April 2024

Four Herbs 4 Detox

• Red Clover
• Stinging Nettle
• Yarrow
• Cayenne

The Water Element

Spring was traditionally a time of transformation and birthing. Water,  the carrier of life in nature and all beings nourishes the plants in the garden and the cells in our bodies. At the same time, when rivers rise, water can carry debris, rocks, and dead plants. In the body, the fluids of the lymphatic system remove waste products.

What are Endotoxins?

Many people, when they think about detox, think about toxins that we accumulate from our environment, food, or through drinking coffee or alcohol. But the body produces toxins when it produces energy.

The body needs to remove old dead cells, viruses, and bacteria. It also need to recycle hormones and enzymes and the waste products from energy production in cells. This is where alterative can be handy.

Because alteratives work on the water element, they have an affinity for the blood, lymphatic system and kidneys.

Red Clover

One important alterative found in meadows is Red Clover. It is considered relatively safe for everyone and is an easy plant to forage; just ensure that the field you forage in was not sprayed.

Red clover is cooling and moistening, meaning it will be helpful in hot (inflammation) and dry (congestion) conditions.

A nutrative herb

Red clover is among our most nutrient-dense herbs. It is rich in protein, vitamin C, B vitamins, calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, and more. Hence, red clover was used for centuries to feed cattle.

Red clover for detox

In addition to being nutrient-dense, cooling and moistening red clover is known to clean the blood. It was traditionally used for many blood conditions, including anemia.

When the body can’t eliminate toxins through the other elimination channels, they come out through the skin as eczema or acne.

Red clover tea was used internally and as a wash for skin ailments. It is specifically indicated when the skin is dry, flakey, itchy, and inflamed.

A woman’s ally

Traditionally, red clover was used for the female reproductive system. A “phytoestrogen,” red clover will bind competitively to your estrogen receptors but with a weaker binding effect. By binding to your estrogen receptors, red clover keeps them “busy” or blocked so your estrogen can’t bind to them, thus reducing the estrogen-dominant pattern.

Red clover was also used for hot flashes in menopause, uterine fibroid, heavy, painful menstrual cycle, breast cysts, and inflammation.

How to use red clover

Because red clover works on the fluid element, it is best used in tea. You can find it in fields and meadows in early summer when it is young.

Red clover is an alterative herb that nourishes and supports the lymphatic system in cleaning the body.

It is associated with Venus, the planet that rules the female reproductive system. The three-lobed leaves of red clover are a signature of the two ovaries and the uterus.

In addition, red clover is associated with the body’s water element. It is a metabolic, nutritive, and anabolic herb that can help break down and remove toxins.

Red Clover supports the person who is burned out, overworked, therefore, exhausted, and struggling with memory loss and mental confusion.