Rhona S. Applebaum, Coke’s chief scientist is stepping down after revelations that the soft drink giant tried to play down the role of coke products in the spread of obesity, New York Times reports. Data from SaludAmerica shows more than 39 percent of Latino children between the ages 2-19 are overweight or obese in the United States. As part of Coke’s strategy to influence research on the effects of sugary drinks on obesity, Applebaum helped establish a nonprofit group known as the Global Energy Balance Network. “The group’s members were university scientists who encouraged the public to focus on exercise and worry less about how calories from food and beverages contribute to obesity.” According to Coca-Cola the company did offer financial support to the group ...
It’s the time of the year when we’re feeling grateful for being healthy, having a loving family and a job, but do you know gratitude can also keep your heart healthy? A study led by Paul Mills, professor of family medicine and public health at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine recruited 186 men and women who suffered from heart disease “either through years of sustained high blood pressure or as a result of a heart attack or even an infection of the heart itself.” During the study Prof. Mills asked each participant to fill out a questionnaire to rate how grateful they were for the people, places or things in their lives. “We found that more gratitude in these patients was associated with better mood, better sleep, less fatigue ...
A new risk-prediction breast cancer model based entirely on data from Latino women provides a more accurate assessment of Latina women's risk of developing breast cancer than existing models. The model presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) used data from the San Francisco Bay Area Breast Cancer Study, “focused on 1,086 Latina women with breast cancer and 1,411 without breast cancer cancer.” "Currently, there is no breast cancer risk-prediction model for Hispanic women," said Matthew P. Banegas, PhD, MPH, investigator with Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon, and primary author of the study. "We developed a model based on data on ethnicity, nativity, and breast cancer risk factors, as well as incidence and mortality rates in ...
The Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted infection that can lead to serious health problems, such as cervical cancer. It is the most commonly transmitted sexual disease; nearly all sexually active men and women contract it at some point in their lives. Latino women in the United States have higher rates of cervical cancer than any other women in other racial or ethnic group. In Puerto Rico, cervical cancer is the sixth most commonly diagnosed cancer among women. In a 2014 study of Puerto Rican adolescents and their mothers, it was found that women’s knowledge about HPV and HPV vaccination was low. The report revealed that few young women questioned as part of the study were aware that cervical cancer was caused by HPV. Unvaccinated women had little knowledge ...
When you’re 27 years old the last thing that crosses your mind are mammograms, breast self-examination and breast cancer. “My doctor had said I was too young to have a mammogram, so when I finally heard the breast cancer diagnosis after tests on my “cyst,” my whole body went numb. I didn’t have time for cancer; I was getting married. On December 5, 1997,” Tanya Enriquez says. Her honeymoon turned into a visit to the hospital to have 20 lymph nodes removed, and an aggressive chemotherapy treatment. Soon after her diagnosis Tanya met Marta Zuniga, a stage III breast cancer patient and later met Susan Coll, the three were known as the Three Muskateers. “We had a bond that not many shared. We were all under 30 and had breast cancer. We would talk, laugh, and go out to lunch, ...
For Bea Vasquez, cancer was not something new. Breast cancer took her grandmother away when she was a teenager. Because of her family history and her work with the American Cancer Society, Bea schedule mammograms every September. “In 1998, I was so busy at work that I didn’t get a mammogram until the following March. After a second mammogram and a sonogram, I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” she says. The tumor was very small, so no chemotherapy was required, but to be safe she decided to have radiation. “I know it may sound as if I was really informed, and I was. I was cancer-free, but what I wasn’t free of was fear. Fear of dying and leaving my daughter and mother behind. I gave this and all other worries to the Lord.” Today, Bea enjoys traveling and grows her own ...
According to the latest Nielsen's Hispanic Consumer Report, Latinos are living longer and have more disposable income than in the past. The report shows: Hispanics have lower mortality rates in seven out of the 10 leading causes of death in the U.S.
In the first few years after immigrating to the U.S., Hispanics also tend to have lower smoking rates, better diet and better general health. This is translating to Hispanics living longer and having healthier, more active lives.
Today Hispanic-Americans life expectancy is 83.5 years compared to 78.7 for non-Hispanic Whites. This means more buying and viewing power, for longer. The report also found 40 percent of Latinos over the age of 50 live in multi-generational households compared to just over a fifth of the general U.S. ...
The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) is launching “Fresh Empire” a hip-hop themed anti-tobacco campaign targeted at Latinos and Blacks. “Unfortunately, the health burdens of tobacco use disproportionately affect minority teens – particularly African American and Hispanic youth,” said Jonca Bull, M.D., the FDA’s Assistant Commissioner for Minority Health in a press release. "The 'Fresh Empire' campaign will help reach teens at a key point in their lives when experimenting with smoking can lead to addiction." The “Fresh Start” campaign will target youth ages 12-17 with interactive content, songs and videos by up and coming hip hop artists. "We know from our research that remaining in control is an important pillar of hip-hop culture. But smoking represents a ...
A recent study by the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine found Latinos and other minorities spend more time traveling to and waiting for medical care, Fox Health reports. For the study, researchers used a sample of 4,000 people who reported their wait times and the travel time to the clinics. "Unfortunately, there are so many disparities in health care access and health outcomes already identified in our health care system that I don't think these results are necessarily surprising," said Dr. Kristin N. Ray of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who worked on the study. The study found Latino patients spent an average 105 minutes waiting compared to 80 minutes of wait time among Whites non-Hispanics. "We have long known that there are disparities in ...
