If you think of herbs as something that you only use in your kitchen and not in your medicine cabinet, then the idea of using them for healing may seem a little “out there.” The fact is though that using plants for healing was the original form of medicine. In fact, many conventional drugs have their origins in plant sources¹. So, the idea that herbalism, or the “science of using herbs for promoting health and preventing and treating illness,²” is now considered a form of “alternative” medicine is fairly ironic. 

In order for us all to have a better understanding of what modern herbalism really is, I went to clinical herbalist Katja Swift with the CommonWealth Center for Holistic Herbalism. As we continue our series on exploring alternative medical care options, my Q&A and with her sheds light on why this is such a critical field to at least be aware of if not to consider as a possibility for yourself.

Please Note: I earn from qualifying purchases made through some of the links included in this post. You can read my disclosure policy here.

Peppermint Tea & Me: What is herbalism?

Katja Swift: The simplest answer is that herbalism is working with plants to make your body healthy. For some people, it kind of stops there. They may say, ‘Oh, if I drink Marshmallow Tea then my heartburn doesn’t feel so bad, and if I drink chamomile, it helps me sleep at night.” And that’s literally the end. Well that is herbalism. And it’s legitimate. If that’s all you ever did, you’d feel better.

But it doesn’t stop there. We have revived the tradition enough now that herbalism in this country is a much more complete system that is completely independent of or parallel to conventional medicine. We have an entire system of assessment and don’t depend on medical diagnoses to determine what’s going on and what an appropriate approach would be. Since the world is dominated by conventional medicine, we can work with a diagnosis, of course. We have to study it, and we have to understand it, but it’s also not required. If somebody came and had not seen a doctor at all and didn’t know what was going on with their body and didn’t have any lab tests or anything else, we can work with that. 

The last part there would be that the comprehensive system of herbalism also includes not just the plants themselves but also the dietary changes, the lifestyle changes and movement. 

PTM: What do lifestyle changes really have to do with herbalism?

KS: While not everybody agrees exactly on diet, everybody is in a very whole foods, get rid of processed food, get rid of sugar place. What we’re trying to do is bring back to baseline or repair the damage that our culture has done to our bodies. If you’re going to stick your hand in bleach for an hour, it’s going to hurt. It’s going to cause irritation. We can put an herb on it, but if you’re immediately going to put your hand back in the bleach, we can only do so much with a plant. So, herbalism is also really recognizing that we need to look at how we resolve those baseline challenges that we as human bodies face living in this very sedentary, productivity-oriented culture. That work really is an essential part of herbalism, even though there might not be plants involved in that part. 

PTM: Do herbalists promote an entirely plant-based diet?

KS: Not at all. In fact, we find that harmful as a long-term lifestyle because we believe that animal protein is critical for humans. That does not mean that we think everybody needs to eat beef. If you’re more comfortable with fish, if you’re more comfortable with chicken or whatever, we’ll work with where a person is. It’s also not like we won’t work with someone who is committed to being vegetarian or vegan. Of course we will. But it’s just very difficult to maintain that in a healthy way long-term. 

We do though promote a lot of plants in the diet. At least 50 percent of your plate should be plants. Frozen is fine because fresh vegetables aren’t necessarily accessible to all people, so frozen vegetables are great. Whatever vegetables you can get on your plant. Just lots of them. 

We do also think that it’s critically important to be conscious of animal welfare and to not take life unnecessarily and to not cause suffering. That’s not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because unhealthy, disrespected animals create food that will hurt humans. If you raise a cow or a fish in a feeding operation, and it’s not able to live its life and eat its normal food and roam around the way that it wants to, that meat is actually not healthy and causes a lot of inflammation in the body. 

PTM: How is herbalism used in alternative or complementary medicine?

