Title: Why 7 Deadly Diseases Strike Blacks Most
Headings: Why 7 Deadly Diseases Strike Blacks Most
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Why 7 Deadly Diseases Strike Blacks Most
Health care disparities heighten disease differences between African-Americans and white Americans.

Content: This makes us focus on high blood pressure as it forces heart failure." Continued
Clinical trials show blacks and whites respond differently to treatments for high blood pressure. Indeed, treatment guidelines suggest that doctors should consider different drugs based on a patient's race. But Yancey says that a closer look at the data shows that race tends to be a marker for more complicated high blood pressure treatment. "Data suggests that all therapies do equally well -- but patients at higher risk need more intensive therapy," he says. A similar situation exists for heart failure. A promising treatment for heart failure didn't seem to be working -- until researchers noticed that it worked much better for black patients than for white patients. A study of black patients confirmed this finding -- and provided tantalizing evidence that the drug will help patients of all races with certain disease characteristics. "The way this discussion of race differences has been helpful for the whole field of cardiology, is it is exposing new treatment options for all people with heart failure, African-American and Caucasian," Yancy says. Black Americans and Diabetes
Black Americans -- and Mexican-Americans -- have twice the risk of diabetes as white Americans.