The Living Herb

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The Living Herb

Are you facing a long term health issue? I want to help you find a way through your health difficult Please see our website for more information.

Herbal Medicine offers support for health concerns through western diagnosis methods and treatment using plant-based medicines. It combines centuries old traditional use of plants for healing with modern scientific research, based in physics and biochemistry. Victoria is our medical herbalist who offers a rigorous and scientific approach to helping people understand their own health issues thanks to 10 years’ experience working as a research scientist. This is uniquely combined with compassion and mindfulness following 15 years of meditation training. After 6 years of exhaustive training to be a Medical Herbalist, Victoria was invited to join the National Institute of Medical Herbalists. She is passionate about continued learning so regularly attends further training opportunities and keep up to date with the latest scientific research. We offer help through one-to-one consultations at our private treatment rooms in Wantage and online self-help courses.

29/01/2026

I want to talk about boundaries.

Why oh why is a woman who usually talks about hormones talking about boundaries? I hear you cry.

Well, it's this.

Building new healthy habits requires us to have really strong boundaries.

You want to exercise a bit more and yet your teenager needs to make their school lunch, iron their uniform, be their slave at the time you'd planned for this, when they're more than capable of doing it themselves.

You need an evening to relax and doing something for you but you end up working late because if you finish that piece of work today you can get ahead for tomorrow. Or maybe your partner wants to watch TV with you.

You want to start a morning practice of meditation, journalling or yoga but you wake up knackered and it's cold outside and bed is cosy and warm.

That was me this morning and I had to drag myself out of bed to do my morning routine of exercise and meditation. I needed to have boundaries with myself. I know it's important to do me, I feel better afterwards so JFDI !!!

Every new change we want to make to our health comes with a million tiny decisions from saying no to that glass of wine to prioritising ourself over our loved ones. And boundaries help us to that.

What boundaries do you need to put around your health today?

26/01/2026

Last night I went to see "Body" at The Light Project at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus.

Wow!!

It was such an amazing experiential experience of the human body. And even though I know a lot about how the human body works, I still managed to learn a couple of bits.

My favourites were the brain synapses. These are tiny electrical signals that happen to allow neurons in the brain to talk to each other. The heart and the lungs were pretty cool too!

They are doing lots of things over the next year for the 80th anniversary of the site so check it out.

Oh and if you want to learn about hormones, come to my webinar next week. I can't promise the same visual experience but you will learn some cool stuff!!

25/01/2026

My first attempt at growing brocoli sprouts and it was so easy!!

22/01/2026

I was never taught about how my hormones really worked. Sure I was taught about the reproductive cycle but how it links to all the bits of our hormone system? Nope, nothing, nada.

It's why I created my workshop "Hormones: what they should have taught you at school"

It’s not to denigrate the school system (my mum was a teacher, they do an amazing job), it's not even to teach women how to “fix” their hormones.

I created it because most women were never taught how our endocrine system actually works.

We weren’t taught:
• how sleep regulates hormone signalling
• how stress overrides s*x hormones
• how blood sugar amplifies symptoms
• how hormones are cleared, not just produced.

I created because I want women to leave my workshop feeling empowered because they understand their own bodies a bit better. Because with better knowledge about our own bodies we can better advocate for ourselves and make educated choices about our own healthcare rather than just doing what we're told.

When we understand:
• why our bodies are responding the way they do
• what actually sets hormone balance up to succeed
• where to focus instead of doing everything at once
something shifts and we can start making changes that actually work.

That’s what this workshop is about; giving you the foundations that should have been taught years ago so you can finally work with your body, not against it.

If you want clarity instead of confusion, I’d love you to join me for Hormones: What They Should Have Taught You at School on 5th Feb.

Book your free place and let’s change the conversation around your hormones.

21/01/2026

Time and time again, I see in women who appear to be doing everything “right” but feel no better for it.

These are women who eat well, move their bodies, take the supplements they are advised to take, and genuinely try to look after themselves. They have read the books, followed the protocols, and done what they were told would help. And yet they still feel exhausted, have mood swings or all the delights of the hormone hell they are in.

When they sit across from me, the question is almost always the same. They ask what they are missing, but what they are really asking is why none of this is working if they are doing everything right.

It can feel so demoralising to put all that effort in and feel like you're just not getting anywhere. But the issue isn't lack of motivation, it's trying to manage a complex endocrine system using symptom-based advice and fragmented protocols.

