The Holistic Herbalism Podcast (CommonWealth Holistic Herbalism)

In today’s episode we continue our exploration of the herbs on our home apothecary shelves. This week we made an extra effort to share formulation ideas for these herbs!

The hawthorns – Crataegus spp. – are best-known for protecting the heart and vasculature. The quercetin, anthocyanins, and bioflavonoids in the leaf, flower, & berry of this giving tree help modulate inflammation and reduce allergic expressions. Hawthorn berry is flexible enough to prepare in a variety of ways and it formulates well with other herbs. Today we drank a formula with: hawthorn berry, pine needles, mugwort, damiana, juniper berries, and orange peel.

Curcuma longa is our good friend turmeric. It’s famous as an anti-inflammatory herb in a general way, but we think of it particularly as a digestive herb. It’s also very good as a topical remedy. You can prepare a “ginger family reunion” blend with Zingiberaceae plants: turmeric, ginger, cardamom, grains of paradise, galangal… Or, if you like the 80s, you can make “Karma Chameleon tea” with red rooibos, gold turmeric, and green rooibos. 😉

These quick plant profiles were done off-the-cuff & on-the-spot. If you enjoyed them, we have more! Our organized & comprehensive presentation of our herbal allies is in the Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. We have detailed profiles of 90 medicinal herbs! Plus you get everything that comes with enrollment in our courses: twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, discussion threads integrated in each lesson, guides & quizzes, 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!

This is one of our favorite herbal formulas for endurance situations, whether that’s physical, mental, emotional, or all three. These herbs help build up your resilience, in part by improving your ability to clear the system of wastes and irritants. (Call it “detox”, the body’s daily action to process and eliminate such things.) Herbs can help that action in lots of ways, and an alterative herbal formula like Rooted & Ready will do just that. Oh, and did we mention it tastes like root beer?

But the key to this formula is the combination of alteratives with adaptogens. Adaptogens make us better able to adapt to stress of all kinds, so they don’t cause us so much trouble. And believe it, stress causes real, physical health troubles! Because adaptogens support this function, and because stress is so pervasive and destructive, these herbs can be helpful for a surprising range of imbalances. When their influence is in the system, returning to baseline balance is a smoother transition. You don’t waste resources needlessly, and as a result you feel calmer and more focused.

This formula serves to stimulate the liver & kidneys (key organs of elimination), improves endocrine function and coordination in response to stressors, and stimulates the circulation of heat and blood to the periphery of the body. It’s fit for decoction, tincture, elixir, and perhaps a few other creative home remedy methods. It’s a good spring tonic and a solid ally when there’s work to be done. (Listen to the pod for proportions and preparation notes, including constitutional adjustments!)

Herbs discussed include: sarsaparilla, sassafras, ashwagandha, eleuthero, rhodiola, ginger, licorice, birch, alder, wintergreen, kava, calamus.

Rooted & Ready is one of a whole slew of formulas Ryn deconstructs in the last part of his 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. And, take a look at some key formulas like Rooted & Ready, that bring together taste, action, and energetics for maximum effect. Check it out!

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

This week we’re talking about cardamom & eleuthero!

About Elettaria cardamomum, cardamom, we actually do have “one weird trick” for you today! Here it is: get yourself a cardamom-crushing stone. It is so much easier than using a spoon to crush the pods and release the pungent aromatic seeds. Cardamom is great to “ground” a very aromatic formula, and of course it’s also excellent in foods of many kinds.

Eleutherococcus senticosus, properly called eleuthero although sometimes referred to as “Siberian ginseng”. It got that name for very capitalist reasons, you know. And indeed it’s possible to use eleuthero in a rather capitalist manner, as a stimulant to improve work output. But we prefer to work with it for marathon-style stressors as a resilience-building herb.

These quick plant profiles were done off-the-cuff & on-the-spot. If you enjoyed them, we have more! Our organized & comprehensive presentation of our herbal allies is in the Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. We have detailed profiles of 90 medicinal herbs! Plus you get everything that comes with enrollment in our courses: twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, discussion threads integrated in each lesson, guides & quizzes, 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!

Psoriasis is a chronic, autoimmune inflammatory skin problem. Problems like this are complex, because they don’t hinge on a single genetic anomaly or chemical imbalance in the body. This makes them difficult for conventional medicine to solve, but holistic healing methods are exactly what’s needed here! We can work through multiple interventions, including diet changes and herbs for psoriasis, to reduce inflammation and restore healthy skin.

In this podcast we talk first about major contributing factors to psoriasis (and inflammatory skin conditions like it, such as eczema). Then we discuss some simple supplements, diet additions, and eliminations that can make a big difference in your overall inflammatory burden. Reducing this means your skin doesn’t get so irritated! Finally we talk about herbs you can work with, topically on the skin as well as internally, to reduce inflammation, move lymph, and relieve the itching too.

Herbs discussed include kelp & other seaweeds, licorice, violet, & chickweed, along with brief mentions of cleavers, red clover, calendula, and self-heal.

If you’d like to learn how to work with herbs to take care of yourself & your family, try out our Herbal Medicine for Beginners course! It’s a quick, inexpensive way to meet 35 of the most important medicinal herbs. We share all our favorite ways to work with them, so you’ll be preparing your own home remedies in no time. Our zero-risk return policy means you can try it out with no pressure, and if you decide it’s not for you, we’ll give you a refund. Easy!

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

We’re continuing on as we highlight the herbs in our home apothecary. Today we reach the end of our first shelf!

Erigeron canadensis, E. strigosus, & E. annuus are the species of fleabane we have worked with. We like the Canada fleabane best, but they’re all helpful herbs. All the fleabanes are very easy to grow – put some in your “feral garden” areas! In terms of taste, qualities, and actions, fleabane is very similar to goldenrod and yarrow – warming & drying & tonifying, with aromatic fluid movement, along with diuretic & vulnerary activity.

Eupatorium perfoliatum, boneset, has recently been confirmed to contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Fortunately, the ones in boneset are the least dangerous! Also, we only work with boneset for short courses: 2-4 weeks max, then equal or greater time away from the herb. We also only take small doses (e.g. 1/2 dropperful of tincture) for the effects we want. Boneset is an excellent herb for viral infections and post-viral lingering symptoms. We’ve worked with it a lot during COVID and had great feedback on its efficacy from our clients & students.

These quick plant profiles were done off-the-cuff & on-the-spot. If you enjoyed them, we have more! Our organized & comprehensive presentation of our herbal allies is in the Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. We have detailed profiles of 90 medicinal herbs! Plus you get everything that comes with enrollment in our courses: twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, discussion threads integrated in each lesson, guides & quizzes, 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!

When choosing herbs for a health issue, herbalists like us use a system of organization called energetics. In this week’s podcast, we have an excerpt from our Energetics & Holistic Practice course about a key component of herbal energetics: tissue states. This term refers to the quality and activity present in a given organ or tissue of the body, and is based on three pairs of opposites: hot & cold, damp & dry, tense & lax.

When we have an injury or dysfunction somewhere in the body, herbalists ask: How much heat (or metabolic activity) is present in the area? How much moisture is flowing through (or stuck within) the tissue? How tight or loose is the organ, or muscle? These fundamental qualities are what help us match herbs to health problems more precisely – hot states call for cooling herbs, tense states need relaxing herbs, and so on. Learning to identify these states, and learning which herbs counterbalance which states, is an important part of your herbal education.

In these excerpts, we discuss each of the six primary tissue states, teaching you how to recognize them and how to understand what those observations mean. We also talk about the way these states can change from one into another, because in real life they’re moving targets – they change and shift as time passes. Knowing a bit about how one state is most likely to evolve into another makes you even better able to help with the right remedy at the right time.

If you’d like to get deeper into herbal energetics – going into details like individual constitutional types and herbal actions – then you should consider the complete course: Energetics & Holistic Practice

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Everyone is different, and healthcare should be individualized for each person – especially when it comes to herbalism! But, on the other hand, people are also quite alike in many ways, and it turns out that there is in fact a general approach to building health. That’s what this episode is about: foundational health strategies you can turn to in any situation.

Conventional medicine hinges upon a diagnosis. Without knowing precisely what’s wrong, you can’t proceed with a pharmaceutical solution. Herbalism is different, and especially holistic herbalism. As herbalists, we can absolutely help with specific complaints and health issues – matching the right herb to the right person at the right time. But we also can help even when “nothing’s wrong”! We can look at a situation and say: hey, your digestive system (or cardiovascular system, etc, or even the body in general) just isn’t really functioning well right now. Let’s think about a total overhaul. How can we rebuild this system so that it works well and stays healthy?

A good place to start is with what we might call the “expected inputs” a human body would naturally encounter in the course of human evolution. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors had a lot in common, even when they lived in very different environments from each other. They had to move to get their food, they slept when it was dark, and they had a very different relationship to stress than we do today. Working to align our habits and exposures to more closely resemble theirs (without falling into the trap of “paleo re-enactment”), we can provide the body what it is programmed by evolution to expect. This leads naturally to better health.

Interested in this framework for herbalism & holistic health? We elaborate on these ideas and look at them from a different angle in a FREE mini-course you can jump into right now! Check it out here: Four Keys to Holistic Herbalism

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Collapse is not a single event that occurs everywhere, once and for all. It occurs in fits and starts, unevenly distributed across communities. When there are floods and fires, when there are supply chain disruptions, when there is war and strife – these are expressions of collapse. Recognizing them is not in any way saying we shouldn’t bother to try and stop them, or reduce their severity! But it is a necessary acknowledgement of reality.

Making plans for collapse in all its manifestations is a solid way to mitigate their effects on you and your family or community. It’s also good for your mental & emotional health in the meantime!

These plans must include community. No one can go it alone for very long, even in the best of circumstances. When there’s disaster, we need each other even more. Stockpiling supplies is not a long-term solution. Building skills, and developing a community of people who are enthusiastic about learning these skills, is the best way forward. (Check out makerspaces, skillshares, & mutual aid collectives to find like-minded folks.) And that’s where herbalism comes in!

Start today: build yourself a list of herbs which grow in your ecosystem and can play important roles in a situation where medical care isn’t available. Getting to know your local antiseptic herbs, nutritives, herbs for emotional support, digestives, and respiratory support herbs is a great foundation to begin with – that’s what we’re focusing on in this episode.

We have online video herbalism courses that can help you develop these skills, too!

Our Herbal First Aid course teaches you all the fundamentals of working with herbs for acute care. Wounds, burns, sprains, bites & stings, and emotional first aid eeds can all be addressed with herbs!

The Emergent Responder program is a complete guide to holistic disaster response & preparedness. Learn how herbal first aid, long-term care strategies, and emergency clinic management unfold in austere environments. Get the skills you need to be confident and ready to care for yourself, your family, and your community – even if help never comes.

Our Herbal Community Care Toolkit is chock full of low-cost, abundantly accessible herbs for addressing common health issues. Students in this program learn our most inexpensive strategies for improving health and well-being. This course is available by donation, but if you can’t afford it, email us and we’ll send you a coupon code so you can get it for free!

Once enrolled in any of our courses, your access never expires – and you get any updated material we add in the future, free of cost!

Other resources we mentioned in this episode:

• Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?, by Bill McKibben
• The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters, by Juliette Kayyem
• FEMA Training & Education and CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Program

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 e

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Is Easter really the best time to give up sugar? Well, given that there’s always another holiday around the corner, there’s never really an objectively better or worse time to try it. So why not try it now? You don’t have to do it alone – herbs can help! In this episode we’ll talk about some of our favorite herbs to control sugar cravings and help you change your relationship to sweet treats.

We always combine our herbalism with rational lifestyle interventions, so we’ll also discuss holistic strategies to cope with an oversized sweet tooth. Establishing a “sugar budget”, identifying your favorite low-sugar treats, keeping dessert close to mealtime, and finding ways to treat yourself that don’t involve food are all key here. Beneath that, there’s also value in recognizing what a sugar craving really is: a communication from the body, letting you know about an unmet need. This helps stave off guilt and shame!

Mentioned in this podcast:

• How To Minimize Hyperglycemic Toxicity – this post discusses the ways in which a complex meal mitigates the glycemic impact of a carby/sugary food.
• The Holistic Herbalism Podcast, episode 23: Schisandra & Peppermint – in which Katja embarked upon her 100-day schisandra experiment.
• Nettle & Friends – our classic formula. For sugar control, add in tulsi, cinnamon, or even schisandra!
• Everything Will Be Fine – an example of a nervine blend to help cope with the difficult emotions that often drive us to seek sugar.

Herbs discussed include: cinnamon, schisandra, tulsi, nettle, ashwagandha, licorice, calamus.

If you’d like to learn more about sugar, its effect on the body, more herbs for sugar cravings, and (almost) everything else about food and your health, check out our Fundamentals of Holistic Nutrition course! In it, we teach you the foundational principles of nutrition which apply to any diet type, while identifying particular diet adjustments that can help with common troubles. We also look at herbs as nutritive in their own right – as providers of mineral, vitamin, and phytonutrient compounds that can bolster a diet that’s otherwise lacking. Learn more and get started right here: Fundamentals of Holistic Nutrition

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

All herb schools are different, in their focus and their style. When you’re choosing an online herb school, whether for a short course or a long program, here are some key questions to consider:

• How can you ask questions to the teachers & admins?
• Is there a free course you can take first?
• What’s the teaching method (text, audio, recorded video, live sessions, etc), & does it match your learning style?
• How are the teachers accessible – what kind of contact do you get with them?
• Do you get to keep the materials when the course ends?
• How many ‘hours’ is the course, and how are those hours counted?
• Is there a student community you can participate in, and how does it work?
• Will you be “certified” on completion? (Beware: this is a trick question!)
• How will this fit in to your learning spiral: is this brand new material, or a new view on something you’ve learned before? (Learning herbalism is not a single linear path.)

These answers will be different for every school, and there’s no one “right” answer! It all depends on how you prefer to learn and engage with your teachers. Knowing to ask these questions in advance will help you make better-informed comparisons between different offerings, and find the ones that work best for you.

As you may know, we teach herbalism online! We hope that if you’re choosing an online herb school, you’ll consider ours. When you sign up for any of our courses – including our FREE Herbal Study Tips and Four Keys to Holistic Herbalism courses – you get access to twice-a-week live Q&A sessions, integrated discussion threads on every lesson, and a vibrant student community. Our courses are centered on video lessons you can watch at your own pace, and once you’ve bought a course you retain access to it (and any future updates!), forever.

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’re back on track! Today we continue our exploration of herbs in our home apothecary, giving you some unscripted thoughts about these herbs we work with very frequently. They’re the plants we want to have with us always, and it’s been fun to see the synchronicities that emerge as we progress in alphabetical-by-Latin order. Today’s plants make an interesting contrast.

Filipendula ulmaria, meadowsweet, is cooling/drying/tonifying. Its salicylates & other astringent elements make it excellent as an anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial when the tissues are spongy and red. We’ve found it very helpful for dental issues, including the irritations caused by braces. It is excellent for gastrointestinal inflammation also, famously helpful for ulcers & heartburn. It is not, though, “antacid” – as is sometimes claimed!

Foeniculum vulgare, fennel, on the other hand, is a warming/moistening/relaxant herb. It’s one of our “sweet demulcents”, like licorice, which can moisten tissues without the “slimy” feel of mucilaginous demulcents such as marshmallow. Fennel is important as a corrigent – which doesn’t only mean “improves flavor”, but implies an ability to balance out formulae. In this case, it’s great for folks who run dry and tense and need that balanced out if they’re going to take herbs like sage or dandelion. Fennel’s also intriguing because, while cholagogue, it’s not bitter.

These quick plant profiles were done off-the-cuff & on-the-spot. If you enjoyed them, we have more! Our organized & comprehensive presentation of our herbal allies is in the Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. We have detailed profiles of 90 medicinal herbs! Plus you get everything that comes with enrollment in our courses: twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, discussion threads integrated in each lesson, guides & quizzes, 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!

It’s springtime! The plants are popping up everywhere in their colorful displays. This time of year, we always start to get more questions about wildcrafting and foraging, so we wanted to share some thoughts on the subject in this episode. Living in a city can make gathering your own plants seem more difficult, and there are indeed some special considerations to make if you’re going to harvest wild plants in a city environment. But more important than specific plant knowledge are the urban wildcrafting ethics you bring to the task – and these almost all apply no matter where you live.

We break down city foraging guidelines into three key areas: (1) know the plant, (2) know the land, and (3) know the community. With these principles in mind, you can apply them to whatever specific environment you’re working in.

It’s important for all of us, as herbalists, to be aware of our impact on the plant world. After all, if we don’t sustain and regenerate our plant populations, we’ll be out of herbs & out of luck! Whether our environnment is rural or urban, wildcrafting ethics help us stay present and attentive to what the plants and the earth need.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• Wildcrafting for Beginners, Howie Brounstein
• Invasive Plant Medicine, Timothy Lee Scott
• Where Do Camels Belong?, Ken Thompson

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Today our apothecary shelves present us with a pair of adaptogens! As we continue our series looking at the herbs we keep on hand at home, this week we encounter two particularly excellent herbs for stressed-out folks with dry constitutions.

