Lingonberries for its incredibly useful and healing properties have long been popularly called "a drop of life". Its benefits for the human body are indisputable and enormous, and in medicine and cooking almost all parts of the plant are used - leaves, berries.
However, the question remains whether it is possible to use lingonberries during pregnancy, and how to do it correctly. This article will tell about this.
The opinion of doctors
Despite the fact that there are many articles on the Internet about the great benefits of northern berries for the body of expectant mothers, opinions about lingonberries in the professional community are ambiguous. The use of berries does not raise any questions - they are always useful, and here doctors are in solidarity. But lingonberry leaves, which are considered an effective diuretic, are in doubt.
In any case, the WHO monographs and James A. Duke's Handbook of medicinal herbs do not support the use of lingonberry leaves while expecting a baby. Wherein doctors emphasize that gargling, washing with a decoction of leaves is possible, but it is better not to take it inside.
But the official instructions for the use of the drug "Lingonberry Leaves", which can be bought at any pharmacy, does not contain in the list of contraindications for pregnancy, and that is why the whole world that lives according to WHO recommendations does not give lingonberry leaves to pregnant women, and Russians continue to take them as a diuretic, anti-inflammatory agent, if cystitis suddenly worsens or edema appears while the baby is waiting.
Whether or not to accept is up to you and your doctor.... We have only presented two official points of view.
Benefit
Lingonberry, all its parts have a diuretic effect. And also berries and lingonberry leaves contribute to moderate disinfection of the urinary tract. This is due to the presence of arbutin in lingonberry greens - a substance that is considered a natural, natural diuretic and antiseptic. The berries also contain arbutin, but in much smaller quantities than in the leaves.
Arbutin acts quite straightforwardly - once it gets into the kidneys, it begins to irritate the parenchyma, which stimulates the kidney to more actively produce urine. On the way to the bladder, arbutin continues to act as an antiseptic on the urinary tract.
All this made lingonberry a medicinal plant, which is respected by medical specialists all over the world, in any case, a doctor can advise you a tea and a decoction of lingonberry leaves as an auxiliary treatment for cystitis, urethritis.
Some doctors, who believe that the remedy can be used for pregnant women, advise it to expectant mothers.
Considering that berries contain less active ingredient, the expectant mother should consider taking the berries, since in this form, lingonberries during pregnancy, in general, do not cause controversy among the professional community - they are useful for normalizing metabolism and for edema.
Berries are tasty, pleasant, healthy in terms of their vitamin content. The composition of the berries promotes blood thinning with a tendency to varicose veins, thrombosis. In the third trimester of pregnancy, blood viscosity increases in all women, and a small amount of lingonberries in the diet will not hurt. The diuretic effect of the berries is not strong, but gentle and delicate.
Lingonberry contains almost all the necessary vitamins, for which traditional medicine appreciates it. You can and should use antiseptic agents - rinse the throat with a decoction of the leaf for a cold, rinse your mouth with stomatitis, treat the skin topically, if necessary.
Lingonberry berry juice effectively reduces blood pressure, reduces headaches.
Compote from these berries has a less pronounced effect, since during heat treatment the fruits lose many of their medicinal properties.
Eating berries helps to stimulate the normal functioning of the digestive system. The berry is especially useful for gastritis with low acidity of gastric juice.
Risks and contraindications
The concentration of the active substance in the leaves of lingonberry is so great that it has a full-fledged therapeutic effect, which cannot be said about most other folk remedies. Therefore, the harm from intoxication, which can cause a decoction of the leaves, can be significant both in the early stages and in the later stages. If you drink a decoction of the leaves on your own, trying at home on your own, for example, to cope with cystitis, you can face another dangerous consequence - an increased tone of the uterine muscles, which can lead to miscarriage or provocation of premature birth.
Lingonberry leaves can cause hydroquinone poisoning, and this effect has been clinically confirmed. True, only on animals. It is unethical to conduct such experiments in public, and even more so for pregnant women, but experts advise not to risk it.
