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Published by CommonWealth Holistic Herbalism
Practical herbalism from practicing herbalists. Conversations, botanical deep-dives, Q&A with clinical herbalists Katja Swift & Ryn Midura of CommonWealth Holistic Herbalism.
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While our Fallow Month of August has ended, we've got one more replay for you! (If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying. ) This week we're airing a replay of episode 265: Elderberry Syrup Isn't Everything. Elderberry syrup isn’t everything an herbalist has to offer to someone suffering from a cold, the flu, COVID, RSV, or any of the many other respiratory ailments to which we humans are susceptible. Despite being the first thought to come to many minds when asked if they’re prepared for winter illnesses, we’d encourage you to broaden your view both of what elder does, and what herbs can do in these situations. Elderberry is famous for inhibiting viral replication, most notably of the flu virus, by interfering with its capacity to replicate. Elderberry constituents have been shown in petri-dish studies to bind the neuraminidase ‘spike’ on the virus. It can therefore reduce the virus’ capacity to ‘break into’ our cells and convert them into virus-making factories. Sounds good! Note, however, that this particular mode of action was identified through in vitro studies. The limitation here is that the required concentration of those constituents may not be attained in our bloodstream when we ingest elderberry syrup. It may not reach the tissues which are under attack by the virus. So while this is an interesting mechanism of action – and one we’ve ourselves taught about often when discussing elderberry – we now consider it as potentially less relevant to the general impacts of elderberry on viral illness. So what matters more? The effects of elderberry on inflammatory patterns in the body. An efficient immune response includes inflammatory and anti-inflammatory actions, both at the right times and in the right amounts; elderberry supports this. And here’s the good news: so do other berries! Every berry with deep pigmentation – blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, cranberry, serviceberry, aronia berry, and many more – will work to improve inflammation management within the body. At the same time, they’ll enhance vascular integrity and flexibility (particularly important given the capacity of COVID to damage these tissues). So elder isn’t the only berry who can help us. And berries aren’t the only supportive herbs, either – nor are herbs the end of our options! First of all, elder offers flowers as much as berries, and those are helpful for managing fever. Working with elder in formula with other herbs – like our homemade winter elixir – is an excellent way to enhance its actions. But there are also plenty of good herbs beyond elderberry syrup , including pungents like ginger, decongestants like sage, expectorants like elecampane, and aromatics like pine. Last but by no means least: nourishing food, gentle movement, and restorative sleep can each be just as important as any herbal remedies we choose. If you live in the northern hemisphere, cold & flu season is just around the corner! No matter where you live, it’s good to have the knowledge and skills you need to take care of these common problems at home. Herbal Remedies for Cold & Flu teaches you everything you need to know to conquer a cold or fight off the flu. We teach you how to work with herbs that are safe and effective for all aspects of the illness. These strategies can also be very effective when coping with COVID, RSV, and other respiratory infections, too! Our focus is on finding ways to support what your body is already trying to do as it works to restore balance. Like all our offerings , these bundles of self-paced online video courses come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more. If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
August is a Fallow Month for us, so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary. If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying. This week we're airing a replay of episode 230: Acknowledging Complexity Is Not Gatekeeping. When you’re an herbalist, it’s normal to get questions from people about herbs. Usually they’re thinking that it’s a simple question, and expecting a simple response: “What’s good for IBS?” “Chamomile.” But the truth is a lot more complex than that! When you learn about herbalism, you come to understand that there are no herbs “for” any disease state. Instead, there are herbs who can exert influences on the body, and those may match well (or poorly) with the specific state of an individual person. So you become less enthusiastic about simply giving someone the name of an herb when they ask “what’ll work for…?” This dynamic is even more pronounced on social media. Whether in an herbalism discussion group or in direct messages from your followers, an herbalist on social media will see lots of these types of questions – and lots of those one-word responses, too! But people don’t take the names of herbs – they take herbs! Which means they prepare tea (using this much plant matter for that much water), or they take tincture (made at this or that herb:menstruum ratio), or they get a supplement (made by this or that brand)… And so even if you give someone the name of a plant, have you really helped them figure out how to take it? How much to take? How often, for how long? All those details can make or break the success of an intervention. When you get that kind of question, you want to give a helpful answer – and that can mean an answer that’s quite different from what the asker expects. Instead of simply listing names of herbs, try giving an insight into your own herbal thought process! For example, if they’re asking about “herbs for headaches”, you can briefly describe various patterns that can cause headache – heat, dryness, tension, stagnation, etc – and help them identify what kind of headache they have. From there, you can suggest herbs to experiment with – and that’s an important phrase, “to experiment with”! Helping people understand that working with herbs involves multiple rounds of self-experimentation is a great service you can provide. It takes a little more time to construct a response like this, but it’s significantly more helpful to the asker. They might expect you to simply know the right herb for them, and if you just say “it depends and it’s complicated”, that can feel like you’re gatekeeping. But if you share your own decision-making process, you both teach them how to think like an herbalist (even just a little bit), and you help them understand you’re not holding out on them! Looking to improve your skills as an herbalist and clinician? Our Clinical Skills for Herbalists course has practical guidance for setting you up from scratch, or building on your existing foundation. If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
August is a Fallow Month for us, so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary. If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying. This week we're airing a replay of episode 243: Can I Be A Plus-Sized Herbalist? Katja writes… Today a student sent me a question and it was so important, i asked her if i could (anonymously) share it, because i know other people are wondering this too. I wanted to ask for any advice or your thoughts on how to handle being a plus size herbalist. I am plus sized. Though I am currently in working on a healthier life style that includes using herbs, I feel like when people see me or see that Im plus sized that they may not want to work with me or any of my products. I feel like this is my calling I have fallen in love with herbs and how they naturally work with in the body. but I feel like this could possibly hinder me from even opening my own practice one day. I kinda feel alone in this due to most of the herbalist I see on social media are very fit and “healthy”. Am I wrong to want to be an herbalist even though I am also going through a battle and journey with my weight? The bottom line is: we need you. We need plus-sized herbalists. We need everyone, no matter where you are in your journey, whether you’re small or big or short or tall or thin or fat or disabled or abled or sedentary or athletic or anything else. And the other bottom line is that weight and health are not the same thing. I know that society has all these ideas about what is “good” and “healthy” but that doesn’t mean they’re true. You can be healthy and big! You can be healthy and small! You can be unhealthy and be small or big too! We’re all just trying to get through our day, and we’re all in the body we’re in. You don’t have to get thin to get healthy, so let’s make our bodies healthy now, regardless of what size or shape they are. And let’s love them too because bodies are pretty amazing actually! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
August is a Fallow Month for us, so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary. If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying. This week we're airing a replay of episode 248: Can Herbs “Heal”? What does it mean to heal? When are we “healed”? Are there some wounds that can’t be healed? If we can’t heal – in the sense of achieving “perfect health” – are we failures, as people or as herbalists? In this episode, Katja shares her thoughts on the words and ideas “healing” carries in our culture, offering a critique of their common (and commercialized!) semantic and emotional baggage. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Hi everyone! August is a Fallow Month for us, and so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary. If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212 ! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying. This week we're airing a replay of episode 274: Thorn Medicine. Have you ever wished you had thorns? Have you ever felt like you needed to protect your heart, your space, your peace of mind, or your time from a world that asks too much of you – or takes without asking? You’re not alone. This is what thorn medicine can bring you. Thorns aren’t weapons, they’re defenses. They don’t seek an animal or human out with the intent to cause harm, they hold space and define boundaries. Touch me here , says the rose, but not there. Admire my flowers , says the motherwort, but don’t you dare clutch my seeds. We can learn from this. We can take the medicine of thorns into ourselves. We can do this literally, not only (oh, “only”!) metaphorically or symbolically. Most all thorny herbs, and particularly the thorns themselves, carry a key herbal action: astringency. This is an action which literally pulls things together, and holds things together. Each plant’s thorn is different, serving its own purpose. Hawthorn’s long, widely spaced thorns evolved to counter the hungers of the giant sloth, and they retain that shape long after the lumbering herbivore went extinct: they are the living memory of a predator past. Ocotillo’s inexhaustible rows of spines render it no more easy a prey than the cactus who share its landscape. Thistle spikes out from every possible surface, asserting itself in all directions as its firework flowers reach for the sky. Which thorns are yours? Pull yourself together. Hold your boundaries. Make a safe space. Then, within that thorn-walled refuge, your flowers will unfold. Thorn medicine is only one form of support herbs can offer our emotions. Our Neurological & Emotional Health course is a user’s guide to your nerves, your emotions, and the herbs who can lift you, hold you, brace you, and sustain you. We teach holistic herbal strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too! Like all our offerings , this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
