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You are here: Home » Raising Food » Gardening » Stinging Nettle Part 1: What It Is and Its Health Benefits

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Stinging Nettle Part 1: What It Is and Its Health Benefits

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If anyone would have told me when I was a child that one day I would eat, enjoy, and purposefully grow stinging nettle — I would have thought they were crazy. Stinging nettle was my nemesis.I hated it. I’m so glad learning doesn’t stop when we’re young! Otherwise, I would have never come to appreciate all of stinging nettle’s benefits. | TraditionalCookingSchool.com(photo credit)

If anyone would have told me when I was a child that one day I would eat, enjoy, and purposefully grow stinging nettle — I would have thought they were crazy. Stinging nettle was my nemesis. It surrounded the chicken coop turned play house, it buried the old red truck in the grove that turned into a submarine at the push of a button (really, it did!), and it was something to dodge as we ran out to play in the woods. (Psst. We didn't have computers back then.)

I hated it. If you were unlucky enough to brush up against it, it stung, burned, and the tingling stayed with you for hours. The reason for its existence was not something I contemplated — because obviously it served no purpose but to scare and annoy me.

I'm so glad learning doesn't stop at eight years old, aren't you? 🙂 Otherwise, I would have never come to appreciate all of stinging nettle's benefits.

What is Stinging Nettle

Stinging nettle is a perennial herb — not a weed. 😉 It grows in colonies and can get up to 8 feet tall, though most I've seen around the midwest are 4 to 5 feet tall.

If anyone would have told me when I was a child that one day I would eat, enjoy, and purposefully grow stinging nettle — I would have thought they were crazy. Stinging nettle was my nemesis.I hated it. I’m so glad learning doesn’t stop when we’re young! Otherwise, I would have never come to appreciate all of stinging nettle’s benefits. | TraditionalCookingSchool.com(photo credit)

Health Benefits of Stinging Nettle

So what good can come of stinging nettle? Hippocrates, called the Father of Medicine, reported over 60 uses for nettles. They say history repeats itself, so let's see how it was used in times past:

  • Galen, a Greek physician in the second century, knew way back then that it was good as a laxative, for gangrenous wounds, swellings, nose bleeds, excessive menstruation, spleen-related illness, pleurisy, pneumonia, asthma, tinea, and mouth sores.
  • In the Dark Ages it was used for shingles and constipation.
  • In the seventeenth century it was recommended to use with honey for gout, sciatica, and joint aches.
  • Native American medicine claims that if you hit the leaves around painful, arthritic joints, it relieves the pain. That's not as far-fetched as it may seem. Flogging oneself with fresh nettle, called urtification, stimulates circulation and clears uric acid from the system. It's said to have been used by Roman soldiers to ease the pain in their legs after long marches in cold and wet climates.
  • Ancient Egyptians reportedly used nettle infusions for arthritic and lumbago pain.

(source)

If anyone would have told me when I was a child that one day I would eat, enjoy, and purposefully grow stinging nettle — I would have thought they were crazy. Stinging nettle was my nemesis.I hated it. I’m so glad learning doesn’t stop when we’re young! Otherwise, I would have never come to appreciate all of stinging nettle’s benefits. | TraditionalCookingSchool.com(photo credit)

Stinging Nettles for Fertility

Nettles are considered a multi-vitamin by many herbalists because they contain iron, vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and protein. And for a mother-to-be, nettle holds a special place in her heart (or should) because of its:

  • vitamin E  — also known as alpha-tocopherol. Tocopherol comes from the Greek words tokos and phero, which literally mean “offspring” and “to bear”. Vitamin E also increases sperm health and motility, helps prevent miscarriages in women with a history of miscarriage, and increases the quality of the amniotic sac, helping to prevent premature rupturing.
  • chlorophyll — detoxifies the body and regulates menstruation
  • ability to provide nourishment to the uterus
  • improvement of the adrenal and kidney functions

Well this is all fine and dandy, you say, but how do you go about using nettles in day to day life? Join us next month for Stinging Nettles Part 2. You'll discover simple and easy ways to use this God-given herb! Until then I'll give you a little hint — don't eat them raw. 😉

Is nettle part of your life or health routine? What benefits does it bring you?

We only recommend products and services we wholeheartedly endorse. This post may contain special links through which we earn a small commission if you make a purchase (though your price is the same).

Posted in: Gardening Raising Food Sourcing Food

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About Paula Miller

Paula is a homeschooling mom of six. Several family health issues involving candida, food allergies, and Lyme Disease have created a passion to understand how our God-created bodies thrive or deteriorate based on what we put in them. She is a Certified Health Specialist and Level 3 Metabolic Effect Nutritional Consultant who coaches those with recurring candida and stubborn fat to heal their gut and shrink their waist at Whole Intentions.com. You can touch base with her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Youtube.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. AvatarLovely Sandra via Facebook says

    September 23, 2013 at 6:53 am

    Hehe, that did grow naturally along the bush near my childhood farm. It guarded the wild elderberry bushes that I had to reach…. I have lots of experience of what the skins thinks of this one! *grin*

    Reply
  2. AvatarLindsey says

    September 23, 2013 at 6:56 am

    I know this sounds crazy, but I have been looking around in abandoned lots and in our yard for stinging nettle but I haven’t been able to find any. Is there a place that you know of that sells seeds?

