Biological inequity posits that health inequity in urban populations is a result of structural processes executed through the built environment. Specifically, particular social groups are disproportionately exposed to physical and psychosocial stressors in the urban environment.

The term ‘climate change’ whilst now firmly established in our lexicon still fails to be mentally accessible due to its ambiguity. Identifying and understanding the root factors that contribute to a problem is crucial to establishing long lasting and accurate solutions.

Depression is recognised as ‘a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease’ and has both a complex aetiology and symptomatology. It is often framed as a mental health problem, however, the more we understand the more we uncover its physical symptomology.

Genes are a unit of heredity, meaning they store biological information that is passed down from one generation to another, including the susceptibility of a disease. However, we must also look at another crucial dimension, geography.

In psychology, trauma can be defined as the reaction to a deeply distressing or disturbing experience. In medicine, trauma is defined as a physical injury. Although the experience of trauma as described by these fields may at first seem discrete, they are largely intertwined.

Obesity is a dysregulated production of adipose tissue commonly known as fat throughout the body. It is considered a complex and chronic disease, which means there are multiple factors that contribute to its aestology. Additionally, it means that various biological systems are involved in its initiation and progression.

Taking an ecological approach to health necessitates the idea that the state of health is the result of a constant negotiation between the human and their environment.

It is thus imperative for health organisations to provide guidelines based on the specific population under investigation: what is the susceptibility to health hazards of the individuals in the community?

Our body does not only suffer chronic stress due to pollutants. Psychosocial factors also play a part in our long-term health. The psychosocial relationship to health is a widely investigated field. We refer to two areas of investigation relevant to our work.

Thermal pollution is going to be a factor of increased importance due to climate change as it encompasses everything from region down to the density of buildings and even further to the materiality of the environment.

Light disrupts the circadian rhythms of humans and wildlife alike as well as lowering melatonin production, which results in sleep deprivation, fatigue, headaches, stress, anxiety, and other health problems.

Noise pollution is a pollutant that is manageable in moderation. People specifically experience the negative health outcomes of noise when it disrupts their sleep and ability to recover or focus.

Air pollution presents a particularly insidious hazard given that the disease affects respiratory and cardio-vascular systems. These two systems are sensitive to air pollution as air pollution directly damages the mechanics and as a consequence the function of lungs, heart, and the circulatory system.

Climate change is the greatest challenge facing society today. The trends of pollution, in particular air pollution, have been steadily growing in the last few decades and have reached record highs.

There is a large consensus in the literature that meeting a threshold for air pollution levels is sufficient to guarantee health. Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO) has set out specific thresholds for acceptable levels of pollution, which are used by governments across the world as golden standards. However, the human body is not naturally designed to live in continuously polluted environments.

Given that climate change and pandemics are posing an immediate threat to health and are disproportionately affecting deprived communities, healthcare costs are projected to increase significantly. Thus now, more than ever, it is necessary to review our definition of health and how we apply it.

A stressor is defined as a novel threatening environmental agent that alters the baseline human biological system in either of two ways: bringing the system to an unstable biological state, or slowing down the system’s internal response so that it cannot reach equilibrium.

Homeostasis is a long-debated concept in the field of neuroscience and immunology. The term was originally coined by Cannon, who defined it as “a condition - a condition which may vary, but which is relatively constant”. Recently, McEwen has provided a more comprehensive definition of HM, explaining it as the return to a predetermined set of physiological conditions of equilibrium of the body, following stress.

Allostasis and Allostatic Overload are states in which the system enters a dysregulated stress response. Non-communicable diseases have been shown to be associated with Allostasis.