Herbs For Anxiety: Which Herbs Are Best For Anxiety?
If your anxiety disorder has reached the point where you’ve actually consulted
with a doctor about ways to treat and eliminate it, you’ve undoubtedly discussed
prescription drug medication as a part of your treatment.
Your doctor may have also explained to you that the cognitive and behavioral
therapies which are most effective in treating anxiety disorders will work much
better if you are on medication to control your anxiety symptoms while your are
undergoing them.
Before you commit to taking a prescription anti-anxiety drug, have you
thought about looking at the herbs for anxiety which have proved very helpful in
alleviating its symptoms?
Using herbs for anxiety treatment is rapidly becoming an accepted alternative to
using prescription drugs. Anti-anxiety medications can cause both dependency and
side effects; herbs for anxiety, on the other hand, are unlikely to cause
either.
The one drawback you may find in looking for herbs for anxiety is that, because
natural remedies are not overseen by the FDA, marketers of herbs for anxiety
often manufacture inferior products which provide no real benefit.
There are, however, a few herbs for anxiety which, when produced in
unadulterated from and taken in the correct amounts, have been clinically
established as effective in curbing anxiety attacks. But it is crucial that
these herbs for anxiety be from reliable manufacturers whose products can be
counted on to have the ingredients advertised.
The first of these herbs for anxiety, Valerian,
will be most effective when consumed as an extract with 0.8%
valerenic acid concentration. This herb for anxiety is popular
because of the speed with which it works; it will produce
results in less than an hour if ingested in amounts of a few
hundred milligrams, and is safe to take three or four times
daily.
Another researched herb for anxiety is Passion Flower, the
active ingredient of which is vitexin. It works best in a
standardized extract of 3% to 4% vitexin potency. Studies have
shown that extracts of Valerian and Passion Flower, when
combined, are more effective than either being used as an herb
for anxiety by itself.
And researchers in Germany have found that Kava, when used as an
herb for anxiety, can be as effective in some people as
benzodiazepines like Valium and Ativan. But Kava has the added
benefits of neither being habit-forming nor causing drowsiness.
Kava, as one of the herbs for anxiety, is available both as a
tincture and pill.
And Chinese researchers testing herbs for anxiety in 1986 found
that a combination of zizyphi seed, ligustrum, licorice, poria,
and bunge root was so potent, as an herb for anxiety, that it
nearly matched the performance of Valium. But when taken three
times daily, this combination of herbs for anxiety actually
improved the anxiety sufferers’ psychomotor skills.
And in a second 1986 study, this one in Europe, the same
combination of herbs for anxiety alleviated the symptoms of
those whose anxiety attacks caused heart palpitations,
difficulty breathing, and tightness in the chest.
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