Herbal Menopause Relief: St. John's Wort and Black Cohosh

Are you or someone you know tired of dealing withcohosh) and .25 milligrams of hypericine (an active
the extreme discomfort associated with menopause?ingredient in St. John's wort).
Then you might be interested to know that aAfter 4 months the women who took the herbal
combination of two popular herbal remedies may becombination experienced a 50% reduction in
able to provide real relief.menopause symptoms, including sweating and hot
German researchers recently found that aflashes. They also experienced significantly less
combination of St. John's wort and black cohosh isdepression than women taking a placebo. In fact,
"very effective" for easing the psychological andoverall depression scores fell by nearly 42% in
physical symptoms of menopause. Both herbs havewomen taking the herbal medicines.
been widely used by menopausal women in the past,At the end of the study, over 60% of the women
but this is one of the first studies to prove theirtaking the herbal supplement rated the treatment as
effectiveness. St. John's wort is often used to treat"good" or "very good" compared to only 25.6% of
mild depression and black cohosh is a popularwomen taking the placebo. Also, there was no
menopause symptom remedy.significant difference between the herbal group and
One of the goals of the German study was to see ifthe placebo group in terms of side effects reported.
the herbal medicines could offer a viable alternativeObviously, if you're looking for safe, natural
to hormone replacement therapy, which may causemenopause relief, a combination of St. John's wort
an increased risk of disease. The researchers gaveand black cohosh may be worth considering. Both are
women a supplement containing 1 milligram ofwidely available in herb and health food stores.
triterpene glycosides (an active ingredient in black