FNED 502 Social Issues in Education

Unnatural Causes (In Sickness and in Wealth)

Video presented by The National Minority Consortium

May 22nd, 2017 Blog Post

Alex Arias

This video argues that in today’s United States society, social economical health is equivalent to wealth. The war that the US society and its citizen is constantly fighting clearly proves that there is a huge gap between having a good health versus having a bad health. Public health is an issue Dr. Adewale Troutman states “that in order to have a healthy lifestyle, we must teach/train our citizens to become empowered, so that they can make the necessary changes needed to have a good public health” (Dr. Adewale Troutman Director of Louisville Public Health & Wellness). Many people truly believe and accept as true that eating healthy foods such as vegetables and also by doing performing more outdoors and indoor physical activities alone, people’s lives will be more healthy. Dr. Troutman believes that, yes eating healthy and doing exercise promotes a healthy life. He truly believes and advocates for change that will come from having educated individuals who will do what it takes to make the necessary changes to improve their economic circumstances, which will result in improvement of their health.

We live in the richest nation in the world. We have the highest gross national product in the world. The US spends 2 trillion dollars per year on medical care (that is almost half of all health dollars spent in the entire world). Data sadly shows that the richest nation on earth also has the shorter often sicker life.

We rank 30th in life expectancy, which places the country at the bottom of the list with poor health. 47 Million People in the US have no medical coverage. Many of these uninsured citizens have children who are live in low income areas. Due to lack of medical coverage, these children are getting sicker. The video also shows us that families with Have a better lifestyle raise children who are healthier because they have a better life.

In Louisville, The social conditions and health of the population looks different from one District to the next. The disparity between economic status, life expectancy, housing, jobs from District to District are staggering. Mr. Jim Taylors is a Hospital CEO who lives in an affluent District (East District 16). Mr. Taylor earns around $6,000, which places him at the top 1% of the Americans who have a good income. Mr. Taylor has a good life and good health because he is educated, has a great job and makes a lot of money. Mr. Tondra Young lives in District 24 (south of District 16). Tondra is a 37 year old a Lab supervisor. Tondra is engaged and recently purchased a house. She considers herself a middle class citizen. She and her fiancé are going to college to get a college Degree to better themselves and have a better life in the near future.  Mr. Corey Anderson is a custodian at the Hospital. He lived in District 21 (Northwest of District 24) all his life. Corey is thankful his mother taught him how to take care of himself.  As a young child, Mr. Anderson remembers his mother working at a company that one day left the town. His mother lost her job and as a result lost her house. 

After losing her job, “She got sick. It took a toll on her as well as me and my brother" Corey stated. Unfortunately, Corey’s mother did not have control of what could happen to her and her family and as a result of that, stress set in for a long time producing health problems. People may think that Corey and his brother did not get affected by the mother’s situation.  Children who are raised in poverty are tremendously affected by it and in most of the cases show health products as adults (this is the case of Corey). He was diagnosed with hypertension at age 37.

Obesity caused by eating too much and moving too little among school aged children is also on the increase. Diseases such as diabetes, asthma, hypertension, stomach diseases, depression and other diseases created by bad eating habits and little physical activity are consuming our children (our future). Lack of indoor and outdoor physical exercise also contributes to children’s poor health, poor health.

Many families who are economically challenged Like Ms. Mary Turner. Ms. Turner lives in District 5. In District 5 social policies and how they drive health becomes more apparent here. A third of the population here never received a high school diploma. A 35% of the population in Mary’s town live below the poverty line. Life expectancy here is higher than district’s 16 and 21. Ms. Mary Turner states that “people are dying at a young age here in comparison to the east side (District 16) because they are more affluent” Ms. Turner believes that people who Have more resources available to them will have a better and healthy life. Ms. Turner is always challenged with which she will choose, to buy clothes, shoes or pay the rent. She has 3 children and a disabled husband. Her family depends on a $200 dollar monthly budget.

