Vulnerable Populations

In Dr. Rishi Manahanda's presentation he coined the phrase, "one’s zip code matters more than our genetic code." This deeply upset me but at the same time made me feel intrigued. Dr. Manahanda's talk advocated an upstream approach to health care, to address health conditions that were being exacerbated by the conditions in which they live in. Dr. Manahanda describes using an upstream to approach that begins where patients work and play in order to create a system to connect people outside of the clinic. The usage of community health workers who understand the communities they serve can assist with mitigating the effects of poor living conditions.

The second video, Little Things, explained how even low levels of childhood exposure can have a lifelong impact on humans. It's frightening to learn that mercury, flame retardants, PCBs, BPA, PBDEs, pesticides and lead are found in children throughout the U.S. Exposures to these toxins while in the womb can cause IQ levels to drop in children as well as permanent cognitive damage from exposure in children/fetuses. The cumulative impact of multiple toxins can also be detrimental.

After reading New EWG Database Reveals 16,000 Foods That May Be Packaged with BPA and discovering the harmful effects of BPA, I realized how important it is to be aware of BPA free branding/packaging. According to the article, scientific studies link it to cancer, infertility, diabetes, obesity and brain, nerve and heart disorders, and to cause reproductive problems.

Despite all the mounting evidence pertaining to the harmful effects of environmental exposures, the US is still focused on sedentary lifestyles and diets as the culprits to the obesity epidemic. We are only focused on sedentary lifestyles and diets out of ease. From a political standpoint, would be more costly and time consuming to stakeholders at the state and Federal level to mandate changes to decrease chemical exposures that are linked to obesity. Causing a policy change could also cause rifts among stakeholders who have strong ties in industry, chemical production, and other potentially toxic industries. In the grand scheme of things, it's easier to push the problem of obesity on the individual to incite an individual to change instead of an entire system. The government should seek to find ways to decrease exposure to chemicals linked to obesity to curb the epidemic, but will probably continue to use the easy way out of blaming lifestyle and diet.