Bioneer,
Ecological medicine is an approach to wellness that honors the interconnectedness between human health and environmental health. While this field is relatively new, it draws from thousands of years of indigenous wisdom, such as the understanding that humans are a part of – rather than apart from – nature.
This week, we highlight expert #bioneers in medicine as they discuss human and ecological wellbeing.
In addition, the Bioneers Conference is happening this weekend! It's going to be a fun and impactful event, so stay tuned to our website and social media if you aren't able to make it. And if you are able to make it, we'll see you soon!
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Kenny Ausubel: The Coming Age of Ecological Medicine
As CEO and co-founder of Bioneers, Kenny Ausubel has spent nearly three decades at the helm of the internationally recognized nonprofit dedicated to disseminating breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet. Additionally, Ausubel is a writer, filmmaker and media professional. He has written four books and edited several volumes of the Bioneers anthology book series, including Ecological Medicine, Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves (2004, Sierra Club Books). Ecological Medicine is a collection of writings from the world’s leading health visionaries, showing how human health is inescapably dependent on the health of our environment. Following is an excerpt from the book, written by Ausubel.
The first step toward a healthier future, I believe, lies in ecological medicine. Pioneered by a global movement of concerned scientists, doctors, and many others, ecological medicine is a loosely shared philosophy based on advancing public health by improving the environment. Its central idea is that industrial civilization has made a basic error in acting as if humans were apart from, rather than a part of, nature. Just as the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone, human and environmental health are inseparable. And in a biosphere that is rampantly toxic and woefully depleted, a mounting number of our health problems can only be understood as part of a larger pattern. Ecological medicine could well emerge as a force for dramatic cultural change. It proposes to reshape how industrial civilization operates, in part by redefining the role that the public plays in making the decisions that affect all life on earth.
Simply stated, improving human health is inextricably linked to restoring ecological well-being. The interconnectedness of all life is a fundamental biological truth. What’s more, all life is under threat. There simply is no “elsewhere” to dump the hazardous by-products of industrial society. Eliminating them from our production systems is the only real solution, and a well-informed public is absolutely crucial to realizing it. In the words of Carolyn Raffensperger, executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN), a “truly holistic medicine extends beyond the mind-body connection to the human-planet whole." Here are some basic tenets of ecological medicine:
• The first goal of medicine is to establish the conditions for health and wholeness, thus preventing disease and illness. The second goal is to cure.
• The earth is also the physician’s client. The patient under the physician’s care is one part of the earth.
• Humans are part of a local ecosystem. Following the ecopsychological insight that a disturbed ecosystem can make people mentally ill, a disturbed ecosystem can surely make people physically ill.
• Medicine should not add to the illnesses of humans or the planet. Medical practices themselves should not damage other species or the ecosystem.
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This Week on Bioneers Radio & Podcast
We are told that our personal health is our individual responsibility based on our own choices. Yet, the biological truth is that human health is dependent upon the health of nature’s ecosystems and our social structures. Decisions that negatively affect these larger systems and eventually affect us are made without our consent as citizens and, often, without our knowledge. Dr. Rupa Marya, Associate Professor of Medicine at UC San Francisco, and Faculty Director of the Do No Harm Coalition, says “social medicine” means dismantling harmful social structures that directly lead to poor health outcomes, and building new structures that promote health and healing. |
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Rupa Marya: Decolonizing Medicine for Healthcare that Serves All
Rupa Marya, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF, Faculty Director of the Do No Harm Coalition and a leading figure at the intersection of medicine and social justice, investigates the health effects of police violence on communities through The Justice Study and is helping set up the Mni Wiconi free community clinic under Lakota leadership at Standing Rock. She is also the leader of the internationally touring band Rupa and the April Fishes.
Following is a transcript from Marya’s presentation at Bioneers 2017, where she discussed her work to understand how societal influences impact the health of communities and what medicine and medical practitioners can do to take those influences into account.
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Farmacology – Soil Health And Medicine
Daphne Miller, MD, authored "Farmacology: Total Health from the Ground Up" to detail her findings on the intimate link between human wellbeing and how our food is produced. In this panel, joining Daphne to discuss how farming techniques from seed choice to soil management have a direct impact on our health will be: Timothy J. LaSalle, Ph.D., co-founder and Co-Director of the Regenerative Agriculture Initiative at CSU Chico and first CEO of the Rodale Institute; and Josh Whiton, a highly successful eco-tech entrepreneur whose most recent project is MakeSoil.org.
Hosted by Arty Mangan, Director of Bioneers’ Restorative Food Systems Program.
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Video of the Week: Tieraona Low Dog, M.D. – Greening Medicine
A leading national expert on botanical medicine and integrative approaches to health care, Dr. Low Dog challenges America’s healthcare system. She advocates for a holistic approach drawing from the best of traditional herbalism, nutrition and modern medicine. She shows how nature-honoring lifestyles can address and prevent these problems and weighs the efficacy of alternative modalities including medicinal herbs.
This speech was given at the 2001 Bioneers National Conference and is part of the Ecological Medicine, Vol. 1 and Indigenous Essentials, Vol. 1 Collections.
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More on Ecological Medicine from Bioneers.org:
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Take Action: Do No Harm Coalition
The Do No Harm Coalition was founded in May 2016 in response to police violence in San Francisco. The organization is calling for an end to police violence and systemic changes to policing policies and practices in San Francisco and around the world.
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Art Spotlight
At Bioneers, check out a special exhibition curated by Lonnie Lee of Vessel Gallery in Oakland that includes breathtaking outdoor pieces by Luke Hiembigner, Shawn Hibma Cronan, Todd Laby, Curtis Arima, Wayne Shaffer and Gordon Glasgow. In addition, Jos Sances will be bringing his piece OR, THE WHALE, to the Exhibit Hall, a 50+ ft mural about the consequences of capitalism, of our actions or inactions seen against visions of the future we are leaving our children and grandchildren. Learn more about Vessel Gallery. |
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