Lila's Herbal Revolution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWz2oqOqPHw

🌀

Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here:

skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445

🌀

The Herb That Said No: Bacopa, 7 Days of Diarrhea, and Knowing When to Quit

A For Science episode with trauma-informed therapist Nicky Yazbeck

This For Science episode didn't go the way I planned, and I'm so glad it didn't. I picked Bacopa for Nicky Yazbeck because it's one of my favorite herbs for the mind. We worked up to a therapeutic dose of 10 grams a day, and her body said no from day one. Nicky tried everything to get it down: honey, applesauce, kombucha, chasers, and swallowable wrappers that burst open in her throat. Seven days of diarrhea later, she called it. This is the side of herbalism nobody posts about. Not every herb is right for every person, even a gentle, well-loved one, and listening to your body's feedback is part of the medicine. From there we get into taste memory and plant medicine, the keeper at the gate, dieting with plants, my ongoing wrestle with eating meat, and what's happened to the nutrient value of our food.

What We Cover

- Bacopa (Brahmi) energetics: bitter, sweet, cooling, and why it can aggravate vata and dampen digestion in excess

- Traditional and clinical uses: memory, focus, ADHD, anxiety, sleep, nervous system rejuvenation, and topical oils

- Why Bacopa gets confused with Gotu kola

- Nicky's 7 day experience and why she stopped

- Every method she tried to get the powder down, and what actually worked

- Swallowing herbs in wrappers: the learning curve and the 5 gram limit

- How taste can trigger a body memory, and Nicky's Huachuma connection

- The keeper at the gate: why some medicines don't let you in

- Plant dietas and clearing your system to connect with a plant

- How porous we are to other people's energy, food, and habits

- My conflict about eating meat, and why some clients need it as medicine

- Soil depletion, nutrient loss, and why food tastes different abroad

- Focusing on what we can control: news, social media, sleep, sunlight

Meet Nicky Yazbeck

Nicky is a trauma-informed licensed therapist, EMDR therapist, and yoga teacher who works with plant medicine. She hosts The Connected Community: Exploring Possibilities, a podcast with open-minded conversations on plant medicine, Ayurveda, yoga, human design, astrology, and more. If you enjoy this show, you'll love hers. And yes, she's a total trooper.

🌐 Nicky's website → https://nickyyyoga.com/

🎙️ The Connected Community on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-mc44gawLCunGyoY13c2wQ

💥 Watch Nicky's Bacopa powder fail → https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19WYS15WUL/

Links and Resources

🪬 pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y

🪷 work together → https://tvnhc.com/start

🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/

Website: tvnhc.com

Email: hello@tvnhc.com

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here:
skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

We Took 30 Grams of Ashwagandha a Day for Two Weeks
For Science with Mason Hutchison of HerbRally

Mason Hutchison, founder of HerbRally, joins me for a For Science episode where we both took 30 grams of powdered ashwagandha root every day for two weeks. Mason came into this deeply burnt out and walked away feeling grounded from the very first dose. His health quiz scores jumped across mood, energy, digestion, and strength, and his nightmares quietly disappeared. I share what shifted for me too, and my theory that ashwagandha literally gives you thicker skin. We get into why traditional preparation matters, why tinctures and gummies won't get you there, what's really behind the "dark side of ashwagandha" internet panic, and why therapeutic dosing deserves a comeback in modern herbalism.

What We Cover:
- Why we chose 30 grams of ashwagandha powder, and how to taper down to a maintenance dose
- Mason's instant "grounded" feeling and his before and after quiz results
- How ashwagandha reset my sleep and circadian rhythm in real time
- My theory: ashwagandha builds thicker skin, physically and energetically
- Why we crave what throws us out of balance (and why balance can feel jarring)
- Burnout, entrepreneurship, and learning to embrace slow mornings
- Traditional Ayurvedic preparation: churna (powder), ghee, milk, honey, and anupanas
- Why I don't recommend ashwagandha tinctures or decoctions
- Kyle Denton of Tippecanoe Herbs on ashwagandha as a male tonic (plus his jingle)
- The "dark side of ashwagandha": nocebo, leaf and berry adulteration, and extracts
- Nightshade sensitivities and ashwagandha root
- Ashwagandha for nightmares, PTSD, and nervous system dysregulation
- Sustainability when herbs go trendy, and my Shilajit supplier story
- KP Khalsa's pairing of ashwagandha and shatavari
- Food-like herbs, the food-drug spectrum, and why tonics need bigger doses

Links and Resources:
🪬 pattern assessment quiz
🪷 work together
🌿 Subscribe
🌀 Path to Practitioner Potency
Website: https://tvnhc.com
Email: hello@tvnhc.com

Connect with Mason and HerbRally 🌿

Stay connected with the herbal community through the HerbRally newsletter! Founded by podcast guest Mason Hutchison, HerbRally shares herbal events, courses, podcasts, plant monographs, interviews, and other resources to support your herbal learning.

