What does Climate Change Have to Do With Health Care? ~ Gary Cohen

In the last six months, we have witnessed Superstorm Sandy flooding New York City, New Jersey and surrounding areas, a massive Midwest drought impacting 40% of the US corn crop, and unprecedented air pollution from burning fossil fuels that forced Chinese authorities to tell Beijing residents to stay in their homes.  When we think about climate change, we are no longer thinking about polar bears stranded on melting ice caps. Climate chaos has come home and its impacts are being felt all around the world.

What health scientists are telling us is that climate change will bring increased asthma, more virulent allergens, medical emergencies from heat stress, the spread of water- and vector-borne diseases and increased severe weather events. The Lancet, Britain’s premier health journal, calls climate change “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.”

Given these dire warnings, one would expect that the healthcare sector would be prepared for the coming public health storm. Nothing could be further from the truth. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the hospitals were completely flooded along with everyone else. But because they all had their electrical equipment as well as their back-up generators in the basement, , they lost all power. And because none of the windows in the hospital were operable, hospital staff had to break all the windows in the hospitals’ upper floors to get air into the facility.

Five years later during Hurricane Sandy, a similar story occurred. Both Bellevue Hospital and New York Langone Medical Center had to be evacuated because all their electrical systems were in the basement. At NYU Langone, millions of dollars of medical research specimens were destroyed because of lack of consistent refrigeration. It took Bellevue more than ten weeks to clean up the mess and reopen its doors to patients.

We are learning the hard way that the healthcare sector’s understanding and ability to respond to climate change is still in a primitive stage of development.

What, then, should the role of healthcare be in dealing with climate change?

First, hospitals need to focus on preparedness and resilience in their design and operations so they can be critical players in responding to extreme weather events, rather than being one of the victims. Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston is one example of a hospital that has taken the reality of climate change to heart. The hospital, which is scheduled to open in April 2013, employs on-site power generation, operable windows to provide natural ventilation and has put all the mechanical/electrical equipment on the roof of the facility. These innovations are part of the overall business strategy of Partners Healthcare (Spaulding’s owner) which has added climate change to its top “business risks” category.

The second critical role for health care should be to model the transition to a post-fossil fuel economy. In the U.S., health care represents 18% of the entire GDP, and is likely to increase to more than 20% when health care reform is in full swing. In other industrialized countries, health care represents 10% of the economy.  Given its enormous economic clout and its healing mission, health care is well positioned to “model” the transition away from our addiction to fossil fuels, which not only contributes to global climate change but also has local pollution and public health impacts. Reliance on coal, for example, contributes dramatically to increased asthma and respiratory diseases while fracking for natural gas contaminates local groundwater and vents toxic chemicals into the community air. Health care has a mission-related imperative to lower its own extensive carbon footprint and lead the effort to a secure and sustainable energy economy.

Reducing hospital dependence on fossil fuel energy through conservation efforts improves resilience – the less energy that hospitals require, the longer they can operate during and after extreme weather events. An alternative source of power independent from the electrical grid also helps in weather emergencies; while all hospitals have diesel generators, much of this infrastructure has proven to be vulnerable and inadequate for prolonged grid outages.

During Sandy, hospitals that had on-site power generation continued to provide critical care to their patients, and offered safe haven for those hospital patients that were evacuated from flooded areas. Known as co-generation (or Combined Heat and Power), this technology not only dramatically improves the hospital’s energy efficiency and saves money, but it also turns out to be a critical climate resiliency strategy. Kiowa County Hospital, destroyed by a massive category 5 tornado in 2007 that damaged 95 percent of the town of Greensburg, Kansas, has been reconstructed with a 100 percent renewable wind energy system.  According to FEMA, renewable energy infrastructure has performed well in extreme weather events, demonstrating that sustainable design and increased resilience go hand in hand.

