What was your first experience with the healthcare system?
Plus: What’s asthma + Tools for advocating for your health + What people get wrong about diabetes
Welcome to Doing Well, a free news outlet to help you understand and improve your health. Doing Well is produced by Arizona State University’s Media Enterprise and Learning Enterprise, as a part of ASU’s Health Literacy efforts.
Today, in our first newsletter, you’ll find:
A Q&A on our own health journeys, why we’re passionate about health literacy, and what you can expect from Doing Well
An article on the patient-led efforts to define long COVID
An online certificate program on Indigenous health
Your turn: How many people live with vision impairment?
Health news you should know this week
Word of the week: “asthma”
Wait … Why are people making jokes about “getting” diabetes?
We asked: What tips have you picked up in your healthcare journey?
The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being”—it’s not just about the absence of illness or disease. This is a general definition, sure, but it starts to paint a picture of all the parts of our lives involved in health: our environments, our access to resources and information, our communities. Our experiences with health are both distinctly individual and deeply connected.
We’ve been dreaming up Doing Well—a news outlet that will help you understand and improve your health—for nearly a year. Our goal is to provide you with actionable and interesting interviews, tips, and resources, while creating a community of people who can seek better health together.
For our first newsletter, the Doing Well team—including Natasha Burrell, program manager for health literacy at ASU Learning Enterprise and a registered dietitian nutritionist, and Mia Armstrong-López, managing editor at ASU Media Enterprise and a journalist who covers health—is bringing you behind the scenes with a conversation about our personal and professional experiences with healthcare, what we’ve learned, and the community we hope to create.
Our discussion has been edited for length and clarity.
Mia Armstrong-López: Do you remember your earliest experience with the healthcare system?
Natasha Burrell: When I was about 5, my sister had to spend her first birthday in the ER because she had an asthma attack. I remember feeling very scared and overwhelmed. What was supposed to be a happy day turned chaotic quickly, and I wasn't sure what was going on, but I knew something was wrong.
I think that really shaped my initial impressions and interactions with the healthcare system, which were based in fear and feeling scared and overwhelmed.
MAL: When we're kids, a lot of folks’ first memory of the healthcare system is something traumatic. If you were to think back to that moment, is there something that would have made the younger you feel less afraid and more comfortable?
NB: Yeah, I developed eczema when I was around 7 or 8. I started to go to the doctor a lot more, and I remember some of the doctors would crouch down to my level and speak in a softer voice. To have this scary doctor get down and speak to me at my eye level was really impactful, and helped me have more trust in medical providers.
MAL: It can be hard, because providers have so much to juggle. But I feel similarly—the best experiences I've had are when I feel like I've been able to have a relationship with a provider, as a person rather than just as a patient.
NB: What do you remember about your earliest experience with the healthcare system?
MAL: I remember a couple traumatic moments, like splitting open my head and having to go to the ER, but those still feel a little blurry. The moment that stuck with me was when I was in middle school, and my mom took me to the county health center to get a vaccination for HPV. I remember having this conversation with my mom, who told me, “This is not something that was available when I was your age.”
HPV is an incredibly common sexually transmitted infection. It's also an infection that can lead to cancer, especially cervical cancer. The power of vaccination was fascinating to me—by preventing infection, it can also prevent 90 percent of cancers caused by HPV. There was this small thing that we could do that would give some sort of control over our health in a very tangible way. That was the first time I remember connecting with preventive healthcare.
MAL: Beyond your first experience with the healthcare system, is there a time that you felt like you didn't get the healthcare or health information that you needed?
NB: Yeah—when I was first navigating eczema, it was a really painful condition. I had eczema head to toe, and my parents did not want to explore topical steroids, which is typically the treatment. When asked about other treatments, the medical providers didn't have anything. I remember my parents felt really frustrated, and I felt frustrated because I just wanted this itching to stop. My parents turned to the Internet, and health misinformation has been around for a long time—we tried a lot of different remedies, from eating a clove of garlic every night to drinking cold tomato juice. To this day, I still can't stand the smell of cold tomato juice. But the doctors didn't give us options, and my parents didn't quite know how to advocate. I didn't know how to advocate for myself either. For years, I felt really confused about whether this was ever going to end.
MAL: That sounds so hard to navigate—you're in very real physical discomfort, and then there's also a psychological discomfort of not knowing where to turn to and feeling like there aren't options for you.
NB: Absolutely. I think we have a huge opportunity to teach health advocacy at young ages. I wish I would have known that I could ask questions. I didn't know how to advocate for myself at all, or even really to communicate with a doctor. Those were skills I got later in life. But had I been taught that at a young age, we might have been able to arrive at treatment sooner.
One thing that I would encourage, especially when dealing with something that's chronic, is to keep a log—I wish I would have done that when I was younger. It's one thing to say, “I've been dealing with this for a while.” But when you are able to pull out a log and say, “Look, for the past five months, I've documented every time my eczema was itchy; I've documented every time I was awoken or couldn't sleep”—that tells a much more powerful story, and it gives you a launchpad for advocating for yourself.
Well-Informed: Related stories from the ASU Media Enterprise archives
Shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, people began reporting debilitating symptoms—including fatigue, gastrointestinal distress, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, brain fog, and pain, among others—that followed them for weeks, months, or years after their initial infection with COVID. These symptoms are tied to a chronic condition we now know as long COVID. But when they sought care, many patients weren’t believed, or were met with few answers.
