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| Written by CG Girl |
| Friday, 09 October 2009 18:03 |
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Health…What do gender and ethnicity have to do with it? Latinas, Mexicanas, female Hispanics—or whichever term you prefer to use to identify yourself— have positive health characteristics associated with them from birth. Why is that? Researchers in the fields of medicine, sociology, demography, or public health are still looking for the answer. Many people studying differences in health for the population believe there is a Hispanic paradox. To break it down, a paradox is much like a contradiction—when something goes against what is expected. The Hispanic Paradox also goes by the term Hispanic Epidemiological Paradox; epidemiological meaning the study of disease or illness in large population groups. What this paradox suggests is that those Hispanics who have low income, low levels of education and low level jobs succumb to poor health. These characteristics are called socioeconomic status or SES for short. For the Hispanic population, however, many studies have been done to indicate that Hispanics live relatively long and healthy lives. This is a contradiction of what science and medicine believes should be a result of lower SES. The point is that as Latinas, we start off with what many consider good characteristics. There are many people who wonder what they are. Is it because we have strong and large families? This is considered part of a strong social system. We have families and friends we can share with, confide in, and who can help us figure out life. Or some suggest it is our diet. Is our good health because we eat lots of fruits and vegetables? The other characteristic that Latinas have is that of being female. Females, you see, tend to live longer than males. Again, there is lots of research still trying to find out why. One of the common reasons suggested is the difference in smoking habits. It seems that men have been smoking longer than women and has contributed to their shorter life span and the fact that men die at younger ages than women. So you see, there are at least two very important health advantages to being a Latina! One important key to health is education. If we read and study, we can learn the things we can do to make our lives long and healthy. In addition, we can go to college and learn about all the opportunities for better jobs and especially the advantages to healthy lifestyles. These include staying on a healthy diet. Stay away from all those foods that are white…sugar, flour, rice, bread and those fried tortilla chips. As we educate ourselves we learn about healthy lifestyles of exercising, staying away from drugs, and not smoking. We are our best judges of the decisions we make that lead to good health. The more we learn, read and study, the better our understanding of how to stay healthy. Those who get more education are indeed the healthiest. |
