hey welcome back to herbs and ease my name is Kristen and today we are breaking down the five tinctures that I think everyone should have in their medicine cabinet and I don't really care if you don't like herbs or if you don't want to be an herbalist I really think that everyone should have these tinctures in their medicine cabinet first we have to understand what is a tincture so tinctures are concentrated herbal extracts that are made by steeping herbs and alcohol and they're really strong they are easily absorbed into the body and they are absorbed
pretty quickly and they allow you to get plant compounds into your body in a really convenient and travel friendly way so they're most often made with some sort of menstrum like alcohol alcohol will pull out the alcohol soluble compounds of different plants but they can be made with other solvents like vegetable glycerin specifically or vinegars now those alcohol-free alternatives are going to lack the same medicinal benefits as an alcohol tincture because you know certain compounds are only going to be extracted with alcohol but they still offer really good medicine they do make good alternatives for
those of you who are abstaining from alcohol for any reason and some people don't drink alcohol but are totally fine consuming alcohol tinctures but if you are trying to stay away from consuming any alcohol whatsoever and you don't like the idea of using tinctures be sure to check out the episode on T and the teas that you should be drinking every day because tea would be a better place to start and the good news that all the herbs that we are talking about in today's episode can be drunk as teas so don't turn away just
yet because there's valuable information in today's episode as well the uses of the plants that we're talking about today are going to range from managing allergies managing anxiety and stress they're going to help to manage weird digestive issues to prevent illness and to boost your immune system so like they're the basic over-the-counter remedies that most people want to have some sort of access to and the reason that I like to have them as tinctures rather than tease is because they're often going to be needed either long term or in a situation or it's just not
going to be that comfortable to have to brew a cup of tea and then drink it you want something quick you want something strong and you probably want a lot of something for example our first herbal tincture passion flower so passaflora in carnata we use the flowering Vine and the leaves and it is a nerving a sedative a hypnotic and an anti-spasmodic and we often use it for things like treating anxiety and panic attacks for insomnia for managing seizures and epilepsy for ADHD for stress and for Burnout and you're most often going to use this
as an infusion and it adds a tincture so passion flower makes the top of this list because of its ability to Halt anxiety in its tracks I literally had an anxiety attack yesterday and uh I took a dose of this took two doses of this and it was pretty much gone and I felt normal so if you are experiencing any symptoms of anxiety from like rumination overthinking physical stress physical tension mental spiraling those anxiety tingles where it feels like you're about to have a panic attack any nervousness any stress what you can do is take
a dose of passion flower about every 15 to 20 minutes until the symptoms subside now I'm just going to make a note that I think a dose is about two to three droppers full not drops this is not Homeopathy dropper fulls but a dose is going to depend on you and your needs it's kind of like asking how much broccoli would you eat in one sitting right it's not the same as the dosages of pharmaceuticals so you get to play around with what you think a quote unquote dose is for me I would say it's
two to three dropper fulls for most herbal tinctures so I most often notice that with passion flower it only takes about two to three doses to calm and anxiety attack down so it's really a staple in my household it's a staple for when my friends come over and they're just feeling super frazzled anxious it is probably one of my most cherished herbs and my most cherished herbal medicine because as I mentioned I do have anxiety it's a fairly new thing thing but it's here and I got it thank you pandemic patch flower can also be
used for sleep it is traditionally used for insomnia so if you're having trouble sleeping especially because the mind won't stop chattering because you wake up in the middle of the night and the mind is ruminating you can't stop thinking you can use passion flower in the same way that you would use it to stop an anxiety attack and the magic behind passion flower is that increases Gaba so Gaba is an inhibitory neurotransmitter means it like chills things out and it's associated with slower Alpha and Theta brain waves so it helps to promote a state of
calm in the mind and a state of calm in the body so we really love passion flower for those reasons and it is worth noting that passion flower can be used in smaller quantities to manage anxiety symptoms during the day without causing excessive drowsiness so it is great to keep in your bag or at your work desk or wherever it is that you need it all the places that you might need relief from anxiety symptoms it is considered generally safe and gentle but it can interact with certain Pharmaceuticals especially the ones that are sedative in
nature so our anxiety medications like a Xanax or an Ativan the things that are sedative not necessarily ssris it's not going to interact with those but the things like barbiturates the things like anti-spasmodics um anything that is going to sedate the nervous system and it will usually just increase these effects so just be sure that if you're going to bring this herb or any other herb into your life that you do a quick Google cursor research to make sure that there are no interactions with the medications that you're on or any of the issues that
