A Teaching on Bone Health Through the Lens of Sacred Embodied Human Animal Medicine
The Question Your Bones Are Asking
Your bones are asking a question that calcium supplements cannot answer.
They are asking: Do you remember that I am alive?
They are asking: Do you know that I am constantly remaking myself, cell by cell, mineral by mineral, story by story?
They are asking: Can you feel me as the earth made solid, as the ocean crystallized into the architecture that lets you stand?
Who This Article Is For: Natural Support for Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis & Bone Health
I originally created this formula for myself, as someone who in my mid 30’s could feel that after two pregnencies, my bones were just not as strong, as they once were. I also have a family history of osteoarthritis, that I wanted to begin offering preventative measures for my body, before the pain began to set in.
If you’re dealing with osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, arthritis, or declining bone density, this article offers a paradigm shift in understanding what your bones actually need.
This comprehensive guide is for:
- Women over 40 experiencing bone loss during perimenopause or menopause
- Anyone diagnosed with osteoporosis or osteopenia seeking natural support
- Those with osteoarthritis looking for whole-body approaches to joint and bone health
- People with rheumatoid arthritis or other inflammatory conditions affecting skeletal integrity
- Anyone with a family history of bone loss wanting to build prevention from the foundation
- Those who’ve been taking calcium supplements without seeing improvement
- Anyone seeking to understand bone health through an ecological, whole-systems approach
Whether you’re navigating a specific diagnosis or simply recognize that your skeleton needs deeper support, what follows will change how you think about bone building. This isn’t about forcing your body to comply with external interventions, it’s about creating the conditions your bones need to do what they’ve always known how to do: build strong, flexible, and resilient tissue.
Your skeleton is not a scaffold. It is not static support that needs more material poured into it like concrete into a mold. It is living tissue, just as alive as your heart, as responsive as your nervous system, as constantly in conversation with the rest of your body as your gut microbiome.
Right now, specialized cells called osteoblasts are building new bone tissue throughout your skeleton. Right now, other cells called osteoclasts are carefully dismantling old bone, releasing its minerals back into your bloodstream. This is renewal. Your entire skeleton replaces itself every seven to ten years. The bones you are sitting on did not exist a decade ago.
This constant remodeling is how your body maintains what the mineral kingdom has always known: that true strength comes not from rigidity but from the capacity to break down and rebuild, to adapt to new stresses while maintaining integrity, to be simultaneously ancient and brand new.
But this sacred alchemy of bone building requires far more than calcium tablets. It requires an entire ecosystem of support, with minerals in relationship, collagen matrices, hormonal signals, blood flow, inflammation balance, gut absorption, liver function, and the wisdom of plants that grew from the same mineral-rich earth that your bones long to remember.
Let me show you what your skeleton is actually asking for, and how twenty-three wildcrafted plants, that are in the Skeletal Support: Strong Bones and Teeth Potion, answer that question by working WITH your body’s bone-building intelligence rather than trying to override it. If you are experiencing PAIN along with your need for bone support, I recommend adding the Arthritis Support: Joint & Cartilage Regeneration .
What the Dissertation Teaches: The Paradigm Beneath the Practice
In my doctoral research on The Sacred Embodied Human Animal, I trace how Western biomedicine’s mechanistic model of the body emerged from post-Enlightenment rationalism that sought to separate mind from matter, spirit from flesh, human from nature. This separation created what I call the “body-as-machine” paradigm, which is the foundational assumption that your body is a mechanical system requiring external intervention and control rather than an intelligent ecosystem requiring supportive conditions.
This paradigm shapes everything about how we currently approach bone health in mainstream medicine. Bones are conceptualized as calcium storage units that can be “topped up” through supplementation, much like adding oil to an engine. Bone loss is framed as mechanical failure requiring pharmaceutical intervention, or replacement with “better” more industrial devices. The living, relational, responsive nature of bone tissue is reduced to mineral density measurements.
But as I argue throughout the dissertation, this mechanistic framework is not neutral description, it is cultural ideology made to seem like objective science. It reflects and reinforces empire consciousness: the belief that nature (including the nature of our own bodies) must be dominated, controlled, and improved upon by human intervention.
The Sacred Embodied Human Animal paradigm offers a fundamentally different starting point. It begins with the recognition that you ARE an animal, not metaphorically but literally, biologically, materially. You are a sacred animal whose body emerged from four billion years of evolutionary intelligence, whose cells know how to heal and build and adapt without being told, whose tissues are in constant conversation with the more-than-human world.
This paradigm shift changes the questions we ask:
Mechanistic question: “How do I get more calcium into my bones?”
Ecological question: “What conditions does my skeleton need to do what it already knows how to do; build strong, flexible bone tissue?”
The first question leads to isolated supplementation that often fails. The second question leads to systems-based support that actually works because it honors your body’s intelligence rather than trying to override it.
[Citation: Stephanie Bacquet Mathew’s Dissertation, Chapter 3, “From Machine to Ecosystem: Reimagining Embodied Health”]
What Chapter 1 Teaches: Bones as Sacred Technology
In Body as an Ecology, Chapter 1 explores bones as ancient wisdom keepers. Living archives that remember not just your personal history but evolutionary time, ancestral patterns, and the mineral intelligence of the earth itself.
Your bones are approximately 30% collagen and 70% minerals, primarily calcium phosphate crystallized in hexagonal structures that mirror the sacred geometry found throughout nature. This makes your skeleton literally a mineral consciousness inhabiting your flesh, and the earth’s intelligence organized into the architecture that allows you to stand upright.
Within the hollow centers of your bones, in spaces most people never consciously visit, your bone marrow performs one of the most miraculous acts in your body: hematopoiesis, which is the continuous birth of your blood cells. Every red blood cell carrying oxygen through your vessels, every white blood cell protecting you from infection, every platelet sealing wounds, they all were born within the sacred wombs of your bone marrow.
Your skeleton is simultaneously the most solid part of you and the most generative. It creates strength through creating space. It builds foundation through honoring emptiness. The hollow chambers within your bones are not weakness, they are the source of your life force, the alchemical laboratories where minerals become blood, where earth becomes river, where solid transforms into flow.
This means your bones are not separate from your circulatory system, your immune system, or your endocrine system. They are the foundation that makes all these systems possible. They are the mineral mothers constantly birthing the cellular children that keep you alive.
When we understand bones this way, as living sacred technology rather than dead scaffolding, we stop asking how to force them to hold more calcium and start asking how to support the entire ecosystem that bones require to do their work.
