Backyard Botany & The Longevity Garden 3/10: The Curiosity Clinic

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Alright, we're here. Episode three of our 10 part series. Backyard Botany and then longevity garden. Alright, welcome to the Curious Clinic. Our 10-part series, episode 3 down here in Bonita Springs. Things grow fast, super speed. So much. It is hard to keep up. It's so hard. But have you ever looked at a garden and asked why does getting my hands dirty feels so good? Today we're gonna look at our backyard botany and why digging in the dirt extends your life. You know, we spend a whole lot of time telling our kids, don't get dirty, why are you getting dirty? Keep your hands clean, don't do that, stop, no, don't. I'm learning how to unschool with homeschooling my um son. And one of the things that he has interest in is gardening. So this is such a wonderful and easy topic for me to discuss because it brings me joy in watching him get super dirty, um, bugs and dirt and gross stuff. But today we're gonna talk about why digging and using your hands and being grounded and all that stuff is so good for us in our microbiome. Um, the soil has its own microbiome, we have our own microbiome. Animals and bugs and living things have their own microbiome. And when we look at that and we understand that, we realize dirt is alive just like us. Their soil microbiome is different, but it's still its own ecosystem. So, for all of you patients that are dealing with autoimmune disease or autoimmune symptoms, chronic inflammation, getting your hands in organic soil exposes you to healthy bacteria and trains your immune system to be resilient. Obviously, if you have something going on, you should be working with your practitioner. However, to stay healthy, to get resilience, you have to have exposure to all these ecosystems. So, right now in our house, we are planting. I should say, I'm ripping out plants because this is the summer season, it's really hot right now. Um, so what's growing in my garden is um herbs in the shade. I got a lime tree halfly half in the shade. I'm just learning this whole thing. My cucumbers are done. Um, what else? My beans, my green beans and yellow beans are done, and now we have peppers. Peppers, basil, um, thyme. I'm gonna plant some oregano. It's probably the wrong season, so I'll wait till summer's over. However, when you are going to be planting in your soil, I do recommend planting something that will help you, which is herbs. You anybody can have an herb garden. If you need help with it, there's tons of YouTube videos to get started. The soil is the most important part. And if you get that right, then your plants will grow. If you get that wrong, then you'll notice they do not have the right size leaves, or they don't taste right, or they don't grow at all. So planting herbs is so beneficial for your body. It gives you a flavor bomb when you're cooking, and it also goes in and feeds the good bacteria and eliminates the bad bacteria, creating a good microbiome in our own bodies. So, kids, if you're listening, because this is a series for parents and children, if you have children and they want to jump on and start listening, or you're boring them with another podcast, kids, plants are incredible, okay? So if you look at plants and you can you can look at the soil, you can find bugs, you can find worms, you can find things that you can see, but there's also also things you cannot see, right? But plants, they can't run away from these bugs, they can't run away from the sun. Um, so they have to create their own armor called phytonutrients. When we eat plants, that armor protects ourselves by creating um almost like a micro response. When we have microdosing of things, our body can tolerate it, it can build up against it, and it actually activates our immune system in a really gentle and nice way. Each plant has its own um phytonutrients, there's a lot of debate about it, but the phytonutrients is that armor that protects the plant from sunburn or from pests or bugs. Um, and there's some cool ones out there, so go and explore that. Um, I think what does my son watch? He watches a few things, but he always talks about how did you know that corn has its own ability to produce this and it it keeps those bugs away? And I can't remember what he says because he is a wealth of knowledge on this, so it's it's interesting. So, parents and kids, if you have time, start a small garden together, start an herb garden together, and allow your minds to get curious around that. Ask why, what's going on, what's in the soil, what makes good soil, what makes bad soil, how much water is needed, what area or zone are we in? Get your brains wrapped around that because when we get in the dirt and we touch it physically, there's a bacteria in it. Typically, when it's healthy, there's a bacteria in there called Mycobacterium vassae, which I I'm gonna spell it, it's V A C C A E. Um, that triggers the release of serotonin in our brains. So, serotonin, if you know anything, is a neurotransmitter. It's oftentimes in the gut, that's the majority of where serotonin is. But releasing it in the brain helps us be physiologically happier. So when you garden, a lot of gardeners will be happy. Obviously, it's a lot of work and there's a lot of ups and downs, and sometimes you don't get a lot for what you do, but when you get out there, you get this um this rush of different exposure, and then when you eat plants that you grow on your own that's from good soil, you also get a good rounding of your microbiome in your body because it's in your environment. If you grow something in like um Cuba or Minnesota or the Ukraine, or you know, like you pick all these states, China, it doesn't matter, like wherever you pick to grow in the soils that be, and they transport them to your environment, you're gonna be exposed to things in other people's environments. So you wanna grow things that you can, not because it's just fun, but because it's actually really healthy for you. And obviously, it does create a happiness when you garden in your gut and in your brain. However, those things help your overall longevity, they help, it's a biohack. When you eat local to home, you're exposed to your local environment, which is going to help set you up to when you get exposed to certain things in your environment, you'll you'll be able to defend. You'll have an armor of sorts. If you're exposed to things in your environment, you might be able to overcome a lot of things and get more nutrients that you need because you're living in that environment. So think about like um sunflowers, they can clean up toxic soil when you plant them around all of your other plants and absorb harmful chemicals. Um, this is called photophyto uh remediation. So, like oh, what's a good example? When you put like uh dang it, there's so many good examples. Okay, so when you're gardening, there's certain things that you can do. You can stack your garden, you can plant things that will keep pests away, like rats or um bunnies, I believe it is, other pests, rodents that eat your garden, do not like mint, do not like neem, do not like certain flowers. I think it's magnolia um or um oh I can't remember the name. I see it in my brain, but I can't remember the names. Anyways, different ones repel certain pests or certain things. Um, I'm learning. And so when a gardener learns these things, you can plant them. Like for some flowers, they're gonna suck up out of the soil the chemicals that might be bad or harmful, and they remediate that for us. Whereas when you plant mint around things, it's gonna detour um pests, rodents from hopefully coming into the garden and eating your small plants. So those things are so helpful to know and learn and discover because as we know our microbiome, and when we learn our microbiome and our digestion and how that works, then we can look at the world around us and how we can support one another. That's the importance of like grounding, putting your hands and feet into dirt, into the beach. We talked about that on our last episode, and those things are very important, but this is also important. We need to have exposure to different things. There's theories out there that talk about the clean child, the clean environment that they're in, and their immune system is suffering because they're not getting exposed. And that's why you'll see children who grow up with pets or on farms typically have a better immune system or immune response. They have less chronic disease. So, even though it's counterintuitive to get out in the dirt when you have autoimmunity, chronic inflammation is actually helpful in multitudes of ways. So get out there, plant your herbs, and keep asking why. Stay curious today, guys. The days unfold. I've been working on a program that's going to be a 32-week Fearfully and Wonderfully Made course that will be offered for homeschool families during the day. So please listen for that. I will be posting that on Facebook, I'll be posting that on local homeschool groups. So if you are a homeschool parent or know a homeschool parent and you want to learn how is the body created, how do we work, and how do we intertwine that with our creator? That's what we're going to be going over the 11 organ systems, the five senses, and also the armor of God. So that's going to be really cool. Anyways, stay curious, everybody. I can't wait to hear about your herbs and your planting projects. If you have anything, please post them, share them with me, send me an email. I would love to see what my audience is up to. And if you would like, maybe we uh extend the gardening um session. I know my mom is like a master gardener, so maybe I can get her on here to talk about all things gardening. All right, until next time.