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • AvatarPaula Miller says

      September 23, 2013 at 10:09 am

      Hi Lindsey,

      I’ve never bought them myself, but a quick Google search for ‘stinging nettle seeds’ came up with these options:

      Mountain Rose Herbs (type ‘nettle seeds’ in search box)
      Rare Seeds
      Local Harvest

      Reply
      • AvatarNicole Breitman says

        October 8, 2013 at 9:46 am

        Mountain Rose Herbs is a fantastic resource.
        So is Jean’s Greens out of Schodack, NY (www.jeansgreens.com)

        -Nicole

        Reply
  3. AvatarPaula Davis via Facebook says

    September 23, 2013 at 6:58 am

    Great for allergies and inflammation.

    Reply
  4. AvatarAshley Ferguson Blocker via Facebook says

    September 23, 2013 at 7:15 am

    I use nettles to relieve my allergy symptoms!

    Reply
  5. AvatarAlexandra Prokoudine via Facebook says

    September 23, 2013 at 7:25 am

    It makes delicious soup!

    Reply
  6. AvatarTika Charlie Weeks via Facebook says

    September 23, 2013 at 7:27 am

    Allergies and chest colds/cough

    Reply
  7. AvatarAmanda McCandliss via Facebook says

    September 23, 2013 at 7:40 am

    If your new to nettles, take it easy at first. Trust me. 😉

    Reply
  8. AvatarBeth Aiken via Facebook says

    September 23, 2013 at 8:27 am

    I use nettle as 1/3 of the mix in a daily infusion that I prepare. I use it mainly for the minerals.

    Reply
  9. AvatarAmy Kay via Facebook says

    September 23, 2013 at 8:34 am

    I have always heard nettle was “the herb” for hair. Is this true? It wasn’t mentioned in the article!

    Reply
  10. AvatarBeth Aiken via Facebook says

    September 23, 2013 at 8:36 am

    I have always heard nettle was “the herb” for hair. Is this true? It wasn’t mentioned in the article!

    Reply
  11. AvatarBeth Aiken via Facebook says

    September 23, 2013 at 8:37 am

    That and bone broth!

    Reply
  12. AvatarAnna says

    September 23, 2013 at 9:54 am

    I was just enjoying my nettle tee with my breakfast! Healthy and when you get used to it it actually taste really good too. I get the tee from my European family, it is a common tee there.
    My mom cured her hay fever with nettle tee. She would pick them fresh and make a tee, than she would drink the tee in slips over the whole morning. It really helped her a lot.

    Reply
  13. AvatarRebecca Flannery via Facebook says

    September 23, 2013 at 10:41 am

    I love nettles for allergies, anemia, and general well-being. I add them to my daily herbal infusion.

    Reply
  14. AvatarRose McKenzie via Facebook says

    September 23, 2013 at 12:35 pm

    Better than spinach, works great dried and used in home made facial scrubs, and tea is good too! I have some growing myself!

    Reply
  15. AvatarBrandie Steve Denzin via Facebook says

    September 23, 2013 at 7:14 pm

    I have lots of stinging nettle, but don’t know what to do with it.

    Reply
  16. AvatarAmy Castillo via Facebook says

    September 25, 2013 at 9:24 am

    I brew nettle and mint tea overnight to enjoy every day. Love it!

    Reply
  17. AvatarKathy Tavormina via Facebook says

    September 25, 2013 at 9:32 am

    I take the freeze dried supplement right now.

    Reply
  18. AvatarLibby Nyberg Baker via Facebook says

    September 25, 2013 at 12:19 pm

    I use it every fall for allergies and dry it for adding to soups and smoothies and tea in the winter. It’s also great just as a cooked green to stretch the budget, and has more minerals and goodness than spinach.

    Reply
  19. AvatarCindy Brock via Facebook says

    September 25, 2013 at 6:44 pm

    I do nettle! yummy soup

    Reply
  20. AvatarMarly Hornik says

    September 29, 2013 at 5:16 am

    I eat nettles raw, put them in smoothies w/ avocado, lemon, garlic and salt. Water or yogurt. Yummy and an incredible spring tonic.

    Reply
  21. AvatarNicole Breitman says

    October 8, 2013 at 9:49 am

    I LOVE nettle and just got back into relating to it, and I’m so glad. I just harvested wild nettle and am drying it in my basement for tea all through the winter. I wrote about it in a recent post on my healthy lifestyle blog:
    http://www.healthcrafting.com (click blog on left side)

    Reply
  22. AvatarAlineitwe says

    November 17, 2016 at 6:38 am

    thanks bt it also reduces stabilises pressure, diabets, also snake bites neutralise poisonous toxins of insects and many others.

    Reply

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