These Holidays, A Reminder That the Health of the Many Depends on the Health of the Few | Fortune

Tiny Tim is not the main character of A Christmas Carol. That would be Ebenezer Scrooge, the old miser who, through the intercession of three spirits, changes, by the end of Charles Dickens’ classic tale, into a good man. It is hard to read A Christmas Carol, however, or watch one of its many film adaptations, and not feel Tiny Tim is somehow its heart. Born sickly, into a family without the means to properly care for him, he seems fated for an early death, until Scrooge’s reformation, when the old man decides to help the boy, becoming a “second father” to him, and providing the financial support that ensures Tiny Tim will live.

Dickens announces this uplifting development in the story’s closing lines; it is the tale’s emotional payoff, the final indicator that the battle for Scrooge’s soul has been won by his better angels, that the bitter man he once was is no more. By caring for Tiny Tim, Scrooge at last comes into his own as a fully human being.

Making Aging Healthier | Thrive Global

When Jeanne Calment was 90 years old she sold her apartment to a lawyer named Andre-Francois Raffray on a contingency contract. The deal was that he would pay her 2,500 francs a month (about $400) until her death, whereupon the apartment would become his. This would have been a nice arrangement for Raffray, were it not for the fact that Calment lived for another 32 years, to the age of 122—the longest human life on record.

The Public's Health: The Downside of Drinking | Public Health Post

In the midst of a lethal opioid epidemic, alcohol kills more Americans than fentanyl, heroin, and prescription pills combined. During the past decade, in parallel to the increase in opioid use, deaths by alcohol have increased 35 percent. Although men still make up three-quarters of alcohol deaths, young women have had the greatest rise in deaths through accidents, suicide, cancer, and cirrhosis. Around forever, culturally normalized, this ancient substance seems to be newly hazardous. What’s happening?

No One Should Be Excluded from Health | Dean's Note

Our collective health is getting better. In the last century, life expectancy in the US rose from 47 years to about 79 years. Notwithstanding recent, troubling declines in our national life expectancy, this overall trend is encouraging, and is due largely to improvements to the social, economic, and environmental context in which we live. Yet not everyone has shared in these gains. As we in public health well know, deep gaps exist between the overall health of populations and the health of vulnerable, marginalized groups.

The Public's Health: The Smoking Gap | The Public Health Post

Four in ten American adults smoked cigarettes in 1965; only 15% smoke today. That’s an impressive public health success, but it should not be the end of the story. There remain 40 million smokers in the United States who will suffer cancer and cardiovascular consequences from the dozens of harmful chemicals in tobacco products for decades to come, at a cost of $300 billion per year.
 
Fifty years ago, smoking prevalence for all education groups was clustered at that 40-45% mark. Five decades later, 6.5% of college-educated individuals continue to smoke, while the prevalence is more than triple that among those with a high school education or less (23.1%). These smokers tend to be disadvantaged socially and economically, and bear the majority of morbidity and premature mortality. Education seems to matter.

Homelessness and Health | Dean's Note

A core aim of public health is to care for the most vulnerable members of our society—the marginalized and the dispossessed. At this festive season, when friends and family gather together, and “abundance rejoices,” it seems to me especially important that we focus on these vulnerable groups—people who find themselves excluded from the resources and community ties that generate health. For this reason, we will run a “trilogy” of Dean’s Notes on the conditions that create this marginalization, starting this week with homelessness. The goal is to inspire reflection this holiday season on the vulnerable populations whose challenges are a central concern of public health.

The Real Reason Why American Lives Are Getting Shorter | HuffPost

A Spanish flu pandemic infected approximately one-third of the global population in 1918. In the United States alone, about 675,000 people died, enough to contribute to a decline in the country’s life expectancy. For a century, this decline remained singular in the annals of American health ― until last month, when the National Center for Health Statistics reported that, between 2016 and 2017, U.S. life expectancy dropped from 78.7 to 78.6 years.

This marks the third consecutive year that life expectancy in the U.S. has decreased, a multiyear drop not seen since that 1918 flu pandemic. And it reflects a longer-term trend in which U.S. life expectancy has lagged relative to other economically comparable countries. Overall, our lives have gotten longer, but at a slower rate than our peers.

Why has U.S. life expectancy slowed to its present reversal? The reasons cited by the National Center for Health Statistics are largely twofold: suicide and opioid deaths. But the real explanation as to why those issues continue to worsen is because America has failed to invest in our nation’s health.

Read the full piece at HuffPost.

The Public's Health: Making Aging Healthier | Public Health Post

When Jeanne Calment was 90 years old she sold her apartment to a lawyer named Andre-Francois Raffray on a contingency contract. The deal was that he would pay her 2,500 francs a month (about $400) until her death, whereupon the apartment would become his. This would have been a nice arrangement for Raffray, were it not for the fact that Calment lived for another 32 years, to the age of 122—the longest human life on record.

This is the personal website of Sandro Galea. All photos are taken by Sandro Galea.