Wendy Byard - The Almost Perfect Podcast For Living Life With Passion & Sparkle

Can herbal medicine replace HRT?

• Wendy Byard • Season 1 • Episode 12

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Hi, my name's Wendy, and I'm in charge of passion and sparkle at ALMOST PERFECT, where I help women over 45 reclaim their identity.  No more people pleasing, overeating and not feeling good enough; changing their lives to be happy. No diets, no shame, no judgement.

This week I'm joined by my special guest Hannah Charman, a Consultant Medical Herbalist who provides natural healing through herbal medicine, and that includes all kinds of health issues including menopause and peri-menopause symptoms.


If you'd like to connect with Hannah you can visit:
Her website | Her Facebook group | Her LinkedIn account

And if you'd like to know a little more about me and my journey of body shame and not being enough click here, visit www.almostperfect.me/about

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Connect with me on:
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Hi, and welcome to the almost perfect podcast. I'm Wendy and I am almost perfect. Well, not quite, if you are a woman who's inundated with the things you need to do and the people you need to do those things for. If you are overwhelmed. Or if you think you started to lose your identity and don't recognize yourself anymore, then you are in the right place.

You are beautiful, you are amazing, and you are, I'm gonna help you see that in true Italian style. So come in and let's have a chat. Hello? Hello. Hello, chow. Welcome to this edition of the almost perfect podcast. I have a special guest with me today. Hannah Charman Hannah is, we were just discussing it.

Hannah is actually in where I, where I grew up as a child and she lives in a very, very beautiful area. So we've just been discussing that. But Hannah, isn't here to talk abouts all the beautifuls Hills or anything like that. Hannah. Is a physical health herbal. Sorry, Hannah. I'll get it right in a minute.

Tell me what you do. Yeah, I'm a medical herbalist. I'm medical herbalist. Thank you. I've got so excited by by talking about Shropshire. I don't even forgot what you did. I know. So perhaps you'd like to start by telling us a little bit about yourself and what made you decide to, to deal in herbal. It, it kind of chose me rather than me choosing it.

So it's a very long story and it goes back about 30 years. Okay. To when I was 14. So I was very keen to be a vet. That's all I wanted to do and nothing was gonna stop me being a vet. So I worked very hard at school and I had a different hobby every night of the week. And you know, I was perfectly happy, healthy school girl.

And then one day my dad picked me up from school in the. And on the way home, we stopped at the shops and he asked me to get it out and get something from the shop and I couldn't get outta the car. Oh. So in the space of five minutes, I'd gone from being perfectly happy and healthy to not being able to move.

And that was the start of two years of chronic fatigue syndrome. Oh, so yeah, so I was kind of left my own devices for a couple of weeks just to see if I'd get better on my own. And that was not happening. So my dad took me to see, I was gonna say the vet, I didn't to a vet. I went to a GP. He had to hold me up to get me into the surgery.

So it was kind of pretty obvious that something wasn't right. But this GP took one, look at me and basically said I was making it all up. It was all in my head just to get out of going to school. And he advised my dad to take me to see an educational psychologist. And that was really all the help that we were ever gonna get from the NHS.

Gosh, when, what year can you, do you mind me asking you what year that was about 1990 ish, 91? Gosh, it's not that I think. Not that long ago. No. And that was pretty common back in those days. I think doctors have got a bit more of a grip on. Chronic fatigue syndrome now then no more clue up on how to treat it, but they totally sort of understand a bit more about what, what it's all about.

Mm. So we basically had no choice other than to see different alternative practitioners. And we were very fortunate that we were able to do that. Mm-hmm so we got to see a couple of homeopaths and a hypnotherapist and a Reiki practitioner. Between everyone, they kind of got me back on my feet again within a couple of years.

But the pivotal moment for me was when I went to see the homeopathic doctor after having seen that GP mm-hmm and he was the polar opposite and he sit and sat and listened to everything I said, yeah. And he did some tests and he asked me lots of questions and I just sat there thinking. This man actually wants to help me.

