lec1

• Lectures - 15
• Coursework (50% of overall mark)


  • Graphical and Scientific Abstract (30%) - 200-word abstract accompanied by graphical abstract, based on 5 original research papers of your choice in assigned theme
  • Digital media (20%) - 40 - 45 second piece on same topic
• Exam (50%)
• Lecture Topics


  • Introduction/past 10,000 years
  • Non-communicable diseases epidemic
  • Pandemics and Outbreaks
  • Global syndemic
  • Climate Change - heat
  • Climate Change - other
  • Air pollution
  • Plastics
  • Obesity
  • Calorie restriction
  • Exercise
  • Age, sex & race - I
  • Age, sex & race - II
  • Early life programming of disease
  • Space and other extreme environments
• Online resources available:
• Coursework 1 (30%)
• Coursework 2 (20%)
• Exam (50% of overall mark)
• Exam question examples


  • What are the three components of the so-called global syndemic?
  • Name the five main lifestyle factors contributing to the non-communicable diseases epidemic.
• Life expectancy
• Life expectancy


  An average number of years you can expect to live
• Life span


  The maximum number of years an individual can live (122 years?)
• Timeline of human history

  • 30,000 BC - Neanderthals
  • Neolithic 8500 - 3500 BC
  • Greece/Rome 500 BC - 500 AD
  • Early Medieval 500 AD - 1500 AD
  • Late Medieval 500 AD - 1500 AD
  • Victorian 1850
  • 1950s
  • Today
• questions 90 minutes No penalties for bad spelling/grammar – as long as the marker and moderator understand your answer
• 10 Exam question examples

  • Q. What are the three components of the so-called global syndemic? A. Obesity, malnutrition, climate change
  • Q. Name the five main lifestyle factors contributing to the non-communicable diseases epidemic. A. Tobacco use, physical inactivity, excess alcohol, unhealthy diet, air pollution
• Any Questions? 10
• Chetty R, et al. JAMA 2016 doi:10.10001/jama.2016.4226
• Timeline of life expectancy

  • 30,000 BC Neanderthals
  • Neolithic 8500 – 3500 BC
  • Greece/Rome
  • Early Medieval
  • Late Medieval
  • Victorian
  • 1950s
  • Today
• Factors affecting life expectancy over time

  • Injuries
  • Conflict
  • Malnutrition
  • Diseases from animals
  • Urbanisation
  • Lack of Sanitation
  • Faeces/insects
  • Urbanisation
  • Malnutrition
  • Violence
  • Solving problems of urbanisation
  • Famine
  • Disease
  • Crowded
  • Disease
  • Malnutrition
  • Health care
  • Sanitation
  • Refrigeration
  • Vaccination
  • NCDs
• How we have shaped our environment

  • Cooking
  • Agriculture - Cultivation/Irrigation
  • Accommodation
  • Sanitation
  • Refrigeration
  • Vaccination
• Cooking


  Chemically and physically transform by heat, kills bacteria, makes food digestible
• Digestibility


  The degree to which macronutrients are digested and absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract
• Biomass


  No longer living biological material used as a renewable energy source, burning biomass emits pollution like particulate matter
• Impacts of agriculture (cultivation/irrigation)

  • Sedentism - transition from nomadic lifestyle to living in groups for long periods
  • Domestication of crops
  • Domestication of livestock
  • Population growth
  • Accumulate human waste = disease
  • Animal and plant waste nourishes pests = disease vectors
  • Increased population = disease spreads more easily
  • More people = more pathogen evolution with host
• Irrigation started around 6000 BC - flooding waters of Nile or Tigris/Euphrates river, water diverted to fields and drained back, first major irrigation project in Egypt 3100 BC, pipes first used 2000 BC, water regulations first introduced 1750 BC
• History of sanitation


  • 2000 BC: Indo-Aryan water purification – boiling and filtering
  • 460 – 377 BC: The birth of hygiene – Hippocrates
  • 300 BC – 400 AD: aqueducts
  • 200 – 100 BC: prevention rather than cure – China identified importance of clean water, removed animal and human corpses form waterways and buried on land
  • 1600s – 1700s: recognised need to stop sewage discharging into rivers
  • 1848: Public Health Act; 1866, Sanitary Act
  • 1860: septic tank invented
  • 1800s – 1900s: sewar systems
  • 1800s: UK – population explosion but sanitation did not keep pace
• New York Daily Tribune September 29th, 1849
• Tonga volcano: drinking water is priority as aid begins to arrive for stricken nation, The first aid vessels and flights have arrived and more are on their way as the devastated Pacific nation begins clean-up, Members of the Australian defence force unload aid supplies at Tonga's Fua'amotu international airport, Tonga's government said drinking water was the priority as the clean-up continued a week after a devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami
• History of refrigeration


  • As early as 1700 BC people were harvesting ice and using evaporation to cool; primitive structures to support this (e.g., Yakhchal 400 BC; Iran)
  • 1755 – Professor William Cullen demonstrated artificial lowering of temperature
  • 1913 – emergence of modern refrigeration
• Rosenow EM & Marth EH J Food Protect 1987;50:452 - 459
• Factors contributing to increased life expectancy over past 10,000 years

  • Cooking
  • Agriculture
  • Irrigation
  • Sanitation
  • Housing
  • Health Departments/Services
  • Refrigeration
  • Vaccination