St. John's Wort -- a little light in the season of S.A.D.

For many years while living in central Europe, I had severe winter depression. Having grown up in sunny southern California, and moving to Europe in the mid-19070s, a time before the winter blues had been declared a diagnosable disease, I couldn’t understand the deep fatigue that overcame me each Fall, and had no idea what to do to overcome it.

It wasn’t until the birth of my forth child (in September), and the concurrent onset of postpartum depression, that my yearly SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) turned into full-fledged clinical depression and I recognized the beast for what it was.

I tried many therapies: massage, meditation and prayer; medical light; prozac. This was the first and only time I took a pharmaceutical to alter my mood. The first weeks, I experienced a mental “high,” produced some of my best writing, felt deeply alive. Then, I felt normal for a while, and finally, I became lethargic, passive, and I lost my ability to curb my appetite and began to gain weight. I was very happy when winter was over and I could get off the drug. When the next year came around, I was loathe to again try an pharmaceutical, so I began taking St. John’s Wort at what is considered full therapeutic dosage: the tincture, 30 drops, 3 times a day. The effect was similar to prozac—a creative, mental high that gradually morphed into lethargy, passivity, and hunger I had no desire to curb. I again was thankful that winter was over so I could go off the “drug.”

The next time winter came around I decided to try a reduced dosage. Instead of 30 drops 3 times a day, I did 15. It worked! I was not pulled down into the black paralysis of depression. I did feel some mental elation, but not as much. Best—I did not become lethargic with time.

The following winter, I began to treat myself earlier—before the first symptoms were apparent—with 10 drops only, before sleep and on waking. The winter after that, I dared take only 5 drops. And so on it went, until finally I understood: I could stave off winter depression entirely by using St. John’s Wort at low dosage for just a few days whenever I felt myself beginning to become depressive.

To this day, I keep a St. John’s Wort products close at hand—tincture, pills and tea,and I am convinced that I stave off deeper depression with this approach: I might use it only three times a year, but what suffering I am spared!

The best part of this easy treatment strategy is the empowerment I feel: I am not at the mercy of the seasons; I am not at the mercy of the pharmaceutical industry. I am managing to treat incipient depression on my own terms, am countering a malady that is epidemic.

Depression is surely an expression of helplessness. It is the soul’s way of saying, “I need to re-boot, to be brought down to minimal running so that I can run through all my deepest programming and figure out what is wrong.” But what if what is wrong is not personal, but societal? If individual depression is an expression less of personal problems than of the personal ego being unable to bear up under untenable living conditions? Life in our day is truly stressful, chock-full of intellectual and moral contradictions, pressures and strictures that make many feel helpless in one way or another much of the time. With the continuing economic struggles, more people are feeling helpless and are suffering from depression.

Perhaps in many cases, having someone to talk to, and just more time to come to terms with life will help prevent depression. But as people are more burnt out by high-stress lives, are more socially isolated in general, and as our medical system becomes less willing to spend the time and effort to provide one-on-one consultation, we turn instead to pharmaceuticals for hope, strength, and often, for survival.

Statistics show that most of us, at one time or another, will suffer from mild to severe depression. And it will change us forever. For once the brain has experienced true depression, and has embedded the biochemical pattern of depression, it can easily re-emerge. 

This is where St. John’s Wort helps. By altering the brain’s pattern at the first sign of symptoms, by re-intruducing the “light” for which it is known, I am convinced that it prevents the brain’s memory of depression from unfolding.

I am publishing this article in October, 2012. A few days ago, I felt a sudden and crushing weight of depression as the skies turned gray. After only two days of taking St. John’s Wort, I was fine again.

Winter depression is serious. It is a loss of quality of life—and in mothers, it equates to a loss of quality for the children as well. 

The proclivity for SAD could be genetic, as my three boys were all affected. At the end of summer, they would return to school excited, energized, and eager to tackle the challenges of education. 

By the end of September, they already felt fatigued and foggy-minded. Keeping up with the demands of school was just too much for them. It was very demoralizing.

