Blog #10/CVD

I read the article titled: "Socioeconomic indicators related to CVD risk factors in Hispanics." It was interesting due to the first sentence says, "Although Hispanics have a lower CVD morality rate than do their white counterparts, paradoxically, Hispanics appear to have worse CVD risk-factors profiles than do whites." They are far worse in blood pressure, obesity, sedentary lifestyles and smoking. There are several explanations have been posited to explain this risk-factor-mortality discrepancy, some speculate that in time higher rates of CVD-related deaths among Hispanics will be seen. I just that is so interesting to me. I would automatically assume that if you have a lower morality rate than your risk factors would be low as well, but I guess I was wrong. I think this study was very informative. It talks about everything from socioeconomic, gender, weight, and behavioral factors.
I just think CVD is a very scary disease and not a lot of people are aware of the risk factors associated with it. I also believe that not every single person on this earth goes to the doctor, in which we may have less deaths with this disease. There could be more done to prevent CVD as the doctor could give medication for it if everyone gets at least a physical every year.

Challenges I face

I would definitely have to say that the biggest challenge to regular exercise and a healthy diet would be SCHEDULE. I work 11-8 Monday through Friday so by the time I get home I eat, work on school and then to bed I go. Ever since I have gone on this schedule we have not had time to walk or workout. Who would want to get up at 5AM to go walking-not me? That is what would have to be done during the week if we wanted to exercise. On the weekends, we are always busy so we have no time to exercise. Eating healthy doesn't come easy. I basically grew up on fast food, so I am used to eating it now. My husband cooks but there are days he comes home after messing with kids all day that he does not want to cook.
Well now that I got a new position with better hours we will be walking or working out (on our Bo-Flex). I will have to help my husband cook now that I am home a lot earlier than 8. We will cut out sodas and sweets (not cold turkey quit). There will be a lot of changes here starting the last week in March and will be carried out forever! This will be a big and great change not just for me but for both of us. We both need to make this a big part of our life due to we do not want to be obese or have heart/health conditions at a young age. I cannot wait to start all of this.

Blog 8/Effects of media coverage

I read the article on Effects of media coverage of Women's Health, Initiative study on attitudes and behavior of women receiving hormone replacement therapy and found some pretty interesting things. So, here are the facts within the article. Half of the women use reading material as a source of information helping them decide whether to use HRT but 82 % use their physician. Pharmacists were not reported as a source. These things are amazing. To conduct this they had to go through a certain selection process and contact method. They had to answer questions about their current menopausal status, HRT use, sources of information regarding HRT, level of trust in their physicians and level of trust in the accuracy of information about HRT. When this thing first started there were 233 women but when it actually came down to the analyzing there were only 97. Only 71% were currently using HRT. The most common reason used HRT for the relief of symptoms related to menopause. The major source when deciding to use HRT was from their physician. The other sources were from the media (newspapers, books, broadcast). There is a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation that is about HRT in the media as well sometimes with physicians. Bottom line is what the very last paragraph says: Miscommunication of the new research results has the potential to negatively affect the health of patients. The solution to this problem will come from multiple sources, but pharmacists have the opportunity to take an active role.
I think there is not enough information out there that is true. Maybe we need more studies and research out there before we inform these women of HRT. Maybe the media needs not to advertise so negatively and more positively. Perform the studies and researches and not release the information until we are sure these are facts, that way there could be more positive than negative information.