This might only be of interest to me, but it's so interesting that I just felt I had to document it someone--and this humble blog is all I have at present.
Evergreen Herbs, one of the 3-4 top patent pill companies in the U.S., has this terrific "Women's Heath" formula often used to control hot flashes, nights sweats and irritability associated with menopause. It is called Balance Heat and seems to be based on the classical Licorice, Wheat and Jujube Combination formula, Gan Mai Da Zao Tang (indicated for "Heart Yin deficiency with Liver qi stagnation causing Restless Organ Syndrome"!!).
A slew of ingredients are added in for their renown ability to clear deficiency (also called "empty") heat as a result, generally, of deficient cooling liquids in the body or Yin. These would be Qing Hao, Hu Huang Lian and Di Gu Pi. I had always read the Hu Huang Lian on the label (very tiny font!) as Huang Lian and just assumed there was Coptidis in the mix and had even publicly lauded the ability of Coptidis Rhizome to "clear HT heat." I was mistaken; it is Picrorhiza! But that's not the point of this post.
The formula is fantastic for a quick dose of calm. I feel like it could even replace Xanax (alprazolam), Ativan (lorazepam) and the like, although a single dosing is unlikely to last as long as the longer half-life anxiolytics like klonapin and extended release diazepam (Valium).
The weird knock-on effects of the formula are the following:
1) It seems to inhibit alcohol dehydrogenase (often abbreviated ADH), the liver enzyme that breaks down alcohol in the body, so that una sola cervezilla or cocktail packs the punch of two or three. The mechanism of action doesn't necessarily have to be through alcohol dehydrogenase, but that's the only thing I can think of at the moment. I welcome other hypotheses.
2) It also seems to have a 'cold shower' effect on sexual desire (or maybe longing of any sort?). I notice this particularly when taking (very low doses) of DHEA as part of my muscle restoring new workout routine. The irritability and, well, horniness, a common side effect of taking androgenic supplements (including, most famously, anabolic steroids), all but vanished!
I just came by a series of posts in a Yahoo! Answers forum asking frantically, to anyone who would listen, "How can I control my horniness?" Two words: Balance Heat.
I hope to explore this more in the future, but for now I just wanted to report it. Of course the flip side of this is that one might not want to down a handful of these capsules just prior to a romantic evening--or sex date.
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