Part Four: Psychosocial Health

This is the random left over blog post. Honestly, this post could be much longer because there are a million awesome articles out there, but I'm trying to be concise (yeah, I realize I'm terrible at it, but at least give me some credit for trying!).

• 20 Things Poor People Do Every Day: There's lots of misinformation out there about poor people and that they are lazy and doing nothing all day. These are the things that are actually done: find food, find shelter, find warmth, try to stay safe, live in chronic pain (and poorer health outcomes), and do everything in their power to stay alive. 
• Appendectomies are Expensive in the US: This person posted his bill for his overnight stay in the hospital after getting his appendix removed on Reddit. Apparently it's about $55,000. His insurance covered the bulk of it, but still. That's a lot of monies! Our healthcare reform isn't perfect by any means, but hopefully it's a step so that people don't have to pay these enormous bills! 
• Med Students Save Lives!: Remember those OSCEs I talked about taking? Well this student at Virginia found out something that was really wrong with his fake patient during one of his OSCEs and he saved his life! Sometimes medical students are idiots (myself included), but sometimes we are awesome too! 
• Inactivity Changes Your Brain: I sort of alluded to this already yesterday. But here's some science to back it up more! Being a lazy bums changes your neurons. And not for the better. Inactivity leads to greater sympathetic nervous activation which may causes higher blood pressure (due to vasoconstriction) and ultimately leads to heart disease. So work your little body...Make Your Day Harder!
• Vaccinations...good or bad?: This is a post from someone who grew up being unvaccinated. And why she decided to vaccinate her children. And why she suggests that you do too! Her parents lived the organic, healthy lifestyle (let's be real...this is not me condemning that lifestyle. I love organic foods!) and yet she contracted measles, mumps, rubella, viral meningitis, scarlatina, whooping cough, yearly tonsillitis, chickenpox, HPV, and penicillin-resistant quinsy by not being vaccinated. She says, "If you think your child's immune system is strong enough to fight off vaccine-preventable diseases, then it's strong enough to fight off the tiny amounts of dead or weakened pathogens present in any of the vaccines." I someday will be having children and plan to vaccinate them! But here's a side of the argument that you don't often hear! 

All of these things affect health in some way. Take a look! I have lots more posts planned, so keep your eyes peeled!