In the second part of this episode with Bonnie Wildesen Hise, founder of Wild, Free & Unbloated and co-founder of The Food Freedom Rebellion, we continue to explore how herbal medicine and holistic nutrition can transform women’s health—especially for those navigating PCOS, Hashimoto’s, chronic fatigue, and autoimmune conditions. Bonni opens up about her own journey from years of bloating, fatigue, and frustration to full-body healing using herbs and food as medicine. She breaks down the science of how herbs support hormonal balance, gut restoration, inflammation, and adrenal health—without the side effects of synthetic treatments. If you’ve ever wondered whether nature’s medicine cabinet could help calm your hormones, restore your gut, and support autoimmune recovery—this is your guide to getting started safely and effectively.
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(0:02 - 7:27) Hey there, welcome back to PCOS Unfiltered. I'm your host, Lindsie, and today is a special episode because we're diving into something new on this show, the powerful world of herbal medicine for autoimmune and gut health. I'm beyond honored to have Bonnie Wildesen Hise, the inspiring founder behind Wild, Free, and Unbloated, and co-founder of the Food Freedom Rebellion with us. Bonnie is a gut health expert who turned her own rollercoaster journey with gut issues, stubborn bloating, and autoimmune struggles into a mission to help women feel better, fast, without restrictive plans, and absolutely no one-slice-fits-all solution. Bonnie offers deeply personalized nutrition and herbal medicine services, including assessments, customized meal plans, gut health restoration, and educational workshops grounded in holistic healing. She helps women ditch the crap that's chemical, refined sugars, additives, processed junk, and embrace natural solutions that actually work to balance their bodies and rekindle energy. In today's conversation, we'll explore how herbal medicine can support healing from the inside out and how Bonnie integrates these plant-based tools into her nutritional approach. Trust me, you're in for a ride. But before I go any further, I have something powerful to share with you. This October, I've been hosting a virtual event called Unwritten, Healing Beyond the Diagnosis, and if you're ready to finally go deeper than symptom management, this is for you. You'll hear real stories of healing from women who've been where you are, including Bonnie, and then practical tools that actually work, mind, body, and beyond. Tap the link in the show notes to grab your spot for the last session. You don't have to settle for managing it. It's time to rewrite the story your doctor never told you was possible. As a reminder, the content shared on PCOS Unfiltered is for informational and educational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are not intended to serve as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your diet, exercise, or treatment plan. The information shared is based on personal experience and expert interviews and is not a substitute for professional medical guidance. Now grab your favorite herbal tea and let's get started. How long does it typically take for someone to notice a shift when working with herbs for healing? Sometimes it's between three to six weeks. Other times it's longer. A lot of the shifts are under the surface. So if you're hyper-focusing on yourself and your body, which a lot of us when we're trying to figure out a diagnosis we are, so a lot of clients will say that they start feeling a difference within that first week. They start actually noticing a difference in everything about them, their skin tone, their energy, their sleep, all of that. It starts to happen about three weeks. And ultimately your strongest responses with herbs is going to be between eight to 12 weeks. That's good to know. It's not a fast process. There are some pretty potent herbs out there that you can feel like they're really hitting you hard, but it's not. Yeah. It's still going to take you that long. Yeah. I know I feel like when I, I mean, obviously I don't incorporate herbs, but even just working with changing foods and habits with my clients, it's always skin and energy. I feel like are like the two biggest indicators that we're making progress. So for many women with PCOS, Hashimoto's, even an undiagnosed hormone issue, autoimmune condition that are curious about herbal support, can herbs help with the hormone and autoimmune connection as well? I mean, one of the best ways to help us as women regulate, manage, I hate the word regulate, but I mean, ultimately that's what we're trying to do is we're trying to regulate them. We're trying to get control of them and manage them. And one of the most effective ways is using herbal medicine. You know, you're not throwing synthetic hormones into your body. Sometimes your body doesn't know what to do with that, which is where we get some of the negative responses to hormone therapy that's out there. With herbs, it's almost like your best friend's giving you a quiet hug. You know, she was listening to you. She hears something under the surface and just feels like you need a hug. That's where herbal medicine can come in and just give you a hug. You know, it's quiet. It's simple. It just slides in under the surface. You know, you don't feel like you're pulling out your hair. Your hair starts growing back, you know, like some of the symptoms of perimenopause, which can, you know, be, it can feel exacerbated when you're dealing with any sort of autoimmune condition. The hot flashes, the feeling cold, the dry skin, the hair that like falls out everywhere. The new hair growth that feels like it's over abundantly growing, which PCOS clients, a lot of times that's what they're seeing. There's herbs that you can use to just slide in, create that balance and help regulate and support your hormones. Yeah, really all they're doing. Herbal medicine supports your body in ways that we need it just to be supported. So what specific herbs would you say, you know, for either hormone support, adrenals, thyroid, inflammation? I know, I feel like you kind of, kind of probably talked about the few of them already, but, but anything more specifically? Yes, actually. So, you know, everyone talks about ashwagandha and rhodiola, right? If you were dealing with an autoimmune issue and your hormones are fluctuating, these are two you want to be very careful with. They're very commonly recommended. Ashwagandha is a relaxant and rhodiola will give you some energy. So if, let's say you have chronic fatigue syndrome, for example, rhodiola is going to be a better choice. But if you took ashwagandha, it's actually going to exacerbate some of your autoimmune reactions and symptoms. Hmm. A few of the others, you know, things that really support females are raspberry. Let me see. My brain just completely blanked on the one. I recommend it all the time. I know there's one for PCOS. I see a lot of spearmint.