KS: That depends a lot on the person seeking help and also on the skill level of the person who is providing care. I work with cancer and terminally ill clients regularly. I also work with clients with very complicated autoimmune conditions, and I work as an integrated member of their care team in many cases. Not everybody feels comfortable doing that kind of work because it can be intimidating to work with medical practitioners. We are also adjunct faculty for the pharmacy schools here in Boston. We’re very comfortable going back and forth between a medical environment and an herbal environment. But a lot of people aren’t, and it isn’t necessary. 

It could also be as simple as a child who gets recurring ear infections, and the doctor keeps giving antibiotics. Since most ear infections aren’t actually bacterial, and that doesn’t necessarily take care of the problem, maybe Mom is looking for something else to try to support that child’s health and deal with those recurring ear infections. Or maybe someone who gets UTIs very frequently recognizes that this has become a pattern that they want to stop. Any of those types of models are completely reasonable and very common. Maybe not every single practitioner works in every single way, but they are common in this country right now I would say. 

PTM: What forms do herbal remedies come in?

KS: About the whole rainbow. My favorite thing to work with actually is tea. Part of the reason that I like working with tea so much is that the time it takes you to make the tea is also part of the medicine. In our culture, a lot of our health problems come because we don’t really have support for downtime or self-care. So, just the act of making a pot of tea is actually pretty radical. If I can get somebody to make tea several times a day, that means that they stopped and thought about their health and thought about their body and thought about the fact that they want to do things to help themselves be stronger and feel better. So, I prefer tea when I can get people to do it, but it’s not always convenient. 

You can also make tinctures which are a little bit stronger or more concentrated because they’re the alcohol extract of an herb. You can put them in your bag because they’re more portable. I also really like elixirs, which is part alcohol, part honey. You blend it together and get a full spectrum extraction from the plant that way. 

In addition, there are salves, and there’s lotions, and you can make lozenges or old-fashioned pills, which are little balls of powdered herbs. You can also put herbs in your food. That’s a completely legitimate way to take your medicine. A good example for that is cinnamon. Cinnamon is a really effective herb for helping to manage blood sugar levels. When you start looking, you realize that the spices that you have in your kitchen, as long as they’re fresh and potent, they’re much more than just a flavor. There’s a lot more going on there. 

PTM: How is each type of herbal remedy used?

KS: They’re not interchangeable. The challenge with herbalism is that you have to get the herb to the problem. This is a little bit less of a challenge with pharmaceutical medicine. We’re very accustomed to pharmaceutical medicine being a pill that you swallow, then it just sort of magically goes to where it’s needed, and herbs don’t necessarily do that. 

So, the big challenge is how do I get the herb to where it needs to be? Not all herbs actually pass through the intestinal lining very well, so turmeric is a great example. We talk about turmeric being an anti-inflammatory herb, and it does have amazing anti-inflammatory properties, but it doesn’t get to the blood stream very well. While it’s not great as a systemic anti-inflammatory, it’s amazing for inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. And so, that’s where we would work with it. 

People are also sometimes familiar with an herb called Goldenseal, and maybe they learn that it’s an herbal antibiotic. The catch is that it doesn’t get into the bloodstream at all. It doesn’t pass through the intestinal lining. So, it’s only an herbal antibiotic if you have a GI bacteria that you need to deal with or if you put it topically on a wound. Otherwise, it’s not getting into your bloodstream. 

I think one of my favorite examples of this is an herbal steam. This is where you get a pot of boiling water and put a towel over your head and breathe in the steam and toss some herbs in there. They’re great because they get that antimicrobial action and also the immune support right into the respiratory tract.

PTM: You’ve touched on some types of conditions that could be effectively managed with herbs, what are some of the others?

KS: There’s nothing that couldn’t be improved with herbalism. The reason that I say that is because everything that people are dealing with, whether it’s a splinter or whether it’s Alzheimer’s, there still a component of we as humans are living outside of what our bodies expect. Our bodies do not expect to sit at desks all day. Our bodies don’t expect to have climate control. That wasn’t part of the deal. Our bodies don’t expect to have sugar so widely available. So, something very simple can become so much more difficult to manage because we all live with this sort of constant elevated baseline inflammatory state. Because of that, I really don’t think there’s anything that can’t be approached herbally. 

Maybe herbalism isn’t going to 100 percent be the answer to everything. If someone needs open heart surgery than they need that. You can’t have an herb instead of open heart surgery. But that doesn’t mean that there’s not a place for herbs there as part of the preparatory and recovery process in terms of making the body stronger to be able to withstand the surgery itself. 

Then of course, it can help make sure that you only have one open heart surgery. We want to say, “Oh, that’s a wakeup call. Let’s make a bunch of changes in your life, so that you’re not going to have to do that again.” I don’t think that herbalism has to be the only answer for a person’s health issues for it to be a legitimate answer. I’m sort of very agnostic about the collection of approaches that anybody takes to finding comfort and better health. I think that every approach that helps you is a good approach.

PTM: What is the CommonWealth Center for Holistic Herbalism?

KS: We are a school and a clinic. Right now, everything is online because of COVID. We even run our free clinic online now, and we have online courses. When we started to put our program online, one thing that was important to us was that a lot of people really want to learn herbalism but our culture is so productivity-based. Everybody is working ridiculous hours, and they get home and they’re tired. They grab some food and sit in front of the television and turn on Netflix. We wanted to create an herbal curriculum that was very high quality and that would take somebody from their very beginning place all the way through to clinical herbalism if that was their goal. We wanted to put it online so that it would be just as easy as watching Netflix. 

PTM: What should someone look for if they’re thinking about working with an herbalist?

KS: It’s important to find someone who will match your requirements and will meet you where you are. I also strongly recommend working with a qualified Registered Herbalist.  A Registered Herbalist is a person who has been recognized for their work by the American Herbalists’ Guild, which is a national professional organization. Since herbalists are unlicensed, registration with the national professional organization is the highest and most rigorous recognition that herbalists in the U.S. can attain.

If you don’t have a Registered Herbalist in your area, then be sure to read things that the herbalist you’re considering has published. They should at the very least have material on their website that gives a good idea of their philosophy towards the work, to make sure that it resonates with you. Then of course, when you go to your session, use your critical thinking skills. An herbalist should be explaining to you the “why” behind their suggestions, and you should feel engaged in collaborating on the types of things that will work best in your life. 

Important Note About Insurance and Herbalism

Because herbalists are unlicensed in the United States, insurance does not cover their services. however, registered herbalists are now allowed to take health savings account funds. If paying out of pocket isn’t an option for you or you don’t have a health savings account, Katja says that most herbalists do offer a sliding scale or free clinic time as well. If you can’t find someone who does that in your area, look online. Many, such as the free clinic offered by the CommonWealth Center for Holistic Herbalism, will continue to operate online even after concerns over COVID-19 subside. 

Resources

Here are some helpful resources offered by the CommonWealth Center for Holistic Herbalism. 

• The Holistic Herbalism Podcast
• Family Herbalist program – In this program, you’ll learn how to work with herbs to keep you and your family healthy. Enter the code pepperminttea to get 20% off the cost of the program. 
• Because of the economic impacts of COVID-19, CommonWealth Herbs is also offering support for people whose income has been impacted and who would like to study herbalism. Contact them at info@commonwealthherbs.com for more information.

Sources

1. Vickers, A et al. “Herbal medicine.” The Western journal of medicine vol. 175,2 (2001): 125-8. doi:10.1136/ewjm.175.2.125 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071505/
2. American Herbalists Guild. https://www.americanherbalistsguild.com/herbal-medicine-fundamentals

The post What is Herbalism? appeared first on Peppermint Tea.

