Here’s the usual “don’t take this as medical advice, and don’t change your medical care without talking to a doc first” warning.

Now that that’s out of the way, I wanna talk about wood betony for a sec.

What, exactly, is Wood Betony?

Wood Betony, otherwise known by the fun-to-say name, Stachys officinalis, is a perennial flower that actually hangs out at mint-plant family reunions. In folklore and witchcraft, it’s a protective plant that supposedly wards off evil spirits and, if put under one’s pillow at night, will also help with keeping away nightmares. It doesn’t grow here in Costa Rica, so I got mine from Mountain Rose Herbs.

How best to use Wood Betony?

Wood betony can be in a tea or tincture, and I gotta be honest: I haven’t used it in a tea because someone said that, much like vervain, it’s bitter as fuck and I wasn’t interested in testing that out. So I take it as a tincture instead, and that suits me perfectly. Generally, I only need 0.5-1 mL to get the results I’m looking for within about 20 minutes.

What is Wood Betony used for?

Wood Betony is probably best known for its abilities as an antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory, largely due to its achillein content. It’s also pretty good for some anxiety or dissociation due to its apigenin content, though I’m gonna be honest. I don’t use it for this.

I use it instead for HEADACHES. Any kind: (in a Bubba-from-Forrest-Gump-talking-about-shrimp voice) hormone headaches, tension headaches, cluster headaches, ice pick headaches…all of these will see relief with wood betony. That aforementioned apigenin also helps with headaches connected to indigestion-related anxiety, much like chamomile, which I’ll talk about another time. It’s also been said that this can help with cramps and fever, though I haven’t messed with it for either of those either. Basically, if your discomfort is stemming from tension, Wood Betony will most likely help.

That said, I’ve found that, at least in the case of headache, this isn’t horribly helpful if the headache is stemming from an injury somewhere else in the body. For example, if your headache is coming from a back injury, this doesn’t seem to do much. In that case, you’re probably better off using something like Solomon’s Seal or California Poppy.

Ok, so how does Wood Betony feel?

The first time I took Wood Betony, it was the first time I was actually excited to have a headache, because I’d been dying to try it. I started with 0.5mL, and then I waited about twenty minutes, and I felt nothing. So then I took another 0.5mL and waited again.

My headache was GONE. Not only was it gone, but I did feel much more relaxed than when I’d first started feeling the pain. Not tired, but relaxed. It was much like taking an ibuprofen, but faster.

Since then, I’ve taken Wood Betony for a number of different types of headaches, and my results have been mixed. Tension and hormonal headaches are gone in a flash, but migraines or cluster headaches seem to stick around, either only lessen slightly or go absolutely nowhere. So either the dosage needs to be higher in times like this, or this isn’t the herb for stronger headaches.

Personally, I suggest trying this first if the headache is minor, and then, if it doesn’t go away, moving on to something like Skullcap if you can sleep it off, Feverfew if it’s a migraine, or good ol’ Advil or Aleve if you’re suffering and need it to go the hell away quickly.

Have you ever used Wood Betony before? How’d it go for you? Let me know!