Ecological medicine is emerging as a new approach in health science, focusing on the benefits of human connection with nature, animals, and each other. This field integrates traditional Indigenous perspectives on humanity’s relationship with the natural world.
Rebecca Calisi Rodríguez, associate professor at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), stated: “Everything you suspected was good for you — fresh air, trees, animal companions, purpose, reciprocity — turns out to have peer-reviewed backing.” She leads the Green Care Lab at UC Davis.
Calisi Rodríguez coauthored a consensus statement that defines ecological medicine alongside Lynette Hart, professor emeritus from the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis, and Alessandro Ossola from the Department of Plant Sciences and Urban Science Lab. The statement was published in Ecohealth following a 2024 symposium at UCLA organized by faculty from its Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
Ossola noted that the symposium fostered diverse and open conversations. Hart emphasized expanding beyond therapeutic benefits of human-animal interaction: “We need to take a wider perspective,” she said. “The goal is a new kind of medicine that fosters health rather than chasing diseases.”
Ecological medicine builds upon but moves beyond the One Health concept by examining psychological and social relationships among people, animals, and their environments. Ossola’s Urban Science Lab has researched how features like tree canopy affect playground temperatures in California schools. He argues urban landscapes should be considered public health assets similar to emergency rooms or pharmacies.
“We know that if you live in a more natural environment with connection to nature, it has escalating effects on health,” Ossola said. He referenced practices such as Japan’s shinrin-yoku (“forest bathing”) and Britain’s Green Social Prescribing program as examples where nature-based activities are linked to improved mental and physical health.
Calisi Rodríguez described her shift toward studying healing through nature after years researching stress hormones: “After enough years staring at stress hormones, I realized I didn’t want to spend the rest of my career documenting what breaks us. I wanted to study how we heal,” she said. “Ecological Medicine is a growing field I believe in so deeply that I’m reshaping my entire research program around it.”
UC Davis is positioned as a leader in this area due to its large campus focused on sustainability and interdisciplinary research across environmental sciences and medicine. Initiatives like the Arboretum provide accessible green spaces for students and staff; projects such as Sheepmowers evaluate both ecological impacts and student well-being; dairy cattle near dorms also contribute to campus character.
“This paper marks the birth of a new field… finally turns around to ask ‘OK, but what helps us stay upright in the first place?’” Calisi Rodríguez said.
“Ecological Medicine tells us how to create lives worth living,” she added. “Giving this field a name gives us a compass, a vocabulary, and a way to study how humans, communities and ecosystems can actually thrive, not just survive.”
For further information about these initiatives:
– Details about EcoHealth are available online.
– More on UCLA’s efforts can be found through its ReConnect Initiative.
– Information about ongoing research is provided by both Green Care Lab and Urban Science Lab.
