Hypoglycemia formula, kudzu.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.herbs
Subject: hypoglycemia
From: nrd8804.vaxd.isc.rit.edu
Date: Mon, 2 Jan 1995 16:46:01 GMT

For my occasional bouts of hypoglycemia, I take a ½- teaspoon of
turmeric (2 parts)
kudzu (2 parts)
licorice (1 part)
All powdered.
This REALLY works well. (Although licorice is contraindicated in high-blood pressure or water-retention situations.)

Rick

From: hisbn461.larry.cc.emory.edu (Paul David Menair)

Rosebrit (rosebrit.kaiwan009.kaiwan.com) wrote:
: >kudzu (2 parts)
: Where can you get kudzu? and does it go by any other names? Why would you say this works for you?

Rosebrit,

Kudzu, as you probably know, is a plant that was imported to this country for erosion control and planted by the WPA throughout the southeast. If you've ever been to the south, you've seen it everywhere - entire states have literally been covered by the stuff, a sort of tropical ivy with big leaves. It grows ridiculously fast...

Folks around here claim that it's a useless weed, and I've heard people jokingly offer rewards to anyone who finds a use for it. But it _does_ have a use, in traditional Japanese cuisine and medicine. In cooking, the root starch is used as a thickener. I don't have the details on medicinal use with me (ie. in my head), but I can get back to you if you'd like. I think that only the root is used in medicine.

Now if only we could come up with a use for the above ground portion...

As to where you can get it - I've seen it in the (ridiculously expensive) macrobiotic foods section of health food stores. I've never seen it sold as a bulk herb, but that doesn't mean that it's never sold that way.

Paul

From: nrd8804.vaxd.isc.rit.edu

>Where can you get kudzu? and does it go by any other names?

I buy kudzu -- also called pueraria -- from my local food co-op. It's a starchy powder made from dried roots of the kudzu weed.

>Why would you say this works for you?

Both turmeric and kudzu are blood-sugar-level stabilizers. Licorice is a blood-sugar booster -- 50 times sweeter than sucrose.
Again: Take care using licorice, particularly with high blood pressure and/or water retention.

Rick