Herbs 201 ~ Mod 5, Option 7 ~ (Part II)

Choose a day and drink appropriate herbal diuretic teas or infusions. Consider the best time of day to take your diuretic tea or infusion. Discuss your experience including why you used the herbs you selected, what dosage you used, and what time or times of day you took it. Be sure to check any contraindications before conducting this practical. Monitor your urine output versus liquid intake the day before your practical, the day of, and the day after. What differences do you see?

Herb: Uva Ursi
Latin Name: Arctostaphylos uva ursi
Also Known As: Arberry, BearBerry, Bear's Grape, Crowberry, Foxberry, Hog Cranberry, Kinnikinnick, Mealberry, Mountain Box, Mountain Cranberry, Mountain Tobacco, Sandberry, Upland Cranberry
Parts Used: Leaves

I chose Uva ursi because of it's ability to disinfect the urinary tract, point blank. None of it's other purposes seem to relate to me. Uva ursi is also used to treat arthritis, bronchitis, bladder inflammation, cystitis (acute and chronic), diabetes, enuresis (involuntary discharge of urine), kidney stones and congestion, leucorrhoea, nephritis, uric acid deposits, urethritis, and pyelitis. It's also used as a prostate tonic. According to the Mod 5 monograph, Uva ursi is only effective if the urine is alkaline as it need to be activated to produce hydroquinone which is a type of phenol which it must produce from the inactive esters, arbutin.

Note: Along with this tea I drank a cup distill water with a teaspoon of baking soda, which the monograph saids will increase the alkalinity of the urine and entice greater action from the Uva ursi.

Contraindications: Uva ursi is high in tannin which can cause kidney damage if used over a long period of time and it is recommended that it be used as a cold infusion so you get lest tannin and more allantoin. One should not use it for more than a month without consultanting your primary caretaker. So since Cleaver also has tannin in it I have decided to make as a cold infusion tea. Also avoid acidic juices and fruits. Also you should avoid if you are pregnant, have a kidney disorders, irritated digestive conditions, acidic urine, or in conjunction with remedies that cause acidic urine.

Because I wanted to do this as a cold infusion a steeping tea to lower the tannin levels, I tripled the steeping time. This is purely an experiment and have no way to know whether this is the right way since every site I looking up gave a different time it seem. I averaged out all the suggested steeping times and this is what I came up with. If someone can give me a better way to do cold infusion that be great!

Cleaver | Uva ursi cold infusion tea:

3 teaspoons of Cleaver 3 teaspoons of Uva ursi
A pitcher filled with 4 cups of distilled spring water

Mix herbs in a bowl then place in pitcher and pour water over it. Let it soak for 5 hours then strain and place in refrigerator. Next day, starting around 10am drink about 3 cups by 12pm..

The day before was normal as was my bathroom runs. I drink a healthy amount of water everyday so I urinate quite regular. Early evening I made my tea and refrigerated before going to bed.

The next day I started my morning at 6am and had a light breakfast (small bowl of cereal). Usually I have a large breakfast. By 10am my stomach was pretty much empty (diuretics work best on a empty stomach). So I had a cup of tea. By noon I had drank all the tea (3 ½ cups actually). Within an hour after the first cup, I notice that I was urinating longer, but was going to the restroom no more frequent than normal. Within an hour after the last cup I noticed a definite rise in the length of my urinating time in the restroom, but still not more frequent. I went to bed at 10pm. I got up twice during the evening to go to the restroom (I never get up to go to the restroom during the evening). The next day I got up to my normal routine. Urine was definitely back to water down cheap beer color.

Source Cite
Books:
1. Hoffmann, David; An Elders' Herbal; 1st Edition; Rochester, Vt; Healing Arts Press; 1993, pp. 205-206
2. Ibid, pp. 214
3. Brown, Deni; Encyclopedia of Herbs; 1st Edition; New York, NY; Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc; 1995; pp. 86
4. Ibid, pp. 2855. Foster & Johnson; Desk Reference to Nature's Medicine; 1st Edition; Washington, D.C.; National Geographic Society; 2006; pp. 32-33

Website:
1. ACHS; Herb 201 Mod 5 , Diuretic Herbs; http://www.achs.edu (link is really long); 7/01/2010
2. lbid, Herb 201 Mod 5, Uva ursi or Bearberry 3. lbid, Herb 201 Mod 5, Cleavers 4. lbid, Herb 201 Mod 5, Cystitis: Bladder Infection.
5. Wiki; Bearberry; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearberry; 7/01/2010
6. Wiki; Galium aparine; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleavers; 7/01/2010