First, we start with only the finest raw ingredients, whole herbs organically grown and wild-harvested. Next, is the process of turning them into quality, potent supplements using only the ideal extraction and concentration methods to maintain the integrity of each herb.

NOMAD APOTHECARY believes in the Full Spectrum method of extraction. An easy way to explain this method is by comparing it with a "standardized" extract.

The standardized method aims to isolate and extract specific active ingredients from herbs. Using standardized extracts, the thought is that the final product will be more consistent and controlled.

The Full Spectrum method keeps the plant as close to its natural makeup as possible. By extracting the whole herbal component (i.e. root, seed, leaf, berry, or flower, etc) that contains the plant's active medicinal ingredients, we maintain the plant's natural integrity and balance. This process enhances the overall therapeutic effects and keeps the extract as close to the original plant as possible.

Think of herbs as lending a “helping hand” and offering “just enough medicine” for your body to finish its natural healing work. Herbs work in synergy to restore and nurture our bodies at the deepest level – our genes. As this happens, you receive a synergistic blend of nutrients working together for you, instead of an extracted compound leading to negative side effects if not taken correctly. The reason we use Full Spectrum herbal blends is because the healing potential of the plant is preserved when it’s taken in its most natural form.

Our philosophy and methodology is a practice of true Synergy. Synergy is the interaction of multiple elements in a system to produce an effect different from, or greater than, the sum of their individual effects. The term synergy comes from the Greek word synergia, meaning “working together”.

Ancient alchemical and holistic herbal practices always keep in mind that herbs act as biological wholes, not simply vehicles for ‘active ingredients’. On the contrary, a mechanistic view has occurred since the 17th and 18th centuries due largely to Newtonian physics. The result is treating disease separate from the person who experiences it. The disease is diagnosed and drug protocols are administered. Herbs are being applied in much the same way, solely according to their therapeutic properties and chemical constituents. The disease is separated from the individual, just as a plant's chemical compounds are separated from the whole living plant. We must treat the whole person, just as we must consider the whole plant in order to benefit from its full healing potential.

This mechanistic model is based on the illusion of isolation. Its premise is the whole is just the sum of independent parts, so the whole does not affect the parts. This approach to healing isolates the disorder from the totality of the individual and the chemical constituent of the herb from the overall therapeutic effect of that herb. It sees that one aspect of a person can be isolated and treated separately regardless of other aspects of the person, or that an herb can be in isolation, irrespective of the rest of the plant's components.

Traditional cultures throughout the world have used herbs according to their wholistic effects on the body and mind. Webster's dictionary defines energy as "vitality of expressing" and “the capacity of acting." In other words, the energy of an herb, therefore, has the capacity to “act” on the body in a particular way. Every herb has a signature of the elements within its unique attributes. The energy of an herb is an inherent part of the herb. This is its unique gift to those who use it.

Each herb that we include is a result of our wholistic and synergistic methodology. We have taken great care to understand the properties of every plant that we use and how they combine with each other to affect the mind/body/spirit interface.

—The body's systems are one integrated and balanced whole—

The use of specific herbs and plants for medicinal purposes has been practiced for millennia all over the world. Herbs have healing powers that are capable of balancing the emotional, mental and physical dimensions. The body is an organic whole, all the component parts are interconnected and dependent on each other physiologically, and influence each other pathologically.

A Whole Body approach to the mind/body/spirit interface requires you to examine the psychological, neurological and pharmacological dimensions themselves as complex systems and how each of these interacts with the other systems. We cannot separate the mind, body, spirit, or social and environmental factors, from a person's health. Failure to account for the whole system can drive short-term effects at the cost of damaging long-term equilibrium. The goal for the whole body approach is to move the entire system into homeostasis, a system that is functioning optimally. This equilibrium is accomplished through the synergetic relationship of using full spectrum and whole herbs, as nature designed it to be. It’s as if, the “whole body” becomes illuminated by the energy of the “whole plant”.