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Every day, hundreds of sick and injured patients walk into free and charitable clinics around the Tampa Bay area in need of a doctor.Many are suffering from chronic conditions, such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Some patients were referred to the clinics by staff at hospitals where they landed after years of neglecting to care for treatable conditions.The clinics allow the patients to pay what they can, or nothing at all. They are staffed by doctors and nurses who volunteer their time. They survive off donations and small grants.Many of the patients have jobs but they are living paycheck to paycheck. None have health insurance, either because they do not qualify for Medicaid or can’t afford private coverage. For these patients, the clinics are often their only option for primary care.

Wanting Wellness: The Booming Business Of Self-Care

A guest is pampered at the Four Seasons Spa in this undated photo taken in Beverly Hills.
Four Seasons Hotel via Getty Images
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Why are we so obsessed with self-care?

No, seriously. Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness company, Goop, is worth $250 million.

One potential reason could be that, according to a recent poll, Americans are the most stressed people in the world.

From The New York Times:

Last year, Americans reported feeling stress, anger and worry at the highest levels in a decade, according to the survey, part of an annual Gallup poll of more than 150,000 people around the world, released on Thursday.

And it’s not just thin white women sitting in a steam room, if that’s what you’re picturing.

Critic and activist Audre Lorde reimagined the concept in the late 1980s, writing that, for marginalized groups, “caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

But how accessible is that? Is living well something that is just for those who are well off?

Produced by Jonquilyn Hill.

GUESTS

Amanda Mull, Staff writer, The Atlantic; @amandamull

Elisa Shankle, Cofounder, HealHaus

Jen Gunter, OB/GYN; author, “The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina — Separating the Myth from the Medicine;” @DrJenGunter

For more, visit https://the1a.org.

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