Unnatural Causes

My initial reaction to the film was it was so very interesting. The correlations between income, education and cortisol really caught my attention. The monkeys offered a great insight also. So, I went back to my A&P text and read up again on cortisol, myocardial infractions and stress/stress response. Then went back and reviewed some areas of the film again. What really struck me was the issue of control and lack of it that contributes to stress levels. Another thing I found interesting was the people working at the hospital, from the guy who mops the floors to the CEO. Let's look at the neighborhoods as say three different ones by types by income, low, middle and high, even though, there are different neighborhoods and situations. Each of these three would have somewhat different priorities and different strategies in implementing plans.

We can assume the high income neighborhoods also have a higher education level. They should have decent healthcare already. I would think they already have a general knowledge of the benefits of regular medical checkups, good nutrition and exercise. Maybe they just need a little prompting of how those principles can be applied. Heart disease appears to still be an issue even in the high end neighborhoods. So, maybe better cardiovascular health would be an area to concentrate on. Here might offer an opportunity to further educate the neighborhood with fitness and diet tips, explore restaurants with heart healthy menus, support more greenways and other avenues of exercise like biking and running clubs along with promoting other venues for exercise such as tennis and handball. Challenging golfers to walk the course over using carts may be another way to promote fitness.

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...se neighborhoods begin a path to wellness. Mobile health clinics would also benefit these areas. Here also programs promoting children to play outside in a safe environment and have other venues for exercise such as gyms is essential. Finding funds to implement any kind of benefits for these neighborhoods will most certainly be a stumbling block. There are no easy answers for this one.

Therefor we see all neighborhoods upper, middle and lower income all have challenges to promote better health. The biggest challenge is for individuals to be able to recognize their own problem areas and have the means and desire to change. The richer folks will most likely just need the desire whereas the middle and low income folks will need both. Finding the ways and means to help the poor achieve better health is a lofty goal that our society should strive to achieve.