“Telehealth” or “Telemedicine,” as it sometimes called, refers to traditional clinical diagnosis and monitoring that is delivered by technology. It has proven to be an exciting breakthrough in medicine and has been used in wide array of situations to diagnose and manage symptoms, in education, and other related fields of health care, including: dentistry, counseling, physical and occupational therapy, home health, and chronic disease monitoring and management. For those who are infirmed or in hard to reach rural areas, telehealth has proven to be great resource for both the patients and health care providers. According to the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), can best be thought of as a way to increase the contact between a patient and their medical ...
Even as U.S. cancer rates decline, liver cancer rates remain on the rise, especially among Latinos. But why? A new UT Health San Antonio study found that Latinos with liver cancer had much higher levels of aflatoxins than those without liver cancer. Alfatoxins are cancer-causing chemicals produced by mold that can contaminate improperly stored foods. People can ingest aflatoxins in contaminated corn, nuts, rice, sesame seeds, wheat, and some spices. For the study, researchers gauged aflatoxin exposure in 42 liver cancer cases and 42 non-cases from clinics in San Antonio, Texas. Two-thirds of the pairs were Latinos. Liver cancer cases had 6 times higher odds of having detectable levels of aflatoxins in their blood, compared to non-cases. "This study means that Latinos ...
Maria Alvarez, proudly waving her native country’s flag for “Dios, Patria, y Libertad,” (God, motherland, and freedom), draws inspiration from her Dominican heritage and perseverant family to help people live healthier lives. Alvarez learned hard-working ways from her truck-driving father and education-seeking mother. When her family struggled with asthma and lung cancer, she stepped up in a big way as a researcher on these very topics. Alvarez, who has a master’s degree in health education and health behaviors from Teachers College Columbia University, is a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Hematology and Oncology Department at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC). She has collaborated on studies and educational projects associated with cancer, prevention ...
San Francisco (41.9% Latino), will now enjoy the refreshing ability to have clean water access in neighborhoods across the city, where free drinking water stations will be installed thanks to community collaborations. The collaborations include the City of San Francisco, the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and other community groups that are hoping to help lower-income neighborhoods have access to quality water, and reduce the high rates of obesity and diabetes. Diabetes, impacts around two million Latinos in the U.S. and about 95% of all diabetes cases are Type 2. This type of Diabetes develops when the body doesn't make enough insulin and can lead to serious health risks like heart attacks, strokes, depression and more. Latinos often live in neighborhoods ...
More than 10 million Americans, including higher rates of Latinos, excessively drink alcohol to the point it negatively impacts their lives. Now, new research links alcohol abuse to a big cause of death: heart disease. Abusing alcohol increases the likelihood of suffering atrial fibrillation, heart attack or congestive heart failure, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, CNN reports. “One of the most surprising findings... is that people who abused alcohol are at increased risk for heart attack or myocardial infarction,” said Dr. Gregory M. Marcus, director of clinical research in the Division of Cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco and senior author of the study. “Past data suggests that moderate drinking ...
Infant nutrition experts Norma Sifuentes and Diana Montano have promoted breastfeeding for 30 years combined in San Antonio, Texas (63.2% Latino). The two women, employees of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District’s Women, Infants and Children (SAMHD-WIC) department, know that breastfeeding duration rates are low here. Less breastfeeding means more risk of obesity, diabetes, and lower IQs. So Sifuentes and Montano worked together to create a place—a haven—to help low-income Latina and all mothers access breastfeeding support and peer counseling.
Why isn't breastfeeding more prominent?
The benefits of breastfeeding are numerous. For babies, it reduces risk of infectious diseases, asthma, atopic dermatitis, childhood leukemia, diabetes, obesity and sudden infant ...
Did you know, 1 in 3 women experience physical or sexual violence? Maurice Gomez of Los Angeles knows this personally. In 1996, Gomez received news that his girlfriend had been raped and killed by a stranger. The tragedy eventually led him to dedicate his life teaching women to protect themselves. Gomez, an L.A. Police Department tactical self-defense instructor, has offered free self-defense classes for women since 2010, according to a fantastic profile of Gomez by Monica Luhar of NBC News. "It was a real point in my journey where I knew this was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life," Gomez told Luhar. Most women who participate in Gomez's classes are Latina. Luhar's profile of Gomez indicates that there has been a national surge in enrollment in ...
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University recently identified a “culturally sensitive” set of tools that can be applied by pediatricians to help them screen Latino patients for mental health symptoms. Anxiety, depression, and aggression are some of the mental health issues that plague many Latinos and often go undiagnosed and untreated. The tools, which are freely available, and take less than 10 minutes to use are in Spanish and can help assess a wide range of emotional and behavioral problems among Latino kids. The investigators from Johns Hopkins encourage primary care pediatricians to consider utilizing four mental health screening tools: he Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC)-17-question version, the PSC-35-question version, the pictorial PSC-35, and the Strengths and ...
Mammogram screening rates are lower in Latina than white women and lower in uninsured women than insured women. In order to prevent the social, emotional, and economic burdens of breast cancer among Latina and all women, as well as to prevent premature death, it is critical to reduce barriers to access mammogram screening, like free counseling and screening. The Community Breast Navigation Program (CBNP) embedded a community breast navigator in an adult medicine clinic in a federally qualified community health center in Hartford, Connecticut (17.4% Latino) and increased mammogram screening rates. Through a partnership between UConn and the Susan G. Komen of Southern New England, anyone who visited the clinic had the option to receive free breast cancer counseling and ...
