Because some kids tend to drink more sugary drinks than others, healthy beverage strategies have the potential to impact health in big ways. In Washington, community partners are teaming-up with schools and lawmakers to come up with ways to encourage kids to quench their thirst with water, not sugar.
The Issue of Sugary Drinks
Awareness/Learn: Childhood obesity is a problem in the state of Washington, which is 11% Latino. In 2012, 25% of Washington children ages 2-4 who received benefits from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) were overweight or obese, according to the state’s Department of Health. About 23% the state’s 10th graders were overweight or obese. Sugary drinks, like soda, juice, and sweetened milk, are a major ...
Breast cancer survivors can now join a new study to learn how certain foods may reduce the risk of cancer recurrence. The study, Rx for Better Breast Health, is funded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure and led by Dr. Amelie Ramirez, professor and director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at UT Health San Antonio. Breast cancer survivors who participate will be randomly assigned to one of two groups. Each group will get different cancer nutrition tools, possibly six cooking demonstrations by Chef Iverson Brownell, who creates innovative culinary recipes that taste great and promote health (see his video). “We want to teach survivors the importance of a dietary plan full of foods with disease-fighting properties,” said Ramirez, who also is associate ...
Some women have low breast cancer screening rates. Even if they are screened, they delay confirmatory diagnosis and treatment because of costs, language issues, competing responsibilities, and more. That’s why Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, professor and director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at UT Health San Antonio, is offering the Navegando Salud patient navigator program, which trains bilingual community health workers to offer breast cancer screenings, education and other services to women in South Texas. Navegando Salud just received a one-year, $100,000 grant from the Avon Foundation. The grant was among 10 announced at the 12th Annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Houston on April 13, 2014. “We’re honored to receive this grant, which will help ...
Only 5% percent of Latinos participate in federal clinical trials, far less than their 19.5% makeup of the US population. This gives researchers fewer chances to find new cancer treatments for this population, which can benefit all people. What can a health agency do to get more people into clinical trials? A new guide, Clinical Trials Outreach: Program Replication Manual, developed by researchers at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at UT Health San Antonio, was created to help health agencies reach into communities and increase participation in cancer clinical trials to better reflect the US population. With the guide, a health agency can: Learn about cancer clinical trials;
Learn about donation of biospecimens (human materials such as skin, hair, and ...
If you’ve ever dreamed of making a difference in your community (or if you’re a kid who doesn’t mind getting a little dirty), then you’ll want to hear about the amazing mud run program, Mile Strong Kids by Fred Bailon and John Soto.
Bailon and Soto, two elementary-school teachers in San Antonio, Texas, organized a one-day mud run to start “standing up to obesity.” The event was so surprisingly successful that it led to the formation of a running club and non-profit group to organize mud runs all over town.
Obesity Spurs a Big Idea
Fred Bailon and John Soto are teachers at W.Z. “Doc” Burke Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas. About 87% of Burke students are Latino and 82.3% of the school’s population face economic issues, according to the Texas ...
Yoga can help cancer survivors get active and improve their current and future health. That's the idea behind a new $500 mini-grant for the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at UT Health San Antonio to start a yoga therapy program for Support Lending for Emotional Well-Being (SLEW), a non-profit wellness center for women who have been diagnosed with cancer. The grant, from the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the UT Health San Antonio, will allow the team to develop an “Exercise for Cancer Survivors” educational presentation and a yoga program/curriculum that will gradually introduce participants to yoga and be sustainable for SLEW to continuing using upon the grant’s end. The project leader at the IHPR is Rose A. Treviño-Whitaker and the project ...
Jade Hércules, was born in July 2012 in Guatamala, where she was diagnosed with terminal liver disease. She needed a donor. Jade's condition deteriorated over the next year to the point where her parents thought, as she celebrated her first birthday in July 2013, she wasn't far from her final moments on earth. Then doctors at University of Chicago Hospital, where her family had come to seek treatment, told her parents a liver donor was found. “We were grateful to God for the parents who had the courage to donate their little boy’s organs because thanks to them our little girl is alive. We always think about the parents who made this miracle possible because it is truly a blessing that a year later although she is not yet walking, Jade can stand and is such a happy ...
Shape Up San Francisco, a coalition of community leaders, wanted to know if kids in San Francisco were meeting state requirements for time spent in PE. They convened a group called the PE Champions and began to study 20 elementary, four middle, and four high schools. After learning that almost 80% of elementary schools were not getting enough PE time, Shape Up SF’s PE Champions partnered with school officials to develop a plan to change this. Now, thanks to the partnership, the district has 38 PE specialists to train teachers in the skills needed to provide students with quality PE.
The Need for More Physical Activity for Children in Schools
Awareness: Local health advocates Christina Goette and Marianne Szeto were concerned about the city’s growing childhood obesity rates and ...
Alicia Gonzalez, a young leader with experience in community development, was eager to keep kids stay active, given the rise of local obesity. She partnered up with a local family foundation who wanted to start a running program. The result was Chicago Run, a non-profit incentive based program which has promoted running to over 13,000 children.
The Need for More Physical Activity for Children
Awareness: Chicago resident Alicia Gonzalez enjoys improving the quality of life in her community. She has experience teaching youth about AIDS, mentoring kids in Boston, and building private-sector partnerships to better people’s lives through asset-based community development (ABCD)—an approach to community development that emphasizes a community’s assets rather than its ...