[Reference: Body as an Ecology, Chapter 1, “Bones as Ancient Wisdom Keepers”]
What Your Bones Actually Need: The Ecosystem of Bone Building
Your bones need what any living ecosystem needs: the right elements in relationship, the right conditions for growth, the reduction of destructive forces, and the support of beneficial allies. I create medicine based on the holistic view of how the body works as a whole, rather than just addressing symptoms, or single elements. Skeletal Support: Strong Bones & Teeth Potion.
The Mineral Choir: Elements in Conversation
Calcium does not build bones alone. It works in an intricate dance with magnesium, silica, boron, manganese, copper, zinc, and phosphorus. Taking isolated calcium without these supporting minerals is like trying to build a house with only bricks, without mortar, a frame, foundation, or roof.
Magnesium activates vitamin D and directs calcium into bones rather than soft tissues. Without adequate magnesium, calcium deposits where it doesn’t belong, such as in your arteries, kidneys, and joints, while the bones remain depleted.
Silica acts as biological glue, binding calcium and other minerals into the collagen matrix of bone. It is absolutely essential for the formation of the protein scaffolding that gives bones their flexibility and prevents brittleness.
Boron helps your body retain calcium and magnesium instead of excreting them. It also supports the conversion of vitamin D, which comes from the sunshine, to its active form and influences estrogen metabolism, both are critical for bone density.
Manganese activates enzymes necessary for building the organic matrix of bone and protects against free radical damage during the constant remodeling process.
Copper is required for cross-linking collagen fibers so they’re strong and flexible rather than weak and brittle.
These minerals must come in forms your body recognizes and can absorb. Rock-based calcium carbonate supplements are poorly absorbed. But calcium that comes from plants, chelated with plant compounds, embedded in living tissue; is readily taken up by your gut and delivered to your bones.
This is the first gift of plant medicine: minerals in relationship, in bioavailable forms, in the ratios that the more-than-human world has always known support bone building.
The Collagen Foundation: Protein as Possibility
Your bones are about 30% collagen, the fibrous protein matrix that gives them flexibility and tensile strength. Without adequate collagen, bones become brittle, prone to fracture even when calcium levels are adequate. They become like dry chalk instead of living wood.
Collagen formation requires vitamin C, copper, silica, and specific amino acids. It also requires your body’s capacity to orchestrate the complex synthesis of these proteins, which depends on adequate circulation, reduced inflammation, and hormonal signals that say “build” rather than “break down.”
This is why isolated calcium supplementation so often fails. You can pour all the mineral into your system you want, but if you don’t have the protein matrix to hold it, your bones cannot use it.
The Hormonal Conductors: Signals That Direct the Symphony
Your endocrine system directly controls whether your body builds or breaks down bone tissue. Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, thyroid hormones, parathyroid hormone, growth hormone, and cortisol all influence the activity of osteoblasts and osteoclasts.
When these hormones are balanced, your bones receive clear signals: build during times of strength, conserve during times of stress, adapt to the loads you place upon them. When hormones are imbalanced, particularly during perimenopause and menopause when estrogen declines, bone loss can accelerate dramatically.
Estrogen has receptor sites directly in bone tissue. When estrogen binds to these receptors, it signals osteoblasts to build bone and tells osteoclasts to slow down. When estrogen declines, this protective signal weakens, and bone breakdown can outpace bone building.
But your body has other pathways for maintaining bone density even when estrogen declines. Plant compounds called phytoestrogens can bind to the same receptors, providing gentle support without the risks of synthetic hormone replacement.
The Inflammatory Cascade: When Breakdown Outpaces Building
Chronic inflammation is one of the primary drivers of bone loss, particularly as we age. Inflammatory compounds called cytokines, directly signal your body to increase osteoclast activity and decrease osteoblast activity.
This means inflammation literally tells your bones to break themselves down faster than they rebuild. This is why inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and chronic infections correlate with bone loss even in people who consume adequate calcium.
Reducing systemic inflammation is CENTRAL to bone health. Without addressing the inflammatory cascade, all the calcium in the world cannot stop bone resorption.
The Circulation Rivers: Delivering Resources, Removing Waste
Your bones need blood flow. They need the constant delivery of nutrients and oxygen, the constant removal of cellular waste and metabolic byproducts. Poor circulation means your bones are starving even if your diet is rich, parched even if you’re well-hydrated.
The small blood vessels that feed bone tissue need to remain healthy, flexible, and unobstructed. This requires vascular-supportive compounds, antioxidants that protect blood vessel walls, and circulation-enhancing elements that keep blood flowing freely.
The Gut Gateway: Absorption as Transformation
Your gut must be able to absorb the minerals your bones need. But gut health in the modern world is compromised by antibiotics, processed foods, chronic stress, environmental toxins, and the severing of relationship with beneficial microbes.
Leaky gut, dysbiosis, low stomach acid, damaged intestinal villi: all of these reduce your capacity to take in the very minerals your skeleton requires. You can eat the most mineral-rich diet and still have deficient bones if your gut cannot transform food into bioavailable nutrients.
This is why bone health formulas must also support digestive function, microbial balance, and intestinal integrity. The village-body is interconnected. You cannot heal bones without healing gut and cannot build skeleton without feeding the microbiome.
The Liver: Activating Vitamin D, Metabolizing Hormones
Your liver converts vitamin D into its active form, calcitriol, which regulates calcium absorption in your gut and calcium deposition in your bones. Without adequate liver function, you can receive all the vitamin D (getting it directly form the sun, rather than a supplement) you want and still not get the bone-building benefits.
Your liver also metabolizes hormones, including estrogen. When liver function is compromised, hormonal balance becomes disrupted, which directly affects bone density.
Supporting liver health is supporting bone health. They are not separate systems but intimate partners in the dance of mineral metabolism.
The Twenty-Three Plant Allies: Wildcrafted Wisdom for Bone Building
The plants I am sharing here are found in a wildcrafted herbal medicine made by Stephanie Bacquet Mathews. She took years of traveling the country, studying and research to create these holistically minded, and unique formulas. The Skeletal Support: Strong Bones & Teeth Potion can be found on her website, along with over 60 other formulas.
These plants are not “treating” bone loss. They are not forcing your body to do something unnatural. They are providing the support your skeleton needs to do what it has always known how to do: build strong, resilient bone tissue through the constant remodeling that is the signature of living matter.
Each plant was chosen not for a single isolated compound but for the full spectrum of its medicine: the way it addresses multiple aspects of the bone-building ecosystem simultaneously, the way it works in relationship with the other plants in the formula, and the way it carries the intelligence of the wild places it grew.
The Mineral Bearers: Plants That Deliver Earth’s Intelligence
Horsetail (Equisetum arvense)
Horsetail is the elder teacher of skeletal support, the plant that most directly addresses the mineral and structural needs of bone tissue.
