Clinical Ecology—Transforming 21st-Century Medicine with Planetary Health in Mind

David H. Nelson, Susan L. Prescott, Alan C. Logan and Jeffrey S. Bland
Additional contact information
David H. Nelson: in VIVO Planetary Health, of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), West New York, NJ 10704, USA
Susan L. Prescott: in VIVO Planetary Health, of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), West New York, NJ 10704, USA
Alan C. Logan: in VIVO Planetary Health, of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), West New York, NJ 10704, USA
Jeffrey S. Bland: in VIVO Planetary Health, of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), West New York, NJ 10704, USA

Challenges, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Four decades ago, several health movements were sprouting in isolation. In 1980, the environmental group Friends of the Earth expanded the World Health Organization definition of health, reminding citizenry that, “health is a state of complete physical, mental, social and ecological well-being and not merely the absence of disease—personal health involves planetary health”. At the same time, a small group of medical clinicians were voicing the concept of “clinical ecology”—that is, a perspective that sees illness, especially chronic illness, as a response to the total lived experience and the surroundings in which “exposures” accumulate. In parallel, other groups advanced the concept of holistic medicine. In 1977, the progressive physician-scientist Jonas Salk stated that “we are entering into a new Epoch in which holistic medicine will be the dominant model”. However, only recently have the primary messages of these mostly isolated movements merged into a unified interdisciplinary discourse. The grand, interconnected challenges of our time—an epidemic of non-communicable diseases, global socioeconomic inequalities, biodiversity losses, climate change, disconnect from the natural environment—demands that all of medicine be viewed from an ecological perspective. Aided by advances in ‘omics’ technology, it is increasingly clear that each person maintains complex, biologically-relevant microbial ecosystems, and those ecosystems are, in turn, a product of the lived experiences within larger social, political, and economic ecosystems. Recognizing that 21st-century medicine is, in fact, clinical ecology can help clear an additional path as we attempt to exit the Anthropocene.

Keywords: clinical ecology; planetary health; high-level wellness; integrative ecological solutions; mutualism; personalized medicine; the microbiome; green prescriptions; holistic bio-psycho-social medicine; long-range thinking; non-communicable diseases; dysbiotic drift; socioeconomic inequalities; biodiversity interdependence; cooperation; integration; value systems; cultural shift (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A00 C00 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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