Recognizing the Relationship Between Health and US Economic Competitiveness

Poor health of a country’s citizens also has great impact on its economy.  Companies are sending their jobs to country’s where the cost of healthcare for its employees is lower.  Workplace injuries for the unhealthy are far greater and more expensive than they are for the healthy.  Healthcare costs of obese workers are 21% higher than those of a normal weight.

Besides health affecting the economy, the economy affects health.  The bad economy puts people out of a job, causes them stress and raises prices on essential items.

Preventing Tobacco Use and Exposure

Everyday 4000 kids in America try their first cigarette.  They do it because they want to be in the in-crowd, they want to look cool.  We need to teach them before it’s too late that they don’t.

Smoking and other tobacco products have countless bad effects and no good ones.  It causes 5 million deaths a year.  It triples the risk of dying from heart disease.

Some states are passing laws where tobacco products are required to have a image of the consequences of using the product.  I know if it was me I would be less likely to buy products that have a picture of my baby suffering.

There are also new tactics being used by companies to get young children involved.  They have started making packaging that looks like gum and mints, in hopes that they will think it is OK because those other things are.

The tobacco companies need to be stopped if our children are going to have a bright healthy future.  Initial steps are being taken, but much more legislation and activist groups need to come about before the problem is ousted.

 

Managing the Changing Health Care Needs of Seniors

Because of the baby boomers and less of an importance being on family, our nation is getting older.  There are many new diseases that come with old age.  Arthritis, Alzheimer, Parkinson, heart disease are all diseases that are more prevalent in the aging generation.

In order to reduce the rates of these disease there are many things that the elderly can do.  They need to have something they do everyday to keep their mind and body active.  Many will do the sudoku or crossword that comes in the newspaper everyday.  To just go on a walk everyday can help immensely in fighting off these diseases.

For inspiration on getting screenings, check out out the last video on the videos link at the top!

For more information on protecting your health as you age visit:

http://eldercare.lifetips.com/cat/55257/diseases-of-the-elderly/index.html

http://healthyamericans.org/assets/files/TFAH%202010Top10PrioritiesSeniors.pdf

Combating the Obesity Epidemic

Over 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese.  This is a scary statistic.  Children are becoming increasingly large and living their whole lives with health problems that could have been avoided.  Rates of childhood obesity have tripled since the 80′s. Obesity is a risk factor in many chronic diseases.

The University of California, San Fransisco created SHAPEDOWN, a weight loss program for children and families.  This program is good because it involves the whole family, encouraging them to make healthy decisions together.  There are no crazy low-calorie diets , so it is a gradual but effective change.

I think that programs like this are the way to go.  It gets the whole family working so the kids don’t feel singled out in their fight.

Also a great inspirational blog is one by David Kirchhoff, the CEO of Weight Watchers.  He talks about his weight issues and how he overcame them.

Promoting Disease Prevention

While this comic may strike us as funny, it is true for many Americans.  We need to start focusing on disease prevention rather than just disease treatment.  America could save billions of dollars if they had prevention programs rather than had to treat millions of people.  According to the CDC and HealthyAmericans.org: reducing smoking rates by just 1% could save the US $1.5 over the next five years!  And if just 1/10 of Americans started a regular walking routine, $5.6 billion could be saved in heart disease treatment.  Yet out of the $1.7 trillion being spent on health care annually, less than $.04 per $1 is spent on prevention.

Besides the monetary savings there would be immense numbers of lives saved.  7 out of 10 deaths are from preventable chronic disease, and more than half of Americans suffer from at least 1  chronic disease.

With all these savings, how can we afford not to put money into these programs?  These simple things could put an end to all our government budget issues!

Top Ten Priorities

It’s nothing new to most of us that America spends more than any other nation on healthcare.  Here is a representation from the Kaiser Family Foundation:We should, then, have lower disease rates than the rest of the world.  That would logically make sense, but since when does logic ever work?!

The Trust for America’s Health Lists the Top Ten Priorities we should have for preventing many of these diseases.  They are:

1. Promoting Disease Prevention
2. Combating the Obesity Epidemic
3. Preventing Tobacco Use and Exposure
4. Preventing and Controlling Infectious Diseases
5. Preparing for Potential Health Emergencies and Bioterrorism Attacks
6. Recognizing the Relationship Between Health and U.S. Economic Competitiveness
7. Safeguarding the Nation’s Food Supply
8. Planning for Changing Health Care Needs of Seniors
9. Improving the Health of Low-Income and Minority Communities
10. Reducing Environmental Threats

My next few blog posts will go into a little more detail on each of these goals.

STD/Is, a big surprise!

Happy STD awareness month!!!!

Sexually Transmitted Diseases, or as they are starting to be called, Infections, are spreading through America like a wildfire.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

• One in every four teenage girls in the US has an STD
• There are over 19 million new cases a year
• Direct medical costs from STDs each year is $17 billion
• Half of the STDs are in people 15-24 years old
• Females and minorities are the hardest hit

A Wisconsin newspaper points out that these rates are at epidemic levels.

Experts in this article point out that many of these cases are attributed to inadequate sex education.  People are fighting to keep sexual talk out of schools for fear that that will encourage youth to have pre-marital sex.  I disagree with this.  I think that protective measures need to be taught in schools.  If kids have decided not to have sex, they aren’t going to.  Their reasoning is not usually because they don’t have a safe way to do it, it is because they have made up their minds and don’t think that it s right.  Kids that have decided that they are going to have sex, are going to have it no matter if they have access to condoms or other contraceptives or not.  Abstinence is definitely the best solution to this problem, it is just not realistic at this time.  We need to have sufficient sex ed in schools so that those who are not going to remain abstinent will have enough knowledge to practice safe sex.  We must separate our personal views and what will not eradicate the problem, but will make a great impact on the health of society.