Something that went well during my presentation was the group participation aspect. Everyone in my group (Violet, Cheyenne, Parker, and I) participated an equal amount. Also, something else that went well was the 5th-7th graders participation. Some of them got distracted at some points but I really think that we did a good job keeping them on task and stopping them from getting distracted. We kept control over everyone just like a regular/professional teacher would do.

I liked being a teacher for two hours. However, the kids in my group didn’t exactly teach us like REAL teachers. We aren’t real teachers but the 5th-7th graders didn’t exactly respect us like adults which was disappointing but surprisingly expected. Everything went decently okay overall, I mean, I wasn’t expecting them to treat us like teachers because we aren’t.

I would have made extra sure that we filled the time efficiently because we kind of had to “improv” at the end of the presentation. Also, we practiced the presentation many times but not all together. We practiced little bits at a time so that kind of screwed up the whole “time” issue.

Something that stuck with me and will probably always stick with me is how many people in the world are unhealthy and they don’t do anything about it. This really struck me because it’s just sad, really, really, sad. I want to do something about it but I really can’t. It’s not like I can just go up to someone and change their diet, because it’s none of my business. I guess I could probably educate people by flyers or something.

Something that went well with my set-up group was that we finished our task before it was due. So, we never ran out of time which was good. Something that I could change about my set-up group was the division of work. I admit that Nora and I didn’t do as much work as Ivo but that is because he wanted to do more work and he didn’t really tell us what to do. We are all at fault but next time… I will make sure that doesn’t happen.

I enjoyed the process leading up to the Teach-In. I enjoyed the amount of time we had. I think we had a sufficient amount of time for everyone to finish their visits. Also, I liked how we took things slow and didn’t have to rush at the end. I wouldn’t change anything for next year.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Teach-In and the whole social justice project in general. THANK YOU TEACHERS!

On our fifth and last visit, we went to Positive Exposure one last time. When we went… we left school at about 12:00 and got back to school at about 2:30. While we were there we packaged envelopes for the event they are hosting in April. They had to send out 1,000 invitations for this event and there are only two people working for Rick at his actual studio, Miche and a woman named Trishca. They asked for our help and we agreed because we thought it would really make things get done quicker. They got the supplies they needed in the mail the day before we came so the day we came we had to package one things into one envelope each before the next day because that’s when they had to be sent out, that was our deadline. We formed an assembly line on a big long wooden table in his apartment we each had our little stations we worked at. We worked for about 2 1/2 hours and we got it all done. We then went to the post office to deliver the envelopes on the way back to school. Even though we didn’t learn much about this organization this time around, we got something done that is potentially going to help this organization in the future. We helped by sending out this invitations which will inform and educate people about this even and organization which will hopefully inspire them to donate. I really enjoyed making all of my visits throughout this social justice project and I learned so much.

For my 4th visit, we left school at about 12:00 p.m. We took a camp to the Waldorf Astorian Hotel on 49th Street. When our cab pulled up to the hotel we were amazed on how nice it was! It was beautiful. We then got escorted to the front door and then to gentlemen opened the gold handled doors for us. The ceilings were about 30 feet high and a big chandelier hung in the middle of the lobby. We struggled to find the elevator of the ginormous building but we managed. The hard part was finding the room we were supposed to go to once we got to our floor. we walked up and down the gorgeous hallway and finally came to the room. We were welcomed by a mid twenties look women and she taught us what we were supposed to do. First we had to open literally 1,000 bags (gift bag size), then we had to open 32 boxes of skin care products, then we had to make an assembly line of about 20-30 people (other people also were there) and take 3-4 bags at a time going down the line. We were packing these gift bags for an event the organization was hosting the next day and we were invited but it was canceled because of the snow. We were packing the bags for about 2-3 hours. We didn’t really learn anything about what this organization really did but I know I was helping someone and that’s always a nice feeling.

