From: First Peoples Human Rights Coalition
March 27, 2008
To: info@firstpeoplesrights.org

Is Inequality making us sick?

From the article below: “… the Tohono O’odham and the Pima … have the highest rates of diabetes than any other race of people in the world. It all began with the loss of their lifeways when the diversion of the Gila River destroyed their farms and traditional ways causing a sense of “futurelessness” and a gateway to diabetes. … ”.

But in 2004 the Pima finally won back their water rights and are beginning to farm again. Leaders are cautiously optimistic that community empowerment, along with sustainable and culturally appropriate development, can restore prosperity, hope and health. They are once again utilizing the water to harvest crops and planting hope in their local communities.”

The article below strongly illustrates the interdependence and interrelationships between human rights and how respect or disrespect for one can affect many others. Here, the undermining of various rights – the right of self-determination, the right of a people not to be deprived of its own means of subsistence, the right to food, the right to water, and the right of all human beings to be “free and equal in dignity and rights” … “entitled to all the rights and freedoms” … “without distinction of any kind” (preamble, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)) - also undermines the right to health.

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Native American Times

Is Inequality making us sick?

New PBS Series looks at Native and other minority communities for solutions to health crisis At: http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=9426

Liz Gray
3/22/2008

A ground-breaking, new PBS series explores causes and seeks solutions to America’s health crisis by crisscrossing the country exploring how the social conditions in which Americans are born, live and work profoundly affect health and longevity. Several minority groups were studied, giving an insight into an understanding of long term causes of several illnesses. This insight of the causes of various illnesses among other minority groups can help those who want to make a difference in the Native American community understand these factors and have hope that change is possible.

“Unnatural Causes… Is inequality making us sick?” is a four-hour documentary series airing four consecutive Thursdays, March 27 to April 17 on PBS (check local listings).

The third segment of the Series focuses on the Native American’s health and the stripping away of our lifeways and traditional foods. By example it talks about the Native nations that are in the worst health- the Tohono O’odham and the Pima who have the highest rates of diabetes than any other race of people in the world. It all began with the loss of their lifeways when the diversion of the Gila River destroyed their farms and traditional ways causing a sense of “futurelessness” and a gateway to diabetes. It shows, by example, the truth of “reservation lifestyles” and dependency on government commodities that are a “diabetic’s nightmare”.

The Native American segment of the series was produced and directed by James Fortier (Metis-Ojibway). Information was gathered from experts such as: * Donald Warne, MD, who comes from an Oglala Lakota family of traditional healers. He is a Harvard-trained doctor, a professor of law at Arizona State University and an expert on American Indian Health policy. * Rod Lewis, tribal attorney for the Gila River Indian Community who battled for the local tribes and helped negotiate the largest water settlement in Arizona history. * Terrol Dew Johnson, an award winning basket weaver and photographer, who is co-founder of Tohono O’odham Community Action, which focuses on community health through cultural revitalization and development.

Several years ago, two physicians in Chicago set out to solve a mystery. Why do African American women have babies that are born too small at twice the rate of white American women?

In the second segment of, “Unnatural Causes… Is inequality making us sick?”, two pediatricians who specialize in premature babies studied this phenomenon.

They were troubled by the striking differences. What could account for the differences?

James W. Collins and Richard David, neonatologists discovered that it wasn’t finances, like most experts originally thought that had a final effect. It was the unequal treatment of African American mothers that caused additional stress on their auto-immune system. In other words, racism actually caused stress on the mother’s body over a long term period, leading to premature births. Even African American women who ate well, exercised, had a higher education and avoided unhealthy living still had a high risk of having premature babies.

Pre term and low birth rate are the leading reasons the U.S. has one of the worst infant survival rates in the industrialized world. We fall behind dozens of countries including Israel, Malta, Croatia who have a better chance of living to the age of 1 than here in the United States. Surprisingly, the United States ranks 34th in the industrialized world.

In America, the higher the socio-economic status a person has the more they are to have health and live longer. That is obvious. Education status predicts infant mortality for both black and white women and reduces risks of infant mortality. But even at an equal socio economic status babies of African American women are still at higher risk, says Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones. Mostly due to the racism stressors. Whites have four deaths per thousand while African Americans are three times higher. Even more surprising was that African Americans with a college degree have higher deaths than whites without a high school education.

During the 1960’s and 70’s with the civil rights and anti poverty movement, the health of black babies improved and began to catch up to whites‘. Infant mortality rates began to decline. Social policies were allowing people more opportunity. During the 1980’s economic growth stagnated and the government began cutting back on social programs. Since then, infant death among African Americans began to climb and continues to climb today. The study by Collins and David shows that stress that is chronic and constant causes wear and tear on the body. These stress hormones reach a certain level which helps trigger labor.

One program at the Family Health and Birth Center in Washington, D.C. provides family support, employment and financial counseling and prenatal care. Results: preterm births were reduced by a third, low birth rate deliveries cut in half.

Other studies show that immigrants to the United States, Hispanics for example, are healthier than the average American citizen. Experts couldn’t understand why the poorest people of the society were the healthiest, by far. But studies showed the good health comes with an expiration date. Life in the U.S. often has the opposite effect. Within a generation, as they become more like the rest of Americans, their health declines. The changes include longer working hours, less time with family, fast food and new stresses of constant reminders of being a minority. Those Hispanics that had a family support group within a supportive community tend to be healthier.

A network of close family and unity, which reduces stress tremendously, is harder and harder to maintain for all Americans. One in four Americans say they don’t even have anyone to discuss important matters. That number nearly tripled in the last 20 years. Social isolation is on the rise in the U.S. and isolation can kill. That was the finding of a study in CA in the 1970’s. Overall, people who are really isolated are at risk for heart disease but also for disease such as diabetes, strokes and cancer.

Throughout the series evidence of these stress hormones caused by stress in disadvantaged communities is one of the root causes of our health challenges. When stress is chronic, when we are continually worried about our bills, jobs and children’s safety our bodies pump out cortisol and adrenaline. Over time, it can increase arterial plaque, raise blood pressure and weaken our immune system, increasing our risk for almost every chronic disease, including heart disease, the leading killer in America.

This four-part series has valuable information for all of us and shows example after example of how small groups of various minorities started making a difference for themselves in their own communities. This series helps confirm what we have always known, that our traditions, which once bound us together and made us feel socially accepted among our own people, helped keep us healthier. And our traditional foods were by far better for us than modern, high-processed foods.

We must put more effort into maintaining our old ways and even finding new ways to knit our communities back together. Our leaders must look into supporting this effort with every means possible. Our tribes should look into purchasing land for future harvests or ranching, teaching tribal members how to plant their own gardens, supporting those tribal members who want to maintain and gain back lost traditions that once supported their tribe’s particular lifeways. It can begin with just one person in a community to start the ball rolling. With hope, anything is possible.