In recent weeks, I’ve been asked where the term guerilla health came from. Some have asked, “isn’t that a term from warfare and revolution; what does it have to do with health?” Well, in this day and age, getting and staying healthy can feel like war. Indeed, the term is the diminutive of the Spanish word guerra “war”, or literally “little war. The strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare involve the use of a small, mobile force competing against a larger, less nimble and, perhaps, a monolithic, more powerful one.

The guerrilla organizes small units of the local population, the people who know the terrain best, who understand the culture and can effectively use the resources available. And then, quite under the radar, he or she can, in partnership with the locals, carry out the mission. My mission? Health.

In the US, there are more than 1 million preventable deaths each year from diseases like breast, lung and colorectal cancer, diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart disease. According to the CDC cigarette smoking alone accounts for an about 443,000 deaths, or nearly 1 of every 5 deaths, each year in the United States. When other preventable deaths are considered, automobile accidents (think seat belts), homicides (think hand guns), vaccine preventable deaths (think shots), HIV/AIDS (think condoms) among others, it doesn’t take much to imagine the mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers who could still be here with their loved ones.

The US is 30th in the world in life expectancy, dead last among developed nations in preventable deaths and we have among the highest chronic disease and obesity rates of any country. So what’s the war? The war is the sorry state of health in our country, perpetuated, in part, by the medical, food, and entertainment industry. This is a war, however, we’ve all participated in creating. We buy fast food, cigarettes, video games and other products that contribute to unhealthy lifestyles. We don’t exercise as we should. And, we look for the miracle pill, device or surgery to “fix” what ever ails us.

We are being sold what we’ve asked for. But now we’re at the point where my children’s generation is on track to have a shorter life expectancy than my generation. It’s time to act. To fight. Who are the guerillas? We are. We know our culture and our communities. We know how to take small opportunities turn them into big changes.

We can all, quietly and without fanfare, press or talk show appearances begin to change our habits. Add more fruits and vegetables (from our local farmer’s markets) to what we consume each day. Forget the Olympic style stuff you see on infomercials. You are not going to burn 800 calories in an hour unless you’re a world class athlete. But you can add one flight of stairs to your routine each day. You can get to know your neighbors and walk around the block. You can get your regular check ups and screenings. Here are common screening guidelines for cancer prevention and detection.

And, you can encourage your family and friends to do the same. The companies that currently sell unhealthy products will sell us whatever we demand. They just need to earn money for their shareholders. Even tobacco companies can sell smoking cessation products. We have the power to change what is available.

So, let’s begin, quietly, like guerilla fighters in the night, to demand healthy products, to eat better, get more exercise, to stop our unhealthy habits. We don’t have to tell anybody what we’re doing. And soon, the US won’t be last in health status among developed countries. And our mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, children and grandchildren will be around to see that.

We live in a country that spends more on healthcare than any other country. Yet, despite the $2 trillion spent on healthcare last year, there are many thousands of Americans who have cancer and who could die because they face real barriers to getting and paying for health insurance, prevention and treatment services and, life-saving information. For these Americans, there is a health equity gap. My role at the American Cancer Society allows me to focus on identifying these barriers and on what needs to be done to remove them.

As part of the American Cancer Society’s goals to eliminate health disparities, we are reaching out to women online to, first, raise awareness about this issue – we recently engaged some of you in a “health equity” conference call (please take a moment to listen to the podcast from the call to learn more about the issue).

Then, we want to equip you all with the information you need to help you do your part in preventing cancer – engaging in physical activity, eating healthy, avoiding tobacco use, and getting recommended cancer screenings. Most importantly, we want to engage you in the fight for health equity in all communities, so that we can all celebrate more birthdays and be around for our families.

Consider the following:

• Only 60 % of women who should get annual mammograms
• Less than half of Americans 50 and over get colorectal cancer screenings
• If you’re significantly overweight or obese you have a much higher risk for developing cancer
• Americans without health insurance are more likely to have their cancer diagnosed late and have lower survival rates than those with insurance

You can listen to a podcast of the recent call I hosted with Dr. Otis Brawley, Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society. Then, we will start to talk about how the issues above can be addressed and how we can prevent thousands of deaths from cancer each year. I am excited to be a guest on this blog, and I’m looking forward to many interesting conversations about health equity. Welcome to the fight!

View the original post on MomsRising.org

So I propose this, I’ll take what they write and translate it into common-woman language and try to get it published in Essence, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Oprah, Latina Style, community newspapers, blogs, Facebook, etc. I’m not aware that the uninsured or average insured woman is reading Cancer or the NYT. It’s time we take the issues to the community, clearly and respectfully. That’s health promotion! Here are the ACS guidelines which have not changed: Starting at age 40, women, of average risk, should have a screening mammogram every year.

The Office of Health Disparities of the American Cancer Society is pleased to present its third conference on health disparities, Health Equity: Through the Cancer Lens. This year we move beyond description to action. By combining research and practice and the academy and community, we will focus on what we know works from the perspective of advocacy, community intervention and communication. Our keynote speakers will discuss how we use research to effect change and we’ll hear from members of the community who have actually achieved change in cancer incidence, risk behavior and survivorship. Visit the conference web site at www.TheCancerLens.org.

We will debunk the notion of the hard-to-reach and set our sights on the hardly-reached by looking at how health messaging needs to be crafted and delivered to reach those who need it most. In certain communities, disparities in mammography and colonoscopy have been eliminated. Join us to see how that was achieved and how these practices can be replicated across the US. And, we will hear from leading policy voices on how we can achieve systems change in order to reduce barriers to cancer prevention, treatment and life-saving information.

This year’s conference will have a number of unusual features. We will invite participants to blog about their meeting experience and insights. Our conference website will serve as an opportunity for researchers, practitioners and community members to share best practices and to report on their successes and challenges. We will unveil how the personal narrative and video technology have been used to communicate health messaging and change health behavior. And, this year features a unique collaboration with the National Medical Association. Read more and register. Then meet us in Las Vegas on July 28th to achieve Health Equity: Through the Cancer Lens.

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.

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

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