In this episode, Nicole (she/her) introduces nervines - herbs with an affinity for the nervous system. We explore the differences between five kinds of nervines - Relaxant nervines, Hypnotic nervines, Nerve Tonics, Cardiac nervines and Stimulating nervines. Learn what these herbal actions mean and why they are so important to herbalists and anyone experiencing PTSD or ongoing traumatic stress.

Content warning - brief references to prison, suicide, sexual trauma, non-consensual sedation, psychiatric imprisonment

Links & resources from this episode

• Solidarity with Palestine: What can you do
• Herbalism, PTSD and Traumatic Stress Course (closes 2nd November)

Welcome to the Frontline Herbalism podcast with your host Nicole Rose from the Solidarity Apothecary.

This is your place for all things plants and liberation.

Let's get started.

Hi everyone, welcome back to the Frontline Herbalism podcast.

This episode is all about different types of nervines.

So these are plants with an affinity for the nervous system and I will dive deeply into what they are and the different categories and give you some practical examples.

I hope it's really useful.

It's kind of...

content I've brought together as a way of kind of communicating some of what's inside the Herbalism, PTSD and Traumatic Stress course which is available to enroll in now and enrollment is closing on Thursday the 2nd, so I talk about it more at the end of the episode.

But yeah, I'm really encouraging people to join if they can and yeah, I hope people are also checking out my website at the moment.

I've got a new post on there.

called Solidarity with Palestine, what can you do?

So I've tried to bring together all the kind of, well not all, but lots of resources from around the internet, you know, you get lots of things shared on Instagram, lots of links and action alerts and stuff, and it's really hard, like it's like hard for me to manage that stuff, stuff on my phone.

So I wanted to kind of create like a web page that had tons of stuff on it that people can use to then take action.

So yeah, there's loads of different points.

There's one like listen to and amplify Palestinian voices.

So I share like a bunch of accounts from people living in Gaza, different projects and movements in Palestine and Palestinian led organizations to follow different potential podcasts to listen to some anarchist and abolitionist resources and just like general news websites.

I talk about joining a local group or starting one, you know, like how it's so much more important to work with other people and build collective power and that local groups are a way of like taking much more sort of strategic action.

So I've put in links to directories of groups.

across like England and Wales and Scotland and also in the so called United States.

I've talked about taking to the streets, so places where you can find listings of demonstrations and protests and how to organize a vigil.

I talk about direct action and name one of the groups Palestine Action who've been, yeah, throwing red paint all over the shop and doing lots of other amazing work at kind of targeting the arms trade.

I talk about pressuring the state in kind of more creative ways and I link to a bunch of email action alert tools where you can just literally take seconds to contact your MP or whoever to demand a ceasefire, for example, got a list of groups of places you can donate to Palestinian groups.

And also an encouragement to organize fundraisers.

I've got some info there about volunteering in Palestine itself with the international solidarity movement.

So that's the group I went to Palestine with last December and yeah, they're asking for volunteers in the West Bank to help kind of yeah.

prevent more kind of brutal human rights abuses.

And then I've talked about BDS, like kind of people participating in boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns, a list of companies to avoid, et cetera.

And then I look at kind of support and collective care.

So some different projects that are offering kind of grief circles and healing circles to people from Palestine and like the diaspora.

There's also a bunch of anti oppression resources.

Finally, like I've just linked to tons of kind of toolkits and reading lists and learning and teaching resources that groups have been creating as a kind of way of, yeah, bringing them together so people can keep like educating themselves about Palestine and the situation and the resistance movement.

And yeah, how this is a decades long struggle, right?

And the context of everything that's going on at the moment.

So I'll put a link in the show notes.

Please check it out.

Please share it.

It's definitely doing the rounds on Instagram, but yeah, I just hope it's useful to people.

Anyway, let's dive into Nervines.

I hope you enjoy this episode.

I'm really sorry.

I've listened back to it and I sound very out of breath and I think it's just a symptom of pregnancy.

I'm really struggling with nausea and vomiting.

I'm actually amazed I've managed to record these bits and bobs.

I just kind of seized the moment of time where I wasn't feeling sick.

Even though I do feel sick constantly, but I was feeling less sick.

Anyway, I'm just sorry that I sound a bit out of breath, but I think that is a thing in pregnancy.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the show and yeah, don't forget about the herbalism, PTSD and traumatic stress course.

Okay.

Take care.

Let's dive into nervines.

So I will say nervines, nervines, all the same thing with my West Country accent.

