Blog 3 Q3 Heart Disease in Woman

According to American Heart Association, heart disease is found to affect mainly the blood vessels and the cardiovascular system. Heart disease can take many forms such as Congestive Heart Failure, Arrhythmias etc. It can lead to various other heart issues such as Arteriosclerosis, a condition which develops after plague develops in the walls of arteries. This condition will lead to narrowing of the artery which slows down the blood flow through it and eventually can lead to the blood clot causing a heart attack or stroke (American Heart Association, n.d ). Women are not aware that heart disease is one of the leading causes of death. It is said that a woman has atypical symptoms than man which is why heart disease manifest woman differently than in men. The warning sign in a woman is completely different from those of man and it used to be considered as man's disease since many decades. Only 1 in 5 women believes that heart disease is the number one killer of the woman. As more attention is given to man, the issue of heart health goes ignored among woman. Woman themselves do not believe that they have the higher risk of heart disease compared to man which is why their symptoms just go undiagnosed and they do not get proper care (American Heart Association, n.d). Another reason why woman go undiagnosed with the symptoms of Heart disease is because the doctors are less vigilant about treating risk factors in woman and woman may have a different response to the treatment compared to man (“Heart Disease in Women - Mayo Clinic”, 2008)

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There are many things that can put us in the risk factor for heart disease such as family history. It cannot be controlled but can be prevented and treated with proper education and care. There are various lifestyle changes one can follow to prevent the disease later. Some of the lifestyle changes are as follows:

Quit smoking

Get the blood sugar under control

Control the Cholesterol

Stay Active

Lose weight

Eat Healthy (American Heart Association, n.d)

These life style changes will definitely help us to live a healthy life by keeping us active and engaged in healthy behaviors.

Reference

Facts About Heart Disease in Women - Go Red For Women. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from https://www.goredforwomen.org/home/about-heart-disease-in-women/facts-about-heart-disease/

Heart Disease in Women - Mayo Clinic. (2008, May 8). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3fz8jYjr6I

Blog 2 Menopause and it's viewpoint from a different cultural perspective

Menopause is the part of natural process for every woman. When woman has her menstruation period for the last time, it is called as menopause which is followed by various hormone changes (National Institute on Aging, 2013). Menopause occurs in every woman’s life after certain age leaving her unable to be pregnant again. National Institute of Aging says that average age of woman for menopause is around 51 and the experience of menopause is different for woman to woman. Various health behaviors such as smoking can start the early menopause in woman. Menopause can be viewed in different ways in different part of the world.

According to an article from BMC Woman’s Health, the result of a research program conducted among Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander shows that there is various factors associated with the attitude, view and perception of menopause in different cultures (Jones, Jurgenson, Katzenellenbogen, & Thomson, 2012). There is a slight variation in the experience of menopause because of biological, social, cultural, lifestyle and socioeconomic factors that is found in different culture. The research study also shows that there are various needs and understanding during the transition period of woman in the menopause phase( Jones et al. , 2012). It is completely individual experience but could be influenced by any of the factors.

The research conducted on Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander found out that the average menopausal age for Australian Woman was 52.9 years. Society with higher living cost was found to have higher median age for menopause (Jones et al. , 2012). The research also indicated that people who were educated and had the knowledge of woman’s health had different symptoms and perception which lead to improved quality of life. Many other factors were found to be responsible for variations in menopausal experience which includes biological and reproductive factor, psychological, cultural and social factors. Woman who were living in rural area were found to be far less educated and understanding about menstruation and menopause. In their culture, it was taken as private and woman’s business (Jones et al. , 2012).

The research conducted on Australian Indigenous women’s experience shows the huge difference between an educated woman and a woman from rural areas  about the viewpoint on menopause. Thus, it can be generalized that there are various factors responsible for viewing menopause in various cultures. Menopause is a natural process and woman should embrace it as part of their life without any hesitation. It is always good to watch out for symptoms and seek help from physicians for any unusual symptoms.

References

Jones EK, Jurgenson JR, Katzenellenbogen JM, Thompson SC. Menopause and the influence of culture: another gap for Indigenous Australian women? BMC Women’s Health. 2012;12:43. doi:10.1186/1472-6874-12-43.

