Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

This podcast is brought to you by Puori, which is a new-to-me company that I am really loving and very excited about. You’ve probably heard about the benefits of taking omega-3s, and you also have probably heard about some of the cautions that come with this. And I love Puori because they solve these problems. The main reasons I personally take omegas every day are to support cardiovascular health, brain health, and eye health. And we of course know from all of the data that regular omega-3s can have a really beneficial effect on the body’s ability to kind of keep inflammation at bay.

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Katie: Hello, and welcome to the Wellness Mama podcast. I’m Katie from WellnessMama.com. And I am back today with Sara Banta, who is a host of one of the top 100 health podcasts, the owner and founder of an award-winning supplement company, and more importantly, someone who has navigated a lot of health struggles in her life and learned a lot along the way that she now uses to help a lot of other people. She has reverse Crohn’s, hormonal issues, PCOS, IBS, and heavy metal toxicity. She helped her nine-year-old through recovery from leukemia, and much, much more. She’s a graduate of Stanford and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. And in this episode, we talk about the topic of foods that you probably think are healthy that may actually be signaling your body to store fat, as well as foods that signal your body to burn fat and all of the lifestyle factors that come into play here as well. She’s an absolute wealth of knowledge. She gives a lot of practical tips and takeaways in this episode, and I will link to a lot of her resources on these topics if you want to go deeper. But without further ado, let’s join Sara and learn about the top ways to support our body in a healthy response and burning fat naturally. Sara, welcome back. Thanks for being here again.

Sara: Thanks for having me, Katie. I love this topic we’re going into.

Katie: Me too. I feel like this is going to be so helpful for a lot of people listening. And if you guys missed our other conversations together, I will link to those in the show notes. We recently got to cover up liver health and Sara, you shined some really important light on things I think people don’t often consider when it comes to that. And I know there’s probably going to be a link to today’s topic from liver health as well, because the liver is so involved in everything.

But I know being in my late thirties now and hearing from a lot of readers and listeners that as perimenopause and menopause approach, there’s obviously changes that happen in our body. And I start to hear from people a lot about, like we touched on in the last episode, not changing anything and then suddenly gaining weight, especially visceral fat, especially around the midsection. And I love your approach to this because your message seems to be that this is not fate. This does not have to be the case that we, there are many things we can do to support our body to actually thrive through these decades of life and beyond. So I would love to really dive deep on the topic today of maybe debunking some myths around foods that we think are healthy, that are actually signaling our body to store fat. And then conversely, what are some foods that we can eat that support our body and wanting to burn fat naturally?

Sara: You know, Katie, it’s so funny because I’ll go out to dinner with my girlfriends and everyone’s ordering a salad with no meat on it. And here I get the like big steak, and I’m wanting to eat their meat off of their plates and they don’t understand what’s going on. Now, mind you, they have like a couple glasses of wine. So I don’t think I have to really go into the fact that alcohol will tell your body to store fat regardless of what you eat. That’s number one.

Number two is calories do count. So when we were exposed to this whole idea of keto, I would remember people saying, oh, just eat a ton of fat bombs. It doesn’t matter what you eat just as long as you keep your carbs under 20 grams. That’s a myth. Now, all calories are different in how they’re processed in the body. And you can trick your body into upregulating its metabolism and lowering its metabolism. We’ll get into all of that.

But mitochondrial health is the key. Metabolism and fat burning are dependent on your mitochondrial health. Our ability to produce that ATP within the cells, within the mitochondria, that’s our goal. Mitochondrial health leads to longevity. When our mitochondria die, we die. So keep that in mind as we’re talking about it. This is where cellular energy transfers into you actually feeling energy. Without energy at the cellular level, fat burning won’t be optimized, regardless of how much exercise you do or how little calories you eat. The goal is to optimize that mitochondrial health.