But before I dive in, I just want to share that like all medicinal herbs have an effect on the nervous system in different ways because our nerves like innervate and impact like most tissues and organs of the body, right?

Like the nervous system is how we interact and communicate with our external environment.

Like we're in a constant relationship with everything around us through our nervous system.

But nervines are kind of like this category of plants that are known for their like affinity with the nervous system.

So they have a particular action on the nervous system that is useful for us as herbalists to work with to kind of help someone, yeah, with their health needs or, you know, emotional health, like all sorts of things.

A lot of the language around nervines is is kind of built, I guess, on a bit of knowledge of anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, which is why in the herbalism PTSD and traumatic stress course, we have like a whole lesson about kind of nervous system anatomy and physiology, like as a deep dive, so that you can kind of understand some of the terms that I'm using.

So things like the sympathetic nervous system or the parasympathetic, but I'll do my best to kind of keep going and kind of clarify as I'm talking.

And yeah, so I'm gonna explore like different categories of plants overlap, right?

So something might be a cardiac nerve and it might also be a nerve tonic and it may also have a relaxant action.

So it's like plants don't fit into nice little boxes, but kind of understanding the medicinal actions and the mechanisms.

like is helpful in kind of differentiating some of the effects plants can have on our nervous system because something that is extremely stimulating for example and is a nervine is very different to something that is very sedating.

So I think being specific is really helpful.

So we're going to be exploring relaxant nervines, cardiac nervines, hypnotic nervines and nerve tonics.

Not necessarily in that order, but I'm going to kind of dive into these different ones in more detail.

Okay,

relaxant nervines.

So, what are relaxant nervines?

In my experience or my opinion, I would describe them as herbs that help the body reduce the activation of the sympathetic nervous system.

So, this Part of the nervous system is like the network of nerves that help the body activate it's like fight or flight response, right?

Like we've, you know, I'm sure most people have heard of fight or flight.

It's when we are in a state of kind of increased energy.

There's the mobilization of resources, like we're increasing the body's ability to act.

And that's really awesome, by the way, like I don't want there to be like this labeling of like, sympathetic is like bad and like parasympathetic, like the rest and digest state is good, for example, because we need both states in our nervous system.

They're both like essential in our survival as a species.

And, you know, we need that energy, right.

And we need that mobilization, like through the day to get stuff done and other things.

So yeah, the kind of sympathetic nervous system triggers like a whole raft of physiological effects.

So for example, like increased heart rate, blood pressure, fast metabolism, and like many, many other things, which again, we dive into detail in the herbalism PTSD and traumatic stress course about the kind of short and long term effects of the sympathetic stress response in the body.

But ultimately, like, nervine relaxants can help us shift from this kind of state of like acute sort of sympathetic activation to parasympathetic.

So this is, again, it's not binary and it's much more complicated and it's It's not good or bad, but this kind of parasympathetic state is like an essential state for the body.

It's this like rest and digest state.

So it's when our muscles relax, our blood pressure reduces, our tissues get a chance to kind of repair themselves, our digestive system has like adequate blood supply and enzyme flow.

You know, our sphincters are open.

So it's not in this state of kind of tension and constriction.

Like things can, things can move and things can do their own thing and things can help the body repair itself.

So by working with like a nervine relaxant, like we can support the body to access this parasympathetic system state, which is really essential, right?

Like if you're recovering from a chronic illness, for example, like you need that downtime, that rest and digest state in order to kind of repair your tissues.

Like that was a very long pattern for me with my costochondritis, where I had this chronic inflammation in the cartilage of my rib cage, you know, I mean like years and years ago now, but it was really a lesson to me of actually My body wasn't able to heal itself because there was like zero time for rest in my life.

I was like constantly in a state of fight or flight and that is going to have repercussions.

So yeah, so by working with these herbs we can, you know, reduce anxiety, we can support with sleep, we can lower blood pressure.

A lot of nervine relaxants also have like a carminative action on the gut, like a kind of antispasmodic action on the gut.

They can relieve tension, including headaches and musculoskeletal tension and pain.

Many have like a kind of direct action on neurotransmitters so neurotransmitters is something we do talk about in the herbalism, PTSD and traumatic stress course.

This includes like inhibitory ones, so these are ones that literally reduce activation in the central nervous system.

And I like to kind of frame this as like, this like background noise of anxiety, which is this kind of consistent feeling that there's like some underlying anxiety, like in your day where you just have this kind of tick tick tick activation and it doesn't take much to kind of trigger you or upset you or activate you.

