The Prepper Broadcasting Network - MEDICAL MONDAY: Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Herbs for Stress, Blood Pressure, & Anxiety

Episode Date: August 3, 2026

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Hey, y'all. Welcome to this week's show. Today we're going to get into a really important topic, and it's herbs for blood pressure and anxiety. Specifically, of course, we're talking high blood pressure. We all know that in a stressful situation, our greatest enemy, our biggest threat, is our own response, our own reactions. That's one of the reasons, you know, what's what we train. That's why we learn to do what we have to do, before the time comes that we do it. The worst thing you can do is panic is lose your head. That's when you make mistakes. Now, for some people, for many people, stressful situations are a way of life. This time last year, I was visiting my mother and she needed some work on her vehicle.

And of course, her vehicle is a lot nicer than mine. And I did not feel comfortable doing it myself. besides she needed some new tires and you know if you're going to have tires put on you need to go to somebody that has the proper equipment because i've done that once you know with hand tools when i was much younger and that is a royal pain i mean put it and get an imbalance you know you really do need to go to somebody who knows what they're doing so i took her vehicle in to uh you know have some tires put on you know just various other things that needed so i was really stuck in this place for a couple of hours and uh There was a Chinese fellow that was sitting there, dry cleaner, and we were talking. He saw that I was reading a book about herbs, and, you know, he had an interest in herbs. He still used a lot of the Chinese herbs that he'd grown up with, and we really started talking about medicinal suit. He was a pretty cool guy. He had a concealed carry permit.

He was showing me his pistol and everything. And as he's showing me his pistol, in walks a cop, and I'm thinking, oh, you know, what's this guy going to think is going on, right? Well, it turns out they're a friend. He'd be Chinese guy says, hey, I know this Pooh, you know. It was a fun kind of scene, actually. And it turns out this guy's wife was, I can't remember if she was Thai or Vietnamese. But anyway, we got into talking about medicinal soups. And that's a whole other topic for another day.

But in Asian herbal medicine, they have these wonderful medicinal soups that are really just one of the very best things for colds and flus. So anyway, this guy turns out to be a real character. Combat wounded Marine went through tons of rehab for his physical injuries, some PTSD, of course. He becomes a cop. And this is in eastern North Carolina, which is actually a really rough place near Fayetteville, you know, Fayetteville, Vietnam, as they call it. I guess you'd say central eastern North Carolina. Really, really rough place.

honestly there are so many gangs and so much drug trafficking on the interstates and then of course badville is just it always has been they put a little lipstick on that pig but you know when i was a kid it was nothing but hookers and drug dealers and hate street was crazy you know absolutely crazy so since he's become a cop last 15 or 20 years or so he has been and i don't know how many I don't know how many gun fights, physical fights. He's had his shoulder ripped out of joint. He's had his knee dislocated, serious back injuries. Tell me about this one girl he arrested, you know, they check her for weapons.

They get everything. She's hiding a razor blade under her tongue. She turns around and as soon as the custer off grabs that thing, it splits her boyfriend open from the base of his skull down to his toxic bone so that his spine is literally laying open, and then he had to physically subdue her. Yeah, that was a very interesting story. The crackheads and the meth freaks that he had been in, you know, chasing,

and then they turn on him and attack him like a wild animal. This guy is dealing with some serious stuff. Plus, everything he had already gone through. Well, really cool guy, very into herbs, very into foraging. You know, he's asking, me questions and I'm thinking, I'm talking to like a living legend here and he's showing me respect back when his partner comes up. He says, you need to know this guy. He's pointing to me. He says, you need to know this guy. His information will save your life when blanket's a fan.

So we ended up, you know, we really hit up became friends. And he finally says to me, you know, I know how to deal with all kinds of stuff, but there's one thing I have trouble with and that's my own physical reactions, high blood pressure, anxiety, and stress. Are there any herbs you can recommend? I said, well, of course, you know, legally I can't recommend anything, but I can give you a list of herbs that you can look into and explore. And that's what we're going to discuss today. And the first one, I think, well, I think any herbless would start with Valerian. Valerian is Valeriana Fishanales. Fishanolos means it's one. one of the old herbs that goes back to the free hospitals, the Benedictine monks,

who operated from the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire through the Middle Ages, you know, almost up to modern times. They were the main herbalists, the main ones that ran the hospitals. Their hospitals essentially civilized Europe and converted most of Europe to Christianity through their charitable actions and their knowledge and passion. A fish and alice means this is an herb that was in the Ophacena, which was their apothecary. Valerian grows wild in the mountains where I live. It grows wild in a lot of places.

