This article isolates ten prepositions, which constitute the undercurrent paradigm of contemporary discourse of health disease and medicine. Discussion of the interrelationship between those prepositions leads to a systematic refutation of this paradigm. An alternative set is being forwarded. The key notions of the existing paradigm are that health is the natural condition of humankind and that disease is a deviance from that nature. Natural things are harmonious and healthy while human made artifacts are coercive interference (...) with natural balance. It is suggested that the current paradigm is influenced by the world of finances and by instrumental reason. The alternative model suggests that human nature cannot be delineated. Humans fashion their own selves and nature by artificial means, medicine among them. The article discusses the implications of the paradigm adapted in various scholarly and popular debates such as the use of sex hormones for contraception, the care of the elderly, holistic medicine and distributive justice in health care. Medicine is not an isolated or a privileged realm. There is no unique entitlement to health care. It is always part of a broader agenda of social values and institutions. A open view of human societies, values and practices as they are situated within concrete material conditions is the platform required for an integrative and creative discourse of health care. (shrink)

The epistemological status of health science, natural science, and clinical knowledge is explored. It is shown that ‘health science’, a term increasingly used in association with the clinical knowledge of the therapies, nursing, and other health occupations, is not fully a science in the sense of the natural sciences. It is rather a hybrid which relates applications of natural science, behavioral science, and the humanities to problems in health. The same may be said (...) of clinical knowledge which entails, as essentials, humanistic considerations involving the personal concerns of the patient, in addition to the more evident external aspects of diagnosis and treatment. The recent introduction of the term ‘health science’ reflects scientism in its approach to health issues. It also reflects confusion about the nature of clinical knowledge. Keywords: health science, clinical knowledge, natural science, behavioral science, humanism CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

Over 200 health journals call on the United Nations, political leaders, and health professionals to recognize that climate change and biodiversity loss are one indivisible crisis and must be tackle...

This article makes a moral argument for universal access to health care and for the legitimate function of government to guarantee that access. Constructed as a reply to the libertarian argument against universal access, this article utilizes the moral and political theory of John Locke, favored by libertarianism, to develop a Lockean argument for a view contrary to the libertarian philosophy. In particular, the argument here shows how libertarianism’s neglect of a crucial element of the natural-law tradition, to (...) which Locke adhered, not only undercuts the libertarian objection to universal access to health care but also underwrites an alternative argument in favor of such. (shrink)

Discussions concerning whether there is a natural right to health care may occur in various forms, resulting in policy recommendations for how to implement any such right in a given society. But health care policies may be judged by international standards including the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The rights enumerated in the UDHR are grounded in traditions of moral theory, a philosophical analysis of which is necessary in order to adjudicate the value of specific policies (...) designed to enshrine rights such as a right to health care. We begin with an overview of the drafting of the UDHR and highlight the primary influence of natural law theory in validating the rights contained therein. We then provide an explication of natural law theory by reference to the writings of Thomas Aquinas, as well as elucidate the complementary “capabilities approach” of Martha Nussbaum. We conclude that a right to health care ought to be guaranteed by the state. (shrink)

Over 200 health journals call on the United Nations, political leaders, and health professionals to recognise that climate change and biodiversity loss are one.

Initiatives advocating for nature-based solutions, such as increased urban biodiversity, aim to promote public health as a part of creating sustainable cities. These initiatives are supported by a plenitude of scientific literature demonstrating the link between human health and nature contact. Despite these findings, positive human-nature interactions are declining worldwide, negatively effecting human development and health. We support an embodied approach to mental health. Taking this approach seriously illuminates how cities can be enhanced by modifying environmental (...) and social affordances and the ways in which urban dwellers interact with urban natural greenspaces. We argue that urban nature experiences can be used to promote mental health, but that indicators of environmental injustice need to addressed. (shrink)

Over 200 health journals call on the United Nations, political leaders, and health professionals to recognise that climate change and biodiversity loss are one indivisible crisis and must be tackle...

The power to change the natural environment has received relatively little attention in public health law, yet is a core concern within environmental and agricultural law. Examples from environmental and agricultural law may inform efforts to change the natural environment in order to reduce the health impacts of climate change. Public health lawyers who attend to the natural environment may succeed in elevating health concerns within the environmental and agricultural law spheres, while gaining (...) new tools for their public health law toolbox. (shrink)

In this systematic review, we summarized and evaluated the evidence for effects of, and associations between, immersive nature-experience on mental, physical and social health promotion outcomes. Immersive nature-experience was operationalized as non-competitive activities, both sedentary and active, occurring in natural environments removed from everyday environments. We defined health according to the World Health Organization’s holistic and positive definition of health and included steady-state, intermediate, and health promotion outcomes. An electronic search was performed for Danish, (...) English, German, Norwegian, and Swedish articles published between January 2004 and May 2017. Manual approaches, e.g., bibliographies from experts, supplemented the literature search. Data were extracted from 461 publications that met the inclusion criteria. To assess the status and quality of the evidence for health promotion effects of immersive nature-experience, we focused on the subset of studies based on controlled designs (n = 133). Outcome level quality of the evidence was assessed narratively. Interventions most often involved adventure-based activities, short-termed walking, and seated relaxation in natural environments. We found positive effects on a range of health promotion outcomes grouped under psychological wellbeing (n = 97; ≈55% positive; ≈13% mixed; ≈29% non-significant; 2% negative); psychosocial function (n = 67; ≈61% positive; ≈9% mixed; ≈30% non-significant); psychophysiological stress response (n = 50; ≈58% positive; ≈18% mixed; ≈24% non-significant), and cognitive performance (n = 36; ≈58% positive; ≈6% mixed; ≈33% non-significant; 3% negative); and social skills and relationships (n = 34; ≈70% positive; ≈7% mixed; ≈22% non-significant). Findings related to outcomes categorized under physical health, e.g., risk of cardiovascular disease, were less consistent (n = 51; ≈37% positive; ≈28% mixed; ≈35% non-significant). Across the types of interventions and outcomes, the quality of the evidence was deemed low and occasionally moderate. In the review, we identify, discuss, and present possible solutions to four core methodological challenges associated with investigating immersive nature-experience and health outcomes: 1) intervention and program complexity; 2) feasibility and desirability of randomization; 3) blinding of participants and researchers; and 4) transferability and generalizability. The results of the review have been published as a popular-scientific report and a scientific research overview, both in Danish language. (shrink)

This book reveals a stunning thread of scientific data that points the way to the natural anabolic state a biochemical condition wherein body fat is metabolized, muscle tissue is built, strength and speed are increased, mental acuity is enhanced, and the mind and body perform at top efficiency. This inspirational book is a must-read for athletes and coaches in every sport, students and teachers at every level, people of faith, people seeking faith, and anyone competing for success. Readers will (...) learn how one simple thought altered the blood chemistry of students taking the GRE and raised test scores and how that same thought increased athletic performance in multiple sports. Readers will also come to understand why honesty, gratitude, humility, self-discipline, assertiveness, love, faith, and playing-to-win induce an empowering anabolic blood chemistry. If you read this book, you will meet Jenny (the girl who achieved a seemingly impossible goal), Susie (the most aggressive infielder I ve ever seen), Hank (the shortstop who experienced his worst nightmare), John Doe (the guy who experienced all five types of stress before leaving his driveway), Attila the Hun (an example of humility), and several more unforgettable characters. If you read this book, I promise you that, by the time you finish the third chapter, you will fervently wish you'd read it earlier in your life. (shrink)

