We’re excited about the topic today. I still believe in natural medicine. I’ve just been compelled to start talking more about natural medicine and nature’s tools. How we should, really, put more stock in what they have to offer. I keep seeing the word, science, flying around. That seems to align itself with modern technologies and what the world in healthcare is doing. I don’t think it’s accurate. I think, when we think about science, we have to remember where science even comes from.
Well, that’s funny you say that, because I was just having this conversation with somebody the other day. In the science world, not very long ago, scientists were certain the earth was flat. They were also very certain that the earth was the center of the solar system.
Yeah, science changes.
Science changes.
Yeah.
Science is, I guess-
Even more recently-
… fluid. Could we say fluid?
Maybe, fluid is the right word. I think about it, studying the universe, the solar’s images. The depths of it, we’ll never really know.
Right.
I think, it’s just one of those things where there’s always more to uncover. One of the things that I think about is, in recent years, a lot of doctors have been recommending opioids as a great way to treat pain, and we have suffered greatly as a result of that. Science, from what they were saying, indicated that opioids were a safe option. We know, now, that they aren’t really a safe option. They cause all kinds of issues and addictions and can cause long-term damage for folks. There’s lots of other examples of that kind of thing. Of medicine recalls and even food recalls. Things that we eat, that we call, food, that we’ve found out, further down the line, are actually really a detriment to our health.
Let’s talk about DDT and how great of an idea that was to spray on crops. Or, glyphosate. It’s not that we’re scientists bashers.
No. Absolutely, not.
There’s room for science and there’s room for it, but I think there’s also room to think and embrace maybe natural medicine as more than early science.
Right. We forget that science is actually the study of nature, really. I mean, because everything comes from nature. It’s all a starting point in nature. The first scientists were just folks paying attention to the chemicals found in the world as it is. What happens, nowadays, is we isolate these things, and then, we synthesize these things. And then, we extrapolate bits of nature and put them into products that we can patent, and then, charge more for, because they’ve been patented. That’s the process, nowadays. We’re in a money-driven society. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I do think we need to be aware that what is driving us away from plants and from nature is more of a financial thing. I think that we’re really giving credit-
An effort to boost the profit.
Yeah, to manufacture something that you can put your label on and then charge a premium for.
Can we dive into it a little bit more?
Sure.
I think, one of the things that has always fascinated me is, salicylic acid that comes out of willow, right? Or, is it birch?
Willow, birch, yeah. Wintergreen.
It’s a compound that, when you find it in nature, there’s a lot of other chemicals and things going on that make it effective right off of the plant and we took it in. Took that just one little piece and it does its job in aspirin but, I think, with all plants, with all natural things, when you have it all combined together, again, it’s that diversity kind of thing.
Wholeness.
The wholeness, yeah. Just like anything else, when it’s all working in unison, the way it was made, we get a better product.
We get a more holistic product and it works on so many different levels. Oils offer a really great example of that plant products, in general, of. Maybe you make a tea or something similar and you get a lot of the benefits from. Not just the ingredient that you’re seeking. Maybe, it’s vitamin C, but alongside that, you also get access to amino acids and things that you didn’t even know were there. But because this is a whole and complete product, you’re getting something very, very nutritional on many levels.
Yeah.
When we’re talking about science too, I mean, you can break down plants and the different proteins and chemistry that they’re made of down to the most basic ingredients. But when you start taking those apart and then synthesizing them, you’re really altering the potential impact and turning it into something that can come with a lot of different side effects, because when our bodies use these synthetics, they just don’t know how to process them. They don’t know how to process the whole pieces together.
Yeah. I see in our notes, the next thing is comparing it to a field. How are-
I’m going to let you compare it to the field.
Well, I think again, it’s diversity. I hit on that a little bit, but if you look at a field, to me, automatically, it’s a pasture. In a pasture, we want that diversity. We’re actually sitting at the schoolhouse right now, recording this. Behind us is a pasture that was, basically, pillaged. Raped and pillaged. I hate using that term, but that’s what it feels like out in that field.