(7:27 - 11:28) Yes. Spearmint is one of those herbs that it resets the signals in your brain. And it's immediate. Cinnamon, spearmint, peppermint. Spearmint is a milder herb, so the reactions are going to be as strong as potent. Okay. Mint is amazing for just about anything. Yeah. I don't know why I'm blanking on that. I'm going to add that to you because I'm just like, it's the one that I use all the time. And it's amazing for women. So I need to send that to you. We'll circle back to that. After that, I will make sure it's in the notes or I'll come and I'll put comments down below. Okay. Perfect. So I mean, really with anything, like you're looking at things that are going to be soothing. So milk thistle, marshmallow roots, legitimately, you can make a marshmallow with marshmallow roots. And that is your herbal medicine right there. Yeah. You know, it's amazing for helping you not only calm your autoimmune reactions, but it helps regulate hormones, you know, helps just calm the whole nervous system, really. Yeah. What about nettle? I like nettle. Nettle is one of those that a lot of people have issues digesting. Oh, okay. And nettle also has a threshold. So nettle, holy basil, St. John's Wort. I love using these, but they have thresholds. You know, if you're dealing with any sort of specific issues that are exasperated, right, as we can see with autoimmune issues a lot and illnesses, then a holy basil is actually going to trigger reactions rather than helping you with them. And if you take St. John's Wort either too long or you take too much at one time, then it can trigger a reaction. So I tend to avoid St. John's Wort, nettle, and holy basil. I mean, I love nettle, but I just haven't had a lot of clients who have been able to tolerate it well. Okay. That's interesting. Yeah. Good to know. Any specific client transformation that really stands out to you, you know, especially maybe in an area where conventional medicine fell short and you were able to really help them, you know, like open their eyes and, or maybe complement conventional medicine a little bit, but anything that stands out? There's actually quite a few. One that really stands out to me the most is, I mean, there's two, but I'm going to go with Robin's story mostly because she is not somebody who came off medication. She actually does still take medication because of her chronic fatigue. However, it is significantly better than it ever has been. And she and I worked together, I think it was seven years ago, seven years ago. She had been to doctors for 20 years, you know, and what had started as, you know, this new mom basically was just whipped into chronic fatigue overnight. Yeah. And I think her daughter was like four or five months old at the time. And she and I actually recorded a podcast episode on my personal podcast. So I can give you that link. So if you're interested, she tells her. Effectively, it took them almost three years to figure out what was happening.
(11:30 - 13:07) And once they did, they were modifying her medications and modifying, you know, supplementation in and out. When she and I worked together, the goal was to at least cut the prescriptions down into half, which she did and discovered that there were just certain ones that she wasn't going to be able to let go of because of the level of her illness, the intensity of her illness. She went from barely having a day where she could keep up with her husband and her daughter climbing, doing the tubing, you know, that we do in Texas, to actually going on vacation and outperforming them. She was walking further than they did. She went down the tubing river. I don't even remember how many more times, but it was, they were tired. They were worn out at the end of the day and she was still ready to go. And to this day, that's still her story. And that's really what she wanted. She wanted to be back in life. You know, she didn't want to go tubing, something she's done her whole life, go down once and be done with it. You know, she wanted to get back around. She wanted to have fun with it and, you know, climb things and go up a mountain in Germany and, you know, have a life without, yeah, take so many breaks. And we definitely did improve her, her diet. That was a significant portion of it, but without the herbal medicine support, there's no way that would have happened.