Over time, something more damaging creeps in… the dreaded self-doubt. Previously self-confident women start to wonder whether they are simply too sensitive, if it's just ageing, or whether this is as good as it gets.

Spoiler alert - it isn’t.

The missing piece is having solid foundations. These may seem simple but good sleep, lowering stress, blood sugar stability and optimal detox pathways that can clear hormones are essential for good, long term hormone health. When those foundations are not in place, even the right interventions can feel wrong.

I love it when the penny drops for the women I work with, the relief is palpable.

If this feels familiar, you are exactly who my workshop Hormones: What They Should Have Taught You at School is for. It is designed to help you understand why your body has been responding the way it has, and what actually changes things.

And if you are already thinking “this is me”, feel free to DM me.

20/01/2026

The 5 foundations every hormone plan needs*

*(and why most plans miss them)

Hormones aren’t treatments. They’re our bodies messengers and like all messengers the messages can give only work if the system receiving them has the capacity to interpret them, respond appropriately and clear them once they’ve done their job.

This is where most hormone plans fall apart.

So here are the five foundations every effective hormone plan needs and why skipping even one creates chaos.

1. Sleep: the master regulator

Sleep isn’t a lifestyle extra. It regulates how the brain releases hormones and how tissues respond to them.

When sleep is disrupted:

• cortisol rhythms flatten
• insulin sensitivity drops
• melatonin signalling weakens
• oestrogen and progesterone effects become erratic

This is why PMS, anxiety, and migraines persist despite all the "correct" hormone treatment.

You cannot regulate hormones in a circadian-disrupted system.

2. Detox & clearance: hormone balance is kinetics, not levels

Hormone health isn’t just about how much you make. It’s about how efficiently you clear what you make.

Ostrogen balance depends on:

• liver metabolism
• conjugation pathways
• gut elimination

When our detox pathways are sluggish, hormones such as oestrogen recirculate and metabolites accumulate. This means that our symptoms persist and why adding more hormones into the mix makes symptoms worse rather than fixing them.

3. Energy availability: hormones don’t work in deficit

Hormone signalling is energy-dependent.

If the body is in:

• chronic stress
• nutrient deficit
• Inflammation
• mitochondrial strain

it downregulates reproductive signalling by design. And it's why we can take supplements and hormones and still feel intolerant to them. The body will not prioritise hormones when energy is scarce.

4. Stress physiology: the HPA axis always wins

Under chronic stress, the body chooses survival over reproduction.

Cortisol:

• suppresses reproductive signalling
• alters oestrogen receptor sensitivity
• diverts progesterone toward stress adaptation

This is adaptive biology and it's how we'

19/01/2026

I get sick of people talking about hormone imbalance as a symptom problem, like our hormones should be perfectly still.

Our hormones have their own natural rhythm and if they don't follow this, it's a foundations problem.

What do I mean?

Our hormones do not operate in isolation. Oestrogen. Progesterone. Cortisol. Insulin. Melatonin. They don’t work like light switches. they work like an beautifully tuned orchestra playing a symphony.

And the environment they’re released into matters more than how much of a hormone you have (to some extent).

Time and time again I see women being given hormones, supplements, or “protocols”
• before sleep is stabilised
• before stress physiology is regulated
• before blood sugar is regulated
• before liver, gut, and nervous system capacity is supported

Then everyone is surprised when things feel worse or at the very least they don't actually feel better.

But the physiology is actually very clear.

• Sleep disruption alone alters cortisol rhythms, insulin sensitivity, melatonin signalling, and how the brain interprets oestrogen and progesterone. You cannot “balance hormones” in a circadian-misaligned nervous system.
• Chronic stress tells the brain survival matters more than reproduction so s*x hormone signalling is suppressed, even if blood levels look “normal”.
• Blood sugar instability amplifies free oestrogen and inflammatory signalling. Adding s*x hormones here doesn’t calm symptoms. It often fuels them.
• Poor clearance through our detox pathways means s*x hormones, like oestrogen, recirculate leading to oestrogen dominance, even when oestrogen is declining.
• And when the nervous system is already overloaded, even low-dose hormones can feel intolerable meaning anxiety, palpitations, migraines, mood swings.

This is why women say “HRT didn’t work for me” or “Supplements made me worse.”
The foundations weren’t in place.

