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Herbal Spotlight: The Powerful Chickweed Health Benefits
Chickweed is a pretty amazing herb. It isn’t always an herb you hear much about though, so I wanted to do a post JUST for chickweed to tell you all how amazing it can be. Do you know all about the chickweed health benefits? Plan to be amazed!
Chickweed is a cooling and moistening herb. It can support the gut, liver, lungs, kidneys, and gallbladder. It’s especially helpful for dry conditions- dry cough, dry throat, dry skin, etc. Chickweed can help the lungs to expel more waste and thus increases respiratory health. This herb can also be used topically in salves or even in baths to help with skin inflammation- think sunburn, bug bits, bruises, and even splinters. Like most herbs, there is SO much that chickweed can help with!
Chickweed Dissolves Fat Cells!!
One of the oldest uses for chickweed is actually for weight loss. Chickweed helps to dissolve fat cells plus it is a great remedy for chronic constipation, so it can seriously help you to shed pounds the right way. Everyone is always looking for a magic weight loss cure, but it usually involves dieting and massive amounts of exercise. This is not a holistic way of looking at weight loss though! Toxins get stored in fat when the liver and colon can’t keep up. Working on liver and colon health will help to finally solve your lifelong weight issue.
The best use for chickweed include dissolving things: cysts, tumors, fat cells (hello, don’t we all need something magical like that?!), thickened mucus, and even bacteria.
Chickweed is Nutrient Dense
We love chickweed because it is truly another amazing, nutrient dense herb! It is high in these minerals: calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, iron, phosphorus, and potassium; and these vitamins: C, A (from carotenes), and B’s such as folate, riboflavin, niacin, and thiamine. Chickweed also has the added benefit of helping to absorb minerals better!
From this article, “Chickweed contains soapy substances, called saponins. Saponins, like soap, emulsify and increase the permeability of cellular membranes. When we consume chickweed those saponins increase our ability to absorb nutrients, especially minerals.”
Chickweed is a Great Bladder Healer
You can use chickweed as a great soothing herb for bladder issues like interstitial cystisis or just bladders that are irritated from too much detox, childbirth, or surgery.
Chickweed is Helpful for Recovery and Exhaustion
Due to it being so nutrient dense, chickweed is another amazing herb for those healing from adrenal fatigue, surgery, childbirth, or anyone with nutritional issues. Infusion form is best to get the most out of chickweed for this purpose though. Chickweed is a great infusion to use if you don’t tolerate nettles as well- it’s not as varied in minerals, but it is still really great!
How to use Chickweed
There are MANY ways to get chickweed into your life, but I’m just going to cover some of the most popular and most effective ways to use it.
Chickweed Herbal Infusions
Herbal Infusions are essentially very strong teas. You can’t really make infusions with just any herb, but chickweed is one of the best herbs that you can use. Infusions are one of the most bio-available foods in the world. They are packed with vitamins, minerals, amino acids, proteins, and more. When you use an infusion you are getting the benefit of the herb PLUS the nutrient content (you won’t get the benefit of the nutrients to this extent any other way).
Infusions are SUPER easy to make as well. It might seem daunting at first, but I promise that it is something incredibly easy and worth learning how to make. Most people can drink 2-4 cups a day for the best benefit, and you can rotate it with the other popular infusions out there.
- Steep one ounce (one cup) of dried herb in a quart Mason jar of hot water for at least 4 hours- leaving it overnight is perfect.
- Strain the herbs with a fine mesh strainer and store the liquid in the fridge. Some reuse the herbs to make another quart or 2.
- Infusions will generally last about 2-4 days in the fridge after making them. If you find yours has gone a little bad, you can use it for any plants you might have or even a hair rinse after you wash your hair! You can get a whole pound of chickweed right here.
- If you are sensitive to starting new things, here is how I would start low and slow: Start with just 1/4 cup of the dried herb in a quart of water instead of a full cup, and start with drinking just a 1/2 cup of that mix a day. Slowly work up to the full amount of chickweed as you feel more comfortable with it!
Chickweed Tincture
Infusions are great if you are wanting to add in more minerals plus the action of the herb, but if you are just looking for the benefits of fat burning, constipation relief, or bladder healing you can just use a tincture like this one.
Chickweed In Food
Yes, you can just eat chickweed to get the benefits from it! Here are some awesome recipes I found to give you some ideas. Or you can check out Susun Weed’s book Healing Wise for more ideas about chickweed and other popular herbs. It may be hard to find fresh chickweed in stores, but if you enjoy foraging here are some tips on how to identify chickweed and how to forage it (or again, check out the Healing Wise book!).
The body is a whole and we must treat it as such! I have my Bachelor of Science in Natural Health Sciences, certificates in Herbal Studies from Herbal Academy, and I am constantly learning more about health to help my clients and followers.
My goal is to help you unleash your own inner healer! You already hold the power to heal inside you. My role is as a guide to help you realize this potential.