Health and Society

3 units

This course examines topics of how public and personal health are affected by societal and institutional forces. We will use a historical perspective to explore the complex interplay between individual genetic susceptibilities and an evolving environment, where traditional metabolic signals are not always operative, often replaced by synthetic materials that the receptors have not encountered before through evolution. We will explore how sleep, food, and leisure have been changed by industrial, economic, political, and cultural developments (globalization). We will take a close look at the roles of urban planning, industrial farming, industrial food production / processing, animal husbandry, and the attendant evolving role of the family as well as the education of the individual. We will scrutinize global climate change, as it influences infectious disease vectors, pandemics, pollution, and related political and economic forces that do not promote societal health and well-being. Finally, we will focus on the role of the mind-brain in communication with the environment and needed in health and healing. Through critical reading of medical journal articles and newspapers we will discuss related ethical and policy questions relevant to disease prevention and public health.