by Maireid Sullivan
2012, updated 2025
Work in progress
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Introduction
Part 1
- The Oxford Circle
- Samuel Hahnemann, MD, (1755-1843) "Father of Homeopathy"
- BACH Flower Remedies: Pathologist & Bacteriologist, Edward Bach (1986-1936)
Part 2
- The Hopkins Circle
- Flexner Report (1910): Industrialisation of medicine - by industrialists
- Insights on "BigPharma" history
- Current Opinion in Microbiology
- Worldwide health impacts
- Updating the Flexner Report - 100 years later
Part 3
- What is Precision Medicine?
- What is Orthomolecular medicine?
- Medical School Teaches Doctors How to Cook
- There's an APP for better food choices
- We've come a long way with "orthodox" medicine!
Part 4
Sustainable Agriculture
Part 5
- International Healing Methods Refined Over Thousands of Years
Introduction
WHO global report on traditional and complementary medicine 2019
(pdf)
Excerpt: Traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) is an important and often underestimated health resource with many applications, especially in the prevention and management of lifestyle-related chronic diseases, and in meeting the health needs of ageing populations …
This report reviews global progress in T&CM over the past two decades and is based on contributions from 179 WHO Member States. It clearly shows that more and more countries are recognizing the role of T&CM in their national health systems. For instance, by 2018, 98 Member States had developed national policies on T&CM, 109 had launched national laws or regulations on T&CM, and 124 had implemented regulations on herbal medicines.
Countries aiming to integrate the best of T&CM and conventional medicine would do well to look not
only at the many differences between the two systems, but also at areas where both converge to help tackle the unique health challenges of the 21st century. In an ideal world, traditional medicine would be an option offered by a well-functioning, people-centred health system that balances curative services with preventive care.
WHO is halfway through implementing the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014–2023…
Download full report (pdf)
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Part 1
The Oxford Circle
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 "The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge"
In the middle of the 17th century, an extraordinary group of scientists and natural philosophers coalesced as The Oxford Circle and created a scientific revolution in the study and understanding of the brain and consciousness. Founded in 1660, following a lecture by Professor of Astronomy Christopher Wren: Twelve men of science established
The Royal Society - a 'College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematical, Experimental Learning' at Gresham College, London.
Oxford and the Royal Society’s origins
OXFORD NEWS BLOG by Pete Wilton - 2 February, 2010
Excerpt
They built telescopes and transparent beehives, observed the microscopic world of cells and the motions of the planets, developed new methods of calculation and invented everything from watches to talking statues.
They were a small group of mid-17th Century natural philosophers based at Oxford University who would play a key role in both the scientific revolution and the founding of the Royal Society. . . the Oxford circle was one of many informal science clubs that emerged around this time in Britain, France and Italy: the power of print meant that, from its very inception, science was an international business that respected neither city walls nor national boundaries.
However, with a core membership that never exceeded 10 or 12 people, the Oxford group exerted a disproportionate influence on the course of scientific history: nurturing or inspiring some of the nation’s most talented scientists and engineers, and paving the way for Britain to become a scientific super power.
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Samuel Hahnemann, MD, (1755-1843) - "Father of Homeopathy"
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Washington DC monument, dedicated in 1900,
to Samuel Hahnemann, MD, (1755-1843), "Father of Homeopathy"
1.
The only monument in Washington Honoring a Physician
Excerpt from The Homeopathic Revolution (2007),
by Dana Ullman, MPH, CCH -
(See NCBI review)
Although trained as a medical doctor, Hahnemann was a learned chemist and author of the leading German textbook for apothecaries (pharmacists) of the day. He was conversant in at least nine languages and even supported himself in his mid-twenties teaching languages at the famed University of Leipzig.
Learning languages enabled Hahnemann to become familiar with the latest developments in medicine and science. He further expanded his knowledge and his growing prestige by translating twenty-two textbooks, primarily medical and chemistry textbooks (several of which were multi-volume works). Over a twenty-nine-year period, Hahnemann translated some 9,460 pages.
2.
Homeopathy Plus: 17 Tutorials
The Law of Similars Discovered
Excerpt:
Homeopathy emerged during a time when medical practices were unregulated and perilous. Patients faced treatments involving toxic substances such as lead, mercury, and arsenic, or procedures like bloodletting, purging, and blistering. Many individuals died from the treatments rather than the diseases they were intended to cure.
Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), the founder of homeopathy, studied medicine during this period and established a practice after graduating from the University of Erlangen in 1781. However, he grew increasingly disillusioned with contemporary medical practices and stopped practicing medicine in 1790 out of concern for his patients’ well-being.
. . .
In 1796, Hahnemann published a groundbreaking essay detailing the Law of Similars phenomenon, demonstrating its effects in numerous substances. The concept of “like treats like” was finally validated...
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BACH Flower Remedies:
Pathologist & Bacteriologist, Edward Bach (1886-1936)
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Between 1930 and 1936, English Pathologist & Bacteriologist Edward Bach developed the Bach Flower Remedies.
“Healing with the clean, pure, beautiful agents of nature is surely the one method of all which appeals to most of us.”
- Edward Bach (1886-1936)
Dr. Bach's assistant, successor, and biographer, Radiologist Nora Weeks, (1896-1978), in "The Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach" (1940), explained why Edward Bach closed down his London practice "to seek and find herbs which would heal the sick, but from which no ill effects could be derived."
