Integrative concepts and practices of health in transdisciplinary social ecology

Increasing recognition of interdependencies of the health of humans, other organisms and ecosystems, and of their importance to socio-ecological systems, necessitates application of integrative concepts such as One Health and EcoHealth. These concepts open new perspectives for research and practice but also generate confusion and divergent opinion, prompting new theories, and call for empirical clarification and evaluation. Through a semi-systematic evaluation of knowledge generation in scientific publications (comprised of literature reviews, conceptual models and analyses of communities of practice), we show how integrative concepts and approaches to health evolve and are adopted. Our findings indicate that while their contexts, goals and rationales vary, integrative concepts of health essentially arise from shared interests in living systems. Despite recent increased attention to ecological and societal aspects of health including broader sustainability issues, the focus remains anthropocentric and oriented towards biomedicine. Practices reflect and in turn transform these concepts, which together with practices also influence ways of integration. Overarching narratives vary between optimism and pessimism towards integrated health and knowledge. We conclude that there is an urgent need for better, coherent and more deeply integrative health concepts, approaches and practices to foster the well-being of humans, other animals and ecosystems. Consideration of these concepts and practices has methodological and political importance, as it will transform thinking and action on both society and nature and specifically can enrich science and practice, expanding their scope and linking them better. Transdisciplinary efforts are crucial to developing such concepts and practices to properly address the multiple facets of health and to achieve their appropriate integration for the socio-ecological systems at stake. We propose the term “transdisciplinary health” to denote the new approaches needed

Integrated governance for managing multidimensional problems:potentials, challenges, and arrangements

Abstract The implementation challenge of ecosystem-based (fisheries) management (EB(F)M) has entailed calls for integrated governance (IG) approaches in the marine field. We arranged an expert workshop to study the preconditions and applicability of IG, and to suggest how IG could be arranged in practice. Focusing on the management of the dioxin problem shared by the herring and salmon fisheries in the Baltic Sea, and using a coupled ‘insight network’- SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) methodology, we evaluated two scenarios: 1) IG of herring and salmon fisheries to benefit from collaboration between these fisheries that suffer from the same problem, and 2) IG between the fisheries sector and the food/public health sector to incorporate food safety in fisheries governance. Our results demonstrate that a variety of societal, political, institutional, operational, instrumental, and biological factors affect the applicability of IG in marine contexts, and work as preconditions for IG. While societal needs for IG were obvious in our case, as major challenges for it we identified the competing cross-sectoral objectives, path dependencies, and limitations of experts to think and work across fields. The study suggests that establishing an IG framework by adding new aspects upon the current governance structures may be easier to accept and adapt to, than creating new strategic or advisory bodies or other new capacities. Viewing IG as a framework for understanding cross-sectoral issues instead of one that requires a defined level and form of integrated assessment and management may be a way towards social learning, and thereby towards the implementation of more sophisticated, open and broad EB(F)M frameworks

Gender and gut microbiota composition determine hepatic bile acid, metabolic and inflammatory response to a single fast-food meal in healthy adults

Background & aims: Regular consumption of fast-food (FF) as a form of typical Western style diet is associated with obesity and the metabolic syndrome, including its hepatic manifestation nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Currently, it remains unclear how intermittent excess FF consumption may influence liver metabolism. The study aimed to characterize the effects of a single FF binge on hepatic steatosis, inflammation, bile acid (BA), glucose and lipid metabolism. Methods: Twenty-five healthy individuals received a FF meal and were asked to continue eating either for a two-hour period or until fully saturated. Serum levels of transaminases, fasting BA, lipid profile, glucose and cytokine levels as well as transient elastography and controlled attenuation parameter (CAP; to assess hepatic steatosis) were analyzed before (day 0) and the day after FF binge (day 1). Feces was collected prior and after the FF challenge for microbiota analysis. Results: The FF meal induced a modest increase in CAP, which was accompanied by a robust increase of fasting serum BA levels. Surprisingly, levels of cholesterol and bilirubin were significantly lower after the FF meal. Differentiating individuals with a relevant delta BA ( 1 mmol/l) increase vs. individuals without (delta BA <1 mmol/l), identified several gut microbiota, as well as gender to be associated with the BA increase and the observed alterations in liver function, metabolism and inflammation. Conclusion: A single binge FF meal leads to a robust increase in serum BA levels and alterations in parameters of liver injury and metabolism, indicating a novel metabolic aspect of the gut-liver axis. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved