(NAME-MCE) 'Is Inequality Making Us Sick?' series asks

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'Is Inequality Making Us Sick?' series asks
BY KATHY BLUMENSTOCK
Washington Post
In researching their new documentary, filmmakers Llewellyn Smith and  
Christine Herbes-Sommers focused on the choices and conditions that can mean the  
difference between good health and illness. 
Their result --"Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?" --airs in  
four parts over the next four weeks (Thursdays on PBS and KPTS, Channel 8). The 
 series explores how such factors as geography, race, social situations and  
stress can affect well-being, with the first episode focusing on the 
connection  between health and income. 
Herbes-Sommers said the series is meant to convey that "what is written into  
our bodies is a lifetime of experiences and social conditions. It's not about 
 genes." She and Smith interviewed doctors and other health professionals in  
addition to other experts for the program. 
The title, Smith said, stems from the fact that "the huge things that have a  
big impact on our health have to do with the way we organize our society." 
Among topics explored by the series: the health status of Latinos who migrate 
 to the United States; how chronic stress stemming from racial discrimination 
can  affect African-American families; how job insecurity has taken a toll on 
 residents of western Michigan; and the unusually high presence of Type 2  
diabetes among two Native American communities in Arizona, where a prolonged  
battle over water rights has left the once-prosperous area poverty-stricken. 
A segment on infant mortality contrasts how college-educated black women are  
more likely to give birth prematurely than white women who do not finish high 
 school. Another looks at the life expectancy age gaps between wealthy and  
working-class neighborhoods in Louisville. 
Herbes-Sommers said onehttp://www.kansas.com/entertainment/story/348856.html  
of the film's themes is that the resources to sustain or improve health 
aren't  accessible to everyone. 
"It's easy to say, 'That person doesn't have to eat that way,' or 'They  
should exercise more,' " she said. "But if you live in a dangerous neighborhood,  
or in the suburbs where there are no sidewalks, your choices are  constrained."



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