you have plants are not like fake medicine they're not it's not like you know magic just a sprinkling of ideas into your body they are real phytocompounds that can and make a difference in how your body processes things so just be sure to do your good citizen scientist Google research which is not technically research but for lack of a better term that's just the word that we'll use okay next up is nettle erdica diyka and nettle we use the leaves sometimes we use the roots in medicine its main actions are as an antihistamine a nutritive
a diuretic an astringent and an anti-inflammatory and it's commonly used for allergy relief and as a nutritive herb to boost Vitality in the system so nettle tincture is a really nourishing and valuable daily tea and if you want to learn more about how it supports the body and its energy building and nutritive qualities be sure to check out the episode on teas that you should drink every day nettle tincture on the other hand is a great antihistamine and my clients love this herb they use it as a replacement for their over-the-counter allergy medications when allergy
season comes up and you want to have it as an alcohol tincture because the antihistamine properties are only extracted into alcohol it is super effective for allergy symptom relief especially from things like seasonal allergies and pollen plant allergies plant dander and things like that it can even help people tolerate pet dander by taking it regularly even people who are allergic to cats and dogs can be around these animals without feeling super miserable I often give it to my friends and family members who have allergies when they come to visit and when they are spending time
in my house and they really have an issue with my very fluffy animals you can also use it when transitioning a new pet into the home so if someone in your life is like we can't have a cat because I'm allergic as long as they aren't deathly allergic just get a Minetta tincture and that's going to help them during that transition period as their body is adapting to having that animal in the house so you can also use it for sinus headaches congestion I personally don't have terrible allergies but since relocating from Florida to Virginia
I do get some seasonal allergies and it takes me a few days to realize what is happening and to realize that the headache that I'm experiencing is not just a headache it's a sinus headache because of allergies and so I take a dose and it just goes away within an hour or so but if your allergies are consistent and persistent you can take it two to three times per day or you can just use it as needed for mild symptom relief now our next herb is an immune boosting herb called echinacea Echinacea and gastifolia and
we use the root the aerial Parts the leaves and the flowers in herbal medicine and we use it as an immune stimulant an antimicrobial it's an anti-inflammatory and it's a blood purifier it's often used to support the immune system to prevent viral infections and to treat sepsis and blood poisoning so echinacea is what I call a Gateway herb it's an herb that a lot of people know but they don't really know how to use well and there is some debate among herbalists regarding the best way to use echinacea some use it as an immune booster
to prevent infections and some use it exclusively for its blood purifying properties for specific conditions like sepsis or bacterial infections in the blood usually after a wound but I never deal with sepsis so I don't use it that way and in my personal experience echinacea tincture has been super effective in preventing infections especially during travel and when facing intense work phases where just getting sick is not an option it contains immune stimulating compounds that will activate the immune system specifically by increasing macrophage activity and T cells those are like the Miss Pac-Man that Chomp on
the cooties that enter the body and those play of final role in fighting off potential infections so it is best to take before an infection actually sets in before you are actually sick to prevent illness and if you feel the sniffles coming on or if you're in close contact with someone who is sick like the kids bring home the cooties from school that is when you want to start taking echinacea when I travel I have a little routine where I take echinacea before I get on a plane I take it while I'm on a plane
I take it after the plane maybe for a day or so afterwards and it just gives my immune system an extra boost because I almost always get sick if I don't do that and that's really how echinacea is going to work as a preventative to just prevent you from getting ill so you cannot take it I know you're asking you can't just take it all the time to boost the immune system those boosting effects are really going to last only for like three to five days and then it's not not going to be boosting an
immune system anymore but if you are looking for a tonic herb a tonic is an herb that you can take every day and echinacea is not a Tonic If you are looking for a tonic herb though to boost the immune system on a regular basis look into the adaptogen called astragalus or consider working with our next staple tincture Elderberry and specifically Elderberry with ginger so the common name is elderberry the Latin name is sambucus Negra and we're using the berries of this plant although the flowers and the leaves do have medicine and it is an
antiviral immune modulating expectorant and antioxidant herb and it's usually used as flu relief it's used to support the immune system it's used for Respiratory Health as antioxidant support and you most often see it as an alcohol tincture as a syrup or as a tea so Elderberry is indispensable it's another Gateway herb that a lot of people know about you gotta have it it is truly remarkable it has remarkable antiviral properties it's an antiviral Powerhouse it shortens the durations of colds and flus and it helps to modulate the immune system and it is an expectorant which
means that it can help relieve coughs and congestions and it has a lot of antioxidants so when we are dealing with a chronic ailment the standard dose of a tincture is two to three dropper folds two to three times a day and a t is about four cups a day but with an acute illness like when you are actually sick you really want to flood the body with these phyto compounds so dosing up for an active infection would be having about a dose of tincture or one and a half to one cup of tea about
