photo by orna izakson.

New Year’s day was as one of those perfect Pacific Northwest winter days — 45 degrees, misty and soft. The kind of day that smells and feels like earth.

My garden is pretty much hibernating. A long spell of deep cold knocked back the last of my greens. There’s a fairly even layer of deciduous leaves covering the ground, punctuated by bare limbs and decomposing stalks.

Still, it was a day to survey. And one of the bright points was indefatigable thyme, sprightly in the day’s gloom at the base of a fig tree.

Herbalists often like to play around with favorite herbs lists: If you only had three (or five, or ten) herbs to work with, which would you choose? On my lists, thyme always shows up. It’s incredibly easy to grow, tastes fantastic and makes powerful medicine.

In the kitchen

Most people know thyme (Thymus vulgaris) as a classic salad-dressing herb. It’s a staple of Mediterranean cooking and comes in every prepackaged herb rack. Tossing thyme onto sliced vegetables before baking automatically elevates your meal from food to cuisine. My mother —neither an herbalist nor a gardener — says, “everything is better with herbs on it.” She was talking primarily about thyme.

Try these recipes as a starting point:

• Elana’s thyme salmon with leek coulis (gluten free);
• Mushroom risotto;
• Lemony thyme cookies. A friend made a version of these over the summer (without the ginger) and it was surprisingly yummy, with a lovely, bright flavor.

Thyme’s medicine

As its most history of culinary use suggests, thyme helps support digestion. The compounds that give the plant its strong smell make your gastrointestinal tract do its job more efficiently. Thyme also is broadly and fairly strongly antimicrobial, killing bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasitic worms.

If you’re worried about the flu, for instance, consider using it in an antiviral soup. When taken internally, thyme also promotes excretion through the urinary tract, and helps disinfect on its way out.

One of thyme’s less-known uses — and one of my favorites — is as a respiratory aid. It soothes the lung’s mucous membranes, reduces spasms, fights pathogens and helps you cough out accumulated gunk.

Brand-new research also suggests thyme is a potent anti-inflammatory. It’s cited as potentially helpful in preventing diabetes, arthritis, heart disease and cancer. But as inflammation lies at the heart of many health problems, that list is surely longer.

Steaming is a great for this purpose: Take a large handful of fresh or dried herb, put it in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Then, with your head over the bowl and under a towel, breathe deeply to get the herb’s aromatic oils into your nose and lungs.

Externally, thyme makes a great skin wash or soak to help fight or prevent infections. While I prefer the fresh herb, it’s okay to cautiously use the diluted essential oil, no more than one drop at a time. Don’t do this if you’re steaming — I say from experience that it burns like crazy!

In the garden

In many ways, thyme is a perfect garden plant. It’s easy to grow in the ground or in pots, stays green year ‘round, and doesn’t need fancy soil or a lot of water. It forms low mats of varying widths, with adorable tiny flowers like a miniature heather. Like many of its mint-family relatives, its feeds good bugs like honeybees and other pollinators.

Grow thyme on any sunny windowsill, porch or patio. If you’ve got a bit of ground, try it between pavers — several varieties can handle moderate foot traffic — or grow over wide surfaces as a groundcover or low-maintenance lawn. Also consider interplanting it in your veggie or flower beds, where its aroma helps confuse harmful bugs.

Almost every sells a couple varieties of thyme, including common or English thyme, lemon thyme and usually at least one variegated variety. Farmer’s markets and food co-ops often sell plants, too; this is a great way to get the best varieties for your area, at the best prices, while establishing connections with local farmers.

It’s hard to avoid puns when you’re talking about this plant. But really, you should have a good thyme!

My favorite seed catalog came in today’s mail.

What’s new for 2010: organic Floriani red flint corn, green meat radish, Bolivian rainbow pepper, purple pac choy, ruby streaks mustard.

This is why I started gardening – I was awed by the incredible diversity of life I could sustain on my little corner of earth.

