Book – Pauls Book

Black Dog’s Herbal: Preface

If you lecture, force advice, impose your opinion, dismiss, cajole, coax, flatter or compel a person who is suffering from depression, then in all likelihood your efforts will fail. You may think for a while that you have succeeded in alleviating their depression, yet all you might have done is fallen for an easy smile, a sly joke, and a statement declaring that ‘everything is fine’, whilst all the while the depression continues.

Depression is a conversation, a journey better shared if possible. Depression is personal evolution through sadness, loneliness and pain. This book started as a simple reference resource for anti-depressant and anti-anxiety herbs, yet the mistake was quickly recognized that depression is a multifaceted condition requiring a multipronged management system. A simple herb or drug simply will not cut it. A conversation is needed. So now the herbs are surrounded by part of that conversation within this book.

It may come as a surprise to you, but when we think about it, the world would be a much better place if more people were depressed! A depressed person is seeking answers and most of these answers deal with making life meaningful. A depressed person does not care about money or mansions by the sea, as these have enough suicides on their floors. A depressed person cares about the future and the lack of meaning in it. Within depression’s embrace, a person will dream of a better world, not an empty love affair. Only when someone has hit rock bottom do they gain insight and comprehension into another person’s pain and suffering, and only then will they be equipped to help.

Depression has given the world breathtaking art and music. Depression has written words of the deepest insight and beauty. Depression has solved some of the greatest mysteries of science. Depression grabs a person and removes the sunglasses of ignorance, forcing them to look directly into the sun of truth. Uncomfortable. Unyielding. Unforgiving.

For the past several decades science and therapists have tried to label depression as a disease and illness, yet it has defied their attempts at its containment, resulting in vast numbers of populations disappearing into it, a black hole. It can be an uncomfortable space if there is no way out. Understanding your depression leads to the ability to control it, to a way out.

So, what is depression? Perhaps we may never really know. But for me, in my bitter romance with the grey lover, I have come to appreciate my depression. I have found my interpretation of it, just as one artist will interpret a sunrise completely different from all others. For me, depression is an intellectual evolution. A coming of age. Depression is a poor term to describe the growth of awareness unasked for. Uncalled for. But undeniable and critical for our species to survive. Depression is both a curse and a gift.

‘I became insane
with long intervals
of horrible sanity.’

Edgar Allen Poe

Magnolia

It was noted that the use of Magnolia extracts reduced the levels of ‘quinolinic acid’ in the brain. This acid is a by-product of certain brain functions and has been associated with psychotic conditions and neurodegenerative processes of brain tissue. Also, there was an additional reduction in free calcium levels in the brain tissue, thereby reducing calcium overload. As a result, the use of Magnolia not only relieves depression and anxiety, but is also a tonic for brain function and health.

PRAISE for Black Dog’s Herbal

There’s a story about a guy who falls down a deep hole and is trapped. He yells for help until it becomes almost dark and his voice gives out.

A friend passes by, silently looks down but then walks away. Soon, the friend returns and jumps down into the hole as well. The guy says, “Why didn’t you throw me a rope? Now we’re both stuck!”

The friend says, “No, I know this hole and I know the way out. Follow me!”

That friend is Paul Evers. The way out is Black Dog’s Herbal.

Steve Reid
Entrepreneur, Executive Director
Webmedia South Pacific

Peony

The main compound found in Peony is Paeoniflorin and it has been studied in isolation from the rest of the chemical compounds in the plant. In research from Hong Kong in 2013 it was found that Paeoniflorin increased serotonin levels and that it was comparable to the standard antidepressant drug Imipramine. Doses of 40 mg/kg body weight of Paeoniflorin had the best results in the testing. It should however be noted that this was one of many compounds found within the plant.

St John’s Wort

Hypericum perforatum

If there were to be a ‘superstar’ of the herbal treatments for depression, then St John’s Wort would be it. It is sold across the world in both pill and extract form specifically for depression relief. However, just like a superstar, it has its bad boy side and should be well understood before you decide to take it.

Water Lilly

The Water Lily and Lotus have been cultivated as food and medicine for thousands of years. In many cultures, the plant is used in rituals and ceremonies due to the mild psychoactive effects it has once eaten or drunk as a tea. Throughout the regions where they are found, they have been harvested as food as the leaves are used as a green vegetable and roots as a starch. China is the largest producer of Lotus root, yet this is almost purely N. nucifera.