Ep 40 - Supplements: Finding the Ayurvedic Middle Path Between Overuse and Fear

Supplements are everywhere in the wellness world.

From Ashwagandha and collagen to minerals, probiotics, and herbal formulas, many of us are taking something every day in the hope of feeling better, supporting our health, or preventing future problems.

But how do we know when supplements are truly supporting us — and when they might be creating more burden for our bodies?

In this episode, I explore supplements through the lens of Ayurveda and share why “natural” does not always mean “appropriate for everyone.”

We explore:

🌿 Why Ashwagandha may be supportive for some people but aggravating for others
🌿 Why your digestive fire and liver capacity matter when taking supplements
🌿 Why more supplements do not necessarily equal more nourishment
🌿 Why long-term supplement use may benefit from cycles and breaks
🌿 Why stacking multiple protocols can overwhelm the body
🌿 How to build a deeper relationship with herbs instead of simply consuming them
🌿 The Ayurvedic perspective of looking at the whole “fish tank” rather than focusing only on one isolated factor

Ayurveda does not ask us to fear plants, nor does it encourage us to blindly consume them.

Instead, it invites us into a relationship — one where we learn to listen, adapt, and understand what our unique body needs at this particular moment in time.

Because healing is not something we outsource to a bottle.

It is something we cultivate through our daily rhythms, our relationship with food, our emotions, our environment, and the way we live.

Resources mentioned:

📖 BBC article that inspired this episode

🌿 Interested in personalised Ayurvedic support?
If you would like to explore working together and understand how Ayurveda can support your unique constitution, current imbalances, and lifestyle, you can book a discovery call here.

💌 Stay connected & receive updates about upcoming workshops, seasonal cleanses, and events:
Join my email list here.

🎧 Related episodes:

• Episode 31: Tulsi — Building a Relationship with Sacred Plants
• Episodes 38 & 39: Ayurvedic approaches to balanced summer living
• Episode 22: Hormone Health Through an Ayurvedic Lens
• Episode 27: Building Ojas Through Ayurvedic Body Oiling

A note on the BBC article: the conversation around supplements and liver health is an important one, as some research has highlighted that certain herbal and dietary supplements can be associated with liver injury, particularly in cases of high doses, concentrated extracts, or inappropriate use.

As always, this episode is not about fearing supplements or herbs. It is an invitation to approach them with awareness, respect, and a deeper understanding of your own body.

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love for you to share it with someone who is navigating the overwhelming world of supplements.

Learn more about my work: https://leanonayurveda.com/

Subscribe to my newsletter: receive seasonal reflections, ayurvedic practices, recipes and free resources to bring balance into your daily life.

Book a 1:1 ayurvedic consultation: learn how to use food, rhythm and ritual to support your unique constitution. 

If this episode resonates, please share it and rate the podcast - it helps more people discover the art of ayurveda as a support system for modern living!

Transcript

Welcome And Why Supplements Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi and welcome to the Lenan Ayurveda podcast. Here we explore how the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda can help us gain a deeper understanding of our body and open the gateway to finally feeling better.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Hello and welcome to episode 40 of the Linan Ayurveda podcast. My name is Gitote and I'm your host, and today I'm really, really excited to talk to you about the topic of taking supplements. And this is originally something that um I figured I wanted to talk to you about because um at the beginning of the summer I saw a BBC article which was addressing overuse of supplements, and it was quoting various research, um, namely US-based research suggesting that about 20% of all cases of drug-induced liver damage are caused by a mixture of herbal and dietary supplements. And in the world of Ayurveda, we do work with supplements, we do work with herbs, and um in general, you know, people are very likely to be taking supplements and herbs, um, even if they're not uh necessarily of Ayurvedic nature, but I did want to share my perspective. I did want to share the Ayurvedic perspective on taking supplements daily, and this is something that um quite a few of you reached out to me on social media when I shared about this BBC article through my stories that you would like some additional guidance on supplements, and it's a topic that is of interest to you. So today's episode is all about that.