I don’t know about you, but my social media feed is filled with stuff that is supposed to “give me more energy” to get through perimenopause. What does that even mean? Perimenopause isn’t causing fatigue for no reason. Your body is doing things: some are new, and some are a sort of inverse callback to your teenage years. Yeah, that’s right – menopause is like a second puberty. Fun! This is work. It’s like remodeling your house while you live inside it. There’s a lot to change, a lot to update, some things to take offline, and all of it happens while you’re in the midst of your daily needs for function, repair, healing, and growth. Those never truly stop, but the demands of the remodel can make them all slow down, or get more difficult. In this episode, Katja shares herbs who will do some of the work for you. By reducing inflammation in the blood vessels and in the digestive tract, and by keeping your lymphatic system flowing smoothly, you can free up a lot of resources inside the body so that your internal workload is lower. In a sense they serve to enhance your inner clean-up crews and help them function more efficiently. (It would be nice if they would also clean your actual house, but alas.) It doesn’t take stimulants or adaptogens to do this job. We don’t always need to solve feeling tired by going to the buzzy herbs. So if you’re feeling tied, but you don’t even have time to take a nap, at least these herbs can do some of your work for you! Here are the links Katja talked about in this video: The Reproductive Health course , which includes not just peri/menopause, but also everything else – endometriosis, PCOS/PMOS, managing your cycle, and more. Also prostate health and andropause: reproductive health for everyone! Our full course catalog – everything we offer. (Yep, there’s a lot.) Our favorite gluten free/dairy free cinnamon buns . These are SO GOOD. Our gluten free / dairy free substitutes list. Tons of options so you don’t have to feel deprived as you change up your diet! Everything’s on sale in July – there’s still time! All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
We like to sign off our show by saying, “Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, and drink some tea.” It’s our favorite little motto and it’s a great reminder that herbalism and self-care go right alongside mutual aid! In our episode 283: Vetting Your Herbalism Sources: Red Flags & Green Flags , we talked about how it isn’t actually bucking the system to ignore the FDA and FTC laws about “telling & selling”. Neither is it a cool rebellious act to turn away from scientific knowledge, modern medical technologies, or even conventional treatments. They each have their place, and herbalism isn’t an ‘alternative’ to them in the sense of a dichotomous choice – either herbs or science, either herbalism or medicine. We can fit together, and we get better results when we do. But it’s certainly true that conventional medicine has problems, and that the system needs some bucking! A system reliant on consumerism – buying your way to better health – always leaves people out. A lot of people. They need help, and we can help them. The best way to do that is a little surprising: take care of each other. Extend our circle of care outside ourselves, outside our family and housemates, and further out into the world. We are all here together, and we can all support one another. And since we’re all herbalists here, let’s do it with herbs! Three ways to get started: FREE Emergency Preparedness course – Concise and targeted lessons teach you how to prepare for emergencies ranging from hurricanes to wildfires to heatwaves. Learn to construct a modular, no-frills herbal first aid kit, food reserve, and go-bag (or shelter-in-place bag). Understand herbal wound care and all the steps to take for cuts and burns. Anticipate and prepare for the effects of climate disasters in your community, not only to help yourself, but to help others too. SLIDING SCALE Herbal Community Care Toolkit – This 20-hour video course teaches you safe, inexpensive, and accessible herbs which can make a difference in the most common health concerns in our society today. High blood pressure, diabetes, edema, pain, poor sleep – there are herbs to support people facing all of these challenges and more. They don’t need to be expensive, exotic, or risky. They don’t need to be “maximum strength” or “100x concentrated”. Gentle, simple, safe herbs can help people you know and love. SLIDING SCALE Accessible Herbalism course – We consider this essential training for clinical herbalists, but you don’t have to be one to want this information! Providing care to everyone is challenging, and involves a lot of creativity and skill to find the right resources and get them to the right people – and to do it all without burning out. To do it, we teach strategies to work around resource constraints, addressing the realities of time and energy involved in herbal work. We share our methods for finding funding, improving access to care, and building community support networks: mutual aid for herbalists and the communities they serve. You can go deeper, of course! These are starting points to get you helpful and empowered as soon as possible, while keeping safety first. And don’t forget… Everything’s on sale in July! All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Do your friends ask you, “what’s a good herb for…” IBS, or PMS, or fibromyalgia, or whatever is bugging them? If you’ve ever struggled to answer such a request, you’re not alone. It’s not just about the difficulty of the pathology, though – it’s also about the complexity of the person, and the variability between people. Everyone thinks they can ask “what’s a good herb for IBS” and that you should have the answer. (Oops, you might even be thinking about an answer right now!) The question to ask right alongside such a thought is this: is that answer appropriate for the person asking? Remember, every body is different! As herbalists, we need a lot more information than just the name of the problem. One of our favorite mottoes around here is: “people don’t take the names of herbs”. It means that you’re not giving a good answer if a person asks “what’s a good herb for migraines” and you respond “feverfew”. You’ve left out tons of important details: form, dose, timing, duration, formulation… the list goes on. The other side of the equation would be “people don’t take herbs for the names of their symptoms”, or their discomforts, or their diagnoses. There are no “herbs for IBS” in the abstract, or in every individual case. Examples make this point most