Obesity has become a major issue in America, but among African Americans it's leading to more health-related illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and even cancer, medical professionals revealed during a recent discussion.
“We have
very high rates of obesity in the African American community and African
Americans as a minority group have the highest rates of obesity in the United
States, Doriane C. Miller, M.D., of the University of Chicago Medical Center,
said during a plenary session held as part of the June 18-22 Rainbow PUSH
Convention at the Chicago Hilton hotel.
Miller
explained obesity is a medical term defined as a person being 20 percent over
their ideal body weight and in terms of long-term health, “being obese not only
makes it harder to diagnose cancer but it's harder to treat the cancer and the
likelihood of that cancer coming back is higher if you are obese.
“Many
African Americans, live in places where they can't walk to a grocery store
where they can get fresh fruits and vegetables, if anything they may have a
corner store or a dollar store available where they will have very
calorie-dense, high salt foods that are available for them whether it be in the
form of soups or dried noodles,” she said.
Miller
said the so-called food deserts contribute to overall poor health in low-income
communities.
“But when
we see this and we see the relationship between the lack of fresh fruits and
vegetables and difficulty with people finding healthy foods in their
communities, often times we see higher rates of obesity so it's not only a
question of personal behavior but it's also a question of the environments that
we live in,” she explained.
The Link
between Obesity and Cancer session at the convention looked at obesity in the
African American community and its linkage to other illnesses.
As
moderator of the session Miller stressed, “Breast cancer is much higher (and)
other types of cancer including ovarian and cervical cancer, prostate cancer
certainly and so the question becomes how cancer becomes linked to higher
levels of obesity.”
“We need
to not only look at obesity as a question of not being able to fit into a
particular pair of clothes that we want to wear, but also how its related to
our long term health,” said Miller.
Ayanna
Gardner, PharmD, of Walgreens Co., said she encourages her patients to get to
know their pharmacists.
“Your
local pharmacists is available to sit down with you and make sure that you're
not experiencing any adverse side effects to medication, to make sure that we
are available to work with your doctors and also to help with co-effectiveness because if you can't afford the
medication, you won't take it,” she said.
Gardner
said the link between obesity and cancer is prevention.
“We have
to teach our children about dietary lifestyle because to prevent the medication
use it all starts with lifestyle and the choices that we make, but if you have
to be on a medication regimen (your pharmacists) are here to service you.”
With well
over 25 years in the health care field, Terry Mason, M.D., CEO of the Cook
County Health Systems, said it's not just low-income communities that are
obese, 60 percent of Americans are obese, so it's anywhere you have obesity.
“We have
1,500 people that die from cancer. Thirty percent of the cancers that all
Americans get are preventable and can be decreased if we change what we eat,”
said Mason.
He
encourages people to eat food that's close to its natural state.
“Eat more
fruits, vegetables and beans, drink more water, decrease and limit alcohol
intake, exercise and stop smoking,” he said. “(Those are) major things that
will help to decrease not only cancer but obesity, diabetes, hypertension,
heart disease and a numerous amount of other things.”
Copyright
2011 Chicago Defender
