Coffee is Herbal Medicine

I was sitting with my good friend Lu the other day, sipping an early morning coffee and enjoying the chocolate babka she brought.

We were both groggy. She had camped in the backyard the night before (our attempt at Covid-safe sleepovers). I forgot the sprinklers were set to go on at 3 AM. She got wet. I felt soooo bad. Neither of us got much sleep. So the zing of the coffee and chocolate was especially sweet. Lu is a fellow herbalist, and as we felt the coffee coursing through our blood, she said (I’m paraphrasing): Doubting that herbal medicine works is like doubting that coffee works.

People often ask me what herbal medicine is, and whether I “believe” in it. But herbalism is not a belief system. It’s chemicals and science. Coffee wakes you up because of phytochemicals that are found in the plant. (Phyto = plant.) This is what herbal medicine is: using the unique phytochemical compounds found in plants to produce desired effects in our bodies. For many people, another effect of coffee is that it stimulates digestion.

Drinking coffee is just one example of how we are able to feel the effects of phytochemicals in our bodies. Similarly, many other plants produce pysiological effects you notice. Some common examples that Lu and I came up with…

When you eat asparagus and your pee smells like a combination of grass and stinky cheese.

When you bite into a lemon and it puckers your mouth.

When you put aloe vera on your sunburn and feel its soothing, cooling effects.

There are thousands of other examples, but they’re less familiar to most people.

Here are four of my favorite plants for people who deal with IBS, which is a condition a lot of my clients —and I— deal with. (Note: It’s NOT coffee! That little coffee and cake morning was a major exception for me, and truth be told, it didn’t produce great results. Oh well…)

• Lemon balm can soothe both upset bellies and anxiety, which are often closely connected. See my post about that.

• Catnip can bring temporary relief to gas intense pains and cramping in a way that feels similar to Tums.

• Ginger reliably relieves nausea for many people. For others peppermint or lavender are more effective.

• Peppermint can relieve nausea and/or cramping in your gut. Peppermint essential oil (safely encapsulated as it is in Heather’s Tummy Tamers or IB Guard) is anti-spasmodic, which means it can also help to relieve cramping.

This is herbal medicine: using plants to produce reliable effects in our bodies that make us feel better.

Why Do Plants Make Medicine?

Here’s what’s fascinating to me. Plants make phytochemicals because it helps them cope with the things they encounter in their ecology. It helps them ward off pests; protect themselves from wind, sun and rain; even communicate with other plants. And it turns out that the strategies plants use to navigate stressors in their environment help us build resilience to stressors in our environment.

In other words, the medicine plants make for themselves becomes our medicine.

To learn a lot more about this, check out my recent talk: