This is a great post Jon. As an herbalist I love hearing about the positive impacts that herbs have on people. I love rhodiola. I have had the same experience with it myself. I like to put a little bit of powder in my smoothie in the morning on days when I feel like i need an extra little scoot into my day. I have the same problem with coffee. Sometimes it just seems to suck all of my energy dry immediately. I have rants about caffeine but I will save them for another time.
The other thing I really appreciated about this post is that you are informed and that you advise people to consult their healthcare provider. Another huge rant that I could go on is the commercialization of herbal medicine and the ill effects of uneducated consumers. I recently left a career in the herbal medicine industry so I could go on and on for days, lol.
Thank you @mle777 :) I have plenty of rants also but try really hard to keep them of of here haha. I am a firm believer in many of the traditional medicines but for the purpose of an informational post I try to keep it to the basics and encourage others to explore the harder to prove claims. A placebo effect can be just as powerful but I do not feel that it is my place to put those notions into other people's mind; I want them to come to their own conclusions. I took this approach with the 2 kombucha post I did earlier this week also. Thank you for the words of confidence and affirmation. I really do appreciate it, especially coming from someone of your background.
There's a lot that comes along with matters of plant medicine. For myself the spiritual aspect of it is what I hold closest. It's really hard to convey that to the general population but I may dabble in a few posts to test the waters.
Checked out your kombucha post. You know how there are sometimes things in life that you know you should try and then years fly by and you still haven't gotten to them yet. Making kombucha is one of those. I will look forward to post #3 and take that as my prompt to give it a try. Will you be including an option for those that don't have a scoby? I'm sure I could get one pretty easy in my community but am curious of results starting from "scratch".