New research suggests social isolation and loneliness can increase the risk of having a heart attack or stroke by 30%, Time Magazine reports. Researchers analyzed over 20 studies involving 181,000 people and concluded that loneliness was linked to a 29% increased risk of heart disease and 32% chance of stroke. According to researchers the size of the effect is comparable to other well-known factors including anxiety and job stress. "We take risk factors like obesity and physical inactivity for granted, whereas we do not yet with social isolation and loneliness,” lead researcher and University of York research fellow Nicole Valtorta said. According to numbers from the American Heart Association over 30% of Mexican-Americans, age 20 and older have coronary heart disease, a ...
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved folic acid fortification of corn masa flour widely used by Latinos, NBC News reports. According to the FDA, folic acid is a B vitamin that when taken by a pregnant woman may help prevent neural tube defects, which are birth defects affecting the brain, spine, and spinal cord. “Increased consumption of folic acid in enriched flour has been helpful in reducing the incidence of neural tube defects in the general population,” said Susan Mayne, Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “Our analysis shows that adding folic acid to corn masa flour will help increase the consumption of folic acid by women who consume this flour as a staple in their diet.” Data from the FDA shows that adding folic ...
Students consume up to half their daily calories at school. WATCH and VOTE for new Salud America! #SaludHeroes who push healthy food and physical activity at school by April 29, 2016, and be entered in a random drawing to win a FREE T-shirt and jump rope! #SaludHeroes at school are: School Navigators. Rocio Muñoz helped embed bilingual, bicultural health navigators to increase parents’ access to health services into elementary schools in Corvallis, Ore. Breakfast is Back. Michaelie Love, a high-schooler in San Antonio, Texas, worked with her school to get a cart to make eating breakfast easy, healthy and cool. BMX Fun. School principal Doug Johnson used biking and a sweet BMX trail to make physical activity fun for elementary students in Mountlake Terrace, ...
Around the world, 1.5 million people die of diabetes each year according to figures from the World Health Organization. In the United States, diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death and 12.8% of U.S. Latinos suffer from it. "Diabetes is an ancient disease that is taking a growing toll on the modern world. In 1980, 108 million adults were living with diabetes. By 2014, that number had risen to 422 million—8.5 percent of adults—reflecting a global increase in risk factors such as being overweight or obese. Even though we have the tools to prevent and treat it, diabetes now causes some 1.5 million deaths a year. High blood glucose causes an additional 2.2 million deaths," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in commemoration of World Health Day. On its first Global Health ...
Did you take a 30-minute walk today? According to research, going for a stroll during your lunch break or after work can significantly reduce your risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. To raise awareness of the health benefits of walking the American Heart Association is challenging everyone to lace up their sneakers and go for a 30-minute stroll! To learn more click ...
Insulin is a critical hormone used in the treatment for diabetes—a condition that affects millions of Latinos. According to a recent study, the cost for this vital medication has more than doubled between 2002 and 2013, Newsmax reports. "The large increase in costs can largely be explained (by) much greater use of newer types of insulin known as analog insulins," said senior author Philip Clarke of the University of Melbourne in Australia. "While these drugs can be better for some patients, they are much more costly than the human insulin they replaced.” According to researchers of the study, the annual spending on insulin per patient “increased from $231.48 to $736.09 over the study period.” "Although the newer, more expensive insulin analogs appear to have incremental ...
Childhood obesity—a condition that affects more than 39% of Latino children, can be predicted as early as 6 months of age using simple body mass index (BMI), a new study reveals. “BMI at 6, 12 or 18 months of age above the 85th percentile on the growth chart can accurately predict children at risk for early childhood obesity," says Allison Smego, MD, a fellow in the division of Endocrinology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Center and the study's lead author. "These children have a high lifetime risk for persistent obesity and metabolic disease and should be monitored closely at a very young age." For the study researchers studied lean and obese children under the age of 6 and found that the “BMI in children who become severely obese by age 6 began to differ from children who ...
Data from a new study suggests that 1 in 5 people (18% of men and 21% of women) will be obese by the year 2025, CNN reports. The study, published in the Lancet, compared body mass index trends from over 200 countries between 1975 and 2015, and concluded that “[in] four decades, global obesity has more than tripled among men and doubled among women.” Other key findings of the study were: More men were obese than underweight in 136 countries and more women were obese than underweight in 165 of them.
In 1975, 2.6% of the world's population was obese; in 2014, that number jumped to 8.9%.
By 2025, the study estimates that 43% of women and 45% of men in the U.S. will be obese. “We have transitioned from a world in which underweight prevalence was more than double that of ...
In California, 36% of Latino adults are pre-diabetic according to a recent study by the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), Univision Health reports. For the study, researchers analyzed hemoglobin and glucose levels of 40,000 adults across the state and concluded that around 13 million adults (46%) have pre-diabetes or diabetes not yet diagnosed and young adults ages 18-39 are also in the same boat. "This is a clear indication of an epidemic of diabetes that is out of control and tends to worsen," warned the director of the research center, Harold Goldstein. "With limited access to healthy foods, the prevalence of sodas (soft drinks) and junk food, the environment is conducive for this condition." Stressing that “prevention is possible,” the study suggested that ...
