Diane Miller is a trusted leader and attorney in the national health freedom movement. She is the perfect person to inspire readers to activate health freedom. Miller, a Minnesota attorney, began her freedom work by helping to defend a dairy farmer who was prosecuted for helping people by giving them dairy colostrum. After a successful dismissal of charges, the author joined a band of Minnesota citizens who successfully advocated for a new law that protects healing and access to healers. In Health Freedom, the author takes a deep dive into the relationship between health and law, including the ways health freedom is in jeopardy. The stories will inspire you to contemplate: • What is health freedom? • How do we heal a world dominated by conventional science, medicine, and products? • What must we consider to keep ourselves healthy? Against the backdrop of COVID-19, the world is searching for answers about health and even survival. People want clarity on freedom, liberty, and the role of government in our lives. This book will be a foundational and inspiring read for health seekers and freedom lovers—and it could not come at a more critical time.

A comprehensive history of the concept of freedom of therapeutic choice in the United States that presents a compelling look at how persistent but evolving notions of a right to therapeutic choice have affected American policy and law from the Revolution through the Trump Era. Throughout American history, lawmakers have limited the range of treatments available to patients, often with the backing of the medical establishment. The country's history is also, however, brimming with social movements that have condemned such restrictions as violations of fundamental American liberties. This fierce conflict is one of the defining features of the social history of medicine in the United States. In Choose Your Medicine, Lewis A. Grossman presents a compelling look at how persistent but evolving notions of a right to therapeutic choice have affected American health policy, law, and regulation from the Revolution through the Trump Era. Grossman grounds his analysis in historical examples ranging from unschooled supporters of botanical medicine in the early nineteenth century to sophisticated cancer patient advocacy groups in the twenty-first. He vividly describes how activists and lawyers have resisted a wide variety of legal constraints on therapeutic choice, including medical licensing statutes, FDA limitations on unapproved drugs and alternative remedies, abortion restrictions, and prohibitions against medical marijuana and physician-assisted suicide. Grossman also considers the relationship between these campaigns for desired treatments and widespread opposition to state-compelled health measures such as vaccines and face masks. From the streets of San Francisco to the US Supreme Court, Choose Your Medicine examines an underexplored theme of American history, politics, and law that is more relevant today than ever.

The clash between individual liberties and the protection of the greater population is an ongoing conflict between core principles held dear by Americans for centuries. One of the nexus points occurs in the application of public health measures by governmental authorities to defeat deadly germs, perhaps on an epidemic scale, in ways that can erode individual decisions about healthcare, privacy, bodily integrity, and personal liberty in the name of the greater good of community health. People may approve and appreciate protective measures enacted by the government when influenza breaks out or when there is a food recall, but may also feel wary simultaneously. How has this conflict played out throughout history, and how has this clash progressed today? What benefits do individuals reap and what costs do they pay for the application of public health? Almost every individual will find himself or herself engaged with public health measures of some kind on an individual, familial, or community level, so we should all be aware of the issues involved. Because of these parallels between historical and current exercises of public health, the authors wrote this textbook, which was inspired by a renowned lecture series created by Saul O. Sidore. The Sidore lecture series was established in 1965 in memory of Saul O. Sidore of Manchester, New Hampshire, and it is sponsored by the Center for the Humanities at the University of New Hampshire. Mr. Sidore was a humanitarian, a businessman, and president of the Brookshire Mills and Pandora Industries in Manchester. He was a progressive employer, and the lecture series named in his honor addresses critical issues in politics, society, and culture. The theme for the 2013-2014 lecture series was Your Liberty or Your Health: Exploring the Tensions among Public Health, Individual Liberty and Governmental Authority. As editors of this textbook a collection of case studies and class exercises the authors believe that this topic and structure will be of academic interest to those in justice studies, history, and health and human services, just to name a few of the programs in an academic community. The universal applicability of the issues discussed herein will make this text relevant to those outside of these programs and communities as well. Finally, this book will encourage conversations across campuses and organisations and between groups that do not always have an opportunity to interact, enabling future readers to engage in debates about the tensions between individual rights, governmental authority, and public health needs.

Who controls the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and what are the real goals of this powerful agency? These are the central questions explored in Health at Gunpoint, a book that brings into clear focus the silent war being waged by the FDA against American consumers. The FDA was established in 1906 to protect the U.S. public from misbranded and adulterated foods and drugs. While the original intent may have been honorable, over the years, the mission has become tainted by lobbyists and money. In Health at Gunpoint, award-winning health writer James Gormley presents a history of this Federal agency’s long-standing battle against health products and examines some of its most controversial decisions and the troubling reasons behind them. Now, the FDA is once again poised to make decisions that would have a major impact on the public’s health—this time, by imposing restrictions that would eventually eliminate many of the nutritional supplements Americans take every day. Health at Gunpoint not only sheds light on what is happening, but also prepares you for the coming battle.

In a culture driven by advertising, convenience, and weight-loss gimmicks, our relationship with food has become sadly out-of touch. Yoga teacher Myra Lewin encourages us to slow down and cultivate a healthy relationship with what we put in our bodies. Drawing from the basic principles of Ayurveda and Yoga, Freedom in Your Relationship to Food is a simple and effective guide to enhancing your relationship with food and the process of eating. Including lists of foods to seek out or avoid, simple breathing and meditation exercises, and practical recipes, this book will help you overcome mental and physical obstacles to attain excellent health.

What can be more vital to each of us than our health? Yet, despite unprecedented health care spending, the U.S. health system is substantially underperforming, especially with respect to what should be possible, given current knowledge. Although the United States is currently devoting 18% of its Gross Domestic Product to delivering medical care?more than $3 trillion annually and nearly double the expenditure of other advanced industrialized countries?the U.S. health system ranked only 37 in performance in a World Health Organization assessment of member nations. In Vital Directions for Health & Health Care: An Initiative of the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), which has long stood as the nation's most trusted independent source of guidance in health, health care, and biomedical science, has marshaled the wisdom of more than 150 of the nation's best researchers and health policy experts to assess opportunities for substantially improving the health and well-being of Americans, the quality of care delivered, and the contributions of science and technology. This publication identifies practical and affordable steps that can and must be taken across eight action and infrastructure priorities, ranging from paying for value and connecting care, to measuring what matters most and accelerating the capture of real-world evidence. Without obscuring the difficulty of the changes needed, in Vital Directions, the NAM offers an important blueprint and resource for health, policy, and leaders at all levels to achieve much better health outcomes at much lower cost.