The Holistic Herbalism Podcast
- Épisodes
- 308
- Parution
- hebdomadaire
- Dernier épisode
- 9 Nov 2026
À propos du podcast
Practical herbalism from practicing herbalists. Conversations, botanical deep-dives, Q&A with clinical herbalists Katja Swift & Ryn Midura of CommonWealth Holistic Herbalism.
Épisodes 308
Cozy Herbs & Rituals
Does “cozy” feel like a luxury? Does the notion of “cozy herbs” sound like an extravagance, and oh-so-much less important than “real herbal medicine”? Let us disabuse you of such ideas, dear listener. You …
Notes de l’épisode
Does “cozy” feel like a luxury? Does the notion of “cozy herbs” sound like an extravagance, and oh-so-much less important than “real herbal medicine”? Let us disabuse you of such ideas, dear listener. You deserve cozy. It will heal you. And of course, herbs will help!
The truth is that relaxation doesn’t simply happen. Maybe for some humans, at some time, in some place – maybe it did. But for us? Here? Now?? It has to be an active choice and a chosen activity. Doomscrolling isn’t relaxation, even if you do it on the couch. Getting comfy and cozy happens on the inside of your mind as much, or more, than in your body. So let’s choose cozy together.
Cozy comes when you find safety, comfort, and presence. That’s where real relaxation can happen. When you’re stressed out, you’re not feeling safe (even if your fore-mind is telling you that you really are). This has become such a baseline state that coming out of it seems either impossible, or impossibly indulgent. But it is a need, just as much as nourishment and rest.
Relaxation improves digestion. Calm brings clarity. Security heals the heart. Our cozy herbs bring us to these states and help us stay there.
As always, herbs work best in collaboration with habits. Some cozy habits to start with: make the lighting gentle, take tea as a ritual, listen – really listen – to the music, and write on paper with pens.
Here’s a base Cozy Tea blend to get you started:
- 1 part chamomile (Matricaria recutita)
- 1 part linden (Tilia spp.)
- 1/2 part ginger (Zingiber off.)
- 1/4 part cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum)
Feel free to make changes! You can…
- Add a part of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) if your thoughts race and your mind won’t settle.
- Add a pinch of motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) if your boundaries are too permeable and you feel exposed.
- Add a part of heather (Calluna vulgaris) and/or hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) if your heart is heavy and your soul is sad.
- Turn the whole thing into hot cocoa! Make the tea first, then stir in your favorite cocoa powder or drinking chocolate. Add a splash of your favorite milk-type-of-thing, if you’re into that.
Do your best to stay present with the process. You’re making this tea to relax, and you’re going to do pleasant things while you drink it. So try not to let yourself rush! Smell the aroma, feel the warmth, appreciate your favorite teapot & mug… this isn’t how you get to the point; this is the point. Cozy herbs, and cozy rituals, for a relaxed mind, a comfortable body, and a healthier human you.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Stress Management course
- The Herbal Activity Calendar
- The 2026 Herbal Gift Guide
- our Teatime Meditations playlist on YouTube
- HHP 062: Herbal Hygge
Psst… Is this feeling hard? Do the cozy herbs seem out of reach, or too small to help? Fear not. You can find your way to it, and we want to help you get there.
Our Stress Management course has all our favorite adaptogens, nervines, restoratives, and herbs to lift your spirits! This inexpensive, focused course 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!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Mucus Is Good, Actually (or, The Healing Power of Snot)
First, here’s that 40% off Winter Health Bundle we mentioned!People have been emailing us lately to ask what herbs will get rid of all mucus in their bodies, and each time we get that kind of email, we feel …
Notes de l’épisode
First, here’s that 40% off Winter Health Bundle we mentioned!
People have been emailing us lately to ask what herbs will get rid of all mucus in their bodies, and each time we get that kind of email, we feel surprised – because mucus is actually a really important feature in your body! It’s tempting to just write back, “oh, mucus is good, actually”, but that doesn’t really do it justice.
Mucus is part of your immune system, and provides essential lubrication in places where organs would otherwise have friction every time you move. In other words, mucous is not a disease – it protects you from disease. Excess mucus production can be an indicator of a problem, but it’s part of your body responding to the problem and working to solve it. It’s not a problem in and of itself.
It’s so important for herbalists to understand anatomy and physiology – so that you know what your body is doing and how to help it.
So this episode explains:
- what mucus is,
- how mucus is created,
- what functions mucus serves in the body,
- how to support your body when your mucus is too thick, too thin, too much, or showing up in places you don’t need it
You can find the Winter Health Bundle, which gives you BOTH Immune Health AND Respiratory Health for 40% off, here:
Our brand-new Winter Health bundle is the best way to go deeper in this material – and there’s a lot further to go. (This episode is only an introduction to one facet of immunity and herbalism!) The bundle includes our Immune Health and Respiratory Health courses, and you get them at 40% off their standard pricing, a savings of $260.
Like everything we offer, these are self-paced online video courses. They come with lifetime access to current & future course material, the twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Herbs and Processing Grief
First, here’s the link to the course Katja mentioned: Working Through GriefUse code GRIEF to get 50% off! (It’s not very original, but it works.)This course is full of herbs and holistic strategies to help you …
Notes de l’épisode
First, here’s the link to the course Katja mentioned: Working Through Grief
Use code GRIEF to get 50% off! (It’s not very original, but it works.)
This course is full of herbs and holistic strategies to help you navigate grief, as well as a private community where you can talk with people who are going through similar journeys. The course and the community support are yours for life, so you can work at your own pace. We’re here for you when you need us.
Our society doesn’t provide much support for grieving, but here, we can support one another! Whether your grief is based in loss, or trauma; whether it’s recent or in the past or ongoing – we’re here together, and this is a gentle and welcoming space to be held in community.
Grief has many stages, and different herbs are helpful at different points in the journey. Working with herbs and processing grief isn’t a one-size-fits-all sort of task. Getting through a dark day, digging in to a deep place within yourself, and setting aside a heavy heart in service of an immediate need – these are all quite different emotional efforts, and they’re each best supported by different herbs.
Today’s episode is in response to a student question – she asked:
“I’m curious about herbs that are beneficial for grief? I lost my husband earlier this year and have played a lot with nervines which have helped turn the emotions “down”, which has been wonderful and much needed in some situations. But I’m wondering if there are any herbs that you love for processing and sitting with the grief?”And the answer is, YES!
This episode focuses on those two aspects of the journey with grief – both the processing and the sitting with, which are actually interwoven aspects of working through grief. We can’t sit still with something until we do some processing, but we can’t process until we can sit still with it – so this work happens in a spiral kind of action.
Each time you go around a spiral, you work a little deeper in, or stretch a little further out: it’s not repetitive circling. And what starts as a small motion can unfold into a complete evolution and shift in perspective. Time will get you there; herbs will help you along the way.
You might also like to listen to this episode on grief, from six years ago – its focus was a little different than this one. It was HHP episode 141: Herbs and Grief, at the Death of the Year.
Or you might like to keep these reminders of a few helpful grief-support herbs on your phone or computer desktop: hawthorn, rose, elecampane.
