After years of research held up by the Chinese cultural revolution, Tu Youyou, a Chinese Medicine practitioner, turned an herb from the the Chinese Medicine materia medica into an anti-malarial drug, thus saving more than a hundred thousand lives each year in Africa alone. In 2015 she won the Nobel prize for this endeavor.
This is one example of what is called “reverse pharmacology”, taking medicinal knowledge about natural substances and developing them into modern pharmaceuticals.
In this way, new drugs can be developed for 1/5 of the cost and a third of the time.
Today I prescribe Chinese herbs to clients, but my earliest encounters with plants with medicinal qualities actually occurred in the forests of Northern California.
I grew up spending weekend days picnicking and hiking around the foothills and forests of the Bay Area. There was always another path to explore. This vibrancy of nature, whether it was the feeling of seeing a wild animal, or a different kind of forest, coast, or meadow, has inspired me to live in connection with nature.
In high school, I took a biology course which allowed me to research a topic of my choice. I decided to study Native American uses of plants for medicine. I checked out some plant identification books from the library, got in my beat up Chevrolet and drove into the foothills to walk around and see, feel and smell.
When you hear the word “probiotics”, you usually think about a pill sitting in a bottle at a health food store or a pharmacy. However, unrefrigerated probiotics are not as effective as assumed. Healing the gut is a gradual process and involves dietary changes as well as supplementation. For those struggling with gut inflammation or digestive issues, balancing the micro-biome of the gut can reduce inflammation. A balanced microbiome also increases the absorption of vitamins and minerals. Additionally, it improves immune function and contributes to overall health and vitality.
Even for those not suffering from chronic gut issues, balancing the micro-biome results in healthier skin, better digestion and has a positive cognitive effect, (Fun fact: 80 percent of serotonin is produced in the gut. So the more balanced your gut is, the happier you’ll be!)
Balancing your gut is not about taking a pill, but rather involves more of a lifestyle change. Beneficial bacteria, or probiotics, are living creatures found in many of the foods we eat. These good bacteria live in our gut and are hungry for specific foods to remain happy and doing what they do to keep us healthy. A well-rounded approach to gut health involves not just the consumption of probiotic-rich foods but also incorporating prebiotic-rich foods into your diet. See below for a list of pro and pre biotic foods. Bon appetit!
If you do decide to take a probiotic supplement, it should be one that is kept in refrigeration, and also add these foods to your diet to ensure maximum healing.
Here is a list of foods rich in probiotics:
Pickles (brined - in salt, not vinegar)
Sauerkraut
Olives (brined - again salt, not vinegar)
Miso (another excuse to go for sushi - yay!)
Yogurt - goat’s or sheep’s milk
Various other food that are harder to get a hold of: Kimchi, Tempeh, Natto, Kefir, Kombucha
You can read further about how fermented foods improve your health here in a study just published in Cell.
Here is a list of foods that are PRE-biotic,, which are what help the beneficial bacteria already in our gut remain there:
