Balanced Immune Health

I went to a very interesting conference yesterday: the annual meeting of the Iowa Wind Energy Association. Iowa has now surpassed California and is second only to Texas in total megawatts of power generated by wind.  Currently, the United States gets 1% of its power from wind. The federal goal is to generate 20% from wind by the year 2030. So wind energy and all the enterprises supporting it are a big deal in this part of the country. There was a palpable “energy” (pardon the pun) in the room as the attendees all could sense the something significant–a movement if you will–was well under way and showing tangible results.

On the drive home, I was wondering how similar this kind of sea change or paradigm shift (pardon the cliche) might be to the emerging science and health-care practice changes involving immune health balance and management.

Right now, natural/renewable wind has displaced only 1% of conventional energy sources (mainly coal). That little 1% constitutes 29 millions tons of coal and 90 million barrels of oil a year.  

I kind of compare that to natural/renewable immune balancing methods and technologies (diet, exercise, weight control, supplementation) replacing ”misprescribed” antibiotics. Health industry estimates gathered by Public Citizen show that 40% to 60% of antibiotics are over-prescribed or misprescribed in medical practices throughout the U.S.  And I won’t even get into findings showing antibiotic and other human pharmaceutical content levels building up in public water systems to due the sheer volume of medications passed through the human waste stream or disposed of improperly.

I hate to compare misapplied antibiotics to dirty burning coal, but it just seems that opportunities for new ways to challenge long-standing, conventional practices in how we live in this world can serve cross-cutting purposes and provide some inspiration among the pioneers.

Filed under Balanced Immune Health, Immune Balance, Immune System, Pollution, Research