Sign up and unlock a bundle of herbal goodies, including a 91-page Botanical Anthology filled with recipes, stories, and remedies; Rosalee de la Forêt's Calendula for Radiant Skin ebook; and Heather Irvine's full-length audio class on adaptogens. You'll also get your first 30 days free in the HerbRally Schoolhouse.

Newsletters arrive 1-4 times per week.

🌱 Get your freebies
🌱 Check out the HerbRally Website

📚 NEW: Herb-Drug Interactions Masterclass with KP KhalsaIf you use herbs and anyone in your life takes medications, this class is a must. KP breaks down how to think about herbs and drugs together so you have a real framework instead of guesswork.Get the class here:https://buy.stripe.com/dRm4gyfvDcimchAdRT9Ve08🌀Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.Join here:skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445🌀I Let the Pernicious Evils In (Plus My Herbalist Identity Crisis)A bonus episode on fall colds, the six pernicious evils, and what the word herbalist leaves outI got sick, and I'm using myself as the case study of what not to do. I'm a firm believer that coming into contact with a germ doesn't mean you'll catch it, and I still believe that. What gets us sick is when our barriers come down. So I'm walking you through exactly how I let mine down (hello, sundress and Birkenstocks in freezing, windy weather), the six pernicious evils from Traditional Chinese Medicine, and how to stay balanced through one of the hardest seasonal transitions of the year. Then I get honest about something I've been mulling over all fall: why the title herbalist isn't resonating with me anymore, and what it means to practice in a way that's rooted in plants but reaches far beyond them.What We Cover- Why exposure to a germ isn't the same as getting sick- Your barrier systems: skin, lungs, digestion, and the layers of immunity behind them- How I got sick this fall, and the mala bead and bread pudding story from years ago- The six pernicious evils in TCM: wind, cold, summer heat, dampness, dryness, and fire/heat- How these line up with Vata and Ayurvedic energetics- Living with the seasons: dressing for the weather, warming foods, abhyanga, and doing the opposite of what's going on around you- The herbs I reach for to build resilience: astragalus, guduchi sattva, and echinacea- Why the title herbalist doesn't feel resonant for me right now- Why most herbal content focuses on the plant instead of the person- "Everybody uses herbs, so why do you need an herbalist?"- Practicing in the space that's herbal adjacent but not quite herbalLinks and Resources📚 Herb-Drug Interactions Masterclass with KP → https://buy.stripe.com/dRm4gyfvDcimchAdRT9Ve08

🌀 Path to Practitioner Potency → https://www.skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445/about

🪬 pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y

🪷 work together → https://tvnhc.com/start

🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/

Website: tvnhc.comEmail: hello@tvnhc.com

On this episode of Lila’s Herbal Revolution I’m joined with Maria, from Green Dragon Healing to get a Bai Zi reading.

I had zero knowledge of what was to be revealed before the episode, and filmed it live for everyone’s benefit to see how a real life Bai Zi reading may go.

Ba Zi is a traditional astrological assessment used to better understand ourselves and our lives. It can help us with relationships, business, our spiritual work and more. It connects to patterns in our being, and helps us bring our gifts to the world.

In this episode we cover

* What is Bai Zi

* Traditional vs. Modern Medicine

* Is it Woo???

* What are the 4 pillars

* Lila’s Very own Chart Reading

*How Bai Zi has helped Maria in her own journey
I hope you enjoy this insight into myself, and this ancient practice. I found it to be fascinating, resonant and an insightful exercise.
Maria was a wonderful guest, and a great chart reader! If you are interested in more of her work you can connect with her here:

https://greendragonhealer.com/https://www.instagram.com/greendragonhealer/
Maria, an Herbalist of Chinese Medicine and Ba Zi chart reader based out of Toranto Canada. Maria works with the chart and with the life around it: health, habits, the shape of ordinary days. The aim is that you leave clearer, and more at ease in your own timing. She sees clients virtually, check her out!
I will definitely be back for another reading. Especially when I’m out of this crazy period of my life!