So with that being said, let’s look at the fat-burning foods and the fat-storing foods. Protein. Not all proteins are the same. Protein is essential. It is needed for that healthy metabolism. It has a thermic effect where essentially for 100 calories of protein that you eat, 25% of those calories, 25 of those calories, are just burned through this heat generating effect. So this means you want to prioritize protein. Prioritizing protein will tell your body, okay, I’m getting enough fuel. I’ve got enough protein to support my muscles, which burn fat, right? The more we get older, us women, we need to focus on that muscle building. So get into the gym and lift some weights. That will increase your muscles, which will increase the need for protein. And it’s very difficult for your body to store protein, the right proteins into fat. Okay.

So it increases that thermic effect, increases your metabolism, but not all proteins are the same. Protein powders, most of them have 80% of the conversion goes into sugars, potentially leading to fat and muscle gain. The goal is to increase muscle gain, but not the fat, right? Most of us don’t want that fat. So that is something to think about. When you are having that protein powder, you do not get that thermic effect. I know it’s convenient. I know it’s easy. It’s not the same as going out and eating that wild animal protein we’re going to talk about. You don’t get the same bang for your buck.

The BCAAs, a lot of women aren’t really concerned about this. This was an old thing that bodybuilders used to use, but BCAAs are only three of the essential amino acids and the body requires all 20 to produce protein. So most of it is converted into sugar. Whey protein, pea protein, soy proteins, these are not utilized efficiently. Only 18% of their essential amino acids make new protein, and the remaining 82% convert into sugar. So it is very difficult to be on a vegan diet without gaining weight. Because think about a bicycle. You need two wheels, a handlebar, and a seat, right? If you’re taking in from a vegan protein, and you get three handlebars, one wheel, and no seats, do you have a bicycle? No. You just have all these extra parts that need to be stored as fat, and you haven’t built any protein. That’s the beauty of animal protein, is that it comes in this nice package of the amino acids you need, your body needs to build muscle and tissues, and it’s easier for your liver to process.

Now, unfortunately, don’t shoot the message but chicken, conventional beef, turkey, pork, these meats contain high levels of omega-6 inflammatory fats, and that linoleic acid, and those amyloid proteins that we mentioned last time. And these are associated with various diseases, autoimmune issues, and the linoleic acid is highly unstable in the body. So it produces oxidative stress. Oxidative stress leads to accelerated aging, inflammation, all the things that we don’t want. The body will store more fat. It will lower our mitochondrial health, lower our ATP. And then you’ll have this cascade of detrimental effects.

The amyloids don’t even get broken down. These misfolded proteins stay in the body, get into your brain tissue, cause Alzheimer’s and dementia, cause gut pathogens to overtake the good bacteria in the gut. And this is because of the way these animals have been raised in crowded environments. They’re not wild. They’re stressed out. So when we eat stressed out meat, our bodies become stressed.

And it’s the same with the farm-raised fish. When you’re eating fish, make sure it’s wild. But these farm-raised fish are fed genetically modified corn and soy. You are what you eat ate, right? So I don’t eat soy. I don’t eat corn. All of it’s GMO. So why would I eat a food that’s been fed these foods, right? Cause I’m getting them in my body.

So what are the right proteins to focus on? Well, for a lot of women, it’s like I tell them to eat one gram of protein per pound of desired body weight, right? So if you’re 150 pounds, you want to get 150 grams of protein. That sounds like a lot for a lot of women. So I recommend essential amino acid supplements like MAP. M-A-P. That is a supplement I sell. I take it before and after my workout. I’ve been trying to put on more muscle. And at 48 years old, it’s very difficult to do it. I’ve been doing it. I factually have put on pounds of muscle by supplement it with MAP protein.

Because it’s all the essential amino acids, it has 99% utilization by the body with two calories. So essentially you’re getting the equivalent of 30 grams of whey protein or another type of protein without the excess fat. And most people say, well, if you’re going to put on protein or put on muscle, you just expect to gain some fat at the same time. With the essential amino acid supplements, you can actually gain muscle and burn fat at the same time, which I’ve factually done. I have not gained any fat while I’ve put on the muscle.

