In addition, she undertook the first scientific water quality study in the United States and is known as the founder of Ecology. I’m truly not surprised but am gratified to learn that the first person who found the importance of ecosystems, ecology, and something so vital as water quality of our planet (aka Mother Earth) was a woman!

So how did it take so long for me to learn about Ellen Swallow Richards? After all, who hasn’t heard of Thomas Edison, Robert Fulton, or Luther Burbank? The names of these and other great men of science roll readily off the tongue, drummed into us during our formative years not only in school, but also by way of movies, books, and pop culture. But where were the women? Apparently they were there, just largely unacknowledged.

While still in school, few female names in the scientific realm were familiar to me. One was Clara Barton, probably because I wanted to be a nurse. She was not only known as the Angel of the Battlefield during the Civil War, but also founded the Red Cross. The other was Marie Curie … she discovered a new element, Radium, and formulated the theory of radioactivity, among other important scientific discoveries. She also was the first person to be granted two Nobel Prizes, one in Physics and one in Chemistry. Her husband, Pierre, was a co-laureate, being awarded the Prize for Physics. Under her direction, the world’s first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms (cancers) using radioactive isotopes! Here it was, barely into the 20th Century, and she was already connecting the dots.

But here’s the thing: it’s likely the real reason I was familiar with the story of the Curies was not because she or they figured prominently in my school texts but because of the 1943 movie about them, starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. A very popular movie, it won a ton of Academy Award nominations. I remember watching it on tv with my mother … Greer Garson was her favorite movie actress of the era. I also remember a lot of Kleenex along with our popcorn, especially the part where Pierre was tragically killed by a runaway carriage. The thing is, it was more a part of pop culture than of my education.

So why weren’t these women and others a bigger deal in my school textbooks of the 1950s? I have no answer … it would be easy to lay it off to an especially male-centric view of anything relative to the fields of science or math in those days. Texts in those days were definitely skewed and any references to women or their accomplishments were sadly lacking.

But that would be a lazy choice today, given the growth of interest in Womens Studies at most colleges, and higher visibility of women in formerly male-dominated professions. We’re not there yet, however … legislation is still being passed in the areas of pay equity, for example. And given that, I think we women need to keep touting our own … those past and contemporary heroines who made their unappreciated mark on our lives. We have to take the responsibility for making sure our young women know about them and their amazing accomplishments.

So here’s to you, Ellen and Marie … may you continue to inspire countless women to stand on your shoulders in pursuit of both traditional and non-traditional careers. As for my part, I might just go find some more women to write about this month!

Yours in health (and other pursuits)

While we might laugh at such notions today, the fact is, many “old time” remedies should share a place alongside more conventional treatments in our home medicine cabinet. For example, soaking with ordinary vinegar over a few days time will indeed remove a wart, if you don’t mind smelling like a salad.

Grandma didn’t know exactly how or why, she only knew that they worked. Many time-tested, common cures and traditional or folk-lore treatments are now being seriously investigated under laboratory conditions, with some interesting results.

One of the most useful items that might be found in our kitchen cupboard is the humble honey jar. We might expect honey to be helpful for soothing a sore throat when added to hot herbal tea or lemon juice, but consider its other medicinal uses:

For example, ingesting honey and the pollen from local hives will also assist your body’s immune system, helping you to build antibodies against allergies.

Due to its wound-healing properties, it was used extensively during the Civil War; doctors in both field hospitals and on the battlefield used honey for an immediate dressing and for post-surgical treatments. As well as needing no refrigeration, honey also had the field advantage of being readily available (a “honey tree” could usually be located by scouting the surrounding countryside), and it could be put into jars or oilcloth packets and easily transported.

The notion of “germs” and other medical knowledge was still rather vague in those days … they only knew honey was useful stuff. They couldn’t have known of its natural anti-bacterial, antibiotic, and anti-inflammatory properties, or that it contains helpful enzymes in so-called “bee spit”: that magical concoction produced by the bees and exchanged in a sort of bee version of a French kiss, in order to convert nectar into honey.

But it’s important to note that these helpful enzymes and anti-bacterial elements are only found in raw, unheated honey … heat and over-processing destroys them. Visit your local beekeeper to get the best and most gently-handled honey.

According to a blurb in the Health section of the New York Times*, scientists have also found that honey may be a quick and easy treatment to soothe and promote healing of minor burns. One study found that small, non-serious burns healed faster when treated with gauze and a dash of honey, on average, than those treated with antibiotic creams and other dressings. A separate report published earlier found similar results. The reason? Air circulation is needed to assist skin tissue in healing … and honey “breathes”.