"We are all healers, and with love and sympathy in our natures we are also able to help anyone who really desires health. Seek for the outstanding mental conflict in the patient, give him the remedy that will assist him to overcome that particular fault, and all the encouragement and hope you can, and then the healing virtue within him will of itself do all the rest." – Edward Bach
As the story goes, Bach placed his mortars and pestles in one suitcase and his shoes in another, and accidentally took the case with the shoes, only to discover that he needed the shoes because he walked the fields and forests before dawn every day collecting the first dew from wild flowers. While testing their impacts on himself, he experienced the potency of each flower and then developed his systematic dilutions of the "mother tincture' of each plant.
Bach described the impacts of Flower Remedies:
"The action of these remedies is to raise our vibrations and open up our channels for the reception of the Spiritual Self; to flood our natures with the particular virtue we need, and wash from us the fault that is causing the harm. They are able, like beautiful music or any glorious uplifting thing which gives us inspiration, to raise our very natures, and bring us nearer to our souls and by that very act to bring us peace and relieve our sufferings. They cure, not by attacking the disease, but by flooding our bodies with the beautiful vibrations of our Higher Nature, in the presence of which, disease melts away as snow in the sunshine." – Edward Bach
"The Twelve Healers and Other Remedies" 1941 (PDF):
Edward Bach, places the 38 remedies under the following 7 headings.
The group names are based on the general emotional characteristics Bach identified for each of the seven Bach nosodes.
The Bach nosodes were a set of homeopathic remedies made from bacteria, which Bach worked on between 1919 and 1928.
1. For Fear
2. For Uncertainty
3. For Insufficient Interest in Present Circumstances
4. For Loneliness
5. For those Over-sensitive to Influences and Ideas
6. For Despondency or Despair
7. For Over-Care for welfare of others
In his Introduction, p. 12, Bach explained,
. . . As the Herbs heal our fears, our anxieties, our worries, our faults and our failings, it is these we must seek, and then the disease, no matter what it is, will leave us.
There is little more to say, for the understanding mind will know all this, and may there be sufficient of those with understanding minds, unhampered by the trend of science, to use these Gifts of God for the relief and the blessing of those around them.
Thus behind all disease lie our fears, out anxieties, our greed, our likes and dislikes. Let us seek these out and heal them, and with the healing of them will go the disease from which we suffer. …
In treating cases with these remedies, no notice is taken of the nature of disease. The individual is treated and as he becomes well the disease goes, having been cast off by the increase in health.
All know that the same disease may have different effects on different people: it is the effects that need treatment, because they guide to the real cause... (Edward Bach, 1941, p. 12)
- Visit The Bach Centre
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Part 2
The Hopkins Circle
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In the United States, until a century ago, Boston University, Stanford University, and New York Medical College all taught homeopathy:
There were 22 homeopathic medical schools, 100 homeopathic hospitals, and over 1,000 homeopathic pharmacies.
The founding of Johns Hopkins University in 1876 changed the course of medical education in America. Maryland-based banker, philanthropist, slaveholder, and Quaker, Johns Hopkins (1795-1873), "In his will, set aside $7 million to establish a hospital and affiliated training colleges,
an orphanage, and a university. At the time, it was the largest philanthropic bequest in U.S. history." - JHU History & Mission
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Flexner Report (1910): Industrialisation of medicine - by industrialists
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“A pill for an ill”
The Flexner Report (1910)
Johns Hopkins University graduate Abraham Flexner's 1910 report 'reformed' medical education in the United States and Canada
- funded by industrialists:
John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937), concluded that all natural healing modalities were 'unscientific' and that medical education must be based on laboratory research followed by patenting of medicine.
He invited Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), among others, to offer grants to the best medical schools in America - with a caveat:
only an allopathic-based curriculum could be taught.
Following Rockefeller's influence, Congress established exclusive authority to grant medical school licenses to the AMA (American Medical Association). Allopathic medicine became the standard modality:
medical schools curricula were dismantled, removing any mention
of the healing power of herbs or natural treatments.
Teachings on diet and other natural (non-drug) treatments were also completely removed from medical programs.
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Insights on "BigPharma" history
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“Big Pharma” makes large “donations” to medical schools in exchange for teaching the medical students to use their patented drugs.
"How Did Big Pharma Get Big?"
One branch of the healthcare industry that receives particular opprobrium for its high costs in America compared to other countries is pharmaceuticals... "The growth of the political power of drug makers occurred in the years after the Second World War..."
- Eric Schewe, PhD, 19 March, 2017, Jstor Daily
But first -
The Spanish Flu (1918-1920) aka The Great Influenza Epidemic 'spread' during World War I (1914-1918), when an estimate of 60 million soldiers (Koman 1915), from all over the world, including close to 5 million US soldiers, converged across Europe. Those who survived the war brought the virus back to their homelands: At least 50 million people died (CDC). Origin:
We now know that the "Spanish Flu" virus emerged in Camp Funston, now Ft. Riley, Kansas, USA (Barry 2004) in January 1918, and quickly spread with the arrival of US troups on the European war front, where military leaders suppressed the news in order to maintain morale, but news of outbreak in neutral Spain was freely reported, giving the impression that Spain was the epicenter - thus, the Spanish Flu misnomer.
Bayer Aspirin, formulated in 1899 to reduce fever, became the leading pharmaceutical treatment for the Spanish Flu, when, in hindsight,
it was discovered that a fever was required to suppress the virus.
While Aspirin "poisoning" has long been criticized, recent reports include warnings:
"Effect of aspirin on deaths associated with sepsis in healthy older people (ANTISEPSIS): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled primary prevention trial" - NCBI, 2020
Bayer's well documented 2016 purchase of Monsanto was concluded on June 7, 2018,
Bayer history details on the Holocaust Encyclopedia:
- Bayer is a pharmaceutical company.
- Monsanto is a pesticide company.
- Bayer bought Monsanto.