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.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Do You Need Immune Boosting Herbs?
Immune boosting herbs are popular, and it’s not hard to see why. Everyone wants to avoid getting sick! It makes intuitive sense to a lot of folks that if you amp up your immunity, you’ll be more resilient in …
Notes de l’épisode
Immune boosting herbs are popular, and it’s not hard to see why. Everyone wants to avoid getting sick! It makes intuitive sense to a lot of folks that if you amp up your immunity, you’ll be more resilient in the face of germs – or I guess, more resilient to germs in your face!
But hang on. What does “immune boosting” even mean? Is immunity really a singular ‘thing’ that can be stimulated, like sliding a dimmer switch upwards? Is it all just a matter of stimulating white blood cell activity? As is always the case in biology and medicine, the truth is more complicated than that.
This is particularly relevant in the context of autoimmunity, where some of the so-called “immune boosting herbs” can actually have adverse effects. If you overstimulate an immune system that’s attacking your own body, you just intensify the attack. So the question arises: what can a person with an autoimmune condition do to keep their defenses up? If we can’t stimulate immunity, what can we do?
The answer is: a lot. And it’s all stuff that anyone can do, whether autoimmune or not. In our experience, it’s also a lot more important than the immune stimulant herbs, because it’s more foundational and more individualized than the “elderberry & echinacea for everyone!” one-size-fits-all approach.
We can start by changing our focus from immune stimulation to immune modulation. This isn’t just wordplay. Modulation of immunity means making multiple simultaneous adjustment in multiple directions, whereas stimulation is ALL AHEAD FORWARD. True immunity is a complex interplay of multiple organs, cell types, and signaling molecules in the body. Dialing everything up to 11 isn’t constructive, but a strategic nudge in the right direction at the right time? That gets the job done, and immunomodulating herbs – like mushrooms and seaweeds – can do exactly that.
Immunity is often discussed in martial metaphors: the pathogenic assault, the immune defenses, the combat between them. But if we follow this metaphor all the way, we should realize that logistics and supply lines are often what makes the difference in a real-world conflict, and this is no less true in our bodies. Lymphatics, nutritives, and sleep aid herbs can be much more helpful than immune-boosting herbs for this reason.
The best defense is… a good defense, actually. Better to keep the germs out than to let them in, let them proliferate, and then get your guns blazing. Maintaining healthy boundaries, quite literally, is a key strategy. These are your points of contact with the outside world: your sinuses, your lungs, your GI tract. And even if you’re autoimmune, you can work with demulcents, astringents, and vulneraries to keep their membranes functioning well.
Our brand-new Winter Health bundle is the best way to go deeper in this material – and there’s a lot further to go. (Yeah, this 90-minute episode is just an introduction to immunity and herbalism!) The bundle includes our Immune Health and Respiratory Health courses, and you get them at 40% off their standard pricing, a savings of $260.
Learn everything you need to know to keep yourself & your family healthy and strong all winter long.
Like everything we offer, these are self-paced online video courses. They come with lifetime access to current & future course material, the twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Elderberry Syrup Isn't Everything (Replay)
While our Fallow Month of August has ended, we've got one more replay for you! (If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if …
Notes de l’épisode
While our Fallow Month of August has ended, we've got one more replay for you!
(If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying.)
This week we're airing a replay of episode 265: Elderberry Syrup Isn't Everything.Elderberry syrup isn’t everything an herbalist has to offer to someone suffering from a cold, the flu, COVID, RSV, or any of the many other respiratory ailments to which we humans are susceptible. Despite being the first thought to come to many minds when asked if they’re prepared for winter illnesses, we’d encourage you to broaden your view both of what elder does, and what herbs can do in these situations.
Elderberry is famous for inhibiting viral replication, most notably of the flu virus, by interfering with its capacity to replicate. Elderberry constituents have been shown in petri-dish studies to bind the neuraminidase ‘spike’ on the virus. It can therefore reduce the virus’ capacity to ‘break into’ our cells and convert them into virus-making factories.
Sounds good! Note, however, that this particular mode of action was identified through in vitro studies. The limitation here is that the required concentration of those constituents may not be attained in our bloodstream when we ingest elderberry syrup. It may not reach the tissues which are under attack by the virus. So while this is an interesting mechanism of action – and one we’ve ourselves taught about often when discussing elderberry – we now consider it as potentially less relevant to the general impacts of elderberry on viral illness.
So what matters more? The effects of elderberry on inflammatory patterns in the body. An efficient immune response includes inflammatory and anti-inflammatory actions, both at the right times and in the right amounts; elderberry supports this. And here’s the good news: so do other berries! Every berry with deep pigmentation – blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, cranberry, serviceberry, aronia berry, and many more – will work to improve inflammation management within the body. At the same time, they’ll enhance vascular integrity and flexibility (particularly important given the capacity of COVID to damage these tissues).
So elder isn’t the only berry who can help us. And berries aren’t the only supportive herbs, either – nor are herbs the end of our options! First of all, elder offers flowers as much as berries, and those are helpful for managing fever.
Working with elder in formula with other herbs – like our homemade winter elixir – is an excellent way to enhance its actions. But there are also plenty of good herbs beyond elderberry syrup, including pungents like ginger, decongestants like sage, expectorants like elecampane, and aromatics like pine. Last but by no means least: nourishing food, gentle movement, and restorative sleep can each be just as important as any herbal remedies we choose.
If you live in the northern hemisphere, cold & flu season is just around the corner! No matter where you live, it’s good to have the knowledge and skills you need to take care of these common problems at home. Herbal Remedies for Cold & Flu teaches you everything you need to know to conquer a cold or fight off the flu. We teach you how to work with herbs that are safe and effective for all aspects of the illness. These strategies can also be very effective when coping with COVID, RSV, and other respiratory infections, too! Our focus is on finding ways to support what your body is already trying to do as it works to restore balance.
Like all our offerings, these bundles of self-paced online video courses come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more.
If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Acknowledging Complexity Is Not Gatekeeping (Replay)
August is a Fallow Month for us, so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in …
Notes de l’épisode
August is a Fallow Month for us, so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary.
If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying.
This week we're airing a replay of episode 230: Acknowledging Complexity Is Not Gatekeeping.When you’re an herbalist, it’s normal to get questions from people about herbs. Usually they’re thinking that it’s a simple question, and expecting a simple response: “What’s good for IBS?” “Chamomile.” But the truth is a lot more complex than that! When you learn about herbalism, you come to understand that there are no herbs “for” any disease state. Instead, there are herbs who can exert influences on the body, and those may match well (or poorly) with the specific state of an individual person. So you become less enthusiastic about simply giving someone the name of an herb when they ask “what’ll work for…?”
This dynamic is even more pronounced on social media. Whether in an herbalism discussion group or in direct messages from your followers, an herbalist on social media will see lots of these types of questions – and lots of those one-word responses, too! But people don’t take the names of herbs – they take herbs! Which means they prepare tea (using this much plant matter for that much water), or they take tincture (made at this or that herb:menstruum ratio), or they get a supplement (made by this or that brand)… And so even if you give someone the name of a plant, have you really helped them figure out how to take it? How much to take? How often, for how long? All those details can make or break the success of an intervention.