Links and Resources

🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y

🪷 Work with me → https://tvnhc.com/start

🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/

🌀 Path to Practitioner Potency (PTPP) →https://www.skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445/about

Email- Hello@tvnhc.com

Website- tvnhc.com

🌀 Ready to go deeper on today's topic? Join Path to Practitioner Potency, my mentorship community for practitioners who want more training, more herbs, and real dosing guidance beyond what a podcast episode allows: https://www.skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445/about 🌀The Lie of SSRIs: A Natural Approach to Understanding and Healing DepressionI have never felt this topic land closer to home. Friends, family, clients, it feels like depression is everywhere right now, and I wanted to give you both the natural therapies that can help and a wider look at what's actually going on, including the real shortcomings of the conventional model. I share my own history with depression, the myth that natural healing only works for "mild" cases, and why I think that narrative is bullshit. Then we go deep on SSRIs, the studies behind them, and the Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine concepts that explain why depression feels like a heavy, stuck fog, plus what actually clears it.What We CoverWhy natural therapies work across the full spectrum of depression, not just mild casesThe difference between situational, mild, severe, postpartum, and seasonal depressionAyurveda's Sampropti, the six stages of disease, and why catching imbalance early mattersAgni and Sadhaka Agni, the fire that processes emotional challengesNon-attachment, the Bhagavad Gita, and not letting external forces control your stateSSRIs: full side effect breakdown, the black box warning, and why we still don't know how they workKirsch's 2008 placebo data and the 2017 study on serious adverse eventsKapha, Tamas, and Mano Vaha Srotas: the Ayurvedic map of why depression feels stuckTraditional Chinese Medicine angles: phlegm in the heart orifice and liver qi stagnationNutrient depletion and the "empty tank" feeling behind depressionSense organ overstimulation, screen time, and losing the ability to process lifeHerbs worth knowing: cayenne, curcumin, albizzia, rose, lithium orotate, shankhapushpi, bacopaLinks and Resources🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y🪷 Work with me → https://tvnhc.com/start🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/🌀 Path to Practitioner Potency (PTPP) → https://www.skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445/aboutEmail- Hello@tvnhc.comWebsite- tvnhc.comA Quick NoteThis podcast is shifting from weekly to biweekly to keep the quality high and make room for everything happening in PTPP. I may still release the occasional weekly episode when inspiration strikes, but every other week is the new baseline going forward.Coming Up on Lila's Herbal RevolutionA For Science episode on Bacopa, featuring a therapist trying the herb firsthandA dedicated fall episode with practical seasonal support as the days get shorterThe 30 gram ashwagandha experiment with Mason from HerbrallyA herb-drug interactions masterclass with KP KhalsaSo don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on the fun!

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here: skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

Ginseng for Fatigue & Natural Birth Wisdom with Doula Sonny
A red ginseng energy experiment, then a doula's take on birth, fear, and the postpartum void.

This episode is really two conversations in one. First, Lila and guest Sonny Dahood, a doula and herbalist based in New Hampshire, break down a two-week red ginseng experiment Sonny ran for fatigue. She reports unexpected wins beyond just energy, including deeper sleep, fewer sugar cravings, and a "clean" motivated feeling with none of the jitteriness she usually gets from stimulants. Lila explains why ginseng, despite its energizing reputation, can actually be one of the best sedatives in the herbal toolkit when the picture is right.

Then the conversation shifts entirely into Sonny's work as a doula. She and Lila get into home birth versus hospital birth, the fear and stigma around out of hospital birth, the systemic issues baked into modern maternity care, and why the way we're born may shape our health for decades. They also cover placenta preservation, herbs used to support labor like black and blue cohosh, postpartum Ayurvedic care, and the postpartum depression and anxiety that so often goes unaddressed once the focus shifts entirely to the baby.

What We Cover:

Part 1: The Ginseng Experiment

• Why Lila reaches for red ginseng specifically, and how it differs from American ginseng
• Sonny's day by day experience with ginseng: energy, motivation, cravings, and sleep
• The lesser known link between ginseng and better sleep, straight from Michael Tierra's teachings
• Dosing ginseng, from saturation dose to long term maintenance

Part 2: Doula Work & Birth

• What drew Sonny to doula work and her own home birth journey
• Home birth vs hospital birth outcomes, interventions, and the fear narrative around each
• How the medical model designs care around edge cases instead of the average birth
• The push toward more autonomy in hospital births, and what's still stuck in the old model
• Herbs used to support labor, including black and blue cohosh, red raspberry leaf, and evening primrose
• Placenta preservation options: encapsulation, salves, prints, and burial
• Why the generational trauma of depleted birth may be compounding across generations
• Postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, and how the system checks on baby but forgets mom
• Ayurvedic postpartum care: warmth, grounding, and why AC and fans work against healing

✨ Want to learn more about Sonny's work? ✨
🌿 Visit her website: https://sonshineraine.com/

Links and Resources:
🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y
🪷 Work with me → https://tvnhc.com/start
🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/
🌀 Path to Practitioner Potency (PTPP) → https://www.skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445/about
🌐 Website → tvnhc.com
📧 Email → hello@tvnhc.com

🌿Herb Drug Interaction Masterclass with KP Khalsa.

