Commonwealth Podcast For Holistic Herbalism

Welcome to 2025, everyone! Let’s give the year a bitter start – that’s better than a bitter end, right? If you don’t think so yet, listen to this episode and by the end, we’re sure you’ll agree!Bitters are a truly indispensable piece of an herbal toolkit. They – like demulcents, adaptogens, and alteratives – can achieve things in the body which pharmaceuticals, acupuncture, and other healing modalities simply cannot replicate. Bitters are one of the herbalist’s superpowers!In this episode, we cover:bitter as signal – and why their actions on the body are nearly immediatebitter deficiency syndrome – a uniquely modern human problemenergetics of bitters – is bitter always cooling, or is it more complicated than that?actions of bitter herbs – digestion-activating, fluid-draining, liver-awakening… mind-centering…bitter-tasting constituents – and an ode to the flexibility & variety of bitter taste receptorssubcategories of bitter herbs: pure bitters, mild bitters, aromaic bitters, inulin/berberine/artemisinin-b