But I think herbs are really wonderful in kind of like toning down that lack, like that background noise, if that makes any sense at all.

Yeah, so this is like especially common with people with PTSD or like ongoing traumatic stress, because it does kind of suspend the body in this like constant state of hyper vigilance.

And also like for lots of people like this state is completely normalized, like you don't actually really know any different, but you know, when you start to kind of have the language and the tools to understand your different nervous system states, it is then easier to kind of work with herbs to kind of hack them, if that makes sense, like to shift your own state.

So yeah, I think for me like nervine relaxants are really life changing.

They're kind of like my primary go to for most people.

You know, I've had a client before who kind of came to me with anxiety as their like primary complaint and then the second time we had a consultation, maybe about six weeks later, They kind of had forgotten that that was, like, the main reason they saw me.

They were like, Oh yeah, my asthma and, like, loose stools and...

I was like, how's your anxiety?

And they were like, like, they hadn't really noticed it when it was such a big pattern of their life.

So that's what I'm saying.

Like, I think herbs are really incredible allies when we kind of know how to work with them.

So you're probably like, what plants are nervine relaxants?

So they can include Things like the beautiful lavender, lemon balm, chamomile, catnip.

feverfew is also one that I've included in the course and many others.

And yeah, in the herbalism and PTSD course, I do have very comprehensive profiles on all of these plants and kind of like the best ways to work with them and their other medicinal actions and their constituents.

And yeah, different research papers and kind of human trials with them that really shows.

them having this amazing kind of anxiety support, nervous system support kind of action.

All right so hypnotic nervines.

So these are kind of, I guess, more strong kind of sedating, tranquilizing herbs that have a kind of different effect on the nervous system.

So if you think about relaxant nervines, they're really incredible kind of through the day to just like tone down this background anxiety, you know, to support you in a moment of kind of acute stress.

But hypnotic nervines are kind of like differently stronger.

Okay, so like hypnotic nervines, like I said, that they can be much stronger and have this sedating effect.

So they're really powerful remedies in like helping induce sleep.

They're often very strong antispasmodics for pain and tension and they can kind of help trigger this state of like full body relaxation.

But yeah, I always like preface this in the Herbalism PTSD and Traumatic Stress Course that for some people feeling sedated or kind of knocked out isn't actually like ideal.

Like that can trigger a real...

like trauma response in them that can trigger feelings of like distress and danger, especially if they've been through like a traumatic experience in the state, for example, medical trauma or, you know, having anesthetic or yeah, I guess just like trigger warning like rape as well.

Like if someone is like, for example sedated with drugs and alcohol and experiences sexual trauma like that, it can then be when you're in that.

it can just be extremely triggering and I'd also like to add that like in a similar way that like the parasympathetic nervous system state is unfamiliar to a lot of people who've experienced a lot of trauma.

I also think this state of like kind of sedated full body relaxation is also very unfamiliar to lots of people and some people you know, crave that action, right?

That's why people self medicate with heroin, for example, or different opiates, because it can trigger this like full body relaxation state.

But yeah, it's definitely not for everyone, but I'm kind of probably making them out to be too scary or too strong.

I think we can experiment with all herbs and we can combine them so we can have a slightly stronger sedating herb with a more relaxant herb.

You know, you can start off with really small doses, like these kind of nuances of things that we explore in the course.

But yeah, you know, like, and I think it's worth kind of communicating that like pharmaceutical sedatives, for example, are like often like the first port of call used by the kind of like psychiatric like medical industrial complex like in responding to someone like who is in distress for example so you know like when i was in prison like i cannot tell you like how many people were just knocked out with sedatives you know like it just was terrifying to see people so sedated like almost like kind of ghosts you know like how they were walking around and you know there was an element of like That is someone's choice to feel like that as a way of kind of dissociating from imprisonment or trauma.

But there was also like non consensual like use of sedatives, right?

Like as this kind of PRN, like if someone's having an incident, they may get injected with something.

For example, like that was definitely something that happened a lot when Taylor was sectioned and I'm sure people listening to this may have had similar experiences.

I'm sorry if this is triggering to hear about, but I just want to say like.

strong sedatives are not necessarily like our go to, right?

And you know, they can have like pharmaceutical sedatives can have really long term repercussions for health.

So they can impact our hearts, you know, the liver, the respiratory system have all sorts of impacts on the mitochondria, which are like essential for our energy causing, you know, like more serious kind of chronic fatigue.