Licorice’s botanical Latin name tells us straight out that the herb is sweet: Glycyrrhiza glabra means “smooth sweet root”. This sweetness comes together with the plant’s moistening qualities; it’s one of our sweet demulcents, like fennel. Licorice makes a great topical remedy for dry irritated skin. It has a particular affinity for the adrenal glands & cortisol metabolism, and can often help with chronic fatigue. We prefer to take it in formula rather than on its own, and this is also a good idea for safety considerations. (The herb, if taken alone and in large doses, can raise blood pressure.)

Gynostemma pentaphyllum is known also as jiaogulan; it’s one of a number of plants sometimes called “poor man’s ginseng”. It has a number of actions and constituents in common with the ginsengs. In its own right, it’s a great adaptogen for recovery – both physical and emotional – and for climbing out of depleted states. Our preferred source is Majestic Herbs, who source their organic plant material from a project in Thailand working to reduce opium production by helping farmers transition to growing jiaogulan instead.

These quick plant profiles were done off-the-cuff & on-the-spot. If you enjoyed them, we have more! Our organized & comprehensive presentation of our herbal allies is in the Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. We have detailed profiles of 90 medicinal herbs! Plus you get everything that comes with enrollment in our courses: twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, discussion threads integrated in each lesson, guides & quizzes, 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!

Today’s featured herbs are excellent in sun tea. Simply spoon them into a jar, pour in water, cover it up, and place it in the sun for several hours. Sun tea makes a light herbal infusion and is best for herbs that can be well extracted in a short hot infusion.

The calyx of Hibiscus sabdariffa is distinct from those of other species in the genus. It’s fleshy, red, and sour. These characteristics are signals to us. The red means antioxidant/anti-inflammatory and blood-vessel-stabilizing actions; the sour means draining to excess fluid, and cooling to excess heat. The leaf & flower of hibiscus (from various species including the rose of Sharon, H. syriacus and rose mallow, H. rosa-sinensis) can also be taken as an herb. They are moistening in nature, like other members of the mallow family.

Solstice is the right time to harvest st john’s wort, Hypericum perforatum. That’s when this herb’s medicinal constituents are at their peak of production. More complex than “an herbal SSRI”, the effects of st john’s wort to help relieve depression are taking place all over the body. It supports nerve function, clears digestive inflammation, improves liver processing, and yes, it does increase serotonin activity – both in the gut-brain and the head-brain. It’s worth a try for depression, but remember that it should not be taken concurrently with pharmaceuticals, especially psychiatric medications.

These quick plant profiles were done off-the-cuff & on-the-spot. If you enjoyed them, we have more! Our organized & comprehensive presentation of our herbal allies is in the Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. We have detailed profiles of 90 medicinal herbs! Plus you get everything that comes with enrollment in our courses: twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, discussion threads integrated in each lesson, guides & quizzes, 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!

Today we have abandoned the alphabet! Well, not entirely, just for purposes of bringing you a pair of relaxant diaphoretic herbs in this summer heat. These are two plants who are both helpful for releasing inner heat (whether physical or emotional) and allowing cooler heads to prevail.

Linden, Tilia spp., is a common city tree where we live. It’s very easy to identify, just look for the real-heart-shaped toothed leaves, plus the yellow-green smooth-edged “extra leaves” or bracts underneath. The flowers are aromatic and very relaxing, and the leaves have mucilage that emerges when the tea cools. This tree offers amazing abundance every year, but holds its own reserve safe within; it can help us do the same.

The herb called lemon balm, Melissa off., is likewise a relaxant diaphoretic. It’s also an excellent digestive, similar to catnip in many ways. Both are relaxant to digestive cramping and spasms. Lemon balm calms agitation, and that’s actually one of the ways it helps reduce the severity and duration of herpes outbreaks (in addition to some direct virus-fighting action).

If you enjoyed these plant profiles, we have more! Our comprehensive presentation of herbal allies is in the Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. It includes detailed profiles of 90 medicinal herbs! Plus, you get everything that comes with enrollment in our courses: twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, discussion threads integrated in each lesson, guides & quizzes, and more. Two tuition options are available, including a monthly payment plan.

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!

When it comes to chemical-free cleaning, there’s a lot of good stuff out there – but it can get pricey. And there’s a lot of “greenwashed” stuff, too – products that look “natural”, but really aren’t. But the good news is, you can make your own herbal spring cleaning products, and they’re not only effective, they’re inexpensive!

In our home, we don’t use any chemical cleaners. Most of our needs are met with water, vinegar, baking soda, and essential oils. This is one place we really do work with EOs regularly! They’re quite potent – they’ve even been shown to inhibit MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant microbes. So, they’re definitely good enough for wiping down the countertops and sinks. In this episode we share with you all the herb-powered cleaners we make for ourselves and use in our own home. You can do it too!

Natural cleaners require a little more elbow grease, but we don’t think that’s all bad. After all, chores count as movement! In the effort to break ourselves out of the “exercise is the only movement that counts for health” paradigm, an important step is recognizing the things we do that inherently require movement. That, and the ways in which our culture has chosen “convenience” at all costs – including costs to our health. Reframing your house-cleaning as movement or exercise is a great way to help yourself feel better about it. And of course, good old elbow grease is still the cheapest, most effective cleaner we know.

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We have a new mini-course, all about stinging nettles, available now! We produced this in honor of the upcoming Herbstalk event – it’s Boston’s home-grown herbal conference, and the Plant of the Year for 2019 is nettles. For only $10, you get a full rundown of nettles’ amazing medicinal powers, along with a virtual herb walk so you can positively identify it anytime in the growing season, along with some quick-guides, recipes for tasty nettle foods, and more! Check it out here: All About Nettles!

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

July sale! Use code TOGETHER2022 at checkout for 20% off any course or program!

This week we’re presenting an exercise in practical herbalism.

In this instance we’re describing a case of anxious insomnia. We outline the situation, and then you can pause the show and come up with some ideas about how you would help this individual. Then, we share our take – not “the answers”, but some ideas about what we’d want to do, and questions we’d want to ask, to help this person.

We include these “Let’s Practice” lessons in all our courses, and they help students put their knowledge into a real-world context.

Don’t miss our sale! For the entire month of July, you can use the code TOGETHER2022 to get 20% off any of our online herbalism courses. You can use the code multiple times! It even works on our extended programs, like the Community Herbalist program. You can share it with friends & family!

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’re back! We had a bit of an interruption in our podcasting schedule, and we’re sorry! We’re moving to our “forever home” very soon, and the podcast took a back burner to online course production work. But we’ve got a plan! This episode and the next two constitute a mini-series on herbalism and climate change. After that, we’ll re-air a few of our favorite episodes from years past. By the time pumpkin spice season hits, we’ll be back again to continue our Herbs A-Z profile series.

Today’s topic was spurred by the many reports of drought conditions around the world, as well as a particular article just a few days old which reported on falling yields of some major botanicals. Chamomile, valerian, elderberry, and pine bark harvests have all declined substantially in recent years, and they’re certainly not the only plants affected. Furthermore, the quality of the plant material available is also being impacted, as variations in moisture and heat lead to differences in phytochemical production.

Declining harvests also means increasing prices – and not just for consumers at the end of the chain. This puts pressures on farmers and distributors to use less ideal methods, to accept lower-quality material, or plants which were harvested unsustainably. It’s important to be selective and thoughtful about our sources for medicinal plants as these pressures build. As individuals – and more importantly, as communities – we can work to reduce the impacts on plants we love, and we can share what we have with those who need it.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Botanical yields fall as climate change affects harvests, Stephen Daniells, NutraIngredients USA
• Herbalgram’s 2020 US Herbal Supplement Market Report
• The Holistic Herbalism Podcast, episode 169: Herbalism & Climate Change: The Plants!
• The Holistic Herbalism Podcast, episode 30: Tulsi & Formulating Absent Friends

We teach herbalism online! When you sign up for any of our courses – including our FREE Herbal Study Tips course – you get access to twice-a-week live Q&A sessions, integrated discussion threads on every lesson, and a vibrant student community. Our courses are centered on video lessons you can watch at your own pace, and once you’ve bought a course you retain access to it (and any future updates!), forever.

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!

Mother’s day can mean different things for different people, but whatever your situation is, Motherwort can be a supportive friend. Physiologically its effects are to soothe and relax the heart and arteries, but this crosses over into mental and emotional effects too. Those are what we find most interesting in connection between the herb and its namesake.

Motherwort helps you establish and defend your boundaries and needs, gently but firmly. That’s important for a mother, because so often those boundaries get loosened or blurred between mother and child. Boundaries also change as kids grow, and sometimes the readjustment is difficult. Motherwort can help there, too! (If that’s feeling relevant to you, you may also be interested in our previous episode about Emotional Support for Mothers & Teens.)

This lion-hearted little herb also helps you become “bomb-proof” – able to put up a strong front when you may in fact be feeling a bit shaky inside, so that your kids (or other people who depend on you) can be reassured. In that way it’s helpful for anyone who does support or caretaking work, or upon whom others rely. It’s a great ally!

The audio in this podcast about Motherwort comes from our Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course, which is part of the Family Herbalist program. The first step in becoming an herbalist is learning the herbs themselves, and how to make all the kinds of herbal medicines, so that you can take care of yourself and your family, and that’s just what this program provides. You’ll learn about 89+ herbs in their depth & complexity, plus more than two dozen methods of making your own herbal remedies. You’ll be ready to take care of everyone in your family!

And, just to be clear: you don’t have to be a mom, or even to have a biological family, to take the Family Herbalist program. Your “family” is not only made of blood relations, but also of heart bonds, so whether you’re looking to take care of your actual relatives or the family of your heart, you’re welcome in this program!

Learn more here: Family Herbalist

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Yellow leaves, undeveloped fruit, long “leggy” stems between the leaf nodes – these are some of the key signs of a plant under stress. But if you’ve never met this species before, you might not know something’s off! Other signs are not so visible, and require you to know the plant stand for a season or a full year before you can see them. The point here is this: both observation and patience are needful to accurately assess the stress load of a plant, stand, or ecosystem.

Taking the time to get to know these indicators, and to steward the land you gather from, will make you a better herbalist. Whether you’re a wildcrafter, grower, clinician, product maker, or any other type of herbalist, patient observation and adaptive response are key skills, and they transfer smoothly from one domain to the others.

Our Herbal Community Care Toolkit is chock full of low-cost, abundantly accessible herbs for addressing common health issues. Students in this program learn our most effective-yet-inexpensive strategies for improving health and well-being. This course is available by donation, but if you can’t afford it, email us and we’ll send you a coupon code so you can get it for free!

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!

One of our habits as herbalists and teachers is to avoid the word “use” with reference to plants. We don’t say “I use meadowsweet for headaches” or “I use Japanese knotweed for Lyme disease”. We don’t say “I use chamomile for stomach cramps” or even “I use ginger as a stimulating diaphoretic”. And when students ask “how do you use schisandra berries?”, we stop and have a discussion about the word before we talk about the plant. If you’ve listened to our podcast for a while, you might have noticed this already!

Why do we do it? First and foremost, we don’t regard plants as “things”, anymore than we do animals or people. They are living beings and deserve respect. This is not merely a personal matter. The dominant cultural perspective which regards plants as mere resources to be exploited has visible consequences in our world. Ecosystem destruction is the major force threatening wild plant populations, and overharvesting is another top factor. Both are outgrowths of a view of plants as commodities. Changing our language is a way to change our perspective.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Introducing the WildCheck Report (April 28, 2022) – Sustainable Herbs Program
  • direct link to the WildCheck Report (Schindler, C., Heral, E., Drinkwater, E., Timoshyna, A., Muir, G., Walter, S., Leaman, D.J. and Schippmann, U. 2022. Wild check – Assessing risks and opportunities of trade in wild plant ingredients. Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb9267en)
• FairWild
• United Plant Savers

Our Herbal Community Care Toolkit is chock full of low-cost, abundantly accessible herbs for addressing common health issues. Students in this program learn our most inexpensive strategies for improving health and well-being. This course is available by donation, but if you can’t afford it, email us and we’ll send you a coupon code so you can get it for free!

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 realized that the Autumnal equinox is coming up soon: Thursday 9/22 at 9:04 PM, for those of you keeping track! This made us want to re-air episode 155, a discussion of our Equinox Thoughts on Balance & Amphoteric Herbs, originally aired on 3/20/2021.

This episode is all about balance. Equinox is the time of year when day & night have equal length. Herbalists use the word "amphoteric" to mean an herb that has a balancing activity, one that is capable of acting in ways that seem opposite, depending on the context in which it’s taken.

But to understand how amphoteric herbs could be balancers in this way, first we need to investigate the concept of balance a little bit. What does it mean to find balance, or stay balanced? What does it mean that we’re all seeking balance? How can the experience of building physical balance skills teach us about finding mental & emotional balance? And of course: how can herbs help us find it, and maintain it?


We teach herbalism online! When you sign up for any of our courses – including our FREE Herbal Study Tips course – you get access to twice-a-week live Q&A sessions, integrated discussion threads on every lesson, and a vibrant student community. Our courses are centered on video lessons you can watch at your own pace, and once you’ve bought a course you retain access to it (and any future updates!), forever.


If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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're replaying some of our favorite episodes from the back catalog of the Holistic Herbalism Podcast. In this one, originally aired as episode 142 on 11/6/2020, we highlight four of our favorite fungi: shiitake, maitake, reishi, & lion's mane.

Essentially all medicinal mushrooms share some features of interest herbalists. Famously, they can modulate immune responses – boosting immune surveillance and efficiency, while reducing excessive inflammatory or autoimmune expressions. Some mushrooms can also have adaptogenic activity, improving our endurance, resilience, and fluidity of response to stressors. And some mushrooms (more than you might expect, actually) can even help regenerate damaged or diseased nerve tissue, and protect the nervous system. Sounds pretty good, right? 

Listen for the full story.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Herbal Revolution – our friend Kathi Langelier’s new herbal recipe book – you can pre-order your copy today! Also check out all her excellent herbal remedies & delights.
• Radical Mycology by Peter McCoy is an excellent and down-to-earth book on all things fungal.
• Neuronal Health – Can Culinary and Medicinal Mushrooms Help?, Sabaratnam et al, J Tradit Complement Med. 2013 Jan-Mar; 3(1): 62–68. doi: 10.4103/2225-4110.106549 – This is the review paper showing neuroregenerative activity from lion’s mane, reishi, maitake, and cordyceps, among others.
• Antitumor Effect of Ganoderma (Lingzhi) Mediated by Immunological Mechanism and Its Clinical Application. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019;1182:39-77. doi: 10.1007/978-981-32-9421-9_2 – This is the paper Ryn quoted an excerpt from, about the anti-cancer activities of reishi.

We teach herbalism online! When you sign up for any of our courses – including our FREE Herbal Study Tips course – you get access to twice-a-week live Q&A sessions, integrated discussion threads on every lesson, and a vibrant student community. Our courses are centered on video lessons you can watch at your own pace, and once you’ve bought a course you retain access to it (and any future updates!), forever.

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!

Ryn says: We've got another replay for you this week, and it's one of my personal favorites. (It also happens to be from right around the last time we moved!) It's episode 95 from 10/5/2019, and it's an episode we made right after I attended the MovNat Level 3 certification challenge.

It was a 4-day course/test/immersion in natural movement. It was quite the challenge! We ran three miles barefoot on complex terrain, we jumped 9' across rocky chasms, we picked each other up and carried each other up the hill & down the trail, we hefted logs and traversed ropes, we held our breath in icy streams... it was great, and it was HARD. :)

In this episode, we talk about all the herbs I took to prepare beforehand, and the ones I brought along to help me get through. If you want to work with herbs for physical challenges in your own life – whether that’s an intense sporting event, or a job or lifestyle that’s physically demanding – these might help you, too!

Oh, one last note: In the episode you'll hear me mention a few challenges I didn't master during the event. I had to improve my skills, complete the challenges, video them, and send them in. Well, it took me two years (minus two days) to finish all my challenges, but I did it!

I'm really looking forward to offering more hybrid movement x herbalism events in 2023 and beyond. Bringing these areas of holistic health and natural movement together is my happy place, and I want to share that with you. If you're on our mailing list, you'll hear about these events as soon as I've got them planned! (If you're not on our mailing list, just visit commonwealthherbs.com and you can sign up at the bottom of the homepage.)


Here are all the herbs & preparations we discussed in the episode:

• supplements: reishi, ginkgo, chlorophyll
• teas:
  • EVRY DAY YEAH: jiaogulan, goji, cedar, sage, ginger, licorice
  • demulcent blend: marshmallow, cinnamon, fennel
• chewroots: calamus, sol’seal, licorice
• tinctures:
  • ginger-chamomile
  • blackberry root
  • wuggy guts: peach leaf, ginger, ground ivy
  • STIMULANT: kola nut, guarana, eleuthero, ginkgo, ginger, prickly ash
  • Herbal Medics echinacea mix
  • Herbal Medics Cold & Flu formula: yarrow, elderflower, boneset, echinacea mix, prickly ash
• antiseptic spray: propolis, berberine mix (barberry root, Oregon grape root & leaf), yarrow, cedar EO
• “red salve” (HM sprain & strain): comfrey, juniper, prickly ash, cayenne, black cohosh, lobelia, arnica, meadowsweet, horsetail
• joint liniment: (sol’seal, st j, alder, cayenne, lobelia, clove EO)

We teach herbalism online! When you sign up for any of our courses – including our FREE Herbal Study Tips course – you get access to twice-a-week live Q&A sessions, integrated discussion threads on every lesson, and a vibrant student community. Our courses are centered on video lessons you can watch at your own pace, and once you’ve bought a course you retain access to it (and any future updates!), forever.

