Salud America! Wins More Web Health Awards for Raising Awareness of Health


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Spreading the word about how to improve health is a dire need. That’s why we created the Salud America! program. We recently won a trio of Web Health Awards for our digital efforts to raise awareness for health from the Health Information Resource Center, which gives awards twice annually for online health information. We earned a “gold” award for our @SaludAmerica Twitter/X feed, a "silver" award for our Growing Healthy Change Platform and a "bronze" award for the Salud Heroes story "Wild About Health." Please help us continue to raise awareness of health issues and solutions by following us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and ...

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PepsiCo Inc. Tries to Encourage Healthier Vending Options



According to a recent article, vending sales have declined by one percent to $4.5 billion in 2014. This is a great advancement in healthier choices for most schools and cities, that are changing vending machine options to encourage healthier foods. However, not all vending machines are made the same, many include highly processed foods that are high in sodium and sugar. Working on the future of vending machine sales growth, is PepsiCo Inc. with their new marketing for vending machines, the Hello Goodness Brand. Thier aim is to help bypass the many health concerns that schools and cities across the nation are concerned about with soda and candy as being the main options in vending machines. The new machines are planned to hold more "healthy" options, including Naked Juice, Lays Oven ...

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Gardening Apprenticeship Program Grows Healthy Diets for Latino Youth



In November 2015, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy visited John C. Fremont High School's Gardening Apprenticeship Program. The schools program encourages students to learn how to grow healthy foods and utilize the foods towards cooking healthy dishes. The program supports healthy initiatives in Latino inner city neighborhoods like Los Angeles (48.4% Latino) that are less likely to have access to fresh foods and are dealing with high rates of childhood obesity. Students involved in the 12-week after-school gardening apprenticeship program learn to grow food and cook healthy dishes. The students enjoy a 1.5-acre site that holds the students fresh vegetables like, potatoes, peas and beets. Many of the students enjoy trying the new foods and learning about new vegetables they had never ...

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Thanks for the Nomination, #LATISM!


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Our @SaludAmerica (formerly @SaludToday) health social media handle was honored to be nominated for the Best Health channel to reach people through Tech Innovation and Social Media award from LATISM, a nonprofit group that empowers people through tech innovation and social media. Although we didn't win (congrats to our friends at the American Heart Association!), we love being part of a huge push to improve health. During the LATISM conference, our social media coordinator, Carlos Valenzuela of the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center, was honored to speak on behalf of IHPR Director Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez about how we’re using using our social media accounts and digital communications via Salud America! to raise awareness of childhood ...

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City-Wide Effort Boosts NYC’s Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates


Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates

A coalition formed by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) resulted in a 40% increases in colorectal screening rates over four years. The program is now being looked at as a possible pilot for other communities to boost their cancer screening rates. A report headed by Dr. Steven Itzkowitz, a professor of medicine/oncological sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS), now provides a framework for how communities might learn from a program to increase screening rates and ensure access for all people. “The increased screening rates from 2003 to 2012 translates to an additional 833,000 New Yorkers who have undergone screening colonoscopy and represents an important public health intervention,” said Dr. Itzkowitz. “By making ...

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Bishop Jose Torres Helps His Church Start a Health Festival


Bishop Jose Torres Health Festival

Bishop Jose Torres, a father of three girls who plays volleyball in his spare time, was concerned about the lack of health awareness among his congregation in Severn, a suburb of Annapolis, MD. He wanted to do something about it. So with a few dedicated partners, he created a Health Festival for his community. For over five years, the Health Festival has provided much-needed health information and services to hundreds in the community and has even saved a few lives. Concern Over a Community's Health Located in Severn, a suburb of the city of Annapolis, MD (16.8% Latino), the Heritage Community Church has a sizeable Latino population. Bishop Jose Torres and the rest of the Church leadership were concerned about the health and health literacy of their congregation ...

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Deborah Parra-Medina: Preventing Cervical Cancer in South Texas


hpv psa cervical cancer

A vaccine can't prevent disease unless people use it. In Texas, a largely Latino state, only 39% of girls and 15% of boys ages 13-17 complete the three-dose HPV vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted infection that can cause cervical cancer and other problems. Dr. Deborah Parra-Medina has a plan to change that. Parra-Medina, a health researcher at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, received a new $1.2 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to develop an professional education and community outreach program to increase awareness and uptake of the HPV vaccine among children in South Texas. She and her team will train local health care providers to deliver accurate HPV vaccine ...

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Study: Researchers Find Links Between Eating Disorders & Bullying


bullying eating disorders

Can bullying affect children's weight, health, and future? Duke Medicine researchers recently reported from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine (UNC), that students who bullied their peers were twice as likely to display symptoms of bulimia, such as bingeing and purging. Findings from a database with more than two decades of health information on participants enrolled at age 9 reported that children who were victims of bullying were generally at risk for eating disorders, but reports also showed that children that were the bullies also had the highest prevalence of anorexia symptoms (22.8% vs. 5.6 % of those not involved in bullying.) Kids who are overweight may also be at a higher risk for being bullied or being the child who feels insecure and bullies other ...

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#SaludTues Tweetchat 1p ET 11/17/15: Diabetes


diabetes

Diabetes is one of the major illnesses that impacts all people, including Latinos. Yet it is also one of the more preventable and treatable illnesses. Do you know how important a healthy diet and exercise are to preventing or controlling diabetes? What's the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes? How often should you check your glucose levels? Let’s use #SaludTues on Nov. 17, 2015, to tweet about all the need-to-know facts about diabetes. WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “Diabetes” TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT), Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015 WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues HOST: @SaludAmerica CO-HOSTS: USA.gov (@USAgov); Diabetes Hands Foundation (@diabetesHF); U.S. FDA (@FDAenEspanol) Together with our partners, we’ll discuss: Key ...

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