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Connecting Gut Health, Alcohol Addiction, and Mental/Physical Health Ten or fifteen years ago, when I first began to become interested in probiotics and the relationship between probiotics and health, no one could have imagined how much research would be done in the near future exploring and discovering how influential our microbiome is on our health--including our mental health. Recently a study was released linking alcohol addiction and certain gut bacteria. The study, Intestinal pe …

Since you're reading this here we want to welcome you to our new website and adjoining blog. We have been in development of this change for a good while now and we hope that you find the new site much more pleasant to use--I know we do. There are a few changes to note: Returning customers will have to request a new password using the "Forgot Your Password" link on the login page. This is because we have changed the back-end of the website around in addition to the front end. All of you …

I developed this formula for myself. I wanted an adaptogenic formula that was not stimulatory or hot in nature. One that felt balanced and offered me both energy and a deep relaxation. I also wanted it to highlight some of my favorite adaptogenic herbs, including American Ginseng ( Panax quinquefolius), Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), and Dang Shen (Codonopsis pilosula). I worked with our master formulator and our Elephant Mountain Ginseng Formula was developed. Since start …

Desire and Libido In a recent post I wrote I mentioned that libido is a type of desire, and how desire and sexual desire--ie: libido--are not separate forces within us but stem from the same root. In this post, I hope to elaborate upon this idea and provide a useful road map for regaining healthy desire and zeal for life.Libido as a Subtype of Desire There is very little talk about different types of desire or drive in our lives, and it seems that there are only two different kinds of …

Burnout: Adaptogens versus TapRoot We have been receiving an increasing number of e-mails from people recently who are talking about their burnout and use of stimulating adaptogens, wondering if we have a product for them. These are e-mails from people ranging in age from their early twenties to their fifties and sixties. Sometimes people will use the term burnout when writing into us, and sometimes I group their symptoms into this category. The idea that burnout is a prevalent problem …

Crafting Tonics and Elixirs with Cistanche tubulosa Many of the popular tonic herbs (adaptogens and adaptogenic formulas) leave people feeling depleted. This is because they are stimulatory in nature and are not restorative. While intense in the short run, over time, they further exacerbate an overstimulated, burnt out lifestyle, worsening the underlying conditions at play. Cistanche works deeper, albeit slower, revealing stronger, sustainable, and more dramatic benefits. …

Understanding the Differences Between Concentrated and Standardized Extracts Powdered herb extracts come in two forms: the concentrated extract and the standardized powdered extract. Because these two products are similar, and because they look similar, most people do not consider the differences between the two. But the differences exists, and it is worth understanding how the differences affect the final product. Before discussing the differences, let's first note that powdere …

Deeper Understanding of Reishi Surprise, because being in the presence of the fungi in the wild, and using this fungi, awakens in you the presence of a deeper wisdom. Reishi holds that wisdom. Personally, I am just as excited to read contemporary research articles as I am to read the classics, and Reishi shares a firm stance in both. With the objective in furthering a deeper understand of Reishi, we have put together a new page devoted to a more thorough analysis of Reishi. In this art …

Medical and Scientific Pine Pollen Research While the research--to put it mildly--into Pine Pollen is still in its infancy here in the West, this is not the case in China, which since the early 1980's Pine Pollen has enjoyed scientific and medical research into its efficacy as a medicine and medicinal herb. The problem (if it is a problem) is that all this research is still in Chinese and has not been translated to English. That makes it incredibly difficult for non-Chinese speakers to fi …

Plants, History, Ecology Some of the beauty in studying and using Chinese herbs is the deep connection these traditions have both in history and in ecology. There is just no separating, no bifurcating these medicinal herbs and the history and natural environment which they are borne out of--it is more than context, it is almost part of the DNA.  Pine Pollen, while not the most common herb of today's Chinese medicine practitioners, is no exception to these historical and ecological th …