2024 Medicines from the Earth Attendee Page

Online Post-symposium Intensive with Eric Yarnell, ND, RH (AHG)

Title: Natural Treatment of Prostate Conditions: Blending Western Herbal Practice, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy
Date: Starting Sunday, May 19, 2024
Time: On demand streaming video
Place: Available on any internet-connected device
Cost: $89
Open only to registered conference participants.

Continuing Education: 4 hours approved for naturopathic physicians, acupuncturists, nursing and other health professionals

Description: Prostate problems are extremely common and highly amenable to natural prevention and treatment.

• Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is experienced by the majority of men to varying degrees. We discuss how to assess the severity and type of BPH, choosing the most appropriate therapeutics, including when it is necessary to use drugs or refer for surgery (including what types of surgery are best).
• Chronic prostatitis and pelvic pain are also extremely common, but little discussed. We review various theories of how these conditions arise, and especially debunk the widespread belief that infections always underlie this condition. 
• We will then review prostate cancer. We start with a condition that doesn’t really have a name but is currently mislabeled as low-grade, localized prostate cancer. This unnamed condition especially will be addressed with an eye toward avoiding the vast overtreatment that currently occurs in conventional medicine. Next we delve into established prostate cancer and the power of a combination of natural and conventional therapies, including the many new conventional options for focal (vs. prostate- or even pelvis-wide) treatment.
• Finally we discuss issues around the prostate in trans feminine people who still have prostates.
• Case studies are used as illustrations throughout.

Add it to your registration here.

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Monday Gaia Herbs Farm Tour

Date: Monday, May 20, 2024
Time: 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Location: Gaia Herbs Farm
101 Gaia Herbs Drive, Brevard, NC 28712
Hosts:Susan Hirsch, Gaia Herbs Formulation Manager and Kate Renner, Gaia Herbs Director of Farm Operations
Cost: Free
Open only to registered conference participants. 40 person limit; first come, first serve.

Join us for a special post-conference tour of the Gaia Herbs Farm! 

Located in Brevard, NC, Gaia Herbs’ Regenerative Organic CertifiedTM Farm is home to 350 beautiful acres of farmland, greenhouses, and production facilities. Come explore the Farm with our Operations Director and Formulation Manager for an overview of our growing and herbal practices. 

We will wrap up the tour at our historic farm house. Guests are welcome to bring a picnic lunch and stay to enjoy the memorable view and verdant scenery from the farm house patio. (Food Matters is a great place to grab a lunch to bring with you!)

Space is limited, sign up today – we can’t wait to welcome you for this special event!

Sign up here

Please be aware: This tour will be held outside, rain or shine, and will include both walking and standing. Farm fields, gravel roads, uneven paths, mud, and potentially hot and humid conditions are possible. Guests will need to be physically able to walk the Farm with us. Please bring appropriate shoes and clothing for whatever Mother Nature may send our way. Each guest will be required to sign a waiver before participating in the Farm Tour.

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Streaming Videos

Symposium attendees receive 6 months streaming access to all videos recorded at the event (excludes outdoor workshops and herb walks).

Streaming videos will be available 3-4 weeks after the event ends. We will notify you by email when videos are ready to view!

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Symposium Schedule
(Subject to minor changes)

Sunday, May 19

9:00 AM – 10:30 AM

Parasites: The Devil Inside
Kenneth Proefrock, NMD
Parasitic infections pose significant health challenges globally, particularly in impoverished regions. We explore historical and botanical interventions alongside pharmaceutical treatments, while recognizing the need for balance between efficacy and microbiome impact. Anti-parasitic drugs and herbal regimens are more popular than they ever have been, and we explore the efficacy of these protocols, based on the life cycle of the identifiable infective agent. Botanicals addressed include the chemistry of tropane alkaloid containing plants like Datura and Belladonna, as well as cholinergic plants like Pilocarpus, Areca catechu, Piper betel, and Nicotiana spp. We also discuss Juglans niger, Syzigium, Berberis/Algerita/Mahonia spp, Artemisia spp, Castela spp, and Triphala.

It Hurts to Move: Herbal and CAM Treatment of Back Pain and Fibromyalgia
David Winston, RH (AHG)
Chronic back pain is very common, it is the leading cause of missed work in the US and can make getting out of bed miserable. Fibromyalgia causes chronic muscular pain, but is under treated, poorly understood and orthodox treatment options are limited. In this class we will discuss the herbal, nutritional, bodywork and mind/body therapies I have used successfully with my patients for over 40 years that can offer real benefits for both conditions, allowing for better movement, improved flexibility, quality of life and more pain-free days. Note: there is a part of this class that talks about orthodox pharmaceuticals used for back pain and fibromyalgia (for pharm D).

