As I explained to a few close friends, I would never have been able to get this web site up and running so fast except for the fact that I had been thinking about radiation for many years: nuclear fallout from testing, depleted uranium from military use, Chernobyl from many visits to Europe, including clinical exposure to some members of the teams that flew relief to Chernobyl, and medical use of radiation. Going back more than two decades, I had made copious notes on food and herbs that would support recovery from radiation exposure so while not in the slightest emotionally prepared for the events in Japan, the mental — and perhaps even the spiritual — infrastructure was in place. I mention the latter because I have spent many years thinking about the purpose of life and how life is maintained in the physical realm.

Ingrid Naiman

It's very hard to write about oneself, but my interest in herbs began about forty years ago. Such a journey can never end because herbs are teachers and healers with a more direct connection to spirit than people. They can conceal or reveal, but one of the wisest inheritances from my family was a single sentence from my uncle, Dr. Franklyn C. W. Olson: "If you wish to understand Nature, do not disturb Her."

As an undergraduate, I was torn between anthropology and philosophy. As an adult, the interests take the form of indigenous and ethnobotanic medicine, most especially Ayurveda, and spiritual practice which involves a mixture of passion for the environment, study, and an unending search for meaning.

At this juncture, my life's work is still incomplete, but I wrote a book on botanical approaches to cancer and host about 40 web sites. Ironically or perhaps fatefully, the research that went into the book is now proving useful in that the longer-term consequences of radiation exposure involve a higher risk of cellular mutation and cancer, conditions that many herbs are capable of addressing.