👉 https://buy.stripe.com/aFafZgcjr2HM95og019Ve0bHerb-drug interactions are one of the most daunting corners of herbalism, and the fear around them is almost entirely out of proportion to the actual risk. In this episode I'm breaking down where that fear comes from, why it doesn't hold up, and what I actually do in clinical practice instead.Why herb-drug interaction fear can quietly end herbal practice before it startsThe Western medical lens we've applied to plants, and why it doesn't fitThe garlic-and-dogs study that shows exactly how reductionist science creates false alarmA recent conversation with a nursing student that revealed how this fear gets built into medical trainingThe "5 G's and baby aspirin" video making the rounds, and what the evidence actually saysWhy adverse drug events are one of the top 3 causes of death in America, yet drug-drug combinations barely raise an eyebrow onlineThe compliance question nobody's asking: what happens if people actually took every drug exactly as prescribed?My real clinical framework for working with clients on medication: intake, drug mechanism, dosing strategy, and where the real risk actually livesWhy licorice root's scary reputation doesn't match how billions of people actually use itIf you've ever felt frozen by a contraindications list, or you're a health seeker wondering if it's safe to combine your herbs with your meds, this one's for you.✨ Get the masterclass with KP Khalsa Here 👉 https://buy.stripe.com/dRm4gyfvDcimchAdRT9Ve08Links and Resources:🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y🪷 Work with me → https://tvnhc.com/start🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/🌀 Path to Practitioner Potency (PTPP) → https://www.skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445/about🌐 Website → tvnhc.com📧 Email → hello@tvnh.com

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here: skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

Sourcing Herbs Is a Nightmare: Out of Stock, Wrong Form, Price Just Doubled
Why "just go buy the herb" is one of the most misleading sentences in herbalism

This week I'm talking about herb sourcing, one of the least glamorous but most important parts of clinical herbalism. I run a fully virtual practice, which means I'm not handing someone a plant, I'm handing them a protocol and trusting them to go find the right herb, in the right form, from the right supplier. I talk through why that's harder than it sounds, what can go wrong between writing a protocol and actually getting herbs into someone's hands, and how I've built my own process after years of six-hour sourcing sessions.

What We Cover

• Why I built my practice virtual from day one, and what that means for how I get herbs to clients
• The real cost of sourcing: budget, supply chain issues, out of stock herbs, and price fluctuations
• Working from a planetary perspective and why that means juggling Western, Chinese, and Ayurvedic suppliers separately
• Apothecary vs drop shipping: the tradeoffs of holding inventory versus sourcing per client
• Why the right herb isn't enough, you also need the right part (root vs seed), the right processing (raw vs processed), and the right extract ratio
• Real examples: butterbur safety questions, He Shou Wu processing, burdock root vs seed, nettle root vs leaf vs seed
• Why I don't forage or make my own medicine, and why that's a deliberate choice, not a shortcut
• What young practitioners need to think through before they ever write their first protocol

Links and Resources
🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y
🪷 Work together → https://tvnhc.com/start
🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/
🌐 Website → tvnhc.com
📧 Email → hello@tvnhc.com

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here: skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

(For Science)

Fan favorite Jordan, from the lithium orotate For Science episode joins us once again to do therapeutic doses of Shilajit!

This was Jordan's first experience with the black, sticky tar, and we take some live on camera to show you what it's like actually taking therapeutic doses of this very potent, very important Ayurvedic herb. If you want to hear how everything turns out, tune in.

🎥 Watch: How I Like to Take Shilajit → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVA4w66R3B0

What We Cover:

• What Shilajit actually is (a purified mineral resin from the Himalayas, not tar, though it looks and smells like it)
• Why we did 15-30 gram daily doses live on the show, and how that compares to typical internet dosing advice
• Jordan's experience: energy, mood, a surprisingly heavy period, and tongue changes I tracked throughout
• The math on real therapeutic dosing costs versus what influencers are selling as "effective"
• Shilajit's traditional actions in Ayurveda: Rasayana (rejuvenative), supporting kidney function, memory, reproductive health, and enhancing the potency of other medicines
• Why Shilajit can aggravate Pitta in excess, and who should be cautious with it
• A real case: how Shilajit helped my dad turn a corner after a debilitating wasting illness
• Why sourcing and quality matter so much with this herb, and what to watch for

Links and Resources:
🪬 Curious what's actually driving your symptoms? Take the pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y
🪷 Ready to work together? Book a consult → https://tvnhc.com/start
🌿 Don't miss an episode → https://tvnhc.com/listen/
🌐 Website → tvnhc.com
📧 Email → hello@tvnhc.com

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here: skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

There's No Smoking Gun: Symptoms, Root Causes, and How to Approach in Practice

Doctors treat symptoms. Wellness culture blames parasites, candida, SIBO, and mold as "the root cause." Lila argues both camps are making a version of the same mistake, chasing an endpoint instead of understanding the terrain that let the problem take hold in the first place.