So take the honey jar along on your next camping trip … you might find it comes in handy.

Yours in health …

* “Honey Can Soothe a Burn” by Anahad O’Connor; NYTimes, Feb 19, 2008

One of the ways to get vitamin D is through our skin via sunshine … about 15 minutes daily … but given the winters up here I can either 1) scurry to the deserts of California or Arizona for three months, or 2) get it through food sources and nutritional supplements..

Despite expensive advertising campaigns, the amount of vitamin D in breakfast cereals is minimal at best … don’t rely on them as a source unless you want to eat the equivalent of a box of cereal a day. Salmon is king up here in the Pacific Northwest, but I must confess I don’t care for salmon (or mackerel, or sardines), so I get my vitamin D from high-quality Omega-3 fish oil capsules or other supplements containing vitamin D.

For my money, supplements are a good and consistent source … vitamin D can be found in prenatal vitamins, multivitamins, and some calcium-combined supplements. Be sure to choose a high quality supplement for best absorption, and select those that contain vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). It has been shown that vitamin D2 is 25 percent less effective than D3.

Growing research has raised strong doubts about currently recommended levels. Based on a number of studies, levels once considered adequate to prevent bone problems such as rickets in children are not enough to counter the list of serious ailments now linked to low D levels in adults. Inadequate vitamin D has even been linked to heart disease and cancer. A team of nutrition experts noted in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that doubling the intake of vitamin D from the government-recommended dose (400 I.U.) to 800 I.U. greatly reduced fracture risk, even without the addition of calcium. These findings seem especially important with regards to post-menopausal women concerned about osteoporosis.

We’re not talking only about women and children … men need it, too. And for those who aspire to be a jock, take your vitamin D and you’ll not only have better bone density but create more muscle mass. Other studies have shown it to be a factor in reducing the incidences of MS and diabetes. In addition to the benefits of bone protection for humans, vitamin D has also been demonstrated to strikingly reduce tumor growth in animals.

So to all you who live in sunny climes, get out there in the warm sunshine and soak up your vitamin D. I’ll just continue taking my supplements and dream of California.

Yours in health …

For many of us, basic medical care today means either a public clinic or one provided by our HMO. Unfortunately, that “care” is often one-size-fits-all and limited to 15-minute sound bytes, not enough time to ask specific questions or make difficult decisions. And what if we’re elderly, or even know what questions to ask? Or perhaps what’s needed is a second opinion in order to make the most informed decisions. Whatever our situation, we hope we will be “heard”. If a doctor is alienated during that process, perhaps it is time to change providers … but what if we can’t? And even more common these days, what if we have no provider at all?

To blindly place our trust solely within the realm of conventional medicine is often a poor choice … we all know of unfortunate results from not exploring alternative options. But neither should we trust only in alternative methods … delaying proven treatments have also earned serious consequences. It’s clear there is room for both conventional and alternative treatments within our current (and future) health care system.

While conventional medicine certainly has its place (when I needed surgery a couple of years ago, I was very thankful for a competent surgeon), most doctors openly admit to treating disease or illness symptomatically rather than holistically. It’s not their fault … it’s how they are trained by the medical schools. They treat the effects, not the cause.

“What’s wrong with that?” you ask. Well, nothing on the face of it … an illness can usually be identified by symptoms. The doctor will hand you a prescription for a best-guess medication and tell you to come back in two weeks if you don’t improve. And if that drug doesn’t work, they’ll prescribe another. So they are basically telling you to get sicker before they can help you! Am I the only one who sees the flaws in this approach?

Diagnosing certainly has its place, but if you’re invested solely in treating symptoms, then you aren’t really looking for a cause and/or prevention. The healthcare system (at least here in the U.S.) may give lip service to prevention of illness and disease, but in reality they’re just following a set of protocols. You’re supposed to trust them to eventually figure it out, and if they can’t figure it out, they may deny you have an issue and say it’s all in your head. In the meantime, you are only the patient. As a result, while they plod through their checklists with you as their guinea pig, you may get worse before you get better. This is how folks end up taking a whole sack full of prescription drugs.

Take, for example, high blood pressure. Wouldn’t it make better sense as a first choice to look at the possible causes as to why a particular individual has developed high blood pressure in the first place? These things seldom happen overnight and are not going to be fixed overnight.

