In 2001 I was hit by a train. Okay, not a real train but it might as well have been! My train was a heart attack. When it happened I thought to myself, "why me", "why now", "why here?" I thought I was in good health. I had followed the advice of many doctors, but still the train hit me. As I worked through my crisis, I started thinking about the many factors that could have contributed to my heart attack and wondered why I had not had better warning?
Having worked in and around healthcare for many years I had learned a great deal about how to avoid a heart attack. You know, the usual things: avoid risks, live a healthy lifestyle, control my weight, choose better food and drink, don't smoke, reduce stress ... all excellent advice to a reasonable person.
Like many of you, however, I had provided a lot of personal information to all my healthcare providers over many years, such as family history, medication history, surgical history, disease history, allergy history, social history and of course my lifestyle inventory. I now wondered why none of that information had actually helped avoid the roaring train bearing down on me.
I soon began to discover that there were many different reasons why I may have been hit by that train. In addition to all the usual suspects, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stress, genetics, I discovered that many environmental conditions and exposures could greatly increase my risk for a heart attack. Things like air quality and exposures to pollutants -- some that I did not even know existed in the communities where I lived. As I began to research the places (aka geographies) where I had lived -- both as a child and an adult -- I began to discover disturbing information on what I (and my doctors) could have already known about the quality of my various environments and what the impact might be on my future health.
My search was not easy, even on the Internet. Large volumes of health information spread across many governmental and health related websites of varying quality. While I cannot prove that any one of my specific environments caused my health attack, there was plenty of evidence that some of the contaminants I had been exposed to in places where I had lived, were well known precursors to circulatory and respiratory disease -- and yes heart attacks. It was at this moment that I realized that a physician looking at my health history, in the absence of any specific information about my unique environmental exposures (geographically), would be less likely to warn me, let alone guide me away from the oncoming train wreck. The problem, as I have come to see it, is that none of my physicians had a useful or easy way of translating all that rich environmental health research into something that would benefit me directly. Why was it so difficult for me and my doctors to connect the dots?
Every place I have ever lived and will live is part of my medical history. The impact of breathing bad air in many of the places I have lived will surely follow me where ever I go, and therefore, my medical record should be automatically informed about new research findings of relevant health risks.
Unfortunately today, my medical record and probably yours as well, is already a vast collection of clinical facts, observations, test results and diagnostic conclusions but remains silent about the accumulation of environmental health impacts and risks. As a patient as well as a good health-seeking consumer, I need to be better served by the great wealth of environmental health research that is available. I also need to do what I can to increase the capacities of physicians to consume and use this information in smarter ways.
I invite you to think about the places you've lived, or where you live today, and learn more about the impacts of your environments on your own health. I've worked with my colleagues to share a new online app (free and anonymous) that can help give you some ideas on how you might approach your own health discovery process as I have done. There is much to learn about geomedicine and understanding how it can become a valuable tool in clinical practice. I hope that I can begin to help readers of this blog to learn more about the subject of personal geomedicine and discover ways to stay healthier longer. If you're new to this discussion perhaps watching my TedMed talk and reading Alana Kornfeld's blog on that event will help.
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Annie B. Bond: Why the Green Movement Should Include Environmental Health Issues
It is good to research your past exposure and see if any of it could be "detrimental" to your future health. As an example, I think of a doctor in France who grew up fishing from the Rhone river( a hugh river in the SE of France) . NOW the Rhone river is considered one of the most polluted in France, but back then noone mentioned that the big electrical units that were dropped in the river because they had nowhere to go could cause the fish to spread mercury and other toxins to those who ate them. This doctor, after eating fish all summer in his youth, has had numerous cancers and continues to fight to show the link between his past environment and current health. And, by the way, it is now forbidden to eat the fish in the Rhone. Mary Brighton, MS, RD
Thanks for sharing this. Having reported on a wide scope of health practices and interventions for over twenty-five years, I always consider it so helpful when something new helps us to look at health from a new perspective.
I'd heard about this app from both Alana's coverage and my colleagues at Urban Zen where I also blog. What's exciting to me about it is that it helps us understand our connection to our environment. Bravo!
And as Ray points out in his comment below-- what then can we do about that? As the point certainly is not to fret about things we can't change, but to learn how to change the things that are impacting so many of us. Things like contaminants in our food, air, and water-- as per the comment on fracking below.
It's natural for people to feel disempowered or overwhelmed when this topic comes up because the concern is that this may be hard to address. But the more of us who are aware of it, the more possible becomes a community of support.
And it's also vital to connect with the many health interventions that can help relieve toxic burden to prevent the kinds of illnesses that result.
This is the kind of connecting the dots that we need to do in health care. Thank you for your great work.
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From Vicky Allison
Writer of http://www.AntiCelebrity.net
I certainly agree it is important to be aware of your environment and its toxin load. On the other hand, what are you or your caregiver going to do about it?
My approach, based on two decades of research in the field, and author of books on the subject, is as follows. We do not fully understand the effect of many toxins on the human body, we do not have test methods to determine the levels of many toxins in the environment or in the body, we have yet to identify what many of these toxins are, and the medical establishment is mostly clueless as to how to remove toxins from the body.
In today's world, I cannot think of any location that could be considered toxin free. Accordingly, regardless of where you live, the proactive approach is to take all reasonable steps to insulate yourself from a whole bevy of toxins, and to put in place a detox regimen.
By way of a simple example, everyone in the U.S. should have a drinking water filter in place in their home; a shower filter to remove chlorine; home air filtration with a microfine HEPA filter in conjunction with UV; minimal artificial flooring; and a regimen of detox protocols based on those provided for us by nature.
Roy Mankovitz, Director
http://www.MontecitoWellness.com
natural gas: one of many industries that are killing land, water, animals, and people.
and thanks for this post: environment - both the obvious chemical exposure and safety of water - as well as the general vibe/energy of the people/culture and the balance of nature around us, have a lot to do with our physical as well as mental health. the 'wherever you go, there you are' mantra i have found to be true in terms of inner demons BUT even that can be influenced by where we live and what we are "taking in" in our environment. I feel grateful I even have a choice in the matter.