In this episode, Lila breaks down what symptomatic treatment actually is, why root cause healing has its own blind spots, and how the three major herbal traditions she practices from, Western herbalism, Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, each handle the tension between fast relief and lasting change differently. She closes with her own approach: not a purist on either side, but a blend built around meeting people where they actually are.

What We Cover

• Why Western medicine defaults to symptomatic treatment, and the merry-go-round that creates
• Symptoms as signals, not problems, your body doesn't have another way to get your attention
• Three anchoring concepts: we're all unique, everything is connected, everything matters
• The "smoking gun" myth in root cause culture, why parasites, SIBO, candida, and mold usually aren't the root
• The tree and branches exercise Lila uses in workshops
• How Western herbalism, Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine each treat symptoms vs. root cause differently
• Ayurvedic causes of disease: constitution and epigenetics, misuse of the senses, suppressing natural urges, weak agni and digestion, seasonal and circadian timing
• Why genetics aren't a life sentence, the epigenetics piece
• Lila's own approach: blending symptomatic relief with root cause work, and why that's not a compromise

Links and Resources:
🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y
🪷 Work with me → https://tvnhc.com/start
🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/
🌀 Path to Practitioner Potency (PTPP) → https://www.skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445/about
🌐 Website → tvnhc.com
📧 Email → hello@tvnhc.com

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here: skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

For Science: Albizzia (Happiness Bark), Mental Health & More with Moe

A week-long Albizia bark experiment turns into an honest conversation about grief, crying, and what it takes for men to finally let themselves feel it.

This episode I'm joined by Forager Moe, who tried a therapeutic dose of Albizia bark (also called mimosa bark, or the "happiness bark") for a week, right alongside me. What starts as a lighthearted compare-and-contrast on taste, sourcing, and foraging turns into something much deeper. Moe opens up about his ketamine therapy experience, his brother's suicide, and what it's been like relearning how to cry as an adult man. We talk about placebo versus real physiological effect, why Western herbalism lags behind Ayurveda and TCM, and how Albizia's reputation as the "grief herb" showed up differently for each of us.

What we cover:

• Moe's experience foraging and preparing Albizia bark versus flower, and why sourcing and growing conditions matter for medicinal potency
• The placebo effect, the nocebo effect, and where Lila draws her ethical line around it in practice
• Why Western herbalism is the weakest of the three major herbal systems, and how Ayurveda and TCM fill that gap
• Moe's ketamine therapy journey: dissociation, neuroplasticity, and processing loss he didn't know he was carrying
• His brother's death by suicide, and what it's like navigating grief and mental health as a man
• Learning to cry, unlearning the "men don't do that" conditioning, and why emotional suppression has a cost
• Albizia's reputation as the happiness bark, and whether that connection to joy and childhood memory holds up

Links and Resources:
🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y
🪷 Work with me → https://tvnhc.com/start
🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/
🌐 Website → tvnhc.com
📧 Email → hello@tvnhc.com

Connect with Moe and see all his awesome mushroom pictures!
https://www.instagram.com/moecelium/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581375219113

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here: skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

Summary
This episode is the spiritual case for why Ayurveda matters, not a technical walkthrough. Lila breaks down why this 5,000 year old system gets dismissed by modern science, the real tension between "cleaning the mirror" and "spreading the light," the three gunas that govern your mental state (sattva, rajas, tamas), and the actual Ayurvedic causes of disease, including the concept of prajnaparadha, crimes against wisdom, knowing better and doing it anyway. She also teases the three doshas as a preview for a future deep dive episode.

What We Cover

• Why Ayurveda and yoga are sister sciences, and how Ayurveda supports the yogic path without requiring anyone to buy into it
• Why calling Ayurveda "unscientific" misses the point of what it actually is
• The difference between treating a diagnosis and treating a person
• The full Charaka Samhita quote on Ayurveda as a lifelong journey
• Cleaning the mirror vs spreading the light, and the real tension between the two
• The three gunas: sattva, rajas, and tamas, and how to recognize which one is driving you
• Sattvic foods and herbs that support mental clarity
• The actual causes of disease in Ayurveda: too little, too much, or the wrong type
• Crimes against wisdom (prajnaparadha): knowing better and doing it anyway
• Misuse of the senses and what happens when you suppress your body's natural urges
• Why Ayurveda prioritizes the middle path over extremes
• A first look at the three doshas, vata, pitta, and kapha, and the difference between your constitution and your current imbalance

Resources
🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y
🪷 Work together → https://tvnhc.com/start
🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/
🌐 Website → tvnhc.com
📧 Email → hello@tvnhc.com
📺 Ayurveda Vs. Western Medicine TED Talk → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzTvEK1sVi0

