Still Well Program

Overview : Emotional : Environmental : Intellectual : Physical : Social : Spiritual : Vocational

ENVIRONMENTAL

The environment in which we live our lives has a tremendous impact on our health and wellness. Our surroundings--be it home/family life, personal habits, pets, work place, or community--affect our attitudes, emotional state, and physiology.

Take for instance, a young physician practicing under contract in a loan repayment program in an area he never intended to visit, much less live. Practice is slow, income is less than expected, his wife is unhappy and thinking of leaving him, many factories in the area are polluting the air and water. This environment breeds depression, anxiety, hopelessness, hostility and compensatory escapist habits which may include smoking, drinking, drug abuse, and poor diet.

Environmental contaminants and allergies are linked to a number of health problems. When they overwhelm host mechanisms, they can profoundly interfere with wellness. Carcinogenesis is aggravated from air pollution to second-hand smoke. Hypersensitivity reactions (including asthma) result from molds, animal dander, pollen, bacteria, hydrocarbons, and even from unsuspected culprits such as formaldehyde from the padding in the carpets we walk on and the adhesives used in the plywood walls surrounding us.

Wasteful use of our resources and pollution stresses planetary homeostatic mechanisms which further erodes the environment around us. The resultant loss of atmospheric ozone has increased skin cancer rates and degradation of the air over our cities has multiplied respiratory deaths. Pollution not only affects man, biosystems involving all flora and fauna are disturbed threatening our food chain and air supply. The stresses on our external environment have a direct connection with our internal physiologic environment. Patient and physician alike cannot ignore their personal responsibility to promote health through support of the planetary, community and social environments in which we live.

Recent Events

Nature Trail Development Project

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