Ireland Essays (2794 words) - Great Famine, Malnutrition, Famines

Ireland The Great Starvation of Ireland I. The starvation in Ireland: 1845-1852 Over the years, the people of Ireland have suffered many hardships, but none compare to the devastation brought by the Irish potato famine of 1845-1857. A poorly managed nation together with ideally wicked weather conditions brought Ireland to the brink of disaster. It was a combination of social, political and economic factors that pushed it over the edge. After a long wet summer, the potato blight first appeared in Wexford and Waterford in September of 1845. The phytophora infestans were carried in on ships from Europe and America. Less than a year later, in August of 1846, virtually the entire potato crop in Ireland had been destroyed. The following winter became unbearable for the already starving nation. The westerly winds, which usually brought warmer air, failed, letting cold conditions from Scandinavia and Russia overtake the island of Ireland. The effects of malnutrition from starvation combined with the unusually cold temperatures aided in the spread of disease and ultimately death among the nation of Ireland. Starvation, respiratory disease, typhus epidemics, cholera, dysentery, scurvy, and deficiencies in vitamin A, all contributed to the loss of over a million Irishmen over a seven-year period. The practice of medicine at the onset of the blight was extremely inadequate. Ireland had only 39 infirmaries; this translated into one clinic for every 366,000 people. When looking at these numbers, one can easily understand why so many perished. Many of the deaths during the famine were never recorded, because of this the death toll may never be known. The number of deaths related to starvation is estimated to range from one to one and a half million people. According to Don Mullan, 200-300 mass graves were discovered, and in each grave over 1,000 bodies were identified. The infant mortality rate in some areas reached 50%. It was mainly the deaths of babies and children were the ones that often went unrecorded. The beginnings of the starvation are said to be a biometeorological phenomenon, however, the British reacted in a sociopolitical manner. Relief from the British government was slow and insignificant. The economic policies that existed were unhelpful and the British Parliament refused to make adjustments to provide for a national disaster. No free food was offered to the starving people as long as there was food for sale. Charities offered to undersell the merchants, but under Parliament policies, this was not acceptable. Ships carrying aid from other countries were intercepted before they could reach the hungry peasants. Several American groups contributed huge amounts of money, food, and clothing for relief purposes, but little, if any, reached the starving peasants of Ireland. In March of 1847, Quakers and religious charities began funding soup kitchens and workhouses. For many of the hunger victims, this was the only kind of aid seen during the years of the famine. Before the peasants were fed, many protestant groups ordered the peasants to condemn Catholicism. Meals served by soupers consisted of watery soup and bread. These meals did not provide adequate nutrition to keep the starving people alive and, many times, made it worse. People who are starving to death suffer from water retention and nutritional edema and by trying to hydrate them with watered down soup, increased their chances of mortality. The workhouses were overcrowded as well as unhealthy. There were as many as 173 workhouses in Ireland, more than the number of health clinics. The workhouses sometimes housed more than three times the amount of people they were originally built to hold. This promoted the spread of disease that was already rampant among the Irish. These aid efforts were halted to finance improvements in long term seed distribution. British soldiers were sent in during the 1846 food riots. The troops were placed in depots, ships, and harvest fields. This action was taken by the British to ensure that the peasants did not keep their produce. During the same year, an Irish physician by the name of Dr. Dominic Corrigan wrote, Starve in the midst of plenty, as literally as if dungeon bars separated them from a granary. When distress has been at its height and our poor have been dying in our streets, our corn has been going to

Persuasive Essay on why cancer is preventable.

Persuasive Essay on why cancer is preventable. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. This year, over 1.2 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer and about 560,000 will die from it. The rates have doubled in less than forty years. In my opinion, cancer is totally preventable. This may be a drastic statement but I believe the facts will prove it is true.In 1952, Dr. Ernest Krebs proposed a theory that cancer was a deficiency disease, similar to scurvy. His theory was that the cause of the disease was the lack of an essential vitamin in a person's diet. He identified it as vitamin B17, a part of the nitriloside family which is found in over 1200 edible plants. It is found in the seeds of apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach, apples and others.To prove a theory it must be tested scientifically. The best way for Dr. Krebs to prove his theory would be for thousands of people to eat a diet very high in vitamin B17 and then check the results.my beautiful ... Kerrie ...This would have been very expensive b ut, fortunately, the experiment wasn't necessary because it had already been done naturally. Between West Pakistan, India and China is the remote valley of Hunza. The people of Hunza have 200 times more B17 in their diet than the average American. In fact, in a place where there is no money, wealth is measured by how many apricot trees a man has. Medical teams who have traveled to Hunza discovered that there has never been a case of cancer. The average age of the Hunza people is about 85, but many live to be 100 years or older.Eskimos are another group of cancer-free people that have been observed for several decades. The traditional Eskimo diet is very rich in nitrilosides, or B17, that come from the meat of caribou and other grazing animals and also from salmonberries.There are many other groups of people throughout the world from all races and all regions. The one thing that they have in common is that the degree to which they are free from cancer is in proportion to the amount of nitrilosides found in their native diets.While it is available in most countries, vitamin B17 cannot be sold in the United States. The reason is because it has not been approved by the FDA. That process takes years of research and costs millions of dollars. The only firms that can afford that are the large pharmaceutical companies. Since you cannot get a patent for a substance found in nature, it is not likely that this vitamin will ever be approved. In fact, since cancer treatment in the United States is a billion dollar industry, pharmaceutical companies have an interest in discrediting the vitamin deficiency theory.The FDA started a false campaign which claimed that nitriloside was toxic and dangerous because it contains cyanide. It does, in minute quantities. If you eat the seeds from a hundred apples in a day you would risk serious side effects, possibly death. If you eat enormous amounts of anything you run serious health risks. Aspirin is twenty times more toxic than the s ame amount of B17.In the 1970s Memorial Sloan-Kettering, a cancer center in New York, tested vitamin B17. While they publicly came out with a report that said the results were "inconclusive" and that it did no good, research doctors knew the truth. Years later Dr. Ralph Moss, one of the researchers, confessed that he had been told to give statements exactly opposite of what they were finding scientifically.Scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) was able to be controlled centuries ago. I believe the evidence for vitamin B17 has been scientifically proven to do the same for cancer prevention. Since the American diet is lower than ever in nitrilocides, it is up to each person to try to eat foods that will help us live healthy lives.

HEALTH LAW AND ETHICS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 10

HEALTH LAW AND ETHICS - Essay Example sector has various stakeholders who include patients, payers, health providers, and employers who have different interests (Department of Community and Family Medicine Web). Most significantly, the administration faces a dilemma with their employees in the allocation of resources. The administration faces the dilemma of how to improve the healthcare. The administration must decide on whether to buy improved the health equipment, building more health facilities or increasing the remuneration of the care providers to motivate the provision of quality, accurate, and timely healthcare. Under the health laws, the patients have a right to receive efficient healthcare but on the other hand, the care providers have a right to better remuneration. Hence, law and ethics should fall in place in solving this dilemma. Indeed, the administration can liaise with the government, non-governmental organizations, and possible donors to help in funding improved health care equipment to guarantee better health services to the patients. At the same time, the administration should liaise with the health workers union to ascertain the remuneration standards of the caregivers a nd subsequently adjust it to recommended standards where possible. That way, the administration will solve the resources allocation