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’re almost moved! This week our episode is about the herbs we’ve kept on the shelves so that we have them available every day. These are plants that are helping us get through the physical exertion, dust!, and stress of packing & moving. We talk all about why we love them in this episode, and some formulae for infusions & decoctions we’ve been drinking to keep steady.

We also discuss in this episode the possibilities for formulation with the herbs we’ve kept on hand. There are lots of different ways to put them together to address different health issues. These exercises in flexible formulation, and in making do with what you have on hand, are central to our practice of herbalism. Learning herbalism, to us, isn’t about rare or ‘exotic’ plants, expensive remedies, superfoods, and complicated protocols. It’s much more about learning to work with herbs in an agile, responsive way – and about appreciating the breadth of their potential.

Here are the herbs we kept on hand:

• angelica
• reishi
• astragalus
• eleuthero
• codonopsis
• cacao nibs

• self-heal (Prunella)
• damiana
• red clover

• sage
• monarda
• rosemary
• cedar
• tulsi
• chamomile
• catnip
• marshmallow
• lungwort (Pulmonaria)
• mullein

• ginger
• calendula
• cinnamon
• orange peel
• hawthorn berry
• turmeric
• cardamom

The best way to build that flexibility & agility into your own understanding of herbs is to study them in depth! Our comprehensive presentation of herbal allies is in our Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. It includes detailed profiles of 90 medicinal herbs! Plus, you get everything that comes with enrollment in our courses: twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, discussion threads integrated in each lesson, guides & quizzes, and more. Two tuition options are available, including a monthly payment plan.

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’re back to our apothecary shelf herb profile tour! This week we have a pair of herbs who both support respiratory function. They demonstrate two types of heat: pungency and the hot aromatics.

The root of elecampane, Inula helenium, taste in a way we fondly refer to as “peppery mud”. This herb is fantastic for cold, damp lung conditions. When you feel like you’d need a shovel to get all the phlegm out of your lungs, look to elecampane for help. Inula is also an excellent digestive herb, and these effects are most comprehensive when it’s taken as a decoction.

The leaves and, especially, the berries of juniper (Juniperus communis) are bright with warm, airy aromatic movement. Simply holding a berry in your mouth and letting its vapors pervade your sinuses & lungs is an old trick from the Nature Cure movment. Today it’s a good habit for when you’re traveling or in a large group of humans! Juniper’s an excellent urinary antiseptic also, and for Katja, it’s a standout emotional support herb.

Our Respiratory Health course includes more discussion of elecampane & juniper, as well as other key herbs to work with, and methods for targeting herbal remedies to the sinuses & lungs. Asthma, cold/flu/corona, COPD, and other troubles are covered in detail. Plus, you get everything that comes with enrollment in our courses. That includes: lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, a buzzing 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!

This week we highlight lavender & motherwort!

Lavandula angustifolia (and many other Lavandula species), a well-known scent to everyone, recognizable and soothing. Lavender relaxes and releases tension. It has a warmth to it, which is more noticeable the more you take or the longer you take it. The flowers are the part that are most popular and available, but we also love to work with lavender leaf! It’s more astringent and less “floral” than the flowers are, and makes a lovely tea.

Leonurus cardiaca is a lion-hearted plant with strong protection for its “babies”, the seeds. Motherwort soothes the human heart and releases tension, draining excess heat. It can also relax the pelvic organs, and because of this, help bring on menstrual flow that is restricted by tension. Despite warnings you may see, motherwort is quite safe even for a pregnant human, at the common dose strengths of Western/American herbal practice.

Lavender & motherwort both feature prominently in our Neurological & Emotional Health course. This course is a user’s guide to your nerves & your emotions – including the difficult and dark ones. We discuss holistic herbalism strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too! In addition, you receive everything that comes with enrollment in our courses, including: 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!

Tonight we’re talking about two of our favorite herbs, and two of the tastier herbs in our materia medica.

Goji berry, Lycium barbarum / L. chinense, is an excellent post-workout adaptogen. It’s a very good herb to consume as food, whether a simple handful of dried berries, included in a trail mix, cooked into rice, or decocted into dissolution in a broth. It is famous as an herb for building Blood in TCM, and also for supporting blood vessels from the perspective of modern phytochemistry.

Chamomile – and we’re talking primarily about “German” chamomile, Matricaria recutita – is quite possibly the herb we mention most often! It’s definitely a favorite, with its light relaxant aromatics and its deep antispasmodic bitters. Chamomile is a panacea of nuances: depending on how you prepare and apply it, it can serve a myriad of different functions.

These quick plant profiles were done off-the-cuff & on-the-spot. If you enjoyed them, we have more! Our organized & comprehensive presentation of our herbal allies is in the Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. We have detailed profiles of 90 medicinal herbs! Plus you get everything that comes with enrollment in our courses: twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, discussion threads integrated in each lesson, guides & quizzes, 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!

When we talk about “heroic” medical interventions, we mean the high-potency, high-risk (and potentially high-reward) tools that define conventional medicine. Pharmaceuticals, surgeries, cutting-edge experimental procedures – that kind of thing. While these treatments tend to get all the credit, they depend for a large part of their success on unglamorous, workaday support. A well-nourished person is more likely to survive and respond well to intense treatment. So is one who is well-slept and has the support of a caring community. A recent experience with an end-of-life client case brought this home for us.

Skillful care can be the difference between a successful experimental treatment case and one that goes poorly. Herbalism is like this! When we work with clients undergoing palliative care or those in hospice, our intention with herbs is not to “cure”. Instead, it’s to help become more resilient, build endurance, and enable the body to cope with the stress of the illness itself and the harsh treatments conventional medicine offers. This complementary approach brings the best of both worlds.

Sometimes, heroic medical interventions really are necessary. If so, it doesn’t mean herbs are out of the question! Listen to this episode for our thoughts on how and why to include holistic herbalism even in serious cases.

Herbs discussed: chamomile, ginger, seaweeds, nettles, wild lettuce, ashwagandha, codonopsis, violet, chickweed, tulsi, rose, vanilla, & betony.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• Emergent Responder – Katja’s deep dive into post-disaster and austere herbalism, first aid & long-term care, and emergency clinic management.
• How To Choose The Right Herbs for Sleep
• Three Sleep Strategies especially for when it’s the going to bed part that’s giving you trouble. 
• Top 7 Herbs for Nutritionists & Dietitians – this episode highlights our favorite nutritive & digestive herbs. These can help in palliative care situations too!
• Anti-Inflammatory Herbs Beyond Turmeric – many herbs have anti-inflammatory effects, and these are valuable in almost all cases of chronic illness. Expand your horizons in this episode!

If you’re a regular listener, by now you’ve heard us talk about our podcast supporters – and maybe you’re wondering how to become one, yourself! Well, let me make it easy for you – all you need to do is click this link to support us at $5/month, or this one to support us at $10/month. At either level you’ll get immediate access to our weekly supporters video series. These exclusive videos c

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

20% OFF ALL COURSES & PROGRAMS FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH OF DECEMBER – USE CODE DECEMBER2022 AT CHECKOUT!

Today we’re profiling a few of our favorite “minty” mints! We discuss spearmint, peppermint, & pennyroyal.

Spearmint (Mentha spicata) has a light flavor and impression, with moderate menthol content. It’s gotten a lot of attention in herbal circles for potential impacts on elevated androgen levels in certain circumstances, but is this generalizable? We’re not convinced. We see spearmint as a relaxant and soothing herb first and foremost.

Peppermint, on the other hand, is quite stimulating! In part this is due to stronger menthol content and concomitant strength as a relaxant. Cerebral circulation benefits from this combination, and peppermint can help brain fog in many cases. It’s important to be clear that products made with peppermint essential oil are not the same as drinking EO in water (which we advise against very adamantly).

With pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) it’s even more important to stick to tea rather than the EO. Cases exist of fatalities due to ingesting the EO, in an attempted herbal abortion. This is not going to work, and it is dangerous: don’t do it! But, that doesn’t mean a single cup of pennyroyal tea will cause an abortion, either… As a tea the herb is an effective pelvic circulatory stimulant & relaxant. If peppermint is helpful for brain fog, then pennyroyal is helpful for “uterus fog”!

20% OFF ALL COURSES & PROGRAMS FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH OF DECEMBER – USE CODE DECEMBER2022 AT CHECKOUT!

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!

Boston’s homegrown local herb conference, Herbstalk, is next weekend, and the plant of the year is stinging nettle! In honor of this, we wanted to make an episode focusing on this keystone plant. In this episode we share some of our favorite ways to make simple nettle herbal formulas, starting by pairing it with a single other herb to make a tasty tea.

Nettle has a number of important medicinal effects. It’s a nutritive, a diuretic, an anti-inflammatory, and so much more. Pairing it with other herbs is a way to emphasize specific aspects of its medicine. For instance, nettle and rosehips are each nourishing herbs, and when taken together they cover more bases than either one could do alone. This is one of the basic goals of herbal formulation: to selectively enhance a particular facet of the herbs’ activity.

Other times, the goal in herbal formulation is a matter of counterbalance. Nettle is a very drying herb, and for some constitutions it’s not a good match. But what if you still want its nutritive and kidney-supportive benefits? Well, pair it with linden or cinnamon! This kind of formulation intent is also very common, and again, it’s best to start with a simple pair to experience and understand this strategy.

Herbs discussed include nettle, tulsi, ginger, linden, rosehips, cinnamon, & calendula.

Want to learn more?
If this episode makes you want to learn even more about the wonders of nettle, you’re in luck – we’ve put together a mini-course All About Nettles! This course includes more than an hour of video content about how to work with Nettles, three different ways to make nourishing infusions of Nettles, and a close-up video herb walk that shows you each phase of Nettle’s growth so that you can identify it in the wild. There are printable quick guides, recipes, reference articles, and audio files so you can listen & learn on the go! This mini-course is only $10, so get it now to get yourself in the spirit and ready for Herbstalk 2019!

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Happy new year everyone! May 2023 be an herb-filled year for all of us!

Monarda species plants are sometimes known as bee balm, wild bergamot, horsemint, or a variety of other names, but we usually just call them monarda. These lovely mint-family members produce an abundance of hot, “sharp” aromatics which are extraordinarily helpful in infectious respiratory issues. Monarda is fantastic in a steam, but teas and tinctures are also very effective ways to work with this herb. If the intensity is a bit too much, or if you have a dry constitution, try formulating with some demulcents such as fennel, licorice, lungwort, or marshmallow.

Catnip is well-known to many, yet underappreciated. Nepeta cataria is not only for felines – although it is indeed quite good for them to have a little catnip, regularly! For humans, catnip is an excellent relaxant. It works this way in the digestion (releasing cramps and upward-rising heat or nausea), in the skin (as a relaxant diaphoretic), and in the emotions (as a soothing and calming remedy). It’s easy to grow your own, and it’s quite safe even for young children or for elders. 

No matter your level of experience or training, it’s always helpful to study the herbs in depth! Our comprehensive presentation of herbal allies is in our Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. It includes detailed profiles of 100 medicinal herbs! Plus, you get everything that comes with enrollment in our courses: twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, discussion threads integrated in each lesson, guides & quizzes, and more. Two tuition options are available, including a monthly payment plan.

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 herbs are two excellent friends to the human nervous & emotional systems. Tulsi and evening primrose are both nervines, and although they are rather different from one another, they fit together nicely.

Tulsi or ‘holy basil’, Ocimum sanctum aka O. tenuiflorum, has featured on our podcast many times previously: as a supportive herb for psychological first aid, sugar cravings, trauma recovery, and cognitive maintenance, among other things! It’s truly a multifaceted herb who can help many of us.

Evening primrose, Oenothera biennis, is an herb we find very helpful for ‘frazzled’ anxious feelings, whether those have arisen in response to stressors, in the process of quitting smoking, or simply as an extension of a dry, tense constitution. It’s not so easy to find for sale, but it’s very easy to grow your own!

We also have a few comments in this episode about a relative of evening primrose called Circaea lutetiana, the “enchanter’s nightshade”. This plant isn’t actually a nightshade, and its primary enchantments have to do with its leaf shapes and seed dispersal strategies, more than its actions or chemistry. If you want to learn a fun new word today, let us propose “zoochory” as a candidate!

Tulsi & evening primrose both make appearances in our Neurological & Emotional Health course. This course is a user’s guide to your nerves & your emotions – including the difficult and dark ones. We discuss holistic herbalism strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too! In addition, you receive everything that comes with enrollment in our courses, including: 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!

A seaweed and a vine-flower, how are they alike? We started out this episode feeling like these two herbs were completely different from one another. By the time we got to the end, though, we found a unifying quality or two.

Dulse, whose Latin name is Palmaria palmata, is our favorite choice for those who are new to seaweeds. It has a mild flavor, isn’t too ‘fishy’ or too ‘slimy’. It may not exactly be “bacon of the sea”, but it sure does add a nice salty & umami flavor to dishes! Dulse is also a great provider of minerals (but not too much iodine, so don’t worry). Its nourishing qualities support us in a very grounded way, at the mineral levels of bone, muscle, and nerve health. In archetypal terms, it is an “earth of water” herb.

Passiflora incarnata is the botanical name for passionflower. This is an astonishingly beautiful flower – make a web search to check out some photos, you’ll see what we mean. (Oh, and don’t neglect ‘passionflower UV light’ as a search term: see what it looks like to bees!) It’s an excellent plant to sit with for meditation – and it can help you move into a more meditative state of mind, too. Famously helpful in sleep formulae, passionflower helps rein in the spinning, anxous mind, and brings it inward and downward. If you’re comfortable with elemental language, it might make sense to look at this herb as embodying the “earth of air.”

If you’re having trouble sleeping, if anxiety is keeping you up at night, we’ve got a plan for that. Our short course, Holistic Help for Better Sleep, teaches you key strategies for lengthening and deepening your rest each night. You’ll also meet our favorite herbs to help with sleep disturbances and insomnia, and how to choose the right herbs for your own personal sleep needs. What’s more, you receive everything that comes with enrollment in our courses, including: 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!

Our herbs this week are pine and plantain! A mighty tall tree and a humble herb of the packed earth.

Pine trees come in many varieties. Around Boston we mainly find white pine (Pinus strobus) and red pine (Pinus resinosa), but many others are similar. Pine can help sustain energy and mood, so we consider it a stimulant – but not like coffee. Pine will help you stand steady, not make you jittery. We like to include a bit of twig along with the needles in our tea, as this gets a bit of resinous material in there as well. As Ryn can (and will, at any opportunity) tell you, pines are lovely to climb – if you can make it to the first branch, that is!

Plantain – we’re talking about Plantago species, not the banana thing! – is an herb who loves paths and the people who make them. Whether the introduced and very common Plantago major or P. lanceolata, or the native-to-North-America purple-stemmed P. rugelii, this is a flexible and versatile herb. In this episode we focus on its capacity to help a uniquely modern problem: the impacts on our bodies of pharmaceuticals, especially NSAIDs. At the gut lining and the liver, plantain helps resolve the damage these sometimes-necessary medications can cause. And this from a very safe plant, with no known drug interactions!

Our Integumentary Health course features pine and plantain several times, along with an array of other herbs who help the skin: burdock and calendula, of course, but also turmeric and echinacea, among others. Whatever the problem is – whether we call it eczema, psoriasis, or just “that troublesome patch of skin”, herbs can help! Topical applications for common herbs play a big role in this work, and we also dig into the effective herbs you can take orally to see results on the skin. 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!

Relaxants come in many varieties. Today we come to two herbs who relax tension patterns in the body, yet are quite different from one another.

Pedicularis densiflora, P. canadensis, and P. groenlandica are just a few of the “louseworts”, also sometimes known as wood betony. We ourselves usually mean Stachys officinalis when we say “betony”, and east of the Rockies that’s usually how it goes. Both betonies release tension, though we think of Stachys as reaching the body via the mind, and Pedicularis as reaching the mind via the body. This is an herb you don’t need to take in high doses to get a good effect; even a touch in smoke is palpable.

Solomon’s seal is Polygonatum biflorum or P. multiflorum, and in some contexts the species P. odoratum is similar enough. Just watch out for certain medicinal processing in some traditions, this can change the properties of the herb from its basic set of moistening, relaxant, and cooling. Sol’seal root is a good one to chew, or take in tincture; we do love it in water but reserve that for special occasions.

Both of these herbs appear in our Musculoskeletal Health course as well as our Neurological & Emotional Health course. Whether you’re looking to release some physical tension, soften some emotional rigidity, or a bit of both, pedicularis & solomon’s seal can help you let go.

