After learning much about American health, I began to feel that I had been very blind to the unhealthiness of the population. Since then, I have been researching how to help myself be healthier. Improvement is needed from everyone to change the country to have a healthier lifestyle. People need to educate themselves about the harmful things they eat and unsafe things they do so that they change their lifestyle for the better. In high school, I began learning about common health problems in America. A lot of issues captured my attention. For example, I read about diabetes and obesity and their effects on the heart. These diseases are very common and often go ignored by those that do not face them. Learning about common health issues in America led me to study body chemistry. I learned about countless foods and products in our environment that can be harmful to us and that it is possible for these problems to be …show more content…
resolved. Peers of mine live day by day without thinking or worrying about it the way I do. America is not the safest or the healthiest country to be living in, but a vast majority of the people seem to believe that it is a perfect place to live. Many genetically modified foods and unsafe preservatives are produced in the United States and approved by the FDA.
A vast population of Americans, including my friends and some family members, continue to consume these foods without any knowledge of ingesting damaging chemicals and genetically modified foods. On the other hand, I do not consume fast food because many of the foods contain questionable levels of preservatives and chemical fillers. I also do not drink soda because the sugar and salt contents of the drink can be very difficult on the heart and is also linked to obesity. The majority of the American public are aware that they should not consume fast food and soda, but they are not educated about the effects on the body; so they continue to eat in an unhealthy manner. I grew a passion to learn about how to keep myself healthy. I began changing the things I do and the way I eat. After changing my ways, I grew a stronger interest in chemistry and how the body reacts at the molecular level. So, I decided to continue my education in
chemistry. I have learned food is not the only harmful problem, and there are other risk factors in the environment. I wish more Americans were educated on harmful merchandise and services so industries would be forced to discontinue selling products that put their customers at risk. For example, friends and family of mine that use tanning beds invite me to join. Usually customers of tanning salons have some sense of danger but do not know the hows or whys. I refuse to join because I know what happens to the cancer gene in the DNA and how easily it can be triggered. There are numerous products like this that my friends and family do not see as damaging the same way I do. Several of my acquaintances do not understand that I strive to stay away from things that will put me at risk for cancer and other illnesses. It is important to me to keep not only myself, but all people healthy. I would like to discover new ways to keep food and other products safer. I know my education will be beneficial when finding alternatives and safer ways for America to become healthier.
Food science has also done some damage to people’s diets by replacing fresh food in our supermarkets to aisles of boxed and frozen food that lack nutrients in them This problem was noticed in 1977 when a document called Dietary Goals for the United States was created after rates of coronary heart disease had soared in America since World War II. In 1977, the lipid hypothesis, it proposes that dietary or saturated fat causes heart disease by raising the concentration of cholesterol in the blood. Government has been changing the Dietary Guidelines for the United States quite often which proves not even scientists know everything about nutrition. Nutritionism has led to the creation of processed foods which has been
Healthcare has now become one of the top social as well as economic problems facing America today. The rising cost of medical and health insurance impacts the livelihood of all Americans in one way or another. The inability to pay for medical care is no longer a problem just affecting the uninsured but now is becoming an increased problem for those who have insurance as well. Health care can now been seen as a current concern. One issue that we face today is the actual amount of healthcare that is affordable. Each year millions of people go without any source of reliable coverage.
The amount of information on what a healthy diet and weight are is almost limitless, and health standards continue to change as more research is completed. Adding to the confusion in the general populace, many different industries further muddy the waters with unrealistic body image standards, massive portion sizes, and food choices that have substandard ingredients that perpetuate obesity and poor health. Although many diet experts will offer that simply changing what we eat and reducing our weight will improve our health, the issue is more complex and confusion about proper nutrition, its links to disease, and diet failures will persist until the food industry and so called food experts focus on actual science and not their financial bottom
We all know or heard about health problems that are on the rise in our communities: Diabetes, heart disease, asthma, cancer and obesity… and we all know what is causing these problems: lack of good nutrition (not enough fruit and vegetables in our meals), inactivity, smoking, long hours in the office, stress and drinking. But, are we doing enough to stop the rising number of health problems? And is the lack of access to quality medical services is as crucial to our health and well-being as we think?
Social determinants of health has been a large topic for many years and can have a positive and negative effect on individuals, families and communities. (World Health Organisation, 2009) The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, including the health system. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels, which are themselves influenced by policy choices. Social determinants have many factors and in this essay education will be the main social determinant of health discussed and how this could have an impact on the physical and mental sides of health.
Disparities in cancer are caused by the complex interaction of low economic status, culture, and social injustice, with poverty playing the dominant role (Freeman, 2004). So I ask the question: Does socioeconomics impact a man’s prostate health?
Socioeconomic Disparities and health are growing at a rapid rate throughout the United States of America. To further understand the meaning of Socioeconomic Disparities, Health and Socioeconomic disparities & health, this essay will assist in providing evidence. Disparities can be defined in many ways, of which include ethnic and racial background and class types that deal with it the most. Due to the low income some individuals receive, they have less access to health care and are at risk for major health issues. Although, ethnicity and socioeconomic status should not determine the level of health care one should receive or whether not the individual receives healthcare.