"Every man has his particular way of being in good health" - Emanuel Kant. Emanuel Kant's description of health stands in stark contrast to accepted definitions of health. For example, the WHO defines ‘health’ as ‘a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. However, as people get on with day-to-day living, no one can achieve the goal of ‘complete physical, mental and social well-being’. It is odd (...) to define ‘health’ as a negative state that puts it beyond the reach of everyone. This paper explores the idea of health being a personal state, health being the product of every man's particular way of making sense of his particular circumstances. (shrink)

Over 200 health journals call on the United Nations (UN), political leaders and health professionals to recognise that climate change and biodiversity loss are one indivisible crisis and must be tackled together to preserve health and avoid catastrophe. This overall environmental crisis is now so severe as to be a global health emergency. The world is currently responding to the climate crisis and the nature crisis as if they were separate challenges. This is a dangerous mistake. (...) The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP) on climate change is about to be held in Dubai while the 16th COP on biodiversity is due to be held in Turkey in 2024. The research communities that provide the evidence for the two COPs are unfortunately largely separate, but they were brought together for a workshop in 2020 when they concluded that: ‘Only by considering climate and biodiversity as parts of the same... (shrink)

Ethics education is recognized as an integral component of health professionals’ education and has been occurring in various guises in the curricula of health professional training in many countries since at least the 1970s. However, there are a number of different aims and approaches adopted by individual educators, programs, and, importantly, different health professions that may be characterized according to strands or trends in ethics education.

In responding to this debate, Ananth both surveys the existing literature, with special focus on the work of Christopher Boorse, and argues that a naturalistic ...

The article by Jessica Pierce and Christina Kerby, raises some important but seldom asked questions about the use of natural resources in healthcare. They take for their example latex gloves, which are in wide everyday use, especially since the establishment of principles of universal precautions in infection control as a reaction to the spread of HIV. They trace the production of latex gloves back through rubber processing to their origins in Malaysian rubber plantations and elsewhere. They then ask, but (...) do not answer, some hard questions about the ethics of our relationship as patients to the impact of the materials we use on communities and the environment. To draw out their theme more starkly, consider the rumor widespread in South America that some babies purportedly adopted by Northerners are sold and cut up for their organs. Suppose this story were true; suppose your donated organ were obtained in this way. You would probably be so revolted by the immorality of its acquisition that you would refuse to accept it. But now take a morally more ambiguous case, as Pierce and Kerby intend. Suppose that the process of obtaining latex gloves is part of the gradual erosion of the Malaysian environment, and that workers in latex factories are poorly paid. Now, should or would you refuse to use latex gloves? Should or would you even be more selective in their use? The practice of universal precautions presumes a virtually unlimited supply of gloves; yet to react to resource scarcity with selective precautions hazards discrimination. Is there any way philosophically to balance the local justice issue of discrimination in comparison to injustice on a global scale and to future generations? (shrink)

In the nineteenth century natural history was widely regarded as a rational and ‘distracting’ pursuit that countered the ill-effects, physical and mental, of urban life. This familiar argument was not only made by members of naturalists’ societies but was also borrowed and adapted by alienists concerned with the moral treatment of the insane. This paper examines the work of five long-serving superintendents in Victorian Scotland and uncovers the connections made between an interest in natural history and the management (...) of mental disease. In addition to recovering a significant influence on the conduct of several alienists the paper explores arguments made outside the asylum walls in favour of natural history as an aid to mental health. Investigating the promotion of natural history as a therapeutic recreation in Scotland and elsewhere reveals more fully the moral and cultural significance attached to natural history pursuits in the nineteenth century. (shrink)

