Prolactinomas / 2014, 2017
From: Christopher Hedley
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 20:36:55 +0000
To: Herbal Hall
Subject: Re: [Herbalhall] prolactinoma and hyperprolactinemia
From Christopher Hedley,
Dear everyone,
> I am working with a woman now with a microprolactinoma and associated hyperprolactinemia.
I have used Sage, Vitex and Thuja with good results. High doses are needed typically (as you note) 20 - 40 m of Vitex, ditto Sage and about 20ml Thuja a week (all1:2 fresh plant extracts) backed up by a few cups of Sage tea a day. The amount of Sage depends how much you need to suppress milk flow.
You are spot on about Vitex doses - low doses to rebalance hormones, large doses to suppress the pituitary overactivity.
If this protocol is continued for a couple of years the prolactinoma usually just gives up and goes away - in around 80% of patients.
I don't know of any other herbs that suppress milk flow.
I don't regard Lycopus as contraindicated in under active thyroid.
It seems to me that herbs to encourage breast milk (except for Vitex) are mainly tissue relaxing or nourishing. I don't regard any of them as contraindicated in prolactinaemia.
There is often a rebound when Vitex is stopped this is because background issues have not been addressed.
As far as I am aware the am. dosing was invented by Madaus and spread to the UK because they were the major suppliers of the tincture. When I started in practice my contacts in North America hadn't heard of it. I don't think it makes any difference but I still tend to use it as it gives a nice story for my patients to follow - tweak the pituitary before it wakes up properly.
Don't forget the next new moon is magic ash wand making day.
with love and best wishes for a happy spring (or autumn) to you all.
-----
From: Christopher Hedley
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2017 21:35:06 +0100
To: Herbal Hall
Subject: Re: [Herbalhall] Hyperprolactinemia
> I have a client who has developed this due to a benign pituitary tumour.
> His main complaint right now is that is prolactin is high and it's making him tired all the time.
I have treated several cases with Common Sage, Thuja and Vitex, large doses.
Most were women who wanted to get pregnant. The hyperprolactinaemia went and they fell pregnant.
Sometimes the pituitary tumour shrank and then came back and they needed a second course.
One woman developed it after increasing her mobile ‘phone usage (she was an outreach worker). It went when she followed the recipe for 6 months and switched to texting.
One woman came from a family with a history of familial endocrine tumours. It resolved over two years of taking the herbs and never came back.
One woman made no progress on the herbs but her tumour was large enough for an operation which resolved her problem.
The key to pituitary tumours of any kind is large doses of Vitex - up to 5ml 3x daily. For prolactinaemia take enough Sage to stop the symptoms. I usually use tincture and infusions.
I must say that I would be strongly drawn to David’s suggestion of White Sage but we can’t get this in the UK.
with love from Christopher
-----
From: Christopher Hedley
Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2017 14:19:59 +0100
To: Herbal Hall
Subject: Re: [Herbalhall] Hyperprolactinemia
from Christopher Hedley
> My concern about using vitex in men is that in some cases it further suppresses sexual libido.
> Does anyone have clinical experience using vitex on men?
I was taught that Vitex is a hormonal regulator, which makes sense to me. It will normalise high or low testosterone levels so it is useful for monks with a high sex drive. One method was to put it into a pepper grinder and use it as a condiment. In that case all the monks ate it.
I had one male patient with a growth hormone secreting tumour, no diabetes but the very typical bony hands and face - just like the pictures in my text book.
I had him on a high dose of Vitex for some six months or so and then he moved to Spain and I lost touch with him. He never reported loss of libido.
For an interesting piece of research on chimpanzees who are, after all, more like us than lab mice are see
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18646183 and nobody was harmed!
Female libido is much more complex than that of men and I have heard of women who took Vitex at the menopause, whose libido increased.
with love to all from Christopher
