| Lydia E. Pinkham |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT LYDIA PINKHAM | |
| 1819 births | |
| 1883 deaths | |
| herbalists | |
| patent medicines | |
| american feminists | |
| drinking culture | |
| people from saugus, massachusetts | |
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"''Yours for health''" Lydia Estes Pinkham (1819 - 1883) was an iconic concocter and shrewd marketer of a commercially highly successful herbal-alcoholic "women's tonic" meant to relieve Menstrual and Menopausal pains. A resident of Lynn, Massachusetts , Lydia Pinkham first began developing home remedies after the near bankruptcy of her husband. Mass marketed from 1875 on, ''Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound'' was one of the best known Patent Medicine s of the 19th century. Descendants of this product are still available today. Lydia's skill was in marketing her product directly to women and her company continued her shrewd marketing tactics after her death. Her own face was on the label and her company was particularly keen on the use of Testimonial s from grateful women. was used by several Native American tribes for dysmenorrhea, uterine prolapse, pelvic congestion and to improve ovarian function. Brinker, F. ''A comparative review of eclectic female regulators''. Journal of Naturopathic Medicine, Winter, 1997, Vol. 7, (1), pp. 11-26. Black Cohosh is an emmenagogue, anti-spasmodic, Alterative , nervine, and hypotensive and is used traditionally for menopausal symptoms.http://www.healthy.net/scr/MMList.asp?MTId=1 David Hoffman ''Herbal Medicine Materia Medica'' Of the newer additions, Motherwort is a nervine, emmenagogue, anti-spasmodic, hepatic, cardiac tonic, and hypotensive. Piscidia Erythrina ( Jamaican Dogwood ) is an Eclectic remedy that has been found effective for painful spasms, pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea and ovarian pain. Brinker, F. ''A comparative review of eclectic female regulators''. Journal of Naturopathic Medicine, Winter, 1997, Vol. 7, (1), pp. 11-26. Licorice is anti-inflammatory, anti-hepatotoxic, anti-spasmodic and a mild laxative. Gentian is a bitter, sialagogue, hepatic, cholagogue, anthelmintic, and emmenagogue. Dandelion is a potassium-sparing diuretic, hepatic, cholagogue, anti-rheumatic, laxative, tonic, and a Bitter . http://www.healthy.net/scr/MMList.asp?MTId=1 David Hoffman ''Herbal Medicine Materia Medica'' ]] (It is often suggested by the Alternative Medicine community that black cohosh (and a purified version, '' Remifemin '') really do provide relief from symptoms of menopause. A report by the Natural Standard, which performs evidence-based reviews of alternative therapeutics, says: The report gives the evidence a "B" rating, "good scientific evidence for this use." In a day when the mainstream treatment of these conditions was sometimes surgical removal of ovaries—with a mortality rate of 40%—it can be argued that at the very least Pinkham's remedy followed the sound medical principle of "first, do no harm." However many of the ingredients have been traditionally used by a number of unrelated Indian tribes, in (FDA) caused changes in the formula. The compound is now produced by a pharmaceutical company. Advertising copies urged women to write to Mrs. Pinkham. They did, and they received answers. They continued to write and receive answers for decades after Lydia Pinkham's death. These staff-written answers combined forthright talk about women's medical issues, good advice, and, of course, recommendations for her product. In 1905 the Ladies' Home Journal published a photograph of Lydia Pinkham's tombstone and exposed the ruse. The Pinkham company insisted that it had never meant to imply that the letters were being answered by ''Lydia'' Pinkham, but by her daughter-in-law, ''Jennie'' Pinkham. Although Pinkham's motives were partly self-serving, feminists admire her for distributing information on menstruation and the "facts of life," and consider her to be a crusader for women's health issues in a day when women were poorly served by the medical establishment. In 1922 , Lydia's daughter Aroline Chase Pinkham Gove founded the Lydia E. Pinkham Memorial Clinic in Salem, Massachusetts . The clinic, still in operation As Of 2004 , provides health services to young mothers and their children. It is designated Site 9 of the Salem Women's Heritage Trail. THE ORIGINAL PRODUCT AND ITS MODERN DESCENDANTS The original formula for Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound was:
, CVS and Rite Aid . drugstore chains. Ingredients listed in this product are:
''Time of Your Life Nutraceuticals'' of St. Petersburg, Florida produces a product named ''Lydia's Secret'' for Lydiapinkham.org. Said to be "based on" the original formula, it has these listed ingredients
DRINKING SONGS Drinking songs that consist of numerous verses describing the humorous and ribald invigorating effects of some food or medicine form almost a small genre in themselves. Lydia and her "medicinal compound" are memorialized in the folk songs "The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham," and "Lily the Pink". A sanitized version of '' Lily The Pink '' was a number one hit for The Scaffold in the United Kingdom in 1968/69. It should not pass without mention that the reason a humble women's tonic was the subject of such and sundry ribald drinking ballads and an increasing success in the twenties and early thirties was its availability, as a 40-proof patent eye-opener, during Prohibition . As folk songs, they have no definitive versions. Some representative samples will convey their flavor: The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham :Let us sing of Lydia Pinkham :The benefactress of the human race. :She invented a vegetable compound, :And now all papers print her face. :Mrs. Jones she had no children, :And she loved them very dear. :So she took three bottles of Pinkham's :Now she has twins every year. :Peter Whelan, he was sad :Because he only had one nut :Till he took some of Lydia's compound :Now they grow in clusters 'round his butt. Lilly the Pink ''Chorus:'' So we'll drink a drink a drink To Lily the pink the pink the pink The savior of the human race. She invented a medicinal compound Most efficacious in every case.
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