Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health

by Sandro Galea Narrated by Keith Sellon-Wright

Overview

In Well, physician Sandro Galea examines what Americans miss when they fixate on healthcare: health.



Americans spend more money on health than people anywhere else in the world. And what do they get for it? Statistically, not much. Americans today live shorter, less healthy lives than citizens of other rich countries, and these trends show no signs of letting up.



The problem, Sandro Galea argues, is that Americans focus on the wrong things when they think about health. Our national understanding of what constitutes "being well" is centered on medicine-the lifestyles we adopt to stay healthy, and the insurance plans and prescriptions we fall back on when we're not. While all these things are important, they've not proven to be the difference between healthy and unhealthy on the large scale.



Well is a radical examination of the subtle and not-so-subtle factors that determine who gets to be healthy in America. Galea shows how the country's failing health is a product of American history and character-and how refocusing on our national health can usher enlightenment across American life and politics.

Editorial Reviews

Doody's Review Service

Reviewer: Janice Phillips, PhD (Rush University Medical Center)
Description: The author issues a clarion call to action and invites readers to broaden their approaches to thinking about health. This country spends a tremendous amount of money on healthcare with an unfavorable return on investment, and this book aims to stimulate dialogue and action around the actual root cause of health, a perspective that shifts the emphasis from just thinking about healthcare to a more deliberate focus on the actual drivers of health.
Purpose: The purpose is to challenge readers to place a stronger emphasis on the actual drivers of health when working to reform our healthcare delivery system or in efforts to advance population health. Traditionally, as a nation, we have associated being well with pursuing traditional medical care when in fact there are other factors associated with health outcomes that far outweigh traditional medical care. Reforming the healthcare delivery system does not yield the favorable outcomes compared to when we devote our efforts and resources to address what actually makes and keeps people well. The book is quite timely, as our nation continues to struggle with rising healthcare cost and poorer health outcomes.
Audience: The book is suitable for anyone concerned about the health status of individuals and communities. Students entering into any of the health professions could benefit from reading it, as this may help shape their perspectives on health and healthcare. Policy advocates may wish to read this and use it as a tool as they advocate for a healthier nation. Policymakers also could benefit from reading the book, as it could help them in considering integrating a "health in all policies" approach to policymaking. The author is a well-regarded leading authority on health issues and is the Dean of Boston University School of Public Health.
Features: The book's 20 short but powerful thematic chapters outline a number of issues that impact health. The chapters tackle issues such as money, power, politics, humility, fairness, and justice, to name a few, that are the real key drivers of health, shaping the health and wellbeing of populations. Where people live, for example, or even one's zip code is a more influential factor in determining one's health and longevity vs. the care one receives when becoming sick. The author is adamant about shifting the paradigm from a predominant focus on healthcare (sick care) to one that embraces a focus on the true root causes of disease and illness (prevention). The chapters are short and easy to read. Perhaps a few pictures and illustrations may have enhanced the readability, but this does not dilute the book's significance or message.
Assessment: The book is very well written, and an in-depth reference list accompanies each chapter. It includes a number of case studies throughout, thus bringing the information to life. Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health explains just that and encourages readers to consider the real factors that shape health, well-being, and longevity. The chapter titles are the actual factors that are frequently left out of serious discussions surrounding health and our current health status and healthcare crisis.

From the Publisher

"With Galea's narrative storytelling ... our national public health crisis feels fresh, raw, and urgent." — Emily F. Peters, Health Affairs

"A deeply affecting work from one of the important and innovative voices in American health and medicine. Well shows how healthcare and society are reflections of one another — and how central human qualities like empathy and compassion must be if both are going to thrive." — Arianna Huffington, Founder of HuffPost and Founder & CEO of Thrive Global

"For 45 years I have fought for equity, compassion, and inclusion in mental health, so I am thrilled to see Sandro Galea's Well take the revolutionary and compelling stance that these principles can have a more beneficial effect upon public health than any scientific discovery." — Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady

"A radical new perspective on the true drivers of health — and a set of truly disruptive conclusions to inspire those designing health systems. A defining manifesto for the years ahead." — Arnaud Bernaert, World Economic Forum

"An elegant, jarring examination of the public's health in America-which for all of its flaws remains the source of our greatest hope for the future." — Karen DeSalvo, former Acting Assistant Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

"A superb account of how money, power, politics, and the luck of the draw affect the health of individuals and populations. It should inspire all of us to follow Galea in championing public health as an essential public good, and in treasuring and preserving the core values of public-health fairness, justice, and compassion for all." — Marion Nestle, author of Unsavory Truth

"The passionate argument we need for the health we deserve. What an important frame for the right to health!" — Leana Wen, President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Agency

"With healthcare increasingly a political football, Well guides us toward what is truly needed for a healthier world. Its power comes from Galea's remarkable ability to draw on the power of individual stories and lived experience to humanize the issues and inspire commitment to improved health for all." — Margaret Hamburg, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner

"A compassionate, relevant book." — Kirkus

"[Well] tells the tale of our individual and collective health's present and future as fluidly and eloquently as would any master storyteller... Galea's book is like a meditation on what can make for a healthier world. He is uniquely gifted to give us this broader prescription for our lives and those of our children and grandchildren. His is a message of hope, and we should listen."—The Lancet

"Cogently and often movingly, epidemiologist Sandro Galea argues that an obsession with drugs, doctors and insurance obscures the fact that the roots of sickness and health are life circumstances: money, status, education, environment and a range of other socio-economic issues. With the richest 1% living for up to 15 years longer than the poorest 1%, investment in public goods such as education, universal health coverage and environmental regulation is ever more urgent."—Nature

"Sandro Galea gives a revolutionary perspective on the state of public health in the United States and tells us how it can be fixed... Every American particularly policy-makers must read Well."—Washington Book Review

"An impeccably researched, well-reasoned look at a complex topic."—olumbia Magazine

Kirkus Reviews

2019-02-03

An epidemiologist reframes the American health care crisis.

Born in Malta and raised in Canada, Galea (Dean, Boston Univ. School of Public Health; Healthier: Fifty Thoughts on the Foundations of Population Health, 2017, etc.) has traveled the world treating patients in remote areas, experiences that shaped his impressions of what truly influences health and health care, two aspects of medicine that are often conflated. He underscores global statistical trends revealing that despite leading investments in health prevention, Americans still fall short on worldwide illness ratios. Galea faults a society that "is simply not oriented to keep[ing] us healthy" and seeks to gain a better understanding of how to achieve ultimate vitality and longevity. He offers a reassessment of the many elements of sustainable health and wellness, examining a wide variety of external, interconnected forces. While acknowledging that some influences—e.g., intergenerational factors and certain environmental conditions—are unavoidable, he intensively addresses the building blocks of sustainable health while putting allegories and pop-culture references to effective use. These key pieces include creating solid financial foundations, including the use of redistributive economic programs; resisting corruption in high-level political and corporate arenas; encouraging the establishment of tightknit community networks; cultivating emotional well-being; advocating for knowledgeable personal choices that resist negative influences from social media networks, advertising, and "social contagion." Galea believes that all of these forces collectively affect the healthfulness of Americans and that each plays a role in fostering an important brand of preventative medicine that can be cultivated at home. He implores readers to take the steps to change their minds and bodies now rather than relying on medicine or chronically seeing doctors after we are already ill. While some areas of the author's research may seem like wishful thinking in today's world of greed, violence, and class inequities, his hopes for a healthier populace make for a compassionate, relevant book.

Sharp, optimistic, and factually supported encouragement to boost societal attitudes about the power of salubrity.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173392671
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	09/18/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,123,983

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