1. Bitters kickstart digestion. Just tasting a bitter herb (no need to swallow!) signals your body to release saliva, gastric juices, and bile. 2. You unfortunately have to taste them. Capsules don’t cut it! The magic only happens when your tongue’s bitter receptors are activated. 3. They support more than your gut. Bitters can also help regulate mood, support the liver, and even influence blood sugar. 4. Most people avoid them until they realize how good they are for you. Our modern diets are mostly bitter-free. And I honestly get it. 5. Herbs like gentian, dandelion, and blue vervain are classic bitters. Each one brings its own vibe :) some focus more on the liver, others soothe the nervous system. What’s your favorite bitter to work with? How do you think the body sends the signal down to our GI tract? How could it know??

First monograph in this category: Scutellaria lateriflora. One of my favorite nervines, and a plant we'll keep returning to as we move through the nervous system together. Save it, print it, mark it up!

One day late! I apologize! I was out of state for a horse show and needed a day to rest and recharge my battery :) today we're going to keep learning about the vagus nerve! The vagus nerve carries far more traffic upward than downward! Roughly 80% of its fibers are afferent, carrying information from your organs up to your brainstem instead of the other way around. Your heart, lungs, and gut are reporting their status constantly, whether you asked for the update or not (you didn't actually ask for the update, they are giving it to you anyway!) This is where heart rate variability (HRV) comes in. HRV measures the tiny variations in time between each heartbeat, and a healthy heart doesn't beat like a metronome! (That little device musicians use to click out a perfectly even beat, tick tick tick tick, always the same distance apart) Most people assume a "good" heartbeat means something closer to that, a steady tick tick tick, so this tends to surprise readers when they first hear it! It speeds up slightly on the inhale and slows down slightly on the exhale, a pattern called respiratory sinus arrhythmia. The name sounds like it should be a problem, but it's actually a sign of a healthy, well-functioning heart. This rise and fall in heart rate comes from vagal input to the sinoatrial node, the heart's own built-in pacemaker. The vagus reaches down, taps the SA node on the shoulder, and says slow down a bit, we are breathing out now. Then a moment later it says never mind, speed back up, we are breathing in. Higher HRV means the vagus nerve can apply the brakes quickly and release them just as quickly. Lower HRV suggests that braking system has gotten a little rusty, often from chronic stress, poor sleep, inflammation, or general autonomic dysregulation. It's basically a tell of how resilient and adaptable our body is capable of being. Does that make sense? So HRV becomes a window into vagal tone, and vagal tone becomes a window into how well your nervous system shifts states when life demands it. It's NOT a relaxation score. Nobody's heart is trying to hit some finish line of calm, it's literally just trying to keep beating.