ECO HVAR: AIMS AND ACTIVITIES OF THE CHARITY

Environment

Eco Hvar's aims for environmental protection, and related articles.

Read more...

maria lidija

Health

Eco Hvar's ideas for encouraging positive health, plus related articles

Read more...

Animals

Eco Hvar's aims for protecting animals and improving animal welfare, plus related articles

Read more...

Health and Healthcare in Our Times

Published in Health

Some of the concepts underlying ECO HVAR for health.

Having worked in the field of physical rehabilitation for over 35 years, I have seen many changes in medical practice. Some for the better, some for the worse.

 

Modern medicine is dominated by the use of therapeutic drugs. Big business. Mega-profits for the companies which hit the right spot in the market. So there is a constant race to produce a new magic bullet cure for every possible human ailment, not to mention medicines designed to prevent illnesses, all preferably packaged and marketed for use by the maximum number of people over the maximum possible time.

 

The upside is that progress has been made in controlling diseases such as smallpox. The downside is that many medicines have side-effects which cause secondary problems, some of which can be dangerous and even fatal; and that overuse of medicines, especially antibiotics, has created drug-resistant infections such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and C.Diff (Clostridium difficile)and sometimes an upsurge in the diseases which the medicines were supposed to treat, such as drug-resistant tuberculosis. 

 

Many therapeutic drugs are now available over-the-counter and on the internet. Practitioners of different kinds have prescription rights. In the United Kingdom, apart from registered medical practitioners, some nurses, health visitors, physiotherapists and podiatrists have the right to prescribe certain types of drug, as do dentists. Whenever a patient is under the care of several practitioners, there is a risk of medicines being over-prescribed. Worse still, if there is no coordination between the practitioners, conflicting drugs may be administered with results varying from minor disruption to disastrous.

 

In some ways, the emphasis on drug therapy has distorted principles of health care. Many doctors and patients expect that cure can come out of a bottle, packet or sachet - and that ‘scientific medicine’ was the only way problems could and should be treated. When I trained as a Chartered physiotherapist in the UK all those years ago, I was reluctant to treat tuberculosis patients, because both my parents had had TB, and my oldest brother had died of the disease. My fears were brushed away: ‘It’s not a problem if you get TB nowadays, you just take the drugs and all is well’. In the same spirit of false confidence, over the following years most of the UK’s isolation hospitals for infectious diseases were closed. This, of course, was before the days of drug-resistant TB, now a major source of concern in world health, alongside the rise of the so-called ‘superbugs’ mentioned above which afflict almost all UK hospitals. The US report, 'Antibiotic reistance threats in the United States, 2013', issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, identified that "most deaths related to antibiotic  resistance happen in healthcare settings such as hospitals and nursing homes".

 

From the patient’s point of view, the expectation that all ills can be cured by the wonders of modern medicines has created a sense of invincibility. People don’t feel responsible for preventing illness and promoting their own wellbeing. Health promotion campaigns come and go, and there are constant, sometimes conflicting, messages in the media about ‘healthy living’.

 

Healthy living depends on many factors, physical, mental and emotional. Environment also plays an important part. There is no single formula for a healthy lifestyle. Much depends on the individual. Diet, exercise and lifestyle habits have their influence one’s health, and have to be considered as a whole in relation to an individual’s capacities, preferences and aspirations. A top-class sports competitor has different needs from the sedentary office worker, but for health both have to pay attention to diet, exercise and lifestyle habits. For everyone, hygiene is of primary importance in preventing and controlling infection and cross-infection.

 

My years of experience as a rehabilitation practitioner specializing in trauma and sports injuries have, naturally, taught me much. My basic principles have been constant throughout:

1. simple solutions

2. freedom of choice

 

I favour natural cures to injuries and illnesses, whenever possible. The human body has a powerful capacity to heal itself, in the right conditions. It’s up to the practitioner to help create the right conditions. The patient (or the person responsible for the patient in the case of a child or someone incapable of making reasoned choices) should be informed of the nature of the injury or illness, the possible treatments and their effects (including risks), and self-help measures. Then it’s up to the patient to decide which course of action is best in a given situation. Very often, feeling in control of the situation is an important part of the patient’s ability to recover.

 

This is the background to the formation of ECO HVAR for health, a not-for-profit organization promoting an understanding healthy lifestyles, problem prevention and solutions.

 

© Vivian Grisogono 2013

Note: Information about injuries and related health issues can be found on my website: www.viviangrisogono.com.

You are here: Home Health Health and Healthcare in Our Times

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Lobbyists argued it was unfair for their industry to be treated the same as others as end product – oil and gas – inevitably produced emissions

    Experts have accused the fossil fuel industry of seeking special treatment after lobbyists argued greenhouse gas emissions from oilfields should be treated differently to those from other industries.

    The government is embroiled in a row over whether to allow a massive new oilfield, Rosebank, to go ahead, with some cabinet members arguing it could boost growth and others concerned it could make the goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 impossible to reach. Labour made a manifesto commitment to halt new North Sea licensing, but Rosebank and some other projects had already been licensed and were awaiting final approval when the party won the general election.

