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Beat Depression with St. John's Wort


Okay, I can't let this pass -- St. John's wort is just too valuable an
antidepressant to ignore!

Rod Randall has already told us this about the herb:

>Hypericum perforatum 

>Hypericum:  supposedly a combination of the greek hyper "above" and
>eikon "image" (probably the precusor to icon) the plant was hung above
>religious images to ward off evil spirits
>In revenge the devil then peirced the leaves with a needle giving the
>perforations seen in some species.  Hence peforatum as the species name:

>St John's Wort:  

But there is even more to explore....


Christopher Hobbs once wrote:

St. John's Wort doth charm all the witches away, 
If gathered at midnight on the saint's holy day.
And devils and witches have no power to harm
Those that do gather the plant for a charm.

And Stephen Bratman, M. D., author of BEAT DEPRESSION WITH ST. JOHN'S
WORT (Prima Publishing, 1997), agrees while at the same time bringing the
herb into the 20th (21st?) century:


"It is almost irresistible to hypothesize that the presumed supernatural
powers of St. John's wort stemmed from a prineval appreciation of its
antidepressant characteristics. If you lived in the Middle Ages and your
neighbor was unaccountably sad, troubled by guilt,  and crippled by
anxiety, you would very likely come to believe that he or she was
afflicted by demons. If your neighbor then started to drink a daily brew
of St. John's wort tea and subsequently recovered from 'demonic
possession,' you probably couldn't fail to assign magical potency to the
herb. It would not be very long before you might feel inspired to use the
herb as a symbolic protection, perhaps by wearing it around your neck....
 If we in modern times were similarly inclined, I could easily imagine
people wearing a necklace of Prozac pills to ward off gloomy
thoughts...."

Believe me, I tried the necklace of Prozac pills -- it might as well have
been an anchor around my neck. But St. John's wort is a successful
antidepressant for me and millions and millions of other  people
worldwide, and without Prozac's dangerous and debilitating side effects.

You don't need to grow it and brew it as a tea; it's widely available as
a standardized extract in capsule form, synergistically blended to ensure
consistent hypericin content.

If you're interested in the use of St. John's wort as a safe, reliable
treatment for mild to moderate depression, check with your physician or
therapist.

And start smiling again!   : )


Victoria T. Olson  

Rabbit's Foot Farm
Benicia, CA  USA

rabbitsfoot@juno.com





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