The latest guidelines and info for cancer screening, treatment and prevention are right there when you need them in the form of three new apps for the iPhone and/or iPad. "HPVsearch" allows users to look up facts, vaccines and patient FAQs. With "CanSearch," find the recommended screening guidelines for the top 25 cancers, including their risk factors, nutrition and chemoprevention stats, and imaging tests. With "CanQuit," refer to guidelines, info, and resources to help patients quit smoking. These free apps, from the Texas Medical Association's Physician Oncology Education Program, are available here from your iPhone or ...
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 University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center's free Web-based teen smoking-cessation and prevention program, ASPIRE, now speaks Spanish. ASPIRE (A Smoking Prevention Interactive Experience) aims to prevent middle-school and high-school teens from smoking or help them quit before it becomes a lifelong addiction. The site integrates interactive media, customized messages, graphics, animations and streaming videos. "We've found that participating students are more aware about the dangers of smoking, are making more informed decisions about smoking and are less tempted to start in the first place," said developer Dr. Alexander V. Prokhorov, a professor at MD Anderson. "Removing the language barrier will help tremendously in reaching and educating Hispanic teens, especially those ...
Congratulations, Houston! A few days ago a large group of minority health coalitions, doctors and elected officials celebrated the third anniversary of Houston’s successful smoking ban urging Houstonians “to see their doctors and put down their cigarettes for good.” “Smoke Free for 3,” a campaign lead by the Hispanic Health Coalition, Asian American Health Coalition, African American Health Coalition, Native American Health Coalition, and Houston Communities for Safe Indoor Air (HCSIA), recognized the City of Houston’s leadership and success in creating more smoke free workplaces and public spaces effective Sept. 1, 2007. However, despite the success in public policies, smoking continues to be a significant personal health issue for many Houstonians, particularly for ...
Latinos generally have lower rates of smoking than other racial/ethnic groups with the exception of Asian Americans. However, smoking remains a continuing and serious problem in the Latino community. Get all the key facts on Latino smoking from the American Lung Association. And if you're a Latino who is thinking about quitting smoking, be sure to check out the Buena Vida health magazine in English or Spanish that tells the stories of five Latinos and how they kicked the habit and what it meant for their lives. The Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind Salud Today, produced the magazine and other tobacco prevention ...
A new study shows lighting up a cigarette changes a person's gene activity across the body, a possible clue as to why smoking affects overall health—from heart disease to combating infections, LiveScience reports. A research team from Australia and San Antonio, Texas, analyzed white blood cell samples of 1,240 mainly Mexican-American people, ages 16-94, who were participating in the San Antonio Family Heart Study. They found that the 297 self-identified smokers in the group were more likely to have unusual patterns of "gene expression" related to tumor development, inflammation, virus elimination, cell death and more. A gene is expressed when it codes for a protein that then instructs, or kick-starts, a process in the body. The study found cigarette smoke could alter the level ...
If San Antonio ends up prohibiting smoking in indoor workplaces, its restaurants and bars are not likely to lose patrons to the few and geographically separated establishments outside the city limits that do allow smoking, according to a new analysis by the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. The analysis identified and mapped the 165 licensed-to-serve alcohol establishments in 30 incorporated towns outside San Antonio, but within Bexar County. The vast majority (117) of those establishments already are smoke-free. The remaining 48 that do allow smoking are fairly geographically separated from each other and, even if weighed as a whole, don’t have the capacity to sustain an influx of smoking customers if ...
For World No Tobacco Day, Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez reflected on the effects of smoking and the opportunities to quit smoking, especially among Latinos. Dr. Ramirez, director of SaludToday and the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. noted that for every one person that dies from a tobacco-related cause, there are 20 more people who are suffering with at least one serious illness from smoking, such as certain cancers, heart attacks, strokes, cataracts and skin wrinkling. Smoking is the No. 1 cancer killer of Hispanics nationally. Here is a little bit from Dr. Ramirez' op-ed article in LatinaLista:
If you smoke, just imagine some of the benefits you'd immediately achieve by quitting.
You'd have more money to spend. You'd have whiter ...
The Smoke-Free San Antonio campaign, which support a 100% smoke-free city to protect the health of our community, is now on Facebook. "Like" the campaign on Facebook today! Learn more about the orgaization ...
