How To Maximize Health through Herbalism with Rachelle Robinett

RESOURCES

1. Buy the book “Naturally: The Herbalist’s Guide to Health and Transformation” on Amazon
2. Visit Rachelle Robinett’s website rachellerobinett.com
3. Visit Rachelle Robinett’s website ursupernatural.com
4. Visit this Rachelle on YouTube
5. Visit this Rachelle on Instagram
6. Listen to Rachelle’s Podcast on Apple Podcasts
7. Watch this episode on YouTube
8. Listen to this episode on iTunes

Rachelle Robinett, a Registered Herbalist and founder of Pharmakon Supernatural at ursupernatural.com. Rachelle is also a writer and educator. Rachelle is Author of “Naturally”… The Herbalist’s Guide to Health and Transformation. Naturally is beginner friendly… a guide to herbalism walking us through the nine primary types of herbs, their benefits, and how to incorporate them into our existing routines for better gut health, sex, sleep, focus, and more. She’s based in New York and Costa Rica.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro Snip
00:58 Introduction Rachelle Robinett
03:18 How did Rachelle Robinett get into herbalism
07:10 How are people practicing herbalism and don’t realize it?
09:45 How has herbalism changed over the years?
11:36 What went wrong that made herbalism a lesser part of our lives?
14:17 What is “symptom satisfaction”?
16:25 What is the best source to learn how to use herbalism?
18:36 What is yohimbe?
21:12 What is St. John’s Wort?
21:22 What is Kava kava?
22:00 What is Ashwagandha?
22:44 What tinctures, capsules, or herbs do you take with you when you travel?
23:55 What is tryptophan?
24:20 What are Dr. Haley’s dietary travel necessities?
26:25 What are the two sides of the get well equation?
26:44 How do you figure out the cause of ill health?
36:55 How does Dr. Haley help customers figure out how much Stockton aloe vera they should consume?
38:28 How do you figure out the right dose of plant medicines?
41:30 What is a good resource to find an herbalist?
43:05 When is your book “Naturally – The herbalist’s guide to health and transformation” publishing?
43:35 What will I learn from the book?
46:50 What other products does Rachelle Robinett make available for purchase?

TRANSCRIPT

I like people to know that,

it doesn’t mean you have to be brewing complicated, bitter teas and drinking them all day.

It doesn’t mean you have to understand tinctures. It can be a supplement on your shelf. Next to the rest of your supplements. That can be how you start with herbalism. And if that’s as far as you ever go, that’s fine too, you know? So it really the barrier to entry can be lowered, you know, all the way down.

And we can just dip a toe in,

it can be that easy.

You are listening to the Dr. Haley Show, the podcast dedicated to helping you optimize your health. Each episode there will be an interview or a message to help you discover better health. We will be featuring health radicals on the show to bring new ideas to the table, as well as doubling down on key fundamentals to support you living your best life.

Your host is no other than the founder of Haley Nutrition Dr. Michael Haley.

This is the Dr Haley Show podcast. I’m Dr Michael Haley, your show host, and today’s guest, Rachelle Robinett, a registered herbalist and founder of pharmacann Supernatural at ursupernatural.com Rachelle is also a writer and educator. She is author of naturally The Herbalist Guide to Health and Transformation. Naturally is beginner friendly. Guide to Herbalism. Walking us through the nine primary types of herbs, their benefits, and how to incorporate them into our existing routines for better gut health, sex, sleep,

focus and more.

She’s based in New York and Costa Rica. Now for some people, when I read those words, one of them stood out. For me it was sleep. It wasn’t sleep. It was gut health. Everyone knows I’m the gut health guy. Are you in Costa Rica or New York? Today I am in New York. I’m in Brooklyn. And how do you do that?

How are you based in both? Where do you spend more time? Well, it depends. I would say in the last 12 months I have spent more time in Costa Rica. And it’s a fairly recent, transition, I would say. So in the future, I’ll be primarily in Costa Rica and come back to New York as needed. And in the past, you know, I was based entirely in New York.

But as it goes now, you know, I, I’ve always prioritized, work life balance and primarily freedom. So I built my companies to enable me to be free. And periodically I disappear into the jungle and I live instead of work. It’s wonderful. Do you surf also in Costa Rica? I definitely do, yes. That’s a big part of it.

I know my kids would love to go out there, and I know there’s great surf out there. You’re also, when you’re in Costa Rica, not too far from where we are growing our aloe vera in Guatemala. I guess, you know, you’re probably 3 or 400 miles away. Something like that. Yeah. Close enough. Yeah. Guatemala is incredible.

