Health Archive (248)
Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander (D) supports more robust health and sex-education curricula. / Courtesy photo.District officials and parents are questioning plans of the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education to administer a mandatory 50-question sex education test in conjunction with its annual standardized exams of students in the grades 5, 8 and 10. According to reports, the DC schools battery of sex-ed questions would be the nation's first statewide standardized test on health and sex education.
The rationale for assessing what District youth know about reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases and other health issues is unquestionable. It was reported that as many as nearly 60% of DCPS students reported being sexually active, 18% would be defined as obese, and as many as1% of teens in the Nation's Capitol are living with HIV. More startling is that of all the District's 26,533 reported cases of Chlamydia in the past four reporting years (2005 to 2009), two-thirds (68.6%) were reported by youth between 15-24 years of age. For cases of Gonorrhea, the rates were slightly better, with 11,601 reported cases in DC, more than half (57.7%) of which were encountered by youth 15-24 years of age.
Dr. Karen Davis-Foulks (Dr. Karen), PMD, DL, NES Health Practitioner, non-secular science of medicine uses Energy and Information Health Protocols to assist clients with their health conditions. Dr. Karen uses the "Self-Care/Self Responsibility" model for educating clients on how to use the power of consciousness, informational medicine, complementary and alternative holistic health tools and modalities. Dr. Karen is not a conventional "medical doctor." She is not concerned about your medical doctor's named diagnosis. It takes Life Force Energy to run and maintain the body's (Physical body, Energy Body and Spiritual Body) homeostasis. Every healthcare system has a theory of promotion. Dr. Karen derives her theory from Chinese Medicine, Quantum Biology, Physics, Spiritual Health, Western, Science of Lymphology and Cellular Ecology. She teaches that you are an energetic light being, your body is glowing, and light controls your cell functions. She asks the question: "do you know where your body's light comes from." She further teaches that you do not have a disease, you do have cellular malfunctions and that you could not have a disease because most all illness occurs when biophoton emissions are out of sync?
Singer Angie Stone is going touring the country raising awareness about diabetes. / Photo by Shevry LassiterThe Washington Informer caught up with soul singer Angie Stone during the Congressional Black Caucus annual legislative conference held in Washington, D.C. last week. Stone became a spokesperson for the Fearless African-Americans Connected and Empowered (F.A.C.E) diabetes initiative sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company, and sat down to discuss the importance of her new role.
Arthritis is the single greatest cause of chronic pain and disability among Americans and costs the nation more than $128 billion a year in medical care and lost earnings. African Americans, Latinos, and women with arthritis suffer more severe pain and limitations, studies show. Specifically, African Americans and Latinos with diabetes are more likely than their Caucasian counterparts to receive amputations rather than limb-preserving surgical treatments.
Parenting is not easy. Most American parents will agree to having used books, television programs, or professionals to navigate childrearing. Whether it was Dr. Benjamin Spock during the 1940s or Dr. T. Berry Brazelton in the 1980s, parents were able to use bounds of professional wisdom to cope with everything from teething infants to seething teenagers. But the days of Brazelton and Spock have long ended according to some sociologists, and the time has come for a new guide to help parents, particularly of girls, navigate issues of abduction, bullying, and depression.
Erin Munroe, a licensed mental health counselor in Boston believes she has the answers to lead a new generation of young parents though the muck. Monroe manages a confidential teen clinic, and recently penned the book When Big Issues Happen to Little Girls.
It is not another book on “raising girls,” or the psychology of girls, or of eating disorders, and body issues. We know those are symptoms and coping mechanisms of greater things, and When Big Issues Happen to Little Girls poses the question: Why are our girls not able to cope? This book answers that question by introducing and explaining the concept that today’s young girls are facing adult-sized issues that are not only beyond their own level of emotional, intellectual, and physical capacities but beyond those of their own parents.
Last week I attended the Essence Music festival, where I saw Jennifer Hudson perform her new song "I Remember Me". Before she sang she reminded the audience that none of us were there 10 years ago. We didn't know the Jennifer Hudson before the fame. Nobody in her life was around to remember her from that period. She has to do that for herself. Loosely paraphrasing, Jennifer Hudson was saying: "If I remember me, if the success and celebrity all go away, I can still survive. And, if I remember that little Black girl sitting on the stoop on the south side of Chicago, some little Black girl somewhere will hear me and know that no matter how bad her reality might be today, it doesn't have to be that way forever—trouble don't last always."
In this day and age, the term "Health Care You Can Afford" may sound like an oxymoron, but on July 21, it was the topic of discussion for the Health Reform Implementation Committee (HRIC) meeting, part of an initiative organized by D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray to address changes in the health care system set to occur in 2014.
However, the purpose of the public meeting that was attended by roughly 50 people at Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church in Ward 7, was to garner feedback for implementation of a viable health insurance exchange for the District. While JoAnn Smoak, a resident of the Hillcrest section and executive director of the Student National Medical Association, is lucky enough to have health insurance, she is concerned about the number of uninsured residents.
Home health nurses from 12 states gathered in D.C. today, to be the voice of the thousands of patients served by the home care community across the US who would be directly affected by proposed cuts in Medicare/Medicaid. Home health nurses are on the front lines everyday and provide compassionate care to some of America's sickest patients inside their homes. They took time out of their busy schedules to come to the nation's capitol and share their patient's stories with lawmakers.
Marion Smavda, a nurse with the Visiting Nurse Association in Redbank, New Jersey, told of a husband who had provided care for his MS stricken wife for years when he found himself in need of home care services.
"Had the co-pay provision been in place I don't think this family could have afforded the level of care they needed," she said.
Sugar and sweets are always pleasant to eat and taste so good. On the other hand, consumption of too much sugar is deemed unhealthy and can lead to rotten teeth, cavities and even unwanted weight gain.
Many people also tend to believe eating sugar is the result of diabetes, according to Pam Davis, diabetes educator for Novo Nordisk Inc.
"A lot of times people believe that they ate too much sugar and that is what caused their diabetes," Davis said.
Written by By Lurina Williams-Special to the NNPA from The Dallas Examiner
C. Virginia FieldsC. Virginia Fields, CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA), is standing tall these days as her organization makes waves in the fight against AIDS. Here, the former Manhattan borough president shares what happened at NBLCA's conclave in Washington, D.C., this spring, how it is working with Southern churches and what is coming soon from the organization.
NBLCA held a conclave with members of the local government in the D.C. area in April. What action steps were decided on at the conclusion of this conference?
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