When you get that kind of question, you want to give a helpful answer – and that can mean an answer that’s quite different from what the asker expects. Instead of simply listing names of herbs, try giving an insight into your own herbal thought process! For example, if they’re asking about “herbs for headaches”, you can briefly describe various patterns that can cause headache – heat, dryness, tension, stagnation, etc – and help them identify what kind of headache they have.
From there, you can suggest herbs to experiment with – and that’s an important phrase, “to experiment with”! Helping people understand that working with herbs involves multiple rounds of self-experimentation is a great service you can provide.
It takes a little more time to construct a response like this, but it’s significantly more helpful to the asker. They might expect you to simply know the right herb for them, and if you just say “it depends and it’s complicated”, that can feel like you’re gatekeeping. But if you share your own decision-making process, you both teach them how to think like an herbalist (even just a little bit), and you help them understand you’re not holding out on them!
Looking to improve your skills as an herbalist and clinician? Our Clinical Skills for Herbalists course has practical guidance for setting you up from scratch, or building on your existing foundation.
If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Can I Be A Plus-Sized Herbalist? (Replay)
August is a Fallow Month for us, so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in …
Notes de l’épisode
August is a Fallow Month for us, so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary.
If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying.
This week we're airing a replay of episode 243: Can I Be A Plus-Sized Herbalist?Katja writes…
Today a student sent me a question and it was so important, i asked her if i could (anonymously) share it, because i know other people are wondering this too.
I wanted to ask for any advice or your thoughts on how to handle being a plus size herbalist.I am plus sized. Though I am currently in working on a healthier life style that includes using herbs, I feel like when people see me or see that Im plus sized that they may not want to work with me or any of my products.I feel like this is my calling I have fallen in love with herbs and how they naturally work with in the body. but I feel like this could possibly hinder me from even opening my own practice one day. I kinda feel alone in this due to most of the herbalist I see on social media are very fit and “healthy”.Am I wrong to want to be an herbalist even though I am also going through a battle and journey with my weight?The bottom line is: we need you. We need plus-sized herbalists. We need everyone, no matter where you are in your journey, whether you’re small or big or short or tall or thin or fat or disabled or abled or sedentary or athletic or anything else.
And the other bottom line is that weight and health are not the same thing. I know that society has all these ideas about what is “good” and “healthy” but that doesn’t mean they’re true. You can be healthy and big! You can be healthy and small! You can be unhealthy and be small or big too!
We’re all just trying to get through our day, and we’re all in the body we’re in. You don’t have to get thin to get healthy, so let’s make our bodies healthy now, regardless of what size or shape they are. And let’s love them too because bodies are pretty amazing actually!
If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Can Herbs "Heal"? (Replay)
August is a Fallow Month for us, so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in …
Notes de l’épisode
August is a Fallow Month for us, so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary.
If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying.
This week we're airing a replay of episode 248: Can Herbs “Heal”?What does it mean to heal? When are we “healed”? Are there some wounds that can’t be healed? If we can’t heal – in the sense of achieving “perfect health” – are we failures, as people or as herbalists?
In this episode, Katja shares her thoughts on the words and ideas “healing” carries in our culture, offering a critique of their common (and commercialized!) semantic and emotional baggage.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Thorn Medicine (Replay)
Hi everyone! August is a Fallow Month for us, and so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly …
Notes de l’épisode
Hi everyone! August is a Fallow Month for us, and so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary.
If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying.
This week we're airing a replay of episode 274: Thorn Medicine.Have you ever wished you had thorns? Have you ever felt like you needed to protect your heart, your space, your peace of mind, or your time from a world that asks too much of you – or takes without asking? You’re not alone. This is what thorn medicine can bring you.
Thorns aren’t weapons, they’re defenses. They don’t seek an animal or human out with the intent to cause harm, they hold space and define boundaries. Touch me here, says the rose, but not there. Admire my flowers, says the motherwort, but don’t you dare clutch my seeds. We can learn from this.
We can take the medicine of thorns into ourselves. We can do this literally, not only (oh, “only”!) metaphorically or symbolically. Most all thorny herbs, and particularly the thorns themselves, carry a key herbal action: astringency. This is an action which literally pulls things together, and holds things together.
Each plant’s thorn is different, serving its own purpose. Hawthorn’s long, widely spaced thorns evolved to counter the hungers of the giant sloth, and they retain that shape long after the lumbering herbivore went extinct: they are the living memory of a predator past. Ocotillo’s inexhaustible rows of spines render it no more easy a prey than the cactus who share its landscape. Thistle spikes out from every possible surface, asserting itself in all directions as its firework flowers reach for the sky. Which thorns are yours?
Pull yourself together. Hold your boundaries. Make a safe space.
Then, within that thorn-walled refuge, your flowers will unfold.Thorn medicine is only one form of support herbs can offer our emotions. Our Neurological & Emotional Health course is a user’s guide to your nerves, your emotions, and the herbs who can lift you, hold you, brace you, and sustain you. We teach holistic herbal strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too!
Like all our offerings, this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Is Perimenopause Making You Tired?
I don’t know about you, but my social media feed is filled with stuff that is supposed to “give me more energy” to get through perimenopause. What does that even mean? Perimenopause isn’t causing fatigue for no …
Notes de l’épisode
I don’t know about you, but my social media feed is filled with stuff that is supposed to “give me more energy” to get through perimenopause. What does that even mean?
Perimenopause isn’t causing fatigue for no reason. Your body is doing things: some are new, and some are a sort of inverse callback to your teenage years. Yeah, that’s right – menopause is like a second puberty. Fun!
This is work. It’s like remodeling your house while you live inside it. There’s a lot to change, a lot to update, some things to take offline, and all of it happens while you’re in the midst of your daily needs for function, repair, healing, and growth. Those never truly stop, but the demands of the remodel can make them all slow down, or get more difficult.
In this episode, Katja shares herbs who will do some of the work for you. By reducing inflammation in the blood vessels and in the digestive tract, and by keeping your lymphatic system flowing smoothly, you can free up a lot of resources inside the body so that your internal workload is lower. In a sense they serve to enhance your inner clean-up crews and help them function more efficiently. (It would be nice if they would also clean your actual house, but alas.)
It doesn’t take stimulants or adaptogens to do this job. We don’t always need to solve feeling tired by going to the buzzy herbs.
So if you’re feeling tied, but you don’t even have time to take a nap, at least these herbs can do some of your work for you!
Here are the links Katja talked about in this video:
- The Reproductive Health course, which includes not just peri/menopause, but also everything else – endometriosis, PCOS/PMOS, managing your cycle, and more. Also prostate health and andropause: reproductive health for everyone!
- Our full course catalog – everything we offer. (Yep, there’s a lot.)
- Our favorite gluten free/dairy free cinnamon buns. These are SO GOOD.