Social Determinants of health play a significant role in determining health inequalities among New Zealanders. The social determinants of health as described by the World Health Organisation are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, age & live. These also include any other wider set forces or systems shaping the conditions of daily life (World Health Organisation,2017). This essay will outline how key social determinants of health such as unemployment, poverty and living conditions, can impact health inequalities among the Maori population in New Zealand.
Health issues throughout the human lifespan are always hard to deal with. In this essay, I will give examples of different health issues that occur throughout the lifespan of a human. The seven different stages of a human’s lifespan include: infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. By the concluding paragraph of this essay, you will have gained knowledge of some of the health related issues of a given person throughout their lifespan.
Most of these articles also argued that healthy policies by themselves cannot achieve the expected health improvement.1-3,7-13 This is why the US healthcare access cannot be improved without paying attention to the social and environmental needs of the poor Americans, who in most cases are at the receiving end. The social determinants of health can only be improved through actions targeted at the factors that improve life.1-3,4-5 Government policies should be translated into actions that are centered on enhancing the conditions in which people live, work, play, and grow.1,3,12 The situation that people are born into should not control their destiny, access to healthcare or other opportunities in life, because it will be then unfair and unjust. 1-3,7-13
Not only is food education important, but also genomic education. For instance, ninety percent of lung cancer cases begin from smoking. Accordingly, personal obligation is a considerable aspect in determining the risk if somebody gets lung cancer. Individuals can even get lung cancer while never smoking a cigarette. Moreover, this obscures several health policy debates. I believe that a small amount of obese individuals are hereditarily preset to become obese and most likely will come to be overweight regardless even if they followed a strict diet plan. Some are hereditarily susceptible to obesity in that they must be vigilant about their nutrition, which may evade obesity. Furthermore, many have no inherited traits contributing to obesity, but through careless eating habits become obese. Radley Balko, a senior editor at Reason, states, “We’re becoming less responsible for our own health, and more responsible for everyone else’s” (396). Individuals consistently buy fast food around the country, choosing the decision to consume foods that can cause obesity. There is the false economic belief that it is less expensive to eat fast food than to purchase healthy alternatives at a grocery store. Fast food is less expensive in the beginning, yet costs significantly more at the end; I am simply discussing nourishment quality here, not the consequent health insurance costs it puts on the obese. No one needs to reprimand the individuals who end up getting obese on account of no deficiency they could call their own, yet neither would anybody like to exonerate obese individuals from personal
An investment in health education positively correlates with people making healthier choices. The USDA stated "The Obama Administration is working hard to empower the American public to make smart choices every day at school, at home and in their communities,"(USDA, 2014). This quote came along with statistics about how the American public from 2005 to 2010 had been making healthier choices in regards to their diet. The USDA also stated that in 2010 the amount of adults who believed they could changed their weight went up 3 percentage points. This is an important point to notice because this shows that an initiative to inform the population about health not only changed behaviors, but also help change perception which is an important factor to personal health when an individual is thinking about their ability to become more healthy. We have to invest in health education to help more people change their habits and perceptions, so there is a higher belief in personal health changes, and can possibly in turn have an effect on actual behaviors and health of individuals, and to help the economy by having a healthier, more productive
The United States of America is one of the most advanced mass producing countries in the world. With vast technological and agricultural advances, physical activity and minimal production of crops has become obsolete. An epidemic as defined in An Introduction to Community Health by Mckenzie, Pinger, and Kotecki, is “an unexpectedly large number of cases of an illness, specific health-related behavior, or other health related event.” Diabetes, heart disease and cancer are all forms of lifestyle diseases, and each of these diseases of the human body can be caused by unhealthy lifestyle choices, particularly affecting those who are overweight or obese. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, obesity is defined as a condition characterized by the excessive accumulation and storage of fat in the body. Medically defined, it is an “abnormal accumulation of body fat, usually 20% or more over an individual's ideal body weight associated with increased risk of illness, disability, and death.” More than 35.7% of Americans are obese and the medical costs for those who were obese in 2008 spent $1,429 higher than those that were considered a normal weight. Obesity rates are also higher in different ethnic groups. Some of the leading causes of obesity that will be explained further include sedentary lifestyles, health conditions, and food chains. Although obesity is an issue that is currently rising due to our country’s advances, it is completely curable and avoidable if people were further educated about this problem.
...ue to numerous medical errors. With the amount of medical errors that currently do occur which is a current health care issue it cost the health care billions of dollar each year to fix the mistakes that were made.
Personal health is extremely important to everyone around the world. But it is especially important to citizens of the United States of America. Being one of the leading countries in Health technology and also in food and beverage leaves most people choosing between living a healthy lifestyle and indulging in the varieties of food we offer. Across the country, many people are living with pre-existing conditions, living in food deserts, living below the poverty line and a long list of other factors that either hinders them from eating healthy or force them to eat healthily. When trying to live a healthy lifestyle in this country not only does the promotion of prevention matter, but also the promotion of Career and job opportunities matter just as much. In the United States, Money equals Power and money also equal the opportunity to create and live a healthier lifestyle.