What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word health? I imagine your physical body, perhaps your mental state, and general well-being?
I bet the clothes you wear, insects, or poop from all living creatures did not necessarily cross your mind, did they?
The word health in Old English meant “being whole, sound or well” and its interpretation has evolved overtime including the different definitions proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Today’s definition is: “…a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity”; this tells us that our health is not 100% under our control, and of course the risk of sickness is always present.
WHO has identified 10 major threats to our health, including the risk of antimicrobial resistance and high-threat pathogens, which, as we know, affect us all and are found everywhere in the world.
Keeping ourselves healthy is not only about doing annual check-ups, eating organic, maintaining a healthy body weight, getting vaccines, taking vitamins, or having a balanced life; it’s more complicated than that. It also depends on every action we take towards everything around us, and the actions of every one of the 8B humans living -or struggling- around the world, which end up impacting us all.
Health and sickness are connected. The health or sickness of the environment in your household, your neighborhood, your city, and your country is connected to the health or sickness of everyone across the globe, and vice-versa.
We are connected through the planet’s wind belts, the water in our oceans that circulates and travels around the world, the rivers that feed those oceans, and what lies and runs underneath the soil.
We already learned that something which may seem inconsequential, at first sight, and perhaps a local problem in one part of the world, can travel fast and become a huge health issue worldwide.
Health or sickness comes to you
How far back do you keep track of the things that come to you, things you buy, use or do every day? …probably not very far; it would be an exhausting undertaking. Imagine the path that each of those things take before they get to you, what was the water from your tab exposed to before you take a sip, or the medicines you take, the air you breathe, the materials used in your pillow, or the fabric in your clothes. All those things have been in many different places, buildings and farms, many of those located in different countries; they have traveled through pipes, in ships, trains, cars, airplanes and have gone through many processes and hands.
What do you think you would find?
Spoiler alert: e.g. there are poo bacteria in the air we breathe, nothing to worry about but an interesting fact, nonetheless.
There are many things that are welcomed in your household or your body, because you intentionally took, bought or brought them in, like industrialized products or perishables; others are unwelcome “things” that get into you or your place, whether you are aware or not.
Health and sickness generated by you
Now, what about those things that you do or come out from you or your household?
The stuff you throw away in the garbage
The things you push down the drain
The animals you kill and dispose of
The poo you discard from your pets or baby diapers
… overall, what is the ecological footprint that you leave?
How much awareness do you have of the impact from your actions?
“Out of sight, out of mind” is a scary mindset to have. Things don’t disappear, just because you throw them away, push them out of your way, get rid of them or disregard them; everything changes to become something else, many times in the form of microorganisms, small particles, micro plastics or nasty, gooey substances that can penetrate porous materials and cause a lot of harm to our health.
What you bring about to the world, may come-back to you in a completely new, unhealthy and unexpected form.
What do you think happens with the chemicals used for dying your hair when they go down the drain? What happens with the pills you washed down the toilet?
Nothing vanishes, everything transforms, and in the end, our actions will come back to haunt us all for posterity. This paints a bleak picture, and it is one we can influence and make better.
If we are aware of the darkness, we can seek the light.
When it comes down to health, I want us to embrace a mindset of interconnection. As I have mentioned, we often link health with healthy eating habits, exercising, avoid smoking, etc., all things that we can do for ourselves, but I rarely hear health in a global context connected to supply chains, the Earth’s oceans, wind patterns, and every being we interact with –directly or indirectly. There are things we can do for our health while still thinking of others.
When we see our health as an isolated matter, we miss the important things; for example, we disregard the decline on the number of bees, ignorant of the importance of pollination in our food, or worse, we overlook the decline on most insects, ignorant of its role, not only in the ecosystem, but to our health and in the end, our survival; as it was clearly stated by Pollinator Partnership Canada: “Without the actions of pollinators, agricultural economies, our food supply, and surrounding landscapes would collapse. Birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles, and other small mammals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food.”
While we may have limited control over every single thing that comes to us, there is definitely much more control over the things we deliver, so be aware of your impact, and the overall health of the living beings of planet Earth.
What you can do to contribute to everyone’s health
When it comes down to what bringing to you, or what you bring about to the world, apply the 7Rs on both ends.
From a self-awareness point of view, I would add one more R: REFLECT.
Notice your past and current behaviour with everyday things (e.g. what’s your motivation for buying or bringing stuff to your place).
Notice the habits and mindset you may have developed that are no longer acceptable from a health perspective, and that may be affecting others, or you in the long term; an example of this may be thinking that other people will take care of keeping us all safe, and you don’t have any active role in it.
Objectively see your interactions with other living beings, do you instinctively kill? Or are you trying to learn and understand animal behaviour. I know wasps can be annoying but they are a key predator -and pray- in the food chain; a world without them would be one with a larger number of insect pests on our crops and gardens.
To me, health is a foundation that allow us to fulfill the purpose of our lives as human beings, if we have health, we have possibilities, we can plan, we can dream. When we lose our health, the options get narrower, and narrower, until life becomes a burden before fading away.
Health is the spark that initiates everything we do; sickness is the uncontrolled fire that slowly consumes us to ashes.
All in all, we should be cognizant of what we welcome into our households, into our lives, so hopefully whatever comes in has a long life span with us, and with proper maintenance it may be used by another person afterwards, or transform into something different, another man-made product, thanks to our efforts to divert it from landfills.
An interconnected mindset gives us the power to better decide on the products we make, reducing the risk of releasing nano-size particles into nature, which become toxic to live on earth.
Our health or sickness is the result of our actions. Be mindful.
CAPER
