Medicine Comes From Nature, Maybe it’s onto Something?
Hello and welcome to my blog! Today I wanted to discuss a little bit about nature and its role in healing. Not only do I want to discuss the innate healing potential naturally occurring within your body, but also how nature produces medicine and how being in nature is a medicine itself!
When patient’s enter Dr. Super’s House of Health, many of them notice the plants throughout the office; all varieties, shapes and colors. I love surrounding myself with nature and promoting a healthy, healing environment through plant life. Taking care of plants also encourages us to take care of ourselves. I often find that when I am depressed or low on energy, my plants are the first sign of my suffering. I often fail to water them, prune them, or interact with them at all. When I notice my plants' health is failing, I start to realize I am not taking care of myself either!
I also include plants in my office to start conversations and educate my patients. Aloe can help heal burns and surface wounds (Hekmatpou, 2019), lavender relieves stress (Sulistyana, 2016), and wormwood is good for GI issues and abdominal cramps (Mohiuddin, 2017). I love educating my patients on how mullein can help lung inflammation (Turker, 2004) as well as stinging nettle to promote lymphatic drainage (Johnson, 2012). I often encourage my patients to use turmeric for anti-inflammation (Hewlings, 2017), and lion’s mane and turkey tail mushroom to support nerve and brain function (Venturella, 2021). I have foraged and used motherwort and clevers myself to aid anxiety attacks and muscle spasm (Koshovyi, 2021). By incorporating certain plants into our diet, we can improve our health without artificial drugs. After all, nature is the best chemist!
In fact, we get a lot of our medicine from nature. Penicillin, which has saved countless lives, was discovered on moldy bread in 1928 (ACS, 2022). We derive aspirin from willow tree bark, morphine from opium, and tetrahydrocannabinol from cannabis. Plants help make diuretics, stimulants, antidepressants, and anti-tumor drugs. Many native cultures have been using local plants to treat a huge array of ailments for centuries, however you don’t have to consume nature to be healed by it. Just being in nature is medicine. In Japan, there is a practice called “Shinrin-yoku” or forest bathing. While walking amongst specific tree species such as cedar, oak, and pine, the trees release phytoncides which improve human immunological function for up to 7-days AFTER being exposed (Tsunetsugu, 2010). Plants aren’t the only way to be healed by nature. Breathing in sea air has been a tried and true treatment for tuberculosis for centuries (Brannan, 1905). Many of my patients with Post-Covid symptoms were surprised to feel less chest tightness and have less cough while they were at the beach for vacation! The sun itself is also important for our health and affects our mood, hormone regulation, circadian rhythm and vitamin D production (Mead, 2008). No wonder Seasonal Affective Disorder contributes to depression and lack of vitamin D leads to many avoidable major illnesses (Mead, 2008).
Nature isn’t just concerned with healing us, but plants can heal themselves and their neighbors as well. Plants can hear, speak (Khait, 2019), and trade nutrients back and forth through mycorrhizal fungi networks (Simard, 2004). They communicate through different pitches, can remember and respond differently to specific people or stimuli, and can heal each other with nature's perfect pharmacy. You can even make a medicinal tea out of healing plants and water sick plants with it to heal them! No wonder we use plants in medicine and often seek out nature when we are stressed or ill.
Most importantly, we get to experience nature and its healing properties within us everyday. Many people see themselves outside of nature and not part of it. However, we are fundamentally connected to nature. We have to interact with nature and consume nature to be healthy. Without water, air, plant or animal life, we die. We cease to exist! If we exist in an unhealthy environment, our own health suffers as well. Think about inhaling smog, drinking water with heavy metals, consuming animals full of hormones and plants covered in pesticides. What we surround ourselves with and put in our body determines how healthy we can be. We also forget that our body has a natural ability to heal. This innate ability to heal and respond to our environment is controlled by our nervous system. When we allow our body to heal naturally and support our body’s natural healing process, not only are we honoring our innate intelligence, but minimizing the risk of adverse reactions or side effects from unnecessary interventions.
A healthy body is constantly fighting the development of cancer cells, sickness, supports organ function, repairs skin damage, expels metabolic waste, and properly senses and responds to the environment and its stressors. When someone has a cut and they apply a bandage, the bandage keeps out dirt, but your body heals the wound. When you inhale a virus, your immune system captures and destroys it, often without you even noticing. All of this is done while a person goes about their daily life. I find it surprising that many of my patients don’t trust their body to heal. They need their ibuprofen for headaches. They need to get carpal tunnel surgery to fix their wrist pain. They need to be on birth control to have a regular period. Where does this lack of trust come from? Why do we not trust nature's best medicine and our own healing ability?
I often discuss these stark differences between natural healing arts and traditional allopathic medicine with my patients. I tell them that the majority of their “healing” experiences at the family doctor are passive, “Here is a pill for your headaches”. You are not required to experience a healing process, take part in healing (other than taking a pill), and the underlying cause is never treated. The doctor has all the power to heal you. This is completely different than treating the underlying cause, feeling your body heal and improve over a few visits, and taking responsibility for your health by stretching, drinking more water, and doing prescribed exercises (to fix anterior head carriage which is leading to those tension headaches!). My job as a chiropractor is to facilitate your healing process and encourage you to take control of your health again. The power is within you naturally.
By choosing chiropractic care, a person is choosing to honor themselves as a part of nature. They are choosing to honor their body and allow it to heal naturally. It forces you to experience your healing process and be a part of the solution, instead of allowing someone else to control your health and avoid the problem. Why not take healing a step farther and allow nature to facilitate your healing as well? Add in a few extra veggies during the week and drink extra water. Try breathing exercises while spending time outside to improve mental and physical health. It’s not surprising that the closer we get to nature, the healthier we become!
Feel Well and Do Good,
ADIO
Dr. Super
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