Chanchal is a medical herbalist and has been in clinical practice for 35 years  with a specialty in holistic oncology. She is the author of Fibromyalgia: A Journey towards Healing and her latest book Holistic Cancer Care: An Herbal Approach to Preventing Cancer, Helping Patients Thrive during Treatment, and Minimizing the Risk of Recurrence, which launches in April 2023. 

She held the faculty chair in Botanical Medicine at the Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine in New Westminster 2004-2016. She serves on the board of advisors of Dominion Herbal College in Burnaby, on the editorial board of Medical Herbalism clinical newsletter and she publishes widely in professional journals and lectures internationally on medical herbalism, nutrition and health.

Chanchal is also a certified Shinrin Yoku (forest bathing) practitioner, a certified Master Gardener and a certified Horticulture Therapist. Chanchal lives on Vancouver Island, British Columbia where she and her husband manage Innisfree Farm and Botanic Garden, a 7 acre internationally registered botanic garden specializing in food and medicine plants, and where they host apprenticeships in sustainable food production and herbal medicine. The farm also hosts Gardens without Borders, a federally registered not-for-profit society established to run the botanic garden and provide horticulture therapy.

In this discussion, Chanchal offers a glimpse into some of the strategies she adopts when treating patients in clinic, using herb-based and horticulture therapies in conjunction with conventional treatments. Drawing from decades of clinical experience helping patients recover from cancer, Chanchal offers insight into her processes and what she recommends to other practitioners in her mentor role.

Chanchal talks on:

• Empowering people with herbalism to make it accessible.
• Her processes model for managing care - the pyramid prescribing principle and triune model.
• Plausability testing to validate reasoning and guide treatment.
• Person-centred treatment and customising plans for paitients.
• Engaging patients with herbal rituals to give a semblance of control.
• The importance of educating patients to be proactive and take responsibility.
• Her favourite foundation, antigen and dietary herbs,
• Balancing biochemistry with energetic systems.

You can order Chanchal’s book Holistic Cancer Care: A Herbal Approach to Preventing Cancer, Helping Patients Thrive During Treatment, and Minimizing the Risk of Recurrence from her website: https://chanchalcabrera.com/product/holistic-cancer-care/

Find out more about Herbal Reality on Instagram @herbal.reality or visit www.herbalreality.com 

Herbcast is produced by Decibelle Creative: @decibelle_creative / www.decibellecreative.com 

Todd Caldecott is a Medical Herbalist and practitioner of Ayurvedic Medicine, who has been in private practice since 1995. He is the Executive Director of the Dogwood School of Botanical Medicine and author/editor of three books including Ayurveda: The Divine Science of Life, Food As Medicine: The Theory and Practice of Food, and Ayurveda In Nepal.

Todd is a creator and/or contributor to Traditional Ayurvedic Medicine (Introduction & Materia Medica), Applied Phytotherapeutics (1 & 2), History of Herbal Medicine, Essentials of Pathology, Western Materia Medica (1 & 2) with Wild Rose College.

Todd began training as a clinician in herbal medicine in 1992 during a search to resolve a chronic digestive disorder acquired while travelling in India. After meeting Ayurvedic physician Dr T. Sukumaran who helped him resolve his condition, Todd took a career change to train as a medical herbalist.

He studied Ayurveda in India, and later became the Clinical Director of Wild Rose College of Natural Healing and published a textbook in Ayurveda. He has been in clinical practice since 1995.

Todd has been in mentorship since 2004 with Vaidya Madhu Bajra Bajracharya, Piyushabarshi Aushadhalaya, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Vaidya Madhu represents an unbroken lineage of hereditary physicians since the 13th century CE.

With mental health issues on the rise, Todd highlights some of the contributing factors to this such as the disconnection from people and communities, the impact of trauma and the pace of life itself. He shares his thoughts on treating anxiety and depression whilst being guided by Ayurdevic principles and practices to better understand what is happening to us.

Todd talks on:

• Anxiety & depression from an Ayurvedic perspective.
• Diet as a neuro-stable influence on improving mental health.
• The importance of physical exercise for grounding effects and balancing neurotransmitter levels.
• Releasing creative tension to restore energy flow.
• Favourite thymolectic (happy) herbal interventions. 
• Healing childhood trauma and grief to treat anxiety and depression.
• Treating the ego state with psychedelic mushrooms

Todd is the Executive Director for The Dogwood School of Botanical Medicine. To find out more about its learning programs visit the website: https://dogwoodbotanical.com/

Find out more about Herbal Reality on Instagram @herbal.reality or visit www.herbalreality.com 

Herbcast is produced by Decibelle Creative: @decibelle_creative / www.decibellecreative.com 

Since 1979, Josef has worked at all levels within the medicinal plant sector; organic farming and wild collection, production of extracts, manufacturing of finished herbal medicinal products, TCM clinic, standards-setting (quality and sustainability), and consulting governmental- and intergovernmental organizations in sustainable development and biodiversity conservation projects in Africa, Asia, and South America.

