| Powerful Ideas, Practical Actions |
August 2012 |
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The “Bodies” issue of YES! Magazine
Dear Reader,
Is health just another consumer decision?
Several U.S. Supreme Court justices seem to think so, based on their statements during oral arguments on the Affordable Care Act. And it’s common rhetoric for opponents of health care reform.
But going to the doctor or landing in the hospital is different from buying a car or a cell phone. When your health is at stake, you have no bargaining power.
Talking about our bodies and health as part of a consumer relationship gives us a sense of control, as if buying a gym membership or the right multivitamin is all we need to make our bodies beautiful and invulnerable. But treat your health as a shopping excursion, and you’re exposed to the manipulations of agribusiness, big pharma, and the health insurance industry. And (no surprise) they’re more interested in profit than in your health.
What makes us sick or keeps us healthy goes well beyond consumer choice. Research says it’s not just diet and exercise—inequality, pollution, and unsustainable agriculture contribute to disease.
In this issue, we explore how individuals and communities can take back control of our bodies and health. And we bring you honest conversations about sex, sports, emotions, sickness, healing, living well, and dying gracefully.
See what’s inside the issue, and if you’re not already a subscriber, make this issue the first in your subscription with this introductory $15 offer.
 Best,
Madeline Ostrander
Senior Editor, YES! Magazine
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| From the Fall Issue of YES! Magazine …
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New findings reveal surprising factors that heal—or harm—our bodies.
 Why Your Health Is Bigger Than Your Body
by Claudia Rowe
Talking with Dr. Ted Schettler is probably unlike any conversation you have had with your physician. Raise the topic of breast cancer or diabetes or dementia, and Schettler starts talking about income disparities, industrial farming, and campaign finance reform.
The Harvard-educated physician, frustrated by the limitations of science in combating disease, believes that finding answers to the most persistent medical challenges of our time—conditions that now threaten to overwhelm our health care system—depends on understanding the human body as a system nested within a series of other, larger systems: one’s family and community, environment, culture, and socioeconomic class, all of which affect each other.
He calls this new approach to medicine “the ecological paradigm of health.”
READ MORE ...
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Highlights from the last newsletter:
:: Eve Ensler: Freedom Starts With a “V”
The “Vagina Monologues” author on why knowing your body can shake up the world.
:: A Critical Mass for Real Food
The logic of our industrial food system mirrors the logic of the slave plantation. Students are creating a different way to eat.
:: Better Eating Through Mindfulness
How can increasing your awareness of tasting, craving, and satisfaction be a tool for healthier eating? Here's what psychologists have to say.
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