It is a familiar ritual. Periodically we are told that—for the good of our health—we must cut something out of our diet. Such pronouncements are often prompted by a new study; the message tends to be delivered in rather alarming tones and results in public anxiety when it is revealed that a hitherto beloved food product actually causes harm. The organizations that make these statements are clearly acting with people’s best interests at heart, but how effective are their communications at motivating healthy behavior? To what extent is spotlighting individual risk factors good for the promotion of wellbeing?
Leaving Behind "Methadone Mile" | HuffPost
A video report released last week by WCVB portrays “methadone mile”—the stretch of road in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts, where the effects of the nationwide opioid crisis are on full display. Running by Boston Medical Center, one of the city’s main hospitals, the street is home to a number of drug treatment facilities, a homeless shelter, and, yes, a methadone clinic.
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How to Make Cities Healthier Places to Live | The Wall Street Journal
Your Healthy Lifestyle Won't Necessarily Make You Healthier | WIRED
Before you read this, take a moment to Google “lifestyle and health.” If you do, you will be confronted by over a half-billion results. That figure is mind-boggling—but it’s not surprising when you consider how central the notion of “lifestyle” is to our conception of health. From diet books to fitness programs to government initiatives like the First Lady’s “Let’s Move!” campaign, our society is strongly invested in the belief that you can safeguard your wellbeing—if only you take personal responsibility for it.
Equity, Almost: Justice, Gender and the Health of Populations | HuffPost
As we contemplate a potential Hillary Clinton presidency, it would be easy to think that we live in a new era of equality between the sexes. How, after all, could one woman be on the verge of cracking what she once called the “highest and hardest glass ceiling” if things were otherwise? How could we see women operating at the top levels of the corporate and political world if real progress had not been made? Here in in the U.S., after all, we’ve seen women serving as frontline soldiers, running Harvard University, and sitting on the Supreme Court.
Zika virus is not Ebola | The Boston Globe
Just last week, the World Health Organization last week announced that the Zika virus was “spreading explosively.” Today, it declared Zika “a public health emergency of international concern.” The political pressures on the WHO to take this action have been strong. The shadow of Ebola also looms large, and the WHO seems, perhaps understandably, motivated by the worldwide conclusion that it was ineffective in responding to the Ebola epidemic in 2014, waiting to designate that disease as an “emergency” until it was far too late for this designation to matter. It did not want to make this mistake again. The problem is that Zika is not Ebola, or anything like Ebola, and declaring Zika an emergency will simply stoke fear, and even panic, in a public that deserves to have public health decisions made on the basis of facts and science, rather than on politics and fear.
Lessons from Flint: It's Not Just the Water System That's Broken | HuffPost
The flip of a switch in April 2014 that led to the massive water contamination in Flint, Michigan, is now a public health crisis that will take years and millions of dollars to remedy. The immediate challenge is to replace the corroded pipes that are carrying contaminated water as soon as possible, and to ensure that the city of nearly 100,000 has access to clean water.
Roe v. Wade Anniversary Reminds Us of Need to Protect Reproductive Freedom | US News: The Report
In November, a study by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project found that more than one in five women, ages 18 to 49, from across that state reported that they or someone they knew had tried to end a pregnancy on their own.
This may come as alarming news to those in public health who are preparing to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on Jan. 22. But it is a stark reminder that, while Roe v. Wade was transformative, the provision of abortion care in the U.S. remains challenging.