Vervain - Supplements Descriptions

Vervain
(Bach)

I suffer from a condition called neurological “tics.” These are minor muscle twitches that can barely be seen by others, but they can be very irritating, especially when they flare-up at night. The best I can explain, it feels like someone is pinching me. And you should be able to image how difficult it would be to sleep with someone pinching you all night long.

At one time I took three different prescription drugs to control these tics, but they never fully kept them under control. And every couple of years the drugs would seem to stop working altogether. As a result, I'd have to go back to the neurologist and experiment with some new drugs until we found something that worked, until the next time. I finally got fed up with it and did some research on my own.

I found that such tics can often be the result of low calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and/ or potassium (K) levels. Magnesium in particular is usually the problem, so I tried experimenting with different Ca, Mg, and K products, and I found that such supplements kept my tics under as good as control as I got from all of the pharmaceutical drugs (see Calcium Citrate Caps).

However, the tics do still flare-up at times. And when they do, they can last anywhere from a few seconds to several hours or even days. Therefore, I did some research on the 'Net looking for a non-drug product I could take to help stop the tics when they flared up, and a product I came across was vervain.

Vervain has been purported to help with several different medical conditions, including seizures. The prescription drugs that I used to take were all anti-seizure medications, so it seemed possible that vervain would help with my tics. I thus looked for a product containing it and came across Bach's Vervain Flower Essence. It comes in a small bottle with an eye dropper. And with experimentation, I have found that it seems to help stop my tics when they flare-up.

Taking a few drops directly on my tongue, every couple of hours seems to work best. However, I have found that if I take more than a few doses in a row I start getting light-headed. Therefore, this is apparently not a perfectly safe product. So I only use it when absolutely necessary.

I get the Bach Vervain. There are also a couple of other vervain products available. One is Nature's Answer's Blue Vervain liquid. It is somewhat less expensive than the Bach product, but it doesn't seem to work as well. I need to take a full eye dropper full to get any effect from it. Another product is Nature's Way Blue Vervain capsules. These I have found do very little. therefore, I would recommend the Bach product as being the most effective, and Nature's Answer as being the second best.

June 22, 2014 Update

I have not used this product in years, and I no longer take supplemental Ca, Mg, or K. I have found as long as I carefully watch my diet, my tics are mostly under control. This makes sense as I get plenty of these minerals in my diet. As for this product, with the light headedness, I didn't think it was wise to keep using it. But if such is a problem for you, it might be worth a try. My God-given Foods Eating Plan and Creationist Diet: Second Edition books detail my eating habits. Keeping negative emotions in check helps keep the tic under control as well.

Bach's, Nature's Answer, and other vervain products are available at iHerb and Amazon.
For iHerb, when checking out, use referral code HOP815 to receive $5.00 off your first order.

The above article was posted on this site June 1, 2004.
It was last updated June 21, 2017.

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