National Diabetes Statistics Report

Final Exam
1.
According to the National Diabetes Statistics Report for 2014 published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 21 million Americans of all ages have been diagnosed with diabetes as of 2012. This number only includes those who have been diagnosed by a medical professional and from this population; almost 95% of diagnosed adults have Type II diabetes. The difference between Type I and Type II diabetes is that Type I often times affects children who’s cells fail to produce insulin, which is important in the regulation of blood glucose. With Type II diabetes patients are insulin resistance, meaning that the cells in the liver, muscle, and fat are unable to produce enough insulin to regulate blood glucose
Living in an area known as a food desert (area that contains limited access to nutrient-dense foods), can impair an individual’s health if the majority of the diet consists of packaged foods that are loaded with sodium, unhealthy fats, and excess sugar. Not only is poor access to nutritional foods an obstacle, but also for many people, despite living in a developed area that caters to a wide variety of foods, income is the primary factor for deciding to buy nutritious foods. Freund’s work “A Sociological Perspective on Health, Illness, and the Body”, discusses how culture impacts illness. Freund defines culture as the beliefs, values, and practices shared by a group of people or society. The food culture of a society can significantly impact one’s diet and predisposition for diabetes. Consuming foods that pose no health benefit to the body and also not engaging in physical exercise to rid the body of excess caloric intake, greatly increases the likelihood of developing Type II diabetes. Some cultures prepare their food in a certain way, such as people in the Southern region of the United States are known for barbeque, fried foods, frequent use of lard, etc. The CDC shares obesity trend maps from data collected from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and as of 2010 the majority of the Southern states report a 30%
Before WWII, mental health care was not a priority and the asylums that did exist served a mere purpose of removing the mentally ill from the rest of society. WWII brought an alarming awareness to mental health care and thus institutions improved the treatment and care for those suffering with a mental illness. In the book “The Mad Among Us” by Gerald N. Grob, Grob shares how mental health first aid was administered to soldiers during the war whenever they were being screened by physicians (Grob). Improved institutional care for the mentally ill was one of the first steps that the Western society took in dispelling the stigma and harsh labels towards the mentally ill as mental illness was on the way to becoming medicalized as an illness. In a country such as Jordan, which does not hold the same societal standards of the US nor the medical advancement, mental health institutions may not be as developed therefore causing a larger amount of societal stigma towards those with mental illness. The reason that the amount of stigma towards mental illness would be higher in a country like Jordon (in comparison to the United States) is because of the lack of mental health care. Mental illness cannot be normalized or medicalized until proper institutional care is achieved. Theories of medicalization, labeling, and stigma is intertwined. Medicalization has the power to diminish the stigma behind