What does "active living" really mean? It means infusing physical activity into your daily life. We shouldn't have to depart from our normal routines to get the mental and physical benefits of moving more and sitting less, which are proven to improve your health and reduce your disease risk. But not all neighborhoods have safe sidewalks or parks, and not all schools and employers provide time or space to be active. This causes certain disparities in adverse health outcomes for certain populations. Let’s use #SaludTues on Tuesday, March 7, 2017, to tweet on how diverse partners can unite to make daily physical activity a reality where Latinos and all people live, learn, work, and play: WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “How to get Diverse Partners to Buy Into Physical ...
Communities and organizations play a role in developing policies and programs to support walking, biking, physical activity, and healthy communities. Whether for recreation, transportation, work, or household, physical activity improves mental and physical health and reduces risk for chronic disease. In order to reduce health disparities, it is important for communities to ensure that all residents have access to safe places to walk, bike, play and be active where they live, learn, work, play, pray, according to a Salud America! research review. Check out these seven case studies from Voices 4 Healthy Kids and Safe Routes to School National Partnership. They demonstrate successful state- and local-level campaigns to increase physical activity, through active transportation ...
National Nutrition Month is all about getting the word out about making the healthy choice the easy choice for all and what better way to do that than to find out how to support all to have healthy food choice options. The American Heart Association (AHA) is working to bring awareness to the Texas Capitol to encourage policy around healthier food access for the unfortunate 3.4 million Texans that simply don't have a choice for healthy food as they deal with limited access to health food options. AHA is asking everyone to support the healthy choice for everyone, by joining them on Thursday, March 23rd in Austin to meet with elected officials to discuss specific legislation that will help increase access to healthy food in underserved communities and help encourage healthier early ...
Success for Northgate Gonzalez markets in Southern California all comes down to its healthy marketing tactics. Since their Viva la Salud, they have been working in their stores to create healthy marketing and a comprehensive wellness program to entice shoppers to choose fresh fruits and vegetables and healthier products. Back in 2016, LA parents saw that more needed to be done in all grocery stores around California, where checkout lanes tempted parents and kids alike with unhealthy foods like sodas, chips, and candies. Parents worked with groups including Choose Health LA Kids, Los Angeles County Department of Health, First 5 LA, the Interagency Retail Alliance (IRA) which includes Choose Health LA Kids-Choose Health LA Kids—The Children’s Clinic, AltaMed, Public Health ...
Childhood obesity is a serious problem facing our country, especially among Latinos who have far less healthy weights than their non-Latino peers. A new study has found an unlikely, controversial source for Latino childhood obesity: Antibiotic exposure. Exposing a child to antibiotics before the age 6 months increases the risk of obesity by age 2 for Latino infants in low-income urban communities, according to an article published in the journal Childhood Obesity. Study authors determined that antibiotics might have “harmful effects … on the healthy gut microbiome” during the early period of development for young children. This could increase the risk of obesity as they get older. “The work by [Drs. Annette Ville, Janet Wojcicki, and others at the University of ...
Although the topic of taxing sugary drinks in Illinois to help balance the state budget is not off the table since January. A recent poll taken by the American Heart Association shows that over 50% of respondents showed support for a tax on sugary drinks. In fact, according to the AHA poll, over 70% of the 800 poll respondents would rather tax sugary drinks than hike income taxes or expanded sales tax on services. One in three children in the state are considered obese or overweight, and sugary drinks are still a large part of the average American child's diet, leading to higher risks of unhealthy weights, heart disease, and liver disease. Many in Illinois support the tax, including 65% Latino Illinoisans, lawmakers, business owners, and health advocates. Having support for ...
It is a known fact that one of the most important social determinants of health is where you live. More and more local and state governments are realizing how important environment is to overall health and well-being. For Latinos, where they live is often leads to unavoidable health disparities due to lack of access to healthcare, healthy food choices, and educational opportunities. Recently U.S. News & World Report outlined the best and worst states to live in based on a host of categories that residents value the most. These categories include health care, education, infrastructure, crime rates, and economic opportunities. According to the new report, Massachusetts (10.56% Latino population) was rated number one overall. Not surprisingly, as Massachusetts is home to Harvard ...
Designing healthy, complete neighborhoods requires a holistic, collaborative process, but collaboration can get messy. Charrettes are a creative way for agencies, organizations, groups, and community members to bust out of their specialist silos and work together to solve community planning and design problems. Charrettes are of often intense meetings lasting multiple days. The National Charrette Institute (NCI) began training professionals in collaborative design and charrettes in 2002. In 2017, NCI partnered with the Michigan State University (MSU) School of Planning, Design and Construction (SPDC) and MSU Extension. Professionals, such as transportation engineers, architects, urban designers, and planners need to work together with citizens, elected officials, ...
Latinos suffer fast differences in health and social conditions compared to other racial and ethnic groups, particularly whites. These differences, called health disparities, are rooted in social disadvantage and are often unavoidable. The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) in Boston, Mass. (18.81% Latino population), has released a new report discussing the growing health and income disparities in the area. Some of the report’s findings include new stats about the rapidly rising rates of youth asthma hospitalizations in Greater Boston. According to the findings, the rate has increased by 22 hospitalizations per 100,000 from 2003-2007 to 2008-2012. One of the chief causes has been the growing number of Latino youth asthma cases. “In the asthma arena what [the findings] ...