It contains up to 8% silica, the highest concentration of any plant. This silica is not just silicon dioxide but orthosilicic acid, the bioavailable form that your body can actually use to build the collagen matrix of bone. Silica acts as biological mortar, binding calcium and other minerals into the protein scaffolding that gives bones their flexibility and strength.
Without adequate silica, calcium has nowhere to anchor. It floats freely in your bloodstream, depositing in soft tissues where it causes harm, such as arterial plaques, kidney stones, joint calcifications. While your bones remain depleted. Horsetail provides the missing link that allows calcium to actually build bone rather than create pathology.
But Horsetail offers more than silica. It also contains calcium, magnesium, manganese, and potassium in the exact ratios plants have learned to hold through millions of years of mineral relationship with soil. These are not isolated elements but minerals in conversation, embedded in plant tissue, chelated with organic compounds that make them readily absorbable.
The manganese in Horsetail specifically activates enzymes necessary for building the organic bone matrix and protects against oxidative damage during the constant remodeling process.
Horsetail also carries the medicine of ancient plant lineage. It is a living fossil, relatively unchanged for over 100 million years. It has witnessed the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, the emergence of flowering plants, the evolution of mammals. When you work with Horsetail, you are working with a plant that remembers deep time, that carries in its structure the patience and persistence required for true bone building.
Ecological note: Horsetail grows in mineral-rich wetlands, its roots drinking deeply from waters that flow through stone and earth. It teaches your bones to remember their water nature, their capacity to be both flexible and strong, both flowing and crystallized.
Red Raspberry Leaf (Rubus idaeus)
Red Raspberry is the woman’s ally, the plant that has supported female bodies through pregnancy, birth, and menopause for countless generations. But its bone medicine extends beyond gender to anyone whose skeleton needs mineral nourishment in gentle, absorbable forms.
Red Raspberry Leaf is extraordinarily rich in calcium, magnesium, manganese, iron, and potassium. But what makes this plant special is the way these minerals are chelated, bound with plant compounds that make them easy for your gut to recognize and absorb.
The calcium in Red Raspberry comes embedded in living tissue, combined with organic acids and plant proteins that your digestive system knows how to metabolize. This is calcium your body can actually use, not the rock-based supplements that often pass through your system unabsorbed or, worse, deposit in tissues where they don’t belong.
The manganese in Red Raspberry is particularly important for women over 40, as this mineral tends to decline with age and is essential for maintaining bone matrix integrity. Manganese deficiency correlates directly with increased osteoporosis risk.
Red Raspberry also contains fragarine, a compound that tones smooth muscle tissue, including the uterus but also the smooth muscle in blood vessels that feed bone tissue. Better vascular tone means better nutrient delivery to your skeleton.
This is a plant of nourishment, of gentle strengthening, of the slow accumulation of mineral wealth that builds resilient bones over time. It does not force quick changes but supports your body’s natural rhythms of building and renewal.
Traditional use: Red Raspberry Leaf tea was given to pregnant women specifically to strengthen bones and teeth, to provide the mineral reserves needed for growing a baby’s skeleton while maintaining the mother’s own bone health. This speaks to the plant’s capacity to support intensive mineral demands.
Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica)
Nettle is the green wealth of the plant kingdom, the mineral-rich nourisher that grows abundantly wherever soil is rich and water flows freely. It is one of the most nutritionally dense plants available, providing calcium, magnesium, silica, boron, iron, and trace minerals in highly bioavailable forms.
The boron in Nettle is particularly important for bone health because it helps your body retain calcium and magnesium instead of excreting them in urine. Boron also supports the conversion of vitamin D to its active form and influences estrogen metabolism, both critical for maintaining bone density, especially during and after menopause.
Research shows that boron supplementation significantly reduces calcium and magnesium loss and increases serum levels of estradiol and testosterone, two hormones that directly support bone building. [Citation: Nielsen FH, et al. “Effect of dietary boron on mineral, estrogen, and testosterone metabolism in postmenopausal women.” FASEB J. 1987]
Nettle also provides silicon in forms that support collagen synthesis and bone matrix formation. The combination of minerals in Nettle works synergistically, which means they enhance each other’s absorption and utilization rather than competing for uptake.
But Nettle offers more than minerals. It has mild adaptogenic properties that help your body navigate stress more effectively. Since chronic stress elevates cortisol, which directly increases bone breakdown, Nettle’s stress-buffering effects indirectly protect your skeleton.
The plant also supports kidney function, and your kidneys play a crucial role in calcium metabolism and vitamin D activation. Healthy kidneys mean better mineral balance, which means stronger bones.
Ecological wisdom: Nettle grows in disturbed soils, in places where human activity has created nitrogen-rich environments. It is a plant of healing disruption, of making nourishment from disturbance. It teaches your bones how to adapt to the stresses of modern life while maintaining their integrity.
Rose Hips (Rosa canina)
Rose Hips are the bright red jewels that appear after roses finish blooming, the fruit that carries the seeds of future roses and also the concentrated medicine of the plant’s relationship with sun and soil.
They provide massive amounts of vitamin C, sometimes 20-40 times more than oranges. This vitamin C is not isolated ascorbic acid but whole-food vitamin C complexed with bioflavonoids, organic acids, and plant compounds that enhance its absorption and utilization.
Vitamin C is absolutely essential for collagen synthesis. Your body cannot make collagen without it. Collagen is the protein matrix that comprises 30% of your bone tissue, the fibrous scaffolding that holds minerals in place and gives bones their flexibility. Without adequate vitamin C, bones become brittle and prone to fracture even when mineral levels are adequate.
But Rose Hips provide more than vitamin C. They also contain copper, manganese, and bioflavonoids. Copper is required for the cross-linking of collagen fibers, the process that makes collagen strong and resilient rather than weak and easily torn.
The bioflavonoids in Rose Hips enhance vitamin C’s effects and also provide antioxidant protection for bone cells during the constant remodeling process. Osteoblasts and osteoclasts are vulnerable to oxidative damage, and protecting them means more efficient, healthier bone turnover.
Rose Hips also support immune function and reduce inflammation throughout the body. Since inflammation directly triggers bone breakdown, Rose Hips’ anti-inflammatory effects protect your skeleton from one of the primary drivers of bone loss.
Plant wisdom: Rose produces its most concentrated medicine in the hips: the fruits that appear after flowering, after the showy beauty has passed. This teaches bones about the wisdom that comes after the flashy growth phase, the deep nourishment that builds slowly and lasts.
Black Currant (Ribes nigrum)
Black Currant is the dark berry of northern climates, the fruit that thrives in cool weather and produces deep purple-black berries packed with anthocyanins and vitamin K.