You can grow it in the garden. Valerian is what we would call a simple sedative. It is a nirvine. That's an herbal word. Essentially just means it calms the nerves. I mean, if you want to look at it that way. It is a tranquilizer. It will put you to sleep.

It is an antipsmotic. It will stop muscle. spasms, cramps, and pain. It is such a strong tranquilizer that even if you've like broken your leg and you know how bad that hurts, you know, broken bone just throbs and you can't sleep, right? It will knock you out. You can take a large handful of valerium pills, capsules, an ounce of the tincter, whatever, shock glass or too full of it, and it will knock you out. You will sleep and you will wake up feeling like you've been hit by a truck, but it will actually calm the nerves. than just about anything. Obviously, for someone who's in a situation where he's going to have

quick reflexes, he's got to be able to pull a gun and defend his life or save someone else's life in the blink of an eye, that would not be my go-to. Okay? Yes, take before bed before you go to sleep. Absolutely. You've got to shut your mind off. You've got to calm your body. You've got to have your eight-plus hours asleep to handle situations like that. Or your blood sugar is going to get all messed up and your blood pressure is going to get even worse. the only real side effect of Valeria, there are two side effects. One of them is another reason I wouldn't recommend Valerian long term in a situation like his.

In long term, large doses, and this is what we would call overuse, this is using way more than the average person would, can cause rational hot temper. I mean, it is really strange. It causes people who just snap. I don't know why. No one knows why. It really hasn't been studied by modern medicine. Obviously, that would not be good. The other thing is it can cause really in weird dreams. Valerian in about, they say 20% of people causes intense dreams. These usually are not nightmares. Tends to be bringing up memories of past trauma. They're intense. They're troubling. They're disturbing. A lot of bad memories. And so a lot of people cannot take valeria, well, about 20% of the population. And no one should overuse it. In fact, the more you use it, the less effective it is. But, you know, a couple of years ago, my mother had to have some, I think it was,

I remember it was eye surgery or dental surgery. She was really worried about it. I mean, she just does not like that experience. No one likes someone poking around in their eyes or drilling their teeth, you know. Nobody likes it. And her blood pressure just would not go down. And they said, you know, if your blood pressure goes there. But this point, we're not going to operate on you. We're sending you to the hospital. Well, she took Valerian and she was able to keep her blood pressure low enough to get through the surgery.

But for that short period of time, that was a godsend. And I have used Valerian off and on for years, for years, for pain, for sleep, you name it. Valerian is a very good herb to have. and one you should absolutely know how to use. As I said, it's what we call a simple sedative and tranquilizer, meaning it really doesn't have more effects used properly than lowering the heart rate, lowering respiration, blowing blood pressure, and inducing sleep.

Coal cap is a nerve we've discussed before for nerve pain, for muscle spasms for cramps, for menstrual cramps. It is an antispasmodic. It is also nerveine. It also reduces respiration and soothes the nerves. And it is not as strong. For most people, as phallarian, for some people, it can be very strong. For some people, it actually can have sort of a narcotic effect.

You have to be aware of it. You need to learn how to use it before you need it. For most people, it's only mildly calming and relaxing. Ditto for hop. Hops are the hops in beer. Hops are humulus lupus. They are one of the most ancient, commonly used sedative herbs. This is one you really could use long term without, really without slowing your reaction time,

unless for some reason hops affect you more strongly than others. I mean, for most people, it's just mildly relaxing, mildly sedative, mildly nerve-eyed. And the only kind of caveat with hops is it does have an estrogenic effect. The hops in beer, the reason you're actually, people are getting a beer gut and gaining weight, doesn't so much have to do with the alcohol as it does with the estrogen. So take that with a grain of salt. Passion Flower is another one that is mildly calming. It is good set of properties.