Break Announcement And Ways To Listen

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Before we dive into the episode, I wanted to say that I will be taking a few weeks break from the podcast during the next couple of weeks, and I will be back with another episode in the second half of August. But in the meantime, I while I rest, I will invite you to check out some of the previous episodes because it's always good, especially if you have some episodes that you have listened to in the past that you found particularly valuable. I would encourage you to go back and listen to them again, whether that is about more balanced summer living, um, such as episodes uh 38 and 39, or whether that's about hormone health, that's episode 22. I also have a few episodes on Ghee and on Chai, as well as episode 27 is also one of my favorites, and it's all about building ogas with practices, iuretic practices of body oiling. It's all about ritual, beauty, and slower aging in case that is your cup of tea as it is mine. If you're longing for more personalized support, you can always book a call with me via the link in the show notes where we can discuss whether working together would be a good solution for you. And I will also have I'm really happy to say this um because this has been um in the making for a while um behind the scenes, um, but I'll also be happily announcing quite a few events towards the end of the year, and um some of them are my regulars, so um the seasonal cleanse, the fall reset, will be happening this September from the 18th to 20th of September. Um, and you will soon be able to um book your seat if that is an experience that you would like to invite into your life, and then I will also be communicating first to my email list um dates and topics of upcoming offerings and workshops, and some of them will be in person uh for my Belgium audience, so I'm really excited uh about that. Uh, so the best way to uh make sure that you're getting all the information is to be on my email list, and you can sign up via the link in the show notes again.

The BBC Warning On Overuse

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Alright, so supplements. Let's go back to this BBC article. I am also gonna link that article um to the show notes so that you can refer to it and um have a read through yourself. But the premise of the article is basically to raise awareness that some people are really overdoing it in the supplements department. Um we tend to think that you know supplementation is um you know we tend to compare it perhaps with um with chemical pharmaceuticals, and we tend to think, oh, supplements are natural, so ergo they are good for us, right? And I think from this dichotomy, this versus that, uh bad versus good, can come this confusion about what supplements can and cannot do, and very quickly what can start happening is that we hear a lot of things, there's a lot of marketing happening in in the wellness world, so we keep hearing things, we keep hearing and and you know, seeing people um push for certain supplements, and very quickly things can add up, and we might find ourselves with like I have seen people who have like literally a morning basket and an evening basket full of supplements, right? Where they have all the all of the little boxes and and bottles um uh and whatnot lined up, and this without the supervision of a professional. So this article in particular talks about uh problems related to over supplementation, right? When we might be taking higher doses of whether it's you know vitamins or herbs um or some minerals, higher doses than we actually need, right? And then what can happen is toxicity to the liver, right? There is this notion of liver injury that is linked to that can be linked to over-supplementation, right? So this is like this article talks about how the British liver trust is saying that there although there is very little data in the UK on this particular problem, it is seeing a rise in cases of liver injury due to oversupplementation.

Ashwagandha Is Not For Everyone

SPEAKER_01 8:51

I just want to illustrate this because this has happened to me many times when I have gone to um family or friend gatherings, and as people learned that I was in the world Vayurvada working in this field, they would tell me, Oh, I take Ashwaganda, is it good? And um, and for me, first of all, that is such a strange question because you know, if you are already taking something, it better be you better know that it is good. Don't wait until you're in a family gathering with somebody who may or may not have an idea of what is good for you to confirm, right? So that's just one thing. Um, so if you're taking something, be sure that it's the right thing to take. Do your homework, and this shows the extent of research that some people do before inviting a supplement into their lives, right? So, for example, in the case of Ashwagandha, of course it's a brilliant herb for many many reasons, right? But also it's a very heating herb, right? It's a herb that is actually quite heavy to break down. It's a herb that, although so beneficial in many aspects, if you already have high pitta, right, if you already have um, you know, signs of excess heat in your body, it may not be the best choice for you because it is heating in nature, right? If your digestion is very weak, it might not be the best herb for you because it is difficult to break down. If you have some hormonal imbalances, it can interfere with the thyroid function. And this article in particular was referring to Ashwagandha alongside vitamin A, glutamine, and green tea extract as um supplements that are particularly toxic to the liver when taken in high doses. And from the Ayurvedic perspective, um, this totally makes sense, right? In the case of Ashwagandha, if we take it in doses that are higher than what is appropriate for us, right, for our body constitution and our current state of digestive fire, the liver will have to take on the extra load. The liver will have to process that excess heat, right? So it will be putting strain on that organ.