Like all our offerings, these are self-paced online video courses, which come 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!

Today’s herbs from our apothecary shelf are self-heal and lungwort!

Self-heal, Prunella vulgaris, is a lovely lymph-moving herb who we often find in woodland trails. You can find it in lots of places – “vulgaris” does mean “common”, after all – but you probably won’t find it very readily in commerce. It’s not the easiest plant to grow for profit, but thankfully it is easy to grow for yourself! And you may well want to: it’s an excellent wound-healer, lymph-mover, inflammation-reducer, and all-around alterative. (Also worth mentioning is the look-similar plant carpet bugle, Ajuga reptans, which has many of the same actions.)

Lungwort, Pulmonaria officinalis, is an herb Katja likes to add to teas for flavor. It’s not a strong flavor, more of a base note to build on. Lungwort’s in the borage family but it does not have the dangerous types of pyrrolizidine alkaloids – that’s a relief! (Some plants in that family can be damaging to the liver, but not lungwort.) This is not only an herb for bringing moisture to the lungs, easing the elimination of mucous and soothing a cough; it’s also a nice mildly moistening herb to include for balancing the energetics of a formula. NB: don’t confuse this lungwort with Lobaria pulmonaria, a lichen which also has some respiratory actions (though of quite a different nature; the lichen is drying).

Do you find studying herbalism to be overwhelming? Fret not! There are lots of ways to study, and lots of ways to enhance your learning. We’ve collected our favorites into a FREE COURSE for you: Herbal Study Tips! A few of our favorite tips? Learn like a cat (with lots of naps!), write up postcard-sized “scripts” for common explanations, choose an Herb of the Month, and claim teatime as a radical act of self-care and self-instruction. This free course is fun and 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, these are self-paced online video courses, which come 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!

Today we’ve got two astringent herbs to discuss, though their similarities pretty much end with that quality. Rhodiola and staghorn sumac are our topic!

Rhodiola rosea has been commercialized and popularized as an adaptogen and “antidepressant” herb. It’s quite warming, drying, and tonifying – really great if you need to row a viking ship across the North Atlantic… or if your day-to-day work life feels like that kind of marathon. It is an herb of extremes, and it can have adverse effects if you take too much. Working with corrigent herbs, taking breaks, and formulating thoughtfully can make this herb more appropriate for your system.

Staghorn sumac, Rhus typhina = R. hirta, is extremely abundant – some even call it ‘invasive’! Cooling, drying, and quite tonifying (especially the leaves), sumac is a good friend. The berries make a nice sour red drink, and we like to make ‘red tea’ with sumac, hibiscus, rose hip, goji, and sometimes schisandra or elderberry. This is a great antioxidant-rich preparation which tastes great with a little honey; even kids like it! Sumac leaf is astringent enough to resolve diarrhea, serve in wound care, or help shrink swollen varicosities.

Stressed and struggling? Trudging through your days? Check out our Neurological & Emotional Health course. This course is a user’s guide to your nerves & your emotions – including the difficult and dark ones. We discuss holistic herbalism strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too!

Like all our offerings, these are self-paced online video courses, which come 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!

Is it more accurate to say “I am an herbalist” or “I’m doing herbalism”? To us, if “herbalist” is an identity, a name, a noun – then you’re subject to imposter syndrome. Why? Because you’re treating it as something you can be, once and for all, based on a credential or status. But like all living and growing things, herbalist is a verb.

If “herbalist” is a piece of paper you hang on the wall, or a pile of books you’ve read, it’s easy to feel defensive when you’re challenged. But when “herbalist” is a set of actions you do every day, then the evidence is right there to see. The basis for your claims and beliefs is right there, today and tomorrow.

In herbalism as in few other arts of healing, we have the ability to follow this maxim: don’t suggest something to another person until you do it yourself. Get the direct experience: it’s where integrity lives!

Not sure how to start? Check out our Herbal Study Tips!

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.

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Snow-delayed by a couple days, here’s our next episode! Today we’re talking about yellow dock and rose.

Yellow dock (Rumex crispus) is also known as curly dock. We also like to work with broadleaf dock (R. obtusifolius) in all the same ways. These herbs can be tinctured or prepared as decoctions. They’re great help for constipation, and if you prepare it right, they can help some chronic diarrhea also. Docks can help skin issues because of the improvements they yield in digestive function and nutrient absorption; they’re classic herbs for working on the gut-skin axis.

Roses (Rosa spp.) of many kinds are excellent for herbal remedies, though we do avoid Valentine’s roses since they’re usually heavily treated. The hips, flowers, leaves, and roots of rose all have medicinal attributes to offer. Are they “just another rose family astringent”, or something more? To us, the answer is simple: just smell it and you’ll know!

Our Integumentary Health course features both yellow dock and rose, along with an array of other herbs who help the skin: burdock and calendula, of course, but also turmeric and echinacea, among others. Whatever the problem is – whether we call it eczema, psoriasis, or just “that troublesome patch of skin”, herbs can help! Topical applications for common herbs play a big role in this work, and we also dig into the effective herbs you can take orally to see results on the skin. 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!

Today we’re discussing the entire genus of Rubus plants! We focus most on blackberry & raspberry, because we know them best, but with 1400+ species found on every continent, there’s certainly a local Rubus to be found wherever you go.

Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) & raspberry (R. idaeus) leaf and root are excellent astringents. Not just for the pelvic organs, but also the intestines and urinary system, these herbs tonify tissues and eliminate stagnant fluids. Topically, they’re effective as wound washes, compresses, and pelvic soaks. They’re also nutritive, of course – berries and leaves both – with antioxidants and mineral content for all your systems. And remember: any astringent herb is also an emotional astringent, an herb who can help you “keep it together” … but especially the rose family herbs, like these!
 

If all you’d heard (before today) about raspberry was that it’s “good for pregnancy”, you might want to check out our Reproductive Health course! We discuss the whole range of human reproductive variability and herbal medicines to support all kinds of people. We even bust a few reproductive-health myths and herban legends. (Preview: vitex is not “a miracle herb for all women”!)
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!

Cancer is not as rare as we once thought. Recent research has discovered that even healthy cells can contain potentially cancerous mutations, and that this is a normal occurrence in healthy individuals. As holistic herbalists, this conclusion doesn’t actually surprise us much! We’ve long taught that precancerous changes in cells are a normal part of life and that the body has mechanisms to cope with them. When those break down or are overwhelmed, that’s where cancer can come in. And that’s why common herbs and cancer aren’t strange bedfellows after all, too!

Working with cancer doesn’t have to mean finding the “strongest”, most exotic herbs or medicinal preparations. Sometimes it means calling on the fundamental nutritive, circulating, and supportive functions of our “everyday” plants. In this podcast, we’ll explain why this is the case, and share a few examples of some underappreciated herbs to consider when cancer’s a part of the story.

Herbs discussed include parsley, rosemary, eleuthero, astragalus, codonopsis, nettle, ashwagandha, & elecampane.

If you’re a regular listener, by now you’ve heard us talk about our podcast supporters – and maybe you’re wondering how to become one, yourself! Well, let me make it easy for you – all you need to do is click this link to support us at $5/month, or this one to support us at $10/month. At either level you’ll get immediate access to our weekly supporters video series. These exclusive videos come out every week and are only for our supporters. So if you’d like to help us keep our podcast, free clinics, scholarships, and other projects going strong – and get some goodies for your generosity – we’d very much appreciate it! 🌻

As always, please subscribe & review our podcast so others can find it 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!

In ancient agriculture, the farmers observed the need to let fields rest every year or two, so they could recover their fertility. Letting the fields lie fallow in this way actually yielded more food than trying to force them to grow every year.

We can apply this same insight to the learning process. You cannot cram in more information forever, just by gritting your teeth and bearing down. Humans need time to process and integrate what we’ve learned. The best way to enhance that processing & integration is by getting out of your brain and into your body.

Take time to practice what you’ve learned, to engage your senses and your hands. Dig, grow, tend; taste, smell, touch; make, try, play; share!

Taking a fallow period to focus on the hands-on aspects of herbalism is one of our favorite tips for people who are learning. There are lots of ways to study, and lots of ways to enhance your learning. We’ve collected our best suggestions into a FREE COURSE for you: Herbal Study Tips! 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, these are self-paced online video courses, which come 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!

In this period of Fallow Month (see previous episode), we're re-airing a couple of our favorite episodes from the archives. This one was originally episode #120, originally aired April 4th 2020.

Previously, we've urged you to look at learning herbalism like learning a language or instrument – something that requires daily practice. This week, we’re sharing some specific practices you can do to build your herbal skills on a daily basis!

You can take lessons in herbalism, and study to learn – but the key here is, a little bit each day is better than “a lot” which happens only rarely. Building a habit of reading a few pages of an herb book, watching a half hour video lesson, or listening to an audio lesson on your commute every day will serve you well.

Another way is to make space to experience your herbs daily. Drink tea, take tincture, taste them, smell them. Even better, do this while you’re studying to enhance your learning, to root it in your body and give your mind a touchpoint to return to. This strengthens memory!

A helpful motto (especially for those who are allergic to regimentation) is “Don’t miss an opportunity.” Whenever something new-to-you comes up, take the chance to come up with an herbal plan of resolution. First, learn all you can about what’s happening. Then, try to identify energetic patterns; that helps you select applicable herbal actions. Then you can come up with a set of herbs to do the job, and finally you can decide how those herbs will go to work – what preparations and formulations will best match the situation. (Then you start that cycle over again, to expand or refine!)

It’s all about building habits – whether habits of daily activity, or habits of response to new events. Put those habits into place now, and your confidence and capability will grow every single day.


Did we mention that studying individual herbs every day is a great habit to get into? With our Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course, you can do just that! Each of the 90 herbs we cover in this course has a video lesson, plant profile document, and a quiz to test your knowledge. It teaches you much more than “just” the individual plants, too – key concepts in herbal energetics, medicine-making, and pathophysiology are woven into every lesson. Check it out, and watch the first video (all about ginger) for free!

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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!

In this period of Fallow Month (see previous episode), we're re-airing a couple of our favorite episodes from the archives. This one was originally episode #145, originally aired December 20th 2020.

In this episode we explore the skills and disciplines necessary to conduct a successful self-experiment. Self-experimentation in this context might mean making changes to dietary, lifestyle, & movement habits; developing stress management skills; or trying out herbal medicines.

First we address why and how self-experimentation can fall into self-justification, and how to avoid this. Then we highlight the skills of perception, reflection, and connection which are the bones of a good n=1 experiment, and share some key methods for developing them. Finally we talk about the practicalities that make this work go more smoothly, and share a few thoughts on how this all applies to clinical practice work as distinct from individual efforts.

This is at the root of our work as herbalists, so we hope you’ll listen in!


We teach herbalism online! When you sign up for any of our courses – including our FREE Herbal Study Tips course – you get access to twice-a-week live Q&A sessions, integrated discussion threads on every lesson, and a vibrant student community. Our courses are centered on video lessons you can watch at your own pace, and once you’ve bought a course you retain access to it (and any future updates!), forever.


If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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 herbs are sage & rosemary – two herbs whose botanical name Salvia indicates they can keep us “safe, healthy, and secure”, if we go with a literal translation. Sounds pretty good to us! And tastes good, too…

Sage, Salvia officinalis, is the subject of a great many old sayings & adages, like “if a man would live for aye [forever], then should he eat sage in Maye” – or, “why should a man die while sage grows in his garden?” (We’d like to point out that sage is good for women and enbies too, just for the record!) Ryn’s personal favorite is this one: “Sage, make green the winter rain / charm the demons from my brain!” As a mental awakener and mind-sharpener, sage is hard to beat. It’s amazing for digestive sluggishness too, especially when that involves difficulty digesting fats. But don’t relegate it to food applications only – sage can be beautiful in formulae for cocktails or mocktails, bitters blends, and nervine elixirs.

Rosemary, Salvia rosmarinus, was categorized in its own genus as Rosmarinus officinalis until 2017. Well, we’ve had six years to get used to it, and we’re aaaalmost there – but you should still know both names, because in a lot of good herbal books you’ll only find it under the older name. It’s an excellent cerebral circulatory stimulant, aromatic carminative, and hepatic stimulant herb. Rosemary is an herb for remembrance, also, as Shakespeare’s Ophelia tells us in Hamlet. See how much this herb has in common with sage? They go great together, or with lavender and other aromatic mints. Try them in concert with sweet herbs, too – a “sweet heat” blend of sage, rosemary, monarda, fennel, goji, and a pinch of licorice is one of Ryn’s favorites recently.

Sage & rosemary are featured herbs in our Neurological & Emotional Health course. Although often when herbalists refer to “nervine” herbs, they mean relaxants and gentle sedatives, the term can also be applied to stimulants, like these two herbs. They can awaken and enliven nerve activity, and mental activity too.

This course is a user’s guide to your nerves & your emotions – including the difficult and dark ones. We discuss holistic herbalism strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too!

Like all our offerings, these are self-paced online video courses, which come 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!

We almost never do interviews, but our friend Anna Rósa is collaborating with The Lotus Flower to empower refugee women in Kurdistan to care for their own health, their families and communities, and to start herbal businesses to support themselves as they rebuild their lives.

We are so excited to support her efforts, and we wanted to tell y’all all about it too!

You can learn more about the collaboration here:

Herbal Sisters Workshops for Women

And you can find her fundraiser course here – all proceeds go to support the Herbal Sisters project!

The Healing Power of Icelandic Herbs

DISCOUNT CODE: Use code commonwealth to get 30% off the price! Valid until June 30th, 2023.

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!

If you’re an herbalist and you marry an herbalist, well, you’re going to need some special wedding herbs! We sure did. We loved the idea (and the herbs themselves) so much, we got them tattooed on us right after our honeymoon!

Not all herbalism is about what you drink & “take”! In this episode we’re sharing our most personal experiences and feelings with these herbs which we carry with us everywhere, inked into our arms. Our wedding herbs help us stay balanced, focused, grounded, resilient, flexible… and so much more.

We also have some quick tips for herbal tattoo care!

Herbs discussed include: tulsi, sage, betony, yarrow, elder, pine, bladderwrack, & marshmallow.

If you’re a regular listener, by now you’ve heard us talk about our podcast supporters – and maybe you’re wondering how to become one, yourself! Well, let me make it easy for you – all you need to do is click this link to support us at $5/month, or this one to support us at $10/month. At either level you’ll get immediate access to our weekly supporters video series. These exclusive videos come out every week and are only for our supporters. So if you’d like to help us keep our podcast, free clinics, scholarships, and other projects going strong – and get some goodies for your generosity – we’d very much appreciate it! 🌻

As always, please subscribe & review our podcast so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

There’s a basic rule when it comes to herbal businesses in the US: “Don’t tell and sell.”

Due to rules and regulations set forth by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), there are many limits on what one can say about herbal products. You may already know that it is not allowed to make “disease claims” on product packaging or promotional materials, only “structure & function” claims – that’s why a garlic supplement will says it “supports heart health” rather than “lowers cholesterol”. But you may not be aware that this prohibition extends also to any website, social media presence, or other materials you produce – including as a clinical herbalist or a teacher.

The long and short of it is, you can’t realistically maintain an herbal products line and a teaching or clinical herbal practice.

A lot of herbalists get frustrated with the tell & sell rules, but in reality they’re not as constraining as it seems. They’re part of doing business, and there are actually good reasons things are set up this way. So in this episode, we’ll go through some examples to make this clearer – and find some silver linings along the way!


Referenced in this episode:

• FDA – Small Entity Compliance Guide: Current Good Manufacturing Practice in Manufacturing, Packaging, Labeling, or Holding Operations for Dietary Supplements
• FDA – Warning Letters database
• FTC – Health Products Compliance Guidance

Would you like to know more? We’ve got just the thing! The Herbal Business Program has all the nitty-gritty details about setting up your herbal business – whether that’s products, clinical herbalism, or another variety of herbal pursuit. From GMPs and labeling laws, to marketing, to taxes & insurance, to the technology you’ll need to make it all happen, this course has everything. You can do this! We can help.

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.

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We’re continuing our “herbs on our shelf” series from A to Z today! This time our herbs are elder and sassafras.

The most famous part of elder (Sambucus nigra) is the berry, which is indeed an effective remedy for viral infections including colds, flu, and COVID. It’s a rather safe one, despite occasional herban legends do the contrary. (No, the berries will not kill you with cyanide. No, elderberry does not cause cytokine storms. No, it is not a risk for people with autoimmunity.) But it’s so much more than that! We can break elder berry out of the ‘cold & flu’ box, and appreciate it as an anti-inflammatory, cardiovascular tonic, and traditional alterative. Plus, we can also work with the flowers! They make an excellent relaxant diaphoretic, for releasing both physical and emotional heat.

As for sassafras (Sassafras albidum), its root bark is its most famous part, and it’s a key component of ‘root beer’ flavors. We like it that way, with sarsaparilla (whether that’s Smilax, Hemidesmus, or Aralia), ginger, & birch – and why not add some adaptogens too? That’s how you get Rooted & Ready. But wait! Sassafras leaf is also quite nice. It’s one of those interesting herbs which combines demulcent and astringent qualities all in the same herb, like purple loosestrife, and it’s one of Katja’s preferred herbs to correct for too much dryness in a formula.

