Modernization In The United States

Modernization has transpired in social changes in health status and greater longevity. As a result of increases in fertility and decreases of mortality people are living more, however, with these changes there has been an increase of people living with chronic illness. These changes are different from developing countries where there is higher infectious diseases and lower longevity. Other physical illnesses are associated with modern living and have a great effect on developing countries. Although, modernization has facilitated improvements in living conditions, and helped eliminate disorders such as tuberculosis, gastroenteritis, and diphtheria. It has also caused other chronic illness to develop, such as heart disease, HIV/AIDS and diabetes.
Major health threats, in today’s society come from a variety of chronic and degenerative illnesses, that are related to aging and the effects of a human made environment. Lack of exercise, smoking and improper nutrition are three consequences that have developed from modernization in the United States. Smoking is the main cause of sudden cardiac deaths in the U.S., just by quitting smoking, it can nearly eliminate the risk of a heart attack in just a year or two. Heart disease is one of the main causes of death in the United States, accounting for one third of all deaths. Even though, heart disease still remains America’s leading killer, since the nineteen sixties there has been a drop in deaths from the disease. At one point in research, physicians tried to get all patients with high cholesterol to one specific target level, but the research showed that not everyone is the same, even people with moderate cholesterol had a chance of getting heart disease. So, rather than all patients having the same target
Sexual activity, the changing norms, changing values, sex habits, and lifestyles are all causes, that lead to the virus being spread thought out the society. Therefore, it has become the leading infectious disease causing a high mortality, though out the world. HIV/AIDS is a disease that is more easily spread, as the country modernizes. It is transmitted through sexual intercourse, intravenous drug use or blood transfusions or can be passed from mother to infant after the child is born. Researchers have found that HIV/AIDs was carried from Haiti to the United States and was spread by homosexual activity. Over the years and through modernization of the United States, HIV/AIDS has experienced a change from an acute or communicable disease to a chronic disease. Consequently, this disease is long term, incurable and affects all aspects of the infected person’s life. As we progress as a society, the acceptance of homosexuals and promiscuity is more widely accepted and tolerate, causing more cases of HIV/AIDS to pop up. People who have multiple sex partners, and know little about their partner’s sexual history are at a higher risk of contracting the disease. Fifty years ago this would not be the case, because people were more virtuous and more reserved when it came to their sexual partners. In 2010 the data showed that, sixty-seven percent of all cases were transmitted