This past saturday we went to a hospital in Harlem and went up to a conference room in the building. We sat in a big theatre room and listened to about 7 or 8 doctors speak about heart diseases, strokes, and blood pressure. We listened to these lectures for about 3 or 4 hours, then lunch, and then went into a nutrition workshop where we learned about how to prevent heart disease, strokes, and high blood pressure by watching the foods we eat such as staying away from High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). The lectures were really interesting because I learned a lot. Although I want to tell everyone everything we learned, unfortunately it would literally take up 11 pages of this post so instead I will post all the notes I took throughout the whole visit (from 10am – 3pm). Also, I am doing a presentation for Momii’s class in a week or two explaining thoroughly what I learned.

Notes:

Cardiovascular Disease (Heart Disease)

-Any disease of the heart (cardio)

-And blood vessels (vascular)

CVD Facts

-40% deaths

-Expensive medical care

-27% of men, 44% of women will die within a year

-Leading cause of death for African Americans in US

-100,000 lives

-Can be prevented

-Expensive

Racial and minorities receive lower quality health care.

Less likely to receive needed medical care.

Barriers include insurance and race

-Physisians are almost 75% white.

-Number one Healthy Heart Tip: Stay spiritually active, must be in touch with some sort of spiritual side.

http://hiphoppublichealth.org

-Uses children for first responders teaches about health.

-Children save lives from teaching.

-Stroke is a shortage of oxygen traveling to the brain. It’s a brain attack.

Signs of stroke, actions: FAST

Face

Arms

Speech

Time

Causes: Bad Food, lack of exercise etc.

Thrombolysis – is a clot buster therapy and can dissolve the blood clots

-31-50% of patients treated with intravenous t-PA will be left with minimal or zero disability at 3 months

Public does not understand the danger

CV Risk awareness and reduction:

-80% preventable

-Rick Factors

Overweight/Obesity

Physical inactivity

Diabetes

Smoking

High blood pressure/cholesterol

Age <Non Preventable

Family History <Non Preventable

Heart Attack: Symptoms

-Pressure at center chest

-Discomfort in arm, shoulder, neck, jaw, stomach, and back

-Shortness of breath

-Fatigue

-Getting a cold sweat, nausea, weakness

Hypertension

-Chronic elevation in blood pressure over 140/90

-Represents 90-95% of hypertension

-50-65 million people of ¼ of all people in US have high blood pressure

-Ratio of women to men with hypertension increases from .6 at 3 years of age to 1.2 at age 65.

-High Blood pressure number one cause of CVD

Diabetics increasing

Diabetes is a progressive disease in which your body doesn’t make or respond properly to insulin. Your body doesn’t let sugar turn into energy.

-65% of diabetics will die from heart disease or stroke.

-Diabetes doubles the risk of second heart attack in women not men.

-75% of diabetics will dies of heart disease and blood vessel problems.

-Lifestyle intervention-58% reduction for diabetes weight loss.

-Physical activity

Dyslipicteria-Cholesterol

-If a clot breaks the flow of blood to the brain, a stroke results.

-LDL bad cholesterol

-HDL good cholesterol. High levels seem to protect against heart attacks.

-Blood vessels fill up with bad cholesterol and blocks blood flow making a clot.

-Obesity is increasing.

-1/4 is obese kids.

-RELATES TO FAST FOOD: BAD FOOD

-Smoking is a higher risk of CVD or stroke than lung cancer.

-Physical inactivity have higher rate of death and heart disease.

-Walking 30mins a day.

-Their goal is to prevent heart disease.

Pharmacists

They work:

-Hospitals

-Community

-Industry

-Nursing Homes

-Clinics

-Doctors’ Offices

-Government

They Can:

-Help you make the best use of medications

-Work with doctors and nurses to find the best meds to treat condition.

-Help keep you safe from harmful drug interactions, reactions, or mistakes.

Herbal Meds count as drugs. Different things affect and interact with each other different ways.

Hospital Pharmacists:

-Can talk to you about medications.

-Can tell you why medications are prescribed, what they do.

-Help you manage medications at home.