Liver Load And Concentrated Extracts

SPEAKER_01 12:04

From the iuretic perspective, everything that enters our body, whether that's you know, as food, as drink, as information, as um, you know, any substance that enters through the skin barrier, right, such as cosmetic products or cleaning products, all of that needs to be metabolized, right? And so when we take in supplements, they also need to be metabolized. So our liver does work extra when we take supplements. And here is this consideration that we need to have. Um, do the benefits outweigh any any possible risks, right? And and there isn't like a one answer that I can coin for all of the listeners of the podcast, right? This is something that you need to um, you know, either really do your own research or preferably work with a professional who will be able to like see the bigger picture, right? Of what is your current metabolic capacity, right? Because if we end up like alongside our breakfast, we end up with you know 10 or 12 different supplements, which can add up really quickly, right? If you're taking like vitamin D, you're taking a few minerals or multivitamins. Um, you know, now many women are taking collagen on a daily basis. It's very common to take curcumin as um as a supplement in a supplement form. Curcumin is the extract um of it's the active compound of turmeric, right? And and that is actually a good example because in studies show that curcumin is very anti-inflammatory, it is very effective, yet it is way more concentrated than turmeric, right? So our digestive fire needs to work much harder to process it, right? Um, our liver will need to work harder to process it. So again, like this, um, you know, benefits and risks need to really be weighed, especially if it's something that you um, you know, you you count on taking on a daily basis for a prolonged period of time, right? So you always want to take your liver into the account as well, and the health of your digestifier to make sure that you're not overloading it with the contents of your supplement basket.

When Supplements Make Sense Anyway

SPEAKER_01 15:09

And again, I do want to make a case for supplements because um I do think they have a role to play because the quality of our soil has diminished, right? So, you know, even if our vegetables are organic, um the carrots that we get now nutritionally are inferior to the carrots that were available a few decades ago, right? So we do need to make up for um you know for our lifestyle through supplements in some shape or form to a certain extent, right? So for example, um during the depending on on the climate where you live, um you might really need supplementation of vitamin D during the winter months and and you know the fall and and some part of the spring, right? Um but then you can choose how you work with this vitamin D, right? You can take it in small doses, which is easier for the liver, or you can take it in larger doses every two weeks, which is I know some some GPs work this way, um, where they would prescribe a dosage that you would take, you know, every couple of weeks, right? So it's you you're receiving something more potent, something more concentrated, but then your liver will need to work harder, and sometimes that's okay, right? So long as it's not needing to do that all the time.

Don’t DIY Herbs Without Support

SPEAKER_01 17:04

So having established this idea that everything we take in needs to be metabolized by our digestifier, right? Um, my first advice would be don't DIY supplements unless you have a professional understanding of them, unless you have some kind of like medical training um or you know Ayurvedic training for your herbs. Um, but even if you do have that background, um at least my experience is sometimes we might be too close to judge whether something is truly of help for us. Because when it comes to when things get personal, when they're about us, when they're about our most loved ones, sometimes it's difficult for us to see the bigger picture. So, for example, in my case, uh, even I do have even if I do have an Ayurvedic background, I always appreciate getting an opinion of another Ayurvedic professional when it comes to my own herbs. I can I can choose them myself, right? Depending on what is happening in my body and in my mind. But I also really appreciate um opportunities to check in with another professional, with another Ayurveda professional who also knows the herbs, who also knows me, and this is a good way to kind of prevent blind spots. So that is the first thing I will say um that um Ayurveda is not meant to be practiced in isolation, it's not meant to be a DIY project. Um, it is a relational discipline, right? And the work that happens with Ayurvedic herbs is part of that, right? I will also say that um one of the teachings I received about Ayurvedic herbs and medicines is the teaching that they are about 30% of the healing, right? The rest is our rhythm, our understanding what life is about, our understanding of how the universe works. Right? So that's body and mind functioning in tandem with nature. That is where the healing happens, right? And taking care of these basics will very often take you much further than you think. So really honing in on the basics. And my own approach in client work when it comes to supplements is always less is more. Start to shift their thinking patterns, right? And then herbs can come in as a help, as a support. But my approach is never supplement heavy. And they I have had teachers, I have had um Ayurvedic herbalism teachers who had a different approach, whose approach was you know that herbs should come first because herbs work at the subtle level, and from there you have to trust the herbs, you know, to kind of bring the person to a more harmonious living, and from there the behavior can change, right? And their lives can change, um, and the balance can be restored. And um, I think I don't I don't think there is a a right answer, you know. I I don't think there is one approach that is right and the other one is wrong. I think probably both approaches work, and we simply need to see which approach we as an individual feel more open towards, right? Whether we are in a place where we are ready to make some changes, or perhaps if envisaging changes like lifestyle changes feels difficult and unattainable, um, perhaps working with a practitioner whose starting point is specifically herbs, that can absolutely also be a gateway, right, towards feeling better, towards uh feeling happier with our lives, right, and feeling better in our bodies. But I think whichever approach we choose, whether we choose this approach of less is more with supplements, or we choose the approach of starting with the supplements, eventually the basics of life need to be addressed, right? Our rhythm, our emotions, the way we we digest them, right? Our patterns, our thought patterns, like what do we believe about ourselves, what do we believe about the world, how do we understand and digest the world, right? That is part of the work. So the work needs to get done, right? Herbs or no herbs, but we can't escape that part. So we saw that it's when we're working with supplements, it's first of all um a good idea to check in with somebody who would be able to see a bigger bigger picture than us. It's always a good idea to make sure that we're not DIYing our aururitic path. It's always good to remember that we won't supplement our way into better health without addressing the basics, right? Without working on our rhythm. Like usually what people will say is all the boring stuff, right? How we breathe, how we eat, how we sleep, how and what we think about ourselves and the world, right? That stuff is going to move the needle forward. Herbs are much more subtle, they are a subtle support.

