Author: David Casteleijn.

The worth of herbal medicine in reducing long-term stress, anxiety and depression is being validated by mounting scientific evidence.Studies have shown that St John’s Wort is equally effective as a number of common antidepressant merdications in treating moderate to severe depression.

In addition to this, naturopaths use herbs classified as adaptogens to work on the hormone produced by stress: cortisol. Science is now demonstrating that high levels of cortisol (from stress) for extended periods of time can lead to anxiety and depression.

Some very interesting research is confirming this, demonstrating that adaptogens are effective at assisting the body adapt to stress, giving a chance for these chronically raised levels to return to a more normal level. Modern medicine has no equivalent pharmaceutical action.

Combining Adaptogenic herbs with Anti-anxiety and Nerve tonic herbs provides a uniquely gentle but still effective way to assist anxiety and depression.

An important point to note is that even though there is a potential interaction between St. John’s wort and many of the common pharmaceutical antidepressant medications, it does not need to be an either or situation. By using a combination of the above mentioned herbal actions but excluding St. John’s wort modern western herbal medicine can be an effective support when you are taking prescribed antidepressant medication.