So yeah, like I think it's worth saying that in our culture this go to is for kind of strong sedatives and I don't think that should be our practice as herbalists.

However, saying that, I think everybody is different and for me a herb might be strongly sedating, like wild lettuce for me for example completely knocks me for six, but for someone else it might not even touch the sides like we are all really different.

Likewise like some people just respond better to like relaxing nervines like something like lavender will do the job like instead of like california poppy for example.

So yeah some of the kind of hypnotic nervines like in our toolkits include mugwort, california poppy, hops.

Wild lettuce, passionflower, skullcap, which I talk about more in the kind of nerve tonic section, valerian and others, and these are some of the herbs that I talk about in much more detail in the herbalism PTSD and traumatic stress course.

I know some of these more sedating herbs like skullcap are like really fantastic and I would kind of, almost plays Skullcap more in the like tonic category than sedating Nervine because I think it is very safe and gentle but it can definitely trigger that feeling of parasympathetic state but for me like I will work with Skullcap as a kind of someone will take it every night for like two months for example and that means like a they're getting all these like amazing nutrients and nerve tonic actions but be they're really like teaching their body how to have this kind of like winding down like parasympathetic time before sleeping which can really help shift things like nightmares in my experience yeah whereas something like wild lettuce for example which is like a very strong kind of hypnotic like for me like if i yeah take wild lettuce then i will be like very kind of instantaneously knocked out and when my best friend killed himself last year in prison like I was so like acutely distressed and triggered and in such a rage state that like getting to sleep was like near enough impossible but if I just took like a giant swig of wild lettuce like that was it and I could go from like a hundred to zero and finally kind of collapse in exhaustion whereas something like lavender oil will like be more gentle and helpful at helping me sleep on a day where, you know, maybe I'm a bit anxious about money or I've had like some stressful emails or something, like something more mundane, I feel like wild lettuce has that kind of stronger hit, if that makes sense.

But yeah, I think, you know, the power of herbalism is knowing in depth about all of these different plants, when they're appropriate, when they're not appropriate.

You know, why have something stronger when you can use something more gentle, for example.

But when do these herbs kind of like shine?

So yeah, they're, you know, amazing plants that I explore with generosity in the herbalism, PTSD, and traumatic stress course.

Okay, nerve tonics.

Alright, these are bad boys that every herbalist needs to know, right?

Like, we all need to have an in depth knowledge of all of these plants because in late stage capitalism, everyone's nervous system is completely effed, I must say.

You know, I don't know many people that are not living in a really intense strict...

state of stress.

So all of our nervous systems can need a bit of nourishment.

And you know, most kind of health conditions people are presenting really always have like a nervous system component, right?

So having these herbs in our toolbox is really, really special and important.

So some of The, yeah, so I just want to say that nerve tonics are herbs which act to tonify, strengthen and restore the proper structure and function of the nervous system.

And in the herbalism PTSD and traumatic stress course, I dive into detail about the nervous system, the nerves, you know, the myelin sheath that surrounds the nerves, like, you know, the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, like all of these kind of elements and components of our nervous system and what does kind of good healthy functioning look like, for example.

And when you have that kind of anatomy and physiology understanding and understanding of like sympathetic and parasympathetic and our kind of different nervous system states, we can then understand like how we can work with these plants and how they're really useful.

So yeah, some, you're probably wondering like, well what are the plants?

So yeah, some examples include milky oats, betony, licorice, st.

John's wort, tulsi, evening primrose, elderberry, shisandra, ashwagandha, vervain and others.

So these are like the particular nerve tonics that I focus on in the herbalism, PTSD and traumatic stress course.

There are many more, I've kind of chosen, like I explain this in the course a lot, but I've chosen herbs that are generally in my lineage and if they're not in my lineage then they're plants that I can grow.

In my lineage as in like a herb, you know, someone with a background of kind of family who are English, Welsh and Irish.

But yeah, I kind of acknowledge all the different, yeah, all the different things around colonialism and botany and people stealing people's medicines from all over the world.

But what I'm saying is I've chosen these.

Like particular herbs because they're herbs I have a relationship with and herbs that I can grow in my bioregion.

So they're herbs that I work with the most because I make nearly all of my own medicine and they're just like amazing plants like full stop.

Okay, so it's not like a plant is a nerve tonic and therefore they have this action because they're a nerve tonic.

Like they all act in like very different ways.

