The Yarrow Experiment

by Laura
(USA)

My sister knew I was on a quest to eat healthier-and by healthier I mean a more natural diet. To explain, I wanted to make my own barbeque sauce to avoid the chemicals and preservatives that are put into bottled and prepared food so companies can store them on the shelves longer. Not to mention the garbage fast food restaurants put in their food. So, back to my point, my sister was doing a lot of research on herbs at the time. That is how I got into herbs. I started reading general information and I found an article on the herb – yarrow.

The article mentioned that is was easier to explain what yarrow doesn’t do, because it covers a wide range of ailments. For this reason, it suggested completing an experiment of drinking 3 cups of yarrow tea a day for 2-3 weeks. Before getting started, write down any ailment you would like healed, any problem at all. At the end of the experiment, the article advised to write down what changes occurred and what ailment is left to heal. I tried the experiment for the full 3 weeks, except I was only able to drink 2 cups a day. I drank 1 in the morning before breakfast and one in the evening before dinner.

I soon discovered that I no longer craved soda. To explain the astonishment of this discovery, I was a soda addict. I would drink a 32 oz. soda for lunch and fill the cup up before I left the restaurant. And that was just for lunch. Not only did I not crave soda anymore, I did not have the dreaded fatigue that went with caffeine withdrawal.

I also discovered that I could drink milk without it giving me stomach pains. There was, however, one discovery that was unappealing. Drinking yarrow tea made me dry. My mouth was dry and it gave me a feeling of dryness throughout my body. To combat this I added the moistening herb of marshmallow root. It was an easy fix to the problem.