Tree Medicine: Sentient Beings and Allies for Life
Teresa Boardwine, RH (AHG)
Learn how to build a relationship with trees as allies in healing by exploring and identifying the trees in your area. We discuss how trees communicate, and that will lead to a better understanding of trees as sentient beings. We honor the medicinal legacy of their bark, seeds, fruits and roots, and how they support our journey by providing oxygen, shade, leaf litter, canopy for many organisms and food for a multitude of species. The understanding of tree medicine helps us to formulate herbal products to support health, vitality, and balance. You will have a chance to taste some favorite recipes of tree medicine that include; Black Walnut liqueur, Pine Cone syrup and Wild Cherry bark cough syrup. Thank you, Trees!

Herb Walk
Doug and Todd Elliott
Refresh yourself in the forests of Blue Ridge Assembly with Doug and Todd Elliott, the consummate storytellers, entertainers and musicians. Scientific medicinal plant information and folklore are combined in a seamless whole in this walk on the wild side! Join them in one of their favorite stomping grounds, finding botanical treasures at every turn, growing in wild abundance in the fields and forests of Blue Ridge Assembly.

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

The 4 Horsemen of Chronic Disease: Assessing and Managing the Complicated Case, Pt 2: Environmental Toxins and Nutrient Deficiency
Jason Miller, DACM, LAc
In part 2 of this 2-part series, we explore the interconnected roles that environmental toxins and nutrient deficiency play as drivers of chronic disease. We discuss how to evaluate the presence of environmental toxins and how to address them with botanical medicine therapeutics. Special attention will be given to the most common agents seen in the clinic today, and how they promote the chronic disease process (including heavy metals, endocrine disruptors, pesticides and solvents). In addition, nutrient deficiencies are a growing problem worldwide with Vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, selenium and B12 being among the most prevalent. We give special attention to the most common nutrient deficiencies seen in the clinic today, how they contribute to the chronic disease process, how to effectively test for them, and how to address them. The combination of environmental toxins and nutrient deficiency is wreaking havoc on our physiology. Based on our evaluation and findings, we will be equipped to put together a comprehensive plan that uses a multi-toolbox approach to address some of the most challenging chronic disease cases.

Botanical Analogs for At-Risk Medicinals
Kat Maier, RH (AHG)
United Plant Savers (UpS) has created the invaluable “At-Risk” Tool, which is based on various relationships that we humans, as well as ecosystems, have with the plants. After reading the list, students always ask, “Well, what can we use in its place?” Often times the choice is simple: choose a cultivated species rather than one harvested from the wild. When cultivated species are not available, then it is best to find a plant analog; one having a parallel action, function or end result compared to the herb you want to save. In most instances, it is important and necessary to use a variety of analogs for the at-risk herb because an analog generally satisfies only some of the therapeutic actions of a particular plant species and does not demonstrate all medicinal actions of that plant. It is sometimes difficult to find replacements for our tried and true herb friends, but it also can be very satisfying and will expand your expertise, while helping to replant our future.

Wild Fruits of the Fields and Forests (Demonstration)
Vickie Shufer, MA
Fruits are the seed-bearing parts of plants and include berries, legumes, seeds, and nuts. Discover the abundance of wild fruits growing in our fields and forest that are edible and provide health and medicinal benefits. Find out how to prepare them in ways that are tasty and nutritious. Samples will be available for tasting.

Plant Walk with a Botanical Focus
7Song
On this plant excursion, we focus on the botanical characteristics of the plants in the wild. We look at their flowers, leaves, and other plant parts and discuss why they fit into a particular family, genus and species and ways to identify them. We also describe the medicinal and other uses for these plants.

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

Botanicals that Provide Most of the Chemotherapeutic Drugs in Cancer Care
Donald Yance, CN, RH (AHG)
65% of chemotherapeutic agents either come from a plant or have been molecularly compounded based on a plant compound. This presentation reviews the search for cancer drugs in the plant world, taking a detailed look at several plants that have been used to create chemotherapeutic drugs. The discussion includes the difference in action between an isolated constituent and a whole plant extract, and how to combine the whole plant medicine with the chemotherapeutic agent.. We also address metronomic chemotherapy: what it is and why it is often the best option for treatment, even though it is seldom used.

