This paper examines mindfulness as a popular and paradigmatic alternative healing practice within the context of contemporary medicalization trends. In recognition of the increasingly influential role popular media play in shaping ideas about illness and healing, what follows is a discursive analysis of bestselling mindfulness meditation self-help books and audio recordings by Jon Kabat-Zinn. T...

There is growing recognition of the massive global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) due to their prevalence, projected social and economic costs, and traditional neglect compared to infectious disease. The 2011 UN Summit, WHO 25×25 targets, and support of major medical and advocacy organisations have propelled prominence of NCDs on the global health agenda. NCDs are by definition 'dis...

The prevalence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnoses and medication use has increased over time around the world, but significant regional differences remain. This paper aims to determine explain disparities in ADHD among school-aged children two distinct school systems, Flanders (Belgium) Québec (Canada). We present detailed descriptive comparative analyses data from 35 ...

A life story is presented for analyzing the manifestations of an individual path in dialogue with the elements the young people’s lives in popular groups. It focuses on the discussion of social equipment in the production of the senses, places and suffering of some people’s lives, which causes processes in which “diseases” and medicalization are generated from social problems. Based on the assu...

The scope of this article is to reflect upon the medicalization of male sexuality based on the counterpoint between two distinct historical processes. The first of these is the major trend towards intervention in male sexuality which occurred in the early twentieth century in Brazil as a result of syphilis and the broader campaign against venereal disease. The second concerns the medicalization...

The aim of this study was to describe and analyze changes in the definition of diabetes as a disease and the relationship between these changes and subsequent modifications in the therapeutic management of the disease. A content analysis was performed using articles, guidelines, and consensuses published by the Argentina Diabetes Society and the Latin American Diabetes Association between 1980 ...