And I'm going to kind of read these out.

But, you know, ultimately, like.

These different plants can have like several of these actions, for example.

And yeah, I dive into these plants in much more detail in the course, but like just as a kind of overview of what like nerve tonics can offer us so they can help address nutritional deficiencies.

So for example, certain deficiencies are very significant in terms of how much anxiety someone is experiencing.

For example, B vitamins, B12, it's really essential to nervous system functioning.

They can help with supporting like the repair of the nervous system.

So for example, we have this myelin sheath, which is like a layer of fat that surrounds the nerves and certain plants, for example, skullcap, which is also a nerve tonic can help literally with the repair of the myelin sheath, which is something that most sort of pharmaceuticals can't do likewise, you know.

Then we would work with something like lavender oil because our body needs fat.

It needs healthy fats and healthy oils for our nervous system to function well, etc, etc.

So many of these nerve tonics can support the HPA axis, the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis.

So this is like the kind of brain adrenal system way of how we like activate our kind of sympathetic nervous system.

So how we respond to stress, you know, like.

the brain communicating to our pituitary gland that, you know, we need our stress hormones, we need action, for example.

Anyway, that's a long, like, a very butchered explanation.

I go into it in much more detail in the course.

But yeah, kind of supporting this like HPA axis functioning is like a really integral part of a lot of nerve tonics abilities support to support the body.

Yeah.

Nerve tonics can also help kind of address sleep disturbances like longer term.

And if anyone knows me or who's worked with me as a herbalist, like my priority is always getting the people I'm supporting sleeping well, like that's like number one clinical priority in my eyes because sleep is so essential to recovering from chronic illness and disease.

But you know, unfortunately with PTSD and traumatic stress, sleep is the thing we need most desperately, but the thing somehow taken away from us because our nervous systems are so activated.

So yeah, some of these plants are really fantastic at allowing us to kind of access that deeper kind of REM sleep that we need to, you know, process our memories, for example, and our trauma.

Okay, they can provide the body with antioxidants.

So these have You know, fantastic uses across many different kind of tissues and organ systems, but they can especially support the immune system.

Different nerve tonics can help with the production of kind of various neurotransmitters.

And again, I dive into neurotransmitters in the PTSD course, you know, nerve tonics might also support the liver specifically.

So the liver is where we like metabolize and process our stress hormones and the sort of environmental demands of our lives.

And often we have kind of you know, what people would call kind of like liver stagnation.

So if you're not in a parasympathetic state, you're not getting enough blood flow to the liver, you're not supporting the body with those kind of essential functions.

So many of these plants are really fantastic at supporting the liver in terms of blood flow and also like repairing liver damage, etc.

Improving circulation.

So a lot of nerve tonics can help get blood to the brain and also to the central nervous system.

They can aid our kind of gut flora like our little ecology in our digestive tract.

That's really essential to not only digesting our food and getting energy, but also they have a massive influence on emotional health.

And there's a major, major field now that's all about, you know, the gut brain axis.

And, you know, these herbs can really help address inflammation, for example, in the GI tract.

Nerve tonics can also help kind of directly relieve nerve pain.

For example, sciatica they can help address kind of blood sugar imbalances, which can really contribute to anxiety and this kind of roller coaster feeling.

And yeah, and just like a million and one other actions, like, I think these profiles in the course were some of the most long in terms of just like the broad array.

And I, you know, like with the plant profiles, I've tried to focus on the plants and they're like nervine actions, but it's like, it's very hard, right, to separate them from other actions they have.

For example, elderberry, I think is like a fantastic nervine because I think it's like got an amazing relaxing action, but also like it's affinity for the immune system.

It's just so fantastic that that is going to help people who have a kind of tendency towards hyper arousal and anxiety.

Do you, for example, to like an overactivated immune system as like a kind of stress response consequence.

Anyway, I'm blathering, but yeah, I think nerve tonics, beautiful gift to our bodies.

They can help us recover from long term stress and trauma.

They can help us survive it if we're going through it right now.

And yeah, I think they are a really necessary part of every herbalist toolkit and we should be learning about them in much more depth, in my opinion.

All right, cardiac nervines.

So these are herbs that support the nervous system through their affinity with the heart and the cardiovascular system.

So examples of cardiac nervines include yarrow, hawthorn, motherwort, rose and linden flowers or lime flowers.

however you call them yourself.

But yeah, and again, these herbs, like, aren't just cardiac nervines, right?