Well, you know, thank you for, being on my show and joining me. I am curious, how did you get into herbalism? And it’s kind of a loaded question because probably everyone listening is into herbalism, but they just don’t know it. Perfectly put. That’s perfectly put. Yeah. And the story was similar for me. You know, I was an herbalist long before I realized that that’s what I was doing.

I grew up on a farm in the Pacific Northwest, in Washington state, and my parents worked in sort of Western and then natural or functional health, respectively. My dad was an anesthesiologist. My mom still works as a functional health practitioner. So I was exposed to a lot of these concepts very early on, you know, surgery, medication. I went to work with my dad and saw bodies being operated on.

We were outdoors,

from sunrise to sunset on the weekends. And then my mom was introducing us to supplements and the benefits of foods and,

entertained any kind of, sort of tangent that I wanted to explore,

which were many. So I was exposed to all of it very early on. I didn’t intend to make it my career.

I moved to, New York City to work in fashion. But since I was very, very young, I was fascinated by the relationship between the body and the natural world and how what we consume in every sense affects our state.

So that was where it began for me. And I studied again from the time I was very young.

All of the world’s healing traditions, all of the worlds, you know,

spirituality, mysticism. I was, sort of on a philosophical quest to try to understand,

the human experience and no small task, but it led me through a lot of different studies. And finally, you know, much later on, I re-encountered herbalism, and I realized that herbalism encompasses pretty much all of that.

It is not just plants as medicine, it’s about the relationship between, you know, our species

and nature, one in the same. But of course, there’s also a relationship there, and that it is about food as medicine. It’s about plants as medicine. It’s about our community. It’s about our,

state of mind from an existential standpoint.

It’s about fitness. It’s about everything holistically that makes up natural health. And when I realized that, I realized that’s what I’m doing. That’s who I am. And very long story short, I started my,

first company. I ended up with three. Ultimately, in the herbalism space.

And so which company was it that was in the herbalism space?

All three. So I ended up launching, quite a few businesses over the course of a decade plus working in herbalism. We had products, the cafe, apothecary, private practice, lots of different, lots of different, iterations. So. Oh, and what happened to those businesses? I know that at least one of them still. Yeah, they two are still, totally functional.

The one that I closed was the physical space. We had a cafe apothecary for many years serving teas and elixirs and retail and all these things. But, you know, on the topic of living part time in Costa Rica, I realized that having a physical location, ran counter to my deep, deep need for freedom. So eventually I closed that cafe, and, allowed myself to,

leave Brooklyn more often than is possible when you’re running a physical store.

Yeah, even if it was like a herbal type of cafe, it’s kind of like, I guess being a restaurant owner, you’re bound to it. Absolutely. Yeah, definitely. Interesting. You know, when we talk about everyone practicing herbalism at some level. Yeah. I think it’s interesting. And the example I’ve heard you use was a lot of us wake up to coffee, and certainly I did today.

And in my family, even my 16 year old daughter is practicing herbalism. She makes a concoction of ginger and garlic and black pepper and lemon juice, and she puts turmeric in it, and she just has a little swig every day. And for her, she notices that it helps keep her, skin clearer. My wife and I, we keep, batch of fire cider in the refrigerator, which is just cultured.

Everything you have in the, herbal drawer from, you know, again, ginger and turmeric. You might chop up some onions and some garlic and all kinds of things and fill it up with apple cider vinegar and let it ferment for a season. And then in the refrigerator it goes. And one of those things, you have a little swig when you feel you could use a little immune boost.

What are some other ways people are practicing herbalism and don’t realize it. Yeah. Yeah. It’s so true. Coffee fire cider, all of our concoctions any kind of spice that’s in our spice cabinet, any kind of, you know, we think of them as culinary herbs, basil, cilantro, thyme, oregano, rosemary. All of these are also highly medicinal.

We consider them herbs. Essential oils are a common way that people are working with herbalism and don’t realize it already. Many foods, of course. I mean, aloe vera is a perfect example. Food medicine. Blueberries are highly medicinal. You know, our food is our first medicine. And and always, always has been, always will be. If you know,

local plants that are growing in your area or if you go out and connect with nature.

I mean, I live part time in New York City, but still managed to have a relationship with nature here. You know that is also practicing herbalism. So it can be something that we’re consuming, you know, by eating or drinking. But it may also be the light that we’re consuming. It may be the air that we’re consuming, may be the view that we’re consuming when we look, you know, out and see a see a tree or go out and,

touch grass and all of that is all that is herbalism.