But I support that because it is a supplement. A supplement means a supplement to the foods. Focus on the foods. The foods are the wild animal proteins. They offer not just the proteins in the full complete amino acid profile. But they have the essential B vitamins, the iron, magnesium, potassium. All of the other nutrients needed for protein synthesis. And you get that thermic effect we talked about. Okay. Now that was protein.

Let’s look at fats because we’ve been told eat as much fat as you want, right? Just stay away from carbs. Well, there’s fat-storing fats and the fat-burning fats. Fat-storing fats, the PUFAs, the polyunsaturated fats, mostly from the processed foods, the imitation butters, the salad dressings, fried foods. They’re in the poultry, pork, nuts, seeds, seed oils, fatty fish. These are, make sure you’re focusing on fats that are not, including safflower, corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil. All of those have that linoleic acid. They’re very unstable, cause oxidative stress, and literally cause your body to store fat and inflammation, right?

The fat-burning fats, you want to focus on olive oil. The good fats from the fatty meats that we’ve talked about, the wild meats, they have more omega-3 fatty acids than the omega-6 fatty acids. So if you take beef from a conventionally raised cow versus a grass-fed cow, the grass-fed cow is going to have less omega-6s and more omega-3s than the conventionally raised one. So try for, if you’re going to eat beef, to eat that grass-fed.

Now unfortunately, even bison can be grain-fed, so you have to be particular where you’re getting your meat from. And I’ve got lots of resources, my favorite ones that I don’t get paid anything for, that deliver right to your door. I just ordered some short rib, bison short ribs, fillets, ribeyes, all of these yummy meats, and they’re wild and they’re bison.

Okay, carbohydrates. We have been told we can’t eat carbohydrates, right? Not true. People are trying to find an answer why they’re getting all of these chronic diseases and unexplained weight gain. So they take away a food group. Well, the idea is, don’t take away a full food group, just eat the right foods within that food group. Carbohydrates are good for you, even us women. Now, the more active you are, the more carbs you can eat. But the processed foods are the foods that we think about when we think about carbs. Yes, stay away from them. 70% of the food supply is processed foods. Get rid of them. If they’ve got a label on them, get it out of the kitchen, even for your children. You’ll see, your children have less ADHD and anxiety and depression if you just get the processed foods out of their diet.

So the processed foods are not just carbs. They are the carbs plus the artificial sweeteners, plus the GMO, the glyphosate, the seed oils. And it’s like this big combustion of horrible ingredients all together, right? But that’s not what you’re going to get when you have some just rice or a sweet potato or fruits. And I have all of these carbs that you can eat that are listed on the Accelerated Food Guide that will actually boost your energy, boost your immune system, boost your weight loss. It’s not about cutting all the carbs out.

What we need is to transfer the food we get in to the energy we have. When we eat processed foods, it steals ATP. It steals energy from us. So then what happens? We want to eat more thinking it’s going to give us more energy. But that’s not the truth. We need to close this chasm between food intake and energy, right? So when you focus on the wild animal protein, the MAP essential amino acids, the right fats like olive oil, and depending on your liver health, how much fat you have, but then the carbohydrates fill in with the whole fruits and the carbs that actually support your body depending on your gut health. Because if your gut is not, if it’s still leaky, then there’s certain carbs that you shouldn’t eat, when you are healthier, you can eat. So this creates a little more difficult, but you will know because you get bloated or constipated or have issues if you are eating the wrong ones.

So the fat-burning carbs, cooked organic vegetables that are not containing the sulfur, oxalates, histamines, or mold that I list out in the Accelerated Food Guide, right? So those are the foods to focus on. I love frozen cherries and mango and papaya, watermelon, spaghetti squash, zucchini. All of those work really well for me. When I feel good, I can have brown rice. When my gut is, you know, temperamental, I can’t. So I just listen to my body.

