Posts by: reedchr5

Ebola in Africa

On 8 Aug, 2014 By With 1 Comment Posted in W6 Activity

Ebola is a virus that spreads through the transmission of bodily fluids from person to person.  At it’s deadliest, Ebola has been known to kill up to 90% of those it infects.  The current strain which is spreading throughout western…

Public Health

On 8 Aug, 2014 By With 2 Comments Posted in W6 Reflection

Public Health is a field that captured my interest while working in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.  Pine Ridge is the largest city on one of the bigger indian reservations in the nation.  It is also one of the poorest.  The…

Erectile Dysfunction

On 2 Aug, 2014 By With 6 Comments Posted in W5 Activity

I believe that over time we have become so advanced and powerful in the ways that we can alter our bodies that we  have come to expect a lot more out of medicine than we once did.  Malaria pills and…

Healthy/Sick

On 1 Aug, 2014 By With 1 Comment Posted in W5 Reflection

The culture of biomedicine is an important one to recognize.  I feel that we make a lot of assumptions in our healthcare system that should really be critically analyzed.  As was stated in lecture, the biomedical institution is as significant…

I am addicted to Heroin

On 26 Jul, 2014 By With 6 Comments Posted in W4 Activity

Now I am not entirely sure that heroin is a bio-medically recognized illness or what that even means exactly, but I do know that addiction to a substance that potent is a grave public health issue and one that requires…

Attention deficit disorder

On 25 Jul, 2014 By With 6 Comments Posted in W4 Reflection

I think ADD is a prime example of both themes we have explored this week: culturally misunderstood illnesses and placebo effects.  ADD is a common ailment among young people today.  I for one could hardly count how many people were…

“Bad Sugar”

On 11 Jul, 2014 By With 4 Comments Posted in W2 Activity

I did pretty awful on the Health Quiz.  A 4/10 if I’m not mistaken.  I was most interested by the life expectancy numbers, and the Washington, DC example of how you can see a difference of 20 years in life…

Melanoma in the Irish

On 11 Jul, 2014 By With 3 Comments Posted in W2 Reflection

  In America and throughout the world we often use skin color to classify people by race.  This is a very subjective way to classify people and it speaks to the arbitrary nature of the social construction of race.  However,…

Old Age

On 4 Jul, 2014 By With 1 Comment Posted in W1 Activity

My definition of good health is a status quo of daily life free of indicators of illness.  These indicators, or symptoms, could include sneezing, coughing, pain, or other discomforts.  I sustained a knee injury playing hockey in high school.  I…