Social determinants of health have to be understood and leveraged to build healthy and happy lives.

Gene tests are the latest to be offered by diagnostic labs to predict your pre-disposition to develop some kind of ailment. And if celebrities lead the way, should we be surprised if this turns out to be the latest fad of this decade?

But I could tell you without batting an eyelid – that’s a lot of money wasted. Check with your family physician i.e. if you still have one who you still trust will not to prescribe a MRI scan of your brain for a headache – “Your genetic make-up is something you can’t help” – so why even bother.

Good health has many social determinants too –

One of them being your PIN code (read where you live!) In fact according to the WHO Report on the Social Determinants of Health, avoidable health inequities arise because of the circumstances in which people grow, live, work and age and the systems put in place to deal with illness.

Just dwell over this – what all in your everyday life gets affected by where you stay and where you work? And let me not ask you if you live near a major road, a power plant, and the rest of the environmental bit ….. I am referring to the everyday “should be simple” bits of life which get affected.