Getting Back to Basics with Herbal Medicine
Bellingham’s growing interest in alternative medicine is nurtured by community herbalists and naturopathic practitioners.
A lineup of herbs, intended for medicinal use, are proudly displayed at Living Earth Herbs in downtown Bellingham. // Amaya Coblentz
Story by Meghan Fenwick
March 9, 2023
When young Kelley Garrison first witnessed her Italian grandmother shove cloves of garlic into her infected ear, she thought “This is the dumbest thing ever.” Today, not only does Garrison acknowledge her grandmother’s wisdom surrounding her body, environment and heritage, she also recognizes the antimicrobial properties of the spice that give it magic-like healing powers.
Garrison is a licensed naturopathic doctor who recently opened her own practice, Foothills Naturopathic Clinic, in Bellingham, Washington. She relies heavily on herbal medicine, though her process looks different than the at-home care she received as a child.
Foothills is just one of many alternative medicine options in the area. Using plants to alleviate pain and prevent illness is a tale as old as time. Today, herbalism is challenging definitions of science and medicine, of patient and physician, and of personal and professional care.
When a patient makes an appointment with Garrison, they may be seeking treatment and advice for a myriad of conditions from chronic pain to mild stress. When a patient enters her office, they are greeted with natural light that beams from a window facing Ellis Street. To their left, a lineup of mason jars display labels that you might find in your kitchen cabinet or garden: cumin, cinnamon, coriander, cayenne.
Garrison hopes to provide a safe environment for her patients, who can trust her recommendations. Another goal is that her patients can slowly build up their own knowledge, resourcefulness and sense of autonomy.
“This is where naturopathic medicine gets weird,” said Garrison. “Ideally, you want someone to not need you anymore, so it’s not a great business model.”
Interest in self care and preventative care rose during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many sought out extra lines of defense to curb medical bills during this period of widespread economic hardship.
In 2022, the average cost of health insurance in the United States was almost $8,000, and 43% of the population were not adequately insured, including 9% who had no coverage at all.
Teas, tinctures and topical creams from your local herbalist don’t promise a cure for all diseases – especially complex diagnoses. But if someone wanted to avoid the price and symptoms of Afrin, an over-the-counter nasal spray, they might turn to a decongestant tea.
Living Earth Herbs is an apothecary, a retail store, and a common ground for many herbalists and businesses in Whatcom County. // Amaya Coblentz
Garrison grows some of her herbs in her own garden, but most come from Living Earth Herbs, an apothecary and retail store located in downtown Bellingham. Living Earth Herbs is a popular destination for herbalists and herbal medicine enthusiasts in the community, where many other local businesses source their product.
Michele Sanger, herbalist and owner of Living Earth Herbs, first opened her doors in 2008. Her early ventures into a vegetarian diet sparked her initial interest in herbs. When she moved to Santa Cruz for college, she frequented a local health food store where the staff nurtured her curiosity by answering all of her questions. Sanger strives to do the same for budding herbalists in her own community.
At Living Earth Herbs, an in-shop display of extensive literature is open for the public to browse, and the team can point you to the right medicine for your specific needs. In addition, Sanger occasionally offers apprenticeships to novices and college students.
If herbal medicine is not a practical destination for a client’s health journey, Sanger can recommend a variety of health practitioners in the area. She is not in the business of convincing skeptics, however.
“If people want to belittle what I do, I move on and don't spend time with them,” said Sanger. “It's not my job to change their mind and show them that plants work to heal.”
Michele Sanger, owner of Living Earth Herbs, picks out Licorice from her herbal roster. Licorice root can be infused into a sweet tea, and is known for its anti-inflammatory properties. // Amaya Coblentz
One recent study points out the challenges of establishing a scientific basis for herbalism. Clinical trials of the past century have attempted to connect single herb extracts to improved symptoms of insomnia, dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease and many other ailments. Under the confines of the scientific method, however, alternative medicine has struggled to gain credibility.
Epidemiology, or the study of disease in a population, is a complex field. It deals with the intricacies of the human body, the environment and the relationship between these two systems. To be able to prove that a medicine works for a patient, even for one individual, takes time and rigorous protocol.
Critics deem herbalism and other alternative medicine modalities as a pseudoscience or a scam.
“It’s easy to be like ‘It’s a hoax!’ and then no one really digs deeper,” said Garrison. “But the danger in that is it’s undermining a lot of cultures and traditions, too.”