The third central role of the health care sector is in education and advocacy around climate change policy. Health care professionals, especially doctors and nurses, enjoy an unprecedented role as positive messengers for health in society. As we begin to calculate the enormous health care and social costs of climate change, health care professionals are in a position to educate their patients about the public health impacts of climate change and help prepare them for these impacts, and also become potent spokespersons for policies at all levels of government that would rein in climate change. As Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, has stated, “the health sector must add its voice – loud and clear – and fight to place health issues at the center of the climate agenda. We have compelling reasons for doing so. Climate change will affect, in profoundly adverse ways, some of the most fundamental determinants of health: food, air, and water.”

Climate change will bring us many more heat waves, hurricanes and droughts in the years to come.  We need to engage the health care sector in climate change mitigation so they can help communities be prepared to weather these crises and help lead us to a healthier and more sustainable future. Who else is going to play this role?

~ Gary Cohen

Gary Cohen is Co-Founder and President of Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, India, established to help heal people affected by the Bhopal gas tragedy. He is on the board of the American Sustainable Business Council and Health Leads.

This article was published as part of a special series for World Health Day and in advance of the 2013 Skoll World Forum. 


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" Why We Do What We Do: God is in your Genes! " ~ Sadhguru

Indian culture is incredibly complex and may resemble a chaos of mind-boggling proportions. But beneath this seeming chaos is a scientific foundation that is thousands of years old. The series “Why We Do What We Do”, will look at the basis behind the various elements of Indian culture, and explain how even the minutest detail was geared towards a human being’s immediate and ultimate wellbeing.

Question: Namaskaram Sadhguru. 

What is the significance of giving one’s name, nakshatra and gotram while doing the abhishekam at Linga Bhairavi?

Sadhguru:

"These things were very significant and relevant when deities were created in a certain way. Indian culture was created with an understanding of the phenomenal complexity of life, but today this has become one big hotchpotch because invasions in the last 1800 years have seriously disturbed the instruments and institutions which transmitted this from generation to generation. Otherwise, this is a very sophisticated science.

At one time, every temple that was set up was a live temple. It was alive, not a doll that you go and worship. A live force was created of different calibers, categories, and qualities. People did not go to every temple. There were some temples which were for general wellbeing, where everybody went. But for specific purposes, people went only to their Kuladaivam (clan deity). This was a fabulous understanding of genetics and how it functions.

Today, scientists can dig up one little bone of someone who died a hundred years ago, take it to the laboratory, check that DNA and compare it with your DNA and say, “This was your grandfather.” You can do this even for someone who died ten thousand years ago. Science gives you this access. Similarly, for thousands of years, people maintained the genetic track in their own way – never mixing it up or doing anything which will disturb the track – so that their progeny come out well. Not only that, you can create a certain energy which travels through the track. Everybody in your kula (clan) need not go to the temple. You go and do the process and everyone benefits because everyone in that kula is connected. Right now, medical science is also heading in this direction. They can find something that works for your DNA, and all the people who have that type of DNA will benefit.

This was understood and genetic lines were maintained so strictly and an energy source was established for that particular DNA and genetic trend. When someone goes to the temple, they are not telling some God up there about their kula. They are just registering, “This is me, I belong to this line, this is my gotra, this is my nakshatra, this is my kula.” They are saying, “This is my DNA, do something for me.” It is the most scientific way of handling it. It is a wonderful understanding of life."
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" Why We Do What We Do: Sleeping Right " ~ Sadhguru

In today’s episode of Why We Do What We Do, we explore the superstitions surrounding sleep, through Sadhguru’s words.

"Indian culture is incredibly complex and resembles a chaos of mind-boggling proportions. But beneath this seeming chaos is a scientific foundation that is thousands of years old. Often, the practices that we label today as blind superstition have very logical explanations behind them. The series “Why We Do What We Do” looks at the basis behind the various elements of Indian culture and explains how even the minutest detail was geared towards a human being’s immediate and ultimate wellbeing."

