#185 Adaptogens, Plant Medicine and Medical Herbalism with Dr Sally Moorcroft

Today on the podcast I have Dr Sally Moorcroft and we’re talking about Herbal medicine, also called phytotherapy, which refers to using a plant's seeds, berries, roots, leaves, bark, or flowers for medicinal purposes.

Dr Sally embarked on a medical career almost many years ago but her experience in hospital medicine, coupled with her travels to France and Australia that introduced herbal medicine, led her to complementary therapy which she’s practiced for almost 2 decaded. 

Today we talk about a range of things on a subject I’m not terribly familiar with

The history of herbal medicine The overlap with native america, ayurvedic and traditional chinese medicine How we extract the products from plants What adaptogens are and how to use them Anti-inflammatory herbs Resources for people interested in medical herbs, how to source quality products and potential drug interactions And we also workshop some cases like patients with gastritis or high cholesterol and how Dr Sally would approach them

If you’re new to things like slippery elm, marshmallow root, devil’s claw, rhodiola and boswelia (like me!) I think you’ll find this episode useful and I’m certainly going to dive into the resources that Sally recommended!

Dr Sally Moorcroft is an award winning integrative and functional medicine doctor, she has a life long interest and passion in food as medicine and leads a team of doctors, nutritionists and practitioners. She has a BSc (Hons) in Herbal Medicine and is currently completing IFM certification. She has also trained in medical acupuncture, TCM and is passionate about using a personalised, holistic and root cause approach. Her special interest is women's health, especially menopause, perimenopause, endometriosis and PCOS; and the gut microbiome.