Elder and Sassafras both turn up in 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. And, take a look at some key formulas like Rooted & Ready, that bring together taste, action, and energetics for maximum effect. Check it out!

Like all our offerings, these are self-paced online video courses, which come 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!

An herbal smoking blend may not sound like your cup of tea – and it isn’t! – but it’s still an effective method of working with medicinal plants. When smoked, herbs have rapid effects on the lungs and the central nervous system, including antimicrobial, astringent, relaxant, and nervine or anxiety-reducing activities. This traditional practice is still relevant today.

But of course, some people need help to quit smoking, not reasons to start! And herbs can help here as well, by reducing cravings and addressing the original reasons one started smoking in the first place. They can also help one cut down on smoking tobacco or cannabis by enhancing the desirable effects of those plants and reducing their undesirable ones.

In this episode we’ll talk about all these aspects of smoking, share some of our favorite plants to include in herbal smoking mixtures, and guide you through some practical considerations when trying this on your own.

Herbs discussed include: mullein, lobelia, skullcap, evening primrose, vanilla, uva ursi, tobacco, cannabis, pedicularis, catnip, damiana, tulsi, mugwort, bittergrass.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Medicinal smoke reduces airborne bacteria. Nautiyal, Chandra Shekhar, Puneet Singh Chauhan, and Yeshwant Laxman Nene; Journal of Ethnopharmacology 114, no. 3 (December 3, 2007): 446–51.
• The effect of chewing gum flavor on the negative affect associated with tobacco abstinence among dependent cigarette smokers. Cohen LM, Collins FL Jr, Vanderveen JW, Weaver CC; Addict Behav. 2010 Nov;35(11):955-60.
• Puff Herbal Smokes – Boutique herbal smokes, pre-formulated for you by a trained herbalist. (Coming soon!)
• Howie Brounstein’s ebook, Herbal Smoking Mixtures – a classic guide to working with herbs as smoke. A must-read if you’re interested in this topic.

If you’re a regular listener, by now you’ve heard us talk about our podcast supporters – and maybe you’re wondering how to become one, yourself! Well, let me make it easy for you – all you need to do is click this link to support us at $5/month, or this one to support us at $10/month. At either level you’ll get immediate access to our weekly supporters video series. These exclusive videos come out every week and are only for our supporters. So if you’d like to help us keep our podcast, free clinics, scholarships, and other projects going strong – and get some goodies for your generosity – we’d very much appreciate it!

As always, please subscribe & review our podcast so others can find it 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!

20% OFF EVERYTHING for the month of July!
Use code ALLTOGETHER at checkout!

There’s one reality, that of the human need for fundamentals like nourishing food, restorative sleep, consistent movement, ways to mitigate stress, and community support. Then there’s the other reality: that so much of this is not accessible for so many people in our society.

What can we do about it, as herbalists? A lot!

We can start by keeping our recommendations as accessible and affordable as possible. We can center our practice on grocery store herbs, abundant weeds, and widely available plants instead of those that are rare or expensive. We can teach people to minimize waste, and get the most goodness out of their herbs. We can keep a mental store of “cheapbest” formulae – things that serve common needs and keep expenses low, but don’t compromise on quality.

We can recognize that people don’t only have to budget money, but also time and energy. Especially in the context of chronic illness and fatigue syndromes, being able to work effectively with simple protocols – to hone in on the manageable essentials – is critical to success. And perhaps most importantly, we can improve access to herbalism and cultivate community connections. One individual against the world is in a really tough spot, but a community together is healthier.

If this topic is speaking to you today, check out our Herbal Community Care Toolkit. It’s chock full of low-cost, abundantly accessible herbal remedies for addressing common health issues. Students in this program learn our most inexpensive strategies for improving health and well-being. This course is available by donation, but if you can’t afford it, email us and we’ll send you a coupon code so you can get it for free!

And, don’t forget! Our semi-annual 20% off sale is running for the whole month of July!
Use code ALLTOGETHER at checkout to get 20% off any of our courses or programs!
(This code can be used several times, if there’s more than one course you’d like to take.)

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.

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Today we’re continuing our “herbs on our shelf” from A to Z series! This week, our herbs are schisandra and skullcap.

Schisandra (Schisandra chinensis) is SOUR. That flavor stands out most strongly when you taste the herb. But it’s also bitter, pungent, acrid, and a little bit sweet – that’s why it’s sometimes called five-flavor berry. Schisandra’s a great herb for modern people, not least because it helps a lot with anger and with sugar. It does have some drug interactions to be aware of, though!

Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) is one of the ‘bitter mints’. It’s not powerfully bitter, like motherwort, but more like betony, ground ivy, or self-heal. This group includes mostly relaxants, lymphatics, alteratives, & anti-inflammatories, and skullcap is primarily a relaxant. Its specific affinities are tension in the neck & shoulders, or else tension that’s intermittent. It makes a great base compound with betony and passionflower, whether that’s for a nervine tea blend or a before-bed tincture.

Schisandra & skullcap are featured herbs in our Neurological & Emotional Health course. This is a user’s guide to your nerves & your emotions – including the difficult and dark ones. We discuss holistic herbalism strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too!

Like all our offerings, these are self-paced online video courses, which come 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!

Today we proceed futher along our shelves, looking at the herbs we keep in our home apothecary. In this episode we discuss goldenrod and wood betony.

When using the botanical Latin name for goldenrod, we write Solidago spp. – that “spp.” means “species plural”; there are many varieties in the genus. It can hard to tell them apart! Fortunately, your senses can tell you about the particular actions of your particular goldenrod. Is it more bitter? That’ll have more digestive action. Is it more aromatic? That’ll really get you kidneys moving. It’s also worth trying goldenrod leaf-only vs flower-only tea or tincture.

Betony, also called wood betony, is Stachys officinalis. It’s related to lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantina), but nowhere near as fuzzy, and with smaller, scallop-edged leaves. An herb with a panoply of benefits, in modern people we find its most important attributes are its grounding and centering effects. These can help us oppose the habits of multitasking and dissociation from the body which are so prevalent today. It’s also a very easy herb to grow in a pot on your portch!

Mentioned in this episode:

• episode 077: Urban Wildcrafting Ethics & Guidelines
• episode 195: How To See Stress In Wild Plants
• episode 113: Grow Your Own Herbs

Taking a fallow period to focus on the hands-on aspects of herbalism is one of our favorite tips for people who are learning. There are lots of ways to study, and lots of ways to enhance your learning. We’ve collected our best suggestions into a FREE COURSE for you: Herbal Study Tips! 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, these are self-paced online video courses, which come 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!

Our herbs for this week are dandelion & cedar! Both are diuretic, but their similarities pretty much end there.

We are big fans of gardening your weeds, and we took another opportunity here to advocate for it. It’s easy to do, and you don’t have to stress about upkeep. Plus, you get nutritious or medicinal plants ready to hand! Dandelion is a great one for this, and the leaf makes an excellent base for a Salad of Health (listen in for an example recipe). Whether you grow it or not, it’s easy to find growing wild – but don’t be fooled by any of the many not-a-dandelions out there in the field!

The cedar we’re talking about today is “western redcedar” or arborvitae, Thuja plicata. (Other plants called ‘cedar’ include “true cedar” Cedrus species, as well as some species of Juniperus.) Katja has an argument to make that this cedar should be counted as a nervine – but it’s not a sedative one; rather the opposite. We also talk quite a bit about its particular aromatic profile, and how perhaps cedar is to tulsi as pine is to rosemary…

You can learn herbalism online – with us!

All our offerings are self-paced online video courses which come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, 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.

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

The lymphatic system is criminally underestimated! It’s intimately tied to the function of your circulatory system, your digestive function, your immune responsiveness – pretty much everything. Conventional medicine doesn’t have much to offer in the way of pharmaceuticals to alter lymphatic activity, but fortunately there are a number of excellent lymphatic herbs that can do the trick.

In this episode we’ll lay out some of the many reasons why lymph is so important, how to support lymph circulation & combat lymphatic stagnation. We highlight seven of our favorite lymphatic herbs and give you the rundown on their specific talents regarding lymph movement and disorders of the lymphatic system.

Herbs discussed include: calendula, self-heal, ground ivy, red clover, violet, chickweed, cleavers.

We’re All In This Together Sale!
Listen to the end for a discount code that will get you 15% off any of our courses or programs! This offer is good for the month of July 2019, so don’t delay – get your herb on today!

As always, please subscribe & review our podcast so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

We’re on the final shelf of our home apothecary, and today we’re talking about thyme & linden!

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is our absolute favorite herb for a steam. Herbal steams are an amazing way to bring the plant’s medicinal actions into the lungs and sinuses – and the ear canal and eyes, too! Thyme’s a great steam herb because it’s so rich in volatile, aromatic chemistry. This also means it’s easy to prepare as a tea, tincture, infused vinegar, infused oil, or salve – it’s a very flexible herb.

Ryn’s favorite formula recently has been “Sweet Heat” – a combination of hot aromatic mints (thyme, oregano, sage, rosemary, monarda) with sweet demulcents (licorice, fennel, fenugreek, goji berry). Make it strong and drink it hot, and you’ll feel the diaphoretic movement of heat upwards & outwards in your body!

Linden (Tilia spp.) is a very friendly demulcent herb. Infusing it in water makes the liquid silkily viscous, but not slimy or snotty. This makes it a good choice for folks with dry constitutions who have a taste/texture aversion to the mucilage of a marshmallow or elm infusion. Linden’s a common street tree in cities, so you might have some growing near you! (If you’re in Boston, check out this Public Street Tree Map and you can identify every tree on your block!)

Katja’s excited to share some new information about linden today – it has activity as a quorum sensing inhibitor! That means it can break up a biofilm, which is a collaboration of microbes that resists the attack of your immune system. More and more herbs are being identified as having such activity. Although linden isn’t generally considered a first choice herb for wound care, this kind of info tells us it can indeed be of help in that situation.

Whether you’re a brand-new beginner or an herbalist with experience, it’s always helpful to study the herbs in depth! Our comprehensive presentation of herbal allies is in our Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. It includes detailed profiles of 100 medicinal herbs!

Like all our offerings, this self-paced online video course comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, 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.

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Coffee is surely America’s favorite herb. So many people rely on it as part of their morning ritual, and it’s easy to see why! The aroma, the flavor, the stimulation – there’s a lot to like. But what if caffeine gives you the jitters, or rumbly guts? You can go with simple decaf, but even better is an herbal coffee replacement – and Katja’s got a recipe we think you’ll love.

This “notCoffee” blend incorporates adaptogenic herbs along with plants that support circulation & fluid movement, digestion, and other critical processes for good health. It can give a boost to your energy levels, but not at the expense of your nutrient stores, and not in the “credit card” way that strong caffeinated drinks can do.

notCoffee is a flexible, customizable formula strategy you can alter to your own needs and tastes. We like it way better than the store-bought herbal coffee replacements. Learn all about it in this episode!

Herbs discussed include: angelica, ashwagandha, reishi, codonopsis, spikenard, rhodiola, dandelion, burdock, calamus, elecampane, pleurisy root, solomon’s seal, astragalus, maitake, and of course, coffee!

We’re All In This Together sale! Use the code together to get 15% off any of our courses or programs! This offer is good for the month of July 2019, so don’t delay – get your herb on today!

As always, please subscribe & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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 our featured herbs are red clover & damiana – two complementary fluid-moving remedies.

Red clover (Trifolium pratense) has a reputation as an herb that “cures breast cancer”. That’s not the way we talk or think about it, but it’s worth digging in to why people say that! What underlies the claim is an observable effect: the plant can diminish or reduce swellings (and not only in breast tissue). This is due to its capacity to improve the circulation of lymphatic fluid, and that’s a good thing – helpful for stagnation patterns and for immune efficiency. But it’s still not a “cure”, and it’s important for herbalists to be clear about that difference.

Damiana (Turnera diffusa) is more of a blood-moving than lymph-moving herb. It’s one of our favorite dispersive remedies, for increasing blood flow to the periphery and to the skin. Its affinity for the pelvis and it’s capacity to restore or enhance sensitivity in nerve endings contribute to its reputation as an aphrodisiac. It’s not about raging lust – it’s about relaxation, sensation, and communication!

Red clover and damiana both make an appearance in our Integumentary Health course, along with an array of other herbs who help the skin. Whatever the problem is – whether we call it eczema, psoriasis, or just “that troublesome patch of skin”, herbs can help! Topical applications for common herbs play a big role in this work, and we also dig into the effective herbs – like these two – which you can take orally to get results on the skin.

Like all our offerings, this self-paced online video course comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, 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!

This week we’re talking about something a bit different for us. If you’re a regular listener, you know we’re very interested in science and in the historical & traditional ways of working with plants. But there’s a side of plant medicine we don’t talk about too often, and that’s the spiritual & ritual side. The truth is, we do actually think a lot about these elements when we work with herbs! But perhaps not in the way you might expect… and that’s where herbal awareness rituals come in.

What we like best is to present a method for working with or taking the herbs in a manner that has ritualistic aspects. By stepping aside from the hustle & bustle of life, taking a moment to engage all your senses and all your attention & intention with the remedy, you enhance its effects manyfold. It is truly astounding how much this kind of practice enhances the work of the plants.

An herbal awareness ritual can be presented to the client, or person asking for help, in a variety of ways. Some of these will emphasize the “rational” aspects of ritual, drawing insights from the science of the placebo effect and deep psychology; others will emphasize the “magical” aspects, connecting to spiritual and religious traditions or experiences. Being fluent in all these languages is very helpful for an herbalist. We consider it an important clinical skill to be able to find ways to present a ritual practice to someone in the way they can accept.

All this & more in this episode!

Well, we’re halfway through July, so that means our We’re All In This Together sale is half over! Don’t miss out – use the code together to get 15% off any of our courses or programs today!

As always, please subscribe & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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!

DECEMBER SALE: 20% off every course & program we offer, all month long! Use code KINDNESS at checkout!

This week we return to our home herbal apothecary shelves and discuss two medicinal barks: slippery elm and cat’s claw.

Ulmus rubra, slippery elm, is an at-risk plant. We don’t work with it frequently, for this reason – other demulcents will usually do the job, just fine. It is a standout mucilaginous plant, though, that’s for sure! It can be difficult to strain cut & sifted herb for tea, in fact, because of the thickness of mucilage creates when infused in water. For this reason it’s often easier to work with it as a powder. Never forget that other elms – especially the abundant / “invasive” species Ulmus pumila, the Siberian elm – can do all the same work as slippery elm!

Uncaria tomentosa, cat’s claw, is an herb with a lot of reputations. It’s reputed as an “anti-cancer” herb, as an “immune stimulant”, as an “herb for joint pain”… It’s easy to put herbs into conceptual boxes when we talk about them this way. To break out of those boxes, try two paths. One is a return to fundamentals: here is a cooling, drying, tonifying herb, which acts correctively on hot/damp/lax areas in the body. Another is a dive into research: here’s an herb with extensive research demonstrating its activity on chemical messengers of the immune system involved in the regulation of inflammation. Weaving these threads together is a good way to broaden your application of this plant and evade the trap of selecting herbs “for” diagnoses.

Everything’s on sale in December!

All our offerings, are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, 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 KINDNESS at checkout to get 20% off!

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!

DECEMBER SALE: 20% off every course & program we offer, all month long! Use code KINDNESS at checkout!

As we draw near the end of our tour of the home apothecary herbs, today we come to nettle and bilberry.

Urtica dioica, nettle, is an herb who can help with a really vast array of health issues. Sometimes we half-jokingly refer to “nettle deficiency syndrome”: a constellation of imbalances due to poor mineral nutrition, fluid stagnation, systemic inflammation, and associated symptoms. In truth, many green nutritive herbs and food plants help resolve this – but nettle is a particular standout, and is often a great choice for a month or two of work to establish a new baseline. Do compensate for its drying qualities in people of dry constitution, though! This can be done by formulating with marshmallow or other demulcent herbs, or by cooking the nettle into a soup or other food.

Vaccinium myrtillus, bilberry – also known as European blueberry, whortleberry, huckleberry, and a variety of other common names – is indeed closely related to blueberry and also cranberry. All these edible berries – and others besides – share a lot of attributes as remedies. Their sour flavor and blue-purple-red colorations indicate capacity to drain excess fluid, protect blood vessels, and improve blood sugar regulation. The leaves of these plants exert these actions, too! So whichever edible berries grow where you live, making them a part of your life as much as you can is a pleasant way to protect yourself.

Everything’s on sale in December!

All our offerings, are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, 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 KINDNESS at checkout to get 20% off!

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!

We have just three episodes remaining in our Herbs A-Z series! Today’s show features mullein and blue vervain.

