Resources on Health Politics, Advocacy, Prevention, and Social Health

Genetic Magic
PHO #13

Despite advances in our understanding of how genes actually work, many still cling to the misbegotten idea that genes cause disease.

Social Medicine, Social Health
PHO #12

Social Medicine, Social Health: Health isn’t the absence of disease. But what is it and how do we get it?

An Unhealthy Future
PHO #12

An Unhealthy Future: The biology of stress tells us why abandoning the social safety net will deliver a huge medical bill in the future.

Medical Directives
PHO #6

Fit to Print? A review of resources for medical directives from Nolo Press.

Health Care Bankruptcy
PHO #4

Health Care Bankruptcy: Most of the costliest health conditions are preventable with diet and exercise

The Truth About the Drug Companies and Critical Condition
PHO #4

Fit To Print? A review of The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to do About It by Marcia Angell and Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business and Bad Medicine by Donald Barlett and James Steele

From Radio Frequency to Bug Spray

Protecting citizen health from corporate power. An interview with film makers Mary Beth Branagan and James Heddle from EON Ecological Options Network. Resources: Ecological Options Networ www.eon3.net; resources on environmental health, resources on radiation, and resources on health politics and advocacy

Longevity and Socio-Economic Stress

Tony Iton, MD, MPH, Alameda County Public Health Department Director and Health Officer discusses the lessons of the California Newsreel documentary and PBS series Unnatural Causes. Resources: Unnatural Causes www.unnaturalcauses.org; Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative www.barhii.org; resources on health politics, advocacy, prevention, and social health and resources on stress

Shopping Our Way to Safety

Sociologist Andrew Szasz, PhD, author of Shopping our Way to Safety discusses the accelerating trend toward reducing risk individually by purchasing products and why such solutions are ultimately not effective. Resources: Shopping Our Way to Safety by Andrew Szasz; resources on health politics, advocacy, prevention, and social health, the documentary Unnatural Causes www.unnaturalcauses.org

Safe Cell Tower Siting

Journalist and environmental analyst B. Blake Levitt, author of Electromagnetic Fields and contributing editor of Cell Towers, discusses the wide range of risks associated with siting cell phone towers and strategies for siting them safely Resources: B. Blake Levitt’s website www.blakelevitt.com, Cell Towers and Electromagnetic Fields by B. Blake Levitt; resources on radiation

Sustainable Health

Jeffry Fawcett, PhD, founder and president of the Sustainable Health Institute, discusses sustainable health practices that enable people and their communities to thrive through the art of self care. Resources: Sustainable Health Institute www.sustainablehealthinstitute.org

Supplement Access: An Update on Proposed Regulation

Attorney James Turner of Swankin and Turner and Citizen's For Health discusses our access to and freedom of choice in healthcare products, foods, and supplements. Resources: Citizens for Health www.citizens.org; resources on nutrition and on nutrients for prevention and treatment

Resistance to Citywide WiFi

Doug Loranger, from San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna Free Union, discusses how citizens are mobilizing against exposure to citywide wireless Internet access. Resources: San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna Free Union www.antennafreeunion.org; Resources on radiation

Medical Decision Making

Oleg Reznik, MD, author of The Secrets of Medical Decision Making discusses how to avoid becoming a victim of the health care machine. Resources: Oleg Reznik, MD website www.olegreznikmd.com; The Secrets of Medical Decision Making: How to Avoid Becoming a Victim of the Health Care Machine by Oleg Reznik

Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment Part 2

Health educators Layna Berman and Jeffry Fawcett, PhD discuss how to avoid common diagnoses and the medical interventions that are typically prescribed Resources: Resources on diabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and obesity; Resources on cardiovascular and heart health; Resources on digestion and gut health; Resources on exercise and musculoskeletal health; Resources on aging;

Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment Part 1

Health integrationist Layna Berman and health educator Jeffry Fawcett, PhD discuss how to avoid common diagnoses and the medical interventions that are typically prescribed Resources: Should I Be Tested For Cancer? by H. Gilbert Welch; Resources on cancer; Resources on mind, mood, and stress; Resources on diabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and obesity

Girls at Risk

Leslie Acoca, MA, MFT, director of In Our Daughters’ Hands, discusses the health of incarcerated girls. Resources: In Our Daughters’ Hands: (415) 888-2211 and blckswans@aol.com

