Exploring Herbs for Reducing Hyperactivity and Improving Sleep
A Personal Journey
Personal journey
This article is about a personal journey in using several well-known herbs available from around the world, including India, for reducing hyperactivity and improving sleep patterns.
If you already know the standard herbs for hyperactivity you might skip this article at your discretion.
But wait, before you go, you may want to know my personal journey in dealing with my son’s attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and his sleep problems.
One may get a genuine doubt, why I needed to go through this roller-coaster and difficult journey myself? I could have easily consulted a naturopathic physician and followed their advice.
There are several reasons for that. Firstly, it’s because there are not many good naturopathic physicians in my town or nearby. Secondly, even with the advances in communication, following daily on-line or over the video or phone guidelines and report back the observations to the physician on a daily basis is cumbersome and not convenient. Even for naturopathic physicians initially, it’s required to closely observe the effects regularly in a day to give the best guidance. Thirdly, another option would have forced me to leave my son in a naturopathic hospital setting for several months or even a year for them to study him which I was not ready to leave him alone in that setting.
Finally, since I have started this process of studying him closely during covid pandemic time my mobility was restricted for nearly a year or even more. Until Covid pandemic I have followed diligently the experts, prescription doctors for his medication and other experts for his behavioral modification needs.
The prescription medication has managed him well for more than 25 years of his life. However, because of his weight gain due to prescription medication I felt it’s high time we changed method of treatment for him to maintain good physical health in the foreseeable future. Otherwise, we would have to deal with many other subsequent medical issues in the next ten years or so because of his weight gain.
Covid pandemic gave me an opportunity to observe my son closely at home since I was stranded at home. This allowed me to start reading medical literature about non-pharmacological treatment options for ADHD and understand myself about various methods with my knowledge in drug discovery and development.
In this post, I would like to outline herbs I have tried in helping to reduce my son’s hyperactivity, not the attention deficit part of his ADHD. Further my main aim is to reduce his daytime hyperactivity and improve his sleep pattern in the night.
In my earlier articles I have extensively discussed various nutritional protocols I have used in minimizing my son’s hyperactivity. It’s the foundation required for a proper intervention from either herbal or biochemical supplements.
Supplements alone can’t help to reduce the hyperactivity. Even if they work those effects may not be long lasting in the day if proper nutritional support is not provided.
Any intervention has to be viewed in a comprehensive manner but not in isolation. In naturopathy, the nutritional aspects and the non-nutritional herbal supplements work in tandem and support each other. If we ignore any one of them the end result will not be very encouraging.
A standard disclaimer is required to be mentioned here before I go further. I am not advising here anyone to experiment themselves with these herbs because individual profiles vary a lot and need to consult with your naturopathic physician before trying any of them if you are not proficient enough to understand the literature studies.
Further they must never be used in combination with allopathic or prescription medicines (which are colloquially and collectively called as English medicines here in India) without prior consultation of a naturopathic practitioner.
Herbs have been used for millennia around the world in treating a variety of diseases including mental health issues, although their specific names may be different from what we know today. In fact, majority of the prescription drugs are discovered by studying the folklore literature. Herbs are generally considered safe to use but with limitations which I will discuss later in the article.
In the last three to four years, I have dealt with various herbs to reduce my son’s hyperactivity and improve his sleep pattern. Here, I have divided the herbs I have used into two broader categories, quick relief herbs and not quick relief herbs. The relief effects I have observed may differ with other’s experiences and you need to use your discretion in using them.
Quick relief herbs:
Among the variety of herbs I have tried, the following herbs found to provide the relief quickly, in the sense that their effects are immediately apparent or consistent or long lasting in the day. Further their effects are visible within the recommended doses. However, most of them are not quick relieving on their own but in combination with other supplements either other herbal or biochemical supplements they are found to be quite useful in reducing his daytime hyperactivity and in improving his sleep pattern.
If the herbal tablets or capsules, plain powders or extract powders are commercially available, they are used directly. If they are not available commercially, they are procured from local sources and mostly used in the form of decoctions or teas.
Herbs found to give quick relief: Aswagandha (Withania somnifera, winter cherry), valerian (Valeriana officinalis), gotukola (Centella asiatica), st. john’s wort (Hypericum perforatum), moringa (Moringa oleifera), wheat grass juice powder or wheat grass powder (Triticum aestivum), parijata (Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, Night jasmine), bilwa (Aegle marmelos, bael), bach (Acorus calamus), peepal (Ficus Religiosa), and lemon balm (Melissa officinalis).
Not quick relief herbs:
Some herbs didn’t provide quick relief in reducing my son’s ADHD behaviors within the recommended doses.