It is officially considered antispasmodic, tranquilizer, narcotic, hypnotic, and basiodylating. Now, when we say narcotic, we're not talking like opium, okay? It literally just means it lowers the heart rate and respiration. A passion flower can help you go to sleep. Passion flower can help stress. Passion flower can help muscle and nerve pain. It's not that strong. It's really pretty easy to work with.

And, you know, the plants bear wonderful fruit. Passion fruit is very delicious. And the only reason we don't see it in stores more often is because it's so tender. It just won't ship very well. It spoils quickly. Oh, and you can grow passion fruit in most of the United States, by the way. One of my favorite herbs that, again, I would not use long term, but would definitely use if I needed it short term is bugleweed a jugo riptense now bugleweed is has a

cardiotonic effect it is somewhat like a very small dose of digitalis it slows and strengthens the heart rate along with doing that it lowers blood pressure bugleweed is in the mint family the part we use is the flowering spugs You have to harvest it in the spring. You can eat it fresh. Just eat it fresh. It's very bitter. It's actually very good for the liver.

It shrinks liver or reduces liver inflammation. It is really very good for blood pressure and heart issues, but it should not be overused. Basically, you eat one or two of those flowering spikes, or you dry them carefully and make a tincture to use later. The effect is like having maybe two glasses of large. wine. I mean, it will slow you down noticeably. It's like having a couple of beers. Obviously, in a situation where you have to be really quick reaction time, you would not want to use bugle. But in a situation where you need to get your blood pressure down and you need to reduce stress quickly, one or two flowering spikes of bugle is going to knock that down within,

I'd say it takes 20 minutes to get into your system. Another very interesting herb that I've found in my experimentation is Collius. Collius is an ornamental plant. It's in the same family as Bugleweed. It is the plant that has all the wildly colored like tied leaves. Those leaves, a handful of them, are very bitter just like Bugle. They don't seem to affect the heart rate so much, but they are definitely set. and nerve on. And you're okay to be eaten fresh or made a tincture out of after dry.

Now the only thing I have to say about Collius, it has not been thoroughly researched. As far as I know, I'm one of the first and one of the few herbalists to ever experiment with Collius. It may well be that Collius has horribly negative effects of a long-term use. I have no idea. I'm not recommending it. It seems safe to me, and it's an herbic grow and use. That's all I can tell you. It is pretty strong, actually. I mean, it will definitely put you down if you have enough of it. And it's cheap and legal, and you can grow it in flower pots and have it when you need it. I'm just not recommending it, okay? I'm just saying it's one I use. One I feel much more comfortable with, one that has thousands of years actually of use,

use in the herbal medicine of India, what we call Ayurveda, is an herb called Ashwaganda. The Latin name for this is Lithhania somnifera. Somnifera means it can actually put you asleep if you think of a lot. But ashwaganda is an adaptogen. Adaptogens are herbs that help the body deal with stress. Ashwaganda take in regularly, taken daily for months, years at a time. that will bring the blood pressure down. It will help you deal with physical and emotional stress.

It's particularly good for emotional stress. In larger doses, it does have a sedative effect, but in small tonic doses, it really doesn't seem to slow the reflexes or cause sinus. This would be the go-to for someone in the situation like I described. Adaptogens, all of them, are herbs. to help the body deal with stress. Now, some of them like ginseng can actually elevate the blood pressure.

You would not want to take ginseng if you have high blood pressure without consulting your physician. He's probably going to tell you ginseng does nothing, but could raise your blood pressure and not to take it, but it actually does help the body recover from physical stress. It can help you recover from an injury and illness or just like, you know, running a couple of miles. It's going to help you catch your breath bath. There are many other adaptogens. Siberian ginseng is actually very different than American or Chinese or Korean ginseng.

It's also very good for physical exertion, stress, athletic performance. There are the Aurelias. There are very several of them. And one that comes to mind would be red root or cortisps. Coricept is actually a mushroom, they can really raise the blood pressure. I mean, especially in certain individuals. Ashwaganda is sort of the opposite. It helps the biodeal stress and keeps you calm and peaceful.

