Natural Environments and Human Health. Alan W Ewert

      3

      The Historical Connection between Natural Environments and Health

      The quality of life, depends upon the ability of society to teach its members how to live in harmony with their environment—defined first as family, then the community, then the world and its resources.

      Ellen Swallow Richards, founder of ecology (1842–1911)

      Since the dawn of humanity human health has been explicitly tied to the natural environment. Our ancestors lived with the daily reality that nature influences health and well-being, and early systems of medicine (medicine as derived from Latin ars medicina or the art of healing) were constructed using this concept of interrelatedness and a systems approach to healing. Even today, it is estimated that about 80% of the world’s population relies on nature medicine, largely in the form of plants, for their healthcare. In regions and cultures around the world the deep reliance of people on nature for healing is a recognized and respected part of daily life. For example, Amchis, the Tibetan Medicine healers in Nepal, currently use up to 1800 plants in their work (Adhikari, 2009). However, as societies around the world industrialize, modernize, and urbanize, a frequent side-effect is the perception that nature is separate from humans—perhaps something to be observed, preserved, conserved, or consumed—but not something with which we are integrally connected and therefore is necessary for our health and well-being. In this chapter, we explore facets of the history of humanity that focus on the specific use of nature to maintain or increase humans’ health and well-being. As we trace this history, a strong thread of connection or integration with nature is found. Recent research that supports these nature-based healing practices is also presented.

      Our connection and interrelatedness with nature is such that we receive healing and medicine from nature and the next section explores that history. See if you can interpret possible paradigms or WorldViews that may have been present as you read this chapter.

      Early Indigenous Conceptions of Health and Nature as Connection to the Earth’s Rhythms and Attachment to Mother Earth

      Part of our current drive as humans is to understand our needs and recognize what behaviors will lead to more health and wellbeing. Being aware of some of the knowledge and practices of the past helps shed light on current directions. The further back in human history we venture, the stronger the perceived and lived connection and mutuality we see between humans and nature. For most of human history, humans were deeply embedded in the land and natural world in interrelatedness and a lived appreciation of the dependency on nature for daily needs and survival, including healing.

      In the time period beginning 40,000 years ago, sometimes referred to as the Reindeer Age, it is thought that Shamans (healers) recognized that everything was interrelated and that healing occurs with harmony with the natural world. In these early times most likely people did not think about themselves in discrete domains of health (physical, intellectual or cognitive, affective or emotional, social, and spiritual); they considered themselves as a whole and these aspects wove into their lives in a manner that defied separation. Therefore when people thought about healing it was automatically in a holistic manner. The medicine or healing was primarily intuitive, perhaps genetically inculcated in humans as discussed in Chapter 4. We suspect that they lived what Doreen Martinez (2008) refers to today as indigenous consciousness or the internal sense or psychological knowledge about the spiritual relationship with all other sentient beings as well as the Earth’s processes. Some authors believe that all humans have an intra-indigenous consciousness that can be awakened or activated through time in the outdoors and direct experiences with nature (Mitten, 2010).

      At least 5000 years ago and up until at least 3500 years ago medicine and healing continued to emphasize coming back into harmony with natural cycles and rhythms, often symbolized by the medicine wheel. During this time a number of medicine traditions crystallized, including Ayurvedic Medicine (the Indigenous Indian medical system), Native American Medicine, Tibetan Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and others. In all of these traditions nature was seen as integral to healing, health, and well-being. Indigenous people seem to have an innate wisdom about how to interact, bond, and benefit from a close relationship with nature. Because disease was seen as disconnection from the natural rhythms of the Earth, healing was, in part, to reconnect with nature and the natural rhythms within us that related to natural rhythms in our environment. These medical systems continue to be practiced today; the US Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) classifies these medical traditions as an alternative medicine in the category of whole medical systems, defined as complete systems of theory and practice that have evolved over time in different cultures and apart from conventional or Western medicine.

      These systems of healing were holistic by their nature—incorporating the human domains of physical, spiritual, social, emotional, and intellectual into the healing. An integrative and interdisciplinary systems approach (remember Chapter 1) was the norm, tending to start from the least invasive approach, such as a change in diet or social and physical activities, which continues to drive these medicine systems today. However, invasive procedures also had begun to be developed. For example, evidence of cataract and other surgical procedures was found in the Susrutasamhita of Susruta, an Ayurveda text dating back approximately 3000 years (circa 6th century BCE).

      Both historical and modern Chinese medicine highlights the interconnection between macrocosm and microcosm, teaching that medical knowledge is from a cosmological source (a macrocosmic reality) and influences the microcosmic reality in a detailed and multi-layered manner, supporting the belief in the influence of celestial bodies on human life. This results in a complex system of diagnosis and therapy requiring a systems view of the world. At the same time having its roots in what might be called folklore and embedded in the mythic-poetic mode of observing and describing nature, classical Chinese medicine provides a link to folk biology (see Chapter 6) and many, though not all, practitioners continue to use mythical poetic language with little or no reference to Western scientific language.

      These early traditional medicines often incorporated breathing through yoga and meditation which helped maintain health partly through keeping the body in a well-oxygenated state. In recent years scientists have come to show the value of bringing oxygen into the body through meditation and physical exercise for maintaining health. Having a well-oxygenated body (our physical bodies are about 65% oxygen) is preventive for cancer (Edwards, 2008). Understood by the 1931 winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, Otto Warburg, and confirmed by scientists since, many types of cancer cells thrive in anaerobic or oxygen-depleted environments and cannot survive in oxygen-rich environments (Warburg, 1966).

      Another way to conceptualize health is to understand and live the importance of interdependence and attachment. As discussed in Chapter 5, the attachment of a child to the mother is crucial for healthy development, especially mental health. In the same manner, humans’ attachment to the Earth may be necessary for mental health. According to archeological evidence, from the Reindeer Age up until about 3000 BCE, and through recent times for some cultures, people may have worshiped the Earth as a living, female being. Female figures discovered in Europe date this belief back at least to the Paleolithic period, before lunar worship changed to solar worship throughout Neolithic Europe. This female connection symbolized the belief in attachment, dependence, and interrelationship with the Earth, as in mother and child. This same phenomenon is seen in Vedic culture (about 1700 BCE), who worshipped a mother