Here’s why drinking fresh Wild Tea helps with healing

Sarah-Jane Cobley
Apr 11, 2024
5 min read

When we have a healing need, we can be mindful about supporting our body’s efforts. We may consider nutritional aids and lifestyle tweaks, but what about natures wild green medicines?

Spring Tonics

I’ve enjoyed the annual spring cleansing ritual of consuming wild spring tonics for a number of years. Spring tonics have a long history of folk use as a sort of inner spring clean: dusting out the cobwebs to make way for fresh new energy.

They work by gently stimulating the bodies waste disposal systems, namely the liver, bowel and kidneys. In addition to removal of harmful toxins, spring tonics are very giving. They are vitamin and mineral rich which energises and invigorates.

Consuming spring tonics throughout the spring growing season builds up strength needed for the high energy of summer and brings the body more into optimal functioning.

Additional Healing Needs

It makes sense then that taking wild greens gives the body an extra boost in times of higher demand, such as when nursing an injury.

Any injury, even bruises, involve damaged tissue. This could be broken capillaries, skin cells, muscles cells, soft tissues such as tendons and ligaments, even bones and nerves.

The repair job requires a whole host of resources, including additional energy, and begins with the clean out.

The Clean Out

Tissue debris resulting from injury must be cleared away. It’s job number one that avoids all sorts of nasties and clears the area for a thorough and swift repair.

In our home we generally stick to fruits in season but whenever someone in our household has an injury, we happily buy a pineapple.

This is because pineapple contains bromelain, a mixture of enzymes that breakdown proteins and other components of damaged tissues. Bromelain has many other health benefits including reducing inflammation, swellings and heart issues.

Move that Blood

Gentle exercise and movement, particularly walking, will get the blood flowing. This increased flow collects the damaged cells and carries it away to avoid toxicity and infection.

It’s a waste disposal system and delivery service in one.

As blood circulates, each and every cell in the body takes what it needs to carry out it’s job. If the nutrient is lacking, healing will be limited.

Healing Foods

Given that most tissue injury involves damaged protein, (skin, muscle, ligaments), the obvious macro-nutrient required for tissue repair is protein-rich foods.

Micro-nutrients that promote the formation of collagen are in high demand. Vitamin C will be a huge limiting factor if in short supply, and much higher levels are required in times of healing. Other vitamins such as vitamin A and E are important too.

Minerals such as zinc are involved in cellular repair, as well as calcium, silica and boron, which provide strength.

All cells are made of a lipid, (fat), layer and so upping consumption of good quality oils during healing makes sense. Oils are better taken raw to avoid them becoming hydrogenated and toxic, so add them to your meal at the table, or simply take a spoonful with each meal.

Berries are highly antioxidant due to their colourful anthocyanin pigments. This reduces free-radical damage, as well as strengthening capillaries and reducing inflammation. Cherries do all this as well as promote good quality sleep due to containing a high amount of melatonin, the sleep hormone.

Promote sleep

Ensuring good quality sleep during periods of healing is essential. There’s a lot is going on in the body and more progress can be made during sleep because all the body’s energy and resources can be directed to the job in hand, rather than to our daily activities.

On top of this dedicated healing time, a well-rested body will have more energy to meet the added demands.

Restorative sleep is all the better for fasting for at least 12 hours over night and sticking to the rule of leaving two hours after food and before bed, plus ensuring that you drop off before midnight.

Restorative Nature

Nature is a healer beyond ingesting its physical plant chemistry. I find that a good dose of nature bathing works wonders for my wellbeing. The sounds of the birds and the breeze, the scent of spring, the soothing simplicity of green and blue to my eyes.

Even if I was only to take my flask of tea and sit on a bench for half an hour, I’d get a healthy boost. However, I like to go one step further and add a wild green herb to my flask.

Wild teas contain a wealth of phytonutrients at their freshest. When we pick one and pop it straight into our cup to infuse, it brings with it the fresh vitality of nature.

Nutrient Density

A wild plant it has chosen where to grow in a place that meets all its needs, and because it hasn’t been cultivated, it contains much higher levels of nutrients, particularly because the soil has not been tampered with.

Consuming a variety of wild greens on a daily basis provides high density of nutrients including vitamin C, beta-carotene, vitamin K, and an array of minerals like iron, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and silica. This is down to the richness of the soil and the network of roots digging deep.

One thing which has become apparent on my 30 Day Wild Tea Adventure during April is that I am consuming a daily cup full of massive amounts of antioxidants. These chemicals resist free-radical damage and prevent the aging, inflammation, and cancer.

Plant Medicine

Wild teas promote health and healing gently. Each day improving detoxification, adding dense nutrition, building strength, and giving energy. They improve the digestive process and promote greater absorption of the good stuff. They also provide vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients directly involved in cellular repair.

Nothing beats a cup of wild herb tea; however, they are not available all year round or on everyone’s doorstep. I feel privileged to live in green Somerset and have rediscovered our lost common knowledge of local medicinal plants.

A Skilled Herbalist

One thing that increases the versatility of herbalism is tincturing. Soaking plant matter in alcohol has the ability to draw out the healing properties and preserve them in liquid form.

These can then be blended by a skilled herbalist in reflection of the needs of the patient.

Injury repair served by a herbal prescription would include reducing inflammation, offering a protective layer under which healing can take place, drawing together wounds, adding the nutrients for cellular repair, protecting against free-radical damage, improving detoxification of wastes, preventing infection and promoting the immune response.

Spring Blessings

One thing I love about spring is the abundance of plant medicines. It’s a prime time to help reconnect people to their local wild healing herbs. It feels very empowering.

It can be as simple as adding a daily wild tea to your healing regime, along with adequate restorative sleep, movement and nutrition.