Really good herb, definitely one. It is a tonic for the pituitary. It's just, it has a lot of good properties. And it's also one that will grow in most of the United States. It can be very expensive if you order it from an earth. herb company. You can grow it. You can get a pack of seeds for less than five bucks, and it's probably a good take off. You can grow pretty thick. Cava Cava is such an interesting herb. This was very popular in the 90s. There were some bad studies, okay? There were some of these kind of

fake studies that were sponsored by drug companies that did not want an herb competing with their pharmaceutical products, and people started pulling it off the shelf. It was later found to be safe can put back on the show. But anyway, look it up. If you want to be cautious about it, do so. For thousands of years, the Polynesian people have found it very safe and they use it. Kava Kava is actually in the pepper family, like black pepper. It is a really weird herb in that it numbs the mouth and throat and take it. It definitely lowers blood pressure. It definitely helps with stress. In large amounts, it can be very intoxicating. They have all these traditions, like, whereas an American might go to a bar on a Friday night and get drunk,

the Polynesians, the Hawaiians, and such go to a Kava Kava bar, and they keep drinking that kava until that numbness spreads from their mouth to their whole body, and they have to be dragged home. And frankly, I've known several Hawaiians that are like three times my size, and I'm not a small person, and I would hate to have to drag them up. It's a really interesting herb. You can absolutely get it over counter. I mean, I've even seen it for sale at grocery stores.

It's not only good for stress and anxiety and blood pressure and pain. It's specifically good for neck pain because it kind of helps numb that area. And it's good for sore throats. It's a really interesting herb. It is tropical. I wish we could grow it in the continental United States, but you'd really have to have a hot house to do so. Borage is another herb, but traditionally used going back to ancient Greece.

In ancient times, especially, I believe, in the Anglo-Saxon and Roman tradition, they would add borage to beer. They said it gave people courage. Other herbalists say coal pepper, 1600 England, said that it gave joy to the heart, dispelled melancholy, and induced euphoria. You know, I can't say that I found it to be that strong.

It's probably a very good tonic herb, maybe somewhat like Ashwaganda. It tastes like cucumber. I mean, the flowers, you can grow them in a salad. I mean, it's actually very good to eat. But one thing that has been shown in clinical trials is that regular consumption of borage lowers blood pressure. I cannot say anything about euphoria.

I cannot say anything about it stirring courage, but it is a very pleasant herb. It's a pretty flower. It tastes good. And if it does lower blood pressure, pressure over time regularly using it, I don't see any drawbacks or side effects to bore it. Borage is not one that's going to make it sleepy. It's not one that's going to slow reflexes.

And it's just pretty nice herb to have on hand. It really is. And it actually really does taste good, infused in wine and such the way that the ancients used to do it. Camomile is, you know, the tea you give to babies when they're called, it calms them down. Camamil is especially good for reducing stress and lowering blood pressure if you have that association with camomil from your childhood. If when you were a baby, your mother or grandmother or whatever calmed you with camomile, as an adult, you're much more likely to be calmed by camomile.

That said, it does have a nerve-vines, slightly sedative, antispasmodic effect. It's antispasmodic enough to stopping test. cramping. It does help lower blood pressure. And the thing with camomile, if all you've had is the tea from the grocery store, you probably, you really have not experienced camomil. You know, I wasn't, but fresh camomile smells strongly of green apples. And that's actually where it gets its name in ancient Greek. It smells like apples. And it's really very, very nice. It's a really appetizing, appetite stimulating, enjoyable tea. And I'm not really a tea drinker, but I do enjoy a little bit of chamomel every now and then,

you know, especially if my stomach's a little upset. Club moss is like a podium. Like a podium grows all over the place in the mountains where I live. I did not even recognize it for a long time. I thought it was a little pine tree or something. it's actually like a podium clobotum and it is very good for lowering blood pressure. I have done a whole podcast on that on my Southern Appalachian herbs podcast. Check it out.

