Has your doctor ever asked you about where you've lived in order to detect if you've had some chemical exposure? Unlikely. Whether or not you've ever lived near Love Canal or Three Mile Island, it's possible that where you have lived has had an effect on your personal health.  Call it the missing link, the overlooked and rarely asked about important factor when trying to figure out what has contributed to your current health situation. Now being called Geomedicine, this incredibly important common sense approach could help you unveil risk factors from your past and potential health issues to look out for.

What To Tell Your Doctor

Although I was well aware of the health consequences of chemical exposure, I didn't regularly ask my patients in Santa Fe about it until one woman got sick in my office. The next door building had just had their wooden doors stained, and as this woman walked into my office she immediately developed a headache and told me she absolutely couldn't stay. We walked down the street to get away from the fumes and I asked her about previous chemical exposure. She revealed that she grew up for the first 18 years of her life very close to a fuel refinery.  Ever since then she has suffered from fibromyalgia, migraines, and mood disorders. Ayurveda and Chinese medicine had taught me to play detective to trace back the root cause of disease and the progression of an illness, and although I had asked her about everything else in her history, I had neglected to ask that very significant question. We started a chemical detox protocol, and her symptoms began to improve immediately. I've never again failed to ask a patient about this missing piece of the puzzle.

Next time you visit your doctor or health care practitioner, offer them your geographical history.  Visit this site where you can enter the locations you've lived in and it will show you a map of the toxic emissions in that area and summarize it in a free report. If you have an illness you're trying to understand, you may uncover some important risk factors based on chemical exposure. If you are just going in for a check up, discuss this information to see if there's some imbalance you can work to prevent.

Your Health Depends On Where You Live

Bill Davenhall is head of the health and human services marketing team at ESRI, the largest geographic information system software developer in the world. At the recent TEDMED conference he gave a talk about Geomedicine as the missing link in our personal health history. He wants personal place history and government environmental data to be part of patients' medical records. Check out his personal story and his mission in the video below.

Detox Is Possible

So many factors contribute to who you are today. Diet, exercise, attitude and lifestyle are all extremely important in maintaining optimal health. But in the investigative process of understanding your current personal health, do not overlook your history of where you've lived. It is possible to detox industrial chemicals from the body so that you are not destined to suffer because of chemical exposure. In future posts I will discuss how to safely and thoroughly accomplish this. You can start by gathering information for yourself and your health care provider to fully understand what your missing links might be.

If you have a story of chemical exposure, please share it in the comments below to help other readers uncover their missing links!