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Atherosclerosis in Ancient Mummies Revisited
Many of you are already aware of the recent study that examined atherosclerosis in 137 ancient mummies from four different cultures (1). Investigators used computed tomography (CT; a form of X-ray) to examine artery calcification in mummies from ancient Egypt, Peru, Puebloans, and arctic Unangan hunter-gatherers. Artery calcification is the accumulation of calcium in the vessel wall, and it is a marker of severe atherosclerosis. Where there is calcification, the artery wall is thickened and extensively damaged. Not surprisingly, this is a risk factor for heart attack. Pockets of calcification are typical as people age.
I'm not going to re-hash the paper in detail because that has been done elsewhere. However, I do want to make a few key points about the study and its interpretation. First, all groups had atherosclerosis to a similar degree, and it increased with advancing age. This suggests that atherosclerosis may be part of the human condition, and not a modern disease. Although it's interesting to have this confirmed in ancient mummies, we already knew this from cardiac autopsy data in a variety of non-industrial cultures (2, 3, 4, 5).
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...you're just not perfect
News in this week - Australia tops the health league and dear old Albion scrapes along the bottom, with largely preventable diseases increasingly contributing to premature deaths. Cheery stuff eh? Too many cans of processed meat in the diet - too much booze - too many fags still being puffed on and of course, not enough exercise. So stroke, heart disease and lung cancer still figure highly in our mortality rates. The only snag is, that whilst its easy to spot all the ‘bad’ things that people do - it’s far harder to help people change ingrained behaviour, especially if its comforting...and even more so, when the vested interests of the market, push the stuff down our throats anyway. Just think about the corporates who sponsored the Olympics and Paralympics - fizzy drinks (you know who), Big Fat Burgers (you know who) and the oil polluting, toxic hydro-carbon emitting industries that mediate our stupefied relationship with physical exercise. Then of course there’s the increasing belief (well-marketed) that we need medication for everything - a pill to normalise the ups and downs of everyday life, to help us lose weight, to do better academically - hey, you can have that battery of diagnostic tests too - maybe have some preemptive surgery that might not be entirely necessary. And at the top of this well-peddled pile of pseudo-scientific pathological nonsense is the fact that you’re just not perfect. Your teeth are the wrong colour and misshapen, you’re loosing hair, your face is getting lined - your body just isn’t the right shape. What chance have we got eh? How can we achieve this perfect healthy aspiration?
Kate Pickett and Danny Dorling in Against the organisation of misery? suggest that, “what is missing is the political courage to deal with the root causes of those social determinants. Why people smoke, rather than trying to get them to stop. Why people eat too much, commit violence, trust each other less, invest more money in their children’s education; rather than trying to understand the social inequalities that stand in their way.”
Kate Pickett and Danny Dorling in Against the organisation of misery? suggest that, “what is missing is the political courage to deal with the root causes of those social determinants. Why people smoke, rather than trying to get them to stop. Why people eat too much, commit violence, trust each other less, invest more money in their children’s education; rather than trying to understand the social inequalities that stand in their way.”
This would seem to be a window of opportunity for artists, educationalists, health and social reformers and policy makers who are concerned with public health and who believe addressing inequalities is central to human wellbeing - and have the vision and tenacity to think differently. Lets think about our arts/health work as part of a public health movement and re-imagine the way that our family doctors, public health specialists and teachers might work more closely with artists and cultural organisations to think differently - and not about apportioning blame, but addressing systemic inequalities and the insidious psychological impact of modern advertising: our health is political - art is political too.
So, this week it came to pass that Hugo Chavez died. I’m not politically astute enough to know the details of his political impact on the people of Venezuela, but I’ve been moved to see the huge outpouring of grief from people. I would be interested to hear your views on Chavez, particularly if you are from Venezuela. With the Arch of Arts and Health conference about to take place in Israel in a week’s time, it’s curious too, to note that one of its key-notes has fallen off the agenda! Presidente (sorry, I mean executive director) of the newly re-branded Global Alliance for Arts and HealthTM, (and proud sponsor of the conference) appears to have vanished and the GAFAAH (sounds a bit like the Gaffer, or maybe GAF for short) has an interim director, to whom we wish the best of luck.
New Job Opportunity
Closer to home, and in touch with its community, it seems that Pioneer Projects are looking to appoint a new manager. I advertise this position on the blog because Pioneer Projects are an exemplary organisation. They are an arts and health charity which uses creative activity to improve individual and community health, tackle social exclusion and reduce health inequalities using arts-based approaches. They are looking for a manager and offer a salary: £28,636 pro rata for 21 hours per week (Working Time Equivalent = £16,587). Location: High Bentham, North Yorkshire. For further information and an application pack please contact: Julie Vass, Administrator, Looking Well Studios, High Bentham, Lancaster, LA2 7HN or download from our website www.pioneerprojects.org.uk
Email: office@pioneerprojects.org.uk Telephone: 015242 62672
Closing Date for applications: 12 noon, 5th April 2013.