Vitamin K is one of the most underappreciated nutrients for bone health. It activates osteocalcin, a protein that binds calcium to the bone matrix. Without adequate vitamin K, calcium cannot be properly incorporated into bone tissue, it will just circulate in your blood without being deposited where it’s needed.
Research consistently shows that vitamin K supplementation increases bone mineral density and reduces fracture risk. [Citation: Cockayne S, et al. “Vitamin K and the prevention of fractures: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.” Arch Intern Med. 2006]
But Black Currant provides more than vitamin K. It also contains gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), an omega-6 fatty acid that reduces inflammation throughout the body. Unlike the inflammatory omega-6 found in processed vegetable oils, GLA actually has anti-inflammatory effects.
This inflammation reduction is crucial for bone health because inflammatory cytokines directly signal increased bone breakdown. By reducing systemic inflammation, Black Currant helps protect your skeleton from one of the primary drivers of bone loss.
The anthocyanins, the deep blue/purple coloring in Black Currants, also provide powerful antioxidant protection, supporting healthy circulation and protecting bone cells from oxidative stress during remodeling.
Northern wisdom: Black Currant thrives in challenging climates, producing its richest medicine in regions where summers are short and winters long. It teaches bones about building resilience in difficult conditions, and deepening rather than retreating when life is hard.
Wolfberry/Goji Berry (Lycium barbarum)
Wolfberry has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for thousands of years as a kidney tonic and longevity herb. In TCM understanding, the kidneys govern bone health, and strengthening kidney essence strengthens bones.
Modern research confirms this traditional wisdom. Wolfberry contains unique polysaccharides that have been shown to directly stimulate osteoblast activity, these are the cells that build new bone tissue. [Citation: Qui MC, et al. “Lycium barbarum polysaccharide improves bone quality in postmenopausal women.” Nutrition. 2018]
These polysaccharides also protect bone cells from oxidative stress during the constant remodeling process, reducing damage to both osteoblasts and osteoclasts.
Wolfberry is also rich in trace minerals including zinc, selenium, and germanium. Elements that support bone metabolism and immune function. It provides beta-carotene precursors that your body converts to vitamin A, necessary for osteoblast differentiation and bone formation.
The plant has adaptogenic properties, helping your body manage stress more effectively. Since chronic stress elevates cortisol, which directly increases bone breakdown, Wolfberry’s stress-buffering effects indirectly protect your skeleton.
Desert wisdom: Wolfberry grows in harsh desert conditions, thriving where other plants struggle. It teaches bones about endurance, about building deep reserves that sustain you through difficult times.
The Collagen Builders: Plants That Create Flexible Strength
Yucca (Yucca schidigera)
Yucca is the desert plant with sword-like leaves, the survivor that thrives in environments where most plants would perish. It offers profound medicine for joints and connective tissue, including the collagen matrix of bones.
Yucca contains steroidal saponins that reduce inflammation in joints and throughout the body. These saponins work by inhibiting the inflammatory cascade that leads to tissue breakdown, including the breakdown of bone tissue.
But Yucca does something even more interesting for bone health: it provides building blocks for creating the gel-like ground substance, the extracellular matrix that surrounds all your cells, including bone cells. This ground substance is where nutrients diffuse from blood into tissue and where cellular waste moves from tissue into blood.
When this matrix is healthy, your bones can actually receive the minerals and other nutrients they need. When it’s degraded or congested, even the best nutrition cannot reach bone cells effectively.
Yucca also supports healthy digestion and gut permeability. A healthy gut means better absorption of the minerals your bones need.
Desert teaching: Yucca stores water in its leaves and roots, creating reserves that sustain it through drought. It teaches bones about storing mineral reserves, about being prepared for times of deficiency.
Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis)
Bindweed is the vine that gardeners curse and herbalists honor, the plant that refuses to be contained, that sends roots deep into earth and tendrils spiraling toward sky, that binds together whatever it touches with persistent, flexible strength.
Most people know Bindweed as an aggressive weed, nearly impossible to eradicate. But this very persistence, this capacity to survive in disturbed soils and thrive despite attempts at removal, is exactly what makes it medicine for bones that need to rebuild resilience.
Bindweed teaches about the relationship between flexibility and strength, about how to be both deeply rooted and far-reaching simultaneously. The vine creates connection, as it literally binds things together, wrapping around structures and weaving them into integrated wholes. This is bone medicine: the capacity to create coherent structure that’s both stable and adaptable.
The plant contains compounds that support connective tissue integrity, including the ligaments and tendons that attach to bone, the fascial networks that surround and organize skeletal structure, and the collagen fibers that give bones their flexibility. Without healthy connective tissue, bones become isolated structures rather than an integrated skeletal system.
Bindweed specifically supports the binding of minerals into the collagen matrix of bone. It helps create the cross-links that make collagen strong and resilient rather than weak and brittle. This is similar to how the plant itself creates binding connections in the physical world, wrapping around, integrating, creating strength through relationship.
The plant also has mild nervine properties, helping to calm the nervous system. This matters for bone health because chronic stress elevates cortisol, which directly increases bone breakdown. By helping your body manage stress more effectively, Bindweed indirectly protects your skeleton from stress-related bone loss.
Traditional herbalists used Bindweed for conditions where tissues needed to be “bound together, ” wounds that wouldn’t heal, organs that had prolapsed, structures that had lost their integrity. The plant was seen as having binding, toning, and strengthening properties for tissues throughout the body.
In the context of bone health, Bindweed addresses the often-overlooked reality that your skeleton doesn’t exist in isolation. Bones are held in relationship by connective tissue. They move in coordination through fascial connections. They respond to mechanical stress transmitted through tendons and ligaments. When these connecting tissues are weak or damaged, bone health suffers even if mineral levels are adequate.
Bindweed helps restore the integrity of these binding structures. It supports the fascial networks that organize your skeleton into a functional whole. It strengthens the attachments where tendon meets bone, where force is transferred and mechanical stress signals bone to strengthen itself.
The plant also contains compounds that support calcium metabolism, helping your body regulate where calcium goes, into bones where it belongs, not into soft tissues where it creates calcification and dysfunction.
Ecological teaching: Bindweed has an extensive root system that can reach 20-30 feet deep, seeking water and minerals far below the surface. When you cut the vine, the roots survive and send up new growth. This teaches about resilience, about having deep reserves, about the capacity to rebuild even after apparent destruction. The plant shows bones how to be persistent in their rebuilding, how to draw nourishment from deep sources, how to remain flexible while maintaining strength.
