Environmental medicine
At a glance:
- The body is in contact with its environment and is exposed to external substances, e.g. dental metal, medications, mold, nicotine.
- It can detoxify these substances, but only to a limited extent.
- Since we cannot influence everything, it is important that we act on the things we can influence.
- Clinical environmental medicine can analyze and increase the body's ability to detoxify.
Clinical environmental medicine
What is environmental medicine?
Environmental Medicine - The medicine of soreign substances.
The relatively young field of environmental medicine has the task of identifying and treating stresses on the organism that arise in everyday life from foreign substances in the body and other external stimuli. In this context, foreign substances are everything that the body does not know, but which it nevertheless has to deal with because it comes into contact with its environment, e.g. by ingesting food or breathing the air. Much of it makes us sick, especially in the long run, because the exposure is low doses but just steady over long periods of time.
However, clinical environmental medicine is a medical discipline. Unlike toxicologists, who study short-term consequences of individual toxins on the body, stellen environmental physicians determine the long-term effects of environmental stresses in the body and study the resilience and susceptibility of the individual organism to/against these stimuli. In addition, the remaining (and past) exposures are chronicled (Medical history) in relation to the current disorders. Targeted individual action can then be taken against these environmental stresses in order to treat the symptoms and diseases.
What environmental factors and stresses do we look at in environmental medicine?
Things that interest us in environmental medicine
We will conduct a detailed environmental Medical history with you in clinical environmental medicine. For the following stresses a harmful effect on humans has been proven:
- Medication (e.g. antibiotic)
- Natural stresses (allergies, food intolerances, UV radiation)
- Contaminants in food and drinking water (food additives, acrylamide, arsenic, dioxins, PCBs, glyphosate, legionella, mold, germs, heavy metals, mineral oils, microplastics)
- Chemicals with skin contact (cosmetic products, tattoos, textiles)
- Chemicals in the air (cigarettes, cleaning agents, paints, adhesives, varnishes, exhaust fumes, particulate matter)
- Toxins in the living or working space (e.g. mold, wood preservatives, pet droppings)
- Heavy metals (e.g. lead in drinking water, dental metal, piercings, artificial joints, prostheses)
- Endocrine disruptors (hormone-like substances; e.g., bisphenol A (BPA) in plastics)
- Pesticides (e.g. insecticides, herbicides, fungicides)
- Noise (e.g. from construction sites, road noise, aircraft noise, ventilation systems, household appliances)
- Electromagnetic fields (EMF)
Can I influence my personal environmental impact myself at all?
The organism also takes out its garbage.
Of course, we do not live in a bubble. Environmental medicine also takes this into account. We can only do something to a limited extent about the city air, the construction site noise next door, or the stress caused by the necessary artificial joint that enables us to live . However, the body must detoxify all foreign substances in order to avoid damage but it only has a a certain capacity for detoxification. Think of it like the garbage can that every organism has to manage. This is emptied regularly and the person remains healthy. However, if too much garbage accumulates at once, the body can no longer keep up with taking out the garbage because the enzymes needed to break down the foreign substances are bound elsewhere. In addition, the garbage can eventually becomes too small, so that any external stimulus, no matter how small, regularly causes illness. So, in addition to severity, it is the mass of the stresses that is critical in coping with environmental factors.
There are many things you can't change, but others you can even more.
Even though you cannot change many causes of environmental stress, you at least have some in your hands to interact with your environment and stay healthy. With these, it is therefore even more important to act, because the body is not designed to have to detoxify many foreign substances. For example, endocrine disruptors such as bisphenol A (BPA) found in plastic resemble hormones and are treated as such by the body, causing a major imbalance in hormone balance. Another example is thyroid disorders, which are common in many people, because the thyroid is particularly sensitive to environmental stresses.
How does clinical environmental medicine act?
How our medicine can help you better manage environmental stress.
Knowledge is power.
Here, every person is individual and has, for example, special occupational stresses or a genetic inabilityto cope with and break down certain substances. These problem areas are tangible and can be identified very well in environmental medicine. A detailed environmental Medical history gives us information about this. Equipped with this knowledge, you will gain a greater awareness of the topic in general , but also an overview of your own areas in which you are particularly at risk. You will also understand if a specific exposure to a foreign substance you deal with on a daily basis may have led to various ailments without you being able to establish this connection yourself. You will also know which substances are genetically more difficult or impossible for you to detoxify. This is what the comprehensive environmental medical history is for. It works hand in hand with our Gene analysis.
Avoid harmful things purposefully and support detoxification
After we have determined which substances you are exposed to and which are particularly harmful to your organism, we move into action, into "emptying your garbage can". With this knowledge, you will be empowered to make your own informed decisions about your lifestyle in everyday life and to specifically avoid the substances and environmental factors that will make you sick in the long run. These are different for each person. If you currently have no way to eliminate a certain environmental stress from your life (for example, because your joint prosthesis is vital), then we will support your body with the necessary micronutrients and vitamins to help your body cope with these stresses. We also make sure that your organism can detoxify better.
We can offer our consultation to privately insured patients as well as to patients with statutory health insurance as self-pay patients. You can easily book appointments in our preventive medicine yourself via our online calendar here:
