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Advocates View Health Care as Key to Driving LGBTQ Rights Conversation
Read More: Advocates View Health Care as Key to Driving LGBTQ Rights ConversationBy Aneri Pattani, Kaiser Health News When Allison Scott came out as a trans woman in 2013, she told not only family and friends, but also her primary care physician. She didn’t need his help with hormone therapy. She had another doctor for that. But she wanted to share the information with her doctor of…
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Blood Basics: What Happens After You Donate Blood and Why You Should Be Donating โ Even During COVID-19
Read More: Blood Basics: What Happens After You Donate Blood and Why You Should Be Donating โ Even During COVID-19January is National Blood Donor Awareness Month. After her young daughter was diagnosed with and beat acute myeloid leukemia, Amanda Kaczur decided to give back by donating blood and platelets (the cells within our blood) after she saw firsthand how important it is. “My goal was to match the number of units of blood that…
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Whatโs Not Being Said About Why African Americans Need to Take the Covid-19 Vaccine
Read More: Whatโs Not Being Said About Why African Americans Need to Take the Covid-19 VaccineBy Debra Furr-Holden, Michigan State University Dr. Anthony Fauci and other national health leaders have said that African Americans need to take the COVID-19 vaccine to protect their health. What Fauci and others have not stated is that if African Americans don’t take the vaccine, the nation as whole will never get to herd immunity.…
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Access, Affordability, Health care, Health disparities, Health insurance, Health policy, Keep the care, Policy, Research
Why Womenโs Health Should Be a Priority for the New Congress
Read More: Why Womenโs Health Should Be a Priority for the New CongressSoon after the new year, a new presidential administration will take office. We’ll also have a new Congress, the 117th, with a Senate currently composed of 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats — with two Georgia Senate seats to be determined in runoffs in early January — and the House of Representatives composed of 222 Democrats…
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Experts Discuss the Future of Womenโs Health After a Historic Election
Read More: Experts Discuss the Future of Womenโs Health After a Historic Election“Today’s conversation is more relevant than ever, and it is critical to understand how women’s health may be affected,” said Beth Battaglino, CEO of HealthyWomen, as she introduced Tuesday’s webinar, “Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court: 2020 Election & Women’s Health.” The webinar was moderated by Arika Pierce, founder of The Millennial Boardroom, with panelists…
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Racial Discrimination Ages Black Americans Faster, According to A 25-year-long Study of Families
Read More: Racial Discrimination Ages Black Americans Faster, According to A 25-year-long Study of FamiliesBy Sierra Carter, Georgia State University The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea I’m part of a research team that has been following more than 800 Black American families for almost 25 years. We found that people who had reported experiencing high levels of racial discrimination when they…
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The Connection Between Obesity and COVID-19
Read More: The Connection Between Obesity and COVID-19Fifteen years ago, Marissa Epstein, director of the University of Texas Nutrition Institute and member of HealthyWomen’s Women’s Health Advisory Council, was bordering on obese. Her weight loss journey, which launched her nutrition career path, was largely inspired by success stories shared by other women. “I used to cut pages from magazines of everyday women…
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If You Live with Domestic Violence, Home May Be the Last Place that Feels Safe During COVID-19
Read More: If You Live with Domestic Violence, Home May Be the Last Place that Feels Safe During COVID-19COVID-19 has forced millions of Americans to practice social distancing and work or learn remotely from home. Unfortunately, for many who live with domestic violence, home is the last place that feels safe, as abusers often isolate their victims from friends, family and coworkers as a control tactic. Stacey*, a stay-at-home mom, didn’t realize the…
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Access, Affordability, Affordable care act, Health disparities, Health insurance, Health policy, Telehealth
Ending Pandemic-Era Telehealth Coverage Fails American Women
Read More: Ending Pandemic-Era Telehealth Coverage Fails American WomenTelehealth, which is health care (clinical and nonclinical) that is delivered remotely through computers and mobile devices, is helping millions of Americans — especially those who do not have access to medical facilities — stay healthy and receive quality health care during the coronavirus pandemic.. In March, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)…
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โAll You Want Is to Be Believedโ: The Impacts of Unconscious Bias in Health Care
Read More: โAll You Want Is to Be Believedโ: The Impacts of Unconscious Bias in Health CareIn mid-March, Karla Monterroso flew home to Alameda, California, after a hiking trip in Utah’s Zion National Park. Four days later, she began to develop a bad, dry cough. Her lungs felt sticky. The fevers that persisted for the next nine weeks grew so high — 100.4, 101.2, 101.7, 102.3 — that, on the worst…
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Access, Access to health care, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Health disparities, Health insurance, Policy, Prevention, Preventive health