So what factors though are causing the fat gain away from the diet? Iodine deficiency. If you don’t have enough iodine, that is the main cause of mitochondrial failure. And the whole goal is to increase mitochondria so we can start fat burning, increase that fat oxidation. The xenoestrogens we’ve talked about, radiation, stress, all of those things, and that dirty liver, that will cause your body to gain fat regardless of what you’re eating.

And we mentioned the spike protein. That as well is going to cause issues with fat burning versus fat storing. And copper deficiency. So the spike protein and the processed foods have depleted that copper in the body, which is crucial for managing uric acid levels, insulin resistance, and weight. So those are the foods to focus on. But then to increase the fat burning, the fat oxidation, the Acceleradine Iodine is number one. And that will help boost that thyroid health, metabolism, protein synthesis. You need iodine to actually take that protein and put it into your muscles, into your hair, into your tissues. Increase that thyroid function. Increase the blood cleansing and hormonal balance. So a lot of your hormones will be dysregulated. Estrogen dominance occurs if you are taking in all of these toxins that we’ve talked about in the past. Well, the iodine will help with balancing the hormones to get that estrogen dominance to go down. So you actually have the right amount of weight on your body and not be storing fat.

The second supplement that I would just recommend is the Accelerate program, which increases ATP, allows you to fast without being stressed. And then what’s that going to do? It’s going to allow your gut to heal, to get rid of that leaky gut so that we can start processing and breaking down that good wild animal protein and the carbs and the fat to assimilate in our body much better. It ramps up that ATP.

So those would be the two supplements to focus on. And a lot of people will need digestive enzymes. I take them with my meals every day to break down those amino acids in the foods, so I don’t have bloat, no constipation. I feel great and I can eat what I need for that energy.

Katie: Once again, I feel like every time you answer one question, it’s like a masterclass. But I love all of those puzzle pieces you just put together, especially it reminded me of my friend JJ. She always says, your body is not a bank account. It’s a chemistry lab. And I feel like you just gave us a lot of the understanding of the chemistry that your body understands that we miss when we just think of macros or calories and how important that is.

I’m also glad you brought up the essential amino acids. And I’ll make sure I link to yours in the show notes. Because anecdotally, I worked with a bunch of athletes over the summer. And that was one of the components they added in, along with making sure they got whole foods, protein, and, of course, their workouts. And their average muscle mass that they put on, granted, high school athletes, but they put on six pounds of muscle over the course of the summer. So it really is phenomenal what the body can do when we support it.

And also with enzymes, I’ve seen a tremendous difference in my own life from doing almost like a sort of bodybuilder protocol of enzymes. I know bodybuilders learned about these years. But I find enzymes help me digest so much. And they actually improve my sleep, probably because my body is able to better process all the things I’m putting in it during the day. So I just wanted to highlight those tips because I think they’re absolutely so helpful.

I wonder if there’s any other maybe lifestyle related or other tips on how we can support our mitochondrial health. Because I feel like this area that you touched on is also not talked about enough and can be absolutely game changing when we understand it. Like I said, anecdotally for me. I’ve seen things like getting the right light exposure, really dialing in my sleep, hydration, and then things like minerals have all seemed to help that for me. But what are some strategies for someone who really wants to see like how much can I improve how my body, how my mitochondria function?

Sara: I love this question. After this podcast, I’m going to go take a little walk with my dogs. Why? Because it lowers my stress and it increases my ATP, right? And then in combination with that, before this podcast, I was in my garage lifting heavy weights because muscle is the key to longevity, and it increases ATP. Good muscle tissue has thousands of mitochondria per cell versus a very sedentary cell could have just one. So it’s really very important, especially for you women out there. You’re not going to get big. You’re not going to get bulky. I promise. I’m trying to get bulky and it is hard. It is real, you’re just not meant, unless you’re taking steroids, right? So we have great testosterone. We want that testosterone to burn fat and build muscle, but that testosterone is not what our men have and it’s not going to allow us to get big and bulky.

