Lavender, Spearmint & Wood Betony for a Bad Headache Today

I'm trying out Wood Betony today for my headache. Despite the fact that I've studied herbal medicine, well.. am still studying since I think it takes a lifetime of learning and then you are hopefully never truly done.. I haven't tried each and every herb out there, even of the ones that I have studies.. well, there are a lot, and that takes time, and sometimes you are just waiting for a symptom to appear where it necessitates the use of that herb once and for all. So, I don't get headaches often, you can imagine, since it's not something that I had yet tried. But today... oh wow. I don't know what happened in the night, but I woke up with a neck that felt like it had been strangled in my sleep like in a wrestling match or something and it had been twisted this way and that and now I had it halfway on upside down and backwards. Which caused this throbbing, gnawing, painful headache, replete with a nice dose of dizziness and lightheadedness, thank you very much. Headaches are often a result of neck and shoulder pain, tension and injuries, but can even be a result of referred pain, or "shooting pains" from as far down as your hips, thighs, buttocks, even your feet. Everything is connected, it's pretty amazing actually. But also frustrating, since an injury in one place can cause a great deal of pain somewhere else in your body. So, today, my hips are out of alignment, which happens sometimes since I hyper-extend since my joints are just uber flexible and unstable.. yeah I know I need pilates, yoga and just basic strengthening.. working on it. But my hips being out makes my shoulders out and my neck out and voila, my head is a mess, because my tendons, ligaments, muscles are not aligned and are putting pressure on my nerves and my veins are all constricted. That's my self diagnosis. So.. I'm making a tea, surprise surprise. I've been experimenting with teas since my boyfriend has frequent headaches, and that's his main super serious issue in his life, and so I've been trying different things on him. But the tea that I made him the other day.. that seemed to make him feel pretty good, made me feel really jumpy and nervous, so that's not the tea for me. The tea I made him, by the way, had Skullcap, St. John's Wort (which a lot of people don't know is also used as a pain killer, both when taken internally and when applied externally), Chamomile, Lavender and Mint. I think it's the Skullcap that affects me kind of badly. I don't know why.. it's my chemistry, because there really is no "why" about it.. it just makes me feel loony tunes and not in a good fun happy way.. I'm not that sure about St. John's Wort because I haven't experimented with it enough. But I know that Chamomile, Mint and Lavender are amazing for my body so it was one of those two, or both of them that I don't tolerate very well. He was chipper and feeling great afterwards.. so that's proof for you right there how two people can have such different reactions to the same herb. Ayurveda addresses this concept, in the foundation of how they treat patients, they assess various areas of a persons constitution to determine what medicines will have which effect on you. Based on aspects of your disposition (there are several factors, it is not something like a personality test).. an Ayurvedic practitioner will determine which herbs will be useful and which would be harmful. That is the way they begin a treatment, with a consultation and assessment this way. So you can see how much "how you are" will make a difference in what your body needs to heal, in this case it's about creating balance. With Western Herbalism, there is not such diagnostic tools that are directly used, however one can use Chinese or Ayurvedic diagnostic tools to assess a patient's needs and still treat them with Western Herbs. This, in my opinion is optimal, since perhaps less time might be wasted trying one thing out or the other. But no system is flawless. Even within those diagnostic codes, there are errors. Because every person is unique, period. So back to the tea I made tonight. It had Lavender flowers, Spearmint Leaves and Wood Betony in it. I boiled it for quite a while, forgot about it on the stove while i was writing, and when I came back it had been boiled down to quite a strong decoction. I added some cold filtered water and raw honey, and I have to say, it was SO INCREDIBLY SOOTHING the first sip I took. The taste is super duper pleasant (yay!! - even some of my favorite herbs are not the friendliest to your taste buds), and I just felt this sort of exhale come out of me that I so much needed. I've drunk half a cup, while I've been doing all this writing, and my headache has come down about 5 or 6 notches. And now that I think about it, I'd have to say that a mold allergy, caffeine and not enough food, and dehydration have also contributed to this horrid headache of mine today. I am not a perfect person. I just study herbs and health and try to help myself and others while I'm at it. But wow, this makes a delicious tea, and I think I am possibly putting an A+ next to Wood Betony for the headache. It is known to be a good medicine for headaches, and I'd say that, it's definitely not hurting at all.. so I'm gonna give it a high grade. The next step just to make sure, would really be to take it on it's own or give it to someone else with a headache just to see if it isn't the Spearmint and Lavender doing all the work. However, since I'm a very sensitive person, if Wood Betony had any sort of aspect to it that would be working against the curing of a headache, I would be feeling it right now. So I'm pretty satisfied, plus, it's not bad tasting at all.