Connecting with nature for your own healthy, climate-resilient future

• April 19, 2024
• Dr. Christina Allen

Our health is directly impacted by our environment. The basic necessities that keep us alive are reliant on it. Air, water, and food.

We depend on our atmosphere for the air we breathe, our lakes, rivers, streams, and springs for water to quench our thirst, and the soil to provide nutrients for the food that we consume.

What does health look like for you in the face of climate change?

Altered patterns of disease as ecosystems warm, such as an expanded range of ticks increasing the risk of Lyme’s disease. Respiratory disorders due to increased ground-level ozone and other climate affected air pollutants.

A rise in mental health disorders, as increasing impacts and lack of action leave people feeling helpless (often referred to as “eco-anxiety”).

Many of the solutions for climate change are large scale, often global, focused on actions of people too often beyond our ability to control.

These solutions, therefore, feel impersonal.

The challenges we’ll face from climate change are real, but for us to take autonomous action we need to explore another narrative as well. One that offers individual, accessible solutions to establish a sense of empowerment and provide a holistic direction for the future.

Consider how climate change affects you directly. How connected you are to nature and the Earth. Identifying your individual vulnerabilities will enable you to develop a plan to address them.

What lifestyle changes can you make to protect your health in a changing climate? Can you diversify your source of food by expanding from the grocery store to the wilderness?

Integrating food and herbs from our natural landscapes into your diet will give you options in the face of increasingly erratic supply chains. Chaga, for example, can be made into a dark tea as a replacement for black tea. These medicinal mushrooms are rich in polyphenols, which act as antioxidants; important compounds that protect our bodies from oxidative stress caused by the same pollutants that contribute to climate change. Chaga should be sustainably harvested in the winter and thrive in colder climates on birch trees.

Regular mindfulness practice will help balance the nervous system and promote resiliency, keeping you calm and kind in the face of more frequent crises and contributors to stress.

Nature can help here too.

For those interested in gardening, why not add plants that help calm your mind and help the body adapt to stress while making a positive impact on the environment? Holy basil (Ocimum sanctum) is an adaptogenic herb that addresses physical, chemical, metabolic, and psychological stress. Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) is a nervine herb that promotes calm and relaxation. Both herbs are productive and easy to grow in your home garden.

A significant aspect of achieving autonomous healthcare is the ability to make informed decisions. This involves being in tune with your body and recognizing the signs and symptoms it presents. The body provides us with these indicators to allow us to respond and support its innate ability to heal itself.

An example of this is inflammation, one of the most notable contributors to disease. Inflammation is a part of the body’s defence mechanism. It is a process of the immune system, by which it recognizes and removes harmful stimuli and is the start of the healing process.

Inflammation can be initiated by the presence of pathogens such as bacterial or viral infections, injury, exposure to toxins including chemicals and mold, food sensitivities, autoimmune disorders, changes in hormones, sleep issues, or chronic stress.

Symptoms of inflammation depend on the area or symptom affected as well as how long the inflammation has been present. Learn more about how to identify and remove, treat, and/or optimize the body’s ability to cope with inflammation in my blog at CSO Partner.

As inflammation is a common pathogenesis of many chronic diseases, lifestyle medicine can be implemented to reduce its impact on the body.

Activities like shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, can reduce inflammation, as well as stress levels and lead to other positive outcomes such as improved sleep and immune function. Research shows that “forest environments promote lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, increase parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity than do city environments, and that these results can last for up to seven days following your time in a forest”. Shinrin-yoku has been called a bridge between us and the natural world. Spend a minimum of 2 hours per week, 20+ minutes each time in nature.

By taking small, actionable steps towards integrating nature into your daily life, you can create your own healthy, climate-resilient future.

Dr. Cristina Allen is a Naturopathic Doctor with over a decade of experience, owner of lifestyle medicine brand FIELD GUIDE, and co-founding partner of creative consultancy Home Planet. She provides workshops and speaks on the impacts of climate change on health, permaculture, seasonal and healthful eating, and foraging wild spaces in North America. Connect with her and other leading sustainability practitioners at CSOPartner.