# data[].attributes.body
source for media

# data[].attributes.body
This site shows why gender affect health. In the site, it shows us the different likelihood of what disease each gender is most prone to.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Your biology allows you to escape certain health problems. However, most health conditions affect both men and women in varying degrees and ways.

In some cases, doctors don't have a ready explanation for why certain diseases are more common in one sex than in another. In others, doctors will tell you complicated genetic, physiological and hormonal factors are at work. Read on to learn about some of the elements that link sex and health.

Men

Many male health risks can be traced back to behavior: In general, men engage in behaviors that lead to higher rates of injury and disease. They also tend to eat less healthful diets.

However, anatomy, hormones and genes also play roles in men's increased risk for these diseases:

Heart disease. Among men age 65 and over, more than 39% have heart disease, compared to about 27% of women in the same age group.
Why: While women's bodies tend to be pear-shaped, men's bodies are generally apple-shaped. When women gain weight, it often lands on their hips and thighs.

"Men almost always put weight on around the middle," says Pamela Strauss, MD, an internal medicine physician at RUSH. "And we know this type of body fat, known as visceral, is a heart disease risk factor that many women simply don't share."

Also, men don't have the protection of estrogen. Estrogen may keep women's cholesterol levels in check, reducing a key heart disease risk factor. However, once women hit menopause, their heart disease risk goes up.

Parkinson's disease. This disabling neurological disease affects about 50% more men than women.
Why: Researchers suggest that this may also have to do with estrogen, which protects neurological function by activating certain proteins or interacting with molecules called free radicals. Men's relative lack of estrogen leaves them with less protection.

Several studies have also pointed to the possibility that Parkinson's disease has a genetic link to the male X chromosome.

Males are also more at risk for the following:

Women

When you talk with doctors about women's health risks, anatomy and hormones often come up. Here are a few examples:

Stroke. Each year in the U.S., about 55,000 more women have strokes than men.
Why: Many factors play into this statistic, but estrogen is chief among them.

Women may not be aware of the effect estrogen has on stroke risk. They might know that birth control pills, hormone replacement therapy and pregnancy raise risk, but they may not understand the underlying mechanism, which is shifting estrogen levels.

Those changes in levels of estrogen, not the estrogen itself, affect the substances in blood that cause clots. More activity results in more clotting, and that can lead to a higher risk of stroke.

Osteoporosis. Nearly 80% of the estimated 10 million Americans who have osteoporosis are female.
Why: Women start out with thinner, smaller bones and less bone tissue than men. Through most of their lives, women's bones are protected by estrogen, which may block a substance that kills bone cells.

However, when women begin to lose estrogen during menopause, it causes loss of bone mass (osteoporosis). This loss takes a toll: Nearly 50% of women over 50 will break a bone because of osteoporosis.

Females are also more at risk for the following:

I have many female patients who say their husbands just don't go to the doctor. We need to get those men in to be sure they are taking care of their health.

Equality, with a difference
Diabetes
Although it strikes men and women in nearly equal numbers and generally affects them in the same ways, it raises heart disease risk in women more than in men.

However, the diabetes risk for women was lower to start with. Diabetes adds an extra risk factor for women and essentially puts them at the same risk for heart disease as men.
Depression
Women have higher rates of depression, but men have higher suicide rates.

This paradox may have more to do with the way we define and diagnose depression than anything else, says Strauss. "We may find that if we add questions about rage, substance abuse and risk-taking behaviors to our depression questionnaire, we'd identify more males at risk."

Protecting your health is gender neutral

Men and women basically need to do the same things to take care of themselves - at the core that means living a healthy lifestyle.

"Eat a healthy diet, exercise and don't smoke," says Strauss. "That could be as simple as adding 15 minutes of walking to your day or putting a few extra fruits and vegetables on your plate."

Of course, it's also important to address any health concerns you have. Your doctor should know your family's health history, and you should know your key numbers (such as blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and BMI).

This is also where gender plays a role. Women go to the doctor more often than men, Strauss says. "I have many female patients who say their husbands just don't go to the doctor," she says. "We need to get those men in to be sure they are taking care of their health."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn why certain diseases are more common in one gender than the other, or affect men and women differently.

# data[].attributes.body
Healthcare varies for everyone since the world has different areas with excellent or poor healthcare. The different factors that can affect the health of someone is the area they live in, the type of healthcare they can afford. We need some form of health insurance so we can have necessary checkups and treatments.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
See How Health Insurance Coverage Protects You

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
No one plans to get sick or hurt, but most people need medical treatment at some point. Health insurance covers these costs and offers many other important benefits.

# data[].attributes.body
As the days pass by, technology is getting better and better every second. These technological advances efficiently help doctors complete their task, while at the same time improve the quality life for the patients. Nowadays, people can now use the internet to search up symptoms or any health topics that will benefit what they are dealing with. Since most people have access to the internet, the internet can be filled with accurate information, or misleading information. But on the other hand, as technology gets better people are using computers, watching television, and even surfing the media, but not going out to exercise.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Technology can be a beautiful thing. It connects us to others, it's super convenient and, if used mindfully, can even help us find a little bit of calm. But as the old adage goes, too much of anything can be bad.

It's no secret that a little unplugging can go a long way, yet we're spending more time than ever glued to our screens. But here's the sad reality: All that tech is taking a toll on our health. Need proof? Below is a breakdown of how technology affects our mental and physical well-being. Perhaps it's time to power down for a bit.

Your phone could cause blemishes.
Here's a gross fact: Our phones are actually teeming with bacteria (think about it, where don't we bring our devices?). And where are we putting that bacteria? Directly on our face.

Germs pile up on our phones thanks to our external environment, which could trigger acne or eczema outbreaks, Everyday Health reported. Luckily, the problem is easily fixed. Experts suggest cleaning and sterilizing your phone, as well as going hands-free whenever possible.

WiFi exposure may lower men's sperm count.
Laptops are extraordinarily convenient for comfort -- but men who work with them on their laps may be hurting their reproductive chances. One 2011 study found that men who were exposed to electromagnetic radiation from laptop WiFi for four hours had sperm with DNA damage and decreased motility.

And it's not just the computers. A recent meta-analysis of past studies, led by researchers at University of Exeter, U.K., suggests that men who store their phones in their pockets risk exposing themselves to radiation levels that may also lower sperm levels.

All that Googling can cause anxiety.
You've heard of hypochondriacs but what about cyberchondriacs? It sounds outlandish, but it does exist. The cause? An effort to self-diagnose a health problem you might be having. Experts suggest that searching for your symptoms online can result in some serious anxiety, Greatist reported.

Not only that, but constantly scrolling through your social networks isn't helping your anxiety either. One 2012 study found that excessive social media use may increase our stress levels. Yikes.

Staring at screens can mess with your sleep.
Before you shut down for the day, make sure to also shut down your phone and computer. Research shows that excessive tech use -- particularly right before bedtime -- can have an adverse impact on our sleep cycles thanks to the glowing light that's emitted from screens. This is especially true for young adults, who arguably need the most help when it comes to getting the proper amount of shuteye.

Loneliness and Facebook browsing are inextricably linked.
Previous research found that the popular social networking site can cause feelings of loneliness, but a recent study is suggesting a slight variation: Lonely people just turn to Facebook more often. Regardless of the research, experts conclude that this Internet paradox is a very real phenomenon. Our social networks are linked to feelings of loneliness, as well as a decrease in happiness and satisfaction -- and that's not exactly warm and fuzzy news.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sneaky Ways Technology Is Messing With Your Body And Mind

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Technology can be a beautiful thing. It connects us to others, it's super convenient and, if used mindfully, can even help us find a little bit of calm. But as the old adage goes, too much of anything can be bad.

# data[].attributes.body
Behavior is a decisions taken from you, whether it's healthy or unhealthy. Some behavior can become a habit, a habit is when steps or actions becomes automatic and repeated. For example, brushing your teeth after meals is a good a habit, preventing tooth decay and gum disease. But bad habits like watching TV late at night will be a bad habit, losing sleep hours and making it hard for your body to fight off illness or repair an injury.

# data[].attributes.body
Physical environments and social environments are both very different but affect the health of almost everyone equally.
Physical environments include example of anything that would be able to interact with you, not your mentality. These include examples such as anything toxic in the air around your location, water in your beverages, or the radiation from the ground/item you are on or using. A more positive feature of physical environmental effects could be that being in a certain area could force your body to adapt to the environment around you, resulting in effects like improved immune systems to poisons, illnesses, weather, or temperatures that appear regularly in the before mentioned environment.
Social environments are simplified as the environment in which you regularly interact with other people/animals. Having a bad social environment would be lacking interactions with anything living that contributes to one's mentality who is in the environment. A good environment means that you are in an active interaction with people/animals regularly and not give you the effect of any mental stress but instead makes you more happy to be around the people/animals you interact with. An example of a very bad social environment could be one such as a office worker who does not interact with anyone outside of work reasons. This would mean that the worker does not interact with anyone outside of work reasons and turns to violence and/or blame to anyone they know or love, such as his/her wife or husband. This would usually damage his/her health and they get a sense of depression. Anyone involved with this office worker would be feeling physical and mental pain as well. A good social environment would be one such as Someone who has a fair amount of friends to interact with and are treated equally. This person would feel enjoyment out of life and make the people he/she interacts with feel the same also.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The previous chapters of this report focused on health systems and individual and household-level risks that might explain the U.S. health disadvantage, but it has been increasingly recognized that these health determinants cannot be fully understood (or influenced) in isolation from the environmental contexts that shape and sustain them. In contrast with traditional environmental health approaches that focus primarily on toxic substances in air, water, and soil, this more recent approach conceptualizes the environment more broadly to encompass a range of human-made physical and social features that are affected by public policy ( Frumkin, 2005). These economic, social, urban or rural, transportation, and other policies that affect the environment were not traditionally thought of as relevant to health policy but are now attracting greater attention because decision makers are beginning to recognize their health implications ( Cole and Fielding, 2007).

By definition, environmental factors affect large groups that share common living or working spaces. Thus, they are key candidates as explanatory factors for health differences across geographic areas, such as countries. Indeed, a major motivation for the research on environmental determinants of health has been the repeated observation that many health outcomes are spatially patterned. These patterns are present across countries and across regions within countries, as well as at smaller scales, such as across urban neighborhoods ( Center on Human Needs, 2012b; Kawachi and Subramanian, 2007). Strong spatial variation is present for a large range of health outcomes, including many of the outcomes for which there are cross-national health differences, such as noncommunicable diseases, associated risk factors, injuries, and violence.

Understanding the reasons for the spatial patterns of health within countries may shed light on environmental factors that may contribute to differences across countries. Several factors may explain the strong spatial patterns that are observed within countries. A key contender is the spatial sorting of people based on their socioeconomic position, race, or ethnicity. However, evidence suggests that regional and neighborhood differences in health persist even after adjusting for these socioeconomic and demographic factors ( Diez Roux and Mair, 2010; Mair et al., 2008; Paczkowski and Galea, 2010; Pickett and Pearl, 2001). This evidence suggests that broad environmental factors may play an important role in health. Moreover, environmental factors linked to space and place may in turn contribute to and reinforce socioeconomic and racial or ethnic health disparities ( Bleich et al., 2012; Laveist et al., 2011). Thus, individual and environmental factors may be part of a reinforcing cycle that creates and perpetuates health differences. These reinforcing processes by which environmental factors and individual-, family-, and community-level factors reinforce each other over time may also play an important role in generating cross-national differences in health.

This chapter focuses on both the physical and social environment in the United States as potential contributors to its health disadvantage relative to other high-income countries. This chapter, like others before it, focuses on three questions:

Do environmental factors matter to health?

Are environmental factors worse in the United States than in other high-income countries?

Do environmental factors explain the U.S. health disadvantage?

QUESTION 1. DO ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS MATTER TO HEALTH?

