Feeling Better

Aza and Granolamom, thank you so much. I had so many questions before I found this site and the search feature in this forum is WONDERFUL. I always loved sleeping on my tummy but wasn't sure if I was causing more harm or not. What a relief to learn that it is a good thing. I also walk my little dog about a mile twice a day and always feel better after the walks. I was getting worried though that I might need to stop those walks. Just knowing that I am not the only person going through this is a tremendous help. I am reading Christine's book slowly trying to absorb everything. There is no way that anyone would ever be told this much information by their gyno.

Thank you Clavicula. I am feeling MUCH better today and feel that I am healing. I believe the WW posture is helping. Breathing deep is one thing that I keep reminding myself to do and that too seems to help. I also started back drinking a cup of warm raspberry tea each day. For some reason the warm tea seems to have more of an effect on me than drinking it cold. I live in a community where there are many Amish and it is common for those women to have 8 to 12 children and seem to have no problems. Most of those women drink a lot of raspberry tea, especially when pregnant. I wish I had known what they knew when I was pregnant with my two children. I had very difficult births. I've done a lot of research on raspberry leaf tea since moving to this community and was amaized to find out about all of its good qualities. There was about a 100 ft. row of black raspberries planted on our property and I now collect the leaves each spring and early summer and dry them for my own tea. It is usually red raspberry tea that is found for sale but any of the raspberry leaves have the same medicinal properties.

I found in my research that raspberry leaf is known as a "smart herb", that it only does what needs to be done and that it is safe to drink daily. It is also an herb that helps connective tissues. I've also noticed that my fingernails seem to grow longer and are stronger when I drink this on a regular basis. If I drink a cup at the first sign of a cold or flu, it seems to protect me and if I am already sick before I think to drink the tea, I notice that the symptoms only last 2 or 3 days and aren't as severe as usual. I was also lop-sided since I was a teenager and I noticed after about 6 months that I was no longer lop-sided. The tea isn't bad tasting at all, similar to a good quality black tea. I actually prefer it now over black tea. I just thought this might help someone else.

Yes, according to the research that I have done, all types of raspberry leaves have about the same benefits. I can't tell any difference in the taste either between the red and black. Our little farm was once owned by the Amish and I got curious when we looked at the place before we bought it because the Amish woman was drying raspberry leaves in an upstairs room. This woman already had 8 children with another one on the way. Later, I remembered it and did a search on the Internet and found that it has many more benefits than just those associated with the uterus. There is a wonderful little Amish bulk food store about a mile from my house and they always carry the red raspberry leaf tea. If I run out of my black raspberry tea, then I get red raspberry tea and both types do seem to work the same. During this past summer I mostly drank it cold and for some odd reason it just didn't seem to work as well even though I could tell there were still some benefits. The past few days I have went back to drinking it hot, or at least really warm, and what a difference. I have one of those little mesh stainless steel tea balls that I put it in and I always let it steep for about 10 minutes. I have read that is about how long raspberry tea should steep. I make it fairly strong too, almost as dark as black tea would be.

Hi Clavicula, Please let us know if the raspberry leaf tea seems to help. It is said that it "tones" the uterus. Amish women drink this tea all during their pregnancy because it is suppose to make deliveries much easier. I actually didn't know that it also is said to help with prolapse until several weeks after I had started drinking it. I started off drinking it because of its protection against colds and flu. I noticed several improvements in my health and really got into more research and noticed that it is said to help connective tissues. Now, this is why I became so interested. When I owned horses, two of them (a mother and daughter) had a very bad connective tissue disease that I believe was genetic but that has not actually been proven to date. To make a very long story as short as possible, I have became very interested in any herbs, etc., that will help connective tissue. The conventional vet that I was using when my mare first went lame told me that the kindest thing that I could probably do was euthanize her after the strong pain killer that he had been using on her didn't seem to have any effect. Then I checked with a holistic vet that I knew that only treated small animals but owned horses and knew about them. She suggested several things to me that I tried, one at a time so that I could see whether they had any effect, and the mare slowly improved. There was one supplement though that I tried the last of all because I didn't see how that supplement could help a horse or anything else. My mare was much better but still lame. I went in a health food store and they had the supplement on sale so I bought a bottle just to see. Two days later the mare was not limping at all, even running with her young foal in the pasture. I started taking the supplement myself (it was a human form) for my arthritis and after taking it one day I woke up the next day without a pain in my body. I gave my horses this for about 10 years and there wasn't anyone that could tell they had anything wrong with them.

I had no ideal at the time that this supplement is also said to help connective tissues. I didn't even know at the time that what my horses had was actually a disease because the conventional vet that I was using said that he had never seen anything like it and he was considered the best vet in the area. I have been taking the supplement myself for about 17 years now but have been very lax about it in the last couple of years since my arthritis pain seems to be gone. That may be because of me drinking raspberry leaf tea because that too is suppose to help with arthritis pain. Anyway, I have actually ran out of this supplement and have ordered more but the company is out of stock and had to back-order it. I believe it too may have been helping my prolapse problem but I have searched on the Internet and have not found any reports of it helping with prolapse problems. So, when my shipment finally comes and if I found out that it is indeed helping, then I will let you ladies know exactly what the supplement is.

Sometimes you have to get to the lowest point inorder to climb back up and that is sort of what happened to me. I was doing rather well with my prolapse but thought I would have no choice in having my uterus removed in the future. I found the t-tapp site and I'm sure that the "half frogs" made my prolapse worse after only 2 days. I'll never do them again. Then I found the WW site, ordered the bundle, and have been doing much better since. I've went back to taking better care of myself and plan to continue for the rest of my life. I haven't finished the book yet but have been discussing some of it with my daughter. She asked, "Why don't they teach this stuff in health class?" I agreed with her that they really should.

Clavicula, I'm not sure what TTC is but from all that I have read, raspberry leaves are suppose to be a very safe herb. Safe enough for even children to use and safe enough to use daily. There are not many herbs that I would use on a daily basis. I always give myself a break and take a few days off after using them a week or so but raspberry leaves are said to be completely safe. We are all different and anyone could have a reaction to something that most people wouldn't. Whenever I try a new herb, I listen to my body and if I think I am getting a bad reaction to it then I will knock off for a few days, see if the symptoms clear up, then try it again for a few more days to see if the symptoms come back.

alemama, have you thought of trying the capsules? I just checked at the vitacost site and they do have the raspberry leaves in capsule form. I can't drink the tea straignt myself, need a little sweetner, but I like it much better than black tea. I usually use stevia or raw sugar as a sweetner but anyone could use whatever they feel is best. I love honey but don't like it in my tea. I love cranberry sauce but don't like cranberry juice so occasionally I take cranberry capsules to ward off any urinary tract infections. I've only had it once but never want to have it again so a couple of time a week I just take a capsule and so far, so good.

Hi Clavicula, dumb me. I just did a search and found out what TTC means. I also did a search and according to a pregnancy health site, red raspberry leaf tea is the best tea anyone pregnant or TTC can drink.