Kristyn Helgeton, RMT

The story of the dandelion is an interesting one, at least if you find this sort of thing interesting! 🤓

Before the mid-century suburban lawn boom, dandelions were generally valued rather than vilified. Early European settlers brought them to North America as a source of food and traditional herbal medicine. Their leaves were eaten in spring salads, their roots used in tonics, and their flowers supported pollinators after long winters. Ecologically, their deep taproots also help break up compacted soil and bring nutrients closer to the surface. Over time, shifting ideas around the “perfect lawn,” along with aggressive marketing of broadleaf herbicides, rebranded this resilient plant as an unwanted w**d and people started spraying them with toxic chemicals rather than using them in the kitchen and medicine cabinet.

Recently though, the little yellow flower is getting some attention in the lab, and the herbalists aren’t mad. Early research (preclinical in vitro studies) is showing that dandelion root extract is triggering apoptosis in certain cancer cells. Apoptosis is essentially cellular su***de, where the damaged or abnormal cells basically shut themselves down and die off naturally. In the studies, certain cancer cell lines like leukemia, melanoma, and colon cancer have shown this response when exposed to concentrated extracts, while healthy cells don’t seem to react the same way. Scientists think it may be linked to how the extract disrupts energy production and stress signals inside the cell. It’s early research, but it shows some real promise. Especially if you compare that to data related to the effects of herbicides! Oh, the irony-but hey, we don’t know what we don’t know until we know it.

Anyways, all of this to say that my backyard dandelion patch is coming along just dandy. 😏🌼

Awkward, but educational! Thanks for watching. 💚

Meet me (Kristyn), my tincture Vita, and my big fuzzy emotional support cat Rune who helped me make this video without me so much as asking. A big shoutout to my dear friend Tiff @themartletbarbershop for being a confident and encouraging friend and amazing entrepreneur. Go get your hair cut! She’ll make you laugh. I promise. If you’re curious about the tincture, hit me up! I’m a person. Thanks for watching guys 💚 #slowmade #apothecary #supportlocal #tincture #emotionalsupportcat

They say you shouldn’t talk about politics, religion, or death- which is hilarious because those are basically my favorite topics, haha. Add a soft spot for taboo conversations, and here we are! So in that spirit, today’s post is brought to you by yet another slightly uncomfortable subject: herpes! 🙃

Herpes is an extremely common virus and can show up in many forms including cold sores, shingles, and other uncomfortable rashes or sores. Estimates suggest that around 60–70% of people in Canada carry HSV-1, and roughly 15% carry HSV-2; as for shingles, if you’ve had chicken pox, you’re at risk.

Realistically, this is something most of us are affected by, directly or indirectly, so we should probably be talking about it…

The virus itself is generally harmless, but outbreaks can be really uncomfortable. After having the unfortunate experience of shingles a few times last winter, I started experimenting with making little balms for myself, and from there, these little guys were born. I call them Hush-1 and Hush-2.

These balms are made with herbs traditionally used for viral support and skin healing (with growing clinical research to support their use) especially lemon balm and heal-all. Hush-1 is designed for oral cold sores, and Hush-2 is for more sensitive outbreaks. They are gentle, discreet, smell like fresh citrus, and they’ll work well alongside other antiviral supports.

Questions? No need to stay hush- hush. 😏
DM me, I’m a person. 💚🌿