Number two would be sleep. Sleep is cornerstone of health regardless. When I’ve gone through periods of too much stress and I’m not sleeping well because of the kids or what I’ve gone through with my daughter, my sleep was horrible and the wheels fell off, right? It didn’t matter what supplements I was taking, what I was eating. I felt horrible. My skin didn’t look good. My hair wasn’t good. I wasn’t able to perform in the gym as well. All of the things. So ATP is dependent on restorative sleep.

So muscle building, lifting weights, walking to lower that stress, mindful meditation, prayer, all of those things to lower that stress level because stress kills that energy. Stress tells your body, I don’t know if you’re being chased by a tiger or if you’re going to be in a famine or if you’re stressed over your daughter. But what it does is it slows down that metabolism. It stores that body fat, especially around the middle. Why? Because that middle fat is going to protect our expensive organs like our liver and our kidneys that we’ve talked about. So that belly fat is stress. That’s cortisol. So we want to lower that.

You mentioned minerals. This is where the Accelerated Ancient Salt comes in. It helps hydrate the cells at the cellular level to allow the nutrients to get into the cells and the toxins to get out and to give you that energy, that cellular energy for proper ATP production. The iodine and the salt really go together. They help boost that ATP and boost the detoxification of the cells. So that combination, if you told me, Sara, you’re on a deserted island, you can only take two things, what would they be? It would be the Acceleradine Iodine and the Accelerated Salt and then water, of course. Without those three things, you can’t live. But that is the fundamental for mitochondrial health. So stress management, moving the body, sleep, and muscle building.

Katie: Yeah, that’s such an important list. I feel like sleep alone is like absolutely a game changer if you get that dialed in. And I know when I was in recovery from Hashimoto’s and my body was intensively healing, I did not do high intensity exercise for a year. I did a lot of walking, a lot of gentle time in nature and really prioritized sleep. It was like my nervous system was like catching up from 10 years of having babies and having thyroid stuff going on. And it made such a massive difference.

Something else that you said reminded me of an important point, which is, you know, you said even with belly fat, which we always think of as a bad thing, it’s our body actually protecting our organs. And I like to remind people, anytime there’s a symptom, your body is always on your side. That’s actually just a message. I know that you’ve talked about this as well, but it’s always your body doing what it thinks is best to protect you. And so it’s learning the language of understanding either what does my body need that it doesn’t have, or what does it have too much of that it doesn’t need, and just learning to speak with your body in the way that it understands. Are there any pieces of this equation related to that potentially, or others that we haven’t touched on yet that you think are especially important for women to understand?

Sara: Yes, I love what you said because your body wants to survive. That’s its goal. Same reason why when you do extreme dieting, your period might go away. Why? Because your body says, oh, you’re not in a position where you can carry another human being and support them. One thing that us women over the age of 40 really get in a cycle of that is actually taking us backwards is too much cardio. What is that doing? That is telling your body, okay, she’s going to run eight miles, I only have so much fat or calories to burn. I’m going to lower my metabolic rate.

When you’re building muscle, your body’s saying, oh, okay, I have that energy to build tissue. I can increase my metabolism. When I’m constantly doing cardio, I’m tearing down my muscle fibers. I’m losing muscle. And then I’m actually going to gain fat because I don’t know, is she going to just keep running and running and running? And we’re going to run out of fuel? I better put on more fat storage, so I have enough energy to burn later on. And by the way, when she eats, I’m going to store that as fat because I don’t know when we’re going to hit a famine. So get out of the cycle of cardio. I love cardio for my mental health. And I very strategically put it into my week. But I’m not doing it every day. I warm up with like a 15-minutes on the rowing machine. And then I do my heavy lifting. And I will only do a run or something that’s longer, maybe once a week. And that can strategically burn that extra fat if your body doesn’t think you are going to starve itself. Does that make sense?