It's in my book. The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Bitter Herbs. I have, you know, I don't know, 10, 15 page article on it or chapter on it. It's a really interesting herb with a lot of interesting uses, especially, in traditional European herbalism. Shepard's purse is one of those wild plants we usually forage for the greens. Well, it's what they call a circulation equalizing herb. It's been used for a long time in Europe, and it does help blood pressure.

It can actually help with either high or low blood pressure. Now, one warning I'm going to give you is in a lot of herbal books, that, especially all the European books, they will recommend mistletoe for blood pressure. You're talking European mistletoe, which is very different. It's actually entirely different plant than American mistletoe. And the two are like direct opposites. You know, mistletoe grows all over eastern North Carolina and South Carolina. I mean, we always had mistletoe in the house at Christmas.

That's American mistletoe. Even just eating a few berries of American mistletoe, has caused death. It's actually very poisonous. It actually raises the blood pressure and increases muscle spasms and contractions. It can cause death. I mean, obviously, it can cause miscarriage. It can cause strokes. It can cause heart attacks. Unless you have, I'm just going to say, do not do anything internally. Don't even, you know, do not eat or do anything with American mistletoe. European missile tow, you know, the ones the druids used to be fanatics about and four thousand years ago in Ireland, that's a completely different plant. And it does help lower blood pressure. It is slightly

sedative. Those two plants are exact opposite. One lowers blood pressure, one raises blood pressure to the point you would die. Don't mess with American mistletoe. I mean, some people say, unless you really know what you're doing, I say don't mess with American missile toe. Now, one thing that's really interesting. All the alliums, onions, garlic, chives, shallots, leaks, ramps, my beloved wild ramps that I look for every spring in the mountains, like my favorite wild food, all of the aliums over long term, eaten daily, reduce arterial plaque, relax the blood vessels, and lower blood pressure. So not only are they essential to making food good to eat, everything's safe.

should have some aliums in them. They're really, really good for you. They also are antiviral and antibiotic and anti, you know, they're just, they say the reason, like the Jews, especially the Ashkenazi Jews, have survived the thousands of years they have, moving around all over the place, persecuted and everything, was because they eat so much garlic and onions. And all I can tell you is, you know, I could live in a Jewish deli. I absolutely love the food.

And, yeah, it's really good for you. Dandelion, which I did my podcast on Southern Appalach Nerves last week, has a diuretic effect. Well, what does that mean? Well, when you remove excess fluid from the body, it helps lower the blood pressure. If you go to a doctor and they say you have high blood pressure, if first thing he's going to give you, it's a diuretic. And, you know, dandelion is a very simple herbal diuretic. Evening Primrose is, well, a pretty common wild plant around where I live. I usually have the little shoots, they're almost like asparagus, but the seed oil has been shown to reduce high blood pressure.

Holy basil is a really fascinating herb. It is a member of the basil family. It's called holy because in Thailand they always plant it in your temples. It is a sedative effect, and it does help regulate blood pressure. If you can use lavender, I'm actually allergic to lavender. If you're not allergic to lavender, it has a sedative effect. It's also diuretic. It's nervine.

And, you know, women love the smell. I mean, it's one of the most popular perfume ingredients. But I'm just going to put it this way. If you have high blood pressure and you're not allergic to it, and maybe your wife's the cause of your stress, we'll get some of this lavender growing. Maybe you can make her happy and it'll be easier to put up with her. All right.

So, lemon balm is also in a Mimp family. like several of these herbs we have discussed. And it is a mildly calming tea, usually. If you dry it and you make it into a tea, it's just like chamomile. It's no stronger, and it's very pleasant. It has a wonderful scent and flavor. If you harvest the leaves in the morning, before the hot sun hits them, you immediately put them into an already running blender

full of the highest-proof vodka you can get, like Everclear or, or something even stronger, if you get something stronger, put the lid on so none of the essential oils can get out. Make a fresh plant tincture of that, and I told you before, fresh plant tincture, those plants have water in them. So you have to use a higher strength, a higher-proof alcohol,

so that the water doesn't dilute the alcohol and cause it to rot. Well, fresh plant tincture of lemon bomb is actually a very, very strong sedative. One of my teachers was Michael Moore. the herbalist, not Michael Moore, the jackass communist filmmaker. Well, Michael Moore, the herbalist was also jackass communist, but he really knew what he was talking about when it came to herbs. He actually told the story of when he had an herb shop,

