Sitawari – Creating Balance
Sitawari, the root of wild asparagus, has been used traditionally in Ayurvedic medicine as a women’s health tonic. But its benefits extend beyond the menstrual cycle improving inflammation, your response to stress, vaginal yeast infections, and mood balance. I’m coming to regard Sitawari as the herbal tonifier not only for your sex hormones (think PMS, breast swelling, irregular menstrual cycles, heavy periods), but also the tonifier for motherhood (think depression, anxiety, lack of libido, and generalized achiness). It balances the underlying triggers that spur depression, anxiety, OCD, fatigue, insomnia, PMS, irregular cycles, and lack of sex drive. So let’s break it down to understand why it has such a profound tonifying effect.
1st – Inflammation
It is well known that generalized inflammation acts as a trigger for mood changes (depression, anxiety, OCD) through the mechanism of neuroinflammation. What that means is that inflammation irritates brain tissue and effects how the neurotransmitters are processed through degradation pathways. That means that while you start with sufficient serotonin levels, you may feel the effects of lowered serotonin because inflammation degrades the serotonin in the kyurenic pathway, making less serotonin available to your brain. Lowering inflammation levels, allows more serotonin to be available to improve your moods.
Sitawari is known as an immunomodulator. Meaning it has immune balancing effects as it can increase immune function and depress unnecessary immune responses. So while it stimulates the immune system, it does so without causing inflammatory stress. It also reduces the expression of chronic, low grade inflammation. Lowering inflammation makes you have more energy, sleep better, feel less achy and old, and improves thyroid health, adrenal health, heart health, brain health, all endocrine health, and reduces your risk for autoimmune disease. From what I have learned between research and clinical experience, I see a direct link between the postpartum inflammatory spike triggering postpartum depression, anxiety, OCD, thyroid activation, and autoimmune disease activation. So improving immune balance, especially for new moms, improves healing after birth and facilitates creating a vibrant motherhood.
2nd – Stress
Who doesn’t feel the effects of stress with our fast paced culture? Sitawari has shown to change your physiological response to stress. Meaning when you are presented with the same stressor, it doesn’t effect you as much. How? Sitawari has shown to protect the brain against oxidative stress, decreases stress-associated serum norepinephirine and cortisol spikes, and increases dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine levels in the brain. So when you are exposed to the stress, your brain is exposed to less of the stress associated chemicals. For moms who are lacking sleep and anxiety is running high, Sitawari can mediate those stress responses to a more manageable level, making you feel less overwhelmed and improving sleep quality.
3rd – Stress related digestive complaints
Does stress trigger reflux and abdominal pain? Sitawari has immense value for peptic ulcers and healing the gut lining. It slows down the enzymes that damage the gut lining, normalizes stomach acidity, heals ulcer lesions, and slows down gastric emptying time allowing your food to be better digested.
4th – Hormone tonifying
In breastfeeding mothers, sitawari increases milk production, stimulates breast tissue health, and improves postpartum depression. For women who are having mood instability, low libido, and hormonal irregularity throughout their menstrual cycle, sitawari has been shown to tonify the hormonal flux, create mood stability, and increase sex drive.
5th – Candida
Yeast infections, no one likes them. Sitawari has shown to have antimicrobial affects against fungal, bacterial, and yeast infections. Specifically it performed well against Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, Candida krusei, Candida guillermondii, Candida parapsilosis and Candida stellatoida.
So you can see why I am embracing sitawari as the female tonifier. It is becoming an important tool in my treatments for new moms as well with the supportive mood balancing effects, immune tonifying effects, and milk production support.
Work with an Expert
If you have mood imbalance, PMS, depression, anxiety, inflammation, or are a mom and postpartum talk to an expert to discover and treat the root cause of your symptoms. Don’t just suppress the symptom, heal from the inside.
Are you ready to feel more energized and balance?
Our clinicians can help discover your root cause of imbalance while teaching you and guiding you on your transformative journey to healing from the inside out.
If you want more information specifically on postpartum with a transformative guide, check out Dr. Jenny’s ebook on creating a vibrant motherhood. The Vibrant Mom
If you know of someone who could use this valuable information, forward this article along! If we can help even just one more person, we are thrilled and excited.
Sources:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12686434
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23485433
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0753332216315451
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19038322
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2865803/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3869575/
- https://www.ijpba.info/ijpba/index.php/ijpba/article/view/305
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249924/