Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) is a thorny tree found here and there along the railway lines and roadsides of Victoria where it reaches a height of up to ten metres. It was planted as an ornamental tree to remind the settlers of the ‘old country’, and the red haws, which appear soon after the pleasant-smelling flowers, contain a white flesh surrounding a hard seed.

Hawthorn is traditionally considered a heart tonic and is used for the treatment of angina, high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat. The herbalist Maurice Messegue says that it treats vertigo as well as high blood pressure, and that it is also one of the best tranquilisers available in herbal medicine. This is because it calms patients with palpitations, breathing difficulties, insomnia, and anxiety due to heart conditions.²

Clinical trials have confirmed the traditional usage of hawthorn, finding that it can increase cardiac contraction and coronary blood flow. It also decreases oxygen demand by the heart muscle, is hypotensive in activity, protects the circulatory system against damage, and stabilises the heart’s rhythm. On top if this, hawthorn has marked antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity.³

One middle-aged patient who had a tendency to ‘worry about everything’ came to the clinic with palpitations and high blood pressure, as well as elevated blood cholesterol, a condition for which hawthorn is also indicated. She tried hawthorn flowers and leaves in the form of a tea and found that it soon calmed her down satisfactorily, but she needed to take it for months to have a cholesterol-lowering effect. In this respect, William Boericke calls a tincture made from the berries, a solvent of ‘crustaceous and calcareous deposits in arteries.’⁴

Hardening of the arteries is a normal process associated with aging that involves the thickening of the vessel walls. This occurs because muscle cells and collagen move into the inner layers of the vessel wall, reducing its flexibility and size. Plaque formation, on the other hand, is an abnormal inflammatory process which begins with small injuries in the vessel walls due to a loss of integrity of the tissues. This loss is the result of a number of factors including inflexibility, increased blood pressure, sustained high blood sugar, the accumulation of oxidised fats, as well as nutrient deficiencies and elevated homocysteine. White blood cells migrate to the site and attempt to quarantine oxidised fats which are toxic to the vessel wall, and form a fatty streak in the process. These fatty streaks release free radicals and inflammatory cytokines which in turn cause more tissue damage and immune dysfunction, contributing to the development of the fatty streak into plaque.

According to Peter Holmes, hawthorn acts on hard deposits other than arterial plaque such as gall and kidney stones, but he still uses it as a circulatory system tonic, helping to improve the circulation, especially after any illness or injury to the heart.⁵ For example, this might be an injury to tissues following a heart attack, as suffered by one of my patients, where an infarct weakened his heart muscle but did not kill him. He had slightly elevated cholesterol, atherosclerosis, and was still weak and nervous after leaving hospital. His specialist prescribed him a statin which caused additional muscle weakness and made him feel ‘foggy,’ common side-effects of this class of medical drug. As an alternative he was given hawthorn tincture in 10 drop doses three times a day over six months. Fluid retention can add to the picture of cardiac problems and hawthorn is also a good diuretic.

Replacing statin use is a straightforward approach if side-effects are a serious problem: hawthorn, ginkgo, garlic, green tea and turmeric are herbs to be considered for stabilising circulatory conditions. The healing of the whole body must be supported with a wholefood diet that contains such nutrients as vitamins, minerals, nutritious fats and fibre. Nutritious fats are found in oily fish, cod-liver oil, olives, avocados and of course organic butter, foods which also contain the crucial fat-soluble vitamins necessary for heart health. Trans fats, refined sugar and synthetic sweeteners are to be strictly avoided because they damage the circulatory system. CoQ10 is also an important heart nutrient and a deficiency is actually caused by statin use.⁶

This article is an extract from the eBook Wholefoods And Common Medicinal Herbs. The controversial subject of statins is covered in Cholesterol, Statins, Herbs And Nutritionism.

Disclaimer: this article is intended for the purpose of general education only, and is not a substitute for diagnosis, treatment advice, or a prescription that is given in a consultation with a qualified physician.

References:

1.         Cribb J. Wild Food In Australia. Collins/Angus & Robertson; 1990.

2.         Messegue M. Health Secrets Of Plants And Herbs. Collins; 1976.

3.         Braun, Cohen. Herbs & Natural Supplements, An Evidence-based guide. Elsevier; 2005.

4.         Boericke W. Pocket Manual Of Homoeopathic Materia Medica, c. 1927. Delhi: Indian Books & Periodical Publishers; 2007.

5.         Holmes P. The Energetics of Western Herbs. Artemis; 1989.

6.         Duncan AJ, Hargreaves IP, Damian MS, Land JM, Heales SJR. Decreased ubiquinone availability and impaired mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase activity associated with statin treatment. Toxicol Mech Methods 2009;19:44–50.

7.         De Bairacli Levy J. The Complete Herbal Handbook For Farm And Stable. London: Faber And Faber; 1973.