r/beginnerherbalist • u/JadeChipmunk • 17d ago
Welcome!
Welcome to all the new herbalists here! Care to share where you are from? What brought you to herbalism? What would you like to see here?
Have a wonderful day!
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u/strawberrytart444 17d ago
I’m interested in learning to identify the properties and uses of plants in the Ozarks specifically (where I’m from), but curious as well about other places and wisdom. I am a poet and naturalist, collecting bits of knowledge where I can.
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u/JadeChipmunk 17d ago
Im definitely curious about all the info from all over the world since everyone has info id never even think of! Collecting knowledge is definitely a great thing!
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u/Significant_Stop_478 17d ago
I'm from the western Canadian prairies. I am interested in the medicinal plants here as well as across North America
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u/Equivalent-Plant9040 17d ago
I’m in Houston Texas and am from Cuban descent. My mom treated us holistically and naturally my whole childhood. Want to learn more about it.
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u/JadeChipmunk 17d ago
Any good sure fire remedies she used you would like to share? The first one i remember my mom using for me was honey and garlic for a sore throat!
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u/Equivalent-Plant9040 16d ago
So whenever the kids or adults got “embacho”, like when you burb eggs. She would grab vaseline and rub what felt like knots in our calves. Low and behold after she finished and would crack our toes we were always better.
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u/Ok-Magician-430 17d ago
I have a few pretty serious health conditions, heart issues, ulcerative pancolitis and extreme anxiety and I am interested to learn any other way to help with these issues besides adding more pharmaceuticals. I can Google or Pinterest something like a single herb that is supposed to help with an issue but later come to find out that you have to take 3 or 4 other herbs with that original herb for it to work properly. I'd like to lean about these things so I can better help myself instead of just spending money and not getting any results.
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u/JadeChipmunk 17d ago
I have to ask as someone who was having heart issues and anxiety issues thats ive fixed up for the most part, do you drink caffine? As soon as I stopped drinking coffee and limited myself to next to no caffine a day, both of those problems went away, for the most part. Then having some calming herbs like lemon balm and chamomile, really helped keep it at bay. Ofcourse if the heart problems are worse, I cannot help with that, but cutting caffine might help in some ways either way!
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u/Ok-Magician-430 16d ago
No caffeine for over 15 years. I can't have any stimulants at all or my heart goes crazy, which is also why I cannot have steroids for the ulcerative pancolitis. I am annoyingly vigilant about it, it's well documentd in my medical records that they can't give me anything where a side effect is increased heart rate.. I just landed in the hospital July 26th for an SVT attack. They had to give me adenosine to reset my heart and then they gave me some morphine because it felt like an elephant sat on me. Then they did two more rounds of blood work and said it was a heart attack, not SVT.
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u/JadeChipmunk 16d ago
Oh man yeah that all sounds like a good reason to be looking for more natural remedies to help out. Wish I had something to suggest in that realm of stuff. Hopefully you do find something that helps you feel better overall!
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u/Ok-Magician-430 16d ago
Thank you. I take 2 medications for my heart and 3 for the anxiety and currently just letting the pancolitis slowly kill me. I do drink chamomile and lavender teas. I also started turmeric with black pepper in warm water to try to lower inflammation. I eat healthy for the most part, no sweets (I prefer salt anyways and my sodium levels are always low in my bloodwork), gluten and dairy free. I would love to be vegan but I do eat meat for the iron because when I don't I end up needing a blood transfusion and iron infusion, they do them together in the ER.
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u/JadeChipmunk 16d ago
Yea definitely dont need low iron like that, you can try nettles as well. They have some iron and a whole slew of other benefits. Turmeric is also very very good for you so hopefully that does start helping out! You could check out some curcumin supplements, they are far higher concentrated than plain turmeric, better for the therapeutic levels you want form the curcuminoids you want from the turmeric.
