We just watched the Documentary titled Unnatural Causes. This film was about the inequality of money in the United States and the effects it has on our health. The first statistic that hit me was that the U.S. is responsible for spending almost half of all the health dollars spent around the world and 47 million people in the U.S. do not have health insurance. This film examined the different areas in Kentucky that had varying life expectancies from district to district. For example, in district 5 life expectancy is 69 but in district 16 the expected life span is 79.3. That's over 10 years difference withing the same state!
I enjoyed how the film introduced us to different people who all lived in different districts with different lives. One story that was sad to hear was about a lady who lives in a poorer district named Mary. Mary only eats 1 meal a day towards the end of the month just to make sure her 3 children get what they need. Not being able to provide for your family and having to worry about where your next meals are going to come from is extremely stressful and this film discusses the correlation between heavy stress and being unhealthy. When people are under stress their brains release a hormone called cortisol which helps the body deal with situations but when someone is under too much stress for long periods of time, the cortisol starts to decrease the immune system. When an immune system is threatened, a usually normal healthy person is less likely to be able to fight infections.
The film made several comments on how things in our country need to be changed. There are other countries who are not as rich and the U.S. but have a longer life expectancy and in this film the U.S. is compared other countries. I do agree that something does need to change and maybe we need more equal distribution of wealth but I'm sure it is not as easy as it sounds. This documentary really opened my eyes to another issue and this idea that-just because somebody doesn't make a lot of money they are without the opportunity of living a life as long as their rich neighbors....?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Hey Shannon-
ReplyDeleteGreat review! I also thought it's crazy how stress in people's brains releases cortisol and creates a decrease in people's immune system. People working in factories for instance are already in an overall unhealthy work environment not counting the damages from cortisol. Great job Shannon!
Shannon,
ReplyDeleteNice Job. I was never aware that prolonged stress can have lasting damage. Apparently in our society money = health but world wide that is not the case! Good Post!
Shannon- I like that you wrote about Mary's story. I feel like that was the most impacting story I learned of while watching the documentary. I couldn't imagine being in her place, and I hate the fact that she had such a lack of access to health food and resources. It is like we are making the unhealthy unhealthier and the poor poorer by not changing the environment that they live in. I wish there were some way to distribute the "projects" or the "9th street" of every town throughout the city. Maybe then certain areas wouldn't be destined to bad health, lack of money, lack of resources, and early death.
ReplyDeleteNice review!
ReplyDeleteI agree that equally distributing wealth among American citizens would be no easy task! I do think, however, that it would be possible to make some changes to the social environments of certain populations so that they weren't so negatively effected by lack of resources. It's extremely unfair that some people have the time, money, and other resources to optimize their health, while other people have very limited opportunity to do so.
Good review shannon! The statistic about the U.S. is responsible for spending almost half of all the health dollars spent around the world and 47 million people in the U.S. do not have health insurance is shocking! You would think it would be the other way around. I think that the U.S. needs to start taking notes and learning from other countries on how to improve the health of our people.
ReplyDeleteShannon
ReplyDeleteGood Review! I really liked how they compared the 3 counties as well... and at the end brought them all back to show that they all worked at the same hospital! I could hardly believe the difference in life expectancies between the 3 districts! It's just crazy.
Nice review Shannon! I think it is very sad that people's wealth is what determines how healthy they will be... I don't know how this could be fixed but our country must not be doing something right with all of our money!
ReplyDeleteIt is sad to think we (USA) spend so much on health care yet have a high infant mortality rate and a lesser rated life expectancey. You would think the more you spend the better the outcome. I guesss maybe America is spending their health care monies efficantly. Maybe we should spread the wealth (and health care) around to help everyone.
ReplyDeleteShannon- I agree that something does need to be done, but it probably is a lot harder than it seems. It is easy to say it, but a lot more has to go into it! This film was a really big eye opener to me as well! NIce work!
ReplyDeleteShannon~
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job, this documentary really did hit us all in a surprising way I think!
The way you described Mary's story really shows how people are living in our country but it raises SO many questions as to why is our country struggling with inequality, money, healthcare, and declining environmental health. I am glad you went over "cortisol" because stress really looks like it correlates with health. Lack of money=stress=poor health. How do we better this country! Such a sad fact. Health inequality is a really sad fact about the U.S. Good review Shannon!
Kathy
Shannon,
ReplyDeleteGreat work and I agree with Kathy that this video really did have a positive impact on all of us! I was equally shocked by the women who stated that she has to go without eating in order to feed her family it is absolutely saddening and in a way makes me a little mad also! Great review I think you had some very interesting points -- like the life expectancy concept why do underdeveloped nations have a longer life expectancy than us? Great work!
I am glad you talked about the effects of stress. I found that section in the documentary incredibly interesting. I think that all of us health majors have heard that stress lowers your immune system, but I had no idea how much it does to your body. It was really interesting to hear about the study done on monkeys and stress. It was fascinating to learn that the monkeys who lived in constant fear of the head monkey, ended up with clogged arteries, even though they were eating the same food as the head head monkey. If this major of a difference can be seen in monkeys, no wonder there is such a difference in our health.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad how much power money really has, and this documentary definitely opened my eyes to see this. More equal distribution of wealth could really help, but unfortunately that's not an easy thing to do. Great job!
ReplyDeleteGood Review Shannon! I agree that this documentary definitely opened my eyes to how off the distribution of wealth is in our country, So sad!
ReplyDeleteShannon~ Great post! This documentary was a huge eye opener for everyone!! It is really sad that money has that much power and I think we should do more about our health care since we are ranked 30th which is really sad on our part!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Shannon. I agree with you, it is astonishing how ones health can be so threatened by, once again, MONEY!! Eww. I too really felt for those people in the lower income areas and the significantly lesser of a life expectancy they had. so hard to hear about.
ReplyDelete