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Rosemary is the herb of remembrance, the aromatic Mediterranean plant that has been used since ancient times to strengthen memory and protect cognitive function. But its medicine extends deep into bone tissue as well.
Rosemary contains rosmarinic acid and carnosic acid, tow powerful polyphenol compounds that protect osteoblasts from oxidative damage. These bone-building cells are vulnerable to free radical damage during the constant remodeling process, and protecting them means more efficient bone formation.
Research shows that rosemary extracts increase osteoblast differentiation and activity while reducing osteoclast formation. [Citation: Muhlbauer RC, et al. “Various selected vegetables, fruits, mushrooms and red wine residue inhibit bone resorption in rats.” J Nutr. 2003]
Rosemary also improves circulation throughout the body, including the small blood vessels that feed bone tissue. Better circulation means better nutrient delivery and waste removal, which is essential for healthy bone metabolism.
The plant has significant anti-inflammatory properties, reducing the inflammatory cytokines that directly trigger bone breakdown. Its antioxidants also protect collagen fibers from degradation, maintaining the protein matrix that gives bones their flexibility.
Mediterranean wisdom: Rosemary grows on rocky coastal cliffs, its roots reaching deep into stone to find nourishment. It teaches bones about finding sustenance in hard places, about thriving on minimal resources.
Wild Carrot Flower/Seed (Daucus carota)
Carrot Seed is not the root vegetable but the seeds of wild carrot, also known as Queen Anne’s Lace. It offers specific medicine for liver function, which is crucial for bone health.
Your liver converts vitamin D to its active form (calcitriol), which regulates calcium absorption in your gut and calcium deposition in your bones. Without adequate liver function, you cannot activate vitamin D no matter how much you supplement.
Your liver also metabolizes hormones, including estrogen and testosterone, both are critical for bone density. When liver function is compromised, hormonal balance becomes disrupted, which directly affects your skeleton.
Carrot Seed supports liver detoxification pathways, helping your liver process and eliminate the constant stream of environmental toxins, metabolic wastes, and excess hormones. A healthy liver means better vitamin D activation, better hormone balance, and ultimately stronger bones.
The flower/seed also provides beta-carotene precursors that your body converts to vitamin A. Vitamin A is necessary for osteoblast differentiation, the process where stem cells become bone-building cells.
Wild teaching: Wild carrot grows in disturbed soils, along roadsides and in waste places. It teaches the liver (and through it, the bones) how to process toxicity, how to transform waste into nourishment.
Pinon Pine Resin (Pinus edulis)
Pinon Pine grows in the high desert of the American Southwest, producing fragrant resin that has been used ceremonially and medicinally by Indigenous peoples for millennia.
The resin has powerful antimicrobial properties, helping address chronic infections that contribute to systemic inflammation. Since inflammation directly triggers bone breakdown, addressing infections at their source protects your skeleton.
But Pinon Pine offers something even more subtle and profound: it supports pineal gland function. The pineal gland is your master regulator, the tiny pine cone-shaped gland in your brain that produces melatonin and regulates your entire circadian rhythm.
Your circadian rhythm influences your entire endocrine system, the cascade of hormones that controls everything from sleep to metabolism to bone density. When your pineal gland functions optimally, your hormonal balance improves, which directly affects bone building.
Research shows that disrupted circadian rhythms correlate with decreased bone density and increased fracture risk. [Citation: Swanson CM, et al. “The importance of the circadian system & sleep for bone health.” Metabolism. 2018]
Pinon Pine helps restore natural rhythms, supporting the hormonal foundation that bones require for healthy remodeling.
High desert wisdom: Pinon Pine grows slowly in harsh conditions, taking decades to mature. It teaches bones about patience, about building strength slowly over long periods of time.
The Inflammation Mediators: Plants That Stop Breakdown at Its Source
Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)
Boneset carries its medicine in its very name, this is the plant that has been used for centuries to heal broken bones, to support the skeleton during fever and illness, and to strengthen the body when it feels like it’s falling apart.
The name comes from “break-bone fever,” the old term for dengue and influenza where fever was so high it felt like your bones were breaking. Indigenous peoples and early American settlers turned to Boneset to ease this suffering, to help the body weather the storm of illness without losing skeletal integrity.
But Boneset’s bone medicine goes deeper than fever management. This plant contains compounds that support the immune system’s relationship with bone tissue, addressing the hidden inflammation that weakens your skeleton from within.
When you have chronic low-grade inflammation, the kind that doesn’t make you feel acutely ill but slowly depletes your vitality. Your immune system becomes confused. It starts attacking your own tissues, including bone. Inflammatory cytokines signal increased osteoclast activity, telling your body to break down bone faster than it can rebuild.
Boneset helps restore immune intelligence. It modulates immune response rather than suppressing it, teaching your immune system to recognize true threats while leaving healthy tissue alone. This is crucial for bone health because unregulated inflammation is one of the primary drivers of bone loss, particularly as we age.
This plant also supports the body during times of deep exhaustion and recovery. Times when your skeleton is vulnerable because all resources are being diverted to survival rather than maintenance and rebuilding. Boneset helps your body maintain bone integrity even when under significant stress.
It contains eupatorin and other flavonoids that have both anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating properties. These compounds work gently, not forcing quick changes but supporting your body’s natural capacity to regulate inflammation and protect bone tissue.
Boneset also supports liver function, helping your body process and eliminate the inflammatory compounds and metabolic waste that would otherwise circulate and damage bone cells. A healthy liver means better detoxification, which means less oxidative stress on your skeleton.
The plant has a particular affinity for the junction points, the places where bones meet each other, where tendons attach to bone, where the solid structure of skeleton interfaces with the soft tissue of ligament and muscle. These junction points are often where inflammation concentrates, where wear and tear accumulates, and where bone health is most vulnerable.
Traditional herbalists recognized Boneset as a plant of deep healing, not just for acute symptoms but for the underlying constitutional weakness that makes bones fragile, that makes the body susceptible to breakdown. It’s a plant for rebuilding from the foundation up.
Traditional wisdom: Boneset grows in wetlands and along stream banks, places where water and earth meet. The plant’s leaves grow in a unique perfoliate pattern, the stem appears to pierce through the joined leaves. This signature was seen as a sign of the plant’s medicine for mending what has been broken, for healing separations, and for helping the body remember its wholeness. It teaches bones about resilience during times of crisis, about maintaining integrity when everything feels like it’s falling apart.
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
Black Walnut is the towering tree of eastern forests, producing nuts encased in thick green hulls that stain your hands brown-black. That staining compound is juglone, a powerful antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory substance.
Juglone has significant anti-inflammatory properties, reducing the cytokines that directly trigger bone breakdown. It also has antimicrobial effects against bacteria, fungi, and parasites, addressing the chronic infections that contribute to systemic inflammation.
