I
interviewed two women and asked them what health issues they were most concerned
about and why. Each of them asked, what exactly do you mean? It’s a very broad
question. So I told them to answer based on a personal, professional, or even
global level.
My sister
Olivia, who’s a white, 24 year old college student, said on a national level,
she’s most concerned about cancer. “It’s so common these days because as a
society, we are being exposed to a lot more things than we used to,
environmentally and naturally,” she says. “You hear about
it being talked about in the news, on social media, and most people know at
least one person or someone who knows someone that has been affected by cancer.”
On a personal level, Olivia said she worries about skin cancer since she was a
synchronized swimmer and spent hours in the sun for years at a young age, and
even now as a swim instructor. “I wear sun screen, but I’ve still gotten some
bad sunburns in the past and I know my chances of getting skin cancer are
increased tremendously because of that,” she says. She has fair, light skin and dirty blonde
hair as well. She claimed to know three
people who were affected by skin cancer at a young age and said it’s very
common in her line of sport.
My little sister Olivia
I
interviewed my boss, Dr. Sandhya, who’s a 40 year old, single Indian women. She’s been a dentist for 14 years and voiced many concerns.
Personally, being self-employed, she worries about her lack of medical insurance.
She says it’s very expensive to dish out that kind of money for yourself when
there are so many other bills and other employees to take care of.
Professionally, she said she worries about the lack of dental IQ in the general
public. She spends a lot of time educating patients on how to take care of their
teeth and gums, but there are so many people who don’t get that type of
opportunity. Regarding the general public, she was very passionate about her
answer and continued talking for a great deal of time. She said as Americans, the
majority of us make poor food choices. “Marketing and the media promote very
unhealthy habits and it turns into a vicious cycle of health problems like
diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure,” Dr. Sandhya said. “No one
reads food labels and portion sizes are too large.” She said she feels that we
as Americans need to be properly educated on healthy eating starting at a young
age, the parents need to be involved, and that there needs to be more marketing
towards health food and the dangers of leading an unhealthy life style.
My boss, Dr. Sandhya
It was interesting
for me to see the difference in what concerns both women expressed. I agreed with everything both women stated.
While my sisters was a little more broad and generalized, especially for her
concern about the public, Dr. Sandhya's was, I believe, some of the root cause
for the rise in cancer that my sister was worried about. Not to undermine what Olivia
said, yes, cancer is much more prevalent it seems in today’s world, however,
what is the cause of cancer? It’s a host of many factors, including genetics, environment,
way of life, and I strongly believe much of it stems from our unhealthy eating
habits. How many videos and documentaries have been made to show the obesity
epidemic that is consuming our culture? How many campaigns have been created to
encourage a healthy, fit lifestyle? Numerous ones. We’ve even changed the traditional
food pyramid into my plate. Coming directly from our nation’s first lady, Michelle
Obama has been a huge advocate for getting up off the couch and exercising and eating right. Yet,
we are still surrounded by fast food restaurants and grotesquely large portions
that won’t seem to disappear. It’s a mind game that many of us have a hard time
winning the battle. It’s difficult to control urges when the food we eat has addictive
qualities and we’re consumed by billboards, television ads, and vending
machines throwing themselves at us, begging for us to just have one taste. In strongly believe there needs to be a bigger emphasis on health education in schools, starting in pre-k all the way through high school. Food served in our schools needs to healthier, not filled with high fructose corn syrup and MSG, and we need to offer more fresh fruits and vegetable rather than the processed foods.
I’ve gone off on a tangent, but I personally believe one of the biggest issues for America is our unhealthy, sedentary life style. We don’t sleep enough, we’re overworked, we don’t eat healthy, we’re too stressed, we don’t work out enough, and all of these factors combined cause the illnesses we see – diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. We need to fix where the problem is coming from, rather than trying to fix the disease once they already have it!