He actually is trying to understand what's going on and he seems to know what he's talking about and I think I'm actually gonna be alright. Mm. And then I decided. I didn't want to be a vet anymore. I wanted to do something like what he was doing. Yeah. And help other people to feel like I felt yeah.

When they'd been written off by mainstream medicine. So that set me on a whole different path and it just sort of, there was a by chance, there was a new degree course in herbal medicine, setting up at middle sex university. And I managed to get onto that degree course. And the rest is history. But I wanted to ask you, you mentioned two, a couple of things there.

What the, I use homeopathic medicine here, but I will maybe talk about that in a bit, but what, what's the difference actually, between homeopathic medicine and herbal medicine? Is there a difference? There is a difference. Okay. So homeopathic medicine works on a purely energetic level. So you can't analyze pathic medicines in a, a standard laboratory and see how they're working.

Mm-hmm so very briefly for people who dunno how homeopathy works, what we do is they take what they call a mother tincture. So they make an extract of, it could be a plant, or it could be a mineral or a animal even mm-hmm. And then they put one drop of that into a hundred drops of water and one drop of that into another a hundred drops of water and they keep diluting it more and more and more, but the more they dilute it, the more powerful that medicine gets because it's working on a purely energetic level.

We don't really fully understand how it works, but it definitely does. It does. Whereas with herbal medicine, we are using straight herb black extracts. So it's always for plants. Or now we're starting to use medicinal mushrooms a little bit as well, but they are pharmacologically active as well as being energetic.

And you can analyze them in laboratories and start to unpick. Exactly what they're doing and how they're working, so that do you get the same sort of results from both homeopathic and herbal, then you can do, they can treat similar things. I mean, my son's on homeopathy. He has a genetic condition where he's basically missing an enzyme that his liver should be able to make and it can't make enough of it.

Mm-hmm so he has a homeopathic version of that enzyme. And it really, really helps to manage his condition. Mm. And even the doctors at the hospital is under agreed that they, you know, there's no question that this homeopathy is working now. That's something that we couldn't do with herbs. Right. So there is, you know, each has their own, you know, unique things that they can do, but on the whole.

Yes, herbal medicine and homeopathy treat very similar conditions. And we're always trying to treat the, the whole person and not the individual symptoms. Perfect. That, that is why I like that sort of medicine so much is because you see the chemical industry now making medicines and everybody, I know a lot of awful lot of people now being put on things like antidepressants and things like that.

Yeah. To keep them flat mm-hmm so they don't have any experiences, but there are so many things out there that can. Natural things that can help with the right help. Obviously you not a very good idea to diagnose yourself, but people like yourself who know what they're doing can, can really make.

Someone's life so much better from just natural products, no chemicals whatsoever. So that's, that's I really, really appreciate that. And one of the reasons I asked you on, because I've heard, I've been talking to a lot of women recently about HRT and things like that. And about in the UK, how menopause and, and treatments are not quite so forthcoming or not, not available in the UK.

So I was gonna ask you. Are there things that you can do or help women who are suffering from either perimenopause symptoms or menopausal symptoms that herbal remedies can actually help with? Absolutely. It's probably about 80% of the work that I do as a herbalist. Right. I've actually in the last few years, brought in health coaching and this year I've brought in hip therapy as well to run alongside the herbal medicine.

Mm-hmm. The reason being that I was a few years ago, noticing that my patients were coming in and having their consultation going away to take their herbs. And then they were eating like pine chips for tea every night. and sitting on the soap instead of exercising. Yeah. And needless to say, there's only so much the herbs can do mm-hmm when you're not supporting them by getting the basics of good health in place.

I started to bring in health coaching, cuz I've accumulated quite a, a lot of knowledge over the last 20 years or so. So I sort of structured that into a program and started to add that in and the, the results just improved massively mm-hmm and very fast. Good. And then the hypnotherapy is more for things like, you know, we we've all done it.