and a bunch of hells angels were around, and one of them really likes sedative herbs. And he comes in, and he's like, what have you got that'll knock me out? And he says, well, I just made this lemon balm, fresh plant tincture. it seems to be pretty strong. The guy takes probably a half ounce and ounce of the tincture and just like sits down, zones out, passes out for a while, gets up, says I want more of that, buys some more,

gets on his motorcycle, drives a couple of miles, and just kind of falls over sideways into a bed of poison ivy. That is how strong an actual fresh plant tincture of lemon balm can be. So if that's something you want to explore, be careful with it. Obviously don't have it before you drive or anything like that or have to get into a gunfight or, you know, anything. Self-heal is Pronella Volgaris. This stuff, like half my yard is self-heel. Or heal all is another name for it. It's in the MEP family and it's diuretic and that helps with blood pressure. It's not fairly sedative. Sweet marjoram, the essential oil of it, is said to lower blood pressure if inhaled.

I don't really get it into essential oils too much, but that is one like lavender where the actual scent of the herb seems to lower blood pressure and reduce stress. Catsclaw is an herb we discussed as an antiviral. It's also very anti-inflammatory and seems to help lower blood pressure. It's an herb from South America. We're really just experimenting with it in Western herbal medicine. We're finding out it's a really neat herb. Faults Hellebore. I am really hesitant to mention Faults Hellebore because it is incredibly poisonous. So I'm just going to say if you see Faults Hellebore, that's I think, Verratum Veridity or something like that. And it grows all over the place in the mountains.

It's by the stream. It's in my backyard. You'll reckon what you see it once, you're going to recognize this plant. It's a really unique looking plant. Old herbal books will say it's good for blood pressure. I'm going to tell you this stuff is poisons. Stay away from it. It is one of the herbs that when people come up to the mountains where I live and they try to go foraging,

they mistake it for another plant and they die. So just stay away from that one. But, you know, one that is so common, especially in the South, is Kudzu. Kuzu was used to help stop erosion. It became the vine that ate the south. Kudzu actually has many herbal uses, one of which is reducing blood pressure. It lowers blood pressure and increases oxygen to the brain. The leaves, the flowers are edible, the root is antiviral, and actually reduces the craving for alcohol among alcoholics.

It is an incredible plant, an incredible plant. You can actually use the vines to make a fiber like linen, which can make clothes or fishing lines. It's a really neat plant, and if we ate more of it and used more of it, we wouldn't have it taking over so much. Mugwort is one of the Artemisias. It's one of my favorite Artemisias. It not only is mildly sedative and helps lower blood pressure, but Mugwort T seems to help people forget bad memories. and trauma. Mugwort burned as like an incense while you sleep tends to give you more restful sleep and better dreams. That would also probably help with blood pressure.

Sissile oil, which is Chimphila umbalata. It's one of the winter greens. There's several plants called winter greens, just a little plant that grows along the ground. And I talk about it a lot in my medicinal shrubs of the southeast. It was once one of our most important exports. It was used for wintergreen oil, which have aspirin-like properties, soot joints, you know, it's sort of like a liniment. Good for sore throats and colds and all that too. It is a very good diuretic. And along with that raspberry, raspberry leaf tea especially, often used by pregnant women as a uterent tonic.

It's diuretic. It helps lower blood pressure that way. Solomon Seal is another plant, another wild plant, grows in my area. I have tons of it in my yard. it has cardiotonic property sort of like bugle or lily of the valley these are generally considered safer alternatives to plants that contain true digitalis you know like fox club and but one foxgo plant can be stronger than another and if you take too much you'll die i am not going to recommend any of these plants like i said I use bugleweed. I think Lillia the Valley is a little stronger. I don't really use Lillie the Valley. Solomon Seal seems to be somewhere in the middle, you know, helps regulate heart rate and normalized blood pressure. Okay. And along those lines, Hawthorne, Cretagious, very similar.

