Health

Health goes beyond the risk factors or disease counts established by our contemporary Western medical system. I try not to negate our medical system too much (because I am a consumer of it), but I do agree that sometimes a wider lens is needed. As I was researching how depression and anxiety is viewed in different cultures, I came across this quote:


"Academic epidemiology has limited itself to a narrow biomedical perspective, thereby committing the fallacy of inferring that disease in populations can be understood by studying the risk factors for disease in individuals. Epidemiology should be redefined as a study of the distribution and societal determinants of the health of the populations. This definition provides a stronger link to the primary mission of public health and places and appropriate emphasis on the social, economic, environmental, and cultural determinants of population health."
(SHY, C. M. 1997. The failure of academic epidemiology: witness for prosecution. American Journal of Epidemiology, 145, 479–484.)


There must be a reason why individuals who live in poverty, or who live near environmental pollutants, or who are discriminated against have poorer health according to various health and quality of life indicators. Maybe we should start looking at these reasons...