If you are looking for ways to heal your body without using chemicals and prescription medications, then using healing herbs is a great place to start. These herbs have been used for centuries as the main source of medicine, long before prescription medications and chemists ever existed.
There is a long list of herbs that can heal many ailments, from pains like headaches and stomachaches, to improving your digestion and helping with serious medical conditions. One of the top herbs to add to your natural health routine is dandelion.
What is Dandelion?
Dandelion or dandelion root is a medicinal herb with many amazing benefits, though you might know of it more as a weed. It can be considered a weed when it grows in your backyard or local fields, but some types of dandelion is filled with nutrients and medicinal qualities.
You can get dandelion in any field outdoors, but the problem is that they might have pesticides or other chemicals based on who grew them. This is why it is best to get the dandelion from an herbalist or health store, where you know it was grown organically without any chemicals.
Nutrients in Dandelion
Dandelion is an excellent source of beta-carotene, which you might know as vitamin A. It also provides the following:
Potassium
Fiber
Protein
Zinc
Calcium
Vitamin C
Iron
Phosphorous
Ways to use Dandelion for Natural Healing
- It Helps with Bone Health
The first health benefit of using dandelion greens as a holistic remedy is by improving your bone health. There are different ways to use dandelion, whether you consume the greens or use dandelion root, but this is where you will consume the actual greens.
Dandelion has a lot of essential nutrients, as discussed previously, including a lot of calcium. In a cup of dandelion greens, you get approximately 10 percent of the calcium you need in a day. This helps with your bone health, as well as the vitamin K content of dandelion, which further helps to protect you against osteoporosis.
- Improve Your Digestion
If you have been having digestive issues lately, such as bloating, gas, or bowel changes, then you might be in need of a natural laxative. That is where dandelion comes in. Again, you can use the dandelion greens to consume in a tea or even a salad or soup, and get the nutrients in dandelion that will help with your digestive system.
Dandelion can have a mild laxative effect. This can help move things along more naturally without having to take something else. If you don’t want to use the dandelion greens in your salads, try getting dandelion root tea as it will work in a similar way.
- Get Help Managing Diabetes
Diabetes is a serious medical condition that you should never take lightly. While you should not attempt to replace conventional medical treatments for diabetes with a natural approach, it is still good to supplement those treatments for better management of the condition.
Try Dandelion Juice
One of the options available to you is to make some dandelion juice. This is one of the lesser knows ways to use dandelion greens and root, but can work really well for you. Dandelion can help to stimulate production of insulin, which can help to lower your blood sugar level for helping with your diabetes.
When you make juice with dandelion greens, it is going to be on the bitter side, so you might want to add some other sweeter ingredients for improved taste. Just be careful not to use too many sugar-laden fruits in the juice as that might have the opposite effect.
Try adding more greens to the juice until you are happy with the taste, or low-sugar fruits like berries.
Another option is simply to make your favorite green juice and add in some dandelion greens for added nutrients, which not only helps with diabetes but a lot of other ailments as well.
- Reduce Your Blood Pressure
We already know high blood pressure is known as the “silent killer”. This is because there are not usually any signs or symptoms of having high blood pressure, also called hypertension, but it can have disastrous consequences. People who leave this untreated are at a much higher risk for heart disease and stroke, which can be fatal.
Lowering your blood pressure may require taking a medication, changing your diet, getting more exercise, and trying some natural remedies like using dandelion. Dandelion juice can be used for this as well as helping with your diabetes condition. It helps to work as a diuretic, along with reducing your cholesterol thanks to the fiber content.
There is also potassium in dandelion which can work to counteract with too much sodium in your diet.
- Improve Liver and Kidney Function
Another way that the natural diuretic qualities of dandelion can benefit your health is by helping to detox your body and cleanse your liver and kidneys. When you detox these vital organs, you are clearing out any waste left behind, including an excess amount of salt or water.
If you have too much waste in your kidneys, it can lead to a lot of issues with your body’s urinary system. You need to detox your organs in order to get rid of any toxins in your kidney. It can also help perform a similar function with your liver, including getting rid of those toxins and helping to get more electrolytes in your body.
- Using Dandelion for Women’s Health
There are some unique health benefits for women who start using natural herbs like dandelion greens and root. The nutrients in this herb can help with your bone health and preventing osteoporosis, which is a big risk for women especially, but that’s not the only benefit for females.
It can also help to reduce your risk of other things that plague women, such as mastitis of the breasts, urinary tract infections, and hormonal imbalances.
With a hormonal imbalance, it might sound minor, but can cause things like anxiety and depression, chronic fatigue, unexplained weight gain, hair loss, and much more. It is best to treat it in the most natural way possible.
You can try dandelion in its different forms when using it as a female to help stave off these conditions and ailments. This might include drinking dandelion juice, adding the greens to a salad or smoothie, or having some dandelion tea.
- Dandelion Can Aid You in Weight Loss
Dandelion can also assist you if you are having trouble losing weight. It can’t be used on its own for weight loss, but as a way to help with weight loss along with your diet and exercise efforts as well. Primarily it helps by being used as a diuretic. This helps to get rid of excess water you might be holding onto, that not only can add on the pounds, but cause bloating as well. It can also help to reduce fat absorption in your body and break down fa in your pancreas. By adding one simple type of dandelion to your diet, like a juice or tea, you are getting a multitude of health benefits all at the same time.
- Lower Your Cholesterol
Not only will dandelion help to lower your blood pressure naturally, but it can also help to balance out your cholesterol levels. It can lower your bad cholesterol (LDL), while helping to encourage higher good cholesterol (HDL).
While some forms of cholesterol is a good thing for your body, too much of the LDL cholesterol can lead to a higher risk of heart disease, just like having high blood pressure. If your doctor finds that you have high cholesterol, you want to lower it in the most natural way possible.
Studies have shown that both dandelion roots and leaves can help to balance out your cholesterol levels, thanks to the many nutrients they contain. This is done by protecting against atherosclerosis, which is how the low-density lipoproteins get into your blood.
- Reduce Inflammation
Dandelion is a great way to reduce inflammation in your body, which as you know not only happens with your joints and skin, but inside your body as well. Inflammation often goes unseen, but can cause a lot of different side effects. If you have a condition like arthritis, the inflammation causes pain and discomfort, which often requires medications to lessen it. However, you can also try natural remedies like dandelion.
- Treat Your Skin and Acne Issues
Dandelion can help with natural healing and holistic care is by treating various skin and acne issues. As you know, managing good skincare can get tricky, especially if you have conditions like rosacea or eczema. It requires finding the right skincare routine and products, trying to go as natural as possible, and knowing when and how to manage flare-ups. The more natural you can go, the better off your skin will be.
You can either consume dandelion greens or root tea to help provide nutrients that help with your skin, or make a salve that is applied directly to the problem areas.
