Stress is Bad for Your Health: Crash Course Public Health #5

Understanding the Social Determinants of Health

In this section, we learn about how society affects our health and why it affects each of us differently.

The Importance of Resources

• Our health is influenced by social determinants such as income, housing, and education.

• Money is a significant resource that can translate into better medical services, access to healthier foods, and better housing.

• Knowledge about our health (health literacy) is also a crucial resource. It involves the ability to locate, recognize, and use basic medical information and services.

Autonomy and Control

• Autonomy refers to how much control we have over our lives. People who feel less in control are more likely to smoke, have higher blood pressure, exercise less often which are correlated with worse health outcomes.

• Feeling less in control might lead to stress which can be detrimental to our health.

Stress: The Good and the Bad

• Some stress can be useful as it helps us fight off viruses or avoid dangerous situations.

• However, chronic stress can make our bodies age faster and lead to negative health outcomes.

How Society Affects Our Bodies

In this section, we learn about how society "hacks" into our bodies and affects our health.

The Impact of Discrimination

• Discrimination based on race or ethnicity can lead to negative physical and mental health outcomes.

• Discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity can also negatively impact mental health.

Environmental Factors

• Environmental factors such as pollution or lack of access to green spaces can negatively impact health.

• Climate change is also a significant threat to public health.

The Importance of Social Support

• Social support from friends, family, and community can have positive effects on mental and physical health.

• Social isolation, on the other hand, can lead to negative health outcomes.

Conclusion

In this section, we summarize the key takeaways from the video.

Key Takeaways

• Our health is influenced by social determinants such as income, housing, education, discrimination, environmental factors, and social support.

• Autonomy and control are essential for good health outcomes.

• Chronic stress can be detrimental to our health.

• Discrimination based on race or ethnicity and sexual orientation or gender identity can negatively impact mental and physical health.

• Environmental factors such as pollution or lack of access to green spaces can negatively impact health.

• Social support from friends, family, and community has positive effects on mental and physical health.

The Impact of Racism on Health

In this section, we learn about the impact of systemic racism on health outcomes. Dr. Arline Geronimus's research shows that Black women experience higher levels of stress due to social, economic, and environmental factors that cause their bodies to age faster than white women.

Weathering

• Black women experience high fertility and healthy pregnancy at a younger age range compared to white women.

• Due to systemic racism, Black women face stressful social, economic, and environmental factors that cause their bodies to age faster than white women.

• Stress is the factor that wears down our body over time. Scientists can track the history of stress in our bodies using allostatic load.

• Allostatic load is the measurable wear and tear that our body goes through when it’s under severe or chronic stress.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

• ACEs are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood as we grow up.

• Experiencing four or more ACEs has been associated with increased risks for things like cancer, diabetes, and suicide.

• Dealing with many ACEs can be pretty darn stressful–and things like racism and systemic inequality only make this stress more severe.

Intersectionality

• Humans occupy several different identities at once such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.

• Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality in the late ‘80s to explain why theories of sexual discrimination and racial discrimination at the time weren’t able to explain the wide array of discrimination that Black women face.

• Intersectionality helps us understand that we can’t untangle the different parts of our identities from one another.

Intersectionality and Health

In this section, we learn about how intersectionality affects the health of Black women. Discrimination based on race, class, gender, and HIV-related stigma can impact their access to quality healthcare.

Impact of Intersectionality on Health

• People's identities are complex and constantly interacting with their environment.

• Marginalized people's struggles are due to society's unwillingness to accept certain identities and treat them fairly.

• Society's impact on health is complicated, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution that can improve health for everyone equally.

• Public health entities are partnering with community organizations to develop tailored public health messages, prevention programs, and solutions that are effective and relevant to people.

Conclusion

• Our identities, society’s acceptance of those identities, and the environment are all intertwined. When properly taken into account, we can be nudged towards better health.

Thanks for watching this episode of Crash Course Public Health! If you want to learn more about Public Health, head over to APHA’s YouTube channel to watch “That’s Public Health,” a series created by APHA and Complexly.