We have all experienced an upset stomach at one time or another from the foods we love to eat. However, when frequent heartburn and other discomfort are experienced, diet alone may not be the culprit. The symptoms may be indicators of a larger problem — one that is best addressed by talking to a doctor about what these symptoms could really mean.

Those who experience heartburn at least twice a week, even after trying home remedies and a change in diet, could be suffering from a potentially serious condition called Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), commonly referred to as Acid Reflux Disease. In fact, it is estimated that 6.1 million Hispanic-Americans in the United States suffer from GERD.

Full story…

Aging Americans, like other age groups, are feeling the effects of the declining real estate and stock markets, as well as soaring fuel and food prices. Seniors’ economic security will only increase in importance as the U.S. population ages. The nation’s health and social services resources will face unprecedented demand as 75 million people in the baby boomer generation reach retirement age—some with eroded savings and retirement accounts.

Fighting elderly poverty

Between 1959 and 1974, the elderly poverty rate fell from 35 percent to 15 percent. This was largely attributable to a set of increases in Social Security benefits. The elderly poverty rate has continued to decline in subsequent decades, reaching 9.4 percent in 2006. Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits continue to play a key role in reducing elderly poverty, especially among women and people of color. If Social Security benefits did not exist, an estimated 44 percent of the elderly would be poor today, assuming no changes in behavior.

Full story…

The “face” of the AIDS epidemic in the United States has changed, according to Marilyn Swyers, manager of AIDS Outreach for the East Alabama Medical Center.

AIDS was once viewed as a disease found primarily in gay, white men in big cities. “Twenty-seven years later,” however, Swyers says “it is disproportionately affecting the African-American and Latino populations.”

Hispanics have gone rather unnoticed in terms of HIV infection rates. They account for 14 percent of the United States population, yet represented 22 percent of new HIV and AIDS diagnoses in 2006.

Full story…

THIS WEEK, THE NATION’S largest organization of physicians — the American Medical Association, or AMA, — formally apologized for its history of racial transgressions against African-American physicians.

In its related publication in the July 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the AMA acknowledged its discrimination against black physicians well into the era of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. The association hopes that by “confronting the past we can embrace the future.”

The association’s transgressions against African-American doctors were severe. For example, the AMA had allowed its state and local subsidiaries to exclude black physicians from membership, effectively banning them from its politically powerful national group. As recently as 1954, it refused membership to a local medical society made up of black physicians in North Carolina.

Full story… 

California’s population is much more racially and ethnically diverse than its physicians, according to a report by the Center for California Health Workforce Studies. That’s a concern, the study stated, because minority physicians play a key role in the minority community’s access to care.

The report found that Hispanics made up 32% of the state’s general population but only 5% of its practicing physicians. Blacks accounted for 7% of the population and 3% of physicians. Native Americans were 1% of the population and 0.6% of physicians.

As a group, Asian and Pacific Islanders were not underrepresented, making up 11% of the general population and 26% of physicians. However, there were shortages in Asian subgroups such as the Hmong, Samoans and Cambodians.

Full story…

Legal scholars, health-care advocates and public officials participating in the Freedom’s Voice Conference in April depicted a health and prison crisis that is limiting opportunities for people of color and devastating our communities. The three-day conference, which was sponsored by the Morehouse School of Medicine’s Community Voices program, offered recommendations on how to address many of the problems. But the esteemed panelists also sent a clear message that there must be decisive action to reverse public policies sending record numbers of people to prison, leaving those outside prison walls without access to health care and restricting people of color to segregated communities.

Full story…

The so-called war on drugs in the United States disproportionately targets racial minorities in urban neighborhoods, two reports said Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch and the judicial equality advocacy group The Sentencing Project announced the release of two reports Tuesday on drug-related arrests saying the so-called war on drugs “disproportionately targets urban minority neighborhoods.”

The Human Rights Watch report, “Targeting Blacks: Drug Law Enforcement and Race in the United States,” outlines statistics in 34 states saying more black offenders serve prison sentences than white offenders.

The report says the average across those 34 states found black men are 11.8 times more likely to serve time in prison than white men and black women are 4.8 times as likely to be sent to jail than white women.

Full story… 

The study about midlife women’s attitudes toward physical activity is now conducted through Internet.

Eligible participants for this study is midlife women aged 40 to 60 years old who do not have any mobility problems; who can read and write English; who are online; and whose self-reported ethnic identity is Hispanic, non-Hispanic (N-H) White, N-H African American, or N-H Asian.

The tangible benefit of participation is a $10 Target gift certificate for each
person who completes an Internet survey and a $50 Target gift certificate for
each person who participates in the online forum later.

For more information, please follow this link:  http://mapa.nur.utexas.edu/MAPA/

Researchers are evaluating the safety and effectiveness of a study drug to treat asthma in the African American population.

You may qualify to participate if you:

·        Are African American (both parents identified as African American)

·        Are 12 years of age or older

·        Take asthma medication daily

Qualified study participants will receive study-related drug and medical care at no charge. Reimbursement for time and travel may be provided. Health insurance is not needed to participate.

For more information and a free pre-screening, please visit www.asthmaclinicaltrials.com or call 800-280-7155

Teenage girls and their parents need to read the latest government study of sexually transmitted diseases. The infections are so prevalent they are hard to avoid once a girl becomes sexually active. One in four girls ages 14 to 19 is infected with at least one of four common diseases. Among African-American girls in the study, almost half were infected.

The data, drawn from a sample of 838 girls who participated in a broad national survey in 2003-4, was presented last week by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By far the most common of the four S.T.D.’s was the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which infected 18 percent of the girls. Chlamydia infected 4 percent, trichomoniasis — a common parasite — 2.5 percent, and genital herpes 2 percent.

Full story…