In the Unnatural Causes trailer, one of the speakers said “we carry our history in our bodies”. This statement means that the factors that we come across in daily life impact our health. The decisions one makes will affect his or her body in the future. For example, whether or not one avoids smoking or a poor diet will impact his or her health in the future. During an examination years down the road, it will be able to be determined whether or not that person was able to avoid smoke or junk food. In this way, our past is inscribed into our biology. The history carried in our bodies is not formed solely from conscious decisions-- much of our genetic past is molded by policies and social conditions (“Unnatural causes trailer”, 2008). According …show more content…
Without the proper resources, support, and access to healthier options, it becomes challenging for even the most determined person to make a change. The exercise made it evident that Jane would be more successful in her endeavour to lower her blood pressure than Joe would, because of the resources, support, and access than her higher economic status afford her. Sadly, as a result of such an unequal wealth distribution in America, many people are in Joe’s shoes; despite the desire to be healthier, they are unable to control their circumstances and surroundings or get the proper support to help them successfully improve their unhealthy habits or …show more content…
Prior to taking it, I was unaware that the greatest difference in life expectancy observed between counties in the U.S. was 15 years. I was amazed that simply being born in a different zip code could affect life expectancy so greatly. This profoundly supports the conclusion environment affects health. Health expert Michael Marmot realized that a subway ride from an impoverished African American neighborhood to an affluent white suburb in Washington D.C. saw an average increased life expectancy of a year and a half for every mile traveled, totaling up to twenty years. We cannot control the neighborhood we are born into, and to see that such an uncontrollable factor can affect longevity so greatly in an industrialized nation, like the U.S., is astonishing (“Health equity quiz”, 2008). I was particularly amazed that in west Los Angeles, white neighborhoods have nearly 19 times as much green space as Black and Latino neighborhoods. The white neighborhoods have nearly 31.8 acres of park space for every 1,000 people, while the minority neighborhoods only have 1.7 acres of park space (“Health equity quiz”, 2008). Traveling in Las Vegas, parks can be found in nearly every area. Although there are probably more parks in wealthier areas, we do not see such a great discrepancy in our numbers-- or so it appears. To see that such a heavily populated city, like Los Angeles, treats residents so disproportionately was
The video “In Sickness and In Wealth” is about how healthy your body is connected to your means of health. In this video it views the life of four individuals with different lifestyles and different levels of income. In this video it displays the life of a CEO, lab supervisor, janitor and unemployed mother, all from Louisville, Kentucky. It explained how their social class affect their standard of living as well as their health. In this video demonstrate how social class shapes access to control, resources and opportunity, resulting in a health-wealth incline.
The article’s information is presented with the goal of informing a reader on vaccines. The evidence is statistical and unbiased, showing data on both side effects and disease prevention, providing rates of death and serious illness from both sides. This evidence is sourced from a variety of medical organizations and seems reliable, logical, and easily understood, no language that would inspire an emotional response is used. The validity of studies is not mentioned in the article, but it does encourage readers to investigate further to help make a decision. The article allows a reader to analyze the presented evidence and come to their own
Mortality rates among inner city African Americans have a detrimental increase depending on the quality of life from the adolescent stages of growth. African Americans historically have had the highest mortality rates among American racial and ethnic groups.1 The living conditions associated with inner-cities may be a contributing factor along with limited medical facilities and care options along with the lack of education and childhood socioeconomic family disadvantages. Studies have shown these early risk factors may be a major contributor to mortality rates in African American adults later on. Further studies show there are cultural barriers built in the inner city, which hinders the request for help or asking for help within their community.
Due to technologies and scientific methods of today’s healthcare, there are many ways to prevent Diphtheria from occurring. The best way to prevent this disease is to make sure, that everyone has an up-to-date vaccination shot. DTap is a vaccine that helps the body to build up protection against the diphtheria toxin that is released throughout the body (Prevention, 2013). This shot is given to children around the ages of four to six months and then a booster shot is given later on. Once they are an adult, a booster shot known as Tdap and Td is given in a single dose and it is recommended every ten years. By keeping up with vaccination shots, it can help maintain effective control in our environment.
A breakthrough came about when Madsen developed an inactivated whole cell vaccine against pertussis also known as whooping cough (“Medindia”). Nearly all children developed this illness before the immunizations were available. It’s estimated that between 150,000 and 260,000 cases were reported each year and up to 9,000 pertussis-related deaths (“CDC”).
...Although these were initially set to prevent infectious diseases it has been found that there is also prevention of autoimmune diseases, birth control and also cancer therapy. While vaccines provide a proficient means of preventing diseases and improving public health it doesn’t mean all are essential to a healthy life, some do more damage if a sufficient immune system is not present. How the vaccine is formulated and distributed is important to study and follow up on to be certain it is in the best interest of your body to receive the vaccine. Vaccinations will remain present, but it is our choice as individuals to know what they are composed of and how they are administered. Immunizations should be valued and taken seriously, this advancement in technology came at a high speed, which means flaws, and errors will exist, whether we notice them now or in the future.
