Chris Kilham: Great, the Health Ranger and Medicine Hunter. We sound like boy scouts.
Mike:No kidding. We are these crazy people who travel the world looking for health solutions. You do this with a variety of herbal medicines. Can you give people who aren't familiar with your work an idea of what you do?
Kilham:Basically, I travel around the world investigating medicinal plants in different countries. Whether it's in the Amazon, Southeast Asia, Siberia, India or China, I go to a host country, hook up with people who are knowledgeable about or experts on a particular plant that I'm investigating, whether it's ginseng, maca, horny goat weed or anything at all.
Then I go as deeply as I can into the growing conditions. I investigate the science that the traditional folk use, the medicinal applications, the trade and all of the conditions around a plant. This enables me to help make that plant popular in this culture. I also work on environmental preservation programs along the way.
This helps indigenous native cultures to flourish. It's a great big activity to leap into. I meet a lot of fabulous, diverse people. I have wonderful experiences and most of the time I pinch myself and kind of laugh at the fact that I'm actually getting paid to do this. It's great.
Mike:Wow. What a fantastic adventure.
Kilham:It's wonderful. I'm very grateful.
Mike:What are some of the things that you bring back to Western cultures that are solutions for health problems or symptoms?
Kilham:I have worked on high-profile plants like kava, which is the single most effective agent of any kind, pharmaceutical or otherwise, for the treatment of anxiety. Maca is a food plant in Peru that's also in my "Hot Plants" products. It's nourishing, gives energy, stamina and endurance.
I've worked with rhodiola rosea from Siberia, which is actually my desert island plant. If I could only take one herb, it would be rhodiola for its cardiovascular, brain-enhancing, immune-boosting functions and its sex-enhancing properties. I spent about 10 years investigating a class of products that I have come to term the "Hot Plants," or the sex-enhancing plants.
With the exception of maybe one, they all do many other things in the body as well as enhance libido, sexual function and pleasure. I've focused on those, especially with the increased popularity of sex-enhancing drugs for men, to provide something that is effective, safer and less expensive. I've focused on the "Hot Plants" both with my book, "Hot Plants" and the products now for a few years.
Mike:The subtitle is "Nature's Proven Sex Boosters for Men and Women." This has been out for a year and a half now?
Kilham:A little over a year and a half, yes. St. Martin's Press publishes it. They're a good publisher. I started to write the book after 10 years of travel around the world. Then I thought, "If I'm going to do this book, instead of recommending a plethora of individual products, why don't I find a good partner to do 'Hot Plants for Him' and 'Hot Plants for Her'?" I always had some real admiration for enzymatic therapy, and we've had a successful run with these products.
Mike:So let's talk about those products. We have "Hot Plants for Her" and "Hot Plants for Him." These are available in mainstream distribution such as health food stores everywhere?
Kilham:Yes, you can get them at www.CVS.com. You can get them in GNC. You can get them at Whole Foods. You can get them at independent natural food stores all over the United States.
Really, if people either want to boost sex drive because they've been sick and have been on some sort of medication like Prozac that completely destroys your libido, they can take these products to build back up a strong, healthy sex drive. They also avoid the risk of growing a beard, as in the case of women taking testosterone, which is just completely insane.
Mike:That's unacceptable, right?
Kilham:Totally unacceptable. The "Hot Plants for Him" is also significantly beneficial for improving erectile function. Instead of going to Viagra, Levitra or Cialis, which are expensive and potentially very dangerous drugs, you've got something safer with ingredients that have up to two or more thousand years of use. In some cases, there are hundreds of millions of people with human clinical studies that back up their efficacy for sexual applications. Why wouldn't you take that instead?
Mike:Plus, as you mentioned, they have all these other benefits. Now, I know you may be limited in what you can say.
Kilham:No, I'll say anything.
Mike:Okay, excellent. I like you as a guest, Chris. Let's talk about some of these ingredients. Maca, Yohimbe and Rhodiola.
Kilham:Most of the ingredients in the Hot Plants products, with the exception of yohimbe, are actually overall vitality-enhancing herbs. If you take them individually or in combination, you're just going to feel better. You'll have more energy, more stamina and more alertness.