You know, recently a friend of mine said, yeah, really helped with his irregular heart rate. Again, too much could be dangerous. So you're going to have to trust your own judgment on this. I'm not telling you to use these plants. I'm just telling you they are usable. They are useful. Basswood, American Linden, Tilia, Americana. It goes by several names. The fresh flowers, especially the European variety, are quite sedative and relaxing. Stale flowers, the American version, oftentimes not so much. Apparently there's one that grows in Mexico and South America that's even

stronger than the European version. Almost has like a narcotic type property to it. But Linden is used very much in herbal teas throughout Europe. They just find it moderately relaxing.

Bilberries and blueberries are diuretic. They also help tonify the heart and veins, the entire circulatory system, so that can be good. Kiwi fruit, very, very similar in that. You know, I already mentioned Hawthorne. It is, you know, Hawthorne is such a great plant. It's actually what they think that the Joseph's staff, St. Joseph's staff was made

of and the crown of thorns that Jesus wore was made up. And so it's been a symbol of Christianity. And it is one of the most comforting herbs for the heart. And I think there's a strong correlation between, you know, the religious significance of the plant and its help us. I mean, it is very good. But again, don't use too much of it. And some people can be very sensitive to it. Very sensitive to it.

Use with care and investigate and do your own research. Another one. Rishi mushrooms are a adaptogenic type mushroom. They grow all over the place in the mountains where I live. In China, they're one of the most expensive herbs. Turkey tail also can help regulate stress and blood pressure. Water plantain is one with diuretic properties. The spice, cinnamon.

Cinnamon is very good for lowing blood sugar and blood pressure. You can make a tea out of cinnamon. You can just eat a lot more cinnamon, you know, whatever you like. Cinnamon does not tincture well, I will say that. Turmeric, very similar. Anti-inflammatory improves the function of the blood vessels. Clevers. Clevers are gallium, a very common weed. I have some growing in my driveway right now. It has been used traditionally to help lower blood pressure. The vegetable asparagus is diuretic,

a gang that can help lower blood pressure. Persolane, a weed, which is a good vegetable to forage. It's sort of slimy like okra. It is diuretic. And the last one is rattlesnake master. that is one of those many American herbs that are called rattlesnake mansmaster. This one is Manfreda Virginica. It was first identified in Virginia. That's the name when it in Cli. The root T is diuretic. It's also called false aloe.

If you see it in old books, you know, there's so many other options. I wouldn't even bother looking for it unless it's growing on your property already. I mean, as long as you have three or four of these, and I mean, again, starting with something as simple as Valerian that would just knock that blood pressure down within about 20 minutes of taking a couple of capsules or a tincture and moving up through Spolcap and hops and passion flour and maybe try and bugleweed and definitely Ashwaganda. Aschaganda, it was really, you know, Valerian and Aschragonda would be the two that I would really keep on hand, honestly. And if I could grow enough Ashwaganda to have long,

term, if things get bad, I'd be very happy to have Ashwaganda. I mean, I've been through many hurricanes, ice storms, and not in the power out for several weeks. And it's interesting how at first you're dealing with things just fine. And like over the days, the stress begins to build, you know, you don't really notice it for the first 48 hours. And then you start realizing your blood pressures up a little bit and you're a little more irritable. And you're, you know, Ashwaganda is going to be really good for that. And so I would have it growing in my garden for that reason, if no other. All right, y'all have a great week. I hope I've given you a few herbs that you might want to try. You know, some of these have more than one effect. I mean, they don't just help a stress or a little

blood pressure, but they help you get a good night's sleep. I like to have these herbs. This is one of my favorite categories of herbs to grow in use. So, anyway, we'll see you next time. Please by my book. Remember they're all on Amazon.com or you can get the PDFs directly from me. But if you want a paper copy, go to Amazon.com. Look for Judson Carroll. And I will see you next week. Have it going. The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or right has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not a doctor. The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of verbal medicine and there is no governing body regulating herbless. Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs. I'm not offering any advice.

I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true. I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience and if I believe an herb has helped me. I cannot, nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use an herb, anyone recommends, you're treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have a an allergy, a sensitivity, an underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog, you agree to be responsible for yourself to your own research, make your own choices,

and not to blame me for anything ever.