Blog 5

•          https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sites/gsb/files/styles/1630x_variable/public/resources/photo-is-vftt-winfrey-oprah.jpg?itok=cTTdNzDO  

       The inspirational woman I have chosen to blog about is Oprah Gail Winfrey (born January 29, 1954, Kosciusko, Mississippi, U.S.). She is the founder of many different organizations that help others especially women and children. Oprah Winfrey is an American media executive, actress, talk show host, television producer, and philanthropist. "She is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and ran for 25 years from 1986 to 2011. She was the richest African American of the 20th century and North America's first black multi-billionaire. She has been ranked the greatest black philanthropist in American history. By 2007, she was ranked as the most influential woman in the world." (Wikipedia, 2020)

       One of the organizations that Oprah Winfrey founded is Leadership Academy for Girls. "The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation (OWLAF) was established to fund the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls – South Africa (OWLAG). Oprah Winfrey knew that university study was essential to the students achieving their professional and personal goals, contributing to society and establishing financial independence. The goals of the foundation is to: 1. Serve as a bridge between the Academy and tertiary institutions. 2. Support the students through their tertiary studies. 3. Identify bursaries to fund students in tertiary programmes." (The Foundation, 2020). The reason why Oprah Winfrey became a philanthropist was because she realized that the only way to create long-term improvement and empowerment, and change somebody's life is through education. With education not only does one have more intelligence but it also improves our health because the more knowledge that we have, the more we become aware of what we need to do to live a long and healthy life.

      Oprah Winfrey has become my inspiration because she is overall an amazing women. You can tell that Oprah has a big heart and wants nothing more than to help as many people as she can. Her main goal in life is to help and educate people so that they can become better people inside and out and be successful in life. 

References 

(2020.) Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey
(2020.) The Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.owla.co.za/foundation

Blog 4

Facts & Figures: Ending Violence Against Women (Links to an external site.)

"How can we stop assaults from being committed against women?"

Ways that I believe we can help stop assaults from being committed on women is by teaching our daughters at a young age to recognize when abuse is happening and to not be afraid to speak up.  Also, I believe we must teach our daughters how to protect themselves as well as encourage them to not rush into a relationship at a young age and to focus on being independent first and the importance of education.

 I have a 9-year-old daughter and every chance I get; I will have a heart to heart talk with her about how she feels, her grades, and her behavior at school. I’ll stress to her the importance of speaking up if someone is doing something to hurt her and that she is to let a teacher know as soon as possible. She is also to inform me when she gets home so that I can make sure everything gets resolved. I also stress to her how important it is to focus on school in order to do bigger and better things in life. My daughter is the only girl out of five kids, so she tends to act like an entitled brat sometimes. Which gives me the opportunity to remind her every time that she acts up that if she wants nice things that she has to earn them, especially when she is older.  By working hard and making sure she gets as much education as she possibly can.

Another way I believe we can stop assaults from being committed on women is by encouraging each other to speak up and stand up for ourselves. Giving each other information on how to report abuse and letting each other know that there are programs out there that will help people get back on their feet will help put most of their worries at ease. Though, if hesitation/ fear is clearly visible, I believe you should take matters into your own hands even if your friendship gets put at risk. The way I see it is, I would rather lose a friendship then see them in a grave.

Retrieved Photo of Stop Violence Against Women from
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=SYQWhDr+&id=55CE614F0480C06FDA68A1FC84EF7FECC4082BD7&thid=OIP.SYQWhDr-Mmlr32TPgp1r2QHaEK&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FDblqyc6e6yg%2Fmaxresdefault.jpg&exph=720&expw=1280&q=assault+on+women&simid=607994217092284749&selectedindex=0&adlt=demote&shtp=GetUrl&shid=44342dc4-324e-4b2b-be5c-bd188e890e28&shtk=U3RvcCBWaW9sZW5jZSBBZ2FpbnN0IFdvbWVuIC0gWW91VHViZQ%3D%3D&shdk=Rm91bmQgb24gQmluZyBmcm9tIHd3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbQ%3D%3D&shhk=fjeM9Dvt5OvkNZ9nG8RjgnFo%2FJLnW2tbp6SAXCMTgLg%3D&form=EX0023&shth=OSH.2%252FLVgynnJCAC7a0pgz5vmA

Blog 3 - Option 2 Mental Illness

I have chosen to write about mental illness (option 2) for my blog because while working as a Dental Hygienist I have seen many patients with mental illness. I want to be able to learn more about them and why it happens in order to help provide treatment options that will help them improve their oral hygiene. Many that I see with mental illness don't have good oral hygiene or require a lot of assistance from a relative or home provider. 

What I learned in this quiz was how much a year is used for mental illness. That amount was $193.2 Billion. It was definitely not what I expected but as I thought about it. Many people not only suffer from psychotic disorders, schizophrenia or PTSD but also depression and anxiety.