Sadhguru:

In India, you were told that you should not place your head to the north while sleeping. Why? First, let’s look at the way your body is engineered. Your heart is not located half-way down, it is placed three-fourths of the way up because pumping blood up against gravity is more difficult than pumping it down. The blood vessels which go upward are a finer arrangement compared to those going down. As they go up into the brain, they are almost hair-like, to such a point that they cannot even take one extra drop. If one extra drop is pumped in, something will burst and you will have a hemorrhage.

Most people have hemorrhages in their brain. This does not incapacitate you in any major way, but small damages happen. You may become duller, which people are becoming. Your level of intelligence after the age of 35 drops in many ways unless you take enormous care to keep it up. You are managing because of your memory, not because of your intelligence.

When you put your head to the north, what happens? If you have any kind of blood-related problem, let’s say anemia, what would a doctor prescribe? Iron. It is an important ingredient in your blood. You have heard of the magnetic fields on the planet. In many ways, the earth is engineered because of its magnetism. That’s how powerful the magnetic forces are on the planet.

When the body is positioned horizontally, you can immediately make out that your pulse rate drops. The body makes this adjustment because if blood is pumped at the same level, too much will go into your head, causing damage. Now, if you place your head to the north and stay that way for 5 to 6 hours, the magnetic pull will cause pressure on your brain. If you are beyond a certain age and your blood vessels are weak, you could have hemorrhages and paralytic strokes. Or, if your system is sturdy and these things don’t happen to you, you could get up agitated because there is more circulation in the brain than there should be when you are sleeping.

This is true as long as you are in the northern hemisphere – sleeping with your head towards any side except north is okay. In the southern hemisphere, don’t put your head to the south.

The Right and Wrong Side of the Bed!

Your heart is an important aspect of your physiology. The station that pumps life across the body – if this one thing doesn’t happen, nothing happens – starts from your left side. In India, the culture has always said that when you wake up, you must roll to your right side and then get out of bed. When your body is in a certain state of relaxation, its metabolic activity is low. When you get up, there is a certain surge of activity. So you need to roll over to your right side and get up because at a lower level of metabolic activity, if you suddenly roll to your left, you will put pressure upon your cardiac system.

The First Thing You See

In the tradition, they also told you that before you get up in the morning, you must rub your hands together and place your palms upon your eyes. They said that if you do this, you will see God. It is not about seeing God.

There is a heavy concentration of nerve endings in your hands. If you rub your palms together, all the nerve endings are activated and the system comes awake immediately. When you wake up in the morning and still feel sleepy and drowsy, just do this and see, everything comes awake. Instantly, a whole range of nerves connected with your eyes and other aspects of your senses come awake. Before you move your body, your body and brain should be active. You shouldn’t get up dumb, that’s the idea.

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What is Yoga?(Part 3) ~ Sadhguru [a video]

Sadhguru explains that yoga means to liberate yourself from that information which determines who you are right now. If you can distance yourself from this information, then you're moving into yoga.

For more on Sadhguru visit: www.sadhguru.org

Source: Isha Foundation

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What is Yoga?(Part 2) ~ Sadhguru [a video]

Yoga fundamentally looks at how to make a person flexible on all levels -- whether it be on the level of the body, mind, emotions or energy. The important thing is that this flexibility should come to every aspect of your life. ~ Sadhguru

For more on Sadhguru visit: www.sadhguru.org

Source: Isha Foundation

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What is Yoga?( Part 1) ~ Sadhguru [a video]

The word yoga means literally means "union" or "to merge". More than a set of physical postures or exercises, Sadhguru defines yoga as a science to determine the nature of who you are and what you want to be.

Scientific research has shown today that the very fundamentals of the brain's activity, inner chemistry, and genetic predispositions can be changed by practicing certain systems of yoga. Yoga is essentially a technology to change the shape of who you are. ~ Sadhguru

Source: Isha Foundation

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" Yoga : Breaking the Cycle" ~ Sadhguru

Sadhguru on Transforming Oneself from a Person to a Presence.