I remember the first time my husband brought home Chamomile Tea for me to try to help with my sleep issues. As someone whose taste buds had been warped by everything processed, I did not appreciate its taste in the least. Now though, as part of my journey to a more health-full lifestyle, herbal tea is a wonderful part of my daily routine. It’s also one of the first resources I turn to if things start to feel off because I know now that much, if not all, of what we need can be found in nature. We just have to know where to look. To help us all take a deeper dive into  the health benefits of herbal tea, I went to Clinical Herbalist Rachel Zingone. In this Q&A, she not only talks about the daily and therapeutic benefits of herbs and herbal tea but also shares some recommended resources for learning more about which herbs you might want to include in your next cup.

Please Note that as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases made through some of the links included on this page. You can read my disclosure policy here.

Peppermint Tea & Me: Generally speaking, does herbal tea have health benefits?

RZ: Herbal tea absolutely has health benefits. These vary by the herbs that are used.

PTM: Is tea the best way to get the therapeutic benefits of herbs?

Rachel Zingone: There are three major ways that you can take herbs. You can take them as a tea – which is the most affordable – you can take them as a tincture, or you can take them as a capsule. For the most part, it doesn’t matter which road you go. There are certain herbs that you definitely want as a tea or you would rather have the tincture, but as far as the therapeutic aspect of them, they all work effectively.

PTM: Which herbs are best as a tea?

RZ: Those would be herbs that are highly nutritive, like a vitamin/mineral tea. Their properties are better extracted with water, so things like nettle and alfalfa – teas that give you high mineral and vitamin content. Mucilaginous herbs are another class of herbs that are moistening to tissue and soothing to inflammation. Those are also much better as a tea because the properties that you’re wanting to get are best drawn out through the water. An example of a Mucilaginous herb would be marshmallow root or slippery elm root.

PTM: How can herbal tea be used for therapeutic purposes?

RZ: A standard therapeutic approach to tea would be one cup three times a day. A therapeutic dose of herbal tea is generally 1 tablespoon of herb per 1 cup of boiled water. Tea bags are less than this.

PTM: So, herbs really can be used to help address different conditions?

RZ: Definitely. Herbs can be used very effectively therapeutically instead of pharmaceuticals.  I may see someone who has insomnia and say, “Okay, take this tincture twice a day and then at night have this cup of tea.” That would still be considered a therapeutic dose, even though it’s just one cup. The three times a day really depends on what condition you’re working with or what your intention is. It’s not a hard and fast rule.

 Herbs can be very helpful for adrenals and stress. I also get a lot of referrals for immunity. I have a formula that people can take if they feel like they’re getting sick, and it can prevent them from getting sick, or if they are sick, they can get better more quickly. So, immunity is a big one, and digestion, that’s a huge one. Also sleep issues, menopause and PMS. Those are all some of the really popular reasons why people come to me.

PTM: When is it best to see a clinical herbalist?

RZ: There are certainly specific herbs that help with these general conditions, but usually a formula is going to work more synergistically. That’s the thing about seeing a clinical herbalist versus going on the internet. When you talk to a clinical herbalist and you get a full history, it’s actually “Your liver might need to be having some support because the liver processes all the hormones. If your liver isn’t processing your hormones properly then maybe there’s some sluggishness to the liver. So, let’s support the liver function.” That’s when you would get a full formula instead of just one herb. A person’s symptoms inform how their formula is prepared.

PTM: How can herbal tea be used for daily maintenance?

RZ: There’s not really a general rule for that sort of thing, but I would say a cup a day. If you love it and you want to drink two cups a day, great. My philosophy is kind of like, “An apple a day,” you know… a cup a day.

For example, Tulsi (Holy Basil) helps the body deal with stress. In doing that, it also improves immunity because the impact of stress is mitigated by the herb. Drinking a cup of Tulsi every day as maintenance would be acceptable because you’re not really having a particular problem, you’re trying to use it as more of a preventative.

 PTM: What are some of the herbs most commonly used in tea, and what are their health benefits?

