About Us
Hi, my name is Gala and I am the founder of Prana Herbs. I began my journey with plants and herbs as a younger woman in my early 20's working in greenhouses, plant nurseries, florists in Israel and even most recently, landscape design. In 2015, I left Israel with my American husband to forge a new life in Northern California working on different farms and vineyards. Then, in 2017, my path to plant medicine and a natural healer would become clear after a terrible fall that damaged my sternum and rib cage.Â
Every breath I took sent sharp shooting pains through my body. Every laugh that creeped up had to be stifled. I couldnât sleep, I couldnât bend over and even the most basic tasks of putting on a shirt or washing my hair became a painstaking task. Eventually, I felt like I just couldn't function and was forced to quit my job - leaving me sinking into a slow, deep depression.
For over a year and a half, I visited doctor after doctor that would just continue to prescribe me more antibiotics or anti-inflammatory pills that only partially dealt with the symptoms, but they never truly helped to heal the underlying issues. At one point, it was so bad that it developed into a full blown chest infection and it was then that my mother-in-law intervened and suggested that I use an herb called Comfrey.
From that point on, I made a life-changing decision to use my love of plants and nature to help heal people. In 2019, I became a certified Herbalist and studied the ancient wisdom of our ancestors who used their knowledge of plants, herbs, trees, roots and flowers to help heal people. It was then that I began making my own salves, oils, tinctures and more.
In April 2020, my first son Yannai was born, and I had less and less time to work on my dream and needed to focus entirely on him and my growing family. As a new mom and a fairly new immigrant in the US, I was appalled at the majority of products that were on the market for babies. I was so frustrated at the fact that I couldnât even pronounce, let alone understand half of the ingredients that were on the labels.Â
In December of 2020, everything would start to really come together. My sister-in-law, Alessia came back from the US after a year of traveling through South and Central America and was searching for her passion project. I knew Alessia had her own love of alternative plant medicines and asked her if she wanted to be my partner. In January of 2021, we filed for our LLC in California and Prana Herbs became official.
Alessia's struggle with Western medicine started in her early 20's as well after suffering from chronic yeast infections and urinary tract infections for nearly a decade. At one point it had become so bad that a urinary tract infection spread to her kidneys, leaving her with excruciating pain, fever and a resolve to never again return to the unhelpful doctors she had exhausted.Â
After extensive reading and research, she realized that this recurring issue would never be healed by simply treating the symptoms - a common mistake in Western medicine. She began to experiment with Tea Tree oil and garlic - both natural, powerful antifungals and antibacterials. After a combination of a change in her diet, regular exercise and the daily use of probiotics, she was finally able to cure herself. After nearly 15 years of feeling that there was something wrong with her, she cured herself of an affliction that had chased her for more than half her life. Itâs been over 8 years since she has needed to go to the doctor.
Now, here we are, 2 sisters that came together with a deep rooted desire to help educate people about the true power of plant medicines and show them that most of the time; nature knows best. We make all of our products entirely from scratch, using only the highest quality of ingredients and almost entirely organic. We also believe in the power of intention when making all of our products. We always cleanse our space with Palo Santo before making any of our medicine and are always sure to put a lot of love and healing energies into each and every bottle.
Our goal is to help our customers, our friends and our family to find alternative solutions where Western medicine has failed. Our planet Earth is like no other in the Universe and provides us with everything we need to maintain a healthy mind, body and spirit. We want to offer everybody an opportunity to quit putting unnecessary chemicals, preservatives and artificial ingredients into their bodies and to instead trust in the knowledge that our forefathers and mothers used for thousands of years to make medicine.Â