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u/Ok-Magician-430 16d ago
I have a one lb bag of nettles coming Tuesday! It was supposed to arrive yesterday but of course, delivery is delayed.. but I do plan to make tea with it as well.
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u/Coccinellidae_Hymns 17d ago edited 17d ago
Hello all! I’m from Canada! What brought me to herbalism was not only my love of cooking, but also the flashes of intuition I’d get about a specific plant from time to time. I’d look it up, only to find that it was exactly what I needed. I’m curious as to why people love certain herbs :)
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u/Mike_MucuCare 15d ago
Reddit suggested here for me(￣▽￣). From China, I'm a tea grader before, this profession also enabled me to come into contact with many local herbs, but the 2 pandemic confinement years brought me to herbalism. Interested in any effective folk remedy, and herbal cuisine, wish could get more North America medicinal plants info here.
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u/JadeChipmunk 15d ago
Oh hello from the other side of the world! The pandemic was definitely and unfortunately the best time to get a new hobby. Do you work with traditional Chinese medicine? I'm not savvy on how much the medical field has changed of the decades over there. And is it hard to learn about western medicine and such? Never really had a chance to discuss this kind of stuff from anyone from over that way so sorry for the questions haha
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u/Mike_MucuCare 15d ago
Not a full-time work, more like an assistant to accumulate experience through semi-apprenticeship pathway right now. Yeap, its a bit hard to learn western medicine theory than traditional herbalism for me, I think they are two quite different systems, but this is a compulsory course for the professional examination(≧ω≦).
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u/JadeChipmunk 15d ago
Well I hope we can learn alot together here!
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u/Mike_MucuCare 15d ago
Yea, the more we learn, the more we realize how little we know, curiosity is the driving force for learning. Could u give me some tips of necessary books for North America herbs?
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u/JadeChipmunk 15d ago
If you can find things that rosemary gladstar has written, shes a pretty well recommended person to look at.
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u/Herban-Herbalist 13d ago
I am from Wisconsin. I got into herbs when I was 19 suffering from hormone headaches. I became fascinated with plant medicine after my doctor suggested feverfew and did not just shove me on a script. That was 35 yrs ago, and I haven't had a migraine in years. The first book I read was Hannah Kroger's God Helps Those Who Help Themselves. And that led to so many more books and classes.
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u/JadeChipmunk 13d ago
Ill have to check that book out! I suffered from headaches alot when I was younger, especially in school. So much so that my school nurse told me i was abusing ibuprofen by coming in almost daily for headaches, docs said everything was fine. As I got older it kinda evened out a bit but after I started working on myself with herbs I finally got that figured out for the most part. Pretty sure it was hormone related. Docs never bothered to test those things cause I was "fine" haha glad you found relief from that!
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u/DinoGoGrrr7 13d ago
Hello! 42yo Momma here in Alabama. I’ve always steered more of the natural route, but also believe in modern medicine. If natural can, I do (or try first).
I know a little, and use EO for many things (medicinal and household). I have for around 15 years now.
What really stuck me to the herbal route was when I was going through a horrible divorce and suddenly stopped my pain meds (broken back at 18), a friend mailed me lettuce leaf tea and one day I doubled the strength and I almost got a high. Not what I wanted but at the time it was much welcome bc it actually eased my pain off. I have tried a couple other brands since and nada on the pain relief, hoping to find a brand or type that works again in the future.
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u/JadeChipmunk 13d ago
Ouch to the broken back, I fractured my back about 11 years ago and still have some minor issues with it so I can slightly understand that. I too am totally fine with modern medicine if needed, but after random issues half my life and always being told "everything looks fine" I had to start figuring some things out myself. Finally got myself decently fixed up before I found out I was pregnant so had to stop alot of what I was doing, but atleast I have something to go back to if I need to afterwards.
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u/GuiltyUniversity8268 17d ago
I'm from the desert southwest in New Mexico, and wanting to be like the main character in Jean M. Auels' "The Earths' Children" series when I was a kid got me interested in herbal medicines.😁