A student who suffered from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) from a young age has shunned Western medicine to treat her health issues with herbs and stinging nettles.
Ms. Ruiz has also used red clover and stinging nettle tea for balancing her hormones, and oat straw and nervine herbs like lavender to calm anxiety. She says her herbal remedies have also helped with her migraines, irregular periods, and anxiety.
“I’ve been on tons of different meds from a really young age, but now I feel more in balance with myself,” Ms. Ruiz said. “I was put on birth control from a really young age—and now I’m constantly trying to find natural ways to regulate my hormones. It started with juice cleanses, but now I use teas and tinctures.”
Ms. Ruiz had suffered from irregular periods since the age of 14. In 2010, her parents took her to a gynecologist for a scan, which revealed “a lot” of cysts in her ovaries. She was prescribed contraceptive pills, which she took regularly for the next seven years.
“None of us knew any better, so when I was put on birth control, I just took it. And it was horrible from then on,” she said. “I used to have migraines, irregular periods, weight gain, anxiety—so many symptoms; the list goes on. And birth control just made it so much worse; I did not feel like myself.”
“I took my first class in 2017, and from then on I felt like it was meant to be. I was trying out a juice cleanse anyway, for my PCOS symptoms. It all just kind of tied together really,” she said.
Six years later, Ms. Ruiz still studies herbalism alongside running her medicinal herbs business, and she tests all her remedies on friends and family.
The first change Ms. Ruiz noticed when trying different herbs was that her anxiety faded away—that made her think she'd found “the real deal.” Her herbs of choice to ease the symptoms of PCOS include chasteberry vitex, St. John’s Wort, and raspberry leaf tea.
“I’d tell anyone to try raspberry leaf for hormones,” she said. “Some people prefer to take it as a tincture, but I always steep it in hot water and make a tea. It’s a uterine tonic, which means it helps to tone and strengthen the uterus—even though I had extremely irregular periods with PCOS, when I did get it, it would be very heavy and painful.
“This was one of the first symptoms that alleviated when I started drinking raspberry leaf tea. I also saw such a huge improvement in my energy levels, as fatigue was one of my symptoms too.
“I’ve seen such drastic improvements in my cycle; my periods are more frequent with a lot less pelvic pain and discomfort.”
Ms. Ruiz’s favorite herbs include: 1. Chasteberry vitex, red clover, and stinging nettles for regulating hormones 2. Raspberry leaf tea for uterus health 3. Mullein for respiratory conditions like bronchitis 4. Milkvetch plant for clearing mucus 5. Echinacea for boosting immunity