Why Long Term Use Needs Breaks

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Another piece of advice or um rather consideration um that I would like to invite you to think about is taking breaks when you're on supplements. Okay, because any like I would be particularly careful with anybody who like markets a supplement or a herb that is for life, right? Or like really long term, and it's not to say since herbs do work on a subtle level, it is important to give them enough of a time frame, right, to um to give a result, right? So we're never talking about like instant improvement of source, right? But when you are taking supplements, I think it's really healthy to build in breaks, switch things up, right? Because anything that is being taken on a continuous basis should be supervised by somebody who knows about it enough, right? Whether that's your medical professional or if you're being um, you know, if if if you are working with an Ayeuretic practitioner, a Chinese medicine practitioner, somebody who understands the bigger picture, right? Um, and that's also because certain supplements actually re-educate our bodies and our bodies adapt. So, for example, if right now everyone's taking creatine, I'm not an expert, I have not read about it enough, but I do know that when we take creatine, after a certain time our bodies stop producing it with melatonin, the same thing happens. If you take melatonin supplements regularly, your body stops making it or reduces its production, right? Because it's getting it from somewhere else, and um that can probably be reversed, right? But with anything that you're taking for a longer amount of time, this is something that I would take into consideration, right? So if you are taking melatonin every night to sleep better, I would be like, huh, maybe there's something in your routine that can be switched up that will help you get better sleep, and you might not need the melatonin if you work on some aspects of your routine, right? Or some aspects of your day, perhaps some kind of like in like looking at your caffeine intake, that can be a great place to start, right? And um zinc is another good example because if we take zinc supplements for longer term, then our body will be depleted of copper, and the other way around.

Mineral Imbalances And Seasonal Cycling

SPEAKER_01 28:21

When we take copper supplements, our zinc reserves will be depleted, right? So between those two zinc and copper, they my understanding is that they have this relationship um that is always like dancing together, right? Um, and if you are taking um, you know, minerals as such, um, a good idea is to look into um functional medicine professionals around you, uh, because they can run you know quite extensive labs, and you know, there you can really see like, do you actually have a lack of copper or a lack of zinc? Is there a deficiency somewhere that needs to be supplemented? And if so, then you can be sure that you are addressing a need that your body actually has, right? And you it will be indicated for how long you need to take it, and then you might need to repeat the test and and to see if everything's you know balanced out. And if you're working with um iuretic supplements or iuretic herbs, um switching things up and taking breaks is actually built into the seasons, right? Um so you will likely be taking different herbs and supplements in spring, in the summer, and in the fall and winter, right? Because the qualities around us of what is happening in our environment and what is happening in our bodies will be different and they will require an adaptation, right? So, for example, as a more drying herb might be more appropriate in the spring when when we experience a kuffa season, which is more wet and like sluggish and lethargic in nature, you know, taking that same herb in the fall might actually worsen your vada symptoms, right? So, this idea of things being cyclical and adapting, like when you start taking a supplement, don't marry it for life, right? Unless it was indicated by your medical professional. Um, taking breaks, having cycles, then closing cycles, opening new cycles is always a good idea, and it's also kind of common sense, right? We don't want to get our body so used to the same kind of supplement coming in at the same time forever, never, never, right? It's um, in my opinion, uh, and my opinion is not an opinion of a medical professional, right? So there might be instances where you need to do this, but if you are in general um you know of like relatively good health, it's good to take breaks um from your supplements. For example, there are times in the year when I don't take any supplement. So, right now, for example, I'm not taking vitamin D. It is summer where I am. I make sure I get morning sunlight exposure. There are months when I choose to take magnesium supplements to support my sleep, and there are months when I don't do it. There are times when I choose to go for um some more probiotic reinforcement. So and then there are times when I don't take probiotic, right? So then this supplement consumption, I mean I I'm now giving really personal examples, but like in my life, the way it looks like is this dance that sometimes I do a bit of this, sometimes a bit of this, right? But it's never like everything at the same time. Again, unless you have different instructions coming from a medical professional, and this way, um, you know, we can tend to different aspects of our health and wellness without overloading our digestifier.