Sadhguru: Of all the things in the world, of all the things that a human being can do, why yoga? Everything that human beings can do is essentially an expression of who they are. Yoga is diametrically opposite to this because it is not an expression of who you are – it is about determining as to who you are and what you want to be; it is about changing the very fundamentals of your existence. Today there is substantial scientific evidence that the very fundamentals of the activity of your brain, your chemistry, and even your genetic content can be changed by practicing different systems of yoga. This needed no confirmation because we have always witnessed this. 

Yoga needs much more involvement than any other things that you do, which are merely an expression of who you are. If you find full expression through any particular activity, it may also leave you somewhat transformed. If you cook with all your heart, some transformation may happen. Taking care of a cow can change your life. If you sing with all your heart, some transformation may happen. If you dance with all your heart, some transformation may happen. Absolute involvement in a particular activity has a certain impact, but it does not determine the nature of who you are. 

Yoga is not an expression, it is a method, it is a means, it is a technology through which you can change the shape of who you are – literally and otherwise. Who you are right now is a combination of things. The karmic substance that you carry – because of that you chose a certain womb – the genetic material, and whatever kind of impressions have gone into you since the moment you were born – experiences, situations, thoughts, emotions, relationships, associations, and whatever else – all these things make you a certain kind of person.

This is a very western thing but it is very much there in India today too because a lot of Indians are far more western than westerners. People say, “I’m a morning person. I’m an evening person.” What they mean is, “I cannot stay awake in the evening, so I’m a morning person.” Or, “I cannot wake up in the morning; that means I am an evening person.” Not only that, it is going so far that some are BlackBerry people, some are Apple people. These are not just instruments that you use – you get identified with them. The world is getting divided in so many ways. There are chapatti people, there are rice people, there are dosa people, there are idli people – there are all kinds. What kind you are is essentially a certain type of compulsion.

You put yourself into the process of yoga because you do not want to be this kind or that kind – you want to be the kind that you are required to be in a particular moment. If it is morning, you are a morning person. If it is evening, you are an evening person. If you are not required to be a person, you are not a person. You become flexible. We work on this flexibility with your body to start with; afterwards, it should come to every aspect of your life. Your physical structure, your psychological structure, your emotional structure, your karmic structure – everything should become flexible, so that it can be whatever it is required to be; so that it is not stuck with being this way or that way.


Yoga as a process, as a method, as a technology, as a science is essentially about breaking the limitations of this concretization that we call personality to evolve from being a person to a presence. If you are a person, this means you formed a shell – you can operate only within that shell. If you break the shell, you will no more be a person but simply a presence – as life is, as God is – just a presence. If it is encased in a shell, it is a person. Yoga means, slowly you are working on making this shell thinner and thinner, more and more porous, so that one day, you can exist without a shell.

All aspects of physicality are cyclical. Planets are going around the sun, the solar systems are moving – everything in the cosmos is cyclical. The more identified you are with your physical system, the more cyclical you are too. Your experiences are cyclical; the process of life is cyclical. If you watch carefully enough, even the situations that you face in your life come in cycles. Yoga means on one level to break the cycle of life. Because if you are going in circles, it just gives you the impression that you are going somewhere, but you are not really going anywhere; you are going through the same thing again and again.

Yoga means to open up the circle and stretch it out like a straight line so that if you follow the line, you go somewhere; you are not going round and round. Do not experiment with this now, but let’s say you have been doing sadhana for two, three, or five years and then you stop it for three months, you will see so many compulsions that were long time gone suddenly become a part of you again. These compulsions will come back if you break the sadhana because nature is not going to release you so easily. You have to keep working at it; otherwise you must be happy doing the circle. If you become conscious and you can see the whole circle of your life, it looks like a circus, and definitely you do not want it to continue forever; you want to do something about it.

These repetitive cycles of compulsiveness come from various types of memories in the system. There is a huge volume of memory – karmic memory, genetic memory, mental memory, and psychological memory – every kind. If this memory was not there, your body would not even take a form. Your body knows that it has to take this form. Memory always means that which is past. If the memory that you carry or is the only thing that determines the nature of who you are right now, that means you are past, or life is past you. There is no real life; it is just a play of memory.