This is exactly what I break down in my workshop, Hormones — What They Should Have Taught You at School.
If you want to understand what your hormones are responding to (and why) book your free place now!.

18/01/2026

Today I'm doing reverse pomodoros!

It's Sunday, I need a day off and I have a pile of stuff I need to do.

So I thought I'd do some reverse pomodoros.... rest for an hour then do 15 mins of stuff I have to do

It means I don't feel guilty for doing nothing (well crocheting) as I get to do some stuff. It also means things happen but tomorrow I'll feel rested.

Have you ever tried reverse pomodoros?

15/01/2026

DNA testing isn’t for everyone. So how do you know if it's for you?

Well it’s not for women who want a single answer, a universal rule, or a checklist that applies neatly to everyone.

It’s definitely not for those who are already well served by broad advice and feel confident that standard approaches meet their needs.

DNA testing becomes relevant when the standard advice doesn't backfires and you're not getting the results you expect.

It's brilliant for women with complex hormone health issues, or who need gentler, non-hormonal strategies, or are at higher risk from aggressive oestrogen modulation (e.g. where there's a family history of breast cancer or other oestrogen dependent cancers). In these cases DNA testing can offer insight into how stress, inflammation, detoxification, and nutrient handling may be interacting in the body.

And then there's long term brain health, heart health, recovering from sports injuries and better sports performance, and detoxing…. To name just a few!

The level of information provided by a good medical DNA test isn’t necessary for everyone but, for some, it can replaces years of guesswork with clarity.

Do you tend to feel more supported by general guidance or by understanding how your own body is likely to respond?

I'd love to hear from you if you'd like to take a more personalised approach to your long term health.

14/01/2026

Over the last week or so I've been asked what I think about this or that supplement.

It happens a lot actually.

Usually the question is whether it’s good or bad, helpful or unnecessary.

The challenge I find in answering this is supplements don’t work in isolation. They have to be absorbed, converted, transported, and tolerated… and those processes don’t look the same in every body.

Some women feel calmer and clearer with a supplement. Others feel wired, nauseous, or noticeably worse. That doesn’t mean the supplement is wrong, it means the response is individual.

Those reactions are shaped by how nutrients are metabolised (which is affect by factors such as our genetics and gut bacteria), how sensitive the stress response is (so our lifestyle plays a role), and how well the body copes with biochemical change (which depends on all of it!). This matters particularly in women with complex hormone or inflammatory patterns.

If you’ve tried multiple approaches and feel unsure what your body actually needs, that’s often the point where talking it through properly helps.

I offer a free consultation for women who want to understand their patterns rather than keep guessing.

Have you ever had a “supportive” supplement leave you feeling worse instead of better?

13/01/2026

Is your healthy lifestyle still working for you?

Many women I work with are doing a lot of the ‘right’ things from eating well and prioritising sleep to managing stress and moving their bodies. And yet their symptoms only improve so far.

That’s often when frustration sets in.

The advice is sound and the effort is real so why oh why isn’t the body responding?

Thanks to our DNA, the same input can place very different demands on different body systems. For example high intensity exercise can steady one nervous system but overstimulate one with a COMT gene. Or let's take caffeine… this increase energy for one woman and give someone with a different genetic makeup the jitters. Even sensible supplements such B-vitamins or herbal medicine can have mixed effects depending on how they’re processed in the body.

When progress on health goals plateaus, it’s often a sign that the approach needs to become more individual not more intense.

Have you ever felt stuck despite doing “all the right things,” what do you think might have been missing?

12/01/2026

We're all different, right?

So why does medical research treat us all the same?

In my practice I repeatedly see women who have the same diagnosis (be that endometriosis, PCOS, perimenopause, chronic fatigue etc) and yet experience very different symptoms. One struggles mainly with pain. Another with exhaustion. Another with mood changes or digestive issues.

Even when they follow similar advice, the outcomes can vastly different too. One can improve steadily, while another stalls, plateaus, or reacts unexpectedly.

That’s because a diagnosis describes a category. It not who we are as individuals.

It does not describe how inflammation is handled, how stress hormones respond, how nutrients are processed, and how resilient energy production is under load. These factors vary from person to person, even when the label is the same and they all shape symptoms and recovery.

If you’ve ever looked at someone with the same diagnosis and wondered why your experience was so different, you’re not alone.

And it's why medicine should be personalised.

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Wantage
OX12

Website

http://www.thelivingherb.com/

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