From 2002 to 2016, he served as International Consultant on Market Intelligence for Medicinal Plants at the International Trade Centre, the joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations; 2004-2008 as a member of the International Standard for the Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP) Steering Group; and 2008-2021 as a member of the Board of Trustees of the FairWild Foundation, a standards-setting organization for sustainable wild collection of medicinal plants. He currently serves as Research Fellow for Medicinal Plants and Botanical Supply Chain at Traditional Medicinals (Sebastopol, California).

He is an elected member of the United States Pharmacopoeia Botanical Dietary Supplements and Herbal Medicines Expert Committee. At the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, he advises on commercial sources & handling and international regulatory status. He also serves as an Advisory Board member of the American Botanical Council and an Advisory Group member of ABC’s Sustainable Herbs Program. In 2016, he received a Doctor of Humane Letters in Healing and Sustainability honoris causa from the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and California Institute of Integral Studies.

In this episode, Josef paints a challenging picture of how the climate crisis is impacting herbal medicine. From insights on quality and sustainability to farming challenges, this discussion highlights why ecological and socially responsible herbs are so important. 

Joseph talks on:

• The current state of herbal medicine as an industry. 
• The impacts of the Climate Crisis on farming.
• Climate adaption and changing plant chemistry.
• The importance of transparency in herb origins.
• The role of pharmacopoeia & quality grading.
• Ideas around global herb conservation. 
• Rhodiola Rosea CITES listing.
• Commercial cultivation of herbs.

You can read more about Josef’s research in the following papers:

Applequist WL, Brinckmann JA, Cunningham AB, Hart RE, Heinrich M, Katerere DR & van Andel T. Scientists ʼ Warning on Climate Change and Medicinal Plants. Planta Medica, 2020; 86(01): 10-18. Available at: https://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/a-1041-3406

Brinckmann JA, Cunningham AB, Harter DEV. Running out of time to smell the roseroots: Reviewing threats and trade in wild Rhodiola rosea L. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2021;269: 113710, Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874120335984

Brinckmann JA. 2022. How climate change is affecting medicinal plants: A phenological, physiological and phytochemical analysis. Herbal Reality. 16 May 2022. Available at: https://www.herbalreality.com/herbalism/sustainability-social-welfare/climate-change-medicinal-plants-analysis/          

Brinckmann JA, Kathe W, Berkhoudt K, Harter DEV, Schippmann U. 2022. A New Global Estimation of Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Species in Commercial Cultivation and Their Conservation Status. Economic Botany (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-022-09554-7 Full-text access to a view-only version of this paper is available by using the following SharedIt link: https://rdcu.be/cUm0F

Find out more about Herbal Reality on Instagram @herbal.reality or visit www.herbalreality.com 

Herbcast is produced by Decibelle Creative: @decibelle_creative / www.decibellecreative.com 

Christine Herbert FAMH, DipAET, BA(Hons) qualified as a herbalist in 1997 and has been practising and learning herbal medicine ever since. During the years of her practice, she added many skills, including nutrition, aromatic medicine and flower essence therapy, in order to be best able to help the many people who came to see her. She retired from practice in 2019 so that she could teach and write using all the knowledge she had acquired. She served on the Association of Master Herbalists council for several years and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship on retirement. Previous to 1997, she worked as a senior biomedical scientist for nineteen years for the NHS. Inflammation, the source of chronic disease: How to treat it with herbs and natural healing was published by Aeon Books earlier this year.

After 20 years working in pathology and haematology, Christine’s enlightenment into the world of herbal medicine has led her on a journey to discovering the importance of diet in our health. She shares her wisdom on how various can herbs work with the body to reduce the inflammation that triggers chronic illnesses. Her positive outlook inspires hope for everybody that almost every health ailment can be improved.

