Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Nature vs. Nurture

As students committed to improving the future of medicine, there's a simple realization we have to make - that health is affected by more than, well, health.  That our well-being is determined by more than just enzymes and chemical reactions.  That every moving part of our world is influencing health in ways we can only imagine.

In our intro bio courses, we're constantly reminded of a basic principle stating that the health of any living being depends on more than its inherent biological sophistication.  Basically, it doesn't matter how awesome your genes or your proteins are if you live in a crappy environment.  After endless drilling from professors, it's this concept of interactions between self and surroundings - of nature vs. nurture - that dictates our worldview of health.

But, environments are composed of more than just physical conditions, right?  Sure, we can describe the effect of water deprivation on my heart rate or of poor food intake on my metabolism - but aren't we missing something?   Why is there no water in the first place?  Who took away all my food? It seems as if the future generation of physicians are being trained to expertly record what happens when nature meets nurture - but not ask the critical question of why

That's where we come in.  We are students who want to figure how and why the real world affects health, and we aim to use this blog as a forum to start the conversation.  We know health in the modern era is complicated.  We also know our environment, in its broadest sense, is the driver of such complexity - and from access to health insurance in the US to pollution of waterways in South Africa to poverty in the slums of India, we know this issue reaches past borders. 

While we use this to spark a discourse, our ultimate goal is to become more than casual observers.  Our undergraduate education has prepared us all too well to describe the relationship between nature and nurture.  Now, it's our turn to actually change it.   


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