In Sickness and in Wealth

Do we ALL have an equal chance for health? Many of you may instinctively respond with a "yes".

Well, you're wrong.

Oh man... you gotta love PSU's underlying liberal and semi-socialist agendas. I love my public health class. The past two weeks our discussions in class have been very inspiring. Yesterday the professor showed us an hour long video documentary from www.unnaturalcauses.org. I was hoping to log into this site today to see if I could post the video directly to my blog, but I think it needs to be purchased. The professor did say that since PSU paid to stream the video, and since our class has heavy online access, that the video should be made available to us to share soon. If that's the case, I'll post it here later. If you have an hour, watch it. You'll be glad you did. Unless you're mean. If you're mean, then you'll probably only sit through 2 minutes of it and turn it off.

Here are some of the interesting notes I pulled from the video:

• The United States ranks 30th in life expectancy
• College graduates live on average 2.5 years longer than high school graduates
• Stress triggers the release of stress hormones called cortisol which clogs arteries.
• In the United States, how much we make predicts how long we live (wealth=health).
• The wealth/health grade isn't as prevalent in other industrialized countries
• People in the highest income group can expect to live, on average, at least six and a half years longer than those in the lowest. Even those in the middle (families of four making $41,300 to $82,600 a year in 2007) will die, on average, two years sooner than those at the top
• Countries where wealth is equally distributed are healthier
• Social conditions drive the health status of individuals

For more absolutely fascinating facts, visit this facts page.

Do you believe that health is an equal right? I do. Do you believe that there is anything more important than your health? There is nothing more important than health. Without your health, you have nothing.