Navajo Nation: Encyclopedia II - Navajo Nation - Illness

Navajo Nation - Illness

Several types of cancer are higher than the national average on the Four Corners Navajo Reservation. (Raloff, 2004) Especially high are the reproductive-organ cancers in teenage Navajo girls, averaging seventeen times higher than the average of girls in the United States.

It has been suspected that uranium mine sites, both active and abandoned, have released dust into the air and the water supply. Studies done on mice exposing them to a soluble form of uranium similar to what enters groundwater from the mines showed heavy increases in estrogen levels which could explain the increased cancer levels among Navajo girls. The amount of uranium given to the mice were half of the level permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency and one-tenth the level found in some wells on the reservation.

Diabetes mellitus is a major health problem among the Navajo, Hopi and Pima, about four times higher than the age-standardized U.S. estimate. Medical researchers believe increased consumption of carbohydrates, coupled with genetic factors, play significant roles in the emergence of this chronic disease.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Illness", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki