The Living Herb

The Living Herb Are you facing a long term health issue? I want to help you find a way through your health difficult Please see our website for more information.

Herbal Medicine offers support for health concerns through western diagnosis methods and treatment using plant-based medicines. It combines centuries old traditional use of plants for healing with modern scientific research, based in physics and biochemistry. Victoria is our medical herbalist who offers a rigorous and scientific approach to helping people understand their own health issues thanks

to 10 years’ experience working as a research scientist. This is uniquely combined with compassion and mindfulness following 15 years of meditation training. After 6 years of exhaustive training to be a Medical Herbalist, Victoria was invited to join the National Institute of Medical Herbalists. She is passionate about continued learning so regularly attends further training opportunities and keep up to date with the latest scientific research. We offer help through one-to-one consultations at our private treatment rooms in Wantage and online self-help courses.

04/09/2026

We're finally redefining women's heart attacks!

13/08/2026

So who watched all three then?

Last night we had not one, but two astronomical delights!! The solar eclipse and the peak of the Perseid meteor shower.

And in between I tried out the new version of my free workshop Hormones - what they should have taught you at school.

And if you missed them fear not!

The next solar eclipse in the UK is in 2090, the Perseids continue for the next 10 days and, perhaps more importantly, my workshop is back next month!

09/07/2026

Miss me?

I've been offline and travelling round Mongolis for the last month and wow! What an experience!!

I've learned so much about the culture and medicine there.

I'm finding it really hard to explain but I know what I've learned will come into my practice and how I work with people.

One thing that did strike me though was the plant diversity. You look a green field and suddenly find you are looking a field full of medicinal wild flowers.... from milk vetch (astragalus) and yarrow that are commonly used in Western herbal medicine through to salt orchis and potanin iris which I've never heard of!

I also got to visit a traditional medicine museum where there were hundreds of specimens and old medical texts.

People keep asking whether or not it was a holiday?! 🤣

Three things your PCOS investigation probably never ordered.Most first-line assessments looked for cysts and cycle irreg...
19/05/2026

Three things your PCOS investigation probably never ordered.

Most first-line assessments looked for cysts and cycle irregularity and stopped there. Fasting insulin and a full androgen panel are the measurements that illuminate the metabolic drivers. Thyroid antibodies are rarely included either. The Lancet formally renamed the condition PMOS on 12 May 2026 specifically to redirect the investigation toward this picture.

Swipe for the three tests worth requesting before your next appointment.

07/05/2026

I have a cold. I'm blaming . Here's why

Louise was told her hormones were fine.She had been waking at 3am for fourteen months and she’d had enough.So she took h...
28/04/2026

Louise was told her hormones were fine.

She had been waking at 3am for fourteen months and she’d had enough.

So she took herself off to her GP, they did some blood tests and when they came back her FSH was normal so her GP said it was probably stress. She suggested she cut back on caffeine and try to get to bed earlier.

Clearly her GP had good intentions but the problem was that FSH, the standard marker for perimenopause, was not the right test for Louise. FSH is a measure of follicle-stimulating hormone output and it rises when the ovaries are no longer responding as expected i.e. in perimenopause. However, this was not a test for how much progesterone Louise had and progesterone is what determines whether the brain's calming system is functioning at night.

Progesterone converts to something called allopregnanolone in the brain. Allopregnanolone amplifies GABA, the neurotransmitter promotes deep relaxation and initiates sleep. So when progesterone starts to fall early on in perimenopause, sleep becomes lighter and the brain does not settle.

A normal FSH does not tell you what progesterone is doing. It certainly does not tell you what progesterone is doing on day 21 of your cycle, which is where early luteal phase loss first shows up. That requires cycle-day-specific testing. Unfortunately most women never get this sort of testing because their FSH is normal and nothing flags the investigation.

Researchers studying perimenopausal hormonal transitions have consistently found that progesterone decline begins years before FSH rises reliably and progesterone loss can be a key driver.

If you have been told your hormones are fine and you still cannot sleep, then it may be that you just haven’t had the right hormones tested.

What would you do differently if you knew your standard blood test was not actually looking at the right thing? Let me know in the comments.

25/04/2026

Making a medicine up for my bestie and thought I'd leave her a love note on the bottle

10 years ago today, I finished painting my new dispensary/treatment room ready to welcome clients.I can't believe how fa...
18/04/2026

10 years ago today, I finished painting my new dispensary/treatment room ready to welcome clients.

I can't believe how far I've come... for one thing I have significantly more herbs on my shelves!!

From tiny acorns and all that

If you're in come down to Langdale Hall and say hi! I'm here with loads of lovely herbal products and my book on sale....
11/04/2026

If you're in come down to Langdale Hall and say hi! I'm here with loads of lovely herbal products and my book on sale.

There are some amazing other practitioners and stalls here too, including

Yesterday's office was garden, sunshine and a very convincing fake G&T.And before you feel an ounce of guilt about it......
07/04/2026

Yesterday's office was garden, sunshine and a very convincing fake G&T.

And before you feel an ounce of guilt about it... this is medicine.

Time in natural light and green space directly boosts serotonin production (your mood stabiliser), supports dopamine pathways (your motivation and reward system), and gives your cortisol levels a proper rest day.

A study from the University of Michigan found that just 20 minutes outside was enough to significantly lower cortisol (no spa day required, no wellness retreat, just twenty minutes of actual fresh air).

Women in perimenopause are particularly susceptible to serotonin drops (oestrogen plays a direct role in serotonin synthesis, so as it fluctuates, so does your mood). Which means that an afternoon in the garden with a glass of something that looks like gin isn't laziness, it's straight up neurochemistry.

So yesterday I did exactly that, unashamedly and without a single apology.

When did you last give yourself permission to just... stop?

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