Black Doctors Work to Make Coronavirus Testing More Equitable
Read More: Black Doctors Work to Make Coronavirus Testing More EquitableBy Nina Feldman, WHYY, Kaiser Health News When the coronavirus arrived in Philadelphia in March, Dr. Ala Stanford hunkered down at home with her husband and kids. A pediatric surgeon with a private practice, she has staff privileges at a few suburban Philadelphia hospitals. For weeks, most of her usual procedures and patient visits were…
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Breast cancer, Breast cancer policy, Breast cancer survivor, Breast health, Health disparities, Prevention, Preventive health
The Breast Cancer Burden for Black Women
Read More: The Breast Cancer Burden for Black WomenTwelve years ago, Maiya Hayes discovered a suspicious mass in her breast during a self-exam. She quickly made an appointment with her gynecologist, who helped schedule the tests that revealed she had stage 3 breast cancer. Her oncologist told her that the aggressive nature of her breast cancer, which had spread to the lymph nodes…
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Chronic conditions, chronic pain, Headache & migraine, Health care, Health disparities, Migraine, Pain, Pain management, Policy
Suffering From Chronic Pain as a Black Woman
Read More: Suffering From Chronic Pain as a Black WomanEvery time Jaime Sanders visits an urgent care clinic, she makes sure she brings the three-ring binder that details her comprehensive medical care plan, including lists of medications, allergies and records of past doctors’ visits. Sanders knows she’s never guaranteed to find doctors who will take her migraine pain seriously and carries the binder as…
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Black Women Turn to Midwives to Avoid COVID and โFeel Cared Forโ
Read More: Black Women Turn to Midwives to Avoid COVID and โFeel Cared ForโBy Rachel Scheier, Kaiser Health News From the moment she learned she was pregnant late last year, TaNefer Camara knew she didn’t want to have her baby in a hospital bed. Already a mother of three and a part-time lactation consultant at Highland Hospital in Oakland, Camara knew a bit about childbirth. She wanted to…
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Lessons From How the Polio Vaccine Went From the Lab to the Public That Americans Can Learn From Today
Read More: Lessons From How the Polio Vaccine Went From the Lab to the Public That Americans Can Learn From TodayBy Carl Kurlander, University of Pittsburgh and Randy P. Juhl, University of Pittsburgh In 1955, after a field trial involving 1.8 million Americans, the world’s first successful polio vaccine was declared “safe, effective, and potent.” It was arguably the most significant biomedical advance of the past century. Despite the polio vaccine’s long-term success, manufacturers, government…
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How a New Way Of Parsing COVID-19 Data Began to Show The Breadth Of Health Gaps Between Blacks and Whites
Read More: How a New Way Of Parsing COVID-19 Data Began to Show The Breadth Of Health Gaps Between Blacks and WhitesBy David R. Buys, Mississippi State University Physicians and public health experts know that older adults are more susceptible to the flu than those in other age groups. We also know the health of Black Americans is worse than that of almost all other groups for not only flu, but for chronic conditions and cancer.…
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Coronavirus Is Hundreds of Times More Deadly for People Over 60 Than People Under 40
Read More: Coronavirus Is Hundreds of Times More Deadly for People Over 60 Than People Under 40By Nir Menachemi, IUPUI How deadly is SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19? And what are the risks of death for people of different ages and demographics? These have been hard numbers to calculate during this pandemic. To calculate the true death rate – more accurately called the infection–fatality ratio (IFR) – you would simply…
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Why Black Aging Matters, Too
Read More: Why Black Aging Matters, TooBy Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News Old. Chronically ill. Black. People who fit this description are more likely to die from COVID-19 than any other group in the country. They are perishing quietly, out of sight, in homes and apartment buildings, senior housing complexes, nursing homes and hospitals, disproportionately poor, frail and ill, after enduring…
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Chadwick Bosemanโs Death From Colorectal Cancer Underscores an Alarming Increase in Cases Among Younger Adults as Well as Health Gaps for African Americans
Read More: Chadwick Bosemanโs Death From Colorectal Cancer Underscores an Alarming Increase in Cases Among Younger Adults as Well as Health Gaps for African AmericansBy Franklin G. Berger, University of South Carolina The tragic death of Chadwick Boseman at age 43 following a four-year battle against colorectal cancer underscores two important public health concerns. First, the incidence of colorectal cancer has risen dramatically among adults under age 50 in the U.S. and in many countries around the world. Second,…
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HealthyWomen Statement on Uterine Fibroid Research and Education Act (SB 4397)
Read More: HealthyWomen Statement on Uterine Fibroid Research and Education Act (SB 4397)HealthyWomen applauds the action by Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., in introducing legislation, the Uterine Fibroid Research and Education Act (SB 4397), to address this silent disease that impacts most women. Uterine fibroids, despite being a common gynecological condition among women, often go undiagnosed due to lack of education and research, causing millions of women to…
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What Is Race-Based Medicine?
