Half of adult North Americans suffer from chronic diseases – a fact that Western medicine sees as largely a matter of individual dispositions and habits.

Western medicine introduces two separations which are not scientifically tenable. 

First, it separates the mind from the body and largely assumes that most chronic diseases have nothing to do with people’s emotional and psychological experiences.

And yet a large and irrefutable body of research has clearly shown that human physiological and behavioral functioning can only be understood if we integrate our bodily functions with the functions of the mind: functions such as consciousness, emotions, our interpretations of and reactions to events, and our relationships with other people.

Second, Western practice views people’s health as separate from the social environment and ignores social determinants of health such as class, gender, economic status, and race.

Such factors actually have a greater influence on health and longevity than individual dispositions and personal factors such as genes, cholesterol levels, blood pressure and so on.

This talk shows how a society dedicated to material ends rather than true human needs and spiritual values stresses its members, undermines the healthy development of children, and condemns many to chronic disease, from diabetes to heart disease, from autoimmune conditions to cancer.