< previous page page_55 next page >

Page 55
Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium)
This is a bitter tasting green plant that blossoms with daisy-like white petals around a yellow center. Not quite pretty enough to be a cut flower and so unattractive to bees that it actually repels them, feverfew remained an obscure herb until its ability to prevent migraine headaches put it back into nurseries, seed catalogs, home gardens and health food stores around the world.
Much of the credit for feverfew's popularity belongs to Ken Hancock, a bus supervisor in England, who sent letters to newspaper editors asking for information about the herb when he learned it might help his wife's headaches. In time, he received hundreds of letters from around the world documenting users' experiences in their own words. Enough of the correspondence was published in newspapers to make feverfew a best-selling herb in England.
Hancock recounted the correspondence in his book, Feverfew: Your Headache May Be Over. Not only did feverfew prevent migraine headaches in most users, it also relived their arthritis, psoriasis, premenstrual and menopausal symptoms, insomnia, stress, and many other ailments.
Research proving feverfew's effectiveness in the treatment of migraines and arthritis has been reported in The British Medical Journal and Lancet since the 1970s. The herb's taste is so bitter that most people

 
< previous page page_55 next page >

If you like this book, buy it!