- Bayer makes drugs for NonHodgkin's lymphoma.
- Monsanto makes chemical called glyphosate to spray on FOOD crops.
- Glyphosate causes NonHodgkin's lymphoma.
The Founding of Bayer:
1. Best known for their path-breaking anti-inflammatory pain reliever, Aspirin, the Bayer pharmaceutical company was founded in 1863.
2. Bayer became part of IG Farben, a powerful German chemical conglomerate, in 1925. ...
As part of the IG Farben conglomerate, which strongly supported the Third Reich, the Bayer company was complicit in the crimes of the Third Reich. In its most criminal activities, the company took advantage of the absence of legal and ethical constraints on medical experimentation to test its drugs on unwilling human subjects. These included paying a retainer to SS physician Helmuth Vetter to test Rutenol and other sulfonamide drugs on deliberately infected patients at the Dachau, Auschwitz, and Gusen concentration camps. Vetter was later convicted by an American military tribunal at the Mauthausen Trial in 1947, and was executed at Landsberg Prison in February 1949. >>>more
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Current Opinion in Microbiology
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“Most clinically relevant classes of antibiotic are derived from natural products.”
Antibiotics: past, present and future
Current Opinion in Microbiology
Volume 51, October 2019, Pages 72-80
Edited by Mattew I Hutchings, Andrew W Truman and Barrie Wilkinson,
Excerpts:
The first antibiotic, salvarsan, was deployed in 1910.
In just over 100 years antibiotics have drastically changed modern medicine and extended the average human lifespan by 23 years. The discovery of penicillin in 1928 started the golden age of natural product antibiotic discovery that peaked in the mid-1950s. Since then, a gradual decline in antibiotic discovery and development and the evolution of drug resistance in many human pathogens has led to the current antimicrobial resistance crisis. Here we give an overview of the history of antibiotic discovery, the major classes of antibiotics and where they come from. We argue that the future of antibiotic discovery looks bright as new technologies such as genome mining and editing are deployed to discover new natural products with diverse bioactivities. We also report on the current state of antibiotic development, with 45 drugs currently going through the clinical trials pipeline, including several new classes with novel modes of action that are in phase 3 clinical trials. Overall, there are promising signs for antibiotic discovery, but changes in financial models are required to translate scientific advances into clinically approved antibiotics.
1. The development of antibiotics
- A brief history of antibiotics
- Why do microorganisms make antibiotics?
- Prospects for natural product antibiotic discovery
- Under-explored environments and ecological niches
- Difficult to cultivate bacteria
- Prospects for clinical development
...
Table 1. All classes of clinically used antibiotics and their source
...
Summary and outlook
Closing paragraph:
... Thus, governments are starting to act and there is much to be optimistic about, not least the fact that most of the NP [new microbial 'natural products'] antibiotics that have been discovered come from a small fraction of the microbes on Earth. With suitable global action, this should lead to a renewed antibiotic pipeline to combat AMR alongside other emergent technologies, such as vaccines, antibody-antibiotic conjugates, probiotics, phage therapy and rapid diagnostics.
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2011
Updating the Flexner Report - 100 years later
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History comprehensively reported:
The Flexner Report - 100 Years Later
by Thomas P. Duffy, MD
NCBI: Yale J Biol Med. 2011 Sep; 84(3): 269–276.
Abstract
The Flexner Report of 1910 transformed the nature and process of medical education in America with a resulting elimination of proprietary schools and the establishment of the biomedical model as the gold standard of medical training. This transformation occurred in the aftermath of the report, which embraced scientific knowledge and its advancement as the defining ethos of a modern physician. Such an orientation had its origins in the enchantment with German medical education that was spurred by the exposure of American educators and physicians at the turn of the century to the university medical schools of Europe. American medicine profited immeasurably from the scientific advances that this system allowed, but the hyper-rational system of German science created an imbalance in the art and science of medicine. A catching-up is under way to realign the professional commitment of the physician with a revision of medical education to achieve that purpose.
Read the full report here
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Part 3
What is Precision Medicine?
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2015
(US)
National Institutes of Health (NIH) "All of Us" Research Program
The Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Working Group
was privileged to be given an audacious charge from the NIH Director to lay out a blueprint for a transformational Presidential Initiative.
The Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program –
Building a Research Foundation for 21st Century Medicine
Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Working Group Report to the
Advisory Committee to the Director, NIH September 17, 2015 (pdf)
Executive Summary
Excerpt: ...Precision medicine is an approach to disease treatment and prevention that seeks to maximize effectiveness by taking into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle. Precision medicine seeks to redefine our understanding of disease onset and progression, treatment response, and health outcomes through the more precise measurement of molecular, environmental, and behavioral factors that contribute to health and disease. This understanding will lead to more accurate diagnoses, more rational disease prevention strategies, better treatment selection, and the development of novel therapies. Coincident with advancing the science of medicine is a changing culture of medical practice and medical research that engages individuals as active partners – not just as patients or research subjects. We believe the combination of a highly engaged population and rich biological, health, behavioral, and environmental data will usher in a new and more effective era of American healthcare...
2016
President Obama White House initiative
The Precision Medicine Initiative:
Data-Driven Treatments as Unique as Your Own Body, Jan 20, 2015
by Lindsay Holst
Summary:
The President's 2016 budget includes investments in an emerging field of medicine that takes into account individual differences in people's genes, microbiomes, environments, and lifestyles.
It's called the Precision Medicine Initiative.
Excerpt
Right now, most medical treatments are designed for the average patient.
But one size doesn't fit all, and treatments that are very successful for some patients don't work for others. Think about it:
- If you need glasses, you aren't assigned a generic pair.
