Tonic Plants

Plants which act as tonics help boost your health

I have spent most of my life as a student of the natural world. This study has given me the ability to make use of the bounty nature provides.

When most people think of plants, if they think of them at all, they think of them as noxious weeds. Many of these “weeds” are quite delicious wild edibles. If you only learned about their edibility, you would be doing yourself and your family a grave disservice.

Many of the medicines prescribed to us every day were in fact derived from wild plants. Digitalis, which was widely used to regulate heart rate, was synthesized from extracts taken from the Foxglove plant. As a matter of fact, the botanical name of foxglove is Digitalis. While I do not recommend using a plant like foxglove, many of the plants growing right outside your door are highly effective medicinal herbs. Some of these weeds are also edible. This means you can gain their healthful benefits by simply adding them to your diet.

Tonics Herbs
Tonics are plants that support one or more organs, or the entire body. Herbs like American Ginseng and wild bergamot support the heart, while milk thistle Silybum marianum, barberry, dandelion, and goldenseal support the liver. Motherwort and American ginseng are examples of full body tonics, in that they support the heart, blood, male and female reproductive systems.

Western medicine has led us to believe that they hold all the cards when it comes to treating what ails us; nothing could be farther from the truth. I believe herbal remedies should be used in conjunction with modern medicine. When someone I care about is feeling under the weather, we first reach for relief from herbal remedies. The few times when these remedies have not worked, we go to a doctor just like everyone else.