Herbalism started as an ancient practice. European colonists first popularized herbalism as a medicine in the 18th century, combining their knowledge of plants and herbs with that of North American Indigenous communities. Today, many herbalists also focus on traditional Chinese medicine and ayurveda, or traditional Hindu medicine.
“You were having people who figured out medicines over trial and error over the course of thousands of years,” said Garrison. “Which, if you think about it, is like one of the best research studies ever.”
Ren Skolnick, a recent Western Washington University graduate, enjoys tending to their animals and garden, foraging, and wildcrafting herbal remedies. // Amaya Coblentz
Ren Skolnick, a recent WWU graduate, apprenticed under Sanger in 2022 and uses herbal medicine personally. Though Skolnick uses herbs and foods that grow naturally here in the Pacific Northwest, they have a specific interest in herbs traditionally used in their own ancestry, including Celtic and Ashkenazi.
“I think it's important to learn about that, and also not take the practices out of the context of the deep traditions that they come from,” said Skolnick. “And also recognize that herbalism is in everyone's ancestry.”
As a non-binary person, Skolnick associates trauma with allopathic, or mainstream, medicine. They accredit herbalism as a power that guided them through emotional and physical healing, as well as connecting them with their environment.
“Herbalism isn't just a way to keep yourself healthy,” said Skolnick. “It's forming a relationship with the plants. To me that's the most important part of it.”
Ren Skolnick recently harvested their own Ashwagandha roots. Ashwagandha is commonly used to reduce stress and anxiety, among many other benefits. // Amaya Coblentz
Abe Lloyd, senior instructor at WWU, promotes a place-based approach in education surrounding ethnobotany and natural history. During his time at the University of Victoria, where he earned his masters degree, he worked closely with Indigenous communities to practice sustainable stewardship of the land.
While Lloyd has an extensive knowledge of the plants of the Pacific Northwest, he does not consider himself an herbalist or someone who practices herbal medicine. Instead, he would gladly accept the term forager or gardener. He takes to his backyard or the forest for food in his free time.
“Trying to stick to the medicines that are used more as common remedies and not spiritual remedies is important,” said Lloyd. “I think it's a lot more dangerous to appropriate somebody's religion than somebody's common cold medicines.”
Wild foods are generally part of the public realm of knowledge, while types of herbal medicine can be classified as private knowledge to specific cultures, according to Lloyd. Prescribing herbal medicines without proper representation or acknowledgement of these cultures can undermine long standing traditions.
“I guess my advice would be to not get so excited about becoming a teacher quickly,” said Lloyd. “Take your role as a student of the plant world, and specifically plant medicine, with respect and with an understanding that it might take a long time to be a teacher.”
Both Lloyd and Skolnick practice foraging – or wildcrafting – and agriculture for their food and herbal needs. In the herbalism community, many favor one over the other in sourcing their herbs. Both have implications for sustainability.
Many herbs become endangered from overharvesting, but the same herbs or ones with similar usage can be grown in a garden to combat this pressure. Farming, depending on the type, can also cause ecological harm.
Lloyd and Skolnick practice regenerative agriculture at their homes, a sustainable approach to farming that commonly involves improving soil health, reducing energy usage and mimicking natural ecosystems for a less exploitative use of the land. Living Earth Herbs sources a majority of their product from Wayside Botanicals, a medicinal herb farm in Ferndale, which also practices regenerative agriculture.
“I think my interest in regenerative systems is really connected to herbalism, and they're both really a holistic way of looking at the world,” said Skolnick.
To many, herbalism doesn't need to be a science, and it can be much more than that. It can be a tool to learn about and connect with your own ancestry, your environment, your teachers and yourself. A pocket of Bellingham is intertwined in a community of plants and plant lovers, from school, to clinic, to shop, to forest, to farm.
“Whenever I teach, I try to pass on some of the spirit of the people that have taught me through the stories, and I honor them when I tell their stories,” said Lloyd. “So there's something that is really human about oral traditions and sharing stories, and maybe that's part of the medicine.”
Meghan Fenwick is a senior at Western Washington University majoring in environmental journalism. She is interested in the dynamics between communication and environmental advocacy.
Amaya Coblentz is an environmental studies and GIS student at Western. She enjoys portrait photography and is passionate about making environmental information accessible through visual art.