Glutamine/Glutamate Dysfunction and Common Neurological Conditions
Jillian Stansbury, ND
Glutamate dysfunction is noted to contribute to neurologic disorders including Alzehiemer’s, Parkinson’s, Depression, Epilepsy, Stoke and more.  Naturally occurring molecules in herbal medicines can prevent glutamate-driven inflammatory and excitatory states.  This session will review herbal medicines capable of reducing excessive glutamate synthesis and release, of  optimizing the expression of glutamate receptors in ionotropic and metabotropic tissues, and of enhancing glutamate transport and clearance from sensitive neurons.  We will review classic TCM formulas for neurologic conditions and Western Herbs for a variety of neurologic disorders that work, in part, via effects on glutaminergic neurotransmission.

Herbal Skin Care Preparations (Demonstration)
Lucretia VanDyke, Herbalist
In this class we will span the globe for botanical based beauty recipes from Asia to my family secrets from the mountains of North Carolina. Learn how to use what’s in your kitchen and the garden to craft skin/body care. We will explore acupressure face massage for sinus and headaches, topical pain relievers, and herbal infused oils for specific skin types.

We will also look at the anatomy of the integumentary system and Chinese Face Mapping to explore what our skin is trying to say about our overall health on a deeper level. We will study the link between indigenous beauty rituals, herbs, and self care to help integrate a slow beauty routine that will help clients with their stress management. This presentation provides tools, practical knowledge, and resources that help clients with skin issues such as eczema, sunburn, acne, shingles, women’s health, and hormonal changes in the skin.

Outdoor Plant Walk: Food as Medicine
Marc Williams, MA
Food as medicine is a concept that is rooted in the healing systems of Ancient Africa, Greece, China, India, and others. It is well known that various compounds such as antioxidants and bitters are helpful in promoting overall health and well-being. Classes of plants, such as adaptogens, make up a large part of the current superfood trends in our society. While walking the grounds of the Blue Ridge Assembly we will participate in an overview of plants and fungi that are prime examples of how food can be medicine, as well as some fascinating stories of how these life forms and humans have interacted over time.

4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Panel Discussion: The Challenges of Climate Change in Clinical Practice
Panelists: Kenneth Proefrock, NMD, Kat Maier, RH (AHG) and Lucretia VanDyke, Herbalist
As the climate warms and changes, it also changes the conditions we are seeing and the therapies we are using. We discuss the effects of a warming climate on general and heart health, the neurological implications of increasing stress from environmental impacts such as wildfires and flooding, and how this affects local communities throughout the US, especially in disadvantaged areas. We also talk about the changing landscape of botanicals available in our bioregion, and how vital it is to support each other and our patients during this time of change.

Online

Online Intensive: Natural Treatment of Prostate Conditions: Blending Western Herbal Practice, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Pharmacy
Eric Yarnell, ND, RH (AHG)
Prostate problems are extremely common and highly amenable to natural prevention and treatment.

• Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is experienced by the majority of men to varying degrees. We discuss how to assess the severity and type of BPH, choosing the most appropriate therapeutics, including when it is necessary to use drugs or refer for surgery (including what types of surgery are best).
• Chronic prostatitis and pelvic pain are also extremely common, but little discussed. We review various theories
  of how these conditions arise, and especially debunk the widespread belief that infections always underlie this condition.
• We will then review prostate cancer. We start with a condition that doesn’t really have a name but is currently mislabeled as low-grade, localized prostate cancer. This unnamed condition especially will be addressed with an eye toward avoiding the vast overtreatment that currently occurs in conventional medicine. Next we delve into established prostate cancer and the power of a combination of natural and conventional therapies, including the many new conventional options for focal (vs. prostate- or even pelvis-wide) treatment.
• Finally we discuss issues around the prostate in trans feminine people who still have prostates.
• Case studies are used as illustrations throughout.

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Symposium Speakers and Topics
(Subject to minor changes)

7Song
7Song is a clinical herbalist, teacher, botanist and naturalist. He is the primary teacher at the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine, which he started in 1992 in Ithaca, NY. He is a founder and clinical herbalist at the Ithaca Free Clinic, a free integrative clinic that opened its doors in 2006. 7Song began studying herbal medicine and plants in 1981 and continues to study and learn the multiple avenues that plants can be helpful in health. He feels that it is important that herbalists and herbal medicine be accessible and available to all people and communities. He can often be found in fields, bogs, and forests, identifying and photographing plants and critters. More about7Song.

Presentations:
1. Plant Walk with a Clinical Focus
2. Plant Walk with a Botanical Focus

Rebecca Beyer, Herbalist
Rebecca Beyer is the woman behind the Blood and Spicebush School of Old Craft. She lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she manages a homestead and teaches traditional witchcraft, foraging, and Appalachian folk medicine. She has a BS in Plant and Soil science from the University of Vermont and a Masters in Appalachian Studies and Sustainability, concentrating in Appalachian Ethnobotany at Appalachian State University. She is also a member of the Association of Foragers. She spends her days trying to learn what her ancestors did and finding ways to share traditional skills while tackling cultural appropriation and the complexities of living in the modern world. More about Rebecca Beyer.

