Adaptive fashion
Shani Dhanda lives with osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease) and is challenging both brands and high-street retailers to step up to fix fashion options for people living with disabilities. Explaining that it’s the barriers and biases she faces in everyday life that disable her, not her condition itself.
In particular, figuring out what to wear shouldn’t overshadow important life moments. As a successful businesswoman devoted to improving accessibility and amplifying marginalized voices, often Shani’s biggest worry is figuring out what to wear. Professionalism is important and clothing transforms us, allowing us to feel confident in new situations, she suggests.
Shani talks of having to wear children’s sized clothing, cut chosen pieces in half, or to get them professionally tailored, which can be costly. If she doesn’t have the time or resources, she ends up wearing the only clothes she can find that fit her in teens or kid’s department.
Suggesting that there’s more clothing lines for pets than adaptive fashion lines created for people with disabilities, Shani call to action is clear: People with disabilities have money to spend, a right to self-expression, and expect brands to put inclusive design at the heart of their decision making.
Source: Glamour UK
Quitting smoking at any age
Many people think it’s too late to quit smoking, especially in middle age, says professor Prabhat Jha, the executive director of the Centre for Global Health Research at Unity. Health in Toronto. “The results of our observational study of 1.5 million adults in Canada, UK, US and Norway, counter that line of thought”.
According to Jha’s research, when someone stops smoking there are rapidly realized health benefits that are “ridiculously effective in reducing the risk of death’. The impact is fast and the risk of dying from vascular disease and cancer in particular, is reduced. Former smokers can lower their risk of death to 1.3 fold (or 30 percent higher), compared to smokers.
Even those who quit for less than three years gained up to six years in life expectancy according to the study. Jha suggests these new findings should add urgency to government efforts to support Canadians who wish to quit and that taxes, cessation supports and patient resources, such as help lines, can be impactful. He cautions professionals however, that Interventions should however be done with concern, without judgement or stigma and with the recognition that cigarettes are engineered to be highly addictive.
Source: University of Toronto
The secret to great health
Each day, millions of well-intended healthcare professionals, scientists and public health officials work diligently to improve our health. Their work has had a profound and positive effect on global health. However, unlocking the blueprint to achieve great health still requires challenging the orthodoxies currently guiding both individuals and institutions.
In an globally relevant article for McKinsey Health Institute, Authors Lars Hartenstein and Tom Latkovic, suggest that we need to escape from our limiting ideas and realize the following:
1. The suffering we endure to achieve longevity is unacceptable and unnecessary.
2. Mental, social and spiritual health are as important as physical health and are deeply interconnected.
3. Health is mostly about our ability to function, not just about disease and death.
4. Health exists on a spectrum. We can’t achieve optimal health if we don’t define, measure and strive for it.
5. Most drivers of health sit outside conventional healthcare systems and are modifiable. 6. Achieving great health is as much about what we pursue as what we avoid.
7. People are more than patients. They deserve to be empowered with great health literacy.
8. History suggests that the societal adaptations required to improve health are feasible; every person and institution on Earth has a role to play.
Source: McKinsey Health Institute