Have you studied the history of herbalism and any insight as to what it used to be like versus how it is now? Well, that’s an interesting question. I certainly have studied the history of herbalism, and of course, it has

many different roots. If you will, in different, places in the world. And, I mean, it’s ancient, ancient, ancient, of course, predates all of modern medicine and much of modern medicine is, you know, developed from it.

How it used to be is much more of a way of life for all of us. It wasn’t a supplement. It wasn’t something extra that we did. It was the way that we lived. All cultures, you know, had this proximity to nature that is different than what we have today. And a relationship sometimes, a kin type relationship.

You know, we considered, plants and nature to be part of our family or extensions of ourselves. So it was really woven into all of our days, all the time. You can look at it, you know, from the standpoint of the food. It can also be, you know, considered from the standpoint of the rituals and the, sort of deeper cleanses and healing practices that are undergone, you know, ceremonial celebrational,

spiritual.

But really, we just lived with nature, with plants, you know, in a way that was much more connected,

and natural than it is now. Yeah. Because, you know, I kind of wonder what went wrong. How did we lose it? And people like us, you know, study certain areas and bring it back into our lives. What went wrong?

Do you think it’s that. Well,

we stopped growing our own food, or, did the big Pharma kind of blind us? What happened? Yeah,

it was a little earlier than big pharma. Generally it’s considered, you know,

especially here in, in the US, that is, the development of germ versus terrain theory.

And I know you’ve talked about that on this podcast before,

that was really the point when herbalism and nature and, you know, dirt and germs and bacteria and disease and these sorts of things,

became separated from our lives,

the development of modern medicine and the scientific theory and the idea that, well, in germ theory really sort of created this,

break between two different methods of treating health and relegated herbalism and these natural approaches to,

alternative in quotes.

You know, these are alternative therapies,

but real health and real medicine,

involves, you know, vaccination, which is I mean, it’s an important topic and, antibiotics and sterilization and this distancing from, you know, the natural world. So that break was the point in which herbalism sort of lost its, not, no, no, I don’t want to say lost its credibility necessarily,

but in certain camps did or from a sort of top down standpoint did it was relegated to the sidelines as alternative.

And since then has essentially remained that way.

I think, you know, what’s happening now with the wellness industry and the resurgence of interest in these sorts of things and awareness about

these ingredients and herbs. It feels new again because it’s been separated from us

for so long. You know, a lot of people haven’t even heard of herbalism.

So, yeah, it’s kind of weird because, you know, back in the, well, 70s and 80s for me, you know, the grandmas were the ones that were practicing the

herbalism, and they had an answer for everything. Yes. And it’s not that way anymore. And it’s probably because, well, the grandmas at that time were the last generation connected to a time when it was still practiced and used

and had the knowledge there of what to do.

But I feel like, you know, we just lost so much knowledge and practice of these things. It’s true. It is true. And I can’t tell you how many times I hear that, you know, it was a grandmother. It was a grandfather that knew. And yes, generationally,

We have, lost that ability to two things.

I think that ability to think about,

ingredients from the natural world. First and as effective enough to treat whatever we might, you know, want to treat. And then I think we’ve also lost much of the ability to listen to our own bodies,

relate to them and understand what symptoms might be saying to us because we have so much access to the immediate gratification of symptom satisfaction, as I call it, via, medication, you know, which is, not ideal.

So I’m laughing because that’s a term I haven’t heard. Symptom satisfaction. And it’s absolutely true. Yeah. You know, I, I have a fever. Oh. Take this. And you lowered it I fixed it exactly no, you didn’t. You just tamed the symptom you didn’t fixed the cause of it. In fact, you may have let the cause of it grow by removing the fever.

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When people are challenged symptomatically and they want to consider herbalism as a potential remedy, where would you recommend they start. Yeah, absolutely. Well that is why I wrote my book. I think that can be the largest hurdle for people is where do I start with herbalism. And you know, there are thousands and thousands of herbs. But the easiest way to approach and understand herbalism, I think,

this is the way I learn as well.

It’s the way I’ve always taught is to know that there are categories of herbs, and those categories correspond to different,

systems in our body, for example, the nervous system or the gut or the musculoskeletal system.

