Healthy Black Lives Also Matter

The Black Lives Matter ("BLM") movement's core message is that blacks across the gender spectrum are inherent to America's fabric and deserve better than disparate and inexplicably deadly treatment by a justice system constitutionally mandated to treat all Americans equally. The BLM movement has been so effectively organized, issue-oriented and influential that it even commands the attention of presidential hopefuls. Yet black lives, a durable fiber of our nation's history, are also fraying due to stresses beyond the criminal justice system, with many of the root causes directly related to health. Cultural and ethnic disparities in the U.S. health care system -- from differences in referral for cardiac catheterization to breast cancer survival -- are well documented. But some of the disparity-causing conditions in life expectancy between whites and blacks develop long before visits to the hospital. At the top of this list is the prevalence of obesity within the black community. The Centers for Disease Control ("CDC") reports that nearly half of non-Hispanic blacks are obese (47.8 percent), compared to non-Hispanic Whites (32.6 percent). Of U.S. Hispanics, approximately 43 percent meet the body mass index ("BMI") definition of obesity. Being obese significantly increases one's risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, heart attacks and strokes, which make up the 1st, 3rd, and 4th leading causes of death among African Americans (homicide is 8th). While some of this disparity in ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news