The tannins in Black Walnut hull provide additional antimicrobial support while also supporting gut health. A healthy gut microbiome is essential for proper mineral absorption and immune regulation, both crucial for bone health.
Black Walnut also provides manganese, a mineral required for bone matrix formation and protection against oxidative damage during bone remodeling.
Forest teaching: Black Walnut is allelopathic, which means it releases juglone through its roots and leaves, preventing other plants from growing too close. This teaches bones about boundaries, about protecting yourself from what would deplete you.
Prickly Pear (Opuntia spp.)
Prickly Pear is the desert cactus with paddle-shaped pads and vibrant flowers, producing bright magenta fruits called tunas. Both the pads and fruits contain powerful medicine for inflammation and bone health.
Prickly Pear contains betalains, pigment compounds with exceptional anti-inflammatory properties. Research shows that betalains reduce the specific inflammatory markers, that directly trigger bone resorption. [Citation: Tesoriere L, et al. “Supplementation with cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) fruit decreases oxidative stress in healthy humans.” Am J Clin Nutr. 2004]
The plant also provides calcium and magnesium in balanced ratios, contributing to the mineral foundation that bones require.
Prickly Pear supports healthy blood sugar regulation, which is important for bones because chronically elevated blood sugar increases inflammation and interferes with bone formation.
The mucilage in Prickly Pear pads soothes and heals gut tissue, supporting the intestinal integrity necessary for proper mineral absorption.
Desert survival: Prickly Pear stores water in its pads, creating reserves during drought. It teaches bones about resilience, about maintaining mineral stores even when resources are scarce.
Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea)
Ground Ivy is the creeping herb of European meadows and forests, now naturalized throughout North America. It has been used traditionally for healing bones and reducing inflammation in connective tissue.
Ground Ivy contains compounds that reduce inflammatory cytokines while supporting tissue repair and regeneration. It has specific affinity for connective tissue, including the collagen matrix of bones.
The plant also supports kidney function, which is crucial for calcium metabolism and overall mineral balance.
Traditional herbalists used Ground Ivy specifically for bone healing after fractures, recognizing its capacity to support the rapid bone remodeling that occurs during injury repair.
Ground-covering wisdom: Ground Ivy spreads horizontally, creating dense mats that protect soil from erosion. It teaches bones about creating foundation, about protecting what lies beneath.
Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus)
Eucalyptus is the towering tree of Australia, growing to enormous heights and producing aromatic leaves rich in essential oils.
The essential oils in Eucalyptus, particularly eucalyptol, inhibit inflammatory pathways that affect bone metabolism. These compounds reduce the production of inflammatory molecules that signal osteoclasts to break down bone tissue.
Eucalyptus also supports respiratory health, which connects to bone health through the relationship between breathing and ribcage mechanics. Deep, healthy breathing creates gentle stress on ribs and thoracic vertebrae, stimulating bone remodeling and strengthening.
The plant has antimicrobial properties that help address respiratory infections, reducing the systemic inflammation that would otherwise contribute to bone loss.
Australian wisdom: Eucalyptus trees shed their bark regularly, revealing new growth beneath. They teach bones about the necessity of breakdown as part of renewal, about letting old structure go to make room for new.
Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)
Red Clover is particularly important for women over 40, as it contains isoflavones, plant compounds with mild estrogenic effects.
The primary isoflavones in Red Clover are genistein, daidzein, biochanin A, and formononetin. These compounds are about 1/1000th as strong as human estrogen, but they’re strong enough to bind to estrogen receptors in bone tissue and provide some of the bone-protective signaling that declining estrogen no longer provides.
Multiple studies have shown that Red Clover isoflavones help maintain bone mineral density in menopausal women, reducing the rapid bone loss that often occurs during the menopausal transition. [Citation: Thorup AC, et al. “Red clover isoflavones affect bone mineral density in postmenopausal women.” Osteoporos Int. 2015]
These phytoestrogens provide gentle hormonal support without the risks associated with synthetic hormone replacement therapy. They work WITH your body’s natural receptor sites rather than overwhelming them.
Red Clover also has anti-inflammatory properties and supports healthy circulation, both beneficial for bone metabolism.
Meadow teaching: Red Clover is a nitrogen-fixer, enriching soil for other plants. It teaches bones about creating conditions for growth, about supporting the whole ecosystem.
The Circulation Enhancers: Plants That Deliver and Remove
Muscadine Grape (Vitis rotundifolia)
Muscadine is the wild grape of the American Southeast, producing thick-skinned fruits rich in resveratrol and other polyphenols.
Resveratrol has been shown to stimulate osteoblast differentiation and activity while reducing osteoclast formation. [Citation: Feng J, et al. “Resveratrol prevents bone loss in rats fed a high-fat diet.” J Nutr Biochem. 2014]
But Muscadine provides additional compounds beyond resveratrol, including ellagic acid and quercetin, that work synergistically to support bone health.
The polyphenols in Muscadine improve vascular function, enhancing blood flow to bone tissue. Better circulation means better nutrient delivery and waste removal. Essential for healthy bone metabolism.
The antioxidants in Muscadine also protect bone cells from oxidative damage during the constant remodeling process.
Vine wisdom: Muscadine vines can live for hundreds of years, continuously producing fruit. They teach bones about longevity, about building resilience that lasts across decades.
Mulberry (Morus alba)
Mulberry has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for centuries to strengthen bones and improve calcium absorption.
The plant helps regulate blood sugar levels, which is important for bone health because chronically elevated blood sugar increases inflammation and interferes with bone formation. Research shows that people with poorly controlled diabetes have significantly higher fracture risk. [Citation: Napoli N, et al. “Mechanisms of diabetes mellitus-induced bone fragility.” Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2017]
Mulberry also contains compounds that improve calcium absorption in the intestines, helping your body take up more of the calcium from your food and supplements.
The antioxidants in Mulberry protect bone cells from oxidative stress, supporting healthy bone remodeling.
Silkworm teaching: Mulberry leaves are the exclusive food of silkworms. The tree teaches bones about providing exactly what is needed, about being the source that others depend on.
Rowan Berry (Sorbus aucuparia)
Rowan is the mountain ash tree of northern climates, producing bright orange-red berries rich in vitamin C and bioflavonoids.
The high vitamin C content supports collagen synthesis, essential for the protein matrix of bones. But Rowan provides additional compounds that specifically strengthen capillaries and improve microcirculation.
The bioflavonoids in Rowan berries enhance the integrity of small blood vessels, reducing fragility and improving nutrient delivery to bone tissue. Better microcirculation means your bones can actually receive the minerals and other nutrients they need.
