Documentary Review: Unnatural Causes

The documentary that we watched this week was Unnatural Causes...is inequality making us sick? The section of this documentary that we watched was, "In sickness and in wealth". The main themes of this section were how jobs, wealth, etc.. affect our biology, and why some people get more sick than others and die sooner.

Summary
The documentary went around to four different neighborhoods in Louisville, Kentucky and interviewed someone who lived there to see what their life was like in that area. They first went to a North East neighborhood and interviewed a man named Jim Taylor. This area was a very high income area. The people who lived in this area were in the top 1% of income, which was more than the bottom 90% of people's incomes combined. Jim says that he feels safe in his neighborhood, and that there is no excess death in this area. The people in this area actually have a life expectancy that is two years over the national average.
Tonya was in the second neighborhood that this documentary looked at. This neighborhood was in southern Louisville, and was mainly middle class citizens. There was one thing that divided this neighborhood, and it was education. Apparently college graduates live two and a half years longer than people with just a high school diploma. College tuition keeps on increasing, so this division is a situation of money. Not everyone can afford going to college, therefore, people in this area have unequal lifespans. The people in this area will live four years less than the people in the really rich neighborhoods like Jim.
In West/Central Louisville, Cory was interviewed. This area was poor and had the median wealth of Louisville. In this area diseases sets in earlier, and people live six years less than the people in the really rich neighborhoods like Jim. In this neighborhood there aren't many businesses, all there is are liquor stores and fast food places. People who lose their jobs may need to leave home in order to find another. This is really bad because home ownership builds financial security.
The last neighborhood that was visited was farther West in Louisville. Mary, who lived there, never graduated from high school and is living at, or below the poverty level. There is also a lot of crime in this area. People who live in this area will live nine years less than people in the richest neighborhoods like Jim. She lives off of social security and eats what can fit into her budget. She often eats only one meal a day in order to make her money last. Many people in this area are unemployed and feel like they have no control over how their lives are going to turn out. Here is an example of a problem that occurs in an area like Mary is living in. Mary currently needs medicine to be able to work, she needs to get health coverage in order to afford her medicine, but she needs to have a job in order to receive health coverage. This is a vicious circle, and there really isn't any way that she can stop this from happening.

The rest of this documentary explains the main reasons for unequal health in our nation. Life expectancy relies on resources available to people, like education, money, or your economic ranking. Social class influences events that impinge on people's lives. Poverty decreases control of one's life. No control leads to stress which leads to the body releasing cortosol (which puts your body on alert for survival), which increases heart rate and blood pressure, which accelerates aging and leads to an early death. Also, the higher demand of job you have, the more stress you have. There is more crime in poor areas, which also leads to a more stressful lifestyle. The documentary mentioned that the differences that people have are not natural, they come out of social policies that produce inequality. There is a lack of equal access to resources. Also, the more education someone has, the longer they live. I have heard all of these things before, but I have never actually seen proof of why this is. This documentary was really moving to me because of that. It really made me think of how lucky I am for the lifestyle that I have.

What Challenged My
Thinking
The first thing that really struck me was that we always see America representing good health, yet we spend tons of money on medical care, and still live shorter and sicker lives than any other industrialized country. We are ranked 30th for life expectancies, and more babies die here than in really poor places. Also, there are 47 million people in America that don't have health care coverage.

People who are in the top 1% of income have more money than the bottom 90% of people's incomes combined. I think that that is ridiculous.

I found the following to be really interesting. People who are poor and smoke are worse off than people who are rich and smoke. The same thing is true for stress. If two people are eating the same exact diet, but one is really stressed, the person who is stressed will form more plaque in their blood vessels, which will lead to an earlier death. This really explains why health is unequally distributed. Finally, black people that live just as well as white people, will still live less long. The reason for this is discrimination. Discrimination puts someone on constant guard, which leads to higher stress, which leads to an unhealthy lifestyle.

The more education, money, and status you have; the less stress you have, which means that you release less cortosol; which leads to less immune issues, which leads to better health. This proves how people who are poor and less educated have such a lower life expectancy. The relation between these traits are incredible.

The thing that I find really sad is that on top of the fact that rich people have less overall stress, they also have the money and resources available to reduce the stress that they do have. They have the time to exercise, the money to go on vacations, the money to eat healthier, etc.. This really is unfair becuase the people who have the most stress, the poor, don't have the resources they need in order to reduce their stress. This means that they most likely have at least twice the amount of stress that wealthier people have, which means that they will live relatively shorter, less quality lives.


Additional Resources
I found an article called, "Health, Income, and Inequality", written by, Angus Deaton. This article was written through the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research).
http://www.nber.org/reporter/spring03/health.html#N_*_

You can also visit the following website to learn more about the documentary, "Unnatural Causes".
http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/video_clips.php

Have a Great Day!!!