(13:07 - 15:13) You know, she, anything that she did to try to improve her symptoms, to improve her body and her health, she would take two steps forward and her body would throw her three steps back. Sometimes five and 10, you know, and that's, that's how it is a lot of times. And you just, you have to take things slow and steady. Yeah. Especially when you're putting, you know, band-aid solutions on things like conventional medicine does, unfortunately, you know, so yeah, it sounds like you're really helping kind of get more to the root of things. Yeah. Yeah. And taking that slow approach feels frustrating at some times, but because some illnesses are just so, so particular, like Robyn's was so specific and so particular. We worked together for a little over a year. She transferred doctors, found somebody who was holistic like I am so that she could continue on her own, keep the lessons that she learned from working with me and really has continued to progress well. And the fact that she's still living the life that she wants to live, she's as active as she wants to be and out running the husband and the daughter. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. But there's no way that would have happened if she kept doing such big leaps. She had to be slow and steady. Yeah. And celebrate all the wins along the way because, you know, when you think you're doing all this and not seeing the progress, but you know, the long-term progress that you want to see, you have to really, you know, concentrate on what's in front of you and all the good things happening day by day for sure. For sure. It's such a challenge so many times. Yeah. Yeah. What are some common myths about herbal medicine that you wish more women understood? Oh, that's a good one. That it's not just fun things you put into your cup.
(15:15 - 17:45) Like it's actual medicine. It's actual healing. They can be harmful if used in the wrong way or if you're using it and you don't know what you're doing with it. Like we talked about St. John's Wort, Nettle and Holy Basil. I mean, they're amazing herbs. They do phenomenal things and they really do help support the body. However, if you're in a state where a potent herb coming in is going to throw you into a reaction, they're going to hurt you more than they're going to help you. And it's this fallacy that all you have to do is just go buy some tea. But that's not really what it is. Some herbs actually work better as tinctures. Some work better as food. Garlic and oregano, the reason they're in our food so often is they work better as food. You know, they work better if you heat it up just slightly and mix in with other things. Um, you can eat a garlic clove. That's great. But ultimately it actually will be more potent if you put it in the food. Yeah. I love funny story. Yeah. The things that I've heard, you know, it's just, it's this whole idea that herbal medicine is easy, you know, or aromatherapy will cure anything. Yeah. It's not the truth, you know, and then that whole like, um, one size fits all. So because this herb works for you, it's going to work for everybody. Yeah. That's another good one. No, it just, you're not gonna, you aren't going to use the same herbs consistently as your friend or your sister or somebody else that you know, even if your symptoms are the same, even if you've been diagnosed with the same illness, you're not going to match because we're all different. I have one client who, um, can't use lavender. Oh wow. Because her subconscious memory has a bad memory of lavender. So instead of being this calming adaptogen herb, helping her with everything, it's the exact opposite. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's the perfect example for how herbs actually are.
(17:46 - 18:29) You know, there's this whole thing, this, there's this fight between complementary medicine and conventional medicine. And the big thing is, you know, that herbs don't work. Well, it's kind of like prescription medicine. You have these scientific tests and they have these groups of people that test the prescriptions coming out, right? And these groups of people are supposed to be representations of us, of general population. But the prescription medicine causes symptoms over here and side effects over here. Yeah. It didn't work for these people. It's exactly the same. Herbal medicine started that, started out centuries ago.
(18:30 - 18:49) Probably before that, we just only know about it centuries ago. And it's not that they could cure all these things if they needed things to support their body. And now we're living in this world where we can actually access modern medicine and conventional medicine to help with that.
(18:50 - 19:22) You know, sometimes you do need it. You break an arm and yeah, you can use it. But you probably still need to go to the ER. Exactly. When you're looking at what herbs to use, what you use may not be the same thing as somebody else. Yeah. Yeah. We all have different backgrounds, different sensitivities, different cultures. I mean, all that plays a role, you know, different genetics.
(19:22 - 19:35) Yeah. It all plays a role. Absolutely. And then one last one I wanted to mention to you was that more is better. You know, peppermint got rid of my headache. So let me double up.