You have a choice between a cake and a chicken salad and you know that the chicken salad is the healthier option, but you still always go for the cake. And you know, that's right, occasionally, but when it becomes a habit again, you're, you're gonna be up, up against it a little bit. If you keep choosing cake over salad.

So that's where the hypnotherapy comes in, really to work more on a deeper level to try and understand, you know, why that's happening and, and change that blueprint. So, so for, for women, say for example maybe they're having hot flashes. They they're very tired, sleeping and things like that. Are there is, is there anything you can perhaps suggest that they might be able to try?

Obviously they can come and see and talk to you? Yes. But is there anything that, that they can try it themselves at home to start with? Yeah. I mean, it's a very individual thing cause there's lots of reasons why women get hot flushes and it's okay. Estrogen comes into it, but low serotonin as well. The neurotransmitter serotonin tends to drop at certain points during perimenopause.

And that can cause hot flushes as well. So it really depends on exactly what the causes, but you know, one traditional herb for hot flushes is stage, which a lot of us have in our garden. And the folklore around Sage says that if you have a very big, strong Sage plant growing in your garden, it's the lady of the house who is in charge.

Ooh. So obviously I've really looked after my Sage Bush. I was gonna say to you that's the outside my back door. Is this huge Sage yeah, there you go. The other boss. Oh, wow. There we are. That's that's good news, but just very simple. Sage tea, few Sage leaves torn up, put it into. Mug of hot water, cover it and allow it to brew for a few minutes.

And then obviously let it cool down a lot before you drink it. Mm. Sometimes that is enough to do the trick. Mm. Other times you need something else. Yeah. But it's always worth a go. And also introducing lots of pH estrogens into your diet as well. What does that, what does that mean? Phyto is so phyto.

Estrogens are basically. Plant constituents that have a weak estrogen activity on the body. So they're not as powerful as your own homemade estrogen, but they have a weak estrogen effect enough to bring things back into balance. So we are talking about things like flaxseed. Fermented. Soyer not, don't use unfermented soy, don't go out having soy milks and, you know Edam beans and all those sorts of things, but fermented soy.

So things like meso and Tempe organic, if you can, mm-hmm are really good. Sources of phytoestrogens is another one. So yeah, there's, there's all these things you can do, but read up on your fight to estrogens and try and make sure that you get a good balance in your diet. If you can do the self-care things first mm-hmm.

You might be lucky and it might just all work out fine. And if not, then you would probably need to come and see someone like me, but it's always best to, you know, get the diet right. Get the exercise. Right. Make sure you're sleeping. Okay. Mm-hmm, get all of those basic and it's not rocket science. It's all stuff we know.

We, we could be doing, you mentioned sleep there. So is I, this I'm, I'm, I'm suffering at the moment with with the heat, but Is there anything, for example, you've mentioned, Sage is good for hot flashes and things like that. Is there anything that's we could maybe find in our garden? That would be good to help us sleep of Cama mile, I think is, is, is a, you can always buy Cama Mar tea and we have some very nice CA Mar tea here in Italy, but is there anything else that we can, we can be doing?

You could, well, at this time, if you're in the UK lemon bar is really good, works in a very similar way to Kama mile. Okay. And fresh lemon bar tea is lovely. So again, you just need to make sure that you are, you're making it nice and strong. So if you were using Camile teabags, you need two teabags to the mug full, right?

And then you need to make sure you cover it whilst it's brewing, because otherwise you're losing all the volatile oils off into the air. So you want keep them in the, in the mug and the same with lemon B fresh lemon, B tea, you need a good handful of leaves to a muck full of water. So those are, you know, pretty good standard, mild herbal sedatives.

Mm. And then there are stronger ones you can get like Valer and passion flour, which are a little bit more complicated to make into medicine at home can be done, but it's quite a palava. So you're probably better off getting tablets and things, but you know, a lot of people even take things like the calms, which is V valerian and passion flour, I think.

