Social Determinants of Health and the Nervous System

     Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) are where people spend the majority of their time and include the conditions that they live, work, eat and sleep. It also includes social supports, socioeconomic status, and access to healthcare. Simply it is what makes people sick. However, when you go to the doctor, you don't get asked about your SDoH even though they can be traced back to an illness especially ones affecting you nervous system. For example, if you are having to work 2 jobs to be able to pay for food and rent every month you will be in a constant state of stress. When you are in this constant state of stress, the amount of cortisol being released will negatively affect your entire brain. Cortisol will decrease the number of neural connections in your hippocampus, enlarge your amygdala and even make your PFC completely shut down. If this state of stress become chronic it will lead to your brain not working at full capacity, having more trouble making decisions and controlling behavior.
     As it becomes more difficult to control behavior and make decisions, you will find yourself making impulsive decisions and not using logic. Impulsivity can become dangerous and lead to addiction when alcohol, drugs, and unsafe sexual practices are involved. Addiction causes you not to be able to control your body's decisions despite their negative consequences. Addiction to alcohol may result in cirrhosis of the liver and acute liver failure and even death. Addiction to marijuana may lead to abnormal neural connections that affect reward, cravings and thought control and affect thinking memory and learning. In all cases of addiction, the brain's reward system and regions that control judgment and decision-making are negativity affected.
     In the TedTalk by Rishi Manchanda, it is reported that heart disease was linked to green space. Meaning that the closer you lived to green space like parks and trails for fresh air, the lower your risk of heart disease. These numbers were collected throughout a broad spectrum of neighborhoods, so not matter how rich or poor you were it still held true. Which leads to the conclusion that zip codes matter more than genetic codes. The social determinants that you are made of are the reasons that you are who you are and why you get sick the way you do.
     Being a student in UTHSC's MOT program requires a certain amount of public service and professional development hours to be able to graduate. These hours have helped prepare me to be the best possible practicer by pushing me out of my comfort zone. Many opportunities require meeting people you do not know and who you would normally not be in contact with. This enhances my social skills and being able to adapt to any situation that is thrown my way. It has also help with my advocation of OT and perfecting my elevator speech for numerous different populations. Now I am able and confident in being able to inform members of the community or anyone I am in contact with what OT is and why I have such a passion for it.