Down to Earth Herbalism with Tamara

Our liver does a lot of heavy work for us every day, let's make sure it stays healthy! Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is on the rise, but luckily, in its early stages, it is reversible. Understanding the mechanism makes it obvious that weight control and insulin resistance play a big role. We will discuss some herbs that help us to keep our blood glucose levels stable, like bitter melon and fen...

Fatigue, weight gain, hair loss, brain fog and constipation might be signs that the thyroid is not working optimally. But no worries, of course, there are safe and completely natural methods, including herbs, available to us that can help with Hypothyroidism and other thyroid problems. Did you know that in most cases an under-functioning thyroid is caused by an inflammatory auto-immune disease cal...

Let me take you beyond the usual Chamomile and Lemon Balm! As a mom, herbalist and midwife, I will share some of our favorite family herbs for each phase of childhood including real-life tips on how to actually get these herbs into your kids. I asked my children to share their favorite herbs with you! Are glycerites a necessary replacement for tinctures? Can kids swallow capsules? My favorite Chin...

Mushrooms are in their very own category of natural remedies, widely used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. They all look and taste very different and are used in specific ways. Some are delicious to cook with, and others are so hard that you need a saw to cut them! We will talk about the different ways to use them, and why they are so beneficial for our health. They can boost our immunity, help us...

Let's discuss some herbs that can help with fatigue, exhaustion and even complete burn-out. Exhausted mom syndrome anyone? Being tired in itself might not be a dangerous health concern, but we also shouldn't ignore it until the point of no return. Fatigue can be seriously depressing and keep us from living our full potential. To understand the mechanism of fatigue we can get great insights from Ay...

Ashwagandha is an amazing herb for stress, anxiety, insomnia, energy and stamina from Ayurveda, but its popularity in the west also leads to many misconceptions. There are ideal and less ideal ways to take it, wrong assumptions about dosage and a lot of confusion about possible side effects. Let's shed some light on this outstanding herb for the benefit of our health! Ayurveda is part of my extens...

Runny nose, itchy eyes and pharmaceutical antihistaminics make you drowsy? No worries, we have holistic remedies that work even better and strategies to address the root issue! Let's dig into some of the ayurvedic theories to explain hay fever and draw from the wisdom of global herbalism to get effective short and long-term relief. Some of the herbs covered are Nettle, Astragalus, Elecampane, Schi...

Of course, I couldn't really limit this to 5 herbs! So here are the 5 herbal categories that I think everybody should know how to use, to survive modern times! We have our adaptogens, digestive herbs (three different sub-categories here), calming nervines, which are what everybody thinks of when you hear the word nervines, but there are actually also stimulating nervines, not only calming ones, an...

This is our last part of the Ayurvedic Doshas Series! Today we'll talk about Kapha, and about anything that I forgot to mention in the last two parts! We will circle back to a few herbs for each of the doshas. To help you with your note-taking, here they are: Vata: Ashwagandha, Haritaki, Ginger, Fennel (and all other carminatives/digestive herbs), Cinnamon, warming, moistening herbs in general. So...

Digging deeper into VPK, or Vata Pitta and Kapha, the Ayurvedic doshas! Let's learn how we can keep our dosha in balance throughout our life, throughout the seasons and in our everyday life. There are so many choices we can take throughout our daily life that can aggravate our dosha, which means it will get worse or will tame and balance it, which is the wiser choice! What is the ideal dosha to lo...

Let's dig into the Ayurvedic concept of tridosha, or Vata, Pitta and Kapha, a system of categorization based on the five elements that can help us understand our health challenges better, and keep us balanced! I use this a lot in my clinical practice as an herbalist. Today we will talk about strategies, including herbs, to keep Vata dosha in check, but this episode will be useful to Kaphas and Pit...

Let's look into Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome and how herbs can possibly help. This is for educational purposes only. Always seek medical help if needed. Long Covid can be serious and should not be left untreated. Let's look into some natural healing strategies that might be of benefit to strengthen your body! The herbs discussed apply to the recovery process after illness, especially ongoing fatigu...

