Soc 490 week 4: Are we in control of our own health?

Soc 490 Week 4: Are we in control of our health?

                I believe that we are in control of our health to a certain extent. There are many ways in which we can keep ourselves healthy. These things we have heard hundreds of times. It is important to eat healthy so that your body can use the best nutrients to function. It is also important to exercise to elevate heart rate which makes us condition the heart to be healthy. Another reason to exercise is to burn calories. Burning calories makes you lose fat which promotes good joints and less cartilage wear due to not carrying as much weight.

                Along with the main concepts of staying healthy, there are also a few different ways to stay healthy. For example, going to the doctor for a regular checkup can prevent diseases from surprising someone down the road. If people don’t get examined by a doctor regularly, chances of a surprise down the road may make it too late to save someone’s life. In the book Universal Healthcare, it states that “healthcare debt is the leading cause of debt in the United States”. This is one reason why some people don’t go to the doctor. Other people just simply hate the doctor’s office so they choose not to go. Taking a multi-vitamin can also help people stay healthy because they can absorb most of the vitamins they need through pill form. There are also other countless supplements that can be taken to get certain nutrients to promote good health.

                Not that the ways that we are in control of our health have been discussed, there are also ways in which we cannot control what happens with our health. One way that we are not in control of our health is conditions in which we are born with, inherit, or develop within our lifetime. There are many diseases that we can be born with in which we have no control over. We can be born with deformities, missing limbs, etc. This prevents people from exercising and doing things to make them healthy due to disabilities. Cancer is also something that we (mostly) do not have control over although there are ways to help prevent certain types of cancers like not smoking, or using tanning beds. Some cancers develop on their own which we have no control over.

                Work conditions are another thing that we do not have control over. Sometimes, the work conditions are very harmful to people’s lives. For example, miners work in harmful dusts which can tar their lungs with black soot. Other people work dangerous jobs in which injury can occur. These jobs include construction, mechanics, heavy machine operators, etc. Altogether, the access to care is very important in prolonging life and promoting health. In Goodman’s article on page 129 he states that the United States has better access to healthcare because we do not have to wait for it like other countries. At any given time, there are 1.8 million people waiting for care in Britain. This wait can cause death numbers to increase. Overall, there are ways in which health can be taken care of by ourselves, but there are other factors that we simply cannot control.