Avoid Stacking Multiple Protocols

SPEAKER_01 33:19

So sometimes what will happen is I might get clients who are already working with a herbalist or they're working with an acupuncturist who also administers herbs for them. Um sometimes it's a functional medicine doctor, you know, who has them on a supplement protocol. And in those cases, we evaluate, and usually, like I will choose to work on the lifestyle pieces and on the nutrition piece, but in that case we might decide together to leave the you know the herbs out because and and the supplements out again. It's like this fine line between herbs and supplements because um herbs can also be like the way you hydrate yourself with infusions during the day, right? So that kind of classifies as food. But when it comes to like auritic supplements, sometimes I will leave them, I might leave them out altogether if I see that the client is already on um an existing protocol, right? It's not about like piling the ioritic herbs on top of Chinese herbs and on top of minerals and supplements and and you know, vitamins, and overloading ourselves.

Build A Real Relationship With Herbs

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Now, that being said, I also want to speak to another problem, which is on the opposing side of the spectrum, and that is you know, being afraid of the plant world. And I want to include this message because I do think it is very prudent and wise to keep an eye on our supplements to make sure that we're taking what we really need and not over-supplementing, or you know, of whatever the internets are telling us that we should be taking. It is also a wonderful idea to actually become friends with the plant world and start developing relationships with herbs. That's actually really helpful, right? Because if we're consuming supplements in like the pill form, it can be a bit more difficult to relate to them, right? Rather than if we're taking if we're consuming a herb, for example, in its form of um loose leaves, right? As an infusion, right, or as a powder with which me we might make a tea, for example, right? Um, so if we have this basket of supplements, likely we will have very little relationship with whatever is in that basket, right? But if your practitioner or your counselor gave you one or two to work with instead of ten, this can be a window into the amazing world of healing herbs. And again, this is this idea that less can be more, as is often in human relationships, right? We usually have some, you know, our most cherished relationships will be those where we know the person, right? Where we spend more time with the person and we appreciate the person, we know their qualities, we also know their side effects, we know their shortcomings, right? But we know them, we can call it a relationship, and the same goes with the herbs. When we get to know um, you know, one herb or two really well, then we can be more empowered in using them for medicinal purposes because we're more likely to acknowledge when we need them and when we can set them aside for a while, right? And that relationship can become more organic when we take the time to learn about what is it that we're working with, you know, we can listen to stories about it in um Ayurvedic medicine. Many of the herbs will have stories behind them. Um, and I um have a podcast episode actually where I talk about one of the stories about Tulsi, the holy basil, which is a very potent medicinal herb used in Ayurveda. Um, it is a herb that um I've been getting to know for the past couple of years. You can catch my episode Antul C on this podcast, and it is episode number 31. So when we take the time to learn about the character of a herb that we're working with, right, and we can see it in different forms, like whether we work with the powder form to make a tea or with a whole leaf, um, or whether it's a herb that we are working with through the medium of oil, right? And it getting absorbed into our body through the skin, right? Um, so there are all these different ways in which herbs can reach our bodies, and um so there is a lot to gain from the planned world and from building a relationship with it, but in order to do that, we also need to be open, right? Just like in a real relationship, and sometimes what can happen on this other end. So, on one end of the spectrum, it was the problematic that you know we we spoke about in at the beginning of the episode with like people over-supplementing and and me giving this example of like, oh, I'm taking Ashwagandha. What do you think about it? Is it good for me? And I've been taking it for you know for half a year or whatever, every day. And so this is the spectrum of like um, I I I might say it in a very strong way, where this like guru-less society where it's like you know, we have this total freedom to do whatever we want, which is great, it's great to have freedom, and I value freedom, but sometimes all this freedom makes us shoot ourselves in the foot, right? And supplements can be an area where this happens. Um, and then on the other side of the spectrum, we might want like we might have so much fear about doing something wrong that we become rigid in our ways, right? And we become afraid of the plant world, and this is definitely not something I want to encourage. Um, so there is this um example that I can I can say a few words about.

