Purehealth News: Hibiscus Superfood for MCAS, Diabetes, Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, New PCOS Factsheet and more…

Hi everyone, happy week x

I hope you enjoyed the new Substack linky-look type newsletter last week. Over 65% of you opened it and read it, so I’m guessing it was OK. Of course, I’d like that to be 100% but I’m an eternal optimist! Do let me have any thoughts – this is a service for you so I want it to do and be something that truly helps.

I hope it was a smooth transition for those of you who I migrated from WordPress to Substack last week. As I said, I realised that hardly any of you were actually being sent, let alone were receiving, my newsletters, so I’m hoping things will improve as I send them via Substack for you. Let me know any thoughts/issues, of course.

Update on P, for those of you who have been asking after his fall: he’s doing really well. Wounds healing after surgeries, off the morphine after 5 weeks – pretty good going! – and we managed to get him across the road on his crutches this week to stand by the sea. A relief after being confined indoors for 5 weeks. For both of us!

Anyway, thank you for your lovely, kind messages and support; it has meant a lot to us x

OK, to this week’s posts for you. Enjoy x

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Hibiscus Tea

I always used to love rosehip tea. I used to make a jug of it using a filter coffee machine and have it ready for myself and patients in the Uppermill clinic. Or I might change the tea depending on who was in next eg: chamomile for someone with anxiety, licorice for adrenal support, peppermint or fennel for IBS people. But it was mostly rosehip as it’s high in Vitamin C and, well, a pretty colour!

With my increasing hypersensitivity, though, I found I couldn’t tolerate either teabags (corny/plasticy) or dried tea leaves of any type (moulds??). I even tried some rosehip powder, but instant inflammation reaction. Boo. Recently, though, I saw Bionutri released a range of teas, which are pure ground plant material, so I thought I’d give them a go. Teas can be a really easy, useful way to get nutrients or herbal substances in if you can’t tolerate capsules.

So, which to choose?

I went for hibiscus first, I admit, because I love the colour again. I’m a sucker for pretty and healthy! I was looking for some way of lowering my mast cell reactions and histamine levels as a sort of prelude to trying to get some supplements in again to help balance my hormones, blood sugar, liver etc etc etc – test results always show up too many things for me to cope with, so I prioritised those! I discovered that hibiscus is pretty high in quercetin, a key mast cell and histamine stabiliser. Yay. I’ve never managed to get a quercetin supplement in, which is the first thing I always give in MCAS cases.

But it turns out, it is also fantastic for diabetes, high blood pressure and lipid issues – metabolic syndrome, if you like. There are tons of studies on it; here’s a good overall review one:

it is reported to exhibit hypoglycemic, antioxidant, hypotensive, and anti-lipidemic activities…

Apart from being a source of dietary fiber, protein, carbohydrates, and small amounts of lipids, the roselle calyces are also a source of….nutrients such as riboflavin, thiamine or niacin, β-carotene as a provitamin A, and a high content of ascorbic acid [5,10,12,13]….iron, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, or zinc [10,12,13,14]. Additionally, Hibiscus sabdariffa is also a great source of phytochemicals…

Hibiscus sabdariffa in Diabetes Prevention and Treatment—Does It Work? An Evidence-Based Review

The strongest research seems to be on its ability to lower blood pressure (note that if yours is low already, maybe not a good idea for you?). Research also suggests it can help the kidneys, the liver, help regenerate pancreatic cells, is anti-inflammatory – including neuroinflammation, which is a big deal – can improve gut health (including slow peristalsis and act as a prebiotic), improves blood flow and is antibiotic. It also contains some phyto-oestrogen, so some countries have a history of using it to help menopause. Blimey. I stumbled across a good one here! Read the review above for more on these properties. You can do as I did and go down a veritable rabbit hole with hibiscus on Pub Med.

How to use hibiscus

You can buy hibiscus flowers and make your own tea from those. Just make sure they come from a good source if you want good health benefits. I tend to get dried flowers and herbs from Baldwins or Napiers myself. You can grind them down into a fine powder, or use one already done for you.

I have tried two different makes of the tea/powder so far – both good. Aquasol and Aduna. I have it as a straight tea – quarter/half a teaspoon in hot water and stir. I don’t add anything as I like the clean, sour-ish taste, although I know some people add something sweet like stevia etc. I have also added a teaspoon to my morning almond/flax/coconut porridge mix so I get pink porridge, which makes me smile! And I add it to my smoothies. I’m basically aiming for a teaspoon a day, more or less, see how I get on. I couldn’t find much info on dosage of teas but 1-2 cups a day seemed to be most often mentioned.

I’m hoping it will help me to bring my blood glucose level down and improve my insulin resistance, but also reduce my histamine and mast cell levels so I become less reactive. Hormone and liver support would be good, too. Am I asking too much of a tea? Signs are good so far, but it’s early days.

