As 2023 wound down to a close, I reached out to an old friend, Mary Bove, ND, a visionary and trailblazer in clinical herbalism. We had a conversation about what 2024 may bring to our community of practitioners, including what she’s thinking about, and what she’s planning for. She obliged by reflecting on the evolving tapestry of holistic health as she sees it: growth mindset, the importance of nature, connecting with plants, and forgotten inner wisdom, illuminating the path forward for the coming year.
Sleep may be the foundation on which all aspects of health are built, and in the clinic it has become an increasingly important topic. When practitioners help patients sleep better, it strengthens all areas of patients' physical and mental health. As global sleep expert,Matthew Walker, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, famously said: "Nearly every disease killing us later in life has a causal link to lack of sleep."
Thelegacy of Herbal Educational Services, Medicines from the Earth, and the Southwest Conference on Botanical Medicine has taken root over the past three decades. Founded by Linnea and Larry Wardwell in 1993, with Ric Scalzo as an early contributor and mentor, their website BotanicalMedicine.org has nurtured the herbal community for the past 30 years by sowing the seeds of knowledge and connection across disciplines and modalities of clinical herbalism practice.
Herbalist, naturopath, and much revered teacher and elder, Dr. Bill Mitchell once said, that through the process of photosynthesis, plants just naturally bring light into physical form, making them invaluable allies for those who proceed along a spiritual path. Indeed, I know of no tradition in which plants do not play a part.
In an ever-changing world it can become a challenge to find our center. Each of us engages with our innate stress response differently, therefore creating many versions of what we term collectively as ‘anxiety’. Anxiety disorders are classified by DSM-V criteria, and categorized by experiencing excessive worry more days than not, restlessness, easy fatigue, difficulty with concentration, irritability, muscle tension and sleep disturbance all with difficulty in controlling any of these symptoms9. Anxiety disorders are often experienced uniquely by the individual with some symptoms remaining constant, others transient and some not present at all.
When working with patients that have mast cell issues, I always remind them that mast cells have a purpose and unique role in our bodies.
Stress can be rewarding and even pleasant in response to positive stimuli, encouraging intellectual and emotional growth and development. Most often, when we discuss being “stressed out” in a modern context, it is in reference to negative physical or psychological stimuli and an unpleasant reaction. Stress is generally defined as a state of disharmony (allostasis) and is counteracted by physiological and behavioral responses which aim to reestablish homeostasis via the adaptive stress response.
Working with patients to manage their weight includes prevention of weight gain, control of age-related gains and treatment of obesity. This requires a broad understanding of many factors, including insulin resistance, environmental toxicants, the gut microbiome and the effect of pharmaceuticals on weight gain.
The Wardwells were presented their award at the 14th Annual ABC Botanical Celebration and Awards Ceremony held at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California on March 6, 2019.