The Holistic Herbalism Podcast

Life is pretty overwhelming right now, and it’s affecting the way our brains function. When we can’t focus or can’t remember things, we typically blame it on things like perimenopause or ADHD – but the literal firehose of data that comes at us every day is an even bigger cause: it’s a LOT for our brains to process!
Tulsi can help!
Truly one of the most versatile and multifaceted herbs on the planet, tulsi is a must-know plant for any herbalist. Its capacity as a nervine is immediately palpable, as it helps us release tension and anxiety without causing any sedation. When taken over the long term, tulsi expresses itself as an adaptogen – helping us to move more easily out of a stress response, back to a comfortable and calm baseline. Tulsi is also very flexible, and can be formulated with lots of other nervines and mental health herbs to create a perfectly personalized formula.
Some of our favorite herbs to pair with tulsi include:
Ground ivy – for moving the lymph in your head (ear/nose/throat) – and maybe even the glymph in your brain!
Elderflower – for draining stuck fluids from the head, and for releasing tense heat
Ginkgo – for increasing blood flow to the brain and protecting the health of nerves
Rosemary – for cutting through the fog and sharpening the mind
Peppermint – for a breath of cool air moving through your mind, and for releasing tension held in the belly
Still feeling stressed? Check out our new Stress Management course! Learn all about adaptogens, nervines, restoratives, and herbs to lift your spirits in this inexpensive, focused course. It covers everything you need to get through stressful times – and to help the ones you love, too!
Like all our offerings, this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!

PS: If you’re in the Boston area, check out Herbstalk on June 6th & 7th! Ryn will be teaching a class there on Affordable Analogues for Expensive Herbs, and the conference as a whole is very much worth visiting. It’s the last Herbstalk ever, so don’t miss it!

If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
Support the show
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

We’ve come to the end of the “mainstream” top-40 best-selling herbs list! Dandelion, rhubarb, and ginseng take the last three spots.
Dandelion is an herbal workhorse. It’s inexpensive because it’s ubiquitous, and its resilience is legendary – dandelion coming up through the concrete is one of the herbalist’s favorite symbols of resistance and the power of nature. Much more than a simple “detox” herb, dandelion root and leaf improve the functions of our liver and kidneys, feed both us and our gut flora, and eliminate excess fluids from the system. Its bright yellow flowers can even lift our spirits when taken in tincture or wine – this is one of Ryn’s indispensable herbal remedies for the winter doldrums.
Rhubarb root used to be much more of an herbal mainstay than it is in contemporary herbalism. The Eclectics of the 19th century worked with it extensively, largely for its “cathartic” – stimulant laxative – properties. It is a key ingredient in the famous “neutralizing cordial”, a formula developed in that era and designed to be a nearly-universal remedy for digestive upsets of all sorts. This remedy is still prepared by herbalists today, though often with some variations in the ingredient list.
Ginseng needs no introduction. It is one of the most famous medicinal herbs in the world, and it is “the original adaptogen” – the category which has spawned millions of dollars in product sales in our stressed-out, depleted, fatigued society. Ginseng products can be extremely helpful, but you absolutely cannot simply buy the first one you find: these remedies are very prone to adulteration. That, too, is an old problem: historical texts are littered with descriptions of adulteration and falsification of supposedly mature, supposedly Panax roots which were nothing of the kind. Some things never change…

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“Detox” came up in this episode (again), and we hinted at the issues rampant in this category of supplement products. For the full story, you’ll want to dig in to our course Elements of Detoxification. This course takes a fresh look at the concepts of “toxicity” and “detoxification”, a holistic perspective that goes beyond “cleanses” and products. Learn a memorable, practical model for understanding how the body’s detox functions work, along with the roles herbs can play in supporting them.
Like all our offerings, this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!

If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

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

At number 35, 36, and 37 on the list of top-selling herbal supplements we find bacopa, senna, and rhodiola.
Bacopa is also known as brahmi, and this name is just as often given to gotu kola (Centella asiatica) as well. This is because both are known by that name in Ayurvedic herbalism, where they originate. Both are able to improve mental clarity and cognitive function, and have the same type of energetics as well as growth habits. For practical purposes they are nearly identical, but their chemistry does differ, so the best extraction method may not be the same for both, and this could be relevant in the context of a commercial extract capsule.
Senna is one of the cathartic stimulant laxatives. It is possible to become dependent on senna – not after one dose, but if taken for several days running. A person may then find it difficult to move the bowels without taking it every day. Better not to get into that situation! In the commercial context, note that this herb is often included in ‘detox’ and ‘weight loss’ supplements… although it does not truly serve either of those functions in a root-cause or restorative manner.
Rhodiola is a very stimulating adaptogen, and so it’s no wonder people talk about it as an ‘herb of happiness’ or even an ‘herbal antidepressant’! But that is a misleading way to think of the root, and it can lead to some bad choices. This one is particularly drying, so unless your constitution (or local environment) are very damp, it’s best to include demulcents in your protocol whenever taking rhodiola.