Christine talks on:

• Inflammation as a unifying principle of Chronic disease
• How herbs tackle inflammation and promote healing
• The importance of alterative herbs in chronic ill health
• Salicylate sensitivity 
• Controlling inflammation through diet
• Best herbs for improving gut health
• Therapeutic support via adaptogens and tonics

You can read Christine’s article on Inflammation on the Herbal Reality website here: https://www.herbalreality.com/health-lifestyle/immunity/inflammation-global-epidemic/

Grab a copy of Christine’s book Inflammation, the source of chronic disease: How to treat it with herbs and natural healing from Aeon Books here: https://www.aeonbooks.co.uk/author/christine-herbert/23567/

Find out more about Herbal Reality on Instagram @herbal.reality or visit www.herbalreality.com 

Herbcast is produced by Decibelle Creative: @decibelle_creative / www.decibellecreative.com 

Since his initial training in chemistry and medical pharmacology, Nathaniel Hughes has pursued the question; how much can we learn from plants directly? He has spent over 20 years exploring the spiritual, somatic, relational, trauma-informed and process-oriented aspects of healing. His robust way of working with herbs now has its foundations in the spiritual, where he strives to create bridges between experience, the spiritual and the physical. This perspective helped birth Insight Herbalism, a professional training course delivered at his school,  The School of Intuitive Herbalism, which has been offering courses in Herbalism for over 10 years. Nathaniel has also written two well-received books Intuitive Herbalism and Weeds In The Heart.

He is currently committed to developing professional training for natural empaths; developing his ability to learn from plants alongside their skills in supporting fellow humans. 

This episode delivers an introduction to the concept of intuitive herbalism where Nathaniel encourages us to think outside of conceptual medical frameworks to focus on relational and experiential perspectives. 

Nathaniel talks on:

• Person-centred healing 
• Somatic reassociation with the body through story and memory
• Reawakening the senses and rewilding our consciousness
• Emotional awareness and deconstructing habits.
• Plants as allies and guides.
• Experiencing plants by self-projection or intuition.

Discover more about The School of Intuitive Health and pick up a copy of Nathaniel’s book Weeds In The Heart from his website. https://www.schoolofintuitiveherbalism.weedsintheheart.org.uk/

Find out more about Herbal Reality on Instagram @herbal.reality or visit www.herbalreality.com 

Herbcast is produced by Decibelle Creative: @decibelle_creative / www.decibellecreative.com 

Sebastian and Simon reflect on Season 1 of Herbcast and discuss their enjoyment of speaking to thought leaders across the herbal medicine community. They introduce the solutions-focused Series 2 which aims to focus on some of the most important conditions affecting the modern world today that herbalists are treating in clinic. From digestion and inflammation to sleep, anxiety and trauma the series will focus on the fundamentals of health as well as highlight sustainability issues faced by the industry.

Now if your time to catch up on any missed episodes from Season 1 and if you haven’t already, sign-up for the Herbal Reality newsletter at www.herbalreality.com

Keep up to date on the latest news and find out more about Herbal Reality on Instagram @herbal.reality

Herbcast is produced by Decibelle Creative: @decibelle_creative / www.decibellecreative.com 

An internationally respected practitioner, author, and educator in the field of Chinese medicine, Charles Buck was amongst the first to practice and teach CHM in Europe. Having been awarded a BSc in medical Physiology from Bristol University Medical School, Charles then took a 3-year degree in acupuncture and began practising CHM in 1984, He was invited to be course leader for the UK's 1st College-based CHM course in York in 1994 and honoured with an RCHM Fellowship in 1998 for contributions to CHM education.

Charles is a Fellow of the British Acupuncture Council where he served a 3-year term as Chairman. He regularly presents keynote sessions to conferences across the world and has published extensively.

From strategically defeating the battles of war to fighting on the battlefield of health, Charlie eloquently explains some of the theories within Chinese medicine so that we may begin to understand its rational and unique strategic approach.

Charlie talks on:

• Chinese medicine philosophies such as the binary principles - ying & yang.
• Its strategic approach to the cycles of nature and approaching health
• The nuances in Chinese medicine such as terminology and use of language. 
• His views on integrating all medical modalities and why this could be problematic.
• Using Chinese principals in practice - from diagnosis to treatment.
• The levels of detail and specificity in Chinese formulas.

Read Charlie’s article Sweet ‘n’ Sour: The importance of taste and food energetics in Traditional Chinese medicine on the Herbal Reality website here: https://www.herbalreality.com/herbalism/chinese-herbal-medicine/sweet-sour-importance-taste-food-energetics-traditional-chinese-medicine/

Find out more about Herbal Reality on Instagram @herbal.reality or visit www.herbalreality.com 

Herbcast is produced by Decibelle Creative: @decibelle_creative / www.decibellecreative.com

Bevin Clare is a herbalist, nutritionist, mother and Professor and Program Director of the Master’s of Science in Clinical Herbal Medicine at the Maryland University of Integrative Health. She holds a MSc in Infectious Disease from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and has studied herbal medicine around the world to blend her knowledge of traditional uses of plants with modern science and contemporary healthcare strategies as a consultant and educator. She serves as an adjunct Assistant Professor at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Northeast College of Health Sciences.

