Environmental medicine it 's a type of medicine, which explores the role of dietary and environmental allergens in health and illness. Factors such as dust, molds, chemicals, and certain foods may cause allergic reactions that can dramatically influence diseases ranging from asthma and hay fever to headaches and depression. Virtually any chronic physical or mental illness may be improved by the care of a physician competent in this field.

  In the past conventional medicine has been unwilling to attribute much importance to the complex relationship between individuals and their environment. This attitude has begun to change, however, due to extensive research by environmental specialists over the last thirty years. Today many physicians cite a link between their patients' illnesses and environmental factors such as diet, pollens, molds, and chemicals.

  Theron G. Randolph, M.D., a prominent Chicago allergy specialist and professor at four medical schools was a pioneer in the field of environmental medicine. Since the late 1940s, Dr. Randolph has taught that sensitivity reactions to commonly eaten foods can cause a range of symptoms in susceptible individuals, including headaches, eczema, fatigue, arthritis, depression, and a variety of gastrointestinal disorders.

  Further research by Dr. Randolph revealed that chemicals in the environment can also have strong negative effects throughout the body. His book, Human Ecology and the Susceptibility to the Chemical Environment, published in 1962, was the first textbook on the subject. Since then, many other physicians have followed in Dr. Randolph's footsteps trying to educate the public that the widespread use of insecticides, herbicides, plastics, formaldehyde, food additives, petroleum products, gas, and other chemicals can lead to illness.