Vandy neurologist Britt Stone on coming back around to ‘bush medicine’

When Dr. Britt Stone was growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi, her Bahamian mother made her choke down a spoonful of cod liver oil each morning. That daily ritual was part of a “bush medicine” philosophy incorporating an array of natural supplements and remedies. While training at Meharry Medical College, and later specializing in neurology, Stone turned her attention away from herbal medicine. Then during the COVID pandemic, she revived her interest in so-called “integrative medicine” to help her patients cope with symptoms.

“We never know what kind of traditional wisdom we have forgotten and then feel like we’ve discovered — and then actually we have just remembered again,” Stone tells This Is Nashville. In this interview, she talks about how her “mother was right,” how to separate “snake oil” from truly beneficial supplements, and how her colleagues at Vanderbilt are also seeing benefits beyond modern medicine.