Lemon Balm Benefits and Uses (Melissa Officinalis)

Hello friends, Heidi here from Rain Country. God is good all the time. And I have to say I am thankful for the many great herbs that he gives us that is so good for healing all kinds of issues that we may have. And the herb I'm going to be talking about today is lemon balm. So you can see right here I have a bunch of fresh lemon balm. I just went out in the rain and gathered up and here is some dried lemon balm so far. I have more on the dehydrators right now. So first I'm going to go ahead and list off the benefits that I compiled and please keep in mind when I gather this information for these various herbs, I get them from various different sites. I get them from natural health sites, but I also get them from the NIH. And what was interesting, there's a lot of data about lemon balm that is positive that you can find on the NIH and its many uses. So pretty much all of this stuff I'm listing off is backed up by that data. Here's the Latin name here. I'm not good at remembering botanical names for all the various herbs, but I'll go ahead and list it here so you can see it. And also lemon balm is in the mint family. So it does grow quite a bit like any other mint. It can take over a garden. Thankfully for us here, it does grow well, but it doesn't overtake things the way peppermint does. Peppermint is probably my most invasive mint that I grow. Oh, actually no, mojito mint is the most invasive, which actually does look quite a bit like lemon balm, but it's really easy to tell the difference because of the aroma and the flavor. So lemon balm is named that because it has a very lemony taste and smell to it. So let me go ahead and read off the benefits and then I'll talk about my favorite ways to use lemon balm. So lemon balm is really great at helping to relieve stress and anxiety and lift the mood in general, which would tell me it would be also a good antidepressant if you're looking for something like that. And it's also very good for cognitive function. In fact, some of the data was proving it to be very helpful in regards to dementia and Alzheimer's. It will help with insomnia. So because it does help calm anxiety, that's one way it's going to help you get good sleep. Applied topically, it can be used to heal cold sores. It is good for various different digestive issues. So indigestion, nausea and so on. It also has pain relieving properties, so it will help with headaches, menstrual cramps and more. I do know some people prefer to use lemon balm when it comes to reducing pain. It's also good use topically for toothache. So not only would it help with toothache by ingesting it in the form of a tea, eating it fresh or even a powdered encapsulated form, you can also apply it directly into the onto the area by getting a lemon balm oil. Or I would assume you could just take the leaves and chew them up really good, masticate those leaves so you're chewing on it. So that would help. But then also take that masticated blend of the leaves and apply it right to the area and let it just sit on there wherever that toothache is. And because of its natural antioxidant properties, this also means it's helpful at reducing your cancer risk or even helping to heal the body from cancer, as well as helping to prevent diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. And of course, as with most analgesic herbs, that means those that are good at helping to relieve pain, it is also anti-inflammatory. Those two things always go in tandem when you're talking about herbs that are good analgesic. They're also a good anti-inflammatory because a lot of times those two things go together because a lot of times it's inflammation that causes pain. It is also antiviral and antimicrobial. It's also helpful at relaxing muscles, which again is another one of those things I see go in tandem with any herb that is helpful at relieving anxiety and stress. It also is good, just like valerian, at relaxing the muscles because a lot of times our muscles get tense because of stress and anxiety. It's also good at balancing cholesterol levels and at helping nursing mothers to increase their milk production. So the ways that you can use it, I've already kind of touched on, but it's excellent in tea. My favorite way to use it in a tea is in a fresh form. I find it has a much better flavor. Unlike peppermint, I can go either way. Fresh or dried, it makes a great tea. But lemon balm, I find the flavor best if I pick it fresh and use it. So when I make tea with lemon balm, it's always during the time of the year it's coming in fresh. But you can also dehydrate it and make a tea out of it that way. If you're if you don't like the taste of it, but you're wanting to take it medicinally for various things, then you can powder it up and encapsulate it, mix it with water and just drink it down real fast. Or you can also tincture it if you want. Now, I did mention my favorite way to use lemon balm is to use it in teas, though I love lemon balm and I love the flavor of lemon balm tea. I don't do a lot of teas with lemon balm. I'm going to explain why in a moment, though it is great by itself. I do still like blending it with other herbs. I've blended it with catnip to help relieve stress and anxiety. And that had a decent flavor as long as I had more lemon balm than catnip. And it is very helpful at calming the nerves. But as far as flavor goes, my two favorite things to blend it with