Bugleweed
Quick Facts
- What it is: A North American mint-family herb used mainly for a mildly overactive thyroid.
- Main uses: Mildly overactive thyroid, Palpitations linked to the thyroid, Breast pain linked to raised prolactin
- Active ingredients: Lithospermic acid, Rosmarinic acid, Caffeic acid, Flavonoids such as luteolin
- Forms: Tincture, Dried herb tea, Fluid extract, Capsules, Standardised extract
- Time to effect: Weeks, if anything at all
- Side effects: Usually quiet, but it can slow the thyroid too much and skew thyroid blood tests.
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What is Bugleweed?
Bugleweed is a small plant in the mint family. It grows in wet ground across North America. The dried leaves and flowering tops are the parts used.
It is taken mainly for a mildly overactive thyroid. The thyroid is the gland in your neck that sets your body speed. People also use it for a racing or pounding heartbeat linked to that gland.
Bugleweed is not a gentle everyday tonic. It acts on a hormone system. It can shift your thyroid blood tests, so it belongs under medical supervision.
The honest verdict: human evidence is thin. One small European trial and long traditional use are most of what exists.
Traditional use tells you people valued the herb. It does not prove that it works, and it does not prove that it is safe.
How does Bugleweed work?
The short answer is that the mechanism is proposed, not settled.
In animal studies, bugleweed extracts appear to lower TSH (the brain hormone that tells the thyroid to work). In the same kind of work, they appear to slow the release of thyroid hormone from the gland.
In test-tube studies, the extract seems to block antibodies that drive Graves disease. Graves disease is an immune problem that pushes the thyroid to overwork. Whether this happens in people is not established.
Lab work also suggests the plant acids must react with oxygen to become active. This is one reason fresh plant juice and dried herb may not behave the same way.
A related effect reported in animals is lower prolactin. Prolactin is the hormone that supports breast milk. This is the likely reason the herb is not used while breastfeeding.
None of this adds up to a proven clinical effect. The size of any change in a real person is unclear.
What forms does Bugleweed come in?
Bugleweed is sold in a few simple forms.
- Dried herb for a tea or infusion. - Alcohol tincture, the most common form in Western herbal practice. - Liquid or fluid extract.
You may also see:
- Capsules and tablets of powdered herb or dry extract. - Standardised extracts, mostly in Germany, often made from the related gypsywort.
Products may use Lycopus virginicus or Lycopus europaeus. The two are treated as similar, but they are not the same plant. Check the Latin name on the label.
Where it comes from:
Bugleweed was a well-known remedy among nineteenth-century American Eclectic doctors. They prescribed it for cough, coughing of blood, and a fast or irritable heart.
Folk use in the United States followed the same pattern. It was seen as a calming herb for the heart and nerves.
In the twentieth century, German herbal practice took up the plant for thyroid complaints. The German Commission E later listed it for mild thyroid overactivity with nervous symptoms and for breast pain.
That listing was based on tradition and early research, not on large modern trials. It describes past and professional use, and is not a suggestion to treat yourself.
Who should avoid Bugleweed?
- Do not use if you are pregnant.
- Do not use if you are breastfeeding; it may lower prolactin and cut your milk supply.
- Do not use if you have an underactive thyroid (a thyroid gland working too slowly).
- Do not use if you take thyroid hormone such as levothyroxine or liothyronine.
- Do not use if you are having a thyroid scan or radioactive iodine treatment.
- Do not use if you have an enlarged thyroid (a goitre, a swollen gland in the neck).
- Avoid it if you have thyroid surgery planned.
- Do not give it to children.
- Never use it to self-treat Graves disease (an immune cause of an overactive thyroid) or any diagnosed thyroid problem.
- Do not stop it suddenly after long use without medical advice, because symptoms can rebound.
- Never have a thyroid blood test without telling your doctor that you take it.
When should you see a doctor?
Stop and speak to your doctor if you feel unusually tired, cold or low, or if you gain weight. These can be signs the thyroid has slowed too much.
Also stop and get checked if your neck swells or feels tight.
Get urgent care for a very fast or irregular heartbeat, chest pain, fever with confusion, or severe shaking and agitation. These can be signs of a thyroid crisis, which is a medical emergency.
Is Bugleweed legal where you live?
In the United States, bugleweed is sold as a dietary supplement. The FDA does not review it for effect before sale. In Germany and parts of Europe it has a herbal monograph for mild thyroid overactivity. In the UK and Australia it is sold as a herbal product and is not a licensed medicine.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
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