And then, scalped.
And then, scalped.
For decades.
For tobacco. The topsoil washed away down into the woods. Down into the creek. Down into our pond. Probably-
Out to the neighbors.
Out, eventually, to the ocean. I mean, that, in itself, is a long rant of what that caused, but what we are left with, what we have out there, is very little topsoil when we got it. We’re building that back now, but a lot of weeds have come in. Our neighbor, you guys have heard our stories before. Probably, have heard our neighbor thinks the milk thistles growing out there are a horrible thing, but the milk thistles indicate something else is going on and-
And they bring their own set of nutrients-
Right, yeah.
… and restorative properties for the field. When those things pop up in the field, it’s a sign of the health of the field doing its thing. It’s coming back to its fullness, and that’s the course that it has to take.
Right, exactly. The milk thistle is the only plant out there that allows magnesium into the soil. If we get rid of those, the soil can’t heal.
It will never restore.
Right.
Yeah. When I thought about our health and comparing it to a field, I think a lot of times we think, the best case scenario is to intervene and to do something in order to prevent any negative outcomes or to enhance outcomes, or what have you. This is something people do in gardening and farming, in general, and it’s been more and more and more. What happens is, when you apply something to a field that’s a synthetic or a fertilizer, and outside resource of any kind, really, you have to recognize that that is going to have impact on the field that’s going to change that healing process. It’s going to interfere with that healing process. It may even be a detriment, because what might happen is, it kills all that milk thistle, and you’ll never restore that magnesium balance. You’re just, constantly, going to be trying to fill that niche yourself. It just becomes this exhaustive process.
That happens with our health, at the same time, and we need to be aware of that. Even in the face of something that’s terribly scary, the best thing that we can do is support our bodies in that healthful, filling in those niche blanks. Magnesium is a really great example and zinc and vitamin D and vitamin C and eating foods that our bodies are meant to have and building up bacteria. All of that diversity is building a healthy ecosystem in our body, and we all can do that. One of the things about the field, that we’re sitting in front of, that I love most is, we’ve only owned it for about a year-and-a-half and really been only moving our animals and letting it do its thing for about a year-and-a-half. The healing that has happened on that field in that amount of time is phenomenal.
For sure, yeah.
Crazy, crazy example of how quickly the earth will do what it needs to do to get to where the healthful state is. When it’s in its healthful state, it will do amazing things for us too, and for our animals and on and on.
Well, and I think about it, sitting here. I think, a prime example of that in human health is autoimmune diseases. The bacteria is gone. Bad bacteria is in, present. Because of that, people throw all kinds of medications on it, rather than getting to that-
Often, yeah.
… getting to that core issue and just making things worse.
What are the root causes of autoimmune? It could be a genetic thing that’s triggered by an influence. Like a food, a dietary intake, a medicine, anything like that. What often happens is, the second you introduce another medicine, you’re taking yourself a step away from the process of actually healing, because food is meant to be what completes us and what meets our needs. Medicines are more like using a fertilizer or a chemical and throwing it on the process, because it interferes with the process of your body instead of stimulating the processes of your body. When you’re talking about holistic treatment, and that could be acupuncture. It could be chiropractic. It could be just a simple massage. You can be using essential oils and supplementation. All of these things are pieces of that holistic treatment. What happens is, your body is triggered to perform how it was designed to perform, which is complete perfection.
Our bodies were designed by the most perfect Creator and He made us to fit in this environment. This environment has the answers that we need. Scripture talks about it. History is just clear that people relied on nature and what it offers for centuries and decades and thousands of years. I mean, even back to the times of the pharaohs, they prized and valued these natural resources. Like, frankincense and myrrh and cypress, and all of these things, for their health. They didn’t take for granted that these were their medicines and that they were prized and valued.
Yeah. I think, for me, the main point of this is, just that we can heal. We can support our immune system. We can get better. Doing the right things, the right steps, can bring us there. Taking the time to research and learn a little bit more about your body. We’re all sitting at home. A lot of us scared and not sure what to do. Start learning more about how your body works. Not necessarily from profit-
Driven.
