9. June 2009 by student.

     Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated that it may have an adverse effect on health. Most kids who are overweight has a higher potential to become an adult who become obese. Parents are responsible for buying and cooking food for their children, that means that parents are the one to be blamed why kids are obese. Most families don’t spend enough time to exercise. Running, or  walking for at least about 15 to 30 minutes a day, is the best exercise to lose weight. Instead of playing games outside such as; basketball, tennis, hoola hoops, bycycling, jumping ropes or just simply play tag with children, they just let their kids inside the house watching television, or play computer games. World Health Organization indicates that worldwide, people are taking up less active recreational pursuits. Studies in childern and adults have found association between the number of hours of television watch. A 2008 meta analysis found that 63 of 73 studies showed on increased rate of childhood obesity with increase media exposure, and rates increasing proportionally to time spent watching television. The American and European studies have found that mortality risk varies with body mass index (BMI). Obesity causes an excess 111,909 to 365,000 death per year in United States. Severe obesity reduces life expectancy by 20 years for men and 5 years for women. Obesity  hurt the people who are obese emotionally and physically. Obese people are more likely to have low self steem, self insecure and get deppressed. Obese people cannot do certain things that a healthy person can, for example, walking long distance without having difficulty in breathing. they are also at risk of heart disease, sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes and osteoarthritis. But who’s to blame but themselves. They should know that being lazy to exercise and eating bad food  have a bad consequences and they are the one who are responsible for their health. In the case of obese children,  parent’s are to be blamed.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

9. June 2009 by student.

         According to Bridge Reference Bureau, AIDS epidemic is one of the most  destructive health crisis of modern times, ravaging families and communities through out the world. AIDS can be spread through sexual intercourse, blood transfusion, and sharing needles used in injecting drugs, and tattoos. By 2005, more than 25 million people had died and an estimated 34 million were living with HIV in 2005. 95% of them in sub-Sahara Africa, Eastern Europe, or Asia. American Family Physician surveyed that India is now the largest number of HIV infected people, although less than 1% of adults are infected. In 2005, Unaids estimated that 3.1 million adults and children died of AIDS, 2.4 million of whom were in sub- Saharan Africa. People living with AIDS and HIV effects their mortality and life expectancy. People infected with AIDS/ HIV are prone to developing other illnesses and other infections because of their suppressed immune system, and as a result, the epidemic has fueled an upsurged of pnuemonia and tuberculosis in many world regions. Without life saving drugs, one third of children with HIV die before their first birthday, and about 6%, die at age five. HIV are higher among women than men. Women are specially at risk of contracting AIDS because rates of women who are being raped are higher than men, interplay of biological, economic, and cultural factor. It is more likely that a woman will contact HIV, or AIDS due to their powerlessness, dependence, and poverty tend to diminish womens’ ability to protect themselves from unsafe sex. A womans’ choices are often limited by her inability to negotiate when or with whom to have sex or whether to use a condom, by society’s acceptance of men having sex before or outside marriage, and by the need of economic support from men. Women are also whom to give birth, the risk of infecting their children.                         Because AIDS deaths are concentrated in the 25 to 45 age group, communities with high rates of HIV infections lose disproportionate numbers of parents and experienced workers and create gaps that are difficult for society to fill. In countries hard hit by the AIDS epidemic, the tragic and untimely loss of parents, and productive citizens has not only affected families, but also farms, schools, health systems , and governments.Families are the main caregivers for the sick and suffer AIDS financial hardships. During the long period of illness caused by AIDS, the loss of income and cost for caring for a dying family can impoverish households. When a parent or child dies, the household may dissolve and the children  are sent with relatives or left to fend for themselves.             Early and aggressive education and prevention programs are needed to prevent a general epidemic, and to spare tens of thousands if not, millions of lives.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

9. June 2009 by student.

Since the expansive phenomenon in more than 70 countries of the first version of Big Brother in Netherlands in 1999, is incredible how the actual society is fascinated with reality shows. Especially for those that follow people around and feature the daily lives of celebrities, or people who wants to become celebrities based on their appearance in television. Like the case of the octomom “Nadia Suleman” that just signed a contract for her own reality show. Is hard to believe how a situation that caused stress and discrepancies in the society will put this ordinary lady on the trail of celebrity. What’s going to happen with the real lives of her kids having several cameramen recording around her house 24 hours a day? What kind of values or what contributions are they making in our culture? Definitely any, is only an invasion of privacy placing normal people in extreme situations with the only purpose of increasing their ratings. They are exposing young audiences to distorted values and too often rely on a formula in which degradation and voyeurism are the main elements.
According to network statistics, twelve- to seventeen-year-olds say that three of their four favorite shows are reality TV shows, and this is becoming a big problem because those shows often glorify superficial characteristics such as physical beauty over spiritual strength and thus set a poor example for youthful viewers.
The social conflict theory will give us an idea how those producers have the ability to exercise influence and control over all the audience, thereby affecting the social order and disturbing the role models of our population. The consequences in the future will be very destructive; we should all work for a better culture that will help to safeguard the welfare of our society.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »