David Rosner and Jerry Markowitz taught generations of historians, physicians, and public health scientists to look beyond individual choices and ask a harder question: What kind of world have we built?
What we have created indeed, good food for thought Bruce.
Minor pain and discomfort that flare up on an irregular schedule are signs of that world and that our body tells us is not normal as it struggles to heal its effects, adapt to the trouble we cause the metabolic dysfunction we visit upon it
Prevention is definitely the key to be illness free, a healthy lifestyle: organic food, escaping city living, sound sleep, moderately strenuous exercise, movement, lower, normal stress levels, can reverse the illness train wreck.
Sometimes even in advanced stages of an illness: our body is a miracle that wants to heal and stay healthy, but sometimes it tells us enough is enough and its non physical part escapes into the universal energy of which it has been part of from its beginning
Bruce, you've identified the main problem in this one sentence.
I was head of preventive dentistry at Univ. of Toronto. I taught dentists how to ensure that their patients prevent the two main illnesses in dentistry that are chronic- dental caries and gum disease, and as a part-time practitioner in my own solo dental office I put that knowledge into practice. With my help, half my practice was filled with patients whose 'dental illness' never came. I even had two generations of people with No Cavities and No Fillings (NoF-NoC patients https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9011359/). There is little profit in that, yes, but it can be done. Successful preventive service can be provided at very low costs so that the provider is paid a decent wage. You you are right Bruce. There is too little profit in it though. Dentists have to recoup 7-10 years of post-secondary education costs ($500,000 or more), build their own dental dental offices (or buy existing ones) costing > $1M and at the same time save for retirement- no pensions. Some blue collar workers in industry are better off than dentists financially when they both reach an old age (because the blue collar worker was emplyed shortly after high school, while dentists borrow money to pay living expenses and university tuition for nearly a decade (I did 12 years). Because of the enormous costs involved to provide dental services, dentists tend focus on treating the 'ill', even when the 'ill' aren't really that sick (they'll work, juart as dermatologists and plastic surgeons in medicine do, focusing on uninsured services like cosmetics, orthodontics, teeth whitening etc.)
Prevention of environmental diseases is a field covered by Occupational and Environmental Medicine specialists (https://aoec.org/oem/compensation-in-oem/). They are often ignored in surveys of remuneration for medical specialists (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZPxQDls58). They are likely lower on the pay grade but high on the job satisfaction scale.
If governments and the professions truly were serious about disease prevention they would figure out how to reward those health care practitioners who could prove that they are able to reach certain goals. I did with my NoF-NoC patients but was punished financially for it.
Thank you, Hardy. Yes, the system is broken. But I still have faith that we can fix it. If I didn't, I would have retired years ago. Hope may not always be rational, but it's what keeps many of us doing this work.
Yes Bruce. The cure helps like a band aid that heals the wound. Prevention and reshaping the world into life-giving space instead of a life-taking one is the goal that sometimes gets lost in the myriad of alleviating suffering. Thank you Bruce for your poetry and inspiration. It has helped me heal my morning.
We are seeing in African countries that mine Gold and Cobalt, a certain disease gain headlines that is merely a reaction to a toxic assault on the body.
Toxic elements released from the earth (naturally present in ores)
These are often locked in rock and become dangerous when mining exposes and processes them:
Heavy metals & metalloids
• Arsenic
• Lead
• Mercury
• Cadmium
• Chromium (especially toxic Cr(VI))
• Nickel
• Copper (toxic at high levels)
• Cobalt (can cause lung/heart issues)
• Manganese (neurological toxicity)
Toxic chemicals used in gold mining
Main extraction chemicals
Sodium cyanide
Potassium cyanide
Used in cyanide leaching to dissolve gold
Mercury
Used in artisanal mining to form gold amalgam (very dangerous)
Other associated chemicals
Sulfuric acid
Nitric acid
Hydrochloric acid
Used in refining and ore treatment
Lime (to control pH, but still reactive)
As documented by Siddharth Kara in the book, Cobalt Red is the searing, first-ever exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt.
Andrew: Thank you for introducing me to Siddharth Kara's Cobalt Red. It is likely to be one of a growing number of books exposing the hidden human and environmental costs of critical metals. His book—and your comment—remind me of our recurring failure to anticipate environmental disasters. We plan for pandemics because we know they will come. Yet when it comes to new technologies and the resources they require, we often act first and ask questions later. The history of lead, asbestos, PFAS, and now critical metals suggests we should be doing the opposite.
The comments are wonderful and I agree with Dr.Limeback whose important work on fluoride I have also followed over many years. That one sentence is profound within an entirely profound poem.
Our economy is based on the exchange of money, not on the health of humans or the environment. Medicine is now largely a business that just treats illness. I am reminded of an ancient Chinese practice in medicine someone recently mentioned- that you pay the doctor if you are well and stop paying them if you are sick.
Thanks Bruce for your optimism and the language you give it.
I must confess I lost some of my optimism watching how we accommodated the Covid pandemic. There was the initial (hopeful) pulling together...and then sadly people went to their corners...and many have remained there.
Thank you Doreen. I expect most of us have had—and are still having—our optimism tested. It is harder to think about societies the way we think about a marriage. Yet Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea has hung on our wall for decades, a wedding gift that has followed us from one home to another. Her words were written about love and relationships, but they might as easily apply to the challenge of living in a vibrant, rapidly changing society. Are you familiar with it? Imagine if the following had been written not about marriage, but about citizenship, community, and the work of building a society:
“When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet, this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of time and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible in life, as in love, is in growth, in fluidity – in freedom. The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was, nor forward to what it might be, but living in the present and accepting it as it is now. For relationships, too, must be like islands. One must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits – islands surrounded and interrupted by the sea, continuously visited and abandoned by the tides. One must accept the serenity of the winged life, of ebb and flow, of intermittency.”
Thanks Bruce….A Gift from the Sea is sitting on my book shelf…a wee bit dusty. Time for a re-read to counter a bit of encroaching cynicism. Of note we used the modified quote “Everything will be ok in the end…if it’s not ok, it’s not the end” when we were fundraising for our Green Cemetery. It was a hit with everyone.
So sorry to hear about the loss of David Rosner, a great human. Thank you for this wonderful poem to honor him. I have not read his book but will now. His work and spirit lives on.
How true. We stare at isolated biochemical parameters with high-tech tools, while the actual truth lies within the dynamics of the entire system. Disease is a mirror—because our biology reacts exactly as it must when we subject it to structural constraints and conditions it was never designed to endure. We desperately try to cure isolated pathologies instead of questioning the blocked flows of our environment. As long as we define health merely as adhering to statistical reference ranges and ignore the invisible, crushing effort the body exerts for mere compensation, we are only trying to correct the reflection instead of changing the reality in front of the mirror.
Peggy: I don't think we know if we already lost the race. I prefer to believe that everything will work out in the end. "In the end, everything works out. If it hasn't worked out, it's because it isn't the end yet." Fernando Sabino (1923–2004)
"We have built an economy
that rewards production
more than protection."
What we have created indeed, good food for thought Bruce.
Minor pain and discomfort that flare up on an irregular schedule are signs of that world and that our body tells us is not normal as it struggles to heal its effects, adapt to the trouble we cause the metabolic dysfunction we visit upon it
Prevention is definitely the key to be illness free, a healthy lifestyle: organic food, escaping city living, sound sleep, moderately strenuous exercise, movement, lower, normal stress levels, can reverse the illness train wreck.
Sometimes even in advanced stages of an illness: our body is a miracle that wants to heal and stay healthy, but sometimes it tells us enough is enough and its non physical part escapes into the universal energy of which it has been part of from its beginning
Peace and harmony
"Yet there is too little profit
in the child who never becomes sick,
the illness that never comes."
Bruce, you've identified the main problem in this one sentence.
I was head of preventive dentistry at Univ. of Toronto. I taught dentists how to ensure that their patients prevent the two main illnesses in dentistry that are chronic- dental caries and gum disease, and as a part-time practitioner in my own solo dental office I put that knowledge into practice. With my help, half my practice was filled with patients whose 'dental illness' never came. I even had two generations of people with No Cavities and No Fillings (NoF-NoC patients https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9011359/). There is little profit in that, yes, but it can be done. Successful preventive service can be provided at very low costs so that the provider is paid a decent wage. You you are right Bruce. There is too little profit in it though. Dentists have to recoup 7-10 years of post-secondary education costs ($500,000 or more), build their own dental dental offices (or buy existing ones) costing > $1M and at the same time save for retirement- no pensions. Some blue collar workers in industry are better off than dentists financially when they both reach an old age (because the blue collar worker was emplyed shortly after high school, while dentists borrow money to pay living expenses and university tuition for nearly a decade (I did 12 years). Because of the enormous costs involved to provide dental services, dentists tend focus on treating the 'ill', even when the 'ill' aren't really that sick (they'll work, juart as dermatologists and plastic surgeons in medicine do, focusing on uninsured services like cosmetics, orthodontics, teeth whitening etc.)
Prevention of environmental diseases is a field covered by Occupational and Environmental Medicine specialists (https://aoec.org/oem/compensation-in-oem/). They are often ignored in surveys of remuneration for medical specialists (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZPxQDls58). They are likely lower on the pay grade but high on the job satisfaction scale.
If governments and the professions truly were serious about disease prevention they would figure out how to reward those health care practitioners who could prove that they are able to reach certain goals. I did with my NoF-NoC patients but was punished financially for it.
The system is broken.
Thank you, Hardy. Yes, the system is broken. But I still have faith that we can fix it. If I didn't, I would have retired years ago. Hope may not always be rational, but it's what keeps many of us doing this work.
Yes Bruce. The cure helps like a band aid that heals the wound. Prevention and reshaping the world into life-giving space instead of a life-taking one is the goal that sometimes gets lost in the myriad of alleviating suffering. Thank you Bruce for your poetry and inspiration. It has helped me heal my morning.
Beautiful
Self destruction, and the inheritance. Yes:
“We leave our mark upon the world
and forget
how deeply it leaves its mark on us.”
Thank you.
What a brilliant poem, thanks for sharing.
We are seeing in African countries that mine Gold and Cobalt, a certain disease gain headlines that is merely a reaction to a toxic assault on the body.
Toxic elements released from the earth (naturally present in ores)
These are often locked in rock and become dangerous when mining exposes and processes them:
Heavy metals & metalloids
• Arsenic
• Lead
• Mercury
• Cadmium
• Chromium (especially toxic Cr(VI))
• Nickel
• Copper (toxic at high levels)
• Cobalt (can cause lung/heart issues)
• Manganese (neurological toxicity)
Toxic chemicals used in gold mining
Main extraction chemicals
Sodium cyanide
Potassium cyanide
Used in cyanide leaching to dissolve gold
Mercury
Used in artisanal mining to form gold amalgam (very dangerous)
Other associated chemicals
Sulfuric acid
Nitric acid
Hydrochloric acid
Used in refining and ore treatment
Lime (to control pH, but still reactive)
As documented by Siddharth Kara in the book, Cobalt Red is the searing, first-ever exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt.
Andrew: Thank you for introducing me to Siddharth Kara's Cobalt Red. It is likely to be one of a growing number of books exposing the hidden human and environmental costs of critical metals. His book—and your comment—remind me of our recurring failure to anticipate environmental disasters. We plan for pandemics because we know they will come. Yet when it comes to new technologies and the resources they require, we often act first and ask questions later. The history of lead, asbestos, PFAS, and now critical metals suggests we should be doing the opposite.
The comments are wonderful and I agree with Dr.Limeback whose important work on fluoride I have also followed over many years. That one sentence is profound within an entirely profound poem.
Our economy is based on the exchange of money, not on the health of humans or the environment. Medicine is now largely a business that just treats illness. I am reminded of an ancient Chinese practice in medicine someone recently mentioned- that you pay the doctor if you are well and stop paying them if you are sick.
Lessons in corporate health - from ancient China- https://www.weforum.org/stories/2016/09/corporate-health-ancient-china/
Thank you again for this Bruce. Are we able to quote you on this?
Cindy
"Yet there is too little profit
in the child who never becomes sick,
the illness that never comes."
Thank you Cindy. Absolutely!
Thanks Bruce for your optimism and the language you give it.
I must confess I lost some of my optimism watching how we accommodated the Covid pandemic. There was the initial (hopeful) pulling together...and then sadly people went to their corners...and many have remained there.
Thank you Doreen. I expect most of us have had—and are still having—our optimism tested. It is harder to think about societies the way we think about a marriage. Yet Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea has hung on our wall for decades, a wedding gift that has followed us from one home to another. Her words were written about love and relationships, but they might as easily apply to the challenge of living in a vibrant, rapidly changing society. Are you familiar with it? Imagine if the following had been written not about marriage, but about citizenship, community, and the work of building a society:
“When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet, this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of time and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible in life, as in love, is in growth, in fluidity – in freedom. The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was, nor forward to what it might be, but living in the present and accepting it as it is now. For relationships, too, must be like islands. One must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits – islands surrounded and interrupted by the sea, continuously visited and abandoned by the tides. One must accept the serenity of the winged life, of ebb and flow, of intermittency.”
Thanks Bruce….A Gift from the Sea is sitting on my book shelf…a wee bit dusty. Time for a re-read to counter a bit of encroaching cynicism. Of note we used the modified quote “Everything will be ok in the end…if it’s not ok, it’s not the end” when we were fundraising for our Green Cemetery. It was a hit with everyone.
Dear Bruce:
So sorry to hear about the loss of David Rosner, a great human. Thank you for this wonderful poem to honor him. I have not read his book but will now. His work and spirit lives on.
This is pointed and brilliant! I will share.
Another poem for your book...
Cindy
"The new solvent.
The new pesticide.
The smoke from the tailpipe.
The coating that does not stick.
The plastic that does not break.
And behind them all,
the factories hum,
the markets climb,
the shareholders gather,
pleased that production
was up again this quarter.
How true. We stare at isolated biochemical parameters with high-tech tools, while the actual truth lies within the dynamics of the entire system. Disease is a mirror—because our biology reacts exactly as it must when we subject it to structural constraints and conditions it was never designed to endure. We desperately try to cure isolated pathologies instead of questioning the blocked flows of our environment. As long as we define health merely as adhering to statistical reference ranges and ignore the invisible, crushing effort the body exerts for mere compensation, we are only trying to correct the reflection instead of changing the reality in front of the mirror.
But haven't we already lost this race long ago?
Peggy: I don't think we know if we already lost the race. I prefer to believe that everything will work out in the end. "In the end, everything works out. If it hasn't worked out, it's because it isn't the end yet." Fernando Sabino (1923–2004)