Environmental Therapy Health Article

Definition

Environmental therapy, also known as environmental medicine and formerly called clinical ecology, is the diagnosis and treatment of conditions caused by environmental factors.

Origins

The founder of environmental medicine was Theron G. Randolph, M.D., who was a trained specialist in internal medicine, immunology, and allergies. Several decades ago, Randolph became concerned with chronically ill patients who had symptoms of allergies and immune system disorders, but didn't respond to conventional medical care. Randolph believed that patients were getting sick from environmental substances and pollutants that allergy specialists could not determine or did not recognize as causing illness. Conventional allergy specialists in Randolph's time believed that allergies could only be detected by measuring the response of immunoglobulin E (IgE). IgE is a particular antibody produced by the immune system when an antigen (foreign substance) triggers a reaction. Randolph believed that testing for allergies using only this technique limited the determination of immune system problems. Using other tests and techniques, he found that many substances that didn't necessarily cause increased amounts of IgE could create allergic symptoms and complications in the body. Research has since shown that food allergies cause increases in immunoglobulin G (IgG) and not in IgE. Scientists now recognize that the immune system is too complex to be measured by only one test.

Randolph also found that allergic and toxic substances often produce subtle reactions in the body that may accumulate into major illnesses and problems. Many of these substances were not previously thought of as allergenic or toxic, including numerous common foods and chemicals (particularly petrochemicals and by-products of industry). Randolph determined that environmental agents could cause mental and behavioral disturbances as well as physical symptoms. Randolph and other doctors developed and used new diagnostic techniques, including intradermal (between skin layers) and sublingual (under the tongue) allergy tests, to determine exactly which environmental factors were influencing illnesses. Environmental doctors were able to heal many patients, simply by removing certain foods and chemicals from their environments.

Randolph went on to dedicate his work to studying the interaction between patients and their environments. He and his colleagues called this new field of medicine clinical ecology, which was later changed to environmental medicine. The field's basic ideas are that doctors must consider both the patient and the patient's environment in treatment, and that there are cause and effect relationships between environmental factors and illness. Environmental factors include food, air, water, living arrangements, and workplace environments. For illnesses that are caused by exposure to negative environmental factors, healing can be induced not by drugs, but by testing for and removing the environmental causes of illness and by strengthening the patient's resistance.

Environmental therapists have isolated many substances that cause illness and adverse reactions in people, including chemicals, car exhaust, tobacco smoke, pesticides, drugs, food additives, and common allergens like dust, mold, animal dander, and pollen. Many people may also have allergic and negative reactions to common foods such as dairy products, corn syrup, sugar, wheat, certain fruits and vegetables, nuts, and meat. Exposure to toxic and allergenic substances may exert a cumulative effect on the body, weakening and taxing the immune system over time so that the body becomes hypersensitive (more susceptible) to substances that were once tolerated.

In 2002, a Harvard University study demonstrated that global warming was adding to the presence of airborne allergens like ragweed pollen. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is up 29 percent since industrial times began and is expected to double again in the next 50 to 100 years. The heavy carbon dioxide concentration helps plants grow faster and larger, producing more allergens.

Environmental medicine has become increasingly popular in the last few decades as the public has become more aware of environmental pollution. Every year, more than 700,000 different chemicals are released into the environment, and the figure has been growing by 10% or more per year. Toxic or allergenic chemicals can be found in everything from common household materials like carpet and furniture to basic items like food and water. Environmental therapists believe that new medical problems have arisen due to the immune system's inability to handle all of the new pollutants and synthetic chemicals to which it is exposed. Environmental illness is the cumulative effect of lengthy or constant exposure to these toxins. Those with environmental illness become hypersensitive to even minute quantities of common materials. Environmental hypersensitivity can cause severe disability in many people.

Environmental medicine recognizes that some new and baffling illnesses have appeared that conventional medicine either does not recognize or is unable to treat, sometimes called "twentieth century diseases." These conditions include environmental illness/multiple chemical sensitivity (EI/MCS), chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, Gulf War syndrome, and sick building syndrome. Furthermore, diseases for which environmental causes are believed to be major factors are also increasing (like cancer and asthma), making environmental medicine increasingly important.