Linda Goler Blount's Blog » Webmaster

Women are the Ministers Of Health – Our Version

Webmaster — Sun, 24 May 2009 20:07:18 +0000

Women are truly the Ministers of Health, Chief Medical Officers, Directors of Family Wellness, and Health Attachès of the household. It falls to us to manage urgent care situations, ensure prevention and wellness check-ups take place and to continuously poll the family making sure everyone is doing ok. When it comes to our children it’s easy —we put them in the car or take the train and make our way to the appropriate healthcare provider. With our sisters and mothers, it’s still pretty easy, we encourage and cajole them into seeing a doctor or eating healthy and remind them of just how important they are. But when it comes to us-ourselves, that’s, as they say, a whole other story! We have plenty of reasons: I’m too busy, I feel fine, I’ll go if I need to, my family needs me. Sound familiar? Well, all of that is true

However, most diseases don’t generally announce to us that they’re about to strike. By the time we feel symptoms, something is already happening. However, there is really good news. We have control. We can prevent the diseases and conditions that cause most of the mortality among women: HIV/AIDS, heart disease, diabetes, lung and colorectal cancer. And, in the case of breast cancer, we can detect it early and cure it! The two leading causes of death among women are heart disease and cancer. The rates for both have dropped steadily over the past 5 years. We’re getting the message. Still, we’re not getting annual physicals like we should – only 30% of us do; we’re not getting 30 minutes of exercise 5 days per week; we’re not eating 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables each day; we’re not getting our colorectal cancer screenings – less than half of us who should do; annual mammography rates are good, about 75% but if they increased to 90% that would mean another 20,000 of us alive each year. Ladies, if you’re over 40, are you getting yours?

So take charge now! You have the power. As you can see, it’s really not difficult. We know right now what to do to prevent most of our chronic disease mortality. So, choose you! Choose you and be here for your family, your children and grandchildren. Be the minister of your own health.

My BlackPolitics.com Interview

Webmaster — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:32:56 +0000

My first interview with BlackPolitics.com founder Ed Phelps has been published. It is a concise yet informative look at cancer disparities facing African Americans. Visit www.BlackPolitics.com and check it out.

What do we know?

Webmaster — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:05:05 +0000

What if I told you that if you jumped off a cliff, three hundred feet high on to rocks below, you would have a 1 in 5 chance of dying and a 1 in 3 chance of getting hurt? Would you jump? The odds are in your favor. I’ll bet you wouldn’t (and this is from a woman who got kicked out of Vegas). I’ll bet you would say the odds aren’t good enough. Well, if you smoke more than 10-15 cigarettes per day for a few years, those are your odds. And they get worse the longer you smoke. I know, you’re saying, “please those odds are for jumping off a cliff once—I only smoke a few cigarettes for a little while, it’s not the same”. Right you are! But how many people only smoke a “few cigarettes for a little while”? And what’s a little while anyway. A month? A year? How many people do you know who smoked a few cigarettes for only a year. In fact smoking 5-10 cigarettes per day for five years increases your risk of dying or injury (lung disease, heart disease) by 10%. Smoke 10-15 cigarettes per day and it increases to 20%. Oh, but who smokes half a pack? Smoke a pack of cigarettes per day for five years and your risk of death or injury increase to 30%. My best friend and dentist smoked a pack a day for 25 years and had a heart attack at 48. She’s on beta blockers for life now. How you like those odds?

Maybe cigarette manufacturers should include this on their pages. WARNING—this product, if used as directed, may kill you or cause you permanent disability due to lung cancer and heart disease. OK, ladies? If you’re a smoker, even if you don’t smoke while pregnant and who would, you significantly up the odds of a low birth weight baby. Now I ask you, what did the baby do to deserve this? But this can be avoided because guys, if you’re a regular smoker your sperm count could be below the amount required to conceive. If you can even get to that point: smoking has been linked to erectile dysfunction in men under 40.

So what would happen if we smokers could all stop smoking? Each year 10,000 lives would be saved. That’s thousands of grandmothers and grandfathers, hundreds of mothers/aunts and fathers/uncles and children who would have their parents around to babysit when they want to go out on a date. And, perhaps, they could make the baby that not smoking would allow them to. And don’t even think if you’ve been smoking a long time it doesn’t matter if you quit. It certainly does. According to the Surgeon General, if you’ve smoked a pack a day for 20 years and stop, then in nine months, the cilia in your lungs will regenerate, allowing your body to clean your lungs and reduce infection. One year after quitting, your risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker. Five years after quitting, your risk of stroke is reduced to that of a nonsmoker. Ten years after quitting, your chances of developing the lung cancer are about half that of someone who continues to smoke. Fifteen years after quitting, your risk of coronary heart disease is equal to that of a nonsmoker and your lungs will look like the lungs of someone who never smoked. Those are odds you can live with.

