Philosophy
I was listening to an interview with Stanford neurologist Robert Sapolsky on NPR a few weeks back and it really struck me. Sapolsky who studies the relation between the neurological and the social in primates told a fascinating story in discussing his latest book, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.
He pointed to the well-known relation between wealth and health. The usual explanation, that more money means more access to health care and higher quality health care, he argued, is belied by the fact that we see the same thing in European countries with socialized health care systems. Everyone has the same access to the same health care, yet it still holds true that the better off financially, the better off physically. Why?
He contends that the answer is class-related stress; the lower you are on the pecking order, the more stressful your life, and the more stressful your life, the worse your health. He used an anecdote to illustrate the point. He discussed a group of mountain gorillas that lived close to a human settlement. Gorillas have a strict social hierarchy based on and maintained by physical aggression. As a result, he contends, great stress and stress related health problems that are more frequent among those lower on the social ladder. Through interaction with humans, the more aggressive males had all been killed in interactions with humans, leaving the troop with only females and less aggressive males. The result, he contended was a new culture in the troop which was more egalitarian and gentle. Newcomers were socialized into this structure and as a result fewer health problems were found among this group than in troops of comparable size that have the usual hierarchical structure.
Is this a fair argument? Of course, there are many, many other factors at play, but can we point to the artificial stress of contemporary life as one of the more significant threats to public health or is it overstated?
- Is Stress A Choice?
Interesting question popped up in a conversation last night and wondered what you folks thought about it. Is stress a choice? Do you choose to be stressed out by something or is it something that is not a matter of one's own control? We can practice...
- Mental Health Parity And Identity
One of most celebrated questions in philosophy is the mind/body problem, that is, are the mind and the brain the same thing or different things. If they are different, how, if at all, are they interconnected? Let's take an oblique approach to this...
- Should Prostitution Be Illegal?
We can legally contract away our bodies for use in manual labor that picks strawberries or cleans hotel rooms. We can agree to use our bodies in ways that are physically dangerous and potentially harmful through exposure to various chemicals and repetitive...
- Sadly Shakes Head
An editorial at Investors Business Daily tries to make the case against the current proposed health care reforms by confusing it with the socialized medical system of Great Britain (which it in no way resembles). To make it better they try to tie it in...
- We're Number 37! Usa! Usa! Insecurity As An American Social Force
When Charles Krauthammer won the Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Journalism a few weeks back, he said, ?A few years ago, I was on a radio show with a well-known political reporter who lamented the loss of a pristine past in which the whole country...
Philosophy
Stress and Health
I was listening to an interview with Stanford neurologist Robert Sapolsky on NPR a few weeks back and it really struck me. Sapolsky who studies the relation between the neurological and the social in primates told a fascinating story in discussing his latest book, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.
He pointed to the well-known relation between wealth and health. The usual explanation, that more money means more access to health care and higher quality health care, he argued, is belied by the fact that we see the same thing in European countries with socialized health care systems. Everyone has the same access to the same health care, yet it still holds true that the better off financially, the better off physically. Why?
He contends that the answer is class-related stress; the lower you are on the pecking order, the more stressful your life, and the more stressful your life, the worse your health. He used an anecdote to illustrate the point. He discussed a group of mountain gorillas that lived close to a human settlement. Gorillas have a strict social hierarchy based on and maintained by physical aggression. As a result, he contends, great stress and stress related health problems that are more frequent among those lower on the social ladder. Through interaction with humans, the more aggressive males had all been killed in interactions with humans, leaving the troop with only females and less aggressive males. The result, he contended was a new culture in the troop which was more egalitarian and gentle. Newcomers were socialized into this structure and as a result fewer health problems were found among this group than in troops of comparable size that have the usual hierarchical structure.
Is this a fair argument? Of course, there are many, many other factors at play, but can we point to the artificial stress of contemporary life as one of the more significant threats to public health or is it overstated?
- Is Stress A Choice?
Interesting question popped up in a conversation last night and wondered what you folks thought about it. Is stress a choice? Do you choose to be stressed out by something or is it something that is not a matter of one's own control? We can practice...
- Mental Health Parity And Identity
One of most celebrated questions in philosophy is the mind/body problem, that is, are the mind and the brain the same thing or different things. If they are different, how, if at all, are they interconnected? Let's take an oblique approach to this...
- Should Prostitution Be Illegal?
We can legally contract away our bodies for use in manual labor that picks strawberries or cleans hotel rooms. We can agree to use our bodies in ways that are physically dangerous and potentially harmful through exposure to various chemicals and repetitive...
- Sadly Shakes Head
An editorial at Investors Business Daily tries to make the case against the current proposed health care reforms by confusing it with the socialized medical system of Great Britain (which it in no way resembles). To make it better they try to tie it in...
- We're Number 37! Usa! Usa! Insecurity As An American Social Force
When Charles Krauthammer won the Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Journalism a few weeks back, he said, ?A few years ago, I was on a radio show with a well-known political reporter who lamented the loss of a pristine past in which the whole country...