Rowan also provides sorbitol, a sugar alcohol that can have mild laxative effects in large amounts but in the small amounts present in this formula supports healthy bowel movements, which is important for mineral absorption.
Mountain wisdom: Rowan grows at high elevations where conditions are harsh. It teaches bones about thriving in challenging environments, about building strength despite adversity.
Matcha (Camellia sinensis)
Matcha is powdered green tea, providing concentrated amounts of catechins, powerful antioxidants that support bone health.
The primary catechin in Matcha is EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), which has been shown to promote osteoblast activity and inhibit osteoclast formation. [Citation: Shen CL, et al. “Green tea and bone health: Evidence from laboratory studies.” Pharmacol Res. 2011]
Matcha also provides vitamin K, which activates osteocalcin and helps direct calcium into bones rather than soft tissues.
The gentle caffeine in Matcha improves circulation without the inflammatory stress associated with coffee. It provides alertness and improved blood flow without triggering cortisol spikes that would increase bone breakdown.
The L-theanine in Matcha promotes relaxation and stress reduction, buffering the effects of chronic stress on bone metabolism.
Ceremonial wisdom: Matcha has been used in Japanese tea ceremonies for centuries as a practice of mindfulness and presence. It teaches bones about the importance of ritual, of creating sacred space for nourishment.
The Hormonal Supporters: Plants That Balance the Endocrine Orchestra
Cuscuta/Dodder (Cuscuta chinensis)
Cuscuta has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for centuries specifically to strengthen bones, particularly in relation to kidney yang energy. In TCM understanding, the kidneys govern bone health, and supporting kidney yang supports the metabolic fire that builds strong bones.
Modern research confirms this traditional use. Cuscuta contains compounds that support bone density, particularly in conditions of hormonal decline such as menopause. [Citation: Yang L, et al. “Cuscuta chinensis extract promotes osteoblast differentiation and mineralization.” J Ethnopharmacol. 2015]
The plant has adaptogenic properties, helping your body manage stress and supporting overall endocrine balance. When your hormonal system functions coherently, your bones receive clear signals to build rather than break down.
Cuscuta also supports kidney function, which is important for calcium metabolism, vitamin D activation, and overall mineral balance.
Parasitic wisdom: Cuscuta is a parasitic plant that grows on other plants, taking its nourishment from host tissue. But in the plant world, parasitism is not always destructive, sometimes it creates beneficial relationships that neither plant could achieve alone. Cuscuta teaches bones about interdependence, about receiving support from the larger ecosystem.
The Integrators: Plants That Support the Whole System
Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa)
Brittlebush is a desert resin plant that produces fragrant sap with antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties.
The resin helps address chronic low-grade infections that contribute to systemic inflammation. Since inflammation directly triggers bone breakdown, addressing these hidden infections protects your skeleton.
Brittlebush also supports lymphatic drainage, helping your body remove metabolic waste products and inflammatory compounds. Better lymphatic flow means reduced tissue congestion and improved cellular nutrition, beneficial for bone metabolism.
Desert resilience: Brittlebush survives extreme heat and drought by coating its leaves with reflective hairs that bounce sunlight away. It teaches bones about protection, about creating barriers against what would deplete you.
The Missing Piece: Why Agave Alcohol Matters
This formula is tinctured in agave alcohol, the only wildcrafted alcohol available in the United States. This is not a trivial detail.
Most herbal tinctures use grain alcohol produced from industrial farming operations using pesticide-laden crops. Grain alcohol is nutritionally empty: pure ethanol with no mineral content, no phytochemicals, nothing but the alcohol molecule itself.
Agave alcohol is different. It comes from wild agave plants growing in mineral-rich desert soils. These plants accumulate minerals and desert plant wisdom that remain present in the finished alcohol. When you use agave alcohol as your extraction medium, you’re adding another layer of mineral support and desert intelligence to the formula.
The agave plant itself teaches about storing reserves, about thriving in harsh conditions, about building deep roots that reach water sources far below the surface. This is bone medicine, this capacity to store what you need, to survive scarcity, to reach deep for nourishment.
Alcohol is also superior for extracting many bone-supportive compounds, particularly resins, volatile oils, and certain alkaloids that don’t extract well in water. The agave alcohol pulls out the full spectrum of medicine from these twenty-three plants, that are included in the Skeletal Support: Strong Bones and Teeth potion, including components that would be lost in tea or capsule preparations.
How These Plants Work as an Ecosystem
This is not about each plant doing one isolated thing. It’s about creating the conditions your body needs for bone building to happen naturally.
The mineral-rich plants (Horsetail, Red Raspberry, Nettle, Rose Hips, Black Currant, Wolfberry) provide raw materials in bioavailable forms.
The collagen-supporting plants (Yucca, Rosemary, Carrot Seed, Rose Hips, Pinon Pine) ensure you’re building the protein matrix that gives bones flexibility and strength.
The anti-inflammatory plants (Black Walnut, Prickly Pear, Ground Ivy, Eucalyptus, Red Clover) reduce the signals that trigger bone breakdown.
The circulation-enhancing plants (Muscadine, Mulberry, Rowan Berry, Matcha) ensure nutrients reach bone tissue and waste products are removed.
The hormone-balancing plants (Red Clover, Cuscuta, Pinon Pine) support the endocrine signals that tell your body to build bone.
The integrators (Brittlebush) address systemic factors that affect overall bone health.
They work together like a village, each plant offering its specific gift while supporting the others’ contributions. This is how plant medicine works when you honor the intelligence of ecosystems rather than trying to extract single “active ingredients.”
Your body recognizes this kind of medicine. Your cells have receptor sites for plant compounds. Your liver has enzymes designed to process plant alkaloids and flavonoids. Your gut microbiome evolved digesting plant fibers and phytochemicals.
This is not “alternative medicine.” This is the medicine your sacred embodied human animal has worked with for the entire history of the species.
For Women Over 40: When Hormones Shift and Bones Need Extra Support
If you’re a woman over 40, your relationship with bone health changes. Starting in your late 30s or early 40s, your ovaries begin producing less estrogen. This isn’t a straight decline, it’s a rollercoaster that can last for years before your periods finally stop. The Menopause Relief & Support Potion can be a huge benefit, as well.
During this time, your bones lose one of their primary protective signals. Estrogen has receptor sites directly in bone tissue. When estrogen binds to these receptors, it tells osteoblasts to build bone and signals osteoclasts to slow down. When estrogen declines, bone breakdown accelerates while bone building slows.
Women can lose up to 20% of their bone density in the five to seven years following menopause. This is not because you suddenly need more calcium. It’s because your hormonal environment has shifted, and your bones are responding to that shift.
