There was a season of my life where I was taking a lot of herbs.
Not recklessly. Intentionally. Thoughtfully. But still… a lot.
I was navigating autoimmune issues, trying to support my immune system without suppressing it. Some things clearly helped. Lion’s mane felt supportive. Eleuthero felt steadying. Certain blends made me feel more resilient.
Echinacea, though? That one has never landed well for me. Even when it was in beautifully crafted immune formulas that made perfect sense on paper. And not even as a kid… long before I knew I had autoimmune.
And astragalus? Not a huge winner either. Not terrible. Just… not transformative.
Meanwhile, coffee didn’t wreck me the way it wrecks some people with autoimmune patterns. It often made me calmer. More focused. More level. Add an ADHD brain into the mix and caffeine doesn’t hit my nervous system the way it hits everyone else. For me, it can regulate rather than overstimulate.
Then there was Rasa. Which is about my favorite herbal adaptogen blends company ever.
Their Bold blend made me feel noticeably better than their more mellow original or cacao blends. That was a clue. Something about the way my nervous system and immune system were interacting mattered more than I understood at the time.
At first, I called it bio-individuality. Which is true. It is bio-individuality.
But bio-individuality isn’t random. It has structure.
I just didn’t have language for that structure yet.
That changed during my Nutritional Therapy Practitioner training through the NTA. One of the most impactful lectures I heard came from Amanda Jones, MS, BA, FNTP, LMT, A-CFHC. She introduced the framework of Th1 and Th2 immune dominance in a way that was grounded, not sensational.
It didn’t feel trendy. It felt clarifying.
And suddenly, years of inconsistent herb responses made more sense.
Coffee and Immune Herbs Aren’t the Same Conversation
Coffee primarily influences the nervous system and stress hormones. It affects dopamine. It influences cortisol. It shifts how alert or calm you feel.
Immune-active herbs like echinacea operate much more directly on immune signaling pathways.
Lion’s mane and eleuthero are different again. They have nervous system and adaptogenic effects that don’t fit neatly into “immune stimulant” categories.
This is where people get tripped up.
Coffee is not simply a Th1 or Th2 categorical compound. It doesn’t sit cleanly inside that immune framing. It works through neuroendocrine pathways and only indirectly influences immune tone.
So if coffee feels regulating for you but echinacea feels inflammatory, that’s not contradictory.
Different levers. Different systems.
A Simple Explanation of Th1 and Th2
Practitioners sometimes use the shorthand Th1 and Th2 to describe immune leaning patterns.
Very broadly:
- Th1-leaning patterns tend to involve more cellular, inflammatory activity.
- Th2-leaning patterns tend to involve more antibody, allergy, and histamine-dominant activity.
That’s simplified. But useful.
This framework supports bio-individuality. It doesn’t replace it. It gives structure to why two people can respond completely differently to the same herb.
These patterns are not fixed identities. They shift.
Stress shifts them.
Sleep shifts them.
Mineral status shifts them.
Active flares shift them.
Where Autoimmune Conditions Tend to Lean
Certain autoimmune conditions are often described as more Th1-skewed. Others more Th2-skewed.
For example, more Th1-leaning discussions often include:
- Hashimoto’s (particularly in inflammatory phases)
- Type 1 diabetes
- Multiple sclerosis
- Some presentations of rheumatoid arthritis
More Th2-leaning discussions often include:
- Lupus
- Ulcerative colitis
- Allergy-dominant autoimmune patterns
- Some eczema or asthma-linked patterns
But this is not diagnostic. It is not binary. And it is not static.
You can shift between patterns over time.
You can present differently during a flare.
You can have mixed features.
Which is why labeling yourself and self-treating from that label alone is rarely wise.
What About Ashwagandha?
Ashwagandha doesn’t sit neatly inside this conversation either.
It influences stress hormones. It can influence thyroid physiology. It can influence immune signaling.
For some people, it feels grounding and stabilizing.
For others, especially in certain thyroid patterns, it can feel activating or uncomfortable.
It’s operating across multiple systems at once.
Which is why we can’t reduce everything to “this is a Th1 herb” or “this is a Th2 herb.”
Context matters.
Timing matters.
Dose matters.
The Part That Changed My Approach
If something consistently makes you feel inflamed, flu-ish, wired, or deeply exhausted, that doesn’t automatically mean you need more immune stimulation.
Sometimes it means your body needs stabilization.
Protein.
Minerals.
Sleep.
Digestive support.
Blood sugar regulation.
Nervous system support.
Foundations first. Always.
For Practitioners
Because this pattern shows up constantly in clinical work, I created a free reference tool:
Th1/Th2 Immune Terrain Pattern Map (Coffee + Immune Herbs)
You can access it inside the Practitioner Vault here:
https://brennamay.com/practitioners/
If you’re a practitioner and don’t yet have access, you can apply here:
https://brennamay.com/practitioners/access/
For clients and subscribers, simplified versions of this resource are available inside my membership vaults; the Holistic Wellness Library and the Founders Circle. You can subscribe to my Substack below for access to those client-facing guides and tools.
The biggest shift for me wasn’t adopting a new immune label.
It was understanding that my responses weren’t random.
They were contextual.
And once you start looking at terrain instead of isolated ingredients, a lot of the confusion starts to untangle.
Related Reading
- Why Foundations Change Outcomes
- Red Light Therapy for Thyroid Health (What Changed Over Time)
- Why Your Friend Can Live on Energy Drinks (and You Can’t)
Coming Soon
- Why Ashwagandha Helps Some People (and Wrecks Others)
- Thyroid Basics That Actually Matter (and the stuff that doesn’t)