Timothy Leech just celebrated his 40th birthday when he got news that changed his life. Timothy was diagnosed with Stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer, in 2014. Doctors told him he had only a short time to live. “I freaked out, for sure. I thought I was going to be gone real quick,” Timothy said. But, today, eight years later, Timothy is a cancer survivor. He credits his wife, Katie Leech, his medical team, and a clinical trial for getting him to where he is today – not entirely cancer-free but “so small that it’s immeasurable.” A clinical trial is a research study that helps researchers learn more to help slow, manage, and treat diseases like cancer. “It was very much like, this [clinical trial] is the last roll of the dice here,” ...
Willie Heard is a man of faith. His faith stood strong even after he got tragic news in September 2013. Heard was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), a group of bone marrow cancers in which the bone marrow does not produce enough healthy blood cells. His cancer diagnosis came just months after retiring from his job at USAA and just shy of his 67th birthday. “I’m a religious person and a minister and, I think I remember telling the doctor, I said, ‘Doctor you do what you do, I’m gonna let God do what he does,’” said Heard, a resident of San Antonio, Texas. “[The cancer diagnosis] was a surprise to me, but I’ve always been a person that don’t really worry about stuff I can’t control, so I don’t let that bother me.”
Heard’s Decision to ...
October 15, 2022 is National Latinx Aids Awareness Day (NLAAD). This observance calls for raising awareness on the impact of HIV on Hispanic/Latino/Latinx communities and eliminating stigma. NLAAD, first created by the by the Hispanic Federation and the Latino Commission on AIDS in 2003, is a good opportunity to feature the CDC’s Let’s Stop HIV Together (Together) campaign in English and Spanish, which is part of the national campaign of the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. (EHE) initiative and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. “[The Together campaign] aims to empower communities, partners, and health care providers to reduce HIV stigma and promote HIV testing, prevention, and treatment,” according to the CDC.
The State of HIV among Latinos on NLAAD
Sadly, ...
Alzheimer’s patients and their loved ones have new reason for hope after positive results from clinical trial of a new treatment called lecanemab. Lecanemab – a drug designed to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by targeting amyloid plaque buildup in the brain – reduced the progression of cognitive decline among trial participants by 27% over 18 months, compared to placebo, according to UsAgainstAlzheimers. “This is very important and quite positive news that gives our nation’s 6 million Alzheimer’s patients and their loved ones reason to hope again. In fact, the data is a reminder that each drug in this class of therapies is quite different,” said George Vradenburg, chair and co-founder of UsAgainstAlzheimers. What do the results show, and how will ...
The Latino population has grown to represent 18.9% of the nation’s population. This rise, however, means that more Latinos will experience Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Studies have shown that physical activity can impact older Latinos and their brain health. Let’s use #SaludTues on Nov. 1, 2022, to dive into brain health in older Latinos and how different types of physical activity can benefit and prevent dementia! WHAT: #SaludTues: How Can Physical Activity Benefit Brain Health for Older Latinos
TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. EST (Noon-1 p.m. CST), Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludAmerica
CO-HOSTS: Us Against Alzheimer (@UsAgainstAlz); Susie Aguiñaga, Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology and Community Health ...
Today, we rely on the internet for school, work, and even health. With so many needing internet access as an everyday tool, and populations like Latinos facing a digital divide, digital inclusion and equity is more important than ever! Digital Inclusion Week aims to bring awareness, recognition, and celebration to promote digital equity throughout communities across the nation. This year’s Digital Inclusion Week is celebrated Oct. 3-7, 2022, with the theme “Turning Our Moment into Movement.” Digital Disparities Digital inclusion means “the activities necessary to ensure that all individuals and communities, including the most disadvantaged, have access to and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs),” according to the National Digital Inclusion ...
The Biden-Harris Administration announced its goal to eliminate hunger in America, improve diet and physical activity, and reduce diet-related disease by 2030 during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on Sept. 28, 2022 – the first such conference in over 50 years. The goal is based on five pillars of strategic action: Improve food access and affordability.
Integrate nutrition and health.
Empower all consumers to make and have access to healthy choices.
Support physical activity for all.
Enhance nutrition and food security research. President Joe Biden also shared three foundational principles for the goal. “Help more Americans access the food that will keep their families nourished and healthy, lot of food deserts out there. Second, ...
In the last few years, childhood obesity has become a global epidemic. The effort to change individual choices – like diet and physical activity – hasn’t solved the problem, and also contributes to weight discrimination. That is why we need to use cultural insights, nutritional science, and a systemic focus to improve child health, according to a new report from the Vanderbilt University Cultural Context of Health and Wellbeing Initiative. “What we label ‘obesity’ is produced by interrelated systems in which human biology interacts with environments, social norms, economic structures, and historical legacies,” according to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation blog post about the report, Reframing Childhood Obesity: Cultural Insights on Nutrition, Weight and Food ...
Leonel Rodriguez got some terrible news in November 2019. Doctors diagnosed Rodriguez, a South Texas resident, with mantle cell lymphoma – an aggressive, rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. After going through several treatment options, his disease persisted. He soon learned about a potentially beneficial clinical trial for lymphoma patients at the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio. Clinical trials help researchers learn how to better slow, manage, and treat diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s. “[Clinical trials were] the best way because, you know, I feel good now with the treatment,” Rodriguez said. “Now I feel I've been feeling well, and well, well.”
Rodriguez’s Decision to Participate in a Clinical Trial
Rodriguez first experienced problems in ...
