I am sure to expose myself as a radical with this post (and perhaps a hypocrite since I have air conditioning myself). This is not to convince anyone to throw out their A/C unit but rather to re-think some of our very basic assumptions about what actually impacts happiness and wellbeing and what does not. …
I’m a family doctor. Like my colleagues, I have and do prescribe Ozempic and similar medicines. These are potent drugs that have helped many people to lose weight and control diabetes. For the right patient it is a very effective drug. That said, it’s a drug. That is precisely the problem. True, it does have …
Increased productivity Has not Translated to More Freedom In todays world, the vast majority of people are dependent on their employers for their income. But how did we become so much more productive than our forefathers while still being dependent on our employers? This is the result of the feeling that more and more of …
According to the CDC, 1 in 3 teen girls have had serious suicidal thoughts. Rates of depression and anxiety have been increasing particularly among teens. While the pandemic made things worse, this was true even before the pandemic. Why, what is happening? Most of the discussion centers around social media use and bullying. While those …
Children’s Mental Health Crisis from Consumerism Read More »
Yes, climate change is real and yes, without a doubt, humanity is responsible for much of the warming. If left unaddressed, we will suffer catastrophic consequences. However, its often characterized as the defining issue of our age. It is not. Its a distraction from the root cause of climate change. That root cause is mindless …
Wildlife populations plummet by 69% since 1970s. That’s the recent headline from the World Wildlife Foundation 2022 report. What’s driving the trend? In a word, consumerism. Consumerism is the driving force behind three large scale threats that humanity faces today: climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and (as reader’s of Health in Flames and this …
In contrast to our pre-industrial ancestors who moved around constantly throughout the day, most of us in the modern world are largely sedentary. Few of us realize just how hazardous this is. It’s true, sitting is the new smoking and our work is a health hazard. Just a brief run down of the adverse health …
Our species, homo sapiens have roamed the Earth for an estimated 200-300K years. For nearly all of our time on Earth we spent well over 90% of our time outdoors. In fact, there was no such thing as indoors for >95% of our history. The post-industrial era in which we now live accounts for only …
Run a google image search for “tasty food”. What you’ll find almost completely missing is pictures of actual food – instead you’ll see pictures of highly processed “food”. In my search, among the first 25 images only one was of real food… (Mango salsa fish tacos anyone?) Capitalism leads to processed foods Let’s admit it. It’s …
Garages Require Paved Roads Among the things we mindlessly consume which sometimes undermines our own happiness are certain conveniences. In Health in Flames, there’s a chapter that envisions a society where people live without garages. I was meaning to illustrate that the garage is a a problem for our health. Having a garage automatically necessitates …
