Ep #124: Healing with Herbs with Tasha Rose

You are listening to The Overthinker's Guide to Joy. This is the one where we're going to talk about herbs and plant medicine and how they can support your immune system and nervous system. Let's dive in.

This is a podcast for overthinkers, overdoers, and overachievers who are tired of feeling overanxious and just want to feel better. I'm your host, certified life coach, Jackie DeCrinis. So, hi there and welcome back.

Today I have an interview with a really interesting person on a really interesting subject. Her name is Tasha Rose, and Tasha is a lifelong plant lover, trained herbalist, and mother of two on a mission to educate and empower moms to be prepared for the inevitable sniffles and stressors of life. Her company, Tasha Rose, sells organic herbal supplements for kids and adults. And today, we're going to talk about plant medicine, herbs, stress, and all the things you can do to avoid Western medicine and lean into plant medicine. All right, hi there, Tasha. Hi, Jackie. So nice to have you on the podcast today.

And I have so many questions for you because I love, love, love the notion of alternative medicine, plant medicine, herbal medicine, holistic medicine — just can't get enough of these discussions. And I know we're going to have a good one today. Tell the audience a little bit about you and how you came to do what you do.

Sure. I, like you said, am a lifelong plant lover. So I just really have always felt connected to nature and the plants around me and did a two-year apprenticeship in herbalism to become a trained herbalist to really develop a deep relationship with the plants so that I feel empowered and educated on how to take care of my kids and myself and my husband and my friends and loved ones when we get sick and when we get stressed because it really is an inevitable part of life. And just knowing how to support myself and my loved ones through that really gives me a lot of peace of mind, which is invaluable.

Did you have a particular circumstance either in your own health or with your children that led you to "I have to find an alternative way," or was it just an interest in plants and plant medicine that led you here? "When I was in my early-mid 20s, I realized that I had pretty severe candida. And that definitely led me down more of a natural path. But now that's 20 years ago, so it feels like a lifetime ago. But at that point, I don't think I knew what kale was beforehand. And I definitely didn't know a ton about herbs in spite of my love of plants. And that definitely, definitely put me down this path, I feel like."

"In addition to being an herbalist and somebody who has a company of herbal medicines, do you also have a garden and do you grow your own herbs?" "Not that we use in our products. No, because I can't grow enough of what we would need. But I do have a small garden and some herbs and plants and especially flowers. I really love to grow flowers."

"And what was the first herbal remedy that you invented or created for your company, Tasha Rose?" "Good question. The first one I would say is elderberry syrup because when I was pregnant, I was looking at the ones on the store shelves and so many of them have sugar added to them. And I was like, 'Why are they putting sugar in something that's supposed to be supporting you when your immune system needs help and sugar deactivates the immune system?' Like, that just doesn't make any sense. And a lot of them have, you know, stabilizers or thickeners or preservatives in them. And I just knew that I could make one that was delicious, that didn't have sugar, and that really was going to be effective."

"Is elderberry syrup or cough syrup for little ones — is that your best seller?" "Our best seller is actually not that, but it is one of our top sellers." "I love that. Because when new moms or long-term moms are suffering with sick kids, whether it's first-time cold, sniffles, viruses from the playground, nursery school, daycare, preschool, all the things — it is so stressful to have a little one who maybe can't even communicate what's wrong. And then running to doctors is a tricky thing, getting appointments, sitting in waiting rooms with other sick kids. The overdependence on antibiotics is very stressful. So it's so great to have a holistic alternative."

"Do you find that the families you've interacted with and sold to, they're just so grateful? And do you see a difference in the immune system once people use alternative medicine instead of relying on the 'I got to hurry up and go get antibiotics'?" "I definitely think that our customers are stocking their natural medicine cabinets at home and using those as the first line of defense and prevention and support. And then if needed, you know, there's a time and place for Western allopathic medicine and when we need antibiotics and that's like the only thing that's going to work. God bless them because, gosh, agreed. There's nothing worse than a crying baby in the middle of the night with an ear infection and knowing that those antibiotics generally will work within a few hours — it's like an amazing thing."

