I didn’t set out to start a wellness brand.

I kept seeing the same thing over and over again. Women in my life were dealing with significant pain, especially cycle related and pelvic pain, and were expected to treat it as normal. Power through. Don’t slow down. Take something over the counter and move on. When that pain wasn’t taken seriously, the system offered few thoughtful or reliable options.

At the same time, I had spent years living and working in places where plant based medicine isn’t a trend or an alternative. It is simply part of everyday care. I saw traditional herbal knowledge and modern approaches used side by side, practically and without mysticism. That contrast stayed with me.

My own background is deeply tied to hemp and CBD. I have written cannabis and industrial hemp laws in multiple countries and helped establish entire hemp industries from the ground up, including hemp based building materials. Working at that level made me a strong proponent of CBD, not as a cure all or a trend, but as a tool that needs to be used deliberately, responsibly, and within clear boundaries. That perspective directly informed why CBD is part of Root & Relief.

The original idea behind Root & Relief came from combining those threads.

What if there were a localized, internal herbal option for pelvic and menstrual discomfort, one that drew from both Western herbalism and Traditional Chinese Medicine, and included CBD as part of the formula for a reason rather than as a marketing add on?

I began exploring that question with Brian Katz, an herbalist I had already worked with on hemp related projects and who had formulated our pain balms. Brian helped ground the idea and brought a practical herbal perspective to it. He also connected me with Dr. Angie Pierce, DAOM, who holds a doctoral degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Angie took the lead on formulating the internal herbal melts. Over the course of more than a year, she developed and refined the formula through multiple iterations, drawing on both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western herbalism. That refinement took place within an academic and clinical herbal context, informed by ongoing teaching, research, and applied study rather than one off experimentation. The final formula reflects that process. Specific herbs were chosen for specific purposes, combined intentionally with CBD, and designed for internal use with care and restraint.

Root & Relief exists because the existing options were inadequate. These products are not cures. They do not diagnose or treat disease. They are tools, designed to support comfort and reduce friction in daily life when the default options feel dismissive or insufficient.

If you are here, you are probably already thoughtful about what you put in and on your body. That is who this is for. We try to be clear about what these products are, what they are not, and how they are meant to be used, without exaggeration and without pretending one solution works the same way for everyone.

-Ben