When people in Sweden are sentenced and handed over to forensic psychiatric care (FPC), the authorities have overall responsibility for their health recovery. How nursing staff construct gender through their relations in this context affects their understanding of health promotion activities. The aim of this study was to illuminate, using a gender perspective, the understanding of nursing staff with respect to health promotion activities for patients. Four focus group interviews were conducted with nursing staff in two FPC (...) clinics in Sweden. The study has a qualitative inductive design with an ethnographic approach. This study sheds new light on FPC in which its dual goals of protecting society and providing care are viewed from a gender perspective. When relationships within the nursing staff group and the nurse–patient relationship are justified by the goal of protecting society, gender becomes invisible. This might cause patients' individual conditions and needs for certain types of activities to go unnoticed. One of the implications of ignoring gender relations in nursing staff health promotion activities is that it risks contributing to gender stereotypes which impact on the nurse–patient relationship and the quality of care. (shrink)

This paper attempts to analyse the notion of health promotion and related conceptual issues within an action-theoretical framework. The purpose is both theoretical and ethical. The paper provides a taxonomy as well as a system for classifying various types of health promotion. This system is inspired by Professor G H von Wright's theory of action explanation. The theoretical framework is used in the ethical part of the paper where some major ethical dilemmas in health promotion are analysed. (...) Particular attention is paid to the use of manipulation and force in health promotion. An attempt is made to define when such measures are justified in various health enhancing contexts. (shrink)

Objective: This cross-sectional questionnaire-based study aims to compare physical activity and nature exposure levels between people living in France and Germany during the lockdown. Furthermore, the secondary aim is to observe the relationship between perceived stress, psychological health, physical activity, and nature exposure in Germany and France during the coronavirus disease 2019 -related lockdown of April/May 2020.Methods: The study includes 419 participants who have completed the Perceived Stress Scale 10, the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF, the Godin-Shephard (...) Leisure-Time Physical Activity Questionnaire, the modified Nature Exposure Scale, and complementary questions related to the lockdown period from April 19 to May 11, 2020. Multiple regression models were constructed to evaluate the relationship of nature exposure and physical exercise with overall stress perception and psychological health in France and Germany when considering a broad range of covariates.Results: Exposure to nature during the lockdown, amount of physical activity ηp2 = 0.014, p < 0.001), and psychological health were greater in German compared with French participants. Godin Index and Nature Exposure Scale total score were both inversely correlated to stress perception and positively correlated to psychological health. The stress and psychological health regression models explained 10% of the results' variance. Physical activity was a significant for both models. Nature Exposure Scale total score was a significant predictor only for psychological health. When including all significant covariates, the regression models explained 30.7% for the perceived stress and 42.1% for the psychological health total overall variance.Conclusion: Physical activity and nature exposure are significant predictors of psychological health. Even though both variables are associated with stress perception, only physical activity is a significant predictor of stress perception. Our results suggest that physical activity and nature exposure were key factors to go through the lockdown period in France and Germany. (shrink)

The book explores how images register the relation between societies and theirs and others' health epistemic ecosystems. The author focuses on presumably trivial objects, such as vlogs, a toy, or a facial cream, to show how nature is presumed and represented as part of the care and cure of the body.

Strong evidence shows that exposure and engagement with the natural world not only improve human wellbeing but can also help promote environmentally friendly behaviors. Human-nature relationships are at the heart of global agendas promoted by international organizations including the World Health Organization’s “One Health” and the United Nations “Ocean Decade.” These agendas demand collaborative multisector interdisciplinary efforts at local, national, and global levels. However, while global agendas highlight global goals for a sustainable world, developing science that directly (...) addresses these agendas from design through to delivery and outputs does not come without its challenges. In this article, we present the outcomes of international meetings between researchers, stakeholders, and policymakers from the United Kingdom and Brazil. We propose a model for interdisciplinary work under such global agendas, particularly the interface between One Health and the UN Ocean Decade and identify three priority research areas closely linked to each other: human-nature connection, conservation-human behavior, and implementation strategies. We also discuss a number of recommendations for moving forward. (shrink)

Knowledge of one's self -- Composition of the world as it is -- Things that will improve this world and its nations -- Treatments and remedies of proper medicine -- Proper medicine derived from human nature -- Brief exposition on human nature : foundations of the art of -- Medicine -- Proper philosophy of the nature of composite things, of humans.

