Articles by Steven Gilchrist

A ccording to a report created by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and U.S. Representative Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) there is a national crisis in American dental care.   On June 7, 2012 Cummings and Sanders – the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging, introduced legislation to address the inefficiencies in the American dental care system.   Approximately 130 million Americans do not have dental insurance.   ¼ of American adults 65 and older have lost all of their teeth.   More than 75% of American adults over 30 have gum disease.   Additionally, about 17 million low-income children do not go to the dentist every year. On June 26, 2012, PBS aired a documentary about the U.S. dental care system on the investigative news program FRONTLINE .   The 50 minute documentary, Dollars and Dentists , analyzes current economic trends and patient access in the dental care industry.   The documentary is a joint investigative pie...

R ecent news headlines have been dominated by the tragic death of award-winning singer and actress Whitney Houston.   Houston died in Beverly Hills, California last month in an apparent drowning.   Although the cause of her death was ruled an accident, much of Houston’s career was consumed by drug abuse.   Similar to Houston there are other entertainment stars who died young, partially from the effects of alcohol or drug abuse.   Other celebrities who have passed away at a young age include: Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, and Heath Ledger.   Each of these deaths were tragic, however, circumstances regarding alcohol and drug overdoses are not confined to Hollywood superstars.   Statistics indicate that prescription drug abuse amongst the general U.S. population is now an epidemic.   “In 2007, approximately 27,000 unintentional drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States, one death every 19 minutes.   Prescription drug abuse is the fas...

A ccording to the United Nations, methamphetamine (meth) is currently the most abused hard drug in the world.   The U.N. estimates that there are approximately 26 million meth addicts across the globe.   This amount is on par with the combined number of cocaine and heroin abusers worldwide.   Meth is also the most addictive illegal drug in the United States.   Researchers estimate that there are 1.4 million meth users in America. In May 2011, Frontline — a news documentary series which airs on PBS conducted an investigation into methamphetamine abuse.   The Meth Epidemic is a fifty-two minute documentary that chronicles the rise of meth usage and how state and federal entities have tried to intervene to prevent abuse of the highly addictive drug.   The documentary explains how methamphetamine is a man-made drug.   The main ingredients of meth are ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, chemicals that are found in over-the-counter allergy, cold, and cough me...

A pproximately 443,000 Americans die every year because of smoking related diseases. Some of these diseases include cataract, coronary heart disease, pancreatic cancer, pneumonia, and stroke. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. In 2004, smoking cost the U.S. over $193 billion dollars, according to the American Lung Association. These costs include $97 billion dollars in lost worker productivity and $96 billion dollars in direct health care expenditures. About 8.6 million Americans have at least one serious illness caused by smoking. The deadly effects of smoking and tobacco products have been known since the 1950s. On September 7, 2010, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a research study indicating that smoking rates in America had remained about the same since 2005. Approximately 1 in 5 American adults is a smoker. Thomas Frieden – who is the CDC Director, commented in regards to the study. Frieden said that more gove...