- Our gluten free / dairy free substitutes list. Tons of options so you don’t have to feel deprived as you change up your diet!
Everything’s on sale in July – there’s still time!
All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off!
If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Take Care of Each Other
We like to sign off our show by saying, “Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, and drink some tea.” It’s our favorite little motto and it’s a great reminder that herbalism and self-care go right …
Notes de l’épisode
We like to sign off our show by saying, “Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, and drink some tea.” It’s our favorite little motto and it’s a great reminder that herbalism and self-care go right alongside mutual aid!
In our episode 283: Vetting Your Herbalism Sources: Red Flags & Green Flags, we talked about how it isn’t actually bucking the system to ignore the FDA and FTC laws about “telling & selling”. Neither is it a cool rebellious act to turn away from scientific knowledge, modern medical technologies, or even conventional treatments. They each have their place, and herbalism isn’t an ‘alternative’ to them in the sense of a dichotomous choice – either herbs or science, either herbalism or medicine. We can fit together, and we get better results when we do.
But it’s certainly true that conventional medicine has problems, and that the system needs some bucking! A system reliant on consumerism – buying your way to better health – always leaves people out. A lot of people. They need help, and we can help them.
The best way to do that is a little surprising: take care of each other. Extend our circle of care outside ourselves, outside our family and housemates, and further out into the world. We are all here together, and we can all support one another. And since we’re all herbalists here, let’s do it with herbs!
Three ways to get started:
- FREE Emergency Preparedness course – Concise and targeted lessons teach you how to prepare for emergencies ranging from hurricanes to wildfires to heatwaves. Learn to construct a modular, no-frills herbal first aid kit, food reserve, and go-bag (or shelter-in-place bag). Understand herbal wound care and all the steps to take for cuts and burns. Anticipate and prepare for the effects of climate disasters in your community, not only to help yourself, but to help others too.
- SLIDING SCALE Herbal Community Care Toolkit – This 20-hour video course teaches you safe, inexpensive, and accessible herbs which can make a difference in the most common health concerns in our society today. High blood pressure, diabetes, edema, pain, poor sleep – there are herbs to support people facing all of these challenges and more. They don’t need to be expensive, exotic, or risky. They don’t need to be “maximum strength” or “100x concentrated”. Gentle, simple, safe herbs can help people you know and love.
- SLIDING SCALE Accessible Herbalism course – We consider this essential training for clinical herbalists, but you don’t have to be one to want this information! Providing care to everyone is challenging, and involves a lot of creativity and skill to find the right resources and get them to the right people – and to do it all without burning out. To do it, we teach strategies to work around resource constraints, addressing the realities of time and energy involved in herbal work. We share our methods for finding funding, improving access to care, and building community support networks: mutual aid for herbalists and the communities they serve.
You can go deeper, of course! These are starting points to get you helpful and empowered as soon as possible, while keeping safety first. And don’t forget…
Everything’s on sale in July!
All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off!
If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
What's a Good Herb for...?
Do your friends ask you, “what’s a good herb for…” IBS, or PMS, or fibromyalgia, or whatever is bugging them? If you’ve ever struggled to answer such a request, you’re not alone. It’s not just about the …
Notes de l’épisode
Do your friends ask you, “what’s a good herb for…” IBS, or PMS, or fibromyalgia, or whatever is bugging them? If you’ve ever struggled to answer such a request, you’re not alone. It’s not just about the difficulty of the pathology, though – it’s also about the complexity of the person, and the variability between people.
Everyone thinks they can ask “what’s a good herb for IBS” and that you should have the answer. (Oops, you might even be thinking about an answer right now!) The question to ask right alongside such a thought is this: is that answer appropriate for the person asking? Remember, every body is different!
As herbalists, we need a lot more information than just the name of the problem.
One of our favorite mottoes around here is: “people don’t take the names of herbs”. It means that you’re not giving a good answer if a person asks “what’s a good herb for migraines” and you respond “feverfew”. You’ve left out tons of important details: form, dose, timing, duration, formulation… the list goes on.
The other side of the equation would be “people don’t take herbs for the names of their symptoms”, or their discomforts, or their diagnoses. There are no “herbs for IBS” in the abstract, or in every individual case.
Examples make this point most clearly, so this week’s episode of the Holistic Herbalism Podcast is us talking through five different examples of people asking for help with health problems. We describe how we would break those problems down so that we can figure out what the right answer is for them, specifically – not for “someone”, generally.
What would we ask first to get a foothold on the issue? What would we observe, and ask the client to observe, as we work to figure out the information we need? How would we construct a protocol and a set of health experiments that will actually help them? Listen in to hear us talk through the process in several different cases.
Everything’s on sale in July!
All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off!
If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Hibiscus Energetics by Species & Part
Today’s episode is about hibiscus energetics – a quick clarification on plant species & parts, and how herbal energetics & actions may differ among them.The hibiscus you find most often in stores or shops or …
Notes de l’épisode
Today’s episode is about hibiscus energetics – a quick clarification on plant species & parts, and how herbal energetics & actions may differ among them.
The hibiscus you find most often in stores or shops or herbal drinks is Hibiscus sabdariffa, and it’s the specific part of the flower called the calyx.
The calyx of Hibiscus sabdariffa is distinct from those of other species in the genus. From this species, this part is fleshy, red, and sour. These characteristics are signals to us. The red comes from anthocyanins, and indicates antioxidant/anti-inflammatory and blood-vessel-stabilizing actions; the sour means draining to excess fluid, and cooling to excess heat. Energetically, then, it’s cooling, drying, tonifying.
This is also the part with greater evidence for impacts on reducing cholesterol levels, triglycerides, and blood pressure. There is some evidence that hibiscus can lower blood sugar, as well. This part has an interaction with the antimalarial drug chloroquine – but this is also true of lemonade and other acidic drinks, not a uniquely hibiscus problem. Almost all discussion of and research about hibiscus revolves around H. sabdariffa calyx.
Other species of Hibiscus don’t produce that fleshy calyx. The leaves and flower petals of H. sabdariffa itself, and the leaves and flowers of other Hibiscus species (e.g. the rose of Sharon, H. syriacus and rose mallow, H. rosa-sinensis), are more similar to the herb marshmallow & other members of the mallow family. They are cooling, moistening, and relaxant, with a mucilaginous quality. They can help with dry coughs, sore throats, dehydration, and similar dry conditions.
So to review: all parts of all species are cooling. Leaf & flower are moistening & relaxant. H. sabdariffa calyx is drying & tonifying. You can compare the H.sab calyx to rose hips, and the leaves & flowers to marshmallow.
It’s important to keep this distinction in mind whenever discussing “hibiscus”!
All this illustrates a fundamental truth of herbalism, very clearly: plant species, part of plant, and other specific details about an herb can make a big difference in how we work with it, and what it can accomplish. So, don’t let these details slip past you! They could make the difference between a remedy that does the job, and one that lets you down.
For further info on hibiscus:
- HHP 191: Herbs A-Z: Hibiscus & Hypericum
- images of Hibiscus sabdariffa calyx at IPlantz
- Hibiscus profile at Herbal Reality
And for more high-quality education about herbs, with all the necessary details and nuances: learn with us!