You can get hibiscus in capsules, but I find they tend to come with other stuff, so it depends what you are taking it for. For example, I will often recommend a fibre taken before meals for diabetes/blood sugar/weight loss and see this one contains a goodly amount of hibiscus in it. If you want to use it more for liver, detox and gallbladder health, this is a different combo.

If you fancy trying some, here are a couple of great recipes to inspire you. I’m going to try this one next, see if I can get chia in.

Hibiscus Chia Pudding

I haven’t quite decided what to do to sweeten it a bit – ideas?

Or how about this histamine/MCAS tea from the greatly-missed Beth at MastCell360.

Or a hibiscus smoothie idea from the -again, greatly missed – Yasmina at Healing Histamine.

I note that the traditional iced hibiscus tea (Agua de Jamaica) common in Mexico adds lots of different spices (and a LOT of sugar!) to the hibiscus. Cloves, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg are common. You can see that recipe here. Maybe cut the sugar down, though, or use stevia/monk fruit?

Safety notes (from Aduna)

If you are breastfeeding, pregnant, have diabetes, low blood pressure, are awaiting surgery or on medication, please speak to a healthcare professional before using. For further information on medical interactions, please see here.

Just note that hibiscus seems to be very effective, especially at reducing blood pressure, so maybe not a good idea if yours is generally low – certainly, keep an eye on it. Same goes for if you are on diabetic meds – keep your eye out that your blood glucose does not drop too low with a combo of the two in your system. Ed.

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Regenerus Test Ordering

A clinic update for you now. Those of you who order tests direct via my link to Regenerus labs will notice that the link is no longer working, sadly. Regenerus have merged with Omnos, a different lab company, which is why some of your lab reports and emails look a little different. As part of their merger, they are changing systems, so my direct order lab link will no longer work. You will now only be able to order through me, sorry.

Obviously, that link is all over the place in books, emails etc, so if you come across them, I apologise. Not a fat lot I can do other than go round and change them all – which would take weeks! Anyway, apologies for the inconvenience. Having the lab link for you to order direct saved me a LOT of admin time inputting data – a daft use of my advanced practitioner skills! – and meant that some of you could order a test without having to have huge consultation costs. It was actually pretty rare I had anyone order without some consultation by email/Ask Micki/support options anyway, but I did want to provide a way that everyone could access good health tests, not just richer peeps, you know. I have moaned to Regenerus obviously! Apologies. In short:

Regenerus tests: order via the shop or me using a Lab Test Request if you can’t see what you need.

Note also that when I place RG/Omnos orders for you, you will get an invitation to join the Omnos platform. This is so you can access your results and they do a really good interp report and suggestions, which you can see in your account.

I am one of their first practitioners on the new system, too. Have a peek here.

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New PCOS Factsheet

The very first ebook I ever wrote was on PCOS, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Because I have it. Had it?? I’m now post menopause, so who knows?

I wrote it because I was tired of hearing it was all about ovaries and hormones. It is not. Many women with it never even have cysts on their ovaries, and they can come and go. Mine did. It is a complex metabolic inflammatory disorder related to insulin resistance.

Anyway, I recently went through the latest research and have written you a new PCOS Factsheet for the A-Z. Here’s the intro and you can read the full factsheet here, where I’ve given you a starter protocol:

The second biggest cause of all hormone problems is the woefully under-diagnosed but really common PCOS. PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) is the most common menstrual disorder in women, in fact, and lies behind a whole myriad conditions.

It can be genetic in origin – thanks Mum or Dad – and appears in between 5-18% of women according to research (1 in 8 women in the UK, which is over 4 million), but I’m willing to bet it is much higher! It’s classed as a ‘lifelong’ metabolic, reproductive and psychiatric disorder. I’ve put ‘lifelong’ in inverted commas because I don’t think it is always for life – if it is treated correctly.
70% remain undiagnosed, no licensed med, no NICE treatment guidelines. I mean: come on! Continue reading below for my take on PCOS – it’s a lot more hopeful, I promise!

Symptoms include weight gain (in many but certainly not all), periods all over the place, irregular ovulation, acne and loss of insulin/sugar control, making you starving all the time. Skin tags, male pattern hair loss, but also male pattern hair growth/hirsutism (just not on the head, annoyingly!), darker-coloured skin in folds and armpits because insulin causes pigmentation change. Lovely, huh?

But it is really far-reaching, in fact. It can impair fertility and give you a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and depression (not surprisingly with all that going on!). It’s actually pretty severe and is underestimated far too much. It is a complex disease and is quite tough to turn around, but you can improve things in most cases, mainly by controlling insulin spikes, inflammation, the gut, liver and balancing weight.

I wish someone had taught me all this as I have had PCOS since my teens!!

I then go through PCOS diagnostics and give you a PCOS Diet and Treatment overview.

Bonus Tip: If you have hair loss, the most common cause is actually PCOS, not hypothyroid or stress, as everyone always thinks! Check my Hair Loss factsheet here for more on that.

Anyway, do check it out and share it so we can get that diagnosis level up a bit!