Presentations:
1. Appalachian Herbal Tonics

Teresa Boardwine, RH (AHG)
Green Comfort School of Herbal Medicine in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, is where Teresa Boardwine offers classes, consultations, and online access to her workshops. She has been teaching her hands-on medicine-making classes for over 25 years, and just graduated her largest class of students in the fall of 2023. More aboutTeresa Boardwine.

Presentations:
1. Trees as Sentient Beings and Medicinal Allies for Human Ailments
2. Food As Medicine: Garden Weeds and Forest Floor to Table (Demonstration)

Mary Bove, ND
A clinical medical herbalist, Mary Bove, ND, had a practice in family medicine in Brattleboro, Vermont for over 20 years, where she assisted at the birth of a whole generation of children. Once a full-time faculty member at Bastyr University, Dr. Bove chaired the departments of Botanical Medicine and Naturopathic Midwifery. She is the author of An Encyclopedia of Natural Healing for Children and Infants, and co-author of Herbs for Women’s Health. More about Mary Bove.

Presentations:
1. Keynote Address: Inspired by Herbs: The Herbal Journey of a Modern Day Herbalist
2. Thyroid Health: Zeroing in on Two Common Thyroid Conditions

Doug Elliott and Todd Elliott
For many years Doug Elliott earned his living as a traveling herbalist collecting and selling herbs, teas and old-time remedies. Along with healing plants, Doug searches out old-timers and elders from various cultures. From these bearers of tradition, he has assembled an extensive body of knowledge of the botanical aspects of plants, their history, legends, and lore, their uses in various cultures, medicinal properties, food value, as well as other practical ways we can use wild plants every day. More about Doug Elliott.

Not surprisingly, Doug’s son Todd Elliott has had a passion for the natural world since childhood, which led him to co-author his first peer-reviewed scientific publication by age 14. His ongoing studies of global biodiversity and interrelationships in nature have taken him to remote corners of the world on six continents. Todd has collaborated on many publications covering this research, and his book Mushrooms of the Southeast (USA) was released in 2018. He is currently a PhD candidate in Environmental and Rural Science at the University of New England, focusing on the role of macrofungi in vertebrate diets. More about Todd Elliott.

Presentations:
1. Saturday Herb Walk
2. Sunday Herb Walk

Kat Maier, RH (AHG)
A practicing herbalist for over twenty years, Kat Maier is currently director of Sacred Plant Traditions in Charlottesville, Virginia where she offers a three-year clinical/community herbalist training program, and runs an herbal free clinic. She began studying plants in the Peace Corps in Chile. More aboutKat Maier.

Presentations:
1. Botanical Analogs for At-Risk Medicinals
2. Plant Walk: Establishing Plant Relations

Jason Miller, DACM, LAc
Jason Miller, DACM, LAc, practices botanical and nutritional medicine, acupuncture, and Asian bodywork at his clinic, Jade Mountain Medicine, in Ashland, Oregon. He received his master’s degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in 2005 and completed a postgraduate internship at the “House of Celebrity Doctors” in Nanjing, China. He earned his Doctorate of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine from the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in 2018. His approach bridges the frameworks of traditional and modern medicine in the management of chronic disease. At Jade Mountain, he specializes in the management of cancer, diabetes and neuromuscular disorders. More about Jason Miller.

Presentations:
1. The Dementia Epidemic: Evaluation, Causes, and the Role of Botanical Medicine
2. The 4 Horsemen of Chronic Disease: Assessing and Managing the Complicated Case, Part 1: Stress and Chronic Infections
3. The 4 Horsemen of Chronic Disease: Assessing and Managing the Complicated Case, Part 2: Environmental Toxins and Nutrient Deficiency

Kenneth Proefrock, NMD
A naturopathic physician practicing in Sun City, Arizona, Kenneth Proefrock specializes in difficult-to-treat conditions in his clinic, Total Wellness. He is the vice-president of the North American Board of Naturopathic Examiners and chair of the biochemistry portion of the naturopathic physician’s licensing exam. His lectures combine a detailed understanding of biochemistry and physiology with a passion for plant medicine. More aboutKenneth Proefrock.

