“Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) belongs to a family of human and animal diseases known as the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases. Spongiform refers to the characteristic appearance of infected brains, which become filled with holes until they resemble sponges when examined under a microscope. CJD is the most common of the known human TSEs.”
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
A human version of mad cow disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is believed to be caused by eating beef products contaminated with central nervous system tissue, such as brain and spinal cord, from cattle infected with mad cow disease.
Web M.D.
“A healthy diet and lifestyle are your best weapons to fight cardiovascular disease. It’s not as hard as you may think! Remember, it’s the overall pattern of your choices that counts. Make the simple steps in your life for long-term benefits to your health and your heart. Go to AHA diet and life style recommendations for more information.”
American Heart Association
“If you are what you eat, it follows that you want to stick to a healthy diet that’s well balanced. You want to eat a variety of foods,You don’t want to be overly restrictive of any one food group or eat too much of another”
Stephen Bickston, MD, AGAF-American Gastroenterological Association Fellow (professor of internal medicine and director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Virginia Commonwealth University Health Center in Richmond)
“Eating Disorders rank among the most serious public health concerns in the United States and have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.:
The center for eating disorders at Sheppard Pratt
ANOREXIA NERVOSA VS BULEMIA
“When one hears the term eating disorder, most Americans’ minds automatically think about anorexia and bulimia. Both of these mental illnesses are devastating to the victims’ bodies, mental health, and self-image, as well as the victims’ loved ones. These people experience drastic changes in weight and appearance. Although they are similar, these illnesses differ in the victims’ motivation, their symptoms, and the ramifications of their behavior on their health.”
Lone Star College
“Black Americans — and Mexican-Americans — have twice the risk of diabetes as white Americans. In addition, blacks with diabetes have more serious complications — such as loss of vision, loss of limbs, and kidney failure — than whites.” (Keep in mind all 3 are caused by Diabetes (DM) but if the pt had loss of vision or poor kidneys intially the DM made it worse.)
Maudene Nelson, RD, certified diabetes educator at Naomi Barry Diabetes Center at Columbia University.
The rates of death by diabetes for each race and ethnicity in the United States in 2005.
Heart disease and stroke disproportionately affect African-Americans. Why? One this race is highiest in B/P&high in stroke(one main cause of stoke=high b/p).
“What sets the stage for the more aggressive and higher incidence of heart disease in African-Americans is a very high incidence of high blood pressure,” Yancy says. “This predisposes African-Americans to more heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke. This makes us focus on high blood pressure as it forces heart failure.”
Know the facts of how to get High B/P. Factors are: Obesity, High Sodium intake, Lack of Exercise, and Genetic History in the family.
Clinical Trials show blacks and whites respond differently to treatments for high blood pressure. Indeed, treatment guidelines suggest that doctors should consider different drugs based on a patient’s race.
But Yancey says that a closer look at the data shows that race tends to be a marker for more complicated high blood pressure treatment.
This ethnic group has factors for complicated B/P. Non-compliance with the Rx they should be doing and not going to follow up visits. Ignoring symptoms till they have to go to the ER. In America if you go to an ER of hospital government assisted they can’t say No we can’t take you for no insurance. Lack of having medical insurance is another factor.
Unfortunately if no insurance due to inability to afford it and can’t go to doctors for a office visit. There is help. What is available is free clinics to provide medical service to any person who can’t afford a bill due to lack of insurance with no fee. Check out freeclinics.com to find where your free clinics are available in the area you live.
Health care differences between African-Americans and white Americans.
Clinical Trials show blacks and whites respond differently to treatments for high blood pressure. Indeed, treatment guidelines suggest that doctors should consider different drugs based on a patient’s race.
But Yancey says that a closer look at the data shows that race tends to be a marker for more complicated high blood pressure treatment.
“Data suggests that all therapies do equally well — but patients at higher risk need more intensive therapy,” he says.
A similar situation exists for heart failure. A promising treatment for heart failure didn’t seem to be working — until researchers noticed that it worked much better for black patients than for white patients. A study of black patients confirmed this finding — and provided tantalizing evidence that the drug will help patients of all races with certain disease characteristics.
A 2005 report from the American Lung Association shows that black Americans suffer far more lung disease than white Americans do.
Some of the findings:
-Black Americans have more asthma than any racial or ethnic group in America. And blacks are 3 times more likely to die of asthma than the white race.
-Black Americans are 3 times more likely to suffer sarcoidosis than white Americans. The lung-scarring disease is 16 times more deadly for blacks than for whites. Black men are leading ethnic sex as smokers.
-Black American children are 3 times as likely as white American children to have sleep apnea.
-Black American babies die of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) 2.5 times as often as white American babies.
-Black American men are 50% more likely to get lung cancer than white American men. Lets know some facts, in particular Smoking:
Also your environment plays a role. Example living in Jersey City as opposed to the country puts you at a highier risk for lung cancer possibly due to the pollution content, especially if you have been living there 20 years or more as opposed to 5 years. You have to look at factors that could cause smoking (This is a whole another topic by itself).
“The theory is that maybe it is access to health care, or maybe a cultural fatalism — thinking, ‘It is God’s will,’ or, ‘My family had it so I have it’ — not a sense of something I can have an impact on so it won’t hurt me,” Nelson tells WebMD. “But more and more there is thinking it is something that makes blacks genetically more susceptible. It is hard to tell how much of it is what.”
“Patients often have the sense that they are not as much in charge of managing their diabetes as their doctor,” Nelson says. “Where I work, in various settings, there is an emphasis on patients. We say this is what your blood sugar is; this is what influences your blood sugar; you have to remember to take your meds. So as a diabetes educator I know there has to be an emphasis on patients putting out more effort to manage their own health.”
It’s no surprise that sickle cell anemia affects African-Americans far more than it does white Americans.
This, clearly, is a genetic disease that has little to do with the environment. Yet even here — with a killer disease — social and political issues come into play.
LeRoy M. Graham Jr., MD-a pediatric lung expert, serves on the American Lung Association’s board of directors, is associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, and serves as staff physician for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Graham says, the National Institutes of Health is changing this situation.
One reason for this change — as research into lung disease, heart disease, and diabetes shows — is the growing realization that the health black Americans who dominate this disease primarily and not a caucasian disease is a human health issue that needs to be addressed like all others. All diseases need to be addressed but obviously the highest number of population regarding diseases are looked into more to decrease the count.
“All humans have the same physiology, are vulnerable to the same illnesses, & respond to the same medicines. Naturally, diseases&responses to treatment do vary from person to person. There are unique issues that affect black Americans.”
Yancy, LeRoy M. Graham Jr., MD (On the American Lung Association’s board of directors, is associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, and serves as staff physician for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.)
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