Winter 2016 – Good Health
Winter 2016

Table of Contents

The Good Health Issue

From the Editors

Mind + Body + Community

Winter can be a difficult season. Shorter days and bleak weather leave us drained of energy. And then come the holidays, with celebrations and family get-togethers, which are a source of joy for some and anxiety for others. If we succumb to the weather and the stress, we might start mistaking our mental and physical struggles for personal failure. We’ve all heard the message that our health is our own problem, that if we get sick or depressed, it’s because we did something wrong or are not “taking care of ourselves.”

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Gabor Maté: How to Build a Culture of Good Health

Physical well-being depends on more than keeping our bodies fit. Emotions and the people who come into our lives matter just as much.
Gabor Maté, M.D.
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Income Inequality Is a Health Hazard—Even for the Rich

A public health researcher explains why life expectancy in the United States is falling, and it has to do with income inequality rising.
Yessenia Funes
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How Strong Friendships Defy Dementia

The Momentia movement uses strong social ties to ward off the effects of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Marcus Harrison Green
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Why Manning Up Is the Worst Thing to Do

Can we cure the toxicity of male trauma and the resulting illnesses it creates?
Mark Greene
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The Curious Case of the Antidepressant, Anti-Anxiety Backyard Garden

Whether it's microbes in the dirt or fresh air—or both—researchers do know this: Gardening is strong medicine.
Daphne Miller
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It’s OK If Winter Makes You Sad

Four scientific strategies for an emotionally authentic holiday season.
Jason Marsh

After Trauma: A Graphic Journey Through Wild Healing

In this collection of watercolor illustrations, a comics artist illustrates her journey through grief after the sudden death of her first child.
Leela Corman
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6 Cities Designing for Health

From Detroit to Edinburgh, these cities are helping residents live more healthful and equitable lives.
Anna Clark
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How College Students Are Resisting the Mental-Illness Stigma

Student-led organizations are bringing mental illness into the light to lower the suicide rates of young people.
Donna Jackel
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My Year of Magical Tidying

How getting rid of two-thirds of my belongings created more space for joy.
Erin Sagen
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What Our Breasts Are Telling Us

Author Florence Williams and her daughter discovered they had high levels of toxins—like flame retardants—in their bodies. Getting rid of the chemicals was harder than they expected.
Sarah van Gelder
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Latinos Live Longest Despite Poverty. Here’s Their Secret

U.S. Hispanics who pass down a tradition of food, family, and healing are healthier. But can they sustain that as generations become more assimilated?
Jasmine Aguilera
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Drug Use Down, Hope Up: A Canoe Journey Inspires Native Youth

Reversing the trauma of assimilation isn’t easy, but tribes believe that bringing ancestral values directly to the youth is the answer.
Yessenia Funes

Solutions We Love

Explore Section
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The Deal That Brought the Colorado River Back to the Sea

A new amendment to the 1944 water treaty between Mexico and the United States aims to create a fair, cooperative system for restoring the Colorado River.
Diondra Powers
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People We Love

How to Stop a Pipeline: The People Behind the Unist’ot’en Encampment

In British Columbia, a clan of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation has reoccupied its traditional lands in order to stop several proposed energy pipelines.
Tony Manno
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Waging Life in a War Zone

From Gaza’s colorful neighborhood to its underground theater, resistance is an art.
Jen Marlowe
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The New Face of Hunger: How Statistics Underestimate the Food Problem

Today, 800 million of us are considered “hungry,” but we produce enough calories to feed us all. Rather than a lack of food, we’re dealing with a lack of democracy.
Frances Moore Lappé
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The Page That Counts

Only 1 Percent of the Earth’s Oceans Are Environmentally Protected

How the majority of life on Earth lives under the sea, and 22 other facts about our world today.
Joe Scott & Tony Manno

Culture Shift

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If There Are No New Farmers, Who Will Grow Our Food?

Programs across the country are trying to make it easier for new farmers to get started and put down roots. Here's why: There's only one farmer under 35 for every six over 65. By 2030, one-quarter of America's current farmers will retire.
Kim Eckart
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Another Extinction: Words We Use to Describe the Natural World

Why naturalists and their linguistic allies fight to keep the language that gives us our sense of place from falling out of modern dictionaries.
Jack Turner
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As We Adapt to Climate Change, Who Gets Left Behind?

A new documentary shows planning options to mitigate a new climate, but questions about the global South are largely ignored.
Robert Jensen
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Bad-Weather Bicycling: 4 Tips to Stay Warm, Safe, and Dry

Bike more comfortably whether in rain, snow, or just frigid temperatures.
Miles Schneiderman
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The “Honorable Harvest”: Lessons From an Indigenous Tradition of Giving Thanks

What if this holiday season we fill our shopping baskets with only that which is needed and give something back in return?
Robin Wall Kimmerer
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Will the TPP Set Back This Campaign to Stop a Proposed Coal Mine Near Montana Tribal Land?

The TPP makes the rights of companies sacrosanct, and that includes the right to mine. But what about the rights of people who live in the way of proposed mining sites?
Sarah van Gelder