Welcome to the first entry for Green Medicine, the Blog for me, Stephanie Georgieff, and my musings on what I call, Green Medicine. Green Medicine is the practice of healing which recognizes the relationship of human health with the broader natural environment. As the motto of my website states, “Healing in Harmony with the Earth.” As a budding Naturopath in Naturopathic School, the deepest impressions I had in those early days was of the miracle of the human body, and the gracious provision by nature of many elements for the sustenance and healing of people. In my beginning botanical medicine classes, we were taught that there were numerous substances within plants that were there, mainly to facilitate healing in humans and animals, and had very little to do with the life cycle of the plants in which they existed.

Through this study of Botanical Medicine, we were also taught about the importance of Agriculture that does not employ harmful chemicals. Substances such as Pesticides and Artificial Fertilizers seemed to rob the plant world of nutrients, and cause the medicinal properties to either become toxic or absent. These substances also have had degrading and harmful effects to wild life, the soil and the humans who grow and harvest plants.

As a life long peace, environmental and social justice activist, along with being a practicing Christian I started to connect many seemingly different cultural streams within the realm of medicine. All socially progressive movements focused on Justice have within their blue prints access to affordable health care. But what kind of health care?

While not diminishing the advances made in the realms of Modern Medical Science, how did such medicine fit into the broader picture of social and environmental integrity? With advances in technology, it seems the price tag for such advances is beyond most people’s reach. Insurance providers and Governments are left to pay the tab, and they are increasingly abandoning a majority of the public due to outrageous medical costs. The development of modern pharmaceuticals comes with animal torture, great pollution and out of sight prices. Most of modern medical techniques, procedures, testing and pharmaceuticals are dependant on petroleum, while creating toxic waste and further damaging the environment. All of this does not seem to address our health, but does create toxins that can actually harm our bodies in the near and distant future.

For most of what ails us, nature has provided healing modalities. The plant world nourishes us, and provides valuable medicines that are balanced in and of themselves. Interacting with the Natural World can also provide exercise and emotional healing. Hands on therapies such as massage also provide relief from ailments. Centuries old practices such as Acupuncture are low tech, not reliant on electricity or petroleum, and create very little waste. Homeopathy uses substances in small doses, and has never been tested on animals.

The main aspect of Green Medicine is that it is accessible to all, and is sustainable. Medical Paradigms dependant on Petroleum and Nuclear substances are expensive, not always accessible to the broader population and create waste that actually creates illness for animals and humans alike.

In our quest to have a just and sustainable human community, we must have access to Medical Care. Medical Care needs to incorporate practices that are economical, not based on torture, and that do not pollute the environment. Medical Care needs to be sustainable and part of the whole of creation.

Green Medicine is: Botanical Medicine, Therapeutic Nutrition, Body Work, Movement Therapies, Acupuncture, Homeopathy and Lifestyle Management, all of these modalities are simple, safe, non toxic to the environment and quite effective.

I look forward to sharing future entries with you on all aspects of Green Medicine, from politics, to health freedom, to economics and to the effectiveness of Natural Medicine as a viable, necessary choice in Health Care for our own future and the future of our beloved Planet.