You get a prescription customized for you.
- If you have an allergy, you get tested to determine exactly what you're allergic to.
- If you need a blood transfusion, it has to match your precise blood type.
Enter Precision Medicine: health care tailored to you...
Learn about the NIH "All of Us" Research Program here
Genetic Science Learning Center, University of Utah
Excerpt
Right now, most medical treatments are designed for the average patient. Precision medicine, on the other hand, matches each patient with the treatment that will work best for them. Also called personalized medicine or individualized medicine, precision medicine takes individual variation into account: variation in our genes, environment, lifestyle, and even in the microscopic organisms that are living inside of us... Need a refresher on DNA, genes, proteins, and heredity?
Visit the Tour of Basic Genetics
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What is Orthomolecular medicine
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The International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine (ISOM)
founded in 1994 in Vancouver, Canada.
Orthomolecular medicine is the use of natural substances, such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other essential nutrients, to prevent and treat disease. The term ‘orthomolecular’ was coined by two-time Nobel Prize-winning chemist Linus Pauling (1901-1994), to describe the concept of using the right molecules in the right amounts to promote optimal health.
Substances that are considered “ortho-molecules” include:
- vitamins
- minerals
- amino acids
- fatty acids and cholesterol
- enzymes
- hormones
- neurotransmitters
- other naturally occurring substances utilized in metabolic activity
Dietary proteins, carbohydrates, and fats (macronutrients) are also relevant to the practice of orthomolecular medicine.
>>>more
Selected References
- Origins of Orthomolecular Medicine
Carter, S. (2019) Integrative Medicine: A Clinicians Journal, Vol. 18 No. 3: 76–77
- Orthomolecular Psychiatry: Varying the Concentrations of Substances Normally Present in the Human Body May Control Mental Disease
Pauling, L. (1968) Science, Vol. 160, No. 3825
- The Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame was established in 2004 to honour the pioneers and leaders in Orthomolecular Medicine.
- Subscribe to the free Orthomolecular.org newsletter
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Medical School Teaches Doctors How to Cook
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New Orleans: Tulane University School of Medicine
The first dedicated teaching kitchen to be implemented at a medical school.
"We know from the literature that when people go home and start cooking from real ingredients for themselves that their health improves. We also know that they don't really know how to do that."
...
Q: What are the major takeaways of your program?
A: One major takeaway from the program is that we teach everybody from medical students and residents, to nursing students and community members. We do this by taking evidenced-based nutrition and Mediterranean diet principles and translating them for the American kitchen. In doing so, we’re helping health professionals translate this knowledge into the conversations they are going to have in the exam room about food. Ultimately, we’re changing the dialogue between a physician and a patient from “Hey, you need to lose some weight” to action oriented suggestions that meet best practices.
...
Q: What’s your hope for the legacy of the program?
A: My hope for the future is that every single medical and nursing school in America has a teaching kitchen exactly like ours.
The Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine is a winner of the 2017 Innovation Award for Health Care Provider Training and Education.
To learn more, visit innovatinghealthcare.org
– Dr. Timothy Harlan, executive director at the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine at Tulane University:
Read a 2017 interview with Dr. Harlan HERE
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Worldwide health impacts
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2015
Nutrition Education in an Era of Global Obesity and Diabetes
- Thinking Outside the Box
Eisenberg, David M. MD; Burgess, Jonathan D
Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, July 2015, Volume 90, Issue 7, p 854-860
Excerpt:
- In 1960, Americans spent three times as much on food
($74 billion) as they did on health care ($27 billion).
- In 2012, Americans spent twice as much on health care
($2.9 trillion) as they did on food ($1.38 trillion).
Over the past five decades, food costs have increased 18-fold; health care costs, 102-fold.
Our Current Situation
Although genetics are an important consideration in health, during the past half-century our genes have not measurably altered, and yet we are significantly more overweight, obese, and prone to lifestyle-related diseases. Today, one-third of the U.S. population is obese. Two-thirds are overweight.
The medical costs of obesity in the United States are estimated to be as high as 20.6% of total health care costs.3
Additionally, three-quarters of health care dollars are spent on chronic lifestyle-related diseases.4
Diabetes alone is estimated to cost the United States $245 billion per year.5
In 1960, U.S. diabetes rates were 1% of the population, with the majority of cases diagnosed as type 1 diabetes.6
Today 9.3% of U.S. citizens are diabetic, with the overwhelming majority suffering from type 2 diabetes.
As the editors of the Lancet remarked:
“The fact that Type 2 diabetes, a largely preventable disorder, has reached epidemic proportions is a public health humiliation. A strong, integrative, and imaginative response is required in which the limits of drug treatment and the opportunities of Civil Society are recognized.”
These societal trends are even more alarming among children. Childhood obesity has trebled since 1970.9,10
One-third of children born after 2000 are expected to develop type 2 diabetes during their lifetime.11
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine about generational epidemiological trends, Olshansky et al12 noted, “There is now evidence that America’s children will be the first in the nation’s history to live shorter lives than their parents.”
These disease trends are spreading worldwide." >>>more
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There's an APP for better food choices
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See Food For Thought for more details
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Chemical Maze was first published in 2001,
by Australian homeopathic researcher Bill Statham, to make it simpler
and easier to recognise additives and ingredients in foods.
Take preservatives, for example, from E200 on, there are over 50 preservatives in use, and only ONE is considered non-toxic in food:
E242 = Dimethyl dicarbonate!
The APP is easy to use!
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Relaxation reduces stress
- Move, stretch, dance, run, jump -
-
- Eat more fresh organic fruit and vegetables.
- - Sleep helps us heal and grow - and LEARN!