Berries never lead to hydroquinone poisoning, and they do not affect the tone of the walls of the uterus. But they also have contraindications for use, and they will have to be reckoned with.
Situations where a product should not be eaten include:
- high allergic readiness status - the woman has an allergy or previously had an inadequate immune response to blueberries, lingonberries, cranberries;
- a woman has increased acidity of gastric juice - the berry increases it even more, leading to a complete imbalance and the development of gastrointestinal diseases;
- the expectant mother is diagnosed with urolithiasis - diuretic properties can lead to mobility of stones and blockage or injury of the ureters;
- the woman has hypotension, low blood pressure prevails - lingonberry additionally reduces it, which can lead to attacks of severe dizziness, loss of consciousness, weakness.
Experts believe that the benefits of lingonberries do not prevail over the possible harmful effects, and therefore the use of the berries should also be agreed with the attending physician.
You will learn more about the benefits and dangers of lingonberries by watching the following video.
How to take for different periods?
When women are interested in whether there are any restrictions on the timing of gestation, it can be difficult to answer, and even more difficult to convince them that, by and large, there is no significant difference - there is a berry in the first trimester or in the last, third. The action of the berry does not change from time to time. AND if a woman takes the berry correctly, and uses the decoction of the leaves as intended, nothing will threaten her.
The only sensible recommendation that is found in the medical literature concerns late dates. It is considered inappropriate to use berries in the last weeks before childbirth, so as not to increase the risk of premature delivery.
At any time, a woman should remember that this berry should be eaten in very limited quantities without overusing... It makes sense to brew the leaves in case of acne or inflammation of the larynx, with microtrauma and stomatitis in the oral cavity - you can rinse your mouth, throat with a decoction or water infusion, and also treat the skin.
If there is a need to use a diuretic, you can eat berries or drink fruit drink, but if the need is great, it is better to get a doctor's appointment and take the recommended medicine.
Indications
Lingonberry can be recommended as part of the diet for increased swelling. Diuretic properties contribute to more frequent urination, which relieves moderate swelling.
You should know that severe swelling does not need lingonberries, but hospitalization, since gestosis is a dangerous complication of pregnancy, and it is rather difficult to predict its consequences.
Lingonberry berries with or without sugar do not have a strong diuretic effect, and therefore help may be insufficient and inadequate.
Lingonberry juice and fruit drink can be recommended for the expectant mother in the complex treatment of pyelonephritis, cystitis, hypertension, at elevated temperatures during the acute period of a viral or inflammatory disease. But it should be understood that ordinary tea in bags without lingonberries, if brewed and drunk during a period of illness, acts in the same way - it helps to restore water balance, prevents dehydration, and relieves symptoms of intoxication.
In what form to use?
If there are no contraindications, and the attending physician has nothing against the expectant mother to eat lingonberries, it is necessary to decide in what form she can do this.
Juice, fruit drink, you can prepare yourself at home.
It is important to use a minimum of additives, sugar and water for dilution.
You can also make tea with lingonberries, but you need to add to traditional green tea not leaves, but berries mashed with a fork.
It is permissible to eat pureed lingonberries with or without sugar.
You can add berries to porridge, fruit salad, thermostatic yogurt, or cottage cheese.
You can use soaked, dried, frozen berries. There are bags with prepackaged dried berries - it is quite acceptable to brew tea from them.
The maximum allowed amount of berries for a healthy pregnant woman per day is about 100-200 grams.
You can drink one and a half glasses of lingonberry juice. But rarely any of the expectant mothers wants to eat these berries in large quantities - the lingonberry is sour.
Often women are interested in whether lingonberry will help to reduce body weight in order to hide excess weight gain from the attending physician at a scheduled consultation visit. Lingonberry does not affect body weight. But here the diuretic effect can cause fluctuations of the arrow of the scales in the smaller direction. remember, that harm from berries, and especially from leaves, can be much more beneficial, and therefore, without the knowledge of the doctor, without evidence, without taking into account possible contraindications, you should not abuse lingonberries while waiting for the child.