Another aspect of this video that shocked me and made me feel sad is the fact that stress is closely related/connected to sickness. Stress is everywhere. The video tells us that Adults and children are directly affected by stress which results from dealing with everyday life problems/pressures. The video argues that “being poor, having job insecurity will decrease control over people’s lives and all these things are likely to increase the risk of illness. Jack P. Shonkoff, (a pediatrician at the Harvard Center on the Developing Child affirms that " The United States is the richest country in the world and are so far behind other countries because the resources we have here are not use to make the life of many families better. I agreed with Dr. Shonkoff’s  statement. I truly believe that economic security certainly offers cumulative health benefits. Having a good economic status gives people control over other parts of their lives.

Stress is one of the causes that makes people get sick. To deal with stress our bodies produces a steroid hormone called cortisol. Too much cortisol production will impair brain’s functions as it shrinks due to prolonged stress symptoms. Stress also causes heart disease and accelerated aging. Poor children suffer stress simply because they do not feel secure in their homes, schools, and playground. In some cases children are direct witness of violence and that creates stress.

According to the video, social subordination produces stress which results in health problem. Humans are not the only ones who suffer from social subordination stress. Animals are also exposed to a good or bad life according to the levels of stress they experience.

Ms. Carol Shively (a primatologist from Wake Forest University) have been studying Macaque Monkeys for more than 30 years. Ms. Shively explain that “dominant population have the control it needs to create an optimal environment for themselves. In contrast the subordinate population have almost no control over to what will happen to them” The text argues that the more power and control people have, the stress levels will be less. The less power and control people have chronic state will be created. The last portion of this video clearly shows that since the 1930s, 1950s, 1970s and 1980s progress was visible only for a specific group of citizens (whites) President Reagan’s policies negatively affected many families in such was that we are still feeling the effects today (this is disturbing). Many social programs were slashed, the industry was deregulated, and taxes for the wealthy (only) was reduced. This trickled negative effects which are visible in our times.   

Another stressor is discrimination. In countries where discrimination is not prevalent people are less likely to get sick. Countries where discrimination is prevalent elevated risks of disease are present (in the US this is visible among minorities). Being on constant vigilance promote changes of people’s biological markers, which make people more vulnerable to get sick.  Dr. David Williams (a sociologist of Harvard University of Public Health) believes that “when we improve economic circumstances and narrow the socioeconomic gap we will improve our health” Reducing health inequality is not as impossible, as a society we have done it before.

  At the end of this video Dr. Adewale Troutman is taking the health matters into his own hands. He is investing his time and energy in working with different agencies, creating partnership programs to train citizens within those communities to become empowered to make the necessary changes to live flourishing healthy lives. Dr. Troutman declared that in order to change our lifestyle and our health, "It is not enough to talk about individual behavior and feel that if we can just get people to exercise more and eat more fruits and vegetables, everything would be alright. That is not the case. The bigger issues are the social conditions that drive the ultimate health status of populations." Dr. Troutman’s goals are to train and empowered community members in Louisville Health Equity Center, to take political action to design policies to address the health needs of their community. I agree with Dr. Troutman because I also believe the bigger issue we need to tackle and change is the Social conditions that drive the ultimate health status of the population. Louisville is a great example of what happens when community members get together to change their social conditions. Power is a public health issue. To tackle this problem, organizations and the community must train their citizens to become empowered to make changes they need to have a healthy life. This will result in good public health. Seattle Washington is become a leader in the Country in addresses issues like cleaner air quality, affordable housing.  The State of Arizona is allowing its citizens to farm the land. The economy is getting better resulting in people having more control of their lives.

In RI, there are many agencies which work tirelessly to combat the health disparity issue in our State. Agencies/Centers like The Providence Center https://providencecenter.org/ and Family Service of Rhode Island https://www.familyserviceri.org as well as others are community-based organizations programs whose main focus/goals) is to serve low-income neighborhoods in Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls. These agencies are doing a tremendous job as they continue to provide training and resources to members of the community by empowering them to make the necessary changes to have control of their social and economic status, which will result in a better healthy and prosperous life.