… driven, scientists or politicians, but really dive into natural medicine. I’m just 100% confident that I can give my body the tools it needs to heal and to have a healthy immune system that comes from a lot of things. It’s not just, necessarily, medicine as we think of medicine, but reducing stress. Reducing fear. Reducing anxiety. The food that we eat. The quality of the food that we eat. The quality of the water that we drink. Getting outside. Grounding. Meditation. All of those things are part of ancient medicine that we’ve gotten away from. I mean, if you look at Eastern medicine, that’s all part of it. That’s all part of what a healthy body looks like. Instead, we’re reliant on, I was going to try and avoid the topic, but we’re relying on wearing a mask and staying six feet apart from people. That’s it. That’s not medicine.
I think, what we’re doing now is trying to control the situation in a way that feels sanitary, maybe. Instead of falling back on the idea, we get to sit back and watch nature unfold before us. While there are elements that we can participate in and we can manipulate a bit to get to our desired outcome, there’s only so much that you can control. I mean, we can’t control how much rain we get. We can’t control how much light we get, necessarily. We just are working within the confines of nature. I think, sometimes right now especially, people are turning to somebody who’s going to tell them exactly what to do to protect themselves. The truth is that we can’t know for sure. We can’t be exactly 100% in control of every particular situation or outcome. That feels a little scary. It feels a little unsafe and unsure and insecure.
The truth is though, anyone who is telling you that you’re less than whole, and you need something synthetic to make you whole and well and safe and a good healthy body, is selling you something. Ultimately, anything that we need is around us for us to take and have. If you think about early, early people, they didn’t have somebody telling them, they didn’t even really have access to doctors. I’m not saying I want to go back to that. I think, doctors can be great, but I think, we need to look at the whole picture. When we blanketly say that all people need one treatment, it’s a very risky business and-
Yeah, that’s for sure.
Doing more of intervening instead of letting nature take its course and letting the Creator support us however He designed to support us, I think we’re just messing with things. Honestly, people talk about a lot of holistic medicine is voodoo. I tend to think of these concoctions that they’re creating and these made up protocols, that feels like voodoo to me, because that has nothing to do with nature. When you work and live in nature, you see that all things will balance. It won’t even take that long if we give it the time and the space and the room. Anyway, it was just something that I think is really relative right now. We all need to know more about our bodies and that’s something that we can learn. How our bodies interrelate with nature is a really important element of being our whole well selves. I think, a lot of times, we’ve fallen to the trap of what’s easier. What’s faster. What’s cheaper. All three of these things pay a tax on our health in one way or another. It seems like, “Okay, well, if I just [inaudible 00:15:23] and do this intervention, then it’s going to spare me.” The truth of the matter is, there’s going to be a repercussion and we don’t know what that might be, right now.
There’s always a side effect when you use anything in nature. Whether it’s antibiotic or antiviral. When we treat our sheep, which we’ve been known to do sometimes for worms with a dewormer, what happens? Well, sure. It might knock the worms out of them, but it actually weakens them in the long run. It also kills worms in the soil and the good worms that we need in the soil to create a healthier environment for the sheep. I think that we need to realize that, maybe we won’t see the instantaneous effects of our interventions, but they will play out.
Yeah. This is something that we’ve been studying and learning for how many years now. Like-
Oh, couple of decades.
Yeah. A long time. We’d love to help you more if this is something that you’re interested in learning more about. I think, the best spot to come is to our group. Right now, it’s on Facebook. Join us there and open up some discussion. Let’s talk more about it. If you like this episode, we’d love to have you leave a review and let us know what you think. If you don’t like this episode, leave us a review and tell us that, too.
I think, it’s totally okay that we disagree. In fact, I hope that you know where you stand, one way or the other. It’s really probably the most important thing. And then, just be open-minded. I’m open-minded to talk to other people about what they think and how they came to those conclusions and vice versa. I think that leaving space for new and different understanding is super important part of all of the situation that, I think, we’ll all come into terms with.
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