supplements, lifestyle changes, and mind-body techniques, that promote both your mental and physical health.

To learn more about the wonders of naturopathic medicine for you, talk to us today!

BECOME A CLIENT

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​It is important to remember that the use of herbal medications should be thoroughly evaluated and monitored by your naturopathic doctor and communicated to your other healthcare providers to make sure your daily regimen is tailored to your case and preference, and that it does not interact with any prescribed medications. Additionally, it is vital to keep in mind that most herbal medicines are contraindicated during pregnancy and lactation and their use should be avoided to prevent harm to you and your baby. Talk to your naturopathic doctor to learn more about how to use herbs safely during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

​​This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your licensed naturopathic physician or other licensed healthcare provider before making changes to your medications or supplements. 

Disclosures & Policies: This and other blog posts may contain affiliate links. Please view our disclosures page for more information.

REFERENCES:

1. Peterson B, Nguyen H. St. John's Wort. In: StatPearls. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; May 16, 2023.
2. Shinjyo N, Waddell G, Green J. Valerian Root in Treating Sleep Problems and Associated Disorders-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Evid Based Integr Med. 2020;25:2515690X20967323. doi:10.1177/2515690X20967323

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