-Tell you if medications cause problems

-Tell you how to store, and what to do if forgotten to take medicine.

Role as a Patient:

-List of all medications

-Tell any medications not supposed to take

-Ask how to contact pharmacist at check-in at hospital

-Ask for ant food/drinks to avoid.

-Ask side affects

-Keep written info about medications. (Pamphlets from drugstores)

-Ask questions

-Watch out for change of form of medications when refilling.

-Ask friend or relative for help

Preventing Errors

-Tell provider how you take meds

-Request info on medications

-Ask if you should avoid foods, beverages and things etc.

-Show pharmacist that you understand.

-Ask friend/family for help.

Ho to Use Meds Wisely

-Read package in bag with meds.

-Ask for best over-counter medication for YOU

-Don’t combine meds without pharmacist consultation

-Report side-affects or problems

When having a stroke, can’t lower blood pressure straight away because the brain wants to continue blood flow around the blot through the arteries.

TIA-mini strokes when a blood clot goes to the brain.

Dr. Williams-Women and Heart Disease

-One in 2 women dies of heart disease

-60% more women die of CVD than from Cancer.

-Other races have more risk factors that white.

-If you have hear disease, other races are more likely to die if they have a heart attack than whites.

To Prevent Heart Disease/Heart Attack

-Know your blood pressure

-Get tested for Diabetes

-Don’t smoke.

-Get tested for cholesterol.

-Maintain a healthy weight.

-Don’t drink too much alcohol.

-Find ways to cope with stress.

-Exercise.

When having high blood pressure damages arteries causing them to become stiff and narrow. Can’t get blood to work right can cause a heart attack.

How to Lower Blood Pressure

-Loose weight if overweight

-Exercise

-1 drink per day

-Quit smoking if smoking (cuts life by 25%)

-Reduce stress

-Diet to heart healthy

Cholesterol

-Builds up on walls of arteries and causes blood clots. Stops heart from getting the blood it needs this causes a heart attack.

-Low saturated fat and trans fat. Eat less egg yolks, fats, packaged and processed foods.

-All women age 20 and older should have their blood cholesterol checked every 8 years.

Chronic Disease and Heart Disease are lifelong problems.

What are Signs and Symptoms That Women Have?

-You can present with no symptoms

-Sometimes there are not specific symptoms

-Angena: Chest pain resulting in a heart attack.

Anxiety Attack

-Behavioral

-Sweaty

-Palvatation

Lasts Longer

-They come and go over time

-Meds are different than Cardiac Disease

-Conditions can be different

-Symptoms can be simple

-Can be heart attack.

-Anxiety and heart attack are very similar.

For someone to be in menopause they have to have no period for a year. If wavering you are premenopausal.

Exercise Capacity

-That duration of time is associated with risk of getting heat disease

-Stress test: have patient run on a treadmill constantly, speed and height of machine increasing until patient needs to stop from shortness of breath or fatigue.

Diabetes stiffens arteries exposed to higher levels of blood vessels. High cholesterol causes blood clots.

Organ Donors

-Every day 17 people die from not having an organ transplant.

-50% of families asked to donate say NO.

-One organ donor can save up to 8 lives.

Nutrition and Diet Workshop

High Fructose Corn Syrup: the great Satan of the American diet.

Obesity

-Obesity is largest in African Americans.

-1/3 of black women in America is obese.

-One Big Happy Family show, every family member was over 300lbs.

-BMI greater than 30kg/m² is unhealthy.

-Survival reduced by 2-10 years.

-All body parts affected by obesity.

-From 1976-2000s, obesity was raising faster

-Babies 2-5 were getting obese from lack of exercise.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

-All soda is sweetened by HFCS.

-When HFCS was going up in 70’s so was obesity.

-We have substituted natural (cane) sugar for fake, manufactured sugar.

-Soda-Pop invented in 1902.

-James Watt and Ronald Reagan are to blame for diet imparities. They created a cheaper sugar from corn call HFCS.

