Twenty Herbal Supplement Pharmacology Mnemonics in 10 Minutes

Usually, you get this big list of herbals in pharmacology class with way too much information and it's so nice to be able to know what they all are for before embarking on what's the side effect or drug interaction.

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Auto Generated Transcript:

Hey, welcome to the Memorizing Pharmacology podcast. I'm Tony Guerra, your host. Always check the show notes to see if there's a link. You may be able to get one of the Memorizing Pharmacology books for free if you've never been an Audible member before. And again, the best way to succeed in Pharmacology class is to have already taken pharmacology, and any of these books can be listened to in a weekend or a week of going back and forth. So with that, welcome to the show.

All right, welcome to episode 83: 20 top herbal supplement pharmacology mnemonics. What I want to show you in terms of memorizing these is that when you get this list, and what usually happens is you do get a list of 10, 15, 20 herbals, and what you really want to do first before you dive into St John's Wort interacts with other antidepressants or with antidepressants or all the G's have some issues with blood thinners and those types of things, the first thing is you want to know what every single one of them does, just like you know what aspirin does or just like you know what acetaminophen does. So let's get into the herbals. Make sure that you know what each one of these is for.

Aloe vera or aloe: Just take the A and L from aloe to remind you that it's probably a lotion, although it's going to be a gel probably, and it alleviates burns, especially sunburn. We've probably used it before.

Black cohosh: This is for hot flashes. We're talking about post-menopausal symptoms or you can use it for premenstrual symptoms as well. But you're going to take the H-O-S-H from cohosh and take the HO to make it an HOT and then the FLA you're going to put in front of the SH. And so just like a dining room table leaf, you're just going to put that in there to make it black hot flash.

Cannabis: One of the big things, especially with chemotherapy, is you just don't want to eat. I have a friend who had chemo and he just said food had no taste. So the mnemonic here for cannabis is can eat biscuits. We're going to take the CA and BIS from can and biscuits. We got a picture here. And this not only decreases the nausea and vomiting or the feel the need to have emesis but also increases your appetite.

Cranberry: We're going to use ran to the B bathroom because that's usually for UTIs. It's going to acidify the urine.

Echinacea: So there's a lot of vowels in here, especially C and E which are great for boosting the immune system. Let's just take that knowledge that we already have, add it to echinacea to show that that's boosting the immunity. Got a little picture of a battery here with a boost right.

And so Elderberry we're just going to put that right next to it because it also elevates and we'll say Elders immunity.

Evening primrose: We're going to use either that E for eczema or the Z in Primrose the way it sounds for the Z and eczema. We're going to kind of put by itself so fever few is something that creates few fevers. It was known as the medieval aspirin. And so when you think about what aspirin does, it's good for headaches, for inflammation, for arthritis. And you got a little arrow slit that looks like an eye and you can think of medieval eye or inflammation.

G: So put all the G's together. For whatever reason all the G's cause some kind of issue with blood thinning but let's talk about what they're for.

Garlic: This is for heart disease or cholesterol and if you think of garlic and vampires and the stake goes in the heart so just think heart with garlic.

Ginger: Think of ginger ale. My grandma always offered me some ginger ale when my stomach didn't feel good so ginger ale calms your stomach. It's for morning sickness and nausea.

Ginkgo biloba: So don't let your memory go or biloba blood flow. There's a little bit of alliteration there. Alliteration is the same first consonant sound. So all we're doing is just trying to remind ourselves ginkgo go for memory and blood flow.

Ginseng: Man I or ginseng (and some people pronounce it) I don't know memory and erectile dysfunction I guess if your erectile dysfunction was fixed you would sing but I don't know what to do with that one.

Glucosamine: So your glued joints get moving and so we got a picture of a runner here but glucosamine glued joints get moving.

Hawthorne extract: The H for heart disease or hypertension so give a little picture of a heart.

Kava: What I thought was kava I thought anxiety and insomnia is what it's for but really kava is the opposite of java.So, Java is another name for coffee. It has to do with the island that it was sourced from a long time ago. So just think of Kava as the opposite of Java. Milk thistle avoids liver dismissal, so it avoids liver damage. We have a little picture of a liver here. And then omega-3 fatty acids, those are for triglycerides. And again, the prefix Tri means three, just like a triangle has three sides, a tricycle has three wheels.

Then we go to the S's and V's. Saw palmetto is for benign prostatic hyperplasia or BPH. You just use the S and P in saw palmetto for S and P in swelling prostate because that's what's happening. St John's Wort is for depression. And when you think of a worry wart, someone who worries a lot, they're usually depressed. And I get it or worry we're probably leaning more towards anxiety but go with me here.

All right, so St John's Wort depression got somebody here who's just overwhelmed by their classes. Okay, a little bit depressed. And then valerian root anxiety so it keeps you rooted. So I've got a little picture of somebody doing yoga that's keeping you rooted or some people call it the herbal Valium.

So Valerian and Valium which is a benzodiazepine also helps you. So what you should be able to do after you go over this a couple of times is you should be able to go to this list of 20 and you should be able to quickly go through it.

So Aloe Vera is a lotion that alleviates burns. Black cohosh is for the hot flash. Cannabis can eat biscuits for that nausea vomiting increasing appetite. Cranberry ran to the bathroom UTIs echinacea the CE vitamins to boost your immunity or see a boost in immunity.

Elderberry elevates Elders immunity. Evening primrose is for eczema or Primrose eczema F is for fever few few fevers the medieval aspirin the headache inflammation and arthritis.

The herbals, the G's, the five G's in alphabetical order garlic remember for those vampires and hearts or heart disease and cholesterol Ginger you got ginger ale for morning sickness or nausea ginkgo biloba don't let your memory go below the blood flow ginseng again you're singing because your erectile dysfunction is gone and your memory's back I guess glucosamine was those glued joints get moving then Hawthorne effect or Hawthorne extract is for heart disease the H for heart kava is or Kava is for anxiety and insomnia exactly what Java causes so coffee causes anxiety and insomnia milk thistle avoids liver dismissal or liver damage omega-3 fatty acids three makes try saw palmetto for swelling prostate using the s p which is BPH St John's Wort is for depression the worrywart and then valerian root anxiety keeps you rooted or Valium of benzodiazepines.

So again keep going through this video until you get it it's only a couple minutes long I hope this helps you and as always this information is provided to you for informational purposes only is not intended to provide or should not be relied upon for medical or any other advice I urge Watchers or readers to consult with a medical professional with a medical condition thanks for listening to the memorizing pharmacology podcast you can find episodes cheat sheets and more at memorizingfarm.com again you can sign up for the email list at memorizingfarm.com to get your free suffixes cheat sheet or find our mobile friendly self-paced online pharmacology review course at residency.teachable.com forward slash P forward slash mobile thanks again for listening thank you.

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