Verbascum thapsus, mullein, deserves its reputation as an effective remedy for dry respiratory conditions. Its leaf is a great ally when your home heating system dries out the air inside, or when your area is hit by wildfire smoke. But mullein leaf isn’t a systemically moistening herb – its effects outside the respiratory system are drying, through better distribution of fluids. Also, mullein root and flower are each different from the leaf – root is even more astringent & tonifying, while the leaf is a more mucilaginous demulcent. Categories like “moistening” and “drying” bear close investigation and nuanced exploration – mullein teaches us this lesson.

Verbena hastata, blue vervain, is an excellent nervine when you want to release tension without losing all structure. It helps us to receive & transform, whether that’s food or information or experiences. As one of our bitter nervines – a very important affinity group of medicinal plants – vervain is an excellent companion to motherwort, mugwort, st john’s wort, yarrow, angelica, feverfew, betony, skullcap, and the like. These herbs call forward the strong interconnection of our digestive & nervous systems, and remind us that mental discomforts are as much in need of relief as physical ones. That includes during acute illness, and that’s why vervain always gets included in our homemade Winter Elixir. Try it in yours this year!

If you live in the northern hemisphere, cold & flu season is in full swing! And 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 are self-paced online video courses, which come with 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!

We’ve reached our penultimate Herbs A-Z episode this week, and we’re highlighting ashwagandha & prickly ash – it’s prickly ashwagandha!

Withania somnifera, ashwagandha, is an herb Katja takes every single day. Usually, she gets it in the form of “notCoffee”, a formula of various roots and herbs blended to offer sustained energy and endocrine suppport. Ashwagandha is popular as an adaptogen or a “stress herb”, but its real power is in helping entrain healty cycles of activity and rest. Balance is not about stillness, but dynamic equilibrium, and ashwagandha’s one of our favorites to build that capacity.

Zanthoxylum americanum, prickly ash, tells you all about its diffusive activity with the message of its tingly taste. This makes it not only an excellent herb for toothache relief, but also a truly fantastic circulatory stimulant. Stagnant blood and lymph are dispersed, and healing can proceed effectively, when we recruit prickly ash for this purpose.

These two herbs make recurrent apperances in both our Neurological & Emotional Health course and our Immune Health course. Improving innner communications, establishing consistent cycles, and enhancing fluid movement are just a few of the actions herbs can bring to these critical systems to support their work.

Like all our offerings, these are self-paced online video courses, which come 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!

Today we reach the end of our apothecary shelves! This series started way back with episode 170 on Achillea & Acorus, and today in episode 227 we’ve finally come to Zingiber.

Today’s entire episode is all about ginger. (Yes, it deserves its own entire episode. If you don’t already believe it, we will convince you!)

We discuss Katja’s evolving preference for fresh vs dried ginger in our tea blends at home, and some of the variations in activity between fresh vs dried ginger. We talk about quick topical applications of this wildly accessible herb, to relieve muscle aches, joint pains, and other musculoskeletal discomforts. Ryn takes time for an ode to candied ginger – yes, it’s sugar, but there are plenty of reasons why it’s excellent to have! You can easily make your own, too.

Maybe you could put some chopped candied ginger into some ginger-chamomile cookies, eh?

You can even grow your own ginger, if you’re up for it!

Finally, we mention some relatives of ginger, members of the Zingiberaceae: turmeric (Curcuma longa), galangal (Alpinia galanga), cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum), grains of paradise (Aframomum melegueta), korarima (Aframomum corrorima), “shampoo ginger lily / bitter ginger” (Zingiber zerumbet). These are all worth experimenting with and comparing to ginger – they have a lot in common, with some individual nuances. Watch out for “wild gingers” of the Asarum genus, though – those have risks of liver toxicity.

Ginger’s an herb we love so much, we probably mention it in every course we teach… but especially in the Digestive Health course! Learning to care for digestion is a critical skill for herbalists, and a place herbs can do so much good.

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!

This week Katja brings you the first in a new series we’ve been wanting to produce for you: Starting Your Herbal Business! Today the focus is on herbal products – tinctures, salves, elixirs, tea blends, all that good stuff!

Listen in for a simple explanation of what you’ll need to know if you want to build an herbal products business of your own. It’s not just about knowing your herbs – although of course that comes first! It’s also about medicine-making at scale, creating effective & regulation-compliant labeling, marketing effectively and sincerely, and finding what makes your remedies uniquely yours. That’s what people want!

Would you like to know more? We’ve got just the thing! The Herbal Business Program has all the nitty-gritty details about setting up your herbal business – whether that’s products, clinical herbalism, or another variety of herbal pursuit. From GMPs and labeling laws, to marketing, to taxes & insurance, to the technology you’ll need to make it all happen, this course has everything. You can do this!

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!

We continue this week with Katja’s series: Starting Your Herbal Business! Today the focus is on an herb shop or herbal apothecary, with or without a tea bar for tastings and treats.

Running an herb shop involves a fair amount of administrative work: ordering, stocking, inventory, payment processing, taxes, etc. Sharpen up your spreadsheets, folks! That’s not all there is to it, of course – there’s a huge aspect of community-building involved. Talking to people, planning events, and serving as a hub for your herbal community are also part of the gig.

In fact, if we can give only one piece of advice, it’s this: think of your herb shop as a community center, first and foremost. The stronger you can make that community connection, the stronger your business will be. Listen to the episode for more insights and tips as you build your business!

Would you like to know more? We’ve got just the thing! The Herbal Business Program has all the nitty-gritty details about setting up your herbal business – whether that’s products, clinical herbalism, or another variety of herbal pursuit. From GMPs and labeling laws, to marketing, to taxes & insurance, to the technology you’ll need to make it all happen, this course has everything. You can do this!

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!

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!

Your skin is your largest organ, and it’s your presentation to the world – so it’s important to take care of it! It’s not just vanity. For most purposes, a simple daily routine will do the job. In this episode Katja shares her own personal daily routine, and then we discuss how to work with herbs for healthy skin care in a variety of situations. Simple kitchen ingredients and inexpensive herbs are the focus, as always!

The best herbs for healthy skin are the ones that match your own constitution and your current state, so we offer insights into how you can choose the right herbs for your skin type. We’ve got tips for working with herbs to reduce acne, and herbal strategies for resolving eczema. And because we always keep things holistic, we share considerations around movement, stress, food, & sleep and how they can affect the skin. Lots of factors affect skin health, which is a good thing – it means you have lots of options for how to get started! Listen in to hear the choices and make your first steps.

Herbs discussed include yarrow, chamomile, thyme & oregano & monarda, rose, witch hazel, licorice, turmeric, marshmallow, linden, & the seaweeds.

Our We’re All In This Together sale end on July 31st – there are only a few days left! Don’t miss out – use the code TOGETHER to get 15% off any of our courses or programs today!

As always, please subscribe & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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 continue this week with Katja’s series: Starting Your Herbal Business! Today the focus is on the practice of clinical herbalism.

Building and running a practice as a clinical herbalist isn’t only about your interview skills, your ability to formulate a personalized remedy, or your capacity to build a holistic health plan in collaboration with your clients. Support work, research, and administrative tasks will take a fair amount of your attention – not to mention continuing education!

Clinical work involves a lot of teaching. You teach your clients how to prepare their remedies, you teach them how the herbs work, you teach them how to build healthier habits. So, our advice for cinical herbalists in training is: practice teaching!

To do all this, you need to understand the herbs on their own terms, but also in the context of modern life. That means common pharmaceuticals and potential herb-drug interactions need to be part of your education, too. It also means that you’ll need to be all brushed up on the legal status of herbalists, and the ways you navigate that. Here in the US, that means understanding our scope of practice as unlicensed practitioners, and your first priority is to avoid “the practice of medicine” according to your state’s laws.

Don’t let uncertainty keep you unsettled! You can build a practice and feel confident in your skills, and help a lot of people. Getting over the administrative hurdles will allow you to focus on the parts that drew you to this career in the first place: the people and the plants.

Ready to start building your practice? The Herbal Business Program has all the nitty-gritty details about setting up your herbal business – whether that’s products, clinical herbalism, or another variety of herbal pursuit. From GMPs and labeling laws, to marketing, to taxes & insurance, to the technology you’ll need to make it all happen, this course has everything. You can do this!

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!

Where does loosestrife belong? Is barberry a badberry? And what’s with all the knotweed everywhere?! Most folks will tell you it’s simple: “These are invasive plants. They’re bullies, who take over an area and crowd out “native” plants! They need to be pulled out, root and branch! No use for ’em – not a good seed in the lot!” … Whew. If that were true, there’d be no such thing as medicinal invasive plants – but we’re here to tell you, there is such a thing. Many such, actually!

In this episode we’ll tell you all about three of our favorite “invasive” herbs in our part of the world: purple loosestrife, Japanese knotweed, and barberry (European and Japanese varieties). We’ll explore each one’s medicinal virtues and specific talents, drawing insights from historical & traditional practice, phytochemistry, and our own experiences working with these plants to solve problems and improve health.

In the process, we’ll work to challenge some of the underlying assumptions in the standard narrative about invasive plants. Too often, this concept is predicated on unexamined biased assumptions about what it means to be “native” and what it means to be otherwise. The truth is, plants aren’t native to geography, they’re native to ecology. As the environment changes, the places plants live must change too. Thinking differently about invasives can help us better understand and relate to our changing world.

Herbs discussed include purple loosestrife, Japanese knotweed, barberry, & autumn olive.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Where Do Camels Belong?, Ken Thompson
• How Wolves Change Rivers
• 1491, Charles Mann
• Invasive Plant Medicine, Tim Scott

If you’re a regular listener, by now you’ve heard us talk about our podcast supporters – and maybe you’re wondering how to become one, yourself! Well, let me make it easy for you – all you need to do is click this link to support us at $5/month, or this one to support us at $10/month. At either level you’ll get immediate access to our weekly supporters video series. These exclusive videos come out every week and are only for our supporters. So if you’d like to help us keep our podcast, free clinics, scholarships, and other projects going strong – and get some goodies for your generosity – we’d very much appreciate it!

As always, please subscribe & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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!

The single most important factor in the success of your business is your ability to manage your time and be productive.
Great – cause that’s not hard at all, right? 😑

Trouble is, this is not something you’re just born knowing how to do.

It’s a skill you have to develop – but you can do it, and this course will help!

Enroll for free and over the next month, you will learn so much about how to get control of your schedule – so that you have time for your business without burnout!

(Plus you’ll find a bunch of great bonus material to help with other aspects of your business, too!)

You can enroll in the free course here:
Herbal Business Productivity 

You don’t need a credit card or anything – just make a username and password and you’re good to go!

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!

With heat waves hitting heavy, and hurricane season on the move, we’re thinking about disaster preparedness – again! In this episode, we’re covering an aspect of disaster preparedness we haven’t discussed on the pod before: food. Whether you’re putting together a bug-out bag, or building up a bug-in bag (or box, or cabinet, or whatever), you’ve got to have food.

What’ll matter in this context includes protein, fiber, calories, flavor, and – believe it or not – sugar. Since environments and emergencies differ, what you pack yourself might be a little different from what we do. We’ll give you some principles to start with and an example of our own preparations, and you can customize that to your own needs!

Here’s your “homework” – previous material from us on the topic of emergency readiness:

• First Aid Kits for Everyone
• Episode 064: Herbs for First Aid & Disaster Response
• Episode 066: Herbs for Psychological First Aid
• Episode 166: Herbalism & Climate Change: Heatwaves
• Episode 167: Herbalism & Climate Change: Flooding
• Episode 168: Herbalism & Climate Change: Fires
• Episode 187: Herbalism In A Time Of Collapse

If you want to go a lot deeper into emergency readiness training, our Emergent Responder program is a complete guide to holistic disaster response & preparedness. Learn how herbal first aid, long-term care strategies, and emergency clinic management unfold in austere environments. Get the skills you need to be confident and ready to care for yourself, your family, and your community – even if help never comes. Once enrolled, your access never expires, and you get any updated material we add in the future free of cost!

Like all our offerings, these are self-paced online video courses, which come 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!

IF YOU'RE SEEING THIS IN JULY 2024, USE CODE "LAVENDER" AT CHECKOUT TO GET 20% OFF ANY OF OUR COURSES OR PROGRAMS!


This originally aired as Episode 139 of the Holistic Herbalism Podcast. We're replaying it in June 2024 because of the increase in interest in cognitive troubles associated with COVID. Don't despair - you can take steps to protect your mind!

Here' s the study mentioned in the intro: Quan et al. Post-COVID cognitive dysfunction: current status and research recommendations for high risk population. Lancet. 2023;38.


Maintaining a sharp & healthy mind has always been one of the things people ask us about most often. Whether it’s a nagging difficulty recalling words, or a tendency to forget why you walked into a room – or more seriously, a relative showing early signs of dementia – lots of folks are wondering if there are herbs for cognitive decline prevention. And here’s the good news: there are!

When we’re trying to diminish the risk of dementia, herbs can help in a few different ways. For one, they can improve circulation to the brain, bringing in fresh oxygen and nutrients to keep the nerve cells well-fed. They can also protect those nerves and thus stave off senility, by reducing inflammation and improving nerve communications (both chemical and electrical).

But keeping your mind agile and avoiding Alzheimer’s isn’t something you can accomplish just by taking some supplements or drinking some tea – even with the best herbs in the world. You’ve got to feed your brain – get those omega-3s! And perhaps most importantly, you need good restful sleep, and plenty of it. Lack of sleep is probably the single biggest contributor to diminishing mental acuity; good quality sleep is the best guarantee of a healthy brain & mind. Herbs can help here, too – to ease the transition into sleep, to deepen sleep, and even to help you dream.

Herbs discussed in this episode include: rosemary, sage, tulsi, ginkgo, gotu kola, & lion’s mane.

Our Neurological & Emotional Health course includes more material about preventing cognitive decline, as well as a whole host of herbal and holistic strategies to support healthy nerves, brain, mind, and emotions. This self-paced online video course includes access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions so you can connect with Katja & Ryn directly. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too!

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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!

IF YOU'RE SEEING THIS IN JULY 2024, USE CODE "LAVENDER" AT CHECKOUT TO GET 20% OFF ANY OF OUR COURSES OR PROGRAMS!

This originally aired as Episode 188 of the Holistic Herbalism Podcast.


All herb schools are different, in their focus and their style. When you’re choosing an online herb school, whether for a short course or a long program, here are some key questions to consider:

• How can you ask questions to the teachers & admins?
• Is there a free course you can take first?
• What’s the teaching method (text, audio, recorded video, live sessions, etc), & does it match your learning style?
• How are the teachers accessible – what kind of contact do you get with them?
• Do you get to keep the materials when the course ends?
• How many ‘hours’ is the course, and how are those hours counted?
• Is there a student community you can participate in, and how does it work?
• Will you be “certified” on completion? (Beware: this is a trick question!)
• How will this fit in to your learning spiral: is this brand new material, or a new view on something you’ve learned before? (Learning herbalism is not a single linear path.)

These answers will be different for every school, and there’s no one “right” answer! It all depends on how you prefer to learn and engage with your teachers. Knowing to ask these questions in advance will help you make better-informed comparisons between different offerings, and find the ones that work best for you.

As you may know, we teach herbalism online! We hope that if you’re choosing an online herb school, you’ll consider ours. When you sign up for any of our courses – including our FREE Herbal Study Tips and Four Keys to Holistic Herbalism courses – you get access to twice-a-week live Q&A sessions, integrated discussion threads on every lesson, and a vibrant student community. Our courses are centered on video lessons you can watch at your own pace, and once you’ve bought a course you retain access to it (and any future updates!), forever.

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!

Discomfort and evasion are natural responses to our world. Our ancestors, from a single-celled organism up to Mitochondrial Eve, all survived only because they had strong drives to avoid uncomfortable and dangerous situations. But in our modern world, avoiding all discomforts can stunt our growth, or make us seem more fragile than we really are.

This is not about “grinding through” difficulty, or hurting ourselves in an effort to be “good”. After accounting for one’s own personal state of ability/mobility/resilience, and after accommodating one’s needs, and after receiving adequate nourishment and rest – then it is good to challenge ourselves, to face some discomfort and move through it.

Here are the key principles:

• Each step forward makes the next one easier.
• Choose your battles.
• Do this work from a place of strength.

And of course, herbs can help us along the way! Herbs can boost our endurance, settle our anxious minds, fortify our nerve[s], or help us enter and maintain the state of flow. Adaptogens, evergreens, yarrow, st john’s wort, solomon’s seal, kava, and calamus are some of our allies for this, and may serve you as well.

Mentioned in this episode:

• 190: Herbs A-Z: Glycyrrhiza & Gynostemma
• 014: Alternatives to Adaptogens for Burnout
• 072: Rooted & Ready Alterative/Adaptogen Herbal Formula for Endurance, Resilience, & Detox
• EVRY DAY YEAH: Herbal Tea for Workouts & Recovery

Ready to do some evasion-evaporating work, but want to line up some herbs for backup? Check out our Neurological & Emotional Health course. This course is a user’s guide to your nerves & your emotions – including the difficult and dark ones. We discuss holistic herbalism 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!

"Creating this community garden, and teaching families in your area how to grow food and look out for each other – that is abolition. We’re humanizing people again, and working for community health and ecological health, and all of those things are completely opposite to what the prison-industrial complex is trying to do. So in that way, herbalism is abolition."