    Continue reading...

  • The chemical compounds that block UV rays may lead to bleaching of coral and a decrease in fish fertility

    Urgent investigation is needed into the potential impact sunscreen is having on marine environments, according to a new report.

    Sunscreens contain chemical compounds, known as pseudo persistent pollutants, which block the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays and can lead to bleaching and deformity in coral or a decrease in fish fertility.

    Continue reading...

  • Discovery of pest in UK raises fears for Sitka spruce, which accounts for half of country’s commercial plantations

    A beetle that has previously devastated Norway spruce populations across continental Europe has been found to be equally attracted to the Sitka spruce, a finding experts say could have significant implications for commercial forestry.

    The eight-toothed European spruce bark beetle has now been found in the UK, raising fears for the Sitka, which accounts for a quarter of Britain’s forest cover and half its commercial forestry plantations.

    Continue reading...

  • Deep Dale, Derbyshire: Hazels are a local speciality, but my favourites are the hawthorns, which are smothered in vegetation from trunk to tip

    The bottom part of this Plantlife reserve, where it meets Monsal Dale, has some of the finest trees I’ve found in the Peak District. Not for their age or massive size, but for what you might call their entangled condition. A recent find is an old pollarded horse chestnut whose sinuous limbs wave wildly, and every one of them is completely moss-and-fern coated.

    If it didn’t also look so tough and monumentally static, the whole thing could easily resemble kelp swaying in the tide. The late Tony Hare, co-founder of the organisation that owns Deep Dale, invented a phrase: “As mad as a tree.” In this instance it feels apt.

    Continue reading...

  • Researchers say the animals could keep red deer numbers under control, leading to storage of 1m tonnes of CO2

    Reintroducing wolves in the Scottish Highlands could lead to an expansion of native woodland, which could take in and store 1m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, researchers have suggested.

    A study led by researchers at the University of Leeds said that reintroducing the species into the Cairngorms, as well as the south-west, north-west and central Highlands could help curb the problem of red deer eating tree saplings, which stops natural woodland regeneration.

    Continue reading...

  • Trend towards more extreme-weather events will continue to hit crop yields and create price spikes, Inverto says

    Extreme weather events are expected to lead to volatile food prices throughout 2025, supply chain analysts have said, after cocoa and coffee prices more than doubled over the past year.

    In an apparent confirmation of warnings that climate breakdown could lead to food shortages, research by the consultancy Inverto found steep rises in the prices of a number of food commodities in the year to January that correlated with unexpected weather.

    Continue reading...

  • I’m campaigning for legal protection for cleaner fish, because no one has done a proper assessment of the impact of removing them from Scottish reefs

    I was in my 50s when I first became aware that cleaner fish existed, when I met a fisher who sold them to Scottish salmon farms. Each year, around the world, such farms use more than 60 million cleaner fish to eat – or “clean” – parasites off other fish. But the natural habitat of the cleaner fish is the reef.

    On a reef, each cleaner fish has clients that visit them to have their parasites removed – sometimes much bigger fish or predators such as sharks and rays. I was intrigued to discover the cleaner fish would gently massage these clients with their fins and make sure they were comfortable.

    Continue reading...

  • Mirrorscape, an intricate sand sculpture by French artist Théo Mercier, is a ghostly scene of decay that resembles the aftermath of a disaster – or perhaps ‘a fossil from the future’

    Théo Mercier, the French visual artist, choreographer and stage director, has spent months in Tasmania taking photos of junk.

    In Mirrorscape, an exhibition that opened on the weekend at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), he and an international team of expert sculptors – Kevin Crawford, Enguerrand David, Sue McGrew and Leonardo Ugolini – used 80 tonnes of compacted sand to recreate the scenes of decay and detritus he found, serving them as a mirror of our own ruin. It’s a ghostly scene of domestic, environmental and industrial decay in still life, and it’s beautiful.

    Continue reading...

  • Despite government efforts, armed groups control many remote areas. Now researchers are caught in the crosshairs

    Raul*, a biologist from Quito, has been leading conservation projects in the Chocó rainforest in north-east Ecuador for more than 20 years. It has not been easy, he says, recalling the threats he has received over the years for reporting illegal hunters and loggers in reserves, but he never considered giving up.

    Last year, however, tensions in the area escalated after violence soared on the country’s coast. Accounts of almost daily killings in the cities of Esmeraldas and Guayaquil emerged as gangs appeared to fight over territory, while forced recruitment in rural areas increased, as did extortions, known locally as vacunas,or vaccines.

    Continue reading...

  • The Eaton fire destroyed nearly half of the Black households in Altadena, wiping out businesses and wealth

    A memorial service early this month for three Black victims of the Eaton fire was marked by simmering anger at Donald Trump’s choice not to visit Altadena, a suburb with a historic Black community disproportionately affected by the disaster.

    It’s one of many decisions that have left residents of Altadena, a racially and economically diverse suburb of Los Angeles, worried about political and financial neglect in the aftermath of the fires.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds