Medical Ecogeography, a new scientific discipline

Modern medical science and epidemiology either treat already existing diseases, or prevent them with the help of life style correction, dieting, vaccinations or drugs. Modern ecology states that harmful substances, physical and biological factors are present in the environment.

Until recently, there was no science that studied combined influence of all harmful and useful factors of the environment, estimated health levels that a human will adapt in different regions, and forecast degrees and forms of changes in health in other regions.

The International Institute of the Medical Ecogeography is based in Ukraine. It was founded by Dr. Sergij Maruta and his researchers team in 1986 after Chernobyl catastrophe. Institute directed its research works to this domain of studies by elaborating the fundamental bases of a new scientific discipline: the Medical Ecogeography, on the principle of the protection of the human race and the improvement of the human health by the rational use of the useful natural component of the different regions of the Earth.

The Medical Ecogeography is the science that studies particularities of the functioning of the human body in conditions of different regions of the Earth, and the particularity of the adaptation of a human being to new conditions. The Medical Ecogeography created new directions in development of both medicine and ecology:

• New approaches in medicine allow to bound precisely the proportion between the endogenous and exogenous causes of the activity of the organism's systems;
• The new approaches in ecology to the definition of quality of environmental conditions allow not just to measure the number of chemical and physical factors in the environment, but also to estimate their total usefulness or harmfulness for the functioning of the organism's systems within a period of time.

Several chemical and physical factors of the environment can either aggravate their harmful actions together with other factors, or can neutralize the harmful effect of others. The same way the synergic action of the useful component of the environment can bring the excessive functioning of the body, thus oppressing other functions. Every organism's function at a healthy organism, has a range of normal activity; however the extreme levels of normal activity of the systems. However, working on extreme levels of normal activity lead to gradual exhaustion of their adaptive power, which can cause functional distortions or lead to a chronic disease.

The Medical Ecogeography studies regional conditions of the Earth from the point of view of imbalance of activities of human systems in these regions. It deals with integral estimation of human health in conditions defined by a region, and forecasting adaptation of the organism to new factors of the environment. Medical Ecogeography allows not only to have information about the functioning regime of body systems in different regions, but also to predict their changes of state in new regions. This provides a possibility to choose the place to live and the place to go on vacations from the point of view of the quality of life and health. While choosing a place of vacation, it is very important to give thorough attention to individual particularities of activities' balance of systems, which can strengthen or weaken the health.

While analyzing a locality, we use statistical data on the rates of diseases and mortality in this region, the data on the ecological studies, as well as climatic and social peculiarities of the region. We use special criteria and methods to draw final conclusions regarding the influence of conditions of a region on the activity of organism's systems Following these methods, we conduct comparative examinations of the change in health of groups of people that arrived from the region with already defined physiological and ecological conditions.

The result of the research works in Medical Ecogeography is the information about the particularities of human health in different conditions of each region of the Earth. The medical ecogeography, aimed on the resolution of certain human problems, provides practical conclusions regarding:

• The objective estimation of the value of some land of the Earth for a human being or sale.
• The possibility of choice of the territory for a healthy living.
• The possibility of restoration of the health, even the possibilities to cure the chronic diseases such as the cardiovascular diseases, respiratory (tuberculosis), certain allergies without medications.
• The disease prevention diseases by the optimal choice of the conditions of life and rest.
• The disease prevention during the human movements
• The systematic estimation of the ecological conditions in a region, even the control of the ecological conditions based on the sum of the factors of influence.
• The estimation of the risks of the trip and travel for the purpose of health strengthening.
• The rational use of the properties of territories in the beneficial sense
  for the man.
• The rational construction of residential and the industrial zones
• The development of the specific zones of rest and tourism.
• The choice of the places of sports trainings for the increase of the results.
• The cultivation of medicinal plants in regions having defined properties.
• The increase of transportation security, connected to adaptation loads experienced by drivers, within a period of time, distance and the destination place.

The research works of the International Institute of Medical Ecogeography launched more than decade ago, enabled us to the elaboration of a bank of scientific data of the physiological characteristics of more than 100 countries of the Earth (with included isles and provinces), approachable to the public (even our dear travelers) and, enabling to know in advance prognoses exact on the health of the man, in the new selected locality: www.healthgeography.com

The main phases of the evolution and the development of the new scientific discipline: Medical Ecogeography

By the Dr Sergij Maruta, founder and coordinator of the researchers team of the International Institute of Medical Ecogeography. He can be contacted through the following e-mail address:

gustave_g@loka.kharkiv.com