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here: skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

From Vomiting Calamus to Dumping My Tinctures: Mistakes I Made Early On

In this episode I'm getting honest about the early missteps that shaped me as a clinical herbalist. From buying ashwagandha and shatavari in the wrong form to choking down half-ground herbs in my kitchen, to dropping fifty bucks on a bougie Sedona shatavari tincture that had barely any herb in it, these are the lessons I wish someone had handed me instead of learning them the hard way. I'm also getting into the times I threw myself out of balance experimenting on my own body, including a cayenne experience that dried me out and a calamus dose that ended in a full night of pitta style vomiting before a public talk. Plus why I stopped making folk method tinctures, why I finally built my clinical reference document, and the moment I realized I couldn't save everybody who wasn't ready to be saved.

What We Cover:

• Why herb form and part used matters more than most retailers let on
• My ashwagandha and shatavari cut and sifted disaster
• Raw guggul resin versus processed guggul, and why I ended up burning mine as incense
• The fifty dollar Sedona shatavari tincture that taught me to stop paying for packaging
• How cayenne pushed me into a hot dry vata pattern and what that taught me about energetics
• My calamus overdose story and the vomiting that came with it
• Why I finally built my own clinical reference document, and why you should start yours today
• Learning that not everyone wants to be saved, and letting go of the need to convert people
• Buying herbs I never used and the herbal waste that came with it
• Why I stopped making folk method tinctures and who I trust to make them instead
• Moving from timid dosing to confident clinical dosing
• Why I created Path to Practitioner Potency

Links and Resources
🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y
🪷 Work with me → https://tvnhc.com/start
🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/
🌐 Website → tvnhc.com
📧 Email → hello@tvnhc.com

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here: skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

Stop Blaming the Spinach: A Clinical Herbalist's Take on Anti-Nutrients

The carnivore and biohacking internet has decided that plants are trying to kill you. In this episode of Lila's Herbal Revolution, clinical herbalist and Ayurvedic practitioner Lila takes on the anti-nutrient narrative being pushed by figureheads like Dave Asprey and Paul Saladino, and offers a different read entirely: anti-nutrients are not poisons, they are signals. If you cannot tolerate them, that is information about your terrain, not evidence that the food is your enemy. This is the real clinical picture of what is going on with lectins, oxalates, phytates, and the rest of the compounds being demonized online, and why it matters for your health or your practice.

What We Cover
→ Why the term "anti-nutrient" is a framing device, not a medical term, and why fiber technically fits the same definition
→ The figureheads driving the "plants are trying to kill you" narrative, who they are, what they claim, and where it falls apart
→ Lila's clinical theory: anti-nutrients regulate mineral balance in plants, and may be signaling mineral and gut imbalances in humans
→ Lectins, oxalates, phytates, goitrogens, phytoestrogens, and tannins, what each one actually does in the body, the benefits, the risks, and how to mitigate them
→ The breaking research on phytic acid and gut barrier integrity that the carnivore crowd is not talking about
→ Why oxalate reactivity may be a signal of mineral insufficiency rather than evidence the plant is toxic
→ Hormesis, the well-established science of why small doses of plant "stressors" build resilience instead of breaking the body down
→ The nocebo effect and conditioned food hypersensitivities, how fear of food creates real, measurable physiological reactions
→ Why long-term elimination diets can deepen the very sensitivities they claim to solve
→ Traditional food preparation as ancestral wisdom, not a biohack, soaking, sprouting, fermenting, and cooking
→ The Ayurvedic lens, why the same food is medicine for one person and aggravating for another
→ Why terrain, not the food itself, determines what a person can tolerate

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

LINKS AND RESOURCES
🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y
🪷 Work together → https://tvnhc.com/start
🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/
🌐 Website → tvnhc.com
📧 Email → hello@tvnhc.com

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here: skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

We've Absolutely Bastardized Modern Wheat

The gluten conversation is everywhere, but it's rarely nuanced. In this episode of Lila's Herbal Revolution, clinical herbalist and Ayurvedic practitioner Lila breaks down why all of a sudden nobody seems to be able to handle gluten anymore, and no, people aren't making it up. From the hybridization of modern wheat to weak digestive fire to gluteomorphins binding to opioid receptors in the brain, this is the real clinical picture of what's going on with gluten and why it matters for your health or your practice.

