By Kristi Urry

Health researchers love to talk about risk and danger, and so do I. Risk and danger are often important issues that require a lot of thought, especially in the context of sexual health and mental health. But I wonder if we spend too much time focusing on all the bad stuff about sex and not enough on the good; too much time on the deficits and not enough on the opportunities. In my PhD research I’ve been exploring issues of sexual expression in mental health settings and I often find myself wondering, usually while deep-diving in the relevant sexual health literature, where is the pleasure, the intimacy, and the relation to self and others? Continue reading →

By George Jennings

Why Medical Research Needs Martial Arts Studies

We all know what medical research involves, or at least we think we do. It is well established around the world as a dominant worldview to understand the psychological and biological world. It can ask and answer questions relating to physical health, the structure of the body, the reasons behind illness and ways to cure or offset it. But can it really pose and solve all problems relating to health? Rapid weight loss among athletes, concussion in training and competition and novel forms of movement therapy have obvious physical components, but perhaps also sociocultural, historical and even geopolitical ones. Continue reading →

By Darren Powell

It seems like not a day goes by when I read or hear about ‘junk food’ marketing and the effect this is having on ‘childhood obesity’. The dominant narrative tends to go like this: ‘Children today are too fat. Children’s over consumption of junk food is the main cause. The marketing of junk food is a significant part of the problem. Removing junk food marketing is an obvious solution.’

A number of countries across the Global North (such as the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand) have introduced regulatory controls on food and drink marketing that relates to ‘junk food’ – products deemed too high in fat, sugar and salt (also known as HFSS). (And when I say regulatory controls, in most cases this means self-regulation by the advertising industry.) Continue reading →

By Tiana Dodson
As a fat person, you’re constantly browbeaten with the idea that your health has been somehow damaged, ruined, or compromised and that it’s imperative that you reclaim it by figuring out some way to make your body thin. So we look for people who model what we’re supposed to be. We look for the yoga teacher with the tightest butt, the deadlifter with the biggest pecs, the marathoner who makes the 26.2 look effortless, and the lithe, glowing health guru smiling around the straw of a green juice.

It might seem logical –– imitate that which you want to become –– but what people don’t know is that it’s more than a lifestyle that got those people there. It’s their job. So unless you’re trying to make fitness your career, you’re more than likely going to be trying to squeeze fitness into a life where time, energy, and resources are already at a premium. Trying to emulate these people almost always falls short… and that’s without starting from absolute fatness. Continue reading →

By Annie Belcher

I’ve been away from Melbourne for the past month. Having a break from yoga and teaching has provided me space to think through and distill some thoughts I’ve been having about yoga - it’s downfalls and some parts I think we (those in the yoga industry in the Western World) could be doing better.

There are many aspects of yoga which I think need further thought and interrogation; issues of cultural appropriation, yoga’s limited engagement with structural issues, yoga’s focus on the individual. In this instance however, I’m speaking to the implications of commodification. Exploring what happens when yoga is simultaneously “health and wellness” and a commodified product. Continue reading →

By Poul Rohleder, Xanthe Hunt and Leslie Swartz

When we interviewed Edward (not his real name), for a research project on disability and sexuality, we talked in his office at a large, maximum-security prison near a large city in South Africa. He spoke of a car accident that had left him paralysed and needing to use a wheelchair, and the impact that this incident five and a half years ago had on his life and sense of identity.

He told us: “I’ve struggled, because if you were born and you were active and now suddenly there’s a change, so you need to accept first that there is this change now. And my movement is limited now and all those things,” he pauses, sucks air in between his teeth, and then adds, “The main thing with a spinal cord injury… you’re going to have a problem with your sexual life because now there’s nothing that is normal at all.” Continue reading →

This is a critical piece exploring research, interventions and mainstream narratives within Western cultures surrounding sport, exercise and war veterans. UK-based Nick Caddick critiques and overviews the current state of knowledge and approach to treatment of veterans, and follows this up with some innovative suggestions on how to move things forward at an individual and societal level in order to facilitate veterans’ healing and wellbeing. (Dee Lister & Neda Mahmoodi, ISCHP Blog Editors)

By Nick Caddick ([email protected])

There’s a new story unfolding about how veterans are healing from the physical and psychological damage of war. Or rather, a new chapter in an older story. The birth of Paralympic sport over 60 years ago was stimulated by the need to rehabilitate wounded Servicemen. And the evidence suggests it had many rehabilitative benefits. Today, the use of sporting and other pursuits – surfing, sailing, fishing, skiing, archaeology, and the recent Invictus phenomenon, to name but a few – is expanding as a means of supporting veterans. Continue reading →