SandroGalea

1. We are investing in our money in medicine and healthcare, not in health. We need to be investing in the social, economic, and environmental conditions that affect health. So, we need to invest in transportation, housing, parks, and opportunities for a healthier life.
2. Yes, we need to understand that what we eat helps us and helps us get healthier. But equally well we need to understand that we need access to healthy foods in order to eat healthy. Without healthy food access we cannot eat healthy. So we need to create an environment where food is available that generates health.

The biggest misconception, to my mind, is that we think health is almost entirely a product of our individual choices. We believe if we can only eat right, get enough exercise, and avoid risky behaviors, we can assure our health. This is not the case. In fact, health is overwhelmingly generated by our context. If we live, say, in an unsafe neighborhood close to a pollution-spewing bus depot, there is only so much we can do to stay healthy. Inasmuch as health is generated by choice, it is shaped by the choices of high-level corporate and political actors, who are in a position to shape our shared context.

1. Your health is linked to the world around you. Where you live, work, and play matter more to your health than your doctor
2. Genetics play a very small role in your health; where you live and how you live matter much more.
3. Your health and my health are interlinked and we cannot have one without the other.

The US spends more on health care than any other country in the world, yet our health is mediocre compared to peer countries. At core, these costs are driven by our failure to address the root causes of disease in society – the social, economic, and environmental conditions in which we live. We have not yet adequately addressed fundamental challenges like racism, poverty, climate change, and political disinvestment in the public goods that sustain health. Improving these conditions will not necessarily reduce the price of treatments, but it will reduce the need for treatments in the first place. Rather than spend more on health care, we need to spend more on health.

There are multiple thoughts on this. 1. The illegality of Marijuana over the years has resulted in an enormous burden of incarceration and its consequences being placed on minority communities, particularly young black men. Insofar as making marijuana legal reduces this burden that is a good thing. 2. Marijuana is not generally toxic and has relatively few long-term consequences. 3. There is emerging evidence though of psychosis linked to heavy marijuana use so I think the jury is still out on how this is going to affect population health