Elements of Nature: How Natural Forces Shape Human Health

"Elements of Nature: How Natural Forces Shape Human Health” is a monthly podcast series about how nature influence our health and wellness, and affects our flourishing. Each episode is focused on an element of nature – earth, water, wind, fire, thunder, ice, force, time, flower, trees, shadow, light and moon – and how they regulate the rhythms of our lives and enhance wellness, health, and resilience. We discuss how sleep and sunlight regulate our mood and fitness, how air pollution of natural domains impairs our health and increases our the risk of chronic disease, and how green spaces and vegetation affect our moods, attention, and immunity. We will explore the many and sometimes magical mysterious nuances of nature and learn how, if we pay attention to nature, we can all live a more healthy and harmonious life. Each month we talk to an accomplished scientist, a professor, or a renowned author with expertise in studying the relationship of each element of nature with human health and wellness.

Contributors

Host

Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar

Dr. Bhatnagar is Professor of Medicine and Distinguished University Scholar at the University of Louisville. He is the Director of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and Co-Director of the American Heart Association Tobacco Regulation Center. He is a leading expert on the mechanisms by which environmental exposures such as air pollution affect cardiovascular disease risk. Dr. Bhatnagar’s initial work involved the purification and characterization of aldose reductase and its role in diabetic complications. To this end, he established the identity of this enzyme in several tissues and investigated its structural, kinetic, and inhibitory properties. His work has shown that increasing NO availability prevents aldose reductase activation and sorbitol accumulation in diabetic tissues.

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