"The reason you're on my podcast today is your client base and my client base overlap in a very significant way, which is for many of your clients who buy your remedies, stress is a big component. How to manage stress from an alternative lifestyle way. What are some of your go-to remedies for people who are experiencing either chronic or acute anxiety?" "I love that your audience is familiar with this topic, but I think it's good to remind people of the types of stress, and you just mentioned two of them, right? We can have this mild daily stress, we can have more chronic ongoing stress, and then there's also that short-term extreme or intense stress. And so each of those requires something different. And my favorite ways to support the body and how it's responding to these stressors is dependent on the situation, but nourishing herbs, adaptogens, and nervines are all classes of herbs that are going to support the way your body handles and responds to stress. And there's also environmental stress, there's physical stress, there's chemical stress, there's emotional stress — there's so many different types of stress. We all know that we encounter stress in our everyday world, but really it's supporting our body in a way so that it becomes more resilient. And resiliency or being resilient means that we're able to, when we get thrown off our center, come back to our center more quickly. And the ability to really be agile as we're moving through the world and respond to what's happening around us, within us, and reacting to it, right?"

"And so this is like a high-level overview, but then we can take it down to the macro of alright — what specific herbs are gonna help us do this?" "Mm-hmm, my number one that I love and I really feel like it's one that anyone and everyone can benefit from is oat straw, and it's very uncommon to say that like one thing can help everybody." "Mm-hmm." "Oat straw is a nourishing herb that's the same plant that we get our oats from. I know I've told you about oat straw before. It really is truly a supreme nervous system tonic, and nourishing herbs, if you're listening and you're not familiar with them, they are considered the safest class of herbs and they're also considered food because of their high vitamin and mineral content. And each nourishing herb has an affinity for different systems of the body, and oat straw's affinity is for the nervous system. It helps to really rebuild and soothe and uplift the nervous system. It also supports the endocrine system and function, especially in regards to irritability and mood swings related to PMS. And it's high in B vitamins and calcium, potassium, phosphorus, vitamins A and E and C. And you prepare it by just taking a large handful of the dried plant material and adding it to a half gallon of nearly boiling water. And you let that steep for four hours minimum. Typically I just leave it on the counter overnight and then strain it in the morning and pop it in the fridge. And that's actually what I'm drinking right now." "And does it have any flavor?" "Mild, sweet flavor. Some people think it tastes like hay, which hay is typically made from oats."

So I love that — it's just mild and sweet. It has a golden color. Most kids typically love this one. It's a great one to use as the introduction for kids to plants too.

"Interesting, interesting. And you drink it every day. I presume there are no side effects to it. There's no sleepiness. It doesn't make you hyper obviously. It's really to mellow out your nervous system."

"It can be uplifting and soothing. So really, I think with the nourishing herbs, they are providing this all-around support for the body in terms of vitamins and minerals, and that's going to really optimize how our body can function. So if we're able to function more easily in the way that we are intended to, then we're going to be better able to handle the things that get thrown our way."

"What else falls into that category of nourishing herbs? Does chamomile fall into that?"

"Chamomile is not a nourishing herb. It does not provide ample vitamins and minerals. It does have a lot of compounds, but chamomile would be considered a nervine, which is a nervous system support."

"Oh, okay. So now go back to what you were talking about as you were breaking down stress and all the different things. We talked about emotional stress, environmental stress, physical stress, all the things, and how each category of herb might address those different types of stress in our body."

"So I feel like with the nourishing herbs, like oat straw we were talking about, it's really going to support all of these, but especially that mild daily stress and the chronic ongoing stress. For the short-term extreme stress, you're probably going to want something that's a little stronger and we can get into that too."

"I'm just curious. Yeah, I'd love to talk about all the things because like I said, that's really the overlap of our two clientele is those stress support-related healthy habits, things that people can do that become either a daily or weekly ritual and habit to get in touch with that mind-body connection so that they feel like they have more control over how they react to stress and how to manage their stress."

"Mm-hmm. I love the daily ritual that I have of before I go to sleep making my nourishing infusion, which is typically oat straw or nettles and having that steep on the counter and in the morning knowing that it's ready and then drinking a big glass of it to start my day. It's just setting up my future self for success."

"Let's actually switch to that. So you talked about nettles, also known as stinging nettle, something we see in teas, something we see in herbal capsules. I recently heard a lot about it from my friends who also are proponents of herbal medicine. Talk about the nettles."

"Like my deepest plant ally, I have been drinking it near daily for over 10 years now, it is similar to oat straw in that it is a nourishing herb. The affinity for nettles is more the immune, respiratory, digestive, and endocrine systems. And again, it has these bioavailable vitamins and minerals. The energy of nettles is more rooting and earthy as well as fiery. Oat straw is a little more airy in its energy, I would say."

"And do you combine your two herbs when you make your overnight tea, if you will, or are they two separate jugs?"

"I prefer to keep them separate. They're called simples one at a time. And that's just me. And especially I recommend that when you are first getting to know a plant, it's really nice just to work with it one on one for 40 days or so ideally, but just getting familiar with the taste, the smell, the energy as it moves through your body, how your body reacts to it. It's like building a friendship. And then once you're like, you know your friends, you might start to introduce them to each other."

"I'm a big proponent of vitamin therapies. But I don't think all vitamins are the same for everybody, same as herbal supplements, all the things. You don't want to overload your body with a bunch of new vitamins because you won't know what's working and not working. It's really good to introduce slowly, like the safe ones, of course, or vitamin C — that's a really good one to have every day if you don't have enough intake of vitamin C through plants and fruits. And then vitamin D is really important. But again, you don't want to just sort of overload. And if you do have a reaction to something, whether it's dosage or formula, or specifically your body doesn't tolerate something, whether it's allergy sensitivity, it's good to know because you've introduced them one at a time as opposed to bombarding your system."

"Okay, so nettles and oat straw are your go-to favorites. Is this something you also sell through Tasha Rose?"

"It is, though oftentimes when we restock them, they sell out very quickly. And I can also share in our show notes where I recommend to buy them too if we are sold out."

"But you're basically using the dried version of them creating your own tea and straining it."

"Yes, it's something that you prepare yourself."

"Mm-hmm, nice, nice. And are these also two things you would recommend for children if there is either stress or anxiety present or is this only for adult remedies?"

"Nourishing herbs are really wonderful to introduce to kids, especially because kids can be quite selective in their eating. Wonderful way to just get more available vitamins and minerals into their bodies."

"That's wonderful. And by the way, I love how diplomatic you were with 'kids can be selective in their eating.' I raised three of the pickiest eaters on the planet and like getting them to eat anything when they were little other than processed junk food, which they readily loved, was torturous. And now they're grown-ups and they all eat really well and it's beautiful and they can all cook and they're foodies and all the things. But it was terrifying when they were little."

"Yeah, it can be very challenging. My kids are five and seven and yeah, we go through 'Wait! You hate bananas, but yesterday you ate three of them.' Okay, I know. We'll freeze these ones."

"We joke because every time my kids come home to visit, there's always something new they eat and I was so tortured by the fact that that was forbidden to even be on the table when they were little and they're like 'I'm a grown-up, I eat that now' and I'm like 'but you didn't eat that for decades' and they're like 'well, tastes change.'"

"Okay so we talked a little bit about your favorite nourishing herbs. Let's go to the other categories you were talking about — for example, the chamomiles or the lemon balms — like just some of your other go-to herbs and the categories those live in and what they provide and do."

"So I feel like next we should go to adaptogens."

Adaptogens are herbs or plants that help our body be more resistant to stress or handle stress better. And when I first learned about them, I was like, "Oh my God, why does not every single person in the world know about adaptogens and utilize them? Because they're incredible — like, oh, you can take this plant that's going to help your body handle stress better, like, duh."

Yeah, and there's tons of adaptogens — there's a lot of them, but I wanted to talk about two today: Tulsi and Ashwagandha. Ashwagandha is probably an herb that everyone listening has likely heard of. It's very common. It's been used in Ayurveda for thousands of years, and it translates to "the strength of a thousand horses." So just from that name, you're like, "All right, this is going to help me get up and go." It is an adaptogenic nervine, which means it's nourishing, strengthening, and rebuilding to the nervous system. It also supports the body against anxious thoughts or anxiety. It supports the adrenal medulla, which is the part of our body that controls the adrenaline and noradrenaline response. It also helps with developing healthy sleep patterns, fatigue, insomnia, overwork, and works on the immune system, not just the nervous system.

"And how do people ingest that? Is that a tea? Is that a capsule? How do you recommend that?"

"Ashwagandha, you can take as a tea. You could make a hot infusion, which is just something that you would steep a little bit longer, so it's a bit stronger. It's oftentimes sold as a powdered capsule that you can take. You could get a glycerite or a tincture of it. There's a lot of ways that you could take Ashwagandha."

"And with herbs, unlike vitamins — like vitamins you always have to take with food. It can be extremely upsetting to your stomach if you take heavy dosages of vitamins or even low dosages of vitamins and don't have food present. Plus vitamins work better with food. I have heard that herbs often like to work on their own and don't work in the presence of a heavy meal. A lot of herbal supplements on the bottles will say, 'Take between meals.' What is your philosophy on herbal remedies and support and how best to support them so that they support you?"

"I, too, tend to say for most of the herbs to take them between meals, but with the nourishing herbs, you can take them whenever because they are like food for the body with their high vitamin and mineral content. But for the other classes of herbs, typically I would say between meals just to keep it simple."

