A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ESSENTIAL OIL Vitex Agnus Castus

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ESSENTIAL OIL Vitex Agnus Castus

� 2002 Barbara Chopin Lucks, RA, CMT

American society is rapidly approaching a time when over half the women in the nation will be post-menopausal. Unfortunately, many women fear this transition. Perhaps the fear is well-grounded. So many women have watched their friends or family members struggle through a difficult menopause with disruptive physical and emotional symptoms. They have seen marriages, careers and friendships rocked by �the change�. They have turned to their physicians for help and a �game plan�, but all too often have come away with nothing more than a prescription slip for a menopausal magic bullet. They have seen these pharmaceutical bullets miss the mark while bringing on a host of unwanted side effects.

Does menopause have to be a rocky road? I believe the answer is a firm NO with one important caveat. The menopausal woman MUST take responsibility for her own unique experience. However, there are some very valuable tools for navigating the waters.

Essential oil Vitex agnus castus is quickly proving itself to be a very useful tool for hormonal balancing in many stages of a woman�s life. A small informal study conducted by the Pacific Institute of Aromatherapy showed a remarkable improvement of PMS symptoms in women using the essential oil. The women reported that it worked better than any other herbal or over-the-counter treatments they had used for PMS.

I conducted a small, survey-based study two years ago using the oil as a tool for menopausal balance. 80% of the 23 subjects reported moderate to significant improvement in menopausal symptoms after using the oil for 2-3 months. 10% noted no difference, while the other 10% found that their symptoms worsened. The second round of trials is currently in progress. Results will be reported at the 5 ^{th Scientific Holistic Aromatherapy Conference hosted by PIA in San Francisco and scheduled for October 18-20, 2002}

^{What is this essential oil, and how do you know if it is right for you or your clients?}

^{Vitex agnus castus} ^{has been used in herbal form for many hundreds of years. Native to Mediterranean climates, the plant is a member of the verbenaceae family. The berries are the part traditionally used, most often powdered in capsules or in a tincture. As the botanical name implies, the plant was used to promote chastity, and was so successful in quashing desire in medieval monasteries that it was added to the food as a seasoning, thus earning one of its common names, �monks pepper�. Most people know the plant as chaste tree. It has been used in Europe, and much more recently in the United States, for a wide variety of female hormonal imbalances. Many modern works on menopause, including Christiane Northrup�s �The Wisdom of Menopause�, reference the herb as a valuable tool.}

^{Vitex agnus castus} ^{acts directly on the pituitary, helping to normalize progesterone levels. The exact mode of action, or so-called active ingredient, has not been identified. Much current thinking on menopausal imbalance echoes the work of Dr. John Lee, who proposed that a lack of estrogen is not the culprit behind our menopausal woes. Rather, it may well be a dominance of estrogen and an imbalance of progesterone. The effectiveness of Vitex adds further support to this line of thought.}

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