They're also, you know, some of them are amazing nerve tonics, like hawthorn, for example.

Some of them are amazing gentle relaxants, like Rose, for example.

So yeah, they expand more than one category.

But yeah, I think they are, like, a useful, like, grouping of herbs, because often When we support someone one to one or supporting ourselves, like, I really think that everyone has different, like, fault lines.

This is where there's kind of an expression of, like, distress in the body or dis ease or imbalance, for example.

So someone might really experience their stress in their gut, you know, very, like, chronic IBS, like, every time they have some emotional distress going on, they're, like, instantly nauseous, for example, like, something like this.

And other people, they're much more prone to like arthritis or joint pain or knee pain or even musculoskeletal injuries.

Yeah, there's kind of like, I think everyone has different fault lines and we all obviously have more than one.

But I think some people really, that's a kind of cardiac like fault line, right?

Like they're much more prone to high blood pressure, for example.

You know, they might look completely sort of healthy on the outside, be very physically active, but actually their kind of cardiovascular system is really struggling.

And that's often because of inflammation in the blood vessels because of like kind of chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system.

Anyway, good job.

I'm like recording this and not writing this because I'm definitely going on some side tangents.

But yeah, cardiac nervines can have many different medicinal actions.

For example, they can have like a gentle, relaxing action through the body, relaxing muscles and relaxing the blood vessels, especially when in sort of this sympathetic, activated, like fight or flight state, they can help reduce blood pressure.

So, for example, herbs like hawthorn berries contain anthocyanins that relax the blood vessels like directly.

They often contain flavonoids.

So these are constituents which help protect the vasculature from oxidative stress and damage and help improve the kind of elasticity of the arteries.

They can aid with like blood vessel integrity due to their kind of high antioxidant content, they may help with lowering cholesterol in the bloodstream and the liver, which, you know, can help reduce risk of heart attack and high blood pressure.

They can help improve like coronary circulation, so you know, circulation within the heart, helping with things like angina.

They can act as circulatory stimulants.

So helping, helping with kind of blood flow, especially where there is this like, we call sort of like, venous insufficiency, for example, hemorrhoids, you know, where there isn't enough blood flow to a certain area of tissues, for example.

Some cardiac nervines, such as lyme flowers, for example, can also help with sleep disturbances and help induce like a restful sleep.

Nearly all of them can kind of support with heart palpitations.

My favorite for this is Motherwort.

I think it's got a really fantastic fantastic, fantastic kind of calming action on heart palpitations and herbs like motherwort can also have cardiotonic properties so they can actually help aid heart activity rhythm.

And this is something in the herbalism PTSD and traumatic stress course, like with each of the plant profiles, I've tried to include like references to sort of contemporary clinical trials.

I try not to quote research on animals because Yeah, I'm like ethically against that and scientifically against that.

Whereas I think herbs that have had sort of clinical human trials.

This is very interesting seeing studies where, you know, 2000 people have had anxiety and this many people have like found a relief with this plant or whatever.

So there is some interesting research around motherwort and its effect on the heart.

And yeah, I would also add that most kind of cardiac nervines that I've listed are actually quite cooling energetically, so they can help with kind of heat signs such as inflammation.

And also like they have this like energetic medicine, right?

So they can support the emotional heart.

So feelings of grief and heartbreak and distress, which I really feel are like big aspects in trauma and trauma recovery.

Like, I think, you know, we can be kind of a bit bio essentialist of understanding the nervous system and all the body produces all these stress chemicals and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But actually, like trauma, like really has a huge emotional impact on us of like, You know, sometimes literally like shattering massive things we thought we knew about the world or like we might have had a sense of safety, which was completely ruptured by a traumatic experience or several traumatic experiences.

You know, I think a lot of people experience trauma after the loss of a loved one, even after the loss of someone they're in love with, for example, or it could be loss of anything like grief of losing a campaign or a project or a house or like, you know, whatever it is.

But I think cardiac nervines are really amazing because they do have this effect on the cardiovascular system and the heart, but they do really help to shift pain that is kind of stored there.

And you know, there's so much research about people having heart attacks, for example, or heart failure, like after losing someone they love, like it's not kind of, you know, hippy dippy stuff.

Like it's very real and heartache and pain and grief is something you're going to see.

See with people who come to you in a clinic, it's going to be something you witness through your lifetime.

Right?

Look what's happening right now in Gaza, like it's absolutely horrific, like the pain and the grief of watching that on, you know, even just on something of Instagram, let alone how people must feel like on the ground, like these events that create tremendous grief in our bodies.