Regulation Fears And The Fish Tank Lens

SPEAKER_01 41:32

Um, a few years ago, the European Union um classified butterfly pea tea, which is this beautiful um like vivid blue uh color petal, uh dry petal that makes this amazing blue tea, like amazing in color, because not many plants have this pigment. Um and it's it's a tea that uh is very common in Southeast Asia, um specifically like in Thailand and places like Thailand, Vietnam, in India as well. It is used in Ayurveda, it is used as an anti-inflammatory, um as a cooling agent for the body and as a brain tonic because it is calming, just like chamomile, right? We we know you you might remember from the two previous episodes where I spoke about bringing down the heat with foods and beverages in the summer, and I spoke about florals that usually flowers that are like fragrant they will have a cooling quality on the body and the mind. So butterfly pea tea has those qualities, right? But in the EU it has been um revoked as a novel food, so it went into this novel food category, which is um um, you know, it's kind of like designating foods that have not been documented as being foods of significant consumption in the EU territory, and there were some concerns that surfaced, um, I think it was regarding the safety of a particular compound present in this particular tea, and there were massive recalls. Like I remember um I remember receiving emails in my inbox from um various. Herbal providers saying, Did you purchase this tea from us? If you did, you know, send it like back or throw it away or whatever. Um, and I remember thinking, Wow, this is so interesting, because this is a traditional food, a traditional herb, right, that is used in parts of the world, and it has been used for a very, very, very long time. Like it has been tried and tested through generations, right? Um, but here we have a different approach, right? And especially in the European Union, which is very um, you know, very big on regulation. Um, you know, we tend to pull apart and dissect and extract an active compound of sorts and then administer it, and and you know, notice that the effect is different and the effect is sharper than um you know than it would be if like you use the whole plant, right? So it's a very different way of looking at the world, right? To measure, to isolate, to extract, to study something in its isolation. So this is um important, I think, to keep in mind if if you're navigating the space between like Western thinking and eastern thinking, right? Um and this is you know, looking at something in isolation is not the way of Ayurveda. Ayurveda looks at the whole, and I think there is so much merit, also, by the way, in looking at something in its isolation, right? There is there's a place for everything, I think. Um there is um a really interesting experiment that I read about, which is called the fish tank experiment, and it was like having Western populations, so I'm guessing like a US population, and um, I think it was Japanese populations, to look at a fish tank and describe what they saw, and quite consistently, um, the Westerners they described the big fish that was there in the center of a tank, right? And the Japanese they were describing the context, right? So they were describing, you know, what they saw in the whole fish tank, like how many fish they saw, and uh what was the color of the water, and like the you know, the plants that were there, and they were focusing on less detail but on more context, and um, you know, the westerners they were focusing like hyper focusing on the detail, right? And there is merit to both ways, right, of seeing the world, and this is how Ayurveda sees health and supplementation too, right? This is how Ayurveda sees hormones, for example, right? Um, you know, in the West they will really label like this hormone is out of whack for you, right? Here is a prescription to supplement this hormone. But the way Ayurveda sees hormones is like looking at the whole fish tank, right? What's happening with the plants? What's happening with the water? What's happening with the sunlight that's penetrating? What's happening with like how many fish are there? Like how how are the fish living together? So to bring this back to our relationship with supplements, right? This different ways of seeing the world, right? This fear can come from simply googling a herb and finding that it has secondary effects. And again, it's not to say that that is not important, it is important information, but then also remembering that there is a context, right? There is a context of what is the state of your digestifier, what is the capacity of your liver? Is your liver healthy? How much of a certain supplement are you having? How often are you having it? How many other supplements are you taking? Are you going through a very complicated phase in your life right now where you're digesting a lot of life, and hence, you know, your metabolic capacity to digest other things might be compromised, right? So remembering that there's also context.

Finding The Middle Path And Closing

SPEAKER_01 49:19

I actually planned for this episode to be really short and sweet, but again, it turned out to be a little longer than expected. But my hope is that it will encourage you to find the middle path where you're not afraid to um, you know, open up to the wonderful world of plants and their healing powers, but you're also respectful of the plants and of your digestive fire, and you don't overdo it. I'm wishing you a beautiful summer break if it's summer where you are. And I look forward to reconnecting with you in about a month.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

Have a beautiful day.