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What is it?

The flowers, leaves and berries of Hawthorn are all highly regarded for their therapeutic benefits and are all abundantly produced every year by the strong, long-lived Hawthorn trees.

How has it been used?

Hawthorn has a marvellous folk-history as a heart remedy and restorative and modern studies fully bear out its traditional reputation. This is a fact, without increasing blood pressure or producing any other kind of strain, Hawthorn increases blood flow through the heart and strengthens the heart muscle.

Hawthorn can help:

• Angina
• Hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis)
• Plaque in the arteries (atherosclerosis)
• Enlarged heart from over-work
• Rapid heart beat
• Mild high blood pressure
• Risk of heart attack
• Intermittent claudication (painful legs from poor blood flow)
  

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Personal experiences

Hawthorn is totally safe and can be given without hesitation to anyone with any kind of heart condition, regardless of what other medications that are taking. I would encourage anyone with any of the above problems or even just having a weakening heart from ageing to find out what an extraordinary gift Nature has given us with Hawthorn. However you need to know that it may take quite a time to get its full healing benefits and that you will need to take enough of it to really work.

We have a large and flourishing Hawthorn tree right at the corner of our clinic entrance. It fills with beautiful pink blossoms every spring and then follows up with equally abundant berries in the summer.
I think that all herbalists who regularly use Hawthorn grow to love this plant for how reliably and well it helps so many of us. It is one of the herbs that I use the most in my work.

Hawthorn combines with Motherwort and Valerian for any kind of cardiac stress or blood pressure type problems and with Panax Ginseng and Withania for a tired or weakened heart.

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Highlights of Hawthorn research

A four year study commissioned by the German Ministry of Health, found that it improves contractions in the veins and heart while dilating the heart. (Hoffmann 1995). In a clinical trial with 78 patients with congestive heart failure, hawthorn increased heart working capacity, lowered blood pressure and improved fatigue and endurance while relieving difficult breathing (Schmidt, et. al. 1994) A clinical trial with 46 patients decreased the number of angina attacks by 85% (Chang 1986). A clinical trial with 18 healthy patients found that hawthorn lowered heart rate and blood pressure during exercise and maintained resting heart rate (Hellenbrecht 1990). laboratory and clinical trials have reported that hawthorn lowers cholesterol and triglycerides by improving excretion

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