Menopause | National Institute on Aging. (2013, December). Retrieved February 14, 2016, from https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/publication/menopause 

Blog 1 Question 3

                I think adolescence is the important phase in a person's life. They get both good and bad experiences during this phase as it is also considered as transitional and learning phase from childhood to adulthood. Parenting plays a great role in directing adolescents to the proper path by showing them the right way. All the teenagers fall under adolescents where they get self-conscious about their looks and appearance, dress up, opposite sex etc. It is the phase where the child can pick up anything depending where they get more influence. Therefore, it is more important that adolescents be guided and directed towards right path by parents and teachers. They should be taught healthy behaviors in school and at home too. For this, education is very important. Educated adolescents can make better and wise decisions that will always help them to move forward proudly. Adolescents can go through any phase such as happy, sad, depression, confusion etc as they develop the biological, psychological, cognitive and social characteristics during this phase. We should always encourage adolescents to follow healthy habits and healthy behaviors as they are constantly learning new stuff everyday . I would encourage them to have an open discussion with their parents and ask them for help if they needed.

                 For parents, I would suggest handling this stage of their kids in a positive way instead of forcing them to do certain things. Adolescents are in that odd age where they may think that they know everything which is conflicting with what parents might think. According to Parenthood .library, parenting is much more complex than just providing food and safety to their child (Lerner, Noh, Clancy, n.d). Parents are charged with the responsibility of enhancing the development of youth especially when the child is going through adolescence. I think parents should handle this stage very responsibly. Health Care providers should be friendly as they are the one who could advise and give them healthy advice. At this age, adolescents might be more interested towards opposite sex, their own looks and appearance, therefore, they should be handled gently and advised politely. Health educators should also advise them sensibly as they might have various questions and confusions about their own health and body. At this stage, they might undergo through various changes such as voice change, bodily appearance, and growth in reproductive organs.

                 Health educators can advise them about how to stay away from different disease, practice safe sex, healthy diet and exercises. Media should play an important role in guiding adolescents towards the positive path. There are various examples of adolescent girls starving themselves to death in order to get that so called perfect figure by media. Media, therefore, should play the positive role by encouraging them to participate in youth development programs. Society should embrace the adolescents in the way they are instead of judging them .Adolescence is that sensitive phase where adolescents easily get carried away by what people say to them. They should be encouraged to be positive and embrace the way they are. There is various news of adolescent suicidal cases due to societal pressure and societal fear. It is sad that society always appears judgmental towards adolescents who force them to be frustrated and depressed. Society can avoid this situation and play the positive role in adolescent’s future by not judging them. They can throw some encouraging words instead. After all, adolescents will grow up to be the part of society and parents in the future.

                                                            Citation

 Lerner, R., C. W., & Noh, R. (n.d.). The Parenting of Adolescents and Adolescents as Parents: A Developmental-Contextual Perspective. Retrieved from http://parenthood.library.wisc.edu/Lerner/Lerner.html

Introduction

I am so excited to be at TWU majoring in community Health. I commute from Arlington to Denton for school. I normally take few online classes and few in class to save the time and balance my schedule. I am hoping to graduate from TWU in Spring 2017.My future plan is to get master's degree in Public Health and work for CDC or INGOs in future. I am very positive towards learning new things. I moved to the United States in 2009 from Nepal and ever since I have been living in Texas. I love everything here except for humid weather during summer. I think I haven’t been able to adapt to this transition yet. I came from a completely different part of the world to the United States for my better future. I see great opportunities here for hardworking people especially for those come from a different country for better life and better future. I find people very friendly and welcoming. I feel great that I got the opportunity to see two different sides of the world one that I was born and raised and other is the one that I currently live in. I am grateful to my parents and God for that opportunity. I spend a lot of my time in community college and finally figured out what I want to do in my life. I have developed a great interest in Health Science field. In my leisure time, I like to visit different places, watch movies and documentaries and hang out with friends. My expectation from this course is to learn more about the woman's health as it is highly important for a woman to know about her body and her health.I had used blogger 6 years ago for the first time in my history and government course, however,I stopped using it after the semester was done.Hopefully, I'll be fine using it again for this course.