Environmental Engineering
The impact of environment on health and performance and how to optimise it
There is much discussion of the impact of genetics on health and performance, with many seeking to find answers to their future in their genes but it is much more likely that the answer lies in your environment outside of a handful of cases.
The interaction of genetics and environment, takes our genes (genotype) and brings forth our phenotype. To give an example, you may be genetically very pale skinned, but with enough time in the sun you will eventually brown (at least slightly), thus showing the phenotype of brown rather than white skin. Of course, as is often the case, this is a little reductionist but helpful as an illustration of concept. Don’t worry, the heavy biology part of the discussion is done now.
Environment and Physical Activity
I recently spent some time away in the Chamonix, a town in the mountains which limits car usage as much as it can and is very walkable. Additionally I was intentionally doing a little less work, we won’t call it a holiday but certainly a deload.
It was very clear that I was being more physically active (walking a lot more!), and whilst I was exercising more hours it was more a consequence of slower movement in the mountains compared to the flats (if you’re unsure of the difference between exercise and physical activity read this). This is illustrated below, from my data of running kms and walking steps.
Running Data
As you can see, there was no significant uptick in running distance whilst away.
Walking Data
Walking data for the period I was away (above) in contrast to the previous period (below).
There is a learning moment here with respect to averages; the data in the previous period to my time in Chamonix is in the above figure, it’s average is skewed significantly by a huge outlier (a 50km trail race). Without this outlier of 68240 steps, the period has a good amount of habitual activity but nothing like my time in Chamonix (average 20k/day steps vs more like 10-12k/day).
With the acknowledgement of the weaknesses of step trackers (as discussed here), and without labouring the point of my data, it is clear that the environment played a significant role in my physical activity levels, which would no doubt have been apparent in metabolic health markers like blood glucose.
This is a prime example of the role the environment plays in physical activity levels and is perfectly contrasted by any time I spend visiting family in LA, where walking is much more difficult and even public transport is a challenge. Ideally, folks should engineer their environment to better facilitate increased physical activity levels, be it working from a cafe rather than home to increase walking, or intentionally choosing more active forms of travel (and preferably limiting exposure to pollution of a variety of types). Similarly, if possible, living in areas which better facilitate being active, preferably in green space (more on this here).
Dogs
Another example of environmental engineering or at least a somewhat similar concept is dog ownership. We can often become very self or productivity focussed, or even just lazy. A dog comes with the responsibility to care for it, including walking it - hello engineering physical activity into your day. Interestingly, there also seems to be a benefit to owning dogs specifically when it comes to cardiovascular disease (perhaps related).
Environment and Diet
In a very similar way, choosing your environment to better facilitate healthier dietary choices is a great way to help in this realm (really this boils down to Nudge theory, as discussed in this book). This may be areas with low density of fast food restaurants, or more local fresh food merchants, though I will acknowledge this is akin to recommending living in ‘nicer’ and more expensive neighbourhoods given the way commercial organisations position themselves. It could also be something like not keeping certain foods (or drinks) in the house, forcing any decision to consume these to be more active (ie needing to go buy these). I’ve definitely noticed better control of snacking by having less food in the house and certainly less snack foods.
We can, however, zoom in a layer deeper and start to think about environment on a smaller scale, the house and your workspace itself. In this context, engineering a situation that will improve dietary choices is also possible. This may be a smaller fridge for example- something I have noticed is the norm in Europe when comparing to the places like USA or Australia, the culture being about visiting your local merchants more frequently and less bulk shopping (this goes both ways of course; a smaller fridge may also mean less, not more perishable foods given time constraints in a day).
It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the role of people in your environment. It was exceedingly difficult for me to maintain high diet quality when working with numerous people who ate from our hospital canteen every day (whilst I tried to bring in my salads).
Performance Environment
Of course, many of the above factors play into performance, for example diet and physical activity both play a role in optimal performance (in almost all, if not all, fields). These also form a large portion of what you will hear about places like the Google campus, with arguments about reasoning behind this for another day. Similarly, things like natural light and green space will improve performance in working environments also.
However, environments go well beyond the physical environment, as eluded to when discussing the role of peers or colleagues in dietary choices above. The social environment, sometimes called culture, will play a significant role and is worthwhile considering (either in engineering for yourself or indeed in choosing for yourself). We will all have different environments which we desire and feel comfortable in (those two things may even not be aligned in cases), and considering these is of the utmost importance in performance - you don’t need any more barriers to success beyond competitors.
Lessons on Performance Environments
Along my path I’ve been fortunate to be exposed to some environments that most would consider high performance (don’t confuse these with professional, more here for those unsure what I mean). These are some observations from the environments:
The main thing, is the main thing - everyone has clarity on the ultimate purpose of the group. This is usually quite easy in sporting situations with explicit scoreboards but can be harder in other situations. This “North Star” purpose allows for focus and refocussing as well as easy decision making when faced with choices.
Simplicity - there is no room for over-complication, no room for things that aren’t important and no room for distractions.
Clarity - whilst communication styles and culture vary with respect to the explicit vs implicit spectrum (more on culture in this great book which covers this spectrum) there is no shortage of clarity in the communication.
Connection - performance requires buy-in and this is usually driven by connection. This fundamentally boils down to the fact that things will get hard at some point, and when they do, this connection and buy-in is what will allow performance when it could disappear in the face of a fractured team.
Hopefully this has inspired you or changed the way you view the environment broadly. The thought that a change (which you can engineer) in your environment could have profound (and relatively effortless) impacts on health or performance should not be overlooked or ignored. Do not underestimate the challenge of ‘out willpowering’ the environment. And if absolutely nothing else, consider this more evidence to share with your loved one(s) that you need a dog, because dogs are awesome.
References
Yabroff KR, Troiano RP, Berrigan D. Walking the dog: is pet ownership associated with physical activity in California? J Phys Act Health. 2008 Mar;5(2):216-28. doi: 10.1123/jpah.5.2.216. PMID: 18382031.
Cherniack EP, Cherniack AR. Assessing the benefits and risks of owning a pet. CMAJ. 2015 Jul 14;187(10):715-716. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.150274. Epub 2015 Jun 15. PMID: 26078462; PMCID: PMC4500685.