Poor Nutrition Is Stressful

The Betrayal of Health by Dr. Joseph D. Beasley. M.D.

Times Books-Random House, New York, August 1991.

The Betrayal of Health is a provocative analysis of America's social and health-care problems. It argues that we have failed to respond adequately to the nation's spiraling epidemics, from the rise in chronic illness to the crime rate.

Dr. Joseph Beasley offers evidence that our bad nutrition, our reliance on stimulants, our drug and alcohol abuse, our ruined air and water not only have undermined personal health but also have contributed to the destruction of the social fabric. Having rendered ourselves toxic and malnourished, we have witnessed not only high infant mortality rates but illiteracy; learning disabilities, and a tide of persistent diseases and syndromes that modern technology is unable to stem.

Based on a ground-breaking ten-year study funded in part by the W K. Kellogg Foundation, The Betrayal of Health confronts our failure to treat the underlying causes of these problems. It makes clear the deep link between sickness and society; between chronic disease and social disorder Dr. Beasley argues that all too often America's health-care system is fixated on treating the symptoms of disease while ignoring the pro found (and well-documented) connection between poor health habits and practices and the ravages of social degradation. It makes no sense, he suggests, to treat a dysfunctional child only psychosocially or with medications when that child may have started life in the womb of an alcoholic or drug-addicted mother, been raised in a house coated with lead-based paint, played near roadways inundated with exhaust fumes, and is subsisting on soda pop and candy bars. A generation of low-birth-weight, nutritionally deprived children compromised at birth: learning disorders (from dyslexia to hypertension to outbursts of violence and short attention spans) are often the result. The consequences are disastrous and costly.

Dr Beasley argues that reversing this trend will require an entirely new approach to these problems, one that integrates all we now know of nutritional, environmental, immunological, medical, and social/psychological science. The Betrayal of Health proposes a model for such a new, bio-behavioral approach to our medical and social ills, and presents the reader with the information and tools to effect change on a personal and national level.

The Betrayal of Health is bound to disturb and provoke. It will deepen public debate over the medical costs of America's social ills. Its implications for the health of all Americans are far reaching. Indeed, as William Ingram, editor of the Medical Tribune, observes: "It has the stuff of a health revolution:'

Dr. Joseph D. Beasley, M.D. is a board-certified clinical physician, who was also certified by examination in 1986 as a specialist in Addiction Medicine as defined by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). During the past twenty years he has lead both inpatient and outpatient bio-behavioral treatment teams who have been responsible for the inpatient and outpatient diagnosis and treatment of more than twenty thousand patients with chemical dependency and/or acute psychiatric conditions. He has also served as a professor and department head at Harvard and Tulane Universities, Dean of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, Chairman of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and as a member of the National Commission on Population Growth and the American Future.

Currently Dr. Beasley is directing a non-profit international internet project concerning with providing the latest scientific information on Alcoholism and Chemical Dependency prevention and treatment to both professionals and lay people. The fourth edition of Diagnosing and Managing Chemical Dependency, a book for professionals and lay people in the addiction fields is now published both in text form and on the Internet in the year 2001. He serves as a consultant advisor to many private and non-profit organizations. He continues his studies and consultation activities in family planning, nutrition, and the organization and design of health delivery systems.