What Is Chasteberry Used for Today?
The modern use of chasteberry dates back to the 1950s, when the German pharmaceutical firm Madaus Company first produced a standardized extract. This herb has become a standard European treatment for cyclic breast tenderness, a condition related to PMS that is sometimes called cyclic mastitis, cyclic mastalgia, mastodynia, or fibrocystic breast disease. Chasteberry also appears to be useful for general PMS symptoms. Chasteberry is believed to work by suppressing the release of prolactin from the pituitary gland. 1-4 Prolactin is a hormone that naturally rises during pregnancy to stimulate milk production. Inappropriately increased production of prolactin may be a factor in cyclic breast tenderness, as well as other symptoms of PMS. Elevated prolactin levels can also cause a woman’s period to become irregular and even stop. For this reason, chasteberry is sometimes tried when menstruation is irregular, or stops altogether ( amenorrhea ). Note: We recommend that you do not attempt to sel