clearly, so this week’s episode of the Holistic Herbalism Podcast is us talking through five different examples of people asking for help with health problems. We describe how we would break those problems down so that we can figure out what the right answer is for them, specifically – not for “someone”, generally. What would we ask first to get a foothold on the issue? What would we observe, and ask the client to observe, as we work to figure out the information we need? How would we construct a protocol and a set of health experiments that will actually help them? Listen in to hear us talk through the process in several different cases. Everything’s on sale in July! All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Today’s episode is about hibiscus energetics – a quick clarification on plant species & parts, and how herbal energetics & actions may differ among them. The hibiscus you find most often in stores or shops or herbal drinks is Hibiscus sabdariffa, and it’s the specific part of the flower called the calyx. The calyx of Hibiscus sabdariffa is distinct from those of other species in the genus. From this species, this part is fleshy, red, and sour. These characteristics are signals to us. The red comes from anthocyanins, and indicates antioxidant/anti-inflammatory and blood-vessel-stabilizing actions; the sour means draining to excess fluid, and cooling to excess heat. Energetically, then, it’s cooling, drying, tonifying. This is also the part with greater evidence for impacts on reducing cholesterol levels, triglycerides, and blood pressure. There is some evidence that hibiscus can lower blood sugar, as well. This part has an interaction with the antimalarial drug chloroquine – but this is also true of lemonade and other acidic drinks, not a uniquely hibiscus problem. Almost all discussion of and research about hibiscus revolves around H. sabdariffa calyx. Other species of Hibiscus don’t produce that fleshy calyx. The leaves and flower petals of H. sabdariffa itself, and the leaves and flowers of other Hibiscus species (e.g. the rose of Sharon, H. syriacus and rose mallow, H. rosa-sinensis ), are more similar to the herb marshmallow & other members of the mallow family. They are cooling, moistening, and relaxant, with a mucilaginous quality. They can help with dry coughs, sore throats, dehydration, and similar dry conditions. So to review: all parts of all species are cooling. Leaf & flower are moistening & relaxant. H. sabdariffa calyx is drying & tonifying. You can compare the H.sab calyx to rose hips, and the leaves & flowers to marshmallow. It’s important to keep this distinction in mind whenever discussing “hibiscus”! All this illustrates a fundamental truth of herbalism, very clearly: plant species, part of plant, and other specific details about an herb can make a big difference in how we work with it, and what it can accomplish. So, don’t let these details slip past you! They could make the difference between a remedy that does the job, and one that lets you down. For further info on hibiscus: HHP 191: Herbs A-Z: Hibiscus & Hypericum images of Hibiscus sabdariffa calyx at IPlantz Hibiscus profile at Herbal Reality And for more high-quality education about herbs, with all the necessary details and nuances: learn with us! Everything’s on sale in July! All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Herbal confidence takes some work to develop. The whole point of learning herbalism is to help people – but when you’re still a student, that’s a little bit tricky! You don’t always know the answer. It might be something you just didn’t learn about yet. Or maybe you know part of it, but you’re not confident about the whole story. Maybe the question was just really intimidating! So you feel hesitant and unsure about how to help. As you learn more, your confidence will grow. It’s ok to wait – you don’t have to start giving out advice the moment you begin learning about herbs! That pressure isn’t helping you, and setting it aside is completely appropriate. But the flip side is this: you do have to get some practice, right? Especially as you develop your knowledge beyond the basics. Otherwise it’s going to feel too hard forever. It needs to be real-world practice, too, not just theory. You need ways to put your skills to work, even as you’re in the process of developing them. Fear not, friends: we’ve got solutions for this. Today’s episode of the Holistic Herbalism Podcast is all about a game you can play to get that practice in a way that is totally safe! It’s simple, free, and guaranteed to boost your confidence & capability for making accurate assessments and giving good advice. Any questions? You can contact us anytime: info@commonwealthherbs.com is our email address, and the best way to reach us. Interested in a clinical consultation with us? Find all of our clinic options right here. By the way, you don’t have to be a student with us to get a clinic session – it’s open to everyone! Learn all about the 4 pillars and a holistic approach to herbalism with this free course: 4 Keys to Holistic Herbalism Once you’re a student, you can get a Quick Help session at any time. Just grab any free course (or paid course!) and you’ll have access to free sessions with katja on Thursdays – the link is right on your student dashboard . Students also get access to our live Q&A sessions, our private student community, and more! Everything’s on sale in July! All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
