Accessible Herbalism for Pain Management

The Holistic Herbalism Podcast

“Pain is a signal to change your behavior.” This motto comes from our friend the herbalist Tammi Sweet, and perfectly sums up the holistic approach to working with herbs for pain. Something’s gotta change!

In this episode we’re particularly focusing on recurring & chronic pain, but these strategies help acute pain as well. What we want to do is threefold. First, let’s change the pain signal – we can slow it down, or overwhelm it with other signals. Second, we need to quell excessive inflammation, because while inflammation is a necessary part of healing, too much or too long and it can slow healing down, or even initiate pain on its own. And last, we’ll need to release tension, since tension too can drive pain or impair recovery.

As usual we’ve got strategies that revolve around making healthy changes to food, movement, and sleep habits. Less sugar, more veggies, some walking & stretching, good restorative sleep: these are foundational necessities. Herbs for pain – and seaweeds too! (order seaweed online here) – multiply and deepen the effects of these interventions.

Herbs discussed include: chamomile, ginger, kelp & red seaweeds, wild lettuce.
This is part 5 in our Accessible Herbalism series! We’re sharing strategies for safely improving some of the most common health concerns, especially for marginalized communities. We want to empower people to take action in support of their own health and the health of their neighbors. The safe, accessible tools of holistic herbalism can fill in the gaps left by uneven access and affordability of conventional care. Working with easy-to-find, inexpensive herbs, with low risk of adverse effects and drug interactions, is something anyone can do.

We’re building a community health collective organizing tool out of this material as we go through the series. You can learn more about the project and find all the collected resources here:

Mutual Aid Resources

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Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!