Everything’s on sale in July!
All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off!
If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Build Your Herbal Confidence - a Practice Game!
Herbal confidence takes some work to develop. The whole point of learning herbalism is to help people – but when you’re still a student, that’s a little bit tricky! You don’t always know the answer. It might be …
Notes de l’épisode
Herbal confidence takes some work to develop. The whole point of learning herbalism is to help people – but when you’re still a student, that’s a little bit tricky! You don’t always know the answer. It might be something you just didn’t learn about yet. Or maybe you know part of it, but you’re not confident about the whole story. Maybe the question was just really intimidating! So you feel hesitant and unsure about how to help.
As you learn more, your confidence will grow. It’s ok to wait – you don’t have to start giving out advice the moment you begin learning about herbs! That pressure isn’t helping you, and setting it aside is completely appropriate.
But the flip side is this: you do have to get some practice, right? Especially as you develop your knowledge beyond the basics. Otherwise it’s going to feel too hard forever. It needs to be real-world practice, too, not just theory. You need ways to put your skills to work, even as you’re in the process of developing them.
Fear not, friends: we’ve got solutions for this. Today’s episode of the Holistic Herbalism Podcast is all about a game you can play to get that practice in a way that is totally safe! It’s simple, free, and guaranteed to boost your confidence & capability for making accurate assessments and giving good advice.
Any questions? You can contact us anytime: [email protected] is our email address, and the best way to reach us.
Interested in a clinical consultation with us? Find all of our clinic options right here. By the way, you don’t have to be a student with us to get a clinic session – it’s open to everyone!
Learn all about the 4 pillars and a holistic approach to herbalism with this free course: 4 Keys to Holistic Herbalism
Once you’re a student, you can get a Quick Help session at any time. Just grab any free course (or paid course!) and you’ll have access to free sessions with katja on Thursdays – the link is right on your student dashboard. Students also get access to our live Q&A sessions, our private student community, and more!
Everything’s on sale in July!
All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off!
If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Vetting Your Herbalism Sources: Red Flags & Green Flags
How do you know when you can trust an herbalism teacher, influencer, book, or blog? How can you determine whether a scientific study has relevant information for your practice? Vetting your herbalism sources of …
Notes de l’épisode
How do you know when you can trust an herbalism teacher, influencer, book, or blog? How can you determine whether a scientific study has relevant information for your practice? Vetting your herbalism sources of information is an essential skill for students and practitioners alike.
Today’s episode, we lay out some red flags and green flags for this determination. These are indicators that you should be more cautious or skeptical on the one hand, or on the other hand that you can feel more trust in what you’re told. They’re not absolutes – no one data point is determinative – but they can help you more swiftly come to a decision.
You can absolutely learn from teachers with flaws. In fact, you’ll have to! We all have them. Still, if someone is out there telling you “this herb is Amish ibuprofen” or “this herb is nature’s Ozempic”, those are strong signals that this person isn’t interested in a grounded, nuanced, and detailed understanding of how herbs work in humans. Similar signals come from statements like “these are the lost secrets of ancient wisdom”, “everyone needs to take this one special herb”, and “the government & big pharma don’t want you to know…” Each of these might begin from a truth or half-truth, but they obscure true history, individual variation, and the actual causes of over-medicalization in our society. Those who pass them on uncritically, or use them to gin up likes & follows, are doing you – and all herbalists – a disservice.
Green flags for an herbal ‘authority’ include clarity of context: “this herb is helpful here, for these people, for these problems; but not there, for those, or that.” This context can include elements such as energetic indications, action-centered (as opposed to disease-centered) claims about herbal efficacy, realistic consideration of contraindications or drug interactions, and a lot of specificity about format, dose, frequency, duration, and the other practical elements of how people work with herbs in the real world. The more of these you see a person offer, the more reliable you may judge their information to be.
Scientific articles about herbs – and even moreso, popular press publications about those articles – carry red flags and green flags, too. The first step is always to assess whether a study, trial, or review article tells you anything which really applies to the work you do. If it’s billed as an investigation into calamus safety, but it’s actually a study of a single constituent of calamus essential oil, injected into mice at doses one could literally never encounter via eating calamus root, drinking its decoction, or taking its tincture – well, that’s interesting, but it doesn’t have any practical impact on whether you include calamus in a formula for your client.
The basics of reading & understanding scientific studies come forward here. Is it on general populations, or a specific group of people (children, elders, those with a particular disease state)? Is it an actual trial on humans, or an animal study – or an in vitro / in silico investigation? If it’s a review article, how did they select which sources to include and exclude?
All that is true even before we get into the issue of AI articles and AI citations, but when you see those it’s one of the reddest red flags of all. Even without the influence of AI, basic science errors (like mismatch between the botanical and common names of plants under study) can pop up. Then there are issues of funding, conflicts of interest, and the scourge of selective publication. Green flags, on the other hand, rise up when we find a study which includes traditional syndrome differentiations – the application of herbal energetics in the selection / review process of the trial. When a study’s done on a ‘crude extract’, like tea or tincture you can make at home, that’s another sign that this information may really matter to you. Ideally, we’d get studies done on free-living humans, with the types of remedies we actually recommend to our clients – so again, the question comes down to: how close is this to our actual work?
We’d like for everyone to go to an herbalism school where you can ask the teachers these kinds of questions, anytime you want. That’s the kind of learning environment we provide! We like to we raise green flags, and we’d love for you to learn with us! But… you might want to wait for July 1st, that’s when our big summer sale begins!
Everything’s on sale in July!
All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off!
Mentioned in this episode:
- HHP 065: How To Not Be A Guru
- HHP 125: This Is Not The Practice Of Medicine
- HHP 215: Don’t Let the Feds Get You Down
If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Uncertainty versus Imposter Syndrome for Herbalists
Today we’re sharing some thoughts about uncertainty versus imposter syndrome, and learning herbalism. Recently, we did a 20 Questions video for the folks at HerbRally – it ran nearly four hours long! Two of the …
Notes de l’épisode
Today we’re sharing some thoughts about uncertainty versus imposter syndrome, and learning herbalism. Recently, we did a 20 Questions video for the folks at HerbRally – it ran nearly four hours long! Two of the questions we were asked wove a theme together, and we wanted to share them here.
The first question was “how do you deal with uncertainty as an herbalist?” The person asking this may have been expecting some kind of study trick that would help them to feel confident enough in their skills that they didn’t feel uncertainty in their practice – like an antidote to imposter syndrome!
But we have this sign in our apothecary that says “there’s only the hard way” (and if you know, you know!) and that applies here: the way of herbalism is uncertain. Accepting the presence of uncertainty is the first step toward navigating it confidently.
Now, we’re not talking about under-training: the first thing to do is to get trained, of course. But once you have trained for years and years, and even once you’ve been in practice for years, you are still on a journey with uncertainty. Which sounds a little zen, perhaps – and actually, a little bit, it is! Training the mind to accept uncertainty, while still finding the truth of the moment, is as important a skill for an herbalist as it is for a monk.
Next, someone asked us about mistakes new herbalists make, and how long it takes to “feel like you know what you’re doing.” (Do you see a theme here?) They want to know if it’s going to take years to feel confident, or if there’s some way to accelerate the development of that confidence. Yes.
These questions come up for lots of herbalists. Especially because a lot of us are practicing alone in our communities. Sure, there are herbal friends online, but maybe you’re the only herbalist in your town, and you’re feeling the weight of that solitude. A lot of folks don’t have elders or mentors available, and that makes it harder to practice.
One solution to that problem is online clinical herbalism mentorship – and we’ve got that for you!
Did you know that you can book a one-on-one Zoom session with Katja to talk through your goals, your challenges, and how to get you where you want to be in your herbal practice? You can! It’s open to anyone, and the easiest way to book one is to go to enroll in any free course – they’re at the top of the list. (They’re truly free: you don’t even need a credit card.) That will set up a student dashboard for you, and right there on the menu on the left you’ll see, about halfway down, Quick Help Sessions – click that link and it’ll take you right to the scheduling calendar!
If this episode caught your attention, then our Clinical Skills course is for you! Learn to practice legally, safely, collaboratively, and effectively. Get all your client forms & scheduling systems sorted. Cultivate consultation interview skills, and explore methods for planning personalized protocols. Everything you need to be a top-notch herbalist!
Like all our offerings, this self-paced online video course comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Affordable Analogues for Expensive Herbs
Accessibility in herbalism is not something extra or something nice-if-possible, it’s a critical part of our work. The prices of the remedies we recommend can sometimes be a determining factor in whether our …
Notes de l’épisode
Accessibility in herbalism is not something extra or something nice-if-possible, it’s a critical part of our work. The prices of the remedies we recommend can sometimes be a determining factor in whether our clients take them, or take them long enough to get results. In many cases we can identify less expensive herbs, or formulae of herbs, which can do the job of more costly ones. In order to make an effective substitution, we first need to clarify the qualities, actions, affinities, and other aspects of the herb for which we seek alternatives. Only then can we identify a good substitute.
This episode includes thoughts and examples of potential substitutes for solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum), kava (Piper methysticum), Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng), dong quai (Angelica sinensis), teasel (Dipsacus fullonum), arnica (Arnica montana), chaga (Inonotus obliquus), goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), and schisandra (Schisandra chinensis).
This is material we dig into deeply in our Accessible Herbalism course. That course is full of strategies and skills which enable herbalists to offer top-quality care to people who have constraints on their finances, time, energy, or community of support. It helps you understand the truth behind some of hte most common money-saving suggestions about herbalism and nutrition, so you can offer realistic suggestions which actually help people who need it most.
Like everything we offer, it’s a self-paced online video course. It comes with lifetime access to current & future course material, the twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Don't Choose Herbs "For" A Diagnosis - Do This Instead
When we’re choosing herbs to help someone, knowing their medical diagnosis isn’t enough: we don’t choose herbs for a diagnosis. As herbalists, we actually need more information! A medical diagnosis is a …
Notes de l’épisode
When we’re choosing herbs to help someone, knowing their medical diagnosis isn’t enough: we don’t choose herbs for a diagnosis. As herbalists, we actually need more information! A medical diagnosis is a specialized vocabulary which creates a shorthand so that people who already know what it means, how it happens, and how to fix it, can speak more efficiently about (whatever it is). It’s not an objective truth, though: it’s a descriptive label that is useful in a specialized context. Herbalism is a different context.
That’s why it’s not very practical to try to look up something like “herbs for neuropathy caused by a herniated cervical disc” – because we can’t actually make that list without leaving gaps large enough to drive a truck through. The name of the problem isn’t enough information for us to choose herbs, we still have to get more data! We need to understand what the diagnostic term means in absolute terms, and we need to know what the person’s experience of that diagnosis is (because not everyone with a certain label has the same experience), and then we need to figure out what herbs or what series of herbs have the actions we need to work toward a resolution.
So here’s how we think that through – taking this example, and asking: what does “neuropathy caused by a herniated cervical disc” mean for an herbalist? Where exactly can we dig into that to make an impact? What other information do we need to allow us to pick the right herbs to support this person?
This process for thinking everything through will work for any problem! It’s all in this episode.
This example came up in one of our live Q&A sessions last week. Those are a perk enjoyed by every one of our students – whether they’re enrolled in a full program like Family Herbalist or Community Herbalist, a single course like Neurological & Emotional Health, or even one of our free short courses such as Herbal Study Tips. Anyone who’s learning from us can ask us questions directly at these sessions, twice a week. And if you can’t make it live, we keep an archive – there are more than 500 archived Q&A sessions for you to look through! (Don’t worry, there’s a searchable index so you can find what you’re interested in.)
Everything we offer is presented in self-paced online video courses, which come with lifetime access to current & future course material, the twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Plant ID Apps vs Your Brain 📱🧠
Plant ID apps are helpful (when they’re accurate), but there is one drawback – they make it harder to learn plant ID for yourself. But there are ways to combat that so that you get good at plant ID – without …
Notes de l’épisode
Plant ID apps are helpful (when they’re accurate), but there is one drawback – they make it harder to learn plant ID for yourself. But there are ways to combat that so that you get good at plant ID – without having to memorize a ton of stuff.
It’s summer! Now is the time to be out there practicing with your plants. Yes, there are lots of apps that will try to identify plants for you, but this is about skill development – because when you know, you know. Working through the process of observation and identification isn’t just a one-time thing, like sending a photo through a plant ID app – it builds and strengthens the pathways in your brain that you use to do the job. So let’s get out there and be really looking at plants!
In the Olden Times, when you wanted to identify a plant, you’d need a guide book. Each one is a little bit different, but usually there’s a “key” to help you sort through all the possibilities and narrow in on a target. These start with distinct patterns, like opposite vs alternate leaf arrangement. Then you might look at the leaf edges, to see if they’re serrated, smooth, or something else. At some point you’ll look at the flowers, too: are they symmetrical? How many petals, and what color? All these details will help you to exclude some plants (or groups of them), so the set of plant descriptions & pictures you need to look at gets smaller and smaller, until you have a manageable number to work with.
So that’s how you’d use a plant ID guide, but notice something here: it all starts with observation. Even if you don’t know what “pinnate” or “glabrous” means, you can observe features of your plant and recognize its patterns.
In this episode, we’ll demonstrate the observation process for you, and you can play along! We go outside and describe a plant we know and love, starting with its leaves, stems, flowers, and other clear features. But we won’t show it to you until the very end. Can you figure out who we’re talking about, before we show it to you? Notice the timestamp when you have a guess.
Even if you don’t recognize it until we show it to you – or even after we do – it’s the process, the attention, and the habit of close looking that we really want to instill in you today. The more you practice observation, the better you’ll get at plant ID.
Wanna learn more techniques to help you with plant identification, as well as with learning herbalism in general and retaining the stuff you’re studying? Grab the free Herbal Study Tips course! This fun course is designed to make all your learning – whether that’s with us, from other teachers, from books, or from the plants themselves – more exciting and effective.
