PORTLAND, OR—Environmental issues are inseparable from health care issues, and holistically minded physicians need to step up and assume leadership in the effort to reverse environmental degradation.
Estrogenic and hormonally-active environmental toxins from plastics, pesticides, animal feed, and cosmetics play a key role in precocious puberty—on the rise in young girls—as well many forms of cancer, says Dr. Devra Lee Davis, of the University of Pittsburgh’s new Center for Environmental Oncology.
People tend not to think of diabetes as being related to environmental toxin exposure, but three recently published studies indicate a strong correlation between onset of type 2 diabetes and increased blood levels of hormonally-active pollutants.
Healthy soil is the foundation of healthy food, which is the foundation of healthy humans, says Michael Abelman, a veteran organic farmer who believes farming has a lot more in common with medical practice than most people realize.
The issue of whether or not to eat fish has had a lot of people floundering in recent years. Many are concerned about mercury and other environmental toxins found in some fish. Two major reports, one from the Institute of Medicine, and another from researchers at Harvard insist that the health benefits of a fish-rich diet far outweigh the minimal risks. Enviro-groups contend that the reports are downplaying the pollution problem.
The recent Institute of Medicine and Harvard reports on seafood safety go a long way in allaying public concern about mercury toxicity in fish and affirming fish as a healthy food. But they largely overlook the precarious state of the world’s oceans. Can we have our fish and eat them too? Yes, say marine biologists, but only with major changes in fisheries management and consumer consciousness.
Eco-consciousness doesn’t have to mean picketing outside the next WTO meeting or radically redesigning your office. As two young physicians prove, all it takes is a willingness to think outside the box and take action based on what’s best for your patients’ and your own community’s health.
The Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E), annual Environmental Leadership Awards honor hospitals, health systems and clinics who’ve demonstrated superior performance in eliminating mercury, reducing waste, and implementing eco-standards. This year’s award winners show that small outpatient clinics can make as big a difference as large medical centers.
The olive oil industry presses millions of gallons of water out of olives each year. Managing this wastewater has become a major environmental problem in olive producing nations. But it turns out that olive water contains a very strong antioxidant. Roberto Crea, an Italian biochemist, developed a way to extract this compound from the wastewater to create a new antioxidant supplement product called Olivenol.
Household molds like Cladosporium and Aspergillus are common triggers for asthma and other respiratory conditions, though they seldom get the attention given to cigarette smoke and animal dander. Since all molds need damp environments, the key to controlling molds is to control household moisture.
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