"Mm-hmm. Okay. So you talked about Ashwagandha, and what was the other one that you love so much in that category?"

"Tulsi. It's also called Holy Basil."

"Oh, Holy Basil I've heard of. I've never heard of Tulsi, so I didn't know that other name. So talk about Holy Basil."

"Yes. So I liken Tulsi to the saying — I don't know if you've heard it — but the 'both/and,' in that it encompasses duality. It's calming, but it's energizing. It's awakening and relaxing. It's grounding and enlightening. And so one of the main things that adaptogens do is that they modulate the body, which means to bring it into balance. So if you're overactive, it's going to bring you down. If you're underactive, it's going to pull you up. And so that's kind of the duality, I feel like, that Tulsi really holds in a powerful and potent way. It has this kind of innate intelligence, I feel like. And the smell and the taste is just so beautiful too, very aromatic. And it's just, gosh, I love it. It's wonderful for the nervous system as well as the immune and respiratory system too."

"And this is something you also take as a tea for the most part, but it can also be taken in an herbal supplement or probably a tincture?"

"Yes, but I would definitely recommend it as a tea just because the flavor and the aroma is so lovely."

"It's awesome. And this is also something you sell on your website, yes?"

"We don't sell Tulsi, though I really do want to. We did send samples to people over Black Friday, just kind of as a test. It's one of the main ingredients in our mood support tincture, as is Ashwagandha."

"Love this. Love this. A lot of my clients are women going through big changes, whether that's postpartum, whether that's perimenopause, menopause, even things like, as we were saying, circumstantial changes like empty nesting or divorce or remarriage. I mean, there's so many different things that happen midlife. Oat straw is probably the go-to remedy for all of those kind of roller coaster changes around 40, 45 years old, I would think."

"I'm 45. I have heavily leaned into Oat straw the last five years since my son was born. But I also feel like Tulsi and Ashwagandha, like the adaptogens, really are wonderful if they are taken with the nourishing herbs. Those two are really wonderful when they're taken consistently and over the long term. That's where you're really gonna get the full effects and benefits from them versus some of the ones that we kind of hinted to that are stronger acting. You're gonna be using those more for that short-term extreme stress."

"The last thing I'm gonna ask you about, just 'cause we've been talking about it a few times on this podcast recently, and again, something women struggle with middle-aged, whether it's postpartum or perimenopause or menopause, is weight gain and the changes in metabolism, which is bound to happen. Is there any herb that you recommend for supporting, whether it's digestion — as a lot of these herbs do — but weight loss or keeping that metabolism going that isn't just caffeine and other kinds of things to kind of speed them up so that they either have an appetite suppressant or they think they're burning more calories? Is there something in plant medicine that can help with metabolism when it starts to naturally slow down?"

"Chickweed is a nourishing herb that really supports metabolism and digestion. It has a really lovely kind of watery soothing energy too as well. It's a wildweed that grows abundantly all over the world, especially in the US and the northern hemisphere in the spring. And you can make a fresh chickweed pesto too — like you don't have to make tea necessarily, you can eat it."

"That's really interesting. In herbal remedies, because a lot of people suffer from a variety of allergies, and when I think about oat straw and how it's like hay, right? And I think, oh my God, there's so many people with hay fever. Is it different when it's in a dried form and it's made as a tea versus like going out to a farm and sneezing your head off in the spring because you've walked by bales of hay?"

"Yeah, I feel like the pollens aren't as active in the dried herbs."

"Yeah. Because that's an important question for people who do suffer from hay fever or have a sensitivity to herbs or pollen. This has been such a fun discussion. I'm sure there are listeners who are thinking, 'I need these herbs. I need these teas or tinctures, or I need a place to know where to buy them, how to use them, I need advice, I need all the things.' How can people get in touch with you? How can people buy from you? How can people learn from you?"

"I love talking to people about plants, so feel free to go to our website, tasharose.com. We have a contact form on there, and we will happily answer your questions. If it's like a specific question, it'll be me actually answering it for you too. And you can find us on Instagram @tasharose.herbalist too. And yeah, those are the ways that you can find us."

"I love it. Thank you for bringing these wonderful products to market and for educating my listeners today and me especially. I just love this subject and I love what you're doing and what you're bringing to the world. And I hope people will follow you, find you, and buy your products."

"Thank you, Jackie."

"My pleasure, Tasha. I will talk to you soon."

"Bye for now."

"Bye."

"If you would like to learn more about working with me as a coach, you can connect with me through my website at JackieDeCrinis.com. That's J-A-C-K-I-E-D-E-C-R-I-N-I-S dot com."