I began to give them a few drops of the tincture as well. It helped, markedly, but there were other factors over which I had no control—in particular, the rampant consumption of chocolate and cookies, typical of European festivities from October to New Years. The same is true in the US, of course, though to a lesser extent, I believe: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are each an excuse to indulge in sweet, sugary food that provides a "sugar high" for a while, and then lets us down hard.

One aspect of Winter Depression is in fact the craving for carbs, and some experts believe it may be therapeutic to eat pasta, bread and potatoes when we feel SAD. But the extreme blood-sugar highs and lows that result from a high-carb diet, especially in those of us who are insulin resistant, have the opposite effect: they make us irritable, fatigued, and ultimately, depressed. Weightgain is also not helpful for our self-esteem. After trying to “be good” all Spring and Summer, putting on 10 – 15 lbs in winter leaves us feeling we were “bad” and that we let ourselves down, had no self-discipline, etc.

Not only my sons, but my husband, too, felt the down pulling effect of SAD. When September came around he would develop a prickly hide and become irritable, irrationally angry, and snappy. It took some convincing on my part, but he, too, (much to my relief) eventually gave in and took a few drops of St. John’s Wort tincture each day—and was immediately his old loving self again. After a week or two, he would invariably say that St. John’s Wort slowed his reflexes while driving, and stop taking it. Fortunately, even that short span of low dosage treatment was enough to get him over the hump of the changing season.

 Getting over the hump—that expression describes very well my subjective sense of how St. John’s Wort works. In the Fall, the brain must transition from a summer of long, light days to a winter of darkness, and it appears to be the transition that is tricky. It’s much like going from a light-filled room into a dark room: until the eyes adjust to the change one might feel dizzy, unsure of one’s footing, but once the eyes and the brain have transitioned, we get our balance back. It is just as dark as before, but we are used to it, so we function well. 

It’s the transitional period that is awkward and risky, a time when the brain can slip into the chemistry of depression. And St. John’s Wort appears to make that transition an easy one.

The ability for the eyes and the skin to react to sunlight is called “photosensitivity,” and St. John’s Wort actually increases photosensitivity. That means, one’s eyes and skin literally respond to light more sensitively—it is as if we are able to absorb more sunlight. On the package, you may read a warning that you are at increased risk for sunburn while on St. John’s Wort, and it is clear that persons who have sun allergy should not use it.

St. John’s Wort’s blooms on the summer solstice, at which time the herb is collected and dried, tinctured or processed into capsules or pills. Poetically, the herb actually contains the imprint of the longest, sunniest days of the year. The flower itself looks like a small, radiant sun.

Herbalists who believe that nature presents itself to us with visual and metaphoric keys to its use absolutely love St. John’s Wort, with its luminous color, its appropriate time of blooming, and calming effect on the nerves and psychie. 

In my next article, I will translate a chapter from an old, German herbal that captures the ways that St. John’s Wort was used traditionally—there are some surprises!

If you are thinking of trying St. John's Wort, do your research to be sure that there are no interactions with any drugs you are presently taking.

Testimonial

When I hit 50 years old I found that I could barely get out of bed in the mornings when it started to get dark in the winter. I had read about St John's Wort being used for SAD sufferers and I started a course over the winter months. Within 6 days of taking the tablets I found an immense improvement on my mood and was able to get up for work absolutely no problem during winter. I take a 6-month course starting at the end of September and finish it at the beginning of March with the light mornings. That's all I need to help me through the winter months. This works for me each year now and I wouldn't be without them. Just one tablet a day made all the difference.

- Brian Wallace , Birmingham, UK, 26/10/2010 12:56

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1323784/St-Johns-Wort-herb-really-does-help-beat-depression.html#ixzz2AF6OlI3m

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/st-johns-wort/NS_patient-stjohnswort

The Mayo Clinic says: Extracts of Hypericum perforatum L. (St. John's wort) have been recommended traditionally for a wide range of medical conditions. The most common modern-day use of St. John's wort is the treatment of depression. Numerous studies report St. John's wort to be more effective than placebo and equally effective as tricyclic antidepressant drugs in the short-term treatment of mild-to-moderate major depression (1-3 months). It is not clear if St. John's wort is as effective as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants such as sertraline (Zoloft®).

