Is our healthcare affected by where we live?

Just as conditions within our homes have important implications for our health, conditions in the neighborhoods surrounding our homes also can have major health effects. Social and economic features of neighborhoods have been linked with mortality, general health status, disability, birth outcomes, chronic conditions, health behaviors and other risk factors for chronic disease, as well as with mental health, injuries, violence and other important health indicators. Social inequalities such as poverty are linked to unhealthy behaviours like smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise. Therefore the people who you live near, and the area in which you live can affect your health. This can be for good and for bad. Changes can reduce these differences and make it easier for people to make the choices that help them avoid getting sick in the first place.

The ads and t.v. shows we watch influence the things we do, eat and drink. These things therefore effect our health. It happens without us even realising. We assume that we can tune most of it out. If we don't pay attention to the ads, then they won't have that much of an effect on our behaviour. However this is most certainly not the case. In 2010, Melanie Dempsey and Andrew Mitchell

did a study that not only do ads tell us what a product or service is about, they have an effect on our mood and our feelings. They play on our emotions to make you feel a certain way. If an ad is a happy ad with Flowers and rainbows your brain recognises the product then as a happy and therefore good product. This can mean that you could be buying a product that is bad for you but you have been lead to believe by the ads around you that it is a good product. 

References:www.psychologytoday.com Picture from: www.wherewelive.com

Most healthy race in the world-Japan
A 10 year long study was carried out, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. It found that the quality of health in Japan was the best of those they studied.

The level of health in Japan is due to a number of factors including cultural habits, isolation, and a universal health care system. Japanese visit a doctor nearly 14 times a year, more than four times as often as Americans.

One of the biggest public health issues is smoking in Japan, which according to Tadao Kakizoe (honorary president of the National Cancer Center) kills more than 100,000 people per year and is responsible for one in ten deaths.  In Japan, their healthcare services are provided either through regional/national public hospitals or through private hospitals/clinics, and the population has universal access to any facility, though hospitals tend to charge higher for those without a referral from their doctor/GP. However space can be an issue in some regions, as in all countries due to underfunding. More than 14,000 emergency patients were rejected, and left the clinic without treatment, at least three times by Japanese hospitals before getting treatment in 2007, according to the latest survey. In the worst case, a woman with a breathing problem was rejected 49 times in Tokyo. She woman was in her 70s. Public health insurance covers most citizens and pays 70% or more cost for each care and each prescribed drug. Patients are responsible for the remainder (upper limits apply). The monthly insurance premium is 0–50,000 JPY (0-370 euro) per household (scaled to annual income). Additional private health insurance is available only to cover the co-payments or non-covered costs, and usually makes a fixed payment per days in hospital or per surgery performed, rather than actual spending. In 2005, Japan spent 8.2% of GDP on health care. 

Picture from: www.psychologytoday.com

The Medicine of Egypt 
Ancient Egypt

www.history.com

Throughout all of time, from the Stone Age to the Islamic period, the doctors of Egypt were the best in the Western world, though there were also very good doctors in India and China. But that isn't really saying very much: nobody in the ancient world really understood why we got diseases or how to cure them.

Egyptian doctors mostly believed that evil spirits either got inside your body or sent poisons inside your body to make you sick. If you were ill, the doctors made you eat or drink really disgusting remedies, that smelled awful. They hoped the evil spirit wouldn't like the smell and would leave your body. Or the doctors tried to clean your insides out to get rid of the poison, by giving you laxatives or bleeding you. And they prayed to Sekhmet, the goddess of healing. If you have a cold, they gave human milk to drink. These magic things could really help you, because often people get better when they just see the doctor doing something (a placebo).

However, Egyptian doctors did also use effective medical treatments. They massaged aching legs and calves, and they set broken arms and legs. Specialized dentists pulled infected teeth.

Modern Egypt                                                                                                                                      modernegypt.info

The Egyptian Healthcare system is run by the Government. Life Expectancy is quite high in Egypt, 73.45 years. However Egypt has a high rate of Hepatitis C. It is one of the largest in the world. Egypt (22%) while contries like Pakistan (4.8%), China (3.2%) and say Ireland (0.03%) are much lower

The Air quality in Cairo is very low. Spending one day in the city breathing in the air is the same as smoking 20 cigarettes.

Hosting the World Cup and The Olympics- will it affect the health of Rio?

Rio De Janiero in 2016 is lucky enough to be hosting the footbal World Cup and the Olympic Games. This will bring tourism and Money into the country. But will hosting the games affect the health of the Brazilian population?

To induce cities to bid to host the Olympics and World Cup, they promise infrastructure investment to modernise blighted areas, a lasting rise in tourism, improved public health, a month at the centre of the world stage and the gratitude of constituents. And as for the costs? Well, the economic ripple effects will surely be so large that the spending will pay for itself, and it can always be financed with debt that comes due long after an officeholder has moved on.

There is severe uncertainy among the people of Rio. There are people who feel that if the Brazilians do not win in the World Cup the games are just not going to go ahead. 

With the Debt that comes after holding with the Olympics,as well as the World Cup a lot of cuts would have to be made in order to pay it off this could be from the healthcare.

At present in Rio, Government-funded hospitals and clinics offer good medical services. However, hospitals are often crowded because they are paid fpr by the government. It can be a long waiting and the facilities may not be as good as those found in private healthcare.  This is especially true in rural areas. Around 70 per cent of Brazilian residents use public hospitals, while the rest opt for private hospital visits, which they either pay for themselves or which are covered by private medical insurance.

The fumes and amount of added people could have a massive effect on the air quality and therefore the health of the people there. 

Strange medicine of China

My first post is on the wonderfully different medicine of China. The China have a broad range of medical remedies, which have developed for the last 2,000 years.
Chinese Medicine also known as TCM or Traditional Chinese Medicine

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The Chinese are well known for using herbal remedies, food therapy and acupuncture. Chinese Meedicine is based on the concept that the boby can heal itseld if it is in balance in terms of Yin Yang and the Qi.

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_medicine

In Chinese medicine, each organ of the human body is associated with an element. The liver, tendon, eyes are of the wood element type; heart, blood vessels, tongue are fire element type; spleen, muscle, mouth are earth element type; lungs, skin, hair, nose are metal element type; kidney, bone, ears are water element type; etc. This classification helps in adjusting the balance in the body.

The study of herbal therapy classified the properties and effects of each herb according to experiential observations on how the herb affects the body. For example, if one herb causes dry mouth and chapped skin, it would be classified as "fire" type. The element type of the herbs can serve a useful purpose when designing a herbal mix remedy because the "fire" ingredient can be controlled by adding some "water" ingredients; or addition of "metal" ingredients can assist the "water" ingredients to do their job in controlling the "fire" etc. A "water" type herb or food is believed to benefit a "wood" type organ etc. The principle of the five elements is used extensively in Chinese medicine.

Hi My name is Lauren. I have decided to do a blog about the geography of medicine. It will discuss Medicine all around the world. I will talk about unusual medical practices around the world. I hope you enjoy it :)