So whatever symptoms we are challenged by, we can go and find that corresponding category of herbs. That said, if somebody is not inclined to, do that or that feels, you know, even too complicated, and they don’t want to buy my book because that will take you all the way through, then, you know, I would recommend going to a health food store or finding a local herbalist or finding someone who has a knowledge of this,

information, this practice. And it can be as simple as getting

a capsule of a blend of herbs for your need. I don’t, you know, capsules are the most removed way to work with the plants, but they’re the easiest. And I think I like to illustrate that point because

I like people to know that,

it doesn’t mean you have to be brewing complicated, bitter teas and drinking them all day.

It doesn’t mean you have to understand tinctures. It can be a supplement on your shelf. Next to the rest of your supplements. That can be how you start with herbalism. And if that’s as far as you ever go, that’s fine too, you know? So it really the barrier to entry can be lowered, you know, all the way down.

And we can just dip a toe in, it can be that it can be that easy. Yeah. I like going closest to the real food source. And I always have. I remember when I was in college at the time, I was training hard and I wanted to build muscle. And, you know, all my friends were they were on the juice.

They were going to the medications, getting injected with all kinds of stuff. And I had heard that yohimbe would, you know, naturally do the same thing. So the local health food store would actually sell yohimbe bark, and I’d get a bag of it and just throw some in the blender. Now, it’s funny because nowadays I realize people aren’t using it for building muscle.

But they’re using it for a male potency. And instead of it coming in bark, it might be either bark in capsules or it may have been turned into a tablet. And there’s other ways of getting it, but I like going back to the original root or whatever it might be. You know, herbs, spice, food base.

And I appreciate the convenience of capsules, which are probably that exact same thing, just encapsulated or possibly sometimes in the case of, tinctures where they had been properly prepared and you feel good about it when you start getting to the tablets, I start getting a little concerned. Do I really know that that’s an herbal something? The capsules where it’s, you know, you open them up and you can sprinkle it and look at it and say, oh, that’s definitely yeah.

That’s turmeric powder or that’s definitely, you know, whatever the case, it is. Yeah. Where what’s your preference and how far can you go before you’re concerned that you’re not actually getting what the label said? Yeah, it’s a great question. I mean, I to prefer to be as close to the whole plant form as possible. That said, there are some herbs,

that we like the standardized extract of, you know, and you need to find that in a capsule.

We might want, a higher dose of curcumin, for example. So we’re going to, you know, we get a curcumin supplement that also includes whole turmeric, because that’s important for bioavailability. Or we want a standardized extract of, you know, L-dopa from Mucuna pruriens, another herb. We call that one dopamine bean. I like to, you know, I like to brew teas.

I really like to work with tinctures, actually, because it’s a concentrated extract. You don’t need very much, but you can still taste it. You can still see it. You can see the bright red, you know, beautiful color of Saint John’s wort, one of the most gorgeous tinctures that exists. That’s an herb that works on the nervous system and

functions as an antidepressant.

I love kava in tincture form. That’s my favorite alternative to alcohol. You can taste it. You can see it. It’s beautiful. It’s strange. It makes your mouth numb. However, you know, because I travel a lot and I use a lot of herbs when I travel. They’re in capsule form. Maybe everything except for my kava might be in capsule form.

I don’t use tablets. Yeah. I generally don’t find those to be, potent, high quality or common in the high quality herbal supplement, market. But capsules I like very much. I think it’s very easy to dose them. And for example, if we’re working with ashwagandha, you know, ashwagandha needs to be dosed quite high, and that’s a lot of powder or a lot of tincture for somebody to take every day.

But it’s a couple of capsules, so those can be very effective. But I do encourage people, you know, if they’re already working with herbs and they have no idea what the herb looks like or tastes like or, you know, feels like, and they’re using it, you know, in capsule form at some point might seek it out and, and get familiar with it in its natural form.

Even if it’s just to sort of acquaint yourself with what you’re taking. You know,

I think that’s a really nice way to improve our relationship with, what we’re consuming. You mentioned traveling when you travel. What are some of your tinctures, herbal capsules, or whatever it is that you feel you have to take with you?

Yes. Good question. I was just considering that this morning because I’m going on a long trip that is I will take only a backpack. And I thought, okay, I need to pare down my routine. What am I taking. So I will probably bring my I take a couple of, herbs in the mornings for hormone balance and liver support.

I really like to start my day that way. So it’s a blend of Vitex, black cohosh, licorice and milk thistle. I will bring that. I will bring most likely I will bring a strong turmeric Boswellia blend that I have, just for general kind of inflammation, overall health, immune system support, that sort of thing. And I’ll probably leave my Kava at home.

