There are lots of things coming together, economic crises, ecological crises, social crises. My friend and mentor Fritjof Capra once said if you follow the rivers of these crises upstream, you meet a crises of consciousness, a crises of perception. A crises of how we see our selves and our role in this living planet. Read More
Health is a component of and a key resource for human development. It results from a cumulative process of continuous interaction between exposures and experiences, which have an impact at both the individual and population levels, not only episodically but over time, and with trans-generational effects (1). The increase in human life expectancy by approximately 30 years over the last century provides a compelling reason to expand health-related goals beyond simple survival (2, 3).
In the Region of the Americas, the effort to increase life expectancy has been successful; however, the increase in healthy life expectancy has not kept pace. On average, 8 of every 10 people who are born in the Region will live beyond age 60, and more than 4 in 10 will live past 80 (4). One-quarter of those who live past 80 will live with poor health (4). According to estimates, people in the Region live on average 9 years with functional limitations or disability (5). An increased lifespan, but with longer periods of illness and dependence on care provided by others, is a great burden for States, societies, and families, and a significant challenge for public health.
Reproduced from: https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/health-interconnectedness-and-salutogenesis-ca69c4f5366c Health, Interconnectedness and Salutogenesis from ‘Design for Human and Planetary Health’ D.C. Wahl 2006 So what genuine possibilities stand before us when we are considering the question of health? Without doubt it is part of our nature as living beings that our conscious self-awareness remains largely in the background so that our enjoyment of… Read More
Foresight report looking at how we can respond to rising levels of obesity in the UK. “Foresight projects give evidence to policy-makers to help them make policies that are more resilient to the future.” Images below were captured from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/287937/07-1184x-tackling-obesities-future-choices-report.pdf Please click on the image to enlarge to study in detail.
http://www.truehealthinitiative.org The following were screenshot from the above website.
Reproduced from: https://hackernoon.com/design-for-human-and-planetary-health-a-transdisciplinary-approach-to-sustainability-e83ed741c63d Design for human and planetary health: a transdisciplinary approach to sustainability WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 99, © 2006 WIT Press, ISSN 1743–3541 (on-line) D. C. Wahl, Centre for the Study of Natural Design, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK Abstract This paper explores various integrative frameworks that are contributing to… Read More
Mary Charles Hospital: A History of Good Health Stewardship Patrick Martin, MD August 2, 2018 Journeying long distances from rural areas to health facilities can be problematic especially in acute medical circumstances, and at night. Thus, placing 24/7 primary care facilities close to where people live reflects sound health policy execution. Such is the legacy… Read More
Diabetes Control: A Matter of Political Will Patrick Martin, MD Student and Citizen November 2017 Imagine a small island nation where 20% of children are big. Big, as in upwards of 50 pounds of fat hanging from the midsection and extremities of young and delicate skeletal frames. In the Federation, there are primary school children… Read More
This is an embedded Microsoft Office presentation, powered by Office Online. Please click on in the lower right to enlarge.
“Life creates conditions conducive to life.” – Janine Benyus
As many of you who follow my blog articles may have realised, I have become captivated by Professor John McMurtry’s life work. His book, The Cancer Stage of Capitalism: From Crisis to Cure, has provided a unifying framework of meaning and understanding of all of the degenerative trends of our time. What you may not know, is that for over a year, I have been trying desperately to translate the medical concepts from my training from the level of the individual life host up to the social and planetary levels of life organisation. And by trying to do so, it was hoped that we would be better able to understand the pathogenesis of these degenerate trends, and be able to convince our policy and decision makers on what steps need to be taken at the local, regional and international levels so as to prevent and rehabilitate the social and planetary pathologies in our midst.
What I have just come to realise is that the difficulties I was having in accomplishing this goal had to do with a preconceived assumption that was a major mental block in going forward. That concept has to do with what we in the profession call, the natural history of disease. Read More