'Learning' is processed into memory at the same stage of sleep as healing and growth. Sleep supports the immune system by distributing immune cells to the lymph nodes, where they prevent infections.
- Go out into fresh air - sunlight energises infection-fighting T-cells which play a key role in immunity.
- Anticipating a happy or fun event increases endorphins and other hormone levels that support a state of relaxation.
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We've come a long way with "orthodox" medicine!
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"All on doctor's orders."
"a walk in nature-the first program of its kind in the U.K."
"The health benefits of engaging with nature are numerous"
Medical professionals are 'discovering' natural remedies and coming up with marketing strategies that make 'magical' claims for their products:
For example:
"How long does it take to get a dose of nature high enough to make people say they feel healthy and have a strong sense of well-being? Precisely 120 minutes."
- Jim Robbins, Ecopsychology: How Immersion in Nature Benefits Your Health, January 9, 2020, Yale Environment360
A growing body of research points to the beneficial effects that exposure to the natural world has on health, reducing stress and promoting healing. Now, policymakers, employers, and healthcare providers are increasingly considering the human need for nature in how they plan and operate.
- Doctors' new prescription: 'Don't just exercise, do it outside
Sandy Buyers, Feb. 2015, The Guardian
In the latest battle against obesity, doctors tell patients to specifically exercise outdoors. Will the green-prescriptions movement take off, or is it just a gimmick?
- Hidden hunger: America’s growing malnutrition epidemic
Barbara Bush and Hugh Welsh, Feb, 2015, The Guardian
- Scottish GPs to begin prescribing rambling and birdwatching
Severin Carrell, Oct 2018, The Guardian
Doctors in Scotland can now prescribe nature
Evan Fleischer, Oct 2018, World Economic Forum,
"the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation."
Excerpt:
Since October 5,
doctors in Shetland, Scotland have been authorized to prescribe nature to their patients. It's thought to be the first program of its kind in the U.K., and seeks to reduce blood pressure, anxiety, and increase happiness for those with diabetes, a mental illness, stress, heart disease, and more.
There is a whole leaflet of nature prescription suggestions that accompanies the program, filled with amusing, charming, sometimes seemingly off-kilter suggestions:
in February, you can make a windsock from a hoop and material to "appreciate the speed of the wind";
in March, you can make beach art from natural materials or "borrow a dog and take it for a walk";
in April, you can "touch the sea" and "make a bug hotel";
in May, you can "bury your face in the grass";
in July, you can "pick two different kinds of grass and really look at them";
in August, you can summon a worm out of the ground without digging or using water;
in September, you can help clean the beach and prepare a meal outdoors;;
in October, you can "appreciate a cloud";
in November, you can "talk to a pony";
in December, you can "feed the birds in your garden";
and do so much more.
All on doctor's orders.
The evidence for the benefits of nature on mental and physical health are numerous. If you spend 90 minutes of your day outside in a wooded area, there will be a decrease of activity in the part of your brain typically associated with depression. Spending time in nature not only reduces blood pressure, anxiety, and increases happiness, but it reduces aggression, ADHD symptoms, improves pain control, the immune system, and—per a summary of research regarding the health benefits of nature—there's much more we don't know and are figuring out every day.
Have you read?
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Part 4
Sustainable Agriculture
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"The art of agroecosystem design and management."
(More details HERE)
What's ahead for Sustainable Agriculture?
The future of sustainable agriculture has never looked more promising or more challenging. On the one hand, the number of acres in organic and Bio-Dynamic production continues to rise, and sales of organic foods are growing at 20 to 25 percent a year.
See detailed overviews shared HERE
Definition of the term “Sustainable Agriculture”
Ecological Agriculture Projects (EAP), McGill University (Macdonald Campus) Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, CANADA
Excerpt:
Widespread agreement on a definition of sustainable agriculture is proving to be elusive. EAP believes that the following definition is appropriate. It aims to be comprehensive, positive and descriptive.
Sustainable agriculture is both a philosophy and a system of farming. It has its roots in a set of values that reflects an awareness of both ecological and social realities. It involves design and management procedures that work with natural processes to conserve all resources and minimize waste and environmental damage, while maintaining or improving farm profitability. Working with natural soil processes is of particular importance. Sustainable agriculture systems are designed to take maximum advantage of existing soil nutrient and water cycles, energy flows, beneficial soil organisms, and natural pest controls. By capitalizing on existing cycles and flows, environmental damage can be avoided or minimized. Such systems also aim to produce food that is nutritious, and uncontaminated with products that might harm human health.
In practice such systems have tended to reduce or avoid the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, and livestock feed additives. These substances are usually rejected on the basis of their dependence on non-renewable resources, potential for environmental disruption, and possible adverse impacts on soil organisms, wildlife, livestock and human health. Sustainable agriculture systems rely more on crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, legumes, green manures, off-farm organic wastes, appropriate mechanical cultivation or minimal tillage to optimize soil biological and natural pest control activity, and thereby maintain soil fertility and crop productivity. In addition, resistant varieties, and biological, biorational, and cultural controls are used to manage pests, weeds and diseases. Preventative health care strategies, such as dietary changes, increased exercise, and housing changes are employed to maintain animal health.
The potential of this approach, however, goes far beyond its present expression, which has largely been limited to the substitution of environmentally benign products and practices. More significant advances can be expected as a result of developments in the science and art of agroecosystem design and management. >>>more |
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Worldwide Permaculture Projects
1. MAP of growing list of permaculture projects worldwide
2. Featured Profiles: an interactive database of permaculture practitioners, teachers, consultants and aid workers from all over the world.