every two hours so having a tincture as opposed to a tea nearby a or as opposed to a syrup when you are sick first of all you probably want to avoid all the sugar and a syrup and if you have the flu you're glued to your bed you don't want to like keep getting up and making tea or going to the bathroom you want to sleep and so you want something quick you want something easy and that is why an Elderberry tincture is particularly valuable in this situation and I always like to pair my Elderberry
with ginger gingerbread aficionalis because it's an herbal Catalyst which enhances the effects of other herbs it speeds up their therapeutic actions and ginger itself is an antiviral so it offers its own immune boosting properties it's anti-inflammatory plus they taste good together so I always just add them together Ginger is just going to help Elderberry work a little bit better so we have something to manage stress we have something to manage anxiety we have something to boost the immune system and we have something that is helping out our colds and flu and now our next tincture
is here to support digestion bitters everybody's favorite flavor okay it's funny because it's not true so rather than a specific herb bitters are more of an herbal remedy you may be familiar with putting bitters in your cocktails like an old-fashioned and we're kind of talking about the same thing but a lot of cocktail bitters have sugar in them so what we're talking about today does not have sugar in them it's just Bitters and Bitters are made from bitter herbs and they are a key herbal remedy that have a pretty wide range of metabolic actions they
support and stimulate liver function they stimulate bile production and flow they improve digestion they are beneficial for decreasing gas and bloating they stimulate the appetite they help balance blood sugar by supporting insulin function and improving glucose metabolism they reduce sugar Cravings they help release symptoms of heartburn because they stimulate the sphincters of the stomach to close they can relieve nausea basically everybody should be taking bitters any time they eat especially when they're eating fats and proteins in a meal which is pretty much every meal unless you're just eating a handful of berries so bitters are
usually made from different blends of digestive herbs rather than a specific herbal remedy as I said a bitter tincture is mostly about the bitter taste it is one of the five essential flavors along with sweet salty astringent and pungent and Bitters or bitter compounds are known for their ability to improve overall digestion and metabolic processes and we have a ton of bitter herbs we have what's known as eupeptic Bitters and those are really strong they're like gentians Angelica and artichoke leaf and then we have our more mild and nourishing tonic bitters like dandelion and Burdock
and chamomile turmeric is a bitter Lavender is a bitter a lot of our aromatic herbs that we cook with have bitter properties coffee has bitter compound pounds and to incorporate bitters into your daily routine at every meal just pop them into your mouth before or after meal to help you digest your food better and you can also use them in a spray bottle format or you can add them to a jar with sparkling water for a bitter mocktail I am particularly proud of my bitters blend I get a lot of really good feedback on them
it's the first herbal formula that I ever created and it's a combination of gentian Burdock dandelion fennel chamomile and mint so it's really well balanced it's a crowd favorite and if you want to digest your food better I don't care where you get your bitters I would love it if you bought them for me because I love sharing my plant medicine with people but there are a ton of different bitter remedies out there that you can get Herb Farm has a great bitter remedy Urban moonshine has really great bitters there's probably a local herbalist that
has their own bitter blend for you and if you want to digest your food better if you have gallbladder issues if you have metabolic syndrome if you have diabetes if you have gas and bloating if you want to help manage your blood sugar better if you have sugar cravings and you want to manage your sugar Cravings you should be taking bitters at every meal everyone should have a better tincture in their life all of these herbs in this list you can easily purchase wherever you get these herbs and they all are Staples in my Apothecary
now that I'm thinking about it they actually probably are the foundation of my herbal Apothecary the absolutely the most common herbal remedies that I give to people and you can get a discount of ten dollars off the set using the code five tinctures and you can also make them yourself and if you'd like a tutorial on how to make your own tinctures just leave a comment let me know so that I know that that's what you want to learn next remember and also I love to hear from you so if you use any of these
remedies and it works out and it works well please let me know that is the point of doing this show is to connect with you and to be in community together and growing and being better and healing ourselves so please let me know if you try any of these remedies they're all super beginner friendly they're really safe for most people but of course if you are going to bring any new remedy into your life make sure you little citizen scientists do a little Google cursory search to see if there are any contraindications between any conditions
you have or medications that you're taking and the herbs that you are going to use to be sure that there are no risks or interactions and then of course make sure that you subscribe so you don't miss out on our upcoming episodes we have some really great stuff planned for you for the next few weeks to get started bringing plant medicine into your life to support your wellness and self-care and just help you feel better in your body so until next time we did it stay cool stay safe take your herbs stay well and yeah
okay I love you bye
