5 Herbs to Release Gut Tension, Relieve Hypersensitivity & IBS

A while ago a man told me of how he had a problem with his eyes for four decades resulting in progressive loss of vision, headaches – sometimes so bad he almost went blind with the pain. The doctors had suspected a tumor in the brain but found nothing.

This person took my advice on herbs to rehabilitate the digestive system as his body swung between chronic constipation and bouts of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and diarrhea.

It turned out that the first effect of the herbs was a massive reduction in the tension around his eyes and the headaches. He went from about four episodes of headaches and blinding a day to two in a month and then to one every week in four months.

This is one example of the ways gut tension can affect the rest of the body.

Our entire system relies on the area around our core working properly. This core area is as densely populated with nerves and nerve endings as the brain and what happens here, second by second affects the brain and the rest of the system.

There are three major causes of gut tension and hypersensitivity – which are really the same thing – the gut being irritated and reacting in an extreme way.

1) Mild Chronic Poisoning
2) Over-eating
3) Energetic assault or Shock

1) Mild Chronic Poisoning
A lot of the time we think that if we ate something one day and the body did not react to it violently, that means it’s ok for us. It isn’t always OK. There are foods that slowly increase the levels of a poison in the gut, which deposit things in the lining of the digestive system. At one point the body starts reacting violently because the situation has reached a point where if cleaning up doesn’t happen soon enough, one or other of the organs could be seriously affected.

Digestive extremes therefore should be first dealt with by taking out of your diet everything but the simplest home cooked food. You then do gentle detoxification with foods like horseradish, fenugreek seed tea, nettle tea – just herbs and vegetables that support a clean up – nothing extreme.

2) Over-eating

Over-eating caused by anxiety and other emotional causes is something that makes people feel helpless. How do you stop when you’re in the habit for so long?

For a lot of people, one simple thing works. Nutrition. You see, nearly everyone can trace the onset of their over-eating to a time around which they either didn’t have enough food or didn’t have food that was satisfying – like food after which you feel, “Yes, now I’m full and satisfied and can get on to other things now.”

Not being satisfied nutritionally is one of the causes of anxiety and panic attacks as it makes the person prone to emotional extremes.

This results in a whole lot of other problems in the body all the way to heavy menstrual bleeding, hair loss, chronic fatigue, mental slowing and so on.

Adding a source of natural fat to the diet very often begins the process of healing.

It’s not an overnight thing, but if you sit down and think of what you really feel like having and decide to put aside what’s in your head about what you should have, and choose what your gut wants to have instead, you’ll be surprised at how you can go from unsatisfied to satisfied and how that can change your body and your life for the better.

3) Energetic assault or Shock

In our times, there is nearly always some or the other attempt to drain a human’s energy always going on.

Television and media, even books, are consciously aimed at emotional energy manipulation, trying to cause shock to get attention. This is what they now even train students of the media and communication to do.

There’s a lot of competition out there to get your attention, your emotional energy.

Now, when a body in the course of a natural life experiences shock of some kind, the system recognizes it and deals with it.

However, if the shock is not dealt with, perhaps because the person did not realize what was happening at the time, or the person was too busy mentally with some other task, then the nerves of the body and especially around the gut, clench up and don’t relax, waiting for us to resolve the issue.

This sort of shock is constantly delivered by news and other media as well as stress and trauma hormones in commonly available foods and even medicines.

I have found treating the body for recovery from shock lessens the need for treatment of other sorts as it allows the body to accept other treatment and respond well to other medicine and lifestyle healing.

Here are my 5 favorite herbs that help release gut tension and support recovery from gut shock

1) Wind Anemone or Pulsatilla
2) Acorus Calamus
3) Hyoscamus Niger (Warning – Tiny dose only)
4) Golden Seal
5) Spikenard
Honorable Mention: Damiana -Turnera Diffusa to release tension in the core

1) Pasque Flower or Pulsatilla

I came across the power of Pulsatilla when I was giving birth to my son. After 33 hours of me being in labor he still hadn’t moved very much and to my despair it was obvious he was stuck in a position where his feet were about to come out first. That is not a good thing because the baby’s head is the biggest and heaviest part of them at birth and when they come out head first gravity makes it all happen quickly.

To come out feet first therefore is almost an anti-gravity effort, takes a long time, strains the mother considerably and so on.

At that time, I took Pulsatilla – just a drop, to help ease the tension around my core. About 30 minutes later the baby came out head first.

You see if there’s a lessening of the tension around the gut, it makes it possible for the body to instinctively work around problems.

Whether that’s getting a baby to turn for a better position for birth, or releasing tension in the brain to find the solution to a problem, releasing tension in the core is going to help in big ways.

 

2) Acorus Calamus

Acorus Calamus has the effect of smoothing out the tension in the inner linings of the digestive system. It works like breeze over a cloth on a washing line gently stretching and relaxing. Too much isn’t necessary, a little – say a drop of the tincture or a pinch of the power of rhizome taken twice a day for six weeks is usually all that’s necessary to clear out long term nerve and muscle clumping in the digestive system. This naturally has a good effect all around.

 

 

3) Henbane – Hyoscamus Niger (Warning – Highly Diluted – Tiny dose only)

Henbane is for when the digestive system is flaccid, but tense.

This one’s supposed to be a deadly poison, so naturally my Granddad loved to use it. Back in the day when doctors were for rich people a whole lot of children would be brought to my Granddad for help for things not bad enough to take them to a doctor to.

One six month old baby was having severe abdominal cramps, constipation, throwing up a little too often for a baby and was obviously in distress. None of the usual treatments they used to give at the time worked, so my Granddad gave the baby a drop of Henbane diluted into a vessel of about for cups of water. It worked immediately.

The baby’s bowels cleared and the exhausted little one fell into a peaceful sleep to everyone’s relief.

Henbane in a diluted dose works to give a flaccid but tense digestive system a sort of mild wake-up.

In a situation where you’ve already tried other digestive stimulation – slippery elm powder, cascara sagrada, nettle tea for example – and where it feels like the gut is cramped and refusing to respond to anything, this can change everything.

If you have long term gut tension, a trigger dose of Henbane once a week or so can change the climate enough to make the body respond to other herbs and treatments.

 

4) Golden Seal

This is an anti-inflammatory herb that’s so good it’s used to fight cancers and tumors even. One thing it isn’t very famous for, but should be, is for how it makes the gut relax when there’s inflammation anywhere in the body.

It’s the relaxation provided to people when they know the problem is being taken care of even if the problem hasn’t been fully solved yet.

 

 

 

5) Spikenard

Spikenard as Herbal Medicine

One of my most favorite herbs of all time – Spikenard – is most famous for being an aid to sleep. It is however an incredibly powerful aid to releasing long term trauma and tension in the core of the body.

Whether that shows as digestive congestion or an imbalanced gut, or pent up sexual tension, or sexual energy imbalance, Spikenard takes care of it. For more on how to have Spikenard please read: Do not try to control Spikenard – Energy Releasing Deep Healer

 

Honorable Mention: Damiana -Turnera Diffusa to release tension in the core

 

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