Health as Ecological

This report lays out why there is a need to understand the history behind framing health as “individual choices” or “behaviours” to better appreciate what an ecological health approach looks like and its significance in eradicating health inequities.

Obesity & Trauma

This report will take an ecological approach, focusing on the bidirectional pathway between trauma and obesity to highlight the disparity between scientific evidence and communication around obesity, as well as the psychosocial factors that contribute to, and maintain, this disparity. This is to ensure health organisations and policies support a holistic and equitable prevention strategy for obesity.

The History of Disease

This audio report discusses three epidemiological transitions and how our modern environments are not suited to our biological architecture. New perspectives such as the ‘ancestral susceptibility hypothesis’ suggests that there is a mismatch between the ancestral environments our bodies have adapted to (at a genetic level) over millennia.

The Environmental Factors of Diabetes

We are going to use diabetes as a case study to produce three learnings. (1) Genetics are not the full story when it comes to non communicable diseases such as diabetes. (2) Understand that disease prevention and even cure is not just in the confines of medical institutions. (3) The need for geospatial studies to understand the interlink between diabetes and place.

 

Depression as a Brain/Body Disease and its Links to Air Pollution

Depression is often framed as a mental health problem, however, the more we understand the more we uncover its physical symptomology. Additionally, it is important to understand how environmental factors, such as air pollution are contributing to its prevalence.