Gentrification is the keystone for the progression of the basic standards of living in urban environments. A prerequisite for the advancement of urban areas is an improvement of housing, dining, and general social services. One of the most revered and illustrious examples of gentrification in an urban setting is New York City. New York City’s gentrification projects are seen as a model for gentrification for not only America, but also the rest of the world. Gentrification in an urban setting is much more complex and has deeper ramifications than seen at face value. With changes in housing, modifications to the quality of life in the surrounding area must be considered as well. Constant lifestyle changes in a community can push out life-time
Eating nutritious food may seem simple enough, but to those that hardly get by financially, affording healthy foods can be a major hindrance. This is proven by Dr. Jim Levine, a researcher with a concentration of the link between poverty and obesity. He is quoted stating, “In many poverty-dense regions, people are… unable to access affordable healthy food, even when funds avail.” (Sifferlin 1) For example, further studies show that the average cost of salad is $1.50 more than the average cost of a hamburger. Getting vitamins and minerals from the food we eat is substantial to survive in everyday life. Annually, it costs five hundred and fifty dollars more to eat healthier. Five hundred and fifty dollars may not seem like much, but to those that have low income, it is a crucial amount. While achieving a healthy diet proves to be necessary to maintain a healthy weight, it is almost inaccessible for those with low income. Low-income individuals confront the barrier of the cost of healthier choices in their everyday
Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is a respiratory tract infection characterized by a violent cough. The violent cough incudes a series of severe uncontrollable coughing, hacking, or whooping. (1) Pertussis is a very contagious disease caused by bacteria named Bordetella pertussis, which is transmitted through fluids from sneezing or coughing around a person’s breathing space. The bacteria release toxins, damage cilia, and cause airways to swell.
Immunization is the process by which a person or animal becomes protected against a disease. Even though it’s “one of the greatest health development of the 20th century”, the number of infants who aren’t fully vaccinated are increasing gradually over the past years. This happened because of all the controversy surrounding vaccine. Despite the fact that it can prevent potentially life-threatening diseases, people are paying less attention to those infections because they are rarely seen nowadays. So people start to look at the vaccine and the possible side effects and now they fear that the vaccine itself might be more harmful than it is helpful. Although there are some objections for the use of vaccinations, I strongly support it for many reasons.
Today, there is a prolonging problem with primary health care in low-income urban populations. As a group low-income people suffer from having meager health outcomes than the larger population of those with less dense area of living and as well higher incomes. Low-income people suffer disproportionately from health problems related to physical inactivity. People from households with incomes below $15,000 are much more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes or asthma, to be obese, and to be at risk for health problems related to lack of exercise than people from households with incomes above $50,000. Socioeconomic conditions commonly confronted by low-income people such as polluted environments, inadequate housing, absence of public transportation,
Vaccines are the primary prevention method for combating pertussis. In the early 1900’s a vaccine was developed using killed whole cell pertussis (wP). Later in the 1970s and 1980s, acellular pertussis (aP) vaccines were developed. The acellular pertussis vaccines had a lower rate of adverse reactions and were shown to also be effective. These are the vaccine of choice today because of their lower possibility of side effects but, the whole cell vaccine may offer a higher level of immunity. The aP component is combined with the combination tetanus and diphtheria (Td) components to create the DTaP for children up to 6 years of age and Tdap vaccine for those over the age of 7 (Chiappini, et al.,
In old human civilization, the only way to recover from sickness or disease was to use natural treatment to cure and if the disease is really new and is so deadly, then death is the only option. However, today we have vaccines which are the treatment in preventing virus, bacteria, or other sicknesses. But even if we have vaccines, some people still refuse to use it. Why? There are so many reasons for this which explains why people refuse to use vaccines. One of the reasons is it side effects. Vaccines reliability decrease because of its side effects such as autism, fever, or death. One example can be seen in DTP vaccine which is one of the deadly vaccines that contain many side effects such as high fever, brain damaged, fainting, or sometime death. DTP vaccine is a vaccine which uses to cure diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis which is a common disease found among children and adult. There are two ways of how peoples think of vaccines. These two ways are called cultural and social factor. Cultural factor concern with reason about religion or cultural believes. While social factor concern with the scientific explanations or facts.
Today eighty percent of infants are being vaccinated for diphtheria; pertussis (whooping cough), polio, measles, tetanus and tuberculosis (Landrige 2000). This percentage is up from about five percent in the mid-1970s; however, the death toll from these infections is roughly three million annually. Millions still die from infectious diseases for which immunizations are non-existent, unreliable, or too costly. Vaccines all function with the same idea in mind, priming the immune system to swiftly destroy specific disease-causing agents, or pathogens, before the agents can multiply enough to cause symptoms (Landrige 2000). Classically, this priming has been achieved by presenting the immune system with whole viruses or bacteria that have been killed or made too weak to proliferate much (Landrige 2000).
Those who are overweight and obese not only impact themselves but they also impact their peers and fellow citizens. The responsibility of American’s to help those who are suffering from obesity is absent. This is understandable, considering we are not responsible for the actions of others. However, change arrives when other’s no longer stand idly by watching suffering. Those who suffer from addictions or psychiatric abnormalities experience greater success in getting back on...