By raising his voice and inspiring his peers to live healthier lives, 13-year-old Jacob Vasquez of San Antonio, Texas, is leading the fight against childhood obesity. On April 16, 2011, Jacob, one of 25 youths selected to serve on the Youth Advisory Board for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, will partner with the Health Collaborative’s Fun Family Community Garden Event to encourage kids to take a more active role in their health. At the event, students will be able to partake in a program, GROW (Growing Real Organic Winners), from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Health Collaborative (1002 N. Flores Street) to examine the relationship between gardening and a healthy lifestyle. The first 25 students will get a gardening kit and will be encouraged to start a garden at home, ...
The new Buena Salud book series presents the latest Latino health information and medical advances about individual diseases and conditions in a warm and conversational tone. Written by Dr. Jane L. Delgado, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, the series sprinkles real-life stories throughout and are published simultaneously in English and Spanish to inform, support, and deliver advice that will guide a Latino readership towards better care of their health. The series launches with books on the top two health concerns for U.S. Latinos: heart disease and diabetes. Watch a WKYC-TV news report on the book series here or ...
A mentorship program opening in June at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio encourages Latinos to pursue careers studying how cancer/disease affects minorities differently. April 13, 2011, is the extended application deadline for Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training. The ideal candidate is a Hispanic or Latino master’s degree-level student or a master’s degree-trained health professional, but all ethnicities are welcome to apply. Go here for more info or to apply. Éxito! consists of: A 5-day Summer Institute in June 2011 that offers teaching, tools and resources
Paid Internships (Starting in 2012)
Doctoral Biannual Retreats (Starting in 2014) The hope is that Èxito! participants will go on to earn doctoral degrees and conduct ...
A new set of reports released this week rank the health of more than 3,000 U.S. counties and show that much of what affects health occurs outside of the doctor’s office. The County Health Rankings, in their second year and led by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), confirm the critical role that factors such as education, jobs, income, and environment play in how healthy people are and how long they live. See this map to find your county. Some highlights of what counties look like nationally: People are nearly twice as likely to be in fair or poor health in the unhealthiest counties;
Unhealthy counties have significantly lower high school graduation rates;
Unhealthy counties have more than twice as ...
Nearly half of Hispanic women in a new study who spoke little English expressed much worry about their beast cancers returning, and white and black women expressed far less concern, WedMD reports. Many survivors worry about recurrence, possibly due to communication difficulties, even though the odds of survival for a woman treated for early-stage breast cancer are good. Worry can affect decisions about treatment, screening, symptom reporting and overall quality of life. “Women who had a very optimistic prognosis, based on their cancer stage and node involvement, were often the ones who worried the most,” study leader Dr. Nancy K. Janz, of the University of Michigan, told WebMD. The study is published in the April 1 issue of the journal ...
An FDA panel recently released a report that menthol cigarettes are harmful and that their removal "from the marketplace would benefit public health in the United States," the Los Angeles Times reports. Menthol is the flavoring used in about 30% of U.S. cigarettes. The National Latino Tobacco Control Network (NLTCN) welcomes this recommendation to the FDA and urges the FDA to ban the use of menthol in cigarettes and other tobacco products. By withdrawing this product from the market, the FDA would be protecting the lives of people of color, NLTCN argues. More than 82% of the African American smokers use mentholated cigarettes, as well as 45% of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, 35% of multiracial populations, 37% Latino women, and 32% of Asian Americans. "For our ...
The LIVESTRONG Cancer Navigation Center recently opened in Austin, Texas, to help cancer survivors navigate an often complex health system and organize their paperwork, records, and even their emotions. The new center, located at 2201 E. Sixth Street and open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST, provides a range of free services for anyone affected by cancer. This includes people diagnosed with cancer, their families, friends, loved ones and the health care professionals who work with them. The center helps people with any cancer type and at any stage of treatment. Assistance is available in both English and Spanish. Watch a clip here or below of the center's senior manager of navigation, Melissa Sileo, about why patient navigation is important and how it can help people with cancer focus on ...
Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, is among the cancer research leaders, survivors, advocates and donors featured on the cover of the new edition of the LIVESTRONG Quarterly magazine. Ramirez, a LIVESTRONG board member, and others share their inside stories of what it means to join up and feel the power of local, national, and global connection for cancer survivorship. About Dr. Ramirez, from the magazine:
When it comes to cancer prevention and message integration, you could call Dr. Ramirez an ambassador of equality.
A member of the LIVESTRONG board of directors and director of outreach and health care disparities at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center in San Antonio, Texas, Ramirez also ...
Diana Romano, a registered and licensed dietitian and the new family and consumer educator at the Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension Service, believes Latinos in Oklahoma need more information on healthy diets due to high rates of diabetes and disease, the Oklahoman reports. Romano will be responsible for nutrition, horticulture and other arenas for local families. "Mainly, my focus is going to be the Latino community,” Romano said. “We need a lot of information, a lot of education on basic nutrition, how to prevent diabetes, about heart-healthy diets.” Before her new job, Romano coordinated a "Farm-to-You" program and taught nutrition classes at the Latino Community Development Agency. She also plans to work with Latinos and others in the areas of aging, ...
