Health Education

To truly understand what health education is all about, first one must understand the meaning of health itself. The World Health Organization (WHO, 1947) defines health as, "the state of complete mental, physical and social well being not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." A health educator is one who informs people on how to achieve and maintain good health and promotes environmental and lifestyle changes where needed. As a future health educator I completely agree with the World Health Organization's definition, health is not just about being disease-free, it is also about being satisfied with the person you are. In this paper, I am going to talk about what my experiences have been with health education and promotion up until today, how others view the importance of health, and conflicts that affect those who I am surrounded by and my own personal biases. I am going to incorporate all of this into my main topic, my mother's diagnosis of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD).

My earliest experience with health education was in the seventh grade. It was the first time I took a health class. At that age, I never really considered health being a state of complete (mental, physical, social) well-being; I just thought it meant not being sick, eating right and exercising. I did not know much about other aspects of health, such as the mental and social. It was also the first time I was actually introduced to sex education. I did not know much about sex education mainly because my mother was a very religious woman, and talks about sex were forbidden in the house. Everything I learned about health education was from school. During my high school years, I became more aware of what health really was and how I could achieve and maintain good health as I went through many personal experiences concerning my well-being as well as learning from others' experiences.

It was not until my freshman year of college that I noticed how much people and society in general affected our well-being. My mother suffered her first heart attack, and I felt like it troubled me more than it did her, almost as if I had the heart attack. It disturbed me even more when she refused to have a coronary artery bypass surgery (rerouting of blood vessels) after spending a month in the hospital. I was always aware that my mother was easily stressed, but I did not learn until her first heart attack that she was at risk of having another heart attack any time she became stressed or even engaged in strenuous physical activity. Many doctors and family tried encouraging her every way they could have possibly thought of, but nothing worked. I realized my mother's mind was made when she started crying hysterically about no one understanding what she was going through. But, she was satisfied with her decision and this showed as she went back to her normal daily activities. I learned never to force someone into making medical decisions they did not want to. Although I respected my mother's wish, it did not stop me from finding out more about CAD and finding out ways to help her and the others in my family who also had similar heart problems. Heart disease has unfortunately run not only in my mother's generation, but previous ones also, as my grandmother died after heart surgery.

I learned some things from the doctors about CAD during my mother's hospitalization, but it was not enough. I wanted to take it upon myself to learn more because I knew my mother trusted me well enough to know I was trying to help her do what was best for her. I also wanted to know how to help the others in my family whose situations were not as serious as hers. I wanted to educate them, let them know that they could get better. So, I started to do my own research. I wanted to understand what CAD was, how it happened, and how it was prevented as well as treated. I found out through the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute that CAD "occurs when the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle (the coronary arteries) become hardened and narrowed. The arteries harden and narrow due to buildup of a material called plaque (plak) on their inner walls." This build up of plaque is called atherosclerosis which is mostly made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances from the blood. As the arteries narrow, the amount of blood and oxygen reaching the heart muscle are reduced. This can lead to complete stoppage of blood reaching the heart. And of course, if left untreated, you can also die from CAD, as it is the leading cause of death. (NHLBI, 2006)

When my mother first got to the hospital she was asked about her medical history as well as her family's medical history, she then went through a series of tests. I found out that those tests were used by the doctors to decide the severity of the CAD. Some of these tests were an electrocardiogram (EKG), echocardiogram, stress test, chest x-ray, and cardiac catheterization. The biggest deal to her was the catheterization; she thought it was too much like a surgery. But, we were able to convince her to go through with it, explaining to her that it was the best thing to do at the time. This is also how the doctors determined she needed the bypass surgery.

CAD does not develop overnight, as I stated above, it is a buildup of unhealthy materials in the arteries. There are also risk factors that increase the chances of developing CAD. It is said by the NHLBI (2006) that men are at greater risk of CAD than women are, but that the risk for women also increases once they reach menopause. Most people do not realize how much