These herbs either stand alone or in combination with other biochemical supplements are not very quick relieving in the sense that their effects are not apparent immediately or consistent or long lasting in the day or higher doses may be required to be administered which I am not comfortable.
There may be several reasons why a particular well-known herb is not providing quick relief in specific individuals. Some herbs may not show immediate relief because they may require continuous use for several days before they reveal their effects. May be a naturopathic doctor will be able to fine tune them for their efficacy to individuals.
Herbs found to be not quick relieving: Ginseng (panax genus), ginkgo biloba (ginkgo genus), rhodiola rosea (rhodiola genus), passion fruit (Passiflora edulis), kava kava (Piper methysticum), chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla, German chamomile), lavender (Lavandula-genus), guava ( Psidium guajava), banana (Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana), grass (Poaceae-family), jujube (Ziziphus jujuba), karanja or Indian beech (Pongamia Pinnata).
I have also examined some spices like ginger, turmeric or cardamom and found their decoctions or teas to be not very useful for reducing my son’s ADHD or for improving sleep patterns.
On the other hand, I found them many times to worsen his ADHD behaviors instead of reducing them.
Why herbs yield inconsistent results?
Unlike modern medicines the standard complaint against herbal formulations is that they don’t give consistent results. This inconsistency arises for various reasons but not because of formulation procedures. It’s because of several factors influence the composition of active ingredients in the herb plant itself.
The factors such as part (root, leaves, or flowers, buds, stem) of the herb used in the formulation, location of the herb grown, season of the herb harvested, atmosphere of the herb grown, and composition and conditions of the soil where the herb is grown.
For this reason, any herbal formulation standardized for their active components are preferred over the preparations from whole materials, to get the desired benefits of that herb. Compared to earlier days, modern formulations involving standardized components give consistent results on their usage.
Standardized herbs are best to use for treating specific disorders as those active components are maintained at desired levels. Nowadays, many standard preparations are commercially available for well researched herbs, and they usually have less side effects than the whole herbs. They can be used in smaller doses compared to whole herbs and are also convenient to use them either in the pill or capsule or powder form.
General advantages of herbs:
The herbs if used in recommended doses they are generally considered safe. Many times, we don’t need to use the recommended doses to see the desired benefits, but it may vary with individuals.
Usually, the herbs are multi-functional and come loaded with several other phytochemicals and minerals apart from the active ingredients. This will benefit us in other areas of our health and because of it same herb is used for treating multiple disorders. This helps us to combat many other health issues with a single herb or a combination of few herbs.
Unlike prescription medicines most herbs are diuretic and cause loss of excess water retained in the body leading to loss of weight and continuous usage makes a person slim.
Specific herbs have additional benefits on their own which I will discuss when I address them individually in the coming posts.
General disadvantages of herbs:
Many times, disadvantages are specific to individual herbs. In common I have noticed many herbs reduce the appetite and so the food intake is reduced. This may lead to other problems if not adjusted accordingly.
Further if the herbs are used in the form of decoctions that might lead to soft stools or may give rise to diarrhea if care is not taken.
Many times, the herbal products are bitter in taste and the child or even adult doesn’t want to consume them leading to non-compliance of the dosage.
Caution about using herbs:
Centuries or even thousands of years ago, herbal preparations might have been reported in the ethnic texts around the world. However, post industrialization many of them are not well studied scientifically.
An important cautionary note about the usage of medicinal herbs is, just because they are natural that doesn’t mean they are harmless and can be used continuously just like prescription medicines.
For this reason, anyone trying to use directly without professional guidance it’s advised to rotate several herbs for maintaining the benefits of using them. The rotation length and the periodicity of the herb depend on several other factors. Further the rotation of herbs also avoids accumulation of its metabolites over time and side effects of the herb are minimized.
Therefore, I usually don’t use any specific herb for longer periods. That is one main reason for me to try different herbs for their efficacy because I wanted to have at least half a dozen or more herbs I can rely on.
It’s advised not to use any herb for not more than 1–8 weeks at a stretch depending on their nature. There may be exceptions and only trained naturopathy physicians can suggest about their length and best ways of their usage for individuals.
I also have herb free periods in a year to wash out all the metabolites from different herbs from the body.
A major disadvantage in using medicinal herbs is that it’s not convenient to use them if they are not commercially available. This forces us to rely on local resources, and they may not be readily available throughout the year. Fortunately, many of the herbs I have used are readily available on e-commerce sites.
In my next several posts I will try to explain individually all the herbs, I have dealt with, about their ways to use, their efficacy and side effects, if any.
Until then cheers!
Vara
