Blog 1

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!