Resources on Health Politics, Advocacy, Prevention, and Social Health
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Articles and Issues from the Progressive Health Observer in print or download a PDF.
Shows through Radio on Demand (listen online or download an MP3 file), Shows on CD (mailed to you), or Transcripts (download or in print).
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Articles
Sick Buildings
PHO #14
While scientists search for diagnostic criteria, increasing numbers of people suffer from sick building syndrome.
Obesity, a Social Disease
PHO #14
If you can gain weight because of whom you know, can social networks affect other health issues?
Overworked, Sick, and Injured
PHO #14
When and how much you work increases your risk of ill health, injury, and decreases your capacity to recover.
Health as a Commodity
PHO #14
Weve been conditioned to think that health comes from the individual consumption choices we make. But it also comes from what we do together.
Health as a Commodity
PHO #14
Weve been conditioned to think that health comes from the individual consumption choices we make. But it also comes from what we do together.
Genetic Magic
PHO #13
Despite advances in our understanding of how genes actually work, many still cling to the misbegotten idea that genes cause disease.
Social Medicine, Social Health
PHO #12
Social Medicine, Social Health: Health isn’t the absence of disease. But what is it and how do we get it?
An Unhealthy Future
PHO #12
An Unhealthy Future: The biology of stress tells us why abandoning the social safety net will deliver a huge medical bill in the future.
Medical Directives
PHO #6
Fit to Print? A review of resources for medical directives from Nolo Press.
Health Care Bankruptcy
PHO #4
Health Care Bankruptcy: Most of the costliest health conditions are preventable with diet and exercise
The Truth About the Drug Companies and Critical Condition
PHO #4
Fit To Print? A review of The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to do About It by Marcia Angell and Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business and Bad Medicine by Donald Barlett and James Steele
Shows
From Radio Frequency to Bug Spray
Protecting citizen health from corporate power. An interview with film makers Mary Beth Branagan and James Heddle from EON Ecological Options Network. Resources: Ecological Options Networ www.eon3.net; resources on environmental health, resources on radiation, and resources on health politics and advocacy
Longevity and Socio-Economic Stress
Tony Iton, MD, MPH, Alameda County Public Health Department Director and Health Officer discusses the lessons of the California Newsreel documentary and PBS series Unnatural Causes. Resources: Unnatural Causes www.unnaturalcauses.org; Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative www.barhii.org; resources on health politics, advocacy, prevention, and social health and resources on stress
Shopping Our Way to Safety
Sociologist Andrew Szasz, PhD, author of Shopping our Way to Safety discusses the accelerating trend toward reducing risk individually by purchasing products and why such solutions are ultimately not effective. Resources: Shopping Our Way to Safety by Andrew Szasz; resources on health politics, advocacy, prevention, and social health, the documentary Unnatural Causes www.unnaturalcauses.org
Safe Cell Tower Siting
Journalist and environmental analyst B. Blake Levitt, author of Electromagnetic Fields and contributing editor of Cell Towers, discusses the wide range of risks associated with siting cell phone towers and strategies for siting them safely Resources: B. Blake Levitts website www.blakelevitt.com, Cell Towers and Electromagnetic Fields by B. Blake Levitt; resources on radiation
Sustainable Health
Jeffry Fawcett, PhD, founder and president of the Sustainable Health Institute, discusses sustainable health practices that enable people and their communities to thrive through the art of self care. Resources: Sustainable Health Institute www.sustainablehealthinstitute.org
Supplement Access: An Update on Proposed Regulation
Attorney James Turner of Swankin and Turner and Citizen's For Health discusses our access to and freedom of choice in healthcare products, foods, and supplements. Resources: Citizens for Health www.citizens.org; resources on nutrition and on nutrients for prevention and treatment
Resistance to Citywide WiFi
Doug Loranger, from San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna Free Union, discusses how citizens are mobilizing against exposure to citywide wireless Internet access. Resources: San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna Free Union www.antennafreeunion.org; Resources on radiation
Medical Decision Making
Oleg Reznik, MD, author of The Secrets of Medical Decision Making discusses how to avoid becoming a victim of the health care machine. Resources: Oleg Reznik, MD website www.olegreznikmd.com; The Secrets of Medical Decision Making: How to Avoid Becoming a Victim of the Health Care Machine by Oleg Reznik
Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment Part 2
Health educators Layna Berman and Jeffry Fawcett, PhD discuss how to avoid common diagnoses and the medical interventions that are typically prescribed Resources: Resources on diabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and obesity; Resources on cardiovascular and heart health; Resources on digestion and gut health; Resources on exercise and musculoskeletal health; Resources on aging;
Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment Part 1
Health integrationist Layna Berman and health educator Jeffry Fawcett, PhD discuss how to avoid common diagnoses and the medical interventions that are typically prescribed Resources: Should I Be Tested For Cancer? by H. Gilbert Welch; Resources on cancer; Resources on mind, mood, and stress; Resources on diabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and obesity
Girls at Risk
Leslie Acoca, MA, MFT, director of In Our Daughters’ Hands, discusses the health of incarcerated girls. Resources: In Our Daughters’ Hands: (415) 888-2211 and blckswans@aol.com
Protect Yourself Against Stress-related Illness
An event presented on March 4, 2007
Layna Berman and Jeffry Fawcett, PhD discuss how stress affects health and illness. Topics include
how stress is at the core of common diagnoses such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and autoimmune diseases;
how your body responds to stress and the cascade of metabolic events that lead to illness;
how to protect yourself from sources of stress;
how to increase your body's resilience in responding to stressors.
