by Kirby Lindsay, posted 1 December 2014
On December 6th, the Bastyr Center for Natural Health holds its Annual Holiday Open House with discounts in the dispensary from 9a – 3p, a health & beauty product fair from Noon – 2p, and a live demonstration by Natalie Walsh, N.D., M.S. on ‘Making Herbal Products at Home’ from 10:30a – Noon.
A Bastyr-trained Naturopathic Doctor, Dr. Walsh is also an ecologist who studied anthropology at Michigan State, graduate level ethno-botany at Frostburg State University, in Maryland, gaining a degree in applied ecology and conservation biology, and she’s also studied herbs and natural healing in Madagascar and the Appalachians. Dr. Walsh will bring her broad knowledge of what she called ‘kitchen herbalism’, to her demonstration on December 6th.
Dr. Walsh has explained that the presentation is about, “totally making it easy. You don’t have to go out and get a whole bunch of new equipment. I’m using some herbal items, but I want people to be able to use what they have.” She also will present substitutions, options for vegan and/or allergies, and point out items that can be purchased through the Bastyr Dispensary (for those interested in taking advantage of the discount.) Walsh can give attendees a lot of ideas and options, but she also promised, “I’m not going to take up your whole day.”
From Ecology To Naturopathy
Dr. Walsh only recently finished her study for her N.D. “I’m most interested in people taking care of themselves,” she explained, “I think people underestimate the power of self-care. People go to the doctor to get fixed, but there are a lot of things they can do – there are more tools – to take care of yourself.”
While Dr. Walsh always dreamed of a career in medicine, she took the long way to it – developing her life-long interests in gardening and cooking, and adding to them along her path. Her first big step came after graduating from Michigan State, when she followed her interest in other cultures into the Peace Corps.
In Madagascar, she taught English and “filled in gaps” (art, choir, environmental education, and some public health teaching on hand washing and an AIDS curriculum,) but she also planted her own herb garden and studied local teachings on using food as medicine.
“They had very limited access to medicine,” Dr. Walsh recalled. In critical cases, they could go to the hospital, but “for everything else everyone used some kind of home remedy,” she explained. This is where, “I got most intrigued about Natural Medicine,” she thinks. Dr. Walsh read and studied, particularly on the transmission of herbal knowledge, but she also researched med schools.
Returning to the U.S., Dr. Walsh got a position at the University of Maryland, and worked on a study of Appalachian medicinal plants with ethno-botanists, botanists and herbalists all studying the natural uses of herbs and supplements. Her long-term plan then was to return to Madagascar, but a coup in 2008 made that inadvisable.
Instead, she studied and worked – and attended conferences and met her first naturopathic doctor. “I’d wanted to be a doctor,” Dr. Walsh said, “but I had a lot of self-doubt.” She hadn’t met many happy doctors, and she had concerns about her long-term happiness in that field. “I didn’t know if I would fit the M.D. model,” she said. While in the Appalachians, she met more naturopaths and she found them to be well-educated, well-regarded and aware of their limits of knowledge and practice. When chose to pursue her dream of medicine, Bastyr already had her locked-in – in Madagascar, she’d contacted Bastyr University and they’d immediately mailed her a brochure there. “They’ve got me for life,” she proclaimed.
From University To The Kitchen
Since moving here to attend Bastyr in 2010, she’s worked with Dr. Eric Yarnell and Dr. Kim Bauer on medicinal field botany, teaching about identification and harvesting and learning about applications. “I’ll go out with friends to wild craft,” Dr. Walsh said, describing her love of natural healing.
Still, she first learned herbs in the kitchen, and that is where Dr. Walsh first got curious about their properties. On December 6th, she hopes to satisfy some of the curiosity of the attendees with the skills and knowledge she’s developed.
She will focus on three projects for this first-come, first-seated, free demonstration:
- Gourmet Infused Oils – in beautiful bottles, these look attractive and are ready to use for cooking
- Warming Muscle Rub – “If it’s good enough to eat,” Dr. Walsh maintains, “it should be good for your skin, and you shouldn’t settle for less.” She’ll show how one of the gourmet oils can be turned into a muscle rub, and other salves and ointments easy to make
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Learn to make gourmet oils at the Bastyr Clinic on Dec 6th, with Dr. Natalie Walsh. Photo by Simon Sees, Jun ’14 Healing Lip Balm – from kitchen ingredients, Dr. Walsh will show how to hydrate the skin, made dry by our long, cold winters. We all eventually end up eating our lip balm, and she’ll demonstrate how you can make ones that are okay to eat – completely non-toxic – from common kitchen ingredients.
As one more in the ‘Living Naturally: Conversations on Health & Happiness’ free lecture series, the demonstration by Dr. Walsh should be available after December 6th on the Bastyr YouTube Channel. However, the live version gives participants a chance to get answers and talk directly with a knowledgeable expert on many kinds of kitchen herbalism.
For more information about Bastyr, the Living Naturally series, and finding more tools for self-care and healing through natural and naturopathic medicine, visit the Bastyr website.
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©2014 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.