-There is the economical pressure to help corn croppers.

-Stopped importing from the West Indies. Their sugar refineries and businesses were done, beaten. They don’t have a sugar industry anymore.

-Anything that does not go bad isn’t good for you.

-Bacteria are a living organism that feeds off of good food, fresh food that is good for you. Not HFCS.

-Old Coke: Real sugar, still bottles in Caribbean, cocaine.

-New Coke: HFCS, no cocaine.

-Kosher Coke does not have HFCS because it is not kosher to have a grain in a drink.

-When feeling full, technically there is always room for more.

-HFCS does not make you feel full.

-HFCS: Liver does not respond to.

-Table Sugar: Liver responds.

Glycerin

-Fat inside: bad, surrounds organs, HFCS creates.

-Fat outside: better, outside organs, table sugar creates.

-HFCS is not same as honey and not the same as table sugar.

-Is NOT fine in moderation. It’s in everything. WORSE than table sugar.

20 years ago vs. Today (Calories)

Food	20  Years Ago	Today
Turkey	230	850
Bagel	140	350+butter, cheese etc.
Pizza	500	850
Soda	85	250+HFCS

Carbs are addicting because it turns into sugar.

HFCS is in

-Ketchup

-Fruit Loops

-Kool Aid

-M&Ms

-Twizzlers

Today was our second visit to  our organization called Positive Exposure. Today, we were there from 4:00 until 6:00 and we had an awesome time. We had fun and we got a lot of work done. Today, when we first arrived, got right to work. Violet, Cheyenne, Parker, and I sat at the table and Miche gave us a huge bin of “Thank You” notes that Rick Guidotti has received in up to 10 years ago. there were so many in there. He would wanted us to sort them so he could keep them but not in a messy pile. He was planning to put them in a big binder so that was our job. We were told to open each card, put it in a clear plastic paper sleep protector, and then right the return address on a label, stick the label on the sleeve, and last but not least, put the year he received it on another label and stick that on the opposite corner. We did that job for about an hour and a half and then we broke down boxes. This may not sound like we did a lot or learned a lot but we got a lot done and we learned a lot. For example, as we were going through the “Thank You” cards, we read through some of them and most of the ones we read explained what Rick had done for them. So, we learned some of the small and big projects that he has done for people in the past for over 5 years now. I had a really fun time on our visit to Positive Exposure again and I am excited for our up-coming trip on Friday for the “Go Red for Women Foundation.”

Yesterday was our first visit to our organization. We went to an organization that Violet’s mom, Miche, works for called Positive Exposure. The guy who runs this organizations’ name is Rick Guidotti. His job is to make trips to far away countries to teach people about albinism and how people who are born with albinism or other birth defects are normal and just the same as us. There is a huge population of Albino’s in Tanzania and that’s where Rick travels the most. In Tanzania, people hunt down albino’s to cut off their limbs or much worse, kill them. When we were at Rick’s studio, he taught us about what his job is and what we can do to help. He taught me that even people with very dark skin, such as people that live in Tanzania, can have babies with very pale skin such as Albino’s as long as both the mom and the dad carry it in their jeans. Rick Guidotti has a website which is: http://www.positiveexposure.org/home.html (if anyone want to check it out). We (Violet, Cheyenne, Parker, and I) were shown a very sad video about how serious albinism has become. In this video, they interviewed an Albino women who had gotten her arms cut off in the middle of the night when she was sleeping, she said, “they came into my house at about 2:30 AM and  said, ‘we need your arms and we are going to cut them off and if you scream or make any noise, we will take your children and kill them.'” Something else I also learned was the when the Tanzanians had their albino babies, they were surprised by the color of their skin so  they attempted to make them darker by sticking them in the sun, but instead, it just gave them many dark marks on their pale skin, and those dark marks were skin cancer.

I am really excited for our next visit because I feel like I want to research and learn so much more. I learned all of that and much more in the hour that I was there. I am so glad I chose this topic! 🙂