In a talk I listened to recently, Dr Liz Lipski stated that 60% of the US population considers themselves lonely. And that we can’t consider overall health outside the context of community and relational health. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately both from a personal and a global perspective. In James Maskell’s book “The Community Cure” (available on Amazon for $.99) he states:
“A 1988 study published in Science . . . showed how mortality risk decreases as social integration increases, across multiple countries and cultures. Furthermore, a 2010 study . . . concluded ‘the influence of social relationships on the risk for mortality is comparable with well established risk factors for mortality [like smoking, alcohol, physical inactivity].’ Not just comparable; in most cases, social isolation is a bigger determinant on health and disease than any other factor.”
After studying in the functional nutrition world for the past 5 years and observing my own long term struggles with chronic, mysterious symptoms that come and go with no clear linearity or pattern that is easily discernible, I have to start looking deeper and to a more human ecology oriented approach. Many of us who work in the “alternative” health industry ask the question “why are so many people sick?” Chronic disease is at an all time high despite advancements in science and technology. The CDC reports that 6 in 10 (60% which is the same statistic for people who feel lonely, interestingly) adults lives with at least one chronic disease and 4 in 10 live with 2 or more chronic diseases. And these are just the diagnosed disease processes. There are many more like me who unsuccessfully seek help for mystery symptoms that have no clear diagnosis.
There are certainly more toxic substances on the planet than ever before; there are fewer nutrients in our food supply due to depleted soils; there are existential threats like nuclear war and climate unpredictability; there are exposures to many new chemicals through our food supply, air, water, health and beauty products and so many more assaults on our physiologies on a daily basis. All this is true. But what also seems true is that the resiliency of our bodies is declining . . . rapidly. We need more heroic efforts to create and maintain resiliency than ever before.
This also seems true in the rapidly changing climate we’re seeing. The earth’s systems are losing integrity; just look at polar vortexes which have become more common and which indicate a loosening of a barrier system (the jet stream) that has maintained a stable pattern for as long as we’ve been measuring such things. Or the inability of the landscape to withstand what would be a normal, healthy relationship with fire. Or the ongoing assault on the insect population at a planetary scale which will have long-term dire consequences for every system on the planet. These ecosystems and patterns of action are losing integrity.
Our own bodies’ barrier systems are also losing integrity. These barrier systems are key to the functioning of our inner ecosystem. “Leaky gut” is a dysfunction that is epidemic and is directly implicated with the rise in auto-immunity (where the body begins to attack it’s own tissues rather than support them.) Just like the barrier systems of weather and forces of nature and complex relationships between animals and plants are all key to the functioning of the earth ecosystem.
Is Community a barrier system at a scale between our own internal barrier systems and those barrier systems of the planet? Does Community confer some protection from disease process? If we begin to see ourselves as part of a larger Earth community (as humans have for most of their evolutionary life) does that creation of community and fostering of relationship begin to patch the holes that have opened?
