Vital Lives: Social Responsibility and the Battle Against Chronic Disease

Author/Contributor(s):	Cranor, Carl F
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Date:	01/29/2026
Binding:	Hardcover
Condition:	NEW

Efforts to improve public health over the last century have produced a significant reduction of infectious diseases like measles, mumps, chicken pox, and polio. However, the scourge of chronic disease-including conditions like heart attacks, diabetes, and cancers, among others -has become the dominant leading cause of death in the US. In Vital Lives Carl F. Cranor presents interdisciplinary research about the multiple causes of chronic diseases, and shows how addressing those causes at the societal level is the key to improving the public's health. Individuals can influence their own chronic afflictions, but they must be comprehensively and responsibly supported by improved social conditions and healthcare and health-protection institutions, which in turn require enhanced social responsibility by public officials and legislators.