Interviews will take place Friday 19th April 2013 at Looking Well Studios,
High Bentham, Lancaster, LA2 7HG
Now, here's something to ponder...
Now, here's something to ponder...
Cultural Value Project
A very important new funding stream was announced this week, and I urge you to have a look over this and see if you are eligible to apply. If you can’t, perhaps resolve it and think about ways you can. Think - multi-disciplinarity and partnerships. Click on the multiplication sign in a double circle below, for details. Here’s a little about the call.
In launching this two-year Cultural Value Project, the AHRC wishes to make a major contribution to how we think about the value of arts and culture to individuals and to society. Recent years have seen many attempts to capture that value in straightforward ways, not least in order to make the case to governments for public funding, but none have commanded widespread confidence. The AHRC decided that something more ambitious was needed. Areas of interest include: REFLECTIVE INDIVIDUALS AND ENGAGED CITIZENS - URBAN REGENERATION AND COMMUNITY DYNAMICS - ECONOMIC BENEFITS - UNDERSTANDING IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS - IMPROVEMENTS TO HEALTH AND WELLBEING.
Thank you as ever for popping onto the blog...C.P.
Does the Mediterranean Diet Reduce Cardiovascular Risk?
By now, most of you have probably heard about the recent study on the "Mediterranean diet" (1), a diet that was designed by diet-heart researchers and is based loosely on the traditional diet of Crete and certain other Mediterranean regions. The popular press has been enthusiastically reporting this trial as long-awaited proof that the Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of cardiovascular events-- by a full 30 percent over a 4.8-year period. I wish I could share their enthusiasm for the study.
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EXTRA - EXTRA - READ ALL ABOUT IT!!
What about this for a headline eh? From the oh so hallowed BBC none the less! - and in a week where there’s also been coverage of arts/health in the Guardian online. You can form your own opinions of both these articles, (click on the photo of an art session below for the BBC story, and the picture of the 'Angel' below for the Guardian) but I do worry about the almost biblical claim of the BBC header. Of course engaging with the arts - and with broader culture - is going to have an impact on people in health crisis: sometimes profound and sometimes subtle, but I can’t believe we’re still having to evidence the bleeding obvious. Now apparently the ‘Top Brass’ are at it too!
But then I’m reminded that so much of what we are interested in, just isn’t about sickness and morbidity, it’s about culture and the arts being part of the way we live our lives and in particular, what it opens up to those of us who maybe haven't had acces to it, or thought the arts were an irrelevance. Interesting too, to read of my own conversion to the impact of giant spiders and dancing elephants on society?!
This week saw the death of Stéphane Hessel (95), sometime resistance fighter, diplomat and free-thinker. At 93 Hessel wrote Indignez-vous! Time for Outrage! - which is largely seen as the pamphlet that informed the Occupy Wall Street movement and wider global protests epitomised by Los Indignados. Ah the power of the Pamphleteer...wouldn't Hessel have made the perfect keynote speaker, say - at an arts/health conference, in a land torn apart by inequalities and that controls dissent by brutal oppression? Time for Outrage indeed...
Although we sometimes crave the attention that the big media outlets bring (and fear it too), it is these pamplets, manifesto’s and blogs that resonate with me. So whilst the press control and sometimes distort our opinions, we should perhaps relish the subjective perspectives of individuals who know what they are talking about because of their wealth of experinece and passion - yes, passion! I’m consitently impressed by Mike White and don’t mind admitting to being a bit of an acolyte. He has a neat turn of phrase and in this, his most recent blog posting, takes us on a pogniant personal journey. Click on this alternative image of the Angel of the North to read his blog posting.
And for those of you who want more on the BBC article, here's the outline.
"Nine-year-old leukaemia patient Ryan is in no doubt. "It makes you feel like you can do anything really," he says of the art therapy classes he enjoys, thanks to a US charity. The American military has also long embraced art therapy, using it as a core treatment to help veterans recover from post-traumatic stress disorder. Now top brass are leading research to find out why this kind of treatment works. Jane O'Brien reports that mounting clinical evidence of art's medical benefits could bring new and exciting ways to harness its power."http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21579762
...and here's the Guardian article outline by Tim Smedley too.
"Banksy, Gormley or Hirst: is public art good for the nation's wellbeing?