Katie: It does. And I love this. Anytime I get a chance on this podcast to talk about, especially for women, the importance of protein, the importance of sleep, and the importance of lifting heavy, I love to step on that soapbox because I feel like we’re still debunking decades worth of myths around that and women doing only cardio or only lifting light weights. And to echo what you said, I used to actually have that fear when I was younger, like I don’t want to lift weights and get bulky.

And now having been lifting weights for five years, I can tell you it is really, really difficult to get bulky. It’s even difficult to just put on muscle size in general as a woman, but you certainly are not accidentally going to lift a weight and end up looking like a bodybuilder. Those people train ridiculously. They’re often supplementing in extreme ways and or doing hormones or other things to help get there. So this is not going to be an accidental overnight, you look like a bodybuilder situation and quite the opposite. Actually, the typically the more you can lift, the stronger you get, the more like you explained, your body wants to burn fat. It wants to create more muscle. It burns more at rest. You have more mitochondria, you feel better. And for most women, you actually get smaller as you get stronger, not the other way around.

Sara: Absolutely. It’s been very hard to build that muscle that I’ve been talking about, and I’m eating a ton more food. So my caloric intake has been increased, the amount of protein I’m eating, the amount of carbs I’m eating. It’s amazing. I’m actually shocked myself. And I feel good. I’m 48 and I feel better than I felt when I was 20. It’s amazing.

So the other last thing to say is you are not destined to have low energy, brain fog, and be fat. You’re not. You can reverse all of it. I tell my kids, you can reverse any disease, any condition, except for your teeth. You can’t mess, you can’t fix your teeth, so don’t mess up your teeth. But everything else can be reversed. And so have that hope, because the stress over thinking I’m destined to be fat and sluggish and lazy and tired is only going to make your health go into the toilet even more.

Katie: Absolutely. Yes. Stress, I feel like is also the big key to that. And to echo what you said, when I started understanding this and really trying to reverse my Hashimoto’s and heal my metabolism after years of under eating, I did all of these things that you were talking about. And I learned I actually needed to eat more because I had chronically under eaten for so long. And now I eat way more than I used to. And I do not gain weight. I weigh way less than I used to. And if anything, as a woman, especially actually reminding myself to eat enough food, especially protein is actually the hardest part once you get all the habits created. But I love that you are spreading that message and that you are a walking embodiment of that message and how well it works. I’ll of course put links in the show notes at wellnessmama.com. But where can people find you and keep learning from you?

Sara: Just Google Sara Banta. I’m everywhere, but Sara Banta Health is a great place to start. That’s my website, my links to my free group coaching. There’s no downside. Ask your questions. I post daily. I teach you so that you’re on this journey and motivated to keep going forward. My podcast, Accelerated Health with Sara Banta, which you have been a guest on and you will be a guest on again, is everywhere in all the podcast outlets.

And all the supplements we talked about are there as well, but articles explaining what we’ve talked about. So why are you eating this way? Why are you taking these supplements? I want you to really understand it because if you just get a supplement and you don’t understand what it’s going to do, then you’re not going to take it, right? The whole idea is for follow through. And I feel like in this world of supplements and natural health, it’s the follow through that’s the problem. And so I want to be there to support you every step of the way to make sure that you do follow through and you do see results.

Katie: I love it. Well, all those links will be in the show notes. Sara, you are always such a pleasure to talk to. I know we could talk for many more hours and not even touch the depths of what you understand and know. Thank you so much for your time today and for everything you shared.

Sara: Thank you, Katie.

Katie: And thank you, as always, for listening and sharing your most valuable resources, your time, your energy, and your attention with us today. We’re both so grateful that you did. And I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the Wellness Mama Podcast.

If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.

