Our Health and The Environment: Indissoluble Formula

Applying that popular adage that says: "Do not leave for tomorrow what you can do today," the need becomes more and more latent, as well as that urgency to draw attention to humanity in something, which although for some it may be repetitive and almost reaching the limit of the intense, in others such as the hoop community it is vital within a world that seems to ignore how the deterioration of the planet ends up not only being a fatal omen but also causes a significant impact on the well-being of the individual in their daily lives.

This group, whose name means in the Mayan culture "shine" and in English "ring" or "circle," is made up of a team of health professionals who unite before this priority of integrating and organizing the knowledge acquired to help patients to make conscious decisions regarding their care, promoting in them a lifestyle based on self-reflection and responsible practices with a view to the protection of natural resources. It is something like a relationship between people and ecology, a determining binomial for the survival of the two parties.

Currently, the community hoop, in addition to having members from other areas who join this initiative to achieve an emotional and physical balance between the individual vs. the environment, has concentrated through health specialists in providing alternative therapies and different types of medicine: traditional Chinese, hyperbaric, orthomolecular, synergistic as well as sessions where neurolinguistics programming tools, flower essences, profilax atlas, techniques are used relaxation and meditation, promoting a culture of self-care whose reference point is the environment.

This is how Dr. Paola Mariana Arias Ortiz explains it, who is part of this group, a doctor and epidemiologist, a specialist in alternative medicines, and a homeopath “a human being needs several elements to be healthy: the air we breathe is increasingly polluted, which it has produced a series of pathologies. Sunlight must carry out biochemical processes inside our body, but the radiation is intense, damaging the skin. We need the earth. However, the use of fungicides and pesticides means that food is loaded with chemicals and watered with water in which metals, plastic, and garbage are present. In this sense, a large amount of toxins is being ingested.”

And if to the above is added, as the specialist pointed out, lack of rest, difficulty sleeping, stress, or eating outside the required hours because "there is never time," a phrase that becomes mechanical to avoid the situation or ignore it because the priorities are others, a deterioration in the corporal and mental health is generated as part of that wild and chaotic atmosphere that the same society has created.

Without going any further, the EFE Agency published a report on March 24, 2014. According to recent statistics provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was established that environmental pollution kills seven million people a year. That is one in every thousand people in the universe. 3.7% of them perish due to external pollution: 88% of deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. The Western Pacific and Southeast Asia regions are the ones that register the most cases, with 1.67 million deaths and 936,000 deaths, respectively. Another 236,000 deaths occurred in the Eastern Mediterranean; 200,000 in Europe; 176,000 in Africa; and 58,000 in the Americas. The rest of the deaths took place in rich European countries (280,000), the Americas (94,000), Western Pacific (67,000), and Eastern Mediterranean (14,000).

This report explains how from 2008 to 2012, the number of victims increased with an initial figure of 3.5 million. Faced with the consequences of pollution, the document is clear in determining that experts say that 80% of diseases caused by external pollution are cardiovascular, 40% being heart attacks, and the remaining 40% strokes. Meanwhile, the rest that corresponds to 20% is divided into 11% suffering from chronic lung diseases, 6% lung cancer, and 3% acute childhood respiratory infections.

That is why for Dra. Arias, the call is urgent “we need an adequate ozone layer to protect us from the sun, so it is necessary to reduce carbon emissions to take care of our atmosphere. We need clean rivers and seas to have good quality water. We need regenerative agriculture to have healthy food. We need quiet, calm homes to rest. We need to have good interpersonal relationships.”

The first step, as indicated by the source, is to recognize that for the individual to take care of himself, he must protect the environment, and this requires that he begins by transforming consumption habits, forcing at the same time that commerce and industry assume other models in the elaboration of their products, joining a cause that must prevail over their own interests or power.

Also read: How will climate change affect our diet?

The recommendations are clear, and they are linked to that awareness, in this way Dr. Arias emphasizes it when mentioning that it is essential in terms of diet to eat organic components, free of pesticides; avoid the use of plastic or Styrofoam, since animals and humans consume these materials, being the focus of major diseases; wear clothes made with natural fibers such as cotton, less synthetic; do not buy compulsively; recycling at home and selecting degradable waste this produces compost that can be used at home or donated to companies that transform it; access energy sources through solar panels; plant trees in areas where the tropical forest has been lost; choose transport that is friendly to the planet: cycle, walk or, in effect, electric cars and promote the rational use of resources.

Now, although it is important to consider these sustainable practices, the need to work from day to day for that self-care cannot be ignored, which in scientific matters allows the body to also contribute to having better nutrition systems, vitality and achieving that harmony of the hand with the environment. In this sense, Dr. Paola Mariana Arias Ortiz emphasizes that it is a priority to consider aspects such as: sunbathing, especially in the morning; develop a good breathing technique to oxygenate the tissues; avoid cold cuts and packaged foods as they have a considerable impact. For this reason, it is recommended to be vegetarian at least two days a week, since red meats generate acidity and inflammation; prefer vegetable, soy, sesame, or almond milk; sleep, rest, and do things that bring happiness; try to develop healthy work, partner and family relationships; promoting exercise, it produces endorphins that allow mental clarity, improve problem-solving ability and maintain adequate blood pressure levels. In the end, the essential thing is to learn to live in the present and let go of the worry in the future.

"As people understand our role as humans and caretakers of the planet, we are going to have interesting results," explains the interviewee. Not only is it enough to be part of a territory, locality, sector, or region, but also to understand that as inhabitants of planet earth, there is a responsibility and a role is assumed in the face of that space that has been given to generate development. In this way, the contribution of people to preserve the health of a continent is crucial. Working as a unit is key, but understanding that the answer to evolution is found in collective actions is essential to keep moving forward.

And in this racking, ignorance must be fought. One method for this, as stated by Dr. Paola Mariana Arias Ortiz, is “information and education. Ideally, the media will fix their gaze a little more on this need for self-care and protection of the planet, and it is also important to teach through example."

It is vital to open your mind and begin to test, accept the challenge of making changes from day to day and internalize a situation that does not depend only on others but is in the very essence of being. Radiating these new dynamics will allow them to awaken to other opportunities for survival. It will allow those around them to become infected with a transformation that promises hope for new generations.

You can find Dr. Arias on Facebook and Youtube like Comunidad Hoop, on Instagram like @comunidadhoop, and on her website http://comunidadhoop.org/