Recently, controversy has been raised by two high-quality trials of St. John's wort for major depression that did not show any benefits. However, due to problems with the designs of these studies, they cannot be considered definitive. Overall, the scientific evidence supports the effectiveness of St. John's wort in mild-to-moderate major depression. The evidence in severe major depression remains unclear.

St. John's wort can cause many serious interactions with prescription drugs, herbs, or supplements. Therefore, people using any medications should consult their healthcare providers including their pharmacist prior to starting therapy.

Malta and the Childhood of a Ghanaian Poet

 

Nana Yaw Sarpong, a Ghanaian journalist, student, writer and poet, recalls in his blog the role that Malta Guinness played in his childhood. 

"If you are a Ghanaian, Malta Guinness will not be a strange drink to you. I remember as a young lad, whenever I was faced with making a choice for a drink, I chose Malt over fanta or Coca cola or the rest. My belief was that Malt was more nutritious than the other soft drinks.

But my belief in the nutritional values of Malta Guinness at the time was based on fact. Each time my parents bought me Malta Guiness, I turned to the back of the bottle and read the ingredients. I never knew why I did so, really. But I kept going back to it. I took interest also in the fact that the number and range of vitamins contained in the drink were written boldly and they appeared all over the bottle. It did something to me, even as a little boy.

However, things have changed. I bought a Malta Guinness a few days ago only to find my shock. There was nothing at the back of the bottle like before. The list of nutrients were also gone except for some minute information for the consumer. I was hugely disappointed! It was not for my childhood fancy, but something more like consumer confidence.

I realized that the information on the bottle was good for the buyer. At least in practice, you could know what you were drinking."

After reading this blog, I wondered why  Guinness Malta would remove their list of ingredients, specifically in Africa? The most obvious reason is reduced production cost. But because malt-based soft drinks typically contain corn syrup, and GMO corn is banned in most of Africa, removing the list could also be a clever marketing strategy. If children today grow up no longer expecting to know what is in their “healthy” soft-drink, the company can avoid future buyers' prejudice to GMO corn syrup if it should some day be legalized.
  

I was also struck by the note of pride in this account. Here, a child gets a good dose of self-esteem when  he chooses a healthy drink, thanks to informative advertising. But it is clear that the next generation of children have fewer clues as to what is healthful and what is not. They cannot experience that same self-affirming moment when choosing to drink Malta.

In the US, presently, marketing strategies urge adults to have a five-hour energy drink in the form of a 2 oz liquid injection, while artificially colored and flavored “water personalizers” are the newest fad for teens. The best-selling energy drink world-wide, caffeine rich Red Bull (which in 2009 in Austria was found to contain trace amounts of cocaine), is advertised in athletic tournaments and on sports and adventure equipment. It would seem that healthful ingredients are not a selling point when it comes to the  marketing of mainstream beverages. Rather, consumers jump at the promise of energy, sports and flash.

The active decision to consume healthful food and beverages makes us feel dignified and proud. In truly valuing our own health we value life itself. That intrinsic, unifying value is the mystery of "Mother Food" that warms and nourishes us. 

 

Malt as a Galactagogue - A Brief History

For many of us, the word malt leads us to think of Ovomaltine, Malt-O-Meal, beer, malt-beer, and malted milk and shakes, all of which benefit from malt's complex, sweet-bitter nuances. Malt's multi-textured flavor reflects its healthful contents: a range of natural sugars with subtle taste differences, along with the satisfying bitterness of its high mineral content, entice and delight the tongue.

The food industry uses the word malt to refer both to the malting process and to its result, the malt. But malting and malt could not exist without barley, whose particular malting enzymes transform the grain into the malt sugar we know and love.

 

The cultivation of barley was a major accomplishment in our early development. It provided some protection from hunger and starvation, enabling human folk to settle down and get on with the business of community and the start of civilization. Beginning over ten thousands years ago in isolated settlements, its cultivation would eventually spread across Europe and Asia, where it would be used to make malt, beer and bread, three forms of “food production” that would spur development of technology.

Fortunately for our ancient foremothers, barley is highly lactogenic, as it contains copious amounts of beta-glucan, a long-chained sugar molecule that studies show has the potential to increase prolactin, an important hormone for lactation.

The art of malting and brewing with malt apparently goes back to Sumeria -- the oldest civilization, predating even the Egyptian -- and it is described in the verses of this song, "The Hymn to Ninkasi", which was engraved on this statue of Ninkasi around 1800 BCE. The hymn contains detailed instructions for malting and brewing, and may have been chanted while malting and brewing the goddess's sacred foods. 

I do not believe it is a coincidence that a goddess was the deity of malt and beer. As I explain in "Mother Food", many widely used milk-enhancing herbs and foods are associated with mother goddesses from early cultures. In my opinion, this illustrates the extent to which our foremothers valued dietary galactagogues and the support they provided for breastfeeding. Consider Ninkasi's proud breasts. What is she carrying in the basket on her head? Could it be the gift of malt?

Greek Goddess and Barley

To make malt, the barley grain is first germinated, triggering the production of powerful malting enzymes. It is quickly dried, to prevent further sprouting, and then moistened and warmed. Now barley's malting enzymes "digest" the barley, resulting in malt that can be used to make beer or to produce malt syrup, other malt beverage or baked goods.

Today, mothers throughout the world eat or drink malt to support lactation. In Germany, birth professionals recommend that mothers after birth drink malt-beer, a non-alcoholic malt-based soft drink. Although there are no studies that directly link malt with increased milk supply, German researchers explain this popular usage based on malt’s beta-glucan content.

Colic Warning: Mothers of babies with colic will want to use malt cautiously, as its high sugar content could aggravate a baby's digestive struggles.

There is history behind non-alcoholic malt-beer. Internationally, it became popular as a beverage during the 19th and early 20th centuries when the Temperance Movement condemned consumption of alcoholic beverages, and in some countries exerted pressure to outlaw alcohol production.

The beer industry responded by producing beverages that used the same ingredients as beer -- hops, barley and sometimes yeast -- but contained little or no alcohol.

 

<= This poster implies that the beer she buys at the store is better than the beverage she makes  at home. Clearly, the galactagogue effect of both beer and malt-beer was a useful marketing strategy.

In the US, malt beer was called Near-Beer; in Germany, it was called Malzbier; and in France, bière de nourrice, or "wet-nurse beer." All were recommended by their producers as nourishing beverages for children, and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.

There were loud claims in magazine advertisements that malt-beer was an excellent health tonic, good for children, invalids, and mothers, and of course, that it increased milk supply. This was not merely a marketing ploy, but was based on the experiential feedback of countless breastfeeding mothers who already used malt to increase their milk supply. The brewers had cleverly "tapped" into a traditional galactagogue.

"Take my advice: Take Biomalz"

When I gave birth to my first child in Switzerland, in 1985, I was surprised to receive a can of malt syrup from my husband's aunt. In response to my perplexity, she told me that malt is often given to mothers to speed their recovery and to support their milk supply. "Biomalz," the brand name, was also recommended for children. A Swiss health-food expert explained that, because the grain's nutrients are pre-digested (broken apart into small units) by the malting enzymes, mothers and children can easily absorb them.

It is intriguing to consider that in pre-refrigeration days, powdered malt might have served the same function as today's "super-foods" or "energy bars": easy to preserve, nutritious, and rich in calories and a full range of minerals such as calcium, magnesium and iron. A gift indeed. Any mother would have welcomed the benefits of malt, and the added nutrition alone may have helped with her supply.