In 1978, Australia's legendary Permaculture teacher, promoter and designer, Bill Mollison founded The Permaculture Institute, the first and longest running Permaculture Institute in existence. Over 26 years of non-stop travelling, designing, teaching and writing, he personally planted the seeds of Permaculture in over 120 countries.
What Permaculture can teach us about The Commons
by David Bollier, Feb. 7, 2017
Excerpt:
As a developed set of social practices, techniques and ethical norms, permaculture has a lot to say to the world of the commons. This is immediately clear from reading the twelve design principles of permaculture that David Holmgren enumerated in his 2002 book Permaculture: Principles and Practices Beyond Sustainability.
It mentions such principles as “catch and store energy,”
“apply self-regulation and accept feedback,” “produce no waste,”
and “design from patterns to details. . .
My friendship and work with ecological design expert Dave Jacke have only intensified my conviction that permaculturists and commoners need to connect more and learn from each other." >>> more
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Bio-Dynamic Agriculture
(More details HERE)
"Leaves are the sole organs on Earth able to create new material substance; in contrast everything else on Earth is a recycling of materials."
–Australian Bio-Dynamic pioneer, Alex Podolinsky 2007
Bio-Dynamic agriculture was the first ecological farming system to arise in response to commercial fertilizers and specialized agriculture.
In 1924, Austrian scientist and philosopher Dr Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) originated the Bio-Dynamic farming method in collaboration with German soil scientist Ehrenfried Pfeiffer (1899-1961), whom Rudolf Steiner selected as Threefold Foundation ambassador of biodynamics to the USA: The Demeter Standard was registered in 1928.
Living Knowledge(pdf)
2007 Lecture by Australia's Bio-Dynamic agriculture pioneer,
Alex Podolinsky (1925-2019)
Excerpt:
Medicine today has no concept of Health comparable to BioDynamics as "Builder of Health and not Healer of Sickness" Leaves are the sole organs on Earth able to create new material substance; in contrast, everything else on Earth is a recycling of materials. . .
P. 18 . . . By these examples we show explicitly the value of holistic viewing and understanding, providing for healthy Bio-Dynamic agriculture contra a materialistic model and data “science”, which destroys soils, water, ecology and has to keep “plants” “alive” with chemicals. ..."
Alex Podolinsky described this process:
"Plants are fed naturally, that is, in soils with enhanced biological activity, determined by the humus level, crumb and root structure, so that plants are fed through the soil Eco-system and not primarily via soluble salts in the soil water, derived from artificial fertiliser and raw animal manure.
Plants grown in this way are, therefore, under the influence of the sun, warmth and light, and may selectively acquire the nutrients they need for appropriate growth. Instead of synthetic fertilisers we use a soil activator called '500', a natural cow manure based, re-liquefied solution that is energised by having been stirred in body temperature water and sprayed over the pasture.
This is used as a soil enhancer and activator rather than a manure or fertilizer, so to say, required to accommodate what is available through nature into the correct shape,"
- Alex Podolinsky, 1985, Bio-Dynamic Agriculture Introductory Lectures, Vol 1, p. 148 |
Part 5
International
Healing Methods Refined Over Thousands of Years.
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Hippocrates of Kos, the father of clinical medicine,
and Asclepiades of Bithynia, the father of molecular medicine.
Reviewed by Christos Yapijakis, 2009, NIH/PubMed
Abstract
Hippocrates of Kos (460-377 BCE) is universally recognized as the father of modern medicine, which is based on observation of clinical signs and rational conclusions, and does not rely on religious or magical beliefs. Hippocratic medicine was influenced by the Pythagorean theory that Nature was made of four elements (water, earth, wind and fire), and therefore, in an analogous way, the body consisted of four fluids or 'humors' (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood). The physician had to reinstate the healthy balance of these humors by facilitating the healing work of 'benevolent Nature'. The Hippocratic Oath contains the Pythagorean duties of justice, secrecy, respect for teachers and solidarity with peers. The clinical and ethical basics of medical practice as well as most clinical terms used even today have their origins in Hippocrates. His contribution in clinical medicine is immense.
Asclepiades of Bithynia (124-40 BCE) was the first physician who established Greek medicine in Rome. Influenced by the Epicurean philosophy, he adhered to atomic theory, chance and evolution, and did not accept the theory of a 'benevolent Nature'. He suggested that the human body is composed of molecules and void spaces, and that diseases are caused by alteration of form or position of a patient's molecules. Asclepiades favored naturalistic therapeutic methods such as a healthy diet, massage and physical exercise. Above all, he introduced the friendly, sympathetic, pleasing and painless treatment of patients into medical practice, influenced by the teachings of Epicurus on pleasure and friendship. He was the first who made the highly important division of diseases into acute and chronic ones and to perform an elective non-emergency tracheotomy. As the founder of the Methodic School, Asclepiades was the first known physician who spoke about what is known today as molecular medicine.
- Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM)
- Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM)
- Traditional Systems of Medicine (TSM)
Europe
Now being restored, European healing traditions were 'lost' during the 13th to 18th century so-called "witch hunt/burnings"
See detailed references under Part 1, Economic History:
Excerpt:
Methods introduced by the expansion of the role of the RCC’s Inquisition (circa 1231) for the suppression of heresy, extended RCC scope to classify traditional and non-Christian beliefs, including traditional healing arts, as heresy and witchcraft.
