Properties and Health Benefits of Hawthorn Herb

Hawthorn is a thorny shrub from the family of rose plants commonly found on hillsides throughout the world in sunny forested areas.

These shrubs grow up to 5 feet height. Its flowers blossom in red, pink and white coloured small clusters in May which grow in to small red or black berries afterwards.

Its shiny leaves grow in various sizes and shapes. The leaves, flowers and berries of hawthorn herb are used for a number of medicinal purposes for a long time.

In this article hawthorn herb properties and there health benefits are discussed in brief for your consideration.

Health Properties of Hawthorn Herb

Hawthorn herb properties include a number of elements that have various health benefits for humans including heart and blood pressure problems. It contains antioxidant flavonoids like OPC which can help in improving the flow of blood and widening blood vessels to protect them from damages. The leaves, flowers and berries of this plant are used for making various medicines due to their antioxidant properties. But these days flowers and leaves are used more in medicines than berries as they contain comparatively more flavonoids.

Available forms

The extracts of Hawthorn herb are available in the form of standard as well as nonstandard liquids as tinctures and solid as capsules to be used for various medicinal purposes. Its leaves, flowers and berries can also be used to make bitter-tasting tea to get various health benefits.

Use of Hawthorn herb for medicinal purposes

Protection from heart disease, high cholesterol and control on high blood pressure are some of the hawthorn herb health benefits for which it is used in various medicines since long. According to various studies hawthorn herb is beneficial for human and animals both for increasing the flow of blood in their coronary arteries, lowering their blood pressure and improving circulation of blood. It can also be used for treating various skin problems like sores and boils on skin etc. Other hawthorn herb health benefits include:

Chest pain or Angina: Though no authentic information is available in this regard till date but still hawthorn is considered as an effective treatment for angina or chest pain. It has been proved through various studies that hawthorn can help in controlling angina or chest pain caused by the reduced flow of blood to the heart. It can improve the flow of blood to the heart and allow the people to survive for longer time without any pain in their chest.

Heart failure: Similarly several studies have proved that hawthorn herb was found effective in controlling the condition of heart failure when your heart stops pumping blood to your entire body parts. In order to know the extent of its authentic effectiveness more studies and researches are continued till date.

But it has been proved through various studies that this herb can improve the functioning of heart as it can enable the person to work properly eve after failure of his heart. It can improve the problem of fatigue and short breathing usually observed in this condition. People taking hawthorn have to take other medicines less for the problem of heart failure than other people.

But while treating your heart failure problem with this herb you should consult your doctor as it is a serious condition which can end-up in death if not treated well.

High blood pressure: Like treating heart problems with hawthorn, any authentic information about treating high blood pressure with this herb is not available till today. But still people consider it beneficial for this condition as it was found effective in controlling heart problems. The researchers are still trying to prove the extent of its effectiveness on the problem of high blood pressure. They have found that people taking this herb for their high blood pressure problem recovered more rapidly than people taking other medications for this purpose. But you should take it after consulting your doctor.

How does hawthorn herb work?

Some of the hawthorn herb health benefits. During contractions hawthorn can help in increasing the transmission of signals of the nerves and increases the amount of blood pumped by your heart by widening the blood vessels. According to various researches hawthorn also helps in lowering the blood pressure by relaxing the blood vessels beyond the heart. The existence of proanthocyanidin element in hawthorn is considered to be the main reason of this effect of this herb.

Several researchers have also suggested that hawthorn can also lower the level of LDL or bad cholesterol and triglycerides or fats in your blood. According to them it can also lower the accumulation of fats in the largest artery of your body located near your heart known as aorta. The extract of hawthorn fruits can also increase the excretion of bile which can enhance the receptors of LDL and reduce the formation of cholesterol due to its antioxidant properties.

Dosage

Hawthorn extracts should not be given to children. Even for adults it has been proved through various trials that standardised extract of hawthorn should be given in divided doses for 3-24 weeks in the range of 160 -1800mg per day. For adjunctive therapy its minimum dose should be of 300mg per day for 6-8 weeks. But still you should consult your doctor before starting to take this herbal treatment as it may have several side effects for you.

Precautions

Though hawthorn herb has various health benefits like treating various problems and strengthening your body but it also contains a number of elements which can interact with other products including supplements, herbs and medicines and cause various side effects. So you should take it under the supervision of an experienced health care provider to avoid such condition.

• · Headache, nausea, and palpitations of heart are some of the commonly observed side effects of hawthorn herb.
• · Though its safe dose is recommended for 3-24 weeks but you may not observe any improvement even up to 6-12 weeks.
• · In case of heart problem you should not use it without consulting your doctor as it is a serious problem.
• · Pregnant and breastfeeding moms should not use it

Thus even after so many Health Benefits of Hawthorn Herb you should not use it without consulting a qualified doctor to treat any serious health problem.

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