are either fresh ginger. I just had made some tea last night and it was excellent. So I take the fresh ginger. I put that in the pot first and then I let that simmer for about 10, 15 minutes because you're when you're talking roots, you want to let them simmer. But when you're talking to herbs like this, they're going to be more delicate. You just want them to be in hot, hot water, but you don't want to simmer, boil it at all. So after I get the ginger well infused into the water, I then add the fresh lemon balm to the hot water and then I'll usually set it on a cooler part of the wood stove or even up on a trivet and then just let it steep for about five to 10 minutes and then it's ready and it's wonderful. But another one is when I have the orange mint coming in, which is always one of my last mints to start growing. And orange mint and lemon balm blend very well together because they both have those citrusy flavors. And then one of the new things I've been doing with the lemon balm is adding it to my herbal blend that I mix in with the chicken feed because it is a natural antiviral and it is very good for the chickens. So I have some of my own home dried lemon balm mixed into this blend right here of quite a few herbs. But I have a video just on this that I'll link to in the description box down below on this particular blend, but also on the many other herbs that you can use to make a good antiviral and immune boosting blend to add to your chickens feed. And I would assume that would go do well for your turkeys and ducks. But as I said in that video, I recommend you check it out to make sure all those herbs are safe for turkeys and ducks as well. I don't know why they wouldn't be, but I don't have turkeys and ducks. So that's something I'm going to put in your hands to check out. Now, let me get to the reason why I do not use the lemon balm heavily. As with any herb, it's always important to understand what your body needs and what it doesn't need, what you're allergic to, if you're on any medications, your age, any other underlying conditions you may have before you get into using any herb medicinally. Most herbs are safe to use just for flavoring or occasional cup of tea. But on a regular basis, especially using medicinally, you always have to look into these things for yourself. Now, a lot of you know who've been following this for a while. Patrick and I have been off of our thyroid medications. I think it's been about 10 years now. So we apparently had an underactive thyroid. We were put on medication. We were each on it for 15 years apiece. And finally, I decided about 10 years ago we were going to I was going to take us off of that. And I did it on our own because I did not. I no longer wanted to be dependent on it. And I, by that point, strongly believe that our bodies can heal themselves. So one thing you need to know, if you have low functioning thyroid or it's something that you've been, you know, you you're in the process of healing yourself of or you're it's behind you, even though it's behind us, I still try to take care to not overdo anything that was going to slow down the thyroid function. And lemon balm is one of those that can do that. Now, if you have hyperthyroidism, too high functioning thyroid, then yes, lemon balm is excellent. And it might be something you'll want to make a cup of tea out of that every night or take it in an encapsulated form to help with that. And I did cover that in the video I did not too long back about more about thyroid health that I'll also link to in the description box down below. So for me, even though I feel perfectly safe having a cup of lemon balm tea every so often, I don't use it all the time because of that. I just want to make sure that we keep our thyroid glands healthy and we don't go backwards as far as that goes. So just remember, always look into no matter how much any one person praises a specific herb, always look into it yourself because everybody's going to be different and what they need and what they should and shouldn't have. Just like iodine, you got one person over here saying, oh, you should take iodine. And yes, iodine is great for thyroid health, but not everybody should and can have it. Same thing goes with iron. Same thing goes with many other nutrients and herbs and so on. It's all going to be individualized. So I don't care how professional or how well schooled somebody is in any herb. If they're telling you you should take it and they've been taking it for 20 years and it works good for them, it does not mean it's going to be best for you. And then if you're still not sure and you start taking it, just listen to your body. Pay attention to anything that feels wrong and different and then stop taking it. Stop using it and then see how you feel. Always pay attention to what's going on in your body anytime you're trying anything new. And before I close this video, two things. One is I have a long playlist that I've been working on for nearly six years now that I where I do profiles on various different medicinal herbs. And I'll be linking to that in the description box down below. And also, any of you who like to use lemon balm, what's your favorite way to use it? Do you like to blend it in a tea? Do you tincture it? Do you powder it? How do you use it and how has it helped you? Please share with us in comments down below so people can learn from you as well. And thanks for watching. Take care and God bless.