Tobacco is one of the most addictive substances available today. Certainly it’s the most addictive legal substance. It’s hard to quit. No, it’s really, really hard to quit. But if you truly believed the odds I mentioned earlier—if God told you those were the odds, wouldn’t you at least try to quit? Quitting smoking may be the toughest thing you’ll ever do. But doing so increases your chances of living into old age, working productively, being around to watch your grandchildren grow and being glad you don’t have emphysema, heart disease or lung cancer. If you could swing the odds in your favor why wouldn’t you? That’s what I did in Vegas counting cards at Black Jack. OK, so the big guys caught on eventually but I left with my winnings. You know that old saying “quit while you’re ahead”? In the Vegas world of smoking, quit while you have your health.

For more information on how to quit, go to the American Cancer Society’s web page at http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_10_13X_Guide_for_Quitting_Smoking.asp or log in to http://www.naquitline.org to find a quitline in your state.

Linda Blount
National Vice President, Health Disparities
The American Cancer Society

Women Are The Ministers of Health – Their Version

Webmaster — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:03:29 +0000

Women are truly the ministers of health, the Chief Medial Officers, the education heads, the health attachès of the household. It falls to us to manage urgent care situations, ensure prevention and wellness check ups takes place and to continuously poll the family making sure everyone is doing ok. When it comes to our children it’s easy —we put them in the car or take the train and make our way to the appropriate facility. With our sisters and mothers, its still pretty easy, we simply accompany them, maybe even join them for a checkup ourselves, make it an outing of sorts. But when it comes to our husbands, boyfriends and brothers, that’s, as they say, a whole other story! I believe there are two reasons for this. 1) Men doubt they’ll ever get sick—‘til they do and 2) all men have MD degrees. A degree we women are very familiar with—the Medical Denial degree. This degree allows them to ignore almost every symptom, every discomfort, and every indication that something might not be quite right or, in fact, is very wrong. Women can and do sometimes get upset even angry at these men for their behavior. We say, “why can’t they take care of themselves? They’re adults! We do!” Then we remember, “Oh gosh, they’re men.” Now, this is certainly not to put a brother down. But guys, come on, you know how you are, blood, broken bones, bumps and bruises are badges of honor for you. The weekend warrior in you gets on the court or the field or soccer pitch giving it all you’ve got.

And for the most part, you look good out there, too. You groan thru the aches and pains, limp into the office, meeting or classroom, proudly reminiscing to all who’ll listen that last tackle or attempted dunk that produced the injury. Oh, but wake up a few mornings with an abdominal ache you can’t attribute to a spectacular catch or see blood in your stools or get a little short of breath just climbing a flight of stairs and do you boast about that? Do you even mention it? That’s where we come in, the medical detective – ever vigilant – looking for signs of anything that may be out of order. We’re not trying to nag and pester you, we are trying to care for you and we’d like you to take care of yourselves as well. Let me share a secret with you: it’s not a sign of weakness to be concerned about your health and to let us know if you think (or know) there might be a problem.

It’s funny, whenever you hear a knock in your car engine or notice it’s a bit sluggish when you hit the gas, you can’t get it to the mechanic fast enough. How many times have you said, “Ignore a little problem and it will become a big problem”? Don’t you schedule a preventive maintenance appointment or oil change every 3500 miles? That 3-4 times per year! News Alert: that goes for your body as well. Is your car more important than your body? So ladies and gentlemen, our dear loved ones, listen to Andrea Collier. Follow her advice. On the issue of colon cancer, for example, 30% of African American men get their diagnosis at a late stage. Go in for a check up; your preventive maintenance needs to occur only once every 10 years and you may never get colon cancer; never have to deal with the fear of what might happen, never have to deal with pain and discomfort you won’t brag about from treating something you didn’t need to have in the first place. Not a bad deal for a once every ten year maintenance schedule. Just ask your minister of health.

Linda Blount
National Vice President, Health Disparities
The American Cancer Society