Since women on the Western rim of Europe traditionally held rights to land ownership, an accusation of heresy or witchcraft allowed immediate confiscation of their property, before trial, and without rights to counsel. Countless numbers of men and women were burned at the stake over a period of five long centuries, ending in the 18th century. This time span includes an initial 250 years of concentrated "witch hunts" and land confiscation, and suppression of the lifestyle, laws, and medical practices of traditional Western European cultures. >>> more
Switzerland
Alternative medicine no longer an ‘outsider’ in Switzerland’s health system
By Anand Chandrasekhar, April 27, 2020
Once on the margins of the healthcare system, growing public demand for complementary medicine has led to increased regulation in a bid to eliminate bad apples and improve patient safety. It’s the result of much trial and error.
Homeopathy Officially Recognised by Swiss Government as Legitimate Medicine to coexist with Conventional Medicine
Excerpt:
In May 2017, health insurance plans in Switzerland will be covering a variety of healing modalities, including homeopathy, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, herbal medicine and holistic medicine.
In this way, Switzerland will be bringing back the many healing arts that were used successfully in the past. . .
A shift away from the disease management, synthetic drug system
This shift toward integration will allow the Swiss healthcare system to heal, as it moves away from profiting off disease management. With the inclusion of these five eclectic healing modalities, Swiss healthcare will become more affordable. By legitimizing these true healing modalities, healthcare can compete to heal, empowering people instead of leaving them in an expensive cycle of side effects and negative outcomes. . .
Now the interior ministry has determined what many holistic practitioners already understand about the healing arts." >>>more
Ireland
The Irish School of Herbal Medicine, founded in 2000 in Portlaoise, County Laois, Ireland, ". . . focuses on the use of organic, plant based and living food programmes, herbal medicines, and environmental and lifestyle awareness. . . to facilitate the rebirth of western herbalism as it was practiced in a time when people lived more in harmony with the natural environment." >>> more
"Untilled Fields of Irish History"
On 29 August 1998, Peter Beresford Ellis presented a lecture to the annual Desmond Greaves Summer School, Dublin, on the history of Irish medical literature, "Untilled Fields of Irish History" which was published in the September 1999 edition of the legendary Irish journal An Phoblacht.
Excerpt:
Before the turn of the 19th Century, the Irish language contained the world's most extensive collection of medical literature in any one language. Just think about that fact. The great medieval Irish medical books are scattered in many repositories. These books survive from the 13th and 16th Centuries.
One would have thought that within the modern vogue for alternative medicine, these books would be examined by scholars and students producing their countless works on the ancient medicines of the world and medical histories. They are not.
There are many Irish medical works that are not even catalogued.
From the time of Charlemagne, Irish medical men have spread through Europe. Niall O Clacán (c. 1501-1655) trained in medicine in the old Gaelic tradition and became not only physician to Louis XIII of France but Professor of Medicine at Toulouse and Bologna, writing some of the leading medical works of his day, such as Cursus Medicus. The University of Bologna, where he taught, holds several Irish manuscripts and even printed books from his personal library.
... Until we can rescue all of the material that has been neglected in these European repositories, covering over 1,000 years of Irish history, we will only have glimpses of Irish historical reality and never a total picture. >>> more
China
“The history of traditional Chinese medicine begins in the neolithic period (10,000-4,000 years ago).” - Cavalieri, et al, 1997
On the extraordinary benefits of unity across China:
China had enjoyed stable prosperity across multiple Golden Ages.
"Taoism had influence on literature and the arts, but the biggest area of Taoist influence was in science. The Taoist focus on natural elements and observing how the natural world works helped to create Chinese medicine. Similar to the modern scientific method, Taoists observed how different medicines affected people and animals through experimentation. Their collective knowledge gained through trying to improve human longevity made a huge contribution to health sciences."
- Chinese Religions and Philosophies, National Geographic
Chinese philosophy and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
Based on clinical diagnostics, herbal medicine and acupuncture progressed, “The key to a long healthy life is to follow the Tao, the natural way of the universe” (Curren, 2008). The Chinese way of looking at the body, and the world, is focused on processes. The earliest surviving work on Chinese medicine, “Huangdi Neijing” created between the Warring States period and the Qin-Han period, shows that acupuncture was widely used as a therapy from ancient times.
Various kinds of acupuncture needles were discovered in the tomb of Prince Liu Sheng who died around 200BCE:
"The Chinese word, or character, for medicine actually comes from the character for music." - Gao Yuan, composer, conductor, and pianist.
Gao Yuan is steeped in both the Chinese classical and Western classical music traditions.
2019:
Interview with Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Composer
Gao Yuan.
Shen Yun Performing Arts in New York
Excerpts:
....
Q: There is an old belief, now being revisited, that music has the power to heal. Where does this idea come from, and how does it apply to traditional Chinese music?
GY: Our ancestors believed that music had the power to harmonize a person’s soul in ways that medicine could not. In ancient China, one of music’s earliest purposes was for healing. The Chinese word, or character, for medicine actually comes from the character for music.
During the time of the Great Yellow Emperor (2698–2598 B.C.E.), people discovered the relationship between the pentatonic scale, the five elements, and the human body's five internal and five sensory organs. During Confucius's time, scholars used music’s calming properties to improve and strengthen people’s character and conduct.
Today, scientific research has also validated music’s therapeutic ability to lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety, enhance concentration, stabilize heart rate, and more. ... >>>more
Selected References
(1)
What is Chinese Medicine?
American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ACTCM)
Chinese medicine is a rich medical system that has existed in some form for more than 3000 years. ...
Ill health is understood as stagnation, deficiency, or the improper movement of qì or xuè, and may result in an imbalance of yin and yáng. >>> ACTCM
(2)
The Five Elements:
What Science Has to Say About This Chinese Medicine Theory
- Beth Ann Mayer, Oct. 2021, Healthline
"...is this theory supported by science? Can the scientific approach and five element theory live side by side?
