March 16, 2023 Are there any benefits to having adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)? What we explored in Blog #12 suggested mostly harms. In the clinical setting suggesting that people be screened for ACEs is sometimes met with asking why do it when there is no treatment for them. Within clinical medicine there tends to be a reluctance to look for
Read moreFebruary 16, 2023 In his book, “American Exceptionalism”, Seymour Martin Lipsett wrote that “”it is impossible to understand a country without seeing how it varies from others. Those who know only one country know no country.” We ended the last blog pointing out the importance of political choices a society makes that strongly influence its health using as examples U.S.
Read moreMarch 9, 2023 As I indicated last month (Blog #11), authorities around the world are becoming increasingly concerned about the likely impact of climate change on cities and city life, especially the effects of extreme weather events. A month’s rain fell in a single hour recently in Auckland, New Zealand; few cities could cope with this kind of assault, but
Read moreMilner on Biodiversity Blog #11 “Urban Tree-planting” Planetary Health Weekly Edward Milner, February 9, 2023 In midwinter the prospect of a long hot summer may look inviting, but I advise caution: be careful what you wish for. While the thrust of international gatherings like recent COP meetings in Egypt and Canada and headline writers of the popular press are all
Read moreThe new year brings new information and a new perspective on planetary health. We ended last year looking at adverse childhood experiences. This blog will begin with the latest vital signs for human health on the planet and then delve into political directions to heal the situation. In October’s blog the latest health Olympics ranking for 2021 were revealed showing
Read moreJanuary 12, 2023 My grandchildren will be at least 77 by the end of the century. Will there be any true ‘Nature’ left in the world by then? The alarm raised by this question is not helped, I fear, by the celebrations over the UN Biodiversity Charter signed by 196 nations at Montreal last month. The predominant model of development
Read moreCredit: Public Health Notes If there’s anything that defines the 21st Century it is perhaps the disturbing rise of evidence-free decision-making, ‘not driven by reason at all but by emotion’ as the influential British novelist Jonathan Coe has it, or that people “have had enough of experts” as UK MP Michael Gove has claimed. Instead of reasoned argument, decision-makers seem
Read moreOne current use of the word trauma evolved from the study of adverse childhood experiences (ACE’s) that began in the 1970s. That study[1] began at the Kaiser Permanente Clinic in San Diego where Dr. Vincent Felitti was using supervised fasting to help control rising obesity in his patients. Under clinical conditions he was able to get some patients to lose a
Read moreLet’s explore what being of low birthweight does to brain development. In my September Blog (#9) on early life I explained how conditions in your early life from conception to age two (first thousand days) are when perhaps half of your adult health is programmed. This suggests that the impact of personal health-related behaviors we practice in later life may
Read moreThe UN Biodiversity Conference at Montreal in December will be concentrating on the 30:30 proposal – every country and all the seas to have 30% in ‘protected areas’ by 2030 – with as many governments as possible to ‘pledge’ support. As I indicated in a previous blog, I am unconvinced that ‘pledges’ agreed at these conferences advance actual performance at
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PLANETARY HEALTH WEEKLY 