How do you know when you can trust an herbalism teacher, influencer, book, or blog? How can you determine whether a scientific study has relevant information for your practice? Vetting your herbalism sources of information is an essential skill for students and practitioners alike. Today’s episode, we lay out some red flags and green flags for this determination. These are indicators that you should be more cautious or skeptical on the one hand, or on the other hand that you can feel more trust in what you’re told. They’re not absolutes – no one data point is determinative – but they can help you more swiftly come to a decision. You can absolutely learn from teachers with flaws. In fact, you’ll have to! We all have them. Still, if someone is out there telling you “this herb is Amish ibuprofen” or “this herb is nature’s Ozempic”, those are strong signals that this person isn’t interested in a grounded, nuanced, and detailed understanding of how herbs work in humans. Similar signals come from statements like “these are the lost secrets of ancient wisdom”, “everyone needs to take this one special herb”, and “the government & big pharma don’t want you to know…” Each of these might begin from a truth or half-truth, but they obscure true history, individual variation, and the actual causes of over-medicalization in our society. Those who pass them on uncritically, or use them to gin up likes & follows, are doing you – and all herbalists – a disservice. Green flags for an herbal ‘authority’ include clarity of context: “this herb is helpful here, for these people, for these problems; but not there, for those, or that.” This context can include elements such as energetic indications, action-centered (as opposed to disease-centered) claims about herbal efficacy, realistic consideration of contraindications or drug interactions, and a lot of specificity about format, dose, frequency, duration, and the other practical elements of how people work with herbs in the real world. The more of these you see a person offer, the more reliable you may judge their information to be. Scientific articles about herbs – and even moreso, popular press publications about those articles – carry red flags and green flags, too. The first step is always to assess whether a study, trial, or review article tells you anything which really applies to the work you do. If it’s billed as an investigation into calamus safety, but it’s actually a study of a single constituent of calamus essential oil, injected into mice at doses one could literally never encounter via eating calamus root, drinking its decoction, or taking its tincture – well, that’s interesting, but it doesn’t have any practical impact on whether you include calamus in a formula for your client. The basics of reading & understanding scientific studies come forward here. Is it on general populations, or a specific group of people (children, elders, those with a particular disease state)? Is it an actual trial on humans, or an animal study – or an in vitro / in silico investigation? If it’s a review article, how did they select which sources to include and exclude? All that is true even before we get into the issue of AI articles and AI citations, but when you see those it’s one of the reddest red flags of all. Even without the influence of AI, basic science errors (like mismatch between the botanical and common names of plants under study) can pop up. Then there are issues of funding, conflicts of interest, and the scourge of selective publication. Green flags, on the other hand, rise up when we find a study which includes traditional syndrome differentiations – the application of herbal energetics in the selection / review process of the trial. When a study’s done on a ‘crude extract’, like tea or tincture you can make at home, that’s another sign that this information may really matter to you. Ideally, we’d get studies done on free-living humans, with the types of remedies we actually recommend to our clients – so again, the question comes down to: how close is this to our actual work? We’d like for everyone to go to an herbalism school where you can ask the teachers these kinds of questions, anytime you want. That’s the kind of learning environment we provide! We like to we raise green flags, and we’d love for you to learn with us! But… you might want to wait for July 1st, that’s when our big summer sale begins! Everything’s on sale in July! All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off! Mentioned in this episode: HHP 065: How To Not Be A Guru HHP 125: This Is Not The Practice Of Medicine HHP 215: Don’t Let the Feds Get You Down If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Today we’re sharing some thoughts about uncertainty versus imposter syndrome, and learning herbalism. Recently, we did a 20 Questions video for the folks at HerbRally – it ran nearly four hours long! Two of the questions we were asked wove a theme together, and we wanted to share them here. The first question was “how do you deal with uncertainty as an herbalist?” The person asking this may have been expecting some kind of study trick that would help them to feel confident enough in their skills that they didn’t feel uncertainty in their practice – like an antidote to imposter syndrome! But we have this sign in our apothecary that says “there’s only the hard way” (and if you know, you know!) and that applies here: the way of herbalism is uncertain. Accepting the presence of uncertainty is the first step toward navigating it confidently. Now, we’re not talking about under-training: the first thing to do is to get trained, of course. But once you have trained for years and years, and even once you’ve been in practice for years, you are still on a journey with uncertainty. Which sounds a little zen, perhaps – and actually, a little bit, it is! Training the mind to accept uncertainty, while still finding the truth of the moment, is as important a skill for an herbalist as it is for a monk. Next, someone asked us about mistakes new herbalists make, and how long it takes to “feel like you know what you’re doing.” (Do you see a theme here?) They want to know if it’s going to take years to feel confident, or if there’s some way to accelerate the development of that confidence. Yes. These questions come up for lots of herbalists. Especially because a lot of us are practicing alone in our communities. Sure, there are herbal friends online, but maybe you’re the only herbalist in your town, and you’re feeling the weight of that solitude. A lot of folks don’t have elders or mentors available, and that makes it harder to practice. One solution to that problem is online clinical herbalism mentorship – and we’ve got that for you! Did you know that you can book a one-on-one Zoom session with Katja to talk through your goals, your challenges, and how to get you where you want to be in your