I do know someone who suffers from a mental illness and that is my ex-husband. He suffers from PTSD. He is an ex-Marine who was in over 4 years. He was discharged from the military because of an incident that occurred during his first marriage.

The illness he has has made a big impact on his life. Him and I separated because he couldn't control his PTSD or wasn't trying to get the help he needed. When we married, I already had 2 children from a previous marriage, so we decided to have one together. Well, while pregnant he did many things that just weren't acceptable and I didn't want my children to see how he was acting and think it was acceptable so we separated. Things had gotten worse but he is now trying to change his life around for our son. At the moment he is trying to get help by attending a camping and mentoring program known as Camp Hope to help those who are wounded veterans with PTSD.

What I learned about mental illness just from knowing him is that it is a very serious matter. One moment he was the perfect husband and father and the next he would just sit there and stare off into space. At night he would be so paranoid that he would stay up till 3 in the morning and walk around the house because he swore he heard something and needed to check things out. It was really terrifying. There were moments that even I felt like I was beginning to lose it. When we would argue he would take it to the extreme and attempted many times to take his life with my hand gun as well cut his wrists and inner thigh. Separation was the only option for us because he wasn't trying to get the help he needed. I needed to care for our children and well I couldn't do it while he acted the way he did. Though since our separation, he has made some improvement. He continues to struggle with his demons, as he calls it, but we have a much better relationship. We are now able to communicate much better for our son and decide together what is best for him. However, he does still have his moments. When he is upset about something, he goes to the extreme but I now know how to better approach and handle it. I first try getting him to understand why we must do things a certain way and if that doesn't work then I just stay professional and tell him that when he is ready to talk then I will. I try my best to not be confrontational, because that doesn't make things better. If anything, it makes things much worse, and my main interest is making sure my son has two parents that can co parent and are able to give him what he needs in order to grow up healthy and happy.

           

Retrieved Photo of Mental illness from        

          https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=mental+illness&FORM=HDRSC2

Blog 2

Menopause Around the World

           Menopause as we know is a hormonal imbalance in a woman's pituitary gland and the ovaries. Menopause usually begins between the ages of 40 and 50. Perimenopause usual begins at the age of 35 and then hormones slowly begin to decrease. According to the Women's in Balance Institute, menopause symptoms were different in other countries than the US. It is believed to be different because of either lifestyle or the culture a woman finds herself in before, during, and after menopause. Women in other countries didn't have hot flashes or night sweats unlike women in the U.S. Symptoms that were noted from woman in other countries were stiff shoulders, joint and muscle problems. Rarely were hot flashes a symptom for menopause. Women in other countries actually saw menopause as newfound freedom and status.  

         This information is very interesting to me because it makes me wonder could menopause just be psychological? Do women really have menopause or could it just be old age? As we know when one ages everything in our body tends to go down. Things such as stamina, growth, hormones and etc. I guess I won't really know till i get there, but another thought is when I asked my mother if she went through menopause she said she didn't think she had one because she didn't recall having any kind of night sweats or hot flashes. She's currently 65 years old and is now retired. It may just be different here in south Texas, fingers crossed!























Reference:

• Pote, K. (2020). Menopause Around the World. Retrieved from https://womeninbalance.org/2014/09/17/menopause-around-the-world/

• Retrieved Photo of Women from India from https://womeninbalance.org/2014/09/17/menopause-around-the-world/

Bio

Bio:

Hello my name is Mary Ann Metz. I am 31 and I am from Beeville, Texas. I've lived here my whole life. I am a mother of 5 children, 2 who are step-children and 3 full time. Ages ranging from 3 to 19 yrs old. My husband is older than I am ;) I have been working as a hygienist for 3 years woohoo and i love it! I am pursuing a Bachelors degree so that when I am all prophied out i can teach Hygiene and tell my students all my experiences and what all to do and not to do. I am really looking forward to all the new things I'll be learning this semester. I hope everyone has a great semester! Looking forward to interacting with everyone! 💜🦷

Blog 1

Blog 1: Option 2

I have selected option 2 for my blog and a few questions that stood out to me are, "What is the link between women's education and family size?" and "How many people in the world today are chronically undernourished?" The answer to the first question was educated women have smaller families and the answer to the second was 826 million people are not getting enough food to lead healthy and active lives.

In my opinion the biggest health challenge facing women globally is not being able to make enough money to afford health insurance for themselves especially those with children. Why? I believe its because most women believe their spouse/significant other to always support them and their family. Which causes them to put their education on hold because they tend to focus more on being the perfect house wife and mother.

The health belief about women that I wish would change is the need to have a masectomy because of the risk of inheriting breast cancer. I hope that in time instead of doing a masectomy that an early stage genetic testing can be done to find out if cancer will happen and be able to start treatment as soon as possible in order to avoid a masectomy.