Recently in Health Category

The Center for Minority Health created the Take a Health Professional to the People Day which took place yesterday in Pittsburgh, PA where health professionals visited various barbershops to perform screenings, from blood pressure checks, blood sugar checks, cancer screening, to digital rectal exams. Last year 700 people were screened. Private insurers were onsite to sign up people for private insurance. READ MORE...

Here are some startling statistics from a Reuters article:"HIV is the leading cause of death among African-Americans 25 to 44, for example, and rates of death from cardiovascular disease are 30 percent higher in black adults than white adults, according to the American Medical Student Association. Diabetes is 70 percent more prevalent in blacks than whites, and prostate cancer hits African-American men 66 percent more frequently than Caucasian men, with twice the death rate."

Another trend in our state of Massachusetts, which has already been under way in some other states, is the embedding of nurse practitioner operated medical clinics.

Here, CVS pharmacies have been approved to run walk-in medical clinics and soon we will have the Minute Clinic. Expect to see this see or something similar to it in a neighborhood near you. The nurse practitioners diagnose and treat urgent care medical problems and write prescriptions.

Below is an opinion piece from the LA Times. The government wants to ban flavored cigarettes, but not menthol flavored cigarettes. Seventy-five percent of black smokers buy menthol cigarettes, so the message is: Blacks can have their menthol cigarettes along with the cancer, heart, chronic and terminal respiratory disease and ailments, cigarette smoking causes? They want to protect non-menthol flavored smokers, but not menthol flavored smokers? I agree people shouldn't take the first puff which may be the beginning of a lifelong habit, but that is not the subject at hand. Great article.
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Why not ban menthol?

A new bill stops short of banning the cigarette flavoring with the most market appeal, and the most African American buyers.
May 14, 2008

Legislation that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration power to regulate tobacco products includes the ability to ban flavored cigarettes, such as those infused with strawberry, cloves or cinnamon. But it stops short of listing the flavoring that actually entices the most smokers: menthol. Mentholated brands, it seems, are simply too important to the industry's bottom line. But let's be clear: It's not the brands that are important, it's the buyers -- African Americans.

Almost 75% of African American smokers use menthol brands, compared with one-quarter of white smokers, and removing menthol might lead to a significant drop in smoking. That could lead to a big drop in profits, as menthol cigarette sales account for more than a quarter of the $70-billion U.S. market.

That's the greatest phrase someone in dire need of a bone marrow transplant can hear.

Once again, we have another bone marrow success story. Five years ago Eunique Darby, a 14-year-old ninth grade Syracuse, New York student was diagnosed with Leukemia. Recently, her community organized a donor drive and as a result, over 150 people registered. A 100% match donor was found, and since the information about the potential donor is confidential, we do not know the person or their location. Eunique is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment. This is life-saving news.

This young person was blessed with a second chance. What a feel good real human-interest story. I wish her well.

According to Syracuse’s News 10 Now: “Eunique will travel to Rochester for her transplant in June. She will stay there for several months while she recovers, but she will not be "cured" until she's gone five years without a relapse.” They are planning a benefit and organizing more drives for other patients. WATCH VIDEO

We should not be waiting for a celebrity to call us to action to register. If you want to register and join the National Marrow Donor Program visit: www.Marrow.org

A list devised by a task force of physicians from prestigious universities, medical groups, and military and government agencies was submitted as recommendations for patients whose lives won’t be spared or won’t be on the priority list for emergency treatment should there be a pandemic outbreak. These recommendations appear in the May edition of Chest, the medical journal of the American College of Chest Physicians. A pandemic occurs when an infectious disease hits large masses of populations and can even spread globally.

The list violates federal laws on age and disability discrimination, but seriously, who is going be running around trying to enforce these laws in the advent of a catastrophic national or potentially worldwide pandemic.

Here is a list of those who will not be on the priority list to be saved if we should experience a pandemic.

This is a short video of Brazilian international bodybuilding professional, Jane Oliveira. These bodies are a bit too hard for me. She's beautifully sculpted but I think women look ladylike with this kind of physique. And I don't think I could walk around with all of those muscles on me...lol. Just way too much muscle. Buffalicious to the extreme. I know men like fit women, but still. By the way, those aren't my Google ads on the video. It's annoying, but this clip is less than a minute.

The Foundation for Health Coverage Education provides a free resource where the uninsured can search for low cost private, publicly subsidized, or free health insurance. According to a recent study 7.7 million African Americans are uninsured and about 1.6 million are children.

You will need to answer five simple questions on their site so that they may customize a list specific to your needs and locate plans in your state. They have downloadable enrollment applicationsfor specific plans. There is an 800 number customer service or you can email them with questions. This is not an ad and I don't make a nickel off of passing along this information.

Take Care Down There is a contraceptive education website created by Planned Parenthood. I have not fully formed my opinion on it, but it is an interactive website on contraception, and features video skits which are used as an educational tool.

In the skits, a health teacher walks in on sex sessions and educates the parties. The content is R-rated for sexually suggestive content. Interesting. Is it educational, entertaining, or neither? Take Care Down There

This person claims he infected 15,000 girls with AIDS. Who knows whether it is true, but someone should be able to recognize this character. 15,000 is a high number, and he could mean the pyramid effect of his partners passing it to others, then those partners passing along, and so on. Could he have meant 1500? It may be a "chronic" error. I am angered after watching this, and filled with all kinds of thoughts.




A poor job was done at disguising his face. Perhaps he wanted his identity to be known. He chose to announce it to the world on YouTube. Whether truth or not, it is a stark reminder that there are people knowingly, on purpose, infecting someone (without informing the partner) with the disease, while you read this.



The YouTube channel lists an urban adult site, so if this is fake and done for publicity, it is a disturbing unconscionable act for website promotion.

Follow the jump to watch the video.