Presentations:
1. Parasites — The Devil Inside
2. Nerve Injury and Repair — from Bell’s Palsy and Sciatica to Epilepsy and Trauma

Vickie Shufer, MA
Vickie Shufer is an herbalist and forager with a Master’s Degree in Therapeutic Herbalism. She teaches classes on edible and medicinal plants, including medicine making and wild food cooking classes. She is the author of The Forager’s Handbook and The Everything Guide to Foraging and is the owner of Wild Woods Farm, a certified native nursery in southern Virginia Beach and northeastern North Carolina. The focus at Wild Woods Farm is on growing both native and cultivated medicinal herbs, and creating teas, vinegars and salves for healing. More about Vickie Shufer.

Presentations:
1. Wild Fruits of Fields and Forests (Demonstration)

Jillian Stansbury, ND
Jillian Stansbury is a naturopathic physician who has been practicing in SW Washington State for over 30 years, specializing in women’s health, mental health, and chronic disease. She holds undergraduate degrees in Medical Illustration and Medical Assisting and graduated with honors in both programs. She was the chair of the botanical medicine department at the National University of Natural Medicine for over 20 years. Jill has recently published five herbal formularies for health professionals, comprehensive, practical reference manuals for herbalists, physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals More about Jillian Stansbury.

Presentations:
1. Lobelia: A Classic Respiratory Herb Matures into the Modern Era
2. Glutamine/Glutamate Dysfunction and Common Neurological Conditions

Lucretia VanDyke, Herbalist
With a journey that began when she was just a little girl mixing herbs, clays, and muds on her grandparents’ farm, Lucretia VanDyke has had a lifelong connection to plants. She’s been in the wellness industry for over 25 years, working as a holistic esthetician and educator. Lucretia has worked and trained with many internationally known spa and skin care companies. Her quest for knowledge and interest in the traditional approach to wellness has led her to training extensively in Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Bali. Lucretia focuses on integrating indigenous healing rituals, plant spirit medicine, holistic approaches to food/herbal medicine, ancestor reverence, and meditation into modern daily practice. More about Lucretia VanDyke.

Presentations:
1. African American Herbalism: A Practical Class on Healing Plants and Folk Traditions
2. Herbal Skin Care Preparations (Demonstration)

Marc Williams, MA
Ethnobiologist Marc Williams has taught hundreds of classes to thousands of people about plants, humans, other life forms and their interface. His training includes a B.A. in Environmental Studies/Sustainable Agriculture from Warren Wilson College with a minor in Business and a M.A. in Appalachian Studies/Sustainable Development from Appalachian State University with a minor in Planning/Geography. He has spent over 20 years working at various restaurants, farms, and travels throughout 30 countries in Central/North/South America, Europe and all 50 states in the USA. More about Marc Williams.

Presentations:
1.Outdoor Plant Walk: Food as Medicine

David Winston, RH (AHG)
David Winston is an Herbalist and Ethnobotanist with 54 years of training in Chinese, Western/Eclectic and Southeastern herbal traditions. He has been in clinical practice for 47 years and is an herbal consultant to physicians, herbalists and researchers throughout the USA, Europe and Canada. David is the founder/director of the Herbal Therapeutics Research Library and the dean of David Winston’s Center for Herbal Studies, a two-year training program in clinical herbal medicine. He is an internationally known lecturer and frequently teaches at medical schools, professional symposia and herb conferences. He is the president of Herbalist & Alchemist, Inc. a manufacturer that produces herbal products that blend the art and science of the world’s great herbal traditions. More about David Winston can be located at Herbal Studies.

Presentations:
1. Ethnobotanical and Native Plant Field Study
2. It Hurts to Move, the Herbal and CAM Treatment of Back Pain and Fibromyalgia
3. Little-Known Medicines of the Southern Forest and Fields

Donald Yance, RH (AHG)
Donnie Yance, RH (AHG) is a clinical master herbalist and certified nutritionist who is internationally recognized for his comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the healing properties of plants and nutrition. Donnie conducts his clinical practice at the Mederi Center in Ashland, Oregon, utilizing his unique integrative model known as the Eclectic Triphasic Medical System, which he evolved over more than twenty years of successful patient care. More about Donald Yance.

Presentations:
1. Pre-symposium Intensive: Optimizing Physical Performance and Recovery with Botanicals
2. Botanicals That Provide most of the Chemotherapeutic Drugs used in Cancer Therapies

Eric Yarnell, ND, RH (AHG)
Eric Yarnell is an associate professor in the department of botanical medicine at Bastyr University and chief medical officer at Northwest Naturopathic Urology. He is the author and co-author of numerous articles and books for practitioners including Clinical Botanical Medicine and Natural Approach to Gastroenterology. More about Eric Yarnell.

Presentations:
1. Post-symposium Intensive (Online): Natural Treatment of Prostate Conditions: Blending Western Herbal Practice, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy

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Continuing Education Approvals and Forms