Hi David, I was wondering if there were any contraindications for wood betony (Stachys/Betonica officinalis) other than caution in pregnancy. I looked it up in the Botanical Safety Handbook (2013 ed.), Mills and Bone´s Principles of Phytotherapy (2013 ed.) and Tobyn´s Western Herbal Tradition (2010 ed.), but couldn´t find any. In particular, I am interested in your opinion (and studies, if you know of any) regarding the use of wood betony tincture in a person with a pacemaker, on blood thinners and medications against high blood pressure. In the past I have seen a great short term memory improvement (even under stress) in my own mom after which might have been “mini strokes”. Therefore I now would like to help another 80 yo elderly lady who recently suffered a stroke with much more nerve damage (paralyzed right arm). She is in a rehab institution at the moment and already showing little improvements, so there is hope that restoration will be possible. The rehab institution is open to alternative treatments and would allow it to be tried. If you have any other recommendations they´d be very appreciated (and certainly matched to the persons´ specific energetic profile). Thank you very much.

Well I call it Betony, to me Wood Betony is Pedicularis. I am unaware of any CI for Stachys officinalis and the warning about pregnancy is not clear as to whether it is valid or not. I am not aware of any information that would make it CI in that situation, then again there are no herb-drug interaction studies on Stachys. There are many nootropic herbs (Gotu Kola, Holy Basil, Gastrodia, Chinese Polygala, Rosemary, Bacopa, etc) that could possibly be used, but what blood thinner, what BP medication ? I know-nothing about the persons constitution or energetics, so making specific recommendation is inappropriate