Prescription For A Healthy Nation: A New Approach To Improving Our Lives By Fixing Our Everyday World Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Introducing a new way of thinking about health: public health experts Tom Farley and Deborah A. Cohen show us that the antidote to our ever-growing rates of obesity and chronic diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes, lies not in our medical care system or in more health education but rather in how our environment affects our behavior.
Paperback: 296 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press (May 1, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0807021172
ISBN-13: 978-0807021170
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #292,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #342 in Books > Textbooks > Medicine & Health Sciences > Administration & Policy > Public Health #397 in Books > Textbooks > Medicine & Health Sciences > Administration & Policy > Health Care Delivery #587 in Books > Medical Books > Administration & Medicine Economics > Public Health
There have been a number of recent books about health habits and the environment, but this is by far the most enjoyable read. The writing is outstanding and not the clunky prose you often encounter in books written by academics - I wish I could write like them. Although written for a general audience, with (good) human interest anecdotes, the book nevertheless covers some deeper ideas, such as "curve shifting". The idea is that how often we encounter extreme outcomes, whether severe obesity, alcoholism, HIV, depends on "normal" or average behavior in the population. The early chapters that elaborate on those ideas alone are worth reading the book. I don't care too much about "passionate advocacy" and while the authors do fall into the advocacy camp, there is very little of the whining or scolding that has turned me off in other related books. Instead, arguments are generally well balanced even if you know on which side the authors are going to come down. It made a great read for a long flight.
Very good book exploring the reason for our dysfunctional healthcare system. It helps the reader understand the deficiencies and the promising future of healthcare in our nation. Important read for any future healthcare provider and students. The book discusses over medication, lack of preventative health and the extreme reactionary setting of our healthcare system.
This book clearly and concisely lays out what must be done to reign in the major killers of our time, such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and injuries. Right off the bat, the authors present formidable evidence showing that access to health care is not the answer to ending these problems. From there, a strategy is laid out showing just EXACTLY what we can do as a nation to curb the modern epidemics. The authors base their strategy on the groundbreaking work done by epidemiologist Geoffrey Rose Rose's Strategy of Preventive Medicine, as well as classic public health experts like Edwin Chadwick and John Snow. The book is convincing, logical, and backed up by a huge amount of new and old evidence. This is cutting edge public health and it is what students of medicine and public health are being taught in the classroom.
In reading Prescription for a Healthy Nation by Tom Farley, M.D., Deborah A. Cohen M.D. this week, I pondered our health care system. It really does seem like we're looking at the wrong factors. With rising rates of diabetes, hypertension, obesity, we wonder how can we reduce the costs of medication, healthcare and fix health insurance in general, while our population is becoming more unhealthy with each passing minute. It's true, something needs to change.I am in the business of health care. I care about health. I want to live a healthy lifestyle, unencumbered by disease or injury myself. I'd also like to see that for the rest of our society. But we live in a world where it seems that fitness and health are not priorities, rather, they are additional responsiblities on people's already too busy lifestyles. Which is why this book was actually quite interesting, discussing things like shelf space devoted to food products, pricing as related to people's consumption/purchasing tendencies, children walking to school now vs 20 years ago-- generally questioning our assumptions on what's broken with healthcare and society and how it could be changed. (Cutting healthcare costs and improving medicine vs changing lifestyles and cityscapes.)It's not just the system that's broken, it's also the people who are using it. Just looking around, it's obvious that most people are not healthy, fit or at a comfortable weight. In my office alone, a non-scientific survey says more than 50% (and likely nearer 75%) would like to lose weight, but what are they doing about it? Most talk about it, but do not act on it.The suggestion of this book is to work on changing society to create an environment which encourges healthy choices, whether it's by walking and biking, planting a garden, handing out free condoms, or installing safety bars so children don't fall off balconies. It is less about education (most education does not affect the rates of smoking, condom use, weight loss, and so on) and guilting people into improving behaviours than it is about making healhy choices accessible and easy.[...]
This book is awesome, one of the best public health books not written for public health professionals in awhile. Very easy to understand concepts. I normally read pretty slowly but I'm racing through this book! LOVE IT!!!
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