Holistic Radiation Protection Tips

The following information is copied from an email from Thomas Cowan, MD, who works closely with the Weston A Price Foundation, and co-authored The Fourfold Path to Healing with Sally Fallon. I believe the dietary recommendations are something we should all consider following anyway for good health. The specific foods, herbs and vitamins for radiation exposure is a list I will print out and tape inside my medicine cabinet, and gather them as I can. After all, we never know when some war-mongering idiot will set the nuclear spark off.

"Native Americans believed that for every important decision, the leaders should imagine the consequences of that decision for those coming seven generations.   

Sadly and, right now, tragically, it is clear that our leaders and corporations have not been following this wise dictum.   If they had, we wouldn't have built nuclear power plants, we wouldn't have used up much of the stored energy and minerals on our planet, and we wouldn't have treated our rivers and oceans like sewage dumps.    But we have done those things, and now we are possibly facing yet another grave threat to the health and well being of our planet: the spread of radiation from the destruction of the nuclear-power plant in Japan.

It may turn out well: The radiation leaks might be contained, the fires may be put out, the immediate threat might and hopefully will recede.  It seems at this point there is no way to predict the outcome of this unfolding crisis.  Though radiation leakage has been detected within at least 20 miles of the plant, so far, according to news reports, no increase in radiation or other toxic exposure has occurred in California or anywhere else.   Hopefully, it will stay like this.

Many people have asked me what, if anything, they should do to prepare for the possibility of increased radiation exposure.  

Here are my suggestions, based on my understanding of the research on preventing and treating radiation sickness.  I also want to thank the many people who have written to me to help me sort out the voluminous research on this subject.


First, because there is no clear evidence of current danger that I know of, we should do now only what is safe, inexpensive and otherwise healthy.   This includes our Nourishing Traditions/GAPS diet, with liberal amounts of good fats, broth, lacto-fermented vegetables and greens.   Special foods that have been shown to counteract radiation sickness include naturally fermented miso, beets, kombucha and sea vegetables, such as kombu.   Fermented cod liver oil at the usual dose of ½ teaspoon or 2 capsules is best.   Next, detoxifying baths with a cup of Epsom salts every couple days is an inexpensive aid to boosting magnesium levels, relaxing muscles, and aiding the elimination channels.

As for medicines, at this point I recommend the safest and most proven aids in radiation exposure, which are vitamin C in the form of the highly absorbable liposomal C; the herb eleutherococcus, otherwise known as Siberian ginseng; and a seaweed called modifilan, a brown seaweed that is rich in a chemical called fucoidan, which studies have shown has great promise in combating radiation exposure.  This seaweed has liberal amounts of iodine, so the more toxic potassium iodine need not be taken at this point.   The doses of these medicines are:

Liposomal C: 1 tsp a day in any liquid,  half that dose for children younger than 5.

Eleutherococcus from Mediherb, Pure, Herb Pharm or other vendors:  one tablet twice a day for adults, half that dose for children younger than 5.  For children unable to swallow pills, the tablets can be dissolved in hot water and mixed with any liquid.  For tinctures use as directed on labels and half dose for children.

Modifilan:   3 capsules twice a day for adults, one capsule twice a day for children younger than 5. It can be mixed with any soft food, like applesauce.

All these medicines can be obtained online, or, you can call our office (415-334-1010), and we will send them out.    We don't have an unlimited supply but will do the best we can to keep up.

As for potassium iodine, this is a much more aggressive measure, and many people will have some trouble with the high doses that are suggested.  But, if public health authorities say it's time, then it should be used - but only then, in my opinion.  In that case, the dose is 130 mg of KI for adults and women who are breastfeeding, 65 mg for young people ages 3 and 18, children who are adult size take the adult dose, and infants and children between 1 month and 2 years should take 32 mg, newborns to infants 1 month old should take 16 mg.   The best source is either from your local pharmacy or by ordering Iodoral online.  If you need a prescription, you can call the front desk and we can call it in.

Hopefully, this tragedy will be resolved soon. In the meantime, our hearts go out to the workers risking their health and lives to contain the damage, and to the people of Japan, who have endured so much. It is my hope that this event will lead to a needed change of awareness in our culture. I invite you to stay abreast of other possible interventions and to keep in touch."

Thomas Cowan, MD
Fourfold Healing | 661 Chenery Street | San Francisco | CA | 94131



Here are more food and herbal information links on the subject:

Surviving Radiation the Wise Woman Way

Herbs and Thoughts on Protection From Radiation Exposure and Recipe

 

Why Grow Comfrey?

My grandfather, who was a county agriculture extension agent, always grew lots of comfrey although I was too young to know why. Now I’m finally learning!

Comfrey fell out of favor along with backyard gardens after WWII, and my mother’s generation lost the knowledge of why so many backyard gardeners grew comfrey for anything other than medicinal uses. Even growing comfrey for home herbal preparations fell out of favor with the rapid increase in pharamaceutical preparations at the corner drug store.

So why should a gardener grow comfrey? Free fertilizer, for one thing!! This is because comfrey roots dig deep, deep down in the soil and bring up many needed nutrients other plant roots cannot reach. These nutrients are stored in the fast-growing comfrey leaves, and are extremely valuable for any gardener for plant nutrition and herbal preparations.

One nutrient found in quantity in comfrey is potassium, which is an essential nutrient needed by all plants to make their fruit or flowers. In fact, comfrey leaves have over twice the potassium of cow/horse manure! Some potassium-hungry plants are root crops like potatoes and beets, heavy production plants like tomatoes and grains, and fruit bushes. Roses are also a heavy potassium user. Potassium makes it possible for the plant to use nitrogen, and to increase the protein production.

The comfrey I grow traces to the Quaker comfrey (also called Russian, or blue comfrey) [S. asperum Lepechin (S. asperrimum Donn)], a natural hybrid of S. officinale L. and S. asperum Lepechin, introduced into Canada in 1954. The majority of comfrey grown in the United States can be traced to this introduction.

I put a layer of comfrey leaves in the trench when planting potatoes. Let the leaves wilt a day or two, put them in the trench, and cover with soil. Then add the seed potatoes as normal. I also make a thick mulch of chopped comfrey leaves to place around my tomato and pepper plants after they have set fruit, where it breaks down slowly to release nutrients.
One cautionary note: do not use the raw comfrey flowering stalks or root parts as mulch or in a trench… they will root, and comfrey roots grow deep. Any tiny piece of root left in the ground will make another comfrey plant!

I don’t have the time (or the inclination) to make comfrey compounds like a gardener’s hand cream or an all-purpose cream for healing scrapes, bruises, and bug bites, but comfrey is great for all of those. Here’s an article by Bev Walker about how to do it. I have written a more detailed look at potassium here, as part of my series on plant nutrition. (See sidebar for published articles.) Here’s a link for making liquid comfrey fertilizers and tea.

Grow some comfrey… it’s very useful, and has pretty flowers to boot!