Like.

Those feelings are stored, right?

They're generally stored in our hearts.

So I think these herbs are really beautiful, powerful allies for that kind of yeah, that energetic heart, as well as, you know, preventing things like heart disease and stuff.

All right, stimulating nervines.

So these are herbs with an affinity for the nervous system.

them with a gentle stimulant action.

Okay, so I differentiate them from more like hardcore stimulants which are all also plant medicines, for example, like coffee and tea and yerba mate and energy drinks, et cetera.

You know, I'm really aware that like capitalism has created this like hyper arousal kind of exhaustion cycle where we're like super dependent on stimulants for energy.

You know, I'm not going to lie.

Like I love a posh coffee, for example, but.

Yeah, ultimately, like, it is kind of like false energy, if that makes sense.

Like, it can help us get through our day, but it's going to ultimately kind of deplete our systems.

You know, there's a reason, for example, like, naming the tea trade, right, and colonialism and, you know, how they use tea to, like, make people work longer in factories and stuff.

Like, that's, you know, this kind of dependency on stimulants is, like, really part of our kind of capitalist system.

Okay, but with herbalism...

You know, we're looking at how can we increase our energy in different ways.

And there isn't like magic formulas.

And I think everyone comes to me saying, Oh, I want to have energy.

But it's like, we're going to improve our energy by, for example, improving our sleep, you know, number one, improving our nutrition, improving our mitochondrial health, you know, reducing the activation in our nervous system.

So we're using less of our kind of body's resources.

So yeah, you know, like in a PTSD context as well, it's worth saying that, like, Many people are already experiencing kind of very stimulating systems like hyperarousal symptoms, so they might have like a racing heart or anxiety for example, so therefore putting kind of like stimulants in the mix like isn't always like the best option for people who are experiencing that kind of high activation, high mobilized energy state with kind of hardcore stimulants, if that makes sense.

Like if I'm super anxious and I take coffee, like I will literally be shaking, like because my nervous system is so active.

However, like when, you know, like when are they useful, right?

So in the herbalism PTSD and traumatic stress course.

The stimulating nervines that I explore personally, like with detailed profiles include rosemary, hyssop, sage and thyme, which will, you know, will all be kind of familiar culinary herbs.

You know, what I'm using these herbs for are like this kind of gentle stimulating kind of action, right?

So yeah, so like in the herbalism PTSD and Traumatic Stress course, I talk about polyvagal theory, which is like this theory around our different kind of nervous system states, for example, fight or flight or freeze.

And there's also kind of shut down.

So, you know, I dive into that in much more detail in the course.

But what kind of the freeze responses is it's when you're kind of frozen but there's still actually a lot of like background activation.

So there is this background anxiety even though we see like a kind of depression of function.

So for example we might see like fatigue, lack of movement, like brain fog, dissociation, there might literally be like a drop in blood pressure and heart rate, decreased metabolism, loss of hope and a kind of like sense of hollowness.

So I mentioned earlier about when my best friend killed himself, like, I was in this, like, extremely intense state of rage, right?

High, high, high activation, just absolute, like, rage and anger.

But, like, after that kind of climax, like, there comes the fatigue, right?

Like, there comes, like, the exhaustion from the activation, where you kind of, like, descend into despair, right?

Where I just lie on my bed for, like, weeks at a time, just kind of unable to move, unable to cry, unable to really function, didn't want to eat, everything felt hopeless.

I was just, like, what is the point of all this abolitionist stuff?

Nothing's going to work.

People are just going to keep dying.

Like, it was very...

Yeah, immobilizing, very like, frozen.

But for people kind of in that state, like, I guess, more of a like, depressive, shut down, frozen state, you know, there are different ways of coming out of it.

And in nature, I mean, we are nature, right?

But like, in polyvagal theory, which is really looking a lot at kind of animals, It will often be, like, some acute stress that will get an animal, like, out of this state.

So, you know, suddenly a threat, like, Oh shit, there's a lion, like, I have to move.

And for me, like, I think I was in that state and then I actually had to, like, like, put up a fight about something.

It was, like, something to do with getting Taylor's like body from the coroner or something.

I can't remember what it was but it was like I just went from like absolute zero frozen to just like full of rage and that actually meant that I Shifted from that state because I had this new mobilization of energy.

