aloha lovely nexians...i need your suggestions. my grandma in India is diagnosed with some type of Thyroid problem, and the related area in her neck is swollen, and painful. She is also undergoing severe depression, and her mental state has been like this since a couple years, and only getting worse. She has been getting medical help, but its not really helpful. I'm writing this to ask if there are any good natural herbs you guys know of that can relieve her pain (physical and emotional).

From all that i've been reading so far, I have come up with a basic list of herbs that can increase her zest for life, and heal her body if she takes it everyday:

Carrot juice (with apples and some ginger)
Curcumin supplements (from turmeric)
Mucuna pruriensis extract
Cordiceps extract
and Reishi extract.

Are there any other good healing herbs that i can add to this list? I know nature has plenty herbal cures in its multitude of beautiful plants, but my knowledge in this area is very limited. If someone here is aware of more healing plants, please let me know; also, please explain your direct experience with this substance if you have personally tried it. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this my dear ones<3

I'm sorry to here about this and i really feel for you and her..its an awful feeling to have a loved one suffering and being unsure of how to help.

I'm no doctor and a severe noob in this area but here are some ideas that should be taken with grains of salt and research before applying

If she is open to it, marijuana could help right? being that its vasodialating and also relieves pain?

Some daily microdoses of caapi-only brews could possibly help alot with the depression aspects and probably the pain as well. Although i wouldn't risk it if she is taking a bunch of medications that may interact with the maois, even if its just a tiny dose daily.

I wish there was more i could add to try and help, but thats all my sleep deprived brain can muster up right now

all the best to you and your grams :]

kava kava, is a very good stress reliever, the core cause of depression.
give her a few days full of ganja and tea

Hi Phantastica,
I've suffered from major depression for many years and the only thing that has really helped me is b. caapi. I take the powdered form and put it into gelcaps. I take anywhere from 5 to 10 (size 00) gelcaps of b. caapi powder every other day. It has helped me through some very traumatic times and maybe this will help her. Be aware that caapi is an MAOI, so there needs to be caution taken in the diet also. Certain foods will not be good to eat or drink while taking. Hope this helps.

hey hun i've delt with pain and depression for many many years and am so greatful to mother nature for her healing i've been using a combanation of herbs to help

b. cappi 3, oo gelcaps 2x a day
passion flower 5, 00 gelcaps a day
kava 4 500mg pills 2x a day
kratom 4, 00 gelcaps 2x a day
tumric 4, 00 gelcaps 2x a day
cinnamon 6, 00 gelcaps a day
valerian roots 2 gelcaps as needed for anexiety
about 2.5 grams marijuana
so thats what i take im compleatly off all anti-anexiety medications and anti-depressiants and im on less than half of my pain meds. i hope this helps<3 light and love

You mean, you take 5g of straight up root powder, non extracted? Interesting.

Hi Phantastica,

I'm not a DOCTOR, but I have know and had correspondence with people who say that adding a variety of seaweeds to their diet has helped with thyroid problems, as they are a high source of natural iodine. You may want to research this further... I am quite the fan of cute sushi lunches.

St. Johns wort is a highly recommended anti depressant, also is early morning light exposure. Add daily gentle exercise and you have an excellent combination.

My recommandation is:
good music,
sports,
positive toughts delivered trough youtube or books/websites
focuse on positive

Mushrooms, kava, occasionnally MJ
and good food with tea (preferably green one)
good luck

Sorry to hear about your gran, Phantastica.

If you dont mind me asking, what exactly is up with the thyroid and what treatment is she having?

The reason I ask is because problems which can render the thyroid underactive can often cause a low mood.

Fish oil effectively treats some people's depression. Adaptogens like ashwaganda are very good for helping the body deal with general stresses, and sutherlandia frutiscens is good for helping the body deal with disease related stresses. Needless to say caapi seems like a pretty healthy thing as well. I've heard very positive things about rhodiola, but never tried it myself.

I appreciate your advice and concern very much my dearest friends
currently, my granny has been taking the following since ~2-3 weeks, twice per day (she's been feeling much better since starting this regimen):
-Reishi extract (1000mg)
-Cordyceps extract (1000mg)
-Chaga extract (1000mg)
-Turmeric extract (500mg?)
-Mucuna extract (1000mg including 437mg L-Dopa)
-1000mg Niacin (Vitamin B-3)

i've read at many places that caapi is indeed very helpful for healing the mind and body at many levels, so i'm certain that it would indeed be very helpful as well. unfortunately, she's taking like 3-4 different antidepressants, and since she's not very educated, she trusts the doctor way more than she should. Those antidepressants are poisons for her body, but despite my numerous explanations, she continues to take them even though she told me its not helping her one bit (she's been taking it for ~4-5 months now). Her immediate relatives in India support her doctor's "highly educated advice and prescription" of continuing to take the antidepressants. I can only do very little over the phone since i'm in US, so I just try to do what i can. She discontinued antidepressants for a couple days after i kept nudging her, but the withdrawals resulted in insomnia, so she started taking them again. The plan right now is to get her to ease off the antidepressants with gradual decline in dosage (until she's taking none) so that withdrawals won't be a problem.

i will also be sending her some Melatonin soon, since its one of the main chemicals secreted by the pineal gland, and naturally declines by ~50% in older people (probably even lesser in her case). Hopefully, it will help adjust her hormone flow, circadian rhythm, other natural hormone-related processes, depression and insomnia.

@corpus: i'm not sure about her thyroid treatment, but the majority of her thyroid problem is mostly healed

@minxx: yea, seaweeds would indeed help with any remaining thyroid problem she might have (and avoid future problems as well). I will take a look at Kelp (for iodine), and Marine Phytoplankton, and AFA Blue-Green Algae as other beneficial seaweeds. heard great things about those last two in David Wolfe's book "Superfoods," which i highly recommend to everyone here.

I also don't wanna administer her substances like Kava, Kratom, Marijuana because these are all sedatives, and all my granny does all day is lie in her bed; walking around is a chore to her, and this continuing habit is only further weakening her body. She doesn't have the strength to move around, let alone exercise. Within my family in india, these psychotropic substances are also not well received, and frowned upon, because they're "drugs"..mmmkay..

i was also thinking of including some detoxification supplements for cellular/liver detox, and some superfoods (from the same book mentioned above) in her diet like goji berries, raw cacao, maca, honey products, seaweeds etc.

i'll see how it goes after the above planned changes have been incorporated in her diet, and see how it goes.

thanks a lot for all of your love and support my fellow nexians
peace and love<3