For those of you who have had the chance to watch the three Ted Talks in the previous post, Beginning to see the light and helping to shift the paradigm, I hope you would begin to realize that the structure and function of our different world views do matter. What I hope to accomplish at the end… Read More
Source: https://www.facebook.com/The-Domain-of-Frequency-518137635011215/ In my previous blog article entitled, What does it profit humanity to know the unit-price of everything and the life-value of nothing?, I introduced Professor John McMurtry’s groundbreaking book, The Cancer Stage of Capitalism: From Crisis to Cure, where he explains in detail why our present social, political and economic operating systems are life-disabling and not life-enabling, which… Read More
(Cartoon originally copyrighted by the authors; G. Renee Guzlas, artist) In the previous blog article entitled, The Secret to a Healthy Nation, an attempt was made to identify the ROOT CAUSE of the causes of our physical, mental, social and environmental diseases. After outlining in detail, 1) the prevalence of the diseases and their risk factors in our nation, 2) the pathogenic metabolic, social, mental… Read More
“The Lord’s Prayer is Christianity’s greatest prayer. It is also Christianity’s strangest prayer. It is prayed by all Christians, but it never mentions Christ. It is prayed in all churches, but it never mentions church. It is prayed on all Sundays, but it never mentions Sunday. It is called the “Lord’s Prayer,” but it never… Read More
In previous blog post entitled Survival of the Unfittest?, I endeavoured to show that our social, economic, and political infrastructures were designed to enable the unfittest among us to survive. I opined: “When we put the local machinations into its global context, we begin to see the death throes of a failing financial and economic… Read More
You can download the free eBook versions below for easy reading on your computer, iPad, Tablets and smartphones. They have been updated to include the latest articles as of December 6, 2015. Please share freely. PDF (for Acrobat Reader and other PDF readers) EPUB (for iBook on iPhone and iPad, Google Play Books on android… Read More
In 2004, I was honoured to be asked to give the Feature Address at your Speech Day and Prize Giving Ceremony on the Theme, “Building on our accomplishments as we face the future with confidence.” Over the past 11 years, much in the world has changed, to the point that our knowledge base and skills… Read More
Once upon a time, in a land not too far away and closer than you may think, there lived a community of people who were in dire straights. They did not have the foresight and did not have the commodities, goods and services to attract enough income to provide for their basic needs. One day, a lawyer from outside came across one… Read More
I begin by recognizing some very positive attributes of our economy which can be built on if we are to make a fresh start. Firstly, Kittitians and Nevisians have a proud record of investing in their economy. The 5 listed public companies whose shares are traded on the Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange have in excess… Read More
The pdf version can be dowloaded from here.
Abstract
Health is a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and is a fundamental human right. It would have been hoped that in this age of globalising free-markets where unused resources would more readily be able to flow to unmet needs, that our states of well-being would have been optimised. Sadly, this is not the case, and the data suggests that the health of our lives and that of the planet are being compromised.
The leading causes of death at home and in the region are the non-communicable diseases of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and injuries, and the main drivers of these diseases are hypertension, overweight/obesity, alcohol abuse, smoking, unhealthy eating and physical inactivity. Since the 1970s, the prevalence of overweight and obese individuals and their complications have increased to epidemic proportions mainly as a result of the behavioural risk factors of unhealthy eating, physical inactivity, tobacco smoking and heavy use of alcohol.
The major driver of these behavioural risk factors is the globalisation of the fast food industry aided and abetted by the mass media, which has not only increased the prevalence of childhood and adult obesity and by extension the non-communicable diseases, but has also been responsible for ecological pathologies such as climate changes and global warming. Also global trade agreements have made it more and more difficult for leaders of nation states to act in the best interest of their citizens as “free” market dictates have stymied efforts to create policies that are more conducive to healthier lives and a healthier planet.
A new perspective of globalisation and its negative effects on people’s lives has been proposed by psychologist Dr Bruce Alexander. He makes the provocative claim that globalising free-markets necessarily fosters psychosocial dislocation of individuals from their families, communities and health-nurturing cultures, and this in turn results in destructive and compulsive behaviours being substituted for these disconnections. These addictive tendencies are not only in the use of illicit drugs, but also in the abuse of legal substances such as tobacco, alcohol, fast food, and extends to other activities such as shopping, gambling, sex, the acquisition of more and more wealth and even more and more power, and in their wake, the unintended consequence is a host of physical, mental and social maladies. Given that psychosocial dislocation is the root cause of our unhealthy physical, mental and social behaviours, it behooves us to find ways and means of reversing these trends and regain psychosocial reintegration and reconnection and to achieve more harmony and balance with ourselves, our communities and our planet.
We will discover that the fundamental unit of production, growth and development in our nation are not individuals, but relationships, and links are made between the quality of our social relationships, mental capital, stress and the physical, mental and social negative outcomes. Since we cannot treat ourselves out of these chronic diseases, prevention of these illnesses has to be the mainstay of treatment through the development of local, regional and international policies.
A bottom-up approach, that focuses on patients and families supported by the physical, mental and social health care teams, community partners and the creation of a positive policy environment, is the only approach that is worthy of consideration as it is the only approach that is wholistic, people-and planet-centred and that is designed to succeed.
Our true physical, mental and social capital will be revealed, along with the secret to healthy living and the creation of a healthy nation. It is fundamentally about responsible stewardship of our life-supporting and life-nurturing networks within our bodies, our families and communities, and ultimately about responsible stewardship of our biosphere and lithosphere which have been gifted to us and have supported and nurtured us for billions of years.
We have enough information to guide us now, as we take a more wholistic approach to health promotion and preventative health maintenance, as we all work together to create a better and brighter and healthier nation, once and for all, and for one and all.