What We Cover
→ What gluten actually is and which grains contain it
→ Why modern wheat is not the same grain our ancestors ate, hybridization, higher gluten content, and new problematic constituents
→ The chemical gauntlet wheat goes through before it reaches your plate, fungicides, growth regulators, fumigation, irradiation
→ Why traditional cultures could handle wheat and we can't, fermentation, soaking, stone grinding, and eating it fresh in small amounts
→ The Ayurvedic lens, weak agni, ama, and why modern western lifestyle is dimming our digestive fire
→ How gluten is supposed to be digested and exactly where it goes wrong
→ Zonulin, leaky gut, and how gluten drives gut permeability
→ The difference between a food allergy and a food sensitivity, and why sensitivities are more sinister
→ Why allergy testing alone will miss most gluten reactivity and why elimination is still the gold standard
→ Celiac disease vs non-celiac gluten sensitivity and the spectrum in between
→ The inflammatory cascade, local, systemic, and full body downstream effects
→ Gluteomorphins, why gluten peptides cross the blood brain barrier and bind to opioid receptors
→ The allergic addict phenomenon in children and why picky eating is rarely just picky eating
→ Lila's personal clinical approach to gluten elimination and why she doesn't start there with everyone

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

LINKS AND RESOURCES
🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y
🪷 Work together → https://tvnhc.com/start
🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/
🌐 Website → tvnhc.com
📧 Email → hello@tvnhc.com

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here: skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt lost in the noise of the herbal space, overwhelmed by information, underserved by what's out there, or quietly sensing that there's a gap between what you're learning and what actually works. I'm getting honest about what's broken in herbalism, why book learning and clinical reality can be miles apart, and why I stopped waiting for someone else to fill the void and started building it myself.

What We Cover

• The hierarchy of herbalism that used to exist, mom level, grandma level, community herbalist, and why losing it created the chaos we're navigating now
• The difference between community herbalism, hobby herbalism, and clinical practice, and why the lack of delineation is harming people
• How natural healing has gone soft across almost every modality and what that costs the people who need it most
• The cholesterol guy on LinkedIn, a perfect example of why information without clinical knowledge actively misleads people
• Why book learning and clinical reality can be miles apart, and the specific book moment that crystallized this for me
• The nettle myth, why "diuretic" on a monograph doesn't mean it's your diuretic
• Why I talked myself out of the content that actually lit me up when I first started, and why I'm done doing that
• Tincture ratios, loading doses, obscure Ayurvedic formulas, the content I always wanted to make
• What Path to Practitioner Potency is, who it's for, and why discernment is one of its driving principles

Links and Resources
🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y
🪷 Work together → https://tvnhc.com/start
🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/
🌐 Website → tvnhc.com
📧 Email → hello@tvnhc.com

Coming Up on Lila's Herbal Revolution
Guest episodes are on the way, plus more For Science segments, live experimental herb studies with Lila and a partner. Stay close.

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here: skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

If your blood sugar is swinging, your symptoms are singing. Blood sugar imbalances aren't just a diabetic concern, they are one of the most prevalent and overlooked drivers of chronic, complex symptoms in the modern population. If you've been to the specialists, tried everything, and still can't move through your symptoms, this episode is for you.

In this episode, Lila breaks down why blood sugar dysregulation is likely behind more of your symptoms than you realize, from poor sleep, anxiety, and brain fog to hormonal imbalances, PCOS, weight gain, ADHD, and POTS. This isn't about cutting sugar. It's about understanding the swing, what drives it, and what your body is actually asking for.

Lila shares her own clinical and personal experience with blood sugar dysregulation, including what she discovered using a continuous glucose monitor, why she dials in blood sugar with nearly every client she works with, and the one thing she always addresses first. We also get into the herbal conversation, and the critical distinction between herbs that lower blood sugar and herbs that stabilize it. Because for most people dealing with swings, those are not the same thing.

This episode is a resource. Save it, share it, come back to it.

What We Cover

• Why blood sugar imbalances affect everyone, not just diabetics
• The full symptom list and why each one connects back to blood sugar
• The swing, what it is, why it matters, and what drives it
• The liver as your built-in blood sugar buffer
• How blood sugar dysregulation drives hormonal imbalance, estrogen dominance, and PCOS
• The dawn phenomenon and why mornings are so hard
• The Allergic/Addictive pattern, Dr. William Philpott
• What Lila dials in first with clients and why breakfast is everything
• Fat, fiber, and protein, the foundation
• Stabilizing vs. lowering blood sugar, the herbal distinction nobody is making
• Herbs for blood sugar stabilization including licorice, ashwagandha, tulsi, schisandra, astragalus, amlaki, cinnamon, and more

Links and Resources
🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y
🪷 Work together → https://tvnhc.com/start
🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/
🌐 Website → tvnhc.com
📧 Email → hello@tvnhc.com

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here: skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

In this episode I'm pulling back the curtain on my personal journey with magic mushrooms, the first time I felt truly present, the trip that made me quit my corporate career, and how microdosing became a thread woven through my path to becoming a clinical herbalist.

I also get into where I see this medicine fitting in clinical practice. This is a very requested topic I get from clients and listeners.