But this bone loss is not inevitable. Your body has other pathways for maintaining bone density even when estrogen declines.
Red Clover becomes especially important during this transition. The isoflavones in Red Clover provide gentle estrogenic support to bone tissue, binding to the same receptors that your declining estrogen no longer fills. This support is modest but real, and it comes without the risks of synthetic hormone replacement.
Cuscuta addresses bone health from the TCM perspective of supporting kidney essence, the deep reserves that govern bone strength during the menopausal transition.
Nettle matters even more during this time because it provides minerals in highly absorbable forms at a time when your body’s absorption capacity may be declining.
As estrogen declines, inflammation tends to increase. Estrogen has anti-inflammatory effects, and losing that protection allows inflammatory processes to ramp up. This increased inflammation directly accelerates bone loss through the cytokine cascade.
This is why the anti-inflammatory plants in this formula become especially important during perimenopause and menopause. By addressing inflammation systemically, you’re protecting your bones from one of the primary drivers of menopausal bone loss.
Your gut health also changes during this transition. Declining estrogen affects your gut microbiome, can increase intestinal permeability, and may reduce mineral absorption. The plants that support gut function help ensure you’re actually absorbing the minerals you’re consuming.
You’re not broken. Your body is transitioning, and that transition requires different support than you needed at 25. These plants work with your body’s natural intelligence to support bone building even as your hormonal landscape shifts.
Living Bone Wisdom: How to Use This Formula
Dosage: 3-7 drops under the tongue, hold for 20 seconds to allow absorption through mucous membranes, up to three times daily.
Cycling: Take for five days, then rest for two days. This prevents your body from becoming dependent on the herbs and allows it to integrate the support and begin doing more of the work on its own.
Timeline: Bone building takes time. Your skeleton completely remodels itself about every seven years. You won’t see dramatic changes in a week or a month. But over time, months, years, your bones will reflect the care you’re giving them.
The minerals will accumulate in bone tissue. The collagen matrix will strengthen. The inflammation will reduce. The hormonal signals will balance. Your bones will become stronger, more flexible, more resilient.
Not because you forced them to be, but because you gave your body what it needed to build healthy bone naturally.
An Invitation to Remember
Your bones are not failing you. They are asking you to remember what you have temporarily forgotten: that you are a sacred embodied human animal, that your skeleton is living earth, that bone building happens when you create the conditions your body’s intelligence requires.
These twenty-three plants, in the Skeletal Support: Bones & Teeth Potion, are not forcing change. They are offering support: mineral nourishment, collagen building blocks, inflammation reduction, circulation enhancement, hormonal balance, systemic integration.
They are reminding your bones of their earth-nature, their capacity to rebuild themselves, their intelligence that predates human intervention.
This is medicine as conversation, not domination. This is healing as creating conditions, not forcing outcomes. This is the Sacred Embodied Human Animal paradigm in action and trusting your body’s wisdom while providing what it needs to express that wisdom fully.
Your bones remember. They remember the ocean they came from, the land they learned to walk on, the ancestors whose posture they carry. They remember how to be strong by being flexible, how to be solid by honoring emptiness, how to endure by remaining willing to change.
Listen to them. Feed them. Support the ecosystem they require. Let them teach you what they have always known: that foundation is not rigidity but responsive presence, that strength is not hardness but intelligent adaptation, that you are not separate from the earth but earth consciousness temporarily organized into the magnificent architecture of a human skeleton.
Walk barefoot when you can. Feel your bones reading the ground. Remember that you are mineral intelligence learning to stand upright, learning to reach for the sky while remaining rooted in soil, learning to be both ancient wisdom and brand new possibility.
Your bones know how to build themselves. You’re simply remembering how to listen.
Link to Skeletal Support: Stong Bones & Teeth Potion- Herbal Medicine From Stephanie Bacquet Mathews
Menopause Support & Relief– For women over 40 wanting more support for their hormonal shifts.
Arthritis Support: Joint and Cartilage Regeneration, if you are experiencing pain along with needing bone and skeletal support.
Sacred Embodied Human Animal Book – Coming Soon
This teaching is one thread in a larger tapestry. Each of the 80+ wildcrafted formulas I’ve created addresses a different aspect of embodied health through this same lens: honoring your body’s intelligence, supporting natural processes, working with plants as allies rather than using them as drugs. Together, these teachings will become a comprehensive guide to Sacred Embodied Human Animal herbalism, a new (and very ancient) way of understanding plant medicine.
The Research
Horsetail and Bone Density: Corletto F. “Female climacteric osteoporosis therapy with titrated horsetail extract.” Maturitas. 1999.
Red Clover Isoflavones: Thorup AC, et al. “Red clover isoflavones affect bone mineral density in postmenopausal women.” Osteoporos Int. 2015.
Silica and Collagen Formation: Barel A, et al. “Effect of oral intake of choline-stabilized orthosilicic acid on skin, nails and hair in women.” Arch Dermatol Res. 2005.
Boron and Bone Health: Nielsen FH, et al. “Effect of dietary boron on mineral, estrogen, and testosterone metabolism in postmenopausal women.” FASEB J. 1987.
Vitamin K and Fracture Risk: Cockayne S, et al. “Vitamin K and the prevention of fractures: systematic review and meta-analysis.” Arch Intern Med. 2006.
Resveratrol and Bone Formation: Feng J, et al. “Resveratrol prevents bone loss in rats fed a high-fat diet.” J Nutr Biochem. 2014.
Inflammation and Bone Loss: Redlich K, Smolen JS. “Inflammatory bone loss.” Nature Rev Rheum. 2012.
Phytoestrogens and Bone Density: Lambert MN, et al. “Combined bioavailable isoflavones and probiotics improve bone status.” Nutrients. 2017.
Cuscuta and Bone Health: Yang L, et al. “Cuscuta chinensis extract promotes osteoblast differentiation and mineralization.” J Ethnopharmacol. 2015.
Circadian Rhythm and Bone: Swanson CM, et al. “The importance of the circadian system & sleep for bone health.” Metabolism. 2018.
Boneset: Woerdenbag HJ, et al. “Cytotoxicity of flavonoids and sesquiterpene lactones from Eupatorium cannabinum L.” Planta Med. 1986. (Related species supporting anti-inflammatory properties) Traditional use documented extensively in: Foster S, Duke JA. “A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants: Eastern and Central North America.” Houghton Mifflin, 1990.
Bindweed: Ahmed F, et al. “Traditional uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology of Convolvulus arvensis.” African Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology. 2011. (Review of traditional uses and bioactive compounds)
