 Hello and welcome to CNM Herbal Medicine year one. This is Iovada 4. So it's great to see you again. I hope you've been thinking about all your Iovadic ideas. We've been circling around. I think it's very much the way we're delivering Iovada to you, introducing concepts, coming back to these concepts, deepening these concepts, returning in a deeper way. So now we get to the final lecture in the series. We're going to be talking about herbal pharmacology. So we're really bringing things back to our core branch of knowledge, herbal medicine. We're going to be talking about the tastes. We're going to be talking about the qualities. Always bringing it back to herbal medicine, deepening your understanding of how Iovada applies within the context of prescribing herbs. We're going to be mentioning some Iovadic herbs, but really what we're trying to do here is enhance your understanding of how to use Western herbs from an energetic Iovadic perspective. We will be talking about some Iovadic herbs, but this knowledge can be applied to our Western herbal material, to deepen your understanding of using Iovada, using energetics within the Western herbal medicine setting. So the learning outcomes for this lecture. We're going to start by talking about prana. Prana is vital force. Remember, chi in Chinese medicine, vital force in naturopathy. Prana in Iovadic medicine, it's the same deep underlying principle that all traditional medical systems have aspired to. We'll talk about how prana applies within herbal medicine. Some really interesting ideas for us to just reflect on a little bit. Then we're going to talk about the pharmacology, these herbal medicines. We've talked a lot about food medicines. We've talked about the use of herbs within foods. We've mentioned a few herbs. We really want to home in on herbal therapeutics in this lecture. So we'll be talking about herbs in the context of the five elements. An idea you're very, very familiar with by now. This fundamental way of understanding energetics of the universe. We'll return to the taste again. We'll deepen our understanding and apply it specifically to herbal medicines. Your sweet, sour, salty, pungent and so on. And how you can apply that to specific herbs. And wherever possible, we'll deepen this understanding of herbs. Really try to give you a picture of herbs. Over the course of your studies, you learn the characters, the personalities of these herbs. At this stage, it must seem potentially quite confusing. There's 150 herbs that you know you're going to be learning about in Materia Medica. How are you going to understand? How are you going to get to know these herbs? It's all about repetition. It's all about deepening your understanding. Getting to understand their actions, their qualities, their chemicals. And fundamentally, their characters, their personalities. This is how herbalists come to understand their herbs ultimately as characters, as personalities. So we'll deepen your understanding of herbal medicines here. We'll also think about herbal medicine in terms of the qualities. We've referred to this before, but thinking about what herbs are heavy, what herbs are light, what herbs are cold, what herbs are dry and so on. This energetic vision of the universe. And then the final part of the lecture, herbal applications. This is just where we're going to think about teas. We're going to think about tinctures and powders and so on in terms of their energetic qualities. It's really important that when we're prescribing herbal medicines that we get our prescription correct. But how can the method of application support energetics too? Tinctures being heating, teas being hydrating. All of these things come together in energetics to create that balance in patients. So prana, vital force, chi, call it what you like. It's the same thing. We don't want to go into the esoterics of Ayurveda. I strongly recommend you do some background reading in Ayurveda and look at some of this deeper cosmology, the deeper philosophy of Ayurveda. It's not necessary to practice in an Ayurvedic way. But there's this idea that the first thing that was created in the universe was prana, this vital force. It's a concept that we've talked about. It's a concept you've learned about in your Chinese medicine lectures. It's a subject you've learned about in your naturopathy lectures. It's a very hard thing to define. What is this vital force? What is this prana that permeates the universe? The first thing, the underlying energetic matrix that lives kind of in the living world. That exists, that pulsates, that moves throughout the natural world. That's responsible for heating. That's responsible for vitality. That's responsible for balance. Very hard, very subtle, but entirely profound concept within nature. And again, when you find something like vital force or prana or chi referred to in every traditional system of medicine, going back for tens of thousands of years, you know there's something here. We can't measure it. Scientists can't see it. We can't take scans of it, but it's there. So a really interesting idea in Ayurveda is this idea that a lot of the healing that takes place when we use natural medicines, high quality organic foods, wild foods, seasonal foods, high quality herbal medicines, is that we're taking vital force into our body. The vital force of these natural herbal characters that have grown in natural places, they have this perfect vital force within them. They're not interrupted by crossbreeding. They're not interrupted by pesticides. They're these pure expressions of vital force within nature. And when these herbs or very, very pure foods interact with our body, they reset our vital force. It's a really profound concept that's been blowing my mind recently when I've been thinking about it, that just that contact between our physiology, the physiology, our vital force with that physiology and vital force of plants resets us. So we know that vital force, we define it as this self-regulating, self-organising. Intelligent is a word that could be used to describe it, but it's not intelligent in the way our minds are intelligent. It's this kind of self-regulating, organising, healing, harmonising force in nature. And when we interact with plant medicines, it resets our vital force. So on a fundamental level, it doesn't often matter exactly what herbs we take. We don't have to get our prescriptions absolutely perfect. Just giving herbs to patients on one level will regulate their vital force, will promote healing in their bodies. Clearly, if we get the energetics right and the chemistry right and our diagnosis right, it will enhance that. But just taking herbal medicines will reset our vital force. For this video, please give it a like and subscribe below so you don't miss any future content. To learn more about CNM or its courses, head to www.naturopathy-uk.com