And then for the evenings, I think I’m trying to take it down to just three supplements a day, so. Or three herbs a day in for the evenings. I’ll probably bring tryptophan. Not an herb, but an amino acid that I really like for sleep support. Also a little bit of mood support. I’ve become

very well acquainted with my neurochemical balance and know that amino acids like L-Theanine, 5-HTP, tryptophan, those are very good for me to have in my life.

So

that’s probably

the little stack that I’ll take with me. Those three. That’s good. I have my favorites. And as we talk

about this, it’s kind of funny because some of it also depends on whether we’re driving or flying. Yes. And my wife and I, when we are driving, we’ll actually we like cold coffee in the morning.

We have iced coffee. It’s, you know, nice organic dark roast. Cause we like that little bite in it and then it’s our creamer is organic coconut milk

with our protein powder mixed in, which has a nice vanilla and stevia. So it’s very natural and it almost tastes like a, some kind of frappuccino, but there’s no sugar in it.

And we can’t get anything like that anywhere else. So for driving we’ll actually make a few jars of it and keep it in the cooler with us

and we’ll time it out and make sure we have enough so we can all have our coffee in the morning for however many days were gone. Nice. We have to take our powdered fruits and vegetables.

Because they seem to give us a little extra energy. Not that you feel that like when you’re drinking coffee, but it’s you get through the whole day without crashing when you have all those nutrients from the powdered fruits and vegetables. So we have our things that, you know, we need. We take our aloe vera with us.

Enough. We’re going to drink this much per day, and we make sure we pack that when we’re driving.

We can’t take our coffee and our aloe on the airplanes. But it is what it is. Yeah, yeah. I’m a big fan of the greens powders, which generally have the fruit in them as well, but I don’t think I’ll be taking that on my backpack.

Trip feels a little, maybe like a little too much. Yeah, yeah. But for us, it’s just it’s, it’s a necessity. So. Yeah, we have to take it, and that we can’t take on the plane, but, yeah,

we travel with more than a backpack, so I get it. When people are ill, I always like to remind them that there’s two sides to the equation.

The first, which I actually consider to be more important, is causation. What’s the cause? What’s your experience with that? Absolutely. Positively agree. And

I mean, so much of my work with clients and in educating broadly and in the book, you know, is about seeking the cause.

there’s a whole process of education, I think reeducation because as we were saying before, it’s been lost,

in guiding people back to this ability that we do all have, but we may not have learned in this generation or the previous generation.

Nor the generation before that, but

how to listen to our bodies, how to relate to our bodies. And of course, it is not always possible to know the cause of our insomnia or our headache or our pain or, you know, our brain fog, whatever it is. But in many, many, many cases it is. And even if it’s not

in the process of seeking that cause, we just deepen our relationships with our body.

We learn how to listen and how to communicate better, and that will only serve us better in the long run. So, I mean, it’s something I say over and over and over again

and

herbalism and all herbalists also think that way. Of course, there are plants that can help, medicate, you know, acute symptoms, but no herbalist will give you only that recommendation.

They will seek the cause with you and attempt to treat, you know, either the cause first or both at the same time. And I think, yeah, there are

so many examples of that, but

it is one of the key, key key points in health in general, herbalism or otherwise. You know,

we really need to try to re relate with our bodies

and seek the causes of

the way we feel.

Yeah. And I want to dig in a little deeper on this because, well, I know I vocalize this many times and I have my ways of saying it and you’ll have your unique ways, and you might communicate to someone listening better than I can. And I really want people to understand this when it comes to being well or treating a condition or getting over your problems.

Most of it can be done just by getting rid of the cause. But yet if we have these other beneficial things that we can do alongside it, if we don’t address the cause and we’re taking, you know, I happen to be drinking. Well, it looks like I’m practicing uro therapy, I guess if you see this on YouTube.

But it’s actually a little ginger water. And that could decrease inflammation and maybe decrease pain. And

if I needed this to be pain free, as an example, and I never address the cause of the pain, then this has become nothing other than a drug. Because now I’m practicing medicine. I’m just treating a symptom. You want to get to the cause, get rid of the cause of the problem, and the symptoms will probably go away.

I think I’m drinking, you know, fresh juice, ginger in my water. Because it just to me, it feels good. And

That’s what my body craves. And I kind of like it, so why not? Yeah. Which goes into another thing that you were talking about and listening to your body, and you can figure out the cause of your problems if you pay attention.

