The Benefits of Feverfew

Feverfew has many common uses as a medicinal herb. It originated in Europe and some places in the Balkans, its name comes from the Latin Febri Fugia meaning the "drier outer of fevers". Feverfew has by now made its way to North and South America and grows on both continents. Feverfew resembles chamomile in how it looks but has a few differences of course. It's yellow green leaves alternate and turn downwards, they have small short hairs and these leaves are the most important part used in herbal medicine.

The most well known health benefit of Feverfew in the modern day is that used most often to help relieve severe headaches and migraines, both as a preventative and as a reliever of ongoing migraines and headaches. It does this by relaxing tension in the blood vessels of the brain. This effect is caused by a chemical contained in feverfew called parthenolide. Parthenolide has the benefit, the effect, of inhibiting the release of serotonin, histamine and inflammatory substances that cause blood vessels to spasm and become inflamed.

This leads to a few of the other beneficial effects that Feverfew is reputed to have. Feverfew is known, especially in its original usage, to reduce fever when consumed as a tea (as it is consumed to counteract headaches and migraines as well.) Also a byproduct of it's relaxing tension in blood vessels is that feverfew is incredibly beneficial to your joints. It reduces inflammation of the joints and helps to reduce pain throughout the entire body. Something like consuming asprin minus the side effects. This is an incredibly beneficial effect for those whom suffer from joint pain due to arthritis.

A few other minor uses of feverfew are to drink the tea when one has a cold, as an herbal remedy for it. Yet another use for feverfew is to reduce menstrual cramping. All of the uses I've listed above for feverfew involve it being ingested in the form of a few leaves being boiled in a single cup, along with some added honey to help with flavor and easing the throat in case of irritation.

Something to be remembered is that feverfew is both a long term preventative and a short term cure to address the above problems. It's excellent for fevers, colds, joint pains and of course migraines and headaches. Feverfew has few side effects though it does cause eczema and skin irritation in those that are allergic to it.