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Pained

Uncomfortable Conversations about the Public's Health

Michael Stein author Sandro Galea author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:5th Jun '20

Should be back in stock very soon

Pained cover

A POLITICAL PROVOCATION FROM A PAIR OF PHYSICIANS WRITING OUTSIDE THEIR LANE Americans care about their health. Americans pay lots of money in hopes of maintaining their health. So why are Americans so unhealthy? The reason is simple: as a country, the United States overinvests in medical care at the expense of the social, economic, and cultural forces that produce health. The rise of medicine as a cornerstone of American life and culture has coincided with a social and political devaluation of factors demonstrated to mean more to our vitality than anything else -- influences like where we live, work, and play; livable wages that create opportunity for healthy living; and gender and racial equity. In Pained, physicians Michael Stein and Sandro Galea push the conversation around American health where it belongs: toward matters of class, money, and culture. Across more than 50 essays and data illustrations, Pained casts a light on how the structural components of everyday life -- like school, housing, police, even cell phones -- ultimately determine who gets to be healthy in today's America. In doing so, it makes a case for reframing our political discourse in less myopic, more effectual terms. Accessible and surprising, political but not partisan, Pained is the urgent, uncomfortable conversation that American needs in this challenging moment. It will delight and infuriate readers of all political stripes.

In these pithy essays, Michael Stein and Sandro Galea convincingly show that American health depends less on medical care than on the state of our jobs, families, social networks, and environment. Recommended for anyone with an interest in public health. * Sandeep Jauhar, author of Heart: A History *
A stellar essay will inform, captivate, and motivate the reader to action. In this respect, Sandro Galea and Michael Stein contribute not one, but more than 50 essays illustrating in their compelling fashion how healthy people represent more than just the integrity of their DNA and the quality of their medical care. In Pained, Galea and Stein underscore at once the magnitude of the challenges, the public nature of the solutions, and their daunting prospects. Fortunately, the public health community is accustomed to daunting challenges, and this book will serve as an important resource for development of the strategies required. * Michael McGinnis, National Academy of Medicine *

ISBN: 9780197510384

Dimensions: 137mm x 206mm x 18mm

Weight: 318g

272 pages