However, the kind of like general approach especially Promoted by kind of polyvagal practitioners is that you actually need to respond to this kind of shut down state with more with gentleness like you can't push through it like pushing through will actually just lead to like more fatigue so you can't have this like force right so it's kind of ironic like the only way like my nan used to say sometimes the only way out is through and i kind of really think that in this state and i think for me this state lasted like only a couple of weeks, right?

As in response to this acute stress.

Whereas I think for other people, it can last like several months or several years, you know, like full on nervous system breakdowns, like depressive episodes.

And I'm sure for anyone who's experienced that, you'll know that you can't force yourself out of it.

Like it takes a lot of gentleness, like small things.

Like I remember having a little post it note that was just like, brush your teeth, get changed, like, move to the sofa, and that was it.

Like, if I could do those three things, get out of my bed, brush my teeth, put some daytime clothes on, and then move to the sofa, and even if on the sofa, I was just gonna lie there and watch reruns of Bondi Rescue, then...

That's what I was going to do and having that little list was like the gentleness I needed to kind of, you know, survive that period.

And it's not like, you know, I think people think if you have depression, you have to do all these things like go and exercise and do all this shit.

But actually, it's all about gentleness.

But I think stimulating nervines therefore, like, have to be kind of gentle themselves, like, they're not stimulants that will, like, trigger this kind of sympathetic fight or flight high mobilization of energy, but they will kind of uplift, right?

So they will help you regain a little bit of vitality, maybe a little bit of movement towards shifting how you're feeling and they can kind of simultaneously, like, calm and uplift us.

So something like Rosemary, for example, is an amazing circulatory stimulant, so it can like help move blood to the brain, making it useful for kind of headaches and migraines and aiding in concentration and memory.

But it's also like a relaxant for tension.

So, you know, and Rosemary has neuroprotective antioxidants, and it's often antispasmodic.

So it's this kind of like simultaneous Shifting, moving, circulating motion but with like calmness and gentleness and that's why it's a nerve vein and not a kind of hardcore stimulant that's like forcing our body to mobilize energy from like a place of stress.

So I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone but definitely makes sense in my brain but like I said like in the in the course like I dive into those plants in much more detail and talk about like the nuances of them but interestingly these plants like they're all kind of like warming.

And drying.

And generally they all have like an affinity for the gut.

And you know, they actually are kind of generally very antimicrobial and like supportive of that kind of gut ecology.

And you know, like, tick, tick, tick, it's kind of like, Ooh, are they really helping?

Because maybe A lot of people with depression have a lot of like gut flora, kind of gut dysbiosis stuff going on.

Like, you know, it's very interesting.

And they're also like commonly used as sort of respiratory decongestants, right?

And relaxants.

Like we put them in our chest rubs and our cough mixes and things.

Right.

So that was a little wild overview of nervines and the different categories of them.

And just absolute shameless plug.

But it's not that shameless because I think the course really does help people.

I've had vast amounts of feedback from it that it's been useful.

But the Herbalism, PTSD and traumatic stress course is closing on Thursday, the 2nd of November.

So, like I've mentioned before, I'm kind of...

very unlikely to launch it again next year, at least not in the same way that I have been.

It kind of depends on all sorts of factors because I'm expecting a little baby in the end of April.

So yeah, I can't imagine being like resource enough to launch it again in the spring.

And then, yeah, I'd like to have some time off with the little one.

So I'm not sure if I will launch it in the autumn either.

So if you want to get on board, please join it now.

It is sliding scale.

I do, I must say I do love it when people pay.

I definitely need the money for the baby and for our static caravan that we're buying to live in.

But yeah, I also understand that capitalism is hellish and lots of people don't have much right now.

So the kind of solidarity place is kind of from zero to 195 and you can choose where you fit on that spectrum.

Like if you are in serious financial distress, you know, You can definitely not pay anything and you can still join it because I refuse to, yeah, to deny access to people who need it most.

But you can also put in whatever you can afford, like, whether that's 10 or 100, like, it's all amazing and it's all welcome.

So please don't miss out just because you're worried about that and money, like, even if you joined now and then put a donation in in two months time, that is...

Sweet as well.

So yeah, I just want it to be helpful for people.

I want it to be a kind of movement resource.

I want it to act as one small way of disrupting capitalist and state violence.

So yeah, please check it out.

I'll put the link in the show notes and yeah, let me know how you found this episode.

Okay.

Thanks.

Thanks so much for listening to the Frontline Herbalism podcast.

You can find the transcript, the links, all the resources from the show at solidarityapothecary.org/podcast.