If you watch a movie in the cinema, it is so big and so real, more real than the real; it becomes a bigger reality than the actual reality because it is so exaggerated. But all this is just memory being played out. Whether it is recorded in a film or in a digital format or whichever way, it is just memory; it is already over. Even your thoughts, your emotions, your compulsions, what you like, what you don’t like, whom you love, whom you don’t love – whatever is in your mind is all memory; it is already past. Yesterday you loved somebody – with that memory, you live today. Yesterday you disliked somebody – with that memory, you live today. So you are trying to live that which is over. If you try to live that which is over, that which is will bypass you.

Yoga means to liberate yourself from the information that determines who you are right now. The information that determines the color of your skin, the information that determines the shape of your body should not determine how you think, feel, and experience your life – but unfortunately, it does. If this information does not determine anymore how you are right now, then you are moving into yoga. The daily sadhana is just to slowly, gradually create a distance from that information – you don’t have to lose it. People say, “I want to forget.” If you forget, you will do the same stupid things all over again. Never ever forget. The more unpleasant your life has been, the more you should never forget.

This is not about forgetfulness but about being able to carry. Today you have memory sticks. If it is all the time plugged in and all of it is playing, you will go crazy. If you carry it in your pocket and when you want, you stick it into your computer, then there is no problem. The memory is still there but not compulsively working through you. Once you have this freedom that if you want, you can activate the memory; otherwise, you can keep it aside – then memory is not a problem. But right now, memory is a problem because it is playing up all the time.

 Yesterday’s love, yesterday’s dislike – everything has determined who you are today. It will not allow you to experience what is today; it will not allow you any possibility of life; you will be like a broken record, just going on with the same thing. “I dislike this person. I dislike this person. I dislike this person.” Yesterday, he did something and you disliked him – there is no need to dislike him today. But the memory is playing up. Whether you like him or dislike him, both ways it is an old record playing, which will not allow you any perception. Unless you begin to perceive life in larger and larger doses, there is really no experience of life, just the mind playing the same record over and over again.

Yoga means breaking this cycle. Nature will not release you from it just like that; it needs a certain amount of work. If you want to be released just like that, you have to release yourself from the body itself. The foundation of information that we carry has constructed this body the way it is. To stay in the body, which is the way it is only because of its memory, and not to be a part of that memory; to live in it and not to be of it, will not come easy. I am not saying it is difficult, but it needs to be worked at.

The sadhana is just about this. However simple the sadhana is, if it is worked at every day, slowly you can see a certain level of freedom happening within you. It will slowly release you. If you want to go rapidly, there is a lot more to do. If you don’t mind going slowly, there is something to do.

So tomorrow morning – sadhana.

The above is an excerpt from a darshan with Sadhguru at the Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri Foothills, India, on 30 October 2012. 

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People living close to equator likelier to have allergies, asthma

Washington: Living in locations closest to the equator can put people at increased risk of developing allergy and asthma due to higher UV-B rays exposure, according to a new study.

"UV-B rays exposure is higher for people living in areas closer to the equator. This increase in UV-B may be linked to vitamin D, which is thought to modify the immune system. These modifications can lead to an elevated risk of developing allergy and asthma," said Vicka Oktaria, MPH, lead study author.

Previous studies have shown that latitude can reflect a variation in airborne allergens due to climate, housing and social and cultural differences. This study is one of the first using the individuals latitude location and UV-B exposure to examine the association with allergy and asthma.

"Allergies and asthma are serious diseases that can be life-threatening if not diagnosed and treated properly. Both conditions can be more than bothersome for people, no matter their geographic location, and can last year-round," said allergist Richard Weber, MD, ACAAI president.

Board-certified allergists are the best-trained health professionals to perform testing and treat both asthma and allergic diseases effectively. According to ACAAI, many people that have an allergy also experience asthma symptoms. In fact, an estimated 75 to 85 percent of asthmatics have an allergy.

The new study has been released in the February issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).
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