Many aspects of the physical and social environment can affect people's health. Spatial contexts linked to regions or neighborhoods are among the most frequently studied, but other contexts may also be important for certain segments of the population.

QUESTION 2. ARE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS WORSE IN THE UNITED STATES THAN IN OTHER HIGH-INCOME COUNTRIES?

There is scant literature comparing social and physical environmental features across countries. Here we provide selected examples of the ways in which levels or distributions of physical and social environments relevant to health might differ between the United States and other high-income countries.

QUESTION 3. DO ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS EXPLAIN THE U.S. HEALTH DISADVANTAGE?

Although no studies have collected the necessary data to determine directly the contribution of the environment to the U.S. health disadvantage, existing evidence on the health effects of environmental factors and on differences in levels and distributions of environmental factors between the United States and other high-income countries suggest that environmental factors could be important contributors to the U.S. health disadvantage. Below we review the possible contributions of the environment to major conditions for which U.S. health disadvantages have been documented.

High-income countries outside the United States have much lower rates of handgun ownership than the United States, and the licensing, registration, and safe storage regulations they have make it much harder for known criminals to obtain firearms. Thus, relatively few of the homicides in these countries are firearm homicides.

CONCLUSIONS

There is some evidence that environmental factors that could affect the U.S. health disadvantage are worse or are more inequitably distributed in the United States than in other high-income countries. It is plausible to hypothesize that factors in the built environment related to low-density land development and high reliance on automobile transportation; environmental factors related to the wide availability, distribution, and marketing of unhealthy foods; and residential segregation by income and race (with its social and economic correlates) may be important contributors to the U.S. health disadvantage in many domains.

It is noteworthy that these environmental factors may interact with other factors at both "higher" levels of broad social policy and "lower" levels that operate at the individual level. For example, high levels of residential segregation may create large social inequalities across neighborhoods that, in the presence of easy access to guns, may result in high gun violence and homicide rates. Easy access to unhealthy foods may interact with personal sources of stress (e.g., from work) in promoting the consumption of calorie-dense foods. Environments that discourage physical activity may also limit social interactions, with potential implications for violence and drug use.

Environments also help to create and reinforce social norms ( Hruschka et al., 2011) that influence health outcomes. In this way, environmental factors are undoubtedly part of a self-perpetuating cycle that operates across multiple domains, but delineating exactly how this occurs-and how this may differ across place and time-will require further research.

Many of the environmental factors relevant to health are directly amenable to policy. Therefore, identifying which of these factors are important contributors to the U.S. health disadvantage could point to policy interventions that might reduce the disadvantage. For example, cross-national comparisons show that levels of active transportation, such as walking or cycling, can be effectively modified by specific land use and transportation policies ( Pucher and Dijkstra, 2003; Pucher et al., 2010b). Although many of the data reviewed in this chapter are highly suggestive of an important role for environmental factors, more empirical evidence is needed to draw definitive conclusions. Important areas for future cross-national research on environmental factors and health include (1) characterizing levels and distributions of environmental risk factors using comparable measures across countries; (2) documenting inequalities in the distribution of these environmental factors; (3) identifying the extent to which these environmental factors affect health and the extent to which their effects are modulated by individual-, community-, or country-level factors; (4) examining directly the contribution of environmental factors to health differences between the United States and other high-income countries; and (5) studying national, regional, and local country policies that may curb levels of adverse environmental exposures, reduce the extent to which they are inequitably distributed, or buffer their effects.

The contribution of environmental factors to the U.S. health disadvantage is likely to result from dynamic and reinforcing relationships between environmental and individual-level factors. Environmental factors also operate over a person's life course, so that the environments one experiences early in life may influence health trajectories over time. Environmental factors are in turn linked to upstream social and policy determinants. In many ways, the environment can be thought of as the mid- or "meso-" level of influence linking macrolevel factors (e.g., economic and social policy) and microlevel processes (e.g., individual behavior). A comprehensive understanding of the causes of the U.S. health disadvantage will require recognizing how the environment interacts with these other factors and helps perpetuate or mitigate the disadvantage across a broad set of health domains.

1

Although analytically distinct, physical and social environments may also influence and reinforce each other: for example, physical features related to walkability may contribute to social norms regarding walking, which may in turn promote more walkable urban designs and community planning.

2

3

The environment can also be considered on a larger geographic scale, especially in seeking explanations for cross-national health differences. For example, the health of some nations is affected by their geography or climate.

4

Although in the U.S. context a number of studies have reported associations of local access to healthy foods with diet, some studies have not detected such associations ( Cummins et al., 2005; Pearce et al., 2008). An important difficulty in comparing results across countries is that the proxy measure for the local food environment is often the type of food stores or restaurants available (such as supermarkets or fast food outlets), but the extent to which these typologies reflect relevant differences in the foods actually available to consumers may differ significantly across countries.

5

6

Other factors that are also frequently discussed, such as social norms, have been more difficult to study because of a variety of methodological and data challenges.

7

8

Analytical complexities make the isolation of these effects difficult in observational studies.

9

10

Findings on job strain have not been consistent, raising the question of whether these are primarily markers of socioeconomic position, which can influence health through other plausible material or psychosocial pathways ( Eaker et al., 2004; Greenlund et al., 2010).

11

Averages could mask important spatial heterogeneity in air pollution, and this heterogeneity could have important implications for differences in aggregate health if some populations are systematically exposed to high levels of pollution.

12

13

Even in these countries, however, automobile use is rising quickly.

14

15

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Physical and Social Environmental Factors

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The previous chapters of this report focused on health systems and individual and household-level risks that might explain the U.S. health disadvantage, but it has been increasingly recognized that these health determinants cannot be fully understood (or influenced) in isolation from the environmental contexts that shape and sustain them.

# data[].attributes.body
Media impacts our health on both good and bad terms. The addiction effect on our health is a con since  people can get caught up on technology that they forget to socialize with their friends and families around them, while straining their eye sight and fatigue will occur. The positive effect, on the other hand, let allows others to bond with people around the world and obtain useful information when needed. These factors can't exactly balance each other out, but each should be taken into consideration whenever you have access to any form of media in order to not harmful to your health. Too much social media will lead to isolation and/or depression. Both of these are negative for not only your health, but also for being aware when you should be focused on other things such as learning in school, driving, or simply walking.

# data[].attributes.body
Culture is the beliefs and pattern of behaviors that are pass down from generations to the next, and this will affect your health because certain cultures choose not to eat meat, thus lacking protein for them. Another example is emotions, some cultures keep their emotions private while others publicly show theirs, this might affect ones health by feeling depressed but can't talk about it to others for help.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ideally, everyone, regardless of race or ethnicity will receive the same medical care. But sometimes equal treatment is not enough. As Dr. Pauline Chen explores in her latest Doctor and Patient column, an understanding of a patient's family history and cultural background can help identify the unique needs of an individual patient.

Cultural awareness is about more than just risk for certain problems, like hypertension in African-Americans or liver disease in Asians. Culture also affects patient communication, adherence to medication and family support.

Clinicians who are unaware of cultural influences may not only miss important medical implications for a patient but can also inadvertently exacerbate an often already tenuous therapeutic relationship. "From the statistics in the literature," said Marjorie Kagawa-Singer, a nurse and professor at the School of Public Health of the University of California, Los Angeles, "adherence to a medication or a treatment regimen is usually less than 50 percent. But that figure is further exacerbated when there are cultural variations."

To learn more, read the full column, " Bridging the Culture Gap," and then please join the discussion below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ideally, everyone, regardless of race or ethnicity will receive the same medical care. But sometimes equal treatment is not enough. As Dr. Pauline Chen explores in her latest Doctor and Patient column, an understanding of a patient's family history and cultural background can help identify the unique needs of an individual patient.

# data[].attributes.body
Heredity is the passing of physical or mental characteristics genetically passed to another generation. The traits that are passed on can affect your health, such as gender, skin color, and etc. For example, your hair can determine  the health of your body.  If there is a risk factor to your health, these factors can be met with many ways to lower the chance of getting them. For the example below