herbal practice? You can! It’s open to anyone, and the easiest way to book one is to go to enroll in any free course – they’re at the top of the list. (They’re truly free: you don’t even need a credit card.) That will set up a student dashboard for you, and right there on the menu on the left you’ll see, about halfway down, Quick Help Sessions – click that link and it’ll take you right to the scheduling calendar! If this episode caught your attention, then our Clinical Skills course is for you! Learn to practice legally, safely, collaboratively, and effectively. Get all your client forms & scheduling systems sorted. Cultivate consultation interview skills, and explore methods for planning personalized protocols. Everything you need to be a top-notch herbalist! Like all our offerings , this self-paced online video course comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Accessibility in herbalism is not something extra or something nice-if-possible, it’s a critical part of our work. The prices of the remedies we recommend can sometimes be a determining factor in whether our clients take them, or take them long enough to get results. In many cases we can identify less expensive herbs, or formulae of herbs, which can do the job of more costly ones. In order to make an effective substitution, we first need to clarify the qualities, actions, affinities, and other aspects of the herb for which we seek alternatives. Only then can we identify a good substitute. This episode includes thoughts and examples of potential substitutes for solomon’s seal ( Polygonatum biflorum ), kava ( Piper methysticum ), Asian ginseng ( Panax ginseng ), dong quai ( Angelica sinensis ), teasel ( Dipsacus fullonum ), arnica ( Arnica montana ), chaga ( Inonotus obliquus ), goldenseal ( Hydrastis canadensis ), and schisandra ( Schisandra chinensis ). This is material we dig into deeply in our Accessible Herbalism course. That course is full of strategies and skills which enable herbalists to offer top-quality care to people who have constraints on their finances, time, energy, or community of support. It helps you understand the truth behind some of hte most common money-saving suggestions about herbalism and nutrition, so you can offer realistic suggestions which actually help people who need it most. Like everything we offer , it’s a self-paced online video course. It comes with lifetime access to current & future course material, the twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
When we’re choosing herbs to help someone, knowing their medical diagnosis isn’t enough: we don’t choose herbs for a diagnosis. As herbalists, we actually need more information! A medical diagnosis is a specialized vocabulary which creates a shorthand so that people who already know what it means, how it happens, and how to fix it, can speak more efficiently about (whatever it is). It’s not an objective truth, though: it’s a descriptive label that is useful in a specialized context. Herbalism is a different context. That’s why it’s not very practical to try to look up something like “herbs for neuropathy caused by a herniated cervical disc” – because we can’t actually make that list without leaving gaps large enough to drive a truck through. The name of the problem isn’t enough information for us to choose herbs, we still have to get more data! We need to understand what the diagnostic term means in absolute terms, and we need to know what the person’s experience of that diagnosis is (because not everyone with a certain label has the same experience), and then we need to figure out what herbs or what series of herbs have the actions we need to work toward a resolution. So here’s how we think that through – taking this example, and asking: what does “neuropathy caused by a herniated cervical disc” mean for an herbalist? Where exactly can we dig into that to make an impact? What other information do we need to allow us to pick the right herbs to support this person? This process for thinking everything through will work for any problem! It’s all in this episode. This example came up in one of our live Q&A sessions last week. Those are a perk enjoyed by every one of our students – whether they’re enrolled in a full program like Family Herbalist or Community Herbalist , a single course like Neurological & Emotional Health , or even one of our free short courses such as Herbal Study Tips . Anyone who’s learning from us can ask us questions directly at these sessions, twice a week. And if you can’t make it live, we keep an archive – there are more than 500 archived Q&A sessions for you to look through! (Don’t worry, there’s a searchable index so you can find what you’re interested in.) Everything we offer is presented in self-paced online video courses, which come with lifetime access to current & future course material, the twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Plant ID apps are helpful (when they’re accurate), but there is one drawback – they make it harder to learn plant ID for yourself. But there are ways to combat that so that you get good at plant ID – without having to memorize a ton of stuff. It’s summer! Now is the time to be out there practicing with your plants. Yes, there are lots of apps that will try to identify plants for you, but this is about skill development – because when you know, you know . Working through the process of observation and identification isn’t just a one-time thing, like sending a photo through a plant ID app – it builds and strengthens the pathways in your brain that you use to do the job. So let’s get out there and be really looking at plants! In the Olden Times, when you wanted to identify a plant, you’d need a guide book. Each one is a little bit different, but usually there’s a “key” to help you sort through all the possibilities and narrow in on a target. These start with distinct patterns, like opposite vs alternate leaf arrangement. Then you might look at the leaf edges, to see if they’re serrated, smooth, or something else. At some point you’ll look at the flowers, too: are they symmetrical? How many petals, and what color? All these details will help you to exclude some plants (or