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How Healthy is Your County?



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 ...

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Worry About Breast Cancer Return Is Common‎ Among Hispanics



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 ...

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Agency: FDA Ban on Menthol Cigarettes Would Protect Latinos’ Lives



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 ...

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LIVESTRONG Opens Unique ‘Cancer Navigation Center’



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 ...

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IHPR’s Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez Featured in ‘Faces of LIVESTRONG’



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 ...

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Webinar: Linking After-School Program Participation with Latino Youth’s Obesity and Physical Fitness Outcomes



The California School Boards Association and the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities (JGC) at Stanford University invite you to attend a Webinar at 11 a.m. central time today on new research linking after-school program participation with Latino youth’s obesity and physical fitness outcomes. As part of Salud America! The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children, Dr. Rebecca London and JGC are working with community partners in Redwood City, Calif., and the CSBA to understand the effects of participating in a variety of after-school programs on Latino and other students’ obesity and physical fitness outcomes. In the Webinar, JGC staff will present research results and share and discuss the implications of the ...

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Dietitian to Focus on Health of Latino Families



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, ...

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VIDEO: ‘Are We Moving the World in Cervical Cancer Prevention?’



Dr. Isabel Scarinci, a cancer prevention expert at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, spoke about ways to improve cervical cancer prevention on March 17, 2011, at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center (CTRC) in San Antonio as part of the SALSI/CTRC Health Disparities Lecture Series. Scarinci's talk highlighted her innovative work in cervical cancer prevention among low-income, Latina and African American, and immigrant women. Watch video of her talk here. The SALSI/CTRC Health Disparities Lecture Series, sponsored by the San Antonio Life Sciences Institute (SALSI) and the CTRC, brings some of the top U.S. health disparities experts to San Antonio to offer the latest trends, tools and advancements in the fight against cancer health disparities. The series is a joint project of the ...

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Latinos Have New Bilingual Web Site about Diabetes



One of the world’s best-known centers of diabetes research and treatment has revamped its Web site as part of its efforts to stem a rising tide of the metabolic disorder among Latinos, The Americano reports. According to the news report: According to a story published online by Suncoast News, in the Tampa Bay, Florida area, The Joslin Diabetes Center, an affiliate of the Harvard Medical School, wants to reach the Latino population in the United States, who are twice as likely to develop diabetes as Caucasians. The website, published in both English and Spanish, wants Latinos to know the risk of a disorder by providing them with information that combines clinical care, patient education, community outreach, research and healthcare team education. Doctors from the Joslin Diabetes ...

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