Lactogenic Malt Contains Beta-Glucan

As mentioned above, barley malt contains a special substance, beta-glucan, which is a long-chained sugar that studies show increases prolactin. Although it has never been tested directly on breastfeeding women, its presence may well contribute to malt's effects on milk supply.

I myself relied on "Biomalz" syrup as a galactagogue. When my supply occasionally decreased to a trickle, I would take as much as 3-4 large soupspoons of the syrup before meals, and a few more between meals. On the fourth day, like clockwork, my supply fully returned.

In 19th century America, several cook-books mention malt-tea as a galactagogue. The tea was made by stirring 3/4 cups of malt powder into a quart of hot water, leaving it to stand and cool, filtering the tea, and drinking it throughout the day.

All this suggests that, independently of its use in beer, malt was already used as a galactagogue before malt-beer came into commercial production. Malt is surely a galactagogue, the gift, as it were, of a Sumerian goddess, appreciated by breastfeeding mothers today.

That said, in treatises on traditional Chinese medicine, one reads that a small dose of barley malt increases supply, while a large dose decreases supply. If this is true, then I could not possibly have had such success with extremely large doses of malt—and yet I did, as have many others. Is it possible that different galactagogues affect women differently depending on their culture, their usual diet, and their individual metabolism? I intend to write an article on this question. For now, let me simply suggest that mothers use high doses with caution. 

The Decline of Brewing Malt 

Beta-glucan, paradoxically for breastfeeding women, is undesirable in brewing. It acts as a thickening agent--problematic for filtering, adding cost to beer production.

One way to manage this is to add other grains to the malting process such as corn, wheat, rice and other grains. However, because these grains contain less beta-glucan, the product’s lactogenic properties are diminished.

In recent decades, industrial brewers have gone a step further. Strains of barley have been cultivated that contain less beta-glucan, and yeast has been genetically enhanced to digest more of it. Today, beta-glucan is absent from most beer by the end of the brewing process. It's too bad, really, as beta-glucan is healthful, immunity boosting, and good for the heart.

This stark alteration in the composition of malt underlines the thought presented in an earlier article: we truly cannot compare the beer that our foremothers drank to the beer that is drunk today. To do so would be to grossly misrepresent the history and significance of beer and malt as galactagogues.

Guinness Stout is maintaining its reputation as a galactagogue (see my last article). This may be explained by the flakes of raw barley grain that are purposefully added to the brew in order to increase its beta-glucan content. Here, its function as a thickening agent is desired. The same, healthful beta-glucan that makes stout delightfully silky also thickens barley soup. The identical principle applies when oat flakes are added to produce Oat Stout. Oats also contain beta-glucan, as evidenced by Oat Stout’s fuller body, and by oatmeal’s sliminess. Barley and oats are well-known galactagogues!

 

This youtube video demonstrates the ingredients used in stout. Note the addition of flaked raw barley to add extra body.

Unfortunately, not all thick, dark beers are made with extra barley or oats. Good "body" can be achieved by using maltodextrin, without containing beta-glucan.

On Your Market Shelf: Barley, Malt Syrup and Malt Sugar

The barley in the shops today is the same barley as that of yesteryear. We can use it in soup and other recipes, and count on its thickening properties. Barley water (a handful of barley cooked in a quart of water for at least a half-hour, longer is better, and the water drunk as tea) is a traditional galactagogue.

Pure organic barley malt syrup is available from several producers. Before buying, be sure to check the label to make sure that it is not diluted with corn syrup.

Powdered malt sugar is commonly combined with dextrose (corn sugar), which in the US is undoubtedly derived from GMO corn.

Malt powder used to make malted milk or malted milk shakes is also commonly combined with dextrose, in the US, from GMO corn.

Note: I inserted (above) a photo of a supplement for barley beta-glucan. To my knowledge, mothers have not yet experimented with beta-glucan concentrate as a galactagogue. If you try it, (not necessarily this product, I am endorsing no particular brand) please let me know your results.

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This article represents my original research, and is an excerpt from a book in progress. All rights reserved. Do not re-print or use without my permission ©hilaryjacobson 10.2011