Hawthorn Berry Benefits

Healing the Heart With Hawthorn – The Epoch Times

Jan 28, 2016 – Today hawthorn ranks among the three most often used heart herbs in the West. … That doesn’t mean the berry has no cardiovascular benefit.

Hawthorn has served as both a food and medicine for thousands of years. It’s one of the longest-used medicinal plants in European herbalism. Up until the 19th century, it was widely associated with fairies and magic.

Today hawthorn ranks among the three most often used “heart herbs” in the West (along with garlic and cayenne pepper) and is prescribed by doctors and herbalists alike. It’s used to treat all manner of cardiovascular problems: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, arrhythmia, angina, enlarged heart, hardening of the arteries—you name it.

People take hawthorn both for prevention and advanced heart disease. A 2010 meta-analysis of hawthorn research and clinical practice concluded that the herb holds “significant potential as a useful remedy in the treatment of cardiovascular disease.”

Hard and Sharp

Ranging in size from shrub to tree, hawthorn is a handsome plant year round. It’s a rustic cousin of the rose, and every spring it erupts in clusters of small blossoms (pink, red, or white depending on the variety).

In the fall, hawthorn produces small, hard, apple-like berries called “haws” (a name that comes from an old Saxon word meaning “hedge”). When its shiny leaves have fallen, the tree reveals thorns the size of sewing needles. The botanical name, crataegus, comes from Greek words meaning hard and sharp.

A full-grown hawthorn tree is small, but trees often enjoy a ripe old age (some are over 700 years old). In Germany and Britain, hawthorn hedges were used for centuries to mark property boundaries.

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8 Super Health Benefits of Hawthorn Berries – iFreePress

Feb 3, 2015 – 

If you are aware of the fruits called hawthorn berries and if it is available at a store near to you, then you’re in for a good health advantage, as you may or may not know that there are a number of benefits of hawthorn and hawthorn berries that may be really useful to you. Let’s have a look at them:

• Rich in Antioxidants: Hawthorn berries are a good source of antioxidants. Through neutralization of the free radicals messing with your health in your body, they do a good job at reducing the risk of life threatening diseases. Plus, it also increases the radiance of your skin through its anti-aging properties which reduces dullness, dark spots, fine lines, and other noticeable signs of aging, pretty sweet.

• Increase Metabolism: By increasing the metabolic activities in your body, hawthorn berries are very useful in burning fat, helping you to shed weight much easier. The same goes for the amount of calories burned during workout as well.

• Keeps Cardiovascular Health in Check: Packed with a good amount of flavonoids, hawthorn berries ensure that your cardiovascular health is good, protecting heart health while doing so. The anti-inflammatory properties due to the antioxidants is also worth mentioning, relieving you of inflammatory pain. Furthermore, hawthorn berries also help in preventing blood clots in the arteries.

• Improve Vision: Hawthorn berries also have a positive effect on your eyes as they contain vitamin A that prevents growth of cataract and maintains a healthy vision. Vitamin A upholds the growth of cells which is another plus too.

• Treat High Blood Pressure: Hawthorn berries are also good in treating high blood pressure. Great results are seen in people who were suffering from hypertension AKA high blood pressure but then consumed hawthorn berries.

• Treat Insomnia: Hawthorn berries have been prescribed by many doctors as a natural medicine to people suffering from insomnia. Hawthorn berries makes sure that you don’t wake up too often at night and improves sleeping patterns as well. Hence, you can finally ensure sound sleep and get a good and recommended amount of sleep.

• Help in Weight Loss: Weight loss has been an increasing problem in the world’s population as there are people striving for shedding as much weight as possible through either the use of effective methods such as a diet, eating healthy or a good workout at the gym or those ‘miracle pills’ that aren’t quite as miraculous as they claim to be. Guess what? Hawthorn berries work here as well, you can have them to boost your weight loss in shorter amount of time, hence behaving as a catalyst in your weight-loss goals.

• Prevent Cancer: Once again, the antioxidant content in these little red bundles of nutrition is what gets things done. Cancer causing radicals in the body are eradicated through antioxidants, as well as a good detoxification is done, cleansing your system and resulting in a lesser risk of cancer to you.

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