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As you’ve heard in today’s episode, one of the ways we can understand these herbs is by attention to their chemistry. Which constituents contribute to their effects? What synergy exists between the many different chemicals a plant contains? Which constituents are shared between herbs with similar actions? If these questions pique your interest, you’re in luck! Our Basic Phytochemistry course for herbalists is a low-pressure introduction to the practical aspects of plant chemistry, the ones which are most relevant to the practice of herbalism.

Like all our offerings, this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!

If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
Support the show
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Back to it! Today’s best-seller herbal supplements are CBD, fennel, and oats. To the extent there’s overlap between these, it’s some capacity to touch on the nervous system – or at least, in the case of fennel, digestive symptoms which can be due to stress and anxiety.
CBD is a widely-known, and yet poorly-understood, substance. It is not identical to a full-spectrum cannabis extract, neither in terms of its range of effects nor its safety profile with respect to adverse effects or addiction. Its regulatory status in the US also complicates matters: nationally legal only when certain criteria are met, and of varying legality state to state. It is neither a cure-all nor a placebo, and variance between products makes direct comparisons tricky.
Fennel is one of the herbs on this list with the greatest similarity between folk and traditional medicine applications and its modern market presentation. As a carminative, sweet demulcent, and mild galactagogue, it is helpful for a variety of discomforts. Its pleasant and familiar flavor is a strong point in its favor, and it plays very nicely in formula with other herbs.
At our school, we don’t devote much attention to oats, whether milky oats or oat straw. We have reservations about its purported actions – particularly oat straw – and about its potential to trigger those who are gluten-sensitive. This does set us apart from basically every other herb school and herbalist out there, we admit it! Still, its popularity both with the general public and among herbal practitioners is undeniable, so it’s worth understanding the nature of these discussions.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL SHOW NOTES & REFERENCES

Nerve pain? Agitation impacting digestion? Burnout? CBD, fennel, and oats may be helpful with these problems, but you’ll get better results by learning the underlying physiology of your nervous system and how herbs can influence it. Our Neurological & Emotional Health course is a user’s guide to your nerves, your emotions, and the herbs who can lift you, hold you, brace you, and sustain you. We teach holistic herbal strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too!
Like all our offerings, this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!

If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
Support the show
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Have you ever wished you had thorns? Have you ever felt like you needed to protect your heart, your space, your peace of mind, or your time from a world that asks too much of you – or takes without asking? You’re not alone. This is what thorn medicine can bring you.
Thorns aren’t weapons, they’re defenses. They don’t seek an animal or human out with the intent to cause harm, they hold space and define boundaries. Touch me here, says the rose, but not there. Admire my flowers, says the motherwort, but don’t you dare clutch my seeds. We can learn from this.
We can take the medicine of thorns into ourselves. We can do this literally, not only (oh, “only”!) metaphorically or symbolically. Most all thorny herbs, and particularly the thorns themselves, carry a key herbal action: astringency. This is an action which literally pulls things together, and holds things together.
Each plant’s thorn is different, serving its own purpose. Hawthorn’s long, widely spaced thorns evolved to counter the hungers of the giant sloth, and they retain that shape long after the lumbering herbivore went extinct: they are the living memory of a predator past. Ocotillo’s inexhaustible rows of spines render it no more easy a prey than the cactus who share its landscape. Thistle spikes out from every possible surface, asserting itself in all directions as its firework flowers reach for the sky. Which thorns are yours?
Pull yourself together. Hold your boundaries. Make a safe space.
Then, within that thorn-walled refuge, your flowers will unfold.

Thorn medicine is only one form of support herbs can offer our emotions. Our Neurological & Emotional Health course is a user’s guide to your nerves, your emotions, and the herbs who can lift you, hold you, brace you, and sustain you. We teach holistic herbal strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too!
Like all our offerings, this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!

If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
Support the show
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!