Protect Yourself Against Stress-related Illness
An event presented on March 4, 2007

Layna Berman and Jeffry Fawcett, PhD discuss how stress affects health and illness. Topics include
how stress is at the core of common diagnoses such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and autoimmune diseases;
how your body responds to stress and the cascade of metabolic events that lead to illness;
how to protect yourself from sources of stress;
how to increase your body's resilience in responding to stressors.
Resources: Resources on mind, mood, and stress; Resources on diabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and obesity; Resources on cardiovascular and heart health; Resources on immunity;

Single Payer Health Insurance

Bree Johnston, MD physician-spokesperson from the group Physicians for a National Health Program will discuss the new California single payer health insurance system, new statistics on the uninsured released by the US Census Bureau, the ongoing health care crisis in the US, specific effects on local areas, and options for health care reform. Resources: Physicians for a National Health Policy www.pnhp.org ; Health Care for All www.healthcareforall.org ; OneCareNow www.onecarenow.org

Turning Healthy People Into Patients

Medical writer Roy Moynihan discusses how medical institutions have invented diseases under the guise of prevention. Resources: Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels

Big Pharma Deception

Physician John Abramson, MD discusses how Big Pharma has degraded health and medicine. This is a pledge drive show. Resources: Overdosed America by John Abramson, MD

Protecting Yourself from the Health Care System

Health educator Layna Berman and health strategies advisor Jeffry Fawcett, PhD discuss protecting yourself and your wishes in a health care environment. Resources: Resources on politics, advocacy, prevention, and social health

Community Health Strategies

Leslie Mikkelsen, MPH, Managing Director of The Prevention Institute, founded to address complex health and social issues, one person at a time, creating comprehensive strategies that change the conditions that impact community health, including violence prevention, traffic safety, health disparities, nutrition and physical activity, and youth development. Resources: The Prevention Institute www.preventioninstitute.org

Critical Condition

Investigative journalists James Steele and Donald Barlett discuss their new book about how the big bussiness of health care in America has degraded the practice of medicine. Resources: Critical Condition by James Steele and Donald Barlett

The Truth About the Drug Companies

Dr. Marcia Angell, physician and former editor-in-chief of the "New England Journal of Medicine", discusses her book about how pharmaceutical companies deceive consumers. Resources: The Truth About the Drug Companies by Marcia Angell

Health and Economic Status

Bruce McEwen PhD from Rockefeller University and Nancy E. Adler PhD from the MacArthur Network for Socioeconomic Health and the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF, discuss the effect of socioeconomic status on health. Resources: Socioeconomic Status and Health in Industrial Nations: Social, Psychological, and Biological Pathways edited by Bruce McEwen and Nancy Adler www.macses.ucsf.edu and The End of Stress as We Know It by Bruce McEwen

The Cost Of Pharmaceuticals

Journalist Katherine Greider exposes the price manipulations of the pharmaceutical industry. This is a pledge drive show. Resources: The Big Fix by Katherine Greider

Making Health Decisions

Health decision consultant Dr. Jeffry Fawcett, PhD discusses how to make health and medical decisions

Social Perspectives in Epidemiology

Epidemiologist Steve Wing, PhD and professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill discusses the impact of socioeconomic status on disease development

Advocating for Yourself in a Health Care Environment

Health educator Layna Berman discusses strategies for advocating for your wishes and protecting yourself and loved ones in a medical setting with Elizabeth Sawyer, 32-year Zen Buddhist practitioner, parent of Wolf-Hirschorn Syndrome child

Trust Us, We're Experts

Journalist John Stauber exposes the spin doctors of industrialized science in his book Resources: Trust Us, We're Experts by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber

Health Insurance Update

Gregory MacDonald, Private Insurance Broker

Health Insurance How-To

Gregory Macdonald, Insurance Investigator/Broker

Innocent Casualties of the FDA

Elaine Feuer discusses her book Resources: Innocent Casualties: The FDA's War Against Humanity by Elaine Feuer

Worst Pills, Questionable Doctors

Dr. Sidney Wolfe, MD, Resources: Worst Pills, Best Pills and Questionable Doctors Discipline by the State and Federal Governments by Sidney Wolfe