Natural Environments and Human Health. Alan W Ewert
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of Minnesota.
Both homeopathy and naturopathy are modern whole medical systems classified as alternative medicine by NCCAM. The 2007 National Health Interview Survey asked about the use of Ayurveda, homeopathy, and naturopathy. Although relatively few respondents said they had used Ayurveda or naturopathy, homeopathy ranked tenth in usage among adults (1.8%) and fifth among children (1.3%) (Barnes et al., 2007).
Naturopathic medicine at its core has the principle of the healing power of nature (Vis Medicatrix Naturae). For naturopathic medicine this refers to the belief in an inherent selfhealing process in individuals that is ordered and intelligent. In this systems approach an inherent self-organizing and healing process establishes, maintains, and restores health when the physician and patient work together to create a healthy internal and external environment. The origin that the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians claims for first formulating the concept of ‘the healing power of nature’ is Hippocrates, a Greek physician who lived 2400 years ago. This concept is at the core of many medical systems. In this integrative system, natural healing methods such as botanical medicine, homeopathy, nutritional therapy, hydrotherapy, manipulative therapy, acupuncture, and lifestyle coaching are employed. Naturopathy has its roots in the 19th century Nature Cure movement of Europe exemplified by Thomas Allinson of Scotland who in the 1880s advocated his hygienic medicine, which promoted a natural diet and exercise while avoiding coffee, alcohol, tobacco, and overwork. In the US Dr Benedict Lust founded The American School of Naturopathy, graduating the first class in 1902. After enjoying popularity, advances in surgical techniques, the discovery of antibiotics, and the growth of the pharmaceutical industries replaced the more low-tech traditional healing processes. This period of deep scientific reductionism lasted through the 1950s and now naturopathy is becoming more popular again.
In the 1930s Dr Edward Bach, a British physician, homeopath, bacteriologist/pathologist, and spiritual writer, inspired by classical homeopathy, developed Bach flower remedies based on his philosophy that disease was caused by a disharmony between body and mind. He believed that a new system of medicine could be derived from nature and he focused on plants. Intuitively derived, using the scientific method, Bach discerned the energy of the flower. He believed the dew or morning water on the leaves contained healing powers and bottled this water with brandy. The remedy is prescribed based on the patient’s personality rather than the specific aliment. Today Bach flower remedies can be found in most health shops in the US and other countries.
Vacation, parks, recreation, and well-being
In the US, dating back to the 1800s, romantic notions about nature often fueled spending time outside when it was not for work. Frequently these romantic notions were about being refreshed by spending time in nature, akin to the current restoration theories. Thoreau (1817–1862) wrote about our connections with nature and the importance of being in nature in order to know oneself. This time period saw Henrik Ibsen’s writing about friluftsliv (1864) or a way that the tonic of nature gets under one’s skin, solidifying in one’s being. A unifying concept for outdoor enthusiasts and educators in the Scandinavian countries, friluftsliv is a principal tradition for outdoor education with the goal to seek to seep nature into one’s bones. John Muir’s (1838–1914) writings speak to this concept: ‘Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, nature’s peace will flow into you as the sunshine into the trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves’.
The concept of a vacation (a time away for rest and regaining of health) in Europe was most likely a result of the influences of industrialization and urbanization combined with a wish for the romantic. In the early 1800s the concept of going to the mountains for health was becoming in vogue. For example, an English woman, Isabella Bird Bishop (1831–1904), traveled at the advice of her physician. When she was at home in Britain she often was ill with the vapors and other non-descript ailments. When she traveled in Japan, Malaya, Canada, Scotland, and the Rocky Mountains and California in the US while pursuing her natural history interests in nature, she was not ill. By the 1820s mountaineering and adventure pursuits as vacations were ensconced in Europe and by the 1930s the British Mountaineering Leadership Scheme was developed. This beginning of exploration and adventure excursions formed the basis for adventure travel and challenge course programs in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the US (Priest, 1986). The concept of vacationing for health and renewal has been better maintained in Europe, New Zealand, and Australia where six weeks of vacation per year are the norm with no less show in work productivity.
The idea of the natural environment being instrumental in attention restoration in addition to being used by hospitals was also used in intentional design to incorporate nature into parks and planned communities. In the 1860s Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903), one of the landscape architects responsible for the planning and design of Central Park in 1857, was certainly aware of this phenomenon, as evidenced in the following quote: ‘The enjoyment of scenery employs the mind without fatigue and yet exercises it; tranquilizes it and yet enlivens it; and thus, though the influence of the mind over the body, gives the effect of refreshing rest and reinvigoration to the whole system’ (Olmsted, 1865 as cited in Nash, 2001).
When Olmsted designed Mount Royal Park, Montreal he combined what we now might describe as a socio-ecological approach to health and well-being. He believed what has now been confirmed by research—that providing pleasantly wooded open spaces would encourage city dwellers to enjoy fresh air and take walks, providing them with healthful exercise. He believed in both a therapeutic and a mystical effect of the natural landscape upon people. While he may have had the prevailing Anglo-Saxton attitudes toward nature of using it for the good of people, he also found in nature, according to Murray (1967), ‘the emotional intensity and moral qualities which had hitherto been reserved for formal Christianity’ (p. 163). Olmsted considered beautiful scenery to be an effective therapy against mental disease. In his report he stressed the: ‘power of scenery to eliminate conditions which tend to nervous depression or irritability. It is thus in a medical phrase, a prophylactic and therapeutic agent of vital value. . . . And for the mass of the people it is practically available only through such means as are provided through parks’ (Olmsted, 1967).
Olmsted developed sites in line with their intrinsic qualities and many sites have stood the test of time. He understood the importance for stress relief as people became city dwellers rather than working with the land. Olmsted was involved with Yosemite and the oldest US state park, the Niagara Reservation in Niagara, New York, as well as one of the country’s first planned communities in Riverside, Illinois. There he designed the drive to and from the planned community to Chicago to be lined with trees and green to help alleviate the stress after work. This same concept was used in his design of a boulevard ring as part of the ‘emerald necklace’ in south Chicago. Perhaps a lesser known park, Presque Isle Park in Marquette, Michigan is a compact version of Olmsted’s values of getting people into the environments to relax and recover from stress as well as fortify themselves to return to city life. He strove to have geniality between nature and people; he wanted the parks to welcome people and he wanted people of poor health and from all classes to have access.
The late 1800s and early 1900s also saw the rise of the camping movement, which was a return to the outdoors for health and romantic ideals. In 1861 Frederick and Abigail Gunn, who ran the Gunnery Camp in Washington, Connecticut for 12 years, decided to take the boys on a 2-week hike to the beach as part of their curriculum in order to keep the boys fit. A focus of the boys’ camps was physical fitness and recapturing their rugged individualism reminiscent of the US frontier life (Miranda and Yerkes, 1987), as well as competition, challenge, and conquering the wilderness (Mitten and Woodruff, 2009). Dr Joseph Trimble Rothrock founded the North Mountain School of Physical Culture in 1876 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania devoted to ‘weakly’ boys. Boys stayed at the camp for 4 months combining the pursuit of health with practical knowledge. The Boy’s Club began in 1900 in Salem, Massachusetts with 76 boys and in 30 years grew to 26,088 campers. The Boy Scouts began in Britain in 1907 and in the US in 1910. The first Boy Scout Camp was on Brownsea Island off the coast of England. The Boy Scouts continue to epitomize what Miranda (1987) indentifies as a form of resistance to a changing world in their (and other boys’ camps) conservative view of using the outdoors to