This week, we will turn to another rose family herb - hawthorn. When thinking of an herb for heart health, hawthorn immediately jumps to the mind of many an herbalist. The slightly tart berries get a lot of the attention, but the leaves and flowers are actually much more potent medicine and have quite a bit of research showing their powerful nourishing effects on the cardiovascular system. As one of my mentors Dr. Deborah Frances says,

“A flavonoid-rich, nutritive tonic, hawthorn enhances cardiovascular health by decreasing inflammation, opening coronary vessels, lowering blood pressure, and generally strengthening the function and integrity of cardiovascular tissue.”