Once the cause(s) are understood, rather than a knee-jerk grab for the prescription pad, it seems the first and best choice should be to explore avenues like changing diet and lifestyle. Along with that, add some supplements for a more natural way to keep arteries strong and healthy. According to the latest research, there is increasing empirical evidence for supplements such as Omega-3 providing major benefits for heart health.

My feeling is the worst choice would be to jump directly to drugs, some of which have pretty nasty side effects. If other protocols don’t provide complete relief, then at the very least it might mean that if you do have to resort to prescription drugs, you might require a lower dose.

I believe, as the old saying goes, that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, so it’s important to provide ways to help our body take care of itself. Given the chance, it has a remarkable capacity for healing and regeneration, and that doesn’t always come in the form of a prescription drug with a myriad of negative side effects (and a high price tag).

But then the medical establishment (and the drug companies) couldn’t keep pushing more and more drugs, could they? And isn’t that the real name of the game?

Yours in health …

So from time to time be sure to check back to find practical, inexpensive (and eco-friendly) do-it-yourself solutions and recipes for seasonal health woes, skincare issues, cleaning products, and organic gardening.

For example, here’s a link to an easy recipe from WikiHow for a simple make-your-own bath salts.

One caveat: No matter how pretty those chunky bath salts might be in the jar, they do not dissolve readily in the bath water and will feel like little shards of broken glass when you step on them. Ask me how I know. Whether making your own or buying them handcrafted, always look for the ones made with fine-grained salts.

Yours in health …

We are beginning to see articles in magazines, on newsstands, and through mainstream media about everything from the health benefits of honey to recent studies touting the potential of rice bran as a treatment for diabetes.

The basis of many modern medicines are often rooted, so to speak, in common plants or their components, and are now beginning to be at long last recognized and studied. This is certainly gratifying, but altruistic aspects aside, there is also money to be made as a result. Big money.

According to an article in the New York Times, a study by the European Commission showed that products derived from plant substances generate more than $75 billion in sales each year for the pharmaceutical industry, $20 billion in herbal supplement sales, and around $3 billion in cosmetics sales. The article states, “Although the efficacy of some of the herbal ingredients is hotly debated, their popularity is not in doubt,” and it is estimated that thirty-six percent of adults in the United States use some form of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM).

Indigenous “medicines” are showing great potential in eventually leading to cures for our most devastating diseases … what company wouldn’t like be the one to find a cure for cancer or any of the other Holy Grails of the world of medicine in a commonly found plant? This is exciting and heady stuff, but at what eventual cost? Big Business and Big Pharm are joining hands and beating a path to remote areas as diverse as the Amazon rain forests and the Andes in Peru, creating a new economy for the locals but sometimes leaving a trail of ecological devastation in their wake. It’s telling that the aforementioned article was found not in the Travel or even in the Health sections, but in the Business section of the New York Times.*

Whether the indigenous peoples (and their fragile environments) will benefit or be on the losing end, both are often victims of the so-called “bio-pirates”, those who steal traditional knowledge and then don’t give back to the local community. Meantime, the drug companies are investing large sums in the hope of lucrative profits.

* “On a Remote Path to Cures”; New York Times; Jan.1, 2008

I believe we are still the primary caretakers of our own health, making the daily decisions and choices, and should never relinquish that responsibility. We live in the “Information Age”, do we not? And information is very empowering.

So my goal is to provide content about health and wellness issues and more natural approaches to health by providing resources, articles, and links to relevant websites for health-related information. My hope is that you can then use those tools to help you make better informed choices regards your own and your family’s health care.

The primary focus will be on women and children’s health issues and concerns, but also on health promotion and illness prevention in general, using safe and proven methods or products. While open to alternative ideas and more natural solutions, I’m also a true believer in authentic research as opposed to “junk science,” and not interested in promoting the latest fads or dubious (and potentially dangerous) “cures” or treatments. Anyone selling machines that hook up wires to your head, promising everything from communication with residents of Alpha Centauri to rearranging your molecules need not apply here.

So in these posts you will find content on traditional medicine and practices, complementary and alternative medicine, holistic approaches to common ailments, more natural alternatives to that prescription drug, and links to and articles about the latest research on a variety of topics from Asthma to Xylitol.

You may also find topics such as functional and organic foods, herbs and their uses, organic gardening, healthy recipes, and “green” living, for all these threads are in synergy and connected to a larger whole. In the end, we are all fruits of one tree.

It’s in our own best interest to learn about and pay attention to our bodies, to look for avenues that will open other doors leading to better self-care, and explore solutions that will complement conventional medicine. We are on this journey together, and I value your input.

Yours in health …