Today we’re honored & excited to share with you our interview with Nicole Rose of Solidarity Apothecary in the UK! Nicole is an herbalist who is working tirelessly to bring herbal medicine to incarcerated individuals, those who have been released from prison, and the families and communities who have been impacted by the state violence and the prison-industrial complex. She recently completed her new book The Prisoner’s Herbal, which Katja helped edit and which we’re going to help distribute in the US.

We talked about how Nicole’s personal experience of finding support from wild plants during her own incarceration shaped her work as an organizer and as an herbalist, the sad state of healthcare and nutrition in prisons, why herbalists should care about what happens to prisoners, what prison abolition really means and how we can move as a society in that direction, and how we can all support and care for incarcerated people in ways large and small.

To get your own copy of The Prisoner’s Herbal and support the work Nicole is doing, visit:

Solidarity Apothecary

Also mentioned in this episode:

• IWOC – Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee
• Black Permaculture Network
• Solitary Gardens

If you’d like to help us keep our incarcerated students initiative moving forward, while also supporting out podcast, free clinics, scholarships, and other projects – and get some goodies for your generosity – we’d very much appreciate it!
To start supporting us today, all you need do is click this link to support us at $5/month, or this one to support us at $10/month. At either level you’ll get immediate access to our weekly supporters video series. These exclusive videos come out every week and are only for our supporters!

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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!

This is the fourth in a series about herbal businesses. These videos cover what each kind of herbal business is and what kind of work you’d be doing, what kinds of education and experience you’ll need to get it started, and a few tips to help you along the way.

This video focuses on building a Compounding Herbal Apothecary – but as you’ll hear right up front, part of this now involves avoiding calling it an “apothecary”, because that word is regulated in every state. 😱 (Don’t worry, Katja has a dozen business-naming suggestions to get you started!)

A compounding apothecary (whatever we call it) is someone who makes custom products for clinical herbalists’ clients and ships them out. That way, a clinical herbalist can focus on clinical herbaling, and someone who makes really great medicines can focus on making the blends that each individual client needs! We don’t have to do it all – we can collaborate with each other! 💓

Interested in starting a different kind of business? Check out our episodes on starting an herbal products business, starting an herb shop, and starting a clinical herbalism business.

The courses mentioned in this episode include:

• The Herbal Business Program – which covers every aspect of GMP compliance, as well as every other part of running your business, from getting registered, paying taxes, and getting insurance to building your website and marketing without selling out – even hiring employees!
• The Family Herbalist Program (Materia Medica + Medicine Making)
• Foundations of Phytochemistry
• Fundamentals of Formulation
• The Community Herbalist Program
• Herb-Drug Interaction & Herb Safety

All of our courses include twice weekly live Q&A sessions and you can ask questions in the discussion thread attached to every lesson – we answer them ever day! Plus we have a student community where you can get support from other business herbies too!

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!

This week we’d like you to meet Ashley Bissonnette-Murphy, who is one of our Clinical Mentorship students. Ashley is advanced in her mentorship, and she’s been seeing her own clients in our Student Clinic and Free Clinic for a year. She does great work!

You can find Ashley at hwapothicaire.com and on social media at @hwapothicaire. Definitely jump on her mailing list to get her excellent monthly newsletters!

We mentioned our free Herbal Business Productivity mini-course in this episode. It’s part of our comprehensive Herbal Business Program!

And if you’re interested in becoming a clinical herbalist, you can learn more about the education you’ll need, how to get it, and what the process looks like here: Build a Career as a Clinical Herbalist.

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!

This winter elixir is our #1 cold & flu remedy! We make a big batch every year around this time, when most of the plants that go into it are fresh and ready to harvest. They need about a month to extract fully into the elixir, so we can’t wait until we’re already sick to start putting our elixir together. Preparing it now means it’s ready for us when the first respiratory infection of the season strikes. Holistic herbalism means thinking ahead sometimes!

Our herbal elixir is designed to be general-purpose, to cover all the most important bases. When you have a cold or the flu, you don’t only need to “kill” the virus. You also need to keep your inner waters flowing, help fevers be effective & efficient, maintain mucous membrane function, and provide your immune system with the support it needs to function optimally. From the marrow on outward, our winter elixir is a full-spectrum solution to respiratory infections.

PS: If you don’t have all the ingredients we discussed in this episode, work with what you’ve got! Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. 🙂 And remember that you can work with what the landscape gives you in your own bioregion – wherever you are, there are herbs that can do these jobs.

Herbs discussed include: loosestrife, elderberry, ground ivy, mullein, boneset, sumac, goldenrod, st john’s wort, japanese knotweed, catnip, & blue vervain.

If you want to learn more about how to manage cold & flu with herbs and holistic strategies, our newest online course is for you! 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. Throughout, the focus is on finding ways to support what your body is already trying to do as it works to restore balance. Winter is coming, so get ready now!

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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’re still making the podcast! We have not abandoned you, dear listeners. 💚

We’ve been busy producing material for our online courses – especially the Accessible Herbalism and Clinical Skills courses. We’ve also been enhancing our student experience and building up our student community, so that learning with us is more enjoyable and cooperative. You’re not out there in the world on your own, when you study herbalism with us!

Today, though, we wanted to hop back on the pod feed and convey this simple message to you: just press play!

Lots of our students get caught up in feeling like everything needs to be perfectly aligned before they start studying. The right quite comfy place to study, the right amount of private time, no distractions, a new notebook and a fresh pen – all those things are great! But they’re not essential, and if you only study when everything’s perfect, well, you won’t study very much! So just press play, and let’s get at it. 🤝

When you sign up for any of our courses – including our FREE Herbal Study Tips, Four Keys to Holistic Herbalism, and Herbal Business Productivity courses – you get access to twice-a-week live Q&A sessions, integrated discussion threads on every lesson, and a vibrant student community. Our courses are centered on video lessons you can watch at your own pace, and once you’ve bought a course you retain access to it (and any future updates!), forever.

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!

A brief update this time, to let you know about some herbal holiday gifts we’ve put together for you & yours!

Herbal Activities Calendar

The best way to learn herbalism is to do a little bit every day – so we’ve built you a whole activities calendar that will feed itself automagically right into your own calendar of choice (Google, Yahoo, Outlook, etc). You can even set notifications so that you don’t forget to try fun new herby things!

• View the Herbal Activities Calendar
• Instructions for adding the Herbal Activities Calendar to your calendar system.

Herbal Wallpapers

Each week we’re putting out a matching set of herbalism wallpaper images for your phone and your computer. The desktop version has a mini materia medica info, and the one for your phone has a tiny bite-size bit of info – and a lot of herbal beauty & inspiration.

They’ll help you learn your botanical Latin names, they’ll help you with plant identification, they’ll help you learn herbal actions, and best of all, they’ll help you fit herbs into every day!

• View & Download Herbal Wallpapers

20% Discount on EVERYTHING

Until the end of December, you can use the code CHAMOMILE at checkout to get 20% off of everything we offer!

You can use this code for gift purchases, too! Your loved one will be automatically enrolled in the course you buy for them. Remember to check “This is a gift” during checkout.

Every course, every full program, all the one-off courses… the discount works on everything. It works for the payment plans, too.

• View All Courses & Programs

Don’t forget to use code CHAMOMILE at checkout!

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!

The itchy, inflamed, sensitive presentation of a fungal skin infection is something no one wants. These kinds of infections can be difficult to resolve whether you’re trying with herbs or with pharmaceutical agents, but don’t give up! With a few pointers and a solid plan, you can be successful working with herbs for athlete’s foot. The difference between success and failure often comes down to how you prepare and apply the herbs – that’s what this episode will teach you.

Our favorite antifungal herbs are actually some of the most common – plants like garlic, oregano, turmeric, and willow. With common household items like salt and vinegar, they can be made into very potent herbal remedies to combat athlete’s foot. We like to come at the problem from a few angles at once, working with soaks, sprays, and salves to keep the fungi on their toes – and get them off of yours!

(By the way, these remedies are also helpful if you’re dealing with thrush, ringworm, or related issues. We offer some tips for applying these herbs for athlete’s foot to other fungal skin infections like these, too.)

Herbs discussed include: garlic, oregano / thyme / monarda, uva ursi, pau d’arco, black walnut, plantain, calendula, turmeric, henna, seaweeds, marshmallow, propolis, usnea, loosestrife, willow, barberry, oregon grape root, tea tree, rosemary, thuja, cinnamon, & chaparral.

~

Have you seen our newest online course offering? If you want to learn more about how to manage cold & flu with herbs and holistic strategies, this is for you! 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. Throughout, the focus is on finding ways to support what your body is already trying to do as it works to restore balance. Winter is coming, so get ready now!

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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!

Welcome to 2025, everyone! Let’s give the year a bitter start – that’s better than a bitter end, right? If you don’t think so yet, listen to this episode and by the end, we’re sure you’ll agree!

Bitters are a truly indispensable piece of an herbal toolkit. They – like demulcents, adaptogens, and alteratives – can achieve things in the body which pharmaceuticals, acupuncture, and other healing modalities simply cannot replicate. Bitters are one of the herbalist’s superpowers!

In this episode, we cover:

• bitter as signal – and why their actions on the body are nearly immediate
• bitter deficiency syndrome – a uniquely modern human problem
• energetics of bitters – is bitter always cooling, or is it more complicated than that?
• actions of bitter herbs – digestion-activating, fluid-draining, liver-awakening… mind-centering…
• bitter-tasting constituents – and an ode to the flexibility & variety of bitter taste receptors
• subcategories of bitter herbs: pure bitters, mild bitters, aromaic bitters, inulin/berberine/artemisinin-bearing bitters, fungal bitters, warming/relaxant/moistening bitters, …
• how to take bitters – drops, sips, chews, and more.

Since they’re so helpful – and really, not only for digestion – we address bitter herbs in many of our courses. Quite possibly all of them, now that we think about it! They’re that important. Bitters get a significant mention in:

• Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica
• Herbal Medicine-Making
• Holistic Nutrition & Digestive Health
• Basic Phytochemistry
• Neurological & Emotional Health

Like all our offerings, these are self-paced online video courses, which 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!

This episode begins an intermittent series we’ll be doing this year, covering the top-selling herbs in the United States and giving you our thoughts about them. From the perspective of a practicing herbalist, these herbs are frequently pigeon-holed into very narrow ranges of application – the “what is it good for” answers are quite limited! 

The Herbal Market Report from the American Botanical Council comes out every year, with data about herbal supplement sales for the prior year. Check it out and take a look at the “mainstream” and “natural channel” best-seller lists – you might be surprised at what’s on there!

If you’re an herbalist, you should be well-educated about the herbs people take most frequently. You should know what’s popular, and why. You should know how to talk to people about these herbs, how to correct misconceptions, how to offer more effective alternatives, and which ones are worth the money. We’re hoping this series will help you do that!

If you’re new to herbalism – yay, we get first crack at forming your opinion of these herbs! 😄 More importantly, this will serve as an introduction to marketing literacy in the realm of herbal supplements, as well as some good materia medica study.

In today’s episode we cover psyllium, elder berry, turmeric, and ashwagandha.

1. Psyllium – Plantago ovata

• HHP 205: Herbs A-Z: Pinus & Plantago
• Plantain: Herb of the Week

2. Elder berry – Sambucus nigra, S. canadensis

• Elder: Herb of the Week
• HHP 216: Herbs A-Z: Sambucus & Sassafras
• Elderberry and Cytokine Storms

3. Turmeric – Curcuma longa

• HHP 184: Herbs A-Z: Crataegus & Curcuma
• HHP 149: Our Top Topical Herbs for Acne

4. Ashwagandha – Withania somnifera

• HHP 226: Herbs A-Z: Withania & Zanthoxylum
• Ashwagandha: Herb of the Week
• HHP 155: Equinox Thoughts On Balance & Amphoteric Herbs

Whether you’re a brand-new beginner or an herbalist with experience, it’s always helpful to study the herbs in depth! Our comprehensive presentation of herbal allies is in our Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. It includes detailed profiles of 100 medicinal herbs!

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, and more!

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 you think of UTI and herbs, you probably think of cranberry and uva ursi first. You’re not wrong to do so! They’re reliable and effective remedies. But if you stop there, though, you’ll be missing out on some herbs who can also do the job, and do it well. In this episode we outline two herbal UTI formulae we work with ourselves, and explain why and how they’re helpful.

We also take this opportunity to demonstrate our method of formulation, and show how the same actions and qualities can be achieved from different sets of plants.

Formula 1:
primary – yarrow (Achillea millefolium) flower, goldenrod (Solidago spp.) flower;
support – linden (Tilia spp.), marshmallow (Althaea off.) leaf, chamomile (Matricaria recutita)
catalyst – juniper (Juniperus spp.)

Formula 2:
primary – heather (Calluna vulgaris), calendula (Calendula off.)
support – marshmallow (Althaea off.) root, catnip (Nepeta cataria), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
catalyst – cedar (Thuja plicata) leaf

If you’d like to learn more about supporting your urinary system, our Urinary Health course is for you! It’s too common to neglect this system of the body – until something goes wrong. Take proactive steps to prevent UTIs and kidney stones, and learn methods to manage issues such as interstitial cystitis or incontinence. You’ll be glad you did!

And if you’d like to dig deeper into formulation, well, then our Fundamentals of Formulation course is where to go next! Learn our strategies for combining herbal actions and balancing the qualities of herbs to produce more effective remedies.

Like all our offerings, these are self-paced online video courses, which 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 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!

Talk of herbal detox comes up every spring – some years, earlier than others. We field a lot of questions from people asking our opinions on detox protocols, bowel cleanses, liver flushes, you name it. So, in this episode, we’re giving you our fundamental thoughts on the topic.

Ryn wrote you a poem that sums up our perspective. Here it is:

The Don’t Ox

if you think you need a detox,
hear & heed the Don’t Ox –
listen well when he talks,
when he says:
Don’t.

don’t you doubt your liver!,
and the action it delivers
in concert with your kidneys
to clean your blood.

if you feed your body rightly
if you sleep you well a-nightly
if you walk when sun shines brightly
you’ll keep inner waters clear.

you don’t need to haunt the potty –
you just need to trust your body:
give it nicely more than naughty
without force and without fear.

if you taste a bit of bitter
eat some greens at every dinner
then you’ll run that inner river
in a flow, but not a flood!

now every day’s a detox
and our good old friend the Don’t Ox
is sure when we hear “purge” talk
we’ll remember:
Don’t.

Listen to the episode for the elucidation and explanation of everything that’s contained in this poem!

Perhaps you will adopt the Don’t Ox as a personal mascot, too. 🙂

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 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!

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.

She wrote:

"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!

This episode continues our series covering the top-selling herbs in the United States. As we give you our thoughts about these popular herbal supplements, we’re hoping to help you break out of the box. These herbs are frequently pigeon-holed into very narrow ranges of application – the answers to the question “what is it good for?” are usually very limited! There’s more to say about them than their most effective selling points or marketing campaigns.

If you’re a practicing herbalist, you should be well-informed about the herbal supplements people take most frequently. You should know what’s popular, and why. You should know how to answer people’s questions about these herbs, how to sort hype from health, how to identify better alternatives, and which ones simply aren’t worth the money. This series is intended to help you do that!

If you’re new to herbalism – we’re glad that we get to help you form your initial opinion of these herbs. More broadly, though, this will serve as an introduction to marketing literacy in the realm of herbal supplements, as well as some good materia medica study.

In today’s episode we cover apple cider vinegar and cranberry supplements.

5. Apple Cider Vinegar – Malus spp.

• jim mcdonald’s Apple monograph
• Katja’s recipe for Paleo Apple Fritters

6. Cranberry – Vaccinium macrocarpon

• HHP 224: Herbs A-Z: Urtica & Vaccinium
• HHP 006: Dynamic Desk Work + Crazy for Cranberries (discussion of cranberry starts around 25:30)

Find the first episode of this series here: HHP 240: Herbalists’ Views on the Top-Selling Herbs (Part 1): Psyllium, Elderberry, Turmeric, Ashwagandha

Whether you’re a brand-new beginner or an herbalist with experience, it’s always helpful to study the herbs in depth! Our comprehensive presentation of herbal allies is in our Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. It includes detailed profiles of 100 medicinal herbs!

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 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!

Good health takes effort. It doesn’t just happen, and our cultural norms definitely don’t make it easy. You have to plan for it! But it can feel difficult to do all that planning on your own, and you know what they say about the best-laid plans… What’s needed here is a culture of support for self-care and good health habits. If you don’t have that in place already, don’t worry! You can create one, for yourself and for those close to you. This episode is all about how.

First by changing the mindset we bring to self-care & community-care, and then by turning that positive mindset to the four fundamental pillars of good health, we can make this attainable for anyone. Accountability and camaraderie go a long way toward dispelling feelings of deprivation! If you’re trying to create a culture of support in your own home or family, these tips will help you.

Mentioned in this episode:

• 4 Keys To Holistic Herbalism, our FREE mini-course about the fundamental philosophy and practice of holistic herbalism.
• Emergent Responder, for if you want to REALLY be prepard for whatever comes your way! This two-part program is a complete guide to preparing for and responding to disasters and emergencies.