RZ: I would say the common ones are the ones that people are very familiar with like Peppermint and Chamomile. Those are probably the two most popular and both are really great for digestion. Chamomile is part of the bitter class of herbs. In that way, it helps with digestion, where it stimulates the body’s natural gastric juices. That’s what bitters do, and Chamomile is a gentle bitter.

A lot of herbs have multiple actions, and they work on multiple systems in the body. Chamomile is one of those. It calms the nervous system and calms the stomach. That’s why Chamomile is a great one for nervous stomach because it addresses nerves and digestion. You could have a nice cup of Chamomile tea after a meal to help with digestion or you could have a cup before bed to just calm you and get you ready for sleep.

Peppermint is considered a carminative. Those are herbs with a high volatile oil content and that help to eliminate gas in the body. Peppermint is really great for all sorts of digestive issues, whether you have a stomach ache, whether you have acid reflux, it’s just very, very soothing for digestion and it’s very cooling.

PTM: Can you feel the therapeutic benefits of herbal tea right away or does it take a while?

RZ: It depends on what you’re drinking it for. If it’s for digestion, absolutely, yes. If it’s for sleep, or calming down, yes. You can feel that right away. If someone were taking herbs for hormone balancing, that can take 2-3 months. Same thing with toning and cleansing the liver. That takes time. So, it really depends on what you’re taking it for.

PTM: Is it important to buy organic teas?

RZ: Absolutely. It’s very important because what ends up happening is there’s always going to be some herb that’s hot and trending.  When you don’t get that herb from a good, organic source, that herb can be adulterated. It’s not just a matter of the herb being organic but by being organic, it takes it to a higher notch of quality.

For example, with St. John’s Wort, for people who don’t know what they’re doing, there’s a lot of plants that look like it and they’ll get the wrong thing. Then, all you’ll hear about are the bad things that happened because of it. It’s very important to get herbs from a high-quality source and those sources are organic.

PTM: What are wild-crafted herbs?

RZ: Another way that herbs are sourced is that they’re wild-crafted – meaning they’re collected from nature, they’re collected from the wild. It’s really important to be wildcrafting herbs from ethical sources because a lot of herbs are facing overharvest. They are at risk, and when herbs get really popular, you have industry just taking and taking and taking and not doing it in an ethical way.

PTM: Can you use fresh herbs for tea?

RZ: Yes! A fresh Chamomile tea is so good. It’s just really lovely. I also really like milky oats because they’re wonderful fresh.

You prepare tea with fresh herbs just like you would with dry herbs only use a little bit more. Chop them up and do them just like you would with the dry herbs.

Note: For resources on how to dry your own herbs, be sure to read the Financial Benefits of Growing Herbs.

PTM: Which herbs would you recommend for anyone?

RZ: There are two herbs that I recommend for everyone. They can be used in a formula or as single herbs. One of them is Holy Basil, or Tulsi, and that is just a really wonderful herb for stress relief, to support immunity and to just really support good health. It also tastes great. There’s a brand called Organic India that makes them as tea bags, and they make a bunch of different combinations of it and it’s really delightful. You can get it as a tea bag or just a loose-leaf tea, and it’s also incredibly easy to grow.

The other one is nettle. Nettle is highly nutritive and good for the liver. It’s cleansing for the body and the blood, and it’s just like a green superfood. So those are two herbs that I just think are the best.

Rachel’s Recommended Resources for Reaping the Health Benefits of Herbal Tea

• Organic India
• Herbs with Rosalee – click on the heading for herbs
• Mountain Rose Herbs – click on the heading for teas
• CommonWealth Center for Holistic Herbalism – offers a free mini-course on the 4 Keys to Holistic Herbalism
• Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health  (affiliate link) by Rosemary Gladstar

Lean on Your Community

If you’re already a tea drinker, be sure and let us know in the comments below which kind is your favorite. To learn more about the financial benefits of growing your own herbs, be sure and check out that post here.

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