Elderberries are a powerful medicinal plant used for centuries across the globe. Rich in history, folklore, and herbal practice. Learn 3 easy ways you can make medicine to help improve your immune function and potentially decrease the impact and duration of the cold and flu viruses.
Three Easy Ways to Work with Melissa officinalis (Lemon Balm)
This year, we planted new herbs in our garden hoping to both experience the joy of watching them grow and make medicine with them. One of the herbs my daughter chose is Melissa officinalis commonly called lemon Balm. She loves the taste of lemon balm as tea and wanted to try fresh lemon balm in…
Seven Ways to Jumpstart Your New Year’s Resolution to Quit Drinking!
Today is the first day of January. The first day of a new year and a day associated with new chances, opportunities, and beginnings. Over the past few months (likely from Halloween until now), many of us have had the seedlings of ideas and notions of things we could do to improve our lives. One…
Angina – CAM Support Protocol
Angina is a cardiac condition that typically presents as chest pain. The patient may describe the pain in many ways ranging from feeling like there is a heavy weight on their chest or squeezing, burning, or choking pain. Occasionally, referred pain may be present in the arm, neck, or jaw. There are three types of…
Alzheimer’s Disease – CAM Support Protocol
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease starting with a decrease in mental function and resulting in memory loss and eventually death. While some people have a genetic disposition to AD, environmental and lifestyle factors also contribute to the progression of the disease. In order to lessen the chance for AD, the following measures…
Grave’s Disease – CAM Support Protocol
This semester I had to submit several very short assignments providing suggestions for complementary alternative medicine support protocols for various conditions. The entire assignment had to be less than 500 words so it was difficult to expand on any one thing; however, I thought I’d share these briefs with you all just in case they…
Mint Tincture – Digestive Aid – Easy DIY
Mint is one of the easiest plants to grow. In fact, it is considered an invasive nuisance by many. If you don’t want to find mint all over your yard, plant it in containers. You can use mint to make teas, to flavor beverages, as an ingredient in your favorite recipes AND you can also…
Holistic Cough Syrup Recipe
Making homemade natural cough syrup is easier than I thought it would be using organic herbs from the Apothecary Shoppe. This recipe is from a class I am taking on Herbal Medicine at the American College of Healthcare Sciences. There are many herbs that can be used to make a cough syrup but this combination…
Grand Circle Trail Fest Race Report
Who: Me, Isabelle, Brittani What: 3 Day Race: Bryce Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon When: October 4-6, 2018 Where: Home Base of Kanab, UT Most significant Areas for Improvement: Accurate description of race routes and better shuttle bus coordination. It’s been a week since we returned home from the trailfest. Does anyone else get a little…
Can Goldenrod Help Seasonal Allergies?
A short blog entry about the wonderful benefits of this often-misunderstood plant with the hope of inspiring you to harvest a few stems and perhaps even try brewing it in tea, making an infused oil, honey, or tincture before the season is over. If you missed out on goldenrod this year, mark your calendars for next year! So much to look forward to in 2021 :).
Epstein-Barr Virus: Condition Monograph
Last semester I researched and wrote a condition monograph on Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) for one of my classes at American College of Healthcare Sciences. This monograph provides a brief description of the condition, a summary of how allopathic medicine would treat this condition and then ideas from an integrative medicine perspective. It is estimated that…
How to Make Your Own Lavender Glycerite
Lavender is hands-down one of my favorite herbs. I use the essential oil regularly for both the aromatic properties as well as a general first aid for minor burns, wound care, insect stings or bites, etc. Most of us are aware of lavender’s ability to calm and soothe in times of stress and as a…
Decoction for Irritated Skin Featuring Marshmallow Root, Burdock Root, and Yellow Dock
It’s been awhile since my last blog post. A few weeks ago, I started my first Herbal Medicine class with American College of Healthcare Sciences as part of my Masters in Holistic Health and Wellness degree. This will surely be one of my favorite classes and I wanted to share a little something with you…
Gnawbone 50K Gritted Teeth so Hard I Broke a Tooth? Maybe!
First official full trail ultra in the books this weekend. Dances with Dirt in Gnawbone, Indiana did not disappoint. It had been a busy taper week with traveling to Texas for work, training new employees and starting summer semester for grad school. Thursday night I got home, and Friday morning I repacked my suitcase and…
Crewing and Pacing at Potawatomi
My first ultra crewing/pacing experience happened Wednesday – Sunday last week for my friend Becca Jones’ 200-mile attempt at Potawatomi Trail Race in Pekin, IL. Our journey started Wednesday in Nashville with a shot of coconut rum and Red Bull and ended Sunday night. On the 6.5 hour drive to Illinois we told trail stories,…
Endurance Saturday – Testing out New Gear and Training Methods
Saturday is for long runs on the trail. I am officially half way through training for the Gnaw Bone 50K in May 2018. If you have ever trained for a race before you will have heard that training runs are the time to try out new gear, nutrition practices, hydration strategies, etc. . . ….
Sleep Series – Post 1: Introduction
I have been thinking about sleep a lot this week. Sleep has been a main focus in my Stress Management Masters class, I have several friends and colleagues that are suffering from lack of sleep, AND I have been thinking about next week when my ultrarunning friend Becca is going to tackle a 200-mile race…
Music City Trail Ultra Recap
Such a great race today at the Music City Trail Ultra in Pegram, TN about 30 miles West of Nashville! I am a member of an amazing Trail Running Group called the Ultra Dirtbags / Dirtbags with Fleet Feet Nashville. We are all training for a race in May and today’s race was a training…
Lost in the Woods… but not for Long
This morning I added an emergency blanket and flint to my running pack. I had been meaning to do this for the last three months and out on the trail yesterday I would have been much less concerned being lost at night in the woods if I would have had those two items. One of…
Helichrysum – A Worthy Addition to Your Herbal Medicine Cabinet
Even though I have been using essential oils for over 20 years I only recently started collecting them for therapeutic use. Like many people (maybe even you) I dislike the side effects of most drugstore medications. I am not anti-prescription drugs or anti-western medicine but I am a huge believer that there are natural solutions…
Living A Life of Jen 