Healthy Places, Healthy Brains and the Exposome

Given this pathways to disease link to development, a new field of study has emerged called the exposome. The exposome is a complex configuration of all the exposures a community and its individuals experience in a lifetime and how the multifaceted chemistry of the systems in which people live meet with the complexities of the human brain and public health – particularly in terms of health and social inequalities. For example, by 2050, 24% of global deaths will be linked to the environment; 30-55% to social determinants; and over 139 million people will have dementia at a global cost of $2.8 trillion. Mitigating these public health issues by intervening in early life development is key. The theoretical challenge, however, is how best to make sense of such complexity.  

The purpose of this 2-1/2 hour workshop is to:

1. Explore what the new field of exposomics is all about. 
2. Investigate how it can be applied to the study of air pollution and dementia. 
3. Examine why place and social determinants are so important. 
4. Discern if allostatic load and the physiology of behaviours can operate as a useful frame for understanding pathways to disease. 
5. Determine if a complex systems approach can function as a theoretical framing. 
6. Decide, from a policy/practice perspective, how this theoretical framing can lead to improving treatment at both a public health and precision medicine level. 

 The case study as evidence will be the latest research on air pollution and dementia, pre and post diagnosis. 

Lunch and light refreshments will be provided