groups of them), so the set of plant descriptions & pictures you need to look at gets smaller and smaller, until you have a manageable number to work with. So that’s how you’d use a plant ID guide, but notice something here: it all starts with observation. Even if you don’t know what “pinnate” or “glabrous” means, you can observe features of your plant and recognize its patterns. In this episode, we’ll demonstrate the observation process for you, and you can play along! We go outside and describe a plant we know and love, starting with its leaves, stems, flowers, and other clear features. But we won’t show it to you until the very end. Can you figure out who we’re talking about, before we show it to you? Notice the timestamp when you have a guess. Even if you don’t recognize it until we show it to you – or even after we do – it’s the process, the attention, and the habit of close looking that we really want to instill in you today. The more you practice observation, the better you’ll get at plant ID. Wanna learn more techniques to help you with plant identification, as well as with learning herbalism in general and retaining the stuff you’re studying? Grab the free Herbal Study Tips course! This fun course is designed to make all your learning – whether that’s with us, from other teachers, from books, or from the plants themselves – more exciting and effective. Like all our offerings , this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Life is pretty overwhelming right now, and it’s affecting the way our brains function. When we can’t focus or can’t remember things, we typically blame it on things like perimenopause or ADHD – but the literal firehose of data that comes at us every day is an even bigger cause: it’s a LOT for our brains to process! Tulsi can help! Truly one of the most versatile and multifaceted herbs on the planet, tulsi is a must-know plant for any herbalist. Its capacity as a nervine is immediately palpable, as it helps us release tension and anxiety without causing any sedation. When taken over the long term, tulsi expresses itself as an adaptogen – helping us to move more easily out of a stress response, back to a comfortable and calm baseline. Tulsi is also very flexible, and can be formulated with lots of other nervines and mental health herbs to create a perfectly personalized formula. Some of our favorite herbs to pair with tulsi include: Ground ivy – for moving the lymph in your head (ear/nose/throat) – and maybe even the glymph in your brain! Elderflower – for draining stuck fluids from the head, and for releasing tense heat Ginkgo – for increasing blood flow to the brain and protecting the health of nerves Rosemary – for cutting through the fog and sharpening the mind Peppermint – for a breath of cool air moving through your mind, and for releasing tension held in the belly Still feeling stressed? Check out our new Stress Management course ! Learn all about adaptogens, nervines, restoratives, and herbs to lift your spirits in this inexpensive, focused course. It covers everything you need to get through stressful times – and to help the ones you love, too! Like all our offerings , this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! PS: If you’re in the Boston area, check out Herbstalk on June 6th & 7th! Ryn will be teaching a class there on Affordable Analogues for Expensive Herbs , and the conference as a whole is very much worth visiting. It’s the last Herbstalk ever, so don’t miss it! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
We’ve come to the end of the “mainstream” top-40 best-selling herbs list ! Dandelion, rhubarb, and ginseng take the last three spots. Dandelion is an herbal workhorse. It’s inexpensive because it’s ubiquitous, and its resilience is legendary – dandelion coming up through the concrete is one of the herbalist’s favorite symbols of resistance and the power of nature. Much more than a simple “detox” herb, dandelion root and leaf improve the functions of our liver and kidneys, feed both us and our gut flora, and eliminate excess fluids from the system. Its bright yellow flowers can even lift our spirits when taken in tincture or wine – this is one of Ryn’s indispensable herbal remedies for the winter doldrums. Rhubarb root used to be much more of an herbal mainstay than it is in contemporary herbalism. The Eclectics of the 19th century worked with it extensively, largely for its “cathartic” – stimulant laxative – properties. It is a key ingredient in the famous “neutralizing cordial”, a formula developed in that era and designed to be a nearly-universal remedy for digestive upsets of all sorts. This remedy is still prepared by herbalists today, though often with some variations in the ingredient list. Ginseng needs no introduction. It is one of the most famous medicinal herbs in the world, and it is “the original adaptogen” – the category which has spawned millions of dollars in product sales in our stressed-out, depleted, fatigued society. Ginseng products can be extremely helpful, but you absolutely cannot simply buy the first one you find: these remedies are very prone to adulteration. That, too, is an old problem: historical texts are littered with descriptions of adulteration and falsification of supposedly mature, supposedly Panax roots which were nothing of the kind. Some things never change… CLICK HERE FOR FULL SHOW NOTES & REFERENCES “Detox” came up in this episode (again), and we hinted at the issues rampant in this category of supplement products. For the full story, you’ll want to dig in to our course Elements of Detoxification . This course takes a fresh look at the concepts of “toxicity” and “detoxification”, a holistic perspective that goes beyond “cleanses” and products. Learn a memorable, practical model for understanding how the body’s detox functions work, along with the roles herbs can play in supporting them. Like all our offerings , this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