Bevin is the President of the American Herbalists Guild, the largest body of professional clinical herbalists in the US and is a board member of the United Plant Savers, a group working to protect at-risk medicinal plants in North America. She travels the world with her two kids in tow, tasting spices, exploring markets and wandering the countryside.

Bevin discusses her focus shift from herbalism to the herbalists, ensuring they are supported and their skills valued. She speaks about how her early study of infectious diseases highlighted the need to treat the human experience and why not being permitted to diagnose or treat diseases in America is so liberating. Simon and Bevin reminisce on their shared time at MUIH and celebrate the unique aspects, such as bio-regionalism and cultural nuances, that make herbalism so fascinating.

Bevin talks on:

• US herbalists and herbalism - the legal & licensing frameworks.
• American herbal programs and the introduction of online learning.
• Naturopaths versus herbalists - how do they align?
• The restrictions of licensure - protecting the nature of herbalism
• To to best support herbalists - including non-professional associated practitioners
• The urbanisation of herbalism and building diverse communities.
• Crediting Jim Duke - an introduction.
• American herbal sourcing - dosage versus affordability.

Explore Bevin’s musing on a variety of Clinical Herbalism topics, including infectious disease, at www.bevinclare.com

Find out more about Herbal Reality on Instagram @herbal.reality or visit www.herbalreality.com 

Herbcast is produced by Decibelle Creative: @decibelle_creative / www.decibellecreative.com 

Euan MacLennan is a Medical Herbalist who practices in an NHS General Practice in Central London.

He teaches pathology, clinical medicine, and differential diagnosis to undergraduates in various medical disciplines and is conducting a clinical doctorate in gastrointestinal medicine at the University of Bath. Euan is also an editor for an Elsevier medical journal, the Journal of Herbal Medicine.

Practicing in one of the only GP practices in the country that offers herbal medicine as a service, Euan shares his insight into the benefits of an integrated health approach. A firm believer in giving people freedom of choice when it comes to individual healthcare options, Euan shares his thoughts on why a lack of funding in preventative health alongside impersonal treatment and public demand could be the driver towards more integration with state healthcare in the future.

Euan talks on:

• How an integrated herbal medicine service works- the benefits for both patient and practice.
• Therapeutic gaps within medicine and which conditions herbal health addresses well. 
• The power of patient choice and preventative healthcare.
• Herbalism limitations - quality of herbs and industry credibility.
• Title protection- who can call themselves a herbalist. 
• What happens in clinic from diagnosis to treatment.
• Phytochemical power and polypharmacy.
• The barriers preventing more integrated practices.

Find a reliable and reputable herbal practitioner via The College of Practicing Phytotherapists (CPP) at https://thecpp.uk/find-your-local-herbalist/ or National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH) at https://nimh.org.uk/find-a-herbalist/

Find out more about Herbal Reality on Instagram @herbal.reality or visit www.herbalreality.com 

Herbcast is produced by Decibelle Creative: @decibelle_creative / www.decibellecreative.com 

Roy Upton is the founder, president, and editor of the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP). He has been working and practising professionally as a herbalist since 1981, and he trained in Ayurvedic, Traditional Chinese, and Western herbal medicine and has also studied and worked extensively with Native American and Caribbean ethnobotanical traditions. As an integral part of his work as a herbalist, he spends a great deal of time defending the rights of consumers to access herbal medicines and to see herbal medicine integrated into the fabric of both our homes and health care systems.

In this episode Roy shines a light on the serious issue of how we access our plants for herbal medicine. He explains how the work of the AHP focuses on protecting traditional herbal knowledge and ensures the safety of its use by practitioners, raising the bar for herbalists and helping to reduce fear for consumers.

Roy talks on:

• The why and how of beginning his collection of herbal books (pharmacopoeia).
• Becoming a political activist to keep botanicals accessible.
• The importance of monographs and therapeutic compendiums in providing a good foundation of herbal knowledge.
• The dangers of marketing and hurban myths.
• How the AHP monographs are created.
• Protecting plant-based pharmacognancy from technological advancements.
• The evolution of pharmacology and the root & branch treatment concept.
• Why the sustainability of herbs and supply chains and pursuit of quality play an important role in the preservation of herbal medicine.
• The importance of quality and purity assessment using the methodology of senses.

Find out more about the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia and its botanical identification services at https://herbal-ahp.org/ 

Read some of Roy’s insightful articles on the Herbal Reality website at https://www.herbalreality.com/insights/

Find out more about Herbal Reality on Instagram @herbal.reality or visit www.herbalreality.com 

Herbcast is produced by Decibelle Creative: @decibelle_creative / www.decibellecreative.com