by Dr. Rob Krochmal
I was honored last week to be a guest at the 25th anniversary celebration of the Community Garden at White Memorial Medical Center in East LA. It brought back so many memories of working in the dirt to regenerate an old vacant lot, visible from the 6 stories of medical clinics looming above it.
That was at the turn of the century, when I was still a Family Practice Resident. Often, I would finish a 36 hour on call shift and head straight to the garden for the rest of the day. I was called by a passion- perhaps more like madness- to see this lot be preserved as sacred space.
It would never have happened without all of the other people sharing in this commitment. There were families and kids from the local community, teachers and students from the Elementary School on the corner, doctors and hospital staff, boarders at The Catholic Worker, local organizations, support from grants from the LA Department of Public Works and the UCLA Center for Community Engagement, leaders from White Memorial Church and White Memorial Charitable Foundation, and so many others.
At the event, it was wonderful to bask in the shade of the now mature fruit trees, see the plants growing, and reconnect with old friends. There is a shared feeling of peace and fellowship when people gather in a garden. You can feel- not just theorize- how optimal health is achieved through clean eating, staying active, connecting with nature, and doing what you love.
I remember during one of the first workdays we ever had, when part of the lot still housed an old dilapidated dwelling and there was nothing more than a few initial garden beds, meeting a wise and unassuming man in his mid fifties. He told me something that at the time surprised me. He said, “I used to have diabetes.” Hmm…..??? “Used to…have diabetes”. That was not what we had been taught in medical school. We had been taught that diabetes was a disease to manage, not something that could be completely reversed.
He went on to talk about how he changed his diet, about some herbs he started taking, and about some of the properties of nopales (a type of edible cactus) that help balance blood sugar.
He looked fit and vibrant. I didn’t have to believe what he was saying. He was a living example.
Besides immediately planting some nopal cactuses as the next step in the garden project, this experience led me further in my journey to discover the root causes of so many of our modern illnesses. It is estimated that 90-95% of diabetes is Type 2, and only around 5% Type 1. A recent study showed that over 75% of American adults are overweight or obese. Even 1 in 5 children are overweight. Our own CDC estimates that a whopping 93.7% of adults have metabolic dysfunction. So more than 9 out of 10 people in the entire country are essentially pre-diabetic.
And the majority of all of these cases can be reversed with lifestyle changes and support from some key vitamins and supplements. The garden and its plants- just like the human body- thrive when the environment they live in is healthy. For plants, it is the soil, water, and sun. Our own gut microbiome is a direct descendent of the soil microbiome. The more we take care of it, the more it takes care of us.
The regenerative, healing capacity of life is nothing short of miraculous. Take a moment to step out into the sun. Put a basil plant in your kitchen window. Place your feet in the dirt and ground yourself. Or even better, take a barefoot walk on the beach. Breath deeply. Drink some pure water. You’re on your way.
