In majority Latino California, Governor Jerry Brown has signed a series of bills that will raise the smoking age from 18 to 21 and will limit the sale of electronic cigarettes, reports the LA Times. "[These laws] will save countless lives, reduce astronomical costs to the health care system, and cost very little because it uses existing enforcement mechanisms," said Senator Ed Hernandez, who authored the bill to raise the age of tobacco products. "Today was an enormous victory for not only this generation, but also for many generations to come who will not suffer the deadly impacts of tobacco." California joins Hawaii as the second state to raise the smoking age and to ban the selling of electronic cigarettes to anyone under 21. According to a recent study, raising the smoking ...
Heavy use of social media by young adults—especially women—may lead to depression according to a recent study, Forbes reports. For the study, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh surveyed more than 1,700 young adults between the ages of 19 and 32 and concluded that those that spend the most time on social media had the highest risk for depression. This was especially the case for women with less education. “Given the increasing prevalence of social media and the substantial morbidity and mortality associated with depression worldwide, the positive association we found between social media use and depression has important implications for future research and intervention,” the study's authors wrote. From the participants surveyed 26% had high indicators for ...
The latest annual report on the nation’s health by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows Latinos are living longer than whites and blacks and health disparities are narrowing. Despite the latest improvements in health disparities, Latinos still have the highest incidence of high blood pressure and childhood obesity, The American Heart Association News (AHA) reports. “High blood pressure remains much more common among black Americans, and Hispanic children and teens are still more likely to be obese than their black, white and Asian counterparts.,” AHA said in a written statement. The CDC’s annual health report is a “snapshot” of the nation’s health “highlighting recent successes and challenges in fighting critical health problems in the United ...
According to the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA), Latinos have seen the biggest benefit from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as they have had the largest decrease in uninsured rates of any racial or ethnic group in the country. The rate, according to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), fell from 41.8% to 30.5% from October 2014 to February 2016. However, more work still needs to be done as there is still a large need for Spanish-speaking doctors, dentists, and other health care professionals. “We now need to do more education and outreach,” said NHMA President Elena Rios to the group’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. last week. “We need to be able to identify and encourage the next generation to be of service in our Latino community.” Getting ...
Spreading the word about how to improve health for all people, including Latinos, is a dire need. That’s why Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, leader of the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at UT Health San Antonio, created Salud America!, formerly called the SaludToday blog and social media campaign. Salud America! was recognized with four Communicator Awards. We won “silver” in the content and marketing category and “silver” in the community action, writing, and website categories Please help us continue to raise awareness of health issues and solutions by following us @SaludAmerica on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and ...
Teens who have been exposed to electronic cigarette ads in the last 30 days are more likely to start vaping, according to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Engadget reports. "The unrestricted marketing of e-cigarettes and dramatic increases in their use by youth could reverse decades of progress in preventing tobacco use among youth," Brian King, deputy director at the CDC's smoking division, said in a statement. The data comes from the CDC's 2014 National Tobacco Survey that looked into the habits of more than 20,000 middle and high school students from across the country and found that the number of E-cigs users is increasing among teenagers. Along with their findings the CDC recommends “limiting e-cig sales to stores that only admit adults, ...
En todo el mundo, 1,5 millones de personas mueren cada año por causa de la diabetes de acuerdo a cifras de la Organización Mundial de la Salud. En los Estados Unidos, la diabetes es la 7ª causa de muerte y el 12,8% de los latinos en Estados Unidos padece de ella. "La diabetes es una enfermedad antigua que está tomando un peaje cada vez mayor en el mundo moderno. En 1980, 108 millones de adultos padecían de diabetes. Para el año 2014, la cifra había aumentado a 422 millones-8,5 por ciento de los adultos que reflejan un aumento global de los factores de riesgo tales como el sobrepeso o la obesidad. A pesar de que tenemos las herramientas para prevenir y tratarla, la diabetes causa alrededor de 1,5 millones de muertes al año, "dijo el secretario general de la ONU, Ban ...
Nuevos vídeos de 30 segundos producidos por Sesame Street y la Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) tienen como objetivo enseñar a los niños cómo evitar contraer el virus, informa la NBC. Los videos explican a los niños la importancia de cubrir y sellar todos los contenedores de agua para evitar que los mosquitos se reproduzcan y les recuerda usa mangas largas lo mas que sea posible. Mira el video ...
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that, while the rate of cigarette smoking among U.S. teens did not increase, the use of e-cigarettes and other tobacco vaping products has been on the rise over the last four years, according to Mashable. "E-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among youth, and use continues to climb," CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a release. "No form of youth tobacco use is safe. Nicotine is an addictive drug and use during adolescence may cause lasting harm to brain development." The CDC collected data from 20,000 middle and high school students between 2011-2015. The rate of high school students who reported using an e-cigarette at least once in the last month increased from 1.5% in 2011 to 16% in ...
