Partners hope to bring healthy changes to the youth of Mississippi by working together as part of a new childhood obesity prevention coalition. The initiative led by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Youth Health Coalition will work to reduce childhood obesity in Jackson County and east Harrison County as part of an obesity prevention campaign called Let's Go! Gulf Coast. So far, coalition partners include representatives from Gulf Coast Health Educators, the Mississippi Gulf Coast YMCA, Singing River Health Systems and the Salvation Army Kroc Center. The Let's Go! Gulf Coast campaign which was inspired by the nationally-recognized program Let's Move!, will serve to get children to follow the 5-2-1-0 guide: eat 5 of more fruits/vegetables per day
limit recreational screen ...
New ways to grow fresh fruits and vegetables in urban areas are being explored in San Antonio, Texas. Patty Taylor, a recent Dallas transplant, wanted to learn more about backyard farming and aquaponics, a food production system that uses fish and plants to sustain one another in a co-habitat. She formed the San Antonio Aquaponic and TransFarming Meetup Group, hoping to bring together like-minded, motivated individuals to learn from each other and begin building gardens and planting seeds. The meetup group has around 160 members, and hosts many different learning opportunities for the San Antonio community. Want to raise your own bees or install a wicking bed in your back yard? The Aquaponics and TransFarming Meetup Group has learning opportunities for all types of ...
Latinos comprise 17% of the U.S. population—but only about 5% of doctors and 5% of nurses. This shortage of Latino doctors and nurses makes it harder to build strong doctor-patient relationships, deliver preventive care, and focus on Latino-specific health conditions or cultural barriers. Let’s focus on what we can do to solve the problem by using #SaludTues to tweet about innovative programs, campaigns and other resources to increase the number of Latino health professionals: WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “Solving the Latino Doctor/Nurse Shortage”
DATE: Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014
TIME: Noon CT (1:00 PM ET)
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludToday
CO-HOSTS: @NHMAmd and @LatinoDoc (Dr. George Flores of the California Endowment) We’ll open the ...
Foreign-born U.S. adults—especially Hispanics—are less likely to get vaccinated than those born in the United States, according to a new study, the Latin Times reports. The study, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, found that foreign-born adults had lower vaccination rates for: influenza; PPV to prevent pneumococcal diseases, especially pneumonia; tetanus; Tdap (which prevents tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis); hepatitis A; hepatitis B; shingles; and HPV, the human papilloma virus. For example, 34% of foreign-born adults received the flu vaccine, vs. 40% of U.S.-born adults. And 51% of foreign-born adults were vaccinated for vaccinated for tetanus, vs. 65% of U.S.-born adults. Hispanics were the least likely foreign-born adults to be vaccinated. "As their ...
Latino families in Denver are coming together to get fit with the help of the American Diabetes Association's Por Tu Familia (for your family) program. The program offers a free fitness boot camp every Tuesday and Thursday, at the Rude Recreation Center in efforts to prevent obesity. Because obesity is a risk factor in the development of Type II Diabetes, and Latinos are disproportionately affected by obesity, programs like this seek to get the whole family involved. In a CBS Denver news story, Julissa Soto, a director of programs, with the American Diabetes Association (ADA) said: “We certainly approach families. We don’t only approach the kids we approach the whole family.” Through the program, Jeovani Solis, a teenager who was once told he was pre-diabetic, was able ...
When large urban centers begin allowing citizens to bring farming into the city limits, everyone benefits from better access to fresh, healthy, and locally grown foods. This month, the city of Boston received a $25,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support an Urban Agriculture Visioning group, which will build on efforts to align Boston’s diverse urban gardening and farming sector, and establish a common goal that meets the needs of all stakeholders. “Urban Agriculture creates jobs and food access points in Boston’s neighborhoods,” said Mayor Martin Walsh in a Sustainability City Network article. “Aligning the goals and strategies of all constituents engaged in urban growing will allow us to better leverage resources, and to work more efficiently ...
Two new studies provide compelling evidence that obesity increases the risk of the most common type of postmenopausal breast cancer among both black and Hispanic women, EMaxHealth reports. The studies, which are being unveiled at the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) annual conference Oct. 29-31, 2014, in Washington, show that associations between body weight and breast cancer risk seen among white women also hold true for black and Hispanic women. In the first study, researchers at Cancer Prevention Institute of California found that "healthy-weight Hispanic women who gain pounds through adulthood have increased risk for estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) positive tumors after menopause." In the second study, researchers at the Rutgers Cancer ...
Members of the Go! Austin/Vamos! Austin (GAVA) grassroots initiative are making a difference for families living in Austin's Dove Springs community---a predominantly Latino area of southeast Austin with historically high childhood obesity rates. In just two years, the group has managed to bring healthy changes to local parks, corner stores, grocery stores and schools. Some of the group's accomplishments include getting: A New multi-age playscape;
Park improvements;
An open gym pilot program;
A zumba program; and
Healthier options at corner stores Read more about this change here. See a presentation with information from one of GAVA's public health committee meeting ...
In New York city, teens are getting fit with the help of the YMCA's Y-MVP Teen Fitness Program. The program works to increase levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity by using an on-line incentive-based app and gamification to help teens get a full 60 minutes of daily physical activity. According to a Carib news article, youth who participated in the program increased their physical activity at the Y by 36%. In addition to receiving instruction from a trained coach, the Y-MVP program equips participants with the knowledge and skills they need to develop their own fitness routines. Every lesson is designed to be aligned with the state of New York's standards on physical education. Participants meet as a small class and take on fitness "quests." At the end of each ...