(19:37 - 19:51) That's going to bring the headache back. Just so y'all know, it's going to be a lot of herbs have very thin thresholds. And what that means is the effectiveness is up to this point.
(19:51 - 20:43) And this tiny little window is the safety factor. And the smaller the safety factor, the more potent the herb is. Wow. I learned that the hard way with my husband because I might have oversteeped some dandelion tea. And he definitely had a reaction to it. So I was like, you know, but it was very eye-opening. I mean, he was fine. But after realizing what was happening, yeah, I was like, oh, I do need to actually pay attention to the time limits and the amounts. And yeah. Yes. Yes. It's, you know, I've had so many people call me up and they'll ask about that because they've had a reaction.
(20:43 - 21:04) And especially with a lot of the newbie aromatherapy people, they think the more you use, the better off you are. And yeah, the threshold. And if you go to, if you put too many scents around or you pull too powerful scents around, your olfactory system shuts down.
(21:05 - 23:21) And no, you get nothing. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the minimal reaction. There's so much that can happen. There's so much that can go wrong. So you definitely need to work with somebody like you, somebody that knows. That's the best thing to do. And, you know, just make sure that whoever you're working with actually has a formal education. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because, you know, you can Google stuff, you can, you know, but yeah, but if you're really trying to make some changes and really incorporate, you know, more than surface level, you know, cooking or, you know, stuff like you've mentioned, then definitely that's where you would come in for sure. Yeah. So that how can you kind of vet, you know, safe, qualified herbalists like yourself? The best way is to ask what their qualifications are. Many of us, so mine, I have a degree in alternative medicine and it, my herbal medicine and aromatherapy education came from a, not an aromatherapy school. Oh my gosh. Holistic science school. So I have a bachelor's, I have an associates and my associates is specializing in herbal medicine as well as the aromatherapy. My bachelor's was those last two years were focused on holistic nutrition. You want to look at where they're getting their education and make sure it's not a certification that, you know, is on the internet. You can work with a master herbalist, which a certified master herbalist has to go through a number of steps to become qualified. And a registered aromatherapist is very similar. And those are good. So look for formal education, look for registered aromatherapist if it's aromatherapy and then master herbalist is all of it, including aromatherapy. Yeah. I think that's a great point too. Cause I see good stuff on Facebook, you know, like complete this, you know, herbal class or, you know, functional medicine class.
(23:21 - 23:47) And it's like, you know, for $97. And even if it's a certification, that's clearly not the route. I met someone probably about a month ago at a networking event and she was promoting herself as a master herbalist because she had used herbs her whole life.
(23:49 - 25:54) Oh wow. Oh, but that's not really true. Yeah. That's not an official master herbalist. It's not the world sees as a master herbalist. And she was just serving to formally educate herself with certification programs. She found on one of the, who's it, the like Demi or something like that. Oh, I've seen that. Yes. That's probably one of them that like popped up on my, but, but there was something, I think I looked into that too. And like, there was something that I was not a fan of. Yeah. I mean, I love those sites. I love that they have that available for the general public, but to take that to not even just get started in it, you have to call yourself that it's scary. Yeah. There's a lot of harm that can be done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So what are a couple of just beginner friendly herbs that most women could, you know, explore to start gently you know, to heal to whether that's their immune system or any other condition? I think a couple of the gentle ones definitely look into passion fruit tea, especially if you can get it with hibiscus or raspberry area, those three, a it's a powerful flavor, but not only that, those three work in conglomeration with each other to just support our system, no matter what stage of life that we're in. If, if you're in fertility, if you're trying to conceive for any, any bit of time, knock off the hibiscus in ancient practices, hibiscus was birth control. Oh, hibiscus. If you're in those stages of life, but outside of that, it's just, it's kind of a triple whammy and more consistently that you use it'll help calm some of the PMS symptoms. It'll calm her and menopause menopausal symptoms.
(25:55 - 26:00) And it tastes good. Yeah. I got, I got a, I got to look into that one more.
(26:00 - 27:22) I mean, really the, so with those three herbs, there's not a threshold, you know, that the biggest threshold with those is the hibiscus and the reaction for our body that can sometimes interfere with trying to conceive and fertility. And then lemon balm. I know it's said a lot, but lemon balm, it helps you sleep. And for those of us that are mamas that are running around like chickens with our head cut off, it's a build or you don't feel it. You don't sense it. It just kind of one day you get really good sleep. Yeah. Yeah. That's when you know, it's starting to work. Awesome. That's always a big, you know, it's, it just, it becomes a cycle of course is, you know, with energy and with the, you know, the hormones and the autoimmune, you know, and the stress, like it just becomes a big cycle. And so, yeah, I feel like if you can just hit something like that to just kind of break up that cycle, just interrupt that cycle for just a minute. And that's what lemon balm does without saying anything about it. Yeah. Are there any, you know, books we've talked about like a few brands, but you know, DIY type tips, anything for anybody that's looking to get started just, you know, for personal kind of knowledge, you know, that you would recommend.
(27:23 - 29:14) I would definitely recommend looking up Rosemary Gladstone. If you look at her website, she has recipes. She's even, she has a couple of books. We had to use the more intense ones in classes, but there are DIY versions and they're very easy to understand. They're thin, they're not overwhelming in any way, shape or form. A lot of her recipes she has online and she's available as well as, I mean, at this point her team, but she has very high expectations of her team members. If you are not a master herbalist, you are not hired to answer questions. You're not allowed to answer questions. So she's very particular about who she has chat with her. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have whatsoever. And then Carrie and I have a podcast together. So we're always talking about various challenges that we do with the challenges in our community. And anytime we can include herbs in that, I do. Awesome. This is a good one. What's one thing that you wish more women knew about their body's ability to heal with the help of herbs and nature? That it actually really is possible. That it's not just possible, but it's actually very powerful. And, you know, when you combine herbs with an energetic flow and improving your energy flow and your vibe as well, things like grounding, you know, working with a Reiki, not instructor, a Reiki practitioner, taking the steps to modify your stress management just a little bit.
(29:14 - 29:25) You don't have to do, you don't have to take major strides. You're just tiny little steps. And you can do so much, but it's possible.
(29:27 - 30:05) Yeah, it's not, but it is. Yeah, I get chills when I, because that's, that's also why we're doing this event. So yeah. So besides finding you on October 23rd at the Unwritten event, where else, I mean, you mentioned the podcast, of course I'll put links for everything, but where else can our listers find you? I am on TikTok, Facebook, IG, and I'm on LinkedIn, but I spend a lot of my time on TikTok and Facebook. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. The community as well. We have our school community.
(30:06 - 30:11) That's right. Yes. So I put all the links for all of that in the show notes, of course.
(30:12 - 31:09) Anything else you think we missed that you'd like to add? Don't think so. I think the big message I wanted to get across was that, you know, herbal medicine is easy to use, but it's not this all powerful thing looming over you, but it's definitely a tool that can be extremely helpful. Yeah. I know. I think I always wanted to make it more complicated than, you know, than what it is. And yeah, like you mentioned, there's still things you have to pay attention to and risks and contraindications and, you know, that type of thing, but it's definitely something that we can incorporate every day in the simplest way when, you know, when you really think about it. So yeah Well, I thank you so, so much for being here, for joining me. And I mean, I know I learned something, so hopefully our listeners did as well and yeah. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me.
(31:12 - 32:03) Wow. That was such an eyeopening conversation. A huge thank you to Bonnie for guiding us through the crossroads of herbal medicine, gut healing, and personalized nutrition. It's incredible how she's helping women move from bloated and exhausted to balanced and energized. Not through fad diets, but through thoughtful, nature-powered strategies that truly honor the individual. If you're ready to take back control of your gut health and explore herbal medicine in a safe, effective, and personalized way, be sure to check out Bonnie's offerings, from personalized assessments and gut restoration plans to workshops and herbal educational resources. You can also grab a free personalized nutrition consultation through her website to start strategizing your healing roadmap. I'll link everything in the show notes for you. And if today's episode spoke to you, just imagine what's waiting for you inside Unwritten.
(32:04 - 32:14) This event is raw, real, and so full of hope. With speakers who get it, tools that help, and a community that truly understands. Click the link in the show notes to join us.
(32:15 - 32:36) Thanks for tuning in to this herbal packed episode. If you found it helpful, please share it with someone who could use a natural pathway to healing. And of course, subscribe for more conversations that bring healing, empowerment, and rooted in truth wisdom your way. Until next time, keep nourishing, healing from the inside out, and thriving. wild, free, and unbloated.