• Why I think the institutionalization of plant medicine is a problem worth paying attention to
• My personal history with mushrooms, presence, grief, quitting my career, and what actually changed
• The ski slope metaphor for neuroplasticity, what mushrooms actually do in the brain
• Where I see psilocybin fitting clinically
• Why anxiety is a sister emotion to excitement and what that means for microdosing
• Every major microdosing protocol broken down
• My mom microdosing her microdoses
• When to put the mushrooms down

Best Suited For

• Depression*
• Anxiety*
• Getting unstuck*
• Emotional processing*
• OCD
• Migraines and headaches
• Addiction - alcohol, tobacco, opioids
• Neurodegeneration and dementia
• Life-threatening illness and end-of-life anxiety*

*These are the areas where I see the most consistent and meaningful clinical impact. Mushrooms are particularly powerful when stuckness is rooted in trauma or something herbs alone cannot touch, they create conditions where things can shift.

A microdose is anywhere from 60-250mg of dried Psilocybe cubensis. It should be subperceptible, meaning no tripping, no hallucinations, walls are not moving. You should be able to drive, work, and go about your day. What you might notice is a shift in mood, slightly sharper perception, or emotions coming closer to the surface.

Start low. Work your way up. 125mg is a good starting point for most people.

• Intuitive Protocol
Dose as needed, as called. No fixed schedule, tune in and ask if it's a yes or a no. Best for people who are already reasonably body-aware and self-directed. This is my personal approach.
• Daily Protocol
Dose every day like an herb, on until you don't need it anymore, then done. No days off, no fixed end date. Best for people dealing with something acute, those coming off SSRIs, anyone who needs consistent support while making a significant shift.
• The Fadiman Protocol
Dose every third day. Best for beginners, people who want a conservative approach, those wanting more integration time between doses. Example: dose Monday, off Tuesday and Wednesday, dose Thursday.
• The Stamets Protocol
5 days on, 2 days off. Best for people wanting more consistent support with built-in integration days.

*Some recommend you run your protocol for 8 weeks on, 2 weeks completely off, sometimes incorporating a macrodose periodically to support deeper integration. Worth knowing about as a framework if you respond well to more structure.

Links and Resources
🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y
🪷 Work together → https://tvnhc.com/start
🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/
🌐 Website → tvnhc.com
📧 Email → hello@tvnhc.com

🌀 Come Join us In the Path to Practitioner Potency Community. After multiple requests for mentorship I launched this program to create a space for herb learning. If you are a practitioner, student, podcast fan, this is the place to go deeper, ask questions, get support, join monthly trainings, Q&A's, Learn new materia medica, Experiment with herbs and more! This community is designed to fill in the gaps I see in the natural healing space. The ones that prevent it from all coming together, making sense and applying it IN PRACTICE.

Join here: skool.com/path-to-practitioner-potency-3445 🌀

The Peptide Conversation You Won't Find Anywhere Else

Peptides are everywhere right now, the GLP-1s, the gray market stacks, the bro science YouTube rabbit holes, and almost nobody is having the honest, whole-body conversation about them. In this episode, Lila brings her clinical lens, her personal experience on Retatrutide, and some real talk about what the mainstream peptide conversation is completely missing: eating disorder risk, muscle and bone loss, the Ayurvedic constitutional angle, and why weight loss and health are not the same thing.

What We Cover

• What peptides actually are and how they differ from amino acids (and why your body already makes tens of thousands of them)
• The difference between FDA-regulated GLP-1s like Ozempic and gray market research chemicals like Retatrutide
• Why Lila's judgment of the Ozempic craze softened, and what changed her mind
• Her personal history with disordered eating and why that context matters for this conversation
• What she's actually experiencing on Retatrutide at 0.5mg: food noise, coffee cravings, dopamine quieting, temperature swings
• Why peptide-driven appetite suppression can re-trigger or reinforce eating disorder patterns, and why almost no one is talking about this
• Muscle loss and bone density loss as serious, underreported risks
• Why "weight loss" as the only success metric is a failure of the whole-body view
• Lila's Ayurvedic constitutional theory: why Tikshna Agni (pitta-type fast digestion) may respond very differently than Vishma or Manda Agni
• The couple in her practice, one thriving, one constipated, and what that tells us
• How to monitor your whole-body health if you are using these tools
• Why there is no bad medicine, only bad application

Links and Resources
🪬 Pattern assessment quiz → https://tally.so/r/n05N1y
🪷 Work together → https://tvnhc.com/start
🌿 Subscribe → https://tvnhc.com/listen/
🌐 Website → tvnhc.com
📧 Email → hello@tvnhc.com

Coming Up on Lila's Herbal Revolution
Mushroom Microdosing, a convert to herbalism & So much more. To shape the conversations email me at Lila@tvnhc.com