Nonprofit Offers Bilingual Counseling to Help People Enroll in Health Insurance



Health issues plague many people in the community of Broward County, Fla. They often lack access to healthcare due to lack of insurance coverage, language barriers, and other obstacles. Magaly Alvarado, of Hispanic Unity of Florida (HUF), works to improve the lives of this population—especially in health and wellness. They began conducting special registration events and outreach to reduce the challenges local people face in enrolling for health insurance and accessing healthcare. Hard choices due to finances Magaly Alvarado, program manager of the local immigrant advocate group HUF, knows that Broward County, Fla. (27% Latino), has a geographic location that has led it to become a popular entry point into the United States for many Latin American and Caribbean people. Many ...

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8 Jobs that Can Harm Your Heart


Heartache

Eight professions are among the most challenging to a person's heart health—salesperson, administrative support staff, police officers and firefighters, transportation/material movers, a grocery/consumer store employee—according to new research, CNN reports. American Heart Association researchers studies health habits of over 5,500 people age 45 or older who did not have a history of heart disease or stroke. The habits include: blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, fitness levels, diet, smoking, and obesity. Most salespeople surveyed were determined to have poor eating habits (68%) and poor cholesterol levels (69%). Of administrative staff, less than 21% met recommended physical activity standards. Despite the fitness standards of many police and fire departments, ...

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What to Do When You Hear: “You Have a Cavity.”


cavity dentist dental

SaludToday Guest Blogger Jefferson Dental Clinics "You have a cavity." You've probably heard this exact phrase from your dentist about your teeth. What should you do? First, bone up on what cavities are. "Demineralization" is the process of how tooth enamel loses minerals. Tooth enamel is comprised of a pattern of minerals and when they are lost, gaps in the pattern form that eventually widen and deepen as minerals are lost faster than the rate of rebuilding occurs. A common misconception is that sugar itself erodes tooth enamel; however, the sugars simply act as a food for the bacteria. The bacteria produce lactic acid, which erodes the enamel when it is left to settle onto teeth. Can you see or feel a cavity? If you’ve ever had a cavity, particularly a deep one, you may ...

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The Science of SaludToday (Now Salud America!)


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The Internet is crazy huge. So, how can health communicators reach the right people with the right health messages? At Salud America!, formerly called SaludToday, we're all about using "digital content curation" to raise awareness of many health issues, as well as promote solutions and build people's capacity to change these issues. Check out our new scientific article that explains how we "curate." Curation is an emerging strategy that uses a systematic, refined process to create tailored health messages and prevent mixed messaging and information overload for an audience. With massive amounts of content created across the Internet every minute, our digital health curation model and three-step approach—collect–craft–connect—identifies and brings our audience to ...

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Exercise Linked to Survival After First Heart Attack


heart health first heart attack

Exercise can increase the chances of survival after a heart attack, a new study by a team of researchers at John Hopkins and Henry Ford Health System suggests, Health reports.   "Our data suggests that doctors working with patients with cardiovascular risk factors should be saying, 'Mr. Jones, you need to start an exercise program now to improve your fitness and chance of survival, should you experience a heart attack,'" says Dr. Clinton Brawner, Clinical Exercise Physiologist and Senior Bioscientific Clinical Staff Researcher at Henry Ford Health System. "These findings suggest that higher aerobic fitness before a heart attack is associated with better short-term survival after the first heart attack." The results of the study, which focused on 2,061 patients who ...

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Study Links Gum Disease to Elevated Breast Cancer Risk


dentist girl teeth oral health gum disease

SaludToday Guest Blogger Jefferson Dental Clinics Women with gum disease have up to a 36% higher risk of breast cancer, according to a recent study. That’s alarming given that 6 in 10 Latinos have gum disease (known as periodontal disease). Gum disease, which is mainly caused by poor oral health and smoking, occurs when pockets in the gums form around teeth, allowing the growth of bacteria that can cause teeth to loosen and even fall out. The connection between gum disease and cancer is profound. “Women with periodontal disease who were former smokers had a 36% higher risk of breast cancer, women who were smoking at the time of the study had a 32% higher risk of breast cancer, and non-smokers with gum disease were still at a 14% elevated risk,” said Dr. Leslie Renee ...

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The Guardian Interviews Dr. Daisy Morales-Campos on HPV Vaccine


Dr. Daisy Morales-Campos

Recent data show communities living under the U.S. poverty line are more aware of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and vaccination rates in some of these communities is higher than in more affluent ones, The Guardian reports. However, not all patients are completing the entire vaccine series. For the article The Guardian interviewed Dr. Daisy Morales-Campos, a research instructor at the Latino Research Initiative at The University of Texas at Austin (formerly with Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio). Dr. Morales-Campos directs Entre Familia, an HPV campaign aimed at people in South Texas. There are still a lot of challenges to access, according to Morales-Campos. “People there [in Hidalgo County] often do not have the transportation ...

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San Antonio Clinic Brings Healthcare to the Underserved


CommuniCare Health Centers

The east side neighborhood of San Antonio struggles with socioeconomic hardships, health issues, and a lack of access to quality healthcare. In the past few years, the nonprofit Eastside Promise Neighborhood (EPN) has sought ways to improve conditions for residents in the city’s east side. To solve the gap in the availability of healthcare options in the area and fight health issues, the EPN partnered with a provider, CommuniCare Health Partners, to open a new health clinic in the area. Health improvement needed in San Antonio San Antonio’s historic east side neighborhood is home to 17,955 residents (mostly Latino), more than 200 private businesses, and six schools on 3.5 square miles bounded by Interstate 37 to the west, Fort Sam Houston to the north, AT&T Center Parkway ...

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Join our #SaludTues Tweetchat 1p ET 1/5/16: Connecting People to Coverage Before the End of Open Enrollment


health insurance coverage family

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to increase access to quality health care for everyone in the country. The ACA’s open enrollment phase is currently underway through January 31, 2016. Health coverage under the new enrollment period began as early as January 1, 2016. To date, nearly 17 million individuals have gained coverage through the ACA and it has seen the largest reduction of uninsured Americans in four decades. Many now have access to vital preventive services such as mammograms, cervical cancer screenings, and flu shots. On Jan. 5, 2016, use #SaludTues to tweet with us as we discuss all the need-to-know facts about healthcare coverage. WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “Connecting People to Coverage Before the End of Open Enrollment” DATE: Tuesday, Jan. ...

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