In this article for Issues in Science and Technology, science journalist Brian Vastag chronicles the “years-long, patient-driven campaign to advance discussions and research around long COVID.” As Vastag explores, patients themselves have led efforts to define, understand, and treat the disease. “Long COVID patients have discovered that, in the face of a shambolic biomedical response, their best resource for improving the quality of their lives is each other,” Vastag writes.
Well-Versed: Learning resources to go deeper
Healthcare solutions must honor the diverse needs of the communities they serve. That’s why ASU’s CareerCatalyst offers the Indigenous Health Cultural Awareness Training—a free, self-paced, online program designed to address health challenges that are unique to Indigenous communities. This certificate equips participants with the knowledge to navigate culturally sensitive healthcare issues, implement community-driven solutions, and advocate for equitable health outcomes.
Well-Engaged: Take a Guess!
Worldwide, how many people live with some type of vision impairment?
Find the answer at the bottom of this week’s newsletter.
“I’ve struggled with my vision since I was 10 years old. While this has made it difficult to see clearly without my glasses, it hasn’t stopped me from illustrating.”
-Sara Montes Delgadillo, assistant health illustrator and ASU student
Well-Read: Recent news we’ve found useful
“5 Things We Know About Chronic Pain,” by Jennifer Kahn, The New York Times, Jan. 12, 2025
“A Potential At-Home Test for Aggressive Prostate Cancer,” by Mara Aspinall and Liz Ruark, Sensitive and Specific: The Testing Newsletter, Feb. 13, 2025
“35 Simple Health Tips Experts Swear By,” by Amanda Schupak, The New York Times, Jan. 12, 2025
“Most Insurance Covers IUDs. Hers Cost More Than $14,000,” by Julie Appleby, KFF Health News, Jan. 31, 2025
Well-Defined: Word of the week
You probably know someone with asthma—a chronic lung disease that affects around 25 million Americans. (I’m one of them!) There’s no single cause of asthma, but researchers have found that the condition is more common among people who have allergies, have close relatives with asthma, or who have experienced something early in life that affects their lung development. People who live in urban areas or have been exposed to environmental allergens and irritants—like pollution, mold, and dust—are also at higher risk for developing the condition.
Some symptoms of asthma include coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. Although treatments can’t cure asthma, they can manage symptoms; the most common treatment is inhaler use.
I was diagnosed with asthma as a child, and I remember feeling daunted by having to carry an inhaler around. But not having an inhaler on hand after a game of tag could mean having to go to the nurse’s office—or worse, the hospital. Back then, I used to be embarrassed about having asthma. But now, as an adult, I realize that it doesn’t take away from my life as long as I follow my treatment plan.
-Kitana Ford, health communication assistant and ASU student
Well-Aware: Setting the record straight on health myths
Have you ever heard someone say that if you eat too much sugar you will “get” diabetes? It’s time to debunk that claim, and to learn more about how our bodies process sugar.
There are several forms of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body has destroyed cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, a hormone our bodies use to lower blood glucose levels. With Type 2 diabetes, your body still produces insulin, yet has a difficult time absorbing it. This is called “insulin resistance” and can lead to a high concentration of glucose in the blood, known as hyperglycemia.
Glucose, which can be naturally occurring or added, is found in all sorts of foods— bread, pasta, fruit, vegetables, rice, potatoes, soda, desserts, and more. Glucose isn’t bad—we need it to survive. The problem comes when our bodies aren’t able to process it correctly.
For this reason, the idea that eating too much candy on Valentine's day or consuming a large milkshake causes diabetes is both nonfactual and stigmatizing. The causes of Type 1 diabetes are unknown, though genetic factors may play a role. Diet and lifestyle do not cause Type 1 diabetes. Similarly, there is no single cause of Type 2 diabetes, but it is associated with a complex combination of risk factors, some of which can be modified, and others which cannot. According to the CDC, risk factors that increase the likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes include genetics, age, ethnicity, overweight or obesity, and being physically active fewer than three times per week, among other factors.
To manage this condition, people with Type 1 must monitor their blood sugar levels and use insulin, which can be done with technology like a continuous glucose monitor. Type 2 diabetes is commonly managed through healthy eating and physical activity but may also include blood sugar monitoring, medications, and insulin.
I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when I was 12 years old. Having to navigate middle school with an illness everyone thought was my fault—even me, at times—made managing my blood sugars even more daunting. In eighth grade, I began wearing a continuous glucose monitor on my arm, and I remember one of my teachers being horrified and asking, “What is that on your arm?” When I explained that I had Type 1 diabetes, she immediately moved away and said she shouldn’t be eating cake in front of me. So, misinformation hurts. Share the facts about diabetes and maybe think twice before making that joke!
-Mel Moore, health communication assistant and ASU student
Question: Worldwide, how many people live with some type of vision impairment?
Answer: At least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment, according to the World Health Organization. In nearly half of those cases, “vision impairment could have been prevented or is yet to be addressed.” Learn more.
Do you have a question or topic you’d like us to tackle? Would you like to share your experience? Reach out at any time—we’d love to hear from you.
Thank you for producing this. The discussion about people’s first experiences with the healthcare system got me thinking. I also appreciated learning about the challenges of eczema, which I also dealt with, I still remember the cloudy yellow baths I had to take. I also found the article about diabetes very informative and I know a lot about it already.