From statues to grafitti, what impact does public art have, if any? And could it even have an effect on our health and wellbeing? Banksy, Gormley or Hirst: is public art good for the nation's wellbeing? From statues to grafitti, what impact does public art have, if any? And could it even have an effect on our health and wellbeing?" http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/banksy-gormley-hirst-public-art-wellbeing
...and for a moments pause, some music
Funding and Research Opportunities
Foyle Foundation Small Grants Programme
The Foyle Foundation's - Small Grants Scheme is looking to help small charities operating in the areas of the arts and learning, with an annual turnover of less than £100,000 per year. If this sounds familiar, you can apply for funding of between £1,000 and £10,000. The Foyle Foundation is one of the largest grant making trusts in the UK providing grants that help to make the arts more accessible by developing new audiences, supporting tours, festivals and arts educational projects; encouraging new work and supporting young and emerging artists; and that address special educational needs and learning difficulties. Larger organisations can apply for funding through the Foyle Foundations Arts and Learning Main Grants Programmes. There is no deadline and applications can be submitted at any time. For more information,or call the Foyle Foundation on 020 7430 9119 http://www.foylefoundation.org.uk/small-grants-scheme/
Support for Projects Working with Disadvantaged Young People, Offenders & Ex-offenders (UK)
The Worshipful Company of Weavers has announced that its Benevolent Fund is open to applications. The Fund is available to small registered charities and seeks to support projects working:
With disadvantaged young people aged from 5 to 30 years of age
To ensure they are given every possible chance to meet their full potential and to participate fully in society
Projects that addresses the social and economic problems faced by offenders, and ex-offenders and their families, and provide them with support, life skills training and a way back into education, training and/or employment.
Grants available are of up to £15,000. The Charitable Grants Committee meets in February, June and October of each year to consider applications. Read more at: http://www.weavers.org.uk/charitable-grants/grant-application-guidelines
British Academy Small Research Grants (UK)
The British Academy, the UK’s national body for the humanities and social sciences, has announced that its Small Research Grant scheme is open for applications. Under the Small Research Grants programme grants of between £500 and £10,000 over two years are available to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences. The closing date for applications is the 10th April 2013. Read more at: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/srg.cfm
Time to Change Grants (England)
The Mental Health charity, Time to Change has announced that its grants programme will re-open for applications on the 6th March 2013. Through the programme, grants of up to £100,000 are available to constituted not for profit organisations for projects that bring people with and without mental health problems together to challenge discrimination in their communities. Time to Change plan to fund approximately 75 projects between 2012 The closing date for applications will be 2pm on the 30th April 2013. Read more at 2015.
Hey Ho
Your Brain on Potato Chips
Or, more accurately, a rat's brain on potato chips. Last week, PLoS One published a very interesting paper by Dr. Tobias Hoch and colleagues on what happens in a rat's brain when it is exposed to a highly palatable/rewarding food (1). Rats, like humans, overconsume highly palatable foods even when they're sated on less palatable foods (2), and feeding rats a variety of palatable human junk foods is one of the most effective ways to fatten them (3). Since the brain directs all behaviors, food consumption is an expression of brain activity patterns. So what is the brain activity pattern that leads to the overconsumption of a highly palatable and rewarding food?
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Salt Sugar Fat
I'd just like to put in a quick word for a book that will be released tomorrow, titled Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, by Pulitzer prize-winning author Michael Moss. This is along the same lines as Dr. David Kessler's book The End of Overeating, which explains how the food industry uses food reward, palatability, and food cues to maximize sales-- and as an unintended side effect, maximize our waistlines. Judging by Moss's recent article in New York Times Magazine, which I highly recommend reading, the book will be excellent. I've pre-ordered it.
...out of the office, but -
OK...here's what the intelligent art critic Brian Sewell said in 2009:
"The two words 'graffiti' and 'art' should never be put together," said the art critic Brian Sewell. He added the council were "bonkers...The public doesn't know good from bad...For this city to be guided by the opinion of people who don't know anything about art is lunacy. It doesn't matter if they [the public] like it. It will result in a proliferation of entirely random decoration, for want of a better word...Any fool who can put paint on canvas or turn a cardboard box into a sculpture is lauded. Banksy should have been put down at birth. It's no good as art, drawing or painting. His work has no virtue. It's merely the sheer scale of his impudence that has given him so much publicity."
You can read more about Banksy and the tagging of the segregation wall in Palestine by clicking HERE.
Karst Country - infra-red timelapse from Glen Ryan on Vimeo.
Food Reward Friday
This week, Food Reward Friday is going to be a little bit different. I've received a few e-mails from people who would like to see me write about some of the less obvious examples of food reward-- foods that are less extreme, but much more common, and that nevertheless promote overeating. Let's face it, even though they're funny and they (sometimes) illustrate the principle, most people reading this blog don't eat banana splits very often, much less pizzas made out of hot dogs.
So this week's "winner" is something many of you have in your houses right now, and which was also the subject of an interesting recent study... potato chips!
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So this week's "winner" is something many of you have in your houses right now, and which was also the subject of an interesting recent study... potato chips!
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