Resources: Resources on mind, mood, and stress; Resources on diabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and obesity; Resources on cardiovascular and heart health; Resources on immunity;
Single Payer Health Insurance
Bree Johnston, MD physician-spokesperson from the group Physicians for a National Health Program will discuss the new California single payer health insurance system, new statistics on the uninsured released by the US Census Bureau, the ongoing health care crisis in the US, specific effects on local areas, and options for health care reform. Resources: Physicians for a National Health Policy www.pnhp.org ; Health Care for All www.healthcareforall.org ; OneCareNow www.onecarenow.org
Turning Healthy People Into Patients
Medical writer Roy Moynihan discusses how medical institutions have invented diseases under the guise of prevention. Resources: Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels
Big Pharma Deception
Physician John Abramson, MD discusses how Big Pharma has degraded health and medicine. This is a pledge drive show. Resources: Overdosed America by John Abramson, MD
Protecting Yourself from the Health Care System
Health educator Layna Berman and health strategies advisor Jeffry Fawcett, PhD discuss protecting yourself and your wishes in a health care environment. Resources: Resources on politics, advocacy, prevention, and social health
Community Health Strategies
Leslie Mikkelsen, MPH, Managing Director of The Prevention Institute, founded to address complex health and social issues, one person at a time, creating comprehensive strategies that change the conditions that impact community health, including violence prevention, traffic safety, health disparities, nutrition and physical activity, and youth development. Resources: The Prevention Institute www.preventioninstitute.org
Critical Condition
Investigative journalists James Steele and Donald Barlett discuss their new book about how the big bussiness of health care in America has degraded the practice of medicine. Resources: Critical Condition by James Steele and Donald Barlett
The Truth About the Drug Companies
Dr. Marcia Angell, physician and former editor-in-chief of the "New England Journal of Medicine", discusses her book about how pharmaceutical companies deceive consumers. Resources: The Truth About the Drug Companies by Marcia Angell
Health and Economic Status
Bruce McEwen PhD from Rockefeller University and Nancy E. Adler PhD from the MacArthur Network for Socioeconomic Health and the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF, discuss the effect of socioeconomic status on health. Resources: Socioeconomic Status and Health in Industrial Nations: Social, Psychological, and Biological Pathways edited by Bruce McEwen and Nancy Adler www.macses.ucsf.edu and The End of Stress as We Know It by Bruce McEwen
The Cost Of Pharmaceuticals
Journalist Katherine Greider exposes the price manipulations of the pharmaceutical industry. This is a pledge drive show. Resources: The Big Fix by Katherine Greider
Making Health Decisions
Health decision consultant Dr. Jeffry Fawcett, PhD discusses how to make health and medical decisions
Social Perspectives in Epidemiology
Epidemiologist Steve Wing, PhD and professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill discusses the impact of socioeconomic status on disease development
Advocating for Yourself in a Health Care Environment
Health educator Layna Berman discusses strategies for advocating for your wishes and protecting yourself and loved ones in a medical setting with Elizabeth Sawyer, 32-year Zen Buddhist practitioner, parent of Wolf-Hirschorn Syndrome child
Trust Us, We're Experts
Journalist John Stauber exposes the spin doctors of industrialized science in his book Resources: Trust Us, We're Experts by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
Health Insurance Update
Gregory MacDonald, Private Insurance Broker
Health Insurance How-To
Gregory Macdonald, Insurance Investigator/Broker
Innocent Casualties of the FDA
Elaine Feuer discusses her book Resources: Innocent Casualties: The FDA's War Against Humanity by Elaine Feuer
Worst Pills, Questionable Doctors
Dr. Sidney Wolfe, MD, Resources: Worst Pills, Best Pills and Questionable Doctors Discipline by the State and Federal Governments by Sidney Wolfe