And if you go through,

a list of things, you can even maybe go through categories. Is it my nutrition? Is it my exercise? Is it my rest? Is it my mental well-being? You know, my nervous system not working right. And we start, you know. Well these it doesn’t really feel like it be any of these, but it’s probably in this area.

Or maybe it’s, you know, my exercise is lacking. Okay. What kind of exercise is it? Is it, you know, flexible endurance, agility training, strength training, what’s lacking, you know, and well, those first three. But that one kind of made a little sense. Okay. Let’s focus on that one now and drill down as deep as we can until we figure out what’s missing.

Yeah. And if people could just learn to pay attention to that. Our bodies are so dang smart and they’re kind of smarter than we are, which doesn’t really make sense because, you know, we’re in our bodies, but somehow they’re going to take the things that we eat. The knowledge in us is going to take the things that we eat and knitted into living tissue to replace things that need to be replaced.

How does that happen? And if it’s that smart and we can learn to pay attention to it now, I think we’re, you know, we’ll differ all in our own ways is

who we interpret or how we interpret that knowledge, where it might come from. You know, for me, I would say it’s God. For others, they might say it’s universal intelligence or it’s it doesn’t matter.

We could all listen to it better. Yeah. Regardless of our own interpretation, we can all tune in and learn from

and follow that voice. And if it’s barely, you know, audible, eventually you’ll hear it more and more. The more you practice paying attention. Yeah. It’s true. No, it’s beautifully said. And I completely agree. You know, I think

I would add two things.

One is that, you know, when we focus on those primary pillars of health, you know, nutrition, fitness, sleep, community, the essentially the blue zone, you know, pillars, those generally when we can dial those in,

we are then left with so much less to treat, you know, maybe nothing if we do them really well but so much less to treat.

So that’s one vote for those. I mean, those pillars of health have never changed. Also,

they are not as sexy as taking adaptogens or nootropics or, you know, hacking this or, you know, whatever. But they work and we know that. And we see that in the world and the communities that live, you know, to be so much older than the rest of us because this is just their way of life.

And the other thing I would say is that, you know, we might want that, you know, immediate gratification, get rid of our pain or whatever else. But when we treat ourselves from a cause first,

approach,

that is how lasting healing is created. That is how lasting change is created. So if we want to do away with the pain, you know, now, fine.

But if we don’t want to have it again, then we really need to dig down and in. And when we do that, you know, I’ve just I’ve seen it over and over again. Not only does health transform, but people’s lives change. Their lives change because their health

changes and their lives also change because they learn how to,

relate with themselves, understand perhaps what they truly want in life or their motivations for doing certain things or,

I think it leads to, this sort of rediscovery

of who one really is or,

what I also like to say, is it, it can lead us back to

our true nature. And when we really get in touch with ourselves and we can hear, you know, ourselves and see ourselves, then a lot more can change than our health if we want it to. So

there’s a lot of reward for that work, a lot of reward.

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Yeah. For those that are practicing herbalism to overcome something.

Okay. So be it. But when it be nice and I agree with you that if we’re focusing on those five pillars of health that we’re probably going to be, well, even if we have a genetic predisposition towards these things, because those genes aren’t going to be able to express themselves. So wouldn’t it be nice if we were just practicing herbalism instead of to recover, to optimize our human potential?

Wouldn’t that be nice? Yes, all of these. That would be very nice.

I’m an advocate for that, you know, and I think even to think about it that way and to know that, as we were saying in the beginning, it used to be a part of our lives every day, all the time. It isn’t something extra.

it’s not a fad. You know, a fad diet or a fad healing approach. This is

in our genes. You know,

there are ways that plants connect with receptors in our bodies that are perfect fits. You know, we evolved together. And to come back to this with that perspective that it can be a lifestyle and that when done so, it’s preventative of many, many conditions.

We don’t want I’m, I vote for that. Yeah. You know, I want I want you to help me and fix something that I’ve been teaching customers and patients because if they apply this same technique that I’ve taught them to herbalism, they could probably get into a little trouble. And it goes like this. Someone will say, Dr Haley, how much aloe vera should I drink?

And initially I’ll tell them, you know, I have a full glass every day for the first week, look in the mirror, you know, and then at that point, ask yourself, how much

do I want?

and if that’s not, you know, suffice if you’re not getting to your answer, well, it’s easy. You should have a whole half gallon every day.

