ABSTRACT
The environment as a whole is becoming more toxic and stressful with respect to major ecological systems. At the same time, there are many microenvironments serving substantial populations that have become more nurturant in important respects. Many therapeutic approaches explicitly utilize selective arrangement or manipulation of ecological factors in their treatment program. It is in principle possible to consider any therapeutic intervention an alteration of the ecological field. Pharmaceuticals are certainly an ecological factor in health, but so is psychotherapy. The objective of a high quality health promotion program is to educate the individual about the effects of all of these ecological factors in health and to help the individual develop an ecological stress profile. Much of the standard literature on ecological factors in health focuses on relationships between specific environmental stressors and specific pathological conditions like the relationship between smoking and cancer; the specific health effects of lead, food additives, and noise.