The art and science of the perfect bowel movement! Do you think you don't have constipation? Think again! Let's discuss, transit time, consistency, frequency and herbs that can help us to get regular. All disease starts in the gut, so this is a serious topic. Luckily Herbalism has all the answers and many options to create the perfect gut protocol. We discuss fibers and demulcents, like psyllium,...

Improving our mental health, sleep and overall health are some examples of how Herbalism can help us get through this pandemic, which goes way beyond possible treatments for Covid. We all have had our share of despair, financial worries, loneliness or anxiety, and these are definitely areas where herbs can shine! Dig into the weeds with me and let us explore some concrete ways how herbs can help u...

Would you like to learn more about medicinal plants and natural healing and maybe even become an Herbalist? This episode is for you! My name is Tamara, I am a professional Herbalist and I share with you my top 10 tips on how to deepen your plant knowledge in 2022! Or any time of course! To help you stick to regular times for plant studies, I have created a membership program where you get access t...

Time for a review of my professional life as an herbalist in 2021! In this episode, I will share with you some of the greatest healing successes my clients achieved this year! We will take a close look at some of the therapeutic strategies, like balancing the doshas from an ayurvedic standpoint of view. But as always, the herbs will be the Stars of the Show! If I would measure the amount of Ashwag...

From the shamanic origins of Santa Claus to the Ethnobotany of Christmas, Herbalist & Midwife Tamara Hiller takes you on a sled-flight through the icy lands of Siberia, where Shamans stick the little red Amanita mushrooms on fir trees to dry them in sun, then put them all in the big sack, going home, entering the house through the chimney and hanging the mushrooms in socks around the fire to d...

In today's episode herbalist and midwife Tamara Hiller teaches us about herbs for Pain relief. From Poppy Seed to Willow bark, some of these have inspired the pharmaceutical drugs that we have available today. Drugs work great, but they have side effects. Taking herbs in their natural form, straight from nature is not only safer but also very effective if taken in the right way and dosage. Nobody...

You can take your herbs in many different ways, as tea, decoction, in form of a tincture, or encapsulated to just name the most commonly used preparations. And there are huge differences in the therapeutic effect, depending on the herb, and the form of taking your herb is not always interchangeable. Traditional Chinese Medicine uses mainly decoction, a form of tea where you boil the herb for sever...

Coffee, black and green Tea, Mate, Guarana, Kola Nut, and Cacao all have something in common: Methylxanthines aka Caffeine. Coffee and Tea are the most taken herbs in the world and most of us consume them daily. What are the benefits? And are there any downsides? What are the alternatives? Herbalist Tamara digs deep into the weeds once again, in this info-packed episode! Learn about the subtle dif...

Many people suffer from gas, bloating, belching or acid reflux also called GERD, on a regular basis. Some even consider these "minor issues", or normal, but in reality, these are serious indicators that things are not going as they should in your digestive system. These symptoms can indicate that you have reduced absorption of nutrients in the gut, and they can get worse over time and even lead to...

20% of adults in modern western societies suffer from anxiety, but luckily we have many effective herbal remedies that can help. In this episode, we cover not only herbs that are sedating and calming like Skullcap, Passionflower, Hops, Valerian, and one of my favorites from Brazil, the bark of the Mulungu tree, but we also discuss herbs to restore nerve function, like Gotu Kola (Centella Asiatica)...

Luckily we have many very effective herbs for sleep available that can help with the occasional or even chronic Insomnia. I love resolving people's sleep issues with herbs, because not only they are so happy to have found a cure, but they also turn into firm believers in the power of herbs! We discuss plants like Valerian, Hops, Passionflower, Chamomile, Poppy Seed, Lavender, Wild Lettuce, Skullca...

Some Herbs get suddenly and randomly trendy for no specific reason and taken out of their context, the original natural healing system that they were used in. In this episode Professional Herbalist Tamara explains why we misunderstand popular herbs like Maca root, Astragalus, and Tulsi, and use them in the wrong way, wrong dose, wrong duration, or with unrealistic expectations about their effects....

Is it possible to make the transition from pharmaceuticals to natural remedies? Professional Herbalist Tamara Hiller discusses the nitty-gritty of this tricky situation. Many people with chronic health conditions who are taking drugs wish to have a natural alternative for pharmaceuticals. But herbs work very differently in the body than drugs, and of course, ideally, you should have an experienced...