And they say, well, you know

that’s ridiculous. And they usually kind of chuckle like you just did. I’ll say, I was just kidding. You should just get an eye dropper out and just like, put a drop on the tip of your tongue and of course, oh, I want more than that. Well, what were you hoping I would say?

I was hoping you would say, like five ounces a day. Okay, there’s your number. You know, you just listen to the little voice and you brought it into your consciousness. But I have them drink a certain amount for that first week just so that their body can kind of get used to it. Now, I happen to know that with our aloe vera, it’s the inner leaf, only it doesn’t have the outer leaf extract, which would have its own set of properties.

We’re not going to get into, you know, trouble when it comes to, you know, sitting on the pot all day or anything like that, or cramps and diarrhea. It’s just the inner portion of the leaf, the calming, the healing, stimulate your immune system kind of thing. So you’re not going to overdose on that. But you’re not necessarily going to get the full benefit.

More is not necessarily better.

there’s, you know, diminishing returns. Here’s the problem. And this is where I need your help if they applied. And you can explain this, if they applied that same thing to some. Well, drugs would be the obvious. Well, I feel like I should have five. Okay, wait a second, wait a second.

Wait, five of what? You know,

when it comes to herbalism, there are some very potent. Yes, plant medicines, so to speak. How do you figure out what the right amount is for you? Yeah, well, there are two easy ways to do that. I would say

the easiest is to buy herbal products from reputable brands, good companies, many of which have been around for decades and decades and are founded by herbalists.

And all of the products are made by herbalist. Nearly any product on the market right now has very clear dosing instructions, and this may seem obvious, but follow the dosing instructions. A lot of people don’t do that, right. Well, that is the easiest way

Another way would be to have a conversation with someone who knows about this sort of thing and understand, you know,

what is the dosage like for this certain herb.

Now, there are very potent plants and herbalism. Of course, the majority of herbalism is not so potent or, dangerous, shall we say, that I would discourage anyone from doing some DIY, you know, homemaking. Make some teas, make some tinctures. That’s how this was done. That’s how this is done by many people still. And again, you’re buying your herbs somewhere.

So if you’re buying your herbs at an herb shop or at the farmer’s market or whatever, these things are not poisons, right? Those are not readily available.

I think one has to try or be a bit reckless to really run into, safety concerns with herbalism. The exception there is if you are taking pharmaceuticals or, you know, prescription birth control or that sort of thing, any kind of medication, you should always check with your health care provider before mixing herbs with those.

But even herb drug interactions that are dangerous are quite uncommon. And then, of course, you know, that’s another reason why I wrote this book. And I created a table that

very clearly states, you know, all the herbs listed in the book and more what form to take them in and any kind of notes regarding dosage or, you know, is this better as a tea or a tincture, that sort of thing.

But I would encourage anyone who’s enthusiastic about, you know, making some stuff in their kitchen to please do so. They’re also very good medicine making books that teach you how to do, fire ciders and tinctures and teas and syrups and all of the different formats.

those are exceptional guides. And there are herbalists all over the world who are excited to talk to anyone who wants to start practicing herbalism.

They’re very easy to seek out. And I guess just to give people a resource for that, you know, the American Herbalists Guild

is the main organizing body for herbalists in the United States. But, they have a lot of resources beyond that. And you can just hop on that website and find, hundreds of herbalists to be in touch with.

I like the, caution that you gave, and I’m, you know, I’m going to hold up my glass of ginger water again, and ginger can have some blood thinning, anti-inflammatory properties. And if I was taking blood thinners and maybe overdoing it on my ginger, that combined effect could cause internal bleeding, maybe ulcers or who knows? A lot of times people that are taking the blood thinners, when you look at their arms, you see black and blue in here, which is kind of like internal bleeding.

If you start seeing something like that, maybe you got too much, you know, ginger and medications combining together. Yeah. And need to make some adjustments. I’m not saying quit your drugs, but be careful what you’re combining and do what you can to get off your medicines. Yeah. With the help of a doctor. Yes, definitely. Agreed. Someone that knows what they’re doing.

What any information on your book.

is it out, is it released. And you know we’re recording this on July 15th and I know your book is kind of new. I think this is probably going to publish around maybe July 25th. Is your book out? My book will be published on July 22nd, so it’s available for preorder now.

By the time this is published,

it will be out in the world. And yeah, I mean, I, I have it here close to me, the herbalist, naturally. The herbalist guide to health and transformation. You know, and the book is structured according to the categories of herbs. So in the beginning you get a really thorough introduction to what herbalism is and how it’s relevant for modern life.

