Want to change your life? Walk. Walking can boost your health, the way you live, and your community. As a physical activity, walking changes your body physiologically, improving mental and physical health. As a lifestyle, walking in your local neighborhood and parks can enhance your social and environmental awareness. You'll see things you can’t see while driving. As a driver of community change, walking contributes to building a culture of health through peer-modeling and observational learning. You change your parks and trails simply by being there. Sharing what you see—good and bad—can encourage others to walk and advocate for sustainable, equitable change. UPDATE: Check out the recap on Wakelet. Join us for a #SaludTues Tweetchat on July 24, 2018, to tweet ...
U.S. Latinos are 1.5 times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than whites. But the reasons for this big disparity is still poorly understood—and highly controversial. Scientists believe that many factors influence when Alzheimer's disease begins and how it progresses. The more they study this devastating disease, the more they realize that genes play an important role. Research conducted and funded by the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health and others is advancing our understanding of Alzheimer's disease genetics.
Genetic Mutation in Alzheimer's Disease
Some diseases are caused by a genetic mutation, or permanent change in one or more specific genes, according to a fact sheet by the National Institute on Aging. If a person inherits ...
Not sure if a snack food for your school or afterscool program meets federal nutrition guidelines? Check out the new Healthier Generation Store with Amazon Business, a first-of-its-kind online marketplace committed to selling products that align with the USDA Smart Snack in School Standards. The store was created by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. "The Healthier Generation Store was created to provide schools and sites with an option that may help them more easily access products that meet nutritional guidelines," according to the Alliance website. "[Store] products were determined to meet nutrition standards by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation based upon products’ ingredient statement and Nutrition Facts panel." The store aims to support schools and groups ...
The steady increase in human average life expectancy in the 20th century is considered one of the greatest accomplishments of public health. A person’s rate of aging has important implications for his/her risk of death and disease. Now scientists have developed a blood test that reveals how long a person has left to live, The Guardian reports. Researchers at Yale School of Public Health used a nationally representative U.S. sample to derive a person's “Phenotypic Age” based on 34 a linear combination of chronological age and nine multi-system clinical chemistry measures. The study result suggested that Phenotypic Age is significantly associated with all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality. If a person’s phenotypic age is higher than their chronological ...
Getting Latinos to go and see a primary care provider is hard enough. Even when they reach a doctor, many families get frustrated with little time to ask questions. In response, two Latina pediatricians started a Spanish-language health podcast for Latino parents! Drs. Edith Brancho Sanchez and Angela Castellanos of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia started the podcast, "Las Doctoras Recomiendan," in March 2018 to provide reliable, free health information, whyy.org reports. Why and how did they make it happen?
The Issue of Latino Healthcare Access
At least 27% of Latinos report having no usual health care provider, according to a Salud America! research review. Latino parents face barriers to medical care, like lack of insurance, legal status, language, high cost. This ...
Health problems plague the half-million people living in colonias in South Texas, U.S. News reports. Colonias are predominantly Latino, unincorporated, and impoverished areas along the Texas-Mexico border. People live in makeshift shacks or trailers. They lack streets and basic public services, such as running water. Texas has about 2,300 colonias. 900 are in the Rio Grande Valley, including Hidalgo County. The county is one of the fastest growing counties in Texas, home to the bigger cities of McAllen & Edinburg. "Ramshackle living conditions [in colonias] have led to a plethora of health concerns," according to the news report. "About 38,000 colonia residents lacked access to clean drinking water."
Colonia Health Concerns
Many Latino families lack of support for economic ...
Effect of alcohol consumption on Alzheimer’s disease have been controversial. Some studies show alcohol has a protective effect against the disease, while other studies have pointed to a harmful role for alcohol in the development of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurocognitive diseases. A new study from the University of Illinois, Chicago found that some of the genes affected by alcohol and inflammation are also concerned with beta amyloid peptides. These peptides form the main component of the amyloid plaques found in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients, which causes negative impact on communication between the neurons. The study suggests that alcohol consumption, and its impact on the immune system and inflammation in the brain, may be the vehicle through which alcohol ...
The Safe Routes to School National Partnership (Safe Routes) is raising awareness to end over-policing as a safety solution in walking and biking initiatives. Racial profiling by police, for example, threatens drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists of color. These Latinos and other minorities, who already face less safe roads and fewer places to walk and bike, deal with a greater burden of traffic and pedestrian violations, too. Safe Routes wants you to stand up for minorities by sharing on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. “As walk and bike advocates, we need to come together to protect people in communities made vulnerable not only by missing and poorly maintained bike lanes and sidewalks and inequitable policies, but also by over-policing,” wrote Holly Nickel, coalitions and ...
Cigarette smoking is on the decline. But it still causes 480,000 U.S. deaths a year and certain groups still face big challenges. Latino young adults, for example, have higher rates of intermittent cigarette use than their white peers. How can we promote quitting and smokefree environments? Let’s use #SaludTues on Tuesday, July 17, 2018, to tweet about the state of Latino smoking and what community leaders can do to advance technologies, policies, and programs to create a smokefree future for Latinos and all people! WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat─ Creating a Smokefree Future for Latinos & All People
TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT), Tuesday, July 17, 2018
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludAmerica
CO-HOSTS: Smokefree.gov at the ...