It's just kind of like when you're really having a good day. You know some days you just wake up and you think, "Yeah." That kind of feeling is what I'm talking about. However, many of these herbs also specifically enhance sexual function either because they tweak hormonal function, improve circulation, stimulate sexual nerves or lower cortisol -- and cortisol has a real sexually suppressing effect.
The only ingredient in "Hot Plants for Him" that doesn't have those broad applications actually is Yohimbe. That specifically enhances blood flow to the fine vessels of the penis. It's very targeted in that way.
However, the other herbs in this formula you could just plain take them because let's say you're an athlete. You want more energy. You travel a lot and you need more stamina. It's not just about the sex because sex isn't an isolated dimension of life. The brain is the most sensitive sex organ in the whole body. If your brain isn't in good shape, whatever is happening down below is not going to be pretty.
These things enhance brain function, cardiovascular function, immunity and much more. I always regret when the media says there isn't enough science on herbs, which is such complete, hilarious baloney. There's massive science on these. It's just that the herbal sector doesn't have or spend the type of marketing dollars that the pharmaceutical sector does.
Mike:That's right.
Kilham:If you want improved libido, sexual function and sexual pleasure by the way, then herbs can help you to have that safely and effectively.
Mike:It won't cloud your mind or compromise your heart or kidneys like a lot of prescription drugs. In fact, it's the opposite.
Kilham:You know, seven months after Viagra came out on the market, the United States Food and Drug Administration reported 123 Viagra-related deaths in the United States. Now, I think that's a totally unacceptable thing. A person can die from an adverse drug reaction. That's not okay by me.
You take an herb like rhodiola rosea that's been used for over 2,000 years. To the best extent of our knowledge of the hundreds of millions of people who have used that herb, nobody has ever died from taking it at any dose.
Keep it safe. Keep it healthy and keep it inexpensive. These are going to be like, $1 a day to get a sexual effect, not $9 or $10 a tablet for something that might blow the arteries in your head. Let's get real. Is that too strong?
Mike:No, no that's right in line. That's the message that people want to hear. They want real solutions that don't compromise their safety.
Kilham:I think death is too stiff a penalty for a good erection. I'm sorry.
Mike:We'll quote you on that one. Let's talk about your TV show, "Medicine Hunter TV."
Kilham:Yes, "Medicine Hunter" is my business and the show, the new series is called "Medicine Trail." I travel around the world with a TV crew. We just finished a show on maca, a one-hour special that aired on the Healthy Living Channel. That's in about 20 million homes in North America.
We're really out to do, I like to say, the "Wild Kingdom" of plant medicine. We're out to show people this whole category of healthy, beneficial plant medicines. I will not do a show on anything that people can't get because I want people to be empowered by this information and be able to get and use these plants.
Mike:So on this show do you get crazy like the "Crocodile Hunter," or what do you do?
Kilham:I don't handle poisonous snakes but I think getting a little bit crazy is part and parcel of going deep into other cultures. We engage in shamanic rituals. We do all kinds of things that are consistent with what's going on in that culture.
That makes it fun, keeps it culturally real. We don't stage anything. I do stand-ups on the show, but everything else that happens is just completely authentic to the country, the culture and the plant.
Mike:Outstanding. Again, it's the Healthy Living Channel?
Kilham:It's the Healthy Living Channel. It's available through satellite and cable in about 20 million homes in North America. Maybe eventually we'll get lucky and be on Discovery or something. Right now, that's where we are. I'm happy about it.
Mike:Well I'm sure you'll have a lot of success with the show.
Kilham:I hope to have a lot of success with it.
Mike:Your website is www.MedicineHunter.com.
Kilham:That's my website and people can surf around on there and find information about different botanicals and get links to different beneficial products that I recommend. It's a good website, although I have some work to do with it still.
Mike:They're always a work in progress, aren't they?
Kilham:Yes.
Mike:Again, the book is called "Hot Plants." You can get it on www.Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble or any local bookstore as well.
Kilham:Anywhere that good books are sold.
Mike:The products are the Hot Plant product line for men and women. Chris Kilham, the Medicine Hunter, has been our guest.
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