Overview
Well timed with emerging clinical evidence supporting the idea of the mind-body connection, such as research on the shared pathways of inflammation and depression
Shines a spotlight directly on critical trends in wellness and redefines our understanding of health through the lens of social and technological change
Combining the very best of the social sciences and medicine, the authors are ideally experienced to conclude that today’s health crises are fundamentally different from anything that we have experienced before
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
For the first time in a thousand years, Americans are experiencing a reversal in lifespan. Despite living in one of the safest and most secure eras in human history, one in five adults suffers from anxiety as does one-third of adolescents. Nearly half of the US population is overweight or obese and one-third of Americans suffer from chronic pain – the highest level in the world. In the United States, fatalities due to prescription pain medications now surpass those of heroin and cocaine combined, and each year 10% of all students on American college campuses contemplate suicide. With the proliferation of social media and the algorithms for social sharing that prey upon our emotional brains, inaccurate or misleading health articles and videos now move faster through social media networks than do reputable ones.
This book is about modern health – or lack of it. The authors make two key arguments: that our deteriorating wellness is rapidly becoming a health emergency, and two, that much of these trends are rooted in the way our highly evolved hardwired brains and bodies deal with modern social change. The co-authors: a PhD from the world of social science and an MD from the world of medicine – combine forces to bring this emerging human crisis to light. Densely packed with fascinating facts and little-told stories, the authors weave together real-life cases that describe how our ancient evolutionary drives are propelling us toward ill health and disease. Over the course of seven chapters, the authors unlock the mysteries of our top health vices: why hospitals are more dangerous than warzones, our addiction to sugar, salt, and stress, our emotionally-driven brains, our relentless pursuit of happiness, our sleepless society, our understanding of risk, and finally, how world history can be a valuable tutor. Through these varied themes, the authors illustrate how our social lives are more of a determinant of health outcome than at any other time in our history, and to truly understand our plight, we need to recognize when our decisions and behavior are being directed by our survival-seeking hardwired brains and bodies.
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Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Robert S. Barrett, PhD
University of Alberta – School of Public Health
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
robert@drrobertbarrett.com
drrobertbarrett.com
Louis Hugo Francescutti, MD, PhD, MPH, FRCPC, FACPM, FACP, CCFP(PC), FRCP(Ireland), FRCP(Edinburgh), FRCP(London), FRCP(Glasgow), ICD-D, CCPE, MSM
Royal Alexandra Hospital and
Northeast Community Health Centre Emergency Departments
University of Alberta – School of Public Health
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
louis.francescutti@ualberta.ca drlou.ca
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Hardwired: How Our Instincts to Be Healthy are Making Us Sick
Authors: Robert S. Barrett, Louis Hugo Francescutti
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51729-8
Publisher: Copernicus Cham
eBook Packages: Medicine, Medicine (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-51728-1Published: 31 October 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-51729-8Published: 30 October 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXVI, 164
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Public Health, Internal Medicine, Nutrition, Health Care Management