Published: April 25, 2008 09:52 pm         

Women must take care of themselves to care for others

The Back Porch column

If Momma ain’t healthy, ain’t nobody healthy.

A headline on National Public Radio’s Web site grabbed my attention: Southern women living shorter lives. After my scare last fall of thinking I was having a heart attack, I am more attuned to articles about women’s health and longevity.

The story discussed the results of a study conducted by Dr. Christopher Murray from the University of Washington in which he gathered research from 1,000 counties across the country. He found the average life expectancy for women, especially Southern women, is decreasing to levels seen nearly 100 years ago.

How can that be in these days of miraculous medical and technological achievements?

Murray said the three big killers are diabetes, chronic lung disease and lung cancer. Causes include smoking and obesity.

Dr. Wendy Klein, a women’s health specialist from Virginia Commonwealth University, took a longer view of the decline. She said the problem stems from the factors affecting all people with lower life expectancy rates — level of education and economic well-being.

The American health care system is illness-based instead of wellness-based, she said. People don’t seek care until diseases are advanced, and they see few incentives in preventive care.

Klein reported the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services pulled funding for 48 community-based clinics in underserved areas, including rural communities, where those clinics were beginning to make inroads in health care.

The NPR reporter wondered why, and Klein said she didn’t know.

I think I do. Any time the nation is involved in a large military operation, domestic programs are cannibalized. Those programs often include education and health care, two services that Americans have come to believe are inalienable rights. The targets are segments of the population often unable to fend for themselves — children and the elderly.

But it’s more than that now, Murray’s study shows. American soldiers are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the war there is killing people at home, too.

Marshall University’s Board of Governors just voted to increase tuition for the fall by 5 1/2 percent. How many more of my students will have to take a second or third job to pay for their college educations? How many will not be able to return for fall classes because they can’t afford to?

An inability to obtain learning and seize opportunities for greater earning potential feeds the destructive cycle that continues to keep certain segments of the nation’s population in their place, including those who are primary caregivers for their children and their parents.

Murray said 80 percent of women with high blood pressure are not treated or are poorly treated. It’s no surprise they are dying.

Health care providers and community service organizations will have to find innovative ways to help women care for themselves because the government is not going to provide much assistance. The future of an entire region depends on it.

— Young is a Register-Herald columnist. E-mail: ynerissa@verizon.net

© 2008 by Nerissa Young