And they say, well, it doesn't work. And I give them the same herbs in a tinter and it does work. A lot depends on the quality of, of what you're taking. Yeah. And the form that you're taking it in, it's not necessarily that the herbs don't work. It is something else. Not quite right, because we can actually buy here, which I bought a of weeks ago is a passion, flour and cannabis oil tea.

But, okay. Yeah. But I'm not sure is it worked really, to be honest with you, it was very expensive. No, again, it comes back down to what's stopping you from sleeping. Yeah. Yeah. And very often if you are falling asleep. Okay. But waking up in the early hours, sort of two o'clock in the morning or so mm-hmm, it's a sign that you're on your way to burnout and that requires you need a day mix.

Then you need herbs to take during the day. To, to try and build you up again and restore you and, and keep you calmed down. Mm. And then you, I give my patients a separate sleep mix to take at night as well. Okay. So really the best thing is, is to, as you said, get your diet and exercise right first. Yeah.

Then if it's continues, we basics in place. Do your self care, you know, try your camera Mar see how you go with that. And take it from there. Mm-hmm and then come and see someone who knows what they're doing and can actually help you properly. Yeah. The nice thing about herbal medicine is that there's always something you can do.

You're never left with no options. Yeah. And that the side effects are minimal. Aren't they? I mean, you know what you're doing? So again, you, you are, it's not like taking too many aspirin or anything like that, where it's gonna hurt your stomach. It's they're, they're all pretty, pretty much gentle. Aren't.

For your body. They are. I mean, compared to mainstream medicines, herbal medicine is very safe. So my public liability insurance premium is the only bill I get every year. That's gone down since I first qualified. So when I first qualified, it was 85 pounds a year. Wow. It's now 55 pounds a year. Well, if I was a prescribing GP in the UK working full time, do you know what my insurance premium would be?

Have a guess. AB absolutely. I really have no idea. 8,000 pounds a year. Really? Yeah. So that just goes to show the risk. Gosh, of each doesn't it, the risk is in the prescribing because non prescribing GPS who just do things like occupational health, their, their premiums are much lower. Yeah. It's the prescribing part that bumps up the premiums.

Right. So there you go. Well, that's really interesting. Thank you so much for that. I was gonna ask you about HRT. Is there other things, I mean, if somebody wanted or thought they needed HRT or maybe like you see a lot of people on, you know, you go into a Facebook group for example, and there's all these women saying you know, I think I need it and whatever.

I, is there something, if someone came to you, is there an alternative to those sort of treatments. There are lots of alternatives, but I can't say, well, take back. And it's a direct replacement for that because it's not quite how hopeful medicine. So at the moment, there's a lot of media attention being put onto party and, and the panacea that it is mm-hmm supposedly.

Yeah. But what we don't hear so much of is from those ladies who just don't get on with HR for whatever reason. Right. And I do come across quite a few mm-hmm so the short answer is if you feel that HRT is not your thing, for whatever reason. Mm. You can get at least as good effect with herbs and at least fast, brilliant as well.

So, you know, programs that I put together, we are looking to get an 80% improvement within eight to 12 weeks. And normally we do get it right. That's excellent. Yeah, it's quick. You know, I've had a lady who had, she was getting something like three or four hot flushes an hour, day and night, and she went to four hot flushes a day within four weeks.

Wow. It can work really fast if you get the combination, right. Mm-hmm , it can work really fast. So do you see your, your clients in person or can they also be done via say like zoom or something like that? Most of my patients are still online. Mm-hmm obviously everyone went online during the first lockdown and which was a good thing for me in a way, because it meant I could work with a much wider audience and I didn't have to stick with local clients.

Yeah. So most are still online, but I am starting to get a few more locally who want to come and see me now as well, which is lovely. Cause it's nice to see real people face to face. Isn't it? Oh, oh yes, it is very nice. Indeed. What I wanted to ask you, what is your top peeve? So what is it people say about what you do or, or what do they share, which is incorrect about your industry, the, her, the herbal industry.