Love-alpha -- Language and life -- Premises -- Respect -- On conscious co-creation -- Interrelationship -- A map of the worlds -- Balance -- Trust : viruses -- Messengers -- Cooperation/community -- Truth -- The spirits of things -- Harmony -- The deva of fleas -- Communication -- Love : omega.

Love-alpha -- Language and life -- Premises -- Respect -- On conscious co-creation -- Interrelationship -- A map of the worlds -- Balance -- Trust : viruses -- Messengers -- Cooperation/community -- Truth -- The spirits of things -- Harmony -- The deva of fleas -- Communication -- Love : omega.

Love-alpha -- Language and life -- Premises -- Respect -- On conscious co-creation -- Interrelationship -- A map of the worlds -- Balance -- Trust : viruses -- Messengers -- Cooperation/community -- Truth -- The spirits of things -- Harmony -- The deva of fleas -- Communication -- Love : omega.

Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica de materiales disponibles en revistas electrónicas de la base SciELO con el objetivo de fundamentar la contribución de la Medicina Tradicional y Natural a la Salud Pública cubana y las interrelaciones ciencia-tecnología-sociedad. La perspectiva Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad contribuye a construir una cultura científica para que la población en general pueda llegar a sentirla como propia, lo cual requiere priorizar la aplicación de la Medicina Tradicional y Natural socialmente útil y culturalmente relevante con (...) el compromiso social basado en la erradicación de la pobreza, la armonía con la naturaleza y el desarrollo sustentable. Se enfatizó en la importancia de la medicina preventiva, además de poner en evidencia la necesidad de reconceptualizar la investigación en las ciencias médicas sobre la base de una visión interdisciplinaria que permita revelar fenómenos no explicados hasta el momento, aspecto que necesita del enfoque desde la perspectiva de la ciencia, tecnología y sociedad como complemento esencial. We conducted a bibliographic review of materials available in electronic journals in SciELO base aiming to substantiate the contribution of Natural and traditional medicine to the Cuban public health and the interrelationships of science-technology - society. Science, technology and society perspective contributes to build a scientific culture so the population can in general get to feel it as their own, which requires to prioritize the application of traditional medicine and Natural, socially useful and culturally relevant social commitment based on the eradication of poverty, the harmony with nature and sustainable development. Emphasized the importance of preventive medicine, as well as highlight the need to reconceptualize the research in the medical sciences on the basis of an interdisciplinary view that reveal phenomena not explained so far, issue that needs the approach from the perspective of science, technology and society as essential complement. (shrink)

Ecological feminism (or ecofeminism) and feminist bioethics seem to have much in common. They share certain methodological and epistemological concerns, offer similar challenges to traditional philosophy, and take up a number of the same practical issues. The two disciplines have thus far had little or no direct interaction; this is one attempt to begin some conversation and perhaps stimulate some cross-pollination of ideas. The email dialogue engaged an active ecofeminist scholar, Karen Warren, and an active feminist bioethicist, Hilde Nelson, in (...) an exchange of ideas. Jessica Pierce, whose research cuts between environmental philosophy and bioethics, served as moderator. (shrink)

Although the PASTOR model provides a comprehensive framework to study resilience, it faces some challenges. First, some higher-order concepts may be difficult to model in the laboratory. Second, defining resilience as an absence of pathology might be conceptually restrictive. Finally, the proposal that the severity of the event is associated to different appraisal mechanisms needs further evidence.

The goal of this programmatic paper is to highlight a close connection between the core problem in the philosophy of medicine, i.e. the concept of health, and the core problem of the philosophy of mind, i.e. the concept of consciousness. I show when we look at these phenomena together, taking the evolutionary perspective of modern state-based behavioural and life-history theory used as the teleonomic tool to Darwinize the agent- and subject-side of organisms, we will be in a better position (...) to make sense of them both as natural phenomena. (shrink)