ZENvironmental HEALING

A subtle but significant shift has occurred in the practice of modern medicine that suggests that a new environmental illness paradigm has been born. This appears to be a paradigm shift in the way illnesses are approached, or as one environmental professor recently told me: “Shift Happens!”.

While medical schools and residencies continue to train physicians traditionally without much emphasis on environmental approaches to modern chronic illnesses, new physicians entering private practice are overwhelmed with a whole host of 21st century chronic diseases that do not quite fit the current medical care diagnostic and treatment paradigm.

Patients presenting to doctors with multiple symptoms generally have their diseases categorized based on a medical diagnostic code system. Patient’s symptoms that fit a certain diagnostic label are then given the name of the disease. But most patients are unaware that the majority of these chronic diseases are simply chronic inflammatory diseases and “environmentally triggered diseases”. (See The Inflammation Cure by William Meggs, M.D.)

Many of these new 21st century diseases can baffle even the most caring, experienced and knowledgeable physicians if the physician does not understand and incorporate an environmental approach into his diagnostic evaluation of the patient.

What are these illnesses? They run the gamut from vaguely defined neurological disorders like unexplained memory problems, unexplained generalized weakness, frequent headaches, tic disorders, attention deficit disorders, unexplained tremors, chronic pain disorders including Fibromyalgia, autism spectrum disorders and autonomic nervous system dysfunction to autoimmune diseases like autoimmune Thyroiditis, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and Sjogren’s syndrome.

According to knowledgeable physicians and scientists the increase in asthma and other inflammatory airways diseases and the increase in inflammatory irritable bowel syndrome disorders are related to undiagnosed and improperly treated chemical sensitivity, an environmental illness rarely diagnosed by traditional physicians.

Our lifestyles have dramatically changed in the past 100 years. We have gone from an agrarian society, passed through an industrial age and now find ourselves immersed in the information age. In this new age with easy access to medical and health information, we are all becoming more self educated and have at our fingertips the tools for self improvement. We are overwhelmed with information from multiple sources.

As a physician this information explosion may present a problem in helping patients to heal themselves. But, generally, many people are wising up and learning to take charge of their own health. Preventive medicine now belongs to the people. People no longer desire a quick fix of medication or surgery for their problems. Whenever possible people demand safer, alternative natural therapies. People demand answers and reasons why they became sick in the first place. They want to understand cause and effect and many are determined to find and remove the causes of their chronic illnesses. Whether they became sick from smoking or inadequate diet, or poor exercise or sleep habits, or living in a toxic home or working with toxic chemicals, or exposure to an animal they are allergic to,,,or even exposure to a series of personal stressors.

If unhealthy behavior, unhealthy lifestyles and unhealthy environmental factors triggered the illness patients want to know what can be done to stop the progression of any already chronic disease and to reverse any illness that is not permanent. People now demand to know what environmental health factors they need to change so that they and their families are not at such a high risk from further illness.

Since World War II there has been a tremendous increase in chronic inflammatory diseases and allergy related disorders reported throughout the Western world. Epidemiologists claim that the prevalence of allergic diseases has doubled for every decade since 1950. The National Academy of Sciences has estimated that upwards of 15% of the population suffers from adverse reactions to many modern day common chemicals.

It is has now been confirmed by environmental scientists that up to 90% of all cancers are environmentally triggered. Environmental Physicians suspect that most of the newer 21st century multisystem chronic diseases are related to the cumulative environmental toxic burdens that we now carry in our bodies. We carry more chemicals in our bodies than any generation since recorded time. This is truly
an experimental generation. This environmental toxic burden includes increased lifetime exposures to heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, cadmium, aluminum and lead. We are seeing a tremendous increase in exposure to thousands of chemicallized products that enter our homes that are used in our clothing, and are found in our cosmetic skin and hair products. We find ourselves exposed to a variety of indoor allergens and chemical pollutants due to the construction of tighter buildings and homes devoid of fresh air and yet exposed to chemicallized products in our indoor air environments. Outdoor air pollution has increased in our modern cities and towns due to increased exposure to auto exhaust emissions, and our food and water supply has become increasingly chemicallized with additives, pesticides and plasticizers.

Our lives are good in the 21st century. We have wiped out most serious infectious diseases that used to plague modern man. But we are left to deal with a new paradigm of allergic and toxic environmental illnesses.

We must also address the increases in mental diseases and stress related disorders that are partially environmentally triggered and partially stress related and created by the difficulty in adjusting to the complex world we currently live in.

So I have created a new word to describe the kind of healing approach that is necessary to deal with a whole host of new chronic mental and physical disorders of the 21st Century…ZENvironmental HEALING!

ZENvironmental HEALING is an approach that looks at the individual in relation to his or her environment and prescribes a common sense approach to treatment. This common sense approach (ZEN) looks at the relationship of the individual to his or her environment and tries to find a harmonious healthy peaceful balance between the individual and his/her environment.

Environmental factors that may need to be changed to improve health would include healthier nutritional and dietary choices, avoidance of chemicallized personal care products, evaluation of home or office air quality, review of current medication use, avoidance of toxic habits like smoking, excessive alcohol, and elicit drug habits.
Evaluation and treatment for hidden allergies, food and chemical sensitivities may offer dramatic help to those suffering from chronic illness.

Many individuals with chronic illness may go from doctor to doctor, specialist to specialist, yet are still not properly evaluated. Some are told their symptoms are “all in their head” Yet, they may be walking around with a hidden infection, an undetected hormone imbalance like thyroid disease, multiple undiagnosed hidden allergies or chemical sensitivities, undetected nutritional deficiencies or unusual autoimmune problems or immune deficiencies that must be properly treated before symptoms can be alleviated.

Many people with chronic illness today take charge of their own health. They utilize the plethora of health related books available in the bookstores and access the Internet for virtually any and every health question. I think that is good. More power to the people. Some give up on modern medicine altogether and fall into the hands of alternative healers. Some are miraculously cured. Some people remain chronically ill.

So here is where I have decided that something is seriously missing in modern medical treatment. Some people never get better no matter what you do physically or environmentally. So you must address the mind and the thoughts of the individual and you must also address his or her spiritual nature. The physician must get to know the person with the illness and must educate the patient regarding this approach. To incorporate this into my medical practice I had to use the concept of ZEN. The ZEN concept is a common sense Eastern philosophy that believes in living peacefully and in harmony with the various aspects of yourself, your environment and the universe. Believing that we are living spiritual entities housed in human bodies provided with a thinking mind and interacting with our environment.

My “ZENvironmental HEALING’ approach then encompasses everything discussed above but now adds one more essential healing factor …the mind and spirit of the person presenting with the illness and helping that person’s spirit harmonize with his or her thoughts, his or body physiology, and environment. This would include tuning all together as one might tune the strings of a guitar. Approaching a complex illness then by addressing the spirit, mind, body and environment of an individual and attempting to correct or tune up any defects or imbalances in any of those four aspects of this individual’s life just might result in a miraculous “ZENvironmental HEALING”. I might also add that this approach is consistent with Osteopathic Medicine’s holistic healing philosophy of treating the “whole person!”