There were other reasons too. After my urban upbringing, I longed for the pastoral and bucolic ideal of self sufficiency and thriftiness. And certainly there were the political reasons: getting off the corporate food trough while promoting biological diversity and personal health.

But what really pushed me past reading and into action was a full-color catalog that arrived one Winter’s day. I saw purple carrots, speckled lettuces, striped snappy string beans, and a bright orange tomato that turned out to be an eggplant! If your vegetable education came largely from mainstream supermarkets as mine once did, you’ll understand my shock. Who knew there were purple potatoes, or that we could grow Thomas Jefferson’s beans or the Anasazi’s corn?

These days I’m a passionate gardener and my garden supports over 100 species. Here’s why you should tend a garden, even if it’s just a couple of plants:

1. Get outdoors. Being outside can help many health conditions. The sunshine lightens most folks’ moods and helps produce immune-building vitamin D. Researchers find that people living near green spaces have much lower rates of diseases including asthma, depression, heart disease, migraines, and even urinary-tract infections.

2. Eat better. As a naturopath I always recommend that people eat the rainbow — and gardening is one great way to do it. Vegetables begin losing nutritional value as soon as the plant is plucked and produce from your own garden travels the shortest distance between place and plate. Also, many soils around the country have some well known nutrient deficiency—in western Oregon it’s selenium—which you can address easily in your home garden. Feed your soil, feed your plants, feed yourself.

3. Love those vegetables. Gardening is a great way to convert knowledge about the health benefits of veggies into the action of eating them. Researchers consistently find that garden-based education in schools makes children more willing to try, like and eat a diversity of vegetables. The same trick works with picky adults, too…

4. Grow your own medicine. That lovely lavender you’re already growing can improve digestion and fight depression. Thyme makes a great ground cover and fights off lung infections. Garlic, onions and their relatives support the immune system and the heart. Even weedy dandelion is medicine, helping the liver and the kidneys. And so much of this is so easy to grow!

5. Be more community-oriented. Scientists have found that spending time outdoors changes people for the better. Read here about how gardening transformed the English town of Todmorden and its inhabitants, building food security, ecological sustainability and community spirit.

6. Pure joy. Part of a healthy life is making sure there’s joy in your life, every day. And that is one of the best reasons out there for gardening. For me, that’s about the wonder of nature’s colors and textures, and the sheer awe of actively and literally keeping history alive. And it’s a wonderful gift to share with your partner or kids.

So as the year’s darkest days settle in, take time by the real or virtual fire to go through the words and pictures of the seed catalogs and feed your dreams of summer. Here is a short list to get you started.

• Fedco Seeds, a Maine cooperative, offers great starter packets at fantastic prices.
• Horizon Herbs offers one of the largest selections of medicinal plant seeds.
• Native Seeds/SEARCH has a focus on traditional Southwestern crops including a huge variety of beans, corn and hot peppers.
• Seeds of Change was one of the first glossy proponents of growing heirloom seeds.
• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Mansfield, Mo., boasts a catalog of 1400 varieties of vegetable and flower seeds.
• Heirloom Seeds in Pennsylvania.
• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

Happy garden planning!

NB: A version of this story originally appeared at WellWire.com.

The chemical, developed as an estrogen replacement, is commonly used to harden plastics such, most commonly polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. It’s been linked to various cancers, diabetes, heart disease and digestive problems. The polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins are often used in plastic helmets and goggles, computers, kitchen appliances, medical devices, adult toys, and the packaging for some foods and drinks—including soda cans, water bottles and baby bottles.

This month Consumer Reports and the watchdogs at the Milwaukee, Wisc., Journal Sentinel found BPA leaching into commercially canned foods (it’s in the lining). And last week Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, told the Journal Sentinel that consumers should be concerned.

Here’s a roundup of many products containing BPA, along with links to safer alternatives.

To learn more about BPA, read “Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry” by Elizabeth Grossman.

So what’s a health-conscious person to do? Eat more fresh food, of course. Or preserve your own in good old-fashioned glass jar. Here are some books that will teach you to safely and easily preserve the summer’s bounty from your garden, farmer’s market or local store.