Like all our offerings, this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Tulsi for Everyone!
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 …
Notes de l’épisode
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.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Herbalists' Views on the Top-Selling Herbs (Part 14): Dandelion, Rhubarb, Ginseng
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 …
Notes de l’épisode
We’ve come to the end of the “mainstream” top-40 best-selling herbs list! Dandelion, rhubarb, and ginseng take the last three spots.
Dandelion is an herbal workhorse. It’s inexpensive because it’s ubiquitous, and its resilience is legendary – dandelion coming up through the concrete is one of the herbalist’s favorite symbols of resistance and the power of nature. Much more than a simple “detox” herb, dandelion root and leaf improve the functions of our liver and kidneys, feed both us and our gut flora, and eliminate excess fluids from the system. Its bright yellow flowers can even lift our spirits when taken in tincture or wine – this is one of Ryn’s indispensable herbal remedies for the winter doldrums.
Rhubarb root used to be much more of an herbal mainstay than it is in contemporary herbalism. The Eclectics of the 19th century worked with it extensively, largely for its “cathartic” – stimulant laxative – properties. It is a key ingredient in the famous “neutralizing cordial”, a formula developed in that era and designed to be a nearly-universal remedy for digestive upsets of all sorts. This remedy is still prepared by herbalists today, though often with some variations in the ingredient list.
Ginseng needs no introduction. It is one of the most famous medicinal herbs in the world, and it is “the original adaptogen” – the category which has spawned millions of dollars in product sales in our stressed-out, depleted, fatigued society. Ginseng products can be extremely helpful, but you absolutely cannot simply buy the first one you find: these remedies are very prone to adulteration. That, too, is an old problem: historical texts are littered with descriptions of adulteration and falsification of supposedly mature, supposedly Panax roots which were nothing of the kind. Some things never change…
CLICK HERE FOR FULL SHOW NOTES & REFERENCES
“Detox” came up in this episode (again), and we hinted at the issues rampant in this category of supplement products. For the full story, you’ll want to dig in to our course Elements of Detoxification. This course takes a fresh look at the concepts of “toxicity” and “detoxification”, a holistic perspective that goes beyond “cleanses” and products. Learn a memorable, practical model for understanding how the body’s detox functions work, along with the roles herbs can play in supporting them.
Like all our offerings, this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Herbalists’ Views on the Top-Selling Herbs (Part 13): Bacopa, Senna, Rhodiola
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) …
Notes de l’épisode
At number 35, 36, and 37 on the list of top-selling herbal supplements we find bacopa, senna, and rhodiola.
Bacopa is also known as brahmi, and this name is just as often given to gotu kola (Centella asiatica) as well. This is because both are known by that name in Ayurvedic herbalism, where they originate. Both are able to improve mental clarity and cognitive function, and have the same type of energetics as well as growth habits. For practical purposes they are nearly identical, but their chemistry does differ, so the best extraction method may not be the same for both, and this could be relevant in the context of a commercial extract capsule.
Senna is one of the cathartic stimulant laxatives. It is possible to become dependent on senna – not after one dose, but if taken for several days running. A person may then find it difficult to move the bowels without taking it every day. Better not to get into that situation! In the commercial context, note that this herb is often included in ‘detox’ and ‘weight loss’ supplements… although it does not truly serve either of those functions in a root-cause or restorative manner.
Rhodiola is a very stimulating adaptogen, and so it’s no wonder people talk about it as an ‘herb of happiness’ or even an ‘herbal antidepressant’! But that is a misleading way to think of the root, and it can lead to some bad choices. This one is particularly drying, so unless your constitution (or local environment) are very damp, it’s best to include demulcents in your protocol whenever taking rhodiola.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL SHOW NOTES & REFERENCES
As you’ve heard in today’s episode, one of the ways we can understand these herbs is by attention to their chemistry. Which constituents contribute to their effects? What synergy exists between the many different chemicals a plant contains? Which constituents are shared between herbs with similar actions? If these questions pique your interest, you’re in luck! Our Basic Phytochemistry course for herbalists is a low-pressure introduction to the practical aspects of plant chemistry, the ones which are most relevant to the practice of herbalism.
Like all our offerings, this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Herbalists' Views on the Top-Selling Herbs (Part 12): CBD, Fennel, Oats
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 …
Notes de l’épisode
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.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Thorn Medicine
Have you ever wished you had thorns? Have you ever felt like you needed to protect your heart, your space, your peace of mind, or your time from a world that asks too much of you – or takes without asking? …
Notes de l’épisode
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.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Herbs for Happiness
What are the best herbs for happiness? How can herbs make you happy? What does “happiness” even mean? These questions are important to consider before we dive right in, searching for “herbs for happiness.”When …
Notes de l’épisode
What are the best herbs for happiness? How can herbs make you happy? What does “happiness” even mean? These questions are important to consider before we dive right in, searching for “herbs for happiness.”
When we say it, we’re thinking: what are the things preventing you from being calm & steady? It’s not so much about finding the herb to “make” you happy, as it is finding the herbs that alter your state such that happiness is something you can access.
If you’ve ever heard “mimosa is the herb of happiness”, well, you’ve come across a very common but not very nuanced approach to herbalism. Instead, we need to ask: what’s in the way of feeling happiness, and how can we help you get past it? More important than any list of herbs is the method of thinking through how we can identify the herbs that are likely to help a specific person.
In the episode we share a couple common tendencies – excess tension and laxity, stuck heat – and describe how those can show up as happiness blockers. Then we share a few herbs we’ve found helpful in opening the way to happiness for ourselves, our students, and our clients.
Keep Calm and Help Your Neighbors with the Birthday BOGO Bundle!
Every year for Katja’s birthday, we choose a course to offer at 50% off – but this year, we couldn’t pick just one course.
So instead, we’re offering a bundle with the herbs and skills to help you stay steady & grounded, and to help you help your community, and it’s more than 50% off!
Click through for all the details!
You might also want to check out our…
- Herbs to Help You Feel Happiness – a living/growing list we’ll work on all year!
- Herbal Activity Calendar
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.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Herbalists' Views on the Top-Selling Herbs (Part 11): Yohimbe & Horny Goat Weed
The best-seller herbal supplements we’re covering today are yohimbe & horny goat weed. They placed #30 and 31 on the list we’re using for this sequence of episodes. These two are marketed & sought-after as …
Notes de l’épisode
The best-seller herbal supplements we’re covering today are yohimbe & horny goat weed. They placed #30 and 31 on the list we’re using for this sequence of episodes. These two are marketed & sought-after as “male aphrodisiacs”, “testosterone boosters”, and even “herbal Viagra”.
While it’s true that each can “help” with some forms and manifestations of erectile dysfunction, in the short term or “in the moment”, they cannot correct the underlying issues… and might even make them worse.
They’re also quite potent, energetically speaking: heating, drying, and tonifying to a high degree. These qualities are primarily derived from potent constituents such as yohimbine and icariin. Each herb also possesses a multitude of other constituents apart from those more famous ones, which means its actions are diverse and in some cases self-contradictory.