Oh, that's an interesting one. I don't really know these days. I mean, historically we've had a lot of comments along the lines of, well, herbal medicine doesn't work. It's a load of rubbish. We don't hear so well, I don't hear so much of that these days. It's interesting because. You know, for decades, probably more than that.

Hundreds of years, in fact, her have been talking about, you know, the whole package, the whole you've gotta eat. Right. And you've gotta get your exercise and your sleep and all of that. And we've been saying certainly since I've been qualified that the NHS needs to kind of embrace this a bit and work preventatively and educators about our health and we've been labeled quacks and Charlas and all sorts of things for it.

And now all of a sudden lifestyle medicine is the new in thing mm-hmm , and it's very popular and, you know, it's endorsed by the Royal college of GPS and so on. It's like, but we've been saying this forever, finally the Penny's dropped, which is a good thing. Good. So yeah, but on the whole, I don't have any gripes really.

Oh, well, that's perfect then. I'm very lucky. Yeah. Well, , you are very unusual. Right. I think I just mix in the right circles. Yeah. Maybe that's the, that maybe that's the answer. Okay. The final question. So this is a bit of a, a more, I think I know what you're gonna, I think I know how you'll answer this one, but I'm gonna ask it anyway.

If you are not feeling in love with your body, as it is, maybe we think we'll too old or too fat or just a bit rubbish. Could you suggest an easy step or could you suggest a step that we could take how to reverse that feeling? Well, I'll tell you what I've done because I found myself like a lot of people during the lockdown, even though I was actually doing quite a bit of exercise, I was piling the weight on mm-hmm I suppose eating was one of the few pleasures we could still hang onto wasn't it?

Yes. So I used to treat myself rather more than I perhaps should have done. And so I kind of took myself in hand a bit after all that. And I reduced my portion sizes. I went out and bought smaller plates so that I could eat smaller portions and not notice. and I used my herbs to balance my hormones.

So I knew I had the two of the three in the triangle that you need to lose weight. But my missing link was exercise because I've never, ever been motivated to exercise. I hated PE at school. And so I didn't try. So I was then the last to be picked for all the teams and I just, the whole idea of exercise really just didn't sit well with me at all.

Mm-hmm . And so recently I've had hypnotherapy with a friend of mine, motivate me to exercise. And now I'm in the swimming pool twice a week at six 30 in the morning. And I go for walks and I ride horses and I do all sorts of things. And I've got. Quite addicted to exercise, actually. Yeah. Cause you just feel better.

You get the endorphins, you tone up a bit, even if you can just notice a small change in the shape of your body. Even if you feel like you're not losing the fat, you just feel better for making the effort. And I think so. Yeah. That's, what's worked for me. I think what you also just highlighted there was as well.

It doesn't have to be mainstream exercise. It doesn't have to be gym, no weights. It, it can be things like dancing H horse riding. You know, you, you're using your, you are still using energy, doing all that. It's actually doing things that you enjoy. Yeah, absolutely. You got you. What's the point of doing it?

If you're not gonna enjoy it, you're not, you're not gonna stick with it. I have tried gyms and it's just not my thing. No, no. Like for lots of people, but I'm looking after my friends four horses this week, so that's keeping me fixed. Oh, wow. They're lovely. But they're really hard work. . Well I'd like to thank you so much for coming on.

It's really, really great to hear some news that we, we can actually be healthy and still use natural products rather than having to use chemicals to keep us bit and healthy. I'm, there's no interruptions I'm going. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put all your details to your website or your links, your soap your Facebook group.

I know you're on LinkedIn as well. And I'm gonna put that in the podcast notes. So that anyone who is, who's looking for some help with not just menopause, but other treatments and fat. Now I'm sure you do a deal a lot with fatigue and things like that. Yeah. All that stuff, or, right. So I'm gonna put all that, a link to all that at the bottom, in the podcast notes.

So that people can get in touch with you. And I really do appreciate you taking the time out because I know you're busy to come and talk to us and I'll see you soon.