• Stocking Up, 3rd Edition, by Carol Hupping is one of the most recommended books on safe canning and includes great recipes.

• Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods, by Sandor Katz focuses on fermentation as a preservation method.

• Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving, the US Department of Agriculture’s classic.

Canning is fun for the whole family, and the results can make thoughtful, thrifty holiday and hostess gifts. It’s also clearly the healthiest choice.

NB: A version of this story also appears on WellWire.com.

Photo by Nihan Aydin.

It’s the “most wonderful time of the year” — and depression is rampant. Between the darkness (if you live in the northern hemisphere), family drama, financial stresses… it’s a time when many people find their mood going in an unhappy direction. Here are some tangible tips for feeling better.

1. Exercise.
Depression by definition diminishes most motivation. But getting off the couch can make a remarkable difference in your emotional resilience. Exercise literally changes not only the chemicals being made in your brain, but also how well those chemicals work. It doesn’t have to be intense and it doesn’t have to be very much. Just starting will help those clouds lift.

2. Get some sun.
The winter’s lack of light makes lots of people low. The effect isn’t new — it’s been described since the 1800s. These days there’s a name for it, complete with cute acronym: seasonal affective disorder, or SAD.

Adding light can help. Outdoor, natural daylight is best, especially in the morning. But many companies also sell light boxes that researchers find really do help — even for summertime depression.

Photo by Nathalie Dulex.

3. You are how you eat.
Author Michael Pollan said it best: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Scientific research all over the map supports this. An October 2009 study in the Archives of General Psychiatry reported that a Mediterranean-style diet reduced depression in addition to its well-known heart and anti-cancer benefits. They found that fruits, nuts, beans and fat from fish and olive oil all helped beat the blues.

Filling up with fresh fruits and veggies also has another happy side effect: reducing your exposure to mood-busting sugar and processed foods.

4. Up the fish oils.
The long dark winters in Iceland don’t translate into high levels of depression there, and scientists think the reason is in the high-omega-3 fish the locals consume.

For people who are depressed, researchers have found significant improvements in mood after just two weeks of therapy with fish oil.

How does it work? The omega-3 oils reduce depression-causing inflammatory chemicals and improved cellular function, all of which make a happier brain.

5. Feed your microflora, too.
The first-line prescription therapy for depression is a drugs that increases serotonin availability in the brain. Looking at the body as a whole, most serotonin is found in the gut, where it helps signal the movements needed to promote digestion.

We’re designed to make a lot of serotonin ourselves, with the help of foods and the healthy flora in our guts. Supporting that flora with probiotics —found in foods such as sauerkraut, kimchee, live yoghurt and miso — can help make more serotonin available to the whole body, including the brain.

Like fish oils, probiotics also reduce inflammation and oxidative stress that influence depression.

6. Give flower essences a try.
Having flower essences on hand can offer a quick pick-me-up, or support long-term healing. Take four drops as needed, or four times daily in a little water over the longer term. They don’t interact with any other medications, and the only possible concern is a tiny amount of alcohol.

Try Star of Bethlehem for dealing with grief and trauma. Sweet chestnut helps deep, dark despair and hopelessness. Pine relieves guilt. And willow helps when you feel resentful or sorry for yourself. For some sunshine in a bottle, try the Solstice Sun environmental essence from wild Alaska.

7. Learn more.
While there’s no substitute for talking with friends or professional counselors, these books can help you understand what’s going on and offer suggestions for helping yourself.

This psychologist-recommended website links to articles about natural health and a variety of mental health issues.

8. If you need help, get help.
Sometimes the blues are transient, and simple home fixes like these are all you need. But if the darkness persists, remember that you are not alone. Naturopaths and psychologists are an important part of getting better.

If you’re battling the blues this holiday season, be sure to take some moments out to take care of you!

