I love nature. I love watching the animals in our woods – hummingbirds, lizards, skinks, skunks, raccoons, deer, woodpeckers, bears, snakes, etc. I am the guy who catches spiders and takes them outside instead of killing them. I love wading in the nearby river fishing. I think it is kind of the adult version of “playing in the creek.” In addition to the fish, there is usually a Great Blue Heron around as well as the occasional crayfish, turtle or water snake. I am intrigued by the little shells from fresh water mussels on the river bed and the assorted wildflowers growing on the bank.
A few years ago my father gave us some wild berries he had
picked. Instead of eating them all, I saved a few and planted them along our
road and now we have a robust wineberry patch. I have been known to eat
insects, acorns, and the fungus known as sulphur shelf (aka “chicken of the woods”)
which grows on trees. When our children were young we often made huckleberry
pancakes using the berries from the wild huckleberry bushes in our woods. I
have enjoyed watching the progress of the building of the hornet’s nest on our
back porch this summer and I recently spent part of a morning watching a
cricket with my grandchildren.
In general, I think nature is really good for us. It is much
healthier to take a walk in the woods and listen to the birds than to sit and
watch TV or scroll on one’s phone. And it is certainly healthier to eat some
fresh produce rather than processed foods. But does that mean that “natural” is
always better?
It is tempting to romanticize a time when everyone lived off
the land and everything was natural. But the reality is that in the United
States in 1900, when most people lived that way, life expectancy for white men
(guys like me) was 46 years. Maybe other folks would be fine with that now. But
as a healthy 55 year old, that seems suboptimal to me.
It is easy to come up with a list of things from nature that
clearly are not good for us – poison ivy, prolonged sun exposure, radon gas,
rattlesnake venom, arsenic, the gases emitted by volcanoes, plants and
mushrooms which are poisonous if ingested, poison dart frogs, botulism,
smallpox, diphtheria, polio, cholera, plague, malaria, assorted worms and other
parasites, and every other infectious disease one could think of. I could go on
and on but lists are boring. Obviously not everything in nature is safe and
harmless. As I heard someone recently say “Nature has been trying to kill us
for thousands of years.”
Supplements are often marketed as being natural with the
implication being that they therefore are safe. It is important to remember
that supplements are not required to undergo the same kind of testing for
safety and efficacy as medications are. Some supplements, when tested independently,
have been found to contain harmful compounds and others have been found to
contain actual prescription medications. Do you really want to use a “natural”
supplement that actually contains a banned drug? There was a tragic death
recently reported in California, apparently linked to an herbal supplement.
In contrast, we have all seen those almost comical commercials
for medications that list a bunch of potential side effects. They list all of
those because they are required by law to include that information in the
advertising for a drug, as opposed to supplements which are not required to provide
any of that information or to even test for potential side effects before
marketing.
There are also other variables related to individual
persons, locations, etc. that affect one’s response to nature. If a person who
has an inborn error of metabolism were to eschew all “unnatural” products, it
could lead to severe disability or death. If my grandson eats some dirt from
his back yard, he will likely be fine. But in some parts of the world, that is
an almost surefire way to contract parasites.
Is nature good? Yes. Is nature sometimes dangerous? Yes. Are
“unnatural” things sometimes bad? Yes. Are unnatural things sometimes
beneficial? Yes. When I am making a recommendation for a patient, whether or
not a treatment is “natural” is immaterial. The questions that concern me are
whether a treatment is safe, effective, and whether the benefits outweigh any
potential risks.
So I will eat my wild berries, take walks in the woods, and
sit on the porch listening to the birds sing. And I will also gratefully
utilize any treatments which have been shown to be safe and beneficial.
