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Poverty Is Literally Making People Sick Because They Can’t Afford Food

Income inequality is making us sick.

Well, it’s not making all of us sick. Only the poorest of us. That’s what a new paper in Health Affairs by Hilary Seligman, Ann Bolger, David Guzman, Andrea López, and Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo found they looked at when people go to the hospital for hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

The basic idea is that people struggling to make it paycheck-to-paycheck (or benefits-to-benefits) might run out of money at the end of the month—and have to cut back on food. If they have diabetes, this hunger could turn into an even more severe health problem: low blood sugar. So we should expect a surge of hypoglycemia cases at the end of each month for low-income people, but not for anybody else.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

wired

“In other words, poorer people don’t need more care at the end of the month for every kind of condition. Just the ones that get worse when you don’t have enough to eat.” [Emphasis added]

Poverty begets illness which begets medical bills which begets poverty. It’s a cycle, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

celiacandthebeast

(via Vitamin B12, Come Back My Body Misses You)

rockhardgeologist

negipecia

@eva5023 this is literally iconic

dayzea

She still has soooo much exploring to do!!!!!

Lost Coast, California.

boredpanda

Stylish Seniors That Prove Age Is Just A Number

cosmic-noir

I’m here for that newsprint jacket!!!

micdotcom

On Monday, feminist scholar bell hooks published a critical piece on Lemonade. In response, writer and transgender rights activist Janet Mock posted a string of tweets arguing that bell hooks’ critique wasn’t just a jab at Lemonade, or even Beyoncé, but at “black femme feminists” everywhere. Mock calls hooks’ argument a type of “phobia,” comparing it to whorephobia.

autohaste

Lmaooooo get ha

gowns

teen mom nyc | link to more recent stats

Preventing teenage pregnancy is defined as a goal of several government (e.g., Federal Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs — OAPP) and non-government organizations (e.g., The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy — NCPTP). However, a review of the data presented by the NCPTP (1997) shows that adult males age 20 and older, not teenage males, father the large majority of births to mothers under age 20 (an estimated 280,000 of the 430,000 births in 2002). However, this important fact generates only sporadic attention from the major organizations involved with preventing teen pregnancy. In addition, the fact that older partners are also implicated in most other negative sexual outcomes, such as abortions and sexually transmitted infections (STIs, including HIV), among teens has received virtually no discussion.

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sexistmorons

I know I’ve told this story before, but my abusive ex refused to let me take birth control. I was on the pill until he found them in my purse. I went to the Student Health Center—they were completely unhelpful, choosing to lecture me about the importance of safe sex (recommending condoms) instead of actually listening to my problem. Then I went to Planned Parenthood. The Nurse Practitioner took one look at my fading bruises and stopped the exam. She called in the doctor. The doctor came in and simply asked me: “Are you ready to leave him?” When I denied that I was being abused, she didn’t argue with me. She just asked me what I needed. I said I need a birth control method that my boyfriend couldn’t detect. She recommended a few options and we decided on Depo. When I told her that my boyfriend read my emails and listened to my phone messages and was known to follow me, she suggested to do the Depo injections at off hours when the clinic was normally closed. She made a note in my chart and instructed the front desk never to leave messages for me—instead, she programmed her personal cell phone number into my phone under the name “Nora”. She told me she would call me to schedule my appointments; she wouldn’t leave a message, but I should call her back when I was able to. And that was it. No judgment. No lecture. She walked me to the door and told me to call her day or night if I needed anything. That she lived 5 blocks from campus and would come get me. That I wasn’t alone. That she just wanted me to be safe. I never called her to come to my rescue. But I have no doubt that she would have come if I had called. She kept me on Depo for a year, giving me those monthly injections in secret, helping me prevent a desperately unwanted pregnancy. I cannot thank Planned Parenthood enough for the work they do.

Curious Georgiana

always reblog.

(via housewifeswag)