At number 35, 36, and 37 on the list of top-selling herbal supplements we find bacopa, senna, and rhodiola. Bacopa is also known as brahmi, and this name is just as often given to gotu kola (Centella asiatica) as well. This is because both are known by that name in Ayurvedic herbalism, where they originate. Both are able to improve mental clarity and cognitive function, and have the same type of energetics as well as growth habits. For practical purposes they are nearly identical, but their chemistry does differ, so the best extraction method may not be the same for both, and this could be relevant in the context of a commercial extract capsule. Senna is one of the cathartic stimulant laxatives. It is possible to become dependent on senna – not after one dose, but if taken for several days running. A person may then find it difficult to move the bowels without taking it every day. Better not to get into that situation! In the commercial context, note that this herb is often included in ‘detox’ and ‘weight loss’ supplements… although it does not truly serve either of those functions in a root-cause or restorative manner. Rhodiola is a very stimulating adaptogen, and so it’s no wonder people talk about it as an ‘herb of happiness’ or even an ‘herbal antidepressant’! But that is a misleading way to think of the root, and it can lead to some bad choices. This one is particularly drying, so unless your constitution (or local environment) are very damp, it’s best to include demulcents in your protocol whenever taking rhodiola. CLICK HERE FOR FULL SHOW NOTES & REFERENCES As you’ve heard in today’s episode, one of the ways we can understand these herbs is by attention to their chemistry. Which constituents contribute to their effects? What synergy exists between the many different chemicals a plant contains? Which constituents are shared between herbs with similar actions? If these questions pique your interest, you’re in luck! Our Basic Phytochemistry course for herbalists is a low-pressure introduction to the practical aspects of plant chemistry, the ones which are most relevant to the practice of herbalism. Like all our offerings , this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Back to it! Today’s best-seller herbal supplements are CBD, fennel, and oats. To the extent there’s overlap between these, it’s some capacity to touch on the nervous system – or at least, in the case of fennel, digestive symptoms which can be due to stress and anxiety. CBD is a widely-known, and yet poorly-understood, substance. It is not identical to a full-spectrum cannabis extract, neither in terms of its range of effects nor its safety profile with respect to adverse effects or addiction. Its regulatory status in the US also complicates matters: nationally legal only when certain criteria are met, and of varying legality state to state. It is neither a cure-all nor a placebo, and variance between products makes direct comparisons tricky. Fennel is one of the herbs on this list with the greatest similarity between folk and traditional medicine applications and its modern market presentation. As a carminative, sweet demulcent, and mild galactagogue, it is helpful for a variety of discomforts. Its pleasant and familiar flavor is a strong point in its favor, and it plays very nicely in formula with other herbs. At our school, we don’t devote much attention to oats, whether milky oats or oat straw. We have reservations about its purported actions – particularly oat straw – and about its potential to trigger those who are gluten-sensitive. This does set us apart from basically every other herb school and herbalist out there, we admit it! Still, its popularity both with the general public and among herbal practitioners is undeniable, so it’s worth understanding the nature of these discussions. CLICK HERE FOR FULL SHOW NOTES & REFERENCES Nerve pain? Agitation impacting digestion? Burnout? CBD, fennel, and oats may be helpful with these problems, but you’ll get better results by learning the underlying physiology of your nervous system and how herbs can influence it. Our Neurological & Emotional Health course is a user’s guide to your nerves, your emotions, and the herbs who can lift you, hold you, brace you, and sustain you. We teach holistic herbal strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too! Like all our offerings , this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Have you ever wished you had thorns? Have you ever felt like you needed to protect your heart, your space, your peace of mind, or your time from a world that asks too much of you – or takes without asking? You’re not alone. This is what thorn medicine can bring you. Thorns aren’t weapons, they’re defenses. They don’t seek an animal or human out with the intent to cause harm, they hold space and define boundaries. Touch me here , says the rose, but not there. Admire my flowers , says the motherwort, but don’t you dare clutch my seeds. We can learn from this. We can take the medicine of thorns into ourselves. We can do this literally, not only (oh, “only”!) metaphorically or symbolically. Most all thorny herbs, and particularly the thorns themselves, carry a key herbal action: astringency. This is an action which literally pulls things together, and holds things together. Each plant’s thorn is different, serving its own purpose. Hawthorn’s long, widely spaced thorns evolved to counter the hungers of the giant sloth, and they retain that shape long after the lumbering herbivore went extinct: they are the living memory of a predator past. Ocotillo’s inexhaustible rows of spines render it no more easy a prey than the cactus who share its landscape. Thistle spikes out from every possible surface, asserting itself in all directions as its firework flowers reach for the sky. Which thorns are yours? Pull yourself together. Hold your boundaries. Make a safe space. Then, within that thorn-walled refuge, your flowers will unfold. Thorn medicine is only one form of support herbs can offer our emotions. Our Neurological & Emotional Health course is a user’s guide to your nerves, your emotions, and the herbs who can lift you, hold you, brace you, and sustain you. We teach holistic herbal strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too! Like all our offerings , this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
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