USA Health Care and Medicine - Part 2

Medication, or Pills, for Everything??

Everywhere you turn these days there are advertisements for the next pill that is supposed to cure some sickness or in some way make your life better. Pick up a magazine and you'll find an ad for medication on nearly every other page, along with a page describing the side effects (bad things) that can happen from taking it.

In fact, pharmaceutical companies (the ones making all the medications) spend twice as much money on advertising for their medications than on research and development. That means that they spend twice as much money promoting the use of their medications compared to researching their effectiveness (how well they work) and health risks (the problems that could arise from taking them).

Does it seem like the number one priority of the health community should be promoting their products or services?

Medications are being overused and abused throughout America. Does all the advertising contribute to this?

What can we do to combat the abuse of medicine? Think back to last week's blog post...if we thought more about maintaining health, instead of a cure-all pill, it might make overuse of medicine less of a problem.

USA Health Care and Medicine - Part 1

Treating Sickness vs. Promoting Health

I don't know about your experiences with the health care system (hospitals), but I usually go to see the doctor when I am not feeling well. In the United States we think of getting checked out only when something's wrong. This makes sense because none of us want to have to pay money unless we really need to; unless we are really sick.

However, this affects our thinking. It seems that in the United States we think about treating, or fixing, sickness instead of promoting, or encouraging, overall body health. We focus on pills in this country as the cure for everything without putting a lot of thought into how our lifestyles could be healthier.

What are some ways that people might focus more on promoting heath, instead of just treating sickness? Here are just a few ideas:

• Drinking water - important for many body functions
• Eating healthy food
• Daily exercise
• Seeing a chiropractor or massage therapist once in a while
• Getting enough sleep
• Make sure you have time to relax/kick back
  
• Hanging out and talking with friends - For Real!! - helps us relax and talk about what's going on in our lives (good and bad) with other people
  

What do you guys think?

Do you agree that we focus too much on fixing health problems and not enough on keeping ourselves from having health problems by living healthier?

What are some things you could do to promote health in your life?

Segregation in U.S. Schools is Increasing

What is segregation?

Segregation is separating people of different races or classes, and can occur within schools, neighborhoods, or other public places. This is a form of discrimination.

Segregation by race is pretty obvious to us, but segregation by class may not be. Class refers to the economic status (income or salary) that a person earns. A person can be lower class, working class, middle class, or upper class depending on their income. Throughout a person's lifetime they can move up or down in class depending on how their life situations change.

A study published in June of last year shows that public schools in the United States are becoming more racially segregated and the trend is likely to accelerate (get worse).

The rise in segregation threatens the quality of education received by non-white students, who now make up 43 percent of the total U.S. student body.

Many segregated schools struggle to attract highly qualified teachers and administrators, do not prepare students well for college, and fail to graduate more than half their students.

The United States risks becoming a nation in which a new majority of non-white young people will attend "separate and inferior" schools.

Latinos are the fastest growing minority in U.S. schools. Researches noted that "often Latino students face triple segregation by race, class and language."

In your comment think of the following questions:

What are your feelings about the increase in segregation in U.S. schools? Do you think that segregation in schools is negative or positive? Why? If you think it's negative, what do you think should be done to keep schools from becoming segregated?

Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/29/AR2007082902111.html

Exercise - The Cure for Depression?

I think we all understand the importance of physical activity for overall health. The problem is that even though we understand it's benfit, we don't exercise very much as Americans. We mostly just sit around. Most Americans don't exercise vigorously. In fact, only 15% of Americans engage in vigorous exercise for 20 minutes 3 times a week.

We all know that exercise helps keep our bodies at a healthy weight, however, exercise is also proven to help the mind. Inactivity (a lack of physical activity) has been proven to lead to depression and dementia (insanity, or "going crazy"). Exercise can also reduce the risk for Alzheimer's disease.

Not all of us are going to experience depression or dementia in our lives, but it is valuable to understand that exercise does more than just help our physical body. It affects our minds, our brains, the thinking center of our bodies. Read this article for more information on how exercise can combat (fight) depression.

What are some ways that you exercise? How much vigorous exercise (minutes, hours) do you get each week? What is something you can do to increase your activity each week (doesn't have to be something huge)?

Let's all get out there and exercise so that we can keep our minds healthy and active!

Retrieved from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7234303.stm

Goals for the New Semester

As we start a new semester it is a great time to think about setting some goals for yourself. Some of you may have had goals for the last semester. Did you accomplish them? If not, why weren't you able to acheive your goals?

I set some goals for myself last semester and I wasn't successful in acheiving all of them. I didn't go running very often, which was one of my goals. I think the main reason is that I got too busy and forgot about the goals I had set. However, I was able to acheive some of my goals. I was successful in my university classes. I've gotten A's in each class so far. I also biked to school nearly every day, which was another one of my goals.

Take a look at the picture at the top of this post. Does it make sense to you? "To get started you must have a destination (a place you are heading toward)."

What are some goals that you would like to set for yourself for this semester? They could be health goals (to take better care of your body), academic goals (to do better in school), relationship goals (to be a better friend), financial goals (to use your money wiser or to get a job), or any other type of goal.

Leave a comment here as a way of setting a goal for yourself for this semester. It will stay here and you can check it later and see how you did. If you acheived it or not?

Here's a funny picture about goals...