And, really written for anyone who’s never heard of herbalism. If you’re already an herbalist, you will also learn things in this book and then, you know, the rest of the book includes case studies from the many clients I’ve seen.

I explore the nervous system and nervine herbs for the nervous system. I talk about stress and balance, with adaptogenic herbs.

There’s a chapter on gut health and bitter herbs. I have a chapter on aphrodisiacs and herbs for pleasure. Also anti-depressants and alternatives to alcohol. There’s a chapter on sleep, energy and motivation. There’s a chapter on some of the more potent plant medicine, psychedelics and,

or entheogens that we use for really big kind of life changes or transformation.

And then in the back of the book are a lot of resources that I think will be very helpful for people. There’s the herb table,

it’s quite large and it lists, you know, all these plants and, how to take them. There is also a set of recipes really simple recipes for people who want to include herbs into things like smoothies or salad dressings or trail mix or,

you know,

mocktail,

lot a lot of resources in there.

So, it’s available now. And I hope it changes some lives. I think it well, you know, it’s funny because I’m on my ginger kick right now, and I’ve been wanting to make a ginger salad dressing, and I was. Do you have a recipe for that one? I think you should make the salad dressing. That’s there’s, salad dressing plus functional mushrooms.

And I would make that one and just add ginger. It has garlic in it as well, but you could definitely, like, shred some ginger into it or even just chop some ginger that actually now I want to make that that sounds great. And I think I have my shot recipe in there as well. I love ginger shots so.

Oh okay. Yeah. And, you know, I have a salad dressing that I like to make with, you know, mustard and some other herbs and garlic and stuff like that with, olive oil

and, you know, balsamic vinegar dressing, kind of thing absolutely delicious. And, but I might have to check out some of your recipes and say, how could I make this my own?

And please do. And, you know, one last note. I would say

I’m not a huge fan of recipes because as we’ve been talking about this whole time, you know, I like people to think for themselves. So I provided recipes, but all of the recipes are sort of templates, and they are meant to be customized and personalized.

And that also makes for no excuses for not making the recipe, because you don’t like the way a certain herb tastes that just swap it out for something else. So, I like, it. yes, make it your own. Now, you’ve been, very educational on this podcast. I want you to be a little selfish. What are some of the other products that you have available?

Oh. Thank you. I have a line of herbal gummies. So,

we produce herbal gummies that are,

a lot of people wonder if there’s cannabis or CBD in those, because I think that’s such a common thing. But,

these are just herbal gummies. They’re equivalent to an herbal tea in gummy form. And then I have,

some online herbalism classes as well.

I think, you know, if people are looking to learn more or connect more with me, what I would encourage most of all is to sign up for our newsletter. We send a weekly newsletter and it is herbalism and so much more.

And that’s the best way to kind of hook in

and connect with the community and see everything else that’s going on over here, because there are always new and exciting things going on.

But thank you for that. Great. And you have a couple different websites. There’s the u r that’s the letter U, the letter R supernatural.com. And there’s also rachellerobinett.com Yeah. So we have this as I transition into more writing, and transition out of being an entrepreneur, which I was for,

at least a decade.

my main website is rachellerobinett.com

The ursupernatural.com gives you a really good picture of kind of all of the,

history and,

portfolio of businesses that I’ve had over the years. So people are welcome to explore either,

there are probably hundreds of free articles, podcasts, videos, recipes, and you can visit either site eventually those will be combined.

But right now, you know, explore as you please. And yeah, if you like free stuff, it’s all there. All right. Is there anything that you wish I asked that I had left out? I love that question. I know this was a great conversation. I loved it, and,

I really appreciate being here, so thank you for having me.

Thank you. Thank you for joining me. And I’ll make sure that I have links below the video on YouTube, below the podcast, whether you’re on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you’re getting the content when you’re on iTunes. I don’t know about Spotify, but you can’t actually click it. You got to copy and paste into the browser, but I’ll make sure I have those web addresses available so you can find out more from Rachelle Robinette.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

I hope you enjoyed that episode today on the Dr. Haley Show. Make sure to hit subscribe on whichever platform you are listening to this. If this episode made you think of someone, go ahead, take a screenshot and share this exact episode with them. You can catch the show notes for this episode on drhaley.com. If you want to geek out with Dr. Michael Haley on other radical health topics.

Be sure to check out his YouTube channel where he posts exclusive video content. All the details are at drhaley.com and we can’t wait to hang out with you on the next episode.

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