Inflamed

Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice

A doctor and an economist explore the hidden links between health and structural injustices, and set out a radical vision for a fairer world.

What is the link between gut biodiversity, structural racism, and mental health? How does colonialism continue to cause lethal disease around the world? Why are First Nations people who speak their native language better protected against diabetes?

Inflamed journeys across the human body — through our digestive, endocrine, circulatory, respiratory, reproductive, immune, and nervous systems — illuminating the hidden relationships between our biological systems and the profound injustices of our political and economic systems. This boldly original book shows how inflammation is connected not just to the food that we eat and the air that we breathe, but is also linked to the traumatic events we experience, the stories we tell, and the arts of diagnosis that physicians practice — and fail to practice — every day.

Combining the latest scholarship on globalization and biology with the stories of patients in marginalized communities and the science of Indigenous groups, Inflamed points the way toward a deep medicine that has the potential to heal not only our bodies but the world.