What does ‘Environment Stupid’ mean?
I first heard the term, “Environment stupid” whilst reading a book by well know cell biologist, Bruce Lipton. He said that, when “cloning stem cells”, if they were not doing well, the first thing to look at was “the cell’s environment” to find the problem and, only after that, to look at the actual cells. So, given that biology is the study of ‘Life’ it made sense to me that the same thing would apply to ‘us’ humans.
Our Environment
If you were to look at society from afar, you would see that the human body is a community. It is a community of cells working and, sometimes, not working together. When a person is unwell, the Doctor or Pharmacy gives medication to ‘make the person feel better’. They treat the person’s symptoms and then send them on their way. This is fine, in some instances. For example: imagine, a person has ‘chicken pox’, highly contagious, so the person is sent home and quarantined. You need a safe environment to heal, but also the virus must be contained so not to contaminate others. Likewise, if a child is being badly treated, he is taken to a ‘safe haven’ away from danger.
However, now imagine when the opposite happens. A person contracts the ‘flu and even though they are very sick, they ‘soldier on’ keep going to work and soon everyone is infected. Even the ‘smart person’ who stays home and gets better, returns to the workplace only to fall ill again. That is the “environment stupid”.
This is a bit like ‘treating the cell’ and disregarding the environment it is in. If a person returns to the environment that created the problem, it is most likely that person will go back to square one.
Two Environments
We humans, have two Environments we need to be aware of. Both of these environments are involved, whenever there is a problem, be it mental or physical. The first, most important environment, is the ‘One between your ears’ and then you have the ‘physical environment, that is the one surrounding you.
Modern medicine often treats the body without looking at the mind, they are kept apart. Even with a common cold the environment of the mind is having an effect. If a person is feeling down then the effects of the cold are more pronounced.
Why not adopt a holistic approach to medicine? Why not treat both the body and the mind? For too long medicine has treated the body and not paid attention to the environment of what is between the ears and the environment that the patient is returning to.
There are many treatments out there for treating the environment and that have been lumped in what is called, alternative therapy. I propose that it is not alternative but complimentary to mainstream medicine.
Fortunately, there are more and more medical professionals coming around to this and I look forward to the day when medicine is taught from a holistic point of view.