Originally published in Indian Country Today

By Terri Hansen, Environment, Science & Health Writer

Portland, Ore.—When naturopathic physician Dr. Orna Izakson looks at a plant she sees more than its stem, leaves or vibrant flower – she sees medicine. And naturally, she takes a natural approach to flu prevention and hastening a healthy recovery.

“Our bodies are trying to bring us toward health,” she says. “The responses we experience to outside stressors are our body’s intelligent response to that stressor. A fever is an intelligent response: It makes the body more responsive to invaders… and it makes us feel lousy so we slow down and go to bed so that our bodies can heal.”

garlic

So what can you do to stay well this flu season? “Keep things moving,” says Dr. O, as her patients call her. That means drinking clear fluids — especially water — and eating foods that are close to nature. You can get most of the pieces you need in your diet for good health from colorful vegetables, including fiber.

Avoid simple sugars they best as you can; they stun the immune system. “Each handful of berries you give your children is one less Twinkie, it’s a positive step.”

Cigarette smoking depletes vitamins and decreases natural immunity. “You need to cut back, smoke less and what you do smoke should be natural, or if packaged smoke American Spirits,” Dr. O says. “Make up for the extra cost by smoking less.”

Vitamin D, produced naturally in the skin by sun exposure, is critical to your immune system. Deficiencies are epidemic and darker-skinned people are more likely to have low levels. Depending on her patient’s lab assessments of their blood levels, she generally recommends 2,000 to 4,000 iu daily of D-3.

Probiotics support healthy gut bacteria, a barrier between you and the outside world. One 2009 study found regular use of probiotics reduced children’s cold and flu symptoms. Another found probiotics helped elders get more immunity from flu vaccines. Buy probiotics as supplements – acidophilus is one, and find them in traditionally fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchee and uncooked miso.

Herbal steams are an old and effective tradition for any respiratory infection: Mix herbs with boiling water in a bowl and cover for a minute with a towel. Drape the towel over your head and the bowl, close your eyes and breathe the steam through nose and mouth into your nasal passages, throat and lungs to loosen mucous, strengthens mucus membranes, and disinfects your passages. Repeat as needed.

“You can use thyme, pine needles, cedars, eucalyptus, and chaparral. Orange peels can be effective too, but wash them well before using,” Dr. O says. “Talk to the Elders, they often know what’s best to use in your location. It could be herbs from the place your grandparents called home, or you may have a grandma in your head; listen to whose voice is louder.”

Lomatium and osha root are best taken as tea, tincture or by chewing on the root directly. “When you take it internally, you’re taking in the volatile oils. They want to volatize, spread out. They go into the bloodstream, their aromatics bubble out into and through your lungs and mucus, disinfecting.” Think of the flu as leaving junk stuck in your lungs, a perfect spot for breeding bacteria. Herbs move it out, disinfecting from underneath.

Garlic helps to fight many bugs that can make you sick, making it one of Dr. O’s favorites. Raw is best if your stomach tolerates it. Add a chopped clove or two, if you can, to any hot or cold food.

If you get sick in spite of these positive steps call your medical provider.

Home remedies Dr. O suggests for her patients include mustard plasters; to make your own grind yellow (or any) mustard seed and mix with water. Place a brown paper bag on your chest as a barrier, then smooth the mustard plaster on top. Use the plaster two to three times a day. How long you keep it on depends on your comfort level, but check frequently; if the skin starts turning red it’s time to take it off.

The next treatment, like the mustard plaster, moves blood and helps immune cells get to where they’re needed most. Wet a pair of cotton socks with cold water; wring them out thoroughly. Put on well-warmed feet, cover with a pair of dry wool socks and get into a warm bed for the night. You can also do this with a cotton t-shirt and wool sweater.

Bottom line, Dr. O says, is it’s the simplest things that help the most: Eat simply. Exercise moderately. Get plenty of rest. Drink water. Cover your cough. Wash your hands. Get outside and breathe clean air. And find some way to cultivate joy in your life every day. “This is traditional medicine, the best memory of the traditional medicine. It’s practical, it empowers people.”