Here’s what experts and scientists say about the five elements, plus what they can and can’t teach you about your health.
What is the five element theory?
Five element theory, also referred to as Wu Xing or the five phases, has been a part of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for centuries.
According to a 2008 report (Trusted Source), an early mention can be found in the ancient text Huangdi Neijing, which likely dates back to 300 B.C. Even so, this theory still has many believers today.
“The five elements are used in pretty much every different style of TCM to some extent [to] diagnose and differentiate between different illnesses, dysfunctions, and people,” says Tiffany Cruikshank, licensed acupuncturist, registered yoga teacher and founder of Yoga Medicine.
The five elements are each associated with an aspect of nature, a connection that runs deep. >>>more
(3)
My Kidneys Are What?
- ChadD, 2009
"ChadD" is an American-based acupuncturist with schooling from the New England School of Acupuncture at MCPHS.
"... the kidney system in Chinese medicine goes far beyond the role of the physical kidneys as defined by western medicine. The kidney system provides the root of our overall energy and has a large influence over our development. This begins while we are still in the womb and continues to influence how well we age throughout our life." >>> more
(4)
A brief history of acupuncture
– A. White, E. Ernst, 2004
"… During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion was published, which forms the basis of modern acupuncture. In it are clear descriptions of the full set of 365 points that represent openings to the channels through which needles could be inserted to modify the flow of Qi energy [7]. It should be noted that knowledge of health and disease in China developed purely from observation of living subjects because dissection was forbidden and the subject of anatomy did not exist." >>> more
(5)
"A History of The China Study" - 1980 - 2005, Cornell University
"Revealing the Relationship Between Diet and Disease"
"the China Study uncovered information on the links between what we eat and how we die."
The China Study SUMMARY (pdf)
Parliament of NSW, Australia
What is the China Study?
The project, begun in 1983, is a collaborative effort between Cornell University, the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and Oxford University, England, as well as scientists from the United States, China, Britain, France, and other countries...
(6)
The China Project: A History of the China Study
(includes courses, reports and chapters)
Excerpt: In the early 1980’s, nutritional biochemist T. Colin Campbell, PhD of Cornell University, in partnership with researchers at Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, embarked upon one of the most comprehensive nutritional studies ever undertaken known as the China Project. China at that time presented researchers with a unique opportunity. The Chinese population tended to live in the same area all their lives and to consume the same diets unique to each region. Their diets (low in fat and high in dietary fiber and plant material) also were in stark contrast to the rich diets of the Western countries. The truly plant-based nature of the rural Chinese diet gave researchers a chance to compare plant-based diets with animal-based diets...
India
One of the earliest of the Traditional Systems of Medicine, originating in India around 3,000 years ago, Ayurveda medicine evolved with the ancient schools of Hindu Philosophical teachings known as Nyaya-Vaisheshika School of logic:
Nyaya (literally “rule or method of reasoning”).
"In ancient India, the schools of Nyaya and Vaisheshika focused on logic and atomic approach to matter. In this paper, the idea of atomicity and other physical ideas given in Vaisheshika are reviewed in light of the central role the observer plays in Indian thought" – R. H. Narayan (2007), Nyaya-Vaisheshika: The Indian Tradition of Physics (pdf)
Selected References
(1)
Key concepts of India's ancient Ayurvedic medicine include universal interconnectedness (among people, their health, and the universe), the body’s constitution, and life forces, which are often compared to the biologic humors of the ancient Greek system. >>> more
“With the enormous knowledge of nature based medicine, the relationship of human body constitution and function to nature and the elements of the universe that act in coordination and affect the living beings…” >>> NCBI
(2)
Principals of Traditional System of Medication (TSM)
By Dr K Sudheer Kumar, Dec 19, 2015
Showcasing 21 Points of discussion
Summary
India is known for its traditional medicinal systems—Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani. Medical systems are found mentioned even in the ancient Vedas and other scriptures. The Ayurvedic concept appeared and developed between 2500 and 500 BC in India Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous or folk medicine) comprises knowledge systems that developed over generations within various societies before the era of modern medicine. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medicine as "the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness.Alternative medicines are being used by about 60 percent of the world's population. These medicines are not only used by the rural masses for their primary health care in developing countries but are also used in developed countries where modern medicines dominate. India is the largest producer of medicinal plants. There are currently about 250,000 registered medical practitioners of the Ayurvedic system, as compared to about 700,000 of the modern medicine. In India, around 20,000 medicinal plants have been recorded; however, traditional practitioners use only 7,000–7,500 plants for curing different diseases. The proportion of use of plants in the different Indian systems of medicine is Ayurveda 2000, Siddha 1300, Unani 1000, Homeopathy 800, Tibetan 500, Modern 200, and folk 4500. In India, around 25,000 effective plant-based formulations are used in traditional and folk medicine. More than 1.5 million practitioners are using the traditional medicinal system for health care in India.
(3)
From the archives:
A legendary 1903 tome from the Yoga masters
Now in the Public Domain.
The Hindu-Yogi SCIENCE OF BREATH
by Yogi Ramacharaka
(Download pdf)
Excerpt:
"We may be pardoned if we express ourselves as pleased with our success in condensing so much Yogi lore into so few pages and by use of words and terms which may be understood by anyone. Our only fear is that its very simplicity may cause some to pass it by as unworthy of attention, while they pass on their way searching for something "deep", mysterious and non-understandable. However, the Western mind is eminently practical and we know that it is only a question of a short time before it will recognize the practicality of this work."
Egypt
Record have been found dating from 3000BC:
"With the turn of the century, new archaeological discoveries...
saw the academic study of Egyptian disease segregated into three distinct categories." >>> more here and here
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