Brenton Smith

Health 100

11/12/12

I decided to do the top five health trends from northern Minnesota. I first contacted Guy Peterson who is head of the Public Health Department of St. Louis County, Minnesota. He mentioned that a rising problem that is unique to northern Minnesota is increased levels of mercury consumption due to the eating of local fish. Higher level of mercury consumption in women is a risk factor for problems in the development of the nervous system of the unborn child and to a nursing infant. Two of the most common local fish are the walleye and northern pike which are both high in mercury. Pregnant women need to avoid eating them and everyone else needs to limit them to once a week. Pregnant women also need to avoid eating white tuna, bass, and catfish.

A second health trend that poses a problem to northern Minnesota is the rising rate of obesity. Currently northern Minnesota is around 25% obese for the adult population. This number is project to rise over the next 15 years. The projected obesity rate is around 50% of adults in northern Minnesota if the rate rises according to recent trends. Poor eating habits and lack of exercise are the two top contributors to obesity in northern Minnesota.

A third health trend that Peterson mention was lung cancer due to environmental health and wood smoke. Minnesota has generally good quality, but with the winter months coming up, there are a few unique problems. Much of northern Minnesota uses burning wood as a heat source, especially at cabins and being outdoors. Wood smoke has several toxins and many short-term and long-term health effects. Currently lung cancer is the 2^nd most common cancer in Minnesota. People need to be concerned with the wood they burn. They should check to make sure that it is dry (as it may be moist from the snow) before they use it.

An occupational health trend that they have seen is within the mines and incidence of mesothelioma. 65 new cases per year of mesothelioma occur in the mine of northern Minnesota. This accounts for 25% of the cases of mesothelioma in northern Minnesota compared to just 5% of the cases that occur in mines in the rest of Minnesota. Mesothelioma is caused by asbestos which is a problem in the taconite mines. The state and county are looking in to ways to reduce the incidence of mesothelioma among miners.

For the last health trend, I decided to contact one of the commissioners of the local hospital in Virginia, MN, Dr. Wendell Smith. He stated that a rising trend they’ve seen in the hospital is the incidence of diverticulitis among the elderly.  Diverticulitis is when there small pouches that bulge outward in the colon. Poor eating habits, especially the lack of fiber, is one of the major risk factors for diverticulitis. It is more common among the elderly because they have had a longer time of having the poor eating habits.

            I learned through this assignment that northern Minnesota has some of the national health problems such as obesity, but also has some of its own unique challenges. It was interesting to find out about the unique ones and so that is why I decided to ask more about them. Northern Minnesota has a lot of health problems on all areas of public health and we need to address each one of them to improve the health of that area.