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Here are the teas and tea combinations I have tried over the past few months while undergoing chemo. I have found them to work pretty consistently. I take them in conjunction with, not as a substitute for, the prescribed medications I am on to manage the chemo side effects – these are complementary treatments, not substitutes for the real deal – but they have allowed me not to pop quite so many pills morning, noon and night!

Nausea:

Prescription meds: compazine every 6 hours. I take one in the morning, and one in the evening; then I supplement with one of the following, twice a day between those:

Ginger tea: you can use dried ginger root, or fresh ginger root. I like to slice about a quarter-inch of fresh ginger, boil it with the water, and then pour over a green tea; steep for 2 minutes and sip away. You can also do a ginger-lemon tea or a ginger-honey tea – but only do ginger-honey at times when you are not neutropenic.

You can also brew a tea with a cinnamon stick in it – for this, I usually use English Breakfast tea or another black tea, and add a bit of milk and sugar to it. I use only the amount of water I intend to use in the tea, boil the cinnamon stick directly in the water, and then pour over the tea. Steep about 4 minutes.

Diarrhea – hey, it happens, and I hate laxatives. There are a few herbal remedies I have found that do help somewhat with this, though:

Raspberry leaf tea: about 2 ounces of dried raspberry leaf; pour hot water over and steep 2-3 minutes. You can add sweetener, otherwise it doesn’t taste like much.

OR, Blackberry leaf tea – same protocol

OR,

Peppermint tea -same protocol, and also good for calming you down when you are just feeling stressed out.

Insomnia – this is EVIL, but I refuse to take sleeping pills. I wake up probably 4-5 times a night, it’s worse than being pregnant! Kava and Valerian root (taken not together but separately) are supposed to be good for this, but I haven’t had the energy actually to try either during my midnight/1 a.m / 2 a.m./ ohmigod(dess)(e)(s) I need sleep a.m. thrashing about. If you try one of these, do it in a tea infusion steeped for two minutes.

I have a request in to my doctor’s office to experiment with Essiac tea, which is a combination of Sheep Sorrel, Indian Rhubarb Root, Burdock Root, and Slippery Elm and is supposed to help with removing harmful metals and toxins from the blood and as a general fortifier/ strengthener for bones, joints, & etc. It’s been around since the 1920s and apparently has been used with great success as a complementary regimen for cancer treatments, so here’s hoping they roll their eyes and say “Hey, go for it” as they do with most of my herbal attempts.I have used burdock root and slippery elm both in other infusions with success, so I would love to try this out.

And, of course, I take my infusion of lemon and water with Stevia each morning to help flush my liver and kidneys, which I do attribute to not feeling as awful as I probably should post-chemo. Also, none of these is a miracle cure – I still have at least one or two days each cycle where I just can’t get myself out of bed (For me, this is the Tuesday following chemo).

DO NOT TAKE St. John’s Wort during chemo treatment. It may interfere with chemo effectiveness.

What herbal supplements are you finding to be helpful in your own treatments?