Read More: What Is Race-Based Medicine?Earlier this year, four medical students published a report — Toward the Abolition of Biological Race in Medicine: Transforming Clinical Education, Research, and Practice — that examined the problematic nature of race in medicine and why the health care community needs to move away from race-based medicine. When health care providers use a person’s race…
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Racism Linked To Cognitive Decline in African American Women
Read More: Racism Linked To Cognitive Decline in African American WomenLynn Rosenberg, Boston University; Patricia Coogan, Boston University, and Yvette Cozier, Boston University, The Conversation African Americans have higher rates of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease than white Americans. Chronic stress, associated with cognitive impairment and reduced volume in the brain’s memory area, could be a culprit. But racism may be one of the ultimate causes.…
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Breastfeeding, Fourth trimester, Health disparities, Infant, Newborn, Postpartum, Pregnancy & parenting
Closing the Racial Gap in Breastfeeding
Read More: Closing the Racial Gap in BreastfeedingLike nearly every new mother, Sanpri Purdy-Porter was exhausted after giving birth. Breastfeeding while recovering from a Cesarean section was difficult, and the North Carolina physical therapist didn’t get the help she needed to nurse successfully. “With my first child I definitely lacked support and knowledge for breastfeeding,” said Purdy-Porter, who is Black. “I was…
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Namaste Noir: Yoga Co-Op Seeks to Diversify Yoga to Heal Racialized Trauma
Read More: Namaste Noir: Yoga Co-Op Seeks to Diversify Yoga to Heal Racialized TraumaBy Chandra Thomas Whitfield, KHN DENVER — Beverly Grant spent years juggling many roles before yoga helped her restore her balance. When not doting over her three children, she hosted her public affairs talk radio show, attended community meetings or handed out cups of juice at her roving Mo’ Betta Green MarketPlace farmers market, which…
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Enslaved Peopleโs Health Was Ignored From the Countryโs Beginning, Laying the Groundwork for Todayโs Health Disparities
Read More: Enslaved Peopleโs Health Was Ignored From the Countryโs Beginning, Laying the Groundwork for Todayโs Health DisparitiesEric Kyere, Indiana University Some critics of Black Lives Matter say the movement itself is racist. Their frequent counterargument: All lives matter. Lost in that view, however, is a historical perspective. Look back to the late 18th century, to the very beginnings of the U.S., and you will see Black lives in this country did…
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The Color of COVID: Will Vaccine Trials Reflect Americaโs Diversity?
Read More: The Color of COVID: Will Vaccine Trials Reflect Americaโs Diversity?JoNel Aleccia, Kaiser Health News When U.S. scientists launch the first large-scale clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines this summer, Antonio Cisneros wants to make sure people like him are included. Cisneros, who is 34 and Hispanic, is part of the first wave of an expected 1.5 million volunteers willing to get the shots to help…
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NIH Project Homes In on COVID Racial Disparities
Read More: NIH Project Homes In on COVID Racial DisparitiesBy Ashley Gold, KHN While the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and Hispanic Americans is no secret, federal officials have launched studies of the disparity that they hope will better prepare the country for the next great epidemic. The National Institutes of Health began the ambitious “All of Us” research project in 2018 with…
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We Need More Black Women in Clinical Trials
Read More: We Need More Black Women in Clinical TrialsAcross America, clinical trials, which are a vital step in bringing a new drug to market, have strikingly low rates of Black female participants. This is the case even with clinical trials centered on diseases that disproportionately affect African Americans in general or Black women in particular, such as including Alzheimer’s, breast cancer, heart disease,…