There’s also a very serious problem in the supplement market for these herbs, which is that these products are frequently contaminated or adulterated. Many cases of ‘herbal’ supplements for ED have been found to contain pharmaceutical drugs. In other words, that “herbal Viagra” was actually just… Viagra.
Of the two of these herbs, Epimedium is significantly safer – but to be honest, we don’t advise people to work with either of these plants. Other methods of addressing the issue at hand are more successful and more permanent, starting with herbal work to improve circulation and emotional steadiness. That’s perhaps not as exciting as “herbal Cialis”, but it’s safer and more realistic!
CLICK HERE FOR FULL SHOW NOTES & REFERENCES
It’s worth emphasizing that the majority of cases of erectile dysfunction, and several other types of sexual dysfunction or performance issues, are attributable to circulatory issues rather than hormonal imbalances. If you’re looking for herbs to help with this trouble, and to address circulatory, blood, and heart health more broadly, then our course Cardiovascular Health is for you!
Like all our offerings, this 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.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
A Whole New Body
When people start learning herbalism, it’s not unusual for them to begin to feel like there’s a lot “wrong” with their bodies. Some of this comes from a new recognition that symptoms they’ve been tolerating are …
Notes de l’épisode
When people start learning herbalism, it’s not unusual for them to begin to feel like there’s a lot “wrong” with their bodies. Some of this comes from a new recognition that symptoms they’ve been tolerating are actually a sign of something deeper, or indicate a need for change. Since it’s the new year, we’re thinking about this feeling of a need for “a whole new body” – what it means, and how to achieve it (or something more realistic, but close).
It’s actually a lucky thing to have this kind of realization! Because it is, in many ways, true for most of us. And not only because ‘modern life’ is difficult and damaging, but because it’s simply a fact of nature that it’s difficult to be and stay healthy. Our culture often imposes a moralistic frame on health, but here’s the truth:
You’re not Good if you’re healthy. You’re not Bad if you’re unhealthy. Health is not a moral quality!
Our world has changed over time, and so have we. What we do to stay healthy, and what we struggle with that harms us, have all shifted through the centuries. New technologies and medicines may be miraculous, and ancient herbal practices may be traditional, but neither is The Answer To Everything For Everyone. Best is if we can take the strengths of each.
Working as an herbalist to make a whole new body starts at the foundations: what’s the current baseline? How are your habits helping or hindering your path to health? Working on the five pillars of good health is where we begin, along with herbs to enhance or support or accelerate that effort. Alongside some herbs to directly address (or even palliate) the most troubling current issues – and a big dose of encouragement, inspiration, and accountability – these interventions can be deeply transformative. Given time.
None of us will ever be perfect, or “young again”. We can’t really make a whole new body – but we can help our body do the best it can, and herbs can help.
If you’d like to start taking care of your body for the long haul, our Community Herbalist program will equip you to do so! This program prepares you to support your family & community with holistic herbal methods.
Like all our offerings, this bundle of self-paced online video courses 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.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
The Herbal Year in Review, 2025
What kind of year has it been for you, as far as herbs & health go? On today’s episode of the Holistic Herbalism Podcast, we’re taking a look at the herbal year in review for 2025!Everyone’s doing their …
Notes de l’épisode
What kind of year has it been for you, as far as herbs & health go? On today’s episode of the Holistic Herbalism Podcast, we’re taking a look at the herbal year in review for 2025!
Everyone’s doing their year-end best-of lists, their ‘top 10 takeaways’, and the like – and we want to join in on the fun. As you’re considering your 2025 and looking forward to your 2026, don’t forget to take some time to think about the progress you’ve made as an herbalist! Give these questions some thought and reflect on your
Did you work with any new herbs this year? If so, what kind of shift have they created in your health and habits?
Did you get some new insight about your own health, and how you can support yourself (or others around you)?
Did you implement any holistic strategies – like shifting your diet or adding in more movement? (Even if these didn’t stick, they still represent progress, and that counts!)
What about your herbal education over the past year?
This turned into a wide-ranging conversation!
If you’re checking this out before the year ticks over to 2026, our sale is still on!
The code for this year’s sale is CALENDULA – use it during checkout to get 20% off everything we offer – all the courses, all the programs, anything on a payment plan, anything at all!
The discount code even works for gifts! Just make sure to check the box that says “this is a gift” and the extra gift information will pop up for you to complete.
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.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
You're A Trainwreck. (edition 2025)
Katja wrote this essay years and years ago, and it’s still a favorite. Today she needed to hear it again – yeah, you can do that with your own writing, it’s allowed, don’t worry – and she decided to share it …
Notes de l’épisode
Katja wrote this essay years and years ago, and it’s still a favorite. Today she needed to hear it again – yeah, you can do that with your own writing, it’s allowed, don’t worry – and she decided to share it with you. It’s about how so many of us think we’re the only trainwreck in any given room, and how we all have That Person in our lives (or just in our minds) who seems to really Have It All Together.
Why can’t I just get it together like That Person?, you think, like everyone does. Like even That Person does, Themselves, sometimes. Like someone might very well be thinking about… you!
We are all trainwrecks. Outward appearances aren’t the whole story, and it’s hard to get to know the people around us. So this experience is super common.
But don’t worry! There’s a lot we can do about it, starting with acknowledging the reality, then asking for help, then getting outside… and also – never doubt it – with a drink of tea.
Some of our favorite nervines for these feelings include tulsi, betony, and calamus – but finding your own favorite herbs for these moments is the best way to help yourself.
Need to reign in your trainwreck?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, the falling apart ones, the total disaster ones. We discuss 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.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Herbalists’ Views on the Top-Selling Herbs (Part 10): Valerian, Pumpkin, Goji, Red Yeast Rice
Don’t forget, our December sale is on! Details below.It’s time we resumed our exploration of the top-selling herbs as supplements in the US! We're three-quarters of the way through the main list. (Remember …
Notes de l’épisode
Don’t forget, our December sale is on! Details below.
It’s time we resumed our exploration of the top-selling herbs as supplements in the US! We're three-quarters of the way through the main list. (Remember we’re working with the 2023 data for the purposes of this series, but I gave some updates about the 2024 Herbal Market Report data in the last installment.)
Our herbs today are valerian, pumpkin (seed [oil]), goji berry, and red yeast rice. There are some fun details about each of these, including…
- how to predict if valerian will keep you awake instead of helping you sleep,
- why certain medicinal seed oils are promoted in a gender-based dichotomy,
- who should not take goji, and
- why everyone should probably avoid red yeast rice supplements.
Listen for the full story.
For full show notes with reference links & further reading, click here!
December 2025 Sale Code: CALENDULAThe code for this year’s sale is CALENDULA – use it during checkout to get 20% off everything we offer – all the courses, all the programs, anything on a payment plan, anything at all!
The discount code even works for gifts! Just make sure to check the box that says “this is a gift” and the extra gift information will pop up for you to complete.
Looking for more inspiration? Check out the Herbal Activity Calendar and our 2025 Herbal Gift Guide!
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.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
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