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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!

If you’re trying to decide whether you need adaptogens or a nap, well, the answer just might be both! But you can learn how to combine your adaptogens with other holistic interventions for better effects.

In this episode we’re talking about choosing the best adaptogens to work with when what you really need is rest – a super common situation we all find ourselves in from time to time. We talk about ways to get rest – even if you don’t have time to nap! – as well as ways to rest that aren’t about sleep at all.

How to start? Well, we can choose the least stimulating adaptogens necessary, first. That might mean going with tulsi before red ginseng, or jiaogulan before rhodiola. It might mean combining reishi and lion’s mane with burdock and dandelion root, to keep a grounding influence right there with our adaptogens. It might even mean formulating with digestives and nervines to subtly shift the influences of the adaptogenic herbs themselves.

We can also be discerning about the type of activation we get – mental or physical at the fore. Tulsi & green tea is a very different combination than is eleuthero & coffee!

Let’s also consider creating a support blend to go along with my adaptogens. This might include demulcents (marshmallow, fennel), nutritives (nettle), digestives (calendula, plantain, ginger, chamomile), or nervine relaxants & sedatives (skullcap, passionflower, betony, vervain). As always, herbal formulation is a great way to direct & enhance the effects of our primary herbs.

​Finally, here are three questions you should ask yourself whenever you’re thinking about adaptogens:

• What’s going on for me right now?
• Is there anything I could be doing differently?​
• What’s the most important thing right now?​

Interested in learning more about adaptogens, nervines, and related herbs for nerve & mood support? Check out our Neurological & Emotional Health course. This course is a user’s guide to your nerves & your emotions – including the difficult and dark ones. We discuss holistic herbalism strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too!

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 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!

In part three of our series on the top-selling herbs in the United States, we cover wheatgrass, beet root, and ginger supplements.

As we share our opinions about these popular herbal supplements, our primary goal is to help you understand these herbs in their breadth and depth. They’re too often pigeon-holed into limited ranges of application – the usual answers to “what is it good for?” are too small! There’s plenty more to say about them than their most common selling points.

If you’re an herbalist, it’s good for you to be well-informed about herbal supplements which people take most often. You can learn what is popular, and why it is. You can understand how to answer questions about those plants, how to differentiate hype from health, how to help someone find a better alternative, and which supplements just aren’t worth the cost. This series is intended to help you do that!

If you’re new to herbalism, we’re happy that we get the first chance to form your thoughts around these herbs. At the same time, this will act as a guide to developing ‘marketing literacy’ as applied to herbal supplements – and some good old-fashioned materia medica study, too.

7. Wheatgrass / Barley grass – Triticum aestivum / Hordeum vulgare

• What to Do When You’ve Been Glutened

8. Beet root – Beta vulgaris

• Beetroot profile at Herbal Reality

9. Ginger – Zingiber off.

• HHP 227: Herbs A-Z: Zingiber
• Ginger: Herb of the Week

Find the previous episode of this series here:

• HHP 240: Herbalists’ Views on the Top-Selling Herbs (Part 1): Psyllium, Elderberry, Turmeric, Ashwagandha
• HHP 244: Herbalists’ Views on the Top-Selling Herbs (Part 2): Apple Cider Vinegar, Cranberry

Whether you’re a brand-new beginner or an herbalist with experience, it’s always helpful to study the herbs in depth! Our comprehensive presentation of herbal allies is in our Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. It includes detailed profiles of 100 medicinal herbs!

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 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 discuss green tea, fenugreek, and ivy leaf in this, the fourth part of an episodic sequence about the best-selling herbs in the US.

Our primary purpose for creating this series of episodes is to share an understanding of these herbs from the perspectives of traditional and contemporary herbal practice. Frequently, the high-volume sales of these herbs comes along with oversimplified or diminished ideas about what they can do. If we ask “what does this herb help with?” and answer it based only on what we see on store shelves and product websites, we’ll miss out on a lot of possibilities!

Every herbalist practicing in the US today should be familiar with these herbs, because they are the ones your clients are most likely to be taking even before they show up for an appointment with you. Their use may have implications for your own herbal recommendations, or serve as a jumping-off point for a more involved protocol. You may also be able to advise your clients about alternatives which may serve them better, or even some supplements that aren’t really worth the price.

So overall, this series is both an example of materia medica study and also a guide to ‘marketing literacy’ for supplements.

10. Green Tea – Camellia sinensis

• Green Tea at Herbal Reality

11. Fenugreek – Trigonella foenum-graecum

• Fenugreek at Herbal Reality

12. Ivy Leaf – Hedera helix

• “Hedera.-Ivy.” in King’s American Dispensatory, 1898

Find the previous episode of this series here:

• HHP 240: Herbalists’ Views on the Top-Selling Herbs (Part 1): Psyllium, Elderberry, Turmeric, Ashwagandha
• HHP 244: Herbalists’ Views on the Top-Selling Herbs (Part 2): Apple Cider Vinegar, Cranberry
• HHP 246: Herbalists’ Views on the Top-Selling Herbs (Part 3): Wheatgrass, Beet Root, & Ginger

Whether you’re a brand-new beginner or an herbalist with experience, it’s always helpful to study the herbs in depth! Our comprehensive presentation of herbal allies is in our Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course. It includes detailed profiles of 100 medicinal herbs!

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 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!

Earlier this month, Ryn attended a Level 3 certification event for MovNat – a 4-day course/test/immersion in natural movement. It was quite the challenge! On this week’s episode, we talk about all the herbs he took to prepare beforehand and the ones he brought along to help him get through. If you want to work with herbs for physical challenges in your own life – whether that’s an intense sporting event, or a job or lifestyle that’s physically demanding – these might help you, too!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Pumpkin Playtime: An Outdoor Adventure – coming up on October 19 & 20! Join us for a weekend of forest movement skills: learn to move quietly, quickly, and confidently over uneven terrain while you protect your precious pumpkin. Your weekend includes paleo meals, comfy camping, and of course, herbal medicine too!
• The Holistic Herbalism Podcast Episode 44: Empty Nests & Challenges – In the second half of this episode, Ryn reflected on the MovNat Immersion he attended in 2018, and shared some lessons he [re]learned there about challenge, adaptability, and seeing the complex context.
• Our Go-To Joint Liniment – it’s a lifesaver!

And here are all the herbs & preparations we discussed:

• supplements: reishi, ginkgo, chlorophyll
• teas:
  • EVRY DAY YEAH: jiaogulan, goji, cedar, sage, ginger, licorice
  • demulcent blend: marshmallow, cinnamon, fennel
• chewroots: calamus, sol’seal, licorice
• tinctures:
  • ginger-chamomile
  • blackberry root
  • wuggy guts: peach leaf, ginger, ground ivy
  • STIMULANT: kola nut, guarana, eleuthero, ginkgo, ginger, prickly ash
  • Herbal Medics echinacea mix
  • Herbal Medics Cold & Flu formula: yarrow, elderflower, boneset, echinacea mix, prickly ash
• antiseptic spray: propolis, berberine mix (barberry root, Oregon grape root & leaf), yarrow, cedar EO
• “red salve” (HM sprain & strain): comfrey, juniper, prickly ash, cayenne, black cohosh, lobelia, arnica, meadowsweet, horsetail
• joint liniment: (sol’seal, st j, alder, cayenne, lobelia, clove EO)

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Have you seen our newest online course offering? If you want to learn more about how to manage cold & flu with herbs and holistic strategies, this is for you! 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. Throughout, the focus is on finding ways to support what your body is already trying to do as it works to restore balance. Winter is coming, so get ready now!

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Change is hard. It’s hard for everyone, not just you! Acknowledging this is important, whether you’re trying to make a change in your own life or guide others through that process. Since making change is at the heart of holistic herbalism, finding ways to make it easier is critical to success.

Sometimes, the best catalyst for change is … change! A small healthy change in habits can give you a new perspective on a big thorny problem, and it can also make a big shift easier to approach. If you shop in a different store, you might find it easier to break out of your autopilot and make more intentional purchases. If you take a short walk, you’re more likely to take a longer one – and more likely to smell the roses, or climb the trees! If the end goal seems distant, take a small step in that direction and see if it doesn’t look that much closer. And of course, herbs can help with this!

Herbs discussed include hawthorn, linden, tulsi, schisandra, elderflower, lobelia, motherwort, elecampane.

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

If you live in the northern hemisphere, cold & flu season is here! And 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. Our focus is on finding ways to support what your body is already trying to do as it works to restore balance. Winter is coming, so get ready now!

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Everyone gets stressed out sometimes. So if you’re among “everyone”, you might like this herbal stress remedy formula! It’s one of our favorites and we turn to it again and again.

Like all our formulas, this one can be customized to meet your own needs & personal taste. In this episode we describe what each herb is doing to contribute to the overall impact of the blend, so that you can choose the herbs that are most relevant to your own situation. Whether stress shows up for you as agitation, fear, or feeling stuck; whether it comes with headaches, digestive upsets, or a short temper . . . these herbs can help everything be fine again.

Herbs discussed include betony, tulsi, linden, rose, elder, st john’s wort, goldenrod, sage, chamomile, catnip, hawthorn, skullcap, lavender, vervain, & boneset.

Intrigued by our discussion of elderflower as an emotional support herb in this episode? Then you should check out our mini-course all about Elderberries & Elderflowers! In it we teach you everything we know about this supremely talented herb. Learn how to work with elderberry to fight the flu, and elderflower to fight the blues. Everything from wild plant identification to step-by-step recipe videos & printables – all for only $10!

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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!

Yes, there are herbs for joint pain, and they really work! But when we’re working with this problem, we like to pile on – lots of herbs (in lots of ways), plus some changes to the diet, plus gentle movement, plus better sleep & stres management. This is what holistic herbalism looks like: combining strategies for maximum effect.

For joint pain, herbs can help very directly. Decoctions and liniments help us work from the inside out and the outside in – and they work best when you do both. At the same time, you can eliminate pro-inflammatory foods and emphasize anti-inflammatory ones. You can move in ways that build your range of pain-free motion without directly aggravating the sore spots. And you can sleep more and stress less, which may not sound like they’re directly related to joint issues – but they really are.

Whether it’s from a sports mishap, a repetitive stress injury, Lyme disease*, rheumatoid arthritis, or some other source, these strategies & herbs for joint pain have brought enormous relief to our students and clients – and us, too! – through many years of practice. Listen in and learn how!

Herbs discussed include solomon’s seal, st john’s wort, alder, cayenne, lobelia, goldenrod, kava, skullcap, birch, willow, meadowsweet, self-heal, licorice, kelp, turmeric, cat’s claw, & chamomile.

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Holistic Herbalism Podcast, episode 010: Simple Herbal Self-care Tips & Joint Support Decoction
• Ryn’s Go-To Joint Liniment
• Our book, Herbal Medicine for Beginners

* That’s right, joint pain associated with Lyme responds really well to these methods! But if you have Lyme or know someone who does, you know there can be a lot more to it than achy knees and headaches. Our course A Holistic Approach To Lyme Disease lays out our complete plan for building a personalized holistic herbalism protocol for your specific symptoms. It’s comprised of video lessons you can watch at your own pace, and you can ask questions & get feedback from us right inside the course platform. Check it out and start taking control of Lyme today!

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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!

Our ideas about health are often context-dependent, and clinging too tightly to rules about what is “good” and “bad” can really get us into trouble when context changes. It can also get in the way of communicating and sharing knowledge with people who live in contexts that are different from our own.

Like many herbalists, we teach and practice the avoidance of sugar in most situations. Most… but not all! Recently we posted a video about how to make an elderberry syrup with sugar, and got a lot of negative feedback. “You should only ever use raw local honey!” was a common refrain in these comments. But sometimes, there are good reasons to make your syrup with sugar – it does result in a non-alcoholic, shelf-stable product, and that could be necessary for some people. And in the end, an elderberry sugar syrup is better than no elderberry syrup at all!

Similarly, there are sometimes reasons to make your liniment with rubbing alcohol, or to work with herbs in ways that are unusual or uncommon. Oftentimes, these are in fact uncommon or unusual only in a given cultural or historical context. Getting too hung up on the “perfect” method can blind us to “good” methods that someone else teaches.

Purity tests help no one, and actively discourage collaboration and collective evolution. So listen in as we push on some dogmas… including some that we ourselves have espoused in the past! We’re not perfect either, but we do try to be good. 🙂

Mentioned in this episode:

• Effects of honey and sugar dressings on wound healing. Mphande et al. J Wound Care. 2007 Jul;16(7):317-9.
• The Holistic Herbalism Podcast, Episode 088: Sweet Herbs & Their Medicines
• Mountain Medicine: The Herbal Remedies of Tommie Bass, Darryl Patton
• The Art of Nothing (video series), Tom Elpel

* EMERGENT RESPONDER SALE *
In this episode we talked a lot about post-disaster situations. These have always been with us, but climate change is bringing them with new ferocity and to new places. California’s fire season is well underway – does it ever stop anymore? – and the Kincade and Getty fires are still uncontained.

As long as they are, we’re offering a sale on our Emergent Responder program. It’s a deep dive into post-disaster and austere herbalism, first aid & long-term care, and emergency clinic management. This program is situated at the intersection of personal preparedness and community disaster response. It gives you the skills and confidence to function calmly and efficiently in an ongoing or post-disaster scenario, providing effective support for your loved ones and community – no matter what the situation is.

There just aren’t enough first responders to help us all, but if you get prepared, YOU can be a community responder. You can be the confident force that organizes your community and makes the difference between chaos and calm. Whether it’s a wildfire, flooding, hurricanes, tornados, whatever – being prepared means you don’t have to be afraid.

Use the coupon code kincade at checkout to get 50% off the program price until those fires are contained – they’re both at about 60% right now, so you still have a few days to get in on it.

TL;DR?
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Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were one book you could read, one teacher you could study with, one website you could scroll through – that would tell you everything you need to know about herbalism? Sometimes it seems like there ought to be a definitive guide to herbalism – and for our 100th episode, we’d love to give it to you!

But the thing is, there isn’t one.

There’s only the hard way.

But don’t let that discourage you! The “hard way” turns out to be the nuanced way, the complex way, the adaptable way – it turns out to be the only way, because shortcuts don’t work. Lifehacks don’t hack it. One-size-fits-all prescriptions and panacea formulae don’t actually fit everyone or solve everything. Herbalism has to be flexible and adaptable to meet the needs of people in different bodies, situations, times, and places.

Herbalism has changed and evolved a lot just in the time we’ve been practicing, and it will continue to change for as long as humans and plants come together. So even though there’s no definitive guide to herbalism, there are ways to orient yourself and organize your training that can make you a more adaptable and agile herbalist. We’ve built our practice and our curriculum with a focus on these, and in this episode we’re sharing the big-picture view of what we’ve learned along the way.

Has it really been 100 episodes? Wow! Thanks so much to our supporters for keeping us going and enabling us to put this out there in the world. You’re also making it possible for us to do our free clinics and community outreach projects. If you’d like to become a supporter, you can! We’ll even share you a special supporters-only video each week. Lately we’ve been making a series of videos about herbs you can harvest fresh all winter long. Get access to the whole archive and all the new ones by becoming a supporter today!

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Herbs differ from pharmaceuticals in important ways. Understanding how they’re different helps us make better choices about what to take, and how to take it, to get the effect we’re looking for. It also helps us avoid common misunderstandings about herbs and herbalism – like thinking that the effect of an herb can be reduced down to the action of its “active ingredient”. And, knowing how herbs are different from drugs lets us set expectations clearly, and recognize that not all preparations of an herb are equivalent.

No one would say that aspirin is “synthetic willow”, but people often talk about willow as “natural aspirin”. In our cultural context we have some understanding of aspirin as a painkiller and fever-reducer. Because willow can relieve pain and reduce fever, and because some of its constituents are similar to aspirin, you can see why it’s common to talk about them as if they were nearly equivalent. But this is misleading, because the herb is actually very different from the drug – it doesn’t have the same side effects or safety profile, and there are certain actions each one has that the other lacks. So taking willow and expecting aspirin-like effects is going to set you up for disappointment.

In this episode we explore three specific ways herbs are different from drugs:

• Their makeup: drugs seek specific uniformity, herbs express synergystic complexity.
• Their targets: drugs act on molecular receptors, herbs act on tissues, systems, and patterns.
• What determines your response to the substance. For drugs, this may include dose and form, along with your digestive and hepatic function and your genetics; for herbs, it starts with the live plant and its environment, on through harvesting & handling, processing & preparation, formulation, dose, and your own personal constitution and current state.

Along the way, we’ll show how the systemic approach and paradigm of herbalism differs from that of the pharmaceutical model of medicine. And we’ll explain how simple principles of holistic herbalism protect us from mistaking herbs for drugs, and give us a solid place to stand when learning new information about plants & health.


If the elements of phytochemistry in this episode caught your attention, you might be interested in our Basic Phytochemistry course! It’s not scary or overcomplicated – we worked hard to keep this material clear, accesible, and relevant to real-world herbalism. Check it out and see for yourself!


As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it 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!