The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity

Michael Marmot makes the case that health is on a gradient and the lower one's social standing the worse one's health--not so much because of the lack of money itself as because of the lack of control over one's life and the inability to fully participate in the activities of life that bring joy and are health promoting. This book is the end result of years of research (The Whitehall 1 and 11 studies) and it shows. I found it really interesting and it has definitely caused me to look at the whole issue of poverty and health in a different way. And, while it deals with some depressing stats, this is ultimately a hopeful book, because it shows that by making policy changes and starting programs that lessen inequality we can improve the show more health of entire societies. show less