Multiple species in the genus Angelica have been used in traditional systems of medicine to treat various ailments. Angelica sinensis (dong quai) is used in traditional Chinese medicine for female health-related conditions. Angelica root (Angelica archangelica) is used as a vegetable, medicinal plant, and flavoring agent.

Angelica species contain important compounds such as coumarins, furanocoumarins, flavonoids (antioxidants), essential oils, and polysaccharides (long-chain carbohydrates, the most common carb in foods).

Angelica plays an important role in health and has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, cosmetic, and liver-protective properties, among others.

Health Benefits of Angelica Root

There are a variety of Angelica species. Each species is associated with various health benefits often rooted in traditional medicine practices. Additionally, ongoing research continues to clarify their potential therapeutic effects.

Angelica Archangelica (Angelica Root)

Another angelica species is Angelica archangelica, which grows in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Greenland, and Iceland. It is a medicinal herb used in both the Indian system of medicine called Ayurveda and in traditional Chinese medicine.

A. archangelica has been studied for the following:

• Antimicrobial properties: The essential oil obtained from the root of A. archangelica showed antimicrobial activity against Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) (an antibiotic-associated intestinal infection), Clostridium perfringens (foodborne illness bacterium), Enterococcus faecalis (hospital-acquired infection bacterium), Eubacterium limosum (gut microbe), Peptostreptococcus anaerobius (anaerobic infection bacterium), and Candida albicans (fungal yeast pathogen). In another study, the essential oil of A. archangelica showed antifungal activity against Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria solani. The essential oil’s antibacterial and antifungal effects may be partly attributed to the α-pinene and limonene components.
• Antianxiety effects: In a rat study, A. archangelica extract was shown to reduce anxiety. However, it is unclear if such results would also apply to humans. Further studies are needed to identify the components responsible for the anxiety-reducing activity.
• Nocturia: The extract of A. archangelica leaves has been marketed as useful against frequent urinating caused by an overactive bladder or benign prostatic hyperplasia (enlarged prostate). A 2017 study suggested it reduced nocturia (frequent urination at night), possibly due to isoquercitrin, a type of flavonoid found in the plant extract. However, further study is needed. 

Angelica Sinensis (Dong Quai)

One of the species is Angelica sinensis (A. sinensis), also known as dong quai. This medicinal herb is used in traditional Chinese medicine. It is cultivated in China and Vietnam and is used to promote blood circulation, regulate menstruation, and relieve pain.

A. sinensis has been studied for the following conditions:

• Arthritis relief: Lab studies have shown that the two main components in A. sinensis protect against cartilage breakdown during osteoarthritis. The first component, ferulic acid, decreased inflammation and the death of cartilage cells. The second component, called polysaccharide, provided a source of starting materials for the production of cartilage components.
• Anticancer effects: A. sinsensis has been studied in nonhuman subjects on whether it enhances the effects of the cancer drug oxaliplatin (brand name Eloxatin). Oxaliplatin treats colorectal cancer, but at high doses, it can have toxic side effects. A mouse study showed that tumor volume and growth rate were significantly lower with A. sinensis and OXA vs. OXA alone. Taking A. sinensis with oxaliplatin may reduce the need for high doses of oxaliplatin while obtaining similar results and lowering side effects. Human studies are needed to confirm A. sinensis‘s anticancer effects.
• Wound healing: In lab studies, an A. sinensis extract promoted cell growth and, therefore, aided wound healing. On the other hand, the active component ferulic acid in A. sinensis did not cause such wound-healing effects. These results suggest that a whole extract may have a greater therapeutic effect.
• Menopause symptom relief: In traditional Chinese medicine, the combination of Astragali radix and A. sinensis has been shown to alleviate menopausal symptoms. Since herbs are typically used in combination to achieve a therapeutic purpose, the effect of A. sinensis alone on menopausal symptoms is unclear. Studies assessing the role of A. sinensis on its own are needed to clarify the result.