Herbal Medicine introduces students to the healing, detoxifying and rejuvenating effects of medicinal herbs. Emphasis is placed on herbal terminology, levels of application from “simpling” to adding complexity using medium potency and harmonizing herbs and specific applications, including remedies for stress, tissue tonification, detoxification and deep immune support. The course explores each anatomical body system, along with the common conditions of each, so that students are able to identify the corresponding herbs and their actions to offer single or multiple herbal recommendations. Herbal Medicine will instruct students on specific herbal combinations to promote optimal health, with special attention to their application in managing both acute and long-term imbalances. Students are trained and evaluated on proper herbal names, herbal recommendations in example case scenarios and building protocols through multiple herbal combinations. Herbal Medicine also offers experiential learning through a guided herb walk where students are exposed to recognizing multi-functional medicinal wild herbs and plants in their local environment. Learning Outcomes: • Understanding the holistic approach to promoting wellness with nature’s medicines, both the healing plants which grow around us and effective imported herbs • Exploration of the therapeutic actions of herbal medicines in the human body • Awareness of proper harvesting, wildcrafting, drying and storage techniques for herbs and the many methods and uses including infusions, decoctions, inhalations, capsules, tinctures, salves, ointments and teas • Ability to create herbal formulas with specific dosage recommendations for common conditions both internal and topical • Evaluation of formulas and effectiveness of herbal remedies that are available commercially • Understanding the application and the associated protocols of herbal treatment for both chronic and acute conditions Herbal Medicine instructs future practitioners in the proper use of herbal nutraceuticals as valuable complements to nutritional and lifestyle protocols. This course strikes the difference between isolated, active ingredient medicine to the complex, synergistic effect of whole plant medicine as part of a holistic approach to health and healing.

Holistic Food Preparation introduces students to the art and science of cooking, bringing the hallmark of optimal health and nourishment to the table. The holistic kitchen is a unique laboratory where pure, natural, and whole ingredients are transformed into vibrant, nutrient-dense, and delicious dishes. There is a focus on the importance of food quality (organics), food ethics, seasonality, locality, as well as traditional methods of preparation that emphasize digestion. While a variety of theories and approaches are taught, students should expect to have a lot of fun! This course provides hands-on experience in food preparation and eating, with the intention of health and healing. It includes invigorating power drinks, deeply-nourishing soups, nutritive one-pot dishes, and clean energy snacks that include a new dimension in culinary theories through the fascinating principles of Ayurveda. Emphasis is placed on the proper preparation of grains, seeds and legumes through milling, soaking, sprouting, and fermentation. Students are taught how to choose high-quality oils and fats with beneficial properties, and which preserve and enhance the nutritional value of other foods. Raw foods, fermented condiments and vegetables, along with other high enzyme preparations will be explored. All cooking classes are vegetarian. Students will be taught and evaluated on plant-based recipe creation, individual presentation of a select recipe, and essential skills to ensure a mastery of safe handling of specialized kitchen tools, equipment, knife skills, and minimizing food waste. Learning Outcomes: • How to make a suite of aromatic, flavourful, nutritious, healing, and “yummy” holistic cuisine! • How properly made foods “replace, reinoculate, and repair” in aid of various conditions, with a focus on maximum absorbability. • Why eating food as close to its natural state as possible makes the difference between optimal health and disease. • The ability to curate well-produced meal plans and recipes for clients with diverse needs, including food sensitivities, health conditions, cultural and personal preferences. • The confident and enthusiastic use of novel combinations and properties of herbs, spices, grains and seaweeds. • Perform basic operations in the kitchen, including time management for complex recipes. • To develop both simple and complex recipes with the intent to impact health, happiness and longevity. • Ability to make informed choices about fats sources as well as dried legumes and grains, vegetables, fruits, herbaceous plants, and their collective impact on health. Holistic Food Preparation provides students with the age-old traditions and contemporary concepts and skills necessary to plan and craft therapeutic menus and recipes as part of their professional protocol development with clients. Experiential in nature, this course will transcend a student’s current views on what they think it means to make “good food,” and embrace the depth in holistic cooking that contributes to whole health and vitality. All cooking classes are vegetarian.

Nutrition & the Environment The teachings in IHN’s Nutrition and the Environment is based on the underlying philosophy that promoting the health of ecosystems benefits human health. This course establishes the importance of recognizing the interdependency between all living organisms and the need to pursue sustainability, and seek environmental justice. Students will examine the soil food web, food insecurity, pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, sustainable food production, and how to advocate for local and global food security. Students will gain an understanding of climate change, air pollution, and toxic materials in everyday consumer items and gain practical knowledge for limiting exposure. This course includes a hands-on component by visiting an organic farm to gain direct experience of local and sustainable food production. Learning Outcomes · Understand the impacts of large-scale agriculture and processing methods on human health and the environment, including biodiversity impacts, carbon footprints, and soil depletion. · Understand the broad mechanisms and health impacts of climate change and the impacts of food production on climate change. · Knowledge of the prevalence and health impacts of heavy metals contaminants found in foods, harmful food additives, and leaching from food packaging. · Understanding of the health impacts of ambient and household air pollution and how to reduce exposure and improve household air quality. · Explain common toxic materials found in consumer items, clothing, cleaning products, and cosmetics, and how to choose better alternatives · Explain how the seven channels of elimination (colon, lungs, liver, kidneys, blood, lymphatic system, and skin) eliminate wastes, both nutritional and environmental, from the body. · Practical knowledge and resources for selecting safer and more sustainable foods, consumer items, and household products Nutrition and The Environment offers students knowledge of sustainable methods of food production including organic and biodynamic food production/certification as well as understanding of issues surrounding food insecurity, including how to reduce food waste and support local and national initiatives to promote food justice. This course is a deep dive in describing how the impact of environmental pollution, societal inequities, poor nutrition, electromagnetic fields, and stress that contributes to the Barrel Effect. This course focuses on how human health and the health of our food and environment are inextricably linked.

Ayurveda: Mind/Body Healing Unique to IHN, Ayurveda is the science by which life in its totality is understood – the traditional natural medicine of India, dating back over five thousand years as it describes the diet, medicines, and behaviors that are beneficial or harmful for life and consciousness. It classifies all the factors of our lives in an organic energetic language that reflects the entire living biosphere around us. According to this philosophy, there are three primary life forces, called doshas, in the body – Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, which are the manifestations of the Great Elements of air, fire, and water. When out of balance, they are the causative factors in the diseased process. If we eat and behave in ways that support both our constitution and our environment, we are likely to stay clean, clear, and healthy. Students will be taught and evaluated on constitutional balance through an in-depth assessment of body systems and dietary recommendations according to dosha (physical) and gunas (spiritual). Learning Outcomes: • Develop customized protocols using Ayurvedic assessment tools such as tongue analysis, tonification, purification, and detoxification • Explain the classifications of disease (innate, exogenous, and psychic) that arise when the body is not in balance • Describe how each of the six tastes of sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent are manifestations of 2 of the 5 elements – earth, air, water, fire, and ether – and have a symbiotic relationship with the foods we eat • Learn to properties of healing Ayurvedic herbs such as Triphala, Aloe Gel, and Trikatu • Assess how the accumulation of Ama when there is a disruption in the metabolic force of Agni Ayurveda teaches students how to embody the Ayurvedic lifestyle through the daily incorporation of meditation, yoga, and breathwork. Practitioners recommend general dietary plans to rebalance constitution based on dosha type and specific detoxification diets such as Palliation Therapy and Pancha Karma which stabilize digestion through deep tissue cleansings.