Aggravated Organizms

Cancer is abnormal cell growth that has the capacity to invade and destroy the body.  Otherwise healthy cells are affected by extrinsic and intrinsic factors that cause damage to DNA within the cell.  The programming of cells is altered and basic functions are abandoned such as growth, protein synthesis, division and natural cellular death.  This alteration leads to a proliferation of abnormal cellular behaviors, resulting in production of tumors and possible metastasis—the capacity of these damaged cells to travel through the circulatory and lymph systems, affecting distant organs, making the disease process difficult to control.  One out of four people is affected by cancer, and nearly half of men in Alaska will be affected, a third of the women.  The landscape of cancer is not yet stoppable.  It is the beetle kill of the body—felled cellular strands forced to absorb and consume—intimately woven into a picturesque topography.

The uniqueness of alcoholism is its ability to proliferate other disease processes—
Cardiovascular disease, FAS, and behavioral health issues are aggravated by the severity of alcohol abuse.  Physical effects include Liver damage and hepatitis; hypertension is elevated, resulting in cardiac complications.  In pregnant women, the development of unborn fetuses is stunted.  Kidneys are pushed to their ends, further agitating, or originating, diabetic conditions.  Behavioral disorders
are complicated by self-medicating.  Alcohol abuse and alcoholism stress the body’s systems into long lasting, negative responses.  It leads to brain cell death and compromised cognitive function.  This can result in poor decision-making algorithms that directly affect the escalating numbers of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.  Alcoholism is a disease.  It is not a weakness of an isolated demographic.  It harbors true physical and psychological dependencies that require medical intervention, non-judgment, and patience.  It requires our attention.

Behavioral health, or mental wellness, frames an individual’s value system, the capacity to make sound and informed decisions, ability to function in relationships, and contribution to the community in which they live.  Mental health problems such as depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia invade everyday life of many Alaskans, lending itself to the growing numbers of the undiagnosed and untreated.  While the spectrum of mental wellness disorders is varying by degree of severity, the constant is the quality of life that is taken away without adequate treatment,
leading to surges in both the homeless population and Alaska’s national, number
one ranking, suicide rate.  This is unforgivable.  Every Alaskan deserves a chance at a long and meaningful, healthy life.

In the Wood-Tikchik State Park runs the Allen River.  Unopposed, it is the connective water way between Chikuminuk and Chauekukyuli Lake.  Any radical changes in its flow would affect the two bodies of water.  To what degree is unknown.  There are numerous waterways like the Allen River in Alaska that feed larger bodies.  Most of these run unobstructed.  Some of these rivers flood, or shape-shift, finding new paths of least resistance, while others become blocked by natural and manmade debris, wedging crucial apices.  Flow is obstructed by sclerotic build up just as it is in the progression of cardiovascular disease.  Major coronary vessels become compromised by plaque, impeding the flow of rich oxygenated blood to the heart.   This results in ischemic—oxygen-deprived— heart muscle and eventual heart
attack.  Poor diet, smoking, and hypertension are a few of the precursors that cause the damming from within.

The process of diabetes affects numerous body systems.  At its micro-vascular level,
diabetes causes damage to the base membranes of capillaries in vascular muscle
tissue.  In the kidneys, where filtration of the body takes place, nephropathy occurs, causing the abnormal thickening of membranes, the deformity of vital channels.  An increase in blood flow ensues, leading to blockage and leaking of kidney vasculature,
and ultimately an end-stage renal failure in those diagnosed.  In Alaska, diabetes is ever growing in the native population, with incident rates higher than any other group.  Similar to that of a cold late Alaskan spring, the process appears dormant.  And where the Yukon-Kuskokwim river ice flow is denied its cyclical and natural progression of melt, once calm ice is forced into upheaval, damaging both community and expectation.

The absolute and most certain way to prevent FAS is to avoid drinking alcohol during pregnancy.  Though the numbers have dramatically declined since the late 1990’s, FAS still has a presence in Alaska with hundreds of children and adults suffering with its long-term effects.  Alcohol crosses the placenta barrier during pregnancy, impeding cognitive, functional and physical development of the fetus.  This creates a myriad of disabilities related to central nervous system damage—learning patterns, behavior, cognition, language, memory, motor skills, and social integration are all affected. This preventable disease affects Alaska’s children, stealing away a normal life.  A change in attitude toward FAS must take place, one that does not isolate the disease to any lone demographic, one that supports
education and early detection, available treatment, and life quality.

The liver fights infection and filters harmful chemicals from the blood.  It assists in the digestion of food.  The liver stores vital nutrients and energy in the body.  All of these functions are at risk with the exposure of hepatitis, a virus that is currently up to one hundred times more infectious than HIV.  It is a virus that is attracted to the liver, and its DNA.  The range of signs and symptoms vary based on the healthfulness of the individual, with most healthy adults fighting the virus
without treatment.  It is the compromised Alaskan and her children under five years of age who are at risk.  In this group, the virus can become chronic, leading to long term liver damage, and cancers.  The frontline weapon against hepatitis is vaccine.  Alaska has had a sordid history with hepatitis, weathering the storm of the highest numbers of infection in the nation during the 1960’s and 70’s.  Forty years later, Alaska is a global leader in the prevention model of vaccine, treatment and education—Nutaan atam, Alaska! (Congratulations, Alaska!)

HIV is an infectious organism that compromises the body’s immune system.   It
attacks specific white blood cells, making it difficult for the body to fight infection,
resulting in an increased susceptibility to illness. Alaska faces its own prevention
challenges. Socioeconomic discrepancies throughout the state, and lack of personal
HIV status knowledge have contributed to the growing incident rates over the last decade. Culturally based stigmas surrounding sexual orientation create unique roadblocks in identification of those in need of regular testing and treatment.  HIV is not impossibility, and no longer is it a death sentence.  Close to a thousand Alaskans live with HIV, and due to advances in medicine, many lead normal and productive lives.  There is no cure.  There is, however, compassion and education, the two strongest arrows in Alaska’s awareness quiver.

Studies show that Alaskans touch their face sixteen times an hour.  That is once every three minutes.  In between that time we are touching at least ten different contaminated surfaces.  Aside from a not always available yearly vaccine, something as simple as hand washing can dramatically lower every Alaskan’s chances of contracting this respiratory tract virus. Influenza, or the flu, is transmitted by the
aerosols created from sneezing and coughing, tiny droplets that then come into contact with mucus membranes such the eyes, nose and mouth. This disease is unpredictable as to how it will affect individual Alaskans.  Symptoms ranging from fever and fatigue, a stuffy nose and sore throat, can change dramatically based on each person’s unique vulnerabilities—Elders and young children are at greater risk of more significant illness, such as gastrointestinal symptoms and pneumonia.  Due
to population density, our nursing homes, homeless shelters and villages are areas with the greatest risk of spread.

The finest of motor skills, lost.  Picking up a small hook, or bead becomes a monumental and painful task with the evolution of rheumatoid arthritis. Muscle
memory becomes fallible as an increased inflammatory response gives way to the accumulation of dense immune cell aggregate that invades the synovial space between joints.  Inflamed and hypertrophied, the synovium launches an assault on nearby tissue and ligaments. Granulation tissue is formed and creates the vascularized scar tissue, the crystalized sediment, responsible for cartilage
breakdown, bone cysts, and fissures—a separation of parts, a cleavage, a split much like that of the Aleutian Mega Thrust fault as it forces the Pacific plate under Alaska